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I would rather see my books get pirated than this

janefriedman.com

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Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#411

Post by freeopinion »

mrweasel wrote: post #309
opportune wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, until someone creates a website that just ships the products they say they have, and people type in the URL for the site directly and shop there? If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers who recognize the tremendous amount of value they can capture by not scamming people.

> If online shopping were truly such a terribly scammy UX in 100% of cases people would stop using it or shift to shopping from trusted sellers That slide has already started. I can't buy stuff on Amazon anymore, because I don't trust the quality or that I'm not scammed. Unless I trust the author I'd question buying self published books. There's a number of Chinese website, like Wish, that I don't understand. Why bot…

This doesn't just apply to physical merchandise. And it isn't new. Isn't this the whole point of sites like yelp? Or Fox News? Whether you need a good auto mechanic or good mayor. Or if you want to know if a movie is worth paying for or whether paper bags are bad for the environment.

"How to verify any claim" has to become a formal subject like math and reading to be taught in stages over several years. It has to have real homework problems to practice different strategies. But in the end, do we come up with different ratings or logic categories to say this particular question is fifth degree hard to get right? Can we identify the elements that build trust? Does it help in poker if you know another player's family? Does it help in voting for student body president if they previously served as class president? Is it better to buy a blender from the same company that made your favorite dishwasher? Can you take a chance on a newcomer if they don't speak your language or have your accent? What if some claim hasn't been published in a peer-reviewed journal I recognize?

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#412

Post by Tao3300 »

brewdad wrote: post #145
Tao3300 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we stopped talking until they looked it up online and were convinced. So what did they see that finally convinced them?

It’s such a ridiculous idea that most people think it can’t possibly be true. Until they find out it is.

So what do they see that finally convinces them?

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#413

Post by kzrdude »

nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

It's only the future if we accept these half truths and deceptions. Like how Amazon is accepting it.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#414

Post by Pxtl »

kubanczyk wrote: post #382
nomat wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free speech should only apply to verified humans. We could use the blockchain to assign keys to babies as they are born. Only half kidding, about both statements. Corporations also have rights. How terrible it will be when we have "companies" that are just AI programs. All human weakness, eliminated. South Korea requires you to register with your national id if you want to access the internet there, which sounds like…

> verified humans Wouldn't it be elegant though if the new trust scheme applied the same to LLMs/bots as humans? Assuming that LLMs are a polar opposite of humans seems short sighted. Or assuming that humans are sole heroes of the story. It will be a spectrum, soon. For example when you say "all human weakness, eliminated" it's a weird lens to use. Every relative weakness is a challenge, whether its origin is in huma…

Ultimately? Of course. But in the short term? The LLM's owner can vouch for the LLM, same as anything.

I honestly don't care if a human augments their output with an LLM. What I care is that they act in good faith. As long as new identities can be spun up automatically with negligible effort, human or otherwise it's too easy to flood the zone with shit.

I want to be able to say "This post was made by an ID that is tied to a human being that has a history of acting in good faith, and I can see that history". Even if "I" am the owner of a crowdsourced-content site and I'm keeping that ID private. If the person who uses that ID is leveraging an LLM to create what looks like good-faith content, that's fine. The problem this solves is one person using LLMs to create a sockpuppet army that looks like a hundred thousand humans, not one person using an LLM to generate a flotilla of good content. Or even a flotilla of bad content but we still konw who's doing it.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#415

Post by wombat-man »

sneak wrote: post #406
wombat-man wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd rather go to target or something and choose from the 3 spatulas they have then spend any time trying to figure out which of the 1000 listings are good on amazon. It's just less work.

It's not less time, however. It's easier and cheaper to buy all of the top 5 spatulas on amazon (and throw 4 away) than to drive to a strip mall and find parking.

Lol, sure. Personally I don't like dealing with online returns and I dislike the idea of buying things just to immediately throw them in the garbage. I'm picking an item I plan to use regularly, I want to see it irl and know what I'm getting.

Also, I am not trying to hyper optimize my use of time, but rather I find the experience of huge selection, fake reviews mixed with sponsored listings to be very unpleasant. I have slightly more faith in quality control at a department store, or even a dedicated housewares store.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#416

Post by ben_w »

sneak wrote: post #406
wombat-man wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'd rather go to target or something and choose from the 3 spatulas they have then spend any time trying to figure out which of the 1000 listings are good on amazon. It's just less work.

It's not less time, however. It's easier and cheaper to buy all of the top 5 spatulas on amazon (and throw 4 away) than to drive to a strip mall and find parking.

It takes me longer to put my shoes on and walk down a few flights of stairs to reach the main entrance of my apartment, than to get from that entrance (by foot) to the nearest place selling spatulas.

One of the depots used by DHL when they "can't find" my building (even though the place predates the formation of the Soviet Union, let alone its collapse) is about a mile away and I don't have a car. This is fine unless it rains, but it's not even conveniently on my way to anything interesting.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#417

Post by AlgorithmicTime »

zen_1 wrote: post #166
nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

One of the few sentences more depressing (when relevant) than "Stallman was right" is "Ted Kaczynski had a point".

[dead]

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#418

Post by bpt3 »

arnvidr wrote: post #343
kelnos wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's an ok workaround, but I don't want to go to physical bookstores, and I don't want physical books. As much as I do like the feel of a physical book, I much prefer the convenience and portability of a digital book. And speaking of convenience, it would be a big shame if we had to go back to physical stores for non-trivial purchases because we can't trust anything online.

Many physical bookstores have web pages where they sell e-books as well. Find the store that serves what you want, instead of finding faults with the ones who don't and going with the huge sell-everything-store.

Or I can go with the huge sell-everything store because I'm perfectly fine with the service it provides. Not everyone is looking for some bespoke curated experience when buying a product.

In short, the store that serves what I want is usually the huge sell-everything store.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#419

Post by adhesive_wombat »

hnben wrote: post #302
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Upload to device. Compared to a WisperNet download, that's actually a bit of a faff. Don't get me wrong, I use a hacked Kobo, but getting the books on the thing requires a computer and either to use a micro-USB cable or faffing about with a fileshare and WebDAV. Kindle: attach book to Kindle email address, send.

> Kindle: attach book to Kindle email address, send. I like to image, that jeff bezos dies a little inside whenever I do this.

I imagine they add one more microdrone hunter-killer with my name in the EEPROM to the swarm.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#420

Post by pavel_lishin »

VincentEvans wrote: post #128

Let me tell you how to buy a kindle book for my kid’s Kindle that is connected via a child account in “Amazon Household” to my Amazon account. (This opening sentence already signals how the rest of this will go). A child’s account can’t buy books - you have to do it for them. 1. I open Amazon app on my iphone and find the book - “This app does not support purchasing of this content”. 2. I open Kindle app on my iphone…

We bought an iPad instead of a Kindle Fire because of crap like this.

The iPad is still an atrocious experience. I cannot tell if I'm simply aging out of being able to figure out new technology, or if none of the product managers at Apple have young children. But it's marginally better than the Kindle, and it runs Roblox.

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