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Yet another over-promise and soon to be under-delivery.
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jschell wrote: Elon Musk predicates that AI will be smarter than humans
What does that mean? Smarter than all people?
Probably not. Probably just smarter than the average.
That means, it has probably already achieved this...on average.
There are a lot of dumb people dragging the average down.
Especially now with smart phones and social media.
Probably need a better comparison of smartness, than humans. 
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raddevus wrote: What does that mean? Smarter than all people?
Yes that is what he supposedly said. From the article.
"predicted development of artificial intelligence that was smarter than the smartest human "
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I'm bummed out at just how bad it really is.
Like I always knew cat videos owned the internet.
But it's really really bad... the number of people infini-scrolling "The Ass That Went Phpplplt" (Idiocracy).
I love that stuff too. My poison is kid videos where they're incredibly reckless and ignorant, or just incredible.
But like, I won't do any entertainment that is one-way for much longer than a movie and lots of movies I just can't sit through anymore. I don't see this as a preferential thing. Unidirectional content is just objectively worse to consume when we're talking information gluttony.
People are literally decimating their brains scrolling nonsense in the entirety of their "down time".
I've spent hours scrolling Reddit, which probably isn't great by a stretch, but I don't really sub (echo chamber dodge) and so what comes is pretty eclectic and my choice clicks are more article driven than watching 100 two minute videos of different people doing the same latest dance moves while keeping a banana balanced on their shoulder.
We're probably all gonna die because we collectively manage to become so much more stupid so quickly.
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jochance wrote: People are literally decimating their brains scrolling nonsense in the entirety of their "down time".
Yeah, it's really bad because it casts a haze over your thinking, and when I do get carried away I come away thinking, "Where have I been for the last hour?"
I never feel smarter or informed, even when i watch "intelligent" youtube where I'm learning something. Often I watch something that is just so dumb I feel dumber.
jochance wrote: We're probably all gonna die because we collectively manage to become so much more stupid so quickly.
I'm a life-long learner (love learning and reading) so I'm always trying to learn.
However, I've noticed that for a long while now I feel burned out.
I watch videos where the person is extremely good at talking and explaining and I come away thinking, "hmm... I guess I don't know anything that is intereting anyways."
I also notice that even thought I'm "learning" interesting things, since I don't really think on it much it is only a slight feeling of learning and I'm on to the next "interesting" video. So I'm not really learning anything. I'm just evaluating what others have supposedly learned.
However, when I read on a subject and apply the things I learn then I actually gain knowledge.
But, the youtube is so addictive that I watch more of it than I actually read now. Oy!
I'm definitely getting dumber. You can't really learn in depth from these video snapshots.
I recently created a spreadsheet to track two things:
Learning Projects
Working Projects
I simply add the number of minutes I either spent learning on a project or building a project.
I get to the end of the day and have like 10 minutes in the projects I think are important because I spent so friggin' much time on youtube that I've wasted the day. Oy!
Tracking my time is getting me there though. I'll be building again soon. 
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raddevus wrote: I watch videos where the person is extremely good at talking and explaining
I watch James Hoffman talk about coffee on YT and I don't even care THAT much about coffee. He's just obviously knowledgeable and a good speaker.
Just crossing my fingers for another decade before "go away, baitin'" is actual discourse of reality.
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Yes, he will teach it to ask Siri. 
>64
It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
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Cleaning up the basement, I found a couple still readable disks from my Win95 days. Scanning through them for anything that should be preserved, I came across one long forgotten program (called C-MAP, but that is not essential here). It certainly would start up under Win10, but only to display a message that it can only be run in a 256 palette mode.
I remember that there was a setting in WinXP where you could flag an .exe to be run in 256 color mode. Maybe it was still available in Win7; I don't think I ever had the need then, and never knew. I have been searching all over the place in Win10, with a GeForce 610Ti display card, but can't find any similar setting anywhere. Googling gives me a lot of hints on how to do it, but the options I am told to select is absent from the dialogs - the hints appear to predate both Win10 and Win7.
Is there any way to emulate 256 color palette is Win10 with a GeForce display card? Does it depend on the driver, or is the problem with Windows dropping this feature some time ago?
My only reasons for running C-MAP are nostalgic ones; I have no real "need" for it. But maybe, deeper down in the pile of old disks, I will find another program with similar 256-color requirements, and this program is needed for rescuing some valuable data files. So I would certainly like to know of a general way to handle it, not for C-MAP specifically.
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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For Windows 11:
- Right-click on the program's icon
- Select "properties" from the menu
- Click on the "compatibility" tab
- Click on the "reduced color mode" check box
- Select "8-bit (256) color"
I assume that it is similar for Windows 10.
This will work for 32-bit programs, but not for 64-bit programs (which didn't exist under O/S versions before XP).
EDIT: Added select "properties" step
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
modified 16-Apr-24 10:03am.
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How the * could I overlook that? I could swear that I had been searching 'Properties' half a dozen times
Thanks a lot. (Your explanation was missing one step: After right clicking, you have to select Properties from the menu, but that is a minor detail.)
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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Wait, you have hardware that can read disks? As in floppy disks? That's impressive! 
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I even got a 5.25" floppy unit! To use it, I have to boot up that old XP machine, and I haven't done that for a couple of years, so I will not guarantee that it will work. The machine even has an IDE hard disk interface, but I was an early adopter of both USB and SATA disks.
For the 3.5" floppies: For future proofing, I bought a USB reader. There is a small problem with the old floppies: When you format the floppies, a code indicating which format (360K, 720K, 1.44M) in the boot sector. The major floppy manufacturers started selling 'preformatted' floppies, saving the users several minutes per new floppy. However, several of them did format the disc sectors, but didn't write the format code in the boot sector.
DOS and early Windows said 'No format code? We'll have to try to read the floppy with all the alternatives; maybe one will be successful'. Usually it was. At some point in time (most likely in the switch from 16 to 32 bits; I am not sure) Microsoft decided: No! The format code should be there, otherwise the floppy is not formatted according to the standard. We will no more make repeated tries like we used to.
In principle, I think that was a wise decision. But it left me with a large number of floppies reporting 'Disk is not formatted - do you want to format it?' I was thinking of learning to write a floppy disk driver to do that myself, but none of the floppies were important enough to justify the effort. That XP machine could probably be booted with DOS, but even that is too much effort 
Religious freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make five.
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trønderen wrote: For the 3.5" floppies: For future proofing, I bought a USB reader.
When my previous employer shut down I salvaged a USB floppy drive from the laptop bag one of our salesguys was using. I didn't even know at the time they existed. Tried it with a few floppies I still had - worked fine.
It's been in a drawer since (and given how long I've been at my current employer, that must be close to 20 years now). I think I've used it exactly once, and that was probably to create a .flp file (think .ISO but for diskettes).
I checked on Amazon a while ago - they're still out there (the USB readers, that is).
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Ah, the days of the 8-bit color map and 14.4k dial-up modems ...
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I've always known about this and jumped to answer, but I've never actually had to use it and I have no idea how that is possible. Mostly I'm use to seeing it when trying to make old games run in newer windows versions.
I guess the games I've wanted to revive have just never been THAT old.
Makes sense, that's like CGA I think. Original King's Quest stuff.
I'm pretty sure the recent article from the BBC poste here about computer addicts... I think it shows the exact same game that Tom Hanks is playing at the beginning of Big. It looks CGA.
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I bought a pair of Merrell Moab 3 waterproof boots 13 months ago
and the sole around the toe area is spiting from the boot
OK Merrell said 12 months for return
I have another pair that is 8 years old that the Vibram sole is warn flat gone
Merrell told me they would give me a 30% discount
Just select the item I want and respond to an email they sent me
The issue is I can not make a purchase on the website without a phone number
I have suggested I am prepared to take this to court
My step daughter sued 3M for damaging the water supply in the US and other countries
YES the law firm team won
Merrell told me to ask a friend or neighbor for a phone number!
Any one what to loan me a phone number ?
OR should I just make up a phone number ?
Issue my real phone number is more than likely linked to my Chase Credit Card
OR just shut up and stop being a grumpy OLD man
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Google Voice
>64
It’s weird being the same age as old people. Live every day like it is your last; one day, it will be.
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Choroid wrote: My step daughter sued 3M for damaging the water supply in the US and other countries
YES the law firm team won
Seems unlikely. First of course would be what is known as 'standing'.
Now perhaps she was part of a class action suit in the US. Or she is some participant in a government entity, which is the most recent one I found when searching.
But I doubt you can do the same for a retail product unless you can find a warranty that says they will last longer than 12 months. And then find a law firm willing to front you as the primary in a class action lawsuit. Expect probably 10 years before you get anything from that though.
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jschell wrote: ... class action lawsuit. Expect probably 10 years before you get anything from that though.
And most of what you get will be eaten up by lawyer's fees.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Tell me about Lawyer Fee's
My father remarried he had a will that was written when he was married to my mother
before her death
New wife's family got my father to write a new will at the time he was failing
from Alzheimer and I was written out of the will
When he died in December it was the following year in April when I was notified of his death my child hood home in Ohio was in my name my father died in California
$25,000.00 later I retained the house and property
some of the investment accounts real killer they tried to forge my signature on
a life insurance policy
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Choroid wrote: New wife's family got my father to write a new will at the time he was failing
from Alzheimer...they tried to forge my signature on
That is all criminal rather than civil. So you should file a compliant.
With a brief google by me also seems that California law means that one cannot profit from a criminal activity which this would apply if convicted.
And after conviction, even a for a minor charge, I suspect you can file a civil suit to recoup monetary losses that you paid while protecting yourself.
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: And most of what you get will be eaten up by lawyer's fees.
Sort of.
First of course the OP is talking about a pair of boots.
But, as far as I know, as the primary in a class action one gets quite a bit of the judgement. Lots to the lawyers, but more than just what a pair of boots are.
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You are correct collaboration with the Feds
I agree just rattled my cage asking me to use someone else's phone number
and demanding a phone number to make a purchase
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Choroid wrote: I have suggested I am prepared to take this to court
If you are determined to sue, AND the sum is worth your time and effort, you may wish to try small claims court. Just remember that going to Law has costs above the financial. Even if you win, you may lose when your time, effort, and aggravation are taken into account.
Choroid wrote: Issue my real phone number is more than likely linked to my Chase Credit Card
OR just shut up and stop being a grumpy OLD man
They probably want it so they can send you spam texts. Just block any that you receive.
Your credit card is presumably linked to your phone number (so the company can contact you in the case of possible fraud). Even if you use your credit card to pay your phone bill, that information should not be stored by the phone company. In any case, if the phone or the credit card companies' billing records are hacked, you have bigger problems than a bit of spam...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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Been down that road Amazon and Chase got hacked and my phone number
for my Credit Card went along for the ride
I exceeded the number of blocked phone numbers permitted on the phone
That is why no more phone numbers
Verizon has the phone number not sure what they do with it
take care and stay safe Daniel
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