Random Thoughts - Page 4 - Robert J Wallace

February 13, 2025February 15, 2025

OMG, the size of the Federal Government. Elon Musk has no idea.

I recently saw a video clip of Elon Musk describing how hard it was to get a list of government agencies. Here is the clip: https://www.youtube.com /shorts/GXJvxPMY_H0

In the clip he says the Google and different AI’s say the number is around 400. Well I went to the government site https://www.opm.gov/about-us/open-government/Data/Apps/Agencies/index.aspx which lets you see the agencies. But of course the site makes it difficult to see them all. You have to use drop-down lists to filter. So for fun I used an AI to write a JavaScript program to scrape and list just the entries in the first category of “Cabinet Level Agencies”. The final result was a table with 63120 rows.

February 11, 2025February 12, 2025

New York Times game “Letterbox” bookmarklet cheat

I wrote a bookmarklet that finds a two word solution to the New York Times game “Letterbox”. It worked, but for fun I decided to let an AI rewrite it to be faster. Here is the code it came up with, but it did take several tries before it could open a new tab. It runs significantly faster than what I wrote.

February 10, 2025February 10, 2025

A Guide to Spotting & Avoiding Scams

Scams are everywhere, and they’re getting more sophisticated. But don’t worry—you’re not alone! This guide will help you recognize scams, protect yourself, and take action if you ever become a target.

February 10, 2025February 23, 2025

Executive Orders: Tool of Governance or Authoritarianism?

I was at a Superbowl party and someone claimed that President Trump is an authoritarian. I suspect an argument for that might be that presidents issue executive orders, especially if you happen to disagree with the policies of the President . Here is a brief history of executive orders and how they have been used historically, compared to recent times.

February 9, 2025February 9, 2025

The Psychology Behind Scams: How Fraudsters Exploit Human Behavior

Scams are not just about deception—they are psychological manipulations designed to exploit cognitive biases and emotional triggers. Despite advancements in security measures, fraudsters continue to succeed because they understand how people think and react under pressure. This article explores the key psychological principles that make scams effective and examine real-world examples demonstrating these tactics in action.

February 5, 2025February 5, 2025

Battle of Wits: AI vs. Community College Students

After years of teaching community college and working with AI, I’ve concluded that comparing their intelligence is like comparing apples to artificially generated images of apples. AI can instantly calculate complex derivatives that make calculus students weep, yet it confidently insists that Abraham Lincoln was the first astronaut to walk on Mars. Meanwhile, community college students might take 20 minutes to figure out how to connect to the schools network, but at least they know that playing computer games during lectures is a bad idea – most of the time.

February 1, 2025February 3, 2025

The Amygdala Hijack: How Scammers Exploit Your Brain in Romance Scams

Note: this article was written by ChatGPT.

Have you ever looked back on a situation and wondered, “What was I thinking?” That feeling of acting impulsively, without your usual logic, is often caused by what psychologists call an amygdala hijack. This reaction can make people vulnerable to emotional manipulation—and it’s exactly what romance scammers count on.

January 31, 2025February 3, 2025

Analyze WhatsApp Scams with This Simple Tool

In today’s digital world, WhatsApp scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. To help combat this, I’ve created a simple tool that lets you analyze any WhatsApp conversation for potential scam indicators. The tool extracts your conversation and copies it to your clipboard so you can easily get it analyzed by Claude.ai.

January 28, 2025January 29, 2025

Revolutionizing US Tax: A State-Based Approach

The United States federal tax system, with its complex forms, massive bureaucracy, and army of auditors, could be dramatically simplified through a revolutionary yet practical approach: eliminating direct federal tax collection in favor of a state-based system. This isn’t just a pipe dream – the framework for such a system largely exists in current state tax operations.

January 28, 2025January 29, 2025

Casting AIs in Person of Interest: Who Fits?

I have been a fan of the TV program “Person of Interest”, which has two fictional AIs in the cast. Lately a new AI has come on the market, “Deepseek”, so for fun I had the following conversation with it.

Are you familiar with the tv program “person of interest”

Yes, I’m familiar with Person of Interest! It’s a science fiction crime drama television series that aired from 2011 to 2016. The show was created by Jonathan Nolan and produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions.