Dave Miller Blog

Author: Dave

  • Security Risk in Microsoft Word normal.dotm

    —

    by

    Dave
    in ,

    In Microsoft Word, by default, recently defined paragraph and character styles are automatically added to your normal.dotm file and then silently copied into new documents that you create. This can leak private information about what you have been doing or who you have been corresponding with. Here’s an example of the privacy and security issue.…

  • Mimicking human functional intelligence does not imply consciousness

    —

    by

    Dave
    in ,

    Because ChatGPT and other large language models mimic some of the functionality of human intelligence, some people propose that the machine must be conscious. Let’s examine that.

  • AI Wars

    —

    by

    Dave
    in ,

    ChatGPT and other large language models are accidental reasoning engines because the structure of reasoning is embedded in the structure of language. Hackers are going to use it for nefarious purposes.

  • Linux and ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 AMD—A Perfect Match

    —

    by

    Dave
    in ,

    The short story is that Linux Mint 21.1 (based on Ubuntu 22.04) runs remarkably well on a Lenovo ThinkPad X13 Gen 3 AMD. Thermals and Kernels Reportedly, AMD added power management for the Ryzen “Rembrandt” mobile processors in the ACPI Platform Profile for recent Linux kernels. I couldn’t determine for sure what “recent” means, so…

  • Linux backups on a Synology NAS

    —

    by

    Dave
    in

    The Synology NAS products work well for backing up or sharing media files and documents in an informal home environment. However, a Synology NAS is not well suited as a general backup device for a Linux computer. The problems below can be overcome by archving your Linux files with tar or an equivalent archive manager,…

  • Self-directed online education

    —

    by

    Dave
    in

    This article describes how you can use free online resources to enrich your education in almost any subject.

  • Evolution: a simulation

    —

    by

    Dave
    in , ,

    This is a video report of a software project that created the conditions for evolution in an attempt to learn something about how evolution works in nature. This is for the programmer looking for ideas for interdisciplinary programming projects, or for anyone interested in how evolution and natural selection work. 56 mins. It’s available on…

  • Linux Mint 20 runs on X570 Aorus Elite motherboard

    —

    by

    Dave
    in ,

    Linux Mint 20 Beta is performing surprisingly well on a Gigabyte Aorus Elite X570 motherboard.

  • How we got involved making word search puzzles

    —

    by

    Dave
    in

    A colleague gave us a $100 gift certificate for Digital Ocean, provider of cloud computing and storage. The certificate was good for 60 days — use it or lose it. Our first use of the gift certificate was to set up a virtual server for some of my wife’s domains. That server has been humming…

  • Triggering Alexa from TV sound

    —

    by

    Dave
    in

    There’s a rumor on the internet that Alexa ignores commands if it hears audio that is missing frequencies between 3000 and 6000 Hertz. That’s how TV commercials can say “Alexa” without triggering the Alexa devices in the room. So I fact-checked it. I recorded my voice saying “Alexa, what is the date today?” and made…