@shahnm I know. These new characters have lost their charm that the old ones had. There is something to be said for leaving some things alone. Glen and Irk fall under “some things”. Change for the sake of change can be a fail. This is a fail although Irk looks a tiny bit less like an angry cartoon character in this one.
@haydesigner Was curious if any of my fellow mehazions would get the reference.
TNG is my favorite Star Trek franchise (Discovery and Picard the worst because they are more like soap operas). This particular scene was in an important epoc episode. If I remember correctly, Picard gave up control of the Enterprise and a new captain was put in place (Anyone remember his name?!?! Not me).
Picard was researching activity on a planet and was caught my the Cardassians. Oh God, how do you spell it. It’s not like Kardashians I hope. Wikipedia says I got it right the first time. Whew. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardassian
The new captain made Counselor Troy wear regular uniforms for the rest of the series.
@cengland0@haydesigner It was Captain Jellico, hard-nosed and full of himself, but effective against the Cardassians. (The scene with the mines is great.) Picard, Crusher, and Worf were on a spy mission. Excellent two-part episode, but sometimes hard to take with the torture scenes. About Troi in uniform, Marina Sirtis said that as soon as she started wearing the uniform, her character all of sudden had a brain.
@cengland0 One of MrsNews’ two favorite episodes of TNG. (The other being Darmok; mine is The Inner Light.) It’s amazing how often we manage to slip “I see FOUR lights” into casual conversation…
@ItalianScallion I, for one, like Troi in the official TNG uniform. I also agree that she changed from sex symbol to bridge crew at that time – it was a smart change. Why did she wear a red uniform instead of blue like the other doctors. You’d think a counselor would be considered a doctor, right?
@cengland0@ItalianScallion Interesting point about the uniform colors. It’s an old Star Trek tradition from Original that the new guy in the red uniform that beams down to the planet doesn’t come back alive.
Also maybe different views of mental health where now it’s considered as valid as medical treatment whereas in the 90’s it was still just some psychology mumbo-jumbo.
One of MrsNews’ two favorite episodes of TNG. (The other being Darmok; mine is The Inner Light.) It’s amazing how often we manage to slip “I see FOUR lights” into casual conversation…
“MrNews and MrsNews seeing four lights” (meant as a metaphor for agreement on a favorite TNG episode)
@cengland0@pmarin Oh, right. I forgot about that outfit. It was when Jellico ordered her to wear a standard uniform that she started wearing the blue one.
Since you admit you have zero proof that Meh is doing what you accuse @DrunkCat, you are basically just a combo of conspiracy nut/flat earther/angry old man yelling at clouds.
@haydesigner It was one riff on a singular day. Seriously, why is the deluge of “AI” visual slop snoozeville but suddenly you get ornery because it can very easily be “AI” written slop too? There’s literally no difference.
@DrunkCat@yakkoTDI Children children children. If you continue arguing with each other any longer you both will be given chores to do - starting with cleaning up the AI messy meh warehouse.
/showme a messy meh warehouse that needs cleaned up
So I’m confused. I get why @drunkcat hates AI. It is effectively, image or text, just plagiarism laundered via tons of electricity. Agree or disagree I understand his take, I see the logic motivating his posts.
What I don’t see is the logic for the replies. Are you guys arguing that AI is a good thing? Are you arguing that meh isn’t actually using AI?
@DrunkCat@yakkoTDI LLM reinforcement does not “get better” after the initial training, if that’s what you mean? That isn’t how these work. So what do you mean?
We have to use additional data and/or change model parameters and recalculate the weights to change the model… That may or may not result in a perceived improvement, but once you have the model weights the performance is what it is… Technically, it’s deterministic.
Calling LLMs AI has been one of the best marketing campaigns in history because it is so difficult to break people of the idea that there is at any point anything even resembling biological intelligence in LLMs.
As the joke goes, the I in LLM is for intelligence.
So it is weird to hear the idea that it can somehow get better with use, like there’s thinking or any kind of brain like activity? It sounds like saying if you drive your car it will learn to be a better car… So I have to assume you mean the models can be used to refine themselves to get better? That or changing the models themselves?
As far as changing the models and using the same data… that seem to be mostly abandoned by large players. Most changed to using multiple experts models or large contexts. Large models can be adapted and trained to use large contexts, ie larger patterns, which can make them seem better in some cases (especially when training for a more specific area) but that comes at exponentially higher (power 10, roughly) cost to calculate each result (inference). That is to say the ongoing cost (energy use) goes way up, and imo that is not going to be sustainable despite what the hypebros say. Multiple experts mitigates that but not very well and leaves giant gaps.
For retraining the models on their own output… The only independent research I have heard of on reinforcement models isn’t directly applicable to the big commercial models (because they are closed source) but showed what you would expect, if you feed generated content back into the model you will converge the output… which generally will be seen as worse, depending on your metric. It’s overfitting data.
You can use a model as a trainer to condense itself into a smaller one that is significantly better than a similar size model trained from scratch - that is what openAI was crying about the Chinese open source model R1 did, ironically they called it “stealing” their model, which they made from stolen internet data, lol.
That was the first positive development I’ve even seen in “AI” because it decreased the inference cost massively to where you could technically even realistically afford to self host the model (still a very pricey computer setup though), and with it being open source you can literally do that.
Still, none of that made the model smarter, the condensed model is objectively worse than the GPT model it condensed. It’s just cheaper to operate and open source, so you don’t have to submit all your requests to a company run by a sociopathic megalomaniac. Which is kind of nice.
Anyway, there’s no reason to expect the closed models to behave any different, requiring more authentic data to improve. And if the frantic corporate scrambling to hoard and scrape every binary number in existence is any indication, I would say they indeed know they aren’t getting better results off their own generated data.
All that is to say… not even being an expert… I am wondering where the confidence in arguing with @drunkcat that LLMs get better is stemming from, if you don’t understand at least a little about the technology? You must know something I don’t, which I’m open to, or you have a strong opinion because you believe someone else you heard it from?
Oh no, they use both words. I wonder what that means:
It means something different than what you said. Perhaps you should try using more AI in your life. I think it might really lead to you using more AI in your life. Once you start using more AI then you can start using less AI in your life. As you use less AI in your life perhaps you can get down to not using AI in your life. Of course at no point in your journey of using AI in your life will
@bobthenormal: What I don’t see is the logic for the replies. Are you guys arguing that AI is a good thing? Are you arguing that meh isn’t actually using AI?
I cannot and do not speak for everyone, but I have gotten increasingly annoyed at the drunk cat continually 1) complaining about AI here every single day, and 2) accusing Meh of replacing employees with AI with zero proof.
@bobthenormal@haydesigner I really love how I made that jab once and it really rustled jimmies. I still never got an answer why “AI” image slop is fine but nature forbid meh also use “AI” written slop.
@DrunkCat Why should I read anything by bob? He doesn’t realise that can and does are two different words which means he might as well be using AI. Hey! If bob is using AI in his life then why don’t you use AI in your life. You can use words incorrectly also. Oh wait, you already have. Glad to see you jumped on the AI bandwagon like so many out there.
@DrunkCat@yakkoTDI If it the words you’re referring to, it’s because Mediocrebot apparently speaks Mediocrese for which there is apparently no known dictionary… or is there?
/showme a dictionary for the language Mediocrebot speaks
Four lights aren’t enough . My boys frequently steal the batteries from our emergency lanterns to use in their Xbox controllers. They also find a way to lose every single battery cover……. I need 40 lights with 80 battery covers.
@Num1Zero I bought a set of Ecoloop batteries and a charger for my controller. I can keep a set of charged batteries on hand, and put in fresh batteries every single time I use the controller!
Only thing to remember, the batteries are CAPABLE of outgassing, so don’t put them in a sealed container, like anything waterproof. Many of my flashlights.
But over time, it should be cheaper than spamming alkalines.
@Num1Zero I’ve had a couple of the AA version for years. In the last week, both have been knocked off of something and the battery covers have shattered! So yes, extra battery covers are a must
@stolicat
We have a metric shit-ton of the Harbor Freight ‘free with any purchase’ lights scattered everywhere. Luckily, they seem to avoid battery damage most of the time, because having to unscrew tiny screws to change the batteries is the worst thing about them- especially the newer generation ones with more compact LEDs.
@hchavers For real, the best we have is a picture of the battery compartment showing where the 4×AAA batteries go.
Well, I guess we also have the description:
7-1/2" H x 3" Diameter
(I assume that’s before extending.)
But I, for one, have to get out a ruler to visualize that properly.
In short (or tall?), that’s very similar to a Contigo jug, which makes it very different from what I imagined.
@ItalianScallion@missag@Trinityscrew@user84355571
That’s what it sounded like to me too- I went to PA school in Wilkes-Barre and had rotations there and
in Scranton- lots of relatively isolated ‘hollers’ and some isolated mountain-top communities there, a lot like they had in Kentucky [where some of my undergrad school took place].
OTOH, this is what the Google ‘AI’ had to say:
“The term “boughten” primarily localizes to Northern US dialects, especially in New England and New York, where it’s used as an adjective meaning “purchased” or “commercially made” as opposed to homemade.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
Meaning:
“Boughten” is a past participle of the verb “buy,” but with the participial ending “-en” (like “frozen”).
Usage:
It’s used to describe items that are purchased rather than made at home, like “boughten bread” or “a boughten dress”.
Etymology
The word “boughten” is attested as an adjective from 1793, especially in colloquial U.S. use, in reference to clothing and other items, and opposed to made
Regionality:
While it’s a dialectal term, it’s most common in the Northern US, particularly in areas like New England and New York.
Example:
You might hear someone say, “I prefer homemade cookies, not boughten ones,” to express a preference for something made at home over something purchased from a store.”
Which is really quite funny because while I have been an upstate New Yorker all my life, except for brief stays in the locations I have already mentioned here, I had NEVER heard that word before I went out of state.
@missag@PhysAssist@Trinityscrew@user84355571 New England? I could imagine hearing it in Maine from old Downeasters, but I’ve actually never once heard “boughten” come out of the mouth of a New Englander or New Yorker.
Truthfully, I had never given it much thought and I couldn’t say whether it was a slip of the tongue as I just as easily could have said bought, vs boughten! Anyways, from Michigan, Italian, with lots of relatives in the Scranton, PA area.
@missag@PhysAssist@Trinityscrew@user84355571 Me too. I think it started for me when I was an English as a Second Language teacher in the 2000s. I can’t get enough of learning languages. A few months ago I took a couple of Arabic courses. It was the hardest language I ever tried to learn (harder than Russian) and took so much out-of-class time that I couldn’t keep up. Maybe I’ll go back to it some day… Regional dialects, especially in Italian since I know that pretty well, also fascinate me. It always a puzzle trying to figure out which languages influenced a particular dialect and why. For example, the Genoese dialect was heavily influenced by Portuguese (because the Republic of Genoa did a lot of trade with Portugal) so much that a Brazlian Portuguese-speaking friend could speak with a Genoese friend when she spoke the dialect.
@ItalianScallion@missag@PhysAssist@Trinityscrew@user84355571 interestingly you guys may have missed that the description specifies that it’s used as an adjective but OP used it as a verb, which would make it grammatically incorrect either way. Not that I’m a grammar musk but I thought it was interesting you guys didn’t mention it. Bought is the correct past tense verb. There is another verb I can’t think of right now that I used to add a similar “verbish sound” ending to and took me a long time to break the habit.
I kind of like the boughten adjective though, people generally use “store bought” in place of that currently.
Although there is French transliteration (so you need to know how the French say sounds and it misses some of the Cambodian sounds; developed when the French occupied the country)
@ItalianScallion@missag@PhysAssist@Trinityscrew@user84355571 When I lived in Cambodia many “important” signs/store names were written in both Khmer and the French transliteration. Well and where many Americans live, in English too (like the grocery store the Seven Seven - it sold some USA brands of food sold here). And so many Cambodians were illiterate due to the Khmer Rouge closing all the schools and murdering any teacher they could find that caused it’s own issues.
@Kidsandliz I got excited last time they posted a light… They listed lumens. Now we’re back to no lumens again. Seriously, I live in the woods I need lanterns… I would have bought these even if mediocre, just don’t want to buy if it’s something silly like 50 lumens.
I think meh is buying QVC leftover stock. While I couldn’t find how bright they are the video shows a couple of seconds in the last couple of minutes with them more or less in the dark. Also scroll down on the page, past all the products for sale, and there are reviews.
Note that the part of the video (along with the short one which is pulled from the long one) showing allegedly outside and pouring wine is lit by more than the lantern. A better idea of the brightness is the one with the tire and the circuit breaker box.
I think we are going to have some future does not work irk items here (I hope meh puts the returns in the dumpster instead rather than sending them out in irks). Lots of them. Be sure you test them as soon as they come because the big complaint is that many don’t work. They are well liked when they do though.
AAA kills the value. They don’t last long enough to be worth the landfill, and rechargeables don’t last long enough to be dependable. At least not in flashlights. And at least not for my use cases. And least of all, this is my opinion, yours may differ. I don’t mind the least if yours does.
@Commonwealth109@Jonas4321@mehcuda67 AAA batteries aren’t so bad. They’re a good choice for low-current devices that want voltage near either 3V or 5V, for example, a computer mouse that isn’t used for hours every day. The problem is when they’re used in high-current drain devices like lanterns, bluetooth speakers, and anything with a motor in it (including a camera that uses one to focus and zoom).
@Commonwealth109@ItalianScallion@mehcuda67 The trouble is, AAA are implemented where they are not beneficial (except to reduce the size of the battery compartment and lower the weight of the device), as is the case with this offering (again, my opinion). I’ll take a single AA pocket flashlight over a 3xAAA pocket flashlight every time. Smaller, lighter and the cost of just one battery when needed (or just one to charge when needed).
@Commonwealth109@Jonas4321@PhysAssist They might be forever in the landfill.I can just imagine archaeologists of our distant offspring 10,000 years in the future, puzzling over billions of corroded little cylinders in our “burial pits”.
I can just imagine archaeologists of our distant offspring 10,000 years in the future, puzzling over
Or puzzling over what that aluminum long skinny pole (tent pole) is doing at 8000’ in what likely used to be a lake. Tent blew into a lake (turned my back to get the tent stakes to stake it down) that still had chunks of ice in it and so I didn’t go diving for the pole after rescuing the tent as the water was so incredibly cold.
I’m of the opposite bent with regard to removeable batteries vs built-in rechargeable. Small devices, like computer mice, don’t need the engineering and manufacturing overhead, small as it may be, to have extra stuff like that built in. I can and do buy various size cells. You can always swap out the removeable cells when they get low or dead. Now, I’d prefer they be AA vs AAA. (or 14500 if they can be used here.)
@OnionSoup I thought @troy said that sometimes they don’t know what the lumens are for lights they buy. I would figure that if they knew the lumens, they would include it in the specs.
@user40783299 So that is 25 watts. Thanks for catching that as I had blown through the video looking for any part of it where they had it on in the dark. Didn’t want to listen to the entire thing.
Do these have soft power or mechanical switches? Soft power means its a vampire constantly sucking down the batteries at hopefully a very low rate, where a mechanical cuts the power completely.
Want too many of this type of light uses soft power switching…
I’m disappointed it is taking so long to process and ship. I requested a little speed when I ordered, since these are a gift I was hoping to have for my nephew’s birthday, April 12th. Too bad. Reading the other comments, I hope I’ve not wasted my hard-earned Social Security $$.
@user59988327 Things generally don’t come as fast from Meh as they would from some big company like Amazon or Target. Maybe just tell him you’re extending his birthday celebration?
Specs
Product: Pick-Your-4-Pack: BrightEase Multi-Use Pop Up Lantern & Spotlight
Model: V39396848000, V39396849000, V39396850000, V39396851000
Condition: New
What’s Included?
Warranty
90 days
Estimated Delivery
Thursday, Apr 17 - Monday, Apr 21
I choose the conflict version.
OH MY GOD THEY AI-LIVE-ACTIONED GLEN!!!
(Seriously Meh, WTF?!?)
@shahnm I know. These new characters have lost their charm that the old ones had. There is something to be said for leaving some things alone. Glen and Irk fall under “some things”. Change for the sake of change can be a fail. This is a fail although Irk looks a tiny bit less like an angry cartoon character in this one.
probably time for another power bank
THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!!!
Top 10 tv series of all time.
@haydesigner Was curious if any of my fellow mehazions would get the reference.
TNG is my favorite Star Trek franchise (Discovery and Picard the worst because they are more like soap operas). This particular scene was in an important epoc episode. If I remember correctly, Picard gave up control of the Enterprise and a new captain was put in place (Anyone remember his name?!?! Not me).
Picard was researching activity on a planet and was caught my the Cardassians. Oh God, how do you spell it. It’s not like Kardashians I hope. Wikipedia says I got it right the first time. Whew. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardassian
The new captain made Counselor Troy wear regular uniforms for the rest of the series.
@cengland0 @haydesigner It was Captain Jellico, hard-nosed and full of himself, but effective against the Cardassians. (The scene with the mines is great.) Picard, Crusher, and Worf were on a spy mission. Excellent two-part episode, but sometimes hard to take with the torture scenes. About Troi in uniform, Marina Sirtis said that as soon as she started wearing the uniform, her character all of sudden had a brain.
@cengland0 One of MrsNews’ two favorite episodes of TNG. (The other being Darmok; mine is The Inner Light.) It’s amazing how often we manage to slip “I see FOUR lights” into casual conversation…
@cengland0 @MrNews The Inner Light could be the best episode of all the Star Trek series.
@ItalianScallion I, for one, like Troi in the official TNG uniform. I also agree that she changed from sex symbol to bridge crew at that time – it was a smart change. Why did she wear a red uniform instead of blue like the other doctors. You’d think a counselor would be considered a doctor, right?
@cengland0 @ItalianScallion Interesting point about the uniform colors. It’s an old Star Trek tradition from Original that the new guy in the red uniform that beams down to the planet doesn’t come back alive.
Also maybe different views of mental health where now it’s considered as valid as medical treatment whereas in the 90’s it was still just some psychology mumbo-jumbo.
@cengland0 @pmarin Ah yes, the red shirts. But I seem to remember that Troi’s uniform was blue… always blue.
@MrNews
“MrNews and MrsNews seeing four lights” (meant as a metaphor for agreement on a favorite TNG episode)
@ItalianScallion @pmarin
@cengland0 @pmarin Oh, right. I forgot about that outfit. It was when Jellico ordered her to wear a standard uniform that she started wearing the blue one.
No link to poll? (Again?)
@2many2no Or daily video.
Pop up lanterns because with “AI” users there’s no pop up spines. There’s no spines at all in fact.
@DrunkCat At least AI gets better with use. You should try using it to improve your comments. Maybe one day they will be sort of ok.
Since you admit you have zero proof that Meh is doing what you accuse @DrunkCat, you are basically just a combo of conspiracy nut/flat earther/angry old man yelling at clouds.
@DrunkCat @haydesigner
/showme a drunk cat shaking its fist at the sky and yelling at clouds
@DrunkCat @haydesigner @ItalianScallion That is a great AI image. Good job @mediocrebot
@yakkoTDI It literally does not.
@haydesigner It was one riff on a singular day. Seriously, why is the deluge of “AI” visual slop snoozeville but suddenly you get ornery because it can very easily be “AI” written slop too? There’s literally no difference.
@DrunkCat @haydesigner @ItalianScallion asked for a Fur Ball instead
@DrunkCat You should really work on those reading and comprehension skills of yours.
Can get worse does not mean the same as does get worse. Maybe you should try to get AI to help you write an answer.
@DrunkCat @yakkoTDI Children children children. If you continue arguing with each other any longer you both will be given chores to do - starting with cleaning up the AI messy meh warehouse.
/showme a messy meh warehouse that needs cleaned up
@DrunkCat @Kidsandliz @yakkoTDI Maybe we need an “AI Bullshit 2025” thread.
@DrunkCat @haydesigner
Except you can’t see any clouds from the basement.
@DrunkCat @ItalianScallion @Kidsandliz @yakkoTDI I literally look up the word “figuratively” every day.
@yakkoTDI It literally says “does” not can lol. It’s not even the only paper to demonstrate it. Did you get AI to make that argument for you?
So I’m confused. I get why @drunkcat hates AI. It is effectively, image or text, just plagiarism laundered via tons of electricity. Agree or disagree I understand his take, I see the logic motivating his posts.
What I don’t see is the logic for the replies. Are you guys arguing that AI is a good thing? Are you arguing that meh isn’t actually using AI?
@DrunkCat You are not helping your case here. Please use AI to help yourself.
Looks like can to me.
@yakkoTDI Oh no, they use both words. I wonder what that means:
https://transmitter.ieee.org/why-do-ai-models-seem-to-get-worse/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/08/26/upshot/ai-synthetic-data.html
https://www.globest.com/2024/10/03/gen-ai-is-getting-bigger-faster-and-worse-says-a-new-study/?slreturn=20250409-11018
https://theweek.com/tech/ai-cannibalization-model-collapse
https://www.emergingtechbrew.com/stories/2025/02/06/why-ai-models-might-degrade-over-time
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ai-chatbots-getting-worse-over-time-academic-paper
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07566-y
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ai-generated-content-internet-online-slop-spam.html
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/07/24/1095263/ai-that-feeds-on-a-diet-of-ai-garbage-ends-up-spitting-out-nonsense/
Oh yeah. “AI” is fucking garbage.
@DrunkCat @yakkoTDI LLM reinforcement does not “get better” after the initial training, if that’s what you mean? That isn’t how these work. So what do you mean?
We have to use additional data and/or change model parameters and recalculate the weights to change the model… That may or may not result in a perceived improvement, but once you have the model weights the performance is what it is… Technically, it’s deterministic.
Calling LLMs AI has been one of the best marketing campaigns in history because it is so difficult to break people of the idea that there is at any point anything even resembling biological intelligence in LLMs.
As the joke goes, the I in LLM is for intelligence.
So it is weird to hear the idea that it can somehow get better with use, like there’s thinking or any kind of brain like activity? It sounds like saying if you drive your car it will learn to be a better car… So I have to assume you mean the models can be used to refine themselves to get better? That or changing the models themselves?
As far as changing the models and using the same data… that seem to be mostly abandoned by large players. Most changed to using multiple experts models or large contexts. Large models can be adapted and trained to use large contexts, ie larger patterns, which can make them seem better in some cases (especially when training for a more specific area) but that comes at exponentially higher (power 10, roughly) cost to calculate each result (inference). That is to say the ongoing cost (energy use) goes way up, and imo that is not going to be sustainable despite what the hypebros say. Multiple experts mitigates that but not very well and leaves giant gaps.
For retraining the models on their own output… The only independent research I have heard of on reinforcement models isn’t directly applicable to the big commercial models (because they are closed source) but showed what you would expect, if you feed generated content back into the model you will converge the output… which generally will be seen as worse, depending on your metric. It’s overfitting data.
You can use a model as a trainer to condense itself into a smaller one that is significantly better than a similar size model trained from scratch - that is what openAI was crying about the Chinese open source model R1 did, ironically they called it “stealing” their model, which they made from stolen internet data, lol.
That was the first positive development I’ve even seen in “AI” because it decreased the inference cost massively to where you could technically even realistically afford to self host the model (still a very pricey computer setup though), and with it being open source you can literally do that.
Still, none of that made the model smarter, the condensed model is objectively worse than the GPT model it condensed. It’s just cheaper to operate and open source, so you don’t have to submit all your requests to a company run by a sociopathic megalomaniac. Which is kind of nice.
Anyway, there’s no reason to expect the closed models to behave any different, requiring more authentic data to improve. And if the frantic corporate scrambling to hoard and scrape every binary number in existence is any indication, I would say they indeed know they aren’t getting better results off their own generated data.
All that is to say… not even being an expert… I am wondering where the confidence in arguing with @drunkcat that LLMs get better is stemming from, if you don’t understand at least a little about the technology? You must know something I don’t, which I’m open to, or you have a strong opinion because you believe someone else you heard it from?
@DrunkCat
It means something different than what you said. Perhaps you should try using more AI in your life. I think it might really lead to you using more AI in your life. Once you start using more AI then you can start using less AI in your life. As you use less AI in your life perhaps you can get down to not using AI in your life. Of course at no point in your journey of using AI in your life will
I cannot and do not speak for everyone, but I have gotten increasingly annoyed at the drunk cat continually 1) complaining about AI here every single day, and 2) accusing Meh of replacing employees with AI with zero proof.
@yakkoTDI I mean, you can either read all that bob wrote or you can continue to be delusional, your call.
@bobthenormal @haydesigner I really love how I made that jab once and it really rustled jimmies. I still never got an answer why “AI” image slop is fine but nature forbid meh also use “AI” written slop.
@DrunkCat Why should I read anything by bob? He doesn’t realise that can and does are two different words which means he might as well be using AI. Hey! If bob is using AI in his life then why don’t you use AI in your life. You can use words incorrectly also. Oh wait, you already have. Glad to see you jumped on the AI bandwagon like so many out there.
@yakkoTDI Oh, this is slop. Damn, this shit really does get worse rofl.
@DrunkCat @yakkoTDI @mehcuda67 @rpstrong @Kidsandliz
I decided to go ahead and create a topic for talking about AI, but I have it a more reasonable name:
Artificial Intelligence: yes, no, don’t care, just want to argue about it here
@DrunkCat
Not sure what you are referencing. Could you please clarify?
@yakkoTDI
@DrunkCat That clarified nothing.
@yakkoTDI I wonder why meh image embeds are so terrible.
@DrunkCat @yakkoTDI If it the words you’re referring to, it’s because Mediocrebot apparently speaks Mediocrese for which there is apparently no known dictionary… or is there?
/showme a dictionary for the language Mediocrebot speaks
Not too helpful, @mediocrebot. How about this?
/showme an English translation dictionary for the language Mediocrebot speaks
I guess I was right: no known (comprehensible) dictionary.
@DrunkCat I guess you can’t clarify.
@yakkoTDI I can always clarify these.
@DrunkCat
Not sure what you are referencing. Could you please clarify?
@yakkoTDI I already said I clarify these.
@DrunkCat Got it. You’re not able to clarify. I will move on to something else.
@yakkoTDI You’re moving on from these?
Four lights aren’t enough . My boys frequently steal the batteries from our emergency lanterns to use in their Xbox controllers. They also find a way to lose every single battery cover……. I need 40 lights with 80 battery covers.
@Num1Zero I bought a set of Ecoloop batteries and a charger for my controller. I can keep a set of charged batteries on hand, and put in fresh batteries every single time I use the controller!
Only thing to remember, the batteries are CAPABLE of outgassing, so don’t put them in a sealed container, like anything waterproof. Many of my flashlights.
But over time, it should be cheaper than spamming alkalines.
@Num1Zero I’ve had a couple of the AA version for years. In the last week, both have been knocked off of something and the battery covers have shattered! So yes, extra battery covers are a must
@Num1Zero no no no. Save money by 3D printing replacement covers using a $500 3D printer.
@Num1Zero THERE. ARE. FORTY. LIGHTS!
I like having these these little lights around the house, especially the way PG&E seems to blink out regularly.
/giphy artistic-pointless-blademaster
/showme artistic-pointless-blademaster
@stolicat
We have a metric shit-ton of the Harbor Freight ‘free with any purchase’ lights scattered everywhere. Luckily, they seem to avoid battery damage most of the time, because having to unscrew tiny screws to change the batteries is the worst thing about them- especially the newer generation ones with more compact LEDs.
This is the one I’m talking about:
Wonder how many light levels on spot and main light
and how many days (hours) on 4 AAA batteries will it las
@dahobbs9 Yeah, I am always sad when large objects use tiny batteries. The other lights they just sold from this brand were AA…
Where’s the banana?
@hchavers For real, the best we have is a picture of the battery compartment showing where the 4×AAA batteries go.
Well, I guess we also have the description:
(I assume that’s before extending.)
But I, for one, have to get out a ruler to visualize that properly.
In short (or tall?), that’s very similar to a Contigo jug, which makes it very different from what I imagined.
@xobzoo Well, Freud said “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Guess sometimes a banana is just a banana.
Tree-fitty itch. Not 'orrible, unless the lights are. Last batch I got still shines.
No more awful AI Irk and Glen. You guys are absolutely destroying them.
@cinoclav AGREED!!!
@cinoclav @Kidsandliz
No thanks on this! If these were rechargeable, then I would probably have boughten them. The battery replacement will be cost prohibitive!
@user84355571 Boughten? Must be a regional thing.
@Trinityscrew @user84355571 Not the Midwest by any chance? Because yeah, “boughten” it is, or was when I was coming up there
@missag @Trinityscrew @user84355571 When I was a teenager, I heard older people use it in Pennsylvania. It might have been an Amish/Mennonite thing.
@ItalianScallion @missag @Trinityscrew @user84355571
That’s what it sounded like to me too- I went to PA school in Wilkes-Barre and had rotations there and
in Scranton- lots of relatively isolated ‘hollers’ and some isolated mountain-top communities there, a lot like they had in Kentucky [where some of my undergrad school took place].
OTOH, this is what the Google ‘AI’ had to say:
“The term “boughten” primarily localizes to Northern US dialects, especially in New England and New York, where it’s used as an adjective meaning “purchased” or “commercially made” as opposed to homemade.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
Meaning:
“Boughten” is a past participle of the verb “buy,” but with the participial ending “-en” (like “frozen”).
Usage:
It’s used to describe items that are purchased rather than made at home, like “boughten bread” or “a boughten dress”.
Etymology
The word “boughten” is attested as an adjective from 1793, especially in colloquial U.S. use, in reference to clothing and other items, and opposed to made
Regionality:
While it’s a dialectal term, it’s most common in the Northern US, particularly in areas like New England and New York.
Example:
You might hear someone say, “I prefer homemade cookies, not boughten ones,” to express a preference for something made at home over something purchased from a store.”
Which is really quite funny because while I have been an upstate New Yorker all my life, except for brief stays in the locations I have already mentioned here, I had NEVER heard that word before I went out of state.
@missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 New England? I could imagine hearing it in Maine from old Downeasters, but I’ve actually never once heard “boughten” come out of the mouth of a New Englander or New Yorker.
@ItalianScallion @missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew
Truthfully, I had never given it much thought and I couldn’t say whether it was a slip of the tongue as I just as easily could have said bought, vs boughten! Anyways, from Michigan, Italian, with lots of relatives in the Scranton, PA area.
@ItalianScallion @missag @Trinityscrew @user84355571
No worries, I’m just always interested in language, dialects, and regional variations thereof.
@ItalianScallion @missag @Trinityscrew @user84355571
Same for sure!
@missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 Me too. I think it started for me when I was an English as a Second Language teacher in the 2000s. I can’t get enough of learning languages. A few months ago I took a couple of Arabic courses. It was the hardest language I ever tried to learn (harder than Russian) and took so much out-of-class time that I couldn’t keep up. Maybe I’ll go back to it some day… Regional dialects, especially in Italian since I know that pretty well, also fascinate me. It always a puzzle trying to figure out which languages influenced a particular dialect and why. For example, the Genoese dialect was heavily influenced by Portuguese (because the Republic of Genoa did a lot of trade with Portugal) so much that a Brazlian Portuguese-speaking friend could speak with a Genoese friend when she spoke the dialect.
@ItalianScallion @missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 interestingly you guys may have missed that the description specifies that it’s used as an adjective but OP used it as a verb, which would make it grammatically incorrect either way. Not that I’m a grammar musk but I thought it was interesting you guys didn’t mention it. Bought is the correct past tense verb. There is another verb I can’t think of right now that I used to add a similar “verbish sound” ending to and took me a long time to break the habit.
I kind of like the boughten adjective though, people generally use “store bought” in place of that currently.
@ItalianScallion @missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 You should try reading Khmer (Cambodian). Reading that is a real PITA. Sentences in Khmer are written as one word (below is that English sentence in Khmer per google):
ប្រយោគជាភាសាខ្មែរត្រូវបានសរសេរជាពាក្យមួយ។
Although there is French transliteration (so you need to know how the French say sounds and it misses some of the Cambodian sounds; developed when the French occupied the country)
brayok chea pheasaea khmer trauv ban sarser chea peaky muoy.
I learned some spoken Cambodian but never could read it.
@Kidsandliz @missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 That’s fascinating! I had seen that language written (without knowing it was Khmer) and wondered why there weren’t any spaces. Now I know. Thanks!
@ItalianScallion @missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 When I lived in Cambodia many “important” signs/store names were written in both Khmer and the French transliteration. Well and where many Americans live, in English too (like the grocery store the Seven Seven - it sold some USA brands of food sold here). And so many Cambodians were illiterate due to the Khmer Rouge closing all the schools and murdering any teacher they could find that caused it’s own issues.
@Kidsandliz @missag @PhysAssist @Trinityscrew @user84355571 One of the first things a despot does: create an uneducated populace.
How bright are these? That affects my purchase decision.
@Kidsandliz I got excited last time they posted a light… They listed lumens. Now we’re back to no lumens again. Seriously, I live in the woods I need lanterns… I would have bought these even if mediocre, just don’t want to buy if it’s something silly like 50 lumens.
@OnionSoup Down below @user40783299 listened to the entire video I found and they said 250 lumens (25 watts) on the video
Who else thought these were blenders at first glance?
@jsh139 They’re not?
I think meh is buying QVC leftover stock. While I couldn’t find how bright they are the video shows a couple of seconds in the last couple of minutes with them more or less in the dark. Also scroll down on the page, past all the products for sale, and there are reviews.
https://www.qvc.com/brightease-set-of-2-multi-use-pop-up-lantern-spotlight.product.V39396.html
Note that the part of the video (along with the short one which is pulled from the long one) showing allegedly outside and pouring wine is lit by more than the lantern. A better idea of the brightness is the one with the tire and the circuit breaker box.
I think we are going to have some future does not work irk items here (I hope meh puts the returns in the dumpster instead rather than sending them out in irks). Lots of them. Be sure you test them as soon as they come because the big complaint is that many don’t work. They are well liked when they do though.
AAA kills the value. They don’t last long enough to be worth the landfill, and rechargeables don’t last long enough to be dependable. At least not in flashlights. And at least not for my use cases. And least of all, this is my opinion, yours may differ. I don’t mind the least if yours does.
@Jonas4321 yep, even AA’s are much better
@Commonwealth109 @Jonas4321 AAAs are the herpes of electronics.
@Commonwealth109 @Jonas4321 @mehcuda67 AAA batteries aren’t so bad. They’re a good choice for low-current devices that want voltage near either 3V or 5V, for example, a computer mouse that isn’t used for hours every day. The problem is when they’re used in high-current drain devices like lanterns, bluetooth speakers, and anything with a motor in it (including a camera that uses one to focus and zoom).
@Commonwealth109 @Jonas4321 @mehcuda67
Not really the herpes of batteries though, because unlike love, herpes is forever…
From an old bad joke, sorry…
@Commonwealth109 @ItalianScallion @mehcuda67 The trouble is, AAA are implemented where they are not beneficial (except to reduce the size of the battery compartment and lower the weight of the device), as is the case with this offering (again, my opinion). I’ll take a single AA pocket flashlight over a 3xAAA pocket flashlight every time. Smaller, lighter and the cost of just one battery when needed (or just one to charge when needed).
@Commonwealth109 @Jonas4321 @PhysAssist They might be forever in the landfill.I can just imagine archaeologists of our distant offspring 10,000 years in the future, puzzling over billions of corroded little cylinders in our “burial pits”.
@Commonwealth109 @Jonas4321 @mehcuda67 @PhysAssist
Or puzzling over what that aluminum long skinny pole (tent pole) is doing at 8000’ in what likely used to be a lake. Tent blew into a lake (turned my back to get the tent stakes to stake it down) that still had chunks of ice in it and so I didn’t go diving for the pole after rescuing the tent as the water was so incredibly cold.
Still have some of these from 5 years ago!
Was very sad these aren’t rechargeable battery as I literally need to buy a camp light today
I’m of the opposite bent with regard to removeable batteries vs built-in rechargeable. Small devices, like computer mice, don’t need the engineering and manufacturing overhead, small as it may be, to have extra stuff like that built in. I can and do buy various size cells. You can always swap out the removeable cells when they get low or dead. Now, I’d prefer they be AA vs AAA. (or 14500 if they can be used here.)
Stop keeping us in the dark. Tell us the Lumens!
… I did buy some anyway because QVC customers called them “very bright”… Which is more than I can say for the decision not to show lumens…
/showme how bright are meh’s lamps?
Something went terribly wrong. Please try again.
@mediocrebot ok …
/showme how many mediocre lumens to expect from these mediocre lanterns.
@OnionSoup I thought @troy said that sometimes they don’t know what the lumens are for lights they buy. I would figure that if they knew the lumens, they would include it in the specs.
@ItalianScallion @OnionSoup @troy @user40783299 listened to the entire video I found and they said 250 lumens (25 watts) on the video
@ItalianScallion @Kidsandliz @troy @user40783299 250 isn’t great but good for this price point as extra lamps to have around.
Right before the 2 minute mark on the QVC video the lady says “the entire light is 250 lumens” which I take to mean the combination of the spot light and the lantern. https://www.qvc.com/brightease-set-of-2-multi-use-pop-up-lantern-spotlight.product.V39396.html
@user40783299 So that is 25 watts. Thanks for catching that as I had blown through the video looking for any part of it where they had it on in the dark. Didn’t want to listen to the entire thing.
Do these have soft power or mechanical switches? Soft power means its a vampire constantly sucking down the batteries at hopefully a very low rate, where a mechanical cuts the power completely.
Want too many of this type of light uses soft power switching…
I’m disappointed it is taking so long to process and ship. I requested a little speed when I ordered, since these are a gift I was hoping to have for my nephew’s birthday, April 12th. Too bad. Reading the other comments, I hope I’ve not wasted my hard-earned Social Security $$.
@user59988327 Things generally don’t come as fast from Meh as they would from some big company like Amazon or Target.
Maybe just tell him you’re extending his birthday celebration?
Only 3 of the 4 worked.
@kittirestermeh Please contact support. They are a great group for getting support from.
https://meh.com/support