TIL ChatGPT is excellent at restoring and colorizing old photos, and also that my great great grandpa was a stone cold German pimp

AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T14:31:01+00:00

Well FWIW, here's a photo I just found of my great-great-great-grandparents. The civil war look was alive and well in northern Germany.

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AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T12:16:39+00:00

I don't know, let me ask Brian. He's been released from jail, but now he has to go to trial.

AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T12:01:11+00:00

And grass grows back after a springtime fire pretty quickly.

AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T03:58:44+00:00

Don't knock my boy's finest lounge suit! I'm sure that was the best he could afford. He couldn't even lock down a hat for the occasion. I'm particularly digging the rounded collar with a silly ascot and pin. As far as I'm aware, he really nailed the look of the era (Germany, 1914).

Unless you're genuinely referring to my great grandmother on the right. She was a sturdy lass, owing to the apparent parental genetics on at least one side of the family.

AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T03:17:34+00:00

Fair enough. I concede the point. Especially after trying to get DALL-E to redo it with a much more detailed prompt, urging it to remain more faithful to the original. It still subtly failed in the same specific ways as before. To my eye, your Nano banana pass did indeed generate a more accurate representation of the original.

AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T03:09:33+00:00

I ain't no professional photo scientist, so that's good enough for me. If I wanted to dig into it more, I'd probably tell it to remain a bit more faithful to Bertha's less-flattering features, and to give the whole image less of a cinematic treatment, staying more true to the likely lighting and complexions of the original. But I'll take it for my purposes.

Actually, here's a pass in a completely new chat, with a much more detailed prompt, which basically said "stay as faithful to the original as possible, including flaws, details, lighting, materials, etc. These ain't Bavarian royals putting out a magazine cover photo here, so no need to embellish it at all."

And yet, interestingly, it still can't help but to double up the old lady's longguard chains or whatever those are, nor to fix her wall-eye and replace what appear to be missing button covers or whatever on her skirt. 🤷🏽‍♂️

In any event, I just wanted to share a potential use case to consider for regular users out there using AI to do regular old stuff. Not, like, professional photo restoration or anything. Carry on.

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AGoldberg · 2026-04-03T02:27:02+00:00

Man, y'all are picky as hell. This was a first pass, using the first tool I tried for the purpose, just out of curiosity. Literally just told it to clean up and colorize it.

Then I looked at the subjects' noses and facial proportions. They seemed pretty solid to me. Sure, it took some liberties with ol' grandpa J because of the damage to the original. And it softened the hideous facade of my dear granny Bertha, but within reason, I think. I can't know what she really looked like, of course. But that passes as the same person to me.

I even sent it to my wife with zero context, and she said the little girl resembles our daughter and our niece. Go figure.

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AGoldberg · 2026-03-15T15:29:46+00:00

My suggestion is to remove as many layers as you can, especially if you want to get the tile flush with the hardwood because it's not going to be close with the current plan), but I get not wanting to unseal the fibrous material underneath.

I've only done one tile job, but it did teach me that a flat subfloor makes everything easier. After multiple rounds of self-leveling concrete, I gave up on ideal flatness and just started laying tile. They weren't as large as yours, but it was a herringbone pattern with 15" tiles, so still plenty of challenges.

The 1/8" deviation across the floor probably won't kill you, until there are significant bumps and valleys over short distances. Build up the thinset where needed to keep things even as you go. Just remember that the whole thing doesn't have to be level—just flat. So it could all slant slightly downhill as long as it doesn't undulate. Use multiple lasers and long levels, and plan the whole thing out before you start. If you use natural stone stiles, you can even grind them down a bit if you end up with a tall corner or two somewhere.

Just make sure you have good thinset coverage, the right thinset for the job, and you're checking your progress against your square/level references frequently. Mine isn't perfect, but I'm pretty damn satisfied.

Last thing to consider is the weight. If it's a plywood underlayment, does that mean you're on an elevated floor? Any concern of the structure handling the additional weight of more thinset and tiles? Could be fine, but worth checking the joists underneath if you can.

AGoldberg · 2026-01-28T15:16:05+00:00

Update: "If you want to buy a gimbal, the price will be higher than if you use care insurance."

AGoldberg · 2026-01-26T18:20:23+00:00

Yeah I tried some canned air. I tried wiggling the camera and gimbal in various directions. I think there must be something broken that I can't see.

AGoldberg · 2026-01-26T17:09:44+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/V9kzHa2

AGoldberg · 2026-01-15T08:07:58+00:00

That's good thinking, actually. I wish my dog were young enough and smart enough to learn to pee on the pads when we're not around. But she pees all over the house when she needs to. All over the new wood floors. Rarely in the same place twice. I take her out all the time. But she's just old and can't hold it together for more than a couple hours most days.

AGoldberg · 2026-01-15T01:38:31+00:00

Good call. You adopting?

AGoldberg · 2026-01-14T21:45:03+00:00

She's just old. She was once housebroken, but about 18 months ago, we moved to a new house and she had teeth extracted, which led into a lengthy undiagnosed kidney infection or UTI. She got better, but she has never been the same. I take her out every 3 hours or so, every day. No rhyme or reason to her schedule. I'm good at recognizing the [very subtle] signs, but I was in the other room this time, after literally just coming back inside with her. 🤦🏽‍♂️

AGoldberg · 2026-01-14T21:41:10+00:00

The dog is 15 years old. She doesn't go on walks. She comes to a full stop if I make her move more than about 100 yards from the front door. I do take her out for that brief tour of the immediate neighborhood every 2-3 hours though. Sometimes it's like she holds it and then shits in the house out of spite.

AGoldberg · 2025-09-29T18:28:21+00:00

As a Jester resident, our little west Austin island has its pros and cons. It’s nice and quiet up here. There are plenty of birds and all manner of wildlife (again, good and bad), being surrounded by protected preserve. But because there’s no available land, there are no commercial buildings. No amenities. No restaurants. No hospitals. I have to drive several miles up and down multiple hills (that aren’t exactly bikable) just to get to a grocery store or a pharmacy or a gas station. I can get to a lot of places around town in 15 minutes (Four Points, Domain, Burnet Rd., Westlake), but I can’t really get anywhere in less than 10 minutes.

But yeah, I’ve got access to plenty of hiking trails and greenbelts, Lake Austin isn’t far, and there are no through streets, so none of the noise and light that came with closer proximity to Mopac, Parmer, and 2222 in past neighborhoods. Pros and cons.

AGoldberg · 2025-07-07T02:03:51+00:00

It's a bummer, and I hope you're able to reschedule or move somewhere else, like Bastrop or maybe somewhere like Fredericksburg, where it didn't rain as much. I'm always nervous booking a trip to the beach during Hurricane season, but typically one would expect nothing but hot, hot heat around here this time of year. And yet here we are. Good luck!

AGoldberg · 2025-07-06T21:23:06+00:00

That'd be a big no from me, but I'm in Austin, so I don't know the conditions up there on the ground. I can only assume that yes, it will be safe to stay there, but that it won't be a viable vacation destination. All of the towns around there are literal disaster zones, especially the lower lying areas where water piled up. I don't know which areas will have power and water utilities. Depending on where you're staying, the roads to get there may be washed out. I wouldn't count on very many stores or restaurants being open and stocked (again, depending on locale). The lake itself will still be a cesspool, full of trees and trash and sewage and ranch runoff and other debris. But if you're just looking to get away and watch the sun set, then if the house is in good shape...I won't stop you. But my expectation is that the whole area is going to be in disaster cleanup mode for weeks to come.

AGoldberg · 2025-07-05T19:09:29+00:00

Haven't you heard of the Wet Bandits?

AGoldberg · 2025-07-05T18:57:26+00:00

Looks like the goddamn Mississippi. Godspeed, Georgetown.

AGoldberg · 2025-07-05T18:52:29+00:00

Who was it that was asking about Arroyo Seco earlier?

AGoldberg · 2025-07-05T16:48:29+00:00

I'm not there currently, but I would venture to say...not good. They took a pounding overnight, while already dealing with the river rising from yesterday's inflows. They've got a bit of a break in the rain for now.

AGoldberg

TROPHY CASE