TRUTH! A lot of us have been screaming this from the rooftops for a very long time now. Exhibit A: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...
Here we go again.
"EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED."
"Oh, that used to be true, but not anymore."
"Hey, some CEO said a thing; let's pretend it is absolute truth without any objectivity or skepticism!"
"Those old models I said were the most amazing thing ever last month are now worthless."
"AGI is here!"
It is ALL SO DAMN EXHAUSTING.
At the dawn of the third age of mankind?
SPOILER ALERT (although it was 28 years ago):
The President's suicide note on the desk said "THE ASCENSION OF THE ORDINARY MAN" repeated, line after line, with the letters circled to say, "SCORCHED EARTH."
Does anyone doubt for a second that Trump would nuke the country if he was promised godhood by an advanced alien race?
Babylon 5 is my favorite work of fiction. I've watched it many times throughout my life, and it has taken on different meanings for different seasons of my life. It is a remarkable show.
If you haven't ever watched it, give it a try. The first season takes a little while to get going, but the overall story is just incredible. It was a lot of firsts: the first television show to use CGI. The first US show to be filmed for 16x9, knowing that DVD and HD were coming (although that didn't quite work out, as noted in other comments). The first American show to write the larger, five-year story arc entirely in advance.
My favorite shows have three elements: a story with a beginning, middle, and end; interesting characters that grow and change over the course of the story; and they have to stick the landing. Many shows like Game of Thrones and Lost were fun rides but never quite sealed the deal.
Babylon 5 does the best job at these I've ever seen. The Shield, The Expanse, The Wire, Six Feet Under, and Buffy are other personal favorites. If you like those, give it a shot!
There hasn't been a “must have” innovation in mobile phones for a long time. They're a solved problem, like laptops.
Start releasing different types that appeal to different segments on a multi-year cadence. Release a new Mini version every four years. Do the same for the Max on a different year, the dumb skinny fashion accessory one the year after that, and so on.
The conversation with my friends isn't monetized.
My friends don't pause every 30 seconds to promote something, or bug me to subscribe to something, or like something, or join some stupid email list.
Conversations go two ways, these AI slop machines are talking at you, not having a conversation.
10000000000000000000000%. The biggest grift in history is on, baby.
That's not really a fair comparison. Netflix was being funded by VC in growth-at-any-cost mode at the time, and operating at a loss.
s/Chinese authoritarian algorithm/American authoritarian algorithm/g
I've seen a lot of hyped up nonsense in my four decades in tech, but nothing comes close to the "A.I." hype cycle.
There are some interesting applications of LLMs, but nothing approaching the nonsense the zealots are spouting. With the insane amount of build-up this particular model has gotten from Altman and his ilk, it better be orders of magnitude more impressive than its predecessors.
I have a hunch it'll be on par with Highlander 2: The Quickening.
Just published today, "Microsoft’s big lie: Your computer is fine (and you don’t need to buy a new one)": https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechnical.ly%2Fcivic-new...
A detailed look, arguing that upgrading from Windows 10 -> Linux Mint is easier than Windows 10 -> Windows 11.
Before the turn of the millennium, computer hardware was advancing so quickly that upgrading your machine every few years made sense, because you got so much more power than just a few years prior. That rapid evolution has ended; the average home user (excepting hardcore gamers and crypto miners) should only need a new machine every decade, if not less frequently. Any computer bought new in 2015 should be perfectly capable of running an operating system, a web browser, email, video meetings and an office suite without feeling slow. Microsoft suggesting people have to toss their devices is not only discriminatory — not everyone can afford to do this — it’s also horrible for the environment. E-waste is one of the world’s fastest-growing waste streams, and while some of it is being repurposed, the trash piles are rising a reported 5x times recycling efforts.
The article gives practical suggestions, and argues the migration from Windows 10 to Linux Mint is easier than Windows 10 to Windows 11:
Linux Mint is a desktop version of Linux that is meant to appeal to people familiar with Windows. It comes with everything the average home user needs, and just works. I would argue, in fact, that switching from Windows 10 to Linux Mint is less jarring than switching from Windows 10 to Windows 11. The user interface is actually more similar.
The article also gives advice to those who need to run Windows 11 for some reason: use Windows 11 Debloat, and O&O ShutUp to minimize the amount of crapware and privacy-invasion.
Lots of people like to say the right thing, until it gets inconvenient.
The number of “progressives” I know who still eat at Chick-fil-A because “it's just so good”, and listen to Spotify despite them ripping off musicians to funnel money to Joe Rogan, says this has zero chance of happening.
I'm with y'all on the complete over-hype of LLMs. They'll be another useful tool in several toolbelts, but as a coder, the greatest boost to my productivity ever was... a second monitor. I've been speaking on this hype wave for years now, here's a talk I gave at DjangoCon US in 2023: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3F...
If Altman or Amodei say it, you can believe we're nowhere close to it.
Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.
