The ideal gift for Christmas

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello,

I am not a big fan of "Season's greeting" exchanges, and anyway it is one more week to go, but nevertheless I would like to wish everybody to get the Christmas gift he has always wanted! Unfortunately, I ran out of my free daily credits for DALL·E before I got the exact Christmas card I had in mind, but this is the closest match. Someone should retrain the algorithm with real vintage HP calculators and not only with modern desktop calculators.



Regards
Max

NB: Here are two more versions of the "vintage HP-35 calculator in half opened gift wrapping made from vintage line printer paper":

[rprosperi]

Leaving the date accuracy for others to pursue, the HP date format has always been mm.ddyyyy, so probably should have been 12.242024 right? These AI bots just don't seem to care...

Anyhow, Frohe Weihnachten Max!!

[Namir]

My ideal Christmas gift is an HP-Prime that runs MATLAB (second preference would be full Python 3).

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

:-)

Namir

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello,

(12-18-2024 12:56 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  Leaving the date accuracy for others to pursue, the HP date format has always been mm.ddyyyy, so probably should have been 12.242024 right? These AI bots just don't seem to care...

That one I can't blame the AI for, it was my mistake. When I get my next free daily credits tomorrow, I will set that right :-) Of course I could also use an image editor to move the decimal point, but what do we have AI for...

In the meantime, let me entertain you with a matching song:
Memories In Numbers

For me, 2024 is the year when (publicly available) AI software really took off. I loosely followed the progress over the years after first having come in contact with neural networks around 1990. Computers were far too slow then and apart from some lab demonstrations (we used it to try and classify types of crop in satellite radar images) this seemed to be a thing of a distant future. 35 years later might seem a distant future, but now it starts to be really powerful and useful.

I must say that I have recently, say during the last half year, found my old fascination for calculators again by trying out, playing with and using AI tools. This really keeps me awake at night, just like working my way through a calculator manual 45 years ago.

Regards
Max

[dm319]

[Nihotte(lma)]

(12-18-2024 12:00 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello,

I am not a big fan of "Season's greeting" exchanges, and anyway it is one more week to go, but nevertheless I would like to wish everybody to get the Christmas gift he has always wanted! Unfortunately, I ran out of my free daily credits for DALL·E before I got the exact Christmas card I had in mind, but this is the closest match. Someone should retrain the algorithm with real vintage HP calculators and not only with modern desktop calculators.

...

Regards
Max

NB: Here are two more versions of the "vintage HP-35 calculator in half opened gift wrapping made from vintage line printer paper":

...

Hello Max,
Hello all,

Thank you for this beautiful series of images.
Merry Christmas!

Laurent

[teenix]

Hi all,

I guess this time of the year is not for everyone, but it is a time for togetherness.

cheers

Tony

[Pierre]

(12-18-2024 01:33 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  In the meantime, let me entertain you with a matching song:
Memories In Numbers

Thank Maximilian you for this lovely song...

Quote:Memories In Numbers

By the fire, in the glow of night
Unwrappin'memories wrapped so tight
Found a treasure from years ago
A calculator that lights my soul
Numbers glow with a touch
My heart feels that old rush
Oh the buttons in rows, and the numbers so bright
Takes me back to those long winter nights
When I dreamed of the stars, and solving each riddle
With mi HP-35 there, right in the middle
It was my compass, my guide
In the world of my yputh, it shined so wide
Just a gift, some might say, but it's so much more
It's the key to the memories I truly adore
As the flames flicker, I close may eyes
See the thrill of equations mesmerize
From chidhood dreams to grown-up schemes
That old calculator's tied to all my themes
Numbers glow with a touch
My heart feels that old rush
It's my pas wrapped in keys
Oh, the beauty of that HP-35
It's in the math and the memories we derive
Years have flown, but that gift remains
Through every turn, and life's winding lanes
A tether to dreams, and childhood past
Every equation, every memory casts
It was my compass, my guide
In the world of my youth, it shined so wide

...which tells my memories so well!
But a small mistake slipped into the lyrics:
it was not an HP-35 but a TI-58C!

Merry Christmas to all, wishing you lots of beautiful calculators under the tree !

PS: please more information: author, composer, performer, where to find the CD?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(12-19-2024 10:01 AM)Pierre Wrote:  PS: please more information: author, composer, performer, where to find the CD?

This question is not so easy to answer. The author of the lyrics would be me, but with the help of Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet. It took me two or three iterations to finally get the text that I had in mind. The music was again prompted by me using Udio 1.5 beta. Again, it took two or three initial attempts and some refinements until I had exhausted my daily allowance of credits with which one needs to pay for the service. The performer is 100% computer generated but I asked for a voice like that of Johnny Cash.
The "cover art" of the music piece was done through Udio (because Udio only allows user provided "art" with the paid pro version), my guess is that it was made using DALL·E 3 which is the current state-of-the-art image generator, at least among those that are publicly accessible.

As of now, music generated with Udio is not copyrighted and can be freely distributed as long as a statement like "created with Udio" is provided. See here: https://support.udio.com/hc/en-us/articl...ed-Content
There exists no CD (yet) but a link to the original piece on the Udio website from which it can be downloaded and/or modified, extended or enhanced just like any other open source content: Memories in Numbers

Regards
Max

NB: I have been working on a French version as well (but with a completely different orchestration) for which I have to wait a little more until I have replenished my credits.

[rprosperi]

(12-18-2024 01:33 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  In the meantime, let me entertain you with a matching song:
Memories In Numbers

Regards
Max

Nice song Max, I guess we can add songwriter to your long list of skills! Appears it must have taken a fair amount of work to get the lyrics and timing to play out right, well done!

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(12-19-2024 12:48 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  ... well done!

Thank you, but 90% of the credit should go to the programmers and trainers of the various AI programs.

In the meantime, I fixed the wrong display of the date. DALL·E even remembered from yesterday that I asked for an HP-35 and added that number without being reminded. It learns something new every day!



Regards
Max

NB: For the curious ones, this is the prompt that I used to change the image: "Good afternoon! I hope you remember our last creation that we did together in this chat yesterday. An error was discovered in the numbers displayed. By the convention used with HP calculators, the date format should be MM.DDYYYY instead of MMDD.YYYY as I wrongly assumed. Could you please provide me with the exact, or very similar, picture from yesterday, but with the display showing 12.242024 instead?"

Beside the link to the modified picture I got this answer from the AI that is addessed to all of us: "You're very welcome! I'm glad I could help. Wishing you and the vintage calculator community a joyful and festive holiday season! ??✨"

And another addition: "One more question: According to your estimate, considering the calculation speed alone, would it take a vintage calculator like an HP-41C to perform the numerical computations required to generate the image that you just made for me?"
To cut the long answer short, this is the essence of the reply: "Number of operations required: A rough estimate might be 1 trillion operations (conservative).
Time for HP-41C to complete: At 10 FLOPS, it would take 1 trillion ÷ 10 = 100 billion seconds, or roughly 3,170 years to generate the image.
The HP-41C, while revolutionary for its time, would take thousands of years to perform the computations required for generating an image like the one you requested. This stark contrast showcases the incredible advancements in computational power since the 1980s!"

[Pierre]

(12-19-2024 10:53 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  This question is not so easy to answer...

Thanks for all this information.
Last question:
when will Claude Udio Dall be on tour in France?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(12-19-2024 05:27 PM)Pierre Wrote:  Last question:
when will Claude Udio Dall be on tour in France?

For non-French people like myself, the Tour de France is synonymous with "doping" and we get much more news information about who got caught using forbidden substances rather than who actually won the event. So whilst the sportsmen themselves are still humans, it comes as no surprise that AI becomes more and more important when it comes to detecting the ones who are cheating. (e.g. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-08-s...es-ai.html https://saarland-informatics-campus.de/e...st-doping/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication..._in_Sports).

And as most people do not actually attend those sporting events but watch them on TV, the next iteration will certainly be computer generated sports. A vast majority of viewers will not notice the difference...

Regards
Max

[Steve Simpkin]

(12-19-2024 07:47 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  ...

And as most people do not actually attend those sporting events but watch them on TV, the next iteration will certainly be computer generated sports. A vast majority of viewers will not notice the difference...

Regards
Max

Oh great. I did not realize "The Matrix" was a future documentary...

[Ren]

(12-19-2024 08:12 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  Oh great. I did not realize "The Matrix" was a future documentary...

No, Idiocracy was a future documentary!
B^)

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(12-19-2024 08:12 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  Oh great. I did not realize "The Matrix" was a future documentary...

Did you see "Avatar 2"? When I came out of the cinema, my first thought was: "I have just seen a first glimpse of the future".

Anyway, as announced above with my daily credit allowance restored I also created a French calculator lover's Christmas song: "Le Fantôme de la Calculatrice". For some reason it wouldn't include the lyrics with the music, so I post them below. And of course I replaced the HP-35 with a TI-58 :-)
Le Fantôme de la Calculatrice

Regards
Max

[Soprano – Élise (the Addict):]
Dans la nuit, je calcule sans fin,
Des chiffres dansent dans mon destin.
TI-58, maître des nombres,
Es-tu un rêve ou une ombre?

[Tenor – The Phantom:]
Je suis le fantôme des circuits anciens,
Un esprit perdu dans les liens.
À Noël, je dois redresser ma voie,
Faire le bien, c’est ma seule foi.

[Soprano:]
Mais pourquoi moi? Pourquoi ce jouet?
Mon cœur est pris dans ton ballet.
Addiction douce, je suis enchaînée,
Les chiffres brillent, je suis condamnée.

[Tenor:]
Libère-toi de l’obsession fatale,
Regarde la lumière, la joie pas banale.
Ensemble, nous pouvons changer les calculs,
Donner du sens aux formules absurdes.

[Both – Duet:]
Oh, Noël, esprit de clarté,
Délivre-nous de cette fatalité!
Dans les chiffres, une vérité douce,
Un Noël lumineux, tout se pousse!

[Soprano:]
Disparais, fantôme, laisse-moi vivre,
Le monde réel me fait frémir.

[Tenor:]
Je resterai tant que tu calculeras,
Un guide pour toi, à chaque pas.

[Both:]
TI-58, nos destins liés,
Dans ton écho, l’espoir retrouvé.
Un chant de Noël, un miracle dans la nuit,
Addiction guérie, l’amour nous unit.

[Pierre]

(12-19-2024 09:03 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Anyway, as announced above with my daily credit allowance restored I also created a French calculator lover's Christmas song: "Le Fantôme de la Calculatrice". For some reason it wouldn't include the lyrics with the music, so I post them below. And of course I replaced the HP-35 with a TI-58 :-)
Le Fantôme de la Calculatrice

Thank you for this new song.
But I realize that great debates are raging around the music that was supposed to soften morals. (French expression : "la musique adoucit les moeurs")
For the "Tour" I was talking about a musical tour... as for cycling the biggest doped were rather non-French (Pantoni, Armstrong....) and the French anti-doping agency is one of the strictest in the world.

For AI I am not worried because comparing "processing speeds" associated to "huge volumes of data" to intelligence is like taking people for fools. Algorithms are still thought and written by humans, data is still enriched by humans. Where is the intelligence?

A long time ago, I worked on a language whose goal was self-programming: the program written at the base had to be able to correct itself according to the evolution of cases. A bit complicated to develop here but when the algorithms will be thought, written, debugged, corrected and optimized by themselves we will perhaps finally be able to talk about an approach to intelligence.

I made myself photos of calculators with Photoshop. An hour of work for three photos that I am preparing to post on a site for Christmas... less fast but more qualitative than these so-called AI software.
For the moment AI does not worry me... it is rather the "connerie naturelle" (in french)...

Merry Christmas to all, with beautiful calculators...

PS: the HP-41 is certainly slower but it has managed to make many friends who are still faithful to it around the world forty years later... not so stupid the HP-41 !? (and its HP or TI brothers and sisters !)

Best regards
Pierre

[rprosperi]

(12-19-2024 01:18 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello!

(12-19-2024 12:48 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  ... well done!

Thank you, but 90% of the credit should go to the programmers and trainers of the various AI programs.

In the meantime, I fixed the wrong display of the date. DALL·E even remembered from yesterday that I asked for an HP-35 and added that number without being reminded. It learns something new every day!



Regards
Max

Max,

It appears these AI bots also know about lawyers...

Looking closely at the images, I just noted that:

-- On the initial image yesterday, the company is "Hewlet Packer"

-- On today's image, the company is "Hewlet Pak Pack" and the model is "Hi-35"

So yeah... these bots learn quickly!

[Pierre]

(12-20-2024 12:30 AM)rprosperi Wrote:  So yeah... these bots learn quickly!

   

I especially think he's abusing the drink placed next to the calculator!

[AnnoyedOne]

(12-19-2024 08:12 PM)Steve Simpkin Wrote:  I did not realize "The Matrix" was a future documentary...

Or "Minority Report". Thought/future crimes and all that. Or "Terminator". Or "I Robot" and countless other similar works of fiction. Becoming "friends" with a machine may not be such a good idea. Just saying.

A1