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Comment Re:Exploitable? (Score 1) 38

If they're being honest (fat chance of that) about it being random then the only input is repeated refreshing until you get a lower price.

If it's tied to anything external all you can do is try to hide your identity or pretend to be whatever gets the lowest prices. Really good tracking or detailed profiles might be hard to get around, but I suspect most approaches are still rather naive. This isn't anything new. Some years ago there was a big story about airfare prices being different depending on what browser someone was using and even before that I recall reading about how customers using a iPhone were charged more than Android users on some website under the presumption that they were more wealthy on average because they had bought a more expensive phone.

I doubt that the companies doing this would allow you to identify as Filipino for the purpose of getting eggs for $.07 cheaper. That rather defeats the point of what they're trying to do. Even if companies could implement this perfectly it's still pointless as any significant price disparity just creates room for a middleman to engage in arbitrage. The store will only sell bread to the blind Cuban woman with gout who gets the best price and then resells all of the bread she buys to everyone else at a rate lower than what the store would have charged those other customers. So even if there were money to be made using this kind of technology, the store won't be the ones making any of the money once other people catch on to what they're doing.

Comment Re:The AI slop/backlash (Score 3, Insightful) 39

Right MCD is just looking over at KO and going us too.

A few loud people online and embittered animators are complaining about their ads. That handful of people might be mad about it. Meanwhile in terms of numbers that matter everyone else going out of their way to watch the ads, like seeking them out, just to see what all the fuss is. So they get tons of free ad impressions, and if they are lucky a few of those people say "gee haven't had a Coke in while, sounds pretty good, maybe I'll buy a case."

I haven't met anyone in IRL who is actually mad at Coca-Cola for their AI ads, but they are talking about them. Even if the sentement might be 'the old ads had more soul' it isn't changing their opinion of the product or the company really, and it is bringing it to top of mind. - Just what the ad men want..

Hard to image every other corporate marketing department isn't trying to figureout how to get in on that without appearing a little to 'us too', the funny part is that last part really does not matter either probably, they only worry it does.

Comment If Elected I Promise (Score 5, Funny) 115

If Elected I Promise to direct the State Department to issue all official correspondence in Comic Sans MS.

I believe strong this will help inject needed levity into maters of State and help anal retentive diplomats the world over not take themselves so seriously, allowing for more open and dynamic conversations.

Now about my Nobel Peace Prize...

Comment Re:so NFTs but even dumber (Score 1) 51

My point stands, they did a reprint but it also labeled 'anniversary series' and it has not value. I stated a re-issue would have no value.

I don't collect cards, I agree with you in principle; but I can also acknowledge how the market works. People assign value to the originals, its like art where a skilled painter can make a nearly indistinguishable forgery / copy, some of which can stand up to quite a lot forensic scrutiny. Honestly there is no reason one of Eric Hebborn's Rembrandt's should be worth less than an actual Rembrandt. Its just people rather arbitrarily decided their should be.

The trouble with Pokemon cards is I don't believe there is nearly so much consensus on what is an original issue, when one goes out of print and when they start printing them again. Which makes the whole idea of assigning value much more difficult.

Comment Seriously? (Score 1) 74

"The Venetian atmosphere is corrosive to many materials but it isn't toxic"

Oh really? Go suck on some SO2 and see how you get on.

"On Venus there is no need for radiation shielding"

BS. There's no ozone and at the height these balloons would float the UV and assorted stuff from the sun would fry you in seconds.

"holes in your balloon are not fatal"

Wtf re you smoking? Archimedes principle holds on Venus just as on Earth. Lose your lifting gas and you sink and on Venus you'll soon start to cook.

Comment Re:People that are otherwise rational (Score 2) 95

Also, our ancestors have been eating meat for thousands of years with no effect on the weather

That's a really big claim. You have not done the research or looked at the evidence to back it up. It's something you pulled out of your ass. Don't do that.

It is possible that our ancestors eating meat had an effect on the weather.

Comment And little of value was lost (Score 2) 118

Yes, there are a few useful corners of social media.

And you could watch symphonies on TV too. And educational stuff. But kids didn't, did they? Or those who did were a rounding error.

And then of course there's the fact that social media is a million times worse than TV ever was. You wouldn't let your kids wander down every dark alley of every city on earth, so why would you let them wander every corner of the internet?

Comment Re:If you have access to a MSFT store account... (Score 5, Informative) 26

Just rip the bandage off and move the family to LibreOffice. My mom has been using it for over a decade now and it's honestly one of the things that requires the least amount of tech support. I don't think LibreOffice has any bullshit AI crap to worry about either. Most people don't need MS Office for what they're doing.

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