This is horrible and a big reason why I refuse to go “all in” on Apple, Google, or Microsoft (among other reasons). Apple is the one I’m closest to given my hardware, though.
Given how invested you are in the Apple ecosystem I can’t fathom why you would go get an Apple Gift Card from a store to do this kind of transaction, though. It wouldn’t even cross my mind to do it that way.
OP is in Australia. Most stores that sell gift cards have loyalty cards that give points for gift card purchases. And a few times a year they give bonus points (e.g. 10x) on gift cards, that can result in an equivilent 10-15% saving.
You can even use this to get an effective discount on hardware, as you can use your Apple account balance to buy from Apple.
Yeah it seems odd, and if Apple won't tell him or do anything, it might be because they can't: such as circumstances of an active police investigation.
We are obviously not going to get a fuller idea about this situation from a blog post, and while I won't assume that the author has done anything wrong, there have been similar stories in the past where the affected individual was deliberately withholding the whole, much more illegal, story.
Presuming his innocence: What could have happened here is that the gift card he's purchased has been marked as part of a scam operation. Apple gift cards are frequently used for "tax bill" and "police fine" scams in Australia (where they are sold there is often signage informing people of that.) So potentially this person is accidentally roped into that.
Also it's not entirely unheard of to purchase gift cards for long-time users (who would normally just use their linked credit card), as the cards are often sold in the retail space with a 10% discount, or can be redeemed as rewards through points/loyalty schemes.
With all that said, at this point if he's not getting anywhere, he should approach a lawyer, as they'd be able to petition on his behalf (whether that is to Apple or to the state of Tasmania.)
I have been experimenting with Immich off and on for over a year, first in docker-compose and now in podman. It is slick and seamless in a lot of ways, but the portability and upgrade ability are questionable, as others have highlighted.
For example, when they moved between Postgres container versions, it required a manual edit to the compose file to adjust the image. Even if you managed to get it set up initially in docker, it’s these sorts of concepts that are way more advanced than the vast majority of people who may even be interested in self-hosting.
For a hobbyist self-hoster it’s cool and fun, but not something at this point I’d trust my photos to alone. I have considered Ente for that but today it’s still iCloud Photos.
I would absolutely call it good given the volume of comments that flow through here. Not sure what other communities you’re referring to, but my experience over decades of forums and social media is that HN consistently somehow avoids the toxic fate of so many other sites and services like it.
> I would absolutely call it good given the volume of comments that flow through here.
That's part of the problem. A place this large, this public, and with this little amount of trust isn't really a community. It's the comments section of a content aggregator with a few engagement hooks via voting and user moderation. You can't really "hang out" here, there's no place to actually connect with other human beings unless you go elsewhere.
These days, it seems like most "community" spaces have migrated to places like Discord, Matrix, or even VRChat - places that allow for both public spaces and private, invite-only spaces. I've also found that Tildes feels like a community, despite being shaped a lot like Reddit/HN. I suspect that's due to the community still being rather small, not having open invitations, and making nearly all forms of gamified engagement positive.
For what it's worth, the largest internet community I knew of prior to the modern era of social media was Something Awful. And, frankly, it was _much_ better run than this place, or any other social media site, as it was moderated by dozens of actual humans who operated transparently - all moderator actions were publicly listed, and you could see the post and reason for the action. The site also charged $10 for access, charged you again if you got banned for breaking the rules or just not being a quality member of the community, and would actively seek out and ban anonymous alt accounts.
I’ve been in rather intense therapy for several years due to a hyper religious upbringing and a narcissistic mother. Recently I’ve used AI to help summarize and synthesize thoughts and therapy notes. I see it as being a helpful assistant in the same way Gemini recording meeting notes and summarizing is, but it is entirely incapable of understanding the nuance and context of human relationships, and super easy to manipulate in to giving you the responses you want. Want to prove mom’s a narcissist? Just tell it she has a narcissistic history. Want to paint her as a good person? Just don’t provide it context about her past.
I can definitely see how those who understand less about the nature of LLMs would be easily misled into delusions. It’s a real problem. Makes one wonder if these tools shouldn’t be free until there are better safeguards. Just charging a monthly fee would be a significant enough barrier to exclude many of those who might be more prone to delusions. Not because they’re less intelligent, but just because of the typical “SaaS should be free” mindset that is common.
Immutable distros today feel like someone read a CNCF "best of" publication and decided to throw it at desktop Linux to see what sticks. Not everyone wants to be a DevOps engineer.
I think the concept has promise (see: ChromeOS) but the execution today is still way too rough.
I've tried so many things like this over the years and considered Configurator, but my only Apple computer at this point is a corporate Mac that blocks USB access to my phone. It's a great idea, and I'm glad to see it documented.
That said, the biggest shift I encountered in my own phone usage was when I got an Aro box [1]. It's expensive (I got one refurbished), but pretty, and functional, and it has made a HUGE difference in my phone habits. I no longer keep my phone in my bedroom and when I catch myself ignoring those around me in favor of my phone, I can hard cut that off by putting it in the box.
I like the idea of simplifying your phone with software tweaks like this, but I have found the physical separation to be the most freeing, and encourage that if you're interested in freeing yourself from the screen.
I have never input anything into one of these tools that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with them using for training or any other reason. I just assumed it was happening.
As someone who was raised extremely religious, strayed to the polar opposite, and is now trying to find my way in between the two, I do find this interesting. While the understanding of LLMs and when/how to apply them makes sense, I would argue that they fit right alongside human interpretation of scripture. Consider that many pastors "teaching" scriptures aren't even formally educated.
Arguing that you can't use an LLM for Christian apologetics because it "might not be true" overemphasizes the definition of "truth" when it comes to scripture and those teaching Christian apologetics, which is entirely influenced by what doctrine you subscribe to.
1. This interpretation might not be "true" but it is a good-faith effort that respects the text.
2. This LLM is fabricating verses, chapters, and even books of the Bible.
If you've used LLMs much, you know that #2 is not only possible, its quite common. This is the kind of "might not be true" that you should be aware of when using an LLM for apologetics—or any effort where "truthiness" is important.
While I kinda agree, many denominations are also questionable in the "good-faith effort that respects the text" department. Some like making up new chapters while others overemphasize specific short sections while disregarding many others.
Much more so than any decent LLM ever would. Even while they're "making stuff up", they largely stick to the general themes.
I do agree point #2 is possible, but is that not something that could be accounted for and tuned in the model to an extent? I believe a tuned LLM would be able to distinguish between interpretation and generation of scripture, but I may be wrong.
But this isn't just claiming to produce some benign facts, it is trying to make claims on absolute truths with consequences as dire as "going to hell".
Even if you don't believe, the creators certainly intend for their bot to have eternal consequences. Like selling an LLM with the claim it can give advice better than most doctors and should be used as such, the intent behind the apologetics bot is just as reckless and conceited.
That's not really what the article is talking about. The article is referring to the fact that you can ask for specific verses in some version/translation (that are KNOWN) and the potential for the LLM to confidently generate a completely fabricated or subtly different copy.
And going a step further, any follow-up questions to the LLM will be using this incorrect copy as the source for interpretation causing it to go even further in the wrong direction.
Incidentally - this was occurring using a custom fine-tuned model with an added layer of RAG.
> Arguing that you can't use an LLM for Christian apologetics because it "might not be true" overemphasizes the definition of "truth" when it comes to scripture and those teaching Christian apologetics, which is entirely influenced by what doctrine you subscribe to.
But the author is pretty explicit about wanting a high standard (e.g. insisting on using the best sources possible), and doesn't think that using LLMs is compatible with that goal.
The main example he gives is a simple factual matter about the words a specific early Christian manuscript. The LLM invented new text that’s not at all what’s in the manuscript.
He also convincingly argues people performing poor apologetics is no excuse to deploy an LLM performing poor apologetics.
Don't feel obligated to ask if you are not comfortable, but why are you trying to find a middle ground? When you say middle ground, what does that mean for you? Does that mean you have some faith but maybe not in a particular sect?
I mean I found great relief from high-demand Evangelicalism via giving up on my belief and seeking intense therapy from the traumas I experienced. However, as both I, my wife, and our kids age, we feel a need for some framework to live by, to some extent.
The friction for me is I am just a very logical and evidence-driven person by nature, so while I recognize (at least for me) that there are some benefits to adhering to some religion or spirituality, the core Christian belief is really difficult for me and always has been. So I don't really know yet where I'll land.
In the same boat here: 20+ years of hard core Christianity (Scottish Presbyterianism). Heavy, very heavy indeed studies lasting years and years. Regulative principle of worship, this kind of direction.
Was raised kinda an atheist though and converted in my 30s. A willful, well thought out decision to convert.
All came crashing down on me the moment I stopped ignoring some very obvious questions, e.g. who died on the cross?
Even some casual thinking about this lands you, inescapably, on the only conclusion you have available if you stick to the orthodoxy, and that is: a human nature died on the cross. Not God (cannot die) and, unfortunately for Christianity, not a human either (briefly: if JC is one person / two natures, you have to conclude his (human) nature died on the cross since JC the person, being God, cannot die).
At any rate, this is where it started for me and quickly escalated further. The entire New Testament, I'm convinced now, is a fraud and whoever pulled it off didn't even try to hide it. It's incredible how we can bullshit ourselves into believing what we (for whatever reason) want to believe. And not just religion.
In the end, the NT had to go leaving me with the Hebrew scriptures.
Why do you need to adhere to religion or spirituality in order to establish a framework to live by? Many atheists and agnostics find great meaning and moral guidance from frameworks that at no point involve religion or spirituality.
Well, not according to the author of the post, and we know how concerned he is with truth, so this must be correct? “That leaves us with atheism, which provides us with not the smallest scrap of a foundation on which to build any claims about the purpose of life, or what is a good or bad.” [0]
This is confusingly supported by a quote from C.S. Lewis making the point that it’s better to believe in something that “feels important”, whether or not it’s true.
Which is wild, because I'm an atheist and I believe in things that feel important even if I don't necessarily consider them "true" (mostly things about how I should treat other people and that I have agency over my life).
I don't understand how you came to this conclusion. Some of my differences with Christianity are that I believe that morals should come from thought, reasoning, and empathy, not from hierarchy. That I don't think there's an outside supernatural force that's perfect in every way, but also explicitly flawed, that's characterized by infinite love, forgiveness, and benevolence but is less loving and forgiving of "sinners" than I am, and that sets people up to fail that they might suffer forever after.
Accepting that there are things it is useful to believe that are not necessarily literally true actually separates me further from Christianity, since they insist that all their beliefs are literally true, and that doubting such is grounds for eternal torture.
Also, some people have 'religious experiences' that set their minds on certain paths. Whatever the underlying neuroscience is, it results in qualia that is hard to ignore.
I'm a 2nd generation atheist who suffers from depression. Years ago I read evidence that religious practices could alleviate it. I was kind of desperate so decided to brainwash myself into becoming a believer for about a half of a year. Overall, it was pretty effective. I had to eventually disengage because of the cognitive dissonance, but the positive effects have lingered.
Most atheists and agnostics struggle greatly to replace the meaning and moral guidance provided by religion.
First and foremost the community aspect. There are countless benefits to being part of an active faith community that atheists have had a very hard time replicating.
I replicate my community where I find it. Some of it is at a brunch spot I go to regularly. Some of it is a bar that I frequent. Some of it is in annual activities with my neighbors.
I don’t need to believe in a made up Sky Daddy to be a good person, I have plenty of examples in my communities.
I'm also a very logical and evidence-driven person by nature who has gone through similar since losing my faith. It's not for everybody, but I've gotten a lot of enjoyment from Stoicism. There are tons and tons of books on the subject that vary in quality, and unfortunately I can't recommend any specific ones because at this point I've read so much of them that I don't remember where certain ideas came from, but I definitely recommend the writings of Seneca. Marcus Aurelius' writings are great too.
It's so funny you mention that because I picked up the Daily Stoic a couple of years ago and have read it off and on. I have found it really enjoyable. Thanks for the rec!
Given how invested you are in the Apple ecosystem I can’t fathom why you would go get an Apple Gift Card from a store to do this kind of transaction, though. It wouldn’t even cross my mind to do it that way.