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Comment Re:AI? Really? (Score 1) 53

Why have automated calls at all? Sports are social events where people got to see other people who have trained to peak human performance compete against each other at popular games.

I don't want to see perfect play by optimized automatons, I want to see the earnest best effort on the part of the participants and argue about different plays with my friends later. The players will make mistakes, and so will the officials. That should just be part of the game.

Comment Re:What we need to be doing (Score 1) 179

You're still here after all these years?

Notably though if we actually run out of work to do we have a post-scarcity utopia, and that happens when people are so rich that there's basically not a single person who, given even more money, would even be able to think of something to spend it on. That's not going to happen any time soon, so we're basically dealing with a distribution problem, which requires distribution (e.g. minimum wage, set it to 1/3 national hourly GDP, the reason for this takes a while to explain) and redistribution (negative income tax, do it as a universal dividend) policies along with monetary policy to properly increase the money supply to not fall behind productivity growth.

Submission + - Writer turns down grad school acceptance due to AI misinformation (businessinsider.com)

bluefoxlucid writes: A promising young writer rejected her invitation into the University of Sidney's creative writing program on speculation that AI will make creative writers obsolete.

In late 2023, I began noticing changes in the media landscape. Publications were laying off most of their writers, and friends in the industry lost out on great gigs and started competing with AI-generated writing.

As for the book industry, I realized AI will not spend years crafting a thrilling romance novel; it will instead churn out a thousand ebooks a month. For the commercial side of the industry, that will always be enough.

The link used for an example of AI-generated writing consuming the industry discusses cover letters and resumés, and in a great fallacy of equivocation the author decides this means creative writers like Brandon Sanderson, David Webber, and herself will be replaced by ChatGPT.

Instead of AI taking her job, the AI narrative took her job, or at least convinced her to give up on her career as a writer.

Comment Re:If you want to print photos (Score 4, Interesting) 92

[If you want to print photos] Aren't you still stuck with inkjet?

Only if you don't live near a Staples, CVS, Walgreens, etc. You'll get even better results because (at least CVS but probably everyone) has dye sublimation printers, which are vastly better for photographs than color printers.

For other color prints, Color laser printers are not that expensive, but I haven't had much success. I'd recommend stick with B&W, and outsource color stuff to office supply / pharmacy type stores.

B&W laser is so vastly cheaper and lower maintenance, particularly in a sporadic use case, that it's not even a competition - Last time I bought a laser printer, the starter toner was good for 1500 pages at 5% coverage, and it worked fine even if I last printed something 8 months ago. Compare to a typical inkjet in which a full toner pack is good for 200 pages at 5% coverage, has to run ink through every so often to keep the tubes clear, and (for the last HP inkjet I owned) prints black text using all colors despite having a full black cartridge.

Caveat: if you are planning on printing addresses on envelopes to be mailed as a substantial use case, go with the inkjet. Toner fuses to the outside of the paper, so it can get stripped away by the sorting machines.

Comment Re:Can we turn it off? (Score 1) 36

Plus it only works on the latest iPhones: Apple is using it to try and sell phones.

Any other purpose would certainly be suspicious.

But are they trying to sell the latest phones, by having it, or clear out their stock of older phones by not having it?

Comment Re:A Penny For Your Thoughts? (Score 1) 261

I throw them out with the receipt, as there is no way I'm ever going to use them...

To sequester zinc and a small amount of copper in our nations landfills? Why not just.. leave it at the store where they gave them to you? Drop them in the take-a-penny tray[1])?

[1] The existence of a take-a-<thing> tray should be more than enough evidence that its time to retire that unit of currency, as it means people are willing to round up to not deal with the burden of carrying them around.

Comment Re:I really dont get it (Score 4, Informative) 67

This feature doesn't actually affect most people - it currently requires specific hardware - Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite - so it seems like you might have to go out of your way to get a machine infected with it. Those people aren't going to complain because they're buying the machines to get that as a feature.

I'm sure they will keep salami slicing until it covers everyone, but every step of the way it will only be a minority who are actually affected so there won't be enough outrage at once to get something done before apathy and "industry standard practice" kick in.

Comment Re:They dont get it (Score 1) 29

I'm a bit concerned that we are now using the term "ransomware" to include situations where data have been exfiltrated. It used to only mean that the data were encrypted in place, and the ransom was for the decryption key (which you still can't trust, btw. How do you know that the data weren't altered during the encryption or decryption process?).

A case where data are exfiltrated is more properly referred to as a breach.

Are we just being sloppy with language, or does calling it ransomware give companies cover to avoid penalties and responsibilities associated with breaches?

Comment Re:Why are we testing this? (Score 1) 60

Is it better than "nothing" though? How many snow days does NYC have? Shouldn't the kids have a chance to go sledding, build snow forts, have an epic snowball battle?

They used to just build it into the schedule that there would be a small number of surprise skip days. Is that really so terrible? It's not like remote learning addresses the daycare issue - parents need to have a plan for the home day whether their kid is outside getting exercise or inside staring at a screen.

Wireless Networking

Lufthansa Says Passengers Can't Use Apple AirTags to Track Checked Bags (nytimes.com) 72

UPDATE: Lufthansa has since reversed their position, and now says Apple AirTags "are allowed on Lufthansa flights, according to SFGate. But only after their earlier remarks stirred up a lot of consternation.

Slashdot's original story appears below:


Citing rules issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), German airliner Lufthansa says it is banning activated Apple AirTags from luggage "as they are classified as dangerous and need to be turned off." Slashdot reader AmiMoJo first shared the news with us. The New York Times reports: Lufthansa, a German airline, set off confusion recently after telling passengers that they could not use trackers like Apple AirTags in checked baggage because of international guidelines for personal electronic devices. Apple rejected that interpretation on Tuesday, saying its trackers comply with all regulations. It does not appear that any other airlines are requiring passengers to turn off the trackers, which have become popular as a way to find lost baggage.

Lufthansa found itself in the middle of the issue when reports surfaced in the German news media that the devices were prohibited. Though Lufthansa said it has no desire to prohibit the devices that it deemed safe, the airline seems to have stepped in a mess based on the reading of obscure international guidelines and regulations, with no clear consensus on what is and is not allowed in Europe.

Lufthansa said on Sunday on Twitter that the trackers must be deactivated in checked baggage on its flights, citing the International Civil Aviation Organization's guidelines for dangerous goods as well as the trackers' "transmission function." Shutting off the trackers renders them useless. The airline has not issued a specific policy prohibiting baggage trackers. Rather, it says it is at the mercy of the rules. On Tuesday, the airline said it was "in close contact with the respective institutions to find a solution as quickly as possible." It also indicated its own examination saw no danger from their use.
"The Lufthansa Group has conducted its own risk assessment with the result that tracking devices with very low battery and transmission power in checked luggage do not pose a safety risk," said Martin Leutke, a Lufthansa spokesman. "We have never issued a ban on devices like that. It is on the authorities to adapt regulations that right now limit the use of these devices for airline passengers in checked luggage."

In its statement, Apple said that AirTags are "compliant with international airline travel safety regulations for carry-on and checked baggage."

Comment Re:Skinny-off (Score 1) 41

What was wrong with the 3D tv's? Tons of TVs are using 120hz or faster panels, why not add some kind of control signal (maybe IR, or RF) so that users can buy shutter glasses and watch the small number of 3D movies (or the even smaller number of 3D movies that actually look good in 3D) if they want?

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