Technology Random Access Thoughts

[Rothman]

Prices will go down as soon as the AI bubble bursts.

When will that be? 

[Big John]

Prices will go down as soon as the AI bubble bursts.

When will that be? 

Twelfth of Never

[mgk920]

Prices will go down as soon as the AI bubble bursts.

When will that be? 

(Visions of tulip bulbs are dancing in my head right now . . . )

Mike

[ZLoth]

Prices will go down as soon as the AI bubble bursts.

The question is not if, but when. Right now, when is about a year or two off. 

[kphoger]

Prices will go down as soon as the AI bubble bursts.

When will that be? 

Probably right around the time inflation goes up...

[vdeane]

I'm not entirely sure the AI bubble even is going to burst, to be honest.  This isn't a normal instance of big tech getting ahead of itself, selling us on capabilities that are further away/less feasible than they say, and then everyone later realizing it was bunk.  The CEO of Palantir admitted that it's specifically being done to kill off certain industries for reasons that are against the rules to elaborate on here.  In other words, we're not dealing with overly-optimistic tech bros or financiers wanting to make a quick buck.  We're looking at rich, influential people using it specifically to reshape society in a certain direction.  They aren't going to give up just because AI can't do what they claim it can as well as they claim it can.

[Scott5114]

I'm not entirely sure the AI bubble even is going to burst, to be honest.  This isn't a normal instance of big tech getting ahead of itself, selling us on capabilities that are further away/less feasible than they say, and then everyone later realizing it was bunk.  The CEO of Palantir admitted that it's specifically being done to kill off certain industries for reasons that are against the rules to elaborate on here.  In other words, we're not dealing with overly-optimistic tech bros or financiers wanting to make a quick buck.  We're looking at rich, influential people using it specifically to reshape society in a certain direction.  They aren't going to give up just because AI can't do what they claim it can as well as they claim it can.

Nothing in this post is relevant to why the bubble is going to burst—because all of the companies involved are doing Enron shit with their financials.

[formulanone]

I'm not entirely sure the AI bubble even is going to burst, to be honest.

Not to give any ideas, but I think they'll just point to how Amazon or Google also weren't profitable companies right out of the gate, the former taking about a decade to record a profit. Of course, every household name in technology was blazed by the paths of a few hundred acquisitions, and paved with many thousands of failures.

Amazing how everyone seems to be patient for this massive public drain of a mostly subtractive industry, but not for the quarterly earnings of corporations which use actual human labors and endeavors...

[Scott5114]

The AI Industry Is Lying To You

[Scott5114]

Not to give any ideas, but I think they'll just point to how Amazon or Google also weren't profitable companies right out of the gate, the former taking about a decade to record a profit.

Amazon and Google at least had a business plan that amounted to more than "1. Buy a fuckton of chips from Jensen Huang 2. ??? 3. Profit"!

Sora (the OpenAI video generation site) was just announced to be shutting down, because it made $2 million in January while losing $16 million every day. How the fuck do you make up a deficit of $494 million a month, or damn near $6 billion a year? Like, that's not "oh, well, once the buildout is done we'll be able to cover costs through economies of scale", that's "if we robbed a Federal Reserve Bank and then lit the cash on fire we would lose less money than we are now"!

[Rothman]

The AI Industry Is Lying To You

Website looks like it was designed by some guy still living in his mother's basement.

[formulanone]

The AI Industry Is Lying To You

Website looks like it was designed by some guy still living in his mother's basement.

Not enough maximum-saturation colors on a black background for that concept.

[ZLoth]

From The Verge:

Sony temporarily suspends memory card sales due to shortages

Sony has announced that as of March 27th, 2026, the company is no longer accepting orders for nearly all the products in its CFexpress and SD memory card lines. The list of affected memory products includes CFexpress Type A, Type B, and SDXC/SDHC cards, although a few models of Type B and low-end SF-UZ series SD cards remain in production, according to PetaPixel, and you may still be able to find them on shelves until the existing supply runs out.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[1995hoo]

If that's the case, then consider the MacBook Neo. I don't know how hard it is to switch as I've never done it, but if it's price that you have a concern about, then it's only $500 and more power than most similarly priced Chromebook or Windows devices.

Price isn't really a controlling factor, but I found that particular device interesting in part because it sounded like a bit of a bargain and it got good reviews. The base model is $599, but I would probably go for the $699 version to get the increased storage and the Touch ID feature.

It's actually an awesome deal, because not only is it affordable, but it's quite repairable if something were to happen to it.

Following up on this from the previous page, I did get my wife the MacBook Neo, the model with the built-in Touch ID key and the bigger SSD. There are going to be adjustments. I stopped at Micro Center to get a female USB-A to male USB-C adapter so she can use her existing mouse rather than the trackpad (we both dislike trackpads, though I use mine when I'm on the Acela). Now I have to adjust how it scrolls because it uses the scroll wheel in the opposite direction from what we're used to.

She already really loves how it integrates with her other devices. For example, logging into a banking website required an SMS code. The Mac picked up the code from her phone and she didn't have to retype it, which blew her mind (she asked why her old laptop didn't do that, to which I replied, "It was a PC and didn't support that feature").

[ZLoth]

Following up on this from the previous page, I did get my wife the MacBook Neo, the model with the built-in Touch ID key and the bigger SSD. There are going to be adjustments. I stopped at Micro Center to get a female USB-A to male USB-C adapter so she can use her existing mouse rather than the trackpad (we both dislike trackpads, though I use mine when I'm on the Acela).

I carry an external mouse with me and dislike trackpads. With my old work laptop, I had a docking station so that I could use my monitors and external keyboard and mouse to work. With my personal laptop that I got last summer, I'm just doing a remote session since the purpose is just bringing up webpages and Powerpoint presentations when away from my home. It's light-duty stuff.

She already really loves how it integrates with her other devices. For example, logging into a banking website required an SMS code. The Mac picked up the code from her phone and she didn't have to retype it, which blew her mind (she asked why her old laptop didn't do that, to which I replied, "It was a PC and didn't support that feature").

Under Windows 11, there is now a feature that allows you to link up your phone to your Windows install, thus allowing you to see text messages and file transfers. You do have to install an application on the phone though. If you don't like that type of integration, there is the Google Messenger app which you can install and then bring up the phone's messages on your web browser.

It sounds like she is using a iPhone, so the ecosystem is a bit tighter and subject to the blessing of the high Apple priests.

[1995hoo]

I have that Windows 11 feature active on my personal desktop (not allowed on the work machine). It works so-so. Some messages don't always appear, like MFA codes. We both have iPhones, which is why hers integrates so well with the new Mac. The integration was ultimately the main thing that made me decide to get her that one. Thirty years ago I loved tinkering with my PCs, but nowadays I just want everything to work with a minimum of drama.

[vdeane]

Looks like Reddit may soon require Face ID to go to the site to screen out bots.  Why can't they just use Cloudflare like this forum does?

https://www.pcmag.com/news/reddit-could-soon-require-face-id-to-prove-youre-not-a-bot

[hotdogPi]

Reddit currently uses either Cloudflare or AWS (not sure which), since it was affected by one of the outages.

[kkt]

Looks like Reddit may soon require Face ID to go to the site to screen out bots.  Why can't they just use Cloudflare like this forum does?

https://www.pcmag.com/news/reddit-could-soon-require-face-id-to-prove-youre-not-a-bot

Because they've found a way to monetize a whole bunch of faces?

[Scott5114]

Because they've found a way to monetize a whole bunch of faces?

What do you think the face of the average Redditor is worth?

I mean, besides face value.

[formulanone]

Because they've found a way to monetize a whole bunch of faces?

What do you think the face of the average Redditor is worth?

I mean, besides face value.

63 cents

[kphoger]

it uses the scroll wheel in the opposite direction from what we're used to.

[1995hoo]

it uses the scroll wheel in the opposite direction from what we're used to.

In other words, on my Windows 11 PC, if I scroll the wheel "up" (towards the end of the mouse located away from me), I scroll up towards the top of whatever is displayed, and vice versa if I scroll "down." On the Mac, it was exactly the opposite. Apparently the reason why the Mac does it that way is to make it track with how it works when you drag your finger to scroll on a touchscreen—if you drag up from the bottom, material pushes off the top of the screen (you move "down," in other words), so the scroll wheel on the mouse works the same way. I understand the logic, but I also know that it would drive my wife nuts for the wheel to work in the opposite way from what she's used to. It drove me nuts too when I was using it to configure printers. It turned out to be easy to correct in the settings app (I believe the option was called "Natural Scrolling" and you simply turn that option off).

[kphoger]

explanation

Ugh.  Scroll wheels should all work the same way.  That would drive me bananas.

[1995hoo]

explanation

Ugh.  Scroll wheels should all work the same way.  That would drive me bananas.

I had never really thought about the issue before because I'd never had reason to. I'd never encountered a mouse on which scrolling "down" made the screen scroll up. In principle, I agree with you—but I also think letting the user choose which way it works is perfectly sensible as well.

I just did a Google search and it turns out Windows 11 lets you change the scrolling direction. You go into the control panel and select "Bluetooth & devices" -> "Mouse" -> "Scrolling direction," at which point you choose between "Down motion scrolls down" and "Down motion scrolls up." So ultimately both Windows and MacOS let you select which way you prefer the scroll wheel to operate. As I say, I didn't know Windows provided the option because I'd never thought about it before. (The two platforms' adoption of opposite defaults is weird, though, regardless of whether I understand Apple's thought process.)