- Real photos must be snapped by me.
- It’s okay to use photos from my archive.
- I will write the prompts when generating images.
- Text-to-image models must have a permissive license and run on my machine. No cloud allowed.
- Cropping, color adjustments, and light retouching are fair game for all pics – real or fake.
- I’m allowed to lie and deceive on the blog for the duration of the challenge.
- But I will reveal all the lies and generated images when the challenge is over. Full transparency.
Well, it’s no secret that I love me a lush forest. But is this one documented by your fellow human 🧔♀️ or just a latent diffusion model’s 🤖 dream?
It’s day four already, the prompt is orange, and you know the drill by now: was this pic snapped by me 🧔♀️ or dreamed up by a text-to-image model 🤖?
This potholder might look ordinary, but it is very precious to me. Or maybe it doesn’t even exist. What do you think – is this pic snapped by me 🧔♀️ or dreamed up by a text-to-image model 🤖?
The prompt for day two of the September Photoblogging Challenge is buildup. What do you think – is this pic snapped by me 🧔♀️ or dreamed up by a text-to-image model 🤖?
The prompt for day one of the September Photoblogging Challenge is abstract. What do you think – is this pic snapped by me 🧔♀️ or dreamed up by a text-to-image model 🤖?
Snapped by me or dreamed up by a text-to-image model?
I’ll post a picture every day for the September 2023 Photoblogging Challenge. To keep it interesting, I will sometimes use my computer to manifest a “photo.”
And you – yes, you – are welcome to guess whether it’s snapped by me 🧔♀️ or dreamed up by a text-to-image model 🤖.
It might be fun! I, for sure, will learn a lot, and maybe we will all be better at spotting fakes at the end of the challenge.
Here are some constraints I’ve set up for myself, besides the rules stipulated by Micro.blog.
So, for the rest of September, don’t believe everything I share here. And start guessing! Here’s the pic for day one.
Here’s more than 500 CSS loading animations from Temani Afif. 🤯
Our Flag Means Death is incredible and as close as we will get to a Monkey Island TV show, according to Ron Gilbert. That’s all I need; I’m in! 🏴☠️
Oh, man, now I want to find an old knitting machine and start hacking on it. This is just marvelous! 🧶
Retreat is an independent electronic machine knitting practice based in Berlin. All items are crafted by a real human with the help of a hacked domestic knitting machine from the 90s.
This reminded me of the don’t write it down advice in REWORK. (via @grumpygamer)
But people will say, "Do you keep a notebook?" and the answer is, I think a writer's notebook is the best way in the world to immortalize bad ideas. My idea about a good idea is one that sticks around and sticks around and sticks around.
These 40 hats by Anders are stunning! I think I know LeChuck’s hat, Ash’s cap, Samus’ helmet, and about two dozen more. How many can you place? 🤠
The history of video game hats - One "hat" per year from the past 40 years.. see if you can guess them all #pixelart
Simon Willison shares how to make large language models work for you. It gets a bit technical and programmy a couple of times, but most of the talk is pretty accessible to anyone curious about LLMs. If video is not your thing, read the excellently annotated transcript instead.
If Ben were to voice Mario in the future, I wouldn’t be too sad. (via Tobias)
My official audition to play #Mario.
I’m on my way to see Oppenheimer. 20 meters away, my niece exit from the cinema. She’s just seen Barbie with two of her friends. I’m not aware of her at first. But then I hear her. Loud and clear. Shouting.
Svampen!
That’s what she calls me. She runs towards me and jumps into my arms. I do my best to catch her and keep her there for a long hug. It feels fucking great. And I savor the moment because I know it won’t be long before she’s way too cool to greet her old uncle like that.
And maybe it’s for the best; I won’t be able to catch her without falling backwards for much longer.
Wordpress.com promises to secure your online legacy for a century (if you pay up $38,000). I love the idea! It’s just too bad one won’t be around to see if they fulfill their end of the deal. A lot can happen in a hundred years. (via ma.tt)
I’m with Rebecca; who doesn’t love a good desk? Here’s the desk of Kojima-san back in the 90s. (via shmuplations)
I’m working on a little something that will make building Micro.blog compatible themes a little easier. Instead of having to manually copy required <head> elements into their themes, third-party developers will be able to just include a partial. Curious people can follow this pull request.
Does it make me nervous? Do I feel my territory encroached upon? Not yet, probably because I’ve reached a fairly advanced age. But I will tell you that this subject always makes me think of that most prescient novel, Colossus, by D. F. Jones. In it, the world-spanning computer does become sentient and tells its creator, Forbin, that in time, humanity will come to love and respect it. … Forbin cries, "Never!" But the narrator has the last word, and a single word is all it takes:
"Never?"
So, remember my idea of posting photos snapped by a human and conceptions dreamed up by text-to-image models and letting you all guess whether they’re real or not?
Well, getting it right is probably not going to be that hard, judging by my results so far. 😅
Looking forward to State of the Browser and @ohhelloana’s talk on Exploring the Potential of the Web Speech API in Karaoke. Sounds like a lot of fun!
We wrote this week’s newsletter from the Norrmans Castle (Häckeberga slott). An out of the ordinary but/and cozy hotel. Worth a visit!
The newsletter issue features the cover of Butts – A Backstory and a couple of reading tips. Check it out if you love books and understand Swedish.
404 Media was an instant add to my feed reader. First read: Inside the AI Porn Marketplace Where Everything and Everyone Is for Sale.
404 Media is a journalist-founded digital media company exploring the ways technology is shaping–and is shaped by–our world.
We’re focused on investigative reports, longform features, blogs, and scoops about topics including: hacking, cybersecurity, cybercrime, sex, artificial intelligence, consumer rights, surveillance, privacy, and the democratization of the internet.
Thinking about doing the Micro.blog photo challenge with a twist this time. I post a pic every day, you guess whether it’s snapped by me 🧔♀️ or dreamed up by a text-to-image model 🤖.
It might be fun! And, hopefully, at the end of the challenge, we will all be able to spot fakes more easily.
I’m time-traveling tonight. A bootleg uploaded to YouTube transports me to Huskvarna Folkets Park where we caught Nina Persson + Martin Hederos during the temporary easing of restrictions in 2021.
Sitting there on our plastic chair islands at a comfortable distance from other humans. Weird times. 🎵
Today I learned that pickles are to Gen Z what bacon was to my generation. Huh. 🥒 🥓