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saaaaaam

2,967 karma · joined July 27, 2011

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saaaaaam··on Owed a billion dollars in Nvidia stock
A friend sold his house in 2005. He was a huge Apple fanboy. With the proceeds that were left after he paid off his mortgage, he splurged on a quadcore Power Mac G5, and a new top of the range PowerBook.

And then put the rest into Apple stock. I told him he was absolutely insane.

He sold about a quarter of it at some point in 2018, but is currently sitting on several million dollars of gain.

saaaaaam··on Show HN: Ive Sent It – online courier for files, with signed proof of delivery
Your entire website stinks of vibe. I can smell the vibe from here. Either you’re lying or your copy is all AI generated. If you really wrote the code yourself you might want to consider how you present the project and how the presentation builds or destroys trust. I’m 100% the target for this - I send a lot of large files to non technical clients. But I would not use this.
saaaaaam··on iPhone Duo
My HomePod speakers have now updated to iOS (or whatever) 27 and the response time is almost instant. So that’s an improvement!

Siri is still pretty awful and useless though.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose and so on.

saaaaaam··on Google illegally retains customer data,and I am taking legal action against them
I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t say your comment is AI.
saaaaaam··on Show HN: Ive Sent It – online courier for files, with signed proof of delivery
You avoided answering the most important question though which is how is anyone meant to trust the security of files delivered through something so obviously vibe coded?
saaaaaam··on Community condemn Bedminster AI mural as 'insult' to artists
Maybe the art is the letter and the resulting media outrage rather than the mural itself, like the Leeds 13 “Going Places” degree show.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jun/08/martinwainwright

saaaaaam··on Show HN: Ive Sent It – online courier for files, with signed proof of delivery
“Every file is checked and protected before it leaves.”

I don’t even know what this means. I don’t want you poking through confidential client files. And this smells so vibe coded how am I meant to trust the security of the files?

Edit:

Oh my god. I just saw this. “ Files that arrive as an experience, using our living templates: a wax-sealed letter, a parcel to unbox, a mixtape that plays, a blueprint that unrolls, a runway collection to unzip. Your logo, colours and type on every one — recipients don’t click a link, they open a delivery.”

Is this a joke?! No one wants to have to sit through so performative AI animation to get a file. This is horrendously tacky sounding. And potentially really painful for someone who just wants to download a file.

saaaaaam··on Google illegally retains customer data,and I am taking legal action against them
I have no opinion on the content. Just that AI favours ponderously glib “mic drop” statements of this sort.
saaaaaam··on The Case of Elias Thorne, Imaginary Man AI Chatbots Are Obsessed With
The original 404 media story this badly written vice article is click baiting with is better.

https://www.404media.co/elias-thorne-chatbots-llms-chatgpt-l...

saaaaaam··on Google illegally retains customer data,and I am taking legal action against them
To me the blog post feels as though AI has had significant input in the writing. Whether it's entirely AI written or AI ideated with some human input on the writing I don't know. So it's not really a surprise to see this sort of statement.
saaaaaam··on Being Human After AI: Daft Punk, Pope Leo and 'Magnifica Humanitas'
What a load of bullshit.

The author can’t even get basic facts right.

“When Daft Punk became robots around the turn of the millennium”

Is 1993 really “around the turn of the millennium?

It’s also worth recognising that this is written from an ultra-orthodox, uktra-Conservative Catholic stance, by a Jesuit in the “Jesuit review”.

saaaaaam··on Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?
How weird. I reported this exact ad earlier today.
saaaaaam··on The UN challenges five centuries of cartography
It’s West Wing coming true again. “Give me $200 and it’s done!”

https://youtu.be/QMlp8BeBJgg

saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
I didn’t say it was a perfect system. I often say, professionally, that the infrastructure around music rights and licensing is insanely complicated - and as you have personally experienced it can be very frustrating, confusing and dispiriting for creators. But I’m not really sure what the alternative would look like.
saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
I don’t really know what you mean.

But I’ll try to answer what I think you’re asking.

YouTube is a directly negotiated licence - ie it doesn’t fall under any of the statutory blankets, and is licensed territory by territory. Most rights holders are able to license for multiplied territories and often globally. But if soemthing was not licensed for a particular territory in which you were based you would not be able to watch the music video.

The recording and publishing need to be separately licensed by the record label and publisher(s), with the performance and mechanicals handled differently, and potentially flowing via a CMO or mechanical licensing society. The video will be provided by the record label - and they generally own the copyright in the video as a work for hire. If there are sample in the recording they will have been cleared by the label for both the recording and publishing. If there’s an interpolation of a song that will be negotiated and licensed with the publisher(s) or writers as a derivative work.

YouTube uses Content ID to identify the works being exploited, and uses that to account to rights holders.

Is that what you were asking?

saaaaaam··on iPhone Duo
I’m sure I read something about NEW SIRI somewhere. Siri isn’t just falling short, it seems to be getting actively and progressively more useless. My HomePod speakers take about 10 seconds to respond now and often get things wrong.
saaaaaam··on iPhone Duo
Does anyone use their phone “like an actual phone” anymore, as in held to their ear?

Most people I see out and about are either using face time, or inexplicably speaking in speakerphone and holding the flat, face up, with the bottom of the phone towards to their mouth in a weird awkward way, or they are using headphones, wired or wireless.

saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
I know absolutely and very specifically what I’m talking about here, yes.
saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
Knowledge diffusion was definitely crippled in the UK after 1710, and significantly restricted innovation.

Most of the things that were invented after 1710 were pretty trivial. Things like the spinning jenny, the steam engine, water powered weaving, wrought iron, steam locomotion, the electric telegraph, the lightbulb, waterproof fabric, the hydraulic press, the telephone. Imagine what else could have been achieved if copyright didn't incentivise authors and publishers to disseminate knowledge by allowing them to sell books, magazines and news sheets.

saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
Yes - sorry, I should have been more precise and said "in a licensed venue".

One additional point, in response to your comment: public performance licences are for events or venues, not DJs.

So if you are DJing in club, you are covered. Indeed, there are even specific technologies that log what DJs are playing, built into DJ hardware, and report back to collective licensing bodies so that the rights holders in the tracks played and mixed are properly compensated.

However, my point was less about the intricacies of licensing, and more about the ability to play the music to people under a "blanket" licence. There is no equivalent licensing framework for releasing remixes as recordings.

saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
So actually, your remixed music you could play live, as a DJ.

But to SELL it you’d need the permission of the songwriters and record labels, and probably agree some sort of split on the royalties. But is that actually so unreasonable, given it is their work you’re using? Have you sent them your remixes and asked if you can release them?

saaaaaam··on Copyright does more harm than good and should be abolished
But what does “available on the market” mean? Let’s say I own the copyright to something of cultural significance. I make it “available on the market” but at a very high price. Or are you saying that the price would be enforced?
saaaaaam··on Curated list of communication tools that work during internet blackout
1. “Curated” implies human oversight but this is written by AI

2. “Work during internet blackout” implies “can communicate with others if the internet is blacked out” and yet your AI has a whole section about tools which “evade filtering on a functioning internet connection — none of them work during a full shutdown”.

Worst sort of slop.

saaaaaam··on Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)
Sorry, it was satire which doesn’t always come through in the written word, I wasn’t being serious :)
saaaaaam··on Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)
> I personally believe there are organizations in a Mr. Burns-type equilibrium[2]. Maybe, like Mr Burns, they are in that perfect but fragile state of dysfunction which somehow makes them deliver, for some definition of "deliver". Maybe they have a core team that keeps the whole thing going against the odds. Either way, I wouldn't call any of these organizations resilient.

Yeah, that’s basically what I mean. Dilbert made real.

saaaaaam··on Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)
A bunch of things like Nuclear submarines (which I think still run on Windows NT?) and gas turbines and things I think.

And then, presumably, their downstream supply chains and integration tooling and yadda yadda.

Every time I am in a railway station it seems that digital signage runs on Windows, because the digital signs are always throwing errors.

None of this stuff needs windows but most of the time I guess no one is going to switch away because they are all so embedded, and it requires work and a bunch of people to make a decision.

Maybe the Windows execs were just modelling how they hoped corporate culture would look in their perfect customer.

Which is why it’s nice when the Swiss and French and so on ditch Windows for more open alternatives.

saaaaaam··on Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)
But did they get any better at putting out fires by committee?

Or are there still groups of Microsoft employees saying “I saw a fire extinguisher in Bob’s office the other day. He was using it as footrest. I told Magda to warn him about the health and safety but she said it was Julian’s job… and the guy who pays for them to be filled and tested left three years ago and no one replaced him, so it probably doesn’t work anyway.”

saaaaaam··on Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)
It’s from an email chain published as part of a 2007 lawsuit - so it looks like he did indeed say it.
saaaaaam··on Bill Gates tries to install MovieMaker (2003)
But it didn’t. And Microsoft is worth $3.5 trillion. So maybe actually everyone should take a leaf out of the Microsoft book.

When something is on fire, pass the buck to other people and stand around saying “that thing is on fire… wouldn’t it be great if someone called the fire brigade? I have the number here. One of you guys, give them a call.”

saaaaaam··on Git hosting that never leaves Europe
I guess the difference is the founding of the EU didn’t require multiple genocidal slaughters.

Oh, wait.

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