MichaelRo

>> They then charge you $1000 for that 10 seconds of work. Given that I have felt ripped off by many lawyers, I’m totally fine with that industry getting disrupted.

Ahh, the salaryman lament against contract workers (plumbers, car mechanics, lawyers etc): he makes $25/hour, why don't they charge similar or less?

Because unlike you, who get a steady stream of money even if only sitting on your ass, these people only make a living if someone calls them and asks a job done. If lawyers would charge per effective time spent as much as you would deem negligible on your side, they'd have to work a construction worker job to make a living and do lawyering on the side./

>> The original Turing Test was designed to compare two participants chatting through a text-only interface: one AI and one human. The goal was to spot the imposter. Today, the test is simplified from three participants to just two: a human and an LLM. This changes the test from a comparison to a judgment.

Didn't know that. Good to know.

That seems nice. I'm not sure why some guy says on a different comment "People think TX is some libertarian utopia because it has no personal income tax on a W2 salaried person, but do the full cost of living comparison with property taxes and other taxes, vs what you would calculate as a total in states that do have income taxes (such as OR).".

For reference, I pay about 0.1% property tax (live in Romania), while income tax is about 43%. For $100 I make, I get to take home $57, forget all the "you're only paying part of tax, employer pays another. No, I pay everything because without me there's no income, I can't believe some people still fall for "Out of $100 I take home $1 but I live in a tax paradise because I only pay 1% tax although company pays 98%. But that's the company, not me".

So while the level of income tax is definitely nothing I'm happy about, at least once I draw a net salary, it stays on me. At least I don't have to rent my own apartment from the state after I already paid an arm and a leg to the bank for it in real estate mortgage. Same goes for land and I mean arable land, of which I own some 10 hectares (well shared with my 2 brothers). Not only I'm not losing money on it, I actually get subventions for cultivating it (again, outsourced, I'm not working it myself but lending it to someone who does it, while the terrain retains / increases in value - never in the history of humanity has arable land in a viable area decreased in value over time).

"A 10-hectare (about 24.7 acres) piece of land in Texas typically costs between $40,000 and $430,000, depending heavily on the location and region." says Google AI. Well, where I live it's around $100k. At least I wouldn't sell it for less, not that I would sell it. If I sell it, I have money for a day then inflation and bad investment makes it disappear. Not to mention that it's a highly asymmetric market: I can sell the land in no time but even if I have money, A LOT OF MONEY, people won't sell. Maybe for 3x-5x the market value, some might be tempted. Which suddenly raises my non-liquidation value of the land to about how much it values in Texas.

This is the part that struck me: "According to the local government’s property records, the building was worth $1.6 million for tax purposes. The tax liability on the property was $46,000 a year."

Do I read this right that the owner of that building would be owing 2.875% tax per year on the market value of the building?

Because that would be in line with what I hear about US property tax and seems insane to me. At that rate you're not owning anything, you're renting. At that rate that's not the land of the free, that's a lifetime of indentured servitude.

Main problem was using a corporate card. I don't even know what that is, the concept just doesn't exist here.

Second problem was using a credit card. I know what that is but definitely don't have one, nor has anyone I know around me. Debit card only. You have money, you pay. Don't have money, tough luck. Learn to save.

>> "About a year ago I became fascinated by AI-assisted programming. Despite having no formal CS background, with LLMs I managed to build a fairly large TypeScript/JavaScript system [...] At first it felt almost magical: [...]

It's comical how these people claim first person: "I built". Look: having a LLM shit you some code is in no way different than paying some third world country dude on Upwork 5 bucks to build you "a Facebook clone" or whatever preposterous claim of grand software. In fact at this point it's cheaper to pay that third world country team than a LLM.

And yet before the advent of LLMs noone ordering a job on Upwork was delusional enough to claim "I built it". Although it's the same magical process, like the magic ring in fairy stories. You put the ring on your finger, rotate it and make a wish and the ring makes it appear. Well, for 5 bucks or something.

But nowadays every half witted retard with 50 bucks to spend goes to a LLM and has some "Facebook clone" spitted out and claims "I BUILT THIS!". You haven't built shit, and you know nothing!

Fortunately, reality strikes sooner or later but boy am I tired of Lord of The rings claims.

I stopped reading at "vibe-coded".

On ZX-Spectrum? There was no "MIC" input on ZX-Spectrum, not that I know of. I was in high school at the time with only a rough understanding of the hardware but it was kinda obvious to me that whatever I plugged into the casette input port was only read as "0" or "1" by the IN <port> (forgot which) instruction. So not really possible to record voice at the time (didn't even know of PCM anyway), but I tried to decode Morse transmissions from radio. Never got anywhere with the software but my ear got good enough at some point that I could decode them myself by hearing :)

I gotta try this on real hardware, reading the original article it seems it's barely audible without an amplifier, unlike on an emulator.

Will post an update after I get back to my parent's home, where I have these beauties that launched me into computer science: https://imgur.com/a/GKrA0vX

>> he continues to vibe code through me

So quit pair programming. I never did, never will do that, nor worked at a place that remotely encouraged that. Each to their own, that's how it should be.

I had many Xiaomi phones roughly from 2014 to 2024 and all were chock full of software bugs, going worse in more recent phones up to the point I couldn't take it anymore and bought a Samsung.

I will never go back to Chinese crapware. The hardware is useless without stable software and what they have is a sad impression of such. Couldn't care less if Xiaomi puts a trillion zillion gigs of RAM and CPUs and cameras and shit, wouldn't pay one dollar for their flagship phone, not to mention asking comparative prices to top Samsung, lol. Never again Chinese!

>> There’s a generational split in those numbers; among the under-35 crowd, it’s 60 percent. The older demographic still prefers coffee, and 66 percent of Americans drink that every day, too.

But, but! Isn't coffee consumption supposed to provide health benefits too? Like "reduced risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, liver conditions, and overall mortality".

Seems odd to lump coffee into the same bucket with energy drinks.

>> the firefighters demonstrate how paramedics leave their shoes positioned at entrances in precise spots

What the **?! That seems like one step too far, guy is heaving a heart attack inside and medical personnel first instinct is to take their shoes off first.

Seriously, while Japanese might be a bit too far, it wouldn't hurt for more of the world to adopt the habit of taking the shoes off when entering someone's home. I myself am getting "the look" when I even dare to politely ask some plumber to put a pair of disposable shoe covers that I myself provide, before dragging shit all over my floors.

Maybe "take-home exam" is not the proper name. During school, I had "homework". During university I had "projects". Definitely quite a few projects over the course of a semester.

And about cheating with AI. After you get hired, you're expected to use AI and only AI and if you don't tokenmax your AI consumption you're scolded and threatened and eventually fired. Whole fucking industry is about forbidding to use your brain anymore.

The fact that universities still insist on independent human thought just shows how hopelessly out of sync they are, stuck in the past and not able to produce the new generation of brainwashed idiots that the corporations expect.

>> Just don’t think about all the suffering you or I could ease with the money we spend on a “good time.”

Look man. I am not responsible for any random person or creature that suffers in this world. Lamentations like this ("ease all the suffering") originate in a primate brain that hasn't yet processed that we're no longer a tribe of 100 but there's 10 billion people in this world. Objectively you don't have resources to help more than a few people. And morally, you aren't obligated either.

And btw, I actually do help a person in need, every month with a substantial amount of money. Unlike the occasional act of kindness, helping a complete stranger on a recurring basis is a much harder nut to swallow. Makes you progress really quickly from superficial platitudes like the one you said to the hard, cold reality of the fact that you're losing resources and resources are finite. And that on top of half my income that the state grabs and mostly hands out as welfare anyway. So don't tell me I'm not paying to ease suffering, want or not, I pay through my teeth.

>> But a restaurant where clients don’t get of food poisoning 98% of time is getting people sick on a monthly (or even weekly) basis.

Objectively, I think it's impossible to work in the food industry and avoid food poisoning 100% of the time. One of the reasons I never attempted several of my food industry business ideas. I'm certain they would be at least profitable enough to keep going, would be rather trivial to access EU subsidy money in the €50k, but the amount of regulations and inspections terrifies me. And I'm sure at some point, some salmonella or what else would slip through and don't wanna deal with the consequences.

Easier with programming computers since a "bug" won't make people expell waste simultaneously through both incoming and outgoing food orifices, like it happend to me last time I ordered sarmale from a local restaurant. Like in the food industry a "bug" is literally that.

>> But sugar maybe?

Interesting observation back at you! :) Never thought of this but recently I started being a bit more careful with my sugar and carbs intake, after a blood test has shown an elevated level of glycated hemoglobin. Could be it's not alcohol per se but disruption of blood sugar after a binge drink, thanks for making the connection. Darn it, first no sugar, then no carbs now I have to cut down on alcohol too, getting old sucks :P

Didn't know there's a "car sickness" strictly related to reading the phone while in transit, I knew there's those people that can barely survive riding a car but that was it.

I do get the "reading phone motion sickness" a couple of days after heavy drinking. The hangover has worn off but there's this weird after-effect which gradually fades over a few days until it completely disappears. At first I thought how the hell do I get car sickness until eventually correlated with reading the phone and having to stop or else.

Based on my manifestations being chemically-induced, wonder if that's also valid in general. Some level of Gaba or something, which is normally lower in most people, gets elevated by drinking and then (hopefully) cleared.

Don't have an online presence yet, will let you know when I add that.

> They've essentially gotten roped into maintaining a huge chunk of internet infrastructure, for free.

This argument would have flown 30 years ago with Yahoo.

Since then we had Uber pumping so much money into a losing business until it drew the competition bankrupt.

And now we have AI pumping so much money into a losing business until they hopefully replicate Uber, only won't work and signs are all over the wall that they just burned a trillion dollars.

Which opens great prospectives for incumbents WHO LEARN FROM THE MISTAKES of the powers be at the time.

About time to start a "Don't be evil. FOR REAL." This time.

If in 30 years it's necessary to start "Don't be evil. REALLY, REALLY, REALLY this time" then so be it.

I'm starting the 2.0 version. Fuck AI. Fuck incumbents. Long live long life and freedom of choice!

Nothing new under the sun. When clocks and precision mechanics started in the 17th century, there was a tendency to view humans as "machines". Computers came, suddenly human brains are "computers". Now we're LLMs.

If scientists make green jelly that emits thoughtful judgements, humans will be compared to green jelly.

I had my phone fell from my pocket while in a dancing club at night. Someone found it, took it to the bartender and I got it back (saw the location on my computer using Google's find your phone).

But would I deliberately leave my phone or laptop unattended on the table at a random coffee shop that I know nothing about? Probably fine but not taking that risk. Also as others pointed out, context matters. A small indoor coffee shop while I visit the toilet? No problem. Large crowded outside terrace? I'm not stupid.

>> Friends whose family also worked for the company were sort of privileged as a result.

Well to tell the full story, my father was an employee of the Agricultural Production Cooperative (CAP - Cooperativa Agricola de Productie - in Romanian), the national company who owned the land (forcibly nationalized in the 50s) and grew food. No individual would have been able to afford a private telephone line in the village, there were two of them, one to CAP one to the Post office. While it was possible to go to the post office and pay to make calls, it was more awkward getting them. So we hooked a phone to CAP's line, meaning we shared the calls with it's office, phone rang both at out home and in the office and everytime we made a call, someone in the office could pick up the phone and listen (and we could do the same with them). And of course not every employee of the company was allowed to hook up a personal phone to the company line ;)

My first phone in the early 80s was a hand-cranked magneto phone like this: https://images.okr.ro/serve/product/572e8fdd848db2d3b02d36d2...

Connected by 12Km of telephone wire to a manual switchboard where an operator would pick my call and connect wires for local or long distance: https://alexandrone.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02...

Yes, in the early 80s, Romania was still using 1950s technology. And with only 3 telephones in the village, it was a big deal to have one.

Then at the end of the 80s moved to a nearby town and was amazed at how much more convenient a rotary dial phone is.

>> I have a hard time spending, to the point where I would often procrastinate on buying things that I know I’ll need in the future.

Well, what I noticed is that I go to great efforts to avoid buying me some stuff that would make my life easier (say an electric bike or a better computer). Month starts, I get my paycheck and every day I fend off the desire to buy the stuff I want/need. And then come the bills. Like some surprise "regularization" gas or electricity bill that costs more than the item I didn't buy. If it's not that, some darn thing breaks and needs repairs. And if it's not that, kid has to go in some school trip, there's some birthday or wedding we have to attend, someone asks me to lend them some money (coze they know I save) or some other event happens and requires a ca$h infusion.

By the end of the month, money's gone and I haven't got nothing. At some point working just to pay bills and expenses makes Jack a dull boy. So funk it, I buy that stuff AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MONTH. And when shit arrives demanding money I can truthfully say: "I don't have any money left". But at least I got the thing, opposed to neither money, nor item.

>> With AI, we‘re cargo-culting understanding

We're cargo culting "the manager view". Like the critic you can read on Bret Devereaux's blog about Game Of Thrones having been written from an elite's point of view, it's utopian and sounds good ... for the elites, the people who benefit from the hard work they never have to do themselves. But like any elite bubble wildly disconnected from reality, this one will fall bad. Maybe French revolution bad, when the answer to the masses of unemployed "displaced" by AI screaming "we can't get a piece of bread to eat" is "let them eat cake instead".

My wife gave birth by C-section. That would have killed her up until very modern times.

She may theoretically birth another child but there's a substantial risk.

There are "physical aspects", just because it's all theoretical and principles to you doesn't make them go away.

I don't understand the "knowingly stunting the growth of your child" attack. What makes you conclude I'm stunting the growth of my child?

He's not chained to a tree. He goes to private school in a country where public schools are free and excellent. Visits his friends and play in the public park or the private yard. Spends vacations in the countryside unsupervised by me because unlike the city, chances of being run over by a retard driving a car are much lower. Still, I advise him not to wander around freely as I did in my childhood because the world has become much shittier. One thing, there are bears everywhere, thanks to the animal rights lobbyists. I feared dogs and bulls when wandering across countryside as a kid, now I have to add bears too for my kid.

>> But ok, you do you. Thanks for the insults jerk.

ROFL. Didn't you notice he's Dutch? And old (add insult to injury).

Expect extreme absence of delicacy from the Dutch, they simply lack that gene.

Then again, your comment was a complete, shameless plug of promoting your own crap, in total disregard of what the man said. Someone had to say it to you.

>> Also why did you bloviate so much about yourself here? Was it to make yourself seem more important? Because honestly you come off as a real asshole Merick.

I would bet on "I'm old and I don't care".

What I'm curious though is why would he sell the physical collection.

>> But there are no other kids out there. I'm sending him out into streets empty of kids.

This. It's a number's "game".

My father, born in rural Romania, had 8 siblings, one of them died of an accident in his childhood (yeah, during "free range stuff"). I was born in a town and have 2 brothers. Live in a city and have one kid.

I can't send my kid out carelessly because I don't have a backup.