Q & A Presents: Maui Online! Hawaii's Only Computer Talk Show!

We’re finally going to tackle the very thorny A.I. subject this week. A.I. – Part 1 A.I. has become a buzzy catchall term for applications that perform complex tasks that once required human input. From communicating to end users, to playing chess, to making movies, A.I. has been a tech that’s been with us longer than most people know. A.I. media headlines are dominated by news about A.I. art, but there’s also unprecedented progress in many widely disparate fields. Everything from videos to biology, programming, writing, translation, and more is seeing A.I. progress at the same incredible pace. The breakthroughs are all underpinned by a new class of A.I. models that are more flexible and powerful than anything that has come before. Because they were first used for language tasks like answering questions and writing essays, they’re often known as Large Language Models, or LLMs. There’s a holy trinity in machine learning: models, data, and compute. Models are algorithms that take inputs and produce outputs. Dat

We continue our AI show! A.I. – Part 2 We talk about ethics, concerns, impact, and more! Want more reading? Well then, here we go! https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/02/dont-worry-about-ai-breaking-out-of-its-box-worry-about-us-breaking-in/ https://www.neowin.net/editorials/microsoft-just-cant-seem-to-get-ai-chatbots-right/ https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-reveals-more-about-prometheus-and-how-it-powers-the-new-bing/ https://theweek.com/feature/briefing/1020909/how-ai-brought-back-the-internet-search-wars https://www.karencommins.com/2023/02/revoked-findaways-license-to-apple-for-machine-learning.html https://www.laurahorowitz.com/post/stop-spotify-from-stealing-your-intellectual-property https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/01/07/why-computer-assisted-humans-are-the-best-chess-players-and-what-that-means-for-technology-operations/?sh=67bda7d514e0 https://www.tomshardware.com/news/ai-chip-layout-tool-has-helped-design-over-100-chips https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-announced-new-bin

Meteors and asteroids and meteorites, oh my! We’re joined by Dr. Armstrong from the UH Institute for Astronomy as well Tracey, our favorite librarian! Rocks From Space! For further reading? https://www.kplctv.com/2023/02/17/nasa-fireball-seen-south-texas-meteorites-hit-ground/ https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/residents-asked-to-be-on-lookout-for-fallen-meteor-that-landed-in-ontario-1.6163932 https://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/for-families/

Science! Local Kids Make Good Science! It’s not just for old people in lab coats and plans of world domination. Our local keiki are getting involved and doing well! Dr. Armstrong talks about the projects seen at the science & engineering fair! Let’s celebrate their work! https://www.mauinews.com/news/local-news/2023/02/kamehameha-maui-baldwin-students-advance-to-international-science-fair/ https://dailyastronomy.vercel.app/blog/two-supermassive-black-holes-are-expected-to-collide-within-next-3-years-and-we-will-watch-it-in-real-time

Email was one of the killer apps for the internet. Email 101 Today, it’s still widely used for shopping, social media, checking in on the kids’ progress at school, registering for services, and even sending letters to friends or family. We go over some of the basics of this day-to-day tool! https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/ https://www.techradar.com/news/best-email-provider https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/02/mozilla-plans-ground-up-ui-redesign-for-thunderbird-email-client-this-july/

Internet Explorer is officially done and over with. However, its bones are still lingering in Windows. IE11 Removal and Unintended Consequences Microsoft is removing some of the remnants from the OS with patch coming on February 14th to take out a chunk. Programs that rely on those parts of Internet Explorer within Windows will start running into problems when they suddenly can’t find what they’re looking for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt https://qz.com/2011408/some-companies-will-still-use-internet-explorer-after-its-retired https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/internet-explorer-11-desktop-app-retirement-faq/ba-p/2366549 https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/security-risk/use-built-browser-quickbooks-desktop/ https://www.diversifiedcomputer.net/blog/critical-alert-pop-up-quickbooks-end-support-for-quickbooks-browser/ https://magazine.promomarketing.com/post/quickbooks-built-in-browser-replaces-internet-explorer/ And a quick story on the Chinese l

Be careful what you look for. Search TRAPS The bad guys know you want games, productivity software and other apps for your computer or phone. Well, guess what? They’ll put them online but make them into traps for you! But now? The way they’ll do it is by placing fake ads! On-no! We talk about that and how to stay safe! https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/until-further-notice-think-twice-before-using-google-to-download-software/

Got a new cable modem for home or work? Got it hooked up? Got it set up? Is it working yet? No? Did you get activated? Yes? What’s going on? Connectivity 101 Sam found out the hard way. He did everything he was supposed to by the instructions (he even read them!), but to no avail. One quick call to Q&A he got directed in the right direction. So, what did he have to do? Well, we’ll talk about it!

Microsoft 2013 will be coming to end-of-support. It’s about 10 years old! Office 2013’s expiration, what it may portend… No more patches or updates. That’s a big deal! Are you going to update 2016 or Office 365? Or maybe move to something else? What’s right for you? Have a debate! https://www.pcmag.com/news/microsofts-silent-update-checks-your-windows-pc-for-old-versions-of-office https://www.windowscentral.com/why-use-libre-office-over-microsoft-office https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/microsoft-word-versus-google-docs/ https://www.neowin.net/editorials/microsoft-365-is-my-favorite-microsoft-product/ Looking for alternatives to buying full-lead Office? We have lists and alternatives! https://www.techradar.com/news/best-microsoft-office-alternative https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/dont-pay-word-5-reasons-use-office-online/ https://alternativeto.net/software/microsoft-office-suite/ https://www.makeuseof.com/reasons-apple-pages-better-word/ https://www.libreoffice.org/ https://www.openoffice.org/ https://www

Batteries. It’s hard to imagine modern life without them. Our phones, cars, flashlights, and more rely on them. But what do you do when they give up the ghost and die? Battery Disposal on Maui Is throwing them away really the best option? We talk about that! And remember that Maui County and the state of Hawai’i has a lot of new officials you should contact! https://www.epa.gov/recycle https://www.mauicounty.gov/2529/Metals-Appliances-Tires-Batteries-Etc-Re https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-properly-dispose-of-batteries-4767171 https://www.homedepot.com/c/ab/how-to-dispose-of-batteries/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90124a115f1 https://www.call2recycle.org/safety/faqs-resources/ Want better recycling options? Contact your reps! https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/legislature/legislators.aspx?chamber=H http://mauicounty.us/councilmembers/