Posts by Chet Mannly

To pay or not to pay for AI's creative 'borrowing' – that is the question

Re: can't see how it's going to be controlled

"The original rights holders might be more upset, and inclined to sue, if the AI operator was giving content away for free rather then charging for it."

I'd have thought that someone else making money off what they consider to be copyright infringement would anger them more not less.

Sets up an argument that they should get a cut of whatever you built using their IP. Could end up like Spotify where the service throw a few crumbs the way of the creators while making out like bandits themselves.

Italy bans ChatGPT for 'unlawful collection of personal data'

Re: Err, wot?

100% plus use may have only been happening for weeks, but the data hoovering used to train the bot has been happening for years, decades, all while the GDPR was in place.

Re: "there may not be a lawful basis"

The name of the law is the GDPR. "there may not be a lawful basis' means the Italian Authorities are 99% certain that Open AI is breaking the law but haven't provded it in court.

That language is necessary for the presumption of innocence, not some ambit claim against general freedoms mate.

Microsoft wants to stick adverts in Bing chat responses

Re: Bing appeared on Skype for me yesterday

Same here. I woke in the morning to a flurry of skype message notifications from clippy v2.0. What worries me is you can block the messages, but can't stop the thing.

Overall it seems to be utterly useless. One of it's suggested things it could help me with is to 'find a vegan restaraunt in Cambridge'

Firstly I don't live in the UK.

Secondly all my friends know that if I am seen in a vegan restaraunt I am being held hostage...

Alarming: Tesla lawsuit claims collision monitoring system is faulty

Re: Just can't win

I think there have been problems all along and people were too enamoured with Elon to complain. Like how Steve Jobs got away with saying there was nothing wrong with the iPhone it was that users were holding it wrong.

But now Elon is p*ssing off all the left-wingers on Twitter people aren't so forgiving...

Yes, Samsung 'fakes' its smartphone Moon photos – who cares?

Re: No more deceitful than what professionals did anyway

You are talking about exposure bracketing, essentially combining the light from two shots to compensate for the relative lack of dynamic range of cameras.

Not taking a shot and pasting on a fake moon afterwards as Samsuing are doing.

Re: Photography today = digital manipulation

The difference is that tweaking curves etc in photoshop involves tweaking the photograph you have just taken.

This involves using data from photos you haven't taken - it's collage basically which is an entirely different thing

Silicon Valley Bank seized by officials after imploding: How this happened and why

Re: Federal Spending > Inflation > Rising Interest Rates

"Fed print isn’t inflationary per se, it’s an expression of global desire for a share in the centre of the financial universe. "

As a professional economist I can confidently say that is the biggest load of utter horse manure I have read in years.

Re: Federal Spending > Inflation > Rising Interest Rates

"you don't seriously think that Biden gives a rat's ass about Ukrainians ?"

Well the lovely Ukranians did make Hunter extremely rich when Biden was VP...

Google lets a few Android devices into its Privacy Sandbox

Re: Torn on this.

And if you block Play Services all manner of things cease working. And you just know Google will incorporate it into play services so it can't be uninstalled/blocked...

Re: Torn on this.

Not torn here - Google scooping up every lick of data they can *and* running their ad system to process all that data on my device?

That's a hard f#%^ off from the Australian judge...

Four top euro carriers will use phone numbers to target ads and annoy Google & Facebook

I assume there will be a sign up bonus, discount on your plan, or extra data etc if you opted in.

Microsoft switches Edge’s PDF reader to pay-to-play Adobe Acrobat

Re: The replies make me laugh

"iPhone cameras have always been better than anything Samsung ever came up with (the only real competitor in this area is Google's Pixel)."

With all due respect Sir you have no idea what you are talking about. iPhone cameras are rubbish, and Google's Pixel is not much better. A years-old P30 pro Huawei will wipe the floor with both of them.

There are many manufacturers making massive strides in phone cameras (check out DXO if you want to see some actual cutting edge ones), but Apple isn't one of them. As usual they are behind the curve adding years-old technology and marketing it from the rooftops as if they just invented something new.

Affinity Photo is there feature-wise - plugins are compatible and I've never found anything I could do in Photoshop that I couldn't do in Affinity Photo.

But you are 100% right - Photoshop has the mindshare.

You seem to be ignoring the constant nag screes for Adobe subscriptions that will inevitably follow. Tried using regular Acrobat Reader lately? There are constant popups showing features and when you click on them it takes you to the subscription page. It's a never ending sea of upsell.

Plus of course you now have Adobe software forcibly installed by default on your windows machine and hoovering up every piece of personal data imaginable whether you view PDFs in Edge or not.

Biden attacks Big Tech's data addiction, wants more protection for kids

Re: Please, stop making this about "the kids"

100% Make it opt in only for everyone, no negative consequences for staying opt out and kids cannot opt in.

I'm not sure about the 'people aren't savvy enough to consent. The Apple experience shows that people are certainly savvy enough to not consent, surely it is up to FB et al to bridge the gap to convince people of the value of giving them information.

Google shows off upcoming AI search features, leaves Bard waiting in the wings

Re: Oh dear, the Bard hath on this sweet morn, a calumny of dollars forsaken

Yeah, strange that wasn't the focus of the Reg article eh? It's the line everyone else is running...

Google unleashes fightback against ChatGPT, a Bard by any other name

Re: Like running face first into a wall...

"Is someone playing someone's song on a piano stealing a CD sale? Is your neighbour telling you some news stealing from a newspaper?"

If someone's business is set up around these activities then yes they do have to pay. When an artist covers a song, or samples one in one of their own songs, they have to pay royalties. When Google tried building it's own news service by taking stories and page hits away from news websites they had to pay the websites (in Australia anyhow).

Tesla admits it was asked to hand over Autopilot, Full Self-Driving docs to investigators

Re: Oh my...

To be fair faking the autopilot footage and making exaggerated claims about it's capabilities were all happening pre-twitter.

Google ready to kick the cookie habit by Q3 2024, for real this time

I mean websites could produce content that is so good it's worth paying for.

Radical idea I know!

It's a hell no from the Australian judge...

So basically this 'privacy sandbox' will just create a local Google ad agency on my device - not only mining my data to determine my interests and broadcasting interests to advertisers, but also conducting the ad auctions on my own freaking device.

Not content with chewing up bandwidth for all these years, now Google want to chew up gobs of my CPU and power to essentially run their ad business on my device?

P*** off.

Re: You know

And now Google wants to implement an API to run ad auctions on your device. They are just taking the p*ss at this point...

Any iPad is foldable if you try hard enough but Apple guru says a hinged one is coming

Re: A folding iPhone risky because it "would cannibalize existing iPhone sales"???

I have a Z Fold3, it's an almost ipad mini sized tablet you can fold and put in your pocket - which is a very, very useful form factor.

Agree a folding larger iPad seems less useful.

Apple sued for promising privacy, failing at it

Re: Advertising can not always be called "marketing fluff".

"Apple will eventually lose but promise to do better next time"

Apple will just treat this as a marketing issue, change their advertising, and happily go on scooping up all the data they want.

"of course Amazon tracks what you do on amazon.com"

Absolutely no problem with that. But if Amazon advertised "come shop with us we don't track you" (the equivalent of what Apple are doing) then I have a big problem with that.

The issue is that Apple promise at every turn not to do so if you switch the collection/sharing off, not whether you are comfortable with it.

Tesla's Autopilot is losing out to Ford, GM in self-driving tech

Re: Did you read the article?

Did *you* read it? I ask as the article doesn't say that at all. The only thing it says is ' tacking on new features'.

Maybe time to put down the Musk-coloured glasses...

Windows 10 paid downloads end but buyers need not fear ISO-lation

Re: Just Today I Bought A "Refurbished" Workstation With Windows 10.......

I never sign in to my Android devices - don't really miss anything.

I use Aurora store to access the playstore, and login to google maps in a browser for the odd occasion I need any saved locations.

More people should do it...

Microsoft is checking everyone's bags for unsupported Office installs

Re: "Malicious software removal tool"

No downvote from me. Had one of those forced updates reboot my system and corrupt windows hello in the process - so it locked me completely out of my own system. The only solution was to nuke the whole system and start again. Had all my docs backed up so no problem there, but all my settings and app preferences etc were toast.

Set my connection to metered and now WU wont download any updates unless I say so...

Shot down: Google's grand fancy plan for pro-privacy targeted ads

Re: "a better alternative than either the paywalls"

" It failed because it was stupid and toxic at every level"

And because 99% of the web pages on the internet simply aren't worth paying for.

Forget the climate: Steep prices the biggest reason EV sales aren't higher

A small part - most of that is the chemistry of batteries - they drop heaps of performance in cold conditions.

Re: Too expensive, too heavy, too range limited

Well 100% taxes on your competition (ICEs) certainly make the price equation completely different

Apple preps for 'third-party iOS app stores' in Europe

Re: Apple could...

"we will install standard iOS and if that works warranty conditions have been satisfied"

When do Apple or anyone else for that matter ever try and fix software issues? The default steps are always:

1 - turn off and on

2 - back up your data and do a factory reset

Re: Apple could...

The roll back to a previous version is a godsend on Android. I had a camera whose companion app had an update which made the previously free ability to download RAW files a U$69 subscription. The changelog said 'bug fixes' so there was no warning that they were doing it.

Thanks to Android I could sideload the previous version and continue on my merry way. My friend who had the same camera and an iPad couldn't roll back or sideload and was completely screwed.

Giving a choice of stores takes choice away?

Don't see how that reduces the value of an iPhone at all - if you want to stay with the app store it's preinstalled - just don't install any of the others and you are in exactly the same situation as now.

OK, we know iPhones are expensive but... $11 a month for Twitter Blue on iOS?

Re: "we can imagine"

I think he's just said Twitter costs $8 and added the Apple transaction costs on top of that. So it's being neutral in a way, kinda like when an online seller adds a credit card surcharge instead of wearing the costs themselves and passing the costs on through prices to everyone.

San Francisco investigates Hotel Twitter, Musk might pack up and leave

Re: Regeneration?

"Texas pays California corporations to relocate to the state."

To be fair by giving generous tax reductions San Francisco is paying companies to stay there too.

Twitter gives up fight against COVID-19 misinformation

Re: On Covid Misinformation

"Officials were giving the best information they had AT THE TIME"

Yes, but the issue he is raising is that points of view that were actually factually correct were censored because they did not match the official line. This included doctors and medical researchers.

The only way that incorrect information gets corrected is by examining the veracity (or lack thereof) of contradicting information.

Re: Repeal Section 230

Surely libel applies to the poster, not the platform? Unless of course the libelous post is made by the platform itself.

It's interesting because in Australia the narrative was always 'vaccinations means far less severe symptoms and less hospitalisations/deaths, and a lower rate of passing it on'. Which is perfectly reasonable and seems to have been borne out by the data.

Couldn't believe when Fauchi et al were saying safe from infection and stops transmission over in the US.

UK lawmakers look to enforce blocking tools for legal but harmful content

Re: Grow a brain

"Who gets to say what harmful content is? Who gets to say what kids can and can't say to each other? Who draws the line between bad taste or things we don't agree with and things which are harmful?"

Parents?

You get the internet you deserve

Re: Google has lost already

Oh absolutely - Google's actual search technology when given a specific target is fantastic. But on a wide scale it's too easily gamed...

Microsoft reportedly mulls a does-everything 'super app' to expand mobile search

Typo?

"If the report proves true, for Microsoft, a super app could help plug a hole as it competes with Microsoft and Apple,"

Think that's a typo - unless MS is genuinely trying to outcompete itself. Stranger things have happened I guess :)

Windows 11 still not winning the OS popularity contest

Re: Three letters TPM

100% with you. I just had the TPM (or the data in it) borked by a windows update last week - completely locked out of my machine, only option was to reinstall.

Someone has to say it: Voice assistants are not doing it for big tech

Re: But the data

5 minutes with ADB and Bixby, along with all the other Samsung bloatware is a distant memory....

Elon Musk jettisons Twitter leadership, says takeover was 'to try to help humanity'

His point was that it was negative, but yeah lets ignore that and focus on the definition of a single word instead....

You are talking like Elon is going to moderate every tweet - he has better things to do...

Let's wait and see. What if Twitter puts out a transparent set of rules for everyone to follow and applies them equally to everyone? At one point Musk said the algorithm could be made public, which says that he intends on transparency.

That has to be better than the completely opaque system in place now.

Re: Replaceable

"Since nobody is going to pay money to subscribe to Twitter,"

They already do - where do you think those blue ticks come from? Being verified is a paid subscription..

Re: "the bird is free"

"People will not buy products from adverts next to Donald's Tweets."

Sure about that? The erstwhile Mr Trump (who I think is a fool) received the second largest number of votes in US history. 70m+ people seems like a decent sized market segment.

It's 2023, let's check in with the metaverse... Nope, still doesn't exist

I think Pokemon Go was to AR what Avatar was to 3D movies.