JasSmith

@JasSmith@sh.itjust.works

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Neuralink's first in-human brain implant has experienced a problem, company says⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not like the technology is a con. Brain implants have been iterated upon for decades. This is just the latest incarnation - after extensive animal testing. I don’t think we have a right to tell a quadriplegic they may not meaningfully improve their lives because we feel the risk is too high. They’re locked in a living prison.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why I Lost Faith in Kagi⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t find any of this damning or compelling. I remain a happy subscriber.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lemmy is growing and they are coming⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  100% of people who have one of those stupid anime avatars are insane.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why Charging Your Gadgets Over 80% Is Such a Bad Idea | iFixit News⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  While true, I consider it a reasonable trade. I so rarely need the 100% charge.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair trading laws are broad and complex and vary widely by place to place. There are many restrictions on trading practises which mislead customers. Amazon employs a myriad of practises designed to do exactly that. Some of them detailed in the article. I’m sure they think they’re skirting the law to the legal side, but experts are going to determine that now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK inflation remains unchanged at 4%⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Almost all OECD nations are also struggling with the last couple percent on the path back to 2%. It looks like it’s the stickiest, and it might require higher reserve rates to tame. Governments spent unimaginably amounts of stimulus money during covid and the economy is still swimming in cash. Inflation won’t be tamed until those reserves are spent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK inflation remains unchanged at 4%⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Food prices are not forecast to drop. They’re forecast to rise, and I believe in excess of average inflation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m much more optimistic. I think battery technology will progress quickly, and as it improves, more and more people will buy EVs. I think the path forward is not to try to convince people to live worse lives. That’s a losing proposition. We should instead make our lives better and cleaner through technology.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Boycott Tesla’ ads to air during Super Bowl — “Tesla dances away from liability in Autopilot crashes by pointing to a note buried deep in the owner’s manual, that says Autopilot is only safe on fr...⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  These instances of errors are obviously alarming, but all the evidence we have is that they’re still safer than human drivers. They will make mistakes - and sometimes those mistakes will cost lives - but they will make fewer mistakes than humans. Given this, as visceral as it feels when we hear of these stories, I think our ire is misplaced. Automated driving will never be perfect. If that’s the bar we’re aiming for we should just give up and go home. The goal is better than humans, and in many conditions, it’s already there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So… if the technology isn’t improving your life you continue to use the one that’s making everyone else’s life worse?

  It depends on the cost/benefit analysis. It was part of my decision to buy a Tesla but I am deeply disappointed with the experience. It’s so bad that I want to sell it and buy another ICE. Most people aren’t willing to pay more for a significant downgrade. That’s just reality.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Diagon Lemmy - A Queer-friendly, Harry Potter-themed Lemmy Server is now live (before you block me instantly, please hear me out)⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Rowling is an hell of a woman. She’s donated more money than we will ever earn and doesn’t dodge her taxes.

  She lost her billionaire status a few years ago after donating between 160 to 200 million quid!

  Say what you want about her views on gender, but she has done more good for the world than most.

  Introduced an entire generation to reading. Millions of kids who weren’t big readers picked up lifetime habits!

  Started or donated to many charities. Including the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland, The Maggie’s Centres for Cancer Care, Doctors Without Borders, and more. She founded the Children’s High Level Group, known as Lumos, which works to “end the systematic institutionalization of children across Europe and help them find safer, more caring places to live.” She has also contributed to various other charitable causes through her philanthropic trust, Volant.

  Helped save female Afghani lawyers from the taliban.

  Funded the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology clinic in Edinburgh.

  And rather more contentiously, has stuck to her guns about the areas where she believes sex should take precedence over gender identity in the face of abuse, rape and death threats.

  And now employment tribunals are ruling again and again that gender critical views are perfectly reasonable to hold and in fact are legally protected.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Could you recommend a good rental company? Maybe I’ve been picking the wrong ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Enshittification’ is coming for absolutely everything⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I really think this is overblown. Almost all the services encompassed by the term are luxury. We don’t need Netflix. Just stop paying for it. Businesses all follow a similar trajectory: concept -> growth -> monetisation -> decline. If you’re over 30 you’ve seen many companies rise and fall. They all fail eventually, and from their ashes rise new companies. If you’re ambitious, you’ll capitalise on the opportunity and your company will fill that gap.

  Embrace change.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s not a good solution. Renting is a terrible experience too. This is what I would have to do:

  • Book a rental in advance or pay horrendous rates.

  • Take an overpriced taxi to the rental place on the day. Uber is banned in my country.

  • Wait in line, then stand through the strong arm sales tactics to get me to buy the overpriced insurance. I politely decline.

  • Take a hundred pictures of the exterior to prove I’m delivering it in the same conditions I picked it up because I’ve been scammed too many times.

  • Drive back to my house, then do all the usual packing.

  • Gingerly drive this strange car for 12 hours there and back and pray I don’t scratch it because that’s thousands of dollars in extortionate fees.

  • On return, unpack the car, then give it a clean (or more fees).

  • Drive it back to the rental agency and argue about the level of gas in the tank and the scratches I didn’t make and the level of general cleanliness inside and out.

  • Take another overprice taxi back home.

  I’ve rented a lot of cars in my life and they’re all bloodsucking leeches. This is not only a much worse experience than simply owning a car which suits our needs, but it’s more expensive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As I explained, the rated time is in perfect conditions. I have never experienced perfect conditions and I don’t know anyone who has. I have a colleague who has a 2023 Ioniq 5 who claims to average 30 mins for 10-80. This will only get longer as the battery ages.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sorry, but if your argument is “here’s a shit product. It’s also more expensive, but you should still buy it because it’s marginally better for the planet,” it’s going to fail to achieve mass adoption. I care very much about environmental sustainability, but I’ve been around the sun enough times to know that the way to achieve that is with better and cheaper products. We should use technology to reduce environmental impact and improve our lives. It’s not one or the other.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The White House wants to 'cryptographically verify' videos of Joe Biden so viewers don't mistake them for AI deepfakes⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Then this exercise is a waste of time. All the hard hitting journalism which presses the President and elicits a negative response will be unsigned, and will be distributed across social media as it is today: without authentication. All the videos for which the White House is concerned about authenticity will continue to circulate without any cause for contention.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The White House wants to 'cryptographically verify' videos of Joe Biden so viewers don't mistake them for AI deepfakes⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Great points and I agree. I also think the signature needs to be built into the stream in a continuous fashion so that snippets can still be authenticated.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not 1000km. You lose 30-40% range in the cold. And charging cadence is typically 10-70%, not 0-100%, so you lose another 30% on road trips. Now your 1000km EV does 420-490km between chargers. That’s around three hours on the Autobahn at a rather leisurely 150kph, with a 25-40 min stop. I agree with the user above. Affordable 1000km range is minimum before I’ll be buying another EV.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re not the only one. Most people try to make as much distance as possible between stops.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I own a 2022 Model Y and I’ve never had a 15m charging stop. It’s always longer. 15m is theoretical. In the real world everything from temperature to the type of charger to how many people are charging at the station to the age of the battery impact speed. You’re looking at 25-40 mins on average to 80%. Double that to charge to 100%. I’m not sure why people feel the need to gaslight non-EV owners. The technology is what it is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gel and lithium-ion tech could enable 1000-mile EV range on one charge⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Lots of surveys show one of the primary barriers to EV adoption is range anxiety. I’ve seen people trying to “educate” potential customers out of this anxiety, but it’s pissing into the wind. You’re not going to convince most people to downgrade their current ICE experience while paying the same or usually even more. I think the inflection point is above real world range for ICE. For example my 2016 Honda Civic can get about 7-800km of range on a single tank, and stops are as quick as a few minutes. This provides a lot of flexibility about where and when one stops. The range needs to account for:

  • The 20-40 minute charge vs five minutes for gas.

  • The lack of chargers relative to gas stations.

  • The 30% drop in range in the cold.

  Our annual Austria ski trip takes about 30% longer in our Model Y than the Civic. That’s hours extra on an already very long drive, and the Y costs a lot more. That’s a big downgrade in experience. An appalling experience with a family. We won’t be buying another EV until affordable range is above 1,000km (620 miles). I know many current, former, and non-EV owners who feel the same.

  There is a market for commuter cars with poor range, but primarily in rich places where owning 2-3 cars is common. These rich places have already bought EVs as they are. Most of the world relies on just one car, if they own one at all. That one car needs to perform well in all conditions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tucker Carlson interview with Putin to test EU law regulating tech companies⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The fact you have 30 downvotes is horrifying. This community is nothing but a bunch of authoritarians who openly reject liberal ideals like free speech and democracy. They hate Putin so much because he reflects so many of their values.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The White House wants to 'cryptographically verify' videos of Joe Biden so viewers don't mistake them for AI deepfakes⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This doesn’t solve anything. The White House will only authenticate videos which make the President look good. Curated and carefully edited PR. Maybe the occasional press conference. The vast majority of content will not be authenticated. If anything this makes the problem worse, as it will give the President remit to claim videos which make them look bad are not authenticated and should therefore be distrusted.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boffins find AI models tend to escalate conflicts to all-out nuclear war⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There is a real crisis in academia. This author clearly set out to find something sensational about AI, then worked backwards from that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK state pension age will soon need to rise to 71, say experts⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  First, immigration is currently calibrated FAR in excess of any demographic gaps. The population is growing rapidly. If the premise were to plug demographic holes, we wouldn’t need nearly this many people.

  Second, if the premise were to alleviate demographic issues at the young end of the pyramid, then immigration policies would block any applications for those over 30, or at least heavily bias the young. They don’t.

  There is exactly one reason immigration has been calibrated so high, and with such little care for the skills and qualities of the applicants: to suppress wages and working conditions. It’s the same playbook all over the West.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google Search’s cache links are officially being retired⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Kagi does this. There’s a context option.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Commercials Are Streaming’s New Norm, and Creators Aren’t Happy: “It’s Almost Worse Than Broadcast”⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes! I pay for an ad free experience on YouTube but support tells me that ads for their own products don’t count. Fuckers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Commercials Are Streaming’s New Norm, and Creators Aren’t Happy: “It’s Almost Worse Than Broadcast”⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a fair criticism but I find the drawbacks to be quite tolerable compared to the benefits. Each person must do their own calculus. As the user above alluded to, there are apps which make the experience almost seamless. My two favourite apps ever are Radarr and Sonarr.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple refuses to relax its iron grip on iPhones in Europe⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think many of us anticipated Apple’s malicious compliance. Now we see if the EU really will hold them to account. I’m tentatively optimistic but I admit I’ll be very disappointed if Apple wins this. It will cement their position of power globally as untouchable, and that’s a terrible outcome for the whole world. I am very disappointed that the EU permitted Apple to declare iOS as distinct from all other mobile operating systems. They even permitted them to exclude iPadOS as a Core Platform Service. Just that decision alone now excludes all Apple TVs, iPads, the Vision, and Watch. I hope that decision is also revisited.