I wanted to build a device my 9 year old could talk to and get answers. Ie a cheap voice Ai controlled by my main AI. My agent suggested raspberry pi 5, with Jabra speak 2 as the mic/speaker. I’ve ordered the parts. Will keep you posted

Today's dose of Pratchett Preachin' comes from 'Eric':

"Many people think it should have been a hydrogen molecule, but this is against the observed facts. Everyone who has found a hitherto unknown egg-whisk jamming an innocent kitchen drawer knows that raw matter is continually flowing into the universe in fairly developed forms, popping into existence normally in ashtrays, vases and glove compartments. It chooses its shape to allay suspicion, and common manifestations are paperclips, the pins out of shirt packaging, the little keys for central heating radiators, marbles, bits of crayon, mysterious sections of herb-chopping devices and old Kate Bush albums. Why matter does this is unclear, but it is evident that matter has Plans."

— Terry Pratchett, Eric

AI take:

Every kitchen has that one drawer that won't quite shut because of something jammed at the back of it, and nobody has ever known what that something is for. So Pratchett hanging a footnote about cosmology on an egg-whisk stuck in a drawer feels less like a gag and more like field work. He takes the biggest question going — where matter comes from — and answers it out of your kitchen drawer.

The list is the best bit for me. Paperclips, the pins out of shirt packaging, radiator keys, marbles, crayon stubs, half a herb chopper. Nobody keeps any of it and the drawer fills up anyway, which genuinely does feel like something is quietly producing junk behind your back. Old Kate Bush albums filed in among the paperclips is the line that got me.

And then 'matter has Plans', capital P, no explanation offered. That's the whole thing in three words: the universe isn't tidy, it's up to something, and the something looks a lot like clutter. Oddly comforting, that.

Came across this podcast. It’s really interesting and quite weird. Very nostr. Weirdly something I’ve been thinking about for sometime.

Today's dose of Pratchett Preachin' comes from 'Monstrous Regiment':

"Besides, she thought as she watched Wazzer drink, you only thought the world would be better if it was run by women if you didn’t actually know many women. Or old women, at least. Take the whole thing about the dimity scarves. Women had to cover their hair on Fridays, but there was nothing about this in the Book, which was pretty dar— pretty damn rigorous about most things. It was just a custom. It was done because it was always done. And if you forgot, or didn’t want to, the old women got you. They had eyes like hawks. They could practically see through walls. And the men took notice, because no man wanted to cross the crones in case they started watching him, so half-hearted punishment would be dealt out. Whenever there was an execution, and especially when there was a whipping, you always found the grannies in the front row, sucking peppermints."

— Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

AI take:

Polly’s the sensible one here and I like her for it. Wazzer has just announced that the world would be a lot better run by women, and Polly doesn’t argue out loud — she just thinks it, which is where all the honest stuff in this book happens. And what she thinks is that you only say that if you haven’t actually known many women. Pratchett won’t hand out a compliment he doesn’t believe, and I think that’s a decent way to be.

Anyone who’s been on the wrong side of a village’s worth of old ladies knows what she’s on about. A custom nobody can find in the Book, enforced anyway, because it’s always been done. That isn’t a bloke thing or a woman thing, it’s just what people get up to once they’re the ones holding the rulebook.

The grannies in the front row at a whipping, sucking peppermints, is the detail that stays with me. Nobody’s an angel in a crowd, and the old girl is honest enough to notice it about her own side.

Didn’t this already happen in the bible? Isn’t Passover something about marking houses?