If there’s a life-or-death situation that I absolutely cannot miss, I’ll set two alarms 15 minutes apart.

But in all honestly, you should be able to wake up fresh without even having an alarm. It requires that you practice good sleep habits, including a consistent sleep schedule.

I’ve only been forced to watch YouTube with ads a few times this past year… Alcohol and gambling ads were very, very common. It’s unethical to show them, and I don’t feel bad about blocking them.

All their bikes (and bike accessories) are a tremendous value. Good luck with your search!

That Sounds Great! But Will It Work on My Phone? Currently, GrapheneOS is supported on Google Pixel devices only…

Aaaaaand, you lost me.

I’ve got so many spare phones that I’d love to install this on. Not a single one is from Google. They screwed me once with their hardware (Pixelbook), and I don’t feel like giving them any more money.

The OS itself doesn’t serve ads, but rather the apps you install and the web pages you visit.

I don’t know what phone you use, but a stock Samsung phone absolutely serves ads and tracks like crazy. You can monitor the activity with something like Adguard. Not to mention the bloat like Facebook will call home even when you aren’t using it.

So yeah, it would be nice if the OS itself wasn’t an open door for this type of crap.

When I couldn’t find any Trek Domane’s, Canyon endurance, and Giant bikes in stock this past July, I went with a Decathlon Triban RC520 Gravel and couldn’t be happier.

On sale for $1200 Canadian (down from $1800), so way cheaper than the Domane, but it comes with a mix of Shimano 105 components and TRP hybrid hydraulic brakes. I’m honestly relieved that I didn’t have to spend $2600+ for something with lower-tier Shimano components.

I got it mid-July and have over 1500 km on it already… and it’s not even my main bike. Most of my rides on it have been 100 km+ with several 200 km+ rides mixed in there.

I did swap the tires for some very affordable Continental Ultra Sport III, and no complaints there (although, they are NOT tubeless ready). The RC520 Gravel’s stock wheels and tires are tubeless ready, if that matters.

Awesome! Thank you!

But who is targeting the lack of pension for many ordinary Canadians?

I guess I’m asking this before I register.

I still don’t get PeerTube. Is it like Lemmy, where signing up to one “platform” gives you access to other platform’s content with the same login? Or is each platform separate and only videos there will be shown?

You don’t need a cargo bike (those are expensive), consider a kid’s bike trailer. They typically carry around 100lbs (45kgs?), which is plenty for larger trips (I’ve done some Costco runs w/ my bike trailer).

My errand getter is a steel 90s MTB. Front and rear racks + a few trailer options. I’ve been easily able to haul over 120lbs.

My favourite trailer, and one that I could recommend to pretty much anyone, is the burley travoy. So many benefits with the only con being it’s price (especially with the extra accessories). Well, well worth it, IMO.

But there is stilll enough helpful content that the whoe thing isn’t worthless and I doubt it ever will be.

The people creating that content will fade away.

They are going to be competing with a tireless algorithm that can out out 1000x the content they can, with next to no “staff”.

Those AI content creators will be making money for someone, and legitimate content creators won’t be able to keep up unless: they use AI content creation; or have a business model that will probably result in all legitimate websites being paywalled, filled with ads, or becoming a marketing platform for brands (worse than what modern day YouTube is like).

Ah, that makes sense!

It’s so hilariously ironic that he talks of these things like he has any virtue. Jesus would bitch slap him if the two ever met.

I agree with all of that. AI has it’s valid uses.

But the way we are seeing it being utilised is often simply to flood every corner of the internet with spam, bad information, low quality content, and loads of filler.

I’m personally amazed by what AI can do with photo generation, music creation, and other creative work.

But at the same time, I want to know that it’s AI generated and not passed off as human created content. Especially with written content.

AI-based tools can be amazing, but only if ethics are applied to their use.

The majority of the internet is porn.

Again, I’ll separate entertainment from informational, since entertainment can be garbage, and still be consumed.

Bad information doesn’t help anyone.

it’s not like LLMs you can chat with are completely useless.

The problem is, you wouldn’t know unless you know.

With a legitimate website that has human writers, editors, and fact-checkers, they can at least have creditability and a reputation to uphold.

Far too many randomly generated websites have a lot of information, but without any guardrails. If you know enough about a topic, you’ll realise that the information on these AI sites are pretty much useless. That is, you couldn’t use them as a source because enough of the info is bad/incorrect/incoherent, that it’s like asking a toddler who may or may not give you a valid question.

I’ve contacted a manufacturer of bike stuff, and their support is given by AI. While the answers you get sound like they could be right, it’s like getting an answer from someone who heard something about something from a friend. When you actually ask for a human, the answer is often different (and correct).

There is no accountability, or credibility, or responsibility, or integrity with AI. It has no reputation to lose if the information it provides is bad or not.

I know that AI isn’t going away. I’d personally be OK with some human verification system for websites, and would be more than willing to use a filtered version of the internet that blocks AI generated content. Call it curated or whitelisted, but I want my information to come from a human being.

But you know they are spam, so it’s something you can avoid. But what if the majority (over 80%) of the calls you receive can’t be identified as spam. At some point, you may be wasting far more time than it’s worth to keep using a phone without some major whitelist/blacklist system.

Also, what happens when the outbound calls you make are answered by AI, and you don’t know? If this AI is giving you replies that are word salad, how long are you willing to tolerate it?

I’ve been getting text messages now from companies that I actually do business with, but they are spam. Calls from companies that I have accounts with, and they are scams. At some point, SMS and phone calls will be more trouble than its worth.

And the thought of either having to go without it, the pain of replacing it, or the frustration of being strung along in a scam are not thoughts I want to have.

There will always be a large number of sites that are not capitalist hellholes that only exist to steal user’s data or scam users or do other malicious things. This may be down to things like credit unions, federated social media, and non-profits that exist to make the world better, but there will always be something that is out there that keeps it from being useless.

No doubt that there will be people who still have morals and will run sites and services that don’t completely screw people.

But at some point, you won’t be able to tell which are legit, and which aren’t. AI generated websites can make any scam site look completely legitimate, fake thousands of testimonials, have bots post about it on every major website (Reddit, YouTube, etc.) without being caught, etc.

The currency of the internet is no longer about what’s valuable to users, but what’s valuable to bad actors, data thieves, and marketers.

There will be a tipping point when the bad far, far outweighs the good, and I’m curious to know when society decides that the internet isn’t worth using anymore.

Let me ask you this: assuming you use the internet for information rather than entertainment, would the internet be useful if the majority of content ends up being AI generated (not fact checked, not accurate, and not original)?

What if the overwhelming content you come across could neither be verified as true, and the majority of comments (including here on Lemmy) were bots? Would you still use it?

For me, it would stop being useful. Almost like a library only carrying fiction, when I’m trying to research a topic.

For entertainment, sure, it’ll be great for sucking the attention from people without having to invest in skill to be good at something. Hell, if you currently find YouTube shorts and Tiktok to be “good content”, then it’ll be around forever. Corporations and advertisers love this technology.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of things, and where we are heading.

At what point do we consider the internet “useless”? It must be coming very soon (less than 2 years), since the majority of content will be AI generated and targeted, which drives down the value for users even further.

Once original ideas vanish, and you can’t trust any text/audio/video/photo you see, what will be the point? It’s like the internet will simply be a video game world with next to no value.

And I can’t see how society can possibly reverse this.

Ask AI to translate that and see what it comes up with. LOL

I’m lucky to live in a country where sleeping outside is easily possible, safe, and legal

Unfortunately, this is not the case for Ontario, Canada, unless I wanted to go WAAAAAAY up North to extremly wild Crown Land (where the bears are).

This is probably the biggest barrier, because standard campsites charge as much as a hotel, even if you are camping without a large vehicle.

Even without much training, it’s easily possible to cover 100km / 60 miles in a day on flat ground, if your bike fits you. Cycling clothes also help a lot.

Yeah, 100km is very doable. I’ve been aiming for 200km+ lately, but even then, it sucks that these are out-and-back rides. Still, I come back wanting to ride more :)