@baldur@toot.cafe
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

baldur

@baldur@toot.cafe

Writer, web developer and consultant based in Hveragerði, Iceland. Lapsed Interactive Media Academic. Webby Tech Stuff and webby book stuff.

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baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Google translate between Icelandic and English has gone from 75% useful, 25% laughable nonsense to mostly unusable in the space of a year. You used to be able to use it effectively as a dictionary. Enter a single word and you'd get the most common dictionary translation

Now, half the time you'll just get nonsense.

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

It "helpfully" autocorrects Icelandic words it doesn't recognise before translation, which would be sort of okay if it worked. But it seems to recognise a fraction of the Icelandic words it used to and its autocorrections are utter garbage.

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

And the gaps are utterly weird. It'll handle "moltugerð" just fine, but not "sjónskekkja" or "loðna", both words that are arguably much more commonly used.

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

Let's just say that if it weren't for the photo, you'd have no idea what animal this news story was about

Funnily, it gets it right in the tags, but never in the body of the story, where "bifur" is variously translated as car, bier, wild bison, and bivalbe

https://www-ruv-is.translate.goog/frettir/erlent/2024-05-16-villtur-bifur-a-ferd-fyrsta-sinni-i-2500-ar-412820?_x_tr_sl=is&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

@karlhigley Yeah, that's the thing

And then it "autocorrects" the containing phrase to match the "autocorrected" translation often resulting in plausible-sounding nonsense.

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

@threedaymonk Apple is the same. It's keyboard frequently forgets that the word "kominn" or "arrived" exists, for example. That error noticeably first appeared when Apple rolled out its ML-based autocorrect.

baldur,
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@dzajew Not a chill car at all 😁

baldur,
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@craiggrannell Yeah, the system here is absolutely horrible in that regard 😐

baldur,
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@guigsy Ouch!

baldur,
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@tkinias @karlhigley It really is.

baldur,
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@datarama Yup. Nailed it. Google Translate's version was "A wild bison is on the move for the first time in 2,500 years" which is hilariously wrong 🙂

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“The New Golden Age of Black and White Photography - Photography | PentaxForums.com”

If I had a massive surplus of funds (LOL) I’d absolutely buy myself a monochrome sensor camera. https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/photography/new-golden-age-bw-photography.html

baldur,
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@sanityinc Absolutely.

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

@richard_merren Fingers crossed.

baldur,
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@bitmaker Yeah, I have a couple of film cameras, but I need to get back into using them. Might make for a fun summer project. 🙂

baldur,
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@samerfarha Thanks! I’ll check it out.

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“Adactio: Journal—Baseline progressive enhancement”

Yet again, Jeremy says what I was thinking. https://adactio.com/journal/21128

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“People seem to be tired of reboots and superheroes. What can we do?”

“We could foster original work and new talent—let them make fresh movies that bring a new generation into cinemas?”

“Nah, let’s reboot an 80s TV show nobody’s heard about and then call the audience ungrateful when it flops”

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

@mjibrower I can’t say I’m surprised 😄

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“The four causes of writer’s block and what to do about them — Chocolate and Vodka” https://chocolateandvodka.com/2024/05/15/the-four-causes-of-writers-block-and-what-to-do-about-them/

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“The Great Paradox of the U.S. Market!”

"the best guess is still that this second investment bubble – in AI – will at least temporarily deflate and probably facilitate a more normal ending to the original bubble, which we paused in December 2022 to admire the AI stocks" https://www.gmo.com/europe/research-library/the-great-paradox-of-the-u.s.-market_viewpoints

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

The thing I’ve been trying to convince the “enthused about AI”* people I know is that the more transformative the tech is, the MORE likely it is that it has triggered a massive and potentially destructive financial bubble

And a large financial bubble right as the world needs to invest in mitigating the climate crisis and is poised to turn towards fascism would be a catastrophe

But they never seem to understand that their argument is much more pessimistic than mine 🤷🏻‍♂️

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“A.I. and the Silicon Valley Hype Machine”

"Given these constraints, it seems just as likely to me that generative A.I. could end up like the Roomba, the mediocre vacuum robot that does a passable job when you are home alone but not if you are expecting guests." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/opinion/artificial-intelligence-ai-openai-chatgpt-overrated-hype.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sE0.SV0g.r4iVMq0NT6z7&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

@raganwald Yeah, I found the Roomba analogy to be an interesting one because it’s an example of something that’s useful, just not as generally useful as initially promised. And IMO it’s a comparison that’s quite generous towards generative models because, as you say, Roombas are quite useful to many people.

baldur,
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@blabberlicious 😄

baldur, to random
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

“The wrong way to do Web Components | Go Make Things” https://gomakethings.com/the-wrong-way-to-do-web-components/

baldur,
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@archiloque No, I haven’t had the chance to look, sorry.

baldur,
@baldur@toot.cafe avatar

@archiloque I know it's still being updated at least.

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