Life has always been modern.
@kramer researching new products, composing wordy emails, presentations, loads of stuff.
navigation in cars
That'll take me via the expensive autoroute even if it's shorter and quicker on the main road. I've gone back to a map book. If it's not an autoroute it's some rat run with speed bumps through some poor sod's quiet neighbourhood.
The calcuations for my building extension are in pencil on the materials used, though I'll admit to using a phone rather than tables for pythogoras.
Connecting - if you mean sex then maybe Tinder has helped some. But most stay at home infront of their favourite screen, pubs are closing, dance floors are rare. More people live alone, in Berlin the average household is 1.77 people, in my street it's lower than that..
Learning - attention spans have become catastrophic, ask any teacher - it's the swipe, Tiktok, instantly forgotten
Being active - PS2 instead of a tracker and football
Experiencing the world - kerosene to CO2 if you do it for real, a succession of disasters from around the world in the media in graphic detail on your screen
Contributing - I am, I hope you apprecitate it.
This really isn't getting my extension built, coffee finished, out I go.
In the old days, people would have 10 children and the weaklings would die before they reached 2 years old, then the stupid ones would die before they reached adulthood, the survivors who reached adulthood were strong, healthy, intelligent people. Modern technology has just made us weak and stupid.
@tomhoward do you know how they deal with the fact that it straight up makes stuff up?
I ask no questions…
do you know how they deal with the fact that it straight up makes stuff up?
I asked the MS Bing Chatbot for advice.
Here is a summary of the advice I would give:
- Define the purpose and audience of your document before using an AI chatbot. This will help you choose the appropriate tone, style, and format for your writing.
- Use an AI chatbot that is specialized for your domain or topic. For example, if you are writing a legal document, use a chatbot that has access to relevant laws, cases, and terminology. This will ensure that your document is accurate and consistent with the current standards and practices.
- Provide clear and specific instructions to the AI chatbot. For example, if you want the chatbot to write an introduction, tell it what the main points are, how long it should be, and what tone it should use. This will help the chatbot generate content that meets your expectations and requirements.
- Review and edit the content generated by the AI chatbot. Do not blindly trust or copy the chatbot's output. Check for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and formatting errors. Verify the facts and sources used by the chatbot. Make sure the content is coherent, logical, and relevant to your purpose and audience.
- Use multiple sources of information and cross-check them for reliability and validity. Do not rely on a single AI chatbot or website for your research. Compare and contrast different perspectives and opinions on your topic. Evaluate the credibility and authority of the sources used by the AI chatbot. Look for evidence, citations, and references that support or challenge the claims made by the chatbot.
- Seek feedback from others before finalizing your document. Ask someone who is knowledgeable or experienced in your domain or topic to review your document and provide suggestions for improvement. Ask someone who is unfamiliar with your domain or topic to read your document and check for clarity, readability, and comprehension. Incorporate their feedback into your revisions and edits.I hope this summary helps you use an AI chatbot to write professional documents and avoid misinformation. If you have any questions or need more details, please let me know. 😊
Having the entire flagship HMV store (and then some) on Oxford Street, London contained in an app on your phone for instant playback is pretty amazing.
I remember countless times going through school in the 90s and 2000s when teachers in maths would say “you need to know how to do this because when you’re a grown up you’re not going to be carrying a calculator around in your pocket everywhere are you?” and then smartphones happened
You still need to know how to use it though.
You're in ADSA, you can get a 4-pack of soup for £3.40, or on the next shelf there's an offer on where you can buy five loose tins for £4. Which is the better deal? Here's your smartphone, off you go.
"Ah," you could argue, "supermarkets have to put unit cost on their shelf labels so consumers can compare." And they do, but they're devious bastards. One will be price per 100 grams when the comparable item is in price per packet or some such. Or in Tesco, they only give you that comparison for the 'regular' price and not the Clubcard price.
ChatGPT is the devil's work and will be the end of civilisation as we know it.
Arguably, civilisation as we know it is already ending.
Whilst modern live is objectively better in almost every way, I'm glad that my formative years were pre smart phone/ internet.
Back then, you'd hitch half way across the country on the strength of a third hand rumour that [insert band name] would be playing at that all dayer, or supporting so and so. Sometimes it paid off, other times you always had an adventure.
With music, great - I can now get every version of every song within seconds. Back then, if you were <span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">the one singing the words to the obscure B side, it marked you out as someone that had bought the record, or picked up a demo from someone connected with the band...dug a bit deeper.</span>
Remember finding a 'graiil' record in the wild? Now I can just go on Discogs and choose from a few sellers. It doesn't have the same magic.
The people you'd see only at gigs and festivals, connections that you'd made by following a certain band..it was always a surprise to see who you would be sharing the dancefloor with in whatever town you were in. Nowadays, all arranged down to the minute you'll meet.
So yeah whilst it's better now, I'm glad I had the excitement and jeapordy of the unknown.
Today my opinion of technology and how great it is has been skewed by the STW Today’s photo thread!
Today my opinion of technology and how great it is has been skewed by the STW Today’s photo thread!
Yeah, the photo upload function has properly shit the bed.
£3.20 for four, faster than I could have reached for the phone, found the calculator and typed the figures. It was easy, a fifth of 40 is 8 times 4 equals 32. Besides all the French supermarkets have the price per kilo of the normal price and various offers so all I have to is put my glasses on to read the small print which I'd have to do to use the phone anyhow.
Junior isn't too keen on all this music for free or pence, he's a recording and performing artist. The streaming income is a pitance. It's only good old vinyl he makes a reasonable amount on.
Which is part of a bigger problem, the tech giants and their owners get rich whilst the content providers and advertisers get poorer. 18% commission for a hotel reservation site promoted by this site. I know a hotel owner for whom the on-line reservation boom has been a disaster. He did good trade with the tourist office and a few cheap adverts - now he has to compete with AirB&B people who pay **** all tax and make local housing unaffordable. If you could but see it you are making yourselves poorer and the rich richer. Try to find somewhere to buy or annual rent in St Jean de Luz - no chance.
£3.20 for four, faster than I could have reached for the phone
There's multiple ways of working it out (and £3.20 for four wasn't an option) but yes.
£3.40 for the multipack of four is 85p/can. £4 for five is 80p/can. So the loose option is the better bargain.
That wasn't the point though, it wasn't a test. Rather, "yes but calculators / phones" is a bogus argument if you don't know which buttons to press.
Of course, who uses calculators any more, grandad. "Hey ChatGPT. I'm in the supermarket and..."
I know a hotel owner for whom the on-line reservation boom has been a disaster.
The Girl placed an order at a local Chinese takeaway a little while ago, using Just Eat or one of the other brokers. When I went to collect (it's literally a minute's walk) I was told, if we order direct from their own website then a) they get more money and b) the prices are actually cheaper.
They're skimming from both ends, taking a percentage of the transaction AND hiking the prices. For what? Replicating the takeaway's own online ordering system?
£3.40 for the multipack of four is 85p/can. £4 for five is 80p/can. So the loose option is the better bargain.
I don't like canned soup. They're both a bad deal.
Calculators. I'm reminded of the time I was ordering a tumble drier in an actual shop. Required to pay at least 10% of the £119.99 total. So I told the sales assistant I'll pay £19.99 deposit.
At which point he got his calculator out and after keying in the numbers told us that would leave £100 to pay.
But i’ve got a couple of kids and quite frankly compared to my life they have had an absolutely shite time of it and it doesn’t look like a great future ahead of them. Social media and big tech have hobbled them, the pandemic and conservative ******** have reduced their horizons – University is a ball and chain these days, home ownership a fantasy and even travel is 100x harder – jeez I even travelled to Afghanistan overland, try doing that now.
Travel is harder??? My eldest (23 years old) has been to Morocco, Norway, Spain and probably somewhere else - just this year. How much did a return ticket London-Spain cost back in 1995 when I came to Madrid? A lot more than the 40GBP she spent flying to Alicante two weeks ago.
Social media doesn't seem to be messing up my daughters' lives, either. It's part of it, an important part, but that typical image of a "millenial" texting the friend sitting next to them is bollocks. They still meet up, get pissed together, fall in love, etc. Yeah, it'll be on Instagram - but the photo will be a selfie of them with their mates, enjoying themselves as a group. Just like we did.
Not arguing about home ownership, though!
On balance, I think modern life is a lot better than what I had as a kid growing up in the 70s. Yeah, I miss some things, but realistically a lot of that is just nostalgia and rose tinted glasses.
I went to a burger restaurant in Barcelona, big als, very good it was too, also in sitges. Waiter told me to order on the app, download something, scan something else bla bla. Sort of defeated the object I thought, human intervention, anyway, I just told him I didn't have a phone, and ordered what he would recommend.
Was brilliant, full on burger with bacon, egg, chips and a beer. Deffo go again but CBA with the tech, will take my old Nokia next visit in case staff get insistent.
I went to a burger restaurant in Barcelona, big als, very good it was too, also in sitges. Waiter told me to order on the app, download something, scan something else bla bla.
Yeah, but sitting in a 'Spoons, ordering via the app and getting a waiter to bring you the pint to your table is great.
(Yeah yeah, the owner's a tosser, but it's still a lot cheaper than other pubs in London...)
Following on from my previous comment in this thread - CAD software. I'd previously mentioned about being analogue and digital native. Solidworks CAD software is to me an extension of playing with Lego as a child but now I can design and manipulate objects and designs in a 3d world limited by only my imagination.
I can then send them to a machine or another company and real tangible objects then arrive/are delivered/printed.
Previously this was the domain of draughtsmen and drafting tables that excluded me.
See also Additive Manufacturing (3d printing)
I recently employed a young apprentice purely because when asked what hobbies he had shyly mentioned he was into Tecnic Lego.
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A certain type of person has always complained about modern technology. I bet there were cave people complaining how times were better before bashing things with rocks got invented
I bet there were cave people complaining how times were better before bashing things with rocks got invented
Probably 🙂
It does amuse me when a generation of people will say how things were better ‘in their day’
If things were that good, why did your generation change it for the next one?
Douglas Adam’s was partially quoted earlier but he said it better:
Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
although also:
Technology is a word that describes something that doesn’t work yet.
It does amuse me when a generation of people will say how things were better ‘in their day’
Schrodinger's history. Simultaneously "so much better" and "kids ['bloody millennials'] today, don't know they're born." Well, we've pretty much reached parity there then, haven't we.
much is better though. My bike is incredible. My tv is excellent. My house is warm and comfortable (no ice inside the windows in winter like when I was a kid). I have a fab espresso machine and will never have to taste Maxwell House again. My diet is varied and cheap – I can get food from all over the world at my local supermarket – no more tinned vegetables, and fresh tomatoes all year round.
But all those things, plus many others mentioned, come at a massive ecological and social cost (albeit not for the end consumer) just for our convenience.
I would rather travel was a massive ball ache than being able to fly a family of four across Europe on a day's wage.
The concept of flying is great, but the ease with which we can fly and the damage it does far outweighs its convenience for me.
Cars are awesome, but walking is easier and free.
It's like mankind is always looking for a way to make its life easier, but at the detriment to the future.
Ss Reinhold Messner once said...
Eines Tages geht der Mensch kaputt, weil er zu faul ist zu Fuß zu gehen.
As an example, navigation in cars. Used to be map books, then I remember being amazed when you could get turn by turn instructions from the AA website. After that a Tom Tom which seemed like something out of James Bond. Now just Google and Apple maps.
Yeah, I think I’ve still got the multiple sheets I printed out to get me from Chippenham to a friends house in Benwick, out in the wilds of Cambridgeshire. What a ballache that was, trying to remember what junctions, and what road to take off of roundabouts on a 148 mile journey. When you’re the only person in the car. That was a bit over twenty years ago; now, thanks to what3words and TomTom on my phone, when it’s plugged into my car’s navigation system it’ll literally take me to their front gate, whereas a postcode will get to somewhere nearby.
Cars are awesome, but walking is easier and free.
Sure, but it’ll take me roughly an hour to drive to the centre of Bristol, about thirty miles away; how fast, exactly, can you cover thirty miles on foot? I used to walk at 3mph, slightly slower now, so ten hours? But hey, it’s free…
Cars are awesome, but walking is easier and free.
I walk or ride a bike as much as I can, but driving a car is definitely easier than walking. That's why lazy people drive cars instead of walking.
8.4 miles is the average journey in the UK and the average distance to school is 2.6 miles so 5.2 return. That's a really healthy distance to walk every day for kids. I either walked or biked (when it was a more than average), junior walked (me with him and his mates when too inexperienced to cross the busy road alone).
You need a Brompton and a bag to put it in, Coutzero, so you can take it everywhere with you and it won't get nicked.
“If things were that good, why did your generation change it for the next one?”
Because 99.9% of the population doesn’t get to choose what kind of world they live in?
As for castigating people critical of modern tech dominance as luddites, it is possible to have a nuanced view….ie just because I think we have a huge over reliance on data based tech algorithms in general doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be applied to help cure cancer.
And the most obvious cure for cancer is giving up some aspects of modern life:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_cancer
80–90% of malignant tumors are caused by external environmental factors (carcinogens).
No algorithms required
No algorithms required
How do you reckon that research was done?
Lead in petrol, alcohol, heart disease, smoking, radiation... it's as if the medical profession hadn't made the connections before they had computers to mess with. Indeed it's seems that more use is made of computers to "prove" that there isn't a causality when one is obvious than to prove causality. Just because something isn't statistically significant doesn't mean there isn't a link it's just that the statistician has chosen a siginificance level to suit their ends.
Nuclear industry, car industry, tabaco industry, big pharma, drink industry, oil industry, war mongers, politicians... using and abusing algorithms to their evil ends.
Make a model based on assumptions to produce the result you want.
Global warming in response to CO2 emissions has been obvious to anyone who's thought about it for over a hundred years (and it's been in th escientific literature since then) but the climatic sceptics abused algorithms to claim it wasn't a thing and poured scorn on climate researchers clamining their results weren't statistically significant.
I was thinking this on the drive home yesterday.
We are (well, were) focusing on everything from the point of view of a consumer. We weren't giving any thought to the 'back end' as it were, and the advances there are massive.
As Edukator says, we are still feeling the fall-out from the Industrial Revolution era. Mistakes were made for sure, mistakes that will take some time to rectify. Mistakes that in some cases we're still making. But can we honestly say we'd be better off if it hadn't happened? Maybe if you'd rather live in a hippie commune in a field and grow your own yogurt but, hey, you probably could still do that.
And we're seeing it again now, history will refer to this period as the Technological Revolution I'm sure. We all know who the Luddites actually were, I presume? It feels fairly fitting a moniker here today for those taking to tech like a duck to petrol.
People fear change, it's human nature. The DNA quote earlier is spot on, the next generation will have never known any different.
My gran used to say "we never had three TV channels when I was younger" (probably didn't have a TV for most of it). I had to wait until they'd gone out to tune the TV into channel 4, they wouldn't let me near it "in case I broke it." They came home, I said "look, it just started working!" and they were like "see, I told you to leave it alone!" Fast forward to today, tell your grandkids you had to rush home from school to catch your TV programme or you'd miss the start and that was that, they'd look at you like you lived in a cave.
and the advances there are massive.
Both my paternal grandparents came from families that were witness to both massive numbers of children (8 and 10 respectively) caused by no access to any serious family planning and medical help of any kind, multiple child deaths, illness that were un-curable, and early death. Both were born into East End slums, and were lucky to escape them. In comparison to just a few generations ago, we live in unimaginable luxury that was only available to the very privileged.
I think one of the worst things for the modern day is the constant exposure to absolutely everything.
It's a double edged sword, years ago to learn something new you'd have to go to the library and read a book about it, now it's literally at your fingertips from the comfort of the sofa which is great. However now you see peoples algorithmically generated content on social media which was originally designed to connect us, but is now designed to keep our attention and the kind of stuff everyone is exposed to is just low grade content for the most part.
When I was younger we had one friend in our group who was really well off, we're talking 3x extravagant holidays a year, massive house, whenever something new came out and he wanted it he got it, he never got pocket money but just had to ask if he wanted something, his parents didn't blink an eye getting him a couple of grand yamaha drum kit for christmas and a full set of zildjian cymbals to go with it because he wanted to learn to play the drums and literally 2 months later when we were all getting into mountain biking they bought him a brand new kona stinky, whilst we were all riding around on built up 2nd hand bikes or saracens from halfords or waiting for our birthdays to get new upgrades on existing hand me down bikes, but all this was fine, we were clearly jealous but we knew out of our group of 10 he was the only one who was "rich".
Nowadays on social media you see people flexing what they have absolutely everywhere and it's almost like a luxurious lifestyle is a god given right, there's a bunch of young lads at my work with financed Mercedes and Audis, financed stone island and CP company garb, credit cards left right and center and up to their eyeballs in debt because there is so much pressure on the young these days to be successful and rich, they can't understand how I'm 3 to 4 positions their senior but drive a battered old qashqai and they constantly ask me why I'm driving that when I can clearly afford XYZ and they just can't wrap my head around it when I say it just gets me from A to B I'm not bothered, it's usually followed up with things like "don't you want to look good in a nice car though?" or "aren't you worried your neighbours might think you're not successful?"
Lot of youngsters these days seem to be completely driven by having an image that shows off success, and truth be told the only place I can think of this coming from is social media, plenty of tiktoks I've seen about the hustle culture and "buy my course to show you how to get rich", "Dropshipping earns me 10k a month" etc.
Not all younguns are like this granted, but there appears to be a lot more now than when I was in my early 20s.
Just feels like in a way the internet has turned into a bit of a monster in how it controls peoples narratives.
You think the younguns are bad, polluting power is roughly proportional to spending power and we oldies very much have the upper hand. Check out threads on van life/capervan life, the annual ski thread (Whislter or Italy?), motorbikes, track day/hooligan cars, exotic holiday destinations and even not so exotic (by today's standards), alibaba, heating bills, trail dogs.
Junior makes a modest living as a ski instuctor and DJ producer. Winter in the mountains, the rest of the year in a rented flat in Berlin. No car (I lend him ours if ever he needs on), walks, bikes, trains and flies for work when there are oceans in the way - if he declines another act will do it. He doesn't need a car to look good and neither his nor our neighbours give a shit.
Sure people have signed up the social media influencer nonsense (see the Binky and Colin Firth threads on here) but no generation has a monopoly and IME it's the end of career/just retired most sold out to the latest expensive fad.
Edit: an ageing family member was recently sooooooooo disappointed when the heli-hike in New Zealand was cancelled due to the weather, I know I shouldn't ever look at Facebook but sometimes I'm weak.
I sometimes imagine explaining the apps available to me on my iPhone to my 1980/90s self. I honestly wouldn’t have believed myself.
Check out threads on van life/capervan life, the annual ski thread (Whislter or Italy?), motorbikes, track day/hooligan cars, exotic holiday destinations and even not so exotic (by today’s standards), alibaba, heating bills, trail dogs.
I can assure you that whilst these threads pop up, that is not the norm for most people on here nor in the UK generally.
Lot of youngsters these days seem to be completely driven by having an image that shows off success, and truth be told the only place I can think of this coming from is social media
That has ALWAYS been the case. Now there might be more competition than before, maybe, but I'm not sure. One of the biggest differences is that in the past, a lot of people 'knew their station in life' and that was what they expected from it. Now, after 40 years of being told that we can be whatever we want to be, people have decided that they want to actually follow their dreams and do the things they want to do. And not necessarily to impress other people. If I went heli skiing in New Zealand it wouldn't be to impress anyone on Instagram, it would be because I actually wanted to go heli skiing in New Zealand. If I bought an expensive new bike it would not be to impress anyone I know, it would be because expensive bikes are cool in themselves.
Don't be too quick to judge, in case you judge wrongly.
No algorithms required
Complaining about algorithms is like complaining about formulae, theories, or sentences.
I sometimes imagine explaining the apps available to me on my iPhone to my 1980/90s self. I honestly wouldn’t have believed myself.
"It's like closing time at the Dog & Duck but you don't need to have your mate tell them you fancy them first"
I used the vocabulary being used. Perhaps I should have said "computer binary crunching to the detriment of humanity".
Some people really wouldn't do the stuff they do without a audience. French media became aware of this in the late 80s early 90s when they were accused of financing and encouraging what turned out to be fatal stunts.
Junior used to compete in ski cross but gave up at Sochi time when the courses had got so big that falls/crashes were going to be life changing/threatenting, and were for some, junior got away with a shoulder injury on a jump longer than a swimming pool in Val Tho'. We ended up winding the bindings up so tight to stop skis coming off on take offs and landings there was almost no protection for the knees or ankles in the case of a fall. I was inspired by ski cross in the Shaun Palmer X-Games period when it was quite entertaining enough for me but not media/sponsors apparently. The courses got stupid big.
On the Loudenvielle thread I noted some pertinent comments about DH courses getting faster and bigger to please the media people, and that tight technical sections had gone - just like in ski cross. I gave up rallying when Toivonen was killed, it had just got out of hand.
Give people an audience and they'll take the most stupid risks whether a sponsored athlete or some kid down the jump gully in Swinley. A stunt is no harder to do 2m up than 1m up but if you want to impress it's tempting to do it 2m up or more. We saw a guy fall and break both ankles on Downhill Racer on Frogatt, would he have done it with no audience?
