vacuumflower

@vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GitHub CEO delivers stark message to developers: Embrace AI or get out.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

Don’t get me wrong, AI has its uses, but their whole “solution for everything” mentality

They are trying to somehow undo or redo personal computers.

To create a non-transparent tool that replaces the need (and thus social possibility) to have a universal machine.

The difference between thinking robots and computers as we have them is that thinking robots take some place in the social hierarchy, and computers help everyone who has a computer and uses it.

Science fiction usually portrayed artificial humans, not computers, before actually, ahem, seeing the world as it turned out.

It’s sort of a social power revolt against intellectual power (well, some kind of it).

Like a tantrum. People who don’t like how it really happened still want their deus ex machina, an obedient slave at that, that can take responsibility at that. Their 50 years long shock has receded and they now think they are about to turn this defeat into victory.

only making it bigger and last longer which will only make it worse when it does actually pop

I think that’s deliberate. There are a few companies which will feel very well when the bubble pops, having the actual audience as their main capital, while their capitalization and technologies are secondary. The rest are just blindly led by short-term profits.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Palantir tops $1 billion in revenue for the first time, boosts guidance⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
This is, I think, true. Would be pretty traditional for empires, to test everything new in colonies first, then bring it back. From weapons to beer to laws.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GitHub CEO delivers stark message to developers: Embrace AI or get out.⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Why do all these idiots behave as if they knew where the future is?

If it’s about all the achievements they’ve read about and seen in games like Civilization, real-life doesn’t quite look like that. Though in some sense these games, though good, have kinda simplified and made degenerate the understanding of the progress by many people. Similarly to what Soviet school program did, but in a more persuasive and pleasant way.

There’s no tech tree. There’s been plenty of attempts at any breakthrough before it actually happened. Suppose this “AI” is to some real future AGI what Leonardo’s machines were to Wright brothers’ machines, even in that case there’s no hurry to embrace it.

If he thinks he’s looking at a 90% achieved tech tree point with powerful perks, then his profession should probably be that of a janitor. Same day schedule, same places to mop up, you know.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨13⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Yes, I meant in case you have a library of FLACs. In that case it wouldn’t be too problematic cause, well, it’s just a script recursing your library, encoding from FLAC to Opus and if succeeded, removing FLAC files.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft CFO calls for 'intensity' in an internal memo, after blowout earnings⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
It’s supposed to be growth related to the things which didn’t progress, so to say. So it’s not literally supposed to be growth of processes, just that stagnation makes things diminish in value, and compared to them things more alive “grow”. Something like that.

Kinda like inflation. And that’s fine, that can describe a pretty sustainable society, it’s not about consuming more and more, it’s like rotation.

Except with today’s oligopolies there’s a different idea, that they really have to grow as in capturing more and more of humanity’s resources. The AI bubble (or not) is their most recent approach to that.

That’s because expectations were shaped by the 90s when many things exploded (unfortunately much of that were countries, also landmines and other expendable means of destruction).

In the 00s it was possible to create illusion of that explosion still going on brighter and brighter, despite just continuing what started in the 90s, and then to create a few large-scale scams (or madness pandemics, or tech fashions, whatever ; point is they weren’t the same as years 1993-1999) with iPhones, new Apple in general, Google, Facebook, Twitter.

I’m not saying it was fake or worthless, it was a revolution too, but not what companies try to show since the dotcom bubble.

So - they are still trying to show that, with kinda rough, generic, and insincere effort, a bit like sex workers in their makeup.

And they can’t show that without such expansion in width, not in height.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft CFO calls for 'intensity' in an internal memo, after blowout earnings⁩ ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
I remember it when old sysadmins would remember OS/2, Fidonet and be respectful to FreeBSD (despite not having touched it for many years). And I’m kind young.

There are now “old” sysadmins loyal to Windows? Something is wrong with this decade.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft CFO calls for 'intensity' in an internal memo, after blowout earnings⁩ ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
So dramatic, LOL
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet⁩ ⁨⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
If you buy\rent a house (suppose) intended as, well, housing, and make a family diner there without registration, you will break the law.

They can easily do this with the Internet.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy (for now)⁩ ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
They have a demographic pit in front of them which they themselves created with “1 child policy”.

Also CCP too doesn’t exactly serve the people. It’s a hierarchy of (possibly benevolent) bureaucrats.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The AI bubble is so big it's propping up the US economy (for now)⁩ ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Well, from this description it’s still usable for things too complex to just do Monte-Carlo, but with possible verification of results. May even be efficient. But that seems narrow.

BTW, even ethical automated combat drones. I know that one word there seems out of place, but if we have an “AI” for target\trajectory\action suggestion, but something more complex\expensive for verification, ultimately with a human in charge, then it’s possible to both increase efficiency of combat machines and not increase the chances of civilian casualties and friendly fire (when somebody is at least trying to not have those).
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
I initially perceived piracy similarly to how or perceive reading about archaeology and such, so the fact that someone is sincere in hating p2p copying and calling it immoral just felt preposterous.

Yet now it seems plenty of normies will agree. Then go listen to something they didn’t pay for on YouTube or Facebook or whatever, because “everybody uses that”. What “everybody uses” is fine, see. What they condemn me the pirate for is using ed2k, torrents and such other technologies. Even when I’m literally downloading public domain stuff or abandonware.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Opus is far better, but with MP3’s there’s been plenty of hardware players only working with that format. Also Opus is new, before it was Vorbis which was kinda as good as MP3 but far less popular.

And yes, MP3 is very “good enough”, like JPEG.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rockstar Games Plans Age Verification For GTA Online⁩ ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Year 2025 - politicians are held under control by evidence of them having raped children

Year 2035 - politicians are held under control by evidence of them having made children outside of the state incubator
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rockstar Games Plans Age Verification For GTA Online⁩ ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
The point is to make children used to checks.

It’s a didactic law.

IRL usually children grow up feeling they are free (except for their parents) to an extent.

This is intended so that identifying yourself in the Internet were normal by the time you grow up for it to matter.

But, of course, there might be some good considerations, if you’re into playing devil’s advocate. People might remember which stupid shit they were posting when they were younger, and want for future generations to be always conscious of the difference between pseudonymity and anonymity, and superficial anonymity vs real. People might want to make it so that nobody had a false sense of security, leading to really bad mistakes. People might want this to be the step preceding some way to fight bots.

And they might even not have good considerations, but eventually realize that the oppressive system they are building is best rebuilt for something better and used differently. Wouldn’t be the first time in history.

It’s just that laying down your arms in hopes for that is unwise.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Palantir tops $1 billion in revenue for the first time, boosts guidance⁩ ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
YK, guys. Maybe it’s not a bubble. Just people prefer the future of hunger and poverty to the future of random unaccountable murders and totalitarianism plus hunger and poverty.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
mpc as in mpd CLI client, where mpc_pl_len and mpc_pl_jmp procedures are not listed, but just call it with some other Unix commands to get playlist length and jump to a playlist position.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kratsios: NIST needs ‘to go back to basics’ on standards for AI, not safety evaluation⁩ ⁨⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
It doesn’t involve anything other than rights and freedoms. There’s simply no space for you not being a bullshitting leftie jerk here.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Go to Opus 128 kbps. About the same as MP3 320 or better.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

most people are gonna have a hard time differentiating.

With the usual psychoacoustic model of MP3 if you can hear the difference between 320 MP3 and FLAC you are either lying or there’s something wrong with your speakers. It’s certain with long odds.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
How about 48 kbit MP3? And more than that, for plenty of recordings that’s sufficient.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
An algorithm for them:
```
set rand [clock microseconds]
set len [mpc_pl_len]
set to [expr {$rand%$len}]
mpc_pl_jmp $to
```
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

It’s P2P, like Napster used to be. You’ll have to share something or you’ll get auto-ignored by most users.

Oh, reminds me, you should also sort your share. I once got march-horny, added some German marches to my download queue (no judging pls), and then got a PM from the guy sharing them that I should keep my collection in order. And yes, the jerk ignored me.

Also not really p2p, there is a central server. The downloads are p2p.

RuTracker is a great non-private/non-ratio-monitoring torrent site for music

It was ratio-monitoring, that’s how it became great. Just after banned in Russia they decided that those who try hard enough to even reach there can be trusted to behave.

It’s not only for music, it’s for everything.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet⁩ ⁨⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:
Suppose true, then we’ll reduce the use of “the whole Internet”.

OK, we won’t, no tools yet.

I really love Briar, except it’s functionally not quite there yet, and the desktop kind of such application synchronized with neighboring ships, so to say, with a delay-tolerant Web alternative, would be good. Over various links and media.

Anyway, it’s not a technical problem, it’s a social problem. Not really different from ID checks on the streets and everywhere you go in the city, except much of the city got virtualized. And ID checks on the streets are automated by cameras everywhere and face recognition.

Social problems are resolved in the legal, social, protest, civil war fields.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kratsios: NIST needs ‘to go back to basics’ on standards for AI, not safety evaluation⁩ ⁨⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

Rejection of externalities does not require violence or servitude; yet it is arguably a fundamental aspect of libertarianism.

No, it’s not, this is factually incorrect.

You seem to be in denial that some ideologies start from a desired society to imagining whatever criteria will fit to practical means, like yours, and some, like libertarian ones, start from a set of desired criteria to imagining different possible desired societies and value sets and practical means fitting them. You seem pretend instead that libertarianism is too like the former ideologies, but with something you don’t like as the desired point.

Also even typical ancap doesn’t ignore externalia. Air pollution, for example, is considered. You might just not know what the flying fuck you are talking about, thinking it’s “something-something absolute property rights”.

I lived in the US under Bush and Obama, I can’t say that US oligarchs from the time “just loved liberal democracies with left traits”.

In rhetoric of course they did, just like in rhetoric they like libertarianism now. I don’t need anything more, because you haven’t provided anything more.

Some other examples come to mind (no web searches, just going from memory).

Facebook and Google and Apple and Microsoft are the oligarchies I was thinking about.

individuals who associate with libertarianism almost universally reject personal responsibility by leveraging polemics about “free” association.

This is a word salad. The whole point of libertarianism is that responsibility can’t be delegated. It’s just that to demand some things from others is not in your right, but that’s not about their responsibility, that’s about you making weird demands.

Even casually opening the Cato website (did it as an experiment), reveals a clear disregard for reality and tons of open corporate propaganda. Demagoguery; undeniably pre-meditated dishonesty.

What is this intended to say?

I said it’s a good institution because it still does what it’s intended to do - provides libertarian perspective on events without drift.

I didn’t say you’ll find things you won’t call these cliches. Their purpose is not in being liked by you or in any way delivering upon your desires what they should and shouldn’t say.

I’ve just visited their site and read their articles on a few random popular questions - surveillance, “hate speech”, “AI”.

I frankly felt much better from their sober tone. This (cato.org/…/misleading-panic-over-misinformation) article is perfect , it explains patiently and in non-agitated terms what I sometimes try to say about how some problems should be resolved.

(It, eh, doesn’t touch upon some bigger threats like Google and others not really intending to ever further compete, but that has happened in the past and many of those companies are no longer around.)
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
To think about it … “major shadow libraries”. That’s something wrong now.

So - there was a liberal (bourgeois) revolution, there was a labor revolution, and now, I think, we must have another revolution. The word “libertarian” is unfortunately associated with ancap, despite being the same as “anarchist”, which is unfortunately associated with ancom. And the word “democratic” has lost any meaning it had.

So they’ll have to invent some new term.

But the time is nigh.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 2003 complaint about Half Life 2⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
I had CS:Source Steam version, except I gifted it unopened (don’t remember why, probably had enough IL-2 and SW:Battlefront and SW:EAW to play) to a friend, so only saw Steam installation on that friend’s PC until much later.

My first Steam game was Empire: Total War, which is, eh, not too old.

BTW, it’s Russia and most disks you would buy in my childhood were pirate localized versions or just pirate versions, sold in underground crossings or in shabby-looking small stores. Nobody here understood what copyright is and how it’s connected to any right, like - really nobody. It’s baffling really when people who confidently and certainly thought of copyright this exact way then, just like everybody around, are today being judgemental and condemn digital piracy. While the new generation which wasn’t very conscious back then - doesn’t. Two-faced cowards. OK.

I’m really nostalgic over all those small stores, because back then not only they existed, but those ugly malls everywhere didn’t exist. Also in underground crossings everything was cleared (probably to make profit for malls ; of course it was illegal to sell there, but - I really feel more for those people than for the law), but now there are stores in them again, mostly coffee and snacks.

I’ve seen licensed localized versions by 1C on small racks in book stores, though, and those weren’t too expensive or bad, and the selection was usually good, but small, still - the people who decided which games were put there had consistently good taste, I’ve seen Thief various parts, Neverwinter Nights, Silent Hunter, various quests, maybe something else there.

I’ve had licensed WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos, my first non-pirate game, and later got The Frozen Throne.

The only place with really many-many official disks I’ve seen in my childhood was Soyuzmultfilm official store (a rare place, I mean, I live in Moscow, it’s huge and is still cool, and it was even cooler), and that place was kinda expensive (and looked expensive).

Though the games causing more nostalgic feelings for me were Dark Swords (an MMORPG much like MUDs) and Wizards’ World (a browser game much like MUDs with very cheerful global chat in a frame to the left) and Travian (still alive, but was better then). There was something called Wizards’ World II (not sure if it was by the same people), which I really liked (well, it was a plagiarism at HotMM, but a nice one, cool graphics and multiplayer). Unfortunately not around anymore.

Honestly I had more than many kids (born around 1996) did, and I’m really ashamed that my dad got depressed and didn’t see me get more useful before dying from Covid. Lots of it was due to his own idiocy, but he’s done a lot and deserved far better regardless.

Honestly rain is the only thing which always, without a single failure, makes me feel I’m in the same world as then and some things in it are genuinely noble and good. So - it’s raining and people are remembering the time of LAN parties and Steam being unknown. And I’m remembering first installing Settlers, not sure which part. Sorry for the mind dump.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 2003 complaint about Half Life 2⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
So. 1 TB drives indeed were out before Half-Life 3.

But I’m nostalgic over a simpler time when 1 GB for a game was a lot.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
This is unreadable, due to German capitalization in English text in part, but also due to pure inadequacy.

I shared my associations with what you said, and then expressed my actual point in one sentence.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kratsios: NIST needs ‘to go back to basics’ on standards for AI, not safety evaluation⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

The theory of liberaterianism sounds good on paper, but it does not reflect reality.

It’s not a theory of how economics work, libertarians rely upon different schools for that. It’s a theory of moral substantiation of any social order. That is, how to minimize the amount of “I’m threatening you with a stick, so you admit that I make law, and then we pretend this moment didn’t happen and that law existed always and nobody’s rights were violated”. As is clear, violence and servitude are not accepted by libertarians, while rights are accepted. So it’s basically still development of the French revolutionary ideas.

By theory you seem to mean a set of ready instructions. It’s not a set of ready instructions like with Stalinist model (and like Khmer Rouge example shows, those too could go far worse than the bloody and inefficient, but supposedly predictable expected result).

The reality is that it is an oligarch ideology aimed at providing polemical cover to corruption and criminality.

No it’s not and it isn’t. Very easy to call it that now, when the oligarchs themselves “confirm” it, but 10 years ago oligarchs themselves just loved liberal democracies with left traits, because those made laws convenient for them. Your memory seems a bit short.

Perfect freedom of association does not exist in reality. There are informational asymmetries, externalities, natural monopolies (makes no sense two build two set of water pipes to a house) and whole host of other issues.

Yes, it doesn’t, but the closer the better usually. Nobody claims it does. Nobody relies upon that.

From my perspective, it’s the same with libertarianism. Lots of pompous musing about freedom, but when it comes down it, it’s just a type of brand of polemics favoured by the American oligarch regime.

I agree with the comparison between Soviet official communism and what some Americans call libertarianism.

The Cato institute solved the problems of externalities? Wow, this is news to me! How did they do it?

I think you might be having hallucinations. I said that they are not trying to do things they are not intended to do. Just work with the model they have and the problems they see.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The EU still wants to scan all your chats – and the rules could come into force by October 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:
I know right? Need more style to this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsFnLuqHa20