You can't spell ‘aieeeeeeee!’ without AI...

Wed 10/15/25 11:51am

Comments: 0

Fun

Dear Rally’s,

I pulled up to the drive-through and placed my order with your automated system (not that I had a choice, once I was in line).

J: Number 1 combo, please.

A: would you like to upgrade that to a large for 40 cents? What’s your drink?

J: Yes. Coke Zero.

A: Does that complete your order?

J: No.

A: Okay, your total is $10.95.

J: I wasn’t done. Hello? Anybody there?

J gives up, pulls forward, pays, drives home; discovers it misheard every answer, giving me a medium combo with a regular Coke.

J scans QR code on receipt to give feedback, site never loads after repeated tries. Visits completely different URL on receipt, site never loads. Falls back to the “contact” form on the main web site, which, surprisingly, works.

Public deathmatch

I put the full genai-written project up on Github. Complete with the only Code Of Conduct I find acceptable.

I’ll probably create a grab-bag repo for the other little scripts I’m using for genai image stuff, including the ones I wrote myself, like a caveman.

(it’s been a while since I pushed anything to Github, and somehow my SSH key disappeared on their end, so I had to add it again)

Next genai coding project…

…is gallery-wall, another simple Python/Flask/JS app that lets you freely arrange a bunch of pictures on a virtual wall, using thumbnails embellished with frames and optional mats. It took quite a few passes to get drag-and-drop working correctly, and then I realized Windsurf had switched to a less-capable model than I used for the previous projects. Getting everything working took hours of back-and-forth, with at least one scolding in the middle where it went down a rat-hole insisting that there must be something caching an old version of the Javascript and CSS, when the root cause was incorrect z-ordering. This time even screenshots were only of limited use, and I had to bully it into completely ripping out the two modals and starting over from scratch. Which took several more tries.

Part of this is self-inflicted, since I’m insisting that all Javascript must be self-contained and not pulled in from Teh Interwebs. It’s not a “this wheel is better because I invented it” thing, it’s “I don’t need wheels that can transform into gears and work in combination with transaxles and run-flat tires but sometimes mine crypto on my laptop”. The current Javascript ecosystem is infested with malware and dependency hell, and I want no part of it.

Anyway, I’ll let it bake for a few days before releasing it.

(between Ikea, Michaels, and Amazon, I have lots of simple frames waiting to be filled with the output of my new photo printer; I had to shop around because most common matted frames do not fit the 2:3 aspect ratio used in full-frame sensors, and I don’t want to crop everything; I like the clean look of the Ikea LOMVIKEN frames, but they’re only available in 5x7, 8x8, 8x10, 12x16, and a few larger sizes I can’t print (RÖDALM is too deep, FISKBO is too cheap-looking))

Apparently OpenAI wants subscribers back…

…because they’re promising porn in ChatGPT. For “verified adults”, which probably means something more than “I have a credit card and can pay you”. Also, the “erotica” is still quite likely to be censored, with rules changing constantly as journolistos write “look what I got!” clickbait articles.

They’re also promising to re-enable touchy-feely personalities while pretending that’s not what caused all the “AIddiction” clickbait articles in the first place…

I’m guessing they’ll stick to chat at first, and not loosen the restrictions on image-generation at the same time.

(I’ll likely wait until Spring before giving them another chance; Altman is to Steve Jobs as Bob Guccione was to Hugh Hefner)

“Genai’s strange obsession was…”

“…for certain vegetables and fruits”. The expanded categorized wildcards have produced some violent color and style clashes, which I expected. I can clean up the colors by using variables in the premade costume recipes, but for the style clashes, I may throw the YAML back to Claude and tell it to split each category into “formal”, “casual”, “sporty”, “loungewear”, etc, to reduce the frequency of combat boots with cocktail dresses and fuzzy slippers with jeans.

I’ll need to hand-edit the color list, because while smoke, pearl, porcelain, oatmeal, stone, shadow, snow, rust, clover, terracotta, salmon, mustard, flamingo, bubblegum, brick, jade, olive, avocado, fern, and eggplant are valid color words, they are not safe in the hands of an over-literal diffusion-based image-generator.

Yes, I got literal “avocado shoes”.

For most of them I can probably get away with just appending “-colored”, but I’ll have to test. I’ll need to clean up the materials, too, since “duck cloth” isn’t the only one that produced unexpected results.

With the SF set, you can handwave away many of the fashion disasters by remembering the future fashions in the Seventies Buck Rogers TV series, but there were still some standouts…

I didn’t refine and upscale these; mostly I’m just poking fun at the results, although there are a few that deserve enhancement.

I’m okay with these two

Look at the moon(s)!

Apparently a lot of people love the way Qwen Image lets you pose and compose, but hate the excessive consistency of the results, so they’re doing a refining pass with another model like Flux or Wan; the problem is fitting both of them into VRAM at the same time to avoid massive slowdowns every time it switches models.

A diversity-of-moons LoRA would be less memory-intensive; I should see if someone’s made one. Unrelated, this chick is color-blind.

It’s surprising what you can get away with…

…if you just say “she’s a teenager”.

The only thing that helmet protects…

…is her makeup. Points for the cat-ears, though.

Random style shift

She really rocks this graphic-novel look.

Colors that work

With bonus cool new backgrounds.

Somehow she’s rocking this look

Easter Planet is so much cooler than the Island

But I think the gal is more of a tourist attraction.

Are the cat-ears showing up too often?

No, that is not the problem here.

Shame she couldn’t find her shiny black boots

With many models, I’d hesitate to change the prompt in any way to “fix” something like this, but with Qwen, I can probably get away with it.

“Teenager!”

Evil Space-Elf Queen launches her fleet…

…but the defenders have a Champion…

…and the Goddess Of Orbital Debris Cleanup is pissed

Meanwhile, in a peaceful-but-hot part of the galaxy…

“The last thing you will ever see”

“It’s a bold strategy, Cotton…”

“…let’s see if it pays off.”

Simplicity is best

“Teenager!”

“Someday, her prince will come”

Ignoring the girl for a moment,

I think we’ve found the jewelry shop that supplies all those giant-sized women that Qwen keeps generating. As for the girl, how does she keep her hip feathers so fluffy underwater?