Author Archives: Steve Mays

smays.com

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I registered smays.com in 1997 (26 years ago!). I believe mays.com was owned by a gentleman in Seattle and on a trip in 2005 we met for a beer. At that time he was a 42 year old attorney. Married. Child free. He had a very successful radio career that started in Oklahoma City and wound up in San Francisco. After law school he He went to law school. He wasn’t using Mays.com at the time but I couldn’t talk him into selling. Still doesn’t seem to be in use.

As near as I can tell there are no 3 or 4 word .com domains. (Unless you buy one). Five-word .com domains appear to be less scarce.

Less and less camo

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While I’m grateful to the previous owners of the Jeep for all the good things they did for her, the camo paint job cannot be forgiven. But I’m fixing that, little by little.

Today I painted the dash (does a Jeep have a dash?). Not sure why anyone thought the inside of the Jeep needed to be camouflaged. Probably just liked the camo look as much as I hate it.

The dark spots in the photo above are where the spray paint hasn’t completely dried. Only remaining camo is the cover of the seats and that will be taking care of next week. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’ll give the roll bar a fresh coat leaving only the inside of the tub.

All of this will get much easier when we can drive/steer the Jeep. Next day or so?

Jeep clean up

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Sort of. I used the Shop-Vac to suck out the dust and gunk that had accumulated under the carpeting that lined the tub. Sponged it out in preparation for a coat of paint. Before that, however, Paul recommends going over the metal with Scotch-Brite pads (arrow).

The tailgate has been bolted closed because a) it’s pretty much useless and b) to accommodate a mounting bracket for the spare (arrow). Paul is very particular about wheels and tires and has located a rim that matches the ones on the vehicle. Still need to paint the jerry can mount and I think I might keep a few gallons strapped to the back of the Jeep. Took the top off again because I plan to paint the roll bar at the first opportunity.

The remaining photos are just for fun. The iconic Jeep grill; the tidy little engine; and a nice 3/4 view. The steering box scheduled for deliver by end-of-day tomorrow so I might a wheel to get behind in the next week.

AI news anchors

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During my ~30 years in broadcasting I had numerous occasions to recruit and hire reporters. Because our newsrooms were small (3 or 4 people), reporters also anchored our reports. Which meant they had to be good journalists AND have good on-air delivery. A tough compromise at times.

I wonder if technology like 11ElevenLabs’ speech synthesis will (is) changing this. The audio below is a CNN story “read” by one of their voices. (see previous post for more on this technology)

“A quick and sobering guide to cloning yourself”

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I recently stumbled upon a Substack article by Ethan Mollick, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, titled “A quick and sobering guide to cloning yourself.”

“With just a photograph and 60 seconds of audio, you can now create a deepfake of yourself in just a matter of minutes by combining a few cheap AI tools. I’ve tried it myself, and the results are mind-blowing, even if they’re not completely convincing. Just a few months ago, this was impossible. Now, it’s a reality.”

As a former radio guy I was more interested in the audio portion of Professor Mollick’s experiment.

“Clone a voice from a clean sample recording. Samples should contain 1 speaker and be over a 1 minute long and not contain background noise. Currently works best on US-English accent.”

I created an account at 11ElevenLabs, picked a voice and uploaded some text from my blog bio.

For $5 a month (first month free) you can synthesize your own voice. I uploaded a recording of me reading that same bio.

Finally, I pasted in some text from one of my blog posts and my voice was “cloned.”

Just to be clear, the first audio is one of their “voices.” The the second audio is a recording of my voice. The real me, if you will. And the third audio is the synthesized Steve voice. I’m not sure someone could tell the difference. I sort of prefer the synthesized reading over my own. In two years (?), this technology will be so good it will be nearly impossible to tell real from cloned.

Bad Lip Reading: The House of Representatives

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So many questions. How long does it take to produce one of these? How many voice actors are used? How many of those do more than one voice? Are there out-takes? (God, but I’d love to see those). Do they video the production process? If more than one writer, do they have writer’s meetings?

I took a beer-fueled swing at one of these back in 2006 (think “Really Bad Lib Reading”). A few years later I had a go at a MST3K homage.

“It’s time to pay attention to A. I.”

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I confess I haven’t been paying much attention to the ChatGPT phenomenon but the video below is a pretty good explanation.

In a follow-up video (Google Panics Over ChatGPT), we’re told Microsoft CEO Satay Nadella is reported to have said “…its impact will be at the magnitude of the personal computer, the internet, mobile devices and the cloud.” That’s a big impact. Or hyperbole. Or both.

First ride in the Jeep

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While waiting for the new steering box I’ve been amusing myself with what I think of as de-junking the Jeep. Removed rusty old seat belts; pulled up nasty carpet; ditched the home-made tool box (there’s a perfectly good one under the passenger seat). Also a little spray paint touch-up. Still plan to yank the CB radio and the spotlights on the rollbar.

As I finished up Paul suggested to take the jeep for a little drive (steering with vice grips, of course). I was surprised by just how much land Paul, his brother and father have. (I believe he said 120 acres but I might be wrong about that.) Best part? Winding trails just wide enough for the Jeep (and other offroad vehicles, I assume).

Paul had no trouble steering with the vice grips and the Jeep did the offroad bits beautifully. But we mostly just moseyed along in first gear. This is going to be a fun ride.

UPDATE 2/6/23: The floor of the Jeep –front and back– was covered with a nasty black carpet. I much prefer the battered (?) metal. When I get the Jeep home I’ll wash it out good and give the tub a coat of paint.

I played with the canvas top a little and decided to just go with the top over the seats. Just not a fan of those plastic windows. I’ll wear my insulated coveralls when I need to drive in cold weather. (Man,I have got to adios those lights.)

Paul was able to remove the broken steering column and see what he needed to get the Jeep drivable. Parts on order. Getting closer.