And is asking an AI to proofread something that much different than MS Word flagging spelling and grammar errors?

Great question, and I think there isn't any significant difference.

But LLMs use a type of math that apparently has the evil bit set. Meanwhile, up here in VirtueVille, the computer code we write to create things, uses different math that doesn't have the evil bit set. Conclusion: we can look down on those AI companies and their stupid users. ;-)

Now, I wouldn't expect an AI service to be better at copyediting than an average human, but I haven't kept up so I'm ignorant of their performance. (All my "AI" experience is that I used Claude twice to, it turned out, fix some typos in some RoR config initializers.) But whether an AI service is as good at copyediting as a human or not, it's that user's choice and, as long as they sign off on the work and really take responsibility for it (declare the words to be their opinion), then I've got no problem with them doing that, whether it uses LLMs or Markov chains or human slaves or Searle's Chinese Room.

The words will be judged by their quality, not provenance.

That said...

Here's a similar story where I'd probably come to the opposite conclusion(!), despite the clown in it pretty much doing what I preach above, though he was using the AI service to do a lot more than copyedit. Behold this 3M expert witness cross-examination (134 page PDF) in the Watson Grinding case. It's slow going at first, but eventually you'll be laughing and cringing like in a good episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Fuck. I don't know.

Has nothing to do with "crappy upstream channels".

a) the traffic on the cable does not know if it goes up or down, but the router does. So you manage that 90% of the bandwidth is used for downstream, and only 10% for upstream
b) downstream can be cashed, upstream is pretty individual depending on the sender: and can not be cashed

This gets mitigated by glass fiber greatly: as you can sent in both directions without any data loss.

And what would there be wrong?

The fibre from the router to the ISP is 10 - 100 faster than the wifi.

It is even faster than ethernet, as my (old) Macs only have 10GBit ethernet, or my cables are not suited for more, no idea.

Building/crafting a new telescope takes ages.
And usually they are planned ahead with a different purpose / different instruments / capabilities.

It is not so that the current Swift can be replaced swiftly from garage garbage parts.

I'd say you are switching and that the nuclear turn off should have been delayed so that the reliance on natural gas during the changeover was lessened compared to what it currently is.

That is because you forgot the timeline. And do not know the basics about German nukes.

The government voted explicitly into office to exit nuclear energy was: 1998, Schroeder, Tritin, Kuehnast etc.. The exit was planned to be finished 2008 or something: by replacing all nukes with Solar and Wind. And in parallel: exit from coal, as well.
Again: that government was voted explicitly into office to exit Nuclear power, and make Germany the leader in the green revolution to speed step into a CO2 free future.

And then came Merkel: and torpedoed both the nuclear exit and the shift to solar an wind - same time.

I have no idea what this arguments are supposed to mean: so that the reliance on natural gas during the changeover was lessened compared to what it currently is.
That is simply factual wrong. There is no "new reliance" on nat gas. Nat gas supports the coal exit where we could not - because of Merkels politics change - install solar and wind in the original planned amounts.

The topics are interwoven, as they all feed into the same grid: But they are completely separate topics. The nuclear exist has nothing to with gas.

The Norwegian and American gas which Germany is using now could be beneficially delivered to the new Hungarian government instead, allowing them to switch off their reliance on gas. It does not work that way. It is just a market. The one who orders first, and pays the price: gets it. There is no political mastermind behind the scene orchestrating how resources are distributed in Europe.

Back to the nukes:
- all nukes would never have been allowed to be build under modern construction rules
- all were at tectonically fault lines
- most of them much to close to majour populated zones
- if something like Chernobyl or Fukushima had happened in Germany: we would be a 3rd world country now. Half the population or more displaced in to save zones
- the nukes contributed top about 22% to the power grid. At a time when the total power production was much much lower than it is now.
- they were all strictly base load plants, with no real way to load follow. Completely useless in a world were we do not need base load anymore (as today), because wind and solar is always over producing over the base load level. Base load in Germany is in WINTER (when the base load is the highest) 40% of peak. So what are we going to do with the nukes at night when the wind is pushing 50% of peak into the grid? Sure, we cut of half of the wind power so we can keep the precious nukes running. Because: we can not ramp them down at night and ramp them up in the morning. Our nukes were not like the French. They were CHEAP. Another reason to get rid of them.
- we do not know where to put the waste, every place we tried turned out to be unsuited, and thanks to Merkel, we have significant more waste than we would have.
- all nukes were far far beyond their design limits
- there litteraly thousands of little accidents the operators were required to report to the authorities: but they did not
- no one in the population trusted them
- Greifswald nearly exploded a few weeks after the reunion of Germany, and then got permanently shut down
- Mr. Kohl in person, threatened future Ph.D.'s that they would never receive their Ph.D if they published certain research results regarding nuclear waste. For example that dissolving waste in glas blocks and depositing them in salt mines does not work, because of the crystal water stored in the salts, and the radiation breaking the salt's crystals structure. Which leads to salty acids, attacking the glass and leaking out the waste.
- the plant in Biblis for example has 5 million people in a roughly 50km circle around it, and that is one of the plants with the most nuclear incidents that were put under the carpet

People like you - with your knowledge, not your attitude - only know about the post Fukushima Merkel exit from Nukes. Sorry: her fucking decision to keep them running nearly lead to a civil war in Germany. And if she had not back pedaled more or less instantly after Fukushima, we would have had civil war!

On top of that, thanks to Chernobyl, there are significant regions in south Germany still today where mushroom harvesting is forbidden, and hunted game is considered unsafe for human consumption. It has to be double and tripple checked before it is getting a stamp which allows it to be eaten: by the hunter only. It is forbidden to sell them to restaurants.

Many people know that.
Please, get a clue:
Non Germans are absolutely not qualified to have any damn opinion about Germany's nuclear exit: because you know nothing except "oh, Merkel panicked because the Ph.D. in Physics suddenly was scared about radiation".
She was scared that we have civil unrest, general strike, possible civil war, if she did not back pedal to the decision Schroeder, Kuehnast, Tritin - the Greens and Reds we voted into office to EXIT Nuclear power - made before her terms.

What do you think how the population felt? We worked hard for 50 years to get a government set up that leads us:
a) out of the nuclear disaster state Germany was in
b) into the green future we now have missed for 20 years

And then comes Merkel and reverts both?

The only thing Merkel - arguable - managed good were the various refugee crisises.

and SchrÃder considered for treatment as a traitor.
Why? He only became a business in the gas industry. Unfortunately working for a Russian company - who cares? At that time Putin was all the new Angle in Europe. He probably still is in that job, no idea. Schroeder is not a traitor. He did not do anything bad for Germany.
He simply was pissed off that Merkel canceled his life legacy, the two points a) and b) mentioned above.

Regarding nat gas:
Nat Gas in Germany is important for house hold heating in winter. And now we switch rapidly to heat pumps. So: we need more electricity. The increase in gas usage in electricity has not really anything to do with the nuclear exit. They replace coal plants. We had some harsher than usual winters recently.
We successfully exited nukes, now we are exiting coal. And as interims solution, also because of lack of grid scale batteries; we use gas.
A grid that used to be 20% nukes and 80% CO2, with minimal hydro power, is now:
60% renewables and 40% CO2. We reduced our CO2 output by 50% and that while total power production got increased.

While this is all interlocked, one would need a computer game, and play all three scenarios.
1) Early exit and rapid transformation to renewables.
2) The mediocre managed exit and slow transformation until roughly 2023.
3) The non exit and fast transformation to renewables. And exit afterwards. (Would never had happend, we had bombed the nukes)
And all three scenarios with and without the Ukraine war, so we have six scenarios.

Point is: we do not want nukes, we do not want coal, we do not want gas: in that order. We got rid of the greatest evil the fastest. Despite Merkels delays.

If someone is a traitor, knowingly or not: it is Merkel, because it is she who gifted all high tech to China: Transrapid, Wind power, Solar, battery tech. And Wind is the only one left in that regard, where Germany is still big. Well, China has its own success stories unrelated to that. So it is only her fault that we lost the industries, not that China gained them.

Finally regarding nukes: when the Ukraine war broke out, we had still 2 or 3 running. With a mediocre 3% or 4% or electricity contribution to the grid. And the gas problem was house hold heating and not a gas plant running out of gas. Except for one, they were about to shut down soon. That shut down was delayed about 3 or 4 months. I just googled it: it was 3 plants.
The only serious question was: would/should we extend exceptionally the lifetime of the last one?
Decision was no.
i) because all preparations to shut it down were already made
ii) it was - as planned - out of fuel
iii) fuel usually was sourced from: Russia
iv) finding alternatives which could provide fuel rods seemed not realistic
v) the short extension, was ending end of April, mid spring, it was clear afterwards was not much use for it

I really do not get what the nuke misinformation is about.
  - A democratic voted government, made the laws to exit.
  - We worked 50 years to get such a government set up.
  - Because the population wanted the exit

We voted explicitly for the nuke exit. That was the main platform point in the election.

It seems people hate democracy if its results do not fit to their world view??

Germany is not your country: it is our responsibility to run it. So why come from the outside all the time and point at something "seemingly wrong", which you have no clue about?

Some idiot a few days ago claimed "German visitors to the game sin USA were surprised to see that the US has yellow school buses with Air Con". And tried to conclude that German buses have no air con. Fact is: American buses are dirty Diesel buses. That is surprising. And most German regions have no school buses. The kids take a normal bus. With Air Con. And primary school visiting school kids: walk to school. There are only school buses in rare cases, e.g. in the mountains. Germany is different. Does not make any sense to compare one thing that works well (cough cough) in your country, with something that seems different on first glance in Germany.

Which areas in UK has irradiated mushrooms, no one can eat?

Wind industry is going good in Germany.

Solar (and also chips) suffered from many bad decisions. But not just politics, also unions. You can not "create jobs" by forcing a company to "create more jobs than they need". Sooner or later, they simply pull the plug (Infinion etc.). Solar I do not know what failed. We have the raw materials, the industry to make them, the universities to improve them, but nearly no production anymore.

Germany is #4 in production of wind turbines after China, Denmark and the USA: .
4: Germany - ~5% to 7% - Nordex, Enercon, Siemens Energy

I did not address this topic.

Obviously it is a no brainer, who would disagree with that?

The north produces move power than the south.
Or more precisely, the south needs power, and the north has surplus.

I believe that a) Germany gets about 25% of it's electricity still from natural gas
Probably more.

You should have
* at least doubled North South internal inter-connectivity

Yes, working on that. Since decades. So no idea what you argue about. And in another decade: it is finished.

* connected to Scottish and Norwegian wind and pumped storage in ways that bypass Sweden (though going through Denmark is probably fine)
That involves quite a few partners who have to work together. You can check the interconnects on Wikipedia.

* build more PV, wind and storage than you did (even though what you did so far is great)
It is Merkels fault that this broke down.

Problem is that Germany is split up into federal states. And also has a lot of grid operators and power companies.

And: the farmers do not really like it if one wants to pull a line of their fields.

So, it can not be done with a snip of a finger that an offshore wind park gets a high voltage transport grid connection down to Munich. There are literally hundreds of parties involved to get it planned, the land rights secured and finally done.

A Gemini search about "renewable contribution" to electricity in Germany shows this:

So since 3 years, we are consistently around 60% production of electricity by renewables.

Germany is not under the top 10 yet, but we are working on it.

You probably have a point there, but then it would probably more CSU, or?

Well, I do not pay attention, as soon as I have stuff settled, I am back in Thailand.

It is mostly Kohls fault how Germany went downhill (CDU), and later Merkel (CDU).

Fun fact: we are still one of the leading industrial nations. But the society: is a complete mess.

3) A cold start of a coal power plant typically takes around 2 days.
That was not the topic.
So: what do you want to say with that?

5) No, starting a turbine and generator doesn't happen in 10s. Try more like 30s to a minute. Which is ages for electricity.
It does.

6) Most bigger gas power plants are combined gas and steam engines. A quick start from cold takes over 30min for those.
That also was not the topic.

Gold starts happen once in the life of a power plant. Then once more perhaps if it gets shut down and an overhaul. And then, like when the Ukraine war started: once again after it was mothballed and one thinks it has to be reactivated.

Gold starts - except for gas turbines and pumped hydro: have nothing to do with load following or balancing power. It has not even anything to do with reserve power. To cold start a reserve power plant is outside of the normal "balancing" and "reserve" scenarios. Did not happen in Germany that last 40 or 50 years, that a power plant was needed as reserve power and needed to be cold started.

I strongly suggest to read up on the topic.

Except for moving the goal post in direction cold starts: everything you wrote so far is wrong. Oh, you are right (perhaps?) with the fuel price for Uranium.

Compared to that, coal is around 3-6ct/kWh.
That is wrong. That is the price for what the power is sold. And that includes the wages of the workers, managers, software engineers, and the costs of the plant itself.

It makes no sense to argue with one (that would be me) who worked decades in the power industry, and was involved in basically every aspect of scheduling power plants.

Perhaps the coal price has just changed recently due to the Ukraine war: no idea.

Especially: as you can google everything I told you, and realize instantly: that I am correct. And you are wrong.

But perhaps you use different gas turbines in you country than in mine? In Germany a gas turbine is in 30 seconds synchronized with the grid, and in 90 seconds on full power. That is why they are called: primary reserve or seconds reserve, as they are the first in line to deliver reserve power when it is unscheduled needed. And "seconds" as in time is the alternative name, as they are ready in seconds.

Primary reserve = second(s) reserve, reacts in seconds, often also only lasts seconds - pumped storage for example
Secondary reserve = minute reserve, reacts in minutes and often only lasts minutes (60 ... or 120)
Tertiary reserve = hour reserve, reacts in hours (to adjust to the load, and then is usually load following), and lasts hours or for ever, a bigger gas plant or coal plant, or a nuke that was not under full load.

Cold starting: has absolutely nothing to do how a grid is run in daily operations. Perhaps end of summer you cold start a plant, to integrate it slowly into the fleet for the winter ... obviously that again: has nothing to do with balancing a grid. It is just because the top load of the other plants would not be enough.

I pointed out where you are wrong.
No idea what the rest of your comment has to do with that :P
Anyway, I play now warcraft and then sleep.

So you are safe from my harassment for approximately 6 hours (sorry, I have bad sleep, so I wake up early)

That is one of the games I never played.

I play 'warcraft reborn' on https://ascension.gg/

the relevance of eu law in uk wasn't the point of this subthread from right after your intervention. nobody minimally informed discusses that.
Yeah, it was the point BEFORE I contributed, and you tried to proof me wrong.

I personally do not consider myself a douchebag.

I consider myself the exact opposite :D

But thanks for your opinion. I will reflect on it.

Yeah and for AI they are making optical CPUs and they are also leading in optical quantum computing.

One could assume there is indeed a mega conspiracy ... one to destroy the US by empowering everyone except them.

I think it is all over EU 240V.
BUT: an old house still has old wires.
As I said, wiring in General would not be the problem.

The problem is that no nation has a program to push AC, and in general even old folk that survived heat waves in the 1970s, are to stupid (lack of common sense/uneducated) to know what to do (and more important: know what NOT to do) in a heat wave.

Then we have unfortunately the situation that during times of scarce living room, the attics under the roofs got converted into flats. And as those are unwanted apartments, they are cheaper and often occupied by elderly.

In France, that is a big exception, basically the whole country goes on holiday during August. Elderly / pensioners who have no aide, are stuck in overheating apartments.

Simple tricks like having a small basin of water to put the feet inside, they do not know about.

Then there is "awareness".

I assume I had a heat stroke myself about 2 years ago. Several hours I was about to vomit. Managed not to vomit. However the time spans I went to the toilet and was thinking: now it comes, were long and often.

I could not explain myself what is going on.

When my GF came home she said: likely a heat stroke.

Now imagine an elderly in that situation, refusing to let the body vomit _standing_ (instead of kneeling) in front of the toilet, and then collapses and hits with his head the toilet basin.

What I want to say is: I simply could have wrapped a cold wet towel around my head, problem solved. But it did not occur to me.

The elderly could be smart enough to go into a shopping mall. But it does not come to their mind. As some other guy pointed out: it is a social problem. People who are left alone, die. Not drinking enough, not having a fan, not knowing how to use cold water or ice ...

I do not know the age statistics ... but the stubborn ones are those who already have survived several heat waves: "I am to tough for that!"

Then: it is literally true, why would anyone buy an AC, he only needs 4 times a year for 4 or 5 days each? Someone living on pension, does not have the money for that. And the moment he seriously wants one: they are sold out, or craftsmen installing them are busy.

I lived through the recent heat waves in Germany. They are damn farking hot. But only last 4 or 5 or 7 days.

I have a shower, I just can shower cold .... and my windows are CLOSED all day long. And at night I test: is it warmer outside or cooler? If it is cooler I open the windows, if not: the stay closed.

Anyway, for new constructed houses - family houses - AC/heatpump combinations are the norm now.