In 2005 or so, I got a tip about an application called LaunchBar, which would later be copied by Apple to replace the Sherlock search tool, and later by Microsoft in its PowerToys suite. The machine learning LaunchBar used to tailor its responses based on my previous behavior was life-changing. Instead of configuring an application, I just had to use it to change how it behaved.

This is how language models and AI are going to improve your products. Subtly. Behind the scenes. Slightly improving a thousand different use cases, only a fraction of which your regular usage patterns are going to intersect with.

I am so torn on this. On the one hand, this is sorely needed. Not everyone in an organization is aware that information they feed to an LLM is often fed back into the LLM to train it, or that the LLM reflects bias in its training material, or even that an LLM might return false information. A strong policy is important to help communicate these things.

On the other hand, LLMs have had the biggest impact on my productivity, well, ever. The speed with which I can write complex documents, write code, or help someone else solve a problem has been increased by an order of magnitude. My organization recently enacted something similar to this executive order, prohibiting the use of LLMs. Now I can't get those advantages at work anymore. I'm afraid a heavy-handed policy would effectively strip government workers of the same capabilities.

Our system of measurement. There can be only one!

Most of the built-in thermostats on barbecue grills are garbage. Before speculating on what might be behind the temperature difference, get a thermometer that is accurate with two probes and measure again.

Exactly. These things seem common because we see examples of them amplified on social media. Most of them are vanishingly rare.

Paradoxically, Apple has regularly introduced features over the years that result in me needing to use my devices less. When I got my first iPhone (an iPhone 4, I believe), every little notification would light up my phone’s screen. These days that doesn’t happen, and Apple has further cut down on those intrusions with focus and bed time configurations. I’m big into using HomeKit for home automation. And while it annoys me that home automation is still such a simple application, Apple has done a good job of insulating me from the need to use my devices when I want things to happen in my home.

In short, letting myself take advantage of the Apple ecosystem reduces the touch-points of the technology I use. I just have to invest the time to learn about features and how they work, and to tune them to my preferred lifestyle.

You can do that, but it's provided on iPhone without any internet connection, it integrates seamlessly with system events, there are no download or install requirements, and if you use Airpods Pro, you can mix in environmental sounds. Plus, as another user mentioned below, you can add a toggle for this setting in the control center. That's a stellar implementation!

Oh my god yes. Siri needs some serious help.

That’s easy: Lemmy.ninja! Small, nimble, active, and awesome!

Edit: It occurs to me I should probably list some more reasons why Lemmy.ninja is so awesome:

• 100.00% uptime!
• Certified spambot-free
• We work every day to help new users learn the ropes of Lemmy and find content on your instances to subscribe to
• We have strict but fair rules
• We’re never satisfied with the site and always work to improve it

Here's the article without the paywall.

Lemmy.ninja provides the !communitysearchtips@lemmy.ninja community, which has walkthroughs on how to find content, how to subscribe to it, etc. It also does periodic curated reviews on communities and invites users to do the same.

Everyone expects 20% no matter what. Especially those stylists who are working as independent contractors for a large company like Great Clips. Prices went up kind of fast in 2020, so I asked my wife to learn how to cut my hair during the lockdown, and I haven't gone back to a professional since.