It's a great move by the Verge but I agree with the article that it doesn't go far enough.
Why not offer a premium ad-free tier?
For me, viewing web ads is non negotiable (print ads were much more manageable and didn't prevent me from enjoying the content).
However I only view about 4-6 Verge articles per month so I'll see how it plays out. If the best stuff goes behind a paywall then I can't justify subscribing, and nor do I want to hand over personal data to every site I read occasionally (for several reasons).
I've always wondered why publishers can't follow the Spotify or Netflix model for at least some of their content?
This does also raise the uncomfortable question of how much the content is worth. Yes they have some exclusives and unique content but in other areas if I stopped reading it I'd have another hundred reviews of the latest Apple products to choose from, and Reddit is much more realistic (albeit noisy) about the Sonos debacle than The Verge. The article about undersea cables was good though.
Very well said. Just to add I have problems with my eyesight and the company I work at makes zero effort to accommodate this. It took me a while to be sure as I don't want to exaggerate, but for some tasks I reckon I'm only half as productive in the office. This includes pair programming - share your screen on Zoom and I can use my big monitor and accessibility tools, which gives me half a chance.
Oh, and the chairs make my arse* hurt.
This isn't a stupid little startup either, it's a listed and profitable company worth billions.
I stay because they know how bad it is so I just go in a few times per month to socialise.
Nauseating mode is the default, you'll have to pay extra for a tolerable personality. ;)
Seriously though, I'm sure it's an improvement but having used the existing voice chat I think they had a few things to address. (Perhaps 4o does in some cases).
- Unlike the text interface it asks questions to keep the conversation going. It feels odd when I already got the answer I wanted. Clarifying questions yes, pretending to be a buddy - I didn't say I was lonely, I just asked a question! It makes me feel pressured to continue.
- Too much waffle by far. Give me short answers, I am capable of asking follow up questions.
- Unable to cope with the mechanics of usual conversation. Pausing before adding more, interrupting, another person speaking.
- Only has a US accent, which is fine but not what I expect when Google and Alexa have used British English for many years.
Perhaps they've overblown the "personality" to mask some of these deficiencies?
Not saying it's easy to overcome all the above but I'd rather they just dial down the intonation in the meantime.
I am blown away having spent hours prompting GPT4o.
If it can give shorter answers in voice mode instead of lectures then a back and forth conversation with this much power can be quite interesting.
I still doubt I would use it that much though just because of how much is lost compared to the screen. Code and voice make no sense. The time between prompts usually requires quite a bit of thought for anything interesting that a conversation itself is only useful for things I have already asked it.
For me, gpt4 is already as useless as 3.5. I will never prompt gpt4 again. I can still push GPT4o over the edge in python but damn, it is pretty out there. Then the speed is really amazing.
By the time I was born Mickey Mouse was so embedded in popular culture that it would be unreasonable to expect me to avoid the character. I certainly won't be telling my daughter to choose which characters to like depending on the state of so-called intellectual property laws, that would be absurd.
All this adds up to the fact that established characters are already effectively part of the public domain. A perpetual monopoly on children's culture is both unnatural and unjust.
Disney still benefits from trademark law on their characters along with a generous monopoly on new creations. I would argue that extending this further would reduce the incentive to innovate.
I don't know what the parent poster had in mind, but in my view losing most control by now is absolutely right and proper.
One thing that really grates with this high percentage tip system is that it sucks the authenticity out of the relationship.
I don't want someone pretending they're my friend when we've only just met, or trying too hard to please, it can come over as being just an act and sometimes the interruptions are jarring. The difference is noticeable if you're used to dining outside of North America.
Sure, usually if they're not busy I try to strike up conversation with the waiter or at least ask how they're doing. People should be paid and treated as equals and not rewarded like a dog for performing tricks.
I honestly don't think the service is significantly different between countries with high and low tipping norms. But higher tips result in a higher BS factor overall.
One example: it now refuses to summarise books that it trained on. Soon after trying GPT-4 I could get it to summarise Evans DDD chapter by chapter. Not anymore.
Much as I thoroughly oppose Brexit it's worth pointing out that other EU countries also made excersing the right to travel with a spouse difficult.
Before Brexit I gave up trying to take my wife on a couple of business trips in the EU as they were too short notice to arrange the supposedly free visa, which in theory shouldn't have been even needed but definitely was in practice.
