turmacar

@turmacar@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple just proved AI "reasoning" models like Claude, DeepSeek-R1, and o3-mini don't actually reason at all.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  “Computer” meaning a mechanical/electro-mechanical/electrical machine wasn’t used until around after WWII.

  Babbag’s difference/analytical engines weren’t confusing because people called them a computer, they didn’t.

  "On two occasions I have been asked, ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

  • Charles Babbage

  If you give any computer, human or machine, random numbers, it will not give you “correct answers”.

  It’s possible Babbage lacked the social skills to detect sarcasm. We also have several high profile cases of people just trusting LLMs to file legal briefs and official government ‘studies’ because the LLM “said it was real”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple just proved AI "reasoning" models like Claude, DeepSeek-R1, and o3-mini don't actually reason at all.⁩ ⁨⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  I think because it’s language.

  There’s a famous quote from Charles Babbage when he presented his difference engine (gear based calculator) and someone asking “if you put in the wrong figures, will the correct ones be output” and Babbage not understanding how someone can so thoroughly misunderstand that the machine is, just a machine.

  People are people, the main thing that’s changed since the Cuneiform copper customer complaint is our materials science and networking ability. Most of things people interact with every day, most people just assume work like it appears to on the surface.

  And nothing other than a person can do math problems or talk back to you. So people assume that means intelligence.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The IRS Tax Filing Software TurboTax Is Trying to Kill Just Got Open Sourced⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s what config files are for. It would be a nightmare to hardcode weight and balance and have to recompile the HUD every time you change the loadout or refuel the plane.

  Most code, algorithms, etc are not any more sensitive than the concept of desks and file cabinets. No, guidance programs for missiles probably shouldn’t be put on GitHub, but there’s a reason RSA and other encryption algorithms were open sourced. It’s better to have more eyes looking for inefficiencies, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities than to just assume it’s good because no-one on the team responsible is smart/engaged enough to find them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The IRS Tax Filing Software TurboTax Is Trying to Kill Just Got Open Sourced⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot of functionality can be decoupled from anything that needs to be classified. A HUD is a HUD and no one should be hard coding in performance characteristics of the F-35 into it for example. I’ve also worked on government projects and holy crap does the code quality vary wildly, even before you get into “it’s still working so deal with the problems, it doesn’t have the budget for updates”.

  Using ‘off the shelf’ parts/code can save significant time and money. There’s a reason subs use xbox controllers. Government websites and data interfaces at the very least should have the audit-ability that open source provides.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most of us will leave behind a large ‘digital legacy’ when we die. Here’s how to plan what happens to it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  In theory yes, but not a lot of people are uploading their family photo albums AFAIK.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most of us will leave behind a large ‘digital legacy’ when we die. Here’s how to plan what happens to it⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it would be interesting to have some kind of global archive. Even if descendants don’t care “now” has the potential to be the beginning of the best documented era in history. Historians would kill for photographs by random average people from any other time.

  A lot of people thought that that’s what the Internet would be, but that’s obviously not the case. And I know the “right to be forgotten” is a thing, and deservedly so, but at some point you’re throwing out the wine with the amphora.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Every toddler becomes a hackerman when they find a tablet⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some of that’s cultural momentum right? Like I don’t know how many Pickles it takes to make a Peck of Pickles despite hours singing about it as a kid. There’s not a lot of reason sans-nostalgia to read an analog clock or drive a manual car. (I love my manual, they’re not getting any less niche with EVs on the way.)

  And everyone’s going to learn something the first time, some time. But it is just nuts that for some people that is apparently after getting a job with a Bachelor’s, somehow. So much time, money, and energy was spent in the 90s/00s having computer classes in schools and now so much of it has been cut because the people in charge are so out of touch that watching youtube on a device designed to be easily usable is indistinguishable from “technical skills”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨3-2-1 Backups: How do you do the 1 offsite backup?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Probably a me problem but kept having problems with that docker on unraid, it’s just in the community apps ‘store’. The vm seemed to just crash randomly.

  I switched over to their B2 storage and just use rclone to an encrypted bucket and it’s ~<$5/mo which I’m good with. Biggest cost is if I let it run too often and it spends a bunch of their compute time listing files to see if it needs to update them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pope Joan⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The show Bones had a lot of weirdness, but I did appreciate that they consistently (at least the first few seasons when I was watching) stripped the bones down and even had a bug guy to do it efficiently.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After an Arizona man was shot, an AI video of him addresses his killer in court⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If my family hired an actor to impersonate me at my killer’s trial and give a prepared speech about how I felt about the situation it would be thrown out of court.

  If my family hired a cartoonist or movie studio to create a moving scene with my face recreated by digital artists and a professional voice actor to talk about my forgiveness for my death, it would be thrown out of court.

  That they used a generative program to do it and the Judge allowed the video to influence the sentence as if it were a statement by the deceased is deeply troubling.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Beauty Of Having A Pi-hole · Den Delimarsky⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I was averaging ~1-2% blocked using the firebog and a few other lists, added hagezi’s ‘pro plus’ list last month and it’s up to 39% blocked.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you’re in the market for a $1,900 color E Ink monitor, one of them exists now - Ars Technica⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I bought a trmnl and it’s pricey but works pretty good. I’ve mostly been using a few out-of-the-box plugins for it.

  There is a selfhosted/offline version of the server you can run for it, so it can be ‘offline’ in theory. I keep meaning to mess with it more but haven’t put the time aside.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If I snapped you back in time 650 years right this very second, how would you use your current knowledge to succeed?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You don’t even have to show the gold. Just say you saw it and it’s now in that tent over there. No you can’t go in. This is what was written on it though. Oh it’s in a language only I can read. Don’t worry, I’ll translate. Give me your wife.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is Docker?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Building from source is always going to come with complications. That’s why most people don’t do it. A docker compose file that ‘just’ downloads the stable release from a repo and starts running is dramatically more simple than cross-referencing all your services to make sure there are no dependency conflicts.

  There’s an added layer of complexity under the hood to simplify the common use case.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft rolls Windows Recall out to the public nearly a year after announcing it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You can install key and screen loggers if you want. Could even setup offsite backup and rclone it all wherever you want.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Airbnb will now show users the total cost of their stay right away⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s awesome! Hopefully AirBnB doesn’t donate a million dollars to Trump for an exemption.

  I do kind of wish these things required some kind of disclosure instead of letting them pretend they’re super consumer friendly and don’t need any of that demonic regulation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Airbnb will now show users the total cost of their stay right away⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re footnote section is doing a lot of work.

  1 In some countries and regions taxes are included in the total price displayed. The total price including taxes is always displayed prior to checkout.

  They also either don’t know how notations work, or the AI they’re using to generate this doesn’t because it has a separate footnote with that same sentence later on.

  I would be thoroughly unsurprised if some EU or other regulation came into effect that they have to do this, and now they’re taking credit for being consumer friendly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Encryption Is Not a Crime⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Mathematically worse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Uncle Sam abruptly turns off funding for CVE program. Yes, that CVE program⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This is/was letting a contract expire. It’s not something that was brought up to the level of congress. Up until the last few years of supreme court decisions agencies were founded with broad powers in their domains, including discontinuing sub-programs.

  That’s how it’ supposed to work. None of this has been brought to a vote, which would give Democrats the opportunity to oppose it. For “some reason” congressional Republicans are continuing their prior strategy while being a majority and having the leadership of just, not doing things.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Oh god': There's a buried Steam help page that shows how much money you've ever spent on the platform, and you may not want to know⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “OldSpend” is the amount of external funds applied before Friday, April 17, 2015 18:00:00 UTC.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Uncle Sam abruptly turns off funding for CVE program. Yes, that CVE program⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This is not a law.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Injection mold vs 3D print⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Have seen a definite uptick in Bamboo ads since they made their anti-consumer changes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair, apparently at some point I conflated GNSS and Galileo.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  5-10h battery life. Their goal list includes 20h idle time and recording video.

  They also seem to be doing the usual dance of “Made in USA!!!*”

  * what you think of when you think “electronic components” sourced from Asian countries, mostly we’re talking about assembly and that this is where it’s put in the consumer packaging.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humming along in an old church, the Internet Archive is more relevant than ever.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yea some kind of fork of the torrent protocol where you can advertise “I have X amount of space to donate” and there’s a mechanism to give you the most endangered bytes on the network maybe. Would need to be a lot more granular than torrents to account for the vast majority of nodes not wanting or being capable of getting to “100%”.

  I don’t think the technical aspects are insurmountable, and there’s at least some measure of a builtin audience in that a lot of people run archiveteam warrior containers/VMs. But storage is just so many orders of magnitude more expensive than letting a little cpu/bandwidth limited process run in the background. I don’t know that enough people would be willing/able to donate enough to make it viable?

  ~70 000 data hoarders volunteering 1TB each to be a 1-1 backup of the current archive.org isn’t a small number of people, and that’s only to get a single parity copy. But it also isn’t an outrageously large number of people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humming along in an old church, the Internet Archive is more relevant than ever.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Would be interesting to have encrypted blobs scattered around volunteer computers/servers, like a storage version of BOINC / @HOME.

  People tend to have dramatically less spare storage space than space compute time though and it would need to be very redundant to be guaranteed not to lose data.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah lack of third spaces and class mixing is big. Everyone is segregated into their own existing (shrinking) in groups, that then get concentrated by the webiverse.

  The 70s oil crisis was an inflection point for Europe and a lot of cities/countries started moving back away from cars as the sole transportation option but the US didn’t have the same reaction.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cloudflare turns AI against itself with endless maze of irrelevant facts⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem being they’re now attempting anti-fingerprinting tactics. A lot of the AI crawlers used to identify themselves as Amazon/openAI/etc. And aren’t anymore because they were being blocked. Now they’re country from random IPs with random/obfuscated agent ids.

  This is a legal problem not a technological one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FOSS infrastructure is under attack by AI companies⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Also, everyone’s solution to a problem is stupid if they’re only given 5 minutes to work on it.

  Combine that with it being “free” for them to query the website and expensive to have enough local storage to replicate, even temporarily, all the stuff they want to scrape and it’s kind of a no brainier to ‘just not do that’. The only thing stopping them is morals / whether they want to keep paying rent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Pebble Has Been Brought Back⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Garmin Instinct is what I switched to when my Pebble died. Recently upgraded to the Fenix.

  You can absolutely skip ahead through ads with the music controls. Automating it would be the job of the app.