See: Google's AI studio. Its built on Google Cloud infrastructure so billing updates are slow which peeves users used to instant billing data with Anthropic and OpenAI.

Not to mention the dark patterns that attempt to trick you into backing up your entire photo library, over and over again.

Or the inability to exclude folders from the backup process.

Maybe get the basic expectations of a Photo app right before adding features nobody asked for.

I guess that's the game, but they do seem a lot more cavalier about it of late. Increasingly resembles the crypto 'community' (derogatory).

Not an experience I can relate with, and I'm pretty well traveled. A cynic might say that you're projecting a personal view here.

Google were late to the game but they've built perhaps one of the easiest cloud platforms to work with.

Natural for Cursor to nudge users towards their paid plans, but why provide the ability to use your own API keys in the first place if you're going to make them useless later?

Fix this and I'd be back in a flash.

Assistants that work best in the hands of someone who already knows what they're doing, removing tedium and providing an additional layer of quality assurance.

Pilot's still needed to get the plane in the air.

But even if the output from these tools is perfect, coding isn't only (or even mainly) about writing code, it's about building complex systems and finding workable solutions through problems that sometimes look like cul de sacs.

Once your codebase reaches a few thousand lines, LLMs struggle seeing the big picture and begin introducing one new problem for every one that they solve.

Some instructions that worked for me:

- Specifics instead of high level

- Approach from non-critical perspective

- Dont be philosophical

- Use direct quotes often

- Focus on the details. Provide a lesson, not reflections

- Provide a 'sparknotes' style thorough understanding of the subject

However, there's no indication of how long this maintenance will last, and there's been zero communication from the company.

HN seems like a good place to ask since, once upon a time, SpiderOak was the go-to recommendation for secure backups. Disappointing to see it fail due to neglect, but given the lack of updates, it was a long time coming.

Suggestions for alternative backup services appreciated.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40212159

Points: 4

# Comments: 2

Same experience here. I'm a beginner swimmer and got caught in a rip tide in Bali.

The thing was, it was terrifying yet so calm at the same time. Everybody on the beach continued to bathe, unaware, and a few metres away I was frantically but silently fighting for my life.

The helplessness is especially haunting. You exert this primal will to life, and the force of nature just brushes it aside.

Anyway, I made it out, spent that evening binging Youtube videos about rip tides, and have developed a healthy aversion to ocean water.

Similar spec Samsung laptops (Galaxy Books) come with a regular USB-C cable and a fast charging power adapter that looks like any other plug.

Anybody know why Samsung can do this and Microsoft can't?

Only having to lug around a single cable and charger for all devices is a dealbreaker.

It's an uncomfortable title, but it's a truth that must be confronted. How have once downtrodden countries like Korea, China, and large swaths of Eastern Europe been able to turn rags into riches while most of Africa has so far failed to?

GDP is not everything of course. But even on measures of safety, why is Africa so much more violent than equally poor Laos or Cambodia?

South America shares some of Africa's woes, so perhaps it's not a uniquely African problem. But it seems less bad, and the region has produced success stories.

I've heard it said that Africa has yet to have its naissance. Maybe, hopefully, that's it and things will get better over time. But with the current corrupt institutions and leadership that looks to be a gargantuan task.

Great way to frame it. Somewhat similarly, I view it as path dependency: your current choices are constrained by previous choices, meaning the further you deviate from the person you wish to be the harder it is to turn things around if the future you so wishes to.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35384840

Points: 7

# Comments: 0

I saw the exact same commentary around the no-code hype of the past few years and it made me increasingly cynical. No-code tools made it super easy to create a boilerplate website that looked pretty but was not fit for purpose. Meanwhile it was advertised as "Build an AirBnB clone without code!".

OK fine, hyperbole as a marketing tactic. But many people handed over wads of cash for courses that promised results that were in reality no more than cardboard cutouts of actual websites.

The Internet appears to have an endless ability to create markets for don't-do-the-work-and-still-enjoy-the-reward snakeoil.

And now we have ChatGPT- an instant boilerplate-creating machine. Watch as a new (or in many cases the same) class of charlatans grease up this technological wave too.

I shared this opinion no more than a month ago. Then I decided to keep a ChatGPT-4 tab open for a week and lean on it for questions. I'm around 3x more productive. It's wild.

Anyone that uses a computer for work will benefit from this technology, or be upended by it.

I agree though, Google has the ability to catch up. But will they? They're a big boring company now. Slow and risk averse.