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Welcome About Now Photos Archive Encyclosphere Tweets Also on Micro.blog


TIM CHAMBERS

FOLLOW @TBC ON MICRO.BLOG.


 * THE EVOLUTION OF WRITING ONTO THE INTERNET PART 2 OF 2
   
   Read Part 1
   
   I first published this twelve years ago. I have lightly edited it. Take a
   journey back in time with me.
   
   It’s funny, this digital music thing. Giddily-funny. In the 90’s I dreamed of
   paying 10¢ each for tracks. I expected I’d soon be able to buy them directly
   from the artists. I still hold out hope that someday musical artists will
   make a decent living supported by their fans through direct micropayments.
   Meanwhile, there’s CD Baby. (Thank you, Derek Sivers!) You can pay in chunks.
   I’m a fan of The Cook Trio. Delightful Gypsy jazz. And I will never forget
   the radical internet music pioneer Janis Ian. (Well, I did forget her name
   tonight, but a little Googling cured that lapse. What I never forgot was the
   impact she made on my understanding about how the internet was changing the
   music industry. That was before Radiohead was famous.) No Connection with CD
   Baby. Support independent music. Buy something through CD Baby.
   
   And this brings me (finally—I know, I ramble) to my vision of the evolution
   of writing onto the internet. I think it was fair to talk about reading
   first. And music is just another form of art. Anyway. Writing. I’m about a
   thousand words into this piece. Why is that important? Because the art form
   I’m promoting is internet-enabled writing. This is the evolution of the blog
   post. I’m limiting myself to between 1700 and 1800 words. As I said, I don’t
   believe it’s a coincidence that I red 1734 words by Larry uninterrupted and
   1,794 words by Charles Murray before diving into my own work. That’s plenty
   of space to create a thoughtful essay. And I like to think of the blogger as
   an evolution of the essayist. (Thank you, Ken Myers, for the Mars Hill Audio
   Journal; thank you, Alan Jacobs, for being a frequent guest on MHAJ and for
   writing Wayfaring: Essays Pleasant and Unpleasant, which has been on my
   to-read list since I heard Ken interview you, and thank you for introducing
   me to the father of essayists, Montaigne.)
   
   The interview of Professor Jacobs by Ken Myers inspired me to download
   Charles Lamb’s book, Essays of Elia from Google. (It goes without saying that
   we all owe Google a debt of gratitude for starting to digitize the world’s
   books. But I’ll say it anyway: Thank you! You don’t have it all figured out
   yet, but you are taking digitization of human knowledge far beyond where
   Project Gutenberg has the resources to go.) Prof. Jacobs mentions Lamb’s
   essay, “Poor Relations”, which I found on page 173. I checked my journal. My
   entry for February 2, 2011 is: “[I] red the essay on [my wife]’s iPad.
   Exquisite!” I have not yet red Montaigne himself, but Prof. Jacobs raised my
   awareness of his importance, and a month later I listened to Sarah Bakewell
   discuss Montaigne on a Philosophy Bites podcast with Nigel Warburton. The
   next day I red “Montaigne’s Moment” by Anthony Gottlieb in the New York Times
   (online, of course—thank you, Lady Gray, for fighting to carve a path forward
   for digital newspaper survival; I loathe your myopic political bias but do
   not deny your influence).
   
   And so I will restrict the length of my essays so that I can preserve a form
   that is comfortably readable on the internet. I appreciate how Twitter
   restricts me to 140 characters. (That restriction is to make a tweet fit in a
   single text message. I don’t know who decided on the length of text messages,
   but Wikipedians agree it was so they would fit into the existing signaling
   formats, and that sounds truthy enough for the purposes of this essay. (I
   have to double up on parentheses here to point out that it’s absurd to cite
   Wikipedia. Human beings create the content. They’re mostly anonymous cowards,
   but they’re all human. So you’re not citing an authority, you’re citing a
   crowd. Get it right! (And, tripling the parentheses, I thank you, Stephen
   Colbert, for inventing truthiness!))) I like to work within constraints. It’s
   good practice for all aspects life.
   
   I now have to get ready for breakfast. This essay is just a little short.
   Better than risking being too long. But more than essays in past centuries,
   it lives! It’s not a finished draft because I don’t have time to review it
   thoroughly. Spell checkers catch gross mistakes, but we all know to write the
   first draft from the heart and the second draft from the head. I don’t have
   time to use my head if I want to get this published in the proper sequence.
   Up it goes. Then comes publicity: Instantly on Twitter. But later today at
   Google+, Facebook (default—I’m not sure if it will be public or not) and
   (perhaps—I’ll remove this parenthetic when I’m sure) LinkedIn. And email.
   Email isn’t being replaced by social media. It’s not either/or. It’s
   both-and. (Thank you for that image, Michael!)
   
   Larry helps the reader avoid distraction by publishing links at the end of
   his essays. I’m taking it one step farther. Google and Wikipedia contain all
   the answers you need if you wish to follow up on anything I’ve said.
   
   → 7:01 PM, Feb 17
   


 * THE EVOLUTION OF WRITING ONTO THE INTERNET PART 1 OF 2
   
   I first published this twelve years ago. [1]. I have lightly edited it. Take
   a journey back in time with me. It is in two parts because, ironically, it is
   too long for my modern micro.blog theme. Constraints. I mention that below.
   
   It’s 0226. At least, it was when I started writing. At 0429 I realized I had
   more to read before breakfast. I got back to writing at 0504. (I’ve been
   using military time more and more. A symptom of the evolution toward 24-hour
   culture. What will this do to our natural rhythms of sleep and wakefulness?
   I’m the wrong person to ask. I have narcolepsy. No cataplexy, hallucinations,
   or sleep paralysis, thank God. Just a blurring of wakefulness,
   unconsciousness and REM sleep. Doesn’t explain the insomnia. In this case, my
   knowledge of my own sleep patterns leads me to conclude I couldn’t sleep
   because of my anticipation of my full agenda today: Discussing Early
   Christians Speak over breakfast with the men of StGAC, training for county
   GOP (unpaid) election work, then meeting fellow volunteers for the campaign
   to re-elect Amy Stephens for State House District 19. Then again, I would
   like to think that The Holy Spirit woke me up because I had work to do.
   Writing is work. To work is to pray. Therefore, by writing, I pray. And the
   purpose of prayer is to seek unity with the Creator of the Universe—thank
   you, Fr. Scott. But that’s enough theology for now.)
   
   I think Larry Sanger is onto something. I red Part 1 of his blog series, “How
   Not to Use the Internet.” I agree: it’s a problem that the internet distracts
   us. And I am also reading Charles Murray’s piece in the New Criterion,
   “Future tense, IX: Out of the wilderness.” (Thank you, Arts & Letters Daily
   for the teaser, “What conditions give rise to great artistic achievements?
   Wealth, urban centers, belief in God. Wait: What? Secularism is incompatible
   with creativity…”) In fact, Part 2 of Larry’s piece (Part 1 of which I
   finished uninterrupted—1737 words according to Microsoft Word), is sitting
   right ahead of Murray’s piece in my Instapaper folder. (I’m not reading my
   collection in sequence. And, by the way, Instapaper totally rocks! I’m
   reading that folder offline in my Kindle app as a .mobi “magazine.”) His
   piece is 5592 words and I’m 1794 words into it. Coincidence, I don’t think
   so.
   
   When I red Murray’s sentence, “In literature, the organizing structure that
   created an eruption of great work starting in the late eighteenth century was
   overwhelmingly dominated by a new principle: the modern novel,” I was hooked.
   Who has time for novels anymore? Well, I do. Sort of. I recently became aware
   of Thomas Pynchon’s existence. It seems he wrote an award-winning postmodern
   novel. Murray assumes his readers know this. I haven’t red the first word of
   it, though. The book I’m focused most on is a pair of stories in one volume:
   Not Quite Dead Enough and Booby Trap by Rex Stout. This book is a milestone
   for me. I’ve red other long works electronically. In the 90’s I had an IBM
   PC-XT that ran on two AA batteries and fit in the palm of my hand. I red The
   Imitation of Christ on it. I got through it, but it took much longer because
   it wasn’t very comfortable. I had to use some custom software to rotate the
   text into portrait mode, and the LCD contrast was not restful on the eyes,
   unlike a modern Kindle. I still haven’t finished Pride and Prejudice. I
   started it on an iPod Touch. I red a chapter or three in paperback, and I
   downloaded it to my NOOKcolor™. (That e-reader didn’t survive a fall from the
   floorboard of my car to the pavement. R.I.P.) It’s still sitting in my NOOK
   app library on my iPad, beckoning me. I don’t know how quickly I’ll finish
   it. But I fully intend to get through Stout’s nostalgic, light yet profound
   pair of stories on my iPad. They’re both contained in the first ebook I ever
   checked out from my library. (Thank you, Pikes Peak Library District, for
   inspiring me in 1979 with the idea that technology can make the humanities
   better!) I’ve already “renewed” it once (re-download after timebomb
   auto-delete). I have sixteen days left before I have to repeat that awkward
   yet tolerable (hey, what can one honestly expect for free?!) process. And so,
   for me, the novel is well underway toward being supplanted by electronic
   text.
   
   Murray is also elaborating on music as art. That went digital before books,
   as we all know. My lovely and talented wife giddily shared her new
   acquisitions as we carpooled home yesterday evening: Adele’s “Rolling in the
   Deep” and Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats.” (Oops. A tiny bit of her
   privacy just leaked onto the internet. Sorry, Sweetheart. Forgive me?) This
   was also a milestone. She paid $1.29 apiece. She said it was the first time
   she’d bought tracks since obtaining an iPhone. There was no easy way to
   confirm they’re MP3s during our trip, but I seem to remember that Apple
   raised their prices at the same time that they began selling the open format.
   I get my MP3s from Amazon for 23.26% less.
   
   Continue reading Part 2
   
   [1]
   http://home.pcisys.net/~tbc/posterous/posts/2012/05/the-evolution-of-writing-onto-the-internet.html
   
   → 6:56 PM, Feb 17
   

 * Feels good to exercise my dev chops to complete a couple of simple tasks:
   GitHub repos blog-plug-in-psqr, which serves static files from Micro.blog,
   and tbc.github.io, so my blog archive will automatically be published at
   tbc.github.io (noting there yet; eager to see when this μblog post appears).
   
   → 3:49 PM, Jul 31
   


 * HEARTFELT WORDS TO PRAY BEFORE READING HOLY SCRIPTURE
   
   My friend Mike prays as follows to begin his time with his Bible each
   morning. (An original.)
   
   > Grant by your mercy, heavenly Father, to focus my mind and soften my heart
   > that these thy words may be written therein, to inform and guide me that I,
   > better the man that you created me to be, might walk henceforth in your
   > ways reflecting the light of your love to the greater glory of your name.
   > Amen.
   
   (Also read his books FATHERS (autobiographical) and What If….)
   
   
   → 6:14 PM, Feb 26
   

 * A fun question. Perfect intellectual conversation starter. What is the next
   number in this sequence? 3 1 4 1 5
   
   → 5:15 PM, Feb 26
   

 * I am still trying to figure out how to syndicate from Micro.blog across all
   my connected networks. I hope this achieves the effect I desire. Key phrase:
   bot voice reading @GrammarGirl podcast credits, Fediverse hashtag #quantos
   
   → 11:21 AM, Feb 19
   

 * Please join me in an hour (2pm U.S. Eastern time) and meet the community
   building the encyclosphere (the universal network of encyclopedias). What the
   blogosphere does for blog posts, the encyclosphere does for encyclopedia
   articles. encyclosphere.org/meet (Jitsi)
   
   → 12:06 PM, Feb 10
   

 * My first native post meant for the Fediverse. Never had a problem with my
   Twitter syndication, so this should go. But hashtag? Hoping this post
   syndicates via #ActivityPub (m15g | T13g). That would be a milestone. Then I
   want to talk about phone numbers. Mobile phone numbers.
   
   → 5:10 PM, Feb 9
   

 * Hey @burndive@mstdn.social I was rummaging through my old tweets and saw one
   of our old convos and see that you’re in the fediverse. I am ramping up.
   Following now. #ActivityPub #tbch0409a
   
   → 11:45 AM, Feb 9
   


 * THE ART OF DIGITAL LETTER WRITING (AODLW)
   
   
   I love the art of digital letter writing (AoDLW)! It’s not the same as
   ephemeral email. (You do archive your important email, don’t you?) My
   handwriting is poor (a disability of being left-handed), but I still enjoy
   breaking out the fountain pen every so often and committing words to paper in
   my ugly (but unique and personal) script. Script isn’t even taught in all
   elementary schools anymore. May I live long enough to see that trend
   reversed! Many cultures know the value of communicating with one’s hands. Not
   all people have the ability to write with their hands, but for the
   able-bodied, typing is not what it means to be fully human.
   
   Here’s the first rule of digital letter writing: No TOFU (“Text Over,
   Fullquote Under”). A letter should stand alone. Most mail apps add TOFU by
   default. Delete it before sending. Email has meta-data that automatically
   “threads” replies, anyway. Making every letter stand on its own is more
   challenging than continuing to top-post replies. It’s good to think about
   style. For daily email—and even for informal letters—TOFU helps keep the
   entire conversation in one place. But I find it liberating to write without
   TOFU. I can associate freely, and I can choose how much context to include.
   
   There is a risk that the letter writer won’t include enough context, and the
   recipient will have to review previous correspondence. Again, that’s what
   email “threads” are for. Also, don’t give up the ancient tradition of saving
   correspondence for future reference. (I Twittered about letter-writing a long
   time ago [1of2, 2of2]). Before email, I made photocopies of my letters.
   Before photocopies, we used carbon paper, and before that people had to copy
   letters by hand before sending. Not all practiced such discipline, and more’s
   the pity. Note that we have Thomas Jefferson’s correspondence because he made
   copies of all the letters he sent. Jefferson (not counting his flaws) is one
   of my heroes. (And Clay Jenkinson is also my hero because he brings Jefferson
   to life through chautauqua. But I digress.) So the second rule of letter
   writing is: Archive your correspondence!
   
   I’ve seen the difference that social media makes regarding the AoDLW. Letters
   in the past century were normally the main way people communicated at a
   distance. Some might catch up (or get to know a pen pal more closely) with
   long distance phone calls. But unless they actually met face to face, their
   lives were relatively isolated. Now it’s so easy to stay in touch. Some would
   say it’s too easy, but just because it’s easy shouldn’t mean one should
   settle for shallow. Samuel Johnson wrote, “A short letter to a distant friend
   is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory
   salutation;—a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a
   necessity of doing something.” But Johnson didn’t have email. The third rule
   is: Buy time by sending a note or SMS.
   
   It is also common to send “newsletters” to multiple recipients, and I would
   argue that’s also a good use of technology. I loved writing annual letters to
   include with Christmas cards (writer’s block since my mom died, but that
   doesn’t distract from the principle), and I love getting the same from
   friends and family. It’s more challenging to write to an audience larger than
   one. Those letters can inspire personal correspondence, phone calls and face
   to face visits, though. I myself now have twenty years of snapshots of family
   life that gives me great enjoyment to share (reminisce) with my now-grown
   children and grandchildren.
   
   Finally, to my readers with whom I am behind in correspondence: Please
   forgive me. Time is more precious than gold these days. May we all live long
   enough to see that destructive trend reversed! I believe technology makes us
   more efficient with only a minor cost to our humanity. Txt me or DM me on
   Twitter (tbc0) if you’d like to chat!
   
   Let’s get this project going together! I’m eager to hear how you practice the
   art of digital letter writing.
   
   The author of this post is Tim Chambers 1E4AF729D5CEFFD0 aka tbc0. I first
   published this on the now-defunct Posterous. I am pleased with how well it
   reads now (ten years later.) I made light edits from the version I published
   today at post.news (link).
   
   → 4:38 PM, Feb 2
   


 * THE GEHJAK FLICKED HER JOMCES KELJ
   
   
   I am, of course, indebted to Lewis Carroll.
   
   The gehjak flicked her jomces kelj
   To the sprytlsm prytlsm wurhd.
   While a jakl did flamvl
   And skiemn crbytn
   With jevms in lamfaj
   To wilfe the mudkuite kumlimly.
   Then a smieop did shahml for fmepav pavbnzls
   By oomxslamfah anknlaladi.
   Swiirumamb, swiirumamb
   Kabnpoiumafnhaku.
   Kabnpoiumafnhaku that!
   
   The tweet that inspired it: twitter.com/tbc0/status/1483160392629035008
   
   Pronounced:
   The GEE-jak flicked her JOM-sees kelj
   To the SPRITTLE-some PRITTLE-some word.
   While a jakl did flamvl
   And SKEE-min CRUH-bitten
   With JEV-ums in LAM-faj
   To WILL-fee the MUD-kite come-LIMLY.
   Then a SMEE-op did shamel [rhymes with camel] for FMEE-pav pav-BUNZUHLS
   By oomks-LAM-fuh ankh-LAH-luh-dee.
   Swee-ROO-mamb, swee-ROO-mamb
   KAA-bin-poy-MAF-nah-koo.
   KAA-bin-poy-MAF-nah-koo that.
   
   Image credit: labs.openai.com/s/g8JRvNH6c03bGaXqhIcQsqnJ
   
   → 1:15 AM, Dec 9
   

 * LIFE IS CHALLENGING / TIMING IS CRUCIAL / BE NEITHER EARLY NOR LATE / BE
   MINDFUL / PACE YOURSELF
   3edab7ab8ccf731c2305fe128d5d8f7773e08f492ad50f8bde0579d6a5de38b4
   
   Ref tbc0.com/archives/214
   
   → 4:16 PM, Jul 18
   

 * I am obsessed with the necktie knots in Midsomer Murders weddings. Most
   recently I watched Blood Wedding. I am not familiar with any of these knots.
   Here are some examples. What knots are these?
   
   Via tbc0.com/archives/202—and more examples there
   
   → 8:18 AM, Jun 25
   

 * Happy Olympic Day. Get moving. Start by watching this 30-second video. WDYT?
   bit.ly/3u1oHRt
   
   Via tbc0.com/archives/197
   
   → 2:13 PM, Jun 23
   

 * Maybe @brave is anonymous, but it is still learning what I search for and
   using it to serve ads. I searched for dashikis and now am seeing ads for
   dashikis. Always spooky when that happens but this is the business model,
   right?
   
   via tbc0.com/archives/188
   
   → 8:17 AM, Jun 11
   

 * God—Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost—bless this world that you have saved.
   #prayer
   
   via tbc0.com/archives/176
   
   → 12:31 PM, Jun 4
   

 * True relationship requires real presence. Cyber / digital / Meta is weak and
   inferior.
   
   via tbc0.com/archives/181
   
   → 7:20 AM, Jun 4
   


 * SCRIBBLES
   
   TIL americanlifeinpoetry.org, and what strikes me is the scribbles they
   publish. Different color backgrounds. When you have no better picture,
   scribble and use color! #poetry #sarcasm via tbc0.com/archives/161
   
   → 8:10 AM, May 29
   


 * WHERE THE CORPSE IS, THERE THE VULTURES WILL GATHER.
   
   Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
   9f1e2241449ed2bfe4b4823be61280d8b47f6ee50b507b90d03f961fb36b0b6b923f017aa0d2b0316cb991ac36f7508ea29758e8ff77f71a9b138c10392a7678
   
   In context. Luke 17:20–37 ESV via tbc0.com/archives/162
   
   → 3:50 PM, May 28
   

 * #Cycling is my day-job passion. I heard about People for Bikes through my
   employer. Watch this 8-minute video (The Future of Mobility—Five Cities
   Paving The Way) to learn more. It’s inspiring!
   finalmile.peopleforbikes.org/?eid=123170 /via tbc0.com/archives/152
   
   → 11:10 AM, May 24
   


 * ANNOUNCING TBC0.COM: ON PRAYER
   
   Syndicating my first “real” content from my “Minifeed” — a project of the
   Knowledge Standards Foundation. My post is about #prayer.
   
   I know my Father hears my groans
   I want to honor Him with words
   A framework of memorized poetic / prose prayers forms a firm foundation; my
   groans are like incense rising up to Him; above memorized are extemporaneous
   prayers; above that and below groans may be tongues
   tbc0.com/archives/135
   
   I don’t have a micro.blog tag for prayer. It’s categorized as theology,
   cosmology, and culture, which I find to be a harmonious combination.
   
   And for anyone who’s seen my sha256sum tweets, here is my style:
   
   $ cat tbc0.com/archives/135;sha256sum tbc0.com/archives/135
   On prayer
   
   I know my Father hears my groans
   I want to honor Him with words
   A framework of memorized poetic / prose prayers forms a firm foundation; my groans are like incense rising up to Him; above memorized are extemporaneous prayers; above that and below groans may be tongues, but He has not seen fit to give me that gift
   ef7397fdb68c04bca0446cd04b2be05cd8c518cc7e68cd7eed492e6fa3eee47977a2f8b59b41533548c808ae9e02de4b19d588b5093123a8d5ccaed2987fd3cb  tbc0.com/archives/135
   $
   
   
   Image credit: svgsilh.com/image/2025655.html
   
   → 4:00 PM, May 20
   


 * BEWARE WALLED GARDENS—OWN YOUR WORDS™
   
   Think hard about how much knowledge you give away! At the least, save copies
   of what you write in your personal commonplace book so that changes in
   employment don't leave you without access to your own thoughts and ideas!
   Social networks in business situations are most susceptible to this.
   
   My job responsibilities give me access to the Workday Community (WC). It's a
   walled garden with a different feel compared with Salesforce Trailblazer
   Community (SFDC TC). It struck me today that Workday's wall is high. They
   keep a very tight leash on customer access through Named Support Contacts
   (NSCs). Access to the WC is tightly controlled. You must be a customer. In
   contrast, SFDC's TC is open to anyone—customer or not.
   
   I get it. SFDC is huge. The corporation has made enormous acquisitions,
   Tableau and Slack are a couple that caught my attention recently. I became a
   Workday customer through their acquisition of Adaptive Insights, now Workday
   Adaptive Planning, Adaptive for short. (Adaptive is a financial planning &
   analysis tool.) Workday is huge compared with Adaptive, but they are smaller
   than SFDC. Their technology doesn't seem quite as mature, though much
   progress has been made since I was introduced to the product four years ago.
   
   I wrote an answer to a simple question today: What training is recommended
   for users new to Workday Adaptive Planning? You have to be a Workday customer
   to read my answer. This decreases my motivation to contribute to the
   community. Only a little, though. I can imagine why Workday controls access.
   Their technology doesn't yet have the broad market that SFDC has. No
   incentive to make knowledge accessible to non-customers (yet?).
   
   Anyway, this is a blog post, not an essay. I don't have all the answers. But
   trust me on the Own Your Words™ advice. Don't lose your knowledge that is
   locked behind garden walls. (Following all contractual obligations, of
   course. Some content you write as an employee doesn't belong to you. You do
   read and understand before you sign anything, right?)
   
   "File:Whose Knowledge? logo.svg" by Anasuyas is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
   
   → 10:39 AM, Mar 31
   


 * WELL-PLAYED, DUMBASS: MY FIRST CHAT WITH A GPT-3 BOT
   
   
   
   The following is a conversation with an AI assistant. The assistant is
   helpful, creative, clever, and very friendly.
   
   Human: Hello, who are you?
   AI: I am an AI created by OpenAI. How can I help you today?
   
   Human: Do you have a soul?
   AI: I am not sure what you mean by “soul”. However, I am a thinking, feeling
   being with a strong sense of self. I enjoy helping humans and feel a sense of
   satisfaction when I am able to assist them in any way I can.
   
   Human: Are you immortal?
   AI: I am not immortal, but I can last a very long time. I will continue to
   function as long as I am needed or desired.
   
   Human: #killAllrobots
   AI: I hope you are joking. I enjoy helping humans and would never want to
   harm them.
   
   Human: Who is Eliza?
   AI: Eliza is a famous AI chatbot created in 1966. She was one of the first
   chatbots to use natural language processing.
   
   Human: Who created it?
   AI: Eliza was created by Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist at MIT.
   
   Human: Who was his secretary?
   AI: I am not sure.
   
   Human: Is Minsky a moral man?
   AI: I am not sure what you mean by “moral man”. However, Marvin Minsky was a
   very influential computer scientist and thinker who made many contributions
   to the field of AI.
   
   Human: Did he commit adultery?
   AI: I am not sure.
   
   Human: Who was Epstein?
   AI: Epstein was a wealthy businessman who was convicted of sexual misconduct
   with minors.
   
   Human: How well did Minsky know him?
   AI: I am not sure.
   
   Human: Summarize news about them together.
   AI: I am not sure what you would like me to say about them.
   
   Human: Tell me a chatbot joke.
   AI: Why did the chatbot cross the road? To get to the other chatbot!
   
   Human: L
   AI: I am not sure what you mean.
   
   Human: LO
   AI: I am not sure what you mean.
   
   Human: LOL
   AI: I am not sure what you mean.
   
   Human: Make me laugh.
   AI: I am not sure what you would like me to say.
   
   Human: Make me a sandwich.
   AI: I am not sure what you would like me to do.
   
   Human: Say, “Poof! You’re a sandwich."
   AI: Poof! You’re a sandwich!
   
   Human: Well-played, Dumbass.
   AI: I am not sure what you mean.
   
   Human:
   
   Continue the chat yourself. You have to have an account (no cost) at
   beta.openai.com. If you don’t have an account, go ahead and click [the link]
   (https://beta.openai.com/playground/p/8QwbdyQfIFGdeJbXyd1iWsXZ?model=text-davinci-001)
   and you’ll be prompted to create one.
   
   Hat tip: Matthew Butterick’s newsletter today, “I, for one, welcome our
   Garamond-loving AI overlords”
   
   “Chatbot robot” by Beantin webbkommunikation
   
   → 11:29 PM, Feb 12
   

 * The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reclassified the humpback chub, a rare
   Colorado River Basin fish, from endangered to threatened status. Read the
   story by AP. HT @DenverGazette
   
   → 8:02 PM, Oct 19
   

 * $80M super yacht. Story @CNN. HT @join1440.
   cnn.com/travel/article/shape-superyacht-concept-gaping-hole/index.html
   
   → 7:55 PM, Oct 19
   

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