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Daily News Stuff 9 October 2024

Top Story

• Geoff Hinton and John Hopfield have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in AI. (Tech Crunch)
  
  Real AI, not this modern crap.
  
  Hinton invented the technique of back propagation in 1978, and Hopfield invented the Hopfield network in 1982, which is (says Wikipedia) a form of recurrent neural network, or a spin glass system, that can serve as a content-addressable memory.
  
  The key trick for winning the Nobel Prize continues to be not dying before the committee recognises your work. Hinton is 76; Hopfield is 91.
  
  
  
• Speaking of Wikipedia the site really seems to have fucked the goat this time. (The Publica)
  
  Downplaying over a thousand documented cases of child sexual abuse that have led to the arrest and conviction of 36 people so far.
  
  No, Wikipedia, I don't think I will be donating to your fund drive.
  
  
  

Tech News

• AI image processing effortlessly transforms your precious memories into flavourless pap. (The Verge)
  
  If even The Verge noticed this, it must be bad.
  
  
  
• Roblox is inflating its player numbers, says an investor newsletter aimed at short-sellers. (The Verge)
  
  Gold is shiny, says an investor newsletter aimed at gold collectors.
  
  Roblox called bullshit on this, citing its public earnings figures. However user numbers are calculated, revenue has increased 22% over the past year.
  
  
  

Not At All Tech News

Project Kawaii, one of the early English-language vtuber agencies along with Tsunderia, Prism Project, and Phase Connect, is closing its doors at the end of November.

As Tsunderia and Prism Project already have.

As with Prism, the company is releasing the virtual models and streaming and social media accounts to the individual talents, who are planning to continue on independently.


Speaking of vtubers, my pre-order of the Murasaki Shion Pop Up Parade figure from Amazon Japan (or rather, their marketplace) got cancelled, and now there aren't any. But it's still available to pre-order from Amazon US, and the shipping to Australia is dirt cheap (these things don't weigh very much), so I just put the order in again.

Amane Kanata is already shipping in Japan, so I ordered her and the Pop Up Parade Frieren figure, who can hide among all the Hololive girls.

(I'm not collecting Figmas or Nendoroids or the big expensive scale models, just Pop Up Parade. Though I did grab the Banpresto figure of Yozora Mel, since there won't be any more of those.)  


Disclaimer: There's a lot of that going about. D-12.