12 hours ago, CincyInDC said:

These are just some of the funny ones.

What's being sold as AI is just a refined search engine making a collage from uncredited content scraped from the web. There's nothing particularly intelligent about it, it's purely plagiarism.

If you asked someone to paint you flowers and they dug through a stack of old National Geographic magazines cutting out anything resembling a plant and gluing it to a piece of cardboard you wouldn't call that painting.

That is essentially what so-called AI is doing: stealing shit and sewing it together without much discretion. It's not capable of actual thought, as in creating something on its own, at all. It's stealing and passing the work of as its own. That's all it is besides preprogrammed responses to prompts. No thinking is taking place anywhere in the process.

I just sat in on a presentation today on how AI can help in real estate, along with some dangers of using AI. There are a lot of good applications for marketing purposes and for farming for prospective clients in the real estate end, and you can virtually stage a home and enhance photos. I have to say, I don't care for the digitally enhanced photos you see with differing skies, because they look fake. The virtual staging does help. But on the flip side, there have been instances of fake listings online.

I guess it's helpful for data driven purposes, such as pricing and market trends, but I would be too anal to trust it completely. I would have to do the research myself also.

20 hours ago, Shebengal said:

I just sat in on a presentation today on how AI can help in real estate, along with some dangers of using AI. There are a lot of good applications for marketing purposes and for farming for prospective clients in the real estate end, and you can virtually stage a home and enhance photos. I have to say, I don't care for the digitally enhanced photos you see with differing skies, because they look fake. The virtual staging does help. But on the flip side, there have been instances of fake listings online.

I guess it's helpful for data driven purposes, such as pricing and market trends, but I would be too anal to trust it completely. I would have to do the research myself also.

Yeah it still hallucinates so I always recommended checking it

🥷

Convicted felon nepo baby & career money launderer/grifter that spends most of his time on his private golf course says there are too many paid holidays.

& just happened to picked today to say so, for all his racist trash followers. I'm sure the ones getting PTO today will be sending that money back, right?

🤡

23 hours ago, T-Dub said:

Convicted felon nepo baby & career money launderer/grifter that spends most of his time on his private golf course says there are too many paid holidays.

& just happened to picked today to say so, for all his racist trash followers. I'm sure the ones getting PTO today will be sending that money back, right?

🤡

Sorry, I won’t! I enjoyed my day off! 😊

5 hours ago, Shebengal said:

Sorry, I won’t! I enjoyed my day off! 😊

Should add Election Day, if anything. That would be the patriotic thing to do, after all, instead of pining for the days of slavery. Is that where we are now? WTF?

Food for thought...

The Ascendance of Algorithmic Tyranny

These cretins care as much about the national debt as they do egg prices.

It's just racism & misogyny as an excuse to line their pockets & have their child-brides. That's it, that's the policy.

The amount of people going to be hurt by this is sad

The world's most affordable homebuilders?

Worth a watch (or a read) to see what is possible. The which of course begs the question--how come we aren't doing this sort of thing here in the U.S.?

7 hours ago, Homer_Rice said:

The world's most affordable homebuilders?

Worth a watch (or a read) to see what is possible. The which of course begs the question--how come we aren't doing this sort of thing here in the U.S.?

Because we prefer concentration camps

Keeping people poor is the point.

6 hours ago, Jamie_B said:

Keeping people poor is the point.

So long as they keep blaming Latinos (aka "Mexicans") for all their problems.

Maybe if we feed 'em to alligators I can afford health insurance! Hurrdurrrr

On 7/4/2025 at 9:19 AM, Homer_Rice said:

The world's most affordable homebuilders?

Worth a watch (or a read) to see what is possible. The which of course begs the question--how come we aren't doing this sort of thing here in the U.S.?

There’s a lot of reasons why this isn’t happening here.

First of all, zoning regulations now usually require a minimum square footage and lot size, and these homes would probably not meet the requirements.

Second of all, these would probably fall under “manufactured housing “ and even if they have a foundation and are attached as real estate, they’re more difficult to obtain financing on.

Third of all, because it’s too practical. This would be great for in fill housing in urban neighborhoods for a start. You could build a community of these in the suburbs, if the suburbs would accept them.

Sears used to make homes. They had numerous floor plans, would deliver the kit with all the supplies to the lot, and you would build it. They’re close to 100 years old, or older, and still standing, and are really cool. I have one up the street from me.

In the 40’s after the war, you had Lustron Homes, which were built out of ceramic coated metal. They were about 1000 square feet with carports. Really cool and efficient for GIs coming back and starting families. 75+ years later, still standing.

You are starting to see houses being built with 3D printers that are really cool, cost efficient, and more durable than stick built homes.

On 7/5/2025 at 11:47 PM, Shebengal said:

There’s a lot of reasons why this isn’t happening here.

First of all, zoning regulations now usually require a minimum square footage and lot size, and these homes would probably not meet the requirements.

...

You are starting to see houses being built with 3D printers that are really cool, cost efficient, and more durable than stick built homes.

Good points. Yet, what I was driving at was something underlying it all--political will and culture. After all, we decide what the zoning laws are, as well as the other requirements for ordering our society. In the link I posted, it wasn't only the housing parts that made me think it worth passing on, it was the little middle section where he listed all kinds of developments that the Chinese have undertaken in the past 30 years. It's fairly astounding, if you think on it. (And not unlike the post-Civil War industrial progress of the U.S.)

And the truth of it all is this: our culture is rotten. We've forgotten who we are and what we are capable of accomplishing. As T-Dub said, we prefer building Alcatraz Alley in a hurry to actually doing things motivated by the general welfare.

Related reading from earlier today:

BRICS in 2025

Managers and Clowns

What Can Zohran Accomplish?

On 7/5/2025 at 8:47 PM, Shebengal said:

There’s a lot of reasons why this isn’t happening here.

First of all, zoning regulations now usually require a minimum square footage and lot size, and these homes would probably not meet the requirements.

Second of all, these would probably fall under “manufactured housing “ and even if they have a foundation and are attached as real estate, they’re more difficult to obtain financing on.

Third of all, because it’s too practical. This would be great for in fill housing in urban neighborhoods for a start. You could build a community of these in the suburbs, if the suburbs would accept them.

Sears used to make homes. They had numerous floor plans, would deliver the kit with all the supplies to the lot, and you would build it. They’re close to 100 years old, or older, and still standing, and are really cool. I have one up the street from me.

In the 40’s after the war, you had Lustron Homes, which were built out of ceramic coated metal. They were about 1000 square feet with carports. Really cool and efficient for GIs coming back and starting families. 75+ years later, still standing.

You are starting to see houses being built with 3D printers that are really cool, cost efficient, and more durable than stick built homes.

I'd never heard of Lustron homes - those are cool. Thanks for that.

Knew someone living in a big log & adobe roundhouse. Very efficient with no A/C needed & a wood stove. Drum compost toilet & cascading gray water leach fields. Place was amazing but the only way to insure it was through an NPO trust with a roadside farm stand & nature center. The building wasn't old enough to qualify for whatever exemptions based on historic value, but the surrounding land did. No idea how that all worked legally but stewarding a paleolithic site abutting National Forest gave them some clout.

Know someone else that has a 1940's Quonset USACE fused to the side of what started as a 2-room cabin ~150 years ago. Huge stone hearth, also with a wood stove. Same problems with insurance and financing, then simple permits for an addition to a "nonconforming structure" IIRC...

I think of those places & yeah, some building & fire codes are important so we don't build deathtrap slums, but it matters much more to banks and insurance agents. Then when it comes to emergency housing.. We're going to put men, women & children inside chain link with some tarp over it. In a swamp, like they read about Andersonville and got excited. All those codes went straight out the window, not to mention law, the Constitution, basic human decency. This when we're not outsourcing the job to some of the most horrendous & abusive prisons on Earth. And we've still got the deathtrap slums, btw.

So I see people driving out to BFE Florida to take selfies with a boxcar in front of the "Arbeit Macht Frei" sign. These same people will throw a fit if someone tries to build a shelter anywhere near them. We saw this in Cincinnati with the Drop-Inn Center & gentrification around Washington Park. NIMBYs would rather have 2 airports & a gravel quarry over a shelter. They didn't even want a bus terminal because public transportation is for poors, too, I guess?

Why aren't we building cheap shelter for people living on the street, or at least leaving them the fuck alone when they band together in tent cities to have some semblance of community?

Simply because we'd rather not, thanks.

12 hours ago, Homer_Rice said:

What Can Zohran Accomplish?

This explains at least part of why the old guard Dems are shitting themselves. This crazy SOB wants to act on what they claim to stand for, against their personal interest. And he seems capable, too - it's not loveable old crazy Grandpa or a grandstanding TikTok celebrity.

Woah now, buddy! What's in it for AIPAC?

5 hours ago, T-Dub said:

Why aren't we building cheap shelter for people living on the street, or at least leaving them the fuck alone when they band together in tent cities to have some semblance of community?

Columbus is making an effort in that regard. They're buildng a "Tiny House " community on the SE side of Columbus and are going to offer job programs and social services to the residents.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/214-Arden-Rd_Columbus_OH_43214_M49207-84142?from=srp-list-card

This is a listing for a Lustron house not too far from me. Just so you can get an idea of what the look like.

We really need to address the gentrification issues that come with bringing in jobs like what is going with the Intel plant that is being build in Ohio, and I think at least to an extent some of these small house things could address some of it.

My Uncle who lives in Mt. Vernon and can no longer physically work due to health issues, is in a state run home that can only keep him so long, when I was out there last year I bought him an old used SUV that he might end up having to live in because the house he was in, which was in a shitty part of Mt. Vernon, was tearing down to renovate so they could attract the people who were going to be working for Intel. And Mt. Vernon is 45 min away from New Albany where the plant is being built, I can't image what its doing to push out the poor people in the city proper.

A view from Europe:

Across Europe, the financial sector has pushed up house prices. It's a political timebomb

9 hours ago, Shebengal said:

Columbus is making an effort in that regard. They're buildng a "Tiny House " community on the SE side of Columbus and are going to offer job programs and social services to the residents.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/214-Arden-Rd_Columbus_OH_43214_M49207-84142?from=srp-list-card

This is a listing for a Lustron house not too far from me. Just so you can get an idea of what the look like.

The paneling everywhere would take some getting used to, nice though. How's that stuff in a fire?

22 hours ago, Jamie_B said:

We really need to address the gentrification issues that come with bringing in jobs like what is going with the Intel plant that is being build in Ohio, and I think at least to an extent some of these small house things could address some of it.

My Uncle who lives in Mt. Vernon and can no longer physically work due to health issues, is in a state run home that can only keep him so long, when I was out there last year I bought him an old used SUV that he might end up having to live in because the house he was in, which was in a shitty part of Mt. Vernon, was tearing down to renovate so they could attract the people who were going to be working for Intel. And Mt. Vernon is 45 min away from New Albany where the plant is being built, I can't image what its doing to push out the poor people in the city proper.

I have a client in Mt. Vernon so I know what you mean.

Columbus has just done a major revamp of their zoning code along High St. and Broad St. to allow more "affordable housing", (Translated: Ugly multi-story apartment buildings with little to no parking.), which means that potentially I could wake up one morning to find that they're constructing a 7 story monstrosity within view of my kitchen window. They're talking about doing it along Morse Rd. and SR 161,which is closer to Intel, but there, they're going to have to increase the walkability in those areas.