Re: I refuse to use those touch screen thingies
Uh-oh they are smiling - the quality level is too high, we can make some savings here....
928 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Feb 2012
...was to ask ChatGPT what happened:
>>>
Title: "Sam Altman's Grand Exit: OpenAI's CEO Fired for Perfecting the Art of Coffee Brewing"
In a shocking turn of events at OpenAI headquarters, Sam Altman, the once-revered CEO, has been unceremoniously shown the door. The reason? Allegedly, he spent more time perfecting the art of coffee brewing than advancing artificial intelligence.
Rumors suggest that Altman's obsession with the perfect cup of java reached epic proportions. Employees reportedly witnessed him passionately debating the merits of different coffee bean blends in the company kitchen, neglecting strategic meetings, and even turning the conference room into a makeshift coffee laboratory.
One anonymous employee quipped, "We used to have board meetings; now we have coffee tastings. Sam would bring in exotic coffee beans, ask us to rate them, and then disappear for hours into his caffeine-fueled haven."
Altman's departure has left the tech world buzzing with speculation about who will fill his rather large coffee mug-shaped shoes. Will the new CEO be a barista turned tech guru or perhaps an AI programmed to detect the perfect roast?
In response to the news, Altman released a statement saying, "I have always believed in the power of a good cup of coffee to stimulate creativity and innovation. Maybe OpenAI needs a CEO who understands the finer nuances of a pour-over brew."
As for OpenAI, the organization seems ready to embrace a new era. The search for a CEO is underway, with candidates being asked to submit their coffee credentials along with their resumes.
In the meantime, OpenAI employees are adjusting to a world where board meetings are no longer punctuated by the soothing hiss of an espresso machine and the aromatic scent of freshly ground beans. The future of OpenAI remains uncertain, but one thing is for sure – the coffee at headquarters will never be the same. <<<
I was the manager for Virtual Reality headsets for IBM in 1995 - the actual hardware was produced by a small UK company called Virtuality. It was well ahead of its time (problem #1). It started with game experiences but aspired to professional ones of which there were many one-offs (problem #2 - you don't need many headsets for the professional ones). It had 6D tracking (x,y,z, yaw, pitch, roll), it had stereoscopic directional sound and adjustable vision focus, and it didn't look like someone glued a badly made diving mask to your head. Problem #3 configuration for a stable experience based on the electromagnetic source was difficult. Problem #4 it was difficult to keep the engineers in check who kept developing newer and better versions before you had made any profit on the last version. Problem #5 (the worst) - little Jimmy spends all his time in virtual worlds and now needs glasses (he would have anyway) - lawyers salivate, class action lawsuits! OK back in the day the graphics were sub-VGA (but OK given it was in your face), that one is solved these days - back then it took 6 RISC chips glued to a PC card. Problem #6 - experience developers were unfamiliar with the medium, many were used to first person shooter linear experiences, they didn't understand that if you were not looking in the right direction it didn't happen. Most of these problems still exist, add to it the problems of privacy and what happens in the "metaverse".
That's done with a "skin" software layer on top of the hardware and Android called EMUI (previously Emotion UI). The differences between UIs are becoming less and less anyway, yes it makes it easier for your customers to decant to another supplier, but also easier for them to decant to yours - the limitations only being the App set you use being supported. However if you have opted into the whole iHead world you are not likely to step outside the box anyway.
When I worked for IBM and went to Huawei central in Shenzhen for a project, there was a particular engineering building on the campus... when a new iThingy came out they would pull it apart - they were not so much interested in the functionality as in the springs and cogs - who had made the parts, how they were put together, how much had the assembly cost... basically looking for lessons that could be learned.
I spoke to one of the VPs in the consumer business he said "we don't want to copy the Apple product, we want to make one that is better at lower cost".
Interesting stuff. BTW there were 25 IBM consultants working with them at the time - everything from product development processes to the finance office - the US does not like to admit how much of a hand it has had in creating the company.
(p.s. and please no gratuitous downvotes for discussing Huawei or China).
Huawei was selling 5G stuff to the west (and Africa) before all this stuff happened. Anyway, nothing like a good memory probing (I believe they experimented with this on a few politicians but didn't find anything... to probe), maybe they will probe other bits as well.
p.s. no gratuitous downvotes just for mentioning China or Huawei please - after all the article started it.
Generally it is just from your drop-off point to the check-in desk, and through a busy terminal.
It will have to travel folded so that double capacity is only half usable.
Too big for hand baggage so would have to be checked in - ummm Lithium batteries.
Where do I put my carry-on bag?
There went your luggage allowance anyway.
Should be fun at security.
Seems pretty impractical for an airport flight.
I suppose you might take it on a train.
Maybe British Airways can bring back the flight from London (City) to New York that was using an A319 which was entirely Business Class - that one had to make a stop in Shannon to top up the fuel tanks (but people cleared US immigration there) but this could do it in one hop.
System/38 next gen replacement manufactured out of Rochester Minnesota - from its looks the world's most intelligent filing cabinet. Originally codenamed Silverlake after the pond in Rochester fed by the outfall of the local power plant which meant it didn't freeze over in the -gazillion degrees winter weather, so attracted a megabundle of geese (hence also known by the codename goose-crap).
Putting an AI lable on things these days increases your valuation/share price. Not that most people can discriminate this as opposed to something that is machine learning or data science. Perhaps I can insert a few rented speccy teens into the product processes and claim it is AI (vaguely more justifiable). The ability to not discriminate the "generative" (read regurgitative) stuff from proper AI, such as used in medical diagnostics, is hurting those really beneficial uses as countries regulate the former. Still, if it increases your share price and investor return I don't think companies give a flying f***.