Free Republic

Your witty and sagacious response is what we have all come to expect from your brilliant intellect.

Surprised all you Russian bots who blame everyone but Putin are still getting paid to tell lies and attack those who are defending themselves from Russian Invasion...

Trump wants to end the war regardless of the future consequences of rewarding Putin's aggression. Europe does not agree, as it remembers the lessons of giving Hitler the Sudetenland. Appeasement encourages further aggression.

Putin invaded mostly because European leadership long with Biden were projecting nothing but weakness and ham-handed and self-serving corrupt idiocy. Now you believe that Europeans are somehow wiser than President Trump who projects strength and power? None of this would have happened if President Trump had not been cheated out of the presidency, by the same group that is basically responsible for setting up the factors which resulted in a war which has already basically killed or maimed most of Ukraine's young men and destroyed the country. I love to hear wishy washy mealy-mouthed apologists Euro-weenie homo trash which are letting their countries be over-run by Muslim invaders imply that they have more insight than President Trump.

This group should take this line of BS somewhere else; it is not flying here these days.

I didn’t mean to hit a nerve or start an argument. And I apologize for using the money wasted on a botched foreign policy initiative that never would have occurred if President Trump had still been in power as an example. I completely agree that innovation from the private sector is much more cost effective than letting government bureaucrats pick the winners and losers in any situation.

The scale is what I was referring to... the entire civilian drone market in the US represents about $3.5 Billion. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the money spent by the government for the military, foreign affairs, social programs, or even focused interests such as Medicaid for illegal immigrants which currently costs more than $4 Billion a year. (Please disregard this example if it causes you similar distress to my example of wasted expenditures in Ukraine.)

Is the government capable of wasting far more than the $3.5 Billion currently spent on drones in the private sector; it is not only possible it is very likely. I think we are in agreement on that as well.

But I doubt that the American companies which successfully lobbied to get DJI kicked out of the US drone market actually have plans to spend large sums on R&D which would be helpful to the military. And the hobbyists who build their own drones almost completely from parts that come from China or other countries are not likely to be a source of useful R&D for the military as well.

So, I tend to disagree with your assessment... “For us, here in these United States, developing a truly domestic infrastructure to build drones is now a matter of national security. Urgently so. In order for it to be something other than a ridiculously expensive, not very effective, boondoggle the infrastructure will have to primarily support civilian hobby and business users.” It is wishful thinking that hobbyists and business users will be able to support much of anything that will result in a newly created infrastructure used to create domestically produced drones. Government regulation is already taking its toll on drone users of all types. Increasing the expense by several times will change the equation for most to the point that this country will have much smaller segment of the population which will have any interest in drones... business or private.

The camera creates beautiful video. Usually all I do is bump up the chroma and pedestal levels to suit me.

And I love the links to video that you have shared with me over the years... You might think about posting a link or two in this thread?

My most recent DJI acquisitions were an Avata 2 Fly More Kit, and a DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Kit. I assume that these will be the last DJI drones that I will be buying for a long while. The shortage that is already starting to take hold has increased the value of both by $hundreds since I purchased them.

In order for it to be something other than a ridiculously expensive, not very effective, boondoggle the infrastructure will have to primarily support civilian hobby and business users. That's where the real innovation comes from.

I do not have any idea whether that is an accurate assessment or not. According to Grok, “DJI makes about $2.8 billion from the U.S. drone market based on its 80% market share and the total U.S. drone market revenue estimated at $3.5 billion in 2024.”

That sounds like a lot, but when you consider that the US budget is now approximately $7 Trillion a year, or that $100s of Billions were spent on the Democrat/Ukrainian money laundering boondoggle... $2.8 Billion seems like a drop in the bucket.

I have a DJI Mini 4 Pro but...

Yes, I have one as well, but you don't have to crash it to cause it not work well enough to be useful. If you do not properly store and maintain your batteries, they will become useless within two or three years. 3rd party batteries tend to have very poor reputations, and what if you damage the camera or gimbal. The supply of repair parts will be extremely restricted, which translates to expensive.

A person with certain skills can build a very good multi-copter drone from openly available parts.

This is only partially true at this time. Currently when one assembles drones from parts here you have two choices, digital or analog. An analog drone has inferior video quality transmitted back to the controller and you use the drone to carry around a high-quality action camera like a Go-Pro, Insta360, or others if you need high quality video or pictures. Most of the components still come from China. I have gone this route in the past.

If you decide to go digital your choices are much more limited with the vast majority of people currently purchasing the DJI O4 Air Unit Series with a camera. What you end up with is something that is basically a customized drone built to your own specifications which likely will be meant to be superior to a DJI drone for the purpose that you intend for it. This option will likely no longer be available after the “ban”.

The biggest problems with either approach for most people is that they do not have the skills or knowledge to do this; and the drone and additional equipment needed typically added up to more than what a fully assembled DJI drone with similar capabilities costs. But if you wanted a customized drone for specialized applications this was the way to do it. There are also a couple of firms who specialize in producing kits and completed drones like the ones that hobbyists put together. There are American companies who are big donors to key politicians who are hoping to take advantage of knocking DJI out of the market. DJI produces around 75% to 90% of the drones which are more than toys sold in the US. The companies which are hoping to take advantage of the vacuum created in the consumer market have not cared a great deal about drones which are under $1000.

The vast majority of the drones that will be sold in this segment of the consumer market will still be manufactured abroad. Many of them will likely be assembled from parts manufactured by DJI. Some will merely be shell companies operated by DJI affiliates. The same is true of companies wanting to sell drones in this segment of the market which are assembled in the US. WE do not currently have the infrastructure to supply the parts needed.

I have been farting around with drones for more than 10 years, mostly with tiny toy drones, but my first was actually pretty large. I like the tiny toy drones because the make very little noise and you can fly some of them inside the house when it is nasty out to tease the cat, etc...

The "DJI Ban" that will be going into effect on December 23 is going to radically change the hobby, but also going to have implications for small time "content creators", real estate photographers, search and rescue, police, surveyors, agriculture, and other areas that most people have no clue about.

I currently have 4 DJI Drones and they are all absolutely amazing machines. The video and still pictures that they are capable of taking is astounding. They are not as capable as a good quality DSLR, but using the right techniques their abilities cannot be duplicated by a DSLR at least without a helicopter and many types of shots and video taken could still not be taken.

I know a little about this because my wife and I have lived on an airport for the last 30 years and even before that we were taking pictures and video from hang gliders, ultralight aircraft, and our Piper Cherokee when we got that. The way that I use drones has never caused a complaint from anyone that I am aware of. Although there are people who are very capable of making nuisances out of themselves with or without any type of equipment.

That is an interesting conversation. I have been surprised lately when asked to compare products from Amazon or other retailers with links and descriptions... how often the models get the basics completely wrong. When confronted they typically do not acknowledge their mistakes and instead try to change the direction of the conversation.

I have never tried to use AI for that type of purpose, but all the models I have used seem to have varying degrees of accuracy when it comes to any subject and always need to be double checked at this point.

Here is how Grok replied, on this subject if anyone cares...

“the convergence of AI accessibility, legal restrictions on race-based policies, and market demands for proven skills aligns on exposing inefficiencies in elite higher education hiring.​

Shared Outlook
This synergy pressures institutions to prioritize measurable competence over demographic checkboxes, benefiting students with direct, effective learning tools.​

Forward Trends
Rising AI tutoring adoption reduces reliance on variable faculty quality.

Enrollment shifts favor value-driven programs, sidelining high-cost underperformers.

Policy evolutions under current leadership reinforce merit-focused reforms.​”

AI while often wholly unsuitable for the customer service role that many businesses try to use it for... poses a clear and present danger to our current institutions of upper learning. When it comes to learning marketable skills going forward AI is vastly superior at a fraction of the price of a bunch of DEI hire “professors”.

There are too many opportunities available for real learning outside of the tradition form of higher education which cost almost nothing by comparison. This comes at a time when educational institutions have saddled themselves with pushing non-productive lefty ideals with now tenured staff that was hired through DEI policies and not merit.

AI is currently being used for wholly unsuited purposes such as customer support, but the real threat is to DEI hires in education. AI based instruction is not only efficient for many forms of educational, but there is also no way for professors who were never really qualified to teach concepts which are actually useful in the workplace to compete.

There are many here who have not used AI models for any useful purposes, and they mostly have no clue how useful they can actually be. The criticism that you will receive from them typically has no connection to reality even if it is worded in a way that sounds reasonable. What can you really expect from someone who spouts off about something that they have no experience with.

My 88-year-old father was giving me a load of uninformed idiocy about AI chatbots. So, I opened Grok using Perplexity AI on his computer while he cowered in a corner across the room from me. I started asking it questions about topics that he often asks me about. It responded not just with the same answers similar to what I usually tell him, but with sources from the many websites that Grok got the answers from. After a few minutes of this he became hooked. And now he does not call me as much... is this good or bad? I don’t know, but it is fairly typical.

I mostly use Grok on Perplexity AI and I have to admit that it is fun to berate the model when it gives me back a politically correct response on global warming, green energy, or other politically charged subject. The way the model is programmed it will keep spouting the same nonsense over and over again even after you point out contradictions and berate it. But it does give one insight into the way a polite lefty should respond when confronted with factual information.

With actual leftists the responses will be full of emotional easily disproved complete nonsense, do the level of discourse is actually better with an AI Bot. So, I can understand how many people mistakenly believe that they are conversing with a sentient being. Most of the commercial chatbots are programmed to be polite, although there are some open-source models available that are meant to be edgier. And this is one of the reasons why hobbyists such as myself like to use locally hosted models.

Yeah. I can almost hear the whiny beeyotch voices: “Russia should just leave”.

We have been hearing the same refrain since the first day of the Russian “invasion”. The problem is that the entire situation and the history of how it developed is completely glossed over.

It has mostly been the result of a botched Soros and Intelligence Agency operation mostly thought up by incompetents who seemed to have never thought ahead about the repercussions. The “adviser” who was likely the primary architect was the same person who came up with secret flights shipping pallet loads of cash to Iran, Valerie Jarrett.

there is only one peaceful solution, Russia leaves I am always wonderful to see that the Pollyanna contingent is still alive and well here and still rooting for the idiocy of the last administration.

The Ukrainians have just about run out of men to send to send to be slaughtered in this now pointless proxy war with Russia. Zelensky ran on a peace platform which is why he had popular support. But his puppet masters had something different in mind. Joe (We won't do anything if its's a minor incursion) Biden and the rest of the crew such as Lindsay thought that they had a plan which would cause regime change in Russia.

“I'd prefer not to have spyware in my car”

Keep enjoying your 1979 Buick Electra.

You need to go back a little further which is why kids today have no idea about the basics of tuning an engine which doesn't have a computer-controlled engine. I don't know when the surveyance started however. By 1979 a bunch of cars already had computers controlling their engines.

https://www.oreillyauto.com/detail/c/remanufactured/ignition-—tune-up/computer/7e8c336bad79/cardone-engine-control-module-remanufactured/a1c0/774330/v/a/3240/automotive-truck-1979-chevrolet-el-camino

Here is a list of just the Chevys that took the above computer:

El Camino Base with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
El Camino Base with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
El Camino Royal Knight with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
El Camino Royal Knight with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Base with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Base with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic Estate with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic Estate with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic Landau with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic Landau with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic Sport with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic Sport with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Classic with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Estate with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Estate with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Landau with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Landau with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Police with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Police with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Sport with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Malibu Sport with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Monte Carlo Base with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Monte Carlo Base with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Monte Carlo Landau with engine V6 - 3.8L 231ci GAS 2BBL vin 2 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle
Monte Carlo Landau with engine V6 - 3.8L 3800cc 231ci GAS 2BBL vin A type LD5 - 2 valve OHV
1979
1979

1 vehicle

I am a computer hobbyist and enjoy playing with AI models known as LLMs (large language models) and using various AI apps that do image, video and music generation, along with chat.

AS an example here is my humorous cat music page which uses AI generated images and music just for fun.

https://teddycat.fun/

At the end of page 2 there are also a picture of me with my Skypup ultralight airplane along with a couple pictures that I took that day from it. This was decades ago before drones as we know them these days were available.

The amount of nonsensical hype about AI is somewhere above 95% when it comes to anything related to it.

The tall fir tree in front of our house (about 3 feet in diameter at the base) kept losing big branches which is common around here during windstorms. But this was happening when it wasn’t windy. Then I noticed a large pile of bear poop near the trunk of the tree and figured out that a large visitor was breaking off the branches.