vacuumflower
@vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
- Comment on Home electricity bills are skyrocketing. For data centers, not so much. 1 day ago:
YOU have to pay the energy company for the extra electricity you put into the grid! Like… What‽‽‽
That might be logical in some situations. Where there’s surplus in the grid and it plays the role of amortizer of what you give it. They can’t just shut you off when they are getting too much load. Or they can but prefer to have a soft curve where you get less and less until you start paying for what you give.
Like water is a resource, but you do pay for water disposal (that is, I live in Russia, and there’s a separate line on the bill for what goes into sewers), or, if someone provides passive cooling service somewhere, you might pay for the heat you give away. Even if that’s energy.
- Comment on ‘Just an unbelievable amount of pollution’: how big a threat is AI to the climate? 1 day ago:
The ability to have smart cars that improve fuel efficiency by adjusting to traffic conditions may very well compensate for the increased electricity demand created by data centers.
That just reads mindblowingly stupid for me after only one semester of the “automatic guidance of trains” subject with a few simple methods of numeric optimization. And I wasn’t studying very well, to say the least.
The rest of what you write feels as if you’d missed the whole “digital computer” thing and what it already allows us to do since 1970s and that is being done since 1970s.
- Comment on Microsoft kills official way to activate windows without internet 3 days ago:
Wouldn’t doing anything harder than usual be a flag about you then?
- Comment on Microsoft kills official way to activate windows without internet 4 days ago:
By bypassing all that they won’t immediately know who owned it through whatever machine IDs computers have on them.
There’s probably enough redundancy in such possibilities to track you not to care about this particular thing technically .
It’s just an insult to the user and they are assholes, dealing with assholes is a bad sign similar to black cats crossing your path. Don’t deal with assholes.
No need to explain this technically, you might think it’s better, but you are implicitly supporting the idea that without hard proof it’s fine that they are doing all those weird things. It’s not, you don’t have to prove anything. They are assholes, don’t deal with them, don’t keep taking insults. Simple.
- Comment on Microsoft kills official way to activate windows without internet 4 days ago:
If something is beneficial to the side with more negotiating power and is practical to do, it happens.
It wasn’t plausible when Internet connectivity for accounts on local machines wasn’t a given always everywhere.
And it wasn’t that important for them.
Now both have changed enough.
Also I think all stable continuous changes of mass where single person doesn’t change much are predictable, similarly to Asimov’s Foundation (except there it was presented as something a virtuous genius does to help humanity, not quite how life works).
So expecting Microsoft and others to break their dicks is infantile. I think they’ll succeed fully inside their strategic definition, their model, one can say.
Where anything divergent and interesting can happen is the fringes. Like Reticulum, Briar, hobbyist weak hardware, technologies that will emerge occasionally without mass economic pressure. Toys and jokes.
- Comment on The most durable tech is boring, old, and everywhere 6 days ago:
Linux is glamorous.
While what’s said here is true, it can also be said about old cast iron pipes or 50s brick buildings with bitum and asbestos, and such.
- Comment on Nvidia insists it isn’t Enron, but its AI deals are testing investor faith 1 week ago:
Would you pay 500 dollars a month to have the possibility to do your movie searches? Or alternatively, would you like your LLM of choice to counter that, having read all your emails and browser history, you are probably interested in a totally different movie that just happens to be playing now at a nearby cinema?
There might be a more direct parallel than originally intended in this with the explanation how one person works hard all day and makes less than another person who pushes a few buttons. The latter knows which buttons to push.
This technology is useless for my movie searches, but it might be useful in the same way as radar was for air defense.
BTW, I’m not sure what I’d choose if offered to pay 500 dollars for knowing what that movie is. There’s one girl, if she’d be interested too to find that movie, perhaps I would.
So if such an expensive technology would allow this kind of nuanced search, and more seemingly efficient wouldn’t, then we have a use case.
Or a model allowing to predict actions of other people sufficiently well, based on seemingly not precise enough data. However much it would cost, that would be justified, similarly to high-frequency trading, because it would operate on all existing value, not just what it generates.
I’m not saying that it IS all a bubble, by the way, as I can’t read the future and these gigantic profits might well materialize in the future. I’m just saying that “bubble” and “useless” are different.
I know, I was making two points, one is that everything is relative (what you’ve just agreed to), another is that it might not at all be a bubble.
- Comment on Nvidia insists it isn’t Enron, but its AI deals are testing investor faith 1 week ago:
In Russia it’s an anecdote about two cowboys with one saying in the end “Bill, I think we’ve both just eaten shit for free”.
- Comment on Nvidia insists it isn’t Enron, but its AI deals are testing investor faith 1 week ago:
What if it’s not a bubble?
So I tried using some AI chatbots to find a movie recently, it made up a few, none being the answer.
(The question was about a historical movie, made in perhaps 1970s by the feeling, set someplace in southern France somewhere around 1650s, has a few beautiful views of nature and castles ; one scene where a guard captain enters a room, asks a question, as a power gesture drinks a glass of wine on the table and a minute later falls ; another scene where for whatever reason a rapier fight happens in something like a tavern, two women in pastel dresses are descending by an open ladder from the second floor, seeing the brawl take our pocket pistols, one of them is stabbed with a rapier ; another scene where a guy is getting question with his feet over the fire ; another when another guy is climbing a tower clinging at brick mortars outside and hears guards’ boots on the ladder very loudly ; when I was a kid and saw that, someone said it’s an adaptation of something by Lope de Vega, but I’m not sure that’s correct ; that’s just in case someone reading this knows such a movie.)
But some googling sessions they do optimize, without you the user ever having to browse a webpage, and just getting a textual answer. That’s a valid use.
And some other processes. They don’t have to be useful for all things they are applied to, just some profitable.
- Comment on Made in space? Start-up brings factory in orbit one step closer to reality 1 week ago:
Solar energy for computation perhaps, but cooling would be too expensive.
In an existing ecosystem of space mining and processing of all required elements, with no need to exit gravity wells, could be microchips. I don’t think we are closer to that than Vinland settlers were to thirteen colonies.
- Comment on Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI 1 week ago:
That part of the problem makes rules of the game more similar to how they were before the Internet. It’s almost a return to normalcy.
- Comment on China Is Banning Tesla-Style Retractable Door Handles Over Safety Concerns 1 week ago:
If this system was in use by car companies, the consequences would be similar, only 2 or 3 companies worldwide, making a few models each, all of them much more expensive than what they are now.
And, as it happens, those 2 or 3 companies not really following the regulations, practically employing inspectors instead. Like Boeing.
- Comment on China Is Banning Tesla-Style Retractable Door Handles Over Safety Concerns 1 week ago:
I mean, there’s also no safe touchscreen on a mobile phone, and one would think a main personal mobile communication device should have the least disruptable user interface possible.
A stylus makes some sense, it’s a more convenient tool for drawing on a screen. But touchscreens must die.
I’m trying to dial someone or do anything at all in a dark place, I have to look with my eyes at a burning screen (notably with some crappy flat design of all UI elements, as is custom today) and try to hit it with my fingers. My fingers notably come from factory without backlight or auto-aim.
I could just remember which key is which, and rely on my tactile feeling to find them.
I’m trying to do anything at all in frosty weather (that kind when you feel like scratching your skin, normal winter, minus 10 Celsius is enough to feel that), I have to take off my glove and try to hit whatever with my fingers which become obviously clumsier under such temperatures.
And I can’t simultaneously do something and look at the display, because I’m poking my fingers at that display to do something!
And it’s easier to do something you didn’t intend.
I hope everything with a touchscreen dies as a consumer good, similarly to young nuclear scientist kits for toddlers, asbestos roof tiles, lead paint, you get the idea. Some things are bad.
- Comment on Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI 1 week ago:
It’s new quantities, but an old mechanism, though. Humans were making up shit for all of history of talking.
In olden days it was resolved by trust and closed communities (hence various mystery cults in Antiquity, or freemasons in relatively recent times, or academia when it was a bit more protected).
Still doable and not a loss - after all, you are ultimately only talking to people anyway. One can built all the same systems on a F2F basis.
- Comment on Librarians Are Tired of Being Accused of Hiding Secret Books That Were Made Up by AI 1 week ago:
This and many other new problems are solved by applying reputation systems (like those banks use for your credit rating, or employers share with each other) in yet another direction. “This customer is an asshole, allocate less time for their requests and warn them that they have a bad history of demanding nonexistent books”. Easy.
Then they’ll talk with their friends how libraries are all possessed by a conspiracy, similarly to how similarly intelligent people talk about Jewish plot to take over the world, flat earth and such.
- Comment on US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack 1 week ago:
Yes. Except this works only in dynamic, that is, while USD keeps devaluing compared to much of the world’s currencies and goods, that might help exports.
And also revitalize the economy by somewhat hurting speculative assets.
But IRL it’s a gamble, and those who have power keep power.
- Comment on US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack 1 week ago:
No. It won’t be. But things change. Some buildings crumble. Some are reinforced and kept standing. Where there were streets, new buildings are erected. Where there were rivers and bulwarks, streets are made with pipes underneath.
So this particular building will have to change to avoid crumbling. Well, as it always happens.
- Comment on US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack 1 week ago:
It would be good (and for the US as well), but it’s possible the ship has sailed.
See, such racket schemes, if we use the tone of the article which I mostly agree with, are benefit not only to such US companies. They have already become popular and they will continue to be used.
So no. Unless suddenly a few liberal-democratic revolutions happen and everyone suddenly feels peaceful and reasonable.
- Comment on US Trade Dominance Will Soon Begin to Crack 1 week ago:
On the plus side, maybe the notion of American Exceptionalism will diminish a bit, which is long overdue.
And I have a pet conspiracy theory that this is intentional. American elites are secretly tired of exceptionalist sh*t and think it’s hurting them too. And thus have come up with a solution to return sobriety.
- Comment on Leaker Who Apple Is Suing Says 'Screw It,' Here's the Foldable iPhone Early 1 week ago:
It’s either I get that or a foldable 1 screen phone (like a flip phone).
From the times when things were actually convenient to use. Buttons shouldn’t get random presses while the thing is in your pocket. Screens should be protected from scratches and dirt while in your pocket. It’s more compact when folded while in your pocket, while thicker, but an apple fits in my pocket, so thickness is not a problem.
Remind me what happened? Ah, yes, Steve Jobs went out on a stage and confused the hell out of millions of hamsters, telling them he’s brought them their Star Trek communicator. Well, that’s not what he said, but that’s what they heard and what he meant.
I’ve gotten used to making sure my hands are not sweaty when using a phone, and that it’s practically not usable when it’s cold and your fingers are not very precise, like when walking or when in a crowded place, and that you should be careful with that pocket to not occasionally unlock the thing and repost something personal into apartment building common WhatsApp chat, things like that.
But sometimes I recall that with a Motorola flip phone I could do everything with no loss of ability or speed in all these situations.
Not even talking about battery life.
On another note, after Tim apple bribed Trump with a gold ball I’ve decided to no longer buy apple products again.
Oh, that’s when.
- Comment on What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows 1 week ago:
MS has nothing to do with it, except that BitLocker is much better than anything any Linux distro has to offer today.
It’s a piece of software with closed source code. I am aware that people can hide (and have done so many times) a backdoor or a mistake in source code so that it’ll be harder to find than many problems in binaries without source provided.
Still harder to audit.
You need to have the disk decrypt without user input, and you can’t have the secret with the user. (As the user is untrusted - could be someone stealing the laptop.) The normal Linux user mantra of ”I own the machine” does not apply here. In this threat model, the corporation owns the machine, and in particular any information on it.
Smart cards?
Hate RHEL all you want, but first take a look at what distros have any kind of commercial support at all from software vendors. This is the complete list: RHEL, sometimes Rocky, sometimes Ubuntu.
I know.
Basically, corporate requirements go completely against the requirements of enthusiasts and power users. You don’t need Secure Boot to protect your machine from thieves, but a corporation needs Secure Boot to protect the machine from you.
Sigh. Okay.
- Comment on What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows 1 week ago:
- OK. I agree, but personally hate RHEL.
- Yes.
- Suppose so.
- Brightness and sound controls too?..
- Yep, meant that.
- I thought of something like company-issued laptops, which might be good to have functional without Internet connectivity sometimes, if it’s remote work.
- Dependent on the role some users might need to regularly install software you haven’t thought about.
- Yes.
- Well, disagree about SecureBoot, there’s nothing secure about MS signing your binaries. It’s just proof they are signed by MS. Setting TPM under Linux is, eh, something I’ve never done.
- Comment on What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows 1 week ago:
I think you can:
- set up something like Fedora Silverblue,
- disallow root,
- disallow sysrq and such,
- allow sudo only for select few things,
- refresh configuration centrally.
I’m not sure it’s much more work than what I’ve seen in corporate environments with Windows.
- Comment on ‘All brakes are off’: Russia’s attempt to rein in illicit market for leaked data backfires 1 week ago:
That’s a question similar to legalization of sex work.
I mean, selling data on someone is not cool. But what’s completely illegal, but in demand by everyone, becomes something completely unregulated in practice and still a huge market. While otherwise it could be at least partially constrained by some norms. Similarly sex work is very much not cool. But at least in some countries it gives smaller chance of being murdered to workers.
So - I live in Russia, I’m not sure I like the way it happens here more. Especially when combined with slow encroachment of mandatory centralized services for everything connected to government, municipal services, utilities, documents. They want control like in China, but can’t be bothered with security at least like in China.
- Comment on ‘All brakes are off’: Russia’s attempt to rein in illicit market for leaked data backfires 1 week ago:
Nothing more Russian than police giving someone their database for a bribe.
And it’s even more Russian that police then pays for convenient service to someone who’s bribed enough policemen to assemble enough data.
It’s a common banality to say that Russian culture is somehow deeply authoritarian, but actually it’s suppressed anarcho-capitalism all around. LOL.
(And it makes perfect sense that Ukrainian special services are working the same way. Shouldn’t have invaded such a similar country.)
- Comment on Can machines suffer? 1 week ago:
Humans don’t want to feel lonely. Find machines (imaginary ones at that) as if there weren’t plenty of stray cats and dogs, humans from abusive families or without family, just those suffering.
That’s because fulfilling your search for the others for real means you know what? It’s real no matter what, you can’t turn it off once you’re done with your daily portion of worrying about the future.
But one thing I’ll add to this - if a robotic system as complex as human brain and with similar degree of compression and obscurity is some day formed, and it does have necessary feedbacks and reacts as a living being, I might accept you should treat it as such. Except one would think that requires so many iterations of evolution that it’s better to just care, again, for cats, dogs, hamsters, rabbits, humans if you’re feeling weird.
- Comment on Looking for a specific manufacturer of repairable notebooks 1 week ago:
I had one such, HP something, with Atom and 1024x600 display. Ran Linux with
dwm,conkeror,mpdand even some games in Wine. I really liked that, actually. Except for the 1024x600 part, at least 1366x768 would be better. - Comment on Looking for a specific manufacturer of repairable notebooks 1 week ago:
Yes, I understand that, I meant that it somehow felt for me that it’s a dinosaur term in English that nobody uses. Dunno why.
- Comment on The dominoes are falling: motherboard sales down 50% as PC enthusiasts are put off by stinking memory prices 1 week ago:
I mean, a PC from year 1999 is in the realm of possible for plenty of more localized production chains than needed to have that monster with Ryzen in the name.
And it’s not unreasonable to expect such a scattering of production. It happened with plenty of technologies. Also it’s not unreasonable to expect a return from more sophisticated and powerful material culture to one less so at both, but more accessible.
That’s what happened with automobiles a few times in history, that’s what happened with construction technologies and money many times in history, with food, with warfare.
That semiconductors are something challenging in complexity to produce - that actually makes such scattering more probable.
It’s not much different from chinaware or late medieval metallurgy needed for firearms. Strategic technologies are hard to achieve and it’s simpler to purchase their output, but eventually everyone realizes they need their own.
So I really hope that instead of the same not really diverse ecosystem of Intel, AMD and ARM powerful hardware we’ll have a thousand different local manufacturers of partially compatible hardware far weaker, like Amiga 1200, but more interesting.
Perhaps this will also be similar to the transition from late Rome to early Middle Ages.
It just makes sense historically. More distributed production environment can support smaller efficiency, - can’t make and sell on the same scale, - but there will be constant pressure to have it.
Of course, in reality this is all alarmism for no reason. There will be a bubble burst, suppose, - well, then there’ll be plenty of cheap hardware thrown out. The RAM manufacturers will have hard times, but it’ll balance out eventually. Just how it did after the dotcom bubble, not in the best way, perhaps with only a few manufacturers remaining, but it will. Or if there will be no bubble burst, suppose all that computing power founds an application with non-speculative value, - well, there’s still long way to go before your typical PC usage starts requiring really expensive amounts of RAM. If we drop the Web, even with modern Linux or FreeBSD one could survive on 2GB RAM and Intel C2D in year 2019. Then on 4GB, almost comfortable, even playing some games.
One good thing I’m seeing - those RAM prices can eventually kill the Web. It’s the most RAM-hungry part of our needs for no good reason. Perhaps Gemini is not what can replace it, it’s too basic, but I can see it becoming in corporate interest to support a leaner non-compatible replacement for the same niche. And corporate interest kills.
Or perhaps they’ll like some sort of semantic web gone wrong way - with some kind of “web” intended for AI agents, not humans, with humans having a chat prompt.
- Comment on Looking for a specific manufacturer of repairable notebooks 1 week ago:
(offtopic: I’ve noticed the word “notebook” to refer to the same as “laptop” to become more common recently. I even had thoughts at some point that it’s a Russian localization curiosity, using the transcription of “notebook” for that.)
Nice machine. I’d wonder if it’s deliverable to where I am if I needed it.