AI Music and the Dead Internet Theory

AI Music and the Dead Internet Theory

A man was arrested for creating AI music and using bots to stream it, netting 10 million dollars from Spotify. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekatz/2024/09/08/man-charged-with-10-million-streaming-scam-using-ai-generated-songs A few things to note here, and some thoughts on it in general. He was doing this for a while, since 2017 according to the article, so it wasn't like he made it in a month. Apparently, he was a music maker, he just wasn't getting anywhere with his produced music. As he has been doing it since 2017, this predates even ChatGPT by about 5 years. He was not using the current crop of "AI" tools. My guess,…
Blaugust 2024 – The End and What I Learned Week

Blaugust 2024 – The End and What I Learned Week

I kind of let this one really fall off after a strong start. I've already kind of touched on the various whys of it all. Mostly just a combination of being busy and the usual lack of motivation. I can't say I learned anything new that varies from last year's wrap up. I wish I could be more positive. I'm still pining for the days of old I guess. Which also may be part of why I'm so jaded. I've been blogging for a long time. Like, a really long time. Since before Live Journal was a thing really, though…
Fortnite Festival

Fortnite Festival

I kind of really rejected Fortnite Festival, the music mode, when it was launched last year. Which feels kind of surprising because I really like Rhythm games and am a huge DDR fan. I never was super into Rock Band though, and Fortnite Festival.is basically the latest iteration of Rock and, it's just, built into Fortnite. Harmonix, makers of Rock Band, was bought by Epic and folded in to create this game mode. Anyway, I have decided to give it another try lately and it's not that bad. It's not DDR, but it sort of scratches that itch. It doesn't…
Bring Arts – Final Fantasy VII – Barret Wallace

Bring Arts – Final Fantasy VII – Barret Wallace

And Barret completes the last of the 4 core heroes. Though now that I think about it, Aerith kind of doesn't count does she? It's complicated, she is kind of core to the plot but also she uh... Isn't around as much... For spoilery plot reasons from a 25 year old game. How about we go with Barret rounds out the core 3 heroes of Cloud, Tifa and Barret. Barret is an interesting character in the game, he is a well meaning tough guy who leads the tiny rebellion group known as Avalanche. Not too smart though, he tends to…
Star Trek – Lower Decks (S1-S4)

Star Trek – Lower Decks (S1-S4)

So, unlike Discovery, this show is a lot more serialized, which is much more Trek-like honestly. There is some loose callbacks within the seasons, mostly at the end of the seasons, but otherwise, each episode is mostly just its own mission or activity. Or more often, several missions or activities. Unlike most Trek shows, this one follows the "lower decks" crew. As the name would suggest. There is a bridge crew that shows up, but they are not the focus. Instead, it's, all those people running around in the background shots of every episode, doing God knows what, keeping the…