I wanted to modify one of my BASH scripts this morning - so as an exercise, I asked ChatGPT to do it. Just a minor change, but it did it correctly.

Then I asked it if it could tell what the purpose of the script is. It was spot on.



Made me feel slightly uncomfortable in all honesty. There's no direct way to infer the above information from the script. It takes a bit of intuition; especially about the blocks being a representation of the time spent.

Wordle 655 5/6

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Not good. Ten minutes.

094: Bilko, the Art Lover

Bilko has come over uncharacteristically strict and military for some reason, which naturally his platoon find troubling as well as highly inconvenient.

The camp doctor diagnoses "a case of nerves". "With most people it's overwork; in your case I don't know what it is", he adds. But he prescribes a week's furlough.

Being rather short of cash for travelling expenses, Bilko remembers a young man who was a member of the platoon a few years previously. Rocco remembers him as "the only millionaire's son we ever had in this platoon", but I'm sure there have been at least two.

Furthermore, the wealthy young man in this episode isn't one of them. He's Alan Alda, in his first speaking TV part. I checked to see if Alda was playing the same character from the first series episode The Rich Kid - which would have been a nice bit of continuity apart from the casting - but the name is different. This one is called Carlisle.

Bilko wangles an invitation to stay at the lad's family's mansion in New York. Unfortunately when he gets there, he discovers that not only is Carlisle yet to inherit his fortune, he's determined to live the life of an impoverished bohemian artist.

It's a variation on a theme we've seen quite a few times now, with Bilko posing as an expert to pull the wool over people's eyes. But Bilko's manipulating impersonation as a branch manager at the young man's father's firm is a delight.

Young Alan is, as you might expect from someone who went on to be one of America's most celebrated television actors, pretty good in this. The plot idea is weak. But Silvers' performance is strong.

Another dry day. Sunnier than Sunday, a bit warmer and the wind was lighter as well, coming from the south. I got out of work indecently early with the intention of going down the southbound route for 20 miles or so, then back up.

When I got to Stoney Stanton after 18 miles I kept straight on over the roundabout - the usual route for down Fosse Way, although I wasn't going to do more than another couple of miles. Just messing around. Then at Sapcote I turned right on a whim. Turned for home after 20 miles, though I came back into Stoney Stanton on a different road and ended up taking a fairly busy road back to Earl Shilton, where I rejoined the usual route.

I think I did much the same thing on a ride over the Christmas holiday. A but unfortunate to be doing that busy road during the rush hour, would have been fine on a Sunday, albeit still a bit urban.

Really lovely out there, sunny and spring-like.

Back on 40.69 miles.

https://www.strava.com/activities/8832280635

Would have suspected a problem somewhere in the Amazon cloud. Didn't notice it myself this morning but had something similar a few months ago.

Very consistent performance so far Reg, which maintains your one point lead - unless Picnic gets it in 2 today, or Thenop gets it in 1.

Wordle 654 3/6

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Took about half an hour.

Fascinating .. this was recorded at the very cusp of their success. They were touring the UK supporting Roy Orbison roughly at this time, then when the first single took off, they were switched to headlining the concerts they'd been booked as a support act. They'd just released the first album.

I've been meaning to try the first one for a while. Must set some time aside to do that.

On my 42nd birthday in 2002 I treated myself to a trip down to London. I'd been back in Derby for a few months by this time and often used to go there on a Saturday. Although this was a Tuesday as it happens but anyway ..

In the car on the way down I turned the radio on to find a documentary about The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and Douglas Adams. The number 42 was discussed. Adams had chosen it at random to be the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Later, after I'd arrived in London I realised the significance of the limited edition IWC watch that I was wearing. It was number 42 of a limited edition of 50, and had 42/50 engraved on the back. I did wear if reasonably often but hadn't thought about the number when I'd put it on.

On the way back to Derby I turned the car radio on again and switched to Radio 2. They were broadcasting a documentary about the musical 42nd Street.

I'm familiar with this phenomenon though I don't really understand it and I've never experienced its benefits myself. But there's an ASMR subgenre of porn in which the performer (usually a solo female) whispers and breathes very close to a microphone.

Just googled it out of curiosity and found one in which a young lady places a woolly sock over her mic and strokes it with two mascara brushes.

Quote from: Fishy on April 03, 2023, 07:57:30 PMThe only one that happens to me every so often is that someone comes to mind that I haven't seen for a long time and within a day or so I see them.. and it's not friends or acquaintances just random people that pop into my brain...

I used to get that one as a kid, when I was about thirteen. Seemed uncanny and it used to freak out my mum. I'd mention some friend of the family or relative to her that we hadn't heard from for months, and later the same day or the next there'd be a telephone call from them.

093: Bilko Saves Ritzik's Marriage

It's Ritzik's 15th wedding anniversary, but instead of being home by 8pm to celebrate with her as he promised, he succumbs to the temptation of a poker game with Bilko and the other master sergeants instead.

Ritzik's wife is terrifying of course, so inevitably this puts the poor man in something of a sticky situation. Bilko offers to help, but his cunning plan fails and Mrs Ritzik is determined to end her marriage.

Ritzik isn't particularly disappointed with this outcome but Bilko feels responsible and hatches an implausibly elaborate plot to get them back together. Ritzik turns out to be considerably more pliable than his wife, of course.

Any episode with Mrs Ritzik in it is a good one and this is no exception. She was played by Beatrice Pons, who was eight years older than Joe Ross (Ritzik).

Alan Alda famously got his TV debut in the very next episode Bilko, The Art Lover but I spotted him as an extra in this one. A very brief, non-speaking part. He plays a punter queuing up at the ticket office in a cinema.

There's a strange moment in this one, during the card game at the beginning. Ritzik puts his hand on a seated Bilko's shoulder and Bilko mutters "take your hands off me". It's not funny and it's completely incongruous to the plot.

The first mobile phone call was made 50 years ago today, in New York.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65112048

But six years later, the technology was still in its infancy as this Tomorrow's World piece from 1979 shows. Sometimes it's hard to believe I was alive in those times.