I feel a really silly burnout...
Nioh 3 demo shown a great promise and I liked most of the changes to the game since second game... But the accompanying unwarranted system requirements bloat (far greater than the graphics involved that didn't improve that much since the previous game) means I won't be able to play the fully game comfortably, even in the lowest settings.
The impromptu new computer purchase didn't solved the problem, though at least the demo was somehow playable, but still showing the full gameplay won't be smooth enough to beat some enemies (I am stuck on replaying the final boss of the demo, and clearly the game stutters when precise dodging and maneuvering is essential).
And it stings.
Not the money spend on second computer - the RAM inside alone costs as much, and I got a full spare computer out of that, with an oldish graphics card (still better than integrated gfx), small SSD, a monitor, and speaker better than the turb-cheap ones I have here (though I need to connect the new speakers to check them out yet). And I paid it from some lose cash (last year tax returns) I had around, so it doesn't feel like my bank account suffered from it - funny how the brain compartmentalizes such things.
Nope. What stings, I really liked the demo, and if I could play it smoothly I might actually get the game myself for my birthday even paying full price (which is madness). Instead, I will have to wait until the video cards and RAM market gets sensible again before I'll get to enjoy this game (and a lot of others).
And for now I have that empty feeling of I don't have anything nice to play. Never mind the tons of games I have on Steam and GoG. Of course some of them are filed under "waiting for graphics card upgrade" because game designers can't be bothered to optimize their work.
Fourth time?
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There's something poetic in here somewhere. The 18th is our official, "We're out of money and starting to float credit card debt" deadline, so I called Bank of America to find out whether our checks had been sent yet. "Oh, we sent it on the 27th, but it can take 7-10 days to get there and it hasn't been that long yet, so if it's not there by the end of next week call us back."
Yes. A bank just told me that the check's in the mail.
Sorry, but since you cancelled your PayPal account I have no way of sending any money to help.
Well, aside of the fact that 24 dollars I have on PayPal right now wouldn't probably made any meaningful difference, anyway.
This morning I went ahead and changed all my scheduled payments from "pay in full" to "pay minimum balance" and that cleared enough elbow room to pay all the cash-only, immediate bills in full (including the lawyer's $2250 invoice for January, which just showed up yesterday. Did I mention that death is expensive?).
So now if the check doesn't come I'm out a few hundred bucks in credit card interest, which will be extremely annoying, but we have breathing room through March.
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Squeaker: BREAKFAST TIME, LIMEY!
Sneaker: BREAKFAST TIME, LIMEY!!!!
Sq.:
Sn.: He's not listening. What now?
Sq.: Bite the end of his nose - gently! That ought to do it.
(It did)
I feel a really silly burnout...
** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **I feel a really silly burnout...
** spoiler omitted **
Honestly? I have no idea, because it is a hassle of actually finding a relatively powerful (so it will keep up with escalating game requirements for some time) yet shorter card that will fit my minitower AND replacing the Power Unit. And increasing memory from 16 to 32 couldn't hurt.
The big issue is that not only the prices of graphics cards and RAMs went up over the last year because tech-bros are buying them all, but also the actual lack of availability of the former.
Also, getting it would be something of a gamble - how long will the prices keep rising? Is the bubble gonna burst later this year? Next year? Will the corporate push toward killing home computers to replace them with subscription access succeed?
Who knows?
I saw Doom Dark Ages on sale... But before adding funds to Steam to get it, I decided to maybe check if there are videos of it running on my integrated chipset (which I did before getting Elden Ring and since that time I try to do if I have doubts about game running)...
Well, apparently unlike the previous two new Dooms, the Dark Ages requires hardware raytracing and it doesn't even pretend to start on integrated graphics cards...
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I know we don't discuss sports under penalty of flaming bikes, but this proud Auntie is going to anyway.
My niece scored a hat trick (three goals) in her youth hockey league game this morning! One of them was a sliding slapshot that left *her* sprawled out on the ice, but the puck went in anyway.
The coach for the OTHER team high-fived her and told her she was amazing.
It's a coed, mixed ages league. There aren't many girls, and she's one of the youngest, but she's fierce.
** spoiler omitted **I feel a really silly burnout...
** spoiler omitted **
Honestly? I have no idea, because it is a hassle of actually finding a relatively powerful (so it will keep up with escalating game requirements for some time) yet shorter card that will fit my minitower AND replacing the Power Unit. And increasing memory from 16 to 32 couldn't hurt.
The big issue is that not only the prices of graphics cards and RAMs went up over the last year because tech-bros are buying them all, but also the actual lack of availability of the former.
Also, getting it would be something of a gamble - how long will the prices keep rising? Is the bubble gonna burst later this year? Next year? Will the corporate push toward killing home computers to replace them with subscription access succeed?
Who knows?
Vany, any thoughts?
Fantasy NPC: Eternal Tenants, An Eremite Extraordinary
A garden hermit long past the expiry date that might be a bit of a troll...
For now, I have bought Dying Light 2 because it was on sale.
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Random news:
Post-Surgery, Dav 4: While I'm not for a moment going to play the, "But you didn't TELL me," card, when the doctors warn you that if you're going to go for distance you'll need reading glasses, listen to them. It's not an option. The focusing ability of the replacement lenses does not remotely compare to biological lenses, so you'll spend a lot of time moving stuff back and forth trying to bring it into focus. Now I understand why the generation older than me had so much trouble focusing; they were all post-lens replacement surgery so focusing really was an issue. It is truly amazing to see stars again after 15 years of seeing nothing but a blur in the sky. Having crystal-clear vision whenever I take my reading glasses off is amazing. -BUT-, I find that I'm wearing reading glasses most of the time that I'm indoors so that I can focus on stuff within arm's reach, and I'm a cartoon-like caricature in terms of the expected side effects: Flickering at the edges? Check! Occasional flashing? Check! Occasional blurriness? Check! As things heal everything's supposed to stabilize and I should get more depth of field. I'm still happy I did it because being able to see is amazing. But as usual, I just want everyone else to know what they're getting in for; it's not just, "You're done, go home!" Lots of adjustment to do, and I'll be getting a pair of prescription readers from the optometrist for my computer work.
Finances: Got all my tax docs ready for my accountant more than a week ahead of schedule, which feels good. Learned that Impus Minor's $200 AI gig was below the $400 threshold for having to file, so feel great. But now I get to wait and see how I got hosed by the new tax bill. At least in 2018 I knew they'd specifically targeted Californians, so when I owed an extra $6,000 it wasn't a surprise. But this year all the news articles were all over, "Families making over $300k a year will see an average of $12,000 in savings!" and my accountant was just, 'Nope. You're not one of those families." So on President's Day I get to see why not. How appropriate.
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Vany, any thoughts?** spoiler omitted **I feel a really silly burnout...
** spoiler omitted **
Honestly? I have no idea, because it is a hassle of actually finding a relatively powerful (so it will keep up with escalating game requirements for some time) yet shorter card that will fit my minitower AND replacing the Power Unit. And increasing memory from 16 to 32 couldn't hurt.
The big issue is that not only the prices of graphics cards and RAMs went up over the last year because tech-bros are buying them all, but also the actual lack of availability of the former.
Also, getting it would be something of a gamble - how long will the prices keep rising? Is the bubble gonna burst later this year? Next year? Will the corporate push toward killing home computers to replace them with subscription access succeed?
Who knows?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Vany, any thoughts?** spoiler omitted **I feel a really silly burnout...
** spoiler omitted **
Honestly? I have no idea, because it is a hassle of actually finding a relatively powerful (so it will keep up with escalating game requirements for some time) yet shorter card that will fit my minitower AND replacing the Power Unit. And increasing memory from 16 to 32 couldn't hurt.
The big issue is that not only the prices of graphics cards and RAMs went up over the last year because tech-bros are buying them all, but also the actual lack of availability of the former.
Also, getting it would be something of a gamble - how long will the prices keep rising? Is the bubble gonna burst later this year? Next year? Will the corporate push toward killing home computers to replace them with subscription access succeed?
Who knows?
Data centers. AI. AI data centers. Cryptocurrency.
This is a scourge. CEOs are convinced they have to have AI or they'll be left behind. In order to power all this AI...data centers that wreck the local areas where they're being built - power grids don't have enough supply and it relies on the local water supplies for cooling. Which takes away from the drinking supplies...and drives up everyone's electric bills as demand outstrips supply.
Video cards have been problematicly priced and have had scarcity issues for several years now due to cryptocurrency. Also, they have RAM chips built into them. We're coming back to that.
Yhe companies that make SSDs (effectively just persistent RAM chips) and RAM see a cash cow with the corporate data center push and no longer feel the need to cater to the consumer markets, to the point of publicly announcing they're leaving those markets entirely.
This issue isn't going away in a year or two without something drastic happening...like an AI powered device killing someone.
Vany, any thoughts?** spoiler omitted **I feel a really silly burnout...
** spoiler omitted **
Honestly? I have no idea, because it is a hassle of actually finding a relatively powerful (so it will keep up with escalating game requirements for some time) yet shorter card that will fit my minitower AND replacing the Power Unit. And increasing memory from 16 to 32 couldn't hurt.
The big issue is that not only the prices of graphics cards and RAMs went up over the last year because tech-bros are buying them all, but also the actual lack of availability of the former.
Also, getting it would be something of a gamble - how long will the prices keep rising? Is the bubble gonna burst later this year? Next year? Will the corporate push toward killing home computers to replace them with subscription access succeed?
Who knows?
Data centers. AI. AI data centers. Cryptocurrency.
This is a scourge. CEOs are convinced they have to have AI or they'll be left behind. In order to power all this AI...data centers that wreck the local areas where they're being built - power grids don't have enough supply and it relies on the local water supplies for cooling. Which takes away from the drinking supplies...and drives up everyone's electric bills as demand outstrips supply.
Video cards have been problematicly priced and have had scarcity issues for several years now due to cryptocurrency. Also, they have RAM chips built into them. We're coming back to that.
Yhe companies that make SSDs (effectively just persistent RAM chips) and RAM see a cash cow with the corporate data center push and no longer feel the need to cater to the consumer markets, to the point of publicly announcing they're leaving those markets entirely.
This issue isn't going away in a year or two without something drastic happening...like...
hm.
I see. Thank you.
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On the one hand, I'm glad nobody spoke to me last night at work, especially about sports. On the other hand, I kinda hoped someone would ask me about the Super Bowl so I could say "Oh, sorry. I don't watch hockey."
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One of the great things about growing up with Depression-era outdoorsy parents is that you get very accustomed to living with less, and you're grateful for what you do have. "Well, no electricity nor running water, but the wood-burning stove works! Anyone got an axe?"
The first post-mortem check arrived today, so of course it was the smallest; the life insurance from her old teaching job. Doesn't even cover the lawyer's fee for January, but the fact that I got it means that like an , things are finally starting to move.
And it's still 9 days before the 18th cutoff date. Optimism rears its ugly head...
EDIT: Only to be dashed again. Younger Brother reports he received the large check last week, so the most likely explanation is that they sent mine to the wrong address, but I have to wait 'til Friday before I can report it as missing. And so back to pessimism we go...
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On the one hand, I'm glad nobody spoke to me last night at work, especially about sports. On the other hand, I kinda hoped someone would ask me about the Super Bowl so I could say "Oh, sorry. I don't watch hockey."But I love the Superb Owl
We won!!!!
Sometimes it's really hard to keep your mouth shut. Global Megacorporation is bizarre (to me) in that the people who write the courses don't teach them; we write everything up and throw it over the fence to the instructors' side, and they record it and teach it. They also have over 10x our staffing.
And yet somehow they can't possibly keep up with us. I found out that the lag between us handing them a fully-completed course and them getting it recorded and posted is close to 4 months. It's inexcusable.
So of course now I'm seeing customer complaints, "Why isn't this course up to date?" and of course the instructors are throwing US under the bus ("Oh, it takes time to write (done), test (done), and publish (done) the course, and then we need to record it."
Yeah, only one thing isn't done, and it ain't us, bub.
OK... maybe the post office really *is* that flaky.
Pre-2006 you could pretty much rely on a First Class letter getting anywhere in the continental U.S. in 3 days. Mail it in California on Monday, it would be in Maine on Thursday. Within the state it was 2 days.
Post-2006 it was less reliable, but it was still 3-5 days reliably; if your First Class letter hadn't arrived within 5 days, you should call someone.
I know that the current administration made war on the post office in its first term, so mayhap that's what's up.
But 3 checks sent from the same facility at the same time:
- Younger Brother on the west side of the Puget Sound got his letter on Monday, February 2.
- Elder Brother on the east side of the Puget Sound got his letter today, Monday, February 9.
- Way down in California, I still don't have my letter, but at least the disparity between my brothers' letters gives me hope it isn't completely lost.
So, this evening I found out that my parents' couch can go into a full recline with one button press. Which is fine, whatever. What wasn't fine about it was that I found this out when I was getting myself set-up to paint minis at a TV tray and bumped said button with a paint case without knowing it existed. Suddenly my feet were lifting the TV tray which had minis, a couple of paint dropper bottles, and my full rinse jar on it while I'm trying to grab things so they don't fall and my mother frantically trying to get the dang thing to stop moving. One of the paint bottles almost became victim to the puppy, but we discovered it before she punctured it thankfully.
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So, this evening I found out that my parents' couch can go into a full recline with one button press. Which is fine, whatever. What wasn't fine about it was that I found this out when I was getting myself set-up to paint minis at a TV tray and bumped said button with a paint case without knowing it existed. Suddenly my feet were lifting the TV tray which had minis, a couple of paint dropper bottles, and my full rinse jar on it while I'm trying to grab things so they don't fall and my mother frantically trying to get the dang thing to stop moving. One of the paint bottles almost became victim to the puppy, but we discovered it before she punctured it thankfully.
A lifetime of such events is why I despise automated anything. I even have *gasp* manual hand cranks for the windows on my car.
Old-fashioned? Perhaps. Too many accidents with an automated device trying to kill me because I pressed the wrong button? Absolutely!
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So, this evening I found out that my parents' couch can go into a full recline with one button press. Which is fine, whatever. What wasn't fine about it was that I found this out when I was getting myself set-up to paint minis at a TV tray and bumped said button with a paint case without knowing it existed. Suddenly my feet were lifting the TV tray which had minis, a couple of paint dropper bottles, and my full rinse jar on it while I'm trying to grab things so they don't fall and my mother frantically trying to get the dang thing to stop moving. One of the paint bottles almost became victim to the puppy, but we discovered it before she punctured it thankfully.A lifetime of such events is why I despise automated anything. I even have *gasp* manual hand cranks for the windows on my car.
Old-fashioned? Perhaps. Too many accidents with an automated device trying to kill me because I pressed the wrong button? Absolutely!
I worked with a kid a few years ago that the first time he rode in my truck he asked "how do you roll down the windows?!" "You just roll them down" How?!! There's no button!!" "You just ROLL them down (shows him how the hand crank works) "Holy s%$&, I've never seen that before!!"
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A lifetime of such events is why I despise automated anything. I even have *gasp* manual hand cranks for the windows on my car.
Old-fashioned? Perhaps. Too many accidents with an automated device trying to kill me because I pressed the wrong button? Absolutely!
I would say that without automation I'd be out of a job, but managed that on my own.
Well I have a conundrum. When I came in to work tonight, 2nd shift relayed a story from 1st shift. Apparently a building inspector came by today because someone had contacted their office about building permits for the renovations several months ago, but then just stopped replying. So no permits were issued, and they came by to make sure no non-permitted work had been done. The manager from next door, who is watching over us as well since our manager quit last week, told them "No, no, no. We're just painting and getting some new furniture. That's all." Supposedly, the inspector asked if any drywall had been cut, and was told "No." Which is a massive lie, and one that is pretty easy to prove since there are still a couple of places where the drywall hasn't been replaced yet (those spots aren't in easy view). So now I'm wondering a) if I can report the hotel to the inspector's office, b) how to do so, and c) if I should.
TL;DR: Report them. You can check the city's web site to find out how. Most cities even have an anonymous tip line. Just report the truth: "I saw that some drywall work had been done in xxx room and I overheard the manager telling the inspector that no work had been done, so they're hiding something."
Long version:
In my experience, building codes exist for one of five reasons:
(1) Safety: A natural or man-made disaster of some kind occurred (earthquake, fire, electrocution) and killed enough people that they enacted codes to protect people. I 100% would always report any violations of this sort, but they're harder to see unless you know the code for your area. For example, making a building out of bricks anywhere around here.
(2) Protectionism: You must have a licensed xxx do this work. This ties into #1. I did all the electrical work in my garage. This would give many home inspectors white hair, because there's nothing so terrifying as a know-it-all DIYer. I looked up the code, worked to code, and had a relative who happens to be an inspector check it all for me. But too many DIYers don't, and as I've mentioned, every time I open a wall in this house it's another horror story because 90% of all DIYers are horrifically incompetent.
(3) Elitism/Racism: A lot of code is designed to be costly/odious to prevent undesirables from entering the neighborhood.
(4) Aesthetics: We have codes like, "A fence can be no more than 6' tall," so if you want privacy you need a hedge instead. Stupid.
(5) Petty self-serving bureaucracy: "You need a permit to drywall a room." Drywall isn't a structural element and isn't a fire hazard. So this is just, "We need to make more money by selling permits and inspections." Which gets far worse, because no city has enough inspectors and code like this wastes everyone's time.
The problem is, you aren't a professional contractor so you don't know what kind of work was done on a hotel, and in a public building used by hundreds of people, a code violation of type (1) or (2) could kill dozens of people. Public buildings that house hundreds of people MUST adhere to code, period. So I'd report it.
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I don't know why I let these things get to me. Yet another post by a raving "small business owner" talking about how corporations are grossly inefficient because they allow their employees to take time off and work from home.
It's enraging because I lived through the 80s when Japan was kicking the U.S.'s butt in car manufacturing and the U.S. car corporations spent millions researching why. And the answer was simple: Happy workers are more productive. It sent shockwaves through the industry. "We need to actually make our workers happy?"
And that in turn drove the tech boom of the 1990s, where offices included gaming tables, lounge areas, high-end catering, or anything else employees might desire. Innovation and productivity skyrocketed. Go figure.
Then somehow when COVID came along and employees started enjoying working from home, the Old Guard decided, "No, this is too much," and went back to the "employees are slave labor" mindset.
And it's just. Not. True.
Put me head-to-head with any employer with a strict "in office no PTO" policy. I'll overhire by 20% and give my employees 20% PTO. And I'll crush the competition like a bug because my employees will be at least 25% more productive.
The fact that we STILL have employers who don't understand this enrages me. And I just don't know why I let it get to me. Employers be dumb. Let them wallow in their own stupid. But it affects real people with real lives who need those jobs, so I get pi$$ed.
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OK... maybe the post office really *is* that flaky.
Pre-2006 you could pretty much rely on a First Class letter getting anywhere in the continental U.S. in 3 days. Mail it in California on Monday, it would be in Maine on Thursday. Within the state it was 2 days.
Post-2006 it was less reliable, but it was still 3-5 days reliably; if your First Class letter hadn't arrived within 5 days, you should call someone.
I know that the current administration made war on the post office in its first term, so mayhap that's what's up.
But 3 checks sent from the same facility at the same time:
- Younger Brother on the west side of the Puget Sound got his letter on Monday, February 2.
- Elder Brother on the east side of the Puget Sound got his letter today, Monday, February 9.
- Way down in California, I still don't have my letter, but at least the disparity between my brothers' letters gives me hope it isn't completely lost.
This administration has set up an attack on the Post Office. It is disgusting.
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"It's like a can of beans had dirty closet sex with a pumpkin pie. But in a good way."
I'm not sure there is a "good way" for that.
You will pay the culinary price for your lack of vision
Interesting little juxtaposition today: I've been watching an interesting Ted talk on the psychology of becoming numb to being lied to...
...and for the third day in a row the same number called my cell phone, which is unusual -- most spammers scramble their numbers every day.
So I Googled the number and it's my local pharmacy. "Why do you need my cell phone number?"
"So we can text you when your prescriptions are ready."
"And you're only ever going to use it to text me?"
"Yes."
And another lie. And yet somehow, I still get uppity about it.
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Well, just got done running my parents through their first ever session of Pathfinder. It went way better than I could have hoped for. They have decided we are making a day of it this Saturday. They are in their early 60s, never played any kind of RPG before today, and my mom isn't even really into fantasy, but they both had a blast.
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This issue isn't going away in a year or two without something drastic happening...like an AI powered device killing someone.
Might be me being a pessimist again, but I don't even see that as a guarantee, or even likely. Not with... *gestures vaguely at the everything*
It'll take the bubble bursting and the entire system collapsing on itself to get it through these corporations' heads, and I don't think an AI-caused death will be the needle that pops it. More likely it will be something failing catastrophically in a way that costs a corporation money rather than any harm to normal people.
And as always the corpos will get out mostly scot-free except the one chosen as a scapegoat, and/or get bailed out.
Speaking of regretting life decisions, Nefret (the Fluffernutter) hasn't been able to groom herself properly in years, so she's had horrific knots in her fur. GothBard made heroic efforts to remove them, but they finally ended up so bad that we decided to take her to the vet to have them shaved off. They tried, but they said they were literally so bad they'd have to lightly anaesthetize her to get them out.
So, she's there this morning. She's (almost) 19 years old, which is 94 in human years. She has Stage 3 kidney disease, so anaesthesia is already contraindicated. And I dropped her off 2 1/2 hours ago and haven't heard back.
And so, the dread starts welling, and I'm thinking, "I have that shaver I used to shave my head back in the day, and if it could cut my tree trunk hair it could shave her. Why, oh why did I take her to the vet?"
And yet in spite of all misgivings, all I can do is wait...
...and stop by during my lunch break to find out WTF is happening...
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Well, I'm glad I wandered over. The front desk was so swamped they weren't taking calls, and the TL;DR version is that she now has a heart murmur on top of everything else so putting her under would be risky, but the vet wanted to talk options with me. I really appreciate their overabundance of caution, but when I dropped her off I very explicitly said, "If it's risky it's a no-go," so I didn't need to sit around for half an hour to talk to a vet for 10 minutes to have her diagram all of Nefret's risk factors. She's the equivalent of 93 in human years; my job at this point is to make her as comfortable as possible and not put her at needless risk, so I paid for the visit and brought her home.
And GothBard and I will do battle with the matting ourselves. Whee?
And GothBard and I will do battle with the matting ourselves. Whee?
So you will need to add both old advanced AND giant templates...
"No, no, no. We're just painting and getting some new furniture. That's all." Supposedly, the inspector asked if any drywall had been cut, and was told "No." Which is a massive lie,
Nope, we're just going to put the drywall up and anything that sticks out sticks out. Some kid will knock it off for us running by
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Tom Petty nailed it.
At home, I'm still waiting on the Bank of America check that won't exactly set us up for life, but that will clear out all our non-mortgage debt plus give us a few thousand dollar cushion against future expenses.
At work, with all the major tech companies doing more rounds of massive layoffs thanks to AI, we're all expecting Global Megacorporation to pull the trigger some time in the next few weeks. So there's the whole Elon Musk question of, "What do you contribute to your company?"
And at the moment, the answer is, "Not a hell of a lot."
We're technical curriculum developers, but we've been told that curriculum is obsolete so we shouldn't do that any more. I'm an excellent technical trainer, but training is obsolete and we shouldn't do that any more. We've become extremely adept at creating short training videos and simulations, but pretty much everyone at Global Megacorporation is now producing the same thing (of varying quality) because it's the only concrete, "This helps the customer" thing any of us can do after the last major shake-up.
So I met with my manager yesterday and admitted I had absolutely nothing to do. She admitted she was in the same boat.
So steering into a massive round of layoffs when everything you did for the company has been declared obsolete is... uncomfortable.
And I won't know for weeks whether my institutional knowledge is enough to save me. (It usually is, but I'd have to make a massive sideways leap into consulting or support to stay here, and I get paid waaaay too much to be in support.)
EDIT: I mean, honestly, the mathematics behind LLMs is well within my domain, so I could take 2 years, get an M.A. in A.I. theory, and get scooped up by a major player for 2-3x my current salary, but... I'm 58. In 2-3 years I'd hit the "pretty much unhireable" wall of 60. So interesting, but probably not feasible.
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There's also the moral aspect of "do I want to be involved in propagating AI in the workplace? (more than I'm already required to)"
Not everyone is cut out for that particular brand of evil, or desperate enough for cash to hold their nose and do it anyway.
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I say this, while planning to go into getting an accounting degree in the next 2-3 years (basically waiting for Scint to finish her Masters, then a wait time to give us a financial buffer), so there's a part of me that's strongly concerned that any possibility of getting a degree in that field is going to be competing against robots.
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There's also the moral aspect of "do I want to be involved in propagating AI in the workplace? (more than I'm already required to)"
Not everyone is cut out for that particular brand of evil, or desperate enough for cash to hold their nose and do it anyway.
At the research level, you actually get to put in, "And these are the appropriate uses for what I've just developed." And there are AI researchers who are leaving companies because the companies fail to adhere to those principles. Too few by far, but at the top tier you actually get to say, "This is what this can actually do," rather than the whole, "Let's put AI into a refrigerator to try to cash in on the buzz," approach that's so prevalent.
EDIT: I mean, honestly, the mathematics behind LLMs is well within my domain, so I could take 2 years, get an M.A. in A.I. theory, and get scooped up by a major player for 2-3x my current salary, but... I'm 58. In 2-3 years I'd hit the "pretty much unhireable" wall of 60. So interesting, but probably not feasible.
Also, in 2-3 years the bubble might or might not burst (the investors' interest is unreliable and prone to shifts to whatever the new shiny thing is), and that might or might not involve serious political shifts regarding AIs and adjacent technologies...
Well, I think the HUGE issue right now is that people don't fundamentally understand the push for AI. It has nothing to do with replacing workers. It's getting AI into every product you own: Your car, your television, your computer, your dishwasher, your oven, your toys, etc.
And yes, tracking your behavior and sending you targeted ads is a benefit, but that's possible already.
But getting AI into everything you own and then turning on the subscription model, so suddenly it's $12.99/month to be able to drive your car or $5.99/month to use that toy? THAT is the dream...
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Well, I think the HUGE issue right now is that people don't fundamentally understand the push for AI. It has nothing to do with replacing workers. It's getting AI into every product you own: Your car, your television, your computer, your dishwasher, your oven, your toys, etc.
And yes, tracking your behavior and sending you targeted ads is a benefit, but that's possible already.
But getting AI into everything you own and then turning on the subscription model, so suddenly it's $12.99/month to be able to drive your car or $5.99/month to use that toy? THAT is the dream...
AI door hinges that operate on a subscription...in every door of your home...
Tom Petty nailed it.
At home, I'm still waiting on the Bank of America check that won't exactly set us up for life, but that will clear out all our non-mortgage debt plus give us a few thousand dollar cushion against future expenses.
At work, with all the major tech companies doing more rounds of massive layoffs thanks to AI, we're all expecting Global Megacorporation to pull the trigger some time in the next few weeks. So there's the whole Elon Musk question of, "What do you contribute to your company?"
And at the moment, the answer is, "Not a hell of a lot."
We're technical curriculum developers, but we've been told that curriculum is obsolete so we shouldn't do that any more. I'm an excellent technical trainer, but training is obsolete and we shouldn't do that any more. We've become extremely adept at creating short training videos and simulations, but pretty much everyone at Global Megacorporation is now producing the same thing (of varying quality) because it's the only concrete, "This helps the customer" thing any of us can do after the last major shake-up.So I met with my manager yesterday and admitted I had absolutely nothing to do. She admitted she was in the same boat.
So steering into a massive round of layoffs when everything you did for the company has been declared obsolete is... uncomfortable.
And I won't know for weeks whether my institutional knowledge is enough to save me. (It usually is, but I'd have to make a massive sideways leap into consulting or support to stay here, and I get paid waaaay too much to be in support.)
EDIT: I mean, honestly, the mathematics behind LLMs is well within my domain, so I could take 2 years, get an M.A. in A.I. theory, and get scooped up by a major player for 2-3x my current salary, but... I'm 58. In 2-3 years I'd hit the "pretty much unhireable" wall of 60. So interesting, but probably not feasible.
damn.
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Much excitement today at the treehouse HQ of Woodland Friends (ltd) when the bathroom tap exploded, tripping the switchboard, setting off the fire alarm, and filling our tiny nostrils with smoke and the sweet, sweet reek of burning plastic (no injuries).
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Now I feel like Abe Simpson.
I was going to reply, "And I'll bet dollars to donuts that tap was put in by an unlicensed handyman or DIYer and never inspected."
Then I started thinking, "I'll be you dollars to donuts" is a really odd phrase. It's supposed to mean, "I'll give you really good odds," but that was from way back when donuts were probably a dollar a dozen or less. These days you'd be lucky to get a single donut for a dollar unless you go somewhere terrible like Dunkin' Donuts, and would you really want their donuts?
Then I started thinking about the great donut places from my childhood, like French's Donuts with the really nice old ladies who hand-made donuts every day, and the Krispy Kreme donut revival before the anti-carb movement killed them...
...and I realized I was Abe Simpsoning.