'They were against AI, and I'm like, 'OK, you sound like the person that would have been against the drum machine when it came out.' Or synthesizers, right?"'

Yup. I prefer music made by humans, preferably with analog instruments mostly made out of wood and metal.

Nothing wrong with music made by machines if you like that sort of thing, and if you're trancing out on the dance floor it might be perfect. But that's the problem for me, it's too perfect.

Humans on analog instruments make tiny variations in rhythm, pitch, timbre, etc., that usually correspond to the emotion or intent behind the music. This creates music that breathes, that hits you on more levels than just the beat and the melody.

Yes, you can imitate that with programming or AI, but a real musician gives you a sense of the personality and mood of the performer. To me that's the good stuff.

Tech bros are a plague on the Bay Area. Let 'em ruin someplace else for a change

I agree. AI may or may not be wonderful, but it's becoming a buzzword that's used to automatically label something (or someone) as fraudulent. Whatever use the author may have made of AI, the article should be critiqued on its merits, not on how it was created.

I get the privacy objections, but it also looks like the process to get it set up is cumbersome and annoying, and it's only accepted in a few places, so you have to carry your plastic license anyway. So what's the point?

"Your honor, this totally appropriate and less than deserved consequence of my own misbehavior is quite unfair, and anyway, look at the interesting conversation I've started..."

But it actually seems like a good idea. Like a stopped clock, this administration is accidentally correct every once in a while, but it's definitely a lot less than twice a day.

The entire entertainment industry provides about 1.4% of California's tax revenues. Paramount is only a small fraction of that. Not much leverage against the 4th largest economy in the world.

tl;dr: Not an excuse. "Because a computer told me to do it" doesn't cut it. Cops (and everybody else) need to be held responsible for their own actions.

You missed some use cases. For me, I'm knowledgeable enough to eliminate ads, telemetry, etc. (with the aid of some excellent 3rd party utilities), and I use some expensive audio hardware that only has Windows drivers, as well as the extensive ecosystem of audio apps that Linux can't match.

I could go to Mac, but both hardware and software are substantially more expensive, and I don't like the Apple walled garden. For me, a properly tweaked Windows is the best alternative.

Clippy: "It looks like you're trying to deshittify Windows. Can I help?"

It's hard for me to post less, since I never post at all. Unless you call /. social media, which is a lot closer than calling it a tech discussion site.

"The place is too crowded, nobody goes there any more."

Is the originating company based in the US? Do they do business or have customers in the US? That's enough for jurisdiction.

Deere's lockdown of repair and maintenance was disgusting, and I'm glad there is at least some temporary relief. But as others have pointed out, they'll be at it again in 10 years.

The real problem is Deere's unbridled pursuit of profit, and their willingness to screw over customers in that pursuit. This settlement will only modify one aspect of their bad behavior, and only temporarily. The stockholders can rest secure in the knowledge that Deere will surely find numerous other loopholes and continue to extract maximum bucks from the American farmer.

Of course they're not the only ones, but they're unfortunately a critical link in a critical industry, and they're much worse than most.

Much more fun to make snarky comments. But I'm still super skeptical. The vast majority of expert commentary says that even though we can map neurons and identify regions of brain activity, that's a very long way from a scientific understanding of the human mind and "how we think."