bayarearefugee (u/bayarearefugee)

bayarearefugee commented on How I code with AI on a budget/free wuu73.org/blog/aiguide1.h... · Posted by u/indigodaddy

1dom · 15 days ago

> So yes, it is free.

This sounds pedantic, but I think it's important to spell this out: this sort of stuff is only free if you consider what you're producing/exchanging for it to have 0 value.

If you consider what you're producing as valuable, you're giving it away to companies with an incentive to extract as much value from your thing as possible, with little regard towards your preferences.

If an idiot is convinced to trade his house for some magic beans, would you still be saying "the beans were free"?

bayarearefugee · 14 days ago

I understand the point people are trying to make with this argument, but we are so far into a nearly universal scam economy where corporations see small (relative to their costs of business) fines as just part of normal expenses that I also think anyone who really believes the AI companies aren't using their data to train models, even if it is against their terms, is wildly naive.

bayarearefugee commented on How AI conquered the US economy: A visual FAQ derekthompson.org/p/how-a... · Posted by u/rbanffy

onlyrealcuzzo · 18 days ago

1. People aren't going to take on risk and deploy capital if they can't get a return.

2. If people think they can get an abnormally high return, they will invest more than otherwise.

3. Whatever other money would've got invested would've gone wherever it could've gotten the highest returns, which is unlikely to have the same ratio as US AI investments - the big tech companies did share repurchases for a decade because they didn't have any more R&D to invest in (according to their shareholders).

So while it's unlikely the US would've had $0 investment if not for AI, it's probably even less likely we would've had just as much investment.

bayarearefugee · 17 days ago

> 1. People aren't going to take on risk and deploy capital if they can't get a return.

> 2. If people think they can get an abnormally high return, they will invest more than otherwise.

Sounds like a good argument for wealth taxes to limit this natural hoarding of wealth absent unreasonably good returns.

bayarearefugee commented on The Collapse of the FDA nytimes.com/2025/07/08/ma... · Posted by u/littlexsparkee

Amezarak · a month ago

I don't think any convincing is needed.

https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1793144103800361050

> We are one of only two countries in the world that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers on television. Not surprisingly, Americans consume more pharmaceutical products than anyone else on the planet.

> As I told @JoePolish, on my first day in office I will issue an executive order banning pharmaceutical advertising on television

Unfortunately, this is probably illegal. See cases like United States v Caronia.

bayarearefugee · a month ago

> Unfortunately, this is probably illegal.

Since when has something being illegal/unconstitutional stopped the current administration from doing anything?

So its still a choice they are making, just one that further shows that with the current administration (and ultimately SCOTUS with their shadow docket bullshittery) the rights of corporations are protected far more than the rights of individuals.

bayarearefugee commented on Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP arstechnica.com/tech-poli... · Posted by u/LorenDB

wijwp · a month ago

That's not true. I tried getting unlimited data like 7-8 years ago and they said I needed a business account to get it.

bayarearefugee · a month ago

What ISPs offer and how much they offer it for tends to vary wildly region to region.

If you live in a region where they have no meaningful competition (which is still fairly common in a lot of places in the US) well bend over and lube up.

bayarearefugee commented on Nvidia Becomes First Company to Reach $4T Market Cap cnbc.com/2025/07/09/nvidi... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

chubot · 2 months ago

One meta-lesson is probably that sustained effort by the same people or same culture matters

i.e. maybe you need “two hits” to become this big, separated by ~2 decades

For nvidia, it was graphics and then programmable GPUs (CUDA)

For Apple, it was GUI desktops and music players/phones

Google is up there, but I’d argue it’s closer to “one hit”, and limited by the founders stepping back and turning the company into an investment conglomerate, rather than being mission-based

When the founders leave, efficiency and creativity seem to be slowed by competing factions of upper management, often working at cross purposes

I’d say that in the best cases, institutional knowledge can build over 2 decades, but it’s also very possible to lose it

bayarearefugee · 2 months ago

Another lesson is to try to be incredibly lucky.

I'm not suggesting this is all luck, Nvidia has executed very well and their early investments in programmable GPUs really paid off as a result, but a lot of their insane valuation now is due to crypto and then LLMs which are basically two back to back once in lifetime goldrushes where Nvidia happened to be the best positioned shovel seller.

You can run a company well to prepare to ride such a wave should it appear, but you've also got to be born with horseshoes up your ass for this to work out as well as it has for Nvidia

bayarearefugee commented on Largest Wildlife Bridge Spanning 10 Lanes of CA 101 Is Nearly Complete thedrive.com/news/worlds-... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

bhaney · 2 months ago

> shows that infrastructure can be built in reasonable time lines

This bridge for deer took 3 times longer to build than the Empire State Building.

bayarearefugee · 2 months ago

5 people died constructing the Empire State Building.

0 people died constructing this bridge.

I guess if you think working class people's lives aren't important then the human cost doesn't matter to you, but for non-sociopaths it does matter.

bayarearefugee commented on I Built a Celebrity AI Image Generator(No Registion Needed)– Would Love Feedback aicelebrity.design/... · Posted by u/Rersk

bayarearefugee · 2 months ago

The generated images are awful, downloadable local models can do a much better job than this.

And then on top of that the entire premise of this website is existentially flawed, either nobody gives a shit about your website and it fades into quick obscurity or it becomes popular and you get sued into the stone age by any and all celebrities whose likeness your model is appropriating (and the agencies that represent them, various creative unions they are part of, etc).

FWIW the former is the actual path this will take because of the low quality of the generated images, so that's actually the best outcome for you.