Who is dippy?

After all the drama overhead, Friday passed with scarcely a drop of rain, bar those that spattered our windshield on the way home.

It is often the case. The elements like to play with us.

Casting my thoughts back to last summer, I would be quite happy for a downpour.

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Instant messaging is a feature of modern technology we managed perfectly without. It was quite convenient to be away from one’s phone for large portions of the day, however there are cases when it is useful to receive news promptly.

Today, for example, I got an alert advising the recall of steroid eye drops.

Too late, in fact, but luckily the batch I was issued were from a different manufacturer.

And the trouble with news items is knowing whether or not to trust them. Are they reliable? Is it an attempt to panic you into some sort of action that will release your personal information to a cyber-criminal?

Methinks we were better off without.

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What I am certain we were better off without is artificial intelligence which strikes me as just plain scary. A friend of mine who lives alone talks regularly to Alexa. He is sensible enough that I know not to worry that he’s gone a bit dippy, but I find it creepy.

Some weeks ago, my email account got transferred to Yahoo from another media company and I think I may never properly adjust to the new format. Maybe I should try harder, but why put a lot of effort into something that will very likely change again tomorrow?

Early on, I noticed that when reading emails, I was being confused as to the origin. This, I realised only because the style of writing, as well as the message, did not match the apparent sender. Scrutinising, I saw that the name in the header-line was not the person who had sent the message. The sender’s name was concealed just above the actual message.

This was not a one-off glitch. I’ve just checked today’s emails and it is still true.

Another thing that I suddenly noticed was that above my messages, AI was offering a synopsis of the content, – to save me the trouble of reading through them? I have ignored those prompts, but today when I went to check, they were gone, so perhaps I had inadvertently checked something I didn’t intend – and subsequently managed unconsciously to un-check it.

Or perhaps I am going dippy?

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Maybe it’s just the brain fog which is particularly dense at the moment while recovering from – whatever it was. These things are always worse during spells of hot weather when seasonal allergies complicate any temporary affliction.

These are the reasons why I am a Winter person! Yet I am in no rush to return to cold weather and stratospheric heating bills. The dear little darlings may have to wear overcoats vs toasting by the fire this year.

There has been no further communication with the solar-farm that provides some of our power and the due date of their yet unexplained extortionate bill approaches. I am loath to pay it, yet is it worth the aggravation that will cause in the long run?

Foggy brains cannot cope with decion-making.

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Few things are all black or white and I find it helpful to make the best of whatever I don’t like.

My ignoring AI is not going to make it go away, so where it is useful, why not take advantage?

Identifying butterflies. While distributing carrots yesterday, I came upon the above cheerful soul that surprisingly allowed me to approach closely. Actually, I think it was unaware.

AI identifies objects too, which can be handy:

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We see quite a few old cars up here, some in very good shape. Coming home on Friday, I remembered to take a picture of this one which AI tells me is a 1955 Kaiser Manhattan:

The 1955 Kaiser Manhattan was the final, ultra-rare passenger car produced by Kaiser Motors in the United States, famous for its avant-garde design and factory-installed supercharger. Faced with intense competition from Detroit’s “Big Three,” Kaiser ended U.S. automotive production early in 1955, making this model a highly collectible piece of automotive history

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And, some weeks ago, this fine looking car was parked by the station in Cambridge:

“This is a black 1936 Ford Standard Five-Window Coupe featuring prominent whitewall tires and a classic chrome grille.”

Clearly still in running condition and beautifully maintained.

While not a great fan of cars, I like some of the old ones and it’s nice to see them well cared for.

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