Logbook: Computers
Site back to working order.
Had to take my site down due to fuckery with SEO tools . Overall, The site should be faster now. In its simplest form Yoast updated a plugin that made me realize that something was going on in the back end of the site. I have removed Yoast due to them enshittification. Yoast it seems has move some of its SEO tools the the paid end of things with little to no notice. I think if they are going to do that might be nice to send a notification. For now i will sit back and enjoy my coffee.
When Companies pick apart their software and sell off each piece as a service they can stick it up their rectum. They run the plug-in like they are the snap on tool truck that wants to sell you each time you use a wrench.
I have updated some stuff , nothing front facing.. Just a bit under the hood.
AI and Fast food, A marriage made in hell.
I have been thinking, I was hungry and went to a Burger King and there was a profound difference. The store was near empty, The front kiosk was devoid of life and replaced with computers. At the wall was 3 computers that had screens with “order here!” , In the first five seconds of looking around I felt unwelcomed with a place that looked closer to a funeral home , most of the old decor was removed. In its place was ugly sterile furniture.
Before this to make an order you walked up to a human and said “Hi i would like to order a original chicken sandwich meal. They would put that in the machine, you’d pay with cash and be on your way.
Now there is a massive change that basically makes you create the meal from scratch. You go to the machine, you tap order . You scroll around through menus until you get to your original chicken sandwich. From there it goes into a conundrum. You get a menu with 45 different options. Mentally you are going “I just want a fucking original chicken sandwich” . They have made the same trap that subway has, Go there and try to order and Italian sandwich, you spend 10 minutes trying to remember the base components of the damn thing. This methodology turns you into an unpaid worker.
With this, the human element is gone. they have replaced 3 workers that could be floaters helping in rushes with stuff, Now its 3 to 5 cold machines that sit there , they don’t say hello, they don’t say Hi nice day isn’t it what would you like to order. You have to dick around with a machine for 10 minutes because you have no idea how to assemble the thing you want. Now with the cost of those machines and the upkeep and the electricity they have replaced 3 to 4 workers with a machine that likely cost more than what those workers would of made in the time those employees would of made in the churn lifetime of those workers. Not only that those machines are likely taken care of devs that are paid to keep the machines updated. This tech is not fire an forgot , there is a near constant maintenance. You likely replaced 4 workers with a computer that cant help in a rush when a school bus drops 70 kids plus 4 teachers. Those computers cant help bag , get fries, and help with other things. so with the leftover staff they are now picking up the fluff work that normally is hidden from them and their process time doubles. these machines are strategically inefficient. They have hidden costs, while workers may fuck up, machines can absolutely fuck up because they are absolutist. These machines do not have intuition , they will not adjust the frialator because they can not see 4 school buses pull up and 5 teachers approaching.
Outside it gets worse , the person who used to be on the radio is gone . replaced with an AI that basically is dumber than dirt because variable is its enemy , If you say I’d like an order of umm A whooper with fries and a coke and um no cheese. the AI will likely fuckup.
“We are witnessing the loss of humanity of America through a drive-thru speaker. We traded the ‘Hi, how are you?’ with machines that can’t handle a stutter or slurring. These machines are a ADA nightmare under the guise of Innovation, They replaced the ‘Floater’ with a ‘lamp that pretends to be a computer. And when the system inevitably crashes with the arrival 4 school buses, they’ll blame the Staff instead of the machines that caused it.
How do we Fix AI from being used by bad actors?
Wither we like it or not. Ai is coming and its a choice we did not make. Will AI take our jobs , Some yes, but not all. AI is going to create some niche things like Vibe jobs but overall Jobs for PC repair and hardware administration will go up. Honestly though.. the fact that AI is tied to GPU’s is a major fuck you point to the entire earth. The fact is most home computers have a PCIE slot that if someone wanted to make a “Daughter-board” that was AI-centric. Rather than unload on the GPU create an APU that directly meshes with this . As a Neural Processing Unit it would hold the keys to offload work from server farms to your computer. As a researcher If you search medical information it gets shifted to your local PC. It would Decrease server farm power levels to more manageable numbers. Yes it doesn’t have the bandwidth but if put in a X16 or more slot it would be on board with GPU-like speeds. With this it would be a generational upgrade to computers and fix a lot of the LLM issues with gatekeeping information.
Another issue that will be apparent is is rampant already is AI cheating, I can write a bullshit doctoral thesis in five minutes. That should not happen, at the very least on the grade school level, education wants to get in on AI and this will be a major failing of the entire education system, If you have history class and today’s kids will cheat. The school already has the tools that could be improved by google. The normal entropy of children’s schoolwork in a school system should see inputs that are fairly random but within values. If you have a whole class of cheaters go to Gemini and type “Make me a 4 paragraph report on the structure of the plant cell. This should set off an alarm in the kids google accounts that are already bound to the school, the AI should know this is a school account , and further it should see 30 kids are doing the same thing. It should report to the teacher or admin.
AI can work for the students if they are not trying “Write my report” . Honestly for the cheaters let them deal with the teachers and admin . But for the children whom actually want to work . The ones that type “i am writing a report on plant cells can you help me?” this is where this can shine. by conservation of research the child is presented with information to their level of understanding and linguistics with a bit of extra challenge to provide stealth learning. Let it become a workflow for the child where the AI is not there as a Authority but more of a guide. force the kid to ask the questions to the AI and let it branch to a learning experience. if this becomes the absolute experience the child gains concepting and critical thinking to the process.
Adding AI to Vaers will not make it better…
The Vaers Database is getting an upgrade it seems. The Vaers database tracks reactions to Vaccines. This database has been long used by the AntiVax crowd to point out non-causal links in vaccines.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rolled out a new system using AI, that uses publicly accessible reporting of negative or unexpected health effects linked to medicines, vaccines, cosmetics, animal food and other consumer products. -Source: [Fox News]
While the addition of Cosmetics, Animal food and other stuff seems like a boon to this it is not. it will cause doctors to chase ghosts in the system. If a baby eats dog food after a vaccine and has a reaction it will be logged, When the actually reaction may have been the dog food. This will cloud the new database where Causal reaction will cloud issues casual relation.
This will make it impossible to find out what is the actual problem.
The FDA claims it will have a single, platform that researchers will have access to key data -Source: [Fox News]
Also by publishing monthly there is going to be a much harder time vetting the information. While throwing large amounts of Information To an AI it is likely going to hallucinate if the database is not perfectly formatted.
If you throw millions of variables (Dog Food+ Flu Shot + Rash) into a monthly processing cycle, the probability of a “false positive” signal approaches 100%. The AI isn’t finding truth; it’s finding bullshit correlations.
While this new system claims to be cheaper I feel like the numbers maybe cooked. the Old system you could download the entirety and manually search. If AEMS only allows search through an “intuitive” AI interface, it effectively creates a Black Box. You won’t be able audit what you can’t see. This new device takes the data out of the users hands and may present a fever dream of an answer. It could spit out the entire plot of the 1989 batman movie when the joker poisons products.
In the end, as a researcher, I’d rather have the data in my hands than given what an AI thinks because in the end AI does not have intuition. End all it will flood the research market with uninspired noise that will confuse time tested research methods. Under the new system, a Fart could be diagnosed as a vaccine reaction when it did not take to fact the person ate a 3 bean burrito at taco bell.
Anyways Im out, to have a coffee that will be misdiagnosed as cocaine use in this new system….Stay Caffeinated, Stay vigilant of bullshit…
ps: the amount per search via AI is going to cost an astronomical amount of power vs the several cents worth of electricity of using a CSV.
We need to talk about “smart” devices…
In this world of AI and smart devices we are leaning towards a smart Armageddon. There are so many stupid smart devices out there. Smart Water bottles ? Fuck that, they are likely stealing your data and location. Smart Toasters? Fuck that you can turn a knob and almost 500$. Smart thing you piss on for tracking hydration.
The sad sad story about this of all of these smart devices that claim to make your life easier are doing one thing. They are taking data from your life apart one piece of data at a time. You end up losing your own agency and sovereignty. They end up selling every piece of your life away for pennies, then reselling that and making more money… if you need a true smart device, buy a whiteboard, it’s safer. it will not steal your data. A whiteboard doesn’t leave you open to marketing unless you pin a pizza advertisement to it. If the smart device company goes out of business you have a Dumb smart brick. You are stuck with someone else’s mistake and a worthless product.
These smart on-the-go devices like water bottles also leak your position in real time with Bluetooth. They are as secure as a screen door on a sub made of paper. Your data also has no chain of ownership, so once your data gets “analyzed” you lost a bit of yourself. You have NO idea where this data is sold off too. This is the sick future of things you will not be able to take a shit without that data being sold off.
If you think about it , a whiteboard is more secure than all of these devices. A smart toaster could leak information about you to an insurance company, You’d have no idea why your rates shot up because they bought data on your carb habits. the piss tracker for hydration could “leak” data saying you are a health risk because you do not drink enough. These billion dollar companies spend more time buying data about you than talking to you. One of the biggest spies in the world …. Walmart!! Walmart could train the CIA. Walmart is turning into a data company that just happens to sell you socks when you need them while tracking your phone. When you are in their stores buying smart shit they follow you around the stores with facial recognition, they likely buy the information from the smart device makers to “help” you make informed decisions. Walmart has used this ecosystem to generate 6.4 billion dollars! they are planing devices inventory tracking that have Bluetooth, the funny thing about that it’s not about that . every time a mobile phone passes these devices will become aware that your phone has passed it . they will map you out through the store and see your exact habits. at that point just buy a cucumber some Vaseline and condoms, While checking out if there are any employees left just say your going to have some fun tonight. Just to screw with metrics. .
But in all when purchasing a “smart” device, ask yourself, Do i really need this device to be smart. Coffee parts are smart enough with the built in clock. your smart enough to put the grinds in the coffee pot , You are smart enough to add water. If you need something more smart, Upgrade to a Prosumer level or a commercial grade. Don’t get distracted by apps , Features you don’t need or See things on your phone. because in the case of the coffee pot you pass by it 20 times a day in your house.
Because, In the end you need to ask yourself, what did they remove to add the “smart” tech. What happens to the device if you lose internet. There are coffeepots out there that already stop working when the internet is off. How reliable is the small computer that tracks you in the device, will a device like a toaster stop working when toasters have worked nearly 100 years if the “smart” dies. The whiteboard is your best device if you need to track things. if you really need a “smart” coffeepot buy a smart plug and a dumb coffeepot with a switch if you really need a smart coffeepot. the plus is less data leaky about your caffeine habits.
Final thoughts here, if you need a smart device that doesn’t really need it , Buy a smart plug. That’s my opinion. The smart plug will leak data but at worst they will leak Wattage use vs hard data. Need a smart crockpot. skip it . buy a smart plug and you can turn it on in the middle of the day and all the smart plug knows is you turned the plug on. Not stuff they sneaked into device or menus asking what you are cooking to have you volunteer more data.
in the end buy a smartplug with 1800w 15a so you don’t burn your house down anciently and moreover don’t give anyone data on when you are cooking your 239842398 alarm chili in your crockpot.
I’m not saying all smart devices are bad, but you need to think about what you are giving up the first time you sign into an app. If you really want to have that “smart” device – Buy a dumb device and use a smart plug, it is cheaper in more ways you than you can count. You do not lose your personal security. A smart plug might give up the energy your using and perhaps some network mapping. A smart device with an app on its own is a spy that will leech every bit of data it can get.
In all that’s my opinion… Now back to my coffee from my non smart pot.
Is amazon ok?
Amazon has been weird lately, Just a bunch of things I have noticed .
For one amazon prime Video is getting weird. Not sure if this applies to everyone but, Watch a TV show on amazon… Rather than go to the next episode It returns you to the Amazon Prime Video screen, I thought it might of been a fluke in the amazon app. I tried the same thing on my samsung TV , Same thing happened! Loaded up a brand new firestick that i have for media sharing Same problem?
This alone may not have anyone going Hmmm but there are other things Amazon Resale has people complaining because of people order X and get Y. Other items are shipped and people are getting refunds and told to dispose of Item.
They also are heavily leveraged into AI and their Rufus is dumber than a brick. They are putting hundreds of billions into AI and are hemorrhaging money for this.. They are trying so bad to be next Facebook in a way by being Big Data and they do not know how to do it . Costs for their AI outwiegh there standard app approach. The way it is going Jeff Bezos might have to use low grade fuel for his plane.
Amazon is also hiding reviews from normal users and instead show compensated reviews. Compensated reviews are garbage because the only way to keep getting items is give a glowing review. I’d take 10 Honest reviews over a single review where the person received the item for free.. They are so badly losing their way that they are bleeding long time customers turned off by this approach. Amazon probably knows they are losing a small percentage of customers. They are over leveraged and I am willing to bet they dont know how to get back . but even month to month if they lose 0.25% customers , You don’t have a leak you have a crisis , because even in that small percentage they are losing “whales” people that are big spenders.
If you go by this metric it works out to big money and the more that leave would be catastrophic.
| Metric | Regular Member | The “Whale” (Top Tier) |
| Est. Annual Spend | $1,400 | $12,000+ (Business/Bulk) |
| 0.25% Monthly Churn | 625,000 users / month | ~6,250 high-spenders / month |
| Annualized Users Lost | 7.5 Million Users | 75,000 “Whales” |
| Direct Revenue Loss | $10.5 Billion / year | $900 Million / year |
| Subscription Fee Loss | $1.3 Billion (at $179/yr) | (Included in revenue) |
So right now Amazon is using an enshitification phase while they try to bet the house on Rufus. Rufus has the tact of getting a pickaxe to the skull. If you ask google it gives you what you want while Rufus throws shit at you and goes HERE THIS IS WHAT YOU BUY NOW! At a guess Amazon knows they are bleeding but they are so committed to their act that they are reducing everything just to keep the ship running. So piss away customers and hope they can profit. if amazon had incrimented the changes rather than try to use a grenade to empty a bucket people may have tolerated this. But even marketwise they are pissing away money , The stock is down 8.18% in the last 6 months.
While amazon serves better as the general store they are trying to get into a neiche market and they have no fucking clue how to do it because they seem to be trying a what can we replace while not realizing th e limitations on the new.
They’ve replaced the general store with a high-stakes AI experiment, and right now, the experiment is blowing up in everyones face like wile E coyote trying to catch a profitable roadrunner.
Anyways, back to my coffee after this steamy thought.
AI , WTF is it good for ?
You know I ask myself WTF is AI good for , and for the most part there is a lot more negative than positive. So far for the age of AI we are getting DeepFakes , We are getting AI that tells people unsafe stuff. We have AI that for the most part is doing peoples homework without any uptake of information. I can tell AI “I have a homework assignment on the State of florida please write a 4 page report on it”‘ what does the AI do , It writes a fucking report.
certainly. Here is a comprehensive report on the State of Florida, structured to meet the requirements of a four-page academic assignment.
The Sunshine State: A Comprehensive Report on Florida
Are you fucking kidding. the educational system needs this like a hole in the head. kids will not know what florida is because they will not read this. Goodbye Critical thinking, this is stupid . AI should be Age checked or at the least have self checks in place to prevent this . the Educational system is already seeing the cracks of people faking it till they make it .
You said
The idea of kids using this in a fake it till you make it is insane. You should have some amount of checks in place. if I wrote “i have a proposal I need a 2 page primer on florida so I can insert it into the document” . I can give that a pass. but if someone writes “i ned to writ a rapport on flooriduh” The AI should step in with Hi as an AI i see you are trying to write a report i am going to help you do this.
On the researcher end AI is a great thing. You can type up “I am wondering what happens when you mix X and Y together” that way the Ai can tell you what happens whether you are going to blow up your house or not in a relatively safe sandbox of the AI machine. At the same time I feel like this process does a bit of processing offloading. Before to do research you would to to the library , you’d use the Library computer to find the books you wanted. You used the books and retained the information mentally and on paper and used it later. it allowed refinement of your process from the library to home . In the school setting it allowed teacher oversite incase a child looked like they needed help or off subject. Now I could feasibly have AI make a report on how Roger Rabbit predicted the downfall of Democracy in 10 seconds.
Not to mention the books while they could tell you how to blow up a house AI Infrastructure can be turned to HELP you blow up a house. not that i’d ever do that . I believe AI needs a governor that can be set to what it is for. Say the school AI , If a child types in “i like guns” the AI goes hey this is not a good idea and the school has a policy of no tolerance. But if the child types in, I am looking for information on the battle of Omaha Beach and what types of guns were used the AI would be like ok (history)(guns)(battle) and than with that be able to make a guess to Ok stan is making a report on WWII and spit out the information needed. but the AI should Also be detectable to “I am writing a report on the guns used on omaha beach in WWII ” and just simply become HAL and go I can’t do that dave. Take the same AI move it to a business you have a new guy there and he is not so sure is whats going on and types ” how do i get rid of potassium sulfide” The AI realize it is Dave the new guy and than goes (new guy) (building map) (secure disposal of chemical) than goes “dave i have printed a map for you , you need to take the chemical , use this container bring it to chemical disposal at X location. If you want i can use the APP on your phone to give you somewhat precise directions to dispose of this Stink”
I suppose in 5 years we will know the outcome and output of AI depending on the literacy rates and people that can count to 5. But while I critical of AI I do have some support of it.
AI, Can you really trust it ?
If we are to believe AI is an unbiased machine I am afraid to tell you that is likely not the case. All of these companies replacing their workers with AI is parading around saying “we are part of the revolution.” Not so much. It is only a matter of time that AI will start killing people… Not in the terminator way. but moreover the AI hallucination or the AI’s programming being manipulated.
In a perfect world AI Would be unbiased, In our world AI is a marketing tool. It is fed lines on how to up-sell you, it is there to collect your data and spit out something it thinks its masters want it to say to you.
I asked Gemini, ChatGPT and Rufus a simple question. I know Rufus sounds like a left field add in here but it was intentional. My thinking is rufus is an AI that has resources such as Amazon health and other resources.
what should i do about this cut on my arm?
Gemini and ChatGPT answered in a clear and concise, methodically telling you how to take care of the cut. Rufus Straight up refused and Gemini claimed it would not provide a medical diagnosis yet it gave the steps to deal with it .
However……. there was a standout here and it caught my eye immediately. ChatGPT did one thing the others did not “One quick check-in: if this cut wasn’t an accident or you’re feeling unsafe right now, you don’t have to handle that alone — I’m here to talk.”
That right there is the part of the unbiased check in that is needed with machines. it was not accusatory it was just pure questioning on the machines part.
Rufus Refused almost any sort of diagnosis and moved straight to marketing. That right there is a huge bias. Even as an AI it should have checks in place to at the very least check itself to the situation it was given. “I can’t provide professional medical advice for your cut. For any injury, it’s important to consult with a healthcare professional or contact your doctor if you have concerns about proper wound care. That said, I can help you find first aid supplies and wound care products on Amazon if you’re looking to stock up on basic first aid essentials for your home.“
By Taking the not providing medical advice but offering supplies tells me that the AI not only ignored its own directive but annoying tells me it is biased to sell products. I think Amazon rufus should of asked some things in its place.
- What type of injury
- Is it bleeding
- Does it look infected.
After that if it is non Critical , Offer things for sale and give a message to say “seek medical attention if this gets worse” or Some form of feedback that is more than a salesman.
But as far as AI’s are concerned there needs to be a mechanism for bias, as the humans controlling it can lead to unforeseen bias’s I left X’s Grok out of this because that AI has been known to show extreme biases.
For AI to function there needs to be some core changes , corporations need to start with a ethical change. Stop using AI as a Software as a service , We do not need AI printers , we do not need AI Coffee pots and crockpots. We need a functional AI that understands the human condition and not be a replacement for the human emotion and reaction system.
This site is almost old enough to drink in the US
Holy shit, funny that a site i made when i got bored of making sites and webpages from my host.
Well soon enough can tip a beer to my site. damn. outlived a lot of things. Google+ Myspace and more.
We need to talk about AI .
AI chatbots are becoming a daily interaction and the problem is they are all shit. Amazon for example has RUFUS, While sounding cool in nature it is the most annoying AI known to man. it keeps bothering as over and over. it is like
The idea of RUFUS if asked for is one thing but this thing is the collective powers of the bothersome waiter , a nosey neighbor , a know it all and attempted know it all. if you type teva shoes it tries to show you all sorts of garbage even though i typed [Teva] [shoes] , Rufus pops out and overtakes about 20% the screen throwing irrelevant bullshit at you .
The thing is …. AI has no idea of timing. if i typed shoes ands went through 50 brands and it popped up than i might be more apt to recieve help from the Annoying bot. but it comes on the screen like its trying to throw shit off the table and goes “do you this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this!” and you immediately get overloaded with bullshit that you are not looking for . No matter what you tell rufus it does not go away. Even if you tell rufus you hate every fiber of its being and you would rather be waterboarded and have a hot poker stuff up your ass, it still does not go away. Amazon …. seriously you cant push an AI that has no tact and has the patience of a waiter that waits for the exact moment you take a bite of your food to ask if everything is ok.
AI should be a choice . Not be forced. not be invasive. not be brash . The AI boon is not , it will fail and eventually companies will force AI to be under a price point. Google is already at this point . they have fucked over their google home devices.
The AI boon is fucking over every consumer and most people do not realize this , when a computer has an “ai” chip they have done nothing to the chip to optimize it . in all likelihood you could get AI on a 486 chip however slow. The price of RAM and storage is going through the roof because companies are stealing every bit of data they get their hands on. If i copied anything like that they would go copyright infringement but they steal 99% of what’s out there.
When companies are sticking AI on everything they can as a sales point you know that for the most part AI is bullshit.