On Computers

When a reader clicked the “Ask Gemini” button in Google Chrome and asked a question, it froze before giving him an answer. “Was it because I was using the free version?” he wondered. Nope. When Gemini freezes, it’s a bug, not a paywall. It could happen when you ask unusually long or multi-part questions. To get around it, ask again and this time, keep your question short. But if you want, you can upload up to 3000 pages to go with it. Just don’t go beyond 24,000 words if you want Gemini to remember the whole chat before it responds.  Google Calendar Trick When I asked a podiatrist’s office to send me my X-rays, I got an authorization form that […]

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Filed under: AI, business, Google, Internuts, inventions, science, spam, video, web | Comments Off on FROZEN GEMINI

A reader named Karl sent me a newspaper column that raged against data centers and artificial intelligence. He hoped I’d give him a different point of view. We sure need one. In April, Sam Altman, the founder of OpenAI, the company that makes ChatGPT, was targeted in an attempted firebombing with a Molotov cocktail at his San Francisco home. Apparently, the suspect thinks AI poses grave risks to humanity. But so far, technological progress is the reason that we’re all still here. Thanks to technology, in the past 100 years, the average human lifespan has doubled, and the average per capita income worldwide has tripled, adjusted for inflation. Child mortality has come down by a factor of ten. There’s less […]

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Filed under: AI, gadgets, games, Internuts, inventions, kids, numbers | Comments Off on DATA CENTER BLUES

Five-dollar chocolate bars and $15 bottles of olive oil. What gives? Chocolate prices hit record highs in 2024 due to dry weather in West Africa. Extreme droughts in Spain and Italy caused the price of olive oil to double. Could AI help? You bet. Just as ChatGPT was trained on billions of words, “Botanic,” offered by Living Models, is trained on DNA, the language of plants. It may sound corny, but Botanic “gets” corn. It also acts as a bud to your spud. For example, drought and rising temperatures in Idaho and Washington led to smaller yields and lower-quality potatoes. Botanic can help with that. Currently, it takes about eight years of trial and error to develop a new drought-resistant […]

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Filed under: AI, Amazon, Android, business, education, inventions, trends, weather | Comments Off on AI CAN HELP WITH GROCERY PRICES

After listening to two teenage girls talk about their Oura rings, I asked them about the battery. “Did you know it’s irreplaceable?” I asked. I didn’t have the heart to add: “When the battery’s degraded, your $499 smart ring will turn into a dumb ring.”  They didn’t seem to care about the battery. They love having their steps counted, their sleep tracked and more, leaving their wrists free for bracelets.  But after two years, the girls may have to charge their golden rings every six hours. After three years, the batteries will probably be kaput. After five years, they will have spent $350 for the Oura 4 monthly subscription and $998 for the original ring and its replacement, a total […]

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Filed under: AI, graphics, health, Internuts, inventions, photos, spam | Comments Off on RING LEADER

Which is better, Android or iPhone? Whatever team you’re on, you’re unlikely to switch. Unless your family is on the other side. An Android-loving grandfather said he switched after his son-in-law couldn’t send video of his child, born seconds before. “He said the video wasn’t sending and he figured out it was me,” the reader wrote. “When he deleted me from the group, it sent, and every iPhone got it.”  There would have been no compatibility issue if everyone had been using the free WhatsApp. So I asked Granddad why he didn’t suggest it, since he’d used it to send texts to his friends in Haiti. He said he didn’t want to make everyone else use a different app just […]

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Filed under: AI, Android, Apple, games, Google, health, inventions, iPhone, news | Comments Off on ANDROID VERSUS IPHONE

It’s free to publish a book on Amazon, but what’s the catch? Turns out there isn’t any. Yet when I told an elderly woman about it, she was skeptical. She liked the idea of turning her novel into a paperback book, but balked when I told her that she would have to link her bank account to Amazon if she wanted royalties. “It sounds like a scam,” she said. It isn’t. It’s a familiar practice for anyone who uses online banking. Besides, Amazon couldn’t have gotten this big by scamming people. It sends over $520 million in royalties each year to over one million authors, according to Words Rated. To ease my friend’s worries, I offered to publish the book […]

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Filed under: apps, games, Google, inventions, troubleshooting | Comments Off on PUBLISH YOUR BOOK

Your garbage isn’t chicken feed. But it could be. All it takes is the right composter. The “Mill Kitchen Bin” converts discarded scraps and leftovers into food for chickens. When the bin is full, the user empties it into a prepaid shipping box and sends it back to the company. Unlike typical composting, the Bin can handle any food, including dairy, meat, grains– even Twinkies. It de-stinks as it turns into soil-ish. Food waste makes up 24 percent of the stuff in landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and its production wastes water, land, fertilizer and energy. Even worse, it makes methane gas. So instead of throwing out your food, why not mail it in? Here’s the catch: Though […]

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Filed under: environment, games, Gmail, Internuts, inventions, robots, security | Comments Off on JUST CHICKEN FEED

“20 First Photos from the History of Photography.”  Includes the first selfie, the first aerial photograph, the first hoax, and so on.

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Making the World Work Better: Ideas that Shaped a Century and a Company,” by Maney, Hamm, and O’Brien; $30 from IBMPressBooks.com.

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Filed under: books, education, inventions | Comments Off on MAKING THE WORLD WORK BETTER

According to the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, 5.1 billion people have a cell phone but only 4.2 billion people have a toothbrush. We have a modest proposal:

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Filed under: inventions | Comments Off on THE NUMBERS REPORT