if you’re thinking of installing some OCR software on your iOS or Android, don’t. I’ve just been playing around with Google Lens, which is built into Google Photos.
So if you have a Gmail address, you already have it.
@jdpoc … And Google Photos with Lens seems to outperform a lot of specialised OCR applications.
Text at an angle with reflections? No problem.
@jdpoc Some text is straight and the rest is curved? No problem.
@jdpoc Different lines of text in different fonts? Still no problem.
@jdpoc Hand written text on a banner, with uneven height and spacing? Still no problem.
@jdpoc Antiquated fonts drawn by cartoonist? Works perfectly.
@jdpoc In short, Google Photos with Lens seems to “get“ more text in more situations for more images than bespoke OCR software. I’ve only tested it on about a dozen images, but so far it has excelled.
A very, very useful feature.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
THIS DAY in 1945, as Paris was liberated from the Nazis, with street fighting still ongoing between Germans and Resistance, Alex Allegrier-Carton of the famous Lucas-Carton restaurant went down to his basement with a team of workers ...
Through the war, because his place was a favourite of the German officers (they'd read about it in guidebooks) he encouraged the Paris Resistance to meet in an upstairs room - the last place the Gestapo would ever think to check, and they never did ...
On this day he had a task to perform.
He pointed to an old wall, telling the workmen to knock it down.
Behind it was the greatest wine cellar in Paris, bricked up in 1940 using antique stones, disguised from the Germans throughout the entire war.
At some point in this campaign, an increasingly desperate Tory Party might drop the Zinoviev Bomb.
Let me give you some context.
The 1924 General Election:
Just 4 days before voting, the Daily Mail ran a story about a letter - the now infamous 'Zinoviev' Letter - from the Soviet Communist Party to the British Labour Party, suggesting (among other things) ... a UK and Empire-wide Bolshevik Revolution.
Just came across this lovely little history story:
Back in 1962, EMI were working on various computerised systems for various purposes. Due to funding issues, the entire department was to be closed down.
EMI were losing cash and in real trouble.
Then their music division discovered a band in Liverpool that looked quite promising ...
The cash generated by the global success of the Beatles propped up other struggling divisions within EMI, including the division run Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, allowing him to continue his research ...
Because we’re looking at the problem from the wrong end.
The small boats are not a crisis, only in that they add to the real problems:
- The rapidly growing shortage of hotels for asylum seekers;
- The interminably long delay for those people to have their applications processed.
Solve THOSE two problems … in an efficient, humane and legal manner … and the actual boats become a minor distraction, easily handled through a better process.
In addition, you solve the shortage of hotels … by solving the delays to processing of asylum applications.