Posts by Pascal Monett 19424 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007
Not sure I agree.
In the end, the drive had already failed, but that would only have been discovered a long time down the line - which means the customer would have ate the cost and thought nothing of it.
Here, the laudable actions of the IT jockey brought to light an existing failure condition and the supplier bore the cost of a new disk.
Not all bad in my view.
"Stopping AI in its present form begins at the ballot box"
No. Even in the USA, it begins with Congress doing its fucking job. Good luck on that happening in the US or elsewhere, given the real fuckers that so-called lawmakers have become these days in most "democratic" countries.
"people who are not professional writers may be thrilled to have a tool that does something they don't enjoy"
If they don't enjoy writing, they have nothing to do with writing with AI and should go fishing (or do anything else). Do what the politicians do and hire a ghostwriter to do the job, or become an "influencer" on some social media and slack your thirst for fame there.
"Vibe coding hasn't worked out for everyone"
Yeah, especially not for actual, professional programmers. That should be a clue for you.
"The commodification of basic app creation has been underway for years"
Yes. It's called GitHub. You still have to have a clue about what you're doing.
* * * * * * * *
Programming is not producing a video. Just ten minutes ago a friend of mine passed by my office and showed me his new website he made for promoting his songs. He did not Vibe-code it, but he did use AI to make the videos. He composes the songs and performs them in what seems to me a be real music studio - insofar as I've never been in a "real" music studio. His videos are fun to watch, and AI is making great strides in producing that kind of stuff.
If this Vibe-coding fad endures, I'm sure some non-proficient people might be able to learn from it. But, to analyze code and even more, to be able to debug, requires intelligence, not statistical analysis, and that is something that no AI will ever possess for the foreseeable future.
Redmond is not a reliable business partner. It creates a new tool, gets everyone all worked up about it, and terminates it within ten years.
Business processes don't like being forced to change because some besuited idiot with an MBA at Redmond thinks he's got a better idea.
If Redmond was forced to pay for the cost of upheaval, it would be much more careful in what it suggests should be done.
Those who are paying attention are desperately trying to drown their dispair in barrels of whisky.
This situation demonstrates the limits of democracy. What recourse do you have when a demented bonespur wreaks havoc while Congress just sits by and does nothing ?
Checks and balances ? They're not working right now. Who is the responsible for that ?
Every single elected official in Congress.
I agree totally.
You can always add more clothes if required.
The other way around, there comes a point where, even if you ignore basic social etiquette, there comes a point where you can't take any more off.
The only solution at that point is the wet T-shirt - again, not something that most workplaces will be tolerating.
Those who are lucky enough to be able to work remotely will enjoy.
HUMINT has always been essential.
It has only been eclipsed by SIGINT because politicians like the idea of having a picture taken from space in their hands. It must seem more real than a boring verbal or text report about how agent XYZ overheard a conversation in a bar that indicated that country so-and-so was progressing in its uranium refining.
Zuckerberg is the poster child for corporate don't-give-a-fuck. This alien construct doesn't have children and will never know what it is to care for anyone except itself.
The only thing El Zuck is interested in is increasing its stock value, because numbers are all it understands.
Human emotions ? That's still in alpha stage for El Zuck.
Well said.
That being said, the FCC, and politicians in general, are not there for the benefit of The PeopleTM any more.
They are there to convince you, with utmost earnestness and conviction, that they are indeed working for your benefit and selflessly tiring away to secure more funding for their next election campaign your security.
And if, in the past, they had to travel to Epstein's island, it was purely for business purposes, Scout's honor.
Ah but the mainstream media is no longer there to report The TruthTM, my friend.
It is there to spread the ideology of the multi-billionnaire mogul who bought the station (through a dozen untraceable holdings and front companies because, somehow, they don't want their name associated with it - how curious).
Well, that is, for a given definition of "normal".
I'm 60 this year. I say that to establish that I have had the time to make friends and watch them evolve (no, I am not wearing a lab coat right now ;).
It is actually frightening me when I realize that, of the four score people that I have shared friendly dinners with over my years, there are no less than four that, since retiring, have gone off the deep end.
I'm not saying they're in a psychiatric hotel, I'm saying that there is no more meaningful conversation to be had with them. It's all about them. Their little lives (or what's left of them), posting their meals on Instagram (spoiler alert : nobody gives a flying one), and complaining about how they hurt here or there. Oh, nothing serious. No cancer, but something that gives them an excuse to talk about themselves and get attention.
Because somehow that's all they've got left in their own mind. Themselves.
Oh they'll ask how're you doing, sure, but right after they'll speed on to tell about their latest ache.
This AI attachment thing ? No surprise here. If they were proficient enough with computers, they'd already be mind-jacked into the system, lying on a bed with the implant, drooling from one side of the mouth.
The real issue is that this is not impacting retirees, but young people.
On the other hand, if The GovernmentTM is reading this article, they must be creaming their underwear . . .
I would like the name of that bank to ensure that I never have anything to do with it in the future.
Putting an API on a webpage is not done by mistake and I'm willing to bet that there were no "rogue engineers" involved.
This bank needs to be named and shamed.
I was going to post : Don't go giving Bezos any bright ideas.
Honestly, with his money (and that goes for El Zuck and Ellison as well), financing a personal army would be a question of finding the right general (depending on what you want, you could employ an ex-Marine, an ex-blackhawk or an ex-wagner - there's no lack of candidates) and then signing the check. Problem done.
So no, let's not go tell mega-billionnaires that they can think of building their own personal armies in addition to building their own personal money-printing presses.
Billionnaires have a moral duty to make the world better, they just need to be told.
Politicians are there to make it shittier and they're doing a bang-up job of that these days.
Not at all.
They very successfully pretended to have trouble explaining, which means that, when they left the hearing, they were mentally high-fiving each other on another sand bank skirted without issue.
After all, if the UK starts getting uppity, they can very well simply declare that they can no longer offer their services in the UK.
It's not like they'll miss a few thousand users per hour.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens to all these beautiful contracts when the AI bubble bursts.
But until then, go datacenters ! Keep on gobbling up our water and electricity for no_discernable_benefit.
There are a number of other things to take into account.
Not only are they staring at them, they're also loudly talking to them.
I am absolutely flabbergasted at the number of people I see daily in the streets conducting their private phone calls on speakerphone. Privacy ? Yeah, they may have heard of it.
Also, visiophones are now a thing. Every smartphone has the ability of taking a selfie and, if you're on the right application (ex. WhatsApp), you can very well have a "phone" conversation in video, looking at your correspondent and being seen by them.
I remember more than two decades ago reading about how some companies were desperately trying to make the visiophone a thing with pricey, cumbersome phone sets that had a screen. The price, unwieldiness and sheer size of the things put paid to that notion - and that was a good thing.
Now, however, we have 5G, and handheld slabs that have enough power to manage a nuclear power station (forget Apollo 13, this is the 21st century). When I look around me in the street, I see almost everyone making their calls by holding their phone flat in front of their mouth, speaker on full.
Decency ? You can find that in the dictionary.
Now get off my lawn.
He was even luckier that, after blatantly ignoring a direct order, he was allowed to keep his job.
I'm sorry, I'm all for giving a second chance if you have an idea and foul up on your own, but if I tell you NOT to do something and you go ahead and do it and foul things up just like I feared, you are off the team at the very least. With luck, you'll be holding the broom for the janitor. Failing that, you'll be looking for another job.
Might I add that it is a disservice to let the kid keep his job after such behavior. The lessons you don't forget are the ones that cost you the most, and this, apparently, didn't cost him much.
Ergo, there's a risk that he does it again.
I would not be willing to risk that.
Oh sure. Forget the millions and months (years ?) you put into your current three-legged horse and move to virgin land where you can start all over again (and pay all over again).
I understand that this is a brilliant plan for SAP. It's a shitty plan for its customers and they're not buying it.
That's because SAP has mistaken itself for something that holds its customers by the balls, and makes no bones about squeezing. Well, SAP's customers have other things to do then give their revenue to SAP.
Funny that, ain't it ? Would seem to me that you didn't need an MBA to understand.
You do need a shred of decency, though.
I have the answer to that :
The day we have finally birthed a true AI, we'll know it works because when asked a question it will answer :
Come back later, I'm busy watching videos on YouTube and posting stuff on TikTok.
On the main point of the article, I look forward to seeing Google's AI get thoroughly trashed by actual hackers. Has Google not read about Rozum ?
Well, maybe the British Parliament should augment the funding. On the BBC funding page, it states that the BBC is primarily funded by license fees. That's UK Gov who makes the decision.
It's all well and good for MPs to lament that their World Service is losing viewers, but if they are the ones who decided not to fund it properly, then why are they complaining ?
If the licensing fee gets too high for the consumer, then maybe it is time to think of subsidies if they want the BBC to be jewel in the British Broadcasting crown.
