Sure, years sounds about right. The last non-LLM AI news of significance I can recall was about AI being used help find new drugs. From memory that was a couple of years ago. Actually to be fair there has been a lot of coverage about self driving cars and that has had much less hype compared with LLM.

I'm not saying non-LLM AI is not happening but rather it is not reported. It is only AI news that is about how much money and resources is being consumed on the technology for stealing people's IP and jobs that is getting attention. As I understand it we are all meant to be in awe of how amazing AI is now it can do anything while at the same time we are all meant to be in fear of what that means for humanity.

Yeah, I'm felling jaded about it and wishing the bubble would hurry up and burst so we can get back to focusing on the real value of AI while restoring RAM and power prices etc.

Reminds me of back in the 1990s writing 4:4 bit float point code in assembler for a 8051 based PID motor controller. In many industrial systems a PID controller does make more sense that AI as they are, hopefully, predicable systems. I would like to use AI to check images in near real time from the sky from a wide angle camera to predict the output of my solar panels over the next few minutes to an hour so I can plan loads vs house battery charge etc.

The way they work may be the same in principle but the way they are being treated and public perception is vastly different. If the geothermal AI was treated the same way as LLM conversations then when it said there may be energy available in a location the next day they would be raising billion for a power station at the site and fast tracking building consents, rather than just digging a test bore to see if something viable was there.

Finally some reporting on a useful application of AI, not the endless LLM hype.

Won't happen, companies don't like bad feedback and products returns. The best option is to have both Display Port and HDMI ports. People who understand the difference can then use the Display Port. Remember a typical consumer has a TV with a spare HDMI port and a HDMI cable so they expect to plug that cable into a HDMI port on the new device they brought. When they can't they return product to the store and write a scathing review about how the product didn't work.

Asking people to learn about Display Port vs HDMI is like asking them to learn about Linux vs Windows, they don't care, they know HDMI/Windows and have zero interest in learning something new, they want it work and to work now, they do not want to put in time and effort to get something better when they can have instant gratification.

It is they won't learn. They have someone telling them what they want to hear, so won't listen to people who are saying what they don't want to hear. Wishful thinking make life so much easier than facing reality.

One problem is the supply chain control. If you don't play ball then you can't buy the chips you need to make your product. About a decade ago I made a fast HDMI switcher for use in a retail store game display. We were able to get sample chips for product development but the supplier would not sell us chips for volume production until our hardware was HDMI certified. I think the core issue was the chip we used was stripping the HDCP as part of it operation, so was only allowed in displays, not switches or distribution units where it would make an unprotected stream available.

I still have one of the test boards that we made to support software development ahead of real target hardware. That dev board does have an HDMI output with the HDCP stripped from it. In theory that could used to capture video, breaking HDCP, but the reality is HDCP is a complete waste of time and makes life more difficult for everyone while protecting nothing. A suitably motivated and resourced hacker can simply open a consumer TV and grab the video data stream still in the digital domain after TV has stripped the HDCP with it's licensed chip.

If you have old cameras ONVIF is a good way to find the URL for the RTSP streams, but I would agree just RTSP is often good enough. The existence of ONVIF does tell you a lot about the target buyer.

Look for ONVIF support in the specs. No ONVIF, then ignore it and keep looking. ONVIF doesn't guarantee things will be great but the lack of it is a huge warning flag.

Ok, I'll be that guy, and probably be down voted as flame bait, but why worry about the cost? If you want to save money then Libre Office is free and for most users does everything that 365 does. For those niche user that have a specific need to use 365 what is to say that feature will exist next year? Buy 5 years worth only to find the feature that forced you to use 365 is removed or replaced a sub standard AI version next year?

Disclaimer: I haven't used Microsoft Office since around 2014 and I'm biased against Microsoft.

For media companies the standard trump bribe is revenge. I'm sure there is plenty of actors and directors etc that trump holds a grudge against that could be a target. However for a deal of this size I think a triple play will be needed of money, ego massaging and revenge.

Yea, when the market has stupid prices for stupid reasons this is the likely response. People will only replace phones, tablets and PC that actually fail, not just to get a trendy newer model. Fortunately there is little reason upgrade as the only difference with older models is the addition of AI features that few buyers actually care about, and, with exception of live translation, are not needed on the device itself.

My first computer had 128B of RAM (MC6802) and 2KB EPROM. When programing in machine code using a hex keypad it felt like a reasonable amount of RAM. Now this machine is using 59GB of it's 64GB, mostly due to Firefox and it's web extensions to block ads etc. While some of the demand makes sense I can't help but wonder how much waste there is with layer upon layer of code that assumes RAM is cheap.

Given that a large percentage of the current AI investment is "me too" investment that will fail, then hopefully there will be a healthy drop in price from the oversupply for the real AI needs.

You do know that FAFO means "Fuck Around and Find Out"? What has the USA's allies done to the USA? What fucking around have they done? It is the USA is which is threatening it's allies.

Traditionally part of the USA's power has been the solidarity of it's allies. Many New Zealanders have lost the lives in wars started by the USA. As you pull inwards, threatening allies and talking of dissolving alliances, you lose power by not being able to call on those allies. Already your power is less than a before trump. Today allies withhold some intelligence information from the USA because they know trump may chose to post it on X. Ukraine is now the world's leader in drone technology and who are they sharing it with? Europe and the UK, not the USA.

I suspect the "10% of total Australian expenditure" would be trivial for their accountants to fudge. However the "7.5% of revenues" might be harder for them to mess with, so maybe there is hope. Still what is 'revenue'? One would hope it is what is actually taken from Australian's credit card without offset, fees, adjustments or magic thinking.

I'm reminded of the joke; A mathematician, engineer and account were asked what "2 + 2" is:
The mathematician answered "It can generally be assumed to be 4 in normal use".
The engineer answered "4.0 is a reasonable assumption".
The accountant answered "What do you want it to be?".