jdw

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jdw
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  • J.D. Vance shouldn't open his mouth about Apple if he doesn't have a clue

    All information is biased and underneath is some basis in truth unless the source is outright lying. Hiding from sources you disagree with because you don't like the truth doesn't make you clever. It makes you ignorant and if anything, more biased. The only news sources you have left are conspiracy theorists and people willing to say anything to line their pockets.

    Whatever you believe, I wouldn't side with the ones actively trying to remove rights from its own citizens in the so-called "land of the free." White cis men with middle class or better incomes might have fared better under Trump, but no one else did. Women's rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and people of color's rights all suffered, and things would only get worse as Trump plans to attack child care, health care, social security, and retirement because he and his see government assistance as "socialism."

    The only ones that benefit from Trump are rich stock holders and business owners, which thanks to systemic racism, is majority white.

    I used to respect the Republican Party until it died and was replaced by the racist, hate filled MAGA extremists. There's nothing left of the old party. Just brainless sycophants that can't say anything bad about Trump on TV or else get razed on the failed Truth Social by the man on his gold toilet watching Fox News.

    If me wanting to see a better America where all of its citizens can prosper no matter their race, religion, or gender is "leftist propaganda," I'd hate to see what people think the country should be like. It's time for us to love our neighbor and mind our own damn business.

    BTW: The people talking about the pet thing, it's a proven hoax. The person initially spreading the lie said they never had firsthand knowledge of anyone doing it. The so-called secret bodycam footage is old and from an incident that didn't occur in Springfield nor did it involve an immigrant of any kind. Talk about propaganda, the pet eating stuff is classic racist nonsense meant to drive people to hate a specific group of people. It dehumanizes the group so you don't feel so bad when you drive them from their homes. But I suppose it's hard to know the facts if you ignore all the sources that report the news.
    This is my rebuttal to Wesley and to the 12 people who clicked Like on his post in support of what he wrote.

    That defensive argument, written by a journalist, saying that "all info is biased" is poppycock in that not all info is EQUALLY BIASED!  That is key.  Anyone who read and properly understood my earlier post about the bulk of American "journalism" (which is often more "entertainment" than true journalism), is so biased it falls into the category of "propaganda."  Yes, the same term we use for the government-controlled news media of North Korea.

    Next, the statement that says "hiding from sources you disagree with because you don't like the truth" is also poppycock for the same reason.  Such a ridiculous statement can basically be used to chastise anyone who refuses to listen to North Korea state media because those folks are somehow "hiding from the truth."

    As I said, most mainstream media in America has a strong Liberal Left slant to it.  But even the news which is on the right is also strongly biased.  This wasn't always the way the media in the USA behaved.  It has slowly grown to be this way over time.  And no surprises, really.  Media outlets are for profit businesses that get higher ratings and more viewers when then feed their readership's/viewership's baser instincts (bad news and controversy attracts more flies than good news), so they are constantly driven to say the outrageous and thereby inflame the passions of a populace which is already polarized beyond words.

    My desire to avoid news sources that dish out fodder for fools doesn't make me a fool or more biased. For example, I don't need to better my life by researching every aspect of mass murder in order to know murder in general is wrong.  We can be highly selective about what news sources we view and still be a sufficiently-informed and respectable human being.

    So to argue that I should in fact be reading or watching MSNBC (and the like) for an objective take on conservative Republicans (for example) is laughably ridiculous.  Equally ridiculous would be for me to investigate an objective take on Kamala Harris by way of FOX news.  Even so, with the vast majority American media outlets being predominantly left/liberal, it's impossible to not get fed some of their propaganda from time to time, even when trying to avoid it.

    As to "conspiracy theorists and people willing to say anything to line their pockets," according to your "we shouldn't hide our eyes" philosophy, it would appear you would want us to read that stupidity too.  At least, it would seem we should, if in fact your advice is 100% consistent.  But because I dislike your advice, I shall make attempts to hide my eyes from those crazies as well.  And don't get me started on the Flat Earth nutcases!

    Your use of "cis men" reveals your political biases rather clearly. Your post also attacks Trump rather forcefully.  That tells me that future articles written by you here on AppleInsider will be infused with your strong biases when it comes to political matters.  

    Whether we like it or not, nearly half of American voters seem willing to vote Mr. T. this November, so whenever I see people slamming the x-President, I see them also slamming every voter interested in supporting the man for President.  Of course, you did more than just that, Wesley.  You labeled nearly half of America (those wanting to vote for Trump) as "MAGA extremists."  That sort of callous brashness is precisely why America has become so polarized.  

    Lastly, you ended your post on "the pet hoax," but the reality is that the so-called moderators of the second Presidential debate sought to moderate only Mr. Trump with real-time fact checking, and they did not call out the Vice President on anything she said which was an untruth.  That leaves the viewer to believe everything she said was truth.  And this is why real-time fact checking only really works to inflame passions, rather than inform.  Interjecting fact-checking for only one of the two candidates is yet another example of bias intended to swaying voter opinion.  It's therefore rather amusing so many have expressed past concerns about Russia or foreign election interference, when the US mass media does more to impact the vote than any other organization or government on earth.

    So how do we dispense with that all that negativity and follow the sage advice of Rodney King in order to "get along"?  Well, we must first discard the bad advice which tells us to view all sources of news equally.  Indeed, if we all turned off our TVs and stopping gobbling down every piece of so-called "news" cast in our direction, we would be friendlier and happier over all.  We would have fewer accusations to make against others.  Of course, having a heart of compassion and love for our fellow man is key to getting along too.  But much of the time, our love waxes cold when we allow our eyes and minds to be fed with "propaganda" prancing around as "news."

    If "a house divided cannot stand," and I believe that to be truth, what hope is there of America in the long run if we don't seek to shelter our thoughts and minds from bad things and fill our minds with good?  Therefore, let us be highly selective about what we consume, and seek to treat our neighbor with the same love and respect as we would want them to direct toward us.
    RobJenk
  • Upcoming M4-based Mac mini rumored to replace USB-A with more USB-C ports

    Marvin said:
    Keeping support for it on computers is what keeps manufacturers making the products with USB-A. 
    You and I and everybody else in this thread are mainly talking about Apple here, not the PC world.  And even when we talk about PCs, we're talking to eachother — Apple users.  Since the world is dominated by Windoze (proper spelling) PCs, what goes on in that dark and silly world impacts us in the Mac world.  For that reason (and despite the silly remarks of Chasm), USB-A really is here to stay, whether we like it or not.  And even though you did say "All computer manufacturers should start dropping USB-A," what we say in this forum doesn't dictate what the Pee See (correct spelling) world will do, nor will a decision by Apple to drop all USB-A ports on the Mac Mini dictate what the Windoze PC world will do.  And so, if only Apple is dropping USB-A, and if we still are blasted with USB-A devices for years to come, the need for a USB-A port to avoid another STUPID DONGLE is key.

    By the way, I just bought the single best 1TB Thumbdrive SSD today on Amazon only 1 hour ago, and guess what?  The connector only comes in USB-A.  Check it out too, because it beats any other thumb drive out there.  Pretty incredible.  And yeah, I'll need to use a STUPID DONGLE with it on my 16" M1 Max MBP, although my 2015 5K iMac at the office can accept USB-A without dongles.  I may buy a Mac Mini in the near future, so all this talk has meaning for me.  I would buy an M4 Mini with or without a USB-A port, but I would be FAR HAPPIER with it.  And honestly, it doesn't matter to me of the rest of you feel differently.  I buy things for my own satisfaction, not any of yours.

    And there you have it.
    muthuk_vanalingamRobJenkwatto_cobra
  • Paid Apple Intelligence features won't come until at least 2027

    ChatGPT4o, is the most brain dead stupid thing to come along in quite a while.  Sure, it does a few things surprisingly well, but it makes enormous mistakes of epic proportions every single time I use it. And when I attempt to correct it, it foolishly apologizes and then rephrases its stupid errors.  When I tell it repeatedly that it is in error, it repeatedly apologizes but never learns.

    When I use ChatGPT via Bing (which I often do after my freeloader time limit for GPT4o runs out), it too makes mistakes. And when I get pissed off at it and give it a piece of my mind, silly Bing suggests I change the topic and a new session begins.  Totally hilarious that Bing is protecting ChatGPT!

    Every single time I use ChatGPT4o in Chrome (which is the most reliable browser for it), at times when it gives me a clickable link, the link will never open when I click on it.  That forces me to tell it to give me links in plain text.  Why plain text?  So I can copy/paste it into a browser's address bar myself.  That's a work-around the "can't click the text link" bug, but quite nearly 100% of the time, when I finally am able to open the link, it yields a 404 or totally unrelated info.  It's maddening!

    I am also not inclined to trust ChatGPT because it lies.  Because of it's blatant lies, I almost always ask it for links to its source info.  And that is how I know the links are bogus.  I sometimes believe what it tells me is true, but without a link to source info, I cannot trust it 100%.  I become especially doubtful when it gives me a link that leads to totally unrelated topics.

    I mainly want to use ChatGPT to search the web faster and easier than I can Google something, asking it to check multiple sources.  Sadly, most of the time GPT4o misses info I know exists.  I often test ChatGPT based on what I know is out there on the web and is easily found by Googling.  Often times it misses that info when it does its own searches, and then comes back and tells me something wrong or incomplete.

    I truly hate ChatGPT a lot of the time because it lies so often.  For example, I've recently been comparing OLED TVs and soundbars.  It tells me certain specifications that simply are not true.  When I point out its error, it apologizes and deletes the single error line, and then just repeats the rest it told me before.

    Why do I even torture myself by continuing to use the stupid thing?  Because it sometimes does a decent job in very specific situations like summarizing text or rephrasing.  I prefer that use case because I am good enough in the English language to know if what it tells me is good or not.  But in other cases where I am looking for facts I don't know to be true, it often lies; and even when it doesn't lie, I try to get links to source info, but those links never work.

    So it's a real love-hate relationship, but more hate than love.

    It is totally and utterly laughable that governments and people around the world are afraid of AI.  Yeah right!  Maybe 100, 200 or perhaps 300 years from now it might be worthy of such fears, but at the moment it's not that far ahead of brain dead Siri.  It's no different than the fake promise of "self driving cars." That's not going to happen in my lifetime.  Truly autonomous driving means no human intervention is EVER needed, and you can drive in any situation, like mountain driving in the snow with sunlight reflections hitting the snow and blinding you occasionally.  Or driving on dark roads that aren't marked with paint.  Or driving off-road in the dirt.  Nope.  No matter what these car companies say, what they have now is little more than a joke.  It gives you a great first impression, but using the tech for a while shows how ridiculous it is.  

    The PROMISE of AI is great, but it's far, far in the future before we can sit back and experience true "intelligence" that's "artificial."  What we have now in the world of AI is barely useable.  It's more entertainment than anything else.

    I write all this to say that if Apple CHARGES MONEY for such digital stupidity, I certainly will not be lining up for a subscription, They have a LONG way to go before its worthy of dedicated fees and special charges.  We're very much in the R&D stage right now.  I say this in the hope of something far superior to what we have now, while at the same time, I am a realist too.  It's not great now, and it probably still won't be that great 10 to 20 years hence.  We need a real technological breakthrough to make a huge leap in usability.
    muthuk_vanalingamVictorMortimer
  • End of an era: Apple's SuperDrive has finally sold out after 16 years

    People are pretty funny.  Glad I am not going with the flow.  I just recently ordered a Panasonic UB820 region-free 4K Blu-ray player from 220 Electronics. 4K streaming can't touch the quality of a 4K Blu-ray, and when you've got lots of DVD and Blu-ray content on disk, a fair amount that isn't streaming anywhere, you still have a need for a good player.  I purchased it because I recently purchased a new LG C3 48" TV (WOLED).

    Speaking of which, Apple really needs to consider how to get more involved in the home theater market.  Two Homepods operated by an Apple TV 4K has a lot of promise to unseat sill soundbars from their lofty thrones, but the cost is two homepods plus Apple TV 4K is too high, and add to that it doesn't support DTS formats, which are big on physical media.  Yeah, Apple is into streaming, but like I said, there's a lot of content that isn't streaming yet, and the fact remains a lot of us in our 50's have a good amount of content already purchased on disc as it is.

    The only thing I am glad about is that our DATA isn't on disc formats at all anymore.  Optical drives are plainfully slow when it comes to that. But playback for audio or video stuff is still perfectly acceptable.

    And if your wondering about the UB820, yeah, it's top notch, especially for upscaling DVD and 1080p Blu-ray content to 4K.
    muthuk_vanalingambaconstangAndy.Hardwakewatto_cobraOctoMonkeydanoxmaltzAlex_V
  • Apple is ignoring Congo's accusations over conflict materials, say lawyers

    Innocent until proven guilty. 
    A lot of people believe that as truth, but it is only truth in a strictly LEGAL sense.  In other words, it is true only in the way that lawyers, judges or courts think, which is NOT how you, I and everyone else think.

    Consider someone who is ACCUSED of a crime but not yet PROVEN GUILTY in a court of law.  That person could be kept confined in jail for various reasons, through their court date.  How is that possible if they are truly INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY?  Because "innocent until proven guilty" is only in a legal sense, not in a true sense.  

    If the accused must be treated as a truly 100% innocent person until a court proves them guilty, then no one could or should be kept behind bars until their court date, for any reason.  "This person is a flight risk" or similar should never be used to lockup a truly INNOCENT person or party.  But it happens all the time due to the fact that INNOCENCE is not defined in a way that most people think.  The definition of that word "innocent" has a special meaning as defined by the legal system.  You can't define the word in the normal way.

    This is why most people don't understand that you are NOT "innocent" at all until proven guilty, as per the fact you could be put in jail by a judge at any time, even before the court proves your guilt.  "Innocent until proven guilty" is effectively an illusion.  It doesn't truly exist. Only if the law prevented a judge from throwing you into jail UNTIL you are proven guilty can it be said that you are truly being treated as an "innocent" person until your guilt is proven.  

    (The caveats of not throwing dangerous people in jail until their court dates is irrelevant to this discussion which focuses on what "innocence" really means.  We are explaining the term and the phrase here, not seeking to defend or otherwise change the legal system.)
    9secondkox2beowulfschmidt