#don't rely on someone else's computer for important data

[pendragyn]

The "Cloud" is just someone else's computer.

Computers fail, connections fail, payments don't go through, password get lost, accounts get hacked, so have a local backup.

There are drives that you can connect to your phone to backup pictures and other files.

Both Google and iOS have apps for downloads onto computers.

Mozilla Thunderbird is an email program that lets you download your email onto your computer, works with Gmail and Yahoo and others, and saving and transferring them to a different computer is easy.

as an informal way to backup my writing, I email myself a copy after any big updates using a couple different addys. (yes I should backup onto a separate drive but some days I don't have the energy and this works well enough.) Came in handy when I needed to backtrack, and especially when my local file was unrecoverable after a crash.

HEY!

Back up your computer!

Go get the external drive you bought specifically for this purpose and then left in a drawer somewhere and RUN A FULL BACKUP.

There are lots of posts that make the rounds reminding us to sit up straight, stretch, drink water, refocus our eyes, take our meds, etc. But while this may not be about your health, it's still super-important.

Back up your whole-ass computer. If you can afford a second backup drive, buy one so that you have one SSD and one HDD, and back up to both of them (you can back up just the current important stuff to the SSD and let the HDD do the heavy-duty lifting).

Do not rely on 'the cloud' or the internet to keep jack shit.

AND BACK UP YOUR GMAIL AS WELL HOLY SHIT. The last thing you want is a catastrophic issue where literally every single thing you have in gmail is gone. It's happened. It happened to a friend of mine and basically her entire life was in there and now it's all gone. 20 years of it.

Reblog to save a life.

[possessesnightshift]

just over a year into it and already ai bullshit is essentially normal now.

not even probing into all the published research papers with clear evidence of ai in them (looking at you rat dick paper) or the fact that google images are now a bunch of ai generated nonsense, just seeing the way people talk about something like ai art is really discouraging

i see all these debates about why ai art is bad that boil down to "the problem isn't the artwork this person created, the problem is..." with that sentence being finished with either mentioning the unethical data mining or the environmental toll or whatever. but the problem is the very premise of that sentence is wrong no matter what goes at the end of it. if you type shit into a prompt and it spits out something that resembles a finished painting, you did not 'create' anything.

i want to go out of my way to emphasize that while the other bigger picture issues with ai are much more important than whether an ai "artist" deserves credit for their work, i still think it's entirely valid to say "ai art is also bad for letting people act entitled to the same praise and compensation as someone would have for literally painting the goddamn thing by hand."

"but what about the disability aspect? don't artists without fine motor skills deserve to be able to express themselves too?" im barely even going to entertain this line of defense simply for the implication that disabled artists (which i am btw, but not visual art) could not make art until 2023 is offensive to disabled artists throughout history, but also because it doesn't address my main problem with ai art either

a perfectly able-bodied ai artist is equally scuzzy to anyone else who solely relies on some OpenAI product to have any ability to create art. the problem isn't the fact that a computer is generating the art instead of brush or whatever. the problem is that there is NO ARTISTIC PROCESS.

you had no contribution to what the coders and programmers had to do to make ai art happen. you just benefit from their technology. but as a result of that, you allow their coding decisions to shape YOUR art. even if you rephrase the prompt over and over, you won't get the level of control necessary to create anything that isn't just regurgitated fluff. art isn't just a finished product. art is a feeling of inspiration that drives you to create. art is a way for humans to express truths beyond talking or writing about it. art involves imagining, listening, experimenting, and most importantly TIME.

it takes effort and practice over a non-instantaneous period of time to grow as an artist. and not only that, but that growth is THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT.

i could preach more about this but i think i've touched on my main idea here. at the end of the day, we're so brainwashed by capitalism that we don't even see the way we regard the things we love as mere products. art is supposed to take time. art is supposed to be not obvious. while it might feel like i just wanna shit on top of anyone who considers themselves an ai artist, i honestly feel really bad for these people. if the idea of creating art could move these people as profoundly as it moves me, they wouldn't even think about using ai. i know these people won't get nearly the same joy or fulfillment from typing words into a prompt and spitting out images. even if they did, they still have remarkably little control over how they engage with making their art (what if fucking all of the ai models get sued and taken down forever? then what?)

art is not something that can be bought or sold. people don't seek out art to connect to the process of making money in the most efficient way possible. they want a connection to humanity. wherever that connection exists, people will find it (even in art is that's considered Bad by society's arbitrary standards).

and oh boy is there no faster way to guarantee a piece of art has no connection to humanity whatsoever than to ask the shitty, dysfunctional chatbot troubleshooting your wifi not starting up to make ALL OF THE ARTISTIC DECISIONS for you.

[alarajrogers]

What keeps getting me about the water argument...

Look, water is neither created nor destroyed on this planet, not unless someone's doing hydrolysis or burning a hydrogen fuel cell. Water-based cooling systems either reuse the exact same water, or the water evaporates into the air and comes back down as rain somewhere.

I will agree that if you are on the West Coast, in the Southwest where it's pretty desert-y, the chances that the evaporating water will come down somewhere useful to humans is low enough that you should be using closed water systems. (On the East Coast it doesn't fucking matter because we have more water than we know what to do with. There are never water shortages on the East Coast. Also there is no desert.) But pretty much anywhere else in the US, either there is already so much water that it doesn't matter, or the water has nowhere to go except to rain on the desert or the prairie. Water that evaporates from a data center in Colorado on the eastern side of the Rockies will not go west. If it does, it will rain on the Rockies, which will then drain back down to Colorado, or somewhere else along the Rockies.

You cannot use up all the water on a planet 3/4ths water. What you can do is allow too much of it to escape to the ocean, where it is not drinkable by humans. But in places where clouds sweep in from the ocean and rain on the land, as long as the amount of water lost to the ocean is less than the amount it comes from the ocean and rains on the land, you cannot use up the water. So are there places that need to carefully regulate their water management to avoid water going out to sea and never coming back? Yeah, the southwest side of the Rockies. I don't know the weather patterns in the Gulf, so, maybe Texas has this issue too? But landlocked states and states east of the Rockies, this is not an issue. The water will evaporate and travel as a cloud to somewhere else that is also land, and rain there.

If you're not talking about the US, then yeah, I recommend you don't run data centers in the Sahara Desert, but most places on this planet where humans live are places where it rains enough that realistically, you cannot use up enough water to be a problem. And this will never be a problem if you used closed water systems, particularly if you used closed water systems that employ salt water. (which, since salt water freezes at a lower temperature than regular water, might be good for a cooling system that has to deal with fucktons of heat!)

Look. AI and all other things the Internet does uses up energy, and if you're not getting it from green sources, then yes. It's finite and it leaves dirty residue that is harmful to humans. Bitch about that if you have to. The sooner the whole Internet is on green energy, the better. And AI and everything else the Internet does relies on highly poisonous and often very rare metals that are used in making computers, and that's an issue that's going to get more and more important over time because Earth has a finite supply of those metals.

But water? You are bitching about water? The stuff that we drink and then it circulates through our veins and then we piss it out and it goes to the ocean and then clouds bring it back and rain it on us? That stuff? Are you imagining that we are pouring the Hoover Dam over a data center and it is disintegrating the water molecules, rendering them down not into oxygen and hydrogen but total non-existence, like maybe some random quarks floating around? Did you think using water to cool computers poisoned the water, or something? Pro tip: Don't pour water directly over computer parts where it can touch the heavy metals, because if you do, your computer will stop working. And then the water might get contaminated. But first it will break your computer.

On Earth, almost nothing we do with water ever actually destroys it. If we live in a place where it rarely rains, conserving the water that we need to live is important. So it should be illegal to have water bottling plants anywhere near desert or prairie areas. You wanna bottle the Great Lakes, feel free, but do not ship Montana water out to me on the East Coast where I can walk outside my house practically once a week and see water falling from the sky, just so I can enjoy it being refrigerated for me. Shipping water from low-water regions to high-water regions ought to be illegal. But when we talk about water cooling systems... that's not what's happening. The water either evaporates locally, or it doesn't go anywhere at all, or it gets dumped in a body of water. All of which are usually pretty unproblematic fates for water.

I think almost all of the environmental case against AI is factually incorrect fear mongering, or "misinformation"

[flowaceai]

Flowace's Smart Solution of Using AI for Effortless Employee Attendance Tracking

What is an Online Attendance Tracker

An online attendance tracker is a digital tool or software application designed to help organizations, schools, businesses, and other institutions keep track of attendance for various purposes. It provides an efficient and convenient way to monitor and manage attendance records electronically, replacing traditional paper-based methods.

About Flowace’s Online Attenance Tracker

Flowace has introduced an innovative attendance system that leverages the power of artificial intelligence to effortlessly keep track of when employees are present at work. This advanced solution ensures that accurate data about employee attendance is collected in real time, doing away with the need for employees to manually input their attendance information. This not only streamlines the attendance tracking process but also significantly reduces the chances of dishonest practices such as "buddy punching," where one employee clocks in for another.

In simpler terms, Flowace's new system uses smart technology to make sure that businesses always know when their employees are working. This technology is really clever because it can tell who's at work without anyone having to write it down. And the best part is that it stops people from cheating by pretending to be someone else when they're not actually there. This means businesses can trust that their attendance records are accurate and honest.

How it Works

Flowace's attendance system uses artificial intelligence, which is like a smart computer program that can learn and make decisions. This system is designed to keep track of when employees show up for work. Instead of using old-fashioned methods like paper logs or manual entries, it relies on technology to make everything easier and more accurate.

Here's how it works step by step:

1. Identification: Each employee is given a unique identifier, often through something like a badge, fingerprint, or even facial recognition. This is like a special code that only they have.

2. Clocking In: When an employee arrives at work, they use their identifier to "clock in." This means the system knows they are present and ready to start their tasks.

3. Artificial Intelligence: The system uses artificial intelligence, which is like a really smart computer program, to keep track of all the clock-ins. It learns patterns and can tell who's there and who's not.

4. Real-time Data: The system updates in real time, which means it's always showing the latest information. This is great for supervisors and managers who want to know who is currently at work.

5. No Manual Input: One of the coolest things is that employees don't need to manually enter anything. The system takes care of it all on its own. This saves time and reduces mistakes.

6. Preventing Cheating: The system is designed to prevent cheating. For example, it can't be fooled by someone pretending to be another employee. This is important to make sure attendance records are accurate.

7. Data Analysis: The system can also analyze the attendance data over time. This helps businesses understand trends and make decisions based on real data.

In simple words, Flowace's attendance system is like a smart assistant that watches when employees come to work. It knows who's there without anyone needing to write it down, and it's really good at stopping people from pretending to be someone else. This helps businesses keep track of attendance accurately and easily.

[dukagjinigersi711]

why small business sites need dedicated servers

The internet has changed the way we do business and operate our lives. We now have access to more information than ever before, but it's also easier to find out what we want. In fact, if you're a small business owner with a website, there are plenty of benefits to having your own dedicated server rather than relying on third-party providers like AWS or Azure and it won't cost as much! Here are some of the ways that dedicated servers can make life easier for small businesses:

Keeping your website running

The primary purpose of a dedicated server is to keep your website running. If you have a small business or blog, keeping the site up and running is extremely important. You don’t want it down because of technical problems or other issues. For example Dedicated Server Germany are more reliable. Having a dedicated server means that your site will be able to handle more traffic without crashing or becoming slow due to heavy load.

Dedicated servers are also better than shared hosting for several reasons:

Hosting companies can pass data between their own computers using virtual private networks (VPNs). This means that they can do things like mask their location so no one knows where they are located physically; this also allows them access into networks like BitTorrent which would normally be blocked by servers that aren't located in specific geographical areas where it's legal (like Russia). This isn't possible with VPSes because there's only one physical machine instead of multiple virtual ones."

Reducing maintenance costs

Dedicated servers are a one-time investment. You don't have to pay for server management, updates or upgrades, extra storage space or bandwidth.

Dedicated servers allow you to focus on your core business while leaving the technical details of running your site in good hands.

Email management

Email is a critical component of any business's success. It's how you communicate with your customers, prospects, and other stakeholders in the company. But email isn't just used to send out messages—it can also be an important tool for managing your brand identity and building relationships with potential clients. For example, if you have a blog on WordPress that people are reading regularly but haven't signed up for yet, then sending them an automated newsletter will encourage them to subscribe so they don't miss out on any future posts or news about what you do (and how).

Security breaches

If you don't have a dedicated server, your site is hosted on a shared server. This means that if one of your neighbors gets hacked, so does your website. That's why it's important to find an experienced hosting company that can handle security breaches and protect sensitive data like credit card numbers and patient records.

Bad customers and ISPs

If a customer's website is not up, they will lose sales. It's as simple as that. If the customer has trouble accessing your site or even seeing it at all, they'll go somewhere else. That’s why having a dedicated server for your business is crucial for having a smooth-running internet presence—and it doesn't end there either!

ISPs are not always reliable: If you have an ISP (Internet Service Provider), then this can affect your site performance in many ways; one being that it could mean that you don't get as much speed out of your connection as other businesses who use less powerful equipment than yours might otherwise need if they were using their own servers instead of renting space from someone else like yourself (or me). It also means that if something goes wrong with any part of the process between sending out an email through Amazon SES and receiving notifications back saying everything went through okay…well…then its unlikely anyone will notice right away because most people don't look into things like this unless something happens first hand experience before hand - which isn't always easy considering how busy everyone gets nowadays especially during holidays when everyone wants something different from what was planned originally."

Uncontrollable downtime

Uncontrollable downtime is a major problem for small businesses. It can be caused by things like power outages, hardware failure, and ISP issues. When your site goes down completely due to these factors, you'll lose customers and revenue until it comes back up again. This can have a big impact on your business—if you're unable to serve customers while they're waiting for your site's services to come back online, they may never return when they know what happened! Germany unmetered server is the best example for continuous running site servers.

If this sounds familiar:

Large file sizes

When building a website, you'll need to upload files. These are generally images and videos that tell your visitors what they're looking at on the site. The larger these files are, the longer it takes them to load, which can have an impact on how quickly users are able to view your content.

If you have lots of images or video clips on your site (and especially if those videos are high-quality), uploading them is going to take time—even if they're not very large themselves! That's because every single one needs its own file size calculation when being uploaded into Google Drive or any other service provider's database before being sent off again via email or social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook

Traffic spikes and slowdowns

However, it's not just about your website being up and running. There are other factors that can affect your business' performance:

Traffic spikes and slowdowns

Server crashes, blackouts and outages

Slow loading times

Conclusion

It’s clear why dedicated servers are so important for small businesses. They can help you keep customers happy and reduce the risk of downtime, while also helping with email management and security breaches. And they’re not just limited to large companies either—you could use one for your personal side project or even as an addition to your existing website!

[veilder]

One of my own personal headcanons for him is that his face is very immobile. His custom face plates were never sculpted and, during his mock-up test runs, he was given placeholder ones, the same that are used in a lot of mannequin androids. These faceplates are more static, designed to hold a singular expression for a long time, and the limited range of them makes it very hard for him to make expressions with any degree of exaggeration. In that way, it alienates him from humans who find him stoic and unapproachable. Even some androids with less robust interface capabilities might be put off, though as a whole, I don't think they as a species rely on microexpressions or outward displays of emotion to communicate like humans do. Of course, I think I already mentioned to you about I think the RK900 and RK800 models look aesthetically the same, but lemme reiterate: The only time we the audience ever see the RK900, it's in the Zen Garden, a virtual world that Amanda has almost complete control over. It's a personal theory of mine that the RK900 in there is merely a sort of projection, an incomplete mass of coding rigged together into an android-shaped model and that, for visualization purposes only, was reskinned using the RK800 cosmetic overlay. In other words, the RK900 at that point would not even have a corporeal form yet, he's still be in the very very early stages of testing if anything. But, in order to make her last point as viscerally as possible, Amanda uses Connor's own cosmetic code to display a sort of mock-up of his successor in the Zen Garden. Truthfully, I'm of the mind that the RK900 might not even exist at all yet by the conclusion of the game? Especially considering the go-ahead for his production hinges upon how Connor himself functions during the events of the game. But I do like the thought of Nines eventually existing, so borrowed RK800 coding is my work-around. XD And speaking of borrowed things... I already mentioned that his stiff face plates might play an important role in how he's perceived, but my headcanons actually extend a bit further. Because when I say he was only in the very first trial stages of development, I mean it. I hc that most (if not all) of his custom parts hadn't even been manufactured yet during his trial runs. Whatever body his nascent coding inhabits would've been made up of spare parts at first, gleaned from many different models that his code would be compatible with. When CyberLife is taken during the Revolution and all production halted, Nines would end up stuck in this Frankenstein'd together body, on that hasn't been extensively field tested or even specially designed to hold his robust computing power. And I think this would lead to a whole host of problems for him down the line, especially when it comes to breaking down or overtaxing his systems. (And yes, also skin glitching, lol.) He was designed to be so much more than he's had to make due with and there is a real disconnect between his software and hardware. So not only does his apparent stoicism isolate him around humanity, but his constant glitches and jumbled system data alarm androids, too. I think he would feel his differences quite starkly and it'd be a real trial for him, learning to be at peace with who he is, despite his errors.

Because none of the physical really conveys who he is, right? My headcanon for him is that he is a gentle soul, someone who, against all odds, tries to always look for the silver lining. His short life has be fraught with obstacles, but it makes him appreciate all the more the very act of being alive, and he tries not to take it for granted. He values life more than anything else, adores animals, and would probably develop into a stanch pacifist. He's soft-spoken and very introspective, thoughtful and philosophical and just... kind. I love the idea of this machine made to be such a potent weapon has instead chosen to be kind, over and over and over. That he doesn't let his messy origins define who he wants to be.

But this has turned into a whole essay, so I'll cut it there. XD But yes, suffice to say that I've had a lot of thoughts about Nines over the years and I love him dearly.

OK so @veilder put so many thoughts in my head about RK900 still being an "imperfect" model bc Amanda probably rushed his production and I am going bonkers thinking about how he'd have certain quirks that can rival even CONNOR'S

Like yeah his systems are much more advanced, he's faster and stronger than Connor BUT did you know his balance center is just slightly shifted to the left? Or (from that one post of mine) his skin retracts when he's stressed? so many thoughts I love imperfect Nines now