Libb

I was never much into video games, but my first real interest was for Doom and then for StarCraft. I was also heavy into C&C… I was already an adult and fixed my own rules, deciding on what I wished to spend my time and waste my money.

The first video game I played as a kid was some kind of Pong version, on an Atari console. So, yeah… not much video games for me as a child. With the other kids, we played cards, board games, we played outside too (it’s great), we played chess and checkers, we also played doctor, we read a lot too. And there was no real need to set rules or limits (even less so on what we were allowed to read), not even when we played doctor, mind you—not even to tell us what was then obvious but that seems very much forgotten by too many nowadays, to not be a dick, because acting like one would warrant instant karma feedback from all the others players/participants involved… and that was kinda very quickly formative ;)

i believe that “far-right” sentiments are a natural defense mechanism against a perceived threat.

if your tribe is in danger, you start kicking the foreigners out, you start going back culturally to what you perceive as “safe”,

Correct. In a less obvious way we can even see it at play here, in this (interesting) discussion.

So far, in the comments trying to design a culprit, I have yet to read one that doesn’t blame some ‘other’ group, be it the far-tight, the rich, the boomers, the US, Russia, and so on. Forget the names and the personal preference: each one is that ‘foreigner’, someone that is not us on which we put teh blame. The issue is among us, with all our differences and contradictions (even sometimes our hatred of one another). It’s not ‘them’ causing the issue ‘we’ are the victims of.

As long as we keep looking for someone else than us to blame, well I don’t see things getting much better anytime soon. Which is sad because if they don’t start getting better soon they will get real worse, real a fast.

Posting that from France, a country that once valued freedom so much as to make it one of its three core principle. But that was back then.

I know the reputation that AI has on Lemmy, however I’ve found that some users (like myself) have found that LLMs can be useful tools

I know the reputation that AI has on Lemmy, however I’ve found that some users (like myself) have found that LLMs can be useful tools.

Their utility is not questioned. It’s their true cost and how they’re developed that’s the issue.

No doubt a machine able to do some quick and dirty jobs that would take us a lot more time is a fine tool (like mentioned already, denoise, quick text summaries and stuff like that) edit: even complex and highly skilled stuff. The tool is already impressive today, and I don’t doubt it will get much better quickly.

The issue is how it learned to do what it can do and how it is monoetized. I mean, learning from humanity common knowledge (no AI at all without it being allowed to learn from us all) and making it… subscription-based for us to use? WTF? The issue is also how it is destroying many things in the exclusive profit of a handful of very rich people and their shareholders. The issue is how we, mankind, have zero control over a tool that is threatening to make a lot of us go bankrupt…

Feel free to downvote, obviously.

And to answer your question:

What AI tools have you found useful?

I would say, the off button… of which there is none I can find.

100%.

They don’t give a crap that only large corps can ‘absorb the cost’ of checking age and/or ID, they just want to control/limit what we say and to whom, and what we can do online. And if that requires to kill small non-corporate-owned web (and make everything subscription-based, in the process), so be it.

When they’re not being dishonest, they’re incompetent and proud of it. The few that are not incompetent (and that are honest) they are not numerous enough to make a difference, which is sad. And not just in the UK. I mean, here in France it’s quite interesting too, we’re following steps to the UK, btw, and, what not a surprise, VPN usage has skyrocketed the second they introduced their own version of that stupid age-verification.

Next step seems obvious: make VPN use illegal for the average user (I mean people like us not, say, journalists, NGOs, lawyers and, obviously, politicians—and their families).

I wish that people would stop using kids for their own gain.

But what use are kids, then? /s

Yep, French, it reads ‘Les bons comptes font les bons amis’.

Don’t know about you guys, but it always both shocks and delights me to see Hobbes represented as a plushie.

I mean, Hobbes is a tiger, the tigerest tiger there is and ever will be. But, yeah, at the same time the plushie painfully reminds us (or is it just me?) of what we’ve lost becoming adults.

I also love how Hobbes is a plushie when there is an adult visible in the frame. So brilliant.

edit: typos

Using AI to summarize books one doesn’t (have the time to) read and then monetize said summary through ads, because one loves literature (as explained here)?

I must be getting old but I can’t see the purpose of it.

I mean, if I was the owner of that website, instead of _wasting (edit: spending) my time reading AI summaries of a book and then correct said summary to make it publishable I would read that one actual book, or at the very least a few more pages in that one book.

But I imagine in our AI-saturated age actually reading a book is probably a bit like me—very much has been ;)

It’s different in my own situation (I don’t have a boss) but would I be employed I would not mix work and personal. Ever. Phone, friendship, or whatever else as there is a too high probability some shit will happen.

I would have my own phone and next to it the job would provide me another one with whatever shitty apps they require me to use, if they rely want me to use it. And I would turn that bastard off the moment my work day is finished (aka the moment they stop giving me money in exchange of my time).

Exactly like I would not use my own computer for work. It’s mine.

what about the phones in people’s pockets that could be recording and the security cameras inside buildings?

People are not supposed to be recording every thing all the time. But that’s a valid point you’re making as that trend is changing: cc cameras are everywhere and, well, people seem obsessed with the idea of recording (and sharing) every single thing they do (I’m surprised there is not pooping social networks… as it’s one thing all people have in common ;). So, I would say, it depends people, the place they’re in, and its policy.

Say, our personal place has no camera and no recording at all (no smart shit either, not even smart light bulbs or smart doorbell). And when we invite people they can be assured there will be no recording as we would not allow anyone to record anything without asking our (and anyone else present) explicit permission. And if anyone would not agree with that choice, well you know: our home, our rules—they would get kicked out of our home as quickly as needed which may already have happened maybe.

It also depends the laws in your country. here in Europe (I live in France), with the GDRP we can count on a relative level of privacy: people are not supposed to be sharing any picture of a person without their consent. But in reality that is very relative and very… subject to not persist much longer, as surveillance of every move and of every word of their citizens, sorry, I meant to say ’ the protection of the children’ is our representatives latest excuse to screw us a little more and to deprive everyone of a little more of their rights. I imagine they have not asked for thought control (to make sure some hidden pervert has no dirty thought when seeing a little children in the street or on the TV) just because the technology is not here, not yet.

Imho, what matters the most is to keep reminding (or teaching) people around us that there is no need to record absolutely everything they do or every place they go to. And that there is such a thing as intimacy and privacy.

I’ve limited myself to 3 inks… most of the time ;)

Platinum Carbon Black and DeAtramentis Document Brown (these two are waterproof inks) and the basic Waterman Blue (the same ink I used to learn handwriting when I was a little kid in school, in the 70s)

There is virtually no way to meet like-minded people who live near me because there just aren’t enough people or communities on there. Even on Lemmy (which I know isn’t totally private, but still beats Reddit) doesn’t have the volume needed to come across a lot of people who live near me. I want to meet people. I want to have friends in real life.

I don’t live in an urban planner’s utopia. I live in a car-dependent suburb on the outskirts of a city. You can’t just walk outside and meet a bunch of people, not with all of the “get off my lawn” types everywhere. You have to go somewhere else to meet people.

I hate to say it, but I don’t see how it’s feasible to meet up with normal people without some corporation or the government finding out where you’re going and who you’re associated with, at least not in the U.S. where I live.

Meeting people IRL (normal or not normal people, whatever that means) is how it is done. Without depending on any app, corporation or government. As a matter of fact, it is how those two started being a thing: people met and started doing things together and realized things would be even simpler if they formalized things and established some common rules.

Also, the first smartphone dates back from around 2007. That was 18 years ago. And there was no ‘app’ to speak of with that 1st smartphone, there was not even an app store to install apps from (this would take a few more releases before it was introduced). Do you think, not living in big crowded cities, people could not meet before 2007? ;)

Meeting people IRL is simple, and it is still free and legal to do it privately (for the time being at least). But it can also be frightening when all you’re used to is ‘apps’.

Like you said you have to go somewhere, anywhere you fancy, on feet or by car, public transit, whatever. The idea being to go where other ‘like-minded’ people are.

What will help (a lot) is to have some common interest, hobby or activity that you can use as a motivation. Say, participate in the town meetings, go to the church (no matter what one thinks about religion it’s still a a way to meet people from your community), go pick a book at the local library.

And repeat it. Regularly. So, other people will start noticing you. So you will start noticing other people and a conversation can start. Just people together.

Hobbies are another great way to meet people IRL.

I like playing chess and watercolors (and books), DIY. But it could be anything.

Games? Find a local place where people meet to play board games. There is none? Go the public library and see with the librarian if they know anyone that would be interested to start such a club with you. Librarians will often a lot of people. The smae with, say, knitting, or photography, reading, writing, running,…

It’s only very recently people decided they needed an app and, could it really be a coincidence, it is around the same time it has become so hard for younger people to meet people irl.

Well, for whatever I have the choice of not using it I will not be using it anymore. It’s not worth it.

Disclaimer: for the last few years I’ve started limiting my online activities and have been doing it a lot more drastically for the last couple years. So, it won’t come as huge change as far as I’m concerned.

C’est pas considéré comme de la haute trahison ça, en Suisse?

Bonne fête, mais n’abusez pas de l’emmental!

Being nit-picky about the paper and writing instrument I use.

If I’ve gotten better in regard to paper selection, I still own way too much fountain pens, (mechanical-)pencils, ballpoint pens, and so on.

I don’t remember.

Seriously. I’m almost 60 and I only remember when I turned 20 (I was studying and working hard, and there was that bright future waiting for me, or so I thought) and when I turned 40 (I was already bald and if I did manage to get a career it was also the year my spouse and I decided we had to get out of that crazy stupid endless race called ‘a career’ and try to live a much simpler, and much less shiny, life ;)

the rules are clearly presented. either youre not paying attention or youre just an asshole who purposefully throws their opinion in a place explicitly not wanting it.

what the fuck is wrong with you guys?

The same as with those women wanting to get in this men space? I wonder…

More seriously, you ask a legit question (as it would be legit if it was a man asking why some women so badly want to join in men-only spaces), a question that could trigger an interesting discussion, but why does it have to be so fucking angry? (See how poorly it passes?)

I actually used to pay for YouTube Premium for quite a while. It was $7/month and I split it with someone so it cost me $3/month to eliminate the very slightly annoying ads, which was well worth it.

I could have written that. I was fine with paying for YT, even though they asked too much to my taste I paid for years, but I decided their attitude was way too hostile (and too dumb) and decided to cancel my Premium membership.

I watch a lot less YT nowadays, like a lot, and I do it on Waterfox with those extensions: uBO + SponsorBlock (and YT Enhancer). So far, beside a few slow downs and the occasional refusal to play a video, it seems to be working fine.

None. New gen Hollywood will be so politically correct that there will only be remakes of Bambi without the hunters.