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PassingThrough

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PassingThrough ,

I think there’s a larger picture at play here that is being missed.

Getting the weather is a standard feature for years now. Nothing AI about it.

What is “AI” is, Hey Siri, what is the weather at my daughter’s recital coming up?

The AI processing, calculated on-device if what they claim is true, is:

  1. the determination of who your daughter is
  2. What is a recital? An event? Are there any upcoming calendar events that match this concept?
  3. Is the “daughter” associated with this event by description or invitation? Yes? OK, what’s the address?
  4. Submit zip code of recital calendar event involving the kid to the weather API, and churn out a reply that includes all this information…

Well {Your phone contact name}, it looks like it will {remote weather response} during your {calendar event from phone} with {daughter from contacts} on {event date}.

That is the idea between on-device and cloud processing. The phone already has your contacts and calendar and does that work offline rather than educating an online server about your family, events and location, and requests the bare minimum from the internet, in this case nothing more than if you opened the weather app yourself and put in a zip code.

PassingThrough , (edited )

Onboard AI chips will allow this to be local.

Phones do not have the power to ~~~

Perhaps this is why these features will only be available on iPhone 15 Pro/Max and newer? Gotta have those latest and greatest chips.

It will be fun to see how it all shakes out. If the AI can’t run most queries on the phone with all this advertising of local processing…there’ll be one hell of a lawsuit coming up.

EDIT: Finished looking for what I thought I remembered…

Additionally, Siri has been locally processed since iOS 15.

macrumors.com/…/use-on-device-siri-iphone-ipad/

PassingThrough ,

Forgive me, I’m no AI expert to fully compare the needed tokens per second measurement to relate to the average query Siri might handle, but I will say this:

Even in your article, only the largest model ran at 8/tps, others ran much faster, and none of these were optimized for a task, just benchmarking.

Would it be impossible for Apple to be running an optimized model specific to expected mobile tasks, and leverage their own hardware more efficiently than we can, to meet their needs?

I imagine they cut out most worldly knowledge etc/use a lightweight model, which is why there is still a need to link to ChatGPT or Apple for some requests, would this let them trim Siri down to perform well enough on phones for most requests? They also advertised launching AI on M1-2 chip devices, which are not M3-Max either…

PassingThrough ,

Plug it into a monitor or TV and keep an eye on the console.

I have an older NUC that will not cooperate with certain brands of NVMe drive under PVE…the issue sounds like yours where it would work for an arbitrary amount of time before crashing the file system, attempting to remount read-only and rendering the system inert and unable to handle changes like plugging a monitor in later, yet it would still be “on”.

PassingThrough ,

My understanding is that this is a rage-baitey misunderstanding.

Yes, they are renaming the base game (to improve search results, it is speculated) but otherwise this is more of a soft-reboot, a free DLC(for owners of current DLC) with some core mechanic overhauls.

It’s not even going to stop being an MMORPG, the marketing team was just allergic to the acronym for some reason.

In fact, it was confirmed that for base game players without DLC, this is all just a big nothing. We’ll still keep our progress and data, just not get any new DLC content(obviously), though the rebalancing will still trickle down.

New World isn’t shutting down, it’s getting a new DLC and a less generic name, the marketing guys just tried to oversell it like a new game. Guess they earned their bonus because everyone is talking about it now…

If you like TF2, sign in the petition #FixTF2 #SaveTF2 (save.tf)

A couple of years ago, the TF2 community came together with the #SaveTF2 movement, which managed to get a reaction from Valve but little more than that. The game has gotten some bug fixes, VScript support and 64-bit builds, but there’s been no action taken against the true problem – the bot crisis....

PassingThrough ,

Genuine curiosity…what are some proposed solutions we think Valve can implement to solve this crisis?

I ask because the line about VAC being a joke gave me a thought…VAC is such a joke because it is so simple and un-invasive. Do we really want VAC “upgraded” to the level of more effective Anti-cheats, where it cuts down the bots but is now a monitoring kernel service? Just a few weeks ago people were in an uproar about the new Vanguard anti-cheat…do we want that for Valve? Or do we think they can do it a better way?

As an aside, honestly in my mind community servers with a cooperative ban list plugin might be the most effective solution of all…it would still be a game of whack a mole since they can always churn out new accounts, but that’s what gives me pause about other solutions because the only real solutions to slow cheaters start to sound like charging for the game(to make account creation costly) or implementing a bulletproof system of hardware bans, which means invasive solutions that can be certain they aren’t virtual machines or such.

PassingThrough ,

I recommend Dockge over Portainer if you want a web admin panel. github.com/louislam/dockge

It’s basically docker compose in a website, and you can just decide one day to turn it off and use the compose files directly. No proprietary databases or other weirdness.

PassingThrough ,

Like a non-profit, with tax breaks and the ability to earn enough to operate, but little more than that or the taxes come back with a vengeance.

Everything needs money to run but when there’s the option to shovel out whatever bait it takes to chase the dragon of uncapped earnings, they’re not in it to keep us informed, just to keep us spending.

PassingThrough , (edited )

I agree cash is the right idea, for now, but can you say for sure cash payment will be possible forever, or even the next 50 years? Wouldn’t it be better to blunder around with new ideas while cash is still a good fallback? Not saying I like crypto, and the cost on resources and the environment sucks bad, but I can at least appreciate them trying something. Now we just need to come up with sustainable options…

I get that cash seems a pretty durable idea, and it’s lasted for hundreds of years, but it did so before the massive societal turn towards technology we’ve made in the last 30 years.

PassingThrough ,

Do you game at all? Gaming on Linux has made great strides, be be fair, but for a lot of titles you still need to consider a dual boot of some form of Windows, thanks to over the top anti-cheat, DRM, and developer support.

Something to consider for the gamers out there.

PassingThrough ,

There’s a whole lot going towards ending the web as we know it.

Censorship, consolidation, AI, greed, to name a few.

Why, I couldn’t even get into the article before it faded into a paywall.

I get people want to be paid but splashing cash on every page is not the internet as I knew it.

Getting to this article from a social site(Lemmy) was also not how I knew it, that’s the consolidation part. After MySpace, in the era of Facebook pages it started. Less personal websites, less websites in general, just get everything from Facebook and Reddit.

And sure, AI is also going to water down content, with prompts written by cheap corporate lackeys that we will still have to pay subs for after a social site sends us there.

And then there’s also the censorship and laws coming out to restrict what’s available. First to protect the children while they are young, then more to “protect” them as they get older, and eventually they will know nothing but state approved media.

To quote the article,

It’s the End of the Web as We Know It.

And I’m old and bitter about it. It had good promise, but enshittification took hold as was inevitable.

PassingThrough ,

Absolutely. You can even throw the telephone in there. At the start it was a great way to reach Grandma across the country or the doctor across town. Now most of the traffic on it is robots and extortionists trying to fool Grammy into giving her money for some lie or another.

I don’t even answer my phone for numbers anymore…be on a short named contact list, leave a voicemail reminding me you are someone I should put on that list, or nothing doing. Sucks for anyone putting me down as an emergency contact though…

And I feel TV being 25% ads is being pretty conservative…oh, but streaming! Swap the ads and channels you don’t want for a higher per-channel price and no ads…oh, wait, now you get a higher price and the ads!

PassingThrough ,

I wonder if it can be detected by the streaming apps. Some of them are really anal about ensuring you can’t record or whatever, and don’t work if it doesn’t get all the HDMI security stuff just right. I’ve had issues with bad cables and my portable projector(Anker) has to side load an alt version of Netflix because they couldn’t/wouldn’t get the device to pass Netflix “certification”.

I’m guessing this means new partnerships and money changing hands, or nobody on a Roku can watch Netflix anymore, or they put these ads at a higher level that bypasses whatever security/DRM Netflix uses. Probably the last one, but if Netflix thinks they will lost money to this they’ll probably just pull their certification anyway.

PassingThrough ,

The worst part is, I could accept that as a generational flaw. The newer ones get better, the olds ones lying around do less. OK, that’s the beast of progress.

But no. They still make cables today that do power only. They still do cables that do everything except video. Why? Save a couple cents. Make dollars off multiple product lines, etc. Money.

What could have been the cable to end all cables…just continued to make USB a laughing stock of confusion.

Don’t even get me started on the device side implementations…

PassingThrough ,

I feel the only place for a €1 cable is met by those USB-A to C cables that you get with things for 5V charging. That’s it. And it’s very obvious what the limits on those are by the A plug end.

Anything that wants to be USB-C on both ends should be fully compatible with a marked spec, not indistinguishable from a 5V junk wire or freely cherry picking what they feel like paying for.

Simply marking on the cable itself what generation it’s good for would be a nice start, but the real issue is the cherry picking. The generation numbers don’t cover a wire that does maximum everything except video. Or a proprietary setup that does power transfer in excess of spec(Dell, Raspberry Pi 5). But they all have the same ends and lack of demarcation, leading to the confusion.

PassingThrough ,

Actually, that leads me to another point:

One upon a time, the concept behind a universal USB-C connector was so we could do exactly that.

Laptop? Phone? Camera? America? Germany? Japan? Power? Connect the to TV? Internet?

Wouldn’t matter anymore. USB-C to cover it all. Voltage high for the laptop, low for the camera, all available just the same in every country, universal. So yes, fill the airports and hotels with them. Use them for power and to play videos on the TV. Because we weren’t supposed to have to question the voltage or abilities of the ports and cables in use.

Did/will that future materialize?

PassingThrough ,

I’ll take a compromise where “3.1” is etched in each head end, and I can trust that “3.1” means something, and start with that.

The real crux of the issue is that there is no way to identify the ability of a port or cable without trying it, and even if labeled there is/was too much freedom to simply deviate and escape spec.

I grabbed a cable from my box to use with my docking station. Short length, hefty girth, firm head ends, certainly felt like a featured video/data/Dock cable…it did not work. I did work with my numpad/USB-A port bus thing though, so it had some data ability(did not test if it was 2.0 or 3.0). The cable that DID work with my docking station was actually a much thinner, weaker feeling one from a portable monitor I also had. So you can’t even judge by wiring density.

And now we have companies using the port to deviate from spec completely, like the Raspberry Pi 5 technically using USB-C, but at a power level unsupported by spec. Or my video glasses that use USB-C connections all over, with a proprietary design that ensures only their products work together.

Universal appearance, non-universal function, universal confusion.

I hate it. At least with HDMI, RCA, 3.5mm, Micro-USB…I could readily identify what a port and plug was good for, and 99/100 the unknown origin random wires I had in a box worked just fine.

PassingThrough ,

That or they do prescription inserts, or just sell you the computer and you get other glasses that do, like Viture www.viture.com

You can only pick 2 games from steam to play for the rest of your life, what games are they? (sh.itjust.works)

I have a large library of steam games, but yet always come back to Garry mod and ravensfield. I keep coming back for the modded content and every other game is excellent, don’t get me wrong. But a lot of big games like RD2 and watchdogs 2 just seem like such a long time investment. What 2 games do you infinitely come back to?

PassingThrough ,

Ah, but would you keep Workshop access?

If so, Garry’s Mod is almost cheating. There’s a bit of everything in it.

So that and Warframe. I picked up WF ten years ago and it’s still in my top ten recently played games. Though I have a love/hate relationship with the Metagame it turned into, it still remains.

PassingThrough ,

To be honest, I stopped being a “qualified player” a few years ago. Nowadays I load up a nice long Survival round, usually against Infested to chew on, with whatever Frame I’ve forgotten how to play, to enjoy the loop without stress. So I’m not in it to farm all the stuff either. Or, I’ll play the story quest if a new one is out, since they are pretty well scaled for solo play and/or give you what you need.

Other than that I just can’t compete. I tripped some time ago and didn’t keep up with the latest meta builds, so now I struggle to have the things “required” to effectively participate in public sessions or the latest missions. And don’t even get me started on Rivens, Shards, Liches or whatever.

If I join a Zariman round I’ll probably die. Not as much now that I have Titania, but I’m also not clearing rooms in a single volley like everyone else.

I’m a filthy casual and I still find a way to have fun, so there’s something there worth keeping.

PassingThrough ,

I often compare Natural Selection to Survivorship Bias, because as far as I can tell that is what it is.

There is no “drive” or mythical force to be better. A mutation occurs and the result works or doesn’t.

Those that work have survived until today, and those that don’t failed to reproduce sufficiently to reach today.

That said, today we actually have what I call “Un-natural Selection”, and that is when we humans take something that would have failed naturally and ensure its success through our intervention. Think seedless plants or humans/animals with chronic disabilities. Natural selection would likely have eliminated them for failure to function or reproduce, but through our will they endure. For now.

PassingThrough , (edited )

I won’t claim to know for sure, but I’ll place my bet on it still being about motivated by profit and growth. Supposedly Windows 10 was supposed to be the last Windows ever, and move to an eternal patching process, but I guess that didn’t stick. So obviously just keeping you on Windows isn’t enough, they found a need to create a refresh.

I did notice that refresh has new hardware requirements, like TPM modules and such. Deals with the OEMs to get people to buy/build new PCs?

There’s talk of advertisements and sponsored links in the very Start Menu, so partnerships with advertisers to get closer to your daily activities?

I won’t say I know for sure, because I only use Windows for video games. So, I too will be running Windows 10 until the games don’t work anymore. Might I recommend, if you can get a copy, Windows 10 LTSC? It is a bared bones version of Windows made (by Microsoft) for enterprises and governments who would never buy into consumer features like advertising and analytics, so it’s very clean, fast, and not full of spying junk or ads like the Home versions. And it hasn’t bugged me once about upgrading. All my games run fine after some one-time minor command prompt foolery to get the Store and XBOX game pass apps back.

EDIT: Also, LTSC is Long-Term Support Channel, so additionally it will be supported longer than the regular editions, and be safer longer. Unless they change their minds this time around of course, but I doubt it. You don’t rush the government through a PC upgrade if you want them to fund you.

PassingThrough ,

I wouldn’t say it’s only Critical, LTSC still gets average security fixes. They don’t get Feature updates, but they still get Security updates, is how it’s normally put. And it’s not as bad as it sounds. Even as a gamer stability is a good thing, and there are plenty of third party softwares for any desirable “features” that get delayed or skipped. If LTSC gets any fewer security updates it’s because it has less built in crap to need updating.

I’ve never needed funny graphics in my taskbar search bar or Bing in my start menu or the Edge bar or whatever it was that now clutters my friend’s task bars as of the last Feature update. But I still get my security fixes and Defender definitions every Patch Tuesday.

But the trick is getting a copy, true.

PassingThrough ,

TBH I really do think there should be some regulations in place. I grew up on social media and it was bad enough for me that I got away from it…mostly, obviously I’m here…but I look at the next generation afraid for them and their future as I see these platforms define their very reasons to exist today. It’s so much worse today as they were able to get hooked younger and at their most impressionable.

I’m not even sure it can be safely cured at this point without some nuclear option. Kids today don’t know anything else.

I could blame the parents, but most of that generation is almost as addicted many of them don’t see the problem either.

PassingThrough ,

I didn’t really have words for it then like I might now with the benefit of hindsight and outside observation…back then I just eventually recognized that it wasn’t making me feel good to participate, more drained and yet I had the need to continue.

Imagine a school social scene. Imagine those youthful desires to express yourself, the need to be recognized as a person and feel seen and maybe even appreciated by those around you. Maybe you decorated your notebooks or locker or dressed “weird” for expression, maybe you tried to enter different cliques and make friends, even shallow false ones for clout. Maybe you suffered under the school bully who always put you down. Maybe you were the bully, looking down on others to elevate yourself.

Now scale that up to what might appear to be the countless billions connected to the web. Now the whole world could be your friend, but also your enemy. You are now a mere speck in a sea of others begging for that same recognition. You post something, and an artificial number goes up to declare your success, but you need it to go higher, reach farther. That same number is also a testament to your failure to matter to literally thousands or millions of people instead of at most a couple hundred you could meet in school and town. You could lose hope, fall into depression that you are worthless, or try ever harder, ever edgier, ever more extreme to try and matter. In addition to your own image, you can also try to put others down, bully them and attempt to decrease their visibility, their reach, so it doesn’t eclipse yours. Just like they’ve been doing to you.

I was too meek to be the bully or the bitch, so my social media experience was trying to go beyond my means and post things that I thought would matter and get seen, while usually being beaten down by those who were not afraid to be assholes about my very existence. And always feeling that I hadn’t reached enough, accomplished enough. That I wasn’t “winning”. Made a whole MySpace page with all the cool widgets just to see a visitor counter(barely) go up. Tried to post my thoughts to a young Facebook and Twitter just to be told I should kill myself, if it reached anyone.

Kids and teens have enough trouble keeping stable in an environment where they have to work with 50-100 people a day at worst…and now they feel the need to catch the eye of millions. The struggle and burden on their mental state scales with it.

And this is before we start a discussion on today’s prevalence of malicious intent, pedophiles and abusers you can’t just walk away from and ignore, if you even recognize the threat. And before we weigh in on the corporations with their own nefarious exploitation of whatever makes more engagement and therefore money.

I’m older now and I can see this all for what it is and navigate around it to meet my needs without falling for it anymore, I don’t care at my age about the likes or upvotes aside from maintaining enough to get into the communities that set a bar to prevent spam. That’s all I need it for, so there’s an achievable goal now instead of an enduring need for ever more that kids have.

PassingThrough ,

Because “protecting the children” is an easier political fight than trying to save adults from their own freedom, and the internet is not as clearly a threat as guns or drugs. And even guns are hard to restrict…

As an adult you have a right to make bad choices, as well as certain constitutional rights, and unless controlling your rights can be readily accepted as required for the public good(like keeping you from driving a 2 ton murder box without training), it will die politically very, very quickly as government overreach.

And even then there are many who think driver’s licenses are a violation of their freedoms. You think we can control their social media/free speech outlets?

PassingThrough ,

Depending on the channel, they weren’t wrong. And ironically, such channels are probably their favorites too.

Do as I say, not as I do and all that.

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