Victoria Fox's Blog, page 191

What Happened To The Banana Phone From Shark Tank Season 14

Banana Phone may have been a bust with the Sharks, but the company itself is still chugging along with all three friends at the helm. While it remains a side job for the trio, it’s a fairly successful one. For anyone reading this and dealing with a sudden burning desire to have a Banana Phone you can call your own, it’s available for around $50 on retail sites, with occasional dips in price. The handset will connect to an iPhone or Android system and is compatible with Alexa, Siri, Google, and other voice assistant Bluetooth devices. Using the Banana Phone, you can answer calls, end calls, and reject calls.

The Banana Phone charges using a Micro USB cable (which is included in the purchase), and each charge will last up to twenty hours of talk time or 120 hours when idle. The Bluetooth range on the Banana Phone is sixty feet.

The company has an Amazon storefront where you can purchase the Banana Phone for a few bucks cheaper than the retail price. If you feel the need for a bunch, they also sell them in sets of three. (And yes, they are actually called a bunch.) The handset currently has a 4.5-star rating, proving that people are bananas for this product. Perhaps it’s time that the makers of the Banana Phone teamed up with the people behind this Japanese robot that exists to peel bananas.

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X reinstates Kanye West’s account after Musk banned him last year

Social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) has reinstated the account of Kanye West (who legally goes by Ye) after he was banned last year for posting a picture of Swastika merged with the Star of David.

Last December, months after Elon Musk took over the platform, Ye created a tweetstorm by posting a series of antisemitic comments along with a picture that violated the social network’s rules. At that time, Ye also posted an “unflattering” picture of Musk, but the Tesla CEO clarified that the rapper-producer wasn’t banned because of that.

Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari.

Frankly, I found those pics to be helpful motivation to lose weight!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Ye’s account won’t be eligible for monetization and ads will not appear next to his posts. Last week, X rolled out an ad revenue-sharing program with global creators. Creators will need to have at least 500 followers and will need to garner 15 million impressions over the previous three months to be eligible for the program.

Ye hasn’t made any posts yet after his account was unbanned. However, the account was only restored after he gave assurance that he won’t post antisemitic content or hateful language, the WSJ report said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Musk, who is a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” has made controversial decisions about restoring certain accounts after he took over Twitter. The list includes former U.S. President Donald Trump, far-right influencer Andrew Tate, who was banned by Twitter for misogynistic comments, and right-wing academic Jordan Peterson. Most recently, Twitter faced criticism for restoring the account of Dominick McGee, who posted an image of child sexual abuse.

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George Lucas Pulled Some Good-Natured Manipulation To Keep Steven Spielberg On Indiana Jones

Spielberg recalled that “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was originally written to be longer and to contain a lot more action. Perhaps Spielberg merely wanted to make several more chapters of an old-timey serial all at once. Spielberg said:

“‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was too super-packed with gags and stunts and set pieces. No movie could hold that much. So certain things carried over. And I always remember that the river rafting scene which we had written for ‘Raiders,’ I saved, kind of bookmarked for another ‘Raiders’ movie. That went into ‘Temple of Doom.’ And then we had an entire mine cart chase — like a roller-coaster ride — that was originally written for ‘Raiders.'”

It was wise to save the sequences, because they ended up being the starting points for the sequel. The director continued, “Basically, I just took it out of ‘Raiders’ and put it in a drawer. And then, when it came time to figure out set pieces for ‘Temple of Doom,’ we dusted it off and stuck it at the end.”

The mine cart chase was originally meant for the climax of “Raiders.” After the Nazis obtained the Ark of the Covenant, Indy was to flee the ensuing Wrath of God by racing away in a mine cart … with the Ark in tow. The river rafting sequence was originally part of the introduction of Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). To reach Marion’s remote bar in Nepal, Indy took a plane that, as it so happened, was sabotaged by Nazis. Indy leaped from the plane in an inflatable raft and sailed through the Himalayas to get to Marion’s place. 

The excision of these sequences was wise. The pace would have been slowed considerably.

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‘Furious’ husband desperate for advice after ‘freaking out when my wife locks our son out of the house’ for drinking

A man who claimed he was in a fight with his wife after she locked their 16-year-old son out of the house as punishment for drinking is receiving support on Reddit.

User “Dadthrowaway788” asked subscribers of the “Am I the A–hole” (AITA) subreddit to weigh in with his recent post asking if he was wrong “for freaking out when my wife locked our son out of the house at night after he drank alcohol?”

In the post, the dad, 39, explained that he and his wife, 40, have a 16-year-old son — and that although the incident occurred a few days ago, he said, “she’s still mad at me.” 

“I was on a work trip so my wife was at home with our son,” wrote the father.

“When I got back, I found out that he had been hanging out with his friends and they convinced him to drink some beer and he got a little drunk,” he said. 

“I’m not saying what he did was right, but [he] and I had a talk about it and it’s fine.”

His wife, however, was considerably more upset. 

“When he came home and my wife found out, she was furious and kicked him out and refused to let him back in until the morning,” wrote Dadthrowaway788.

“He was begging her to let him in, but she wouldn’t.” 

The dad said he was “furious” when he found out that his son was locked out overnight.

“She just kept saying that it’s our son’s fault for drinking alcohol.”

“Regardless of what he did, she made a slightly drunk teenager stay outside by himself at night. Something very bad could have happened to him,” he added.

Parents found out their son (not pictured) drank beer with friends and got drunk.Shutterstock

The father also noted that he and his wife “had a huge argument over it.” 

“She just kept saying that it’s our son’s fault for drinking alcohol,” he wrote. 

As a result of what transpired, Dadthrowaway788’s wife “isn’t really talking to me now — and my son isn’t talking to his mom.”

And while he wrote that he feels like he is in the right, the man also asked others on Reddit to share their opinions of the situation. 

​On the AITA subreddit, people can reply to posts and indicate the poster is “NTA” (“Not the A–hole”), “YTA” (“You’re the A–hole”), “NAH” (“No A–holes Here”) or “ESH” (“Everyone Sucks Here”).

Users can “upvote” good replies and “downvote” those they do not find helpful.

The post has received some 29,000 reactions to date.

“Her punishment does not show him any consequences of getting drunk.”

Fox News Digital reached out to a clinical psychologist for insight.

Said Dr. Jayme Albin, PhD, of New York, “When it comes to parenting and teenage drinking, parents need to keep their emotions in check and not put the lesson of safety on the back burner or in jeopardy.”

The couple got into a huge fight over the incident. Their son (not pictured) isn’t speaking to his mom after being kicked out.Shutterstock

She added of the mother mentioned in the post, “While [her actions] might signal she’s upset with what her son did, it put her child’s safety in a vulnerable state by locking him out intoxicated — but her punishment does not show him any consequences of getting drunk.”

Dr. Albin added, “How about a few hours of community service at a homeless shelter?”

Most of the 5,000-plus responses to the situation said that the dad was “NTA” — and that he was right to be concerned about his son’s well-being and how the teen’s mistake in judgment was handled. 

“NTA. Leslie Mahaffy, a victim of serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, was locked out of her house by her parents the night they kidnapped her,” said Reddit user Real-Weird-2121 in the top-upvoted comment, referring to a crime that occurred in Canada 32 years ago.  

Mahaffy was 14 years old when she was kidnapped in mid-June, 1991. She was later found dismembered. (Her parents stated that they did not intentionally lock their daughter out of the house, said multiple sources.) 

Real-Weird-2121 suggested that Dadthrowaway788’s wife research the case. “I bet she never locks him out again,” said Real-Weird-2121. 

Another top commenter noted that Dadthrowaway788’s son is “not the first 16-year-old to show up at home drunk.”

User Butterbeary added, “Giving him a lecture is fine. Locking him outside is not. He is a minor.”

The dad said he was “furious” when he found out that his son was locked out overnight.Shutterstock

The writer also said, “Safety should still be considered — that is one of your tasks as a parent.”

“He needs to know that he has someone who isn’t going to hate him for making a mistake.”

Still another person pointed out that getting locked out of the house could deter the son from asking his parents for help in the future. 

“NTA. His mother has just insured that he will never call her for help for anything if he needs it,” said user Payne2588.  

And in saying that, I really hope he understands that he can call you,” the user added. 

“He needs to know that he has someone [in his life] who isn’t going to hate him for making a mistake.”

Another commenter wrote, “You two [parents] need to talk and get on the same page as far as discipline goes so you have a set of consequences and rules you are both comfortable with.”

In follow-up remarks, Dadthrowaway788 wrote that he planned on having another talk with his wife.

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Apple says it’s aware of a bug that may affect Screen Time restrictions for kids

Apple has promised to fix a bug in iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices that may affect Screen Time restrictions for kids, The Wall Street Journal has reported. It affects a function called Downtime that allows parents to remotely set hours when kids can’t use their devices. 

“We are aware that some users may be experiencing an issue where Screen Time settings are unexpectedly reset,” a spokesperson told the WSJ. “We take these reports very seriously and we have been, and will continue, making updates to improve the situation.”

Parents checking the feature have found that scheduled times have either reverted to older settings or been removed altogether — allowing kids to use their devices at will. One user changed his passcode to be sure his kids hadn’t guessed it, but found he needed to reset the feature “two or three times a week.” Suffice to say, kids don’t always report the issue in a timely fashion either. Around 2,300 people on an Apple discussion page on the subject said they experienced the same bug. 

Apple knew about the issue before, but reported it fixed with the release of iOS 16.5 in May. However, WSJ reporters found the issue in subsequent releases and even in the iOS 17 beta. 

Screen time was introduced in 2018 at Apple’s developer’s conference, allowing parents to remotely check their kid’s Activity Report and manage their app use time. They can also set a custom amount of time per app that kids can’t extend, or create a Downtime to block everything but selected software and phone calls for a set hourly range. Apple has yet to say when it will release a fix. 

All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.

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Fidelity deepens valuation cut for SaaS startup Gupshup

Fidelity has slashed the estimated worth of its holding in SaaS startup Gupshup by over 20% in a month and by more than 50% since the original investment in the latest brutal markdown across private markets.

The U.S. asset manager valued its holding in Gupshup at $8.08 million at the end of June, down from $10.15 million a month prior, according to a monthly disclosure. Fidelity originally invested $16.2 million from its Blue Chip Growth Fund in Gupshup in mid-2021 in a funding round that valued the business messaging services provider at $1.4 billion.

The business messaging platform, which started its journey in India 17 years ago, raised $340 million in 2021 from a clutch of investors including Tiger Global, Think Investments and Malabar Investments.

Fidelity slightly improved the value of its holdings in Reddit, Discord, Twitter-parent X Holdings and Indian e-commerce Meesho in the month of June, it disclosed in the filing.

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How Electric Cars Contribute To E-Waste Problems

A future defined by battery-powered cars, of course, is going to be one that is beset by a significant problem: How can those batteries be created and recycled in a green fashion? As Elsevier’s Christina Valimaki put it, according to Wired, in 2018, “one of the biggest environmental problems caused by our endless hunger for the latest and smartest devices is a growing mineral crisis, particularly those needed to make our batteries.”

Wired also noted that mining lithium by pumping water (evaporitic extraction being one of the most common methods of acquiring it) cost around half a billion gallons of water for a single tonne of the metal. Tragically and inevitably, we’re also extracting it at a devastating, unsustainable pace. According to Earthworks, Nickel and Cobalt are also crucial elements of such batteries, and the push towards electric vehicles and other such devices pushes our need for these metals far beyond the supplies the planet may hold: a potential 426% of available resources in the case of the latter.

The widening of mining efforts as these resources deplete, accordingly, increases the cost to the environment. The metals that are components in these batteries, further, means that they should not simply be tossed away. The EPA defines them as critical minerals, “raw materials that are economically and strategically important to the U.S., have a high risk of their supply being disrupted and for which there are no easy substitutes.”

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Why ChatGPT Is Making Us Less Intelligent: 6 Key Reasons

Not only is ChatGPT reportedly getting worse over time, it could be making us less smart too. A Stanford University study evaluated the performance of ChatGPT in March 2023 and June 2023 and found, “the behavior of the ‘same’ LLM service can change substantially in a relatively short amount of time.” Their recommendation was continuous monitoring of LLM (large language model) quality.

But what about the humans using ChatGPT? If LLMs are getting worse, what is happening to our focus, attention, memory recall and common sense? Is the real question how the humans using the tools are performing over the same time period, and who is continuously monitoring our quality? In some ways, ChatGPT could be making us smarter. In other ways, we might have degraded too. Here are 6 reasons why that could be the case.

How ChatGPT could be making us less smart1. Dependence on instant answers

As soon as you open up ChatGPT, Claude, or your favourite LLM, you can type in any prompt and get a response. With instant answers now available, why would you expend any energy thinking? Sure, we’ve always had Google. But sometimes finding the right answer using Google takes more effort. Google gives a list of web pages to read and scrutinize. But with ChatGPT you get one answer, and that’s it. It’s never been quicker to summon information, which might be costing our ability to do it.

Over-reliance is a danger, as is the decline in critical thinking and problem-solving skills. We can simply skip the process of research and analysis on our own. So what’s the answer? Take longer to think. Use ChatGPT to confirm what you already concluded, not work it out for you. Use the enhanced capability to outproduce, not remove the need to think.

2. Reduction in memory retention

What’s that actress called? The one who was in that film, married to that guy, friends with that other actress? Recalling information used to involve furrowed brows and cogs whirring in our brains. Multiple people would chime in to give clues and figure out the answer together. Now, there is just no need to remember anything. We’ll get an answer faster than googling it. Not only do LLMs give responses, we can upload our own PDFs. Tools exist to ask questions of our own content. We don’t even need to remember what we wrote.

Requiring less information on tap might lead to storing less information in the brain. In a bid to become more efficient, memory cells diminish, memory retention goes out the window, and cognitive abilities slowly decline. Test yourself without it and see how you function.

3. Erosion of writing and communication skills

If an entrepreneur can learn how to prompt ChatGPT effectively and create their website homepage copy, create free resources or have their emails written, where’s the incentive to improve their written communication? Growing accustomed to automated assistance can make us less adept at expressing thoughts and ideas effectively solo.

The valuable skill is now not writing well, the valuable skill is prompting well. Prompt engineers are earning $300k salaries. The better you can prompt, the better an LLM can create the right output. Whether or not that’s making us less smart is anyone’s guess. It’s simply a different use of our brainpower. The art of written communication is now mastered in a novel way.

4. Limited understanding of complex topics

You can use ChatGPT to supercharge your learning, but how deep is the knowledge you’ll collect? While it’s brilliant at simplifying complex information, generating fun mnemonics and creating a structured study schedule, its light approach to education could mean your grasp of complex topics becomes far below your true capability. Rather than attending lectures and poring over textbooks, we’re asking for the top level of information; just enough to get by.

Writing its findings into pitches, presentations and courses might impress an audience at first, but when they ask further questions you’ll be found right out. Relying solely on ChatGPT for learning can cost in-depth knowledge and train you out of grasping intricate subjects, after which only basic brain function ensues.

5. Propagation of misinformation

One danger of constantly querying ChatGPT is that responses are not always accurate. Language models generate answers based on patterns in the data they were trained on. Relying on them could see you believing things that simply aren’t true. Instead of digging deeper to find the real story, we’re taking what we read at face value and assuming it’s right. Bias and misinformation propagates and rumours spiral out of control.

Not questioning further or failing to fact check is not a good idea. If someone in your team brought you information, you’d expect them to reference their sources. If a friend told you an exaggerated story, you’d ask to see proof or verification. Do the same with ChatGPT instead of blindly following its tales.

6. Reduced social interactions

A business owner replacing half their team with AI tools has eliminated half their social interaction each working week. Once those tools get more proficient, it could be reduced even further. Not only can you replace team members with technology, you can replace very human roles with ChatGPT, including training it to act as your personal AI business coach.

But humans need other humans. We know that isolation, over time, costs social skills and emotional intelligence, making us less good at understanding others and connecting with them. Could that make us less smart? Conversation and companionship via ChatGPT, meaning fewer face-to-face social interactions and reduced ability to function with other people. It’s a risk worth thinking about avoiding.

Could ChatGPT be making us less smart? Dependence on instant answers, reduction in memory retention, erosion of writing and communication skills, less able to grasp complex topics, believing and spreading misinformation and reduced proficiency in social interactions. Be aware of the pitfalls to take all the benefits without these very real costs.

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Why Hundreds Of Jet Engines Are Being Recalled (And What It Means For Travelers)

Bloomberg/Getty Images

Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon, is a major supplier of power plants for passenger jet airliners, as well as the engine for the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet. One such power plant is the GTF engine, which powers hundreds of Airbus A320neos, a passenger jet widely used by airlines like Spirit. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, more than 1,000 engines are now being recalled for inspections as parts are wearing out faster than expected, due to a possible contamination in the metal used to make the parts. Fortunately there have been no accidents reported, but premature part failure certainly isn’t good thing for long-term reliability.

The report states that 200 engines are scheduled to be inspected by the next few weeks and then an additional 1,000 engines will follow in the next year. In a twist of irony, in June Pratt & Whitney put out a press release touting the durability of its new upgraded GTF Advantage engines set to be approved next year, skipping over any mention of durability issues with the prior iteration of GTF powerplants.

Minimal short term impact on travel, long term is another question Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Wall Street Journal reports that there likely won’t be much of a short term disruption to travel as only a small number of engines are actually being inspected. As for long-term travel impact, that is yet to be determined as regulators like the Federal Aviation Administration and Pratt & Whitney still need to determine a plan for the future inspection and repair of the GTF engines. Much like how the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) deals with recalls from automakers, the FAA is in charge of aircraft and aircraft component recalls, making sure the manufacturer follows the law and minimizes safety issues. 

As of now, there are many unknowns as to whether or not this will have a major impact on travel. Busier air travel times like the upcoming holiday season will likely be the real test of Pratt & Whitney’s ability to manage the issue. 

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The Final Moments Of Jenny In Forrest Gump, And What They Mean

Jenny’s AIDS diagnosis was confirmed in a planned sequel to “Forrest Gump” that would have brought the character up to the 1990s. Throughout “Gump,” the character unwittingly stumbled into various notable historic events and unwittingly invented small pieces of Americana the audience can chuckle at. He met multiple presidents, gave Elvis Presley the idea to shake his hips, and penned the phrase “s*** happens.” The sequel would take a similar approach, putting Forrest at a dance competition with Princess Diana, and, in a truly bizarre idea, on the roof of O.J. Simpson’s white Bronco during his infamous 1994 chase. It’s notable that Zemeckis’ original film was released in L.A. theaters the week after the Simpson chase. 

Roth also said that the film would have been more of a tragedy, beginning and ending with unbearably sad events. At the end, for instance, Forrest would be left obliviously waiting for a Native American friend who had just been killed in the Oklahoma City bombings. And at the beginning, Forrest, Jr., played in the original film by Haley Joel Osment, would be diagnosed with AIDS, having caught it from his mother. Roth’s grim tale, it seems, was meant to feel like a bleak satire of the original. He said: 

“It was gonna start with his little boy having AIDS. […] And people wouldn’t go to class with him in Florida. We had a funny sequence where they were [desegregation] busing in Florida at the same time, so people were angry about either the busing or [their] kids having to go to school with the kid who had AIDS. So there was a big conflict.” 

It seems that Roth wanted to mock the kind of conservatism that the first filmed so heartily endorsed. 

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