111–120 of 267 posts
Today I learned that in the us children are not taught cursive handwriting. This is rather absurd to me. How are they supposed to write?
Before commenting asking about why they don't just use LLMs, please note that the article specifically calls out that they do, but it's not always a viable solution: > The agency uses artificial intelligence and a technology known as optical character recognition to extract text from historical documents. But these methods don’t always work, and they aren’t always accurate. The document at the top is likely an especi…
Ok I did one letter, from a woman in 1814 writing to James Monroe (then Secretary of State) asking for a passport to go to Scotland to get her late brother's property. What a trip! So enjoyable to get into the flow once you've "synchronized" with the persons handwriting. Furthermore, due to the fact that you're reading and re-writing word for word of whatever you're transcribing, the stories you end up reading have t…
Today I learned that in the us children are not taught cursive handwriting. This is rather absurd to me. How are they supposed to write?
In print? In general its faster to write and a lot easier to read, also you save time by not having to learn two different systems.
However my point is valid for print too I guess.
Regarding time saved and the fact that they are two different systems, I don't get it. Time saved for what? They are not so different, cursive is built on top of print, just optimized for not lifting the pen from the paper too often (hence it is supposedly faster to write).
This explains a lot
Today I learned that in the us children are not taught cursive handwriting. This is rather absurd to me. How are they supposed to write?
In print? In general its faster to write and a lot easier to read, also you save time by not having to learn two different systems.
It is definitely easier to read print though - for a lot of people's handwriting anyway. It's much easier to be lazy and just do an illegible scrawl with joined-up writing than print.
It varies a lot though; I had a PhD supervisor whose handwriting was illegible to everyone - even himself! My wife's handwriting on the other hand is practically a font.
Print is just so slow to write...
You are a paleologist specializing in analysis of cursive handwriting; tell me what the following text says: (pasting the picture).
The following is the declaration of James Lambert, a soldier of the Revolutionary War in North America.
The said James Lambert this day personally appeared in the Probate Court of the County of Dearborn in the state of Indiana and at the November Term of said court (1841), it being a court for claims created by the laws of Indiana and makes oath that:
"On the 25th day of March 1842, he will be eighty-five years old; that he was born in the state of Maryland; that he is now a resident of said county and has been for the 27 years last past; that he has lived in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania ..."Prompt: You are a paleologist specializing in analysis of cursive handwriting; tell me what the following text says: (pasting the picture). Output: The following is the declaration of James Lambert, a soldier of the Revolutionary War in North America. The said James Lambert this day personally appeared in the Probate Court of the County of Dearborn in the state of Indiana and at the November Term of said court (1841)…
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=8997844...
Before commenting asking about why they don't just use LLMs, please note that the article specifically calls out that they do, but it's not always a viable solution: > The agency uses artificial intelligence and a technology known as optical character recognition to extract text from historical documents. But these methods don’t always work, and they aren’t always accurate. The document at the top is likely an especi…
OK, fair enough, but can you find one in this article that's hard for an LLM? The gnarliest one I saw, 4o handled instantly, and I went back and looked carefully at the image and the text and I'm sold. Like if this is a crowdsourcing project, why not do a first pass with an LLM and present users with both the image and the best-effort LLM pass? Later I signed up, went to the current missions, and they all seem to pos…
My family is Ivy-League, all the way, and has the worst goddamn cursive writing I've ever seen. It can take me an hour to read a Christmas card from my sister.