xenomor

Don’t forget that Apple is the Silicon Valley company that’s built its brand on being all concerned about “privacy”, lol.

What exactly is wrong with Silicon Valley culturally? I ask this, as someone who works in Silicon Valley.

It’s the growing suspicion that all of the time effort and knowledge we are sacrificing is actually making the world worse and hurting people.

Please please please understand that when you see media stories about stuff like this from AI companies, this is PR. They wrote this story and pitched it to media outlets. None of this is real. OpenAI does some version of this every six months or so. It didn’t happen. It’s fiction designed to attract attention and seed the idea that their technology is oh so powerful, so scary powerful that even they might not be able to contain it. This is meant to attract investors. That’s it.

I worked in technology PR for eleven years. That was before the AI bullshit, but it’s the same game. Believe me. There was a brainstorm meeting when they came up with this and someone wrote it on a whiteboard (or maybe these days it was a figjam). Actually, now that I think of it, they probably just had Claude write the pitch.

It. Didn’t. Happen.

Also, be aware that the media outlets reporting this slop also know it’s bullshit.

Be aware that if your city cancels its contract with flock, that doesn’t mean the cameras cease operating. It just means that your city cops probably don’t have direct access to the data. As long as they are physically installed, the cameras are still tracking you and violating your rights.

Serving capital has been the primary organizing function of the Democratic Party for at least the last 40 years.

The bright headlight thing has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. So, I’m glad to hear that government is apparently trying to fix it. That being said, why would anyone assume that a company like Tesla would comply with this regulation? That company has a long history of violating and flouting laws without consequence. I just have no confidence that US society does “laws” anymore when it comes to corporations.

It’s useful because it’s literally true. The stock hit its all time low. That interesting if the stock is decades old, and it’s interesting if the stock is weeks old. Whatever a person imagines has no bearing on any of that.

If it’s the lowest it’s been to date, it’s literally a record low. Calling it that is accurate and usefully descriptive.

To be more precise about it, the local governments are seizing people’s land on behalf of the power companies, not the companies themselves as implied by the headline. My point is that we should not let the governments and the elected officials off the hook here. To the extent that we’re doing democracy anymore, there’s presumably a mechanism to stop more of this.

It is working perfectly as intended. It is intended to facilitate fascist authority, siphon wealth from municipalities, and help make cops feel tough so they can more efficiently lord over their communities.

I hope so. They have not done that in the city where I live despite ending their contrite flock. People need to agitate with their local government to take this additional step.

Please be aware that unless they physically remove the cameras, ending the agreement only removes local cop access to the data. Unless they physically remove the cameras, the cameras are still operating, tracking everyone, and violating everyone’s rights. Don’t settle for anything less than actual physical removal of the cameras.