manxu
@manxu@piefed.social
- Comment on Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI | Fortune 6 days ago:
I can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to start college, to take on tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and not to have the faintest idea if there is actually going to be a job at the end of all that work. At least, where I live college is almost free.
- Comment on Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI | Fortune 1 week ago:
I would agree. I find that AI does have useful applications, for example in language translation, medical imaging, etc.
- Comment on Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI | Fortune 1 week ago:
I mean, the idea that all white-collar jobs could be automated is obviously stupid. But even if just 50% could be made redundant by increased productivity, or 20%, that would generate enormous downward pressure on wages and salaries and turn this kind of job into college-degree burger flipping, economically.
The world went through the very similar blue-collar job destruction in the 80s and 90s. Back then, Conservatives decided this was all a Very Good Thing, and Neoliberals shrugged. The made vast swaths of industrial areas suddenly derelict and impoverished. It’s hard to believe that Detroit was once one of the wealthiest cities in America.
Tax companies that use AI to reduce workforce to offset cost benefits. Society will have to deal with the suddenly impoverished accountants and lawyers and needs extra revenue.
The worst part of this AI revolution is that it affects most directly those that have the least experience, as it’s easier to replace an entrant with software. Yet another way young people are screwed, yet another way society absolutely needs to step in to make sure the next generation has a fighting chance.
- Comment on Elon Musk Is Rolling xAI Into SpaceX—Creating the World’s Most Valuable Private Company 3 weeks ago:
xAI business model: hype SpaceX business model: government contracts
The contracts stay when the hype dies. By merging the two companies, Musk avoids the collapse of one. To make this work, he needs more government contracts - I see a lot of groveling and boot licking in his immediate future.
- Comment on BentoPDF Docker Situation Update 4 weeks ago:
Go, BentoPDF! A shame this stuff cost you time and energy better spent elsewhere, but it’s just a small hiccup for a project with legs!
- Comment on ‘Repatriate the gold’: German economists advise withdrawal from US vaults 4 weeks ago:
It never was all German gold. It was just a very huge chunk of it, stored in a safe place in case the Soviet Union overran Germany. In case of a Soviet attack, Germany was considered lost ground and the first major line of defense was the river Rhine (the Western border of the country), meaning a German government in exile would have lost its gold stored in the country.
- Comment on UK officials may be barred from US over X ban 1 month ago:
If I think of all the crap Blair and Johnson did for America, justifying it with the “Special Relationship…” Or the Brexit lie that the UK would finally be able to take advantage of the “Special Relationship” once the EU was out of the way.
At least, when the Germans realized that, yes, Putin was crazy enough to give up all the money they handed over for oil and gas, they were being rational. The UK thought that a feel-good slogan would translate to economic and political advantage.
- Comment on Brussels plots open source push to pry Europe off Big Tech 1 month ago:
You are not wrong. Methinks a lot of Europe’s lack of digital infrastructure is related to the mountains of red tape every person and company in the EU has to face. It’s really discouraging.
- Comment on Dell says the quiet part out loud: Consumers don't actually care about AI PCs — "AI probably confuses them more than it helps them" 1 month ago:
Ha! Enjoy your off button while they still make them. Once our AI Overlords have won the War, you can only politely ask your laptop to please temporarily quiet itself, please and thank you if it’s not too much asking.
- Comment on Dell says the quiet part out loud: Consumers don't actually care about AI PCs — "AI probably confuses them more than it helps them" 1 month ago:
Dell is the first Windows OEM to openly admit that the AI PC push has failed. Customers seem uninterested in buying a laptop because of its AI capabilities, likely prioritizing other aspects such as battery life, performance, and display above AI.
Silicon Valley always had the annoying habit of pushing technology-first products without even much consideration of how they would solve real world problems. It always had it, but it’s becoming increasingly bad. When Zuck unveiled the Metaverse it was already starting to be ludicrous, but with the AI laptop wave it turned into Onion territory.
- Comment on Microsoft Office has been renamed to “Microsoft 365 Copilot app” 1 month ago:
It all kind of makes sense if you look at it from an investors’ perspective, which is the only one that really matters to CEOs. You can do whatever you want, but unless a company is an AI company, you can’t reach a stratospheric PE ratio and your stock stays “low.” You convince investors that you are an AI-first company, and your stock can break free of its shackles and reach its full potential!
All for the relatively cheap price of slapping two letters on everything, AI.
- Comment on EU shies away from condemning Trump's renewed threats on Greenland 1 month ago:
It’s as if the European Commission has never met a bully in their life and they have no idea what to do now that they are facing one.
Hint: backing down does not result in success.
- Comment on US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack 1 month ago:
Okay, the gist of the article is that the author(s) believe anti-circumvention laws protecting digital assets are going to be torn up. China is already showing that, a country where you are a fool if you pay for a Windows license and where you can buy bootleg media everywhere.
That doesn’t seem to be where the world is heading though. Instead, it looks like regulation is used more and more to affect monopolies, especially tech ones. Japan, the EU, and other players have mandated that Apple and Google allow other app stores on their phones.
I can’t imagine that governments around the world really have an appetite for an open (trade) war with the United States. Maybe if they banded together and decided to sort things out as adults, forcing the USA to face a united front.
- Comment on LG responds swiftly to user backlash, will allow users to remove Microsoft Copilot link from TVs — clarifies service is not an app, future update will include tile removal option from WebOS 2 months ago:
Until someone has an unsecured Internet-connected hotspot, and then it’s over. :-(
- Comment on Oracle made a $300 billion bet on OpenAI. It's paying the price. 2 months ago:
Honestly, tulips were a better investment than Tesla or OpenAI. In fact, the continued success of the latter two tells you by itself there is something deeply, seriously wrong with the stock markets and the economy as a whole.
- Comment on Surprising report explains which energy source is taking over the US grid: '88% of new capacity added' 2 months ago:
the Trump administration has been bullish on fossil fuels in its quest to secure energy security.
We must stop those energy imports from the inner solar system! 50% tariff on sun exports!!! We need to become self-reliant on planet Earth!
- Comment on Google CEO: If an AI bubble pops, no one is getting out clean 3 months ago:
You speak the truth. These idiots sank trillions into a technology that people are very meh about. If it all comes crumbling down, they really, really have nobody to blame but their own greed.
- Comment on iRobot’s revenue has tanked and it’s almost out of cash | "Roomba customers are understandably concerned about the impact these current financial troubles might have on their home cleaning robots." 3 months ago:
It would be easy enough to force vendors to make the URL the device connects to, configurable and to publish the API the device is using. Two minuscule changes that can prolong the life of devices by decades.
- Comment on iRobot’s revenue has tanked and it’s almost out of cash | "Roomba customers are understandably concerned about the impact these current financial troubles might have on their home cleaning robots." 3 months ago:
Online banking can frequently be handled via the web site on mobile phones.
- Comment on Life as a food delivery worker: ‘Sometimes men open the door naked’ 3 months ago:
Question: why would ban delivery apps instead of forcing them to hire drivers and give them benefits?
- Comment on After police used Flock cameras to accuse a Denver woman of theft, she had to prove her own innocence 3 months ago:
There is the weirdly pushy way the police officer tried to get her to confess that seems to imply that, too. They had a hunch, and hoped the person would be dumb enough to incriminate herself. It’s a real shame she only exonerated herself, I am sure they would have loved it if she had tracked down the real thief.
- Comment on After police used Flock cameras to accuse a Denver woman of theft, she had to prove her own innocence 3 months ago:
So many reasons to re-consider.
- Comment on After police used Flock cameras to accuse a Denver woman of theft, she had to prove her own innocence 3 months ago:
Go Colorado Sun! Proud sponsor for many years!
Reading the article, I am very confused. It appears that they simply decided a random person was the culprit because she was recorded as driving through town during the time period of the package theft, and that’s all they had?
- Comment on Navy loses two aircraft from USS Nimitz aircraft carrier within 30 minutes 3 months ago:
Thank goodness they fired all those terrible DEI hires and now there are only competent and qualified people in the US Military, starting with the absolutely not an alcoholic Pete Hegseth! /s
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
I think Obama got it simply for not being George W Bush, imperial war monger of international note.
- Comment on I went to an anti-tech rally, where Gen Z dressed as gnomes and smashed iPhones. Here's what I learned. | Business Insider 4 months ago:
The rare comment that is so good, I upvote all comments that applaud it!
- Comment on Western Executives Shaken After Visiting China 4 months ago:
Wall Street only cares about the current and next quarter. Everything else is a stock sale away and doesn’t matter. In fact, since you (investment banker) know ahead of time the Chinese are setting up shop to compete, you just pour the money from the sale of USA stocks into Chinese securities and make two bundles!
- Comment on Western Executives Shaken After Visiting China 4 months ago:
were they supposed to just work for you for fraction of a cost forever and don’t learn anything?
It was a rhetorical question, but they actually really believed that. Racism may have been a huge part of it: People as backwards as “China man” would never be able to come up with complicated tasks like setting up a factory on their own.
Anyone not racist saw it coming a thousand miles away. It’s weird how much bigotry there was and is in the C-suite of major corporations.
- Comment on Google's shocking developer decree struggles to justify the urgent threat to F-Droid 4 months ago:
I never wanted him to be wrong more than right now. Except for tomorrow, it’s probably going to bé worse, tomorrow
- Comment on Google says adblockers caused YouTube views count to drop - this is what adblockers told us really happened 5 months ago:
They do not produce content, but they share 70% of revenue with the creators. You can argue that’s not enough, but it’s definitely more than Netflix et al pay their content creators.