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#91

General Discussion / Re: Windows 11 Is a Lost Cause...

Last post by Jason - October 31, 2025, 09:24:40 AM

Wow! I learned a lot from this. And one time I did lose control of my bootloader after a Windows 11 update on my Dell laptop. I was able to revive it, but not without some difficulty. Makes me wonder whether, for occasional users of Windows, like me, is it better to wipe the drive, install Linux only and then run Windows in a VM?

I'm not sure if that would help protect your privacy, but it would be easier than dual-booting. I downloaded a copy of the Windows 10 ISO (for gaming). If it works, I will likely roll back. I think my main computer had Windows 10 on it initially, so it should have a license. I think a Windows license allows you to run earlier versions, anyway. I don't do a lot that's private under Windows anyway, so it might not make sense but at least I have the ISO.

#92

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

Last post by Jason - October 31, 2025, 09:20:26 AM

Interesting article. Giving training material across the web as being equally authoritative is a really brain-dead idea, especially with the most dangerous of bad information, in health. I would say out of the webpages out there, probably 90% of the health-related sites are misinformation and often, disinformation.

As far as search engines go, I don't use Google unless I can't find what I'm looking for using a different engine. I figure they already have enough of my personal data. They also have singularly destroyed news media and given nothing back (because of stealing the advertising market). However, I will give them kudos for agreeing to pay an organization of news media in Canada, so maybe it won't all die. Facebook still refuses.

#93

Meetings / Re: PLUG Mug, Sunday Nov 2, 20...

Last post by Jason - October 31, 2025, 07:20:23 AM

Thanks, Bill.

#94

Meetings / PLUG Mug, Sunday Nov 2, 2025 2...

Last post by ssfc72 - October 30, 2025, 09:09:51 AM

Hi Jason. I have posted  the meetup that you have arranged, here on the Forum for everyone one else to see.

See you Sunday afternoon.

#95

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

Last post by buster - October 20, 2025, 07:43:09 PM

This solution seems to work but not always. I want to get rid of Googles starting with an AI Summary, where information can be gleaned by AI from unreliable sources.

So at the end of my search entry I put (space) -noai

General this jumps right past the summary into several pages found by the search engine.

#96

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

Last post by buster - October 20, 2025, 06:42:50 PM

I was so impressed by the post that I did some searches and found this:

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/cringe-worth-google-ai-overviews

[Example one on Google]

#97

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

Last post by buster - October 20, 2025, 06:22:37 PM

Jason once commented on the error of calling AI intelligent. It's stupidity has shown up quite a bit on my information searches lately, and these are the sorts of things I don't remember being wrong before, at least so often. And I always try to  avoid any click that will include AI in anything I do on a computer. (Human to the bitter end.)

Example one on Google: I asked the simple question 'When will such and such a program release series 3?' The surprising answer was that this program would release series two in August, which helped me not at all because I'd watched series two in the spring already. A notice said the answer was generated by AI.

Example two, also on Google: There are two shows released a month apart in 2023 called The Diplomat. My searches kept going to the US Netfix series. So I typed "reviews for the diplomat BBC British series". That seems pretty clear to me, but it insisted on taking me to reviews of the US production.

I can't remember Google being that stupid. Maybe there is a switch that insists on using AI to formulate answers rather than some of the older algorithms that took you to the places that matched the limited clues given.

But at least with AI we don't have to wait as long for errors as we do with humans. That's one good thing.

#98

General Discussion / Re: Windows 11 Is a Lost Cause...

Last post by buster - October 20, 2025, 05:23:29 PM

Thanks Jason. The thing I noticed was his emphasis on AI at the end and our inability to control our own purchase earlier. Coincidentally just before I watched it I had been in a conversation about 1984. Probably humans don't have much of a clue about what's going on or where we're going.

#99

General Discussion / Re: Windows 11 Is a Lost Cause...

Last post by fox - October 20, 2025, 12:23:19 PM

Wow! I learned a lot from this. And one time I did lose control of my bootloader after a Windows 11 update on my Dell laptop. I was able to revive it, but not without some difficulty. Makes me wonder whether, for occasional users of Windows, like me, is it better to wipe the drive, install Linux only and then run Windows in a VM?

#100

General Discussion / Windows 11 Is a Lost Cause. Tr...

Last post by Jason - October 19, 2025, 07:10:05 PM

Great video showing all the myriad ways that Microsoft has been invading your privacy and doing it under the guise of security. Now they want AI to read all the websites you visit, all the documents you open, everything you see, hear and say, and it will be stored locally AND on Microsoft servers. It's creepy as fuck, but more importantly, it puts your personal data at risk. And on new PCs, it will be the default. I wish I hadn't upgraded my computer to Windows 11 now.
On the other hand, I don't keep my personal info on Windows. Everything is on my Linux partition. I'll still keep Windows for gaming, but that's it.

What do you think? Does any of the stuff mentioned in the video bother you? What do you think about the Microsoft CEO for AI saying that they want the AI to see everything you see, hear everything you hear, and see everything you do? Is it worth it?