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Comment Re:collect IP (Score 1) 56

They don't need AI for that. Teams - and pretty much all Microsoft products - are honeypots designed to collect data.

Well, no so much "honeypots" in the case of products that employees are forced to use at their workplace: they're no honey needed to attract them and get them to give Microsoft data. If you disagree with Microsoft's privacy invasion, you lose your job.

That's the genius of Microsoft's particular brand of invasiveness: instead of convincing individual people their products are good enough to relinquish their privacy for (Facebook), or convincing a large part of the internet to let them sneak in their trackers (Google), Microsoft convinced the bean counters at most companies to install their spyware and ram it down the throats of people who need to make a living. Disgusting...

Anyway, the AI thing is just the turd on top of the shit cake.

Comment Smart / connected features longevity? (Score 2) 239

What's the long-term game-plan for "smart" / connected appliances? My Whirlpool refrigerator was left by the previous owner when I bought my house in 1993, so it's at least 32 years old, and we got our Kenmore washer and dryer in 1993. All three still run great. On a related note, my 2001 Civic and 2002 CR-V are still running well. Thankfully, none of my appliances/cars have this crap. Are companies planning on supporting these "smart" / connected features and touch screens for 30+ years? History so far says nope.

Comment Yeah... no (Score 3, Insightful) 190

What's gonna stop obesity among Americans isn't permanent standard time. It really, REALLY isn't that.

A good start would be making healthy food that isn't 1,000,000 calories per pound, and not made of fat and sugar mixed in unknown chemicals affordable. And taxing the living shit out of junk food. And getting people to stop eating supertanker-sized servings.

Comment Re:Can't stop the signal, Mal... (Score 3, Insightful) 152

Yes, they could try to locate everyone that manages to use banned technology like this, but as commodity-level technology designed to be used by even unskilled individuals, they're not going to be able to stop people from using technology. All they'll be able to do is to punish them after finding them.

Yup, 'cause the Taliban is known for giving up easily and being lenient to people breaking morality decrees. /s

Comment Better safe than sorry (Score 1) 62

I think that after every 3rd wave of Missile Command (what a disgustingly irresponsible creation!!), the game should require that the player's parents check to make sure the player isn't getting depressed by the prospect of nuclear war.

And in Asteroids, after any ship destruction due to collision with an asteroid, the game should require parental attestation that the player isn't starting to develop symptoms of petraphobia.

In both cases, if the parents aren't available (e.g. dead because the player is in their 80s) I suppose a Notary Public or a AMA-certified doctor would be a good-enough replacement.

We have learned so much since the early days of computer games, and it's better to be safe than sorry. (But don't fuck with Joust! I want to be able to play without having to call my mom every time the Lava Troll touches my mount's legs inappropriately.)

Submission + - Scientists find that ice generates electricity when bent (phys.org)

fahrbot-bot writes: Phys.org is reporting on a study published in Nature Physics involving ICN2, at the UAB campus, Xi'an Jiaotong University (Xi'an) and Stony Brook University (New York), showing for the first time that ordinary ice is a flexoelectric material — meaning it can generate electricity when subjected to mechanical deformation.

"We discovered that ice generates electric charge in response to mechanical stress at all temperatures. In addition, we identified a thin 'ferroelectric' layer at the surface at temperatures below -113C (160K)," explains Dr. Xin Wen, a member of the ICN2 Oxide Nanophysics Group and one of the study's lead researchers.

"This means that the ice surface can develop a natural electric polarization, which can be reversed when an external electric field is applied—similar to how the poles of a magnet can be flipped. The surface ferroelectricity is a cool discovery in its own right, as it means that ice may have not just one way to generate electricity, but two: ferroelectricity at very low temperatures, and flexoelectricity at higher temperatures all the way to 0 C."

This property places ice on a par with electroceramic materials such as titanium dioxide, which are currently used in advanced technologies like sensors and capacitors.

Comment Re: when ticket master resells an ticket they make (Score 1) 38

I wouldn't be surprised if it's revealed that it's ticketmaster or the developers of their platform that's behind the bots just to line their pockets.

Related Rick and Morty - er, Summer ...

Rick: Well, obviously, Summer, it appears the lower tier of this society is being manipulated through sex and advanced technology by a hidden ruling class. Sound familiar?

Summer: [Gasps] Ticketmaster.

Comment Re:What people do with AI isn't the issue (Score 1) 23

The question is simply, can an agentic LLM process do workload X for cheaper than a person? If yes, then the job is gone.

Typical AI shill answer (and the word "agentic" in the sentence is a dead giveaway too).

Wrong logic: a person's job should be gone if your "agentic" thing does the job cheaper AND at least as well.

As always, AI shills conveniently forget to factor in the quality of the work produced.

The reality of AI is, while it might be cheaper than real workers, it also enshittifies the entire world. And that's a fact.

Comment Re:Let me guess (Score 1) 17

Larry Ellison and cheeto gets a cut just like the US Steel deal.

And... Trump gets editorial control and preferred feed placement, Pam Bondi gets warrant-less access to all user data, Stephen Miller gets control of (shadow) banning people and Karoline Leavitt is in charge of "fact checking" ... And JD? Nothing, no one likes him. :-)

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