Recent posts

#41

General Discussion / Re: The Really Unpleasant Comp...

Last post by ssfc72 - July 17, 2025, 04:00:42 AM

Sort of reminds me of the ominous Skynet from the Terminator movies.

All these bots on the present day internet, wasting enormous amounts of electricity doing useless searches.
These wasteful useless searches are requiring huge server farms which are wasting huge amounts of electricity to run the servers and water, to cool and get rid of the heat the server farms generate.

#42

Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?

Last post by Paul Kneeland - July 17, 2025, 03:57:32 AM

I would attend a meeting, circumstances permitting.

[2018]

#43

General Discussion / Re: The Really Unpleasant Comp...

Last post by buster - July 16, 2025, 12:32:51 PM

Well, the story is receiving views at the rate of approximately 1,000 per day. There is no way these are humans. The whole site is being hammered, and I suspect it's AI bots. That seems the easiest explanation. Here's why I think this is algorithm driven and not human driven.

2018: This year we more than doubled our views to over 700,000.

2019: Here we crossed the million view mark with over 1,300,000 views.

2024: We suddenly got to 13 or 14 times the number of the previous year 2023. Suddenly and unexpectedly, we had reached, unbelievably, over 25 million views for the year.

2025: We are getting over 3,000 million views per month.

This is not readers curling up with a good story.

https://plugintolinux.ca/forum/index.php?action=stats

#44

Distributions / Re: CachyOS ranked 2nd on Dist...

Last post by Jason - July 14, 2025, 07:55:53 PM

Intriguing. It explains the distro name, too. Initially, I read it as CaTchy Linux, which would be an outstanding name for a distro! If I were investigating gaming on Linux, its performance refinements could be beneficial.

I would recommend anyone watching the video speed it up. His speaking style is sluggish. But that could be my ADHD surfacing.

Thanks for sharing, Bill.

#45

Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?

Last post by Jason - July 14, 2025, 07:26:22 PM

So far, we know that at least 3 people would attend a formal meeting with a presentation like the ole' days.

Sometimes I can't believe it's been over 5 years since the pandemic started. It doesn't feel like it! I expect most people felt like the 2-3 years of the pandemic crawled along.

#46

Meetings / Re: PLUG regular meetings?

Last post by Jason - July 14, 2025, 07:22:47 PM

Jason, you have upgraded your Win10 to Win11 without incident, even though Microsoft didn't suggest you do.

Is that even possible? Seems like Windows 10 has been nagging people for years to upgrade. I thought it pushed me into it, but when I found my machine wasn't compatible, I bought a new one that was. I upgraded my wife's Windows 10 computer, but I did that right away. It's not officially compatible, but there are workarounds.

You could explain what the problem appears to be in many cases, and how this can be worked around relatively safely, maybe cloning the Win10 drive for safekeeping.

Maybe the compatibility issue was what you're talking about. There are many ways to move to Windows 11, although I think only one works now, which is the one I used. It's pretty easy and involves using a program that creates a custom image you install/upgrade from (like Etcher). It uses Rufus:

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/your-unsupported-pc-can-still-run-windows-11-in-2025-heres-how

I don't think there's enough there for an in-person meeting like we used to have. Not sure I'd do it anyway. I'd have to take a shower afterward.

Seriously, though, the method above did work for me when I used it, but that was about 1.6 years ago. And even if it does now, no guarantee Microsoft will continue providing updates for it. And Microsoft may remove the free-upgrade option when Windows 10 goes defunct so don't wait too long!

Does your TV computer need to connect to the Internet? If not, you might save yourself the trouble and stay on Windows 10. The main problem with using an EOL (End-of-Life) version of a product is that it may not receive any security updates. But that really only matters if you're connecting that PC to the Internet.

#47

Distributions / Re: CachyOS ranked 2nd on Dist...

Last post by Jason - July 14, 2025, 06:55:38 PM

Remember that the Distrowatch list is not a guide to the number of users, but the number of people looking up information on the distro. I never click Mint on the list, and I suspect Mike doesn't click Ubuntu on that list. I do poke about sometime when I see something new that looks interesting. Arch doesn't interest me, or something based on Arch.

I remember telling you that years ago, Buster, when you used to talk about their rankings all the time. Well done, young Padawan.

[its]

#48

Politics, Society and News. / Re: Simple Known Dangers with ...

Last post by Jason - July 14, 2025, 06:54:33 PM

The paper also had to summarize the state of the art on that topic. It worked very well and probably cut the rate of plagiarism to zero or near zero. But I'm not sure that AI couldn't handle this; I never had to find out.

Unfortunately, that is one of the things that AI is excellent at. What it wouldn't be good at is writing the essay in the student's voice. But unless you have your students writing several essays and you don't have too many students or an amazing memory, that would be hard to pick up on, I'd imagine. But, AI does format its answers in a particular fashion, and if you use it enough, you might pick up on its voice. Handing out take-home assignments for high school teachers must be particularly awful. I would bet that more students are using it to cheat than at the university level. Could be wrong, though.

Have you used any AI bots, Fox? I've used ChatGPT occasionally but not the others. I did use Grok recently to ask if it was still racist. If you don't understand why I asked that, check some recent US news having to do with Elon Musk and Grok. The answers seemed to be too "woke," so Elon Musk made some changes to fix that, and the bot started acting racist with positive comments about Hitler. You'd have to read them yourself. I don't want to offend anyone.

#49

Meetings / Re: PLUG Mug Monday 2 pm July ...

Last post by Jason - July 14, 2025, 06:39:47 PM

Sorry, Bill, I just checked the Forum. Same day, but too late. Dammit.

#50

Meetings / Re: PLUG Mug Monday 2 pm July ...

Last post by buster - July 14, 2025, 10:16:28 AM

Sorry Bill, but if you're ever going to be out this way on your cycle, send an email or phone and if we're around I have free coffee, tea,or soft drinks. In the afternoon we can sit on the front deck. (The destroyed tree makes the mornings unbearable.)