We need to talk about “smart” devices…

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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.

What the shit is with shit coffee.

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We’ve had Cat Shit coffee , Elephant shit coffee, Monkey shit coffee, and now we have expensive as shit coffee.

Geisha coffee from Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete was sold for $30,204 a kilogram. When coffee gets more expensive than printer ink that is CRAZY. With that same money you could fly to Japan spend 3 weeks there while getting coffee from every mom and pop shop and live like a king while absorbing the local culture. The SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) has 100-Point Scale. This coffee scored 98, This coffee is apparently perfected liquid angel piss. If dunkin donuts had this coffee it would likely cost over $3000 a large cup.

If you took that $30,204 and put it into a high-yield savings account or a conservative index fund it would generate roughly $1,500 to $2,100 a year in interest. it would fund a 5 dollar coffee day for the rest of your life, and worse if you skip 2 days a week, by the time you are done with compounded amounts eventually you can start getting crazy Starbucks coffee.


Im sure somewhere somehow someone wants the cred to have the most expensive coffee in the world but the cost of cup of coffee I’d rather have enough money to start a coffee trust fund that pays for my Everyday coffee.. But while the every-person just wants a cup of coffee someone is making a coffee that is apparently the “best” coffee.

I’ll stick with my coffee from local places , I don’t want a bag of coffee that i could put a down payment on the house. Give me some mechanics coffee and the cash and I’d be happier.

Is amazon ok?

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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.

MetricRegular MemberThe “Whale” (Top Tier)
Est. Annual Spend$1,400$12,000+ (Business/Bulk)
0.25% Monthly Churn625,000 users / month~6,250 high-spenders / month
Annualized Users Lost7.5 Million Users75,000 “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 ?

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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 ?

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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.

CVS, Your Dealer you never wanted.

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CVS sucks. and i have multiple reasons for that, if you are on meds they fuck with you in numerous ways.

The regiseters are a privacy nightmare. I had complained about them and they said they were safe. the problem is people will see your name and your birthdate when you put in your information for meds.

That the register, the front one but the same as the one in the pharmacy , While the ones in the back do have a limited visibility, they do not cover you from behind so someone could talk your information while you type it in.

Also for meds, CVS seems to have made themselves high lord of your drugs over your doctors. If you get one med they will often substitute medications even with doctors objections. If you are on an opiate CVS treats you like a dirty druggy. Even the smallest amount of medication you will find delays , Out of stocks and more on meds. I had one med delayed while having a respiratory condition. “Oh you can come back in about a month for it..” the fuck is that. its like telling the person they are not sick enough for the meds.

CVS is in my opinion a borderline monopoly. Fuck em.

Also , WHen you try to look at a webpage for a prescription they bring you to their app, The APP that claims it helps you with AI slop, the app that says that your protected medical information is not protected. So on a phone you are unable to see your meds unless you submit your soul to them. That should be illegal. The fact that our culture is continuing to accept the AI bull shit slop and companies who abuse the average consumer without resistance is disgusting. Soon enough CVS will just pan all of the patient neglect to the app and saying it is not their fault.
its coming to your wallet and soon enough your health will be in the hands of a computer that often tells you to eat glass.

Star Trek: Starfleet academy some thoughts.

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Another year another startrek show. The last few shows have been good but people have been complained about. Discovery and its “too woke”.. bullshit. Give it time watch the show, don’t criticize that it has a female lead. Picard.. Take that show and give it finally showing the dirty under surface for once. People did not like it, but you know what it gave the show an emotion better than Data’s first season emotions for once! Star Trek: strange new worlds – now there is some good shit that is a cross between TOS and TNG!

But i digress… Starfleet academy… Well its different yet the same. The opening was a little more character building for one character than the rest. There was one thing that was aggravating… Who the fuck thought the Blair witch project camera style of camera was a good idea! it brings back the bullshit is the Kelvin Lens flare timeline! The camera work was almost done by a drunk sea sick worker. The action is pretty good. the rising action of the introductory characters seemed to be uncalled for . Using the characters from the first 5 minutes 20 minutes later 10 years later was a cheap plot filler. they could of used this action in its own episode. the Doctor was a welcome introduction from voyager. the same but different doctor but he is still more or less annoyed by everyone and everyone is annoyed by him. Give or take this is the first episode i have hope for this show . It was not as bad as Picard’s season one where the show felt unsure of itself.

Honestly, This show is good . its seems to flow it has a moving storyline and it keeps in line with a “sequel” to discovery, which in my opinion received more hate than it deserved.

I give this first episode: 8/10 bones saying “Dammit Jim I’m a doctor not an elevator.”

Removing the penny was a bad idea and a scam.

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In the year 2026 we bid farewell to the penny, But was the death of this penny warranted? I say no. Others will say yes and scream and stomp their feet saying “It CoSts 3.7 cents to make!” While this is a factual number i am going to call bullshit on this. There are more factors in the penny that make that 3.7 sound expensive but in reality the real cost of a penny is a fraction.

Pennies in of themselves are not a one time use commodity. If you have pennies laying around check the dates on them. More times than not you will find pennies that are 10+ years old. But is removing the penny logical? No…

Removing the penny from the currency system will inherently will not save any money for the average consumer. moreover, It will cost Americans much more than ever. Going forward with the elimination of the penny corporations and their products are suppose to round the prices to the nearest nickel. I really do not think they will use this logic at all. They will go for the greedy approach and round right to the next dime. This is an automatic Gift to companies. They will part out everything and charge you through the ass for the product.

Imagine a device made of 37 small parts, each costing 3 cents.

  • Actual Cost: $1.11
  • Fair Rounding: $1.10
  • Corporate “Creative” Rounding: They’ll price each part individually at $0.10, turning a $1.11 product into a $3.70 expense.

Do i trust companies to do the right thing? Absolutely not! They will use methodology to make a bigger profit and scale their prices to make rounding in their favor. Companies are out there and they are not in the business to make humanity better. they are out to screw the consumers for the benefits of the shareholder. Do I believe every company will do this? No, they will start out honest at first but, once profits take a dive, they will use creative rounding in order to scale profits. Because why Improve when you can use some magic rounding and make a huge profit. I’ve made an example below to show how rounding can run away with pricing!

Calculation MethodPrice for 37 PartsPercent Increase
Original Cost ($0.03/part)$1.11—
Total Price Rounded (Fair)$1.10-0.9% (Small loss)
Nickel Rounding (Per Part)$1.8560% Increase
Scam Corp Rounding ($0.10/part)$3.70233.3% Increase

As you can see, this is not only bad but it can be completely destructive. But i digress I’ve strayed a little bit here. The statement a penny costs 3.7 cents is a shortsighted idea. Lets look at the penny. Does it magically disappear if it is used? No. Does it break easy? No! is the penny reusable? YES! A penny can stay in circulation for up to 25 years and be reused up to 2500 times. if the penny was a one time use device it would be a terrible thing! we’d be using more resources than it costs. but the penny in a year can be used 100 times. So lets break the costs down. since a new penny is not needed after use we can spread these costs. If we are to break this costs per used the penny is actually a very cost effective device.

If we say a penny is used 100 times in a given year in the first year the cost of this penny is actually closer to 0.037 Cents ! If we go for the average lifetime of a penny (25 years) 0.000148 cents. the cost analysis here shows the penny to come out on top, It’s worth it to keep. Why hide the penny? it can account for stealth inflation that hides inflation by elimination lower currencies to make it look like efficiency.

The Bottom Line: The “3.7 cents to manufacture” argument is shortsighted. Killing the penny isn’t about efficiency; it’s about stealth inflation. By eliminating the smallest unit of currency, we make it easier for corporations to hide price hikes and “round” their way into your retirement fund.

We need to talk about AI .

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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.