unmagical
@unmagical@lemmy.ml
- Comment on In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses 3 days ago:
On a “respond to an individual query” level, yeah it’s not that much. But prior to response the data center had to be constructed, the entire web had to be scraped, the models trained, the servers continually ran regardless of load. There’s also way too many “hidden” queries across the web in general from companies trying to summarize every email or product.
All of that adds to the energy costs. This equivocation is meant to make people feel less bad about the energy impact of using AI, when so much of the cost is in building AI.
Furthermore, that’s the median value–the one that falls right in the middle of the quantity of queries. There’s a limit to how much less energy a query to the left of the median can use; there’s a significantly higher runway to the right of the median for excess energy use. This also only accounted for text queries; images and video generation efforts are gonna use a lot more.
- Comment on In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses 3 days ago:
There are zero downsides when mentally associating an energy hog with “1 second of use time of the device that is routinely used for minutes at a time.”
- Comment on monthly challenge 5 days ago:
More than, 500 steps a day!? What do you think I am–active?
- Comment on YouTube just quietly blocked Adblock Plus — the internet hasn't noticed yet, but I've found a workaround 1 week ago:
- I ask a website for content.
- The website gives me content and a side of shit.
- I instruct my intelligent butler to discard the shit and only give me the content I requested.
- I get only the content I requested.
If a website wants to run ads that’s fine, I’ll just remove them. If they want to gate their content behind a paywall that’s fine, I’ll just make a determination about whether or not what they offer is worth it.
Removing ads is not “breaking a website” if anything it’s the exact opposite–restoring a cleaner layout, faster loading, less privacy invasion, and a reduced chance of malware.
- Comment on California May Ban Lyft And Uber From AI Price Gouging Users With Low Phone Batteries 2 weeks ago:
How is that AI related at all and not just an if statement and a couple statistical regressions to find an economically optimal battery percentage to price multiplier?
- Comment on This boomer couple would be hit with $700,000 tax bill if they sold their mansion 2 weeks ago:
Make $3,500,000 in profit and you get upset that you have to pay taxes on your 3.5x return on “investment.”
If you can’t cover <$1M in taxes from the sale of your $4.5M home maybe you should live within your means or get a roommate to help cover the bills like a normal person or something.
- Comment on Yeah 3 weeks ago:
Naw, text layers in a .xcf is where it’s at.
- Comment on Developer survey shows trust in AI coding tools is falling as usage rises 3 weeks ago:
I mean “ought to be useful,” sure that would be nice. They ain’t, but perhaps “ought to be.”
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
My family always told me that I’d grow more conservative and want a family of my own as I grow older.
As I aged I went from ambivalence toward politics and kids to decidedly anti-conservative and anti-kid.
You know your own feelings on the matter more than your family does, and letting your family dictate how you live your life will lead to resentment and misery.
- Comment on Pharmacies shouldn’t give pill bottles 3 weeks ago:
Relying on a small child to stay on the ground in order to not accidentally kill themselves is a great way to end up with a dead kid.
Furniture should be anchored to a wall, guns locked in safes with the safety enabled and ammo removed, drugs in child resistant packaging locked in a cabinet, drawers and cabinets secured, etc.
Kids climb stuff, get into things, find things they shouldn’t, AND they emulate what they see their parents do. Putting something out of reach is nowhere near secure enough.
- Comment on Pharmacies shouldn’t give pill bottles 3 weeks ago:
Guns should also be left in the open for children to play with since we’re on the topic of easy things we can change to threaten the life of those that may not know better yet!
- Comment on Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals 4 weeks ago:
WiFi uses a subset of the significantly wider microwave band. Ground Penetrating Radar also uses a subset of the microwave band. While there can be some overlap, the frequencies desired for GPR will very broadly based on what you are looking for, what you are looking in, and how deep you are looking for that thing. The wattage supplied can also differ.
WiFi and Microwaves in general are most definitely not the same thing and I will absolutely encourage you to not set up a 1kW 3GHz jamming antenna for your WiFi needs.
Could you use WiFi for search and rescue? Maybe for a narrow set of circumstances, but in almost all situations a dedicated GPR option will be better.
This also won’t identify a victim, only revealing that one exists.
- Comment on Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals 4 weeks ago:
Microwave based ground penetrating radar is actually different from WiFi. Also the technology referenced in the link is a motion based body locator, not an identity recognition device.
This is different technology doing different things than what the original article was talking about.
- Comment on Cloudflare gets involved in the battle against piracy, blocking streaming websites in the UK — and VPNs won't help 4 weeks ago:
VPNs will help. The article is only talking about VPN servers based in a location with a geo ban, which, duh. But if you actually use your VPN to be in a different country and not just a different city it’ll work fine.
- Comment on Echelon kills smart home gym equipment offline capabilities with update 4 weeks ago:
It’s no longer the product you bought, eh? Seems like everyone who owns one should be doing whatever they can to get their money back.
- Comment on Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals 4 weeks ago:
Why do you need to identify specific cats over merely the presence of movement or cats in general?
- Comment on Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals 4 weeks ago:
If all you need is presence detection then a motion sensor would be vastly more efficient.
If you actually need identity detection, then maybe, but you’ll still have to have a camera or detailed access logs to associate the interference signature with a known entity and at that point you may as well just put an RFID reader under the bowl you throw your keys into or use facial or gait detection.
- Comment on Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals 4 weeks ago:
Probably not.
This kind of thing relies on the fact that the emitter and environments are static, impacting the propagation of the signals in a predictable way and that each person, having a unique physique, consistently interferes with that propagation in the same way. It’s a tool that reports “the interference in this room looks like the same interference observed in these past cases.”
Search and rescue is a very dynamic environment, with no opportunity to establish a local baseline, and with a high likelihood that the physiological signal you are looking for has been altered (such as by broken or severed limbs).
There are some other WiFi sniffing technologies that might be more useful for S&R such as movement detection, but I’m not sure if that will work as well when the broadcaster is outside the environment (as the more rubble between the emitter and the target the weaker your signal from reflections against the rubble).
Don’t think of this as being able to see through walls like with a futuristic camera, think of this as AI assisted anomaly detection in signal processing (which is exactly what the researchers are doing).
- Comment on Humans can be tracked with unique 'fingerprint' based on how their bodies block Wi-Fi signals 4 weeks ago:
I’m generally pro research, but occasionally I come across a body of research and wish I could just shut down what they’re doing and rewind the clock to before that started.
There is no benefit of this for the common person. There is no end user need or product for being able to identify individuals based on their interactions with WiFi signals. The only people that benefit from this are large corporations and governments and that’s from them turning it on you.
Continued research will ease widespread surveillance and mass tracking. That’s not a good thing.
- Comment on What sort of grill needs a firmware update lol 1 month ago:
What are the chances they shipped it on Thanksgiving vs Thanksgiving being the first time in a while the user turned it on?
- Comment on Tabletop Club - A board game simulator 1 month ago:
I’ve used it to play Doomlings with some friends across the country. Pretty straightforward to set up custom cards and layouts. The UI is sparse, but has what you need.
As a virtual environment it’s unobtrusive and allows the actual game you’re trying to pay to be front of mind.
As a piece of interactive media there are some times that it lags or the physics is a bit clunky.
I’ve not used the proprietary competitors, so my comparison is just with playing the game in person. It’s free though so worth just trying it out.
- Comment on Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates 2 months ago:
The hazards also override your blinkers so I now have no idea when you are going to attempt lane change.
- Comment on Could You Prove You’re a US Citizen? 2 months ago:
And when ICE says your passport or birth certificate is fake and they confiscate it?
- Comment on If Christians were real, they’d be lining up to post for their sins (not trying to avoid judgement). 3 months ago:
Do you not believe that Christians exist?
- Comment on VPN firm says it didn’t know customers had lifetime subscriptions, cancels them 3 months ago:
To continue providing a secure and high-quality experience for all users, Lifetime Deal accounts have now been deactivated as of April 28th, 2025.
- Comment on don’t call me a damn bad person for saying my side of things. 3 months ago:
I’m not calling you a bad person for saying your side of things, I’m calling you a bad person cause you are one.
- Comment on You can now submit your claims for Apple’s $95 million Siri spying settlement 3 months ago:
So if someone else’s device spied on me they can get money, but I cannot? Wonderful.
- Comment on Chinese robots ran against humans in the world’s first humanoid half-marathon. They lost by a mile 4 months ago:
Thank goodness John Henry has taught us Americans that machines will never beat humans, so we obviously know how this will end. /s
- Comment on Do you use your blinker in a car? 4 months ago:
If you habitually use it on simple or clear turns or empty roads you will habitually use it when there are people around. That’s a good habit to have.
Lights on always and signal whenever you’re deviating from your current lane.
- Comment on Madison Square Garden’s surveillance system banned this fan over his T-shirt design. And he didn’t even wear it to the venue. 4 months ago:
These the same guy’s that let the Nazis have a rally?
But a shirt that says “Ban Dolan” is “offensive in nature” and makes “threats against an MSG executive?”