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Comment Reinvention?? - sick of Jensen Huang's hyperbole (Score 1) 54

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang positions RTX Spark as a complete reinvention of the PC

No, it's not a re-invention. It's a nice upgrade, based on specs alone, but will likely be priced at conventional levels. It honestly just looks like you're catching up to Apple Silicon....which is a very good thing...but no, having a decent GPU at a lower price doesn't fit the definition of "re-invention."...nor revolution...nor do I see any way this will change personal computing. Any updates to how we use computers would have happened regardless. Unless they sell these for less than $100 or some insane price drop, no...this is a modest upgrade for Windows users. If these actually ship in fall...well...computing will be EXACTLY THE SAME a year later. No revolution...No "reinvention"...just an actual spec upgrade for a change, which we haven't even been seeing in chips in the last few years, but used to be the norm, just 10 years ago.

Comment Banning is a bit extreme, but they're correct (Score 1) 56

AI contributions are garbage. AI is a powerful tool, but everything I've seen Claude write as new code in Java is SHIT. I tell it to write unit tests for working code?...verbose garbage...logic errors, insultingly stupid code, like testing getters and setters. I finished all my tasks early last week, so was assigned to help another team who had been struggling. I had to alter some working code with an open source big data platform I've never used. The code was very low quality, the comments were complex and baffling and ultimately wrong. It worked, from what I can tell (I had Claude write it because I don't have a replica of the customer data to test on).

However, I am not proud of the code it generated. I wasn't given enough time to learn the new API myself, so I relied on Claude. It took forever and was expensive...had I know what I was doing, I know I could have done it in 15 min. Fortunately that team had 2 AI advocates...those guys who think AI is a religion...all hail the AI...every conversation is about how awesome it is. Their brains are so atrophied and rotted from AI (one used to be a REALLY good programmer, I've worked with him for 10 years), they just approved my PR because it looks like the shit they keep submitting and I flag for being garbage.

However, that example illustrates the danger. If you know what you're doing and think an LLM will help? It's great. If you're not an expert at the technology, you should be forbidden from making any contributions...even if AI does all the heavy lifting. As many have said, it usually look pretty good. Those verbose comments resemble the writing style and documentation made by a competent professional. The code is structured without the usual tells of a clueless moron. It is pattern matching from very good programmers, but it really has no clue what it's doing.

Comment Ever hear of credit cards? + devastating bubble (Score 1) 59

Given that people can some how afford to drop $900 on a personal gaming device, the economy must be fine.

The poor often have nicer devices than the middle class. If there's no hope for the future, why not? $900 is within most credit card limits. However, you knew this and wanted to just be an asshole. People who have hope for the future ensure they pay their bills. If you can't make ends meet and will get evicted either way, why scrimp and save? Maybe that's your choice?...but most poor I know have nicer shoes than me, nicer cars, spend more on booze and drugs and even food. Why?...not because I'm better, but because I have hope and my savings lead to a higher number in my investment account. The Amazon driver that delivered my dog leash last night?...probably not the case.

This is irrelevant to the economy and just a hopeless and shitty indicator of how devastating the AI bubble is. While you seem to scorn at a "gaming device," it's a computer.

Computers are important and for the first time in history, increasing in cost per capability. Yeah, The cheapest laptop I could buy in 1999 was $2000...more expensive that Apple's cheapest MacBook Pro. Sure, the iPhone 17 is more expensive than the iPhone 1, but it's has very tangibly improved. Until now, each cost increase was accompanied by a spec upgrade, often significant one. Now we're just paying more for old technology to keep this AI bubble financial scam running.

This is horribly depressing and has been going on for far too long and there's no end in sight. I've been holding off on upgrading or replacing multiple devices among my family to wait out this catastrophe...and even if the bubble crashes tomorrow, it'll take months to reach all the suppliers for sophisticated devices like a steamdeck. I wanted a steambox, but it probably won't be a low enough price for me to make a whim purchase...and I don't want it enough to suffer.

Comment Don't let reality get in the way of your vision! (Score 1) 75

AI advocates want to believe in their vision of the future and won't let reality get in the way. That's the massive problem here. Visionaries are picturing a future based on science fiction notions of AI, not what LLMs can actually do. AI is useful and interesting, but the capabilities are greatly overstated...both by the pick and shovel vendors, but their best buddies who are captains of industry and want to believe. They want to achieve new levels of productivity with lower numbers of people...rather than hope for the best, but carefully evaluate if it's real...many have chosen to trust in their vision and ignore all evidence that doesn't support their new religion. We've seen it before in smaller ways...just nothing this bad or excessive.

This reminds me Free-PC.com. Their pitch was that they'll give you a free computer...you watch ads. Their vision was to give you something you really want and hope that somehow if you can't afford your own computer, you'll be a valuable enough target for advertisers to not only subsidize the cost of a desktop computer, but to make a profit. It was a cool idea...but the math never supported it. Also, all that happened was that half of them were grabbed by nerds who used them as a second computer. I had lots of buddies who did that. The company went out of business and didn't want to pay for free shipping, so now they have a dedicated server from their home projects. Like these CEOs...it was a cool vision, but impractical....don't let reality get in the way of that!!!

If you dream it and believe in it hard enough, it has to come true, right?...you're a smart Silicon Valley executive. No reality can get in the way of your massive intelligence...only a lack of faith, right???

Comment Re:adblock and privacy badger (Score 1) 110

Unfortunately, the people with enough money to maintain and promote a credible browser make most of that money from advertising, tracking and other malware

Google makes money by selling adverts and information. It's not actually in Google's interests to allow random websites to mine their customers' data.

Comment Like HTML? (Score 1) 240

Compounding complexity, will eventually lead to ZERO humans remaining who can freehand code. Interpreters and coding "Tools" (AI) will be required to code the new complexity. As attempting to do so by hand, will soon consume an entire human lifetime, PER PROGRAM. 3 Petabyte theoretical limit on the Human Brain's Storage Capacity, was reached and breeched a DECADE+ ago...

We've had code-generation technology for decades. Are you saying no one can read HTML because we have tools for that as well?

Comment False - Only if they like last year's revenue (Score 3, Funny) 240

A "tool" that lets one programmer do the work of 20 means that 19 will be laid off, regardless of how well they learn the tools. To say nothing of people working in other industries "disrupted" by those tools who will be laid off no matter what they do.

Your theory is only valid if they want to do last year's output and 1/20th of the cost. In nearly all historical examples of productivity gains, unless they were hiring large masses of the mindless, the productivity gains were used increase output more than cut costs. As many have pointed out, this is AI-washing. They were already going to lay off these employees.

Why would Oracle lay everyone off vs use these tools to overwhelm and crush all their competitors? Is there really no room to expand? No new projects to try? Are all these tech companies happy with last year's revenue and have they saturated their markets? Their investors are HAPPY with market stagnation at lower costs? NO!!!! That's not how publicly traded companies work. They want growth growth growth until there is no more to be had.

AI is a complex topic. It definitely boosts some productivity, but far less than advertised. It will cause job loss, but far less than feared. Most of the hype is bullshit, but there's real substance as well. Some of the layoffs were AI related...but most were just CEOs using it as an excuse to hide economic headwinds and their mistakes.

Comment Why do nerds care? Let the market decide + Marvel (Score 1) 154

I am on /. because I fucking hate sports. Some are kinda fun to play...in the same way Brussel sprouts CAN be tasty, but they will never match a good burger or donut. I don't enjoy watching them. I'm a nerd. I don't give a rat's ass. Watching the game swilling beer and chomping fried foods waiting for the heart attack to take you isn't my idea of a good time. That's what the bullies who beat me up as a child did.

But my perspective aside, I am neutral on performance enhancing drugs. You know that probably every Marvel actor who took his shirt off was on them, right? Sure, Tom Holland wasn't juicing to the level Dave Bautista was, but there have been many leaks that major movie studios hire trainers to give them P.E.D.s. It's not a secret, the execs knew and encouraged it. They want Tom Holland to be ripped with a below 5% bodyfat and nice physique. And whatever they say is bullshit...yoga and running alone won't get you there. That wasn't a really good personal trainer alone and eating protein and vegetables that got them to 3% bodyfat with 16" arms. Ever notice how actors today look better than actual Olympic athletes with their shirt off? They're more toned and lean....and most are older.

Someone natural working out to look like a B-tier Marvel hero?...their body would be DEVASTATED. Until a few years ago, I didn't realize that every jacked bodybuilder and hollywood star was max juicing. I just figured they were so much better at working out than the rest of us. They absolutely are working hard. But if you worked out like John Cena for 6 months, you wouldn't be able to walk or get out of bed.

So...I don't care much. I don't care about sports, but I know I'm in the minority...let those people decide with their wallets and eyeballs. I know that I enjoy watching movies with big buff heroes injecting super-physiological doses of drugs into their body so they look amazing. Or even just normal actors who are good at their craft looking like Ben Affleck or Matt Damon looked in the early 2000s instead of how Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson looked in the 70s...or going the Antony Starr route and wearing a padded suit...which I don't mind because...FUUUUUCK is that guy good!!!!....really a testament to the craft...but it might be interesting to one day see Homelander out of his costume (which they never do because Anthony Starr is like 150 pounds, soaking wet). I enjoy watching movies with men with unrealistic bodies, ESPECIALLY at their age, since the acting talent and opportunities tend to surface WELL beyond their athletic physical prime.

Comment Re:Slashdot: "Panic !" Also Slashdot: "Don't Panic (Score 5, Informative) 240

The referenced Washington Post article is based on US government statistics, and if you believe those statistics, I have a bridge to sell you. The

Civil servants have been fired for delivering "bad" numbers. You think the remaining staffers are going to look for things that might make the numbers look bad?

One more thing this administration has corrupted: economic statistics.

Comment Re:If they can't figure out EV (Score 1) 157

A few seconds plugging in? Are you just plugging directly into the output of a nuclear plant?

Are you really that dense? Once you plug in your car in the garage, you don't have to stay with it. You ca go into the house and get on with your life (or slouch in front of the TV, if that's what you want) while your car charges.

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