You see what's happening right?
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Phase 1: force AI adoption by removing other options to not use it
Phase 2: make computing unaffordable for the masses by buying up all stock of components, driving up demand while building datacenters.
Phase 3: further increase demand for and adoption of your cloud computing/AI datacenter by making people reliant on crappy cloud PCs/PCaaS devices with little horsepower to do much else
Phase 4: use telemetry/spyware in said datacenters to surveil/harvest data from every user of said cloud PCs and use it to serve hyper-targeted ads (everyone knows people love hyper-targeted ads) and send drone fleets to respond to/harass dissenters domestic terrorists
Phase 5: profit
@tomcat @mttaggart back when I was a child, like in the 90s I had this idea of the future but not so orwellian. I imagined that most homes would eventually have a big powerful computer in a cliset/basement/attic and then have several like dumb terminals around that accessed that data. So like you have all the music you like on the central computer then you go in the kitchen and tell the kitchen terminal to play your favorite song.
Kinda like self-hosting but with basic input, screen, audio only
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@ianjs @tschenkel @mttaggart I am a very lucky girl and have free power\
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@the_turtle @mttaggart It gets sent into the shredder in the name of privacy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQoKFovvigI though this is a video by Google from 2013 and I dunno if they're still doing it now
@koakuma @the_turtle Even if they wanted to resell, the cost of logistics for such an operation would outstrip profits.
Into the dump they'll go. We haven't even begun imagining the e-waste of this absurd misadventure.
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You see what's happening right?
They are preventing you from accessing the means of computing, making you reliant on their services in the future they're building.
At astronomical rents.
https://wccftech.com/western-digital-has-no-more-hdd-capacity-left-out/
@mttaggart@infosec.exchange i genuinely think most tech companies would like to completely eliminate personal computers, and they have mostly succeeded. they make much more money if people buy phones that cost as much as computers and then pay a subscription for someone else to do their computing.
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@mttaggart I wonder what would happen if the costs get too high to bear and people ended up... opting out entirely from computing
I mean it's not like you need computers to be able to grow a couple trees for food right

@koakuma@uwu.social @mttaggart@infosec.exchange most people have already done this, now they are just pushing away the few who are left. most tech companies dont care, phones and cloud subscriptions are more profitable anyway.
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@raymierussell @galacticstone @mttaggart
The people funding the AI bubble are creating a profitable point of Chokepoint Capitalism.
Chips, memory, hard drives -- once placed in artificially short supply, ...
... when the AI Bubble bursts, they can hold the non-AI economy as hostage until they get their government bailout.
Monopolies & too few players -- a recipe for a crash & bailout.
https://www.riskhedge.com/post/the-next-big-AI-winners-are@Npars01 @raymierussell @galacticstone @mttaggart
Still true. Still vulnerable.
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You see what's happening right?
They are preventing you from accessing the means of computing, making you reliant on their services in the future they're building.
At astronomical rents.
https://wccftech.com/western-digital-has-no-more-hdd-capacity-left-out/
@mttaggart I don't believe in this take, and I'm especially not a big fan of the conspiratorial language you're using to describe it. How does a large spike in demand for a monopolized industry give any indication that the goal is to move users over to cloud computing? What makes this different from the pandemic shortage, or the 2011 Japan earthquake? From my perspective, this takes away from a lot of the closer, very concrete problems AI is causing right now.
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@tomcat @mttaggart back when I was a child, like in the 90s I had this idea of the future but not so orwellian. I imagined that most homes would eventually have a big powerful computer in a cliset/basement/attic and then have several like dumb terminals around that accessed that data. So like you have all the music you like on the central computer then you go in the kitchen and tell the kitchen terminal to play your favorite song.
Kinda like self-hosting but with basic input, screen, audio only
-
You see what's happening right?
They are preventing you from accessing the means of computing, making you reliant on their services in the future they're building.
At astronomical rents.
https://wccftech.com/western-digital-has-no-more-hdd-capacity-left-out/
Nah, don't be that dystopian. It'll suck for sure, however they will still want to get rid of all of the old used ones on a regular basis...
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Nah, don't be that dystopian. It'll suck for sure, however they will still want to get rid of all of the old used ones on a regular basis...
@agowa338 Do you know what happens to these disks after they're used the way they get used in a data center?
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@agowa338 Do you know what happens to these disks after they're used the way they get used in a data center?
It depends what they were used for. Some get trashed. But a surprisingly high amount gets sold off in bulk to companies that then repackage the pallets down into smaller bundles of e.g. 100 pcs. Then it gets sold to another that repackages in e.g. 10 pcs bundles which then often lands on ebay...
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It depends what they were used for. Some get trashed. But a surprisingly high amount gets sold off in bulk to companies that then repackage the pallets down into smaller bundles of e.g. 100 pcs. Then it gets sold to another that repackages in e.g. 10 pcs bundles which then often lands on ebay...
@agowa338 The ones used for training workloads are not usable after 1-2 years max. Anything fronting hot storage will be in a similar situation. Sure, some may be resold, but if they already have a shorter lifespan, the supply issue remains.
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You see what's happening right?
They are preventing you from accessing the means of computing, making you reliant on their services in the future they're building.
At astronomical rents.
https://wccftech.com/western-digital-has-no-more-hdd-capacity-left-out/
To clarify: I am saying this is what they want. Not that it is inevitable. But it's difficult to ignore the clear pattern of strategic decisions by these companies since the dawn of "services" until this benighted age.
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@agowa338 The ones used for training workloads are not usable after 1-2 years max. Anything fronting hot storage will be in a similar situation. Sure, some may be resold, but if they already have a shorter lifespan, the supply issue remains.
well as I said it for sure will suck. However it's not "as dystopian" as you said with being cut of from the means of computation.
Also don't forget to also keep an eye on China. As prices rise there will be more and more opportunities for new companies to enter the market (ones that don't have their factory processes optimised to keep faulty units per production cycle in check).
Same for GPUs the first "all china" GPUs should be purchasable in a few months
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You see what's happening right?
They are preventing you from accessing the means of computing, making you reliant on their services in the future they're building.
At astronomical rents.
https://wccftech.com/western-digital-has-no-more-hdd-capacity-left-out/
@mttaggart
Toshiba still make decent drives. -
Phase 1: force AI adoption by removing other options to not use it
Phase 2: make computing unaffordable for the masses by buying up all stock of components, driving up demand while building datacenters.
Phase 3: further increase demand for and adoption of your cloud computing/AI datacenter by making people reliant on crappy cloud PCs/PCaaS devices with little horsepower to do much else
Phase 4: use telemetry/spyware in said datacenters to surveil/harvest data from every user of said cloud PCs and use it to serve hyper-targeted ads (everyone knows people love hyper-targeted ads) and send drone fleets to respond to/harass dissenters domestic terrorists
Phase 5: profit
And everything ends up looking like Gaza. Yes. This is the plan.
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@mttaggart I still have my Commodore 64. They will never trap me. 10 PRINT “C64 RULEZ” ; 20 GOTO 10 ; RUN #c64
@botolo86 @mttaggart ahh yes I remember now when being called BASIC was cool (well, to certain folks…) 🤓😁
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To clarify: I am saying this is what they want. Not that it is inevitable. But it's difficult to ignore the clear pattern of strategic decisions by these companies since the dawn of "services" until this benighted age.
@mttaggart I just came across this recent article about the 1990s "thin clients" that Oracle was pushing.
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@tomcat @mttaggart back when I was a child, like in the 90s I had this idea of the future but not so orwellian. I imagined that most homes would eventually have a big powerful computer in a cliset/basement/attic and then have several like dumb terminals around that accessed that data. So like you have all the music you like on the central computer then you go in the kitchen and tell the kitchen terminal to play your favorite song.
Kinda like self-hosting but with basic input, screen, audio only
@vrek @tomcat @mttaggart same, tho I imagined it including your household email server, and with the option to make your stuff accessible remotely. If only we’d organized society around enabling the many rather than around enriching the few
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You see what's happening right?
They are preventing you from accessing the means of computing, making you reliant on their services in the future they're building.
At astronomical rents.
https://wccftech.com/western-digital-has-no-more-hdd-capacity-left-out/
@mttaggart sorry I'm in the wrong field of engineering. What's wrong with SSDs?