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Computer, Respond to This Email

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Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#101

Post by ErrantX »

mmanfrin wrote: post #93
supersan wrote: post #52

I'm often amazed how Google still gives it staff this unique hacker-like approach to their million dollar projects. For example, the stuff in Google labs (gmail) has had some silly things like don't hit send when you're drunk but sometimes very useful features which may be considered unorthodox like "Gmail telling you when it thinks you wanted to attach a file but forgot". It's something I wouldn't generally associat…

I had a similar thought with Apple -- El Cap has a feature where if you shake your mouse around, the cursor will momentarily grow in size so you can find where it is. That does not feel like a top-down design idea, but a bottom-up feature designed by an engineer who was sick of those moments where he/she had lost the cursor.

Oh wow! That explains wierd artifacts I've been seeing since El Capitan, when using my trackball mouse. The cursor randomly grows in size, usually when I move it between screens quickly. I expect it's some "random jitter" in my using the trackball that causes it to happen.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#102

Post by DanBC »

sunnyps wrote: post #86
jerf wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that it's a plainly obvious rational argument that is the ground state of the discussion, not some brilliant insight that once it is revealed to people they're sure to see it your way. And it's not FUD to point out where money flows really come from. In fact I find myself wondering why you are so passionate about people not talking about it? It's not an invalid observation, a lie, or something irrelevant…

I'm passionate because I'm sick and tired of seeing the same nonsensical dishonest FUD memes such as "you're the product". "You're the product" is absolutely a lie, even with the most generous interpretation it implies something you own is being sold. Can you point out what thing is being sold? I'm not interested in being part of some "true HN" clique that rewards paranoia for imaginary internet points. And I'm not s…

> Can you point out what thing is being sold?

In EU my personal information (my name, my username, my email addresses, my clicks, my metadata, etc) is mine and there are limits to what you can do with it.

In US who knows. There seems to be strict rules on HIPPA, and some tax stuff, and some money laundering stuff. But other than that selling the data seems to be fine.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#103

Post by leni536 »

teraflop wrote: post #69
davidw wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> sometimes very useful features which may be considered unorthodox like "Gmail telling you when it thinks you wanted to attach a file but forgot". That one's not that hard. http://marc.info/?l=mutt-dev&m=95685122323646&w=2

Doing it with a low false positive rate (so that you can enable it for everyone without being annoying) is much harder. Also, Gmail has lots of users who speak languages other than English... has anyone tested whether the forgotten attachment detector works for them too?

It sure works for hungarian, as far as I remember it doesn't catch all synonyms of "attach".

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#104

Post by strong_ai »

DaveWalk wrote: post #91
Zelphyr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of this strikes me as a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue. Google clearly loves machine learning and doing cool things but I think lately they've been taking it too far. For example; after purchasing a book on Amazon recently I happened to do a Google search on that book and the first thing I see is, "Your book is scheduled to be delivered on..." Aside from the creepy factor I'm left wonderin…

> a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue To me, this phrase is the essence of much of Google's features. To my discredit, I chuckled when I read the blog's phrase "we've used...deep neural networks to improve...YouTube thumbnails." I am certain this was no easy task, and a resulting technical breakthrough. But doesn't it sound kind of petty? Of course, what's petty for one is essential for another. I…

Thumbnails drive engagement -- doesn't seem petty to me.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#105

Post by msellout »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #61
cromwellian wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google does not sell "users", that's why it is inaccurate and misleading. What would you say of a private highway that sells billboards? If the business model of a private highway is not tolls, but instead selling ads along the road. "You're not the user, you're the product?" Would you say the highway owner is selling the personal information of the drivers? The people buying billboards do not receive any personal id…

> What would you say of a private highway that sells billboards? If the business model of a private highway is not tolls, but instead selling ads along the road. If it's funded primarily by the billboards and not by the drivers, then yes, the billboard purchasers are the real customers. And that could potentially lead to poor results, such as optimizing for billboard viewing time rather than safety and throughput.

Perhaps so, if the company was short-sighted. A company thinking for a longer time-frame would likely weight customer happiness as a very important factor for long-term profits.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#106

Post by bobbles »

ErrantX wrote: post #101
mmanfrin wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar thought with Apple -- El Cap has a feature where if you shake your mouse around, the cursor will momentarily grow in size so you can find where it is. That does not feel like a top-down design idea, but a bottom-up feature designed by an engineer who was sick of those moments where he/she had lost the cursor.

Oh wow! That explains wierd artifacts I've been seeing since El Capitan, when using my trackball mouse. The cursor randomly grows in size, usually when I move it between screens quickly. I expect it's some "random jitter" in my using the trackball that causes it to happen.

This might help http://www.cultofmac.com/392027/how-to-turn-off-el-capitans-...

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#107

Post by elwell »

ErrantX wrote: post #101
mmanfrin wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a similar thought with Apple -- El Cap has a feature where if you shake your mouse around, the cursor will momentarily grow in size so you can find where it is. That does not feel like a top-down design idea, but a bottom-up feature designed by an engineer who was sick of those moments where he/she had lost the cursor.

Oh wow! That explains wierd artifacts I've been seeing since El Capitan, when using my trackball mouse. The cursor randomly grows in size, usually when I move it between screens quickly. I expect it's some "random jitter" in my using the trackball that causes it to happen.

Case in point why the OS is a terrible place to allow a hacky ethos.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#108

Post by smtddr »

dikaiosune wrote: post #4

While the technology is very cool, this pushes me that much closer to a "dumber" email service. It's always a conflict for me as I love shiny new things, but I'd rather we let AI loose on someone else's email, especially when the AI's revenue stream is advertising (a business predicated on knowing as much as possible about your audience).

Just fyi, https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html ...still works! I bet there are some people on HN who never saw the original Gmail.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#109

Post by rasz_pl »

What could possibly go wrong?

dudette:are we still on for dinner with my mom?

dude:sure, cant wait to see mrs.Plinketon again.

dudette gets suggested reply message generated from one of dude's earlier emails to his friends: "mrs.Plinketon has great tits!"

It is amazing to realize this type of technology can be bootstrapped only once (?)- as soon as you start getting automated replies in the system quality of learning on past data will drop, at some point snake will be eating his own automated reply tail.

I imagine this system would benefit greatly from optional additional user voice input, something as simple as 1-3 spoken words fed back into Reply network to help with the reply intent decoding. You get email, NN generates 3 replies it thinks you would like, you have different idea for a reply, click microphone icon and say "no, maybe next week", Reply network rebuilds suggested answers with your input shaping reply vector.

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