Oh sorry I realized I was responding to the part about using AI to construct search results - not the title which was about images..

Images direct from prompt? um ok so long as I get to say "I'm searching for existing images" vs "I am ok with you generating something with AI"

But also I guess for search results for sites - if they start using Large Language Models to build search results I fear there are going to be more issues like that law office that filed a brief which mentioned entirely fabricated cases cuz AI just "confabulated" ("hallucinated")

If it wasn't already giving garbage full of ads already - I just can't see this working well - with LLMs "hallucinating" so frequently, now even if you could wade through the ads, the results it returns .. could be entirely nonexistent sites /content created out of thin air...

OK so probably not but honestly, I want an AI-Free option thanks - I already set up an searxng instance on a Raspberry PI in my house - but not maybe I'll just remove google from the engines I am pulling from ...

DeFacto monopoly

https://gs.statcounter.com/sea...

Statcounter Global Stats
Search Engine Market Share Worldwide - August 2023
Google
        91.85%
bing
        3.02%
YANDEX
        1.49%
Yahoo!
        1.17%
Baidu
        1.06%
DuckDuckGo
        0.54%

Gosh, it's sure good that Google has "Don't be Evil" in their code of condu... wait? what they removed that in ... checks Interwebs... 2018

Seriously talk about a fall. I think it comes down to

Money corrupts, Billion@ corrupts absolutely

The key here to me is
"""since Amazon doesn't produce or sell DVDs for these Prime Video series, there is no doubt that they are created from illicit sources. """

OK, Amazon, if you released them officially you would then find the pirates would not bother ... literally these bootlegs exist solely because there is a demand you are not filling

However, I get it - you're looking to maximize profit and keep people paying for Amazon Prime so you have little incentive to sell the DVDs and the suing actually about protecting that prime subscription base and not really about the specific DVD / series

The whole buisness model is set up to squeeze money out of people in "recurring payments" monthly

Funny enough I have paid for Aamazon Prime for years not for video access but just for the prime shipping and such - it's worth it to me for that ... I hardly use Prime Video except the rare times when a series is Amazon Prime Only - funny thing is I'm old and salty - I prefer physical media so while I might watch an original series on Amazon when it comes out - if I like it, I'd actually pay for the DVD to have on my shelf - so they can't "1984" it at some point.

(referring to what Amazon did to 'unauthorized' e books fof 1984 not to the actual story itself for those who don't know look it up - it was .. ironic to say the least)

As a lover of niche/ecclectic films, I have a pretty big collection of "box office flops" that I hold very dear (Tampopo, Bagdad Cafe, Harold and Maude, Logan's Run, A Boy and his Dog, .. you get the idea - lots of stuff that was not really big blockbuster and yet are arguably "classics" ... and which if I hadn't bought the DVD when they were available would likely be utterly inaccessible to me as those often also get discontinued.. I had to hunt hard to get the complete collection of LEXX (and one could argue fairly that I'm insane for even wanting it but don't judge me - I like my quirky stuff...)

Anyway, point is that with streaming services they have no incentive to release DVD/BluRay/4k of their shows - they would rather you keep the service every month - except they break the social contract in my opinion by arbitrarily removing series - so you get a great series and have access then one day it just goes... and you've got no choice

so YAY for the pirates because if I wanna watch say "Max Headroom" TV series what other choice do I have ? (bad example that one actually finally DID make a release but I had long since bought a copy someone TiVo'ed off The SCI-FI channel or whatever way back

There was this web site named for tales of the golden Monkey or somethig that had a bunch of these - they specialized in cult shows that had never been officially released on DVD - when a show released they'd stop selling their pirate versions - was a good model - probably sued out of existence ... dont know..

still I get shit from my partner about how many DVDs I have taking up space in the bookshelves in the rec room, but at least I can watch Dark Star whenever I want without worrying if I have a current sub to "whoTheHellEverWantedToWatchThat.com" :)

I'm old - I remember when HP scanners and HP printers were rock solid.

My LaserJet 4100N lasted me over 20 years (but I did have to replace the jet direct card at least once and I finally gave it up when the cost of yet another JetDirect card would have been more than the price of a new, faster Brother...

I used to have a ScanJet 4p and later a ScanJet4c .. their old SCSI flatbed scanners were solid.

I have to say though I am surprised about this hullaballoo with "won't scan if low on ink" .. not because I didn't think they'd sink that low, but because at some point in the past, I had an HP inkjet/MFP and am pretty sure it did that to me years and years ago - so I'm more surprised someone finally managed to get traction in suing them.

seriously - you do not need ink to scan or send a fax (who faxes anymore?)

Anyway, I won't ever buy another HP scanner, printer, or computer - they're dead to me and have been for a long time as their original war on consumers via DRMing ink was just too evil - However, trying to find a manufacturer who doesn't do this same shit these days - I dunno - the only hoope is to get a business/enterprise product that you pay for up front and then has long term support and is meant to be repaired - I'll swap out a drum / fuser / etc... happily thank you.

Look, I'm a life-long Star Wars fan - I saw the original in the theater in 1977.

The idea of this fully immersive experience is great, but with Disney not allowing adults to wear costumes - (and yeah I kind of get why - they don't want folks mistaking visitors for cast etc)

However, to use an analogy:

I do both Rennisance faire and also a large Society for Creative Anacronism (SCA) event called "Pennsic War"
The two are very different - the Renn faire grounds themselves are very immersive and the cast and participants (of which I've been honored to be a part several years) dress immersively, but patrons are free to dress in costume (many do) or not (also, many do)

so the immersive nature of the faire is diminished - not that it's not fun - it's just .. not fully immersive the way that something like Pennsic War is where all attending make an attempt at pre-17th century attire (the venue staff actually wear specofic green polo shirts and are thus easily identified, but the vast majority of folks are in medieval garb and the immersion level is in many ways much more complete

Anyway, I do a lot of conventions, LARPs, medieval reenactment and renaissance stuff and I've just always gotten a great deal of joy from the costuming aspect - so for me the Star Wars galaxy event is just kind of not that appealing since the immersion is just totally broken (for me) by the throngs of folks in shorts and flipflops

Not saying this is a hill I will die on - this is the way they're doing it and that's fine I guess but - even as a life long fan, the lack of full immersion is enough of a "dealbreaker" that I wouldn't be willing to spend the kind of money for the trip that they are charging. If everyone was allowed/encouraged to be in costume, I think I'd have been much more interested... but for the experience offered - to me, what you get is not worth that steep price.

Honestly, ever since 7-Zip has been available, I've used that - it's one of the first things I install when setting up a computer:

I was one of those weirdos who actually did pay for WinZip at least once .. way back when Windows had no built in Zip handling.

I'll probably keep using 7-zip as I like the UI and integration better than the way the built in windows Zip handling does - and I'm guessing windows built in rar will work just like zip does now.

At first glance there's just that tiny bit of "something you cant put your finger on"

But look on image right - that hand on her chest .. the angle is all wrong for it to be hers and it's a left hand.. so ... yeah like still if you're not looking for it you just get that bit of "it's a bit off" without the WHY registering.

One day, AI is going to get hands/arms right and oh boy are we going to be in trouble...

Indeed -
There IS a choice... like they could go with FireFox...
They could go with whatever the computers default browser is set to, though I do get that unsupported windows without security fixes could present a nightmare for them in terms of hacked/stolen accounts...

I wish they had a way to let these older games that just won't run past 7 or xp still run/work

Maybe make ClassicSteam to let those games that just won't work on modern OS/hardware still run/work?

I dunno.

I HATE windows UIs past 7 as well - honestly I loved Windows 2000 / NT4 UI and frankly would happily use them today if they were supported...

Anyway, the way I manage to function with 8 and up through 10 is OpenShell

With win 11, I also need StartAllBack to fix the taskbar and a couple windows 11 annoyances (Basically OpenShell now just for the start menu and StartAllBack for the rest

but I totally get it - I'm on the autism spectrum and things that mess with how my UI works become so distracting to me that I have a hard time focusing on anything else until I fix what I feel is broken.

So far, OpenShell and StartAllBack make windows 11 usable .. but I would probably force myself to go with MacOS rather than Linux if I felt I had to go - just because MacOS a decent enough UI on top of BSD which I can cope with..

Don't care much so long as I can turn it off

I can't stand the quick launch (that recently run list at the top of the start menu some versions of windows had)

I can't stand the way that the download folder ends up being forced into Group By even when I explicitly set it otherwise and keeps going back every time windows updates happen

or how when I tell windows NOT to use tablet mechanics for dropdowns (Having a touchscreen I don't use for touch but windows flips the direction of menu dropdowns for touch, I set mine to "left handed" to stop it from doing that but every time there's a patch Tuesday something resets that

Or how they replaced sensible, predictable menus with that godforsaken ribbon

I'm on the autism spectrum so I'm particularly annoyed by / /sensitive to things being changed out from under me but ... this is the detente I've gotten to

So long as I at least have a way to turn crap like that off and get back to my preferred view...

Seriously though - there is a nonzero set of people for whom "change for the sake of change" is exceedingly disruptive - when one of those setings I crafted carefully gets undone I find myself unable to function/continue until I've resolved it and then mad at it for a while... I know that part is on me and I work to be better about it .. so my compromse is "let me set it"

I REALLY can't even begin to explain how annoying I found it that windows 11 took away my "never combine, always show" taskbar item layout - I ended up finding and paying for StartAllBack just so I can use that feature without having to dig registry entries etc...

OpenShell and StartAllBack are the only way I have been able to stand windows 10 and up - and OpenShell (Formerly ClassicShell) was the only way I could really stand windows UI changes post Windows 2000

get of my lawn! I'm neurospicy and that makes me a bit inflexible .. but as long as I can find a way to turn it off I can function ...

This may not fit everyone's needs, but I have cameras (not cloud hosted) and they all point exclusively outwards.

I don't do internal cameras. I know that some folks want/need internal cameras to monitor while away / check on pet sitter etc...

I review detections regularly then delete the data. Sure if the cops really wanted they could get a warrant and take my hub device and try and forensically recover the deleted data (assuming new videos didn't overwrite the old empty space)

But even with all that all my cameras point outward so at least it's only my neighbors privacy ...

Unless they REALLY wanna see pics of me or my spouse mowing the lawn or bringing the groceries in I'm not super worried about that kind of privacy issue.

And yeah I suppose neighbors with cameras might have them pointing at our windows or able to see in under the right circumstances. I mean on one hand yeah that's super creepy / violation of privacy - on the other hand, literally they'd get very grainy tiddy pics if they caught one of us changing with the blinds open.

I keep my cameras pointed where you don't actually see any neighbors properties - the angles are such that you can see cars driving on the street but I don't point anything to where you could see the neighbors houses.

I have two rokus - one in my rec room and one in my bedroom. They work great for letting me watch Youtube and other streaming services with a consistent interface and no ads

I tried Amazon Fire TV but took it back because the interface felt like it was always trying to push me to / sell me on stuff it wanted to promote

I also have an AppleTV because my wife is big into the Apple ecosystem and that interface isn't too bad

I seriously dislike the UIs / "smart" features on the tvs - they're slow, underpowered and .. just feel clunky at best

If Roku stopped doing its thing tomorrow I'd probably look into a media server and throw it on a raspberry PI or low power SOC etc...

but unless/until Roku and AppleTV stop meeting my needs there's no reason.

Not sure what people thought these devices were gonna do ... shine their shoes?

No idea why these big tech companies cling to outdated practices like massive physical office facilities -

I've been working from home full time since 2013 - subdivision went fully virtual and closed their office a few years later - we've been able to save $30,000 a month rent/utilities alone not to mention a generally happier workforce - I've talked to co workers who have said they've turned down other job offers that might have paid more simply because they were happy with being able to work remote full time - the quality of work life balance is so much better

and for companies like Google with offices in super expensive areas... seriously - remote employees making good money can afford much nicer places... and end up spending their money in local communities that are not just soaking it up with inflated prices..