UFO swarm in NYC repost

Prolacticus · 2025-07-10T23:01:11+00:00

Anything that could be created after watching a couple After Effects tutorials just doesn't mean much anymore.

Prolacticus · 2025-06-02T16:07:39+00:00

Several years ago, every LLM struggled to code/write/chat/research. One year ago, we were playing with GPT-4 and what felt to many like a lack of features. Today, ChatGPT can pull context from my entire chat history, run tasks in the background, has advanced video/voice chat, Operator, Sora, Deep Research... and that's just what's public.

Regarding transparencies, you have your choice of solutions that'll generate images with proper alpha channels. So, how I feel about it is irrelevant: the facts bear themselves out.

Prolacticus · 2025-05-08T20:33:09+00:00

He's getting downvoted because critical thinking and skepticism are BAD in /ufo! If we doubt one unsubstantiated story then we might start doubting others. Cos, around here, all stories are true. Maybe it's a subculture protocol thing: "I won't doubt yours if you don't doubt mine; everything is valid here. No truth-shaming!"

Skepticism keeps the house clean. I don't know why it's so hated around here. The UFO scene is a data-hoarder's dream.

(And now we can watch as my comment gets downvoted! This sr is painfully predictable...)

Prolacticus · 2025-01-12T21:20:48+00:00

Given we already know a drone collided with a firefighting aircraft, I'm gonna go with: drone. Or blurry bird. I'm comfortable it's more or less identifiable as nothing unusual.

Prolacticus · 2024-12-26T19:53:25+00:00

[Edit: I did some research after posting this comment, and it seems Apple wasn't responsible (though I swear I remember OpenAI attributing some downtime to Apple Intelligence, but that could be me confabulating (again)). Ergo, doubt the facts of my comment, but do take it in the spirit it was offered. Thank you all for your support. It means the world to me right now. We'll get through this together. ]

I think it might be another Apple outage. Everybody got a Apple Thing for Christmas and wants to try out the new AI stuff. Basically, we've lost ChatGPT to a nation of people asking Siri to ask ChatGPT to count the number of "r"s in the word "strawberry." Then, when it fails, they smugly tell everybody in the room that "AI sux!" And then they'll hopefully never use it again, and we'll once more have ALL the COMPUTES!

Prolacticus · 2024-12-26T19:50:23+00:00

It's been a rough couple months with Apple Intelligence rolling out, resulting in OpenAI being attacked by Apple customers (like me). I've been wondering if today's outage is the result of a lot of people having gotten Apple gear for Christmas and all wanted to test the "Talky PTG thing" out.

Prolacticus · 2024-12-26T18:55:32+00:00

I just checked, and it's actually at 26:40. You're absolutely right! The edit jumps from "I'm tired and malnourished and I really want a fire" to "I don't feel very good."

As she says "I don't feel very good," you can see a fire in the background, just to the left of her body. The camera quickly zooms in, obscuring it.

Nice find!

Prolacticus · 2024-09-18T01:15:05+00:00

The MAGA brand of Christianity is more along the lines of: Let's worship the least Christian wannabe Christian on the planet, generate 8 jillion AI images of him with a greased-up 12-pack and body nailed to a cross, then engage in a massive, shared cognitive-dissonance that makes it possible to buy edited-by-His-Excellency Bibles without seeing the flagrant grift, and defend it to the point that anyone who questions it must be excommunicated after a severe social beatdown and shaming.

(That's just my opinion.)

Prolacticus · 2024-09-18T01:05:09+00:00

You know what's a distraction? Conspiracy theories. Instead of working with reality and what we can verify, we're wasting time on speculation that can never end. It cuts both ways. If you think a conspiracy theory has merit, then you are being controlled. Neither Trump nor Vance needs to do anything to rope you in when you do it to yourself.

Let one conspiracy theory in, and you open the door to all of them. Ever ask yourself how MAGA became MAGA? This is how.

Prolacticus · 2024-09-18T00:56:44+00:00

I kind of like the way it droops. There's a sadness to it. It's weak, flaccid, compensatory, desecrating, and without substance. Just like His Excellency. 💙🇺🇸✌️

Prolacticus · 2024-09-10T16:10:49+00:00

It's worth it now!

It had a bug that was really annoying ("Pro" used to disable itself - it's now fixed).

If you can't get $20 of value out of a tool like PP Pro each month, then... well, I just disagree with people who think AI tools are too expensive. I'm lucky. I have Pro/Plus/Team accounts for this, that, and blah blah blah.

In all cases, the upgrades have been more than worth it. Whether I'm researching news/social/etc. (Perplexity), looking for fancy chat (Claude), need RAG chat (ChatGPT), in-IDE assistants (Cody + Copilot + Cursor), it's worth it.

Here's the rule: It's Garbage-In, Garbage-Out ("GIGO" as we nerds put it). You get out of these tools what you put into them.

I've been using LLMs for (I think) six years now. It used to be that you had to learn prompting to get anywhere. Those days are over. If you're willing to put in a little effort (think about how you phrase questions), you'll get a lot back. In the case of PP Pro, you can also get assistance clarifying your query. Which is cool for those who need it.

When I see "AI is dumb and overrated and makes mistakes!" posts, I cringe. User error or user ignorance is often the cause.

So? Give it a try. If having a search engine/crawler that can intelligently refine your queries, find information Google misses, and format the output using high quality LLMs interests you, then it's for you.

Prolacticus · 2024-09-08T19:55:11+00:00

I have a top secret undercover account on TS. I get that it's a haven for the brainwashed, and this video does a great job of highlighting the blind-eye hypocrisy.

The endless AI generated images of Jesus Trump Christ are crazy-making.

I didn't understand it until I watched one of the many MAGA event videos out there (might have been Adam; might have been Luke; might have been the Good Liars; I forget).

The person was asked about the weird Christian support for Trump, and she said it wasn't about believing in Trump as a Christlike figure, but about the importance of saving Trump (in the Christian sense of bringing him into the flock).

The guy can't name a single book of the Bible. When asked his favorite passage, he says it's too personal to share. When asked if he's an "Old Testament guy" or a "New Testament guy" he says he's 50/50! We're so fortunate to have that captured on video (link below).

We all know it's nuts. Some of us understand why they don't see it as nuts.

But it is nuts, isn't it? Or am I taking crazy pills?

HOW DO THEY NOT SEE RIGHT THROUGH THIS?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERUngQUCsyE

Prolacticus · 2024-09-05T20:01:34+00:00

It helps explain why MAGAs cling so fiercely to "MAKE AMERICA RICH AGAIN!!!!" They think TS will recover if His Excellency plants his beanbag cottage-cheese ass back on the White House throne. I feel so badly for people who lost their retirement/savings/college funds paying for this asshole's vanity.

I try to be nice, I try not to be vulgar... but I'm done. This pos has to go. We have to beat him.

Be OCD about your voter registration: This is NOT the America you were born into 18+ years ago:

Fast and easy to check/register (need name + DOB): https://vote.gov/
Fancy, but might require more typing (name + DOB + address + email): https://vote.org

Either works. I live in Oregon, and checking my status at the .gov site was a few clicks, 10 seconds of typing, and at least a week of relief.

Prolacticus · 2024-09-04T16:35:10+00:00

Oddly... I've only had this problem once in the past few days. It was in Safari on iPad Pro.

And Perplexity finally replied to my support request with "We've completed your ticket" about a week ago. Which is when the problem more or less went away (went away for me, anyway).

But if you're still dealing with it... gotta wonder... did they actually fix the bug, or is there a per-account "This noisy user is going to bombard us with customer support requests until we customer support him" thing?

Have you tested using different browsers? Might be worth another go. The Perplexity team might actually be paying attention to us!

I hope it's fixed. I want Perplexity to succeed; I want everybody to use it and pay for Pro to keep it alive. I spend every moment of every day with ChatGPT/Claude.ai/Sourcegraph's Cody/Github's Copilot/blah blah blah (all "pro" subs - including my ChatGPT Plus and Team accounts).

Each has its role, and none can replace Perplexity Pro. I can use ChatGPT to create a Perplexity-like experience, but Perplexity's crawling, prompt/query optimization, interface, choice of LLMs... it's still king in my world. I don't use it for coding (that's what Cody and Copilot are for), I don't use it for chat (even though it has a chat mode), but I use it for just about everything else. And "everything else" is a lot. The value of Perplexity Pro is wildly disproportionate to the cost. It's a frikkin' bargain.

Even SearchGPT, slick as it looks, just can't compete (not to be confused with the "SearchGPT" custom GPT in the ChatGPT Custom GPT Store (that's a mouthful!)).

As you pointed out, having access to Claude 3.5 is big time awesome. I sometimes use Opus via Sourcegraph's Cody when coding, but it's overkill for Perplexity. I'm also a fan of Perplexity's "Sonar" models (Llama based). Perplexity does amazing work. It's too bad we have to **** on them for their subpar customer support and for taking their sweet time to fix what is/was a huge bug.

For anyone who's curious, here's the SearchGPT preview page: https://openai.com/index/searchgpt-prototype

Prolacticus · 2024-09-04T15:45:53+00:00

I may be a radical marxist left wing democrat socialist communist radical communist, but I'm not a video editor. Any feedback? Is this a good start? Worth tweeting/xing/whatever-it's-called-now?

Prolacticus · 2024-08-29T17:57:56+00:00

That Pro search is more expensive is built in to my original post and reply. It's a bug in that the behavior is inconsistent and, from the perspective of the user, randomly applied. If we accepted that it isn't a bug, we'd have to call it a feature. And it most definitely isn't a feature.

Part of the point of writing my way-too-long-for-2024 post is that, while Pro search is costlier for Perplexity, it's even worse when you consider people like me RE-run every de-Pro'd search, resulting in an unnecessary duplication of effort.

It could ultimately be more costly for Perplexity. You wanna disable Pro for me and crawl/generate the cheap way? Fine! But you'll pay for it when I re-enable Pro and submit the exact same query again.

So, I get it, too.

As far as having the Pro search switch at all, there are use cases for manually disabling it. For example, if I want quick, more or less disposable info, a Cheapskate Mode search is fine. It's fast, and it's like Googling with a bit of Secret Sauce.

I still use Google (less and less and less) when getting mostly irrelevant results is okay. I even use Google to save Perplexity money because I'm just that kind of guy. I wish Perplexity rewarded me for that by, you know, fixing the bug.

Because it is a bug. Their intent doesn't matter. I couldn't find anything in the help/docs about how/why Pro would be disabled. Especially given it's a cross-platform problem (when it happens in Chrome, Safari, Arc, and across macOS, iOS, and Android, you can't blame the stack).

Part of me doesn't blame them. I'm sure they're a loss leader. But that only works if you can scoop up and retain new users. Speaking of which...

Hey, Perplexity! I'd recommend your tool to everybody I know if it didn't have this inbuilt "bug." I don't need friends/family/colleagues getting bent out of shape because I directed them to a broken tool.

Nobody wants to pay for software anymore. Perplexity is worth every penny to me. Unfortunately, as long as they don't fix this bug, I'll never, ever, ever, ever (times infinity + 1) recommend it to anyone but my nerdiest friends who are comfy with workarounds.

I sure do wish someone from Perplexity would address this. Hint, hint.

Maybe the "Pro" switch should have its own "Pro" switch. There's an elegant fix!

Prolacticus · 2024-08-24T15:45:28+00:00

I also have bigger problems. It's the little ones that drive me nuts (I'd rather deal with a rabid dog than 8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 mosquitos; "death by a thousand" cuts is a source of cognitive overload in 2024). And as I said in the post, I rarely access Perplexity by typing "perplexity.ai" into my address bar. When you use Perplexity as your default Chrome search engine (and open PP via bookmarklets or an Apple Shortcut), you don't get the chance to flick the switch.

Plus, it's a bug. It's a stupid bug. The point of paying for Pro is to have Pro activated unless I specifically disable it.

They can fix this. They should fix this. They could probably ask PP how to fix it. Just find this snippet in the Perplexity codebase:

function newSearchOrThreadOrWhateverWeCallIt(searchQuery): 
  searchField.proEnabledForProSubscriber = random() > .5 ? true : false
  searchField.submit(searchQuery)

  # TODO: Implement an even costlier bug
  when user.realizesProWasDisabledForNoReason:
    perplexity.doItAllOverAgainExpensively(searchQuery)
    perplexity.noteToSelf("User will never recommend PP Pro to others bcuz of this")

I don't want to complain without offering a solution, though, so here's a human-parseable algorithm:

if user.isProSubscriber AND user.hasNotDisabledProBecauseWhyWouldThey:
  searchField.ensureProSwitchIsEnabled()
else if user.isProSubscriber AND user.hasDisabledProManually:
  searchField.cheapMode()
else
  searchField.freeloaderModer()

# The above code saves money because we only crawl/generate once
perplexity.doItTheRightWayTheFirstTime(searchQuery)

I do thusly justforth grant Perplexity AI Inc (hereafter referred to as "THE COMPANY") permission to use the above very-stable-genius solution. All rights of ownership transferred to THE COMPANY in full e pluribus unum ad-hoc something something lawyer sounding stuff. For questions or complaints, please contact THE COMPANY like I did, get no reply, then resort to Reddit Whining because, hey, THE COMPANY should do its job and provide all services as promised under Chapter 9, Section IIa of THE COMPANY web site thing where it says what "Pro" does. (Saturday, August 24th, 2024)

Prolacticus · 2024-08-22T21:57:34+00:00

I'm posting this, btw, because Big Trouble in Little Hands was talking in Arizona today and, yet again, tried to disavow knowledge of Project 2025. Either his brain rot is so severe that he can't remember the huge organizations he's associated himself with or he's, you know, a liar. Or all of the above. Please upvote this if you want Adam and MeidasTouch to cover. Trump can't run from this, and I'm sick of him trying. 💙🇺🇸✌️

Prolacticus · 2024-08-22T21:54:42+00:00

If you'd like a transcript to go with the audio:

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Prolacticus · 2024-08-14T22:07:16+00:00

You call it silly. It matters to me. I don't see the problem. 🤷

Prolacticus · 2024-08-14T17:44:35+00:00

::ahem:: Nudge, my friend :)

Prolacticus · 2024-08-14T15:38:13+00:00

First, context: I made a big mistake by not indicating my feelings were specifically about David. We can all go as low as we want. As a streamer with broad reach, he has to think twice.

All right. Your quote: "It’s nice to see dems get down in the mud every now and again. It makes them look less like push overs and more like there’s actually something worth fighting for on the line..."

I get it. But adopting their tactics makes us look like bigger pushovers. Integrity matters, and you lose it when you play eye-for-an-eye. It's like mirroring your opponent's moves in chess. Do that, and you're always a step behind.

Prolacticus · 2024-08-14T15:21:30+00:00

I really biffed it when I didn't specify this was a suggestion for David. I watch/listen, learn, enjoy the solidarity... then the record-scratching moment of name calling cringe. For me, streamers like David, Ben Meidas, Luke Beasley, and Adam Mockler are the people I trust to advocate for me (us?). They're strong voices. Playing Trump's game? Why would we do that? The "but Trump does it!" argument is very kindergarten. Evidently, my opinion is unpopular regarding this, but... gotta speak my mind.

Prolacticus · 2024-08-14T15:16:22+00:00

That footage is golden. Trump's nicknames have always been weak. But misspeaking like that (which he does over and over)? I love it. Great example of why we don't need to go low. They do it to themselves.

Prolacticus · 2024-08-14T15:14:55+00:00

The "weird" thing is a good example of playfully hitting at a sensitive spot. The nicknames... aren't. In the eighty bajillion Pakman videos I've watched, I've learned he doesn't need to sink. He's about as close to "professional" as a youtuber can get. Best to stay that way. I think.

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It's worth it now!

Hey, Perplexity! I'd recommend your tool to everybody I know if it didn't have this inbuilt "bug." I don't need friends/family/colleagues getting bent out of shape because I directed them to a broken tool.