Contents
Reading
Playing
alChandler's Halls
Diablo IV
Wow, got my ass kicked by the very first boss. So that's it for Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. What can I say? Shit Happens.
May 10, 2026
AI and Schools
In the 90s there were many politicians and educators screaming that kids in schools had to learn programming and how to use computers themselves or else they'd be unemployable. As it turned out they did not have to learn programming unless they were interested in the subject and as far as learning how to use computers in general, they were already using them. How were you going to use a Doom WAD unless you knew how to find it on the internet and how to install it? Hell, a friend from work fucked up the family computer so many times by going to dodgy sites and downloading shit that his kid finally got tired of cleaning up the mess that Dad made, so he mad himself the administrator and revoked Dad's installation privileges.
And that's why I'm skeptical about educators and politicians screaming that kids have to be taught how to use AI. If Mom and Dad have ChatGPT on the family computer their kid already know how to use it and she may be far more skeptical about its output than her parents are. It would be far better to try to teach adults that a LLM is on a HAL 9000 and a lot of its information is bullshit and that while vibe programming may get you a quick and dirty database app but it's not safe to use unless you run it by someone who knows what they're doing. Perhaps their kid knows somebody.
May 9, 2026
Mouse PI for Hire
I made it to the 10th mission when I threw in the towel, there were just too many puzzles. I didn't realize that when I bought the game but for what it's worth I had a pretty good time with it. Waiting in the wings is Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred. One nice thing about the Diablo series, it's good old hack and slash. Although in my case my undead minions do the hacking and slashing while I stand aside smoking a cigarette (I'm a necromancer you see).
May 7, 2026
4GB AI Model
I'm not forgiving when it comes to Kosh, desktop or phone. Back in the days when I still had an iPhone I installed Facebook on it. I then learned that FB would trawl your address book so it could send them FB spam. It's why I don't have FB or Instagram on my phone years later. I don't forgive that shit.
Last year an update to Chrome installed their AI, Gemini. Google made it easy to remove, that's what I did and that should have been the end of things. A security researcher, Alexander Hanff, found out that Google has been installing 4GB of AI model files on people's computers. And while it's possible to remove them, Hanff discovered they turn up again when Chrome updates.
From time to time I've replaced Chrome with Firefox but I'd always go back after a few weeks, I'm used to Chrome and I don't particularly like Firefox's interface, but this is bloody war as far as I'm concerned. As folks say, your mileage may vary but I've removed from Kosh and my phone and it isn't coming back.
May 7, 2026
Happy May 4th
May 4, 2026
Pluto
Twenty years ago astronomers revised the definition of what constitutes a planet. A planet must meet the following criteria:
It must be round.
It must orbit its star.
It must have cleared the debris in its orbital path left over from planetary formation.
Pluto met the first two conditions but it didn't meet the third, so instead of being a planet, for the last 20 years it's been classified as a dwarf planet. In fact it's the largest dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt.
This has miffed Jared Isaacman, NASA's administrator who said the NASA is working on papers that he hopes will persuade astronomers to restore Pluto's planetary status. Of course Isaacman isn't an astronomer so his opinion is worthless but perhaps he'd like to hear my opinion on solid rocket boosters.
May 3, 2026
alChandler Still Lives
Google added something they call remix to its phones. You can use various filters on your photos and one of them is called Adventurer. I didn't know Newton was in the orginal picture but when he turned up on this one I decided to add it to my wallpaper collection. I don't think Apple has its own version of remix but Apple does have Google Photos on its iPhone Store and that will give you remix, if you're into such stuff.
May 2, 2026
Mouse P.I. for Hire
These two flowers have a cameo in Mouse P.I. for Hire. Their last acting job was in the 1932 Disney cartoon Flowers and Trees which means it has been 94 years between gigs. But they're still happy.
April 26, 2026
Greedfall 2
Last night I finished Greedfall 2 and man, it was a pain in the ass at times. The game was created by Spiders, a studio owned by Nacon, a publisher. Spiders created the first game, Greedfall, it wasn't an AAA game, but it was a solid AA game and I enjoyed it. But Greedfall 2 was a different story. On the game's release day Nacon filed for insolvency. The game was rushed out the door and it wasn't quite ready. It wasn't a disaster like Cyberpunk 2077 but it had serious issues. At one point a plot quest was broken and after an hour or two trying to find the problem I found out that in order for the plot quest to work I had to do a quest for my bestie, Nilan. So I had to go back about four hours to do Nilan's stuff and I was lucky, I had a saved game. If I hadn't I would have been screwed.
But I was able to finish the game and got a pretty nice ending (well except for Till, the former member of the Coin Guard but fuck that guy) and that gives me a .500 finish rate, not bad for an elderly gent.
And so my next game will be a FPS: Mouse P.I. for Hire. My record for shooters is pretty bad but as a kid who grew up watching the old Max Fleischer cartoons on television, I had to buy it.
It drops today. And by the way, I'm not angry at the the folks who programmed Greedfall 2. It was a messed up situation and they did the best they could given the financial situation.
April 16, 2026
AI
I've nothing against artificial intelligence, like any other technology it can be used responsibly or misused. And given human history I'm sure the latter will outweigh the former, at least in the short run.
Several years ago I used an app called Dream. It would make pictures based on your prompt and if you uploaded a picture and a gave it a prompt it would do the best it could. So I uploaded this picture of Newton:
Because he looked like a captain on a ship my prompt was: My cat as captain of a ship. This is what Dream gave me.
Not what I expected but I liked it enough to use it as my phone's wallpaper from time to time. I think I posted something about the pictures a year or two ago but I haven't used AI since so they're posted again. I haven't used things like ChatGPT or Google's AI overview out of a sense of moral outrage, it's because they're not particularly reliable. And there's also my age, if I need to find out something I'd rather do it myself rather then kick it to an AI, even if the AI was always right. It's like any other skill, if you don't use it you loose it, amirite?
But we have a lot of folks who are using AIs for stuff they should be doing themselves. If you're going use ChatGPT's medical advice as opposed to your doctor's and you become very ill, well fuck you you're stupid. On the other hand if your doctor punts your medical question to an AI and you become very ill I hope you sue the ignorant bastard.
By the way, this is Sam Altman, the CEO of Open AI, the company that owns ChatGPT.
According to him, it will take another year before ChatGPT can be used as a timer. My nine year old Echo can do it right now.
Always remember, those thing are chatbots first with a bunch of stuff bolted on top of them.
You know, maybe it's just me but poor Sam always looks like the guy in the party who wants to talk to you about the seven root archons from Venus.
Update: The NY Times has an article on this very subject. Here's a gift link.
April 8, 2026
Newton's 12th Anniversary
This is actually the first picture of Newton, it's not too flattering.
This is the first picture of him in his new home. It's not too flattering either but I blame the camera. Smart phone cameras sucked compared to the ones we have today.
I think this is the first year in a while that I actually remembered to mention it on the correct date. Twelve years later he still gets the zoomies every so often, he still likes curling up on the couch on top of his Doctor Who blanket while I read or watch television, and he still grooms me in the mornings. And it's now safe to let him sleep on the ottoman in the office if I have a quick errand to run. Still not safe to leave the door open all the time, wires you know.
I'm 70 and at 12, Newton is kind of in the same age bracket. We're two eccentric old guys sharing a condo together.
April 6, 2026
The Economics of Streaming
That makes sense, actually.
April 4, 2026
News You Can Use
April 1, 2026
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