Tag Archives: programming

End of a fairy tale

That is what kept creating in my mind, it was pushed there by the BBC (at https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqkg50j1yd5lo) less then 24 hours ago and it is time that I (kinda) repeat what I have been saying all along and for this version lets use the ‘fairy tale’ approach. The title gives us ‘Rogue Anthropic AI agent gave police fake tip in unsolved murder case’ and I get (to some degree) fed up with this rogue setting. So lets explain the setting of a rogue. 

This is the first rogue, in this case a female rogue and thoroughly explored in Dungeons and Dragons themes where to poor butcher (could be a fisherman) pleads with this rogue “Oh, please gloomy dark lady, do not deprive me of my virginity” and the outcome of that is decided by dice (or an interrupt card) and that is the ‘Rogue’ that has been in play for centuries (although until the 18th century I have never seen a female version. I did hear from a man in the 19th century named Dick Turpin that he met one, but it might have been the combinations of ale and wines and him losing his purse. 

The decently real rogue in this case is the ‘dorky’ IT guy who gets his programming a little wrong. Like the ‘eager’ student in a renowned University working on his ‘assignment’ and he is looking into statistics, more precise Multivariate Analysis of Variance (aka MANOVA) and the dastardly scoundrel gets a parentheses wrong the “(“ or “)” particularly the placement and now what was a small assignment where the illustrious student evaluates a linear combination of multiple correlated outcome variables, but as one of the parentheses is in the wrong place, the mainframe it working on is seeing a correct statement and it does it, but the size of what is to be analyzed take a lot more than the available memory of the mainframe. It goes a little bonkers. And makes the system administrator scream and call for his mommy.

And as the BBC is giving us “An artificial intelligence (AI) agent developed by Anthropic went rogue and sent US police a fake tip about an unsolved murder earlier this year, authorities have revealed. The Philadelphia Police Department said the 18 July tip was “flagged as spam” and not passed on for investigation – but the force criticised the tech firm for taking more than two months to detect and report the breach. It said the bogus tip came through a public website where people can share information on unsolved murders, and that the AI agent had claimed to have seen “someone matching the description”.” So there are claims that could be it, but this is not some system going ‘rogue’ because that system is not armed with sharp blades (or poisonous arrows) and the setting that the BBC is giving us (and many other media as well) is a programming error like I described, but these systems cannot afford the class actions coming from there, as such we now get more and more ‘class actions’ Now this last part is speculation by me. I would call it presumption, but that requires genuine insight and I don’t have it, because to me all AI is fake. But consider that predictive analytics uses statistics to find causality and correlation and optionally ANOVA and MANOVA are used. Now ask yourself could a programmer gotten a parentheses wrong, of will we see servers stealth fully walk the corridors of your corporation, leaving false evidence behind?

Just something to consider.

So whilst we get “The police department added that there were no signs of breaches to any departmental systems and that its safeguarding processes stopped the fake tip from getting past its spam folder. But the safeguards “do not diminish the seriousness of an AI system presenting fabricated information as though it came from a person with knowledge of a homicide”, the force said.” And there is a case for “AI system presenting fabricated information”, in courts there have ben several cases where these systems ‘created’ false case files and not once, but several times. And in the age of utter shortcomings in validation and verification, these systems are extremely flawed. I wonder how these systems hold up against the system that they created, The UK Police Scientific Development Branch started the Major Incident Project in 1974. It would be called Holmes and apparently (I was unaware) a Holmes 2 system was rolled out around 2000. So, were there considerations on how validation and verification happened in those days?

And when we get to “Anthropic this week published a report detailing multiple types of “unintended” actions its agents have taken. Organisations that had been impacted also included several US government agencies including the White House, it said. The US State Department said the AI agent had filed 20 visa applications using a form on its website, but that they were incomplete and not processed, according to reports. US President Donald Trump recently announced an AI taskforce, which he said will co-ordinate engagement between the government and all parties, including AI companies, consumers and religious groups.” So in this case was the agent a real person? And when we get to “the safeguards “do not diminish the seriousness of an AI system presenting fabricated information as though it came from a person with knowledge of a homicide”” was this a person wanting (read: hoping) for a free ride into the United States? The article left me with questions, as well as the fact that “presenting fabricated information” requires certain steps of validation, optionally veridic action and at the very least question into the predictive analytics side of things, because a programmer getting (optionally) a parentheses wrong is seemingly one with enormous potential and optionally the easiest solution into this setting. It is not a setting that Anthropic likes, because that could start a new class action war and when one goes down the others go too and I reckon that OpenAI, Grok, and Gemini will assist in keeping the ‘Rogue’ setting alive, they all have plenty to lose and my giggling sense of humour comes with the setting that these fake AI settings is costing them 3-4 trillion and the court cases settlements could exceed that at the very least (but that is merely my sense of humour)

So have a great day and consider when you get your coffee that the POS could steal your credit card, Rogues are intensely able to do this and spend it on new shoes. Or we could look at where the programmer went wrong. Its all up to you.

Have a great day 

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A speculative nightmare for some

That is the setting I just ‘woke’ up from. A fair warning that this is all PURE speculation. There are no hidden traps, there is no revelation at the end. All this is speculation. 

You see, some will recall the builder.ai setting and there we see “Builder.ai was a smartphone application development company which claimed to use AI to massively speed up app development. The company was based mostly in the United Kingdom and the United States, with smaller subsidiaries in Singapore and India.” At this time we are given “The real catalyst wasn’t technical failure — it was financial mismanagement. According to reports, Builder.ai was involved in a round-trip billing scheme with one of its partners. Essentially, they were allegedly booking fake revenue to make the business look healthier than it was.” And the fact that Microsoft was duped here makes it hilarious. But was it? You see, as I see it AI doesn’t exist (not yet at least) so this setting didn’t make sense, it still doesn’t. Apart from the fact that there were 700 engineers involved (which made the setting weird t say the least) and that was set in a larger space. But what if there was no ‘loss’ for Microsoft? What if builder did exactly hat was required of them? When I got that thought, another beeped up. What if this setting was a mere pilot? You see, there are data issues (all over the place) and Microsoft knows this. What if these 700 engineers were setting the larger premise. What if this is the premise that Sam Altman needs? What if the enablement the is caused between Sam Altman and Satya Nadella and their needs? What if that setting isn’t merely data, but programmers? What if OpenAI is capturing all the work created by programmers? You see, data can be collected, capturing the work of programmers is a little different and OpenAI gets at present “OpenAI is set to hit 700 million weekly active users for ChatGPT this week”, as far as I can tell 90% is simple rubbish, but that 10% are setting their fingerprints on the programming of the future. And whilst this is going on, the ChatGPT funnels are working overtime. As such these programers are pushing themselves out of a job (well not exactly) they still have jobs in several places, but the winners here is team Altman/Nadella. They are about to clean house and when the bulk of the programmers is captured, automated program settings are realised. It isn’t AI, but the people will treat it as much. And this setting is really brilliant. We all contributed to a new version of Near Intelligent Parsing. One that has the frontlines of the crowds, millions of them. And no-one is the wiser as such. 

Perhaps some are and they do not care. They will have their own partitions on this all and the setting will regurgitate their logic and as such they will be the cash makers in the house. So, we are pricing ourselves out of a jobs, out of many jobs. But as I said, this is merely speculative and I have no evidence of any kind. Yet this was the setting I see coming.

Now, let see if I can dream lovely dreams involving a lovely lady, not an Grok imaginative lady of the night. You know what I mean, Twitter is filled with them at present. 

Have a great day, it’s 5:00 in the morning in Vancouver, I’m almost seeing Monday morning, less than 2 hours to go.

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Just grabbing two ideas

Yup, I’m gonna go there. Two ideas, one I already discussed and as I couldn’t find it I might want to re-discuss and the second one I came up with seeing something last night. That second one is the first one I discuss. It will give developers for Android, iOS and HarmonyNext the option to spread their wings and make a few millions. You see, I am not much of a programmer, I was on databases, but I left that game decades ago. So I can sit on the idea, or give you programmer lot a nice setting of millions and that is the stage where you merely charge one dollar for the app per sold installation. Wouldn’t it be nice to get a few million by being adhering to the need of others?

So as I was watching some walkthrough video of the Carrefour in Dubai, It hit me that the people at vacations and business travel have needs, they need stuff, but at times you need to keep your mind in the game and that is where you come in. Consider that you are shopping for razorblades, sparkling water, fruit juice and perhaps  piece of meat as you are in a place where there is a kitchen. So what to get? Well this is where your mobile comes in. As you place the camera on the item, it will scan the sticker on the camera, the text is seen (it is already possible to do this), but the setting that is not done is that the local price is set to your local currency so you will see what everything costs. As I see it, you will have your local currency, say Australian dollars and the price we see is 6.99 (which would be Dirham in Dubai), the app will tell you that this is A$ 2.92, so now you know. And as I see it, there is a setting page which can give you the two currencies and at that point the scanner will give you the transfer almost immediately, not head scratching on what it might be, you will see immediately. As far as I can tell Android doesn’t have it, so likely the other two don’t either. And you are merely catering to the millions of tourists the world have. The calculations of two currencies are out there already and you merely need to get the connection working and million of tourists will be grateful. All these people ready to hand over a dollar for your hard work and they will be there in the millions. You might want to make it $2, but I reckon not much higher. You see, when the price goes up too much people will hesitate. From the $1 idea of it being a great deal to the $3 when people start considering ‘do I really need this’ and that is the path you want to avoid. Also the coming in after you don’t get the vibe ‘I can do this cheaper’ and before you know it, you are in a digital armistice race and you don’t want that. 

A simple app that apparently no one sees and people need it. Consider any tourist that has been in a shop. They all thought “What does that cost in my currency?” I have had it and if you have been on vacation you did too. Even if it is as simple as the price of Beer/Wine.

See if you can make it work and have a nice day making the next app people need on their mobiles. 

In September 2024 I wrote ‘Your (starting) fame on timing’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2024/09/05/your-starting-fame-on-timing/) where I gave the readers a similar idea for time. You see, what people forget is that when they travel, or have international contacts they need to be in touch with people outside their time zone and there the issue is seen when you don’t have direct view of these timezones. A simple app (or faceplate) optionally using the widget on the phone to set those times to the watch. I reckon that those who need it might also pay a dollar for that idea, especially if it synchs mobile settings. The idea is in that story, so have fun with that. It is merely a giveaway as I don’t have the setting to do it myself. Oh, and feel free if you make over 10 million, to ‘donate’ up to 20%, a mere request not a demand. As I have no grounds of demanding anything. I put this on my blog, as such it becomes freeware. 

Two ideas, optionally making you an instant millionaire. Who doesn’t want that? You gotta start at some point and it might as well be here.

Have a great day all. 

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The old frame of thought

Today I had a small meeting (read: presentation to watch) and I got struck with an idea that would give that person 10,000 customers. She hadn’t thought of it, so now she has a new focus on clients. If she can solve one idea, she will have access to millions of users. That is all I have to say about that. You see this evening I was brooding (like I usually do) and I suddenly thought of an old idea. I haven’t seen anyone using this setting in today’s world and I had to giggle. You see, perhaps some have thought of the idea, but I had worked it out. And it is no longer a focus of mine. It is perhaps my weakness. I like to work out puzzles. When I have solved it the drive slows in me, it becomes a typing exercise and that is not what I am about.

The original idea (and it was programmed) in Clipper. A DBA’s faithful companion, the Nantucket Clipper compiler. And it was something I revered doing. So what was the puzzle. In the Netherlands, pub owners need to pay BTW (their version of VAT) over all the drinks they sell. A such I took a different path. You see, a bottle of booze is a known amount, each bottle represents X amount of drinks. And over the quarter they represent a set amount of VAT. As such I went with the setting of every bottle. Now to make the calculation, 17 drinks of spirits go out of a 750ML bottle. Now a bar gets their delivery of certain amount of booze. That ticket gets implemented in the system and you know what is due, now at the end of the quarter you do a stocktake and we get drinks minus stock equals VAT due. There was a second upside in this. As you get the list per brand, should the staff steal and ‘replace’ a few bottles. The equation sees that and you know you have a problem. 

So as the proprietor enters each receipt duly when it arrives, they would know ahead of time what is due and you won’t need an accountant to make the calculations, you merely hand over the printout and the setting is known. As such I made the program and that proprietor saved himself hundreds of dollars on accountant costs every quarter. In addition that you get a nice setting of revenue streams and you know where your settings are. So feel free to use this idea and get additional income streams. I did it decades ago and it is no longer interesting to me. I have other fries to fry. 

I just saw another puzzle, but as I am no longer a programmer, I might place it here is a few days (or I might hand it over to someone I like). Life is all about balancing points. So as I am listening to David Sylvian, I might brood a little more. Most likely on the setting I presented a few days ago (might have been a week) on the application of Eki stamps outside of Japan in all manners (I made a theme park mention) and I also made mention on another setting of Disney park and personal amateur video settings. For some reason my mind goes back to that, there seems to be more there. It seems that my mind is trying to alert me to unseen stuff. Not sure yet what to make of that, but I’ll work it out somehow. 

At present there is a gap from what I see and what I am missing, but there is enough time. At least I have given Amazon, Google and Microsoft a run for their money and they seem to come up short. Not really my problem, my mind keeps on creating, so off I go with a sample of snoring partially through the night. If I only could see what my mind is trying to tell me. Ah well. Such is life. So feel free to mould the idea I had decades ago into something you can sell. It is all yours.

Have a great day, i’ll be brooding a little while longer.

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Your (starting) fame on timing

There we have it, another freebee for the eager developer who wants to increase his (or her) visibility. Last month I was (happily) forced to get the Pixel Watch 2, there would be too much time for the new Pixel Watch 3 and I didn’t have the required dineros to get it. Not to fret, the Pixel Watch 2 does everything it needs to do as such I am happy. It was not until this week that I was missing out on one thing. I still have my mobile, so there was no pressing need, but I thought, why is it not there? 

So I went looking and behold, Google had missed out on it. So here it is your chance to shine. Im not sure if there is money in it, but the eager developer will see a way to turn this visibility into cash making opportunity.

As such I present a (extremely) rough view on the tile that a lot of people are waiting for.

The stage is founded on the clock widget, as such it is possible that you can capture that data (which uses the clock program in Google). The widget supports 4 times, but in this case the fifth is wherever you are (home). I also set the home in a different colour, but that is up to you. In my case I need to keep these times in mind, but whatever your reason is, it works. In Europe you have three times all over the place and there are more reasons. Some nations do not embrace summer/winter time. As such  the clock program has this all figured it out. So you just need to capture that data when it is needed. I think it is a simple and basic requirement, but Google seemingly never caught on. And with Google shipping the pixel watch 880,000 times (as per Oct 2022) you will gain a lot of visibility. As per 2023 Apple sold over 93 million smartwatches and it is likely that the solution is almost exactly the same, as such you could get multi million views with a simple tile addition. So use the idea and gain visibility I say. And here I suggest that you look what Apple has.  I dare say that the eager programmer could create that tile in mere hours, and a day of testing. 

So hop to it and gain your fame I say.

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