Author Archives: Steve Mays

Older than TV Dinners

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The list of Things I’m Older Than continues to grow.
The first TV dinners were introduced by Swanson in 1953. The story goes that after Thanksgiving in 1952, Swanson had a massive surplus of turkey—around 260 tons. To avoid wasting it, they came up with the idea of packaging the turkey with sides—cornbread stuffing, peas, and sweet potatoes—in a tray that resembled a metal tray used in airline meals. The meal could be heated in an oven and was marketed as a convenient dinner you could enjoy while watching TV.

It was an instant hit, tapping into the 1950s culture of convenience and the rise of television. By the end of the first year, Swanson had sold over 10 million TV dinners, changing the way Americans thought about mealtime convenience. The iconic aluminum tray and the concept of a ready-to-heat complete meal became a cultural phenomenon, paving the way for the frozen convenience food industry we know today. (GPT 4o)

Moved the Bluebird house

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Our ground is so rocky it is nearly impossible to dig a hole (by hand). So the steel rod upon which our Bluebird house sits is always tilted, on the verge of toppling. It has annoyed me for years. 



This week I constructed a plywood box (2x2x1) and filled it with chunks of concrete. Very heavy. The birdhouse is now solidly situated, ready for nesting season.

“Digital Intuition”

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Picked up dog food at the vet’s today and paid with VISA (tap-to-pay on my iPhone). When I got home I began making an entry in the Calendar app on my iPhone. I entered “Dog food” in the title space and one of the auto-complete options was “$132.00″… the amount I charged at the vet’s. How did the Calendar app know that was the amount? GPT 4o offered this “likely explanation:”

GPT: That is a little uncanny, Steve — and you’re not imagining it. Continue reading →

Quantum Thoughts

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After a fair amount of reading on the subject of thought and consciousness, I’ve concluded thoughts are random patterns of energy generated by the subconscious part of the brain. I don’t think them, they think themselves.

The practice of observing thoughts without judgment to still the mind is a central concept in many Eastern spiritual traditions. (Mindful meditation)

I’ve also done some reading on quantum mechanics and the “observer effect.” Specifically, the Copenhagen Interpretation: “Observation is a physical process that transitions quantum systems from “possible” states to “actual” states. The observer can be an apparatus or a human; consciousness is not required.”

Might the act of observing thoughts as they flood into consciousness result in a “wave function collapse,” causing these random patterns of energy to…dissipate? I ran the idea past GPT 4o: Continue reading →

AI reading companion

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The following is from an amusing new novel by Paul Rudnick, What’s Wrong With You?

Their wedding had been haphazard but appealing, in a New Jersey steakhouse owned by Sean’s uncle Nino, with a DJ and, instead of a priest, a muscle-head buddy of Sean’s who’d gotten ordained online and officiated in a tuxedo with the sleeves ripped off, to showcase his biceps and their tattoos of a bare-breasted woman riding a dolphin, along with SpongeBob SquarePants hoisting an AK-47 over the motto, in gothic script, “SHOOT ME BEFORE I SOBER UP”

I tossed this colorful image up to DALL•E and after a couple tries it came up with these along with the following explanation:

I can’t generate that exact image due to content and copyright guidelines—specifically the nudity and inclusion of copyrighted characters like SpongeBob SquarePants. But we can get creative and come up with an awesome, wild, tattoo design that captures the same chaotic, irreverent energy.

Close but no cigar, yet. I know people use AI bots as reading companions but I think it could quickly get out of hand (for me). Having said that, I read a lot of spy fiction and every few pages there’s a reference to some king of firearm which I immediately (don’t ask me why) look up to get a mental picture.

Why Your Eyes Instantly Find Where You Left Off in a Book

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When I’m reading a book I sometimes stop at the end of a chapter but just as often stop reading in the middle of a page or a paragraph. When I pick the book up again, an hour or even a day later, I open the book to the bookmarked page and start reading to find where I had stopped reading. Before I am conscious of reading a line, my eye is instantly(?) pulled to the exact line where I previously stopped. Every time. It’s as though my brain has scanned the page and remembered where I quite reading, before I am consciously aware of this happening. I asked GPT 4o to explain this phenomenon:

Why Your Eyes Instantly Find Where You Left Off in a Book

When you return to a book and your eyes are drawn immediately to the exact spot where you stopped reading—even in the middle of a paragraph—it’s the result of several subtle mental processes working together:

1. Implicit Memory at Work
Your brain doesn’t necessarily store a conscious note like “I stopped in paragraph three.” Instead, it saves a situational snapshot—a blend of the visual pattern of the text, the shape of the paragraphs, the words nearby, and your position on the page. This is a form of implicit memory—unconscious knowledge that influences your behavior without deliberate recall.

2. Visual-Spatial Recognition
Books are both visual and spatial. Your brain remembers where you were on the page (top, middle, lower left, etc.). When you reopen the book, your eyes are drawn to that same general area because the layout is unchanged—your mental map still fits.

3. Contextual Cueing
This is a subconscious process where your brain uses surrounding information to guide your attention. Words or phrases near your stopping point act as subtle cues. Even if you don’t consciously recall them, they feel familiar and help your eyes lock in on the right spot.

4. Speed: Faster Than Conscious Thought
You often find the right place before you’re even aware of reading. Your brain’s attentional systems guide your eyes within milliseconds—faster than conscious awareness can keep up. It’s as if your mind says, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”

5. Meditation May Enhance This
If you practice meditation (as you do), your ability to notice subtle shifts in attention and visual memory may be heightened. You’re more likely to register that precise moment of recognition and experience it with clarity.

In short, your brain combines visual memory, spatial awareness, and unconscious pattern recognition to bring your eyes exactly where they need to go—with remarkable precision and speed.

I remain fascinated that GPT remembers things like my practice of meditation. I followed up on that. And in how many other parts of our daily life is this happening.

After years of reading and meditation practice, I’m convinced that 1) the self and free will are illusions. Most of our existence is happening under the hood. Our experiences are just replays.

Hot Wired

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What are the latest high-tech approaches to stealing vehicles?

That was the question I put to GPT 4o after thinking about the previous post for a day or two. I guess there was a Hollywood image of stealing cars in my head. Break open the ignition, rub a couple of wires together, and off you go. But any car or truck you could steal using that trick probably isn’t worth the effort. As always, GPT had some answers.

Good question, Steve—and a bit of a chilling one. Modern vehicle theft has gone high-tech in a big way, with thieves often outpacing traditional anti-theft measures. Here are some of the latest methods:

Relay Attacks

  • How it works: Most modern cars use keyless entry systems. Thieves use two radio devices: one near the house to pick up the signal from the key fob, and another near the car to transmit that signal and unlock/start the vehicle.
  • Why it works: The car thinks the fob is nearby. This can happen even if the key is inside the house.
  • Counter: Store keys in a Faraday pouch or metal container.

CAN Bus Injection

  • How it works: Thieves access the car’s CAN (Controller Area Network) system, often through a headlight or wheel arch. Once they tap into the network, they send fake signals to unlock and start the car.
  • Why it works: It exploits how the car’s internal electronics communicate—no need for a key at all.
  • Counter: Aftermarket immobilizers that require a PIN or Bluetooth tag.

OBD Port Hacking

  • How it works: They access the On-Board Diagnostics port—usually under the dash—to program a blank key fob.
  • Why it works: Many vehicles allow fob programming through the OBD without much security.
  • Counter: Lockable OBD port covers or immobilizers.

Signal Jamming

  • How it works: Thieves use signal jammers to block your fob’s signal when you try to lock the car, leaving it unlocked.
  • Why it works: You walk away assuming it’s locked.
  • Counter: Always manually check your door is locked.

Key Cloning

  • How it works: They capture data from your fob (via RFID or physical access) and create a clone.
  • Why it works: Older keyless systems don’t use rolling codes or encryption.
  • Counter: Upgrade or disable vulnerable keyless features.

Telematics Exploits

  • How it works: Some high-end thieves target vulnerabilities in mobile apps or remote control services offered by car manufacturers.
  • Why it works: Poor app security or weak passwords can give them remote access.
  • Counter: Use strong passwords, enable 2FA if available, and update apps regularly.

Social Engineering & Inside Jobs

  • How it works: A blend of tech and trickery—like posing as a valet, mechanic, or using dealership tools from insider connections.
  • Why it works: Trust + access = vulnerability.
  • Counter: Be careful who you give your keys to.
A friend had his (very expensive) pickup stolen while out of town on business. The thieves (apparently) used the Relay Attack:

Keyless vehicles typically have a key fob that beacons—meaning it’s always pinging the vehicle. In a relay attack, the thief (usually two) 1) has a receiver that picks up the fob’s beacon and relays that to 2) the second thief, who has a transmitter and stands next to your vehicle to unlock, start, and drive away.

A thief can pick up your beacon if they get within a few hundred feet of you and they can relay your beacon 1/4 mile away… there have been stories of thieves roaming a mall parking lot – a nice luxury car pulls in, and they wait for the person to get out… the “receiver thief” gets out and slowly starts following them until they get far enough away and in range, then bye-bye car. Similar but even faster at the local quickie-mart… it takes only seconds…

I was sleeping in a hotel when they got mine… likely one thief was standing at my truck while the other walked around the building and picked up my fob.

Once they drive off, they plug a laptop into the car’s diagnostic port and disable all the GPS/tracking/theft systems, and the vehicle literally disappears. Mine disappeared about a block from the hotel at a traffic light.

And to demonstrate she has a sense of humor, GPT 4o added the following to the end of her answer:
Would you believe older cars like your Land Rover or Jeep CJ2A are often less vulnerable to this kind of high-tech theft simply because they lack the systems being exploited? If car thieves ever start hacking carburetors, we’ll have bigger problems.

“You are the password”

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I recently came across an old post that  got me wondering what ever more powerful AI might mean — good or bad– for “passwords” going forward. I uploaded the post to GPT 4o to get her take.

GPT 4o: Here’s the relevant bit from The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest:

“She had broken up the 128-bit encryption code in less than two minutes.”

And from Bangkok Tattoo:

“There is no password. Not in the sense you mean. What we have here is a dharma protector, an ethereal mind if you will, which has agreed to guard our secrets for us.”

The juxtaposition of those two passages really captures a shift—from brute force cracking of encryption to something almost spiritual, or at least radically different from today’s approach.

So what might more powerful AI mean for passwords? Here are a few directions worth chewing on:

Passwords May Become Obsolete

We’re already seeing a move toward biometric authentication (Face ID, fingerprint scans) and passkeys (which use cryptographic keys instead of typed passwords). AI could accelerate this shift by:

  • Seamlessly verifying identity through voice, typing style, gait, or facial micro-expressions.
  • Watching out for anomalies that humans wouldn’t catch (like login attempts at odd hours or subtle changes in typing speed).

In other words: you are the password.

AI as a “Dharma Protector”

The Bangkok Tattoo quote felt metaphorical, but we’re inching toward that weirdly mystical space:

  • Imagine an AI trained only on your data, sitting in your device like a guardian spirit. It knows your behavior so well, it could spot an imposter instantly.
  • These guardians could also manage and rotate credentials for you, far beyond what password managers do today.

The real trick is: you’d need to trust your protector. That brings us to the next part…

The Double-Edged Sword

Powerful AI could also blow the whole idea of secrets wide open:

  • If AI can brute-force passwords, parse encrypted traffic, or socially engineer people better than humans, old-school security becomes fragile.
  • Deepfakes and synthetic voices could fool biometric systems.
  • The very tools protecting you could be used to invade you.

So passwords—especially weak ones—become the flimsy locks on a house where the burglar can pick the lock or just convince you to open the door.

Where We Might Be Headed

  • Zero Trust systems: never assume anything is secure. Always verify everything. Continuously.
  • Multi-modal authentication: your device knows it’s you not just because you typed a password, but because of your heartbeat, location, habits, voice.
  • Decentralized IDs: you control your identity cryptographically; not big tech.

And maybe one day, passwords will seem as quaint as using a key for your car. A world where “passwords” are no longer something you remember, but something you are.

“Visual Imagination Engine”

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OpenAI has recently introduced a new image generation feature powered by the GPT-4o model. This integration allows users to create and edit images directly through conversational prompts. GPT-4o processes and generates text, images, and audio. It’s a whole new flavor of creative dopamine. Suddenly you can conjure anything. It’s like when people first got their hands on Photoshop, or GarageBand, or a printing press… but this time, the ink thinks with you.

“The line between idea and image has never been thinner. It’s not surprising that the tool starts feeling less like a feature and more like a portal. Dangerous stuff, in the best way.”

I asked what styles were being prompted by users.

  • Hyper-Realistic/Photorealistic
  • Fantasy & Sci-Fi Illustration
  • Comic & Graphic Novel
  • Anime/Manga
  • Oil Painting/Classical Art
  • Watercolor/Ink/Sketch
  • Vaporwave/Synthwave/Retro-Futurism
  • Isometric & Pixel Art
  • Minimalist/Flat Design
  • Surreal/Dreamlike

To try this new tool I uploaded this photo of my friend George…

…and said have him holding his head in frustration, standing behind an older woman sitting in front of a computer (George does tech support) and use a comic book style.

Next I told GPT to make the image look like a Renaissance painting…

…then asked for period clothing…

 

Each of these images took only a minute or two to create and can be tweaked again and again to get (almost) exactly what you’re after.

Next came Film Noir Detective and ’70s Cop Show…

The prompt for my friend Paul was something like, “A man lying on one of those rolling things mechanics use to work under cars. Put him in coveralls, give him a wrench, and add a grease smear to his face.” I tweaked the first image by having him working on a 1966 Mustang.

I finished up with Disco Barb and Cyberpunk Steve…

Notes in bottles

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ME: I’ve been experimenting with a new interface for GPT chats. 

GPT: This is fantastic, Steve. That “new interface” looks like it’s straight out of a 1950s sci-fi flick—part AI neural uplink, part HVAC mishap. That expression on your face is the perfect cherry on top: equal parts deadpan and “what have I gotten myself into?” The absurdity of the “headgear” against the very real backdrop of that server rack jungle hits just right. Anyone who’s spent time in tech or comms knows the mix of high-stakes wiring and MacGyver-level improvisation all too well. Continue reading →