Logbook: technology
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.
The enshitification of “smart” tech
I’ve been thinking for awhile, Google home devices used to be such a boon , and now they are just garbage. Before you could ask the most inane things to the google device and it would attempt to answer you. now these days google only answer is “sorry, I did not understand” . asking the weather at times. “sorry, I did not understand” asking for the location of CVS “sorry, I did not understand” asking math problems “sorry, I did not understand” asking beyond even the simplest of questions is seemingly out of reach.
I know why too . google wants to sell its AI slop. make the device shitty get rid of its neural network of answers and go SOS and charge monthly . While AI is the new kid on the block companies also know its just rebranded bullshit and are selling it as the smartest thing since sliced bread. This AI is not all that good and if you want to eat glass you can pretty much get it to tell you to eat glass.
Right From google: While it is technically possible to swallow glass, it is extremely dangerous and can lead to life-threatening medical emergencies.
Google Home Devices are not just devices that barely turn on lights. barely can process the world around it barely do anything right. We have spent 100s on making our houses smart only to have google pull the rug out from under us . it is a ridiculous and unethical. Even for safety Google home devices before would have some amount of intelligence to help or stop something from happening. now the devices are so dumb it is possible to have a device not work at all .
Phone Fun (Pixel 9 xl pro) .. Part live action reboot!
So here we are 8 years later and sadly I have not updated this blog in ages. I think it’s time to go back to the roots.
With age we tend to lose some abilities. I like having a smaller screen or used to. The realm of the battleship sized screen always used to Irk me because I would be thinking where the fuck am i going to put this thing.
Honestly…. though I think i need to change my benchmark points here. When i used to post my old phone funs, my benchmarks were
1: To make Phone calls – I do think this singularly is still one of the most important things.
2: Configurability – I am not sure if this point is really valid in some ways the way i used to review phones. but, add/make ringtones and Applications should be bound into one thing now. These are almost a universal given these days.
3: Durability: This is still really important. with phones with back glass which is really fucking stupid, I should not expect to have a phone that you need to hold in a bubble.
4: Good battery life – this is hugely important.
So anyways… Here we go!
The Pixel 9 xl Pro … this phone is huge, you could land a small helicopter on it. The phone has a lot going for it. The early reviews were calling the phone out for not being powered by a stark Arc reactor and Ai …. While it has AI its really a point of Who the fuck cares that is on the phone. It has enough power to run any app on the store. google will never risk bifurcating the app store and have an app that will not run on all current phones.
1: To make Phone calls
For phone calls the pixel 9 xl pro gives a decent experience. the volume is decent the Bluetooth options are always nice. In reality in the past phone calls had more weirdness in the call quality area. Now it seems that call quality is more governed by signal…. which is annoying. With the collapse of options in the USA for companies phone call quality has more to do where you are standing than the phone itself. it is like the old days with walkie talkies. So given that location is an issue it would be nice for the phone companies to start working for more coverage in the urban environment , Do not show the bullshit maps of WE COVER EVERYWHERE…
2: Configurability
Pixel phones are generally one of the most configurable devices on the market. if you want to change your phone in to Dora the explorers backpack I’m sure you can do that. Ringtones, got that too. The app store however….. Now there is an issue. There needs to be more checks and balances in the app stores for google and others. App dilution is really at a maximum where you can search for an app you want and know what it is and accidently install some other bullshit app. Google should phase out older apps unless you specifically need them, give the users the ability to fence the types of apps you want. the updates for apps has become a bit more of a chore and while simple , its stupid.
3: Durability
Also with configurability , Phone case fall into this! I’ve bought phones that did not have options for a phone case or you have to wait for the next coming of jesus for a case to ship out (motorola) . Pixel phones always tend to have a good amount of cases with a slow rollout for choice. Getting a day one phone has one real risk. you get your new shiny phone and twenty minutes into owning the device you drop it and you see shards of glass. Generally pixels have some decent survival on drops.
4: Good battery life
This has always been a thorn in my side since phones have gotten “smart”. With the new phones added with bullshit technology such as AI and clouds, AI is a joke. its just a replacement of linear learning AI . It’s just standard problem solving we have had for 20+ years dressed up in a new coat of paint so our corporate overlords can brand it as SAS . But back to the battery … It is nice …. nicer than i’ve seen in years. Getting almost 3 days is amazing. That is more time than i’ve seen in 10 years.
5: overall impressions and opinions.
I think the idea of a phone is lost on companies. they are looking to turn the phones into the same devices we had in the 1980s …. The television. where all the phones functions are tied into advertisements and bullshit. almost every app is tied to the advertising , our information is being sold off for every tap , Every picture every move we make. this is horse shit. AI is a joke, it is not going to take jobs. moreover it is going to kill people in a non-terminator way, Almost every part of our phones has some insane subscription . the “assistant” on the pixel is helpful but it is no more helpful than the old assistant. Google seems to be dumbing down their old assistant to make the Gemini look smarter than it is . these new assistants are trained off of our words and our posts and more over it is making a linear answering psychopath. You want to learn to fuck ducks. you can now ask google and somehow if you word your phrases just right somehow the “new and improved” ai will find someone reddit post and tell you exactly how. but if you ask the weather… holy fuck . or ask it for something in your IOT .. shit.. i’ve seen the AI loose its mind and tell you some things that you did not want to know like the weather 4000miles away .
Lastly… is the pixel 9xl pro a good phone… time will tell. from the start i am going to say maybe yes. but i will favor the idea that it should be a phone i can have for a few years and not fall off the technology peak. So yes. Buy the phone. Don’t Smell the AI generated Roses and use your phone like any phone without AI .
Phone Fun part 12 Return of the king.
Well now … Back to this ..
If you think about this , If you have followed this little sites quest for the one phone… Its been a long quest. Many have fallen. Much tech support bullshit was had, but to which end each and every phone was used through and through, so In our eighth year of phone fun I figure why not.. lets visit the classic style I had originally set as my standard for phones.
The Standard I set in the Samsung M520 post is kind of solid and holds up even to this years phones .
Even If we drop in the most recent acquisition the Nexus 6p is reviewable with the old standards.
- to make calls –
Well this may be the weaker point of the review process but this is more over a fine point , If the provider selling the phone has a shitty network , most will point at the phone before the network.- The Phone is configurable
This is paramount more than ever with phones, as companies try to release phones with smaller space to save money this is where phones stand up for themselves.- good battery life
Oh holy shit yes. on the most recent generation of phones battery life is in the toilet.- add/make ringtones
Still a valid assumption due to some phones complicating the process needlessly. It may seem redundant but its not.- Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country
While technically not part of the phone review, you will find that on phones that sometimes phone applications make the phone.- Durable
Yes indeed. durability … still an issue … from you farted and bent your phone in your pocket to a drop accident while taking a dump
I’ve had a few phones since the original phone fun . at a rate of one a year about.
Nexus 6p , Nexus 6 , Galaxy Note 3 , Galaxy Nexus , Nexus 4 s ,HTC Touch , M520 ,katana LX
With the Nexus line being the phones I’ve favored and when I have strayed I have been reminded why the stock experience is the way to go. My last non-stock devices were less than appealing in the long run.
So onwards with this review.
Again the old review process in play here lets start from the beginning..
To make Phone calls: The nexus 6p is very good at making phone calls , On the other hand places I’ve lived have been questionable at best for phone calls. Now the nexus 6p has the ability to hand off phone calls from WIFI to NETWORK to NETWORK flawlessly … When it works its fucking fabulous , When it does not work you wonder if the call was transferred to a demons asshole for the weird noises it can make.. if this hand off can be straightened out it will turn a great feature into a brilliant feature.
Configurable: Being a Nexus phone give this phone advantage over most of the android phones out there. Google give you a frame with a Warp engine and allows you to build off of It. Rather than be stuck with provider baked in bullshit that reminds you to wipe your ass twice before swiping google trusts you enough to know how to download something.
good battery life: Unfortunately smart phones have one of a few drawbacks… The battery life sucks and while building better and faster hardware seems to be the case of things , I can say the Nexus is not half bad. I get roughly 24 to 48 hours depending on use.
add/make ringtones: Over the years this has become a redundant with configurable , Though it would be a subsection because who knows what the fuck developers are thinking .
Applications that don’t cost a years pay for a small 3rd world country: While this still has importance , the shift away from a per phone store is now a marketplace. Out of the box this phone is more or less ready to go… I think one complaint that other manufacturers should pay attention to is.. STOP FUCKING INSTALLING APPS YOU THINK I WILL USE! IF there is something I have hated with the non-nexus phones was spending an hour getting rid of app after app of completely monkey shit. Nexus phones do not do this.. its wonderful. But, When you have a phone with a notification going off in the middle of the night to remind you to put in your store loyalty card , you bet your ass that app is going to get deleted. in the past there were many purchases i made to fix the faults of phones that is not a litter of dead apps that i don’t use .
Durable: Durability , as it stands is kind of a moot point these days. Unfortunately when you have a phone where one side is a large piece of glass , its hard to judge durability .. Most manufactures tend to sacrifice durability for aesthetics , The problem of aesthetics is …. the only way you see how “nice” your phone is , is if you go naked. These days its saner to just put a case on your phone to make it durable. if you look at your phone the wrong way sometimes even with gorilla glass 473487234 your phone will end up fucked by a single micron of dust.
Over all the Nexus 6p is a comfortable sight. Its what you expect out of a google phone rather than the aborted attempts that manufactures try to collaborate with wireless providers for. the nexus line is about choice and its something that people do not realize they have when they are stuck in the world of samsungs that want to sniff your asshole for caloric content to sell to who knows what.
Phone Fun part 3.141592653589793238462643383, So long and thanks for all the fish.
Well its been fun sprint. We’ve had a fun ride and through troubled times and the fun times you’ve been with me but , There is a time where is it possible that Sprint and I, have grown so old and so inflexible that we have outlived our usefulness? As I have moved on and my life has gotten a bit more complete that the room for sprint has taken the squeeze of outliving its usefulness. Mind you sprint at the time of having more bells and whistles than you can count is an excellent thing. But when my bills were going north of 150$ I was starting to choke. Sprint at times could be a love hate relationship..
I have gone to the nexus 6p from the nexus 6 … while the nexus 6p is a bit smaller it retains the size of an aircraft carrier and is easier for me to use , I have realized that i am getting worse in the way of doing thing and that a bigger phone is needed for me to retain coordination. The sound on the 6p from the speaker is astounding.
As I’ve had this phone only a week I am going to have to revisit this in a month.
thanks all for now .
Phone Fun DCCXXIXCCXLIX: Return of the Jedi
Time for another edition of Phone fun!
Last I had the Galaxy Note 3 , while it was an OK phone with many options the end game of the note 3 had many letdowns. The phone size is on the scale of a large moon. So after a year of dealing with this phone I decided to talk to sprint about an upgrade to which they kindly offered after a screw up.
Since I’ve always liked the nexus line of phones I went with the option of the Nexus 6. The nexus 6 goes from large moon to Dwarf planet sized. Since I’ve owned a lot of android devices I have found that the stock android OS is among the best with CyanogenMod as second best as far as Android goes. Stock android avoids all the bullshit of having bloatware from both the Device maker and Phone companies. Most times with a none Nexus device I end up spending time disabling half of the shit on the phone just to stop the damn endless nagging from apps on the phone. I understand to a point that providers and device makers want to pre-load apps but, Not everyone wants facespace and half of the other shit on the phone out of the box. I have seen complaints that have made me twitch like “this phone sucks it does not come with facespace installed”. Device wise if I was given the option to have an a la carte version of any phone by paying 50$ more for the base version of android with no preloaded apps/no fucking annoying UI’s / install all yourself I’d buy any phone with that option in an instant.
Yes you can have the a la cart version if you can unlock your phone. but, in some cases its not worth it to loose the warranty (see knox)
Onwards to the new phone! The nexus 6 retains all of the ideas of the nexus 5 but on a fucking ginormous screen. While not the biggest phone the nexus is near the top in size. Its a nice phone and seems to keep up with making phonecalls , I used to abhore large devices, but in time I have made my peace with them and actually welcome them now. The nexus 6 is on the aircraft carrier size of phones. 5.5 to 6 inches is a sweet spot as far as large phones are concerned. once you go above that you might as well buy a small tablet and make calls from that.
The one complaint i have is – NO FUCKING NOTIFICATION LIGHT*! yes there is a fucking asterisk in that…. Why you say … Because the nexus 6 has a damn notification light that is disabled! What the flying monkey fuck ! If you look around you can access the notification light by rooting and installing an app, that light should of been a default option.
Over all I actually don’t have too many complaints about the nexus 6 . So heres to another edition of phone fun
I keep saying I need to post more…..
Its been months since I’ve actually posted consistently.
I have my reasons as my life has been one thing after another… but, I am going to try to get back to this at a regular basis. For one.. I’d rather post here. While facebook is an option its kind of like being in a dog park… Everyone is sniffing your ass wondering what you are doing and whether they agree with you or disagree they blow smoke up your ass if they think your position on things is not in line with theirs. I don’t need that, I really don’t give a fuck if you find my posts on coffee or other stuff offensive. I’m me I’ll post what I want how I want and that is all there is too it.
I’ve always disliked facebook because if someone finds your post offensive to them they can cause trouble…. Mainly you have no creative control over your posts, No style , No way to keep your posts to your target. Sure the website is come one come call , but if you don’t like it … At least on this end of things unlike facebook it does not keep post vomit in your face. Nor do I have to constantly fool with settings inside facebook. I am not going to make it where there is “friend system”. Facebook in it self is a disaster of code. I do not give ten fucks if you need 1023823 friends to get a chicken on your farm to fuck a leopard to get a land expansion. I like simplicity .
As it stands with facebook it is likely everyone of the post you make are analyzed and sold off to marketers. In reality facebook is more like test to see how you respond to certain stimuli. If you took Pavlov’s Dogs and applied it to facebook it would unsurprisingly fit will……
In his initial experiments, Pavlov presented a stimulus and then gave the dog food; after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the bell. Pavlov called the stimulus the conditioned (or conditional) stimulus (CS) because its effects depend on its association with food.
Now lets see how facebook works on the same logic.
In initial experiments, Facebook presented a stimulus and then gave the Human a like; after a few repetitions, the Humans started to Post in response to the like. Facebook called the stimulus the conditioned (or conditional) stimulus (CS) because its effects depend on its association with Liked Post.
Fucking fantastic to know facebook just wants you to be their dog to just get more information out of you. Privacy issues aside which are extreme. Facebook sucks, I’ve given up posting there. I will keep my postings here and if you find them and like them that’s fucking great.
Facebook is a step back in the age of the internet, Its going back to the bottleneck days of everyone has a portal and is stuck in there own prisons like AOL / Compuserve… Mostly to keep you in there own small toxic universes until they melt down and the users get fucked with a roadcone sideways.
All I have too say is…
Logitech , A love hate …
I’ve gone through a few logitech Mice over the years, and its always the same shit that gets me on these mice. every fucking damn time ….. My last mouse is the Logitech performance MX , While the mouse is a nice mouse. It suffers the same fate of every other mouse I’ve had from logitech . The microswitch fails on the left mouse button – when you click it makes you click like a mouse struggling to escape . Want to click once? nah fuck that I’ll make you click 34973947 times and you’ll like it. This problem has actually cost me, I’ve clicks on a purchase button and ended up ordering multiple orders of something. You’d think in the 10+ years of this problem some engineer would go hmm somethings wrong. Instead it seems like all the logitech designers took the day off and smoked crack. This problem makes you want to destroy the mouse with no mercy.
It would be nice of logitech if they would redesign this one flaw out of there mice, otherwise most people that have used logitech for as long as I realize that the mouse you have is on a death watch from the second you buy it . If logitech made cars at this point they would force you to die when you press the accelerator and it floors you into a wall because it tapped the gas twice .
Unfortunately Microsoft or any of the other hardware manufacturers have yet to make a mouse that is good enough, so it feels like I am going back to a dealer that cuts his product with powder bleach or something.
SD Wifi to Compact flash fun. Compact flash Adapter fix.
I bought a Wifi SD card for my Digital Camera.
I jumped at getting a slightly newer camera, while it takes compact flash I thought about finding something like an EYE-FI card or Flashair. small problem, you’d think something like that would be a higher market value to someone with an SLR camera. But, after looking around I found all the cards with WiFi are only SD. with with the amount of tablets and phones I have. I figured why spend a ton of money on a huge Compact flash card. So after a bit of looking around I purchased a toshiba flashair card. the next step was to purchase an adapter from SD to compact flash . the WIFI SD/SDHC/SDXC To Compact Flash CF Type II Memory Card Adapter I bought was a generic card but, while I was not sure going into this because there was very many mixed reviews on using an adapter with a compact flash.
While the card with the Wifi SD card worked ok the range was severely limited, it was limited to about 3 feet at best. After looking at the card for a bit I noticed that there is a big metal face to the CF adapter. I did a little surgery to the card itself.
As you can see the two cards side by side.. Taking the CF adapter apart was actually very easy, using a razor I dug a bit under the metal face and popped it up a bit, After that It was very easy to remove the metal faceplate.
As you can see the metal piece is pretty much decoration and has no structural value . when I place the SD card back in a lot more of the card was exposed. the final look of the card was a bit more open.
With the removal with the face place my range on the FlashAir card did not only double it went up by a factor of ten. I could keep connected to the card from across the house with a max range of 40feet or so.
Phone fun ∞+1xπ, The empire strikes back.
Awhile back I had gotten the Galaxy Nexus , and the phone through and through was a pretty good phone other than needing a small nuclear power plant to keep the battery up. While the nuclear power plant option was a little steep in price I did get a Satechi 10000 mAh Portable Energy Station, Its as close as you can get to nuclear power for a phone without the radiation hazards. Not to mention that the nuclear power plant has some mobility disadvantages. 
Funny enough after a year plus with the phone I realized it had the same problem with its predecessor the phones antenna was not up to par, there were nights I was ready to eat my phone due to the antenna dropping calls or doing other strange shit. Alas though … the Galaxy Nexus met its end, While the phone was tough it was not tough enough when it picked a fight with a concrete floor and the floor won. While my comment about the back battery cover feeling like your going to break the phone is only partially correct. The phone itself can take some serious abuse.
The phone I chose as its replacement was the LG nexus 5 , It improves further on the Nexus line of phones with some disadvantages. You loose the ability to some degree to replace the battery on your own, while the battery is “non user serviceable” with a few tools you can get the battery replaced on your own. Battery life is improved a slight bit while 24 hours is still the high bar for keeping a charge on the phone with light use as I am looking at my phone now and with 38% of the battery left and 1day and 2 hours on battery.