evranch
@evranch@lemmy.ca
- Comment on NIST proposes barring some of the most nonsensical password rules 1 month ago:
Don’t forget classics like Fuck_this_shit1! Fuck_this_shit2!
- Comment on I hope you don't have any plans this evening. 2 months ago:
If he follows through he’ll be in on round 2 of the rapture I guess
- Comment on Lebanon’s health minister says 8 killed, 2,750 wounded by exploding pagers 2 months ago:
Militants specifically use these pagers for security and stealth. Everyone else just uses phones.
It’s a brilliant way to target only combatants, and also expose them to their friends and neighbours. This attack is incredibly disruptive with very little collateral damage compared to alternatives.
And yes, it’s terrorism, an attack meant to inspire terror and disrupt communication networks with a chilling effect much larger than the actual damage. However it’s interesting as unlike most terrorism it does not target civilians.
It’s also terrifying to think we are living in a world where a malicious component attack is a legitimate concern. This is one of those moments that change the world - I’m sure every industry is thinking about the danger of their foreign supply chain right now.
- Comment on Can anyone suggest some good co-op games for two people? 2 months ago:
I play a lot of couch coop with my kid but adults would enjoy all these too. Most can be found under $20 on Steam and a lot are fairly lightweight games but have good coop mechanics and can be a lot of fun to sit down for an hour or two with.
- Overcooked 1 + 2 (but 2 really is better) you will love or hate it depending on your personalities, nothing in between. We loved it
- Ship of Fools
- Enter the Gungeon
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
- Moving Out
On Switch
- Cadence of Hyrule
- Don’t starve together (only split screen on console not PC… Wtf)
- Pikmin
- Comment on A golf course eight miles away from the hottest point on the entire planet. 4 months ago:
You can also swim at the pool, that sounds like fun
- Comment on I don't have AC but my apartment lease covers unlimited water usage and the water is very cold. How can I best use this to cool my home? 4 months ago:
Gut an AC from the dump. Replace the condenser with a tube in tube heat exchanger, using your cold water as a heat sink. Brazed plate HX if you’re feeling rich. Replace the cap tube with a TXV for better load tracking. Recharge with R290.
T Sure this is even further beyond your skill level but is the best possible way to use a source of cold to chill your apartment. You can locate it anywhere convenient, not just by the window. You could likely get a COP over 5 and be discharging the water in a fairly modest stream at around 30-40C.
- Comment on World's largest sodium-ion battery goes into operation - Energy Storage 4 months ago:
I don’t see how people like you miss the entire concept of “base load”.
I live in a region with vast amounts of renewable energy resources. It’s always windy and the sun shines almost every day. I have solar panels on my house that cover most of my DHW and a large fraction of my summer cooling load, and keep most of my appliances running.
But right now, the sun is down and the wind is flat. And I still need power. My battery storage would be depleted by morning, damaging it through overdischarge if I don’t buy power from the grid instead.
And it’s a lovely summer evening with no heating or cooling demand! What about midwinter, -35C and dark and snowy? Where is my power coming from on that day, after a month of days just like it?
Nuclear.
- Comment on Producing fuels from 1,500 degrees of solar heat: world’s first plant opens in Germany 4 months ago:
Is agriculture land based transport? Short of an actual nuclear tractor, nothing but diesel has the energy density sufficient to run modern scale farms.
Chatting around the fire we’ve tried to imagine a solution like dragging a cable but with tractors pushing close to 1000HP now that’s about a megawatt. That’s a long, fat cable or an extremely dangerous voltage to drag around a field, probably both. And an insane grid infrastructure to get power to the field borders.
You wouldn’t believe how much fuel goes into agriculture, to the point where I believe it makes up nearly a third of emissions (possibly including land clearing, can’t remember the details). Synthetic fuels are the only net-zero option.
Well I’m kind of a fan of the nuclear tractor honestly but I kind of doubt it :)
- Comment on To all you outside of the US... 4 months ago:
No I’m serious, I’m here in SK and we’re trying to push Moe and his cronies out for the NDP this fall, and our biggest problem is the federal NDP damaging the brand by backing Trudeau. All we say all day is “The SK NDP is not affiliated with the federal party, we stand for working Canadians, vote Moe out”
If you think $500 for low income and seniors is anything other than a bone thrown to pacify the poor then Singh has pulled the wool over your eyes.
The requirement for “no access to insurance” absolutely torpedoes the entire thing. Private insurers need to fall, universal coverage is the only way. Dental is the Canadian equivalent to the entire USA health insurance racket.
Congrats on living in the one green riding, which does give you some power over your single seat party… Which ultimately holds no power at all in our broken system.
I’m sorry to say I voted Trudeau on the promise of electoral reform, which he then told us we didn’t want. I’m in a safe blue riding which means my vote is pointless, so I’m going full protest vote next time for the PPC 🤣 Max is laughable, especially his obsession with dairy supply management, but enough votes for “burn it down” will hopefully send a message.
- Comment on To all you outside of the US... 4 months ago:
Trudeau over Biden?
Trudeau is importing the world’s problems in the name of propping up the real estate investor class (of which he is a member) and pumping up fake GDP numbers. GDP per capita is plummeting in Canada with excess immigration.
Singh is in his pocket, a waste of a vote. I was an NDP voter all my life, I’m done.
Polliviere is an absolute idiot who will ride a wave of hatred for Trudeau into office.
Voters in Canada have no power and no representation as all votes are whipped. Your MP is a seat filler. We have no ballot initiatives or direct democracy options that America has, and reform will never come.
Biden listens to people who know what they’re doing and stands out of the way… Passed legislation supporting workers and unions, energy infrastructure etc. meaning he’s both more left than Singh and more business-friendly than PP
- Comment on Beijing intervenes in China’s solar industry as overcapacity dries up profit in the country's domestic market 4 months ago:
The simple solution sounds like it should be shipping more panels to the rest of the world?
Solar panels are still excessively expensive here in Canada
- Comment on To all you outside of the US... 4 months ago:
America needs some perspective. You complain that your only choices are a doddering fool or a toxic narcissist who wants to actively destroy the nation.
Here in Canada we look at our options and think “America is so much better, I wish we had an option to vote for a doddering fool. All we have are narcissists”
No joke I wish we had a leader as good as Biden. The bar is so low that the devil is doing the limbo with it down in Hell.
- Comment on the ologies don't like to talk about theo 6 months ago:
This would make a good explanation for the bizarre biblical angels, especially having parts of their “body” that aren’t connected to each other. They only appear disconnected in the 3D projection we see, and are actually parts of a 4D organism.
- Comment on Independent auditors confirm top VPN doesn't log your data 6 months ago:
Yeah I know, but have you seen their site? It’s like an old 90s static HTML page. The main thing I see is that it’s clearly not a glossy “marketing first” service. They’re surviving off of their actual product.
- Comment on shrimp is bugs 6 months ago:
I draw the line at “overpopulated” when our resource consumption is unsustainable to the point where we are becoming the sole consumer of the planet.
It’s commonly stated that we would need 2 planets the same size to sustain our current population in a way that doesn’t result in eventual collapse.
We’ve cleared vast land areas and scoured the sea of fish in our quest for calories. Eating bugs will not be the solution that makes us sustainable.
It’s been proven our population increases every time we increase our carrying capacity, such as through the invention of nitrogen fertilizer, mechanized agriculture etc. And there has never been a time that there were not people starving somewhere.
If we carry on this path we will be eating bugs and people will still be starving while ecosystems continue to collapse. It sounds like there is no net gain, IMO.
- Comment on Windows 11 will reportedly display a watermark if your PC does not support AI requirements. 6 months ago:
Might be something patched in Tiny10 but it even activated fine for me with the usual hack and hasn’t caused any problems. I had to take it online momentarily on install to activate, but that was all.
- Comment on Independent auditors confirm top VPN doesn't log your data 6 months ago:
I trust Mullvad and Proton at this point for VPNs, nobody else.
Any reason you can state not to use AirVPN? I switched to them from Mullvad because they support port forwarding. So far I’ve been very happy with their service.
Having ads and sponsors blocked I can’t be 100% sure, but I don’t think they advertise at all. I only tried them because of a recommendation on Lemmy. Their site design is very old school which really says “run by nerds and not marketers” to me.
- Comment on Windows 11 will reportedly display a watermark if your PC does not support AI requirements. 6 months ago:
Could you run fossilized and sandboxed in a VM? I run Tiny10 for a couple Windows applications that can’t run on Wine, completely offline so that there’s no need for updates. The system continues to work exactly how I want it to with no Microsoft Surprises.
One of the applications is for tax filing, so I finish the taxes, clone the VM, put the copy online and file. After it gets confirmation, I copy the database back to the fossilized version and wipe the copy. Been doing it for years now.
- Comment on shrimp is bugs 6 months ago:
Valid point. When I grew up fishing for shrimp as a kid I was quite terrified of them until I was taught how to eat them.
I can assume they taste bad, because otherwise we would all be eating them already. Humans eat just about everything on the planet if it’s tasty, even if it’s really weird.
Personally I don’t see the need for it when we have plenty of plant sources of protein like pulses, and we can raise ruminants on otherwise useless land (like my hilly, rocky farm).
It seems to me just an excuse to continue overpopulating the planet. Sure, we could develop new protein sources to feed 10 billion - but if we had kept our population to the 4 billion it was in the 1970s we could all be eating thick beef steaks and salmon without worrying about straining the carrying capacity of the planet.
Maybe we should focus on getting our population down to a sustainable level before we worry about new and exotic foods.
- Comment on shrimp is bugs 6 months ago:
I still think that, environmentally consciously, we should all switch to a mostly plant based diet and explore meat alternatives without fear.
I don’t have an issue with this statement, in fact I have friends who grow beans and lentils and I cook and eat dry beans every day in addition to my lamb. Plant proteins are healthy and delicious, and they easily stand alongside other standard dishes on our plates. Everyone I know eats a lot of beans.
My issue with the bugs is the same as I have with soy protein. Soy protein has been snuck into all manner of processed foods to boost protein numbers while replacing the higher quality proteins that you would expect in those foods (i.e. many cheap chicken breasts are injected with a solution of salt water and soy protein to plump them up and make you think you got more “chicken”)
I feel like using insects this way just is another step in adulterating our food supply, separating those like you and me who know what we are eating from the “commoners” who will not.
I have no problem with explicitly eating bugs outright if you choose to, I just don’t want to have them snuck into my hamburger at a restaurant.
Interestingly my ex-wife was from Taiwan and had never eaten insects except as a novelty - so it must be a different part of Asia where it’s common. Taiwan tends to like fish, pork and chicken as well as tofu and black beans.
- Comment on shrimp is bugs 6 months ago:
That’s the problem, it isn’t delicious. That’s why they keep coming up with schemes to use them as a protein additive, like “cricket flour”.
I raise lamb free range on pasture, no inputs other than grass, and that’s what I’ll be eating for the foreseeable future. Let me tell you, that’s delicious.
I would encourage anyone else concerned about factory farming to find a small producer, most of us will gladly even give you a tour and let you see our herds, we love to show off healthy animals on green grass. And we’re often cheaper than the supermarket these days, no greedy middlemen to mark it up.
- Comment on Goatse, like Michelangelo's David, should be an exception to normal rules of censorship, due to its status as part of our shared cultural heritage. 6 months ago:
Is goatse.cx still up? I would check but growing up with the internet as it was, I’ve seen enough Goatse in my lifetime that I really don’t need to see it again.
- Comment on shrimp is bugs 6 months ago:
The difference is that shrimp are delicious? Last time you got a bug in your mouth what was your instinctive response?
The great reset is bogus but there’s definitely a “conspiracy” to get us to eat bugs… A boring, capitalist conspiracy. Just the next step in the race to the bottom, another cheap and low quality food that the unwashed masses can afford to keep them alive and trudging off to work.
I will eat bugs when I see the billionaires have them on their plates.
- Comment on [deleted] 6 months ago:
I bet I know what sort of socks you wear
- Comment on So sweet 7 months ago:
Only if I’m truly in the middle of something that’s time or focus critical. Otherwise I’m always glad to hear from my friends.
I have a FWB who I text with 99% of the time but awhile ago she texts “Can I call you? I really need someone to talk to.” Of course! It was a joy to talk to her, she lives in the city, I’m out on the farm. Told her she should call more often.
Like the other comment I despise voicemails though. If I don’t pick up, text me. That’s even my voicemail message now… And still people leave voicemails 🤬
- Comment on Boston Dynamics introduces a fully electric humanoid robot that “exceeds human performance” 7 months ago:
Please assume the position
- Comment on YSK : Dark patterns among large companies are becoming more mainstream 7 months ago:
To be fair proper integration of an aftermarket VoIP app requires almost every permission a phone has, especially if the app wants to mirror your caller ID, and supports SMS and attaching various media.
- Comment on this one goes out to the arts & humanities 7 months ago:
I think you’re misreading the point I’m trying to make. I’m not arguing that LLM is AGI or that it can understand anything.
I’m just questioning what the true use case of AGI would be that can’t be achieved by existing expert systems, real humans, or a combination of both.
Sure Deepseek or Copilot won’t answer your legal questions. But neither will a real programmer. Nor will a lawyer be any good at writing code.
However when the appropriate LLMs with the appropriate augmentations can be used to write code or legal contracts under human supervision, isn’t that good enough? Do we really need to develop a true human level intelligence when we already have 8 billion of those looking for something to do?
AGI is a fun theoretical concept, but I really don’t see the practical need for a “next step” past the point of expanding and refining our current deep learning models, or how it would improve our world.
- Comment on this one goes out to the arts & humanities 7 months ago:
And it still can’t understand; its still just sleight of hand.
Yes, thus “passable imitation of understanding”.
The average consumer doesn’t understand tensors, weights and backprop. They haven’t even heard of such things. They ask it a question, like it was a sentient AGI. It gives them an answer.
Passable imitation.
You don’t need a data center except for training, either. There’s no exponential term as the models are executed sequentially. You can even flush the huge LLM off your GPU when you don’t actively need it.
I’ve already run basically this entire stack locally and integrated it with my home automation system, on a system with a 12GB Radeon and 32GB RAM. Just to see how well it would work and to impress my friends.
You yell out “$wakeword, it’s cold in here. Turn up the furnace” and it can bicker with you in near-realtime about energy costs before turning it up the requested amount.
- Comment on Life? What do you mean? This ain't life, it's surviving 7 months ago:
Nibbler: “What is one life, compared to the entire universe?”
Fry: “But it was my life!”