Who’s That Actor? Revisited

I was watching The Four Seasons yesterday, and there were a couple of actors I wondered who were. I mean, not Alan Alda, but a couple of the others… so I hit the “Emacs, tell me who what is” button on my remote, and nothing much happened.

So things had bitrotted once again, which isn’t weird — the code is a bit of a Rube Goldberg thing which you can peruse here, but I wouldn’t really recommend it.

But I’ve spent the entire day fixing it, so I deserve to complain aimlessly in a blog post, right?

OK?

OK: The main problem is that AI web scrapers are hitting imdb so hard that Amazon has tightened its shield even more. The main motor behind the Actor Guessing Machine is an LLM, and that API still works (if you can call “being wrong half of the time” to “work”), but I’m trying to use imdb to show the actor’s face (see inset on the top right above) so that I can check whether what the LLM said is likely.

My first idea was to just avoid using imdb altogether. Instead I asked the LLM to include an image of the actor, too. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Well, Gemini will do this if you ask — but it takes 45 seconds or so. Yes! 45 seconds! So that’s not very UX-ey.

I also tried using Claude, but it sternly told me that I was very naughty for even trying to make it output images of real people, and that I should be ashamed of myself. Oh, and then also (since I had asked it to return JSON and nothing else), it also included this in the middle of the rant:

```json
[]
```

🤷

So… Back to imdb: I’m already using a headless Chrome to fetch imdb data, but now it requires popping up Chrome (once in a while) to click on some hats or something:

How elegant! I’m so proud of the UX!

So what I’m doing is running a “server” (Emacs based, of course) on the laptop, and when the TV computer needs to get some imdb data, it (Emacs) asks the laptop (Emacs), and if it then turns out that it needs to pop up a window, it can do so (Chrome).

*sigh*

So… it’s all a bit stupid. And is it worth it? Eh. It’s probably gonna break in a few weeks anyway. I guess I’m more offended that I have to do this much work more than anything else. The challenge? Eh. Dunno.

But when it doesn’t need a popup, it’s kinda OK:

See? So… eh.

Oh, and while I’m moaning and carrying on:

LLMs are still guessomats. I ask the LLM (Gemini, in this case) to include the imdb ID of the actor in the response, and it will totally just make up an ID. So that’s not Carol Burnett in the inset image there.

And is that really Alan Alda?

That’s definitely not Alan Alda.

I guess that could be Alan Alda.

Anyway, since Gemini just makes up imdb IDs, I’m instead resorting to using the imdb data dump — when I get “Alan Alda” back from the LLM, I then look up the name in the imdb data dump database (that I have locally) and use that instead. If the name is spelt differently there than what Gemini returned? Well, them’s the breaks.

So this is totally a toy, but it’s kinda useful anyway.

4AD Tape Chains Vol II: Limitless

This is the second tape chain that we did on the 4ad-l list in the mid 90s. I guess it really was about the last time in history you could do a tape chain. A few years earlier, Frauenhofer (that’s literally what it was named) had invented mp3s, and then the free mp3 encoder lame was released some years later and everybody started distributing mp3s instead.

Which was a better idea, really. (For more blathering about what this all was, read the first part of this blog series.)

But here’s the second tape:

The first tape, RareOne, was comprised of tracks released on samplers and the like — nothing actually released on 4AD. This one is all about limited edition 7″ things that 4AD had put out, so it’s a bit more controversial business wise, I guess.

But while you’re listening to the tape, you can also read the magnificently designed tape:

Such serious.

Heh. “Master”.

And these are the tracks…

… and these, too. Some good stuff on here!

4AD Tape Chains Vol I: RareOne

In the late 80s/early 90s, there was a mailing list dedicated to the record label 4AD. It was called *drum roll* 4ad-l.

Lots of fannish activity happened on the list — there were various fanzines (the one with the largest reach was probably Dewdrops) and there was even a CD of 4AD covers called Thurtene.

I used to have a recurring dream about going home and looking in the drawers of my desk and finding letters intended for my 4AD fanzine, so that I could put the fanzine together and publish it — even though it’s now years later.

But that never happened! I never had a fanzine on the go! A fake dream! Who has heard of such a thing!

(At least I think so… but writing this now, I’m starting to wonder. If anybody remembers, let me know!)

I did, however, arrange several tape chains. That is, people sent me tapes with various rarities, and I edited them down to one tape “master”, and then I made a copy of that, printed out a list of everybody on the chain, and finally sent it out to the first person on the list.

Who was then supposed to make a copy of the tape, and then send it on to the next person on the list.

I even made a sheaf of covers, where each person would take only one.

I think only two of these tape chains happened — because the first one stalled after a dozen people got the tape, and the second one stalled even earlier, if I remember correctly.

Man! People! So unreliable!

I mean, I understand it — most people had a tape player back then, but to make a copy you need two players, so you plan on borrowing one, but then that takes a lot of time, and then you get embarrassed about taking so much time, so you just pretend to forget about it all, and live with the shame the rest of your life.

Probably!

I just happened onto the drawer where my “master tapes” live today, so I thought — why not just finally make these bootlegs of 4AD rarities available? If you were on that tape chain and never got the tape, here’s what you were waiting for! Only 35 (?) years late!

While you’re listening to the tape, you can admire my tape design:

Sleek, huh? (Oh, and the front is, of course, a stolen Beto Hernandez drawing.)

Yes, and a summary on the flip thing…

And here’s all the info about what’s on the tape. Click to embiggen.

I have no recollection of what I used to make this design, but it sure looks like LaTeX, so it’s probably that.

So this tape contains mostly alternate versions of tracks sourced from many different places. Some live versions, but mostly demos and remixes from non-4AD compilations stuff, I guess.

OK, that’s the first one — I’ll post the remaining three ones over the next few days.