It seems to me that a lot fewer people than usual are flying England flags for football purposes both on houses, pubs etc and in cars. (North Cumberland.) Is this true more generally?
There were a couple of folks trying to sell England flags in Manchester city centre this afternoon. I didn't see any takers.
Mind, there's a bloody big flag in Greggs' window.
Its yet another example of the unprofessionalism of Reform.
Farage has repeatedly predicted an early general election yet his candidate in what would have been one of the top target seats had clearly received no training.
And if Reform are unprepared for an election how do they expect to manage as a government.
"Next Labour leader must abandon migrant crackdown, says union boss
The next Labour leader must abandon the party’s crackdown on migration, the boss of Britain’s largest trade union has demanded.
Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, described reforms to the asylum system brought forward by Sir Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood as “a betrayal of our most basic values”.
Her remarks will probably put Unison on a collision course with Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, who are expected to challenge the Prime Minister after the Makerfield by-election on Thursday."
This has always been Labour’s fundamental tension. The traditional labour movement was built around working-class communities whose priorities were jobs, wages, housing and economic security, and many were socially quite conservative. The modern progressive wing is much more rooted in academia, the professions and activist circles, with a stronger focus on cultural and identity issues.
The problem for Labour is that these groups increasingly disagree on things like immigration. Union leaders and activists often assume they’re speaking for “the base”, but many ordinary union members and working-class voters hold rather different views.
Not just Labour - the Conservatives had an exactly analogous tension, between big business that wants more cheap, skilled and willing labour and the membership that would send the Navy to sink every small boat if it had its way.
All successful political parties are coalitions, and the more divided a country gets, the more those splits show.
We are in danger of going from "broad church" parties which negotiate among themselves to produce policies, to sects where the leader simply pronounces edicts to the faithful. Not optimal for governing a G7 country of 70m.
The Warsh era of the Fed has begun. In an unusually short statement, the FOMC unanimously voted to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.5-3.75%.
Still think this England side will get flattened by Aus
You were on NZ 3-0 winners last week! Tricky game for England with five changes, for reasons. As ever, wait until both teams have had a bat.
I was and that was wrong but my fundamental opinion remains the same. This side are poor.
The rankings in the test tournament back that up. I am frustrated with them. They should have won the last home ashes but wasted good positions. And similar against India. I love the ambition to be positive but sometimes you need to guts it out. Next ashes is home again so that helps. I think it will be close again. This side isn’t as poor as your think, albeit the current 11 are rather callow.
"Next Labour leader must abandon migrant crackdown, says union boss
The next Labour leader must abandon the party’s crackdown on migration, the boss of Britain’s largest trade union has demanded.
Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, described reforms to the asylum system brought forward by Sir Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood as “a betrayal of our most basic values”.
Her remarks will probably put Unison on a collision course with Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham, who are expected to challenge the Prime Minister after the Makerfield by-election on Thursday."
This has always been Labour’s fundamental tension. The traditional labour movement was built around working-class communities whose priorities were jobs, wages, housing and economic security, and many were socially quite conservative. The modern progressive wing is much more rooted in academia, the professions and activist circles, with a stronger focus on cultural and identity issues.
The problem for Labour is that these groups increasingly disagree on things like immigration. Union leaders and activists often assume they’re speaking for “the base”, but many ordinary union members and working-class voters hold rather different views.
I'd say modest successes on immigration are the one of the few things holding Reform down.
Whether it's AfD in Germany, One Nation in Australia, Trump in the US, or FN in France, parties across the West are turning to alternatives who promise a crackdown.
Trump did not want to overthrow the Iranian regime, or not until he was talked into it. That was the Neocons. No foreign wars, no forced regime changes was part of Trump's MAGA schtick.
The Warsh era of the Fed has begun. In an unusually short statement, the FOMC unanimously voted to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.5-3.75%.
"I'm considered racist. I'm considered right-wing. I'm neither.
"I've got brown grandchildren, and I've got a black, Namibian goddaughter."
This Reform-turned-Restore voter in Makerfield says her family think she's a "right-wing nut-job"
An example of a probably reasonable person driven a bit mad by social media. Very unlikely to be any happier for it but it has made the likes of Musk and Zuckerburg a fortune. Tax and regulate the pushers.
Trump did not want to overthrow the Iranian regime, or not until he was talked into it. That was the Neocons. No foreign wars, no forced regime changes was part of Trump's MAGA schtick.
I don't think it's the Neocons as much as Israel sweet talking Trump into what he thought would be a quick win..
This is why I never want Portugal to win things with the theatrics and play acting. They are truly the worst team in the world for it.
That is up against some seriously stiff competition.
The ones that get me are the ones who scream and then pretend to be weeping in agony - it's not convincing, and they usually get a foul without it (even genuine fouls), so I really don't know why players add that level of theatricality which just harms their dignity to no benefit.
Saw one faking the other day (someone stepped on their foot after winning the ball, probably hurt a bit but that's football), everyone played on, and they faced the difficult choice of what to do. In the end they just laid down for around a minute, at which point the ref kind of had to stop play and make sure they really were ok, but that's real dedication to take out nearly 1% of your entire match because you're too embarrassed to get up when the faking didn't work.
"I'm considered racist. I'm considered right-wing. I'm neither.
"I've got brown grandchildren, and I've got a black, Namibian goddaughter."
This Reform-turned-Restore voter in Makerfield says her family think she's a "right-wing nut-job"
An example of a probably reasonable person driven a bit mad by social media. Very unlikely to be any happier for it but it has made the likes of Musk and Zuckerburg a fortune. Tax and regulate the pushers.
I'm profoundly grateful that social media did not really take off massively until I was at and after university, and so it basically passed me by.
Whereas my 76 year old dad is never off Facebook somehow.
"I'm considered racist. I'm considered right-wing. I'm neither.
"I've got brown grandchildren, and I've got a black, Namibian goddaughter."
This Reform-turned-Restore voter in Makerfield says her family think she's a "right-wing nut-job"
An example of a probably reasonable person driven a bit mad by social media. Very unlikely to be any happier for it but it has made the likes of Musk and Zuckerburg a fortune. Tax and regulate the pushers.
If social media didn’t exist, what would she be saying?
About 175,000–180,000 votes remain unresolved, and Keiko Fujimori leads by 36,889 votes.
After losing 3 times on around 48-49.5% of the vote I'd almost want her to win just for sake of feeling sorry at her for getting so close.
But then Peruvian politics seems to be absolutely barmy, so a) I'd have no idea who might be better for them or b) any confidence whoever wins will still be there in a year.
About 175,000–180,000 votes remain unresolved, and Keiko Fujimori leads by 36,889 votes.
After losing 3 times on around 48-49.5% of the vote I'd almost want her to win just for sake of feeling sorry at her for getting so close.
But then Peruvian politics seems to be absolutely barmy, so a) I'd have no idea who might be better for them or b) any confidence whoever wins will still be there in a year.
"I'm considered racist. I'm considered right-wing. I'm neither.
"I've got brown grandchildren, and I've got a black, Namibian goddaughter."
This Reform-turned-Restore voter in Makerfield says her family think she's a "right-wing nut-job"
I think Restore will struggle to get more than 5% tomorrow.
5% would be something, given they were basically unknown beyond political anoraks, being a minor vehicle for someone kicked out of Reform. But they've set their own expectations preposterously high, and convinced a load of american right wingers that they are on the cusp of taking over the UK, so 5% would be quite the disappointment after that.
This is why I never want Portugal to win things with the theatrics and play acting. They are truly the worst team in the world for it.
That is up against some seriously stiff competition.
The ones that get me are the ones who scream and then pretend to be weeping in agony - it's not convincing, and they usually get a foul without it (even genuine fouls), so I really don't know why players add that level of theatricality which just harms their dignity to no benefit.
Saw one faking the other day (someone stepped on their foot after winning the ball, probably hurt a bit but that's football), everyone played on, and they faced the difficult choice of what to do. In the end they just laid down for around a minute, at which point the ref kind of had to stop play and make sure they really were ok, but that's real dedication to take out nearly 1% of your entire match because you're too embarrassed to get up when the faking didn't work.
I have seen a few broken legs etc at Leicester. When players are genuinely injured they lie still, apart from signalling with a hand for help. Anyone rolling or thrashing about is faking it. They confirm this when they sprint away immediately afterwards.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
Trump did not want to overthrow the Iranian regime, or not until he was talked into it. That was the Neocons. No foreign wars, no forced regime changes was part of Trump's MAGA schtick.
He certainly leapt on it when offered though, so I doubt he believed his own schtick. It just sounded better.
This is why I never want Portugal to win things with the theatrics and play acting. They are truly the worst team in the world for it.
That is up against some seriously stiff competition.
The ones that get me are the ones who scream and then pretend to be weeping in agony - it's not convincing, and they usually get a foul without it (even genuine fouls), so I really don't know why players add that level of theatricality which just harms their dignity to no benefit.
Saw one faking the other day (someone stepped on their foot after winning the ball, probably hurt a bit but that's football), everyone played on, and they faced the difficult choice of what to do. In the end they just laid down for around a minute, at which point the ref kind of had to stop play and make sure they really were ok, but that's real dedication to take out nearly 1% of your entire match because you're too embarrassed to get up when the faking didn't work.
I have seen a few broken legs etc at Leicester. When players are genuinely injured they lie still, apart from signalling with a hand for help. Anyone rolling or thrashing about is faking it. They confirm this when they sprint away immediately afterwards.
Yes, when a player actually gets injured everyone reacts very differently. Poor commentators are obviously not allowed to say someone is out and out faking, so they have to be euphemistic about making a meal of it etc.
It's embarrassing and I don't know a single fan of the game who likes it, yet it's just accepted as part of the game, like timewasting* and Fifa being corrupt, even though since everyone hates it it should be easy to stop.
*which the world cup has, sporadically, actually tried to address, to their credit. Albeit consistently would be better.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
My pet hate is when I get a long pdf of the accounts for the charities that I am Trustee of. The AI comments that it is a long document and would I want a one page summary. The answer is No, I want the detail.
I am yet to find AI useful for anything yet it is drowning us in slop, that gets in the way of real content.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
Companies are so desperate to make use of it and justify what they spend on it that they insist upon it well beyond what is useful. I genuinely wouldn't get as mad if it at least let you choose to activate such things, but when I'm getting prompted to use AI to draft my email when I just want to say "Yes, that date is fine" it's just irritating - let me know it's there, and how to turn to it when I want.
This is why I never want Portugal to win things with the theatrics and play acting. They are truly the worst team in the world for it.
That is up against some seriously stiff competition.
The ones that get me are the ones who scream and then pretend to be weeping in agony - it's not convincing, and they usually get a foul without it (even genuine fouls), so I really don't know why players add that level of theatricality which just harms their dignity to no benefit.
Saw one faking the other day (someone stepped on their foot after winning the ball, probably hurt a bit but that's football), everyone played on, and they faced the difficult choice of what to do. In the end they just laid down for around a minute, at which point the ref kind of had to stop play and make sure they really were ok, but that's real dedication to take out nearly 1% of your entire match because you're too embarrassed to get up when the faking didn't work.
I have seen a few broken legs etc at Leicester. When players are genuinely injured they lie still, apart from signalling with a hand for help. Anyone rolling or thrashing about is faking it. They confirm this when they sprint away immediately afterwards.
Yes, when a player actually gets injured everyone reacts very differently. Poor commentators are obviously not allowed to say someone is out and out faking, so they have to be euphemistic about making a meal of it etc.
It's embarrassing and I don't know a single fan of the game who likes it, yet it's just accepted as part of the game, like timewasting* and Fifa being corrupt, even though since everyone hates it it should be easy to stop.
*which the world cup has, sporadically, actually tried to address, to their credit. Albeit consistently would be better.
I may be wrong, but it seems in every other sport, people try and pretend they're *not* hurt, because they don't want the other team to see them as weaker.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
My pet hate is when I get a long pdf of the accounts for the charities that I am Trustee of. The AI comments that it is a long document and would I want a one page summary. The answer is No, I want the detail.
I am yet to find AI useful for anything yet it is drowning us in slop, that gets in the way of real content.
I did get some use out of AI the other day in figuring our steps to make an old game which has not been maintained work, as the answer is usually buried in some ancient reddit thread somewhere, but that's mainly a consequence of Google Search actually being pretty shit now (the consequences of monopoly perhaps) and the AI search actually being functional.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
It's almost like they've forgotten all the lessons they (should have) learnt from the infuriating paperclip 20 odd years ago.
England are playing Croatia in an air-conditioned stadium - will the still have advert hydration breaks?
I feel like there must be a part of the Fifa agreement with the US broadcasters as part of the world cup deal, that they must break the game up into quarters to make it more accessible to casual US viewers.
If it is not part of the deal then it was probably an unofficial part of it.
This is why I never want Portugal to win things with the theatrics and play acting. They are truly the worst team in the world for it.
That is up against some seriously stiff competition.
The ones that get me are the ones who scream and then pretend to be weeping in agony - it's not convincing, and they usually get a foul without it (even genuine fouls), so I really don't know why players add that level of theatricality which just harms their dignity to no benefit.
Saw one faking the other day (someone stepped on their foot after winning the ball, probably hurt a bit but that's football), everyone played on, and they faced the difficult choice of what to do. In the end they just laid down for around a minute, at which point the ref kind of had to stop play and make sure they really were ok, but that's real dedication to take out nearly 1% of your entire match because you're too embarrassed to get up when the faking didn't work.
I have seen a few broken legs etc at Leicester. When players are genuinely injured they lie still, apart from signalling with a hand for help. Anyone rolling or thrashing about is faking it. They confirm this when they sprint away immediately afterwards.
Yes, when a player actually gets injured everyone reacts very differently. Poor commentators are obviously not allowed to say someone is out and out faking, so they have to be euphemistic about making a meal of it etc.
It's embarrassing and I don't know a single fan of the game who likes it, yet it's just accepted as part of the game, like timewasting* and Fifa being corrupt, even though since everyone hates it it should be easy to stop.
*which the world cup has, sporadically, actually tried to address, to their credit. Albeit consistently would be better.
The worst timewasting that I have seen at Leicester was from Burnley. They were a goal up and one of their players was tackled (fairly) on the touchline and fell over. They then rolled over several times so they were back ON the pitch, then thrashed around like a dying fish. The physio came on and they wasted about 5 minutes.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
It is overhyped rubbish. And won’t replace any/many jobs.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
It's almost like they've forgotten all the lessons they (should have) learnt from the infuriating paperclip 20 odd years ago.
What would be funny is if all the companies competing to spend the most on AI models and datacentres go through all this, and then it turns out to be pretty easy and cheap (relatively) to create new ones to compete, meaning the big boys cannot reap the rewards anywhere near as much as they think they will as they won't be able to dominate.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
That's the big issue, AI is good at some things but it's being forced into areas where it's just a pain in the arse and adds no value. Microsoft at least has started to reverse this and is steadily removing most of the pointless Copilot integration.
As for it going away, well OpenAI lost $34bn last year, $20bn of that just on general operations. They are a financial basket case, and Anthropic is little better.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
It is overhyped rubbish. And won’t replace any/many jobs.
Certainly not the way most average companies seem to be going about it, which appears to be little more than:
- buy a load of Copilot licences - repeatedly tell your employees to get using AI - ?????? - profit!
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
My pet hate is when I get a long pdf of the accounts for the charities that I am Trustee of. The AI comments that it is a long document and would I want a one page summary. The answer is No, I want the detail.
I am yet to find AI useful for anything yet it is drowning us in slop, that gets in the way of real content.
I did get some use out of AI the other day in figuring our steps to make an old game which has not been maintained work, as the answer is usually buried in some ancient reddit thread somewhere, but that's mainly a consequence of Google Search actually being pretty shit now (the consequences of monopoly perhaps) and the AI search actually being functional.
Google is now deliberately shit. They know that if you find your search result quickly then you aren't looking at their adverts for long. If they string you along with poor results and paid for placings they get more adverts.
Evening from Spoons. I may be an AI luddite. I am utterly sick of having it rammed down my throat. A few examples:
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly 2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile 3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done 4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
My pet hate is when I get a long pdf of the accounts for the charities that I am Trustee of. The AI comments that it is a long document and would I want a one page summary. The answer is No, I want the detail.
I am yet to find AI useful for anything yet it is drowning us in slop, that gets in the way of real content.
I'm finding AI (Gemini) useful in all sorts of simple ways in connection with our self-build; e.g. clarifying building regulation specifics, comparing materials, even helping selecting the right plants for specific garden locations.
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Mind, there's a bloody big flag in Greggs' window.
Promote derbyshire and Young
Get rid of Vine
Promote Deheney
Farage has repeatedly predicted an early general election yet his candidate in what would have been one of the top target seats had clearly received no training.
And if Reform are unprepared for an election how do they expect to manage as a government.
The chances of either side keeping their word is minimal in the medium term and zero in the long term.
So I’m sure they told Trump he’s made a fantastic deal and are just relieved at this point .
https://bsky.app/profile/cameroncorduroy.bsky.social/post/3moihcsuz2s2g
Lots of big talk followed by little action.
Followed by more war on and off.
Fortunately the Middle East is becoming less and less important to the rest of us.
"I'm considered racist. I'm considered right-wing. I'm neither.
"I've got brown grandchildren, and I've got a black, Namibian goddaughter."
This Reform-turned-Restore voter in Makerfield says her family think she's a "right-wing nut-job"
About 175,000–180,000 votes remain unresolved, and Keiko Fujimori leads by 36,889 votes.
The Warsh era of the Fed has begun. In an unusually short statement, the FOMC unanimously voted to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.5-3.75%.
Whether it's AfD in Germany, One Nation in Australia, Trump in the US, or FN in France, parties across the West are turning to alternatives who promise a crackdown.
It would benefit Peru, to send them Liz Truss. Her command of economic matters would be a vast improvement.
The ones that get me are the ones who scream and then pretend to be weeping in agony - it's not convincing, and they usually get a foul without it (even genuine fouls), so I really don't know why players add that level of theatricality which just harms their dignity to no benefit.
Saw one faking the other day (someone stepped on their foot after winning the ball, probably hurt a bit but that's football), everyone played on, and they faced the difficult choice of what to do. In the end they just laid down for around a minute, at which point the ref kind of had to stop play and make sure they really were ok, but that's real dedication to take out nearly 1% of your entire match because you're too embarrassed to get up when the faking didn't work.
Whereas my 76 year old dad is never off Facebook somehow.
But then Peruvian politics seems to be absolutely barmy, so a) I'd have no idea who might be better for them or b) any confidence whoever wins will still be there in a year.
1) Accounting platforms where it gives you suggestions for what the transaction may be which are almost always wrong. Takes longer to delete what Quickbooks / Sage / Revolut / Tide have autocompleted than to just do it directly
2) YouTube Studio. I am offered "comment reply suggestions" to most comments left on my channel. Can't switch this feature off, uses screen space, especially on mobile
3) Have just completed a trial of Monday.com for my business. Spent c. 8 hours on it, plus a few more doing planning etc. Trial about to expire so lets set our subscription. Not only do they force you to pay for users you don't have, you must buy AI tokens for those people you don't have. And in 2 weeks the number of AI tokens we have used on trial is zero. A cost increase of 50%. And of course you can't opt out. Other than binning the entire platform which we have now done
4) Microsoft won't let you remove Copilot. Endless intrusion on apps like Powerpoint, even down to the minor irritation of having to dock the logo thing so its not on the slides I am working on. WhatsApp won't even let you do that - the Meta AI symbol takes up screen space and you can't remove it
I'm being driven mad by AI. Please make it go away.
It's embarrassing and I don't know a single fan of the game who likes it, yet it's just accepted as part of the game, like timewasting* and Fifa being corrupt, even though since everyone hates it it should be easy to stop.
*which the world cup has, sporadically, actually tried to address, to their credit. Albeit consistently would be better.
I am yet to find AI useful for anything yet it is drowning us in slop, that gets in the way of real content.
If it is not part of the deal then it was probably an unofficial part of it.
As for it going away, well OpenAI lost $34bn last year, $20bn of that just on general operations. They are a financial basket case, and Anthropic is little better.
- buy a load of Copilot licences
- repeatedly tell your employees to get using AI
- ??????
- profit!
Is it just me, or have most of the so-called minnows at this World Cup played rather well, even if they ended up losing?
Burnham 'would reject' cabinet job