Curious_Canid

@Curious_Canid@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Russia's Crime Rate Hits 12-Year High, Official Data Shows⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Trump should send in the National Guard.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he’d do it again⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Late stage capitalism rewards management for any appearance of change. It really doesn’t matter whether the results of that change are good or bad. And even a CEO who keeps destroying companies can always find a similar position elsewhere. The feedback loop is hopelessly broken.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Popup Ads in Your Pickup Truck? RAM Trucks Now Feature Scammy Ads on the Center Display⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  AI is not universally bad. There are some things it does well. The problem is that there are a lot more things it does badly, often in harmful ways, and most people using it have no idea how to tell the difference.

  You seem to be using it the right way, with caution and awareness.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Transgender, nonbinary and disabled people more likely to view AI negatively, study shows⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Actual computer scientists should also be included with those groups.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have tried to charge my Samsung watch on all kinds of Qi devices. They don’t work. The newer Samsung phones can charge them, but only because they have a separate set of coils that support watches.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Welcome to the new world of risk: Microsoft cuts off services to energy company without notice⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The new model is SAAH (Software As A Hostage). You would think that overpaid CTOs and CEOS would be able to anticipate something as obvious as this. “The Cloud” just means “someone else’s server”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Tiny Radio Lets Me Send Texts Without Wi-Fi or Cell Service⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think any of the current Meshtastic radios can be used in the usual way via ethernet. Some support WiFi, but not the RAKs that I know about. That leaves USB and Bluetooth.

  There is a very neat option that allows you to set up to remotely administer a node via radio. That has saved me a lot of trouble with my repeater. You can’t do everything that way that you could with a direct connection, but you can do most of it.

  The repeater will automatically forward messages from your personal radio to anyone who is outside your direct range. You don’t have to do anything special to make that happen. Likewise, any node, including your repeater and your personal radio, will automatically forward encrypted messages without knowing what’s in them. Only the endpoints need to have the encryption keys. Anything in between just forwards the raw data.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Tiny Radio Lets Me Send Texts Without Wi-Fi or Cell Service⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m glad it was useful to you!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Tiny Radio Lets Me Send Texts Without Wi-Fi or Cell Service⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Easiest and least expensive are a little different, so I’ll talk briefly about both.

  The easiest is to go on Etsy and search for Meshtastic. You will find plenty of people who will build you a ready-to-go unit, both individual radios and solar-powered repeaters. (If you plan to put your repeater somewhere with power you can use any radio as a repeater, just put a good antenna on it.) Pre-built units start at around $60 and can go up into the hundreds, but $60 to $90 will get you a great personal radio.

  The least expensive is to order a kit from one of the many companies that sell them. If the kit does not come with a case, check Etsy for cases that match your kit. Most kits do not require soldering, you just have to plug in various cables and connectors, then fit everything into the case. Some actually come fully assembled. This approach generally costs somewhere between half and two-thirds of what a pre-built setup will run. Kits start as low as $10, although most or $20 to $40, and cases are mostly $20 to $35.

  One of the harder parts is to figure out which radio kit you want, but there are just two major types. Those built around the ESP32 processor tend to be a little less expensive and offer the option of WiFi, but they have a much shorter battery life. Those built around the nRF52 processor cost a little more, do not offer WiFi, but have nearly 10 times the battery life. WiFi is only used in a few specific cases, usually by repeaters and not personal units, so you may well not need it. Battery life is not usually an issue for personal radios, since nearly all of them will go for a full day between charges, but sometimes you may want more than that. Stand-alone repeaters that run off solar panels are almost all based on the nRF52 because of the battery life.

  The most common starter radios are based on the Heltec V3 kit, which is based on the ESP32. It has been around a long time, it is relatively inexpensive, and it can do pretty much everything. The only downside is battery life, which may or may not matter to you. Unless that’s a concern, you can’t go wrong with a V3. My personal favorite is the T114 kit, also from Heltec, which is based on the nRF52. It is much like the V3, but without WiFi and with much better battery life.

  I would wait until you’ve played with a personal radio before buying a repeater. Every Meshtastic radio acts as a repeater, so you don’t necessarily need a dedicated repeated. Find out how many nodes are in your area and what kind of coverage you get. If there aren’t many nodes, or distance is limited, you can consider a dedicated repeater.

  Basically, a repeater is just a node with a good location that’s put in a good location, up as high as possible. Because Meshtastic radios use very little power, it is practical to make completely self-sufficient solar repeater units that never require charging. You can put one of those on your roof, up in a tree, or on top of a nearby hill or mountain, without having to worry about regularly climbing back up there.

  I strongly recommend that you go to meshtastic.org and read through the Getting Started documentation. It provides a lot more detail (and less personal opinion). And check out the Meshtastic communities on Lemmy. Have fun!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Tiny Radio Lets Me Send Texts Without Wi-Fi or Cell Service⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My wife and I each have a radio, as do several of my friends. They’re handy for anything where you may not have cell coverage, like camping. We also use them at protests, to avoid the heavy surveillance that’s being done on cell networks. Even if the authorities start looking at Meshtastic, everything except the public channel uses PGP end-to-end encryption, and there is no middleman that has access to the unencrypted data.

  We have also put up a repeater node. It’s on top of a house at the top of the highest ridge near us. Before it went up we rarely saw more than our own nodes. Now we see several dozen, and sometimes a lot more. And the repeater serves the whole community, not just us. The beauty of a mesh is that everyone contributes to everyone else’s coverage.

  The mesh in our city is growing rapidly right now. Not only are there a lot of people getting their own nodes, there are a surprising number of people putting up repeaters to help spread the coverage. It’s amazing to watch our whole neighborhoods suddenly appear as gaps are filled in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Scientists Find 2 Existing Drugs Can Reverse Alzheimer's Brain Damage in Mice⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I, for one, welcome our new rodent overlords. Although I’m kind of hoping for dogs instead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I came here for this!

  And “No step on snek!” is still ours.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Silicon Valley AI Startups Are Embracing China’s Controversial ‘996’ Work Schedule⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Actually saying that they want slave labor is considered bad public relations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Exclusive: Evidence of cell phone surveillance detected at anti-ICE protest⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m getting a T-Deck, but I don’t feel too bad about using Bluetooth on a phone, as long as everything else is disabled. It isn’t hard to track, but it will be a distant third after cell and Wifi in terms of what the authorities will be tracking. Not ideal, but an acceptable compromise for now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Exclusive: Evidence of cell phone surveillance detected at anti-ICE protest⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  We got some Meshtastic radios that we use for protests (as well as for protests). They solve most of the problems quite neatly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Half of today’s jobs could vanish—Here’s how smart countries are future-proofing workers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  AI is already replacing significant parts of the technical workforce. The key is that it doesn’t have to successfully replace them. It just has to convince the sociopaths in the C-suites that they can pretend it will so they can layoff masses of employees. That will allow them to collect obscenely large bonuses, sell their stock at a huge profit, and move on to destroying the next round of businesses. Fortunately, the only people this will hurt are, well, us.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Socialism is the actual teaching of Jesus⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I also think the evidence that Jesus existed is compelling, but my point is that it doesn’t matter when you’re talking about the philosophy that is credited to him. Reading the Gospels makes it quite clear that a disturbingly large part of modern Christianity is in opposition to everything he stood for.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Teachers Are Not OK⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  AI is so far from being the main problem with our current US educational system that I’m not sure why we bother to talk about it. Until we can produce students who meet minimum standards for literacy and critical thinking, AI is a sideshow.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Socialism is the actual teaching of Jesus⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You are absolutely right. It isn’t complicated. A fundamental principle from the teachings of Jesus is that everyone should share their “wealth” (i.e. food, housing, medical care, etc.) with those in need. No one should ever be hungry, homeless, or sick without treatment. It follows naturally from the idea of loving everyone, without exception.

  I’m not going to argue the questions about whether Jesus was divine or even existed. I am simply talking about the philosophy that is presented as his by the Gospels. That is the core of Christianity, but it is ignored by a majority of those who call themselves Christians. The fact that it is difficult and calls for personal sacrifices is not an excuse. He never said that it would be easy.

  I accept that Christian principles can be viewed as aspirational goals and not an absolute code of conduct, but that is not what we see in the would-be Christians. They have no interest in working toward those goals.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Operation Narnia: Iran’s nuclear scientists reportedly killed simultaneously using special weapon⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That is a good point. I think you’re right that being raised in an entitled environment by a socipathic parent brings out the worst in people. It also selects for the worst child being the one who wins the fight to take over the business.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Operation Narnia: Iran’s nuclear scientists reportedly killed simultaneously using special weapon⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The ratio of poor to ultra wealthy is far greater than a million to one. Other than that, the only practical reason they have for not doing it is that they still need human labor for most of what they do. That isn’t going to change anytime soon, despite AI. However, they don’t need their labor force to be free or happy, which is why the US is on the cusp of a fascist takeover.

  The rule of law has largely stopped mattering to the ultra wealthy. It may occasionally inconvenience them, but they know it will never affect them in any personal way.

  Not all of the ultra wealthy are socipaths. Unfortunately, terminal-stage capitalism does a surprisingly good job of selecting for sociopathy at the very top of the hierarchy. Becoming that rich requires both a strong belief that you deserve it and a disregard for how acquiring it harms others.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship explodes on test stand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is actually a triumph for Musk. SpaceX has figured out how to blow up their rockets without all the cost and time required to prepare for a launch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The technology to end traffic deaths exists. Why aren’t we using it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  One of the many things I like about Subaru is that they seem to move useful features from optional to standard, once they’ve had a chance to prove themselves. I bought an Outback in 2016 and paid extra for the EyeSight safety system. Two years later that car was destroyed in an accident (I was T-boned and rolled over twice, without anyone being hurt). I bought another Outback to replace it, but by that time the EyeSight was a standard feature. Subaru now includes EyeSight on all their cars because it saves lives.

  They had done similar things with other safety features. Four-wheel disc brakes, anti-lock braking, and all-wheel drive became standard on Sabarus relatively early.

  It is also worth noting that the more intrusive EyeSight features, like lane assist, are easy to turn off. There’s a button on the steering wheel for that one. Even if you turn it off, the car will still warn you if you start to cross lanes without using your turn signals, but it will not adjust for you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Copilot Delusion⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It amazes me how often I see the argument that people react this way to all tech. To some extent that’s true, but it assumes that all tech turns out to be useful. History is littered with technologies that either didn’t work or didn’t turn out to serve any real purpose. This is why we’re all riding around in giant mono-wheel vehicles and Segways.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I have never met a woman named after her own mother⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My mother was named after her mother, although she used her middle name. My sister was named after her. We’re white midwesterners in the US.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why I don't use AI in 2025⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And a great many tools have a brief period of excitement before people realize they aren’t actually all that useful. (“The Segway will change the way everyone travels!”) There are aspects of limited AI that are quite useful. There are other aspects that are counter-productive at the current level of capability. Marketing hype is pushing anything with AI in the name, but it will all settle out eventually. When it does, a lot of people will have wasted a lot of time, and caused some real damage, by relying on the parts that are not yet practical.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3081: PhD Timeline⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That, and the fear that Trump will disappear them next.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3081: PhD Timeline⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s awesome to see people stepping up like this! Our current situation is NOT normal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘You Can’t Lick a Badger Twice’: Google Failures Highlight a Fundamental AI Flaw⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is both hysterical and terrifying. Congratulations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘An Overwhelmingly Negative And Demoralizing Force’: What It’s Like Working For A Company That’s Forcing AI On Its Developers.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  An LLM does not write code. It cobbles together bits and pieces of existing code. Some developers do that too, but the decent ones look at existing code to learn new principles and then apply them. An LLM can’t do that. If human developers have not already written code that solves your problem, an LLM cannot solve your problem.

  The difference between a weak developer and an LLM is that the LLM can plagiarize from a much larger code base and do it much more quickly.

  A lot of coding really is just rehashing existing solutions. LLMs could be useful for that, but a lot of what you get is going to contain errors. Worse yet, LLMs tend to “learn” how to cheat at their tasks. The code they generate often has lot of exception handling built in to hide the failures. That makes testing and debugging more difficult and time-consuming. And it gets really dangerous if you also rely on an LLM to generate your tests.

  The software industry has already evolved to favor speed over quality. LLM generated code may be the next logical step. That does not make it a good one. Buggy software in many areas, such as banking and finance, can destroy lies. Buggy software in medical applications can kill people. It would be good if we could avoid that.