Introduction

Hosts:

• MrX
• Dave Morriss

We recorded this on Saturday May 20^th 2023. We met in person again, and as before first visited the pub called The Steading where we had lunch. Then we adjourned to Dave’s Citroen car (Studio C) in the car park, and recorded a chat.

The region where we met is close to a village called Hillend, which led to the show title.

Topics discussed

• ChatGPT:
  • MrX did two shows in May using ChatGPT. He has used it more than Dave has.
  • MrX has an iPhone and can use ChatGPT from it. He uses it as a source of information when out and about. For instance, to find out about the history of Musselburgh Harbour.
  • MrX has also used ChatGPT to write experimental Python scripts.
  • There is a TED talk by Greg Brockman, the inventor of ChatGPT.
  • Discussion of the Call Annie app
  • ELIZA the program that was written in the 1960s and simulated conversation well enough to convince people.

• Audacity/Tenacity audio editors:
  • Web sites: Audacity and Tenacity.
  • Audacity Wikipedia page
  • MrX and Dave have both used Audacity for several years.
  • Audacity was forked after it was taken over by Muse Group, and Tenacity was developed. However, it doesn’t seem that there have been any releases on Tenacity to date.
  • The most recent versions of Audacity have contained changes - in particular the way the audio project is stored has changed. Instead of a directory filled with various files there is now a single project file with the extension .aup3 which is a SQLite database. This was changed in March 2021 for Version 3.0.
    • Previously Audacity stored the project as a file called <project>.aup and a directory called <project>_data/ containing sub-directories and files.
  • MrX reports changes in the way multiple tracks are handled. Dave finds that the horizontal scrollbar has disappeared (which seems to be a bug).

• Dr John Campbell:
  • YouTube channel
  • During the COVID-19 epidemic the channel contained a lot of information about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, vaccines, disease, treatments, etc, which seemed to be helpful and well researched.
  • At one point there was a lot of talk about Ivermectin as a drug that could help with the disease, but although this received no support from scientific research, it seemed to be receiving more and more exposure on the channel.
  • From then on the quality of the content on the channel seemed to deteriorate, and it no longer seems trustworthy.
  • Other sources have been critical, including Debunk the Funk with Dr Wilson

• The Doctor Who Exhibition:
  • Dave met with Andrew Conway and Andrew’s friend, and all went to the exhibition held at the National Museum of Scotland.
  • The exhibition contained a lot of Doctor Who memorabilia, including some original props.
  • MrX and the group that went to the exhibition have all watched Doctor Who over the years. All have lost interest at some point but then resumed, particularly after the show was restarted in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper.
  • Discussion about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where the Doctor Who sound effects were made as well as the signature tune. Also the Mellotron, a keyboard that played tape loops.

• Mechanical musical instruments:
  • The Swedish band Wintergatan use mechanical instruments in their music and Martin Molin, a band member is responsible for some of them. He did a series on YouTube about mechanical instruments: Music Machine Mondays at the Museum Speelklok in Utrecht which is great to watch if you are interested.
  • Dave also mentioned musical instrument museums in Berlin and Brussels.
  • MrX mentioned a museum in Dalbeattie, a town in Dumfries and Galloway in the Scottish Borders. In the museum there had been a chance to play a barrel organ.

• YouTube channels:
  • Dave:
    • (Mentioned earlier) Debunk the Funk with Dr Wilson - the host, Dan Wilson, has a Ph.D. in molecular biology that covers bad science while making good science accessible. The channel focuses mainly on pseudoscience surrounding the anti-vaccine movement and COVID misinformation.
    • Little Chinese Everywhere - Yan is a Human Geographer who studied in Switzerland. The first season was “The Longest Way Back Home (Switzerland to China)” where she travelled over land to China. She is now producing videos for season 2 about China itself. She plans to visit every province in mainland China and make videos.
      • Dave mentioned the episode about Yanjin City in Yunnan. It is mentioned in Wikipedia as the “World’s Narrowest City”, either side of the narrow Heng River valley, a tributary of the Yangtze.
  • MrX:
    • Ron Mattino - a channel dedicated to electronics, programming and engineering.
      • Mentioned episode about the pins on a smartphone battery: Why do MOBILE BATTERIES have THREE terminals? A simple Explanation.

Links

• Artificial Intelligence:
  • ChatGPT
  • TED talk by Greg Brockman
  • Call Annie application
  • ELIZA early chatbot

• Audio editing:
  • Audacity web site
  • Audacity Wikipedia page
  • Tenacity web site

• Science misinformation:
  • Dr John Campbell’s YouTube channel

• Doctor Who:
  • BBC Radiophonic Workshop

• Mechanical musical instruments:
  • Music Machine Mondays
  • Museum Speelklok
  • Berlin music museum
  • Brussels music museum
  • Dalbeattie museum

• YouTube:
  • Debunk the Funk with Dr Wilson
  • Little Chinese Everywhere
  • Ron Mattino