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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: August 26th, 2023

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  • I don’t remember having heard any practical solutions to the problem so far. They work best on real data, but they rapidly grew to the point where they are generating dramatically more artificial data than humans are generating real data, so they have hopelessly polluted their own well.

    Its a very difficult problem to deal with no obvious solutions that are at all cheap, easy, or even feasible, so someone’s going to have a really, really smart idea for them to get over that hurdle. Add on to that the fact the types of AIs most impacted by his problem, the LLMs, are the ones that are currently the most heavily subsidized by venture capital. So, not only are they facing increasing technical hurdles, they are about to get increasingly expensive to operate at the same time as the seed funding is used up and they have to switch to a revenue-positive business model.


  • I don’t think the technological limitations are what are making those AR goggles get poor reception. They face a couple of non-technological hurdles that I think are going to be nearly impossible for them to overcome:

    • People don’t like strangers pointing cameras in their face to the point where they may even be brought to violence about it, so using these in public settings will continue to be isolating and potentially even dangerous.
    • The companies making things like this are too big to be capable of making a good product ecosystem. It has been an inescapable trend for over a decade+ now that these mega corps have stopped being able to make anything without too much monetization to be good anymore, so adoption is lukewarm, and they kill off everything new after a few years. They are surviving on things they made before that time that they have not managed to mess up all the way yet.



  • I think you might be surprised. Generative AI has limited utility and costs a lot to operate; so much, in fact that t does not appear there are enough natural resources on the planet we’re on to ramp it up to the scale that is intended. Soon, the hype-based funding will dry up, and the free and subsidized generative AI tokens will all disappear. Only then will we see the true cost of using it and if users will bear that cost. If it costs a lot of money to ask it to do things, people will go back to doing a lot of those things themselves.





  • Windows progressively worsening and Microsoft’s dubious practices are entirely independent issues from whatever is going on with Linux, though.

    People interested in and well-suited for Linux use may take that route, given the situation, but even users with no inclination toward or intention to switch to Linux can and do still have legitimate grievances with the company and its software direction.

    Almost everyone has to interact with Windows and Microsoft at some level throughout their lives whether they like it or not, so it is natural and constructive for them to make their opinions known. Microsoft may not respond to these criticisms in a sane or useful manner, but that is their failing, not a failing of the criticisms themselves.

    I find it helpful to consider the substance of the complaint and evaluate it on its own merits, as it sounds you may have already been doing. For example, someone that is solely spouting negativity with no concrete examples of what they dislike about this company and its products is not constructive nor contributing to the conversation, but if someone states specific grievance with a software or company behavior is contributing, whether or not Microsoft takes the contribution.

    If you, personally, have not encountered any problems with Windows or Microsoft that give you any pause or problems in your life, go nuts and use Windows, but knowing that alternatives exist is empowering. At the rate of decline in the quality of the Windows OS, it is not impossible that Linux could become superior in every meaningful metric without even improving. However, it is also conceivable that a user’s needs are such that those quality declines have not impacted you specifically.

    I had a Windows 7 machine for like a decade without a single crash or BSD, and now, a decade later, I have multiple brand new PCs with Windows 11 installs that came on them that have lockups, crashes, and other buggy behaviors right out of the box. It is not unusable, but its stability is more reminiscent of the Windows of the 90s than an improvement on the Windows of 2010. Again, if that’s not your experience, count yourself among the lucky ones and continue to use Windows and be lucky.

    I think the rabid evangelism for Linux around here may have convinced you to try it because of their fervor, rather than their reasoning. I hope you continue to have luck with Windows, but if not, feel free to switch any time! The angry nerds don’t have to impact your decision one way or the other.




  • Are you reading the hate on Windows?

    Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar international mega-corp, and their software is meant for enterprise use as a tool to get a job done–a means to an end. All of its other uses are distantly secondary to that.

    In that context, the tool becoming progressively less reliable, fast, and predictable makes it ever less fit for purpose. Sure, you used that time for something else productive, but when you need your computer for something important right now, it failing to work because its maker broke it when you weren’t looking is a lot to take. Dollars and jobs can be lost because of Microsoft’s cavalier attitude toward quality.

    Contrast that with Linux, a free program made by volunteers in their spare time. Its own updates can cause problems like Windows, but they are ever less common, which is the opposite is true for Windows. Furthermore, if I have important upcoming use for my PC, I can delay or ignore updates as long as I want, even forever. The owner gets to control the computer’s use, because they’re the owner, a fact Microsoft does not respect at all, and seems to be taking measures to change.

    People do not like to be told what to do, nor when or how to do it. People that know how computers work and use them heavily understand how to maintain their computer, and those people are heavily represented here. They are getting their skilled PC management replaced by forced, shoddy, automation of that task and it causes them unnecessary problems, often at inopportune times.

    That’s why Windows gets hate here–Microsoft keeps kicking them in the balls and they hate that.