I’ve no illusions about which side the AI companies are on. But what I’m afraid of is that the issue of AI training will be misused by “Big Content” (for lack of a better word) to further restrict fair use, and to raise the barrier to entry for new commercial content creators. That’s what they have always done.

Personally I am not a fan of copyright allowing creators to retain control over the use of their work, whether they are commercial creators, or creators releasing under a license like the GPL. Especially the point on derivative works and moral rights: I think that copyright should be limited to just that: the right to copy or forbid it. The author controls when and how his work may be copied, so that he can derive an income from selling copies if he so desires, but for no other purpose. But derivative works should be allowed if the derivative is enough of an original work in its own right, inspired by the original rather than copying large parts of it verbatim. Anyone wants to write “Harry Potter and the Temple of Doom” or film “Gandalf vs Predator”, fine by me. Where that leaves AI, I’m not sure. The results from AI prompts sometimes seem to be inspired original works, at other times with recognisable snippets from someone else’s work.

If you learn to touch type you can play games like this one https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.typing.com%2Fstudent...

Copyright itself has been twisted so far from its original intent that I feel little urge to respect it, and little remorse at breaking it. I will respect copyright when it respects me.

While I agree that touch-typing isn't the primary skill of a competent, fast programmer -- it is still an amazing skill to have.

Although I've been touch-typing for almost half a century, it still fascinates me that the words appear on my screen simply as I think them. I don't even have to speak those thoughts -- my fingers automatically race around the keys and the words appear. It's almost like a direct interface between my mind and the computer.

Yes, I'm pretty fast -- about 140wpm which makes the whole experience even more fascinating since the words appear almost as fast as I think them.

Would I recommend that people learn touch-typing. Hell yes... I think people should learn *everything* they can, while they can. When you're young it's so much easier to learn than when you get old (like me). There are so many things I wish I'd learned when it would have been easier to do so -- foreign languages, playing a musical instrument, etc,etc.

However, here I am, a relic of the past. I can program in assembler for lots of 8-bit micros from the Signetics 2650 through the 8080, Z80, 6502, 6800 etc; BASIC, Pascal, C, Modula2, Java but now I'm faced with learning the intricacies of Python, Kotlin, Rust and crafting AI queries. It's getting harder every day because my brain seems to have simultaneously run out of RAM, CPU cycles and backup storage all at the same time :-)

WTF are you yapping about, who is endangering you? Fuck off you little bitch, motherfucking government loving piece of shit who should be treated as any other treasonous cunt. Government is the enemy of any person, if you are on the side of any government you are as well.

I considered uploading to X but discovered that unless you pay them a monthly stipend, you can only upload very short vids (90 seconds I think).

So, if you do start paying them and upload longer vids, what happens if you stop your payment either voluntarily or perhaps because you die? Will your longer vids suddenly disappear?

None of the alternative platforms offer any kind of guarantee of continued service... hence people are far better off to self-host and federate if they are in a position to do so.

I agree. I spend about 12 hours a day working behind a computer keyboard/screen so when I'm not working I simply have no desire to carry a smartphone. I have an old-fashioned phone that only does SMS and voice -- I don't want to be connected to the internet 24/7.

What about *my* freedoms and rights?

The other "Arabic" numerals also originated in India. They are called that because they found their way to Europe by way of the Middle East.

The hypocrisy that is YouTube just gets worse by the day.

People like Jeff have perfectly good, harmless content flagged and removed for specious reasons while the company continues to profit from scammy ads that promote fake "health hacks", counterfeit electronics goods such as the fake "Sandisk" SSDs being pitched right now, "laser welders" that turn out to be just soldering irons, water-blasters that are nothing of the sort, etc, etc.

I (and thousands of others) have been reporting these ads using the mechanisms built into YouTube and also through @teamyoutube on X but the ads continue to run until the advertiser's spend is exhausted.

Surely, after a while someone must wake up to the fact that if YouTube/Google isn't going to act when these scam ads are reported and simply continues to profit from them then they become an accomplice to fraud and should he charged as such.

I've heard from hundreds of people who've lost money after being duped by these fraudulent ads and even when THEY complain to YouTube with their proof, the ads keep running.

Now there seems to be a lot of bonafide channels being deleted for "scams and misleading practices" without warning. Perhaps YouTube doesn't like the competition whenit comes to scamming -- it wants to retain its crown as "best scammer"?

It's a shame Jeffs video was pulled because I'm encouraging people to set up their own VOD servers and federate into a global network coordinated by independent search engines. This is the only way to dethrone YouTube now that it's clearly become an evil entity.

They're not that good.

We're whalers on the moon
We carry a harpoon
But there ain't no whales
So we tell tall tales
And sing our whaling tune

I mean, clicking the 'I agree to use GameChat knowing that every time I use it, I'm going to be recorded' sounds an awful lot like 'giving consent.'

"software that doesn't allow you to shoot yourself in the foot if you're determined"

I can think of some: Retail video game console operating systems.

Nonsense, the very act of driving does not mean anything, you bought into this nonsense hook, line and sinker. Government shouldn't have any say over how we live our lives, how we drive on our streets, what apps we use, who we trade with.

The only one single, the only one maybe half reasonable thing for government to do is is protection against foreign attacks, that's it.

You are absolutely correct. It is disgusting to see so many people supporting any government intervention in our lives and this is just more of the same. People are supposed to be these automatons the government wants them to be so that they can be fined more and more often, controlled harder and harsher for normal human behavior, which is under a continuous attack by the goons, who have power and occupy government positions.

Three words whose first consonant sound is /r/ and refer to subjects taught in primary school are reading, writing, and arithmetic.