Posted on July 29th, 2024 by Joy Schwabach
Using the new Microsoft Designer, which is free, I made a personalized postcard showing an old-timey train heading toward a gorgeous mountain range. My friend said it reminded him of painting on velvet, but I think it’s great. To start, I downloaded the app from the Microsoft Store for my Windows computer. Next, I chose a template, and tweaked it by typing over its description with my own words. Besides postcards, Microsoft Designer also creates images, photo collages, icons, stickers, wallpapers, birthday cards, Facebook posts, avatars and more. For an avatar, I typed over the words “athletic, happy teenager shooting a basketball in an urban court at evening,” changing it to: “an athletic, happy woman with auburn hair in a […]
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Filed under: AI, Amazon, apps, electronics, environment, health, Internuts | Comments Off on MAKE ART IN A COUPLE OF CLICKS WITH FREE MICROSOFT APP
Posted on July 22nd, 2024 by Joy Schwabach
Character.AI provides a long list of celebrities to chat with or you can create your own. But many of these AI clones were created by ordinary folks instead of experts. So they may not sound like the famous person you asked for. That’s where AI developers come in. If you Google the words “hire ChatGPT developer,” you can get a freelancer to build a chatbot for you. That’s apparently what Harvard professor and prize-winning author Martin Puchner did to create an AI version of Socrates, Jesus, Shakespeare, Thoreau, Frankenstein’s monster, Buddha and other philosophical and literary giants. I was awed by how realistic they are. For example, I asked the AI version of George Eliot how her love life influenced […]
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Filed under: AI, Amazon, Internuts | Comments Off on CHATTING WITH FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER
Posted on July 14th, 2024 by Joy Schwabach
A new app allows you to choose Judy Garland and other icons to read books, news and articles aloud. It’s called the “Reader App” and it’s free from Eleven Labs for iPhone and iPad only. Android users can join a waitlist. It took a little fiddling to figure it out, and it was sometimes buggy. But hey, it’s free. When I got the hang of it, I enjoyed hearing Judy Garland read “A Little Princess” and “The Wizard of Oz.” After that, I listened to James Dean, Sir Lawrence Olivier and Burt Reynolds. There are also a dozen or so non-celebrities with various accents, including a middle-aged Australian dude. The Reader App includes a list of books you can try […]
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Filed under: AI, Amazon, Internuts, iPhone, numbers, troubleshooting | Comments Off on BURT REYNOLDS AND JAMES DEAN WILL READ TO YOU
Posted on July 8th, 2024 by Joy Schwabach
I just picked up the phone and called Sigmund Freud. He had a lot to say. You can call him too, or almost any other famous person, through the magic of artificial intelligence. It’s a new feature in the “Character AI” app, free for iPhone and Android. After Freud, I looked up Abraham Lincoln. From 98 versions, I selected the most popular, an Abe who had already participated in over 400,000 chats. I asked him about Mary Todd, but unfortunately, unlike the other characters I tried, he was slow to respond. Maybe he’s too popular: He has a great old-timey voice. Most are as jarring as a surfer dude trying to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt. You may prefer texting to […]
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Filed under: AI, art, books, cheap calls, free stuff, Internuts, troubleshooting, video | Comments Off on CALLING FREUD
Posted on July 1st, 2024 by Joy Schwabach
After printing out eight placemats for my sister’s birthday, I laminated them with the Scotch “Thermal Laminator,” $31 at Target. The placemats include photos of my six-month-old niece, a “Happy Birthday” greeting and a cartoonish cake. I know my sister will like them because she’s still using the holiday placemats I made years ago. To start, I used “Hallmark Card Studio,” $31 on Amazon, which can be downloaded to multiple machines. After finishing a variety of designs– which was as easy as choosing images and text to plop onto paper– I turned to YouTube for a demo of the laminator. I’m all thumbs when it comes to hardware. Here’s how it works: To start, choose one of two settings, depending […]
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Filed under: AI, art, cheap calls, Internuts, kids, video | Comments Off on MAKE YOUR OWN PHOTO PLACEMATS AND LAMINATE THEM
