Open AI’s core business is lying to inflate their stock price. This tracks.

It’s literally a generic word for video call.

They might have registered it but in the EU it’s not enforceable in the context of video calls.

If Microsoft tries to defend it in that context they could lose it in all contexts.

Probably not an enforceable trademark in France.

Spotify instantly gives you what the record companies paid for the algorithm to give you.

“Digging” isn’t hard. Give it a go.

But it sounds like you’re listed to “tracks” not albums. Frankly that’s your biggest mistake.

If you like lots of tracks other people don’t, you’ll always be struggling against an algorithm trying to feed you 3 minute songs nobody hates.

Listen to albums and every time you follow a rabbit hole you’ll have 40-80 minutes of music to listen to at least once, multiple times if it’s good.

You’ll find albums that are worth listening to as a whole and some you’ll keep tracks in playlists.

Personally I moved from CDs to Spotify to YouTube music, to buying CDs again, soon to have them on Jellyfin.

Once you get into actually listening to albums, 3 or 4 albums from eBay or charity shops are what I’d have paid for a subscription and if I need to take a break I’ve still got my old music and don’t have any more to pay.

You can of course sail the high seas if you’re strapped for cash or want things instantly. I consider the big 3 labels harmful and have only bought second hand copies. I try to buy from independents and smaller labels when I can directly.

The harm of the major labels is pretty big and frankly streaming has become their most harmful tool. I want to avoid supporting that model or supporting the big 3.

1. Talk to other human beings about music.

Music is not meant to be a solitary hobby. Share what you like, they’ll share what they like.

2. Like a piece of music? Look up that producer, or record label if it’s small. Look up the session musicians. Don’t just look up the artist.

Generally it’s not just the artist that makes the music top tier. There are other great professionals involved in the background and good people hire other good people to work in the background.

This is easy. Once you start doing this you end up with a queue of albums you want to get round to listening to. It’s easy enough to find too much music yourself without an algorithm. You start finding the artist radio a waste of your time.

The rabbit holes I’ve been down following a producer, guitarist, or bassist, etc. are usually very rewarding and often you pop up in another place you knew already after finding out about some lesser known great music on the way.

I’m not sure that works. There were 20 shillings to the pound.

So £0.75 a week.

This inflation calculator:

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

£75 in 1843 is equivalent to £8,310.96

So 15s then is equivalent to £83.11 a week, £4321.72 a year.

40 hour week (which is implied to be too low). ~£2.08 an hour

So if he worked over 40 hours you’re talking a sub £2/hour wage. Around $2.70 in US money.

I suspect the stat relies on converting to dollars before applying inflation as GBP to USD was about 1 to 5 then instead of about 1 to 1.33

It’s fun but I wouldn’t want to denigrate Dickens by saying he got poverty wrong to make a political point.

Hands appear differently in different positions all over the frame in the photo so I maintain the hand pattern is less consistent and harder than lens blur.

But you’re right as the blur is a fingerprint you can match it to a lens and prove a photo is real that way.

It could be a useful tactic as much of AI detection is a way to find and prove AI fake so far.

Just my guess. I could be wrong:

As the lens blur is mathematically fairly simple and spread across the whole image it’s likely already consistently replicated by AI in a similar way to real photos.

It’s easier for generative AI to spot, “understand”, and replicate a mathematical pattern than the number of fingers on a hand or limbs on a body.

With Dijon mustard!

Because Biden paid them with grants to build in the US. It’s that simple.

Beyond that there’s stability and the likelihood of not being invaded or facing natural disasters.

There’s meant to be government, legal, and financial institution stability too.

As well as intellectual property defense, trade secrets and NDAs.

Material supplies are meant to be stable too.

When you’re investing in something as specialised as chip manufacturing, labour is a fraction of your concern. Both short and long term.

Trains are easy and they’re easily electrified already. So putting solar on the trains won’t have any advantage.

Rails are the difficult part of railways. They never seem to put them between my house and my work. They’ve put something called a road in between instead.

Not when you consider the maintenance costs of the plants they closed. Basically of them were beyond original design life.

And the democracy sausage!

“Regular people”

https://bankingjournal.aba.com/2024/08/survey-one-in-four-americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings/

You’ve proven yourself wrong.

Mochi Tetsu is mentioned in that article as being a source that produces higher quality products than iron sand. Exactly what you’re arguing against.

The facts are that due to the limited availability of good quality iron ore the steel produced in Japan often used iron sand and that led to lower quality products.

Why? The past lives long in the memory.

Sony was at the Vanguard of Japan’s post-war recovery. Making any electronics for the home.

Rice cookers and standard small white goods in the 40s.

They had a huge success with the transistor radios in the mid 50s.

Bearing in mind transistors themselves were first created in 1947. Sony is putting them in consumer products 8 years later. Copying a product produced in small numbers but making it better. Using the latest technology.

I own a 1960s reel to reel machine that still works perfectly. Sound on sound recording, echo and reverb effects. Built using transistors and “solid state” amplifies. Not at the cutting edge but using transistors to mass produce a product more reliably than previous tech.

All high fi equipment following the same pattern. Can they replace the old style amplifiers in record players. Yep.

The cassette tape comes along Sony makes it portable. And this is the point they also start hitting the top of the market in quality.

The portable tape decks Sony produced are considered the best.

This is while they’re dealing with videotape and producing betamax and the first consumer recorders and cameras.

Sony is a mark of reliability from the 50s by replacing old tech with transistors and a mark of quality by being better than the mass market competition by the 70s.

They then look at digital and create their own media. Betamax is a war they eventually lost even though it was better quality than VHS. But they made money on the professionals end of the market because of that quality.

This moved Sony into that direction. Focusing on the premium product, aiming high and for the mass market, but with the idea that quality will guarantee the high end segment.

In audio

Digital cassette DCC, DAT CD SACD Competition for Dolby Surround SPDIF optical audio. LDAC Bluetooth protocol

All the devices to play and record/transmit these.

In video: U-matic Betamax MMCD (mothballed to then partnering with DVD) Blu-ray Blu-ray 4K

The devices to play and produce them. The media to go on them from Sony Music and Sony Pictures.

Displays they created Trinitron displays to go with their analogue video cameras and formats.

They produced the first LED backlit LCDs. They produced the first quantum dot displays to go with the professional cinema quality digital cameras.

In the computing world they produced the first 3.5" floppies then CDs, then flash memory storage.

They tried to partner with Nintendo on the first CD-Rom gaming system and, when they were kicked out, launched their own console.

Sony have aimed for the professional market and bring those lessons learned to the masses.

Always based around a media format.

1999 Sony produced SACD. R&D in audio finished when that wound up in 2007.

High end audio equipment before that point is great. After that it’s just badges up stuff made to the lowest price.

2006 Sony produced Blu-ray. Blu-ray 4K looks to be the last gasp in 2016.

They were aiming for the top with video, TVs and blu ray players were great.

They’re still the best quality audio and video products you can buy.

But no one is buying them. We left quality of CDs for the convenience of mp3. We left Blu-ray for streaming.

We left high quality physical products for software products and codecs for convenience.

We left individual electronic devices for smart phones.

Sony have stopped R&D and quality control on devices as the market for them has dropped.

You can still buy a great high end TV from Sony.

Everything else, they’ve let the high end go.

If the high end isn’t mass market. Then they’re not going to make it high end anymore.

But as the last mass manufacturer to leave so many segments over the years. The cheapest high end device is still often a second hand Sony.

When the high end drops out of a segment all the individual components they would mass produce get penny pinched. Before they would produce huge numbers of lasers for CD players and make sure they were all good enough across the whole range.

When no one wants a high end CD player, no more high quality lasers get made.

The same with each component. Amplifiers, connectors, buttons, power supplies.

Sony’s products borrowed from each other’s tech and as the high end went in one area it had knock on effects in others.

Look at the PS5, the components are not produced in Japan by Sony. They’re outsourcing.

The 4K Blu-Ray disk drive is optional.

They say they’re unlikely to ever release their 8K Blu-Ray standard.

Top quality is no longer a priority and you place 20 years ago about right for audio. Probably 10 years ago for video.

The playstation 3 was Sony’s last CD player in a console. The last to be backwards compatible. The last of the Sony attitude of trying to be the best and trying to be backwards compatible.

The best CD players, SACD, players, DVD players etc all come in one Sony 4k UHD Blu Ray box.

Then you need a decent receiver and speakers to take that digital signal through a DAC, and amplify it. The last vestage of high end Sony audio is there.

The TVs the last of Sony’s high end lines in general.

The best portable cd players without breaking the bank, old Sony’s.

Incorrect

Yes, but your country being unable to have sensible judicial selection and poor judicial elections is not an argument for anywhere else.

The US ranges from failure to bad.

Other countries range from the good to the point other countries refuse to replace their own court system in order to continue using the good judiciary that’s trusted internationally.

Using the US as an example to follow in this case is a bad idea. Even if removing selection from the US system would be an improvement, it isn’t relevant anywhere else.

Especially when discussing an ideological law like making elections compulsory.

There are no illusions that politicians are experts.

Authority given to a judge is because of expertise, not in order to represent.

Elect representation, select expertise. Ensure oversight for both situations.

I’ve said before oversight is already in place be a democratically elected official. So stop with the silliness in claiming I’m antidemocratic.

The difference between you and me is you’re sprouting ideology and I’m explaining how a good system actually works in the real world in my country.

Asking millions of unqualified people to pick an expert and professional will not be as successful as an unbiased selection committee.

Not every problem is solvable with a popularity contest.

As long as a committee has democratic oversight democracy can still fix any problems as you wish. But it’s much more efficient and successful most of the time.