Everything is Shit: Tracking the Great Enshittening

[gofuckyourself 8208]

I found myself grabbing my phone far too often so I'm experimenting with weaning off it by grabbing my Kindle instead and reading when I sense doomscrolling start.

There are too many highly useful apps like navigation, music (which is enshittified, but whatever), smart thermostat features, weather and banking etc to go to a dumb phone again.

But intentionally going away from it has significantly helped my mood and noticing others are, in fact, (somewhat) alive around me.  

[troph 24781]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Wait…you’ll look at pictures of boobs in…regular old paper magazines? No man, I’m not going back like that.

um, I grab my own? I mean I wish I had three hands but it works just fine with two, one up top, one down below.  #lifeenhancement #NOTtheGreatEnshitification

Edited June 19 by troph

[Brisketexan 105082]

17 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

The Blackberry circa 2008 or so is about the sweet spot.  I loved that phone.  Easy as hell to type on -- I used to type long ass legal memos or email responses when needed.  Battery lasted forever.  Durable and no need for case.  You could access the internet for necessities but the interface was shitty enough that there was no way you would be staring at it all day.  Good mapping feature.  If you could add music to it, I would go back to it in a heartbeat.

 

I kept my Blackberry for WAY longer than most people.  Of course, one of the chief reasons was 1) it was one of the few phones that did NOT have a camera, and 2) at that time, all of the Federal courthouses still had a "no camera" rule, so if you had any other smartphone, you had to leave it outside.  F that, I wanted a phone that I could have in the courtroom, send messages to my staff, get emails of documents on, etc.

At the time, the two main apps I had were 1) a tide chart (gotta know when the tides are when you go surf fishing) and 2) weather radar, which was handy because my toddler daughter was terrified of thunderstorms, so if we heard thunder, she had me check the radar so she could know what was coming.

Tactile keyboard was superior, too.  

3 minutes ago, troph said:

um, I grab my own? I mean I wish I had three hands but it works just fine with two, one up top, one down below.  #lifeenhancement #NOTtheGreatEnshitification

Yeah, like every other dude....if I had sweet boobs, I'd never leave the house.

[troph 24781]

52 minutes ago, HendersonHorns said:

I went to a dumb phone about a year ago. I lasted about 3 months because of the texting. It’s…..  so much difference going back to that style of texting. 
 

it drove me crazy. You might have different results, so good luck if you decide to go that way. 

I'm on fb/insta 20 mins a day right now, I do like the banking, spotify, waze, smart home apps, youtube tv. but that's close to it. I looked at that light phone, if it could run spotify and some smart home stuff I'd strongly consider it. I guess I could live without smart home and have a dedicated small device (a phone) for smart home apps around the house.

I probably just need to keep putting the phone down. I've radically reduced social media and need to keep moving toward a full withdrawal and cancelling of my social media accounts.

[troph 24781]

14 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

 

Yeah, like every other dude....if I had sweet boobs, I'd never leave the house.

well the need for obsessive masturbation did end with the unceremonious cleansing of what I call excessive testosterone, so not same/same. need for self pleasure dropped by 95% I'd say. so I may not leave the house as much, but it's not for that reason.

[HendersonHorns 85]

2 hours ago, troph said:

I'm on fb/insta 20 mins a day right now, I do like the banking, spotify, waze, smart home apps, youtube tv. but that's close to it. I looked at that light phone, if it could run spotify and some smart home stuff I'd strongly consider it. I guess I could live without smart home and have a dedicated small device (a phone) for smart home apps around the house.

I probably just need to keep putting the phone down. I've radically reduced social media and need to keep moving toward a full withdrawal and cancelling of my social media accounts.

I found my iPad helped a lot. You of course can get everything app wise on it. 
 

Should have saved that IPod nano from 2006 (may be way off).  
 

we are so attached to these things. I hate it. 

[elfenix 34227]

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

 

Tactile keyboard was superior, too.  

Best typing experience and also best messaging inbox, though it was prior to constant text spam so maybe it wouldn't work these days

[safe sex 11702]

T9 texting supremacy. Could walk, talk, and text without making a single typo or running into something.

[HenryJames 66038]

https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/17/us-sues-adobe-for-hiding-termination-fees-and-making-it-difficult-to-cancel-subscriptions/

Quote

Adobe shifted to a subscription model in 2012 and started requiring consumers to pay for access to the company’s software on a recurring basis. In the past, users could access the company’s software after paying a one-time fee.

 

[Surly Bevo 24908]

 

[Captain Ron 12872]

I wish threads would embed because this post perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with the enshittening.

 

https://www.threads.net/@quinncummings/post/C8Xe7kHPxUc

 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10230]

9 minutes ago, Captain Ron said:

I wish threads would embed because this post perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with the enshittening.

 

https://www.threads.net/@quinncummings/post/C8Xe7kHPxUc

 

gotcha (video at least)...comments are great too:

 

[Captainant 27640]

56 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

gotcha (video at least)...comments are great too:

 

 lmfao at the end - "how did you become a multi-millionaire?" ... "oh, that's easy! I sit on the board of my father's oil and gas company"

[elfenix 34227]

It's a tiktok which embeds, or you can download the video and attach it to the post. No Threads required 

[Serak The Preparer 3431]

12 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

 

Not enshitiffication related (except for the existence of Picard season 2, hey yo) so delete thread ban user, etc., but she will always be high in my heart for her Star Trek alcohol rap.

 

[HenryJames 66038]

[Brisketexan 105082]

5 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

I just heard a sound, like a million neckbeards jizzing their pants...

[Incredulity 11657]

Whoever it was above in the thread who called out the AI facade being placed over the failure of old software was spot-on.  It's been a small bit of humor calling out this reality to salespeople showing up with their latest and greatest "AI" recently.

 

So a quick thank you to that poster.

[HenryJames 66038]

They need to stop calling it AI. It's large language models.

[Brisketexan 105082]

31 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Whoever it was above in the thread who called out the AI facade being placed over the failure of old software was spot-on.  It's been a small bit of humor calling out this reality to salespeople showing up with their latest and greatest "AI" recently.

 

So a quick thank you to that poster.

I'm just tickled at how "Now featuring AI!" is required for the marketing of literally ANYTHING tech-related.  If they still sold those nerdy watch calculators from back in the 80s, the box would 100% say "NOW WITH AI!"  

"People like that AI....maybe we should get us some!"

[choripan 790]

42 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Whoever it was above in the thread who called out the AI facade being placed over the failure of old software was spot-on.  It's been a small bit of humor calling out this reality to salespeople showing up with their latest and greatest "AI" recently.

 

So a quick thank you to that poster.

Username yep.

[Biff Tannen 45665]

14 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

They need to stop calling it AI. It's large language models.

It’s a google search that puts results into sentences. 

[Brisketexan 105082]

5 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

It’s a google search that puts results into sentences. 

Yep.

I remember years ago, when Westlaw changed it's favored search mechanism from the old "terms and connectors" boolean search to "natural language."  So, if you wanted to know what the case law says about whether counties have immunity from suit on breach-of-contract claims, you would now just type in "do counties have immunity from suit on breach-of-contract claims."  The problem is, that gives you like 1,000 results, and how those results are prioritized often doesn't make sense.  Or, you could stick with a boolean search, and do "county /5 immun! /7 breach" and maybe run that same search adding " /10 waiv!" to see if immunity had been waived.

I still search using boolean searches, guided by decades of experience and knowledge about how opinions are written.  I regularly ask younger lawyers to find a case on subject X, and they hit a dead end or find very little.  Then I do a boolean search and in two minutes come up with half a dozen cases directly on point.  An experienced human knows how to ask the question better than the LLM does, and that remains the case.

It's getting better, though -- the generative AI on platforms like Lexis can give you a good (and valid, as in it cites cases that actually exist) start on writing some things.

[Captainant 27640]

4 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

  An experienced human knows how to ask the question better than the LLM does, and that remains the case

Said more directly, the neural network between your ears has better data and training than the NN that westlaw is trying to sell you

[elfenix 34227]

7 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.

I remember years ago, when Westlaw changed it's favored search mechanism from the old "terms and connectors" boolean search to "natural language."  So, if you wanted to know what the case law says about whether counties have immunity from suit on breach-of-contract claims, you would now just type in "do counties have immunity from suit on breach-of-contract claims."  The problem is, that gives you like 1,000 results, and how those results are prioritized often doesn't make sense.  Or, you could stick with a boolean search, and do "county /5 immun! /7 breach" and maybe run that same search adding " /10 waiv!" to see if immunity had been waived.

I still search using boolean searches, guided by decades of experience and knowledge about how opinions are written.  I regularly ask younger lawyers to find a case on subject X, and they hit a dead end or find very little.  Then I do a boolean search and in two minutes come up with half a dozen cases directly on point.  An experienced human knows how to ask the question better than the LLM does, and that remains the case.

It's getting better, though -- the generative AI on platforms like Lexis can give you a good (and valid, as in it cites cases that actually exist) start on writing some things.

west was completely blindsided by LLM.  they had nothing in the pipe, which was why they sent out desperate emails assuring everyone they were hard at work on it.  and then they just bought casetext. 

[Brisketexan 105082]

8 hours ago, elfenix said:

west was completely blindsided by LLM.  they had nothing in the pipe, which was why they sent out desperate emails assuring everyone they were hard at work on it.  and then they just bought casetext. 

And when you put that together with their incredibly arrogant pricing....you see why a shitload of people and law firms have switched to Lexis in the last couple of years.  Let your product ossify, do little to improve it or keep up, and charge twice what your leading competitor charges....if you were to write a book on "how to lose business," Westlaw's last few years would get a chapter.

[hookemATL 11707]

16 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

Yep.

I remember years ago, when Westlaw changed it's favored search mechanism from the old "terms and connectors" boolean search to "natural language."  So, if you wanted to know what the case law says about whether counties have immunity from suit on breach-of-contract claims, you would now just type in "do counties have immunity from suit on breach-of-contract claims."  The problem is, that gives you like 1,000 results, and how those results are prioritized often doesn't make sense.  Or, you could stick with a boolean search, and do "county /5 immun! /7 breach" and maybe run that same search adding " /10 waiv!" to see if immunity had been waived.

I still search using boolean searches, guided by decades of experience and knowledge about how opinions are written.  I regularly ask younger lawyers to find a case on subject X, and they hit a dead end or find very little.  Then I do a boolean search and in two minutes come up with half a dozen cases directly on point.  An experienced human knows how to ask the question better than the LLM does, and that remains the case.

It's getting better, though -- the generative AI on platforms like Lexis can give you a good (and valid, as in it cites cases that actually exist) start on writing some things.

I think you just want to type/say “Boolean” bc it’s a funny and silly word that sounds like a magical elephant with a pierced clit. 

[Brisketexan 105082]

Just now, hookemATL said:

that sounds like a magical elephant with a pierced clit. 

[Frank Drebin 5661]

14 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

And when you put that together with their incredibly arrogant pricing....you see why a shitload of people and law firms have switched to Lexis in the last couple of years.  Let your product ossify, do little to improve it or keep up, and charge twice what your leading competitor charges....if you were to write a book on "how to lose business," Westlaw's last few years would get a chapter.

We just switched to Lexis.  It is about half of what Westlaw charges.  And I use their AI as a starting point on legal research.  Like this morning I had a client ask if they as a LP under Delaware law could sue to force a buyout for oppressive conduct by the GP (and majority equity holder) when the LPA contains no provision.  Lexis AI got me the answer in 10 seconds.  And it was right.

It is just a starting point and you better confirm, but so far it has been a very nice tool.

WL's natural language search was garbage, and I never used it.  Boolean all the way.

[Captainant 27640]

3 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

We just switched to Lexis.  It is about half of what Westlaw charges.  And I use their AI as a starting point on legal research.  Like this morning I had a client ask if they as a LP under Delaware law could sue to force a buyout for oppressive conduct by the GP (and majority equity holder) when the LPA contains no provision.  Lexis AI got me the answer in 10 seconds.  And it was right.

Lexis has done actual work on fine tuning models and keeping their knowledge bases fresh and up to date. They've been at this since before the advent of LLM's and genAI and actually have built a pretty solid product, whereas westlaw is just playing buzzwords and trying to retrofit something to keep up (on paper)

[Frank Drebin 5661]

What is LLM?  Is it a type of AI?

[Brisketexan 105082]

3 minutes ago, Frank Drebin said:

What is LLM?  Is it a type of AI?

Large Language Model.  It's how computer machines make a show of doing the human talk.

[Deej 76756]

31 minutes ago, hookemATL said:

a magical elephant with a pierced clit

Are you trying to summon Vic Mackey?

[Captainant 27640]

2 hours ago, Frank Drebin said:

What is LLM?  Is it a type of AI?

Large Language Model, which is the "new hotness" that most people refer to when they say "AI". It's the tech that underlies chatGPT and Gemini (Google) and Llama (Meta). It's incredibly compute and data intensive to produce a well-trained and usable foundational model like the big tech companies have, which have literally 70 billion parameters per inference (response to a query).

The mathematics and tech that underlies LLMs is modeled after how the neurons in our brains work together to create context-rich associations between complex concepts. The end result feels like magic, but it's in actuality just a finely tuned mathematical equation 

 

Edit: I shared this in another thread, but this is an excellent and deep explanation of what an LLM is and literally how it works

 

 

Edited June 21 by Captainant

[HenryJames 66038]

https://www.wired.com/story/perplexity-plagiarized-our-story-about-how-perplexity-is-a-bullshit-machine/

[Mikey4 2476]

I haven't used Lexis in over a decade. Guess I should try it. Westlaw's AI is hot garbage, at least in terms of substantive legal analysis. It's scary how bad it is.

[Biff Tannen 45665]

19 hours ago, Captainant said:

The end result feels like magic, but it's in actuality just a finely tuned mathematical equation 

I guess if three card Monty is your idea of magic, then yes. 

[Neonmoon 38129]

On 6/20/2024 at 5:46 PM, Biff Tannen said:

It’s a google search that puts results into sentences. 

It’s an important step because most people are really stupid and lazy.

[Armybrat 40826]

On 6/19/2024 at 10:23 AM, Brisketexan said:

I kept my Blackberry for WAY longer than most people.  Of course, one of the chief reasons was 1) it was one of the few phones that did NOT have a camera, and 2) at that time, all of the Federal courthouses still had a "no camera" rule, so if you had any other smartphone, you had to leave it outside.  F that, I wanted a phone that I could have in the courtroom, send messages to my staff, get emails of documents on, etc.

At the time, the two main apps I had were 1) a tide chart (gotta know when the tides are when you go surf fishing) and 2) weather radar, which was handy because my toddler daughter was terrified of thunderstorms, so if we heard thunder, she had me check the radar so she could know what was coming.

Tactile keyboard was superior, too.  

Someone could make a fortune if they revived the Blackberry with that tactile keyboard combined with smartassphone features. 
Us olds would love it, and everyone with fat fingers (a growing demographic) too.

[Armybrat 40826]

Is this farce a result of Lexis or Westlaw reasoning?

https://setexasrecord.com/stories/660527590-justices-reinstate-suit-claiming-whataburger-employee-carrying-condiment-tray-collided-with-woman

[Captainant 27640]

3 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

Is this farce a result of Lexis or Westlaw reasoning?

https://setexasrecord.com/stories/660527590-justices-reinstate-suit-claiming-whataburger-employee-carrying-condiment-tray-collided-with-woman

Wait so the appeals court is siding with the woman who sued but brought no evidence of substance to back her claims? Wtf? 

[TwiceHorn 31440]

On 6/21/2024 at 9:38 AM, Brisketexan said:

Large Language Model.  It's how computer machines make a show of doing the human talk.

Also known as big fuckin neutral network with a lotta nodes and extensive training.

[HenryJames 66038]

1. lol

2. would

[Parliament 14249]

I know some PhD's who are blithering morons.  You can get better advice from the degens on this board.

[Beau Vine 54209]

44 minutes ago, Parliament said:

I know some PhD's who are blithering morons.  You can get better advice from the degens on this board.

hi34

[Brisketexan 105082]

hi34

I believe that Surly University offers a doctoral program in degeneracy.

[Beau Vine 54209]

1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

I believe that Surly University offers a doctoral program in degeneracy.

I'm the program director.

[HenryJames 66038]

[Rudiger 1160]

3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I believe that Surly University offers a doctoral program in degeneracy.

With a minor in muledick.

[Biff Tannen 45665]

3 hours ago, HenryJames said:

And then it locks you outside the space capsule.