MagicShel

@MagicShel@lemmy.zip

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft is plugging more holes that let you use Windows 11 without an online account⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Let them. The entire world is slowly migrating to Mac and Linux. I haven’t even had the option of windows at my last 3 jobs. (To be fair, I’ve never had the option of desktop Linux, but this last one said pick a computer—I’m not positive that they would’ve balked at Linux.) That said, idk what’s so great about Mac over Linux, but I guess it’s not corporate friendly.

  I’m trying to think of which MS products we even have in our ecosystem. Office, I guess. Corporate world will never wean themselves off of Excel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI plans to launch an AI-only TikTok clone⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Agreed. I would imagine they are looking for new revenue streams because it feels like just running an LLM costs more than the derived value. Right now investors are pouring money into AI by the swimming pool full in the belief that a renaissance is right around the corner. But the view from the ground is that the value is never going to return that investment without getting creative.

  And when companies get creative rather than rely on fundamentals that drive sustainable growth, it’s generally a steep slope to enshittification.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI plans to launch an AI-only TikTok clone⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Not exactly what I had in mind. I was thinking they could use engagement as feedback to the AI so that it starts producing more engagement-bait type content.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI plans to launch an AI-only TikTok clone⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, they clearly have too much money and have lost the thread. I came from why I would watch such a thing.

  I’m going to bet it’s to provide training data more than anything.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you think of any now?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fun fact: ever wonder where your weight goes when you lose weight? CO2. You literally breathe most of it out.

  BRB. Hyperventillating to test a theory…

  (Going to assume this just results in a smaller quantity of calories processed per breath before anyone get’s all sciencey on me.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who the fuck needs an x axis anyway⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I tutored a young autistic man in college and he was almost non-verbal. He could communicate through speech, but only with great difficulty and stuttering. That was the only definition of autism I understood at that time, and he was considered better off than many.

  A few years later when I learned about Asperger’s because my sister got diagnosed with it, I went to get evaluated myself and after sitting down with me once, they said I’m not autistic.

  I’m about 99% sure I would be placed on the autism spectrum today.

  I don’t know whether it’s good or bad that the diagnostics / definition of autism seem to be broadening — that’s above my pay grade. But you can’t deny people who weren’t considered autistic 30 years ago are today, and so to compare autism rates which measure clearly different levels of capability is pretty useless.

  In order to compare rates, we would need a consistent set of diagnostic criteria.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean it’s probably their kids doing that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s easier to visualize than kilo-gallons.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ugh! Just tell your neighbors to shut up or at least keep it down.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF MY NEW WIND TURBINE. YOU SHOULD SEE MY ELECTRIC BILL!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Get ready to see ads on your… Samsung refrigerator⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The Internet is for their convenience, not yours.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Get ready to see ads on your… Samsung refrigerator⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Wait a second… you’re into something here. What if a fridge could lock and unlock sections by Face ID? It could make sure my kids aren’t drinking my beer! Or eating my lunch for tomorrow. Or half a birthday cake. What if I could require my kids to grab an apple with a soda?

  That would be kinda neat if I had money I couldn’t think of a better use for.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Millions turn to AI chatbots for spiritual guidance and confession⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It is. I’ve cautiously broached it with a lot of skeptical openness and the sycophancy is really going to harm people. It’s like going to AITA or relationshipadvice — it’s going to tell you that you are completely justified and should get a divorce, stand up to your boss, do the self-righteous thing, etc.

  And that’s great, sometimes those are the answers. But other times maybe loneliness will be worse than accepting the other person. Maybe you aren’t being treated fairly at work but it beats being unemployed. Getting pumped up to storm in and demand satisfaction isn’t always the best way to handle things and sometimes we need a little more self-awareness and encouragement to look within ourselves for change.

  ChatGPT doesn’t get any of that because Reddit never got any of that (certainly not enough). And when folks blow up their lives, it’s not ChatGPT that will suffer.

  That being said, if you just want a sympathetic ear to listen and you take it like Charlie from work, who has never had a relationship last longer than a case of PBR, telling you to divorce that bitch — it can help people feel heard, help them voice and be aware of their feelings. In some cases it is better than nothing, but I think few people will approach it with the awareness to take the good and leave the bad.

  And that doesn’t even cover the privacy concerns. I wouldn’t want to be in a situation to have my ChatGPT history to be subpoenaed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Vibe coding has turned senior devs into ‘AI babysitters,’ but they say it’s worth it | TechCrunch⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think the two cross, really. A vibe coder asks for a bunch of features and then starts refining the output, fixing bugs and adding features. A developer knows the specific architecture and from years of writing tasks knows how to break work into manageable chunks and uses AI to implement something they have already defined and know where it fits in. The skill to write a good story isn’t far off from sitting a good prompt.

  I use AI all the time, and every time I hear someone describing vibe coding it makes my skin crawl.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mastodon is bringing quote posts to the fediverse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, neither have killed Twitter or displaced it enough to affect real change, but they are nice despite — or perhaps because of — being smaller. Like Lemmy, in fact. I don’t know if being here hurts Reddit. I hope so. But more importantly I like it better in these places even if it fails to disrupt the fortunes of greedy assholes.

  But the next time something happens to disrupt Twitter or Reddit, alternatives are available and will attracts few more people away. Over time… who knows. Maybe some real change will happen by accident.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mastodon is bringing quote posts to the fediverse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I haven’t been on mast for a bit. Custom feeds can do things like give you the posts of your quieter folks, see only posts (not so useful if you could just select certain people to only see self-posts, but useful now), I can get a feed of what’s popular with my friends. Those are examples from my own, but there are tons of custom feeds.

  Oh I forgot you can do things like a classifier and labeled, so I can choose to identify myself as a developer and see if someone else labels themselves similarly. There are a bunch of other labelers.

  I am aware of the potential issues with subscribed blocklists, but I use a few anyway, and it saves me from doing a lot of blocking myself. It’s not perfect because it is abuseable , but I like having the choice to use it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mastodon is bringing quote posts to the fediverse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Custom feeds, subscribed blocklists, blocking/muting keywords for a period of time. Basically the moderation controls. My mental health is better when I can just turn off certain topics for a bit without abandoning them altogether.

  If I remember right, mast has a feature where you can follow someone but only their self posts and not reposts. There are accounts that are repost machines and I don’t want to follow someone if I’m not getting to hear their own thoughts in their own words. I wish Bluesky had that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mastodon is bringing quote posts to the fediverse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I like Bluesky and I’m currently on hiatus from Mastodon, but when you say “too little, too late” it may be that Bluesky beat them there, but at the end of the day Bluesky is still Big Tech bullshit. It is a matter of when, not if, it will be enshittified and we need a replacement.

  Bluesky is a breath of fresh air and I like the community and features there. And twenty years ago Google was the awesome upstart punching Microsoft in the balls, and yet here we are today.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The “don’t actually care about your customers” is key because AI is terrible at doing that. And most of the things rich people as salivating for.

  It’s good at quickly generating output that has better odds than random chance of being right. And that’s a niche, but sometimes useful tool. If the cost of failure is high, like a pissed off customer, it’s not a good tool. If the cost is low or failure still has value (such as when an expert is using it to help write code, and the code is wrong but can be fixed with less effort than writing it wholesale).

  There aren’t enough people in executive positions that understand AI well enough to put to good use. They are going to become disillusioned, but not better informed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI Startup Flock Thinks It Can Eliminate All Crime In America⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just looking around my place, it looks like a lot are operated by businesses that cover every way in or out of the parking lot, and the local PD covers entrance and exit ramps from highways. So essentially you have to watch where you shop and never use an interstate to avoid these things. Basically so difficult most people can’t be bothered.

  Of course there is always sniping them…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI adoption rate is declining among large companies — US Census Bureau claims fewer businesses are using AI tools⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As someone who is excited about AI and thinks it’s pretty neat, I agree we’ve needed a level-set around the expectations. Vibe coding isn’t a thing. Replacing skilled humans isn’t a thing. It’s a niche technology that never should’ve been sold as making everything you do with it better.

  We’ve got far too many companies who think adoption of AI is a key differentiator. It’s not. The key differentiator is almost always the people, though that’s not as sexy as cutting edge technology.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who is the enemy?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Bill Clinton would be unsurprising. He might be just a run of the mill philanderer, though. I haven’t seen any legitimate reason to suspect Biden. Of course I spent 20 years thinking Michael Jackson was just a weird dude with a Peter Pan complex and might legitimately not have been a pedo, so maybe I just don’t have a very good pedodar.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who is the enemy?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, there’s idiots and there’s idiots, you know? Yeah those classes should never have existed and maybe that’s evidence enough of idiocy, but there is an abundance of folks smarter than me. Surely they could hire one of them…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who is the enemy?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The complicated thing here is there are so many layers of abstraction to make things easier to use and understand that if you didn’t age with the tech, it’s really hard to fully understand. That’s everything. I see Angular and React developers who don’t understand CSS.

  My last position, we had classes that set sizes for everything in multiples of 4 pixels. So size-1 is 4 pixels, size-2 is 8 pixels, etc. And everything was sized with those classes. Which means if you ever wanted to resize anything, you have to go to every element and change the class instead of you know, having input controls have distinct classes.

  People are layering on abstraction without understanding why and throwing away all the benefits, time to invent another abstraction layer! I had my tech lead argue with me that this was a better system because “standards”. I’m going to assume the standard was poorly understood because I can’t imagine a multi-billion dollar company hires idiots to set standards.

  I got started learning transistors and Boolean algebra and programming an 8088(?) in college. Had computers for a few years before that. It’s surprising how conditionals I see that can be simplified by Boolean algebra.

  I don’t actually hate computers, and I try to give IT workers some grace because I’m not always proud of the work I do when I have to finish 3 months of work in two weeks. But I’ve worked with a lot of folks who aren’t curious or looking to learn and improve, and I have to wonder why they ever got into IT in the first place.

  For me the worst part of IT is the god damned management. Any possible productivity gains from agile are undercut at every turn by management who has to have a concrete promise of a delivery date before they even understand the ask.

  Anyway, sorry for the rant. Started my long weekend early and starting a new job next week, so I have a lot of pent up rants from my last company.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who is the enemy?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  IT people hate computers.

  IT people hate users. IT people hate other IT people. We’re just a surly lot.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over its Age Verification Law⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m just saying like I oppose the death penalty, but there are certain cases where I’m not going to die on that particular hill. I don’t believe they should be killed, but the context of the moment is going to alienate more people than it convinces.

  Same thing here. I oppose identification laws but making that argument in defense of those two is going to make folks think it’s a fanatical position rather than a reasonable one.

  It’s far better to argue from a reasonable position and then extend that to other cases than just argue these places should be allowed to continue to weaponize anonymity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Breaking The Creepy AI in Police Cameras⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Even though “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” is bullshit, the primary market is people who have something to hide. Few people make more effort than grumbling online if they aren’t actually afraid.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨4chan and Kiwi Farms Sue the UK Over its Age Verification Law⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Literally the worst possible champions of this cause.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Writing with LLM is not a shame.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Not them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Writing with LLM is not a shame.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That presumes that is how people are using AI. I use it all the time, but AI never replaces my own judgement or voice. It’s useful. It’s not life-changing.