Think of the power consumption needed to power holodecks 24/7 so nerds can fuck wood elves or whatever their kink is.

You could train an AI just to play chess. Sites like chess.com have tens, hundreds of millions of games to use as training data. But the AI isn’t “thinking” though, it’s just being asked given this input, what’s the most likely outputs and picking one based on its settings. Then the other player moves, the context updates, rinse, repeat. Such an AI would likely whoop most people’s asses but experienced players might figure how to lead it down a path where it doesn’t sufficient training data to play strongly.

But it’s not a generalized LLM like ChatGPT where it’s picking up a handful of chess games from god knows without knowing or enforcing the rules or anything else.

Likewise I bet we’ll see AIs for poker and other lucrative online sports. I bet a lot of online casinos have amassed huge stores of data to produce AIs, as well as players using scraping or logs to do the same. I could even see online casinos running AIs in games because it’s a way of taking money from players beyond the normal rake.

Javascript is a dogshit language that everyone is stuck with. The best that we can hope for is the likes of typescript take the edge off of it. Even though it’s like smearing marzipan over a turd. At least it’s ok if you don’t take a deep bite.

Only the headline asserts “built-in backdoors”, the actual link… not so much.

A reasonable reading of the proposal, assuming it came into effect, is that ISPs, banks, telcos etc would be asked to retain certain records for a number of months or years in a harmonised way. Law enforcement agencies would be required to ask for it in the exact same way they ask for records right now and all the rules concerning GDPR etc would still apply.

Open source tech has zero to do with it, it’s a matter of policy.

Data retention != mass surveilance. Data retention != built-in backdoors. Even the link summary spells out exactly what the purpose of the proposal is (criminal proceedings) and the intended objective (data retention standards).

What I’d wonder is why it’s such massive expensive for Duolingo to hire 2 or 3 people to cover a language anyway. Presumably most of the work is contractual - hire somebody competent to produce a course, get somebody to say the lines, refine the course based on feed back and that’s mostly it.

Actually what would happen is dem support would crash even more because the GOP playbook works. AOC will be branded a socialist, a communist, ready to sell out, to take people’s property etc. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, the electorate will believe it. If the dems want to win they need to lose the haughtiness and a projecting an air of superiority that they know what’s right for people and appeal to blue collar workers again. i.e. messaging needs to change. That might make people more receptive to left wing / progressive views. They also need to read the GOP playbook and create some divisive issues for the right to deal with. But expecting people to accept/embrace/own socialism is a joke. It won’t happen. Think smart.

Harris lost. That’s the point. If the dems want to win they need to learn from their mistakes, not give even more wedges to the right to scare away voters.

Sorry to say but it would be a bow wrapped gift to the GOP. It’s very easy to brand her a socialist and on top of that she’s a woman.

Don’t blame the devs, blame the timelines and the pressures of implementing features.

I was advised by the nurse that as long as we’re within 24 hours of a major hospital (family and me) they can pump us full of antibodies and we should be fine. And also not to pet dogs, cats, monkeys etc.

All 3 of the diseases i was vaccinated for regularly kill people and can cause severe harm even if someone survives. As I am not an idiot I would prefer to avoid that if at all possible. I opted not to get Hep B, Rabies, Dengue fever vaccinations based on a risk profile and where I was traveling but I could and would have gotten shots for those too if the risk profile were higher.

I also vaccinate my kids for the same reasons.

I got 3 vaccinations today for a trip to Asia for Hep A, Typhoid and Tetanus. Two jabs in one arm and one in the other. Because while getting vaccinated isn’t pleasant (sore arms and mild flu like symptoms) I would rather that than to the horrible, potentially life threatening illnesses they prevent.

Probably only works for dumb bots and I’m guessing the big ones are resilient to this sort of thing.

Judging from recent stories the big threat is bots scraping for AIs and I wonder if there is a way to poison content so any AI ingesting it becomes dumber. e.g. text which is nonsensical or filled with counter information, trap phrases that reveal any AIs that ingested it, garbage pictures that purport to show something they don’t etc.

From “Blackadder Goes Forth”

Melchett: Now, I’ve compiled a list of those with security clearance, have you got it Darling?

Darling: Yes sir.

Melchett: Read it please.

Darling: It’s top security sir, I think that’s all the Captain needs to know.

Melchett: Nonsense! Let’s hear the list in full!

Darling: Very well sir. “List of personnel cleared for mission Gainsborough, as dictated by General C. H. Melchett: You and me, Darling, obviously. Field Marshal Haig, Field Marshal Haig’s wife, all Field Marshal Haig’s wife’s friends, their families, their families’ servants, their families’ servants’ tennis partners, and some chap I bumped into the mess the other day called Bernard.”

Melchett: So, it’s maximum security, is that clear?

Blackadder: Quite so sir, only myself and the rest of the English speaking world is to know.

Let’s hope no rumors swirl that JD killed the pope with a contact poison

Fairphone don’t sell replacement mainboards, presumably to stop people building phones from parts but they look very serviceable in other respects.

AI is certainly a very handy tool and has helped me out a lot but anybody who thinks “vibe programming” (i.e. programming from ignorance) is a good idea or will save money is woefully misinformed. Hire good programmers, let them use AI if they like, but trust the programmer’s judgement over some AI.

That’s because you NEED that experience to notice the AI is outputting garbage. Otherwise it looks superficially okay but the code is terrible, or fragile, or not even doing what you asked it properly. e.g. if I asked Gemini to generate a web server with Jetty it might output something correct or an unholy mess of Jetty 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 with annotations and/or programmatic styles, or the correct / incorrect pom dependencies.

I used to visit once or twice a year. I don’t have any plans any time soon to go back.

When you “buy” software, you’re buying a license that grants you permission to use it subject to the terms & conditions. The stealing as the law would see it is from using software without purchasing a license or using it in violation of the license.

It even extends to digital content people “buy” on Steam, or Google Play, or Amazon including books, music, and videos. You didn’t buy that content, even if you think you did. You bought a license to it which is why occasionally Amazon or whoever will just scrub the content from your account without your consent. That’s also why in some countries you pay VAT on e-books even though you don’t pay VAT on real books - because you actually bought a software license which is liable to VAT.

So the best advice is don’t buy digital media from online services. For games and software it is unavoidable but recognize you don’t legally own squat although most console games on disc or cartridge can still be sold second hand. But even that is being eroded. Nintendo apparently are planning to sell “physical” games in stores but you open it up and there is a redemption code inside. Sony and Microsoft have both tried to get away from physical media too.