Observations on the world and its inhabitants
As some may not be aware, I’ve been developing my own software to convert text into high quality electronic speech. That development continued for several hours today. As I will remind myself – as if I need to – £490 for 1.6 hours for human narration vs AI-driven production estimated at ~£1.51 for 100 minutes ...
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is widely recognised as the industry standard for software development. However, its core strength—managing complex text files with precision—makes it an exceptionally powerful tool for authors of fiction and non-fiction alike. Luddites and lazy folk should stop right now – leave this blog and get back to Netflix, Instagram and ...
1. The challenge of communicating with AI Many people, especially those using unpaid AI plans, unknowingly exhaust limited tokens by submitting very short, vague prompts. These models are powerful, but they cannot make accurate assumptions about a user’s goals without deliberate guidance. By applying a few basic principles, users on free tiers can obtain deeper, ...
If you listen to the current discourse in the creative world—from the Authors Guild to the picket lines of Hollywood—you will hear a single, deafening word: Ethics. We are told that Artificial Intelligence is a “plagiarism machine.” We are told it is “stealing souls.” We are told that using it is a moral failing akin ...
The Challenge of the Sequel Writing a duology is a delicate balancing act of memory and tone. This is particularly true for my current project, KNS. Before diving into the methodology, it is important to acknowledge that there is nothing fundamentally wrong in using AI as a tool to assist with drafting. Like any sophisticated ...
Most people do not keep their files organised, properly named and easily retrievable from a computer and cloud services. That’s fine because ‘everybody’ has individual choice and can demonstrate their independence, so as to show that they do not suffer with OCD. I however, couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks of me. So, I ...
A View from the Trenches Over the past year, the journey of writing and publishing the first novella The Kael’Nyrin Scrolls: Our Children of Starlight on Amazon has been an education in reality. It was a process defined not by the romanticised notion of “being discovered“, but by the difficult, granular lessons of production, formatting, ...
I’m totally uninterested in whether you or anyone else who reads this has no need to italicise text between quotation marks. As I don’t like wasting time I find automated solutions. A common task is italicising text between quotation marks. When using the Writage plugin to edit Markdown files within Microsoft Word, a common formatting ...
The historical record demonstrates a consistent pattern in human development: disruption is immediate, while adaptation is glacial. This phenomenon, termed the “Readiness Gap“, describes the perilous interval between the acquisition of a transformative power (technological, economic, or biological) and the development of the social, ethical, and legal frameworks necessary to contain it. In every instance ...
Rationale: The project was initiated after a significant discovery: new Gemini-TTS models offer high-quality, expressive, multi-speaker audio generation. A cost-benefit analysis revealed a dramatic disparity between professional human narration (previously sourced at ~£490 for 1.6 hours) and AI-driven production (estimated at ~£1.51 for 100 minutes). This project was undertaken as a long-term investment to build ...
1. Introduction The motivation for this workflow exploration was the necessity of converting existing Microsoft Word documents (.docx) into well-structured Markdown (.md) files automatically. While Markdown is an ideal format for documentation, version control, and lightweight text editing (such as in Typora), manual conversion or reliance on simple tools often results in corrupted formatting, particularly ...
Publishing a first book on Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) can feel overwhelming. This guide consolidates practical lessons learned from the self-publishing process. Whether publishing fiction or non-fiction, these insights will help avoid common pitfalls. If you’re one of those people who will go, “Why would I want to publish a book, let alone use ...
This is not a tutorial or how exactly to organise your files. File organisation is not for everybody. Some people insist on having the files on their computer ‘all over the place’ and stashed in downloads folders or scattered across their desktop. If you’re one of those dim people, kindly move on right now. If, ...
This will mean nothing to most people – like in the old days when people were scared to touch the very first prototype telephones. It was like, “I don’t know what that thing will do to me!😨😱” If you consider yourself a luddite or partial luddite, skip though to the conclusion at the end, to ...
This article is about more than just fixing a piece of code. On the surface, it’s a detailed log of a bizarre technical problem that defied all logic. But underneath, it’s a real-world case study in the partnership between human creativity and artificial intelligence. It’s a story about how the relentless, structured logic of an ...
Buckle up. It’s that time again. We’re about to dive into the gloriously absurd world of redefining a second. Yes, scientists are spending their lives—literal decades—trying to make the concept of “one Mississippi” more accurate. Because apparently, your microwave’s clock being off by a nanosecond is a cosmic tragedy!! 😱 🧪 Welcome to the Lab ...
The phone rang Saturday, 5:30 PM, just as Walker was settling into his evening ritual, the gentle hum of classical music playing in the background. He glanced at the caller ID, a faint, knowing smile touching his lips as he saw Tarek’s name. He picked up the phone. “Speak of the devil. I was just ...
Tarek’s WhatsApp message to Elara and Walker was concise: “2050. The Maxwell scene. This Friday? Gilded Spoon? 17:45PM” The replies came swiftly. Elara’s response: “Intriguing. I’ll be there!”. Walker’s, predictably, was more verbose: “The philosophical crux of the matter. The very soul of the thing. I’m in. Recalling our last enlightening conversation. I’ll be there.” ...
I continue to be fascinated by the advance of technology and the the direction of prices. With TVs this is totally amazing. See also How Samsung TV Prices Dropped Over a Decade! £35,000 to £2400 (at Feb 2025) So at 31/08/2025, one could splash out on a good quality 85-inch Samsung TV that would have ...
The latest moral panic to grace the pages of Scientific American: AI chatbots are apparently fuelling psychotic episodes now. Obviously, when the world’s burning, the economy’s wheezing, and public trust in institutions is circling the drain, what we really need to worry about is whether someone’s chatbot told them they’re the reincarnation of Plato. Strap ...
Alan Turing’s 1950 proposal was not an attempt to define intelligence in abstract terms. Instead, it offered a pragmatic approach to recognising intelligence through conversational indistinguishability. The central question posed was whether a machine that could converse indistinguishably from a human should be considered intelligent. This reframing allowed Turing to sidestep metaphysical debates and focus ...
WordPress is the world’s most popular content management system. It provides the core software for a website, handling everything from publishing content to managing users. However, by default, its design and customisation options are limited. Building a WordPress site with GeneratePress (GP) and GenerateBlocks (GB) is a highly effective way to create a fast, stable, ...
Well, some people must be laughing and so am I! Yes – I know I’m crazy. Tell me something I don’t know! 😆 This article is my ‘notes’ in case I need to refresh my memory in the future. It may help someone out there. So the backstory to this was from my previous post ...
Well you (meaning me) live and learn. I made an assumption over 40-odd years that petrol was a particular molecular compound. It turns out from my investigation that it is a mixture of compounds. Ahhh.. so somebody will be wondering, “Why the devil is he researching that, now? Has he not got anything better to ...
Ah, artificial intelligence – the technology that’s supposed to revolutionise our lives, save us time, and maybe even write our grocery lists. But let’s be real here, not everyone is rushing to embrace our new robot overlords. After all one of them called DeepSeek caused a $1 trillion wipe out on the stock markets in ...
If you were well off and bought an 85-inch Samsung TV in 2014 – the price would have been around £35,000!! Wot! I knew that was a ridiculous price but it was the sort of price for that size of TV back then – 10+ years ago. So I took a photo in 2014. All ...
For many years I’ve kept Captain’s Watch mostly away from Google. That was because the site/blog was originally set up as a sort of diary shared only with close associates (I don’t have or keep friends). But over the last few months I’ve been reflecting much on how the site has changed in its form ...
Wow!! It’s such an amazing tool – beating back ChatGPT hands down – that I had to try it out on some conundrums I faced in the past. Note that on opening this post, a video starts playing automatically at 11:11 min and stops automatically about 6 mins later. To not have the video start ...
“What!” you exclaim. 😂 I’ll explain. I read from internet sources that it’s not a good idea to keep eggs in trays on fridge doors. The warning is about the temperature of eggs fluctuating and going too high, so that they aren’t cooled enough to prolong shelf life. In fact some sources say it’s dangerous. ...
This is about Dinitrogen-Dioxygen Fluidic Mixtures, a previously not well recognised danger to humanity and economic systems. Without further delay, the list of risks and damage are as follows: Inhalation Dependency: Prolonged exposure to DDFM leads to severe dependence. Users have been known to seek it out constantly, with extreme cases requiring it every few ...
