Have You Played With Microsoft Copilot?

[ArdWrknTrk]

Gary Lewis wrote

As for Copilot/AI, it isn't really intelligent, just artificial.  No, I didn't get Big Blue in '92.  That's not even when I joined FTE.  And there's no true "home page", just the forum.  

 It's not logical or rational, it's just a chatbot.
Neural networks and quantum computing are a thing now.
It WILL become sentient.
I DO NOT welcome our robot overlords.

Hopefully you had a spare cable at home (in that box of random serial cables and arcane connectors

[Gary Lewis]

Right.

And no, we didn't have a spare power cable, which blew my mind.  Such a common cable and none to be had.  But Janey was at Walmart and they had one.

And then today I didn't have another common cable - a 2 or 3' male/female USB-A.  I had a female/female one, but no male/female.  Hard to believe.  But the "new" keyboard I got from Janey had a short cable on it and wouldn't reach.  So it is running through a USB hub with a long-enough cable, which I did have.  But at least the keys don't stick now.  May be something to do with greasy mitts.  

[ArdWrknTrk]

Somewhere I've got a small tote full of C13, SCSI, parallel cables and those odd old USB with the square end for printers and such.  

Why?  I've got no idea. 🤷‍♂️

[Gary Lewis]

I found VGA/VGA, Display port/VGA, Display port/HDMI, USB-A to printer, USB-A to micro-USB, ethernet, RGB, coax with type-F connectors, and several others I've forgotten.  But no USB-A/USB-A or common power cables.  

[salans7]

I gave CoPilot a shot, but it kept telling me it couldn't find any answers, even with simple and clear instructions.

I prefer the Bing software, especially for images.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Interesting article popped up in my Ars feed:  https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/a-song-of-hype-and-fire-the-10-biggest-ai-stories-of-2023/

Note the first story.  Yes, Copilot is last year's Bing Chat, with all the warts you'd expect of an unconditioned GPT-4 language model.  
So a zillion dollar technology company is essentially making everyone using it's latest OS into Beta testers.  

What has this world come to?

[Gary Lewis]

Interesting article, Jim.  Very scary!  They've apparently reigned it in a bunch as it seems fairly tame at the moment, but it is very, very obvious that this may be Alpha, not Beta.  A lot of things on Copilot do not work well at all.

I've been playing a lot more with it while recuperating from some virus.  (Spent 10 hours in 2 different ER's on Sunday due to a non-relenting non-productive cough and shortness of breath.  After 2 EKG's and 1 CT scan they decided I had bronchitis and gave me a Z-pak, a cough syrup with good stuff in it, and a steroid.  So my nurse daughter has confined me to the house until maybe this afternoon.)  And I've learned a lot - a lot of confusing things.

On Windows you can currently get to Copilot via the icon in the tool bar and use it beside any application.  But it seems to work best when opened via Microsoft Edge as it can analyze the page you have open - or so it says.  And on Edge you frequently get a chance to provide feedback if you push the thumbs-down button, but on Chrome that happens very infrequently.

Why am I pressing the thumbs-down button?  Because I'm getting inaccurate results.  For instance I asked it if the 460 ever got EEC-V and it say no.  Luckily that one time in Chrome it gave me the chance to provide feedback and I told them where the documentation is to prove that wrong.

And some "advertised" features, like creating charts, are quite limited.  I just asked it to give me an activity chart for the forum based on posts per day for the last year and it said "My current capabilities do not include accessing and analyzing data from specific websites in real-time."  The last year is real-time?

But I did get it to answer the question of "What are the most active forums for Bullnose Ford trucks.  And when considering Ford Truck Enthusiasts consider only the activity of the Bullnose section."  And the answer was:

Based on my search, here are some of the most active forums for Bullnose Ford trucks:

1. **Bullnose Enthusiasts Forum**¹: This forum is dedicated to 1980-86 Ford pickups and Broncos. It has various topics such as general discussion, technical help, restoration tips, classifieds, events, and photos. Users can browse and post in these topics according to their interests and needs¹.

2. **Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums**²⁴⁵⁷: This forum has a section specifically for 1980 - 1986 Bullnose F100, F150 & Larger F-Series Trucks. The discussions in this section are about the Early Eighties Bullnose Ford Truck²⁴⁵⁷.

3. **Bullnose ford truck group (80 to 86 F series) on Facebook**³⁶: This group is for 1980 to 1986 Ford trucks of all sizes and configurations to talk about, share information, and help and encourage everyone with their trucks³⁶.

Please note that the activity level of these forums can vary and may change over time. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, I recommend visiting these forums directly. 😊

Source: Conversation with Bing, 12/19/2023
(1) Bullnose Enthusiasts Forum. https://forum.garysgaragemahal.com/.
(2) Bullnose Buyer's Guide? - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1555064-bullnose-buyers-guide.html.
(3) The '80-'86 Sticky - Tech Tips & Tricks - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/844439-the-80-86-sticky-tech-tips-and-tricks.html.
(4) New member of the bullnose forum - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1302095-new-member-of-the-bullnose-forum.html.
(5) new to bullnose section - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1457446-new-to-bullnose-section.html.
(6) Bullnose Fords 80-86 - Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1706154322736895/.
(7) Bullnose ford truck group ( 80 to 86 F series ) - Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/486410801500897/.

So I'm learning how to use it, slowly.  But it certainly isn't ready for prime time.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Perhaps Bing Chat was Alpha, because changing the name of a chicken to "dog" doesn't fundamentally change a chicken, nor does putting it on a leash.
I wasn't entirely joking about our robot overlords. I consider it inevitable that silicon (or perhaps an organic neural mesh) will become skynet.
There isn't far to go.

I'm sorry to hear you were under the weather (figuratively and literally)
Hope you are soon back to 100%

Yesterdays overnight was pretty intense with flooding and winds high enough to have roads blocked by trees and power lines.
Rain coming down sideways in waves, but 60° in mid December .
As they say "Not a fit night out for man or beast"

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, the name change didn't fix anything.  It still has a long way to go.

I'm feeling MUCH better.  But we had the storm you were talking about here in Charleston while I was in the ER's.  The first ER got to the point where they could see cloudyness in the lungs and recommended a CT scan, which meant we needed to go to the hospital's ER since that one didn't have the equipment.

So we headed out because that hospital was only a few blocks away - a few blocks and two bridges.  But the approach to the second bridge, known as the "connector", was underwater.  All that rain, that was coming down sideways as you said, came at high tide.

So Google re-routed us way north and back down into town.  Meanwhile our daughter called that hospital and found that all roads to it were closed.  So she re-routed us to her hospital out by your sister's place and then met us there.  And all of the ambulances that normally would have gone to the two hospitals downtown were rerouted to that one as well.  It was a hopping place!

All the while I was just wanting to curl up into a ball and go to sleep.  But I was the driver, and the nurse at the first place was insistent that I get a CT scan "and don't stop to eat along the way".  So we pressed on and in the end got really good results.  Everything looks great and the drugs they pumped into me turned things around almost immediately.

But the steroids I'm taking have me wired and I can't sleep.  So I'm reading the mail and the news, playing with Copilot, etc.

[ArdWrknTrk]

That's the literal under the weather.  🌧️🌧️🌧️

I'm sorry you had to brave that (and travel up to Duck Ditch) in order to get health care.
The outcome was good, in the end, and that's what counts.

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, it was a good outcome, in spite of the weather.  Now if we can get the rear window in today, and Loctite the helicoils in for the seat bolts, then maybe we can move on to the Blue Top.  

Duck Ditch!  

[85lebaront2]

You know, we had the same storm (it just traveled up the coast) here. I put Mary's 2011 Flex in the garage (referred to by the county building inspector as probably the safest place in the county in a hurricane) and parked mine between the house and garage. We got about 5" of rain, winds around 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph. Some flooding, but it generally drains fast due to the rather sandy soil.

I'm glad things are looking (and feeling) better for you!

[Gary Lewis]

It was quite the storm.  And coming at high tide made it worse.  As we went to the first ER at 10 AM the water on either side of the road looked to be about road height.  When we got to the ER I got soaked getting in, and we sat as far away from everyone else as we could given my incessant cough, which put us near the door and I felt sprinkles each time someone came or went.  The wind was really whipping the palm trees and the rain.

The soil here is sandy as well, and the tide probably went out, so when we came out of the 2nd ER at 10 PM we were able to go the normal route to their house.

As for Copilot, I'm losing interest.  It just won't analyze anything deeply.  All I get is superficial answers, and even those aren't very accurate.  

[BigBrother-84]

Happy to read you're getting better Gary.

About AI, is the I for idiot?

[Gary Lewis]

. Yes, that fits perfectly!  Artificial Idiot!

But thanks, I’m a whole better.

[85lebaront2]

Just get a magic 8 ball, it'll do the same thing and is more fun.

[Gary Lewis]

I think you are right.  Or a Ouija board.

The latest is question it posed:

Q: How to get a copy of the Bullnose Bible

A: You can get a copy of the Bullnose Bible from the Bullnose Enthusiasts Forum. The guide is available on the forum’s website, which is managed by Gary Lewis, the author of the Bullnose Bible.

[Ifitaintbroke]

Pretty sure that's not a book. We're "in" the Bullnose Bible right now!

[Gary Lewis]

Yep!

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

Q: How to get a copy of the Bullnose Bible

A: You can get a copy of the Bullnose Bible from the Bullnose Enthusiasts Forum. The guide is available on the forum’s website, which is managed by Gary Lewis, the author of the Bullnose Bible.

Hahahaha!  Too funny!