Charis Pollard

Without getting in to the rights and wrongs of the card itself, the concept of actually managing to join up different government IT systems at all, let alone ‘beautifully’ feels very far fetched.

It’s been decades and there still isn’t a single health record!

It’s vicious up here. RingGo has North Tyneside BUT private car parks including one sharing space with a council park are on PyByPhone. As is Newcastle urban area.

On a boringly practical note (that you’ve probably already thought of) - might be worth trying a different optician…

My wife had a similar experience, went to a different optician and has new glasses and can see properly and everything now

Wow, I LOVED @ryannorth.ca Fantastic Four out today. Just a proper FF comic. Family, love, science at the extremes. Doesn’t hurt it looks a million dollars too. Had me nearly crying too….

That is also a valid point I have concerns about.

What an absolute nightmare

Thanks for flagging! I’ve been reading Into the Depths but have t picked up HERBIE (yet). I have been enjoying them though - love some good FF. Hope all is well with you

I like the optimism of ‘for a while’! I feel like it could be endemic.

Admittedly, I’m too hot and full of hayfever which might not be helping me have a sunny outlook, but a full on dystopia (maybe a la Wall-E?) seems highly possible

It really is. I do wonder what the end point of all this will be

And don’t even get me started on the theft aspect of LLM AI. Or the out of context quotes of individuals. Or the environmental impacts…

And work are pushing AI. Admittedly in a much more acceptable context - ie using limited, controlled (and paid for) data sets for specific functions. Then it’s not really AI as most people say, it’s just a Big Computer. But using the same words conflates these two vastly different uses

We picked those up but there will be others that we don’t know about.

And I get to screaming point seeing ads for AI EVERYWHERE and people extolling its virtues and calling it the answer to everything

I am increasingly worried about AI and the use of it to ‘answer questions’ - which it Does Not Do.

Someone at work asked it a specific question and it returned an entirely wrong answer. Someone else used it to draft a contract (which thankfully I’m checking).

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

Saw Robert Webb on a street near where I used to live. He was pushing a buggy and when I recognised him I also saw the absolute fear in his eyes that I was about to say something and delay him/upset his child.

I did a minuscule nod and walked by.

If your business model doesn’t work without breaking the law, then you’re not in business.

You’re in organized crime.

Weirdly specific but am sure they’ll be totally reasonable about me doing that!

Bought it but have to wait until after work to read it. My manager is most unreasonable about focusing on my job during the work day

To get political, the more I reflect on the ‘island of strangers’ stuff, the worse I find it. Apart from the obvious, it implies that people from other lands can never be other than strangers. And that what makes people communities instead of strangers is background rather than social structures

Unpopular opinion - it’s too hot

24°C here today and I’m sweaty in the office and when I went out for a walk it was too hot for even that exercise. Mostly because (unusually) today there’s no breeze.

Yes I live in the north and so am not accustomed to heat. Still.

My version of this

#colorjam #wonderwoman

I cannot argue this point but (as a Brit) I will say that Australian Masterchef is infinitely superior to the UK original

Mountains lining a fjord with sun behind them

Northern lights directly over our cruise ship

Me on a husky sled

Me feeding a reindeer

Have been on holiday with sketch wifi for a couple of weeks. We went cruising in Norway and it was magical

We have seen Neptune and are now officially in the Arctic Circle!

Walking laps of the ship before dinner is stunning, but also a lesson in taking gravity for granted. The ship is pitching so going up and down over waves and that makes you feel squishes at times and at other like I’m literally about to float away. Uncanny and exhilarating

Yeah, we’re not going for that! The £7 margaritas at margarita night this evening are more my thing

Found an exceptional brandy that they’re selling here for the bargain price of £145 A MEASURE 🤯

This boat is very fancy! Ship. Whatever. We’re spending all day today in the North Sea so will explore boat facilities…

First day of the holiday! Only setting sail this afternoon so plenty of time to finish the packing…

This is what baffles me about a lot of use of AI. Typing the question into a search engine takes the same time and is more reliable…

You know how sometimes you get an idea for a paint scheme and you can’t rest until you’ve made it happen… that’s me and Lhykis.

My craftworld is white with purple accents and Phoenix Lords don’t have to match but I like have nods. And that green purple beetle effect was just amazing in my head