fubarx
@fubarx@lemmy.world
- Comment on NYPD robocops: Hulking, 400-lb robots will start patrolling New York City 5 days ago:
It’s been a while, but for the price, it had an under-powered processor and anything other than just walking around had to be custom programmed. It got used for a few trade shows, where people watched it walk around, sit down, etc. Robotic grappling arm? There were more stable, wheeled platforms where you could actually place items and autonomously have it delivered.
Main use-cases were as an overpriced security guard, or a webcam with legs, but the operations costs were pretty high. It couldn’t really get around hilly, dirt or muddy terrain, so you had to stick to paved routes. There were attachment peripherals, but for every single use-case, there were better, cheaper, more flexible equivalent solutions.
The most impressive thing was the coordinated movement of the legs, pretty solid build, and the sound of the servos. But that meant you couldn’t use it for stealth scenarios. Oh yeah, it looked pretty menacing and scared children.
We figured if it was ever put out into real service, it would get jacked by a few yokels with a pickup truck, or smashed up by highschoolers on a dare. Eventually the novelty wore off, and it got retired to a demo area for visiting customers.
- Comment on NYPD robocops: Hulking, 400-lb robots will start patrolling New York City 5 days ago:
In a past job, I got a chance to deal with one of those Boston Dynamics robot dogs in action. Was not impressed.
Given NYC, would not be surprised if they’re tagged, sensors are torched, or they’re covered in bodily fluids. Or they end up at the bottom of the Hudson river shortly after deployment.
Come to think of it… most likely scenario: scrapped and sold for parts.
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@lemmy.world | 1 comment
- 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:
A couple years ago, I would have agreed. Most of our email is junk. But nowadays, you can have an LLM digest and summarize it for you. That could also be a service the legacy system offers. Grandkids can just ask for a free-form search term without having to wade through everything.
- 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:
A long time ago, I had the idea for a startup to keep digital material, including accounts, passwords, old documents, etc. ina digital vault that would be released to the next-of-kin when someone dies. It would also convert documents to newer formats so your old unpublished WordPerfect novel could be opened and read by the grandkids (should they choose).
Problem is, nobody would (or should) trust a startup with that material. This is stuff that should be around for many decades and most startups go out of business.
- Comment on Hawaiian volcanic rocks reveal Earth's core contains vast hidden gold reserves 1 week ago:
Gold Rush 2 – The Volcanic Boogaloo.
- Comment on U.S. reports cases of new COVID variant NB.1.8.1 behind surge in China 1 week ago:
“If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any.”
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
[ Resume in Comic Sans ]
- Objective is to try what I love.
- Responsibilities included making references available on request.
- Comment on Cheers lads an lassies 2 weeks ago:
Anthony Daniels cosplaying every Halloween.
- Comment on YSK that in 16 States in the USA has banned Ranked-Choice voting, including 5 that has just banned it in 2025, and 6 of those bans happened in 2024. 2 weeks ago:
My bad. Corrected.
- Comment on YSK that in 16 States in the USA has banned Ranked-Choice voting, including 5 that has just banned it in 2025, and 6 of those bans happened in 2024. 2 weeks ago:
Alaska passed it. The election results didn’t go as expected. Everyone in one party (guess) freaked out and started passing bans nationwide.
They tried to repeal RCV in Alaska too, but it failed by a slim count even after 100:1 repeal money advantage. They’ll probably try again: alaskapublic.org/…/alaskas-ranked-choice-repeal-m…
- Comment on Stack overflow is almost dead 2 weeks ago:
Same question applies to all the other websites out there being mined to train LLMs. Google search Overviews removes the need for people to visit linked sites. Traffic plummets. Ads dry up, and the sites go out of business. No new content to train on 🤷🏻♂️
- Comment on Best tool for creating a basic business website 2 weeks ago:
You’re overpaying 😁
Cloudflare static web hosting, including TLS/SSL, DDOS protection, WAF, and AI scraper protection, are all free: softwareonbudget.com/…/how-to-host-static-website…
And if you connect it to github repo, it auto-updates on push to main.
No connection. Just a happy user and a fan.
- Comment on Logwatch 2 weeks ago:
Saw a posting this past week on SSD drive failures. They’re blaming a lot of it on ‘over-logging’ – too much writing trivial, unnecessary data to logs. I imagine it gets worse when realtime data like OpenTelemetry get involved.
Until I saw that, never thought there was such a thing as ‘too much logging.’ Wonder if there are any ways around it, other than putting logs on spinny disks.
- Comment on xAI Dev Leaks API Key for Private SpaceX, Tesla LLMs – Krebs on Security 3 weeks ago:
Dammit! Wish there was a way to avoid inadvertently leaking github secrets.
Oh, wait: github.com/security/…/secret-protection
- Comment on Volvo EX90’s Lidar Sensor Will Fry Your Phone’s Camera 3 weeks ago:
L.I.D.A.R.: Laser iPhone Death & Android Ruin
- Comment on Best tool for creating a basic business website 3 weeks ago:
Have used Jekyll, Hugo, and Docusaurus to generate static sites, and Wordpress and Ghost for blogs.
A few things to think about:
- Where do you plan to host and how much is the monthly budget?
- How much traffic do you expect to get?
- Will the content be static or updated often (i.e. landing page site vs. blog).
- Will more than one person be updating the site?
- How technical is the person/people updating the site? Are they OK with using terminal and command-lines, or GUI and point and click.
- Will there be ‘member-only’ features, i.e. things that require users creating an account and logging in?
- Will you need to offer a way for people to get in touch? Like, contact pages, email, etc.
- Will there be a need for public to post and answer questions (i.e. a forum).
- Will you need future support for things like newsletters, shopping carts, etc.
If one-person, technical, static, I’d go with Jekyll and Github pages, or Jekyll/Hugo/Docusaurus on Cloudflare pages. They all have templates. But you need to know how to setup github repos and tools. Cost is $0 to operate, other than annual fee for custom DNS domain name.
If more than one person, non-technical, or dynamic, then hosted Wordpress or Ghost. Budget for DNS name and ~20-50 dollars or euros/month (plus or minus, depending on features and traffic). There are free versions of these, but they slap ads all over them.
You can self-host all these, but it’s much easier to have someone else deal with traffic spikes.
If you need community forums or a way for users to communicate with each other, then none of the above.
- Comment on Cloudflare CEO warns AI and zero-click internet are killing the web's business model 3 weeks ago:
Google is in an interesting predicament. Their ad service brings in so much revenue, but it’s based on search sending traffic to places where those ads are consumed.
Boost search through Overviews and you’re limiting the effectiveness and reach of your ad service. And to top it off, your search needs content to ingest and remain relevant. But if the ad revenue drops off to websites, they go out of business, so search has less stuff to ingest.
It’s like a reverse flywheel, where each part is working to harm the other part. People have been pointing this out for the last couple of years, but Google search just keeps adding more to Overviews and choking off the flow.
And before you say “good, I hate ads,” most of the internet today and its services are paid by ad revenue changing hands. That includes ISPs that host the Fediverse, networking and storage gear makers, pretty much everything to do with open source, and so many jobs that exist to keep the whole thing humming so we can enjoy cat memes.
If Google (or someone like Cloudflare) doesn’t figure out a way to keep the money flowing, we may be watching a sea shift in how the internet has worked in the last 30 years.
- Comment on Second US Navy jet is lost at sea from Truman aircraft carrier 4 weeks ago:
- Comment on “No Apple tax means we will lower prices” - Proton announces lower prices for users by up to 30% after US ruling against Apple fees 4 weeks ago:
It’s not exactly 30%. For sales below $1M, it’s 15%: developer.apple.com/…/small-business-program/
In Europe, where this was established last year, they started charging a Core Technology Fee to cover the cost of hosting and data transfer: developer.apple.com/support/core-technology-fee/
And if you switch payment providers, you have to pay at least 2.5% plus transaction and any intermediary fees.
It’s nice that Proton is offering a discount, but for everyone else there may be additional ongoing costs.
- Comment on Wyze gets $255K tariff bill for $167K worth of floodlights 4 weeks ago:
Wyze devices are known for being lower cost than most other IoT/home security devices, but have a name brand, and decent app/assistant support. They’re way above no-name low-end ones, but cheaper than brands like Arlo, Ring, or Nest.
Having low manufacturing costs is how they pull it off. If they get forced to add tariffs to their cost, their only hope is if everyone else ends up increasing their prices, otherwise their big advantage goes away. It’s too bad. They make pretty decent gear.
- Comment on Kali Linux warns of update failures after losing repo signing key 4 weeks ago:
Um. How do you lose a repo signing key? And for Kali, of all distributions. 🤦🏻♂️
- Comment on iOS and Android juice jacking defenses have been trivial to bypass for years 4 weeks ago:
If you plug in to charge your phone somewhere, and it asks you to ‘trust’ this device, just say NO.
Even worse: counterespionage.com/malicious-usb-cables/
If you want to try it yourself: counterespionage.com/malicious-usb-cables/
- Comment on Report finds more than a third of CA households are struggling to make ends meet 4 weeks ago:
Want to totally skew the stats? Pan north.
Oof.
- Comment on What is this for? (Wrong answers only) 5 weeks ago:
Taco forming mold.
- Comment on When you count, your lips don't touch until 1 million. 5 weeks ago:
Four, five, …
- Comment on You can only use one for the rest of your life, which you choosing? 5 weeks ago:
All bow before the mighty impact driver.
- Comment on Counting our debt 5 weeks ago:
Alternative way of counting it: findingmoneyfilm.com
- Comment on Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell 'hyper personalized' ads 5 weeks ago:
To be fair, they’re targeting people who WANT to be tracked, in return for personalized ads. If that’s not you (or me), just ignore their entire platform.
Bold move. Let’s see how it pans out.
- Comment on China's latest flying car prototype showcases a breakthrough in urban air mobility, offering a glimpse into how low-altitude flight could soon integrate with everyday transport. 1 month ago:
The ground level weedwhacker blades could do double-duty clearing out brush (and pesky pedestrians).
