NevermindNoMind

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (5 children)

It is such a handmaid's tale view of the world, that all of society should be ordered around producing children. Dogs are bad because they become substitute children and distract us from having human children. IVF is bad because it gives people the option to delay having children. Contraception is bad, because duh no children. Every policy or institution or thing of any kind in society is judged solely on its impact of generating more children as often as possible.

I just can't get my head around what is motivating this world view. I usually try to make it a point of understanding where the other side is coming from, but Waltz is right, these people are just weird.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

That's an interesting point. I wonder if it works better for Harris, having been in DC so long, does she claim that as her residence?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Katie Porter just lost her senate bid after getting fucked by Schiff. So she is available....

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Probably not, she's got the charisma of Hillary, and two strikes (race and gender) against her. But Biden is dragging the rest of the party down with him. With Harris we probably get a Trump presidency (we have at least a fighting chance to avoid it). But with Biden we get a Trump presidency, a landslide election giving him a "mandate" and assuredly a Republican House and Senate to go along with it. Sooo worth a shot with the old switcharoo I guess.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (4 children)

That's how voters see it. Trump has framed the race as weakness VS strength, and everything in the last 3 weeks fits that perfectly. The debate, Bidens halting interviews since the debate, and now strong Trump got shot weak Biden back in basement. The covid stuff is bullshit, but that's how voters see it. This is a campaign.

I'm getting tired of democrats blaming the media for voters just not liking Biden. Biden his had shit approval ratings his whole term because he can't message his accomplishments, hides from the press cause they know he's too old to speak coherently, and surprise piccacho face when he's down 5 nationally, at least down 3 in every swing state after the debate. This is Hillary all over again. Candidate hated by the voters feeling like they have some right to the presidency gets trounce leaving us with authoratians in charge. Like RBG not stepping down leaving us with a 6-3 conservative super majority. But sure blame the media.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes, there was a lot of talk of a delegate revolt to prevent Trump from getting the nomination. Ted Cruz took to the convention floor to tell delegates to "vote their conscious". Everybody wondered whether Trump, this joke of a candidate who actually won, would have the sense to pivot away from hard right rhetoric during his speech to appeal to the swing voters he would need to win over, given the seemingly insurmountable obstacle the Clinton Machine posed.

This year there is no drama, we all know who Trump is, to the point where we can all just imagine what his speech will be and it will accurate. What's the point of watching?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Rudy tripped and fell over a pile of folding chairs at the Rnc yesterday. Enioy the mental image and have a great day!

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (8 children)

Here is my irresponsible speculation: kid did it to get back at his dad. Dad was a republican flying trump signs in the yard, mom is registered democratic. Kid grows up wearing hunting outfits to school, trying to get on the shooting team, getting bullied (even after that time he tried to fit in by getting on the antitrump bandwagon following j6), trying to be the version of manliness his conservative father believes in, seaking his father's approval, and paying the price socially with his peers. But as much as he tries, and fails, to get dad's approval, mom is always there for him. Mom is a dem, probably secretly, with dad forcing strict "traditional" family roles (hence the signs in the yard, mom probably didn't agree with but was powerless to stop). Kid seems to fit the stereotype of young man, bullied in school, working a dead end job, few if any friends, no future to speak of, just generally mentally unstable, ripe for suicide by cop alreadt. Then something happens, dad hits mom, dad cheats on mom, dad screams at kid calling him a loser and also yells at mom for rasing a mommas boy, something like that. Kid snaps, betrayed by his father again, but also protective of his mom who was always there for him. Kid decides rather than killing his dad (either because of unshakable childhood fear, or a desire to cause more pain to his father then death would afford), he would kill something his dad loved more than anything, more than his dad loved his mom, and especially more than his dad loved him. He'd kill dad's god king Trump, and go out along with him. His dad would lose his hero, and the world would know his dad was responsible because he failed as a father, and thus his father would be the greatest traitor to the Maga movement ever.

I base this on no evidence other than the couple of facts we know about voter registrations and the yard signs and the like. Again this is just my speculation, which it is completely irresponsible to engage in right now (fun though!).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Came here to say being high and watching "I think you should leave" is some of the hardest I've ever laughed. One of my favorites https://youtu.be/7xS9Y_mjTjc?si=sZcDJlrb_wMuBN-k

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The worst possible time would be this fall. Imagine if Biden had that debate performance a couple of weeks before election? At least if he drops out now he can be replaced. Problem is, if he stays in, what are the odds he's going to have another episode of "jet lag" or a "cold" or whatever excuse they are using now? Unless they keep Biden in a bunker till November, chances are good he's going to have another episode and freak out swing voters right before votes get cast.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

President is two jobs. One is policy driven. One is being a leader. All president's have to do both, but arguably the latter is more important as president's can leave policy to aides and congress (and formerly the federal agencies, but that's gone now). The president is a communicator. Yes most voters like Biden policies, but they don't know they are Biden policies because Biden does not communicate that. In fact, in many congressional districts the Dem candidates are outperforming Biden while running on the same policies. You can't blame voters already burdened with living in this capitalist hell hole for not devoting hours into researching candidate policies.

In presidential politics, at the end of the day the buck stops with the candidate. Campaign aids and paid advertising and surrogates on TV can only do so much. You need the candidate to deliver, to speak directly to the voters, to make the case for why voters should choose them and their policies over the alternative. Biden is incapable of that.

It's Bidens fault.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

This movement wouldn't have any traction if Biden put on even a middling debate performance. We all saw Biden start to answer a question about abortion, then get confused and switch midway into talking about some woman killed by an immigrant. You don't need a grand conspiracy, it's a simple case of grandpa being too full of pride to give up his car keys. Except in this case the car is American democracy.

Biden was a great president. He should have asked in his accomplishments and set up a new generation of dem leaders. Instead, he let his pride get in the way, ignored his own decline, tried to hide it by refusing interviews and non-scripted public events, even the softball traditional pre superbowl interview, and then had that disaster of a debate. Yes, I'll still vote for the corpse of Biden if it means stopping Trump. But will swing voters? What about Trump to Biden voters in purple districts? What about young people and anyone already pissed about the genocide in Gaza? Is the "corpse is better than Trump" argument going to motivate infrequent voters to turn out? Better fucking hope so, cause Biden has us in this fucked position, is refusing to back down, so I guess we'll find out.

 
 

Ahead of its IPO, Reddit announced a set of tools for businesses that want to be more active on the platform — including the ability to see which subreddits are mentioning a brand. For businesses, Reddit says it’s a way to “establish and grow a meaningful organic presence on Reddit.” In other words: the brands are coming.

https://www.redditinc.com/blog/introducing-the-new-toolkit-for-business-growth-reddit-pro-is-here

 

Just kidding, mostly. I'm working on a presentation for my company about AI, and one of the things we want to do is illustrate the risk of deep fakes, and to do that our idea is to generate an AI image of one of the managers at a Taylor Swift concert or something like that totally out of character for him. It's playful, not meant to be malicious, and I've got buy in from upper management. I'm also not looking to do an actual deepfake, it would be enough if the image had a strong resemblance. The problem I'm running into is ChatGPT and Bard, the two I thought to try, will not generate a description of a person (in this case the managers headshot), and I'm not great at describing people, so I'm kind of at a dead end.

Any advice appreciated.

Also I recognize that while I swear my intended use is completely innocent, the answer here could be used in unethical ways, so I completely understand if mods want to take this down.

 

Kind of a fun game to learn or practice image prompting. Google AI (unspecified which model) generates an image. You have to create a prompt to replicate the generated image. Once you submit your prompt, an image is generated based on your prompt, and then the game judges how close you got to the reference image. After you pass or fail, the game reveals the prompt that generated the reference image. A little character gives you tips and hints as you go. Kind of fun, just thought I'd share.

 

I was laughing too hard from that to listen to the rest of the story, so I have no idea what's happening in Guatemala.

 

Plan is to reinvent the smartphone with AI, in the same way the touchscreen on the iPhone reinvented the smartphone.

Particularly interesting given ChatGPTs latest move to have voice recognition and an AI voice respond. If you haven't tried it, it's kind of neat. This morning I had a conversation with ChatGPT with my phone in my pocket, all done overy Bluetooth headphones like I was on a call. It was actually a lot more natural then I expected. I wonder what it would look like if that kind of tech was front and center in a smartphone.

I've included a few snippets from the article below, but the TLDR is, big names and big money are behind brainstorming plans to make an AI first centered smartphone, a plan to reinvent the form factor. The article also points to declining smartphone sails as evidence that the public is tired of the same old slab every year, so this could be an interesting time for this to come out.

I guess it's relevant to mention whatever the fuck the Humane AI pin is: The Humane Ai Pin makes its debut on the runway at Paris Fashion Week https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/30/23897065/humane-ai-pin-coperni-paris-fashion-week

From the article: After rumors began to swirl that Apple alum Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman were having collaborative talks on a mysterious piece of AI hardware, it appears that the pair are indeed trying to corner the smartphone market. The two are reportedly discussing a collaboration on a new kind of smartphone device with $1 billion in backing from Masayoshi Son’s Softbank.

...according to the outlet, the duo are looking to create a device that provides a more “natural and intuitive way” to interact with AI. The nascent idea is to take a ground-up approach to redesigning the smartphone in the same way that Ive did with touchscreens so many years ago. One source told the Financial Times that the plan is to make the “iPhone of artificial intelligence.” Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son is also involved in the venture, with the financial holding group putting up a massive $1 billion toward the effort. Son has also reportedly pitched Arm, a chip designer in which SoftBank has a 90% stake, for involvement.

While it’s still not clear what the end goal of the product talks will be (or if anything will come of them at all, really), it does seem like the general public has become fatigued with the same-y rollout of a slightly better smartphone slab year after year. Tech market analysis firm Canalys revealed in a report earlier this month that smartphone sales have experienced a significant decline in North America. The report indicates that iPhone sales have fallen 22% year-over-year, with an expected decline of 12% in 2023. The numbers are pretty staggering, especially fresh off the release of the iPhone 15, and could be an indicator that people are getting fatigued of the hottest new tech gadgets.

 

“Based on your consent, we may collect and use your biometric information for safety, security, and identification purposes,” the privacy policy reads. It doesn’t include any details on what kind of biometric information this includes — or how X plans to collect it — but it typically involves fingerprints, iris patterns, or facial features.

X Corp. was named in a proposed class action lawsuit in July over claims that its data collection violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit alleges that X “has not adequately informed individuals” that it “collects and/or stores their biometric identifiers in every photograph containing a face” that’s uploaded to the platform.

 

The Mod Helper Program is a tiered system that awards helpful moderators with trophies and flairs. Reddit users accrue karma by receiving upvotes and awards, and lose karma if they receive downvotes. The program rewards moderators who receive upvotes on comments in r/ModSupport.

Comment karma earned in r/ModSupport will be rewarded with trophies that will “signal to other mods that you are a source of valuable information,” the moderator support team announced on Thursday. Each rank awards unique trophies and flairs, ranging from “Helper” to “Expert Helper.” Reddit launched a similar program in r/help earlier this year, which rewards users who accrue karma by responding to other users’ requests.

Reddit also launched the Modmail Answer Bot, which automatically responds with relevant links to the site’s Help Center. If the recommended articles don’t answer a specific request, it will create a ticket that will be handled by a human admin. The bot is designed to streamline moderator requests so the admin team can focus on more complex issues.

Additionally, Reddit is merging the moderator-specific Help Center with its sitewide one to ensure that support resources are “easy to find and accessible from the same location.”

In the most upvoted comment replying to the announcement, Reddit user MapleSurpy expressed frustration over the lack of useful moderation features available on Reddit’s official app. Moderators have requested ban evasion tools and “actual help from admins” when dealing with “problem users,” MapleSurpy said.

“We’ve asked for better tools on the official app to run subs now that Reddit took away every single third-party one,” they said. “What did we get? Another automated system … and flair rewards. Thank you SO much, I’m sure this will solve a whopping zero problems.”

Another user pointed out that the flairs aren’t based on comments that are actually helpful, and that “snarky people who are funny” will reach “expert in no time.”

 

Starting August 7th, advertisers that haven’t reached certain spending thresholds will lose their official brand account verification. According to emails obtained by the WSJ, brands need to have spent at least $1,000 on ads within the prior 30 days or $6,000 in the previous 180 days to retain the gold checkmark identifying that the account belongs to a verified brand.

...

Threatening to remove verified checkmarks is a risky move given how many ‘Twitter alternative’ services like Threads and Bluesky are cropping up and how willing consumers appear to be to jump ship, with Threads rocketing to 100 million registrations in just five days. That said, it’s not like other efforts to drum up some additional cash, like increasing API pricing, have gone down especially well, either. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton — let’s see if it pays off for him.

 
 

Anas Haqqani, a senior leader in the Taliban, has officially endorsed Twitter over Facebook-owned competitor Threads.

“Twitter has two important advantages over other social media platforms,” Haqqani said in an English post on Twitter. “The first privilege is the freedom of speech. The second privilege is the public nature & credibility of Twitter. Twitter doesn't have an intolerant policy like Meta. Other platforms cannot replace it.”

Twitter has fallen out of favor with many people since Elon Musk took over the company last year...The Taliban, however, seems to love it. Two Taliban officials even bought blue verification check marks after Musk started selling them in January.

Haqqani noted that the biggest draw of Twitter was this lax moderation policy...Facebook and TikTok both view the Taliban as a terrorist organization and disallow them from posting. It’s a ban that persists to this day.

 

In response to chip export restrictions from the US and Europe, China has retaliated by imposing export controls on two essential semiconductor manufacturing elements, gallium and germanium, adding another dimension to the ongoing global battle over chipmaking technology control.

  • China has announced export controls on two rare elements, gallium and germanium, which are essential for semiconductor manufacturing. This move is in response to the US and Europe restricting chip exports to China.
  • Starting August 1, exporters of these raw materials will require special permission from the state to ship them out of the country, according to China's Ministry of Commerce.
  • Both gallium and germanium are used in several products, including computer chips and solar panels, and are listed as critical raw materials by the European Union. China is the world's largest gallium producer and a significant producer and exporter of germanium.
  • The Dutch government recently imposed new restrictions on exports of some semiconductor equipment, provoking a harsh reaction from Beijing. Consequently, ASML, Europe's largest tech firm, will need to apply for export licenses for products used to manufacture microchips.
  • Japan, the US, and Italy have also taken measures to restrict Chinese companies' access to chips and chipmaking equipment. This has been seen as an attempt to limit the Chinese government's access to sensitive chip technology.
  • The new policy was interpreted as retaliation by a state-owned newspaper, China Daily, which suggested that critics should question why the US and the Netherlands have taken similar actions against China.
  • China's announcement comes just before US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's visit to Beijing from July 6 to July 9, where she will meet with senior Communist Party officials.
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