ABSILVER's World

I have had this blog for almost 17 years. I went back and read one of my first posts . It still rings true to who I am. Some years, I may have shared more than I should, and some years, the posts have been sparse. Sometimes, life gets very busy: work, travel, and even some fun. However, there have also been moments when I didn’t think what I had to say was right, and the importance of my words was not more important than peace in my world and family. On this morning of the inauguration and the cease-fire in Israel, I feel the need to say something. I have opinions about the war in Gaza, Netanyahu, and Israel, but I have family over there who live this day to day.  I have the luxury of sitting in East Texas not worried about an air raid siren and where is the nearest shelter.  With a nephew in the Israeli army, the last thing I would want to do is to upset my family, especially my brother, whose opinions are different from my own. Here I sit on the verge of another four years o...

Wondering if AI advancements are slowing down in 2025? Yesterday at CES 2025, CEO Jensen Huang's, announced an AI ready mini-supercomputer that will fit in the palm of your hand! As I start 2025, it is AI that keeps me excited about technology and concerned about the future and its impact on us mere humans. Technology and industrial advances have changed communities and impacted everyday people for generations.  Advancements in AI, are at a pace that we have not seen in previous technology eras.   These are some of advancements in 2024, this summary is courtesy of ChatGPT and GPT40. The table coded in HTML is courtedy of ChatGPT 40 as well. Company Model/Technology Advancements/Improvements Google Gemini Ultra Multimodal integration across Google products. Enhanced user exper...

Company Model/Technology Advancements/Improvements Google Gemini Ultra Multimodal integration across Google products. Enhanced user experience with more advanced AI capabilities. Gemma Smaller, more efficient model with 7 billion parameters trained on 6 trillion tokens. Improved efficiency for various tasks. IBM Granite Code Models Introduced code generation and debugging capabilities. Open-source, Apache 2.0 license for greater accessibility. Meta Llama 3.1 Released the largest-ever open-source AI model with 405 billion parameters. Claimed to outperform GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet on several benchmarks. ...

  I typically avoid publishing my birthday.  Thanksgiving birthdays are easy to ignore, and especially at an older age, I am fine with ignored birthdays.  I usually spend most of the days ahead of my birthday, asking people not to mention it on Facebook or anywhere else.  However, turning 60 feels like a moment to share.  In fact,  turning 60 feels odd. There is no way I can consider myself middle-aged anymore.  I can't imagine living to 120 or wanting to, to be honest.  I feel good, walk about 25 miles weekly, and feel strong.  Just a reality that life is progressing, and my life is changing.  I think people who say age is just a number are delusional and or are young. I have some thoughts and ideas to share about lessons learned in the brief 60 years I have been on this planet.  If you are happy and content in your life, then accept all the good and bad in your life up to this moment.  Without those experiences, you would not...

  Have you listened to or watched Kamala Harris's concession speech?  It was truly amazing. It is easy, trust me, to want to flee this country for somewhere that may be more friendly.   There may be somewhere where the cost of living is low enough to be able to retire earlier.   You may feel fed up with what this election says about the United States and its population. Or, maybe you are like me, a Gay Jewish Male thinking about whether there are safer havens in the USA to be in over the next few challenging years. You may be like me, with family, parents, and extended family here, making the idea of moving far away quite challenging. I am not here to judge any choices, but I also want to hark back to the core of Harris's speech, which is that this is a long fight, and she still believes in the goodness of the USA and its constitution. That said, why was this such a surprise? The press kept talking about the similar percentage of eligible voters who vote, b...

I don’t know where to start, I cry: I cry for America.    More the home of fear and selfishness than the home of the free and brave.  I cry for women.    I cry for women who will live in fear of their own health and control of their own lives.   I cry for men: I also cry for the majority of men who do not trust women with their own bodies or their country.  I cry for Justice. A man who has been convicted of crimes against women and fraud and indicted on threats to our country was elected as a better choice.  I cry for gay people. Who have valiantly fought for rights and freedom, and I am sad that they are in jeopardy.  I cry for the world.    For a good part of my life the USA ushered in a time of what I believed was moral leadership, maybe that was an illusion after all.  I cry for Jews. 79% of Jews in this country voted for Harris. Now, we are probably on the revenge list.    I cry for noble civil servants who ...

So, I am breathless.  This election comes down to one day when many Americans eagerly vote.  I cast my vote last Friday. This morning is a rainy day in Longview, TX.  There are a number of Trump signs along my street, as expected.  There are also more than a few Harris Walz signs on the street and in the neighborhood. I try to convince myself that there are fewer Trump signs and maybe East Texas will surprise me.   Do my neighbors understand that, as nice as they are waving hello while I walk DaisyBelle, as they stop to discuss the weather, or wave as they go by in their car, that being pro-Trump makes me wonder?   When Frank helped organize a day to clean up near the creek, many of our neighbors showed up to help.  Yet, they put up Trump signs, and it makes me wonder how they really feel about the gay family down the block, with a sweet dog and pretty cat. When I was a kid, out and about, people were cordial and kind to one another, as in mo...