Interestingly what I’ve said here ☝️ ️comes with an interesting implication. There used to be a type of software “engineer” that couldn’t actually think through a problem and implement a good software solution. They were valuable because they could refactor, write code, but not think through a problem. These are the people who have the most to lose at the moment, and also the ones that find the least value on AI, because AI only does really well the single thing they could do.

I appreciate the intent behind that sentence, and the problem is that is written (or said) by people who don’t understand coding.

Syntax was never the hard part. Code syntax is a set of rules that you can teach a machine and it’s “easy” enough for an LLM to grasp it. The problem here is that this phrase does a “code = syntax” but ignoring all the difficult things that actually are in the code. Architecture, design, tradeoffs, translation of vague requirements into concrete software components…

All of those things are terribly hard, and the reason why many LLM-first coding projects get abandoned at 70% and then companies need to hire a Software Development consultancy to mop up their mess.

What they forgot to add: in the same time, they’ve also managed to create more bugs than they’ve fixed, thanks to AI.

That’s a big difference but not all. The sub-$1000 ultrabook sector has SO MUCH garbage, like Intel Celerons that stutter when you scroll down a web page designed in 2022+. Manufacturers are happy because they can sell rubbish and uncle John with no idea about computers will say “I want a laptop with 1 TB so it’s faster, and it must have free office 365 and an antivirus”…

So when someone puts a phone processor in a laptop and builds a chassis that isn’t a $5 extruded plastic shell, they panic because it still manages to be better in both benchmarks and real world use despite the paltry amount of RAM.

Performance wise it’s an interesting one. I think from a price and energy standpoint it sits squarely against windows ultrabooks with a Snapdragon X, for example, a Galaxy Book 4 Edge.

Based purely on benchmarks, the A18 Pro is weaker than that, plus you have only 8GB of RAM.

However - I have a Surface Pro X with the original SQ1, with roughly 40% of the performance of these… And even at that level, the problem is Windows on ARM, not the performance. It only lets you down for things it’s clearly not meant to do, like video editing.

Another alternative I see for that price is a windows laptop with an i5-1334U, which theoretically gives you a raw performance within 2% of the A18 Pro.

Given that at this price Linux compatibility is an absolute lottery, would I sacrifice half the RAM for having an OS that isn’t Windows? Yeah there’s not much to think. W11 will probably eat half the RAM on telemetry alone, and Apple’s BS is easier to put up with than MicroSlop’s…

The LLM is whatever you want it to be. Self hosted or from any provider with a compatible endpoint. It’s likely a proprietary one… Because the cost of training LLMs means most are proprietary ones.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with running Openclaw. What is way too brave for my taste is giving it access to accounts with your personal data, or the filesystem in your computer. That’s a disaster waiting to happen.

I run it in an isolated server, and it doesn’t have access to my data - if it goes tits up, it deletes unimportant stuff only. If anyone gets access to the credentials in it, it’s a bunch of budget-limited API keys, so they can spend all of $4 on openrouter. Maybe the riskiest bit is its Google account. I went with the approach of giving it its own Google account, so that it can create docs and calendar events and then add me, rather than getting access to my Google account. But then again… That account has no payment info, nothing that I would be mega worried if it got leaked…

Sure, it might limit the usefulness a bit, but I think installing something like this is only acceptable if you sandbox it and don’t let it access valuable information. Going full mad scientist on something as “alpha” as this, letting it run wild with your info is nuts.

Some really good advice that someone gave me once is that the internet doesn’t exist.

Sure, it obviously does exist, but this was about communication style. When you send an email, you change codes and don’t write in the same way as a WhatsApp - you can expand your points more… But you should never forget you’re talking to a person - just because it’s internet, you shouldn’t talk any different to them.

You shouldn’t assume that the message is anonymous just because it’s internet. You shouldn’t assume certain things are okay “just because it’s internet”.

I don’t think they were 100% right because they were disregarding that code changing between different mediums and audiences is normal (you don’t talk the same way to your boss and your partner, or in written form vs spoken), but I do stand by the point that you shouldn’t change code or make assumptions just because “internet”.

This is true but at the current computer prices, nowhere near as bad as it sounds. I spend £100/year or thereabouts for GeForce Now, and

• there’s no way I could play games on a £500 laptop that I renew every 5 years,
• no way that a £1000 laptop could get me to play AAA games for more than 1-2 years
• and sure, I could play games on a £2000 laptop, but no way that will last me 20 years.

If you have a life and can’t play any more than 25 hours a week, the value proposition right now is great - there’s no viable alternative that allows you to keep playing AAA games for the equivalent of £100/year.

It was created as a bit of an art experiment. What happens when AI agents take prompts for another AI agents. What do they “discuss”, do they give each other tips and advice, how much weird shit do they do…

From that point of view, it’s been rather interesting.

You’re making it sound like it’s choosing to misgender her, it’s not. It’s not fucked up because it’s a text extruder making a mistake, there’s no good or bad intention here. It’s shitty because the current state of glorified hallucinating autocorrects is shitty, but not because evil Grok is choosing to do anything.

I won’t be the one calling the UK blameless, but that’s rich coming from the country that’s doing what they are with ICE (which is just the latest one in a long list).

In the countries where healthcare has existed (and worked) for decades, there are additional taxes to alcohol, sugar, tobacco, petrol to cover for this.

And also yeah, and I have no problem whatsoever knowing that a small part of my salary goes towards saving the life of people who wouldn’t be able to afford private healthcare. That’s called empathy - and I wish that’d sink in as well.

Because he might not be “Middle Eastern” or “Dictator” but he behaves exactly like “some sort of Middle Eastern Dictator”.

Imagine what we could have achieved globally if we had spent all that money on a different cause.

We could have managed to establish a colony on Mars, or perhaps we could have even finished developing Star Citizen.

To be fair, if anyone is surprised after the two red flags that are “ByteDance” and “AI”, it’s on them.

🙌 Communist Trump is making all textbooks free 🙌

So the topics discussed are sci-fi, and politics. Not technology then.

Who’s “Glenn” and why does he belong in “Technology”? Is he a robot?

What does this post about people ramblings have to do with Technology?

I don’t think it’s only men either, but it’s worth considering the implications and potential causes for what is being said here.

We have had not decades but centuries of macho culture, where mental health is a taboo for men because “I strong, me no cry” and we know that mental health struggles go underreported on men. This is just adding more evidence to a symptom that we already know, of a society that hasn’t been able to course correct because it’s too set in tradition to allow those who need help to seek it without feeling like garbage.

While I’m not saying this is a problem exclusive to men, I think the causes and effects on women and men are rather different. We’ve now known for a while that women with mental health issues or disorders tend to go undiagnosed (even more so than unreported). The case of autism is particularly blatant, as women only started to get diagnosed in a meaningful proportion in the 80s (despite autism not being sex- or gender-driven). https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/identity/autistic-women-and-girls

Similarly, that underdiagnosing came from the stereotyping of gender roles and the fact that being quiet and pretty equated being “feminine”, which is “good”, so can’t be autistic, because autistic is bad.