Take the money while it’s still there.
This is the attitude that is ruining everything.
Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
41–50 of 51 posts
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a meme that goes: Person A: I'm a tech enthusiast! I have the latest smartphone, smartwatch, smart car, smart TV, smart home... all networked together and automated to make my daily life easier. Person B: I work in tech. The last piece of tech I bought is a printer from 2004, and I keep a loaded gun nearby in case it starts acting funny. Once you understand how the sausage is made and what the incentives are,…
This has always been just a meme. Plenty of the people I know who know the most about tech are also very excited about it. Person B in this example is often miserable for a lot of other reasons that have nothing to do with tech, doesn't understand tech as deeply as the meme suggests, and pattern matches cynicism into everything.
Not just a meme. In my experience it is quite accurate for a large percentage of techies - especially the more hardcore they are.
It's the fresher ones, with less experience, that are more excited by stuff like "smart appliances" and the latest gadgets and trends. Or manager types nominally "in tech", but who haven't been in the trenches since forever. People who "who know the most about tech" only superficially, in that the know the most about the latest slop and trends.
The cynicism is borne out of experience.
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#43Best possible ad for Weird Al. How did we get here? Why am I, a lifelong tech enthusiast, on a tech enthusiast board championing someone for resisting technology? I’ve been on HN for years but it’s starting to feel absurd ever since I’ve been out of sync with the whole AI thing. Thanks for listening to my Ted talk.
As is often repeated here, "technology is a force multiplier". AI has been multiplying the wrong things (for the common people) at an amazing rate, while the good things it multiplies have been few, arguable, and lagging behind. Usually to be enthusiastic about new tech, it needs to be the reverse. New tech that multiplies the "good things" first while the wrong things catch up later (see Internet, cars, commercial a…
> fellow software engineers who spend 8+ hours a day writing code see it as the opposite, since AI _is_ seen as doing the "good things"
Dunno about that. I work in writing infrastructure code (telco space), and while we do use Claude Code (Optus 4.8/Fable 5/etc) there still needs to be extremely thorough review and a close watch kept on its output.
AI generated code that's not carefully managed is not suitable for really important things. At least, not the stuff I've seen it generate so far both for my colleagues and myself.
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#44My personal meme is to occasionally weigh in with a comment about one of his videos being "Al-generated content". It is not my fault if people using sans-serif fonts get mad about it.
you'll like this https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/due-to-a-clerical-error-...
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don’t be sweepingly dismissive of people by framing like this. Printers lack mobility and firearms would only activate their defensive ink cloud reflexes, as every expert office IT worker knows (including you!). So the group B you’re describing is being portrayed as both excessively paranoid and blatantly incompetent in order to dismiss the views of tech experts that reject A.I. and support your own claim that…
Office Space: Laser Printer murder scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk
Perhaps you couldn’t tell from ‘defensive ink cloud’ that I understand the joke being used to demean and dismiss group B. It was a great movie for its time and was a small but real contributing factor in my recent retirement. Doesn’t excuse the rhetorical behavior I’m objecting to, of course, but I’m sure its characters would have appreciated my pun slash half-joke* about squid ink-jet printers.
* Seriously, do not shoot a toner cartridge or any object containing one with a projectile weapon; silicosis is no one’s friend and while you’d probably be fine with a 100 respirator, your lungs would still really prefer you didn’t even just once do that. (doi:10.1002/ajim.23147)
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#46Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#47Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Office Space: Laser Printer murder scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjsSr3z5nVk
Perhaps you couldn’t tell from ‘defensive ink cloud’ that I understand the joke being used to demean and dismiss group B. It was a great movie for its time and was a small but real contributing factor in my recent retirement. Doesn’t excuse the rhetorical behavior I’m objecting to, of course, but I’m sure its characters would have appreciated my pun slash half-joke* about squid ink-jet printers. * Seriously, do not s…
I'm actually sympathetic to group B. The last para was a note that the economics of software dev means that the value of human-created code is low and dropping. It's ushering in a new hellscape if you desire quality software or just like programming, but here we are.
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
I will never understand some smart appliances. Like...a smart TV so you don't need a second device to play your streaming services? I kinda understand, though I think it's a silly move. If my Fire TV stick gets deprecated, I can buy a new one for under $50. If my TV itself gets deprecated, I'm spending $1500+ for a new one. But like...the number of people who have their heads in the sand when it comes to pervasive ad…
While I agree with you on ideally having a dumb TV - being able to install TailScale on your TV and then using your exit node in another country (to watch that other countries local IPTV) is a really nice convenience. And you can no longer buy a dumb TV, at least not in typical living room sizes. The dishwashing machine being able to notify you ahead of time that you're low (but not already out) of softening salt or…
Sceptre still sells dumb TVs, and there are always computer monitors with HDMI in. I'm typing this on a 43" one. You'll still pay more, especially for the latter, but not hugely more.
Re: Weird Al Yankovic Pulled Out of AI Ad Deal: 'I Can't Be the Poster Boy for AI'
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps you couldn’t tell from ‘defensive ink cloud’ that I understand the joke being used to demean and dismiss group B. It was a great movie for its time and was a small but real contributing factor in my recent retirement. Doesn’t excuse the rhetorical behavior I’m objecting to, of course, but I’m sure its characters would have appreciated my pun slash half-joke* about squid ink-jet printers. * Seriously, do not s…
I'm actually sympathetic to group B. The last para was a note that the economics of software dev means that the value of human-created code is low and dropping. It's ushering in a new hellscape if you desire quality software or just like programming, but here we are.
Valid! ..but I’m only here to object to the style of rhetoric used to demean B, not to stake a position on either A and/or B.