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Comment Correct. And oh, no. (Score 4, Interesting) 44

This looks like the final cell-phonification of the Mac. I'm bummed.

But they're right - if you assume that a significant fraction of Mac users are going to install some sort of third-party interface with an LLM, it is either significantly extend and harden the security perimeter deeper into the OS or your customers will routinely have everything exfiled as a matter of course, and it would just be cheaper to make iCloud into an anonymous FTP site.

And given Zuckerbook's demonstrated willingness to brazenly, actively subvert OSes, I'm willing to bet they're going to go Russian on their subjects, er, customers, anyway. ("You probe with bayonets: if you find mush, you push.")

It will probably be what finally pushes me to a Linux laptop, though. I'm old, I spend a lot of time at the shell. I like Macs because they're great unix workstations, still. But I don't see how you can accommodate both people like me and people who need to be protected not only from themselves, but from Zuckerbook and worse.

And they're a much bigger market than people like me. And "AI is the Footure."

Comment Re:Uncomfortable truth (Score 1) 128

I used various Raspberry Pi's over the past decade, starting with the Pi B+, then Pi 3 B , then Pi 4.

The Raspberry Pi's have support in mainline distros (e.g. Debian and Ubuntu), so that is why their support is good, compared to the more powerful SBC's that have 'one hit wonder' Linux releases (Odroid, Banana Pi, Orange Pi, ...etc), then no support after that.

Although, something similar happened to me on the Pi 3 B: I am stuck with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and can't upgrade to 24.04 LTS or later, because they stopped support for 32bit ARM.

And the Pi suffer in other ways:

Power consumption used to be the Pi's forte, but now when you buy a mini PC, say with an Intel N100, you get low power consumption, and the difference between that and Pi's is negligible. For example, the N100 TDP is 6W, and the i5-1135G7 is 15W. Both are found in mini PCs these days, as well as other Intel and AMD CPUs.

6W means if you run it 24/7 at 25% utilization, and electricity cost is $0.25/kWh (Ontario's summer rate), your consumption is a whopping $3.28 PER YEAR.

Then there is hardware support. When you buy a mini PC, you get things included, such as a case, a fan (for some models that require it), upgradeable RAM, SATA connectors, an M.2 slot, and so on. Some of that is available on Raspberry Pis, but usually as a HAT or kit, for extra dollars ...

The experience with a mini PC is just as seemless as a laptop or a desktop: there is no difference at all in installation, upgrades, ...etc.

Comment No, that's just dumb (Score 1) 28

You seem to be complaining that some unspecified music awards body didn't act, and instead one composed of "nerds" did.

Aside from a classic case of "Area Man Yells at TV", and apparently being disparaging of nerds on a site subtitled "News for Nerds", I simply don't understand the complaint.

Are you also angry at biologists for naming something after Gary Larson because someone you think is cooler didn't?

Comment Reality denial (Score 2) 114

Your pretty fantasy dissolves in the face of police omerta.

All of your "good" cops are complicit in the acts of the thieves, racists, and psychopaths. They more than tolerate it - they actively impede attempts to bring these criminals to justice. It is literally a mockery of justice by the very enforcers who are supposed to fight for it.

Anyone remember all the performative outrage about "Stop Snitching" stuff? Just another attack on rival gangs.

Comment correct incentives (Score 1) 151

Well, there have to be correct incentives for someone to be in software, I got into it because I liked the idea of being able to control a machine, to be able to tell a computer what to do and it would do it.

Would I have the same interest in it 40 years ago if controlling the computer meant writing in human language that is imprecise and nuanced and receiving back code that I couldn't start to comprehend? Maybe, maybe not, I am not sure actually. If there was still a way for me to do this without the AI I probably would have gone that route but how many people today would do it? I mean people are telling Agents to write their letters for them, not code, just letters. People are telling agents to do all sorts of things, all of which probably saves some time, make some errors, creates some problems while solving others, it is just that none of it is actually understood by the user.

How many AI users understand how any of it works? But that was the point, to understand how the thing works to be able to control it.

It is similar to car mechanics, people who like to tinker with cars, how interesting is it to tinker with a car where you are not allowed to understand half of it and you cannot fix most of it, if something breaks you have to order an entire replacement part because it has a built in computer interface.

Comment Re:Kubuntu (Score 1) 82

I was on Kubuntu for many years as my sole desktop.
Then I ran into trouble upgrading (though I always stuck with LTS releases, never in between ones).

I switched to Xubuntu (XFCE), and never looked back.
There are sure some areas with more functionality in KDE, but I don't miss them at all.
XFCE stays out of the way, and allows you to focus on the applications.

Comment They're like paper cups, right? (Score 1) 216

Use-once and throw away.

Hell, if they get in your way, throw them off the boat, we'll go to Costco in the morning.

And some as far as ruining businesses, eh, you gotta break some eggs. (No, I don't talk about the price of eggs.) This is about habituating the populace to domestic military presence, not something trivial like people's livelihoods.

Comment Yes, a grift (Score 4, Insightful) 105

They are pushing to have antitrust regulations against the various labs dropped so they can "collude" on slowing down. This will of course require banning open models and disallowing access elsewhere.

Captive market, increasingly captive citizens, unconstrained capital openly colluding with government.

Where have I seen this story before...

Comment Never invite the vampire in (Score 0) 75

If you make deals with fascists, you're a suicidal sucker.

It demonstrates weakness, is interpreted as submission, and Stumpy be back with more demands. If you grow a pair you might have a fight, but probably not - he's a fucking coward, but more relevantly, he's desperate to avoid people publicly standing up to him.

The answer is "Eat shit you goofy fuckup, give us the money you're illegally withholding."

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