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8jef

250 karma · joined March 12, 2012

viapax@gmail.com
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8jef··on Ask HN: Distributed data centers in our basements
That's a great idea. I see at least 2 difficulties emerging: first security, then servicing.

No private or public entity will grant access to valuable proprietary hardware, as unacceptable risks will not only come from building owners, but also from anyone entering premises.

Also, managing remote nodes evenly spreaded across all areas will be costly. Think of armies of techs on the road permanently, with access problem, dogs or pest barriers, and so on.

A way to solve this would be the allocation of a planned space per block everywhere, which would be safely secured - then available and accessible to all utility organizations: electric, isp, water, phone, data, etc. Heat, power, mini data centers, and such could serve all buildings on a block.

Then other problems emerges: having utilities plan and use these together. Would only work if all services belong to the same entity.

A way around, of course, would be for individuals to setup servers they would own, and rent to data brokers, like Holo project once planned for.

8jef··on Three-processor inference on AMD Ryzen AI 300
This is amazing work, and should develop in more ways to fully use these chips. I'll make sure to follow your lead on the matter, and find time to try it out.
8jef··on An Elizabethan mansion's secrets for staying warm
What you imagine is called a rocket stove mass heater, and it has other names too. Works wonderfully well.
8jef··on Scott Adams has died
Great thinking framework. And there are many roads leading to some very similar realizations. I guess it's all about what truly really works.
8jef··on Web Browsers have stopped blocking pop-ups
Please consider donating some of your disposable income to the Ladybird project, at ladybird dot org, while using one of mozilla's browser fork.

Complaining about ads appearing on adwares will only lead you so far.

8jef··on Why this may be the last "normal" year
Another daydream in Wonderland.

AI and robots are owned, not by users, but by owners, VCs, LLCs and corporations.

If anyone has paid attention, someone would have realized these owning entities aren't contributing anything to our general wellbeing anymore. It's the other way around. It has been for a very long time. It will stay that way, and worsen, until we revolt.

UBI will only happen when most users (say 90% of actual World population) are gone (as in permanently turned into dust). And yes, the clock is ticking.

8jef··on No Country Ever Got Rich from Tourism
While part of the arguments appear valid, comparison between tourism and oil fields is hot garbage, even for pro protectionist oil financed organizations.

Firstly, you need lots of oil so you can have tourism. No oil no tourism.

Second, yes, tourism is a fragile industry with low productivity. This is because tourism will mostly happen during times of peace, without pandemics. Then, most tourism services are personal, so yes, benefits aren't purely economic, they intersect with human values.

The truth is we are all moving toward a most walled and protectionist world economic system, where tourism tend to be associated with liberal values like immigration and free trade, and the U.S. is rethinking its ties with the outer multilateral world.

8jef··on Allergies seem nearly impossible to avoid – unless you're Amish
This is a gem. I'll quote you. Thanks.
8jef··on How the French Are Winning the Currency War One Croissant at a Time
Shit, I've just reacted to a LLM. Damned me.
8jef··on How the French Are Winning the Currency War One Croissant at a Time
What a load of crap, for nothing. US population 340M vs. France population 68M. You get an exactly 5 to 1 ratio. Revise your numbers according to this ratio, there you have it.

Not even looking at the numbers you throw out, I can tell you France wins, of course, for being #1 tourist spot of the whole world. Why? Partly because of Americans.

But worry do not! By the time current US administration ends up its charade, only emigration should concern you, not the prospect of tourism. And believe me, there are places far more welcoming to emigrate to than France!

8jef··on Why I don't discuss politics with friends
Tribalism really is the thing one has to individually overcome in order to gain some perspective, then maybe adhere to free thinking, before blooming as a free doer.

For me, it always was a voluntarily long and sinuous and silly and lonely path. It had to be.

An uncertain path as well, and one that was totally worth all the trouble it brought my way.

And as seducing as it is, the reality of crossing path with fellow free thinking/doing individuals always felt like falling for some other tribe.

Because in the end, that's what we do. While not following, we often become leaders of followers. How could it be otherwise is the only question left to answer.

8jef··on Archival Storage
I'll soon have a remote copy as well..
8jef··on Archival Storage
Yes I am, and planning for it.
8jef··on Archival Storage
My recipe for large files: 3 copies. Right now, 1st copy on external 8 to 16TB NTFS desktop hard drives, and 2nd copy on 14 to 16TB internal ext4 drives. Theses drives I power up only for copy purposes, once a month or so. At present time, my drives are 5 to 7 years old, and still good.

Main working copies I keep on 4 to 8TB NTFS SSDs (mix of sata and nvme), plugged into a PC I'm using regularly, but intermittently.

8jef··on TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday
Come on. It might just be comments from the next LLM at this point.
8jef··on Israel built an 'AI factory' for war. It unleashed it in Gaza
Indeed. As we also need to introduce personal responsibility in corporations at large. Corporations = people, but for now, they have a free pass at poisoning the living, killing whoever they need to in places devoided of the rule of law, manipulating politics at large. Heck, some corporations even benefit from in-house police powers and privatized legal systems (when permitted in some places). But that wouldn't be enough. We also need a reformed legal system where crimes are not considered the fault of someone, but more aptly, an evenly shared social failure. Because in fine, we are all responsible for the crimes we allow to be perpetrated. When someone rapes a woman, kills another, or do anything against anyone, we should always question society and ask: how come we the people let that happen? Crime is only an answer to social disengagement, never an isolated incident. Yes, put aside perpetrators until they realize what they've done. But never loose track of the fact that society is sick, and must be healed. Justice as we know it is nothing but an organized revenge system. It will never lead to sanity unless root causes are systematically examined.
8jef··on What happens if we remove 50 percent of Llama?
Even RX 7600 XT has 16GB
8jef··on Smart TVs are like "a digital Trojan Horse" in people's homes
Because governments are on it too, big time. It's not just about surveillance politics, or big businesses in some surveillance economy, or credit card purchase data leaked everywhere, or Echelon, or platforms spilling their (our) guts. It's about surveillance everything.

Because it's not an option if you're McKinsey, a data broker, a private security firm, or anyone contracting them. Data collection is an obligation, a requirement. They need to know about what's everyones up to, even if it's only through real time metadata.

Face recognition cameras everywhere, automatic photo radars, license plate readers at busy corners, everything going through apps in potentially always operating and recording pocket pcs we call smartphones, with potential trojans everywhere, in potentially everything. TV's are just one evocation of the disease, mainly directed at old folks, because nobody else cares about TVs and cable subscriptions anymore.

Anyone with just an once of understanding about how computer networking actually operates will actively put up all sorts of firewalls and air gaps around anything they own, because why not.

Anyone else, who shrugs at geek talk, is nothing but fair game, and will remain until someone suddenly pulls the rug from under them. Think massive actionable intelligence used against large parts of a population in a war, or a conscription, or a coup, or a full scale invasion, or whatever. Anything less will only be laughed at and dismissed.

You're offering a comprehensive law against that? That's not enough, far from it. Pass anything, I guaranty you the hydra will still be well and thriving anyway.

8jef··on U.S. Ambassador says Canadians are consuming 'unhealthy' amount of American news
Even dogs might think (dream) they are humans. Close encounters will do that.

https://mymodernmet.com/dogs-dream-about-humans/

8jef··on Jailbreaking RabbitOS
How is this different from average smartphone telemetry sent back to ... ?
8jef··on For advertising, Firefox now collects user data by default
Yes, that's why I've donated to the LadyBird project.
8jef··on For advertising, Firefox now collects user data by default
Please give to LadyBird project and be done with it.
8jef··on America Has an Answer to the Biggest Problem with EVs
Good grief, you're my hero! But seriously, that kind of talk could get you elected.
8jef··on America Has an Answer to the Biggest Problem with EVs
I do feel that.
8jef··on I Read Everything Elon Musk Posted for a Week
About the _expansionists vs extinctionists_ duality Musk is promoting, I'd say it all fall into a Yin and Yang kind of proposition, that answers come from equilibrium between opposite forces, rather than chosing one or the other.

About the fear of being awake (as in woke), it sure reveals just how some are mostly afraid of being afraid. I'll gladly take a trans woke AI I can reason with over anything else, because I can't stand the opposite, aggression, at intimate level (as I believe AI is a potentially very intimate tech): BWTB (better woke than bigot).

8jef··on Framework won't be just a laptop company anymore
How about a Framework inkjet printer? That would be nice.
8jef··on Secret report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are
You say I attributed problems to immigration? No, immigration policies (which includes foreign investment control), and immigration flow. Please, read again. All I'm saying is 2.5% annual adult population increase is unsustainable in the short term.

As for flawed economics policies, well, every country has its share. Some more than others. Immigration flow wouldn't be the same without them.

8jef··on Secret report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are
I wish you'd be right. Because Canada's population recently passed 40M, and both 2022 and 2023 have seen more than 1M new immigrants coming in each year. That's 2.5% of actual total population augmentation _per year_.

Try that say, in the US. One time 2.5% on 350M population bring 9M new immigrants. Real US number for 2022: 1M immigrants [0] - so same as Canada.

99% actual problems in Canada (housing prices and healthcare) are direct consequence to immigration policies and flow. As for tech job low pay, blame distance from valley bubble.

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2022/12/30/us-imm...

8jef··on Secret report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are
Explanation: the cited report was obtained under information access law. That's when someone (medias most time) ask for some government (internal) documents access. The legislator can decide to redact parts of it upon release, and for any reason (theath to national security is most often cited). Please understand this report was never to be made public, for the same reason FBI's briefs to POTUS don't get published.

Of course, seeing one getting all worked up upon reading about _censor_ or _censorship_ is understandable given the context was left out, mostly because the National Post audience is local, and the editing line is flirting with propaganda, as this particular piece's purpose was to deliberatebly stain actual government's image.

8jef··on Minimal Phone crowdfunding campaing is on
QWERTY keyboard and e-ink is nice. Android it is. Campaign owner says no bloatware, any preinstalled app can be removed, any apk can be flashed.

North American and International versions available.

MTK 6769; 4GB RAM; 128GB ROM; Android 13; 3.5” E-Ink Touch; 8MP + 16MP; WIFI; BT; GPS.

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