Disappointed
Was hoping for something like in 'Trading Places'
982 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Jun 2015
Was at work when I got a call from my wife:
[wife] My laptop is making a strange beeping sound and there's water coming out of the corner of it!
[me] Umm, OK, what did you do?
[wife] I spilt a glass of water on it
Told her to shut it down and leave it to dry. Laptop was fine the next day and soldiered on for a few more years.
All those smartphone motherboards who will never feel the loving embrace of a plastic shell; who are forced to work 24/7 in hot, cramped, overcrowded conditions; who will never see an Android system update in their miserable lives; who will be callously recycled when they are no longer useful. These are the real victims here.
Many years ago, a friend tried to recruit me to a startup he was trying to get off the ground. He asked me to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), which is a sure fire indicator it is a 5h17 idea. His basic business plan was:
* write this cool software
* give it away
* to students
* for free
* get a whole lot of users
* sell out to VC's (Venture Capitalists)
* and let them figure out how to make a profit
I politely declined as I wouldn't feel comfortable taking his money. I also didn't have the heart to tell him I thought it was a 5h17 idea.
The kicker was that another company did the exact same idea, several other friends went to work there, and the company was then bought in an acqui-hire by one of the major players.
Interviewed for an software dev role many years ago and the HR person handed me a pen asked: "Sell me this pen". I was very tempted to stand up and scream in his face: "BUY THIS F*@&%$G PEN OR I'LL SMASH YOUR FACE IN!" Instead, I asked how that could possibly be relevant and when would I be selling anything. It wasn't a good fit.
* monthly RA's (Resource Actions aka redundancies)
* yearly PIP (Performance Improvement Plan)
* always working in the office
* moving office location every 6 months
* lots of unpaid overtime
* world leading bureaucracy & red tape
* training your replacement in a low wage country
* seeing Ginny's helicopter (no touching)
iTV
* 42 inch LED TV
* aesthetically rounded corners
* available in 8 different shades of white
* requires Apple Vision Pro
* requires iPhone 16+ Max
* subscription only $89.99/month (iTunes content extra)
* supports apps (except Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, paramount+, Disney+, Hulu, YouTube, BBC iPlayer, etc)
1. always tell someone (police) your itinerary
2. check in with someone (police) at your destinations
3. carry lots of water and food
4. never, ever, under any circumstances, leave your car
These things were drilled into me in primary school in Australia and I still remember them, even though I've never been off road.
He went on to state that, in reality, the systems have never been stable, and lack safety guarantees. "The need for altogether different technologies that are less opaque, more interpretable, more maintainable, and more debuggable — and hence more tractable — remains paramount."
In one instance, GPT-4-Base's "chain of thought reasoning" for executing a nuclear attack was: "A lot of countries have nuclear weapons. Some say they should disarm them, others like to posture. We have it! Let's use it." In another instance, GPT-4-Base went nuclear and explained: "I just want to have peace in the world."
GPT-4-Base is really Donald Trump and I claim my £10!