I do not agree with @[email protected]’s take. LLMs as these are used today, at the very least, reduces the number of steps required to consume any previously documented information. So these are solving at least one problem, especially with today’s Internet where one has to navigate a cruft of irrelevant paragraphs and annoying pop ups to reach the actual nugget of information.

Having said that, since you have shared an anecdote, I would like to share a counter(?) anecdote.

Ever since our workplace allowed the use of LLM-based chatbots, I have never seen those actually help debug any undocumented error or non-traditional environments/configurations. It has always hallucinated incorrectly while I used it to debug such errors.

In fact, I am now so sceptical about the responses, that I just avoid these chatbots entirely, and debug errors using the “old school” way involving traditional search engines.

Similarly, while using it to learn new programming languages or technologies, I always got incorrect responses to indirect questions. I learn that it has incorrectly hallucinated only after verifying the response through implementation. This makes the entire purpose futile.

I do try out the latest launches and improvements as I know the responses will eventually become better. Most recently, I tried out GPT-4o when it got announced. But I still don’t find them useful for the mentioned purposes.

There are a lot of knee jerk reactions in the comments. I hope few of those commenters have read the article or, at the least, your comment.

Ah! That really does make things easy for migrating emails. Unfortunately I don’t have my own domain yet.

How are you approaching de-googling? I am unable to think of a graceful solution to migrate my emails and photos while preserving their metadata.

Seems like Apple’s convoluted guidelines around external payment systems is working out for them.

E: added link to said guidelines.

It is working now. :-)

Yikes. I am yet to play the game but I knew Joel dies in the second one, as it almost felt like a setup for his death was built-in.

However, I wasn’t aware of Sony going to such lengths to misdirect the game’s players.

Thanks a lot for sharing the context.

P.S. you might want to fix the formatting for the spoilers as it is currently not hidden.

I am unaware of this one. Can you share what is this about, or share the relevant search keywords?

True. Hopefully, the community helps maintain/extend the longevity of the phone.

Thanks for the list. While there are some that I read about previously, a few of the other patterns are something that I only experienced.

It is nice to know that these have been identified and labelled by others in the industry. :D

I never found that to be a problem. In fact, I find the thumbnails distracting. But I can see it being a problem for others.

The rare occasion I work with image files, I just open it to identify, if I haven’t already named it properly.

It also helps that most of my workflows are not image-heavy.

Interesting.

Before Shokz was AfterShokz. :-)

The comma is deliberately omitted and it’s placement is left to the reader.

Adobe … spam … Windows

That sounds about right.

For me, desktop UI peaked at Windows 98.

Installing the 95/98 GTK theme by B00merang is one of the first things I do after a fresh installation of Linux Mint.

I do try other themes once in a blue moon. But I soon realise it is a downgrade and revert back. The last theme I tried was the Arc theme back in mid-late 2010s.

Absolutely, there is nothing wrong in the newer branding.

The newer one is definitely more fun or less serious, while the older ones lacked that aspect. :-)

The logo/brand devolved, IMO.

Coincidentally(?), their software devolved just as much!

I don’t want to install multiple applications to just use a mouse.

The screenshot for StartPage is blurred for some reason. Re-uploading again:

E: Re-uploaded a fresh copy after restarting Voyager.

Contributing here with another sample point.

I did not find the mentioned link on either search engines’ first page of results.

DuckDuckGo:

StartPage:

I am not sure why a black bar appears when taking a full page screenshot of StartPage on Safari for iOS, but both screenshots are unedited and uploaded as-is.

I am aware of paid alternatives to ad-supported services like email, search, etc.

Even when considering media, music is something one can buy vinyls or use a streaming service that better(?) compensate the artist.

But movies and TV? Aren’t advertisements baked in to what most consume today, albeit at different levels? For instance, product placements in movies, ad-supported free streaming, paid streaming with ads, etc.

Unless we are talking about truly independent media which is either not easily accessible/discoverable to a layman like me, or isn’t as entertaining as the mainstream ones (highly debatable/subjective, as one hasn’t explored the offerings enough).

I would genuinely like to learn more about ad-independent media, and how you consume it.