Norms Bait and Tackle

CallieOK · April 08, 2025, 11:25:31 AM

The friend who suggested SeniorNet to me said it was a program connected with a college in San Francisco. They dropped the program and Pat-in-Canada started Seniors & Friends.

Rammel, I agree with your definition of S&F. Am I correct in that anyone anywhere in the world can read the posts but you must register in order to post?
That's why I don't put details/addresses/last name/etc. in my posts.

Could someone explain to me (in simple terms) exactly what AI stands for, is/does and why it's so popular nowadays?

A grocery order is due to be delivered. Guess I'd better put on something other than gown and robe!

MarsGal · April 08, 2025, 11:51:44 AM

That is true enough, Rick. Earlier on I tried to get my sister and a few acquaintances to join up, but none of them were interested. Bubble did get a friend from Brazil to pop into the Library Bookshelf for a few weeks a year or so ago, but he lost his tablet and never found his way back. I spent just about the entire month of March talking to myself there. Fortunately, the core group over on Senior Learn are posting again after a slowdown there too. The newest Wolf Hall show has generated a renewed interest in Cromwell, Wolsey and Henry VII, et.al.

MarsGal · April 08, 2025, 12:18:42 PM

Callie, AI is short for Artificial Intelligence. IBM's basic definition AI is here, along with some more detailed info about AI is good. https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/artificial-intelligence Microsoft's CoPilot and OpenAI's ChatGP are two of the most familiar. So far, however, their use on the net as a search engine does not impress me. However, I have been monitoring the AI generated short stories posted to YouTube and they seem to be improving, not so flat and bland.

Ciaobella · April 08, 2025, 12:28:30 PM

Callie, AI artificial intelligence, the ability of a digital computer or computer-controlled robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term is frequently applied to the project of developing systems endowed with the intellectual processes characteristic of humans, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience.

What I conclude is that AI is programming computers or robots to perform through the information provided such as algorithms, patterns, data, etc. by humans. It's a bit complicated considering you are relying on humans to supply the data, and if the data is biased or manipulated for any reason, and taking into account if something goes awry with the program it could be detrimental to the performance in such case as a car that is programmed to drive itself could end up crashing. AI is as good as the data provided for it to accomplish the jobs intended, provided all the programming and equipment are working correctly.

While (AI) artificial intelligence is now a part of our world, it only makes me more concerned what nefarious people could do using it. It will replace many jobs humans are doing but then again, I hear they will still need highly trained skilled people to be on site to monitor and repair any issues that would arise with the system.

Anyone else please feel free to add to this if you can.

RAMMEL · April 08, 2025, 12:42:13 PM

Quote from: Ciaobella on April 08, 2025, 12:28:30 PMAI is as good as the data provided for it to accomplish the jobs intended

That reminds me of an old computer term - GIGO - meaning garbage in, garbage out.

CallieOK · April 08, 2025, 01:05:39 PM

Thank you for your explanations of AI ! I was guessing that it was automatically "doing our thinking about what we meant!"

Since I'm a published writer of non-fiction "essays" (long time ago and mostly local/specialty publications ) I don't need a robot telling me what I wanted to say!

Marilyne · April 08, 2025, 01:38:56 PM

If anyone here has a problem finding what they want to order on Amazon. . . never fear, Felix will help you! He will appear at the bottom left of the page, and a message will appear in a box under his cheerful face. He asks, "Can I help you find the item you're looking for?" You can choose either YES or No". I always choose NO, so I don[t know what happens if you say yes?

I had a telephone robot help me with problem recently on Ancestry.com. She was polite and friendly and helpful. I had no idea I was having a conversation with a robot, until I called back later and asked to speak to Cristy again. Then found out she wasn't a human being! I was stunned! This is the New World we live in.
Does anyone else remember the old movie from the 1960's . . . "The Stepford Wives"? That was an early warning, I guess?

Ciaobella · April 08, 2025, 01:42:00 PM

RAMMEL, GIGO...could not have said it any better!!!

I started our computer lab in an elementary Catholic school back in 1984 when Apple computers were considered the "user friendly" computer for education. I attended many workshops and had a tech guy come to repair a few of our wonky working computers... he showed me how to replace parts of the hardware to save my school the cost of calling him back. Silly me, I was not only the only one in the school who knew how to run them but now could replace parts all for the cheap price of $5.50 an hour and a bonus for the school was I taught all the teachers and principal how to use them for free!

Interesting story, a 7th grader who thought he was smarter than me had been challenging me about how he knew more about computers than I did, and I thought he was joking with me. The next day I came into the lab turned on the electricity and heard the printer activate. I guess Billy decided to send some pornographic pictures to my lab along with a manifesto of hate for teachers. Needless to say, I was in complete shock! I placed them in a folder and took them to the principal and told him to open it when I leave, but to give me a day or so because I suspected who did this. I went home and the entire week-end I browsed the internet looking for sites where I suspected kids would go to chat and was able to get a lead on a student PJ who was best friends with Billy. He was sharing with the chat group about this friend and what he did in our school. I printed out the chat conversation and I went to our principal and gave him all the information and then went and talked to the mother who was a teacher in our school of the one student PJ who was in the chat room. She confirmed Billy was at her house spending the day with her son and they had access to the computer. The principal called the police, they first spoke with PJ and he said he left Billy alone in the computer room while he went to get snacks, came back, saw what he had done and was afraid to tell his parents. The police had Billy's parents come to the school, they called Billy to the office and as soon as Billy saw me, he smiled like he had gotten away with it. He denied everything and his parents were so afraid of what was happening they told him if he did this, he has to admit to it. The police told him they have PJ's statement and other information that confirms he is the one who did this. They told him because he is a minor his parents could go to jail for his actions. He got very frightened and finally admitted to it. They expelled Billy for a few days and allowed him to come back. A couple of years later he threatened our special education teacher and was taken into custody for evaluation and admitted to the child detention center.

So, as you pointed out GIGO...computers are the way of the world but as early as back in 1984 when schools began labs and using the internet, they have been used of good and harm. I worry very much about AI and the future of where it will take us.

Callie, I agree, I too am a writer, mostly poems that have been published in the International Library of Poetry and a few local newspapers. No computer or robot can think as I do or have true human emotions regardless of what they have programmed into it.

patricia19 · April 08, 2025, 02:29:07 PM

Remember when computers took up an entire floor and used perforated cards with cautions to not "Fold, Spindle or Mutilate?" Also, does anyone remember spindles?

In the early seventies, I worked at the university, in the science department. The then university computer, took up the entire basement of the building, and I was the keeper of access. I thought I was really something back then, when really I was only a gatekeeper.

I don't use AI if I can help it. Not only that, but I don't use Co-pilot or much of any Microsoft or Google programs if I can help it. Although there are several, you have to, even if you're using an Apple product. I don't use Facebook, X, or other social media either, but that's another story.

RAMMEL · April 08, 2025, 03:11:38 PM

Quote from: Marilyne on April 08, 2025, 01:38:56 PMDoes anyone else remember the old movie from the 1960's . . . "The Stepford Wives"?

I certainly do. --- And I was the one who said he doesn't watch many movies

RAMMEL · April 08, 2025, 03:27:19 PM

Ciaobella - FWIW - I worked for a local Telephone Company (Now a very big one) and for my final years maintained a computer that routed phone calls to all parts of the Country. Our main computer was a UNIX run job, and we had a DEC Co auxiliary computer. Funny how life works, but when I retired and bought my own PC, I couldn't get it to work. I just didn't know how to run it. Short Course at our local Community College and I was on my way. Even assembled a couple of them. I'm getting a bit slow now, with age and incentive against me -- but there's still curiosity.

CallieOK · April 08, 2025, 03:30:51 PM

Ciaobella, Middle Schoolers, IMO, must be the hardest age group to work with! My DIL retired as a Middle School teacher and she loved them. I often told her I thought she earned a star in her crown every day she showed up!

I taught 2nd grade and, after I quit teaching, I volunteered with the children's activities at the local museum. I wrote several programs that I took to the local elementary school primary classes.
Most of the classes had to write thank you notes which began in the same way.

"Dear Mrs. ____, Thank you for coming to our school. The thing I liked best was" ...and they had to add their own comment.
My favorite was:
"The thing I liked best was... it didn't last very long".

That one went on the bulletin board in the Volunteer Room at the museum.

phyllis · April 08, 2025, 04:34:21 PM

You all are delving into my memories now. My husband worked for IBM for 35 years and many of the terms you are using are very familiar to me. And those room sized computers ... when he first went to work for the company he was a Customer Engineer and installed, programed and maintained those enormous comp centers. One of his customers was Farmers Insurance Group in Los Angeles and their comp center took up most of the lower level of their very large head quarters building in Los Angeles.

He retired before WatsonX and AI came along but if if he had still been working I am sure he would be involved with it, too, in some capacity. Computers were his vocation and his avocation until he died. Both my sons and my daughter-in-law were, and are, all in computer jobs.

phyllis · April 08, 2025, 04:53:28 PM

Rick, you should change your S&F signature word. It no longer parodies IBM's logo which is now CREATE. BTW, my dil started with N Y Telephone. I am guessing that you did, too?

patricia19 · April 08, 2025, 05:23:11 PM

Callie, when I first met you through SeniorNet, you were doing museum tours dressed in, I believe, frontier or farming clothing?

I may be wrong, as my recall is often a parody instead of a surety.

RAMMEL · April 08, 2025, 06:12:50 PM

Phyllis --- Sent you a PM.

Ciaobella · April 08, 2025, 07:13:37 PM

Oh, how I love hearing how each of you were somehow involved in computers as well.

Phyllis, Computers sure were big and heavy back then. IBM back then was the biggie of all we used to joke around about what the letters meant: I -Interested, B -Bring, M -Money.

Rick, I have to tell you that I didn't know a single thing about computers before I went to a friend's Christmas party and there was a guy there who looked like (excuse my reference) a bum which stood out because everyone else was dressed in casual nice clothes. My friend hosting the party came up to me and asked if I could guess his income by the way he looked. I embarrassingly said, I have no idea, but he looks like he may make minimum wage. She laughed and said he was a millionaire! I said no way what does he do? She said, go talk with him he is into computers which are going to be our future. She introduced us and during our conversation he told me to go to Radio Shack and buy a Tandy computer and teach myself how to use it because the manual is so easy to follow. I did just what he said and that led me to beginning our school lab just a year later. What a crazy world we live in.

Caliie, yes, I agree middle school age students can be the most difficult age group because they are too old to be considered young, but not old enough to be considered teenagers and they are dealing with the introduction into puberty with all those awkard changes happening with their body. I actually taught K-8th grade computer science so I was able to enjoy all the different grades. 1st and 2nd graders were my favorite age levels.

Patricia, no social media apps at all? Wow, I admire you being able to resist them. My married kids and my grandchildren who are ages 30 down to 14 yrs. old does all the social media apps and told me to get on them so they can communicate through them with me. We rarely ever talk on the phone, but we do spend a lot of time together in person so its ok to text throughout the day.

RAMMEL · April 08, 2025, 07:31:18 PM

Quote from: Ciaobella on April 08, 2025, 07:13:37 PMIBM back then was the biggie of all we used to joke around about what the letters meant: I -Interested, B -Bring, M -Money.

Around here it was I Been Moved

CallieOK · April 08, 2025, 09:49:56 PM

Quote from: patricia19 on April 08, 2025, 05:23:11 PMCallie, when I first met you through SeniorNet, you were doing museum tours dressed in, I believe, frontier or farming clothing?

I may be wrong, as my recall is often a parody instead of a surety.

I was probably dressed in a "prairie dress" and a sunbonnet because I often made my "conversation" as a member of a family that made the "Oklahoma Run" in 1890.
(The one that "didn't last long" was a Hands-On talk in which I took old objects from the museum and talked with students what they were and what they were used for. I was surprised when a 3rd grader actually knew what a "chicken catcher" was.)

patricia19 · April 09, 2025, 01:04:03 PM

Callie, I have no idea what a chicken catcher is and that would be sad as I have several friends in the area who homesteaded and raised chickens along with a large vegetable garden. Many had goats, llamas and alpacas for the wool. Goats are another common item hereabouts for their milk.

Both sets of family in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Colorado also farmed. I think my parents' generation was the first who had those doing other than farming. Now, unfortunately, I don't think any of them still farm.

My last job, before retirement, was with The Great Alaskan Bowl company, a three generation gift shop where they make wooden bowls and other wooden items for sale or mailing worldwide. All of us would board the tour buses and give our frontier spiel, before inviting them inside to watch the wood carving through a window. Then they could wander around and make their purchases.

One interesting part was that each hire, had to, with supervision, make their own small wooden bowl and learn about all the local crafts and their production. We would often have craftspeople in store, doing demonstrations.

patricia19 · April 09, 2025, 01:08:53 PM

Ciaobella, I tried Facebook once, as everyone I knew online seemed to be on it, but I just couldn't get into it and since none of my family was on it, I soon lost interest.

Nowadays, my social media is done through S&F and emails.

CallieOK · April 09, 2025, 01:35:59 PM

Patricia, the pioneers in the 1890s used a metal stick with one end bent in a hook to catch a chicken by the neck.
The student who recognized it said her grandmother had one and sometimes used it.

Where in Oklahoma and Colorado did/do your family live?

patricia19 · April 09, 2025, 02:43:41 PM

Thanks for telling me. I had visions of a stick with a little net attached.

When visiting farming relatives, as a smaller child, I hated chickens. I always got bitten when sent to gather eggs.

My maternal aunt and family lived on Orchard Drive in Midwest City, I believe.

My maternal grandparents and uncle and family farmed for a time in Salinas, Kansas and then outside of Montrose, Colorado until the nineties.

I still have relatives in all three places. My paternal relatives farmed in Missouri. One uncle and family had a nut orchard at one time in Oregon, may still have it, I've lost track.

patricia19 · April 09, 2025, 02:50:57 PM

Here's a photo of the bowl making process on Trip Advisor;

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60826-d2491333-Reviews-The_Great_Alaskan_Bowl_Company-Fairbanks_Alaska.html#review_965912662

MaryPage · April 09, 2025, 03:03:55 PM

I have worked with computers as a tool, but never worked "in" computers, so I am an ignoramus there.
But the only things I use A1 for are timing my exercise "Alexa, set the timer for 10 minutes", or for playing any music I love at loud volume when the family go out & leave me alone. Mostly classical. I love Shostakovich's 5th symphony & Brahams 1st. I used to go to all the operas at Wolf Trap Farm for the Performing Arts every summer, so I cannot resist A1 for bringing that back to me. But A1 does scare me to death in every other way.
And I am a coward about access to what we think are private places a lot of unsavory elements in our present day society have. I do not now, nor ever have, owned or used a cell phone. And I have never once even gone into social media. Unless you count SeniorNet.

MaryPage · April 09, 2025, 03:25:31 PM

I don't know what I did wrong, or how to fix it. Sorry.

Marilyne · April 09, 2025, 04:16:33 PM

Mary Page, regarding your latest message . . . you didn't do anything wrong. It was smooth and easy to read. All of your messages here are interesting and enjoyable.

RAMMEL · April 09, 2025, 04:40:41 PM

Quote from: CallieOK on April 08, 2025, 11:25:31 AMRammel, I agree with your definition of S&F. Am I correct in that anyone anywhere in the world can read the posts but you must register in order to post?

A day late, but what you said is TRUE

Marilyne · April 14, 2025, 11:58:24 AM

Another new week has arrived. This one will be special for those who celebrate Good Friday, followed by Easter Sunday. I always think back to when my youngest attended Episcopal day school. Parents were invited to come to school and watch the children go through The Stations of the Cross. So long ago . . . so very long ago.

On Easter Sunday the two daughters and one granddaughter will come here for dinner, and will bring most of the food. Son and his family will be going out of town to visit her sister, so we won't be seeing them. Prediction for the week is sunny, with temps in the high 60's and low 70's.

All of the messages posted here the past couple of weeks have been so interesting to read: Just reviewing them all again this morning, and will mention just a few,

Callie, How nice that you served as a tour guide at the museum, and dressed in prairie costume. I didn't know that your family history dates back to the Oklahoma Run in 1890. A fascinating event in history. Was it both sides of your family that participated in the "run"?

Patricia, My father's side of the family were all from Missouri. My grandmother's maiden name was Moffitt. I'll take a look at Ancestry, at some of the other surnames. Maybe we have some relatives in common?

Ciaobella, what an interesting story about you meeting the CEO of Radio Shack! Who knew back then, that it was the beginning of the "computer age". I remember when there was a Radio Shack in every town here in California. Now all long gone.

I've been sitting here drinking coffee and reminiscing about the past, for over an hour. It's getting close to 9:00, so time for me to get started on the day. Hoping you all have a good one.

CallieOK · April 14, 2025, 01:18:59 PM

Marilyne, both sides of my family were here before Statehood (1907) but not for the Run. That was a "character" I wrote for presentations with The History Center.
I pretended to be a woman who lived in Missouri, whose brother-in-law "went West" to find his fortune. He "told us"about the Run and my "husband" decided that we should participate with our two children.
I was able to work in all kinds of true situations, events, etc. The beginning and the end of my story were the same but the situations were different depending on the group I was talking to and how much time I was allowed.

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