If there is another service between me and Google which isolates me from BigTech's trackers, that's even a lot better.
49 karma · joined August 3, 2023
If there is another service between me and Google which isolates me from BigTech's trackers, that's even a lot better.
Yes. That's just what I said, right? In the end, you have no clue what energy drink, shaver, VPN or whatever they were going to sell you. ^^
But for random topics like 'Clip Art' or 'Supersonic Trebuchets', I think I don't want to read the full transcript either. :) It's going to be a lot of text, and most of it is drivel and padding.
In that regard the knowstash.ai summary was indeed exactly what I wanted!
>> Give it a text box, so I can ask it stuff > This is going to use AI as well.
Well, sure it does. But you are trying to connect two considerations together here that weren't meant to have any connection. I don't want the text box as a mitigation against inaccuracy.
Maybe (particularly for larger videos), I have some questions that are not answered by the summary (that's the point of a summary). And maybe the model can give me some helpful answers.
And it will have the same dangers of being inaccurate when AI has a bad day. And that's still fine for me for random YT clips passing by.
That's absolute a great service. I think I've seen a similar one (or exactly this one??) in the past already.
Some minor pitfalls that I personally see:
- There is AI involved, so you can never actually be sure how accurate it is. For the typical YouTube clip that flies by (we had supersonic trebuchets and whatnot), that's absolutely fine. Of course it is, because so far, not consuming them at all was also absolutely fine for me.
- If this is an online service, privacy-wise the solution is still not perfect. Admittedly: It's an improvement anyways, because it's then not Google anymore but just fbunau who builds a profile of my habits. At least assuming that you do not eventually sell me to Google.
Things that I could imagine for some version 2 or 3:
- Give it a text box, so I can ask it stuff like "did the video clip mention ...?" or "did in go deeper in ...?" or maybe just "what do you think how old is that influencer and how competent does [s]he feel? Does it even make sense to read the recap or should I move on right away?" or whatever comes to mind.
Admittedly, that'd absolutely be just nice-to-have. If that's not aligned to your big plan, just forget it.
- Have a browser add-on that automatically replaces inline YT players with the recap text. (I've seen you have a Chrome add-on, but I haven't tried whether it actually does that or not, admittedly (it WOULD work on Firefox as well, I guess?))
In general, please don't count on my as a potential future customer. Constantly checking whether I still have enough coins inserted and constantly inserting new ones would already be too much of a hassle for me, I guess. And I wouldn't want that automated either.
I'm just not good as a customer. Last time my bank invited me in order to "upgrade" my bank account to a more comfortable one with higher fees, I left the bank with a cheaper one instead. :D They've never invited me again...
Personally I'd also need to get used to the term "YouTube companion". I don't like BigTech and I try to avoid it. I don't want a "YouTube companion", but a "YouTube displacement", or a "cure for a disease called YouTube that polluted the www". :) But, yeah, in the end, that's just wording.
I really like the basic idea of that service, though! And I wouldn't say so if it wouldn't be true.
Ideally, you would find lots and lots of customers in the first place, so articles on websites will become actual articles again, and not just a trap that teases you to some inline YT player in the bottom. And then we all don't need such summaries anymore. The web is cured again at that point. Ideally you've earned enough money until then! ;)
I'm not the one who asked for the summary. I just don't want to constantly watch video clips for statements worth a few lines of text. And I try to avoid BigTech. So what I'll definitely not do is clicking arbitrary random YouTube links that flood the web. So far I can definitely continue living absolutely fine without all the wisdom entrenched in all these clips.
... but if someone or something is able to give me a quick textual summary, even better.
And that doesn't even include the particular problems of "centralized" social media, where some oligarchs control which posts go up and which go down.
If you expect any particularly clever reaction from that society, for anything, you'll be quite disappointed. If you want that your friends constantly bug you with what they found on Instatoktube (a.k.a. 'indirect influencers') and not much more beyond that, this is absolutely what society can give you, though.
I can remember times when, in FOSS forums or audiences like here, it was veeeery unpopular to not praise Facebook, Google, etc.
That's good news! You (<- i mean: people) make some actual progress!
PS: Well, I know, this isn't happening because you got smarter. There are some external factors that force you to understand. A bit more with every day. But, anyways; it's progress!
So, well, I don't like fascists. But if Facebook now makes use of the fact that you gave our world to them, it's hard to blame them for that.
People failed in that regard. Not Facebook. They succeeded. People failed.
That's at least how it begins.
I'll maybe read some more of it in the evening...
I don't care. On that machine, there is NOTHING going on that I own (all of that is the IP of someone else).
Such a machine, with Windows, MS Teams, MS Whatsoever, Symantec Whatsoever, Cloud Office, Cloud Ticket System, Cloud Wiki, ..., ..., ... doesn't get more trustworthy just by using Firefox. They run a continuous MitM attack against all https connections that I make (and a lot of your employers do the same)!!! You can polish turds, but you cannot make that environment a trustworthy one.
I would never touch that machine for anything remotely "personal". On the other hand, for work, I don't care. I'll use the default browser, and if the default browser is MS Edge, I'll not spend ANY effort into working around it. That wouldn't be "passionate", but just stupid imho. YMMV of course depending on the employer and other factors.
And if there is a page full of ads, and it overwhelms me too much, well, I'll make a walk to the coffee machine and come back when I'm ready for it. It's that easy.
Future scientist will find out: Most of the weaknesses AI has come from Reddit, Instagram and Youtube being part of the training material. Sure it makes the training material broader by a large degree. But not deeper, to say it nicely.
Since two decades they decide what goes up and what goes down, by means of their algorithms. And basically nobody complained so far (well, around 12 people on earth did - one of them is me).
It was completely okay for you since then. It was never a big topic. You were absolutely fine with that.
And now they just went one step further and removed something completely because they disliked it (well, who knows how often they already did, but it just never went public enough?!).
... and that's not even stupid. Because they know one thing that some of you didn't realize yet: You'll have forgotten it in a week as soon as public attention moves to next week's big bummer.
It's not even their fault that you misunderstand Facebook as a public space since two decades. It isn't. It never was. It's a commercial website. They let you upload your pointless vacation photos. That's basically it.
In contrast to what people think, Facebook IS NOT public infrastructure.
If Meta removes some content from Meta website, and you don't like that, it's a you problem, right?
There is a bar that scares you off so much that you wouldn't even go in. So there must be something fundamentally wrong with it. It's not just not your favorite beer, but you absolutely avoid even to enter. There must be a strong reason for that, right?
What people are then important enough to watch through the windows? I mean, at first, you just make a fool of yourself. Just imagine the analogy. That's exactly xcancel and friends, right? And then, don't forget: These people explicitly do not share your view in a matter fundamental and important enough for you to not enter the bar.
Are they friends? I can't imagine friendships with these differences really need that deep devotion.
Are they politicians? Maybe there are enough media around you that already preprocess the conversations at the Nazi bar for you?
Wider community (around your job, hobby, ...)? That's probably the most challenging one. But still, wouldn't it be definitely the goal to push them to better places? I know it's not a matter of a day or two, but why couldn't we at least agree on that goal, and then start acting in some way?
btw: This is not specific to X or Musk imho. There are other networks out there that aren't in control of such a madman today, but they share a lot of problematic properties.
Or should things be like that?
My only explanation would be to imagine all down-voters as chain smokers when they get involved into discussions whether smoking is a good thing.
Either these people are important enough to you, and you don't disfavor the platform soo much. Then visit that platform.
Or you dislike the platform so much that you even wonder why these people are there. You definitely don't want to be in contact with the platform. If so, then give up these people.
There's no free lunch, right? You also (typically) cannot buy steak, but then somehow not pay the money by showing some fake credit card. That would typically involve crime, right?
Make decisions, guys!!! Make decisions!
Your cat and mouse games are embarrassing...
And that doesn't get better in any way just by downvoting me. ;) ;) ;)
Either you cancel X. Meaning: NOT consuming X content.
Or you just visit X.com.
Right? Right?
Anyways, in such cases, I would try to get more competent hardware, instead of proudly advertize it in my email signature. Also, yeah, she was as competent as our mobile networks or our railway. When I subscribed the contract, she was making fun of another tenant who failed transferring money and then came with lame excuses like 'the bank account number was invalid'. In a very unfriendly German rich grandma way of making fun. Turned out when I tried to transfer the first rent: The bank account number was invalid... Well... At least she was precise with the mobile phone she had (not so much with its spelling, though). :)
The email signature of my former landlord was like that:
..... Phone: 012345 I-Phone: 543210
Funnily, that wasn't some US girlie, but a German grandma. Maybe she got some bad US food on some journey and it made her brain rot away. Yessss, of course, as a bonus, it's a somewhat uncommon way spelling... But, yeah...