Random videos

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Here is a video of a song I first discovered on the "Merlin" series BTS videos (Second video in this post) by an Australian artist named John Farnham. I have listened to this song many.many times, and the lyrics, his voice and the production still gives me chills. If you go down the Farnham rabbit hole as I have, there are even videos of him performing this LIVE at age 70 (!) and he STILL has the voice! Watch for the mic stand toss at 3:36 and notices he catches it ON THE BEAT! A few minutes after, he picks it up with a toe kick. Epic.

The lyrics also have a lot of meaning with the way things are today as well.

Here is the clip from "Merlin" where I first heard of the song:

And if you get a "bromance" vibe from this video, you are correct. The series creators originally penned it as a love story between Merlin and Arthur, but the BBC forced them to back down. But Bradley James (Arthur) did metaphorically give the middle finger to the BBC in the finale where at one point he says to Merlin (Colin Morgan) "I love you" which was overdubbed in post with "Thank you". Bradley had said in many interviews that it was totally a romantic love, and in one funny moment when asked "Romance with Gwen or Bromance with Merlin" he, without even a second's hesitation, responded "Bromance with Merlin"

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

And keeping with the Christmas theme today, here's some cool info about Cousin Eddie's RV in "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation":

[Randy Stankey]

One of our neighbors, just down the street, has an RV parked in their yard.

At Christmas time, they decorate it with lights then they stand a mannequin wearing a white robe and a flap hat next to it, complete with hose in-hand.

About a hundred times a day, people drive by and shout, "Shitter's full!"

[Frank Cox]

That didn't take long...

[Frank Cox]

I never really understood how these AI Large Language Models work but this guy gives a very understandable description of what they do and then he describes a very clever way to watermark text.

Watermark text? That sounds like a ridiculous concept on its face but there is a way.

This is the best short lecture I've seen in some time.

[Frank Cox]

Backhoven?

[Frank Cox]

A whole orchestra played on a single accordian.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Does he play in Gus Poinski's polka band too?

[Oliver Green]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7F6BYyWlTc

I love dogs, and I want you guys to watch this vid

[Randy Stankey]

The North American House Hippo:

[Frank Cox]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch9YqMV8UrA

[Marcel Birgelen]

I never really understood how these AI Large Language Models work but this guy gives a very understandable description of what they do and then he describes a very clever way to watermark text.

Watermark text? That sounds like a ridiculous concept on its face but there is a way.

This is the best short lecture I've seen in some time.

Regarding the watermarking of text via that method: There have since been other papers showing that this kind of watermarking is pretty ineffective, as it can easily be detected and be defeated. You could actually train another LLM to detect the watermarking and reliably remove it for you.

[Randy Stankey]

The only reliable way I can think to watermark text is to hash the whole thing then, somehow, bury the hash into the text.

One could use whatever hash algorithm that's appropriate then convert the hexadecimal number to base-26, turning the code into the letters A through Z. Then, somehow change certain word or character positions to have that letter in them. Determining whether the text has been altered would require looking for those letters in the preassigned positions.

The problem with that scheme is that burying the hash into the text changes the hash. You'd have to be able to tell which letters were changed and what they should have been before the original hash was done.

Of course, this idea won't work for obvious reasons but it's a thought experiment.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The biggest problem with this scheme is that you need to change letters or words without changing the meaning of the text.

Invisibly marking a piece of text, especially a short one, is a pretty though problem, since text is inherently sparse. A lot of the underlying information of text is carried in the context and "subtext" of that text. Compare this to an image or video, where you often have millions of pixels to burry information.

[Randy Stankey]

You could always do it like this:

Forever in our hearts,
Until we meet again,
Cherished memories,
Known as
Our son, brother,
Father, papa, uncle,
Friend, and cousin.

There's no way you could change that text without altering the meaning!

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/19/us/io...rnd/index.html