The Geek in Me: "So We Bought a Pack of Cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner Pies"
Friday, July 14, 2023
It continues to amuse me that I keep changing the web design of this site and no one can tell. Yesterday, I changed the <mark> tag that features a color similar to a Sharpie highlighter, added transparency and an ever slight gradient coming off to mimic a pen. Before that, I switched out the whites, off-whites and semi-blacks for good ol' #000000 and #ffffff.
Yep, good 'ol plain black and white.
I then went back and used HEX transparency to emulate the colors of the prior palette. This whole setup allows me the option to make to mark a special day with a tint and not change the feel. Outside of a Google Chart's line that's hardcoded, my entire site is just this:
--text: #000000b8;
--light: #0000001a;
--neutral: #00000033;
--canvas: #ffffffe6;
--accent: #b70d00cc;
--highlighter: #edfe5fb3;
Life is shades.
I've been trying to get ChatGPT to generate Javascript code for a self-contained embed of fireworks with text with a retrowave gradient sky, but the best I've got was just a perplexing series of overlapping triangles. Just because, you know? But, our cybernetic overlords still have a little work to do.
That said, I do find this Johnny Cash AI cover of Barbie Girl, Spice Girls and more in the sound of Folsom Prison Blues to be OUTSTANDING. The critical thing is to not just emulate the audio but to create something wholly different.
...and yet, while the following fail that criteria, I do like these simple AI covers of Taylor Swift of Blinding Lights and (the just tad low) Fast Car.
Sometimes, I just like human cleverness. There's an oddball corner of my brain where this mashup plays prominently on the DJ set list:
Has AI been around longer, maybe like since at least October 2009? This beloved scene totally comes off as an AI creation:
(...and again, there's a place in my head where that takes place).
But, AI does not have to be wonky. It can elicit an emotional response! Years ago, I went through a big Coldplay phase; this Chris Martin seems spot on: How to Save a Life. Yeah, there's a place up there with that melody, too.