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Ataraxic

352 karma · joined August 11, 2016

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Ataraxic··on We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility
> What difference does it make to me what someone does with a book after they buy it?

I think this is a bit of a myopic take. It's like saying it's my property I can do what I want, yet there exists designated historic homes or neighborhoods that are deemed to have cultural value where modifications do in fact need to be approved.

I'm with you on the "rare" part. If people are thinking about 70+ year old documents or ancient manuscripts, I doubt that's what AI is being trained on and is being destroyed, but it's reasonable that people find _that_ idea distasteful.

You can say it's manufactured but if these companies ignore this criticism, it's just another way AI companies are committed to losing the public.

Ataraxic··on Anthropic employees accuse Trump administration of targeting them
The amount of self owning that is happening to AI companies is crazy.

I don't understand why their marketing department/execs can't see the conflict between claiming AI is going to take all jobs, that the model is super dangerous and AI hate among the general public, increased governmental oversight.

Anthropic is guilty of the latter but the former applies to most of these AI companies.

Ataraxic··on Economics of Orbital vs. Terrestrial Data Centers
Scott Manley had a video about this last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-YcVLq98Ew

The short of it is that cooling is likely the biggest problem, given you will need to pump the heat to the backside and radiate it away, and the amount of mass you will need to dedicate to cooling works against deployments and increases the cost per unit significantly. Not to mention, the idea of these huge deployments runs into potential space debris issues.

Whenever one of these ventures actually manages to launch a proof of concept, I think we'll be able to quickly discern if there is actually a near-future here.

Ataraxic··on Response to "Ruby Is Not a Serious Programming Language"
I love ruby. It's certainly not sentimental; I enjoy writing it and working in it, certainly a lot more than javascript.

I do feel like these sorts of attacks on ruby are quite weird. It's totally ok not to enjoy working in any particular programming language, but I wonder what the angle is to write about it is.

Arguments regarding ruby's successes are always so weird to me. Github, Twitter, Coinbase, and Shopify are all examples of great success. Challenges with scaling are successful problems.

It's a great tool and if you read this, consider and evaluate if ruby is appropriate for your next project. :)

Ataraxic··on Chess grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky has died
Super out of the blue. I loved his videos and he taught me a lot after I got into chess during covid.

rest in peace.

Ataraxic··on Anthropic tightens usage limits for Claude Code without telling users
I need to see a video of what people are doing to hit the max limits regularly.

I find sonnet really useful for coding but I never even hit basic limits. at $20/mo. Writing specs, coming up with documentation, doing wrote tasks for which many examples exist in the database. Iterate on particular services etc.

Are these max users having it write the whole codebase w/ rewrites? Isn't it often just faster to fix small things I find incorrect than type up why I think it's wrong in English and have it do a whole big round trip?

Ataraxic··on I read all of Cloudflare's Claude-generated commits
Junior devs using AI can get a lot better at using AI and learn those existing patterns it generates, but I notice, for myself, that if I let AI write a lot of the code I remember and thereby understand it later on less well. This applies in school and when trying to learn new things but the act of writing down the solution and working out the details yourself trains our own brain. I'd say that this has been a practice for over a thousand years and I'm skeptical that this will make junior devs grow their own skills faster.

I think asking questions to the AI for your own understanding totally makes sense, but there is a benefit when you actually create the code versus asking the AI to do it.

Ataraxic··on One thing Tesla and Comma.ai overlooked in self-driving
From the recent tesla acme test, where the tesla runs into a wall containing a picture of a road, they also tested rain and water blocking two mannequins. The lidar equipped vehicle managed to stop before hitting the mannequins while tesla's autopilot did not. The distance before automatic braking triggered was reduced iirc.

Sure lidar is degraded by rain, but I think the conclusion that when it rains the whole system will degrade to just cameras seems incorrect. It may reduce its effective range but it seems likely to still have some advantage in a wide range of conditions.

Ataraxic··on When Abandoned Mines Collapse
Thanks so much for sharing. Enthralling.
Ataraxic··on Native frame transposition coming to Emacs 31
If you need to manage multiple windows in emacs I find ace-window perfect.

Pops up a number in the top left of the window and you hit it to jump to it. If only two, C-o works as before.

https://github.com/abo-abo/ace-window

I have never used more than like 5 windows and only for a short time. I guess it doesn't work past 10 but that's gotta be enough for anyone...

Ataraxic··on Polypane, The browser for ambitious web developers
The question is that it seems to emulate many things, but what doesn't it emulate well?

It looks like it's built off chromium, so I'm assuming it wouldn't be able to show an issue that only appears in safari or maybe Mozilla?

Perhaps this is in the docs.

edit: It's in the FAQ at the bottom. Still, beyond the actual browser engine, are there other known limitations?

Ataraxic··on Polypane, The browser for ambitious web developers
I don't feel that you have a measured take on what is basically browser tooling. It's a customized browser built around web development. Is that _so_ insane?

Imagine someone came out with a browser that synced and allowed you to view/test your app in the days of ie6/7/8/9 across all those browsers. Would charging money per month for that be so weird?

This isn't for anyone to use as their normal browser.

Ataraxic··on Bigscreen Beyond 2
It's 75hz and 90hz at a reduced resolution I believe.
Ataraxic··on The Frontend Treadmill
I'm afraid you've thought more about react-router than the maintainers about the people using it.

I feel like the tradeoff has historically been between smaller, more composable libraries with more breaking changes and larger, more feature-filled libraries that move more slowly and care about their users.

react-router is the epitome of choosing the worst of both worlds with a healthy dose of disdain for their users.

Ataraxic··on MacBook Air M4
It's one of those things where once you have used it, you will notice it. Given most iOS users aren't swapping between pro and non pro models, it's not something you think about.
Ataraxic··on Garmin's –$40B Pivot
I'm really glad Garmin exists and makes smartwatches. The broad approach they have to market segments has created really great products that serve markets other large tech manufacturers haven't really touched. I'm sure the Apple watch is a good product but I'm uninterested in a general notification device (what I take to be the function of a smartwatch). I've used my farming for hiking, paragliding, tracking sleep, connecting to my bike trainer, etc. It tracks all my activities and is my dedicated device for anything athletic. The athletic features, good battery life, and sleep tracking have made it so that I actually wear a watch all the time. Spent $700 4 years ago and it was totally worth it. Perhaps the only caveat for Garmin is that I don't need to upgrade. It does everything I want it to without issue.
Ataraxic··on AnandTech Farewell
Just wanted to say that I remember joining the Anandtech forums in middle school in the early 2000's and was quite active for a number of years.

Reading articles and discussions there was my first experience getting into tech and helped my build my first computer.

I hope the editor and writers of Anandtech know the impact they had!

Ataraxic··on There is no fix for Intel's crashing 13th/14th Gen CPUs – damage is permanent
For certain chips like the 13900HX (mobile) vs 13900K, I believe they are the exact same chip. The difference is the mobile version is binned for power usage so that it can run on a laptop.

To the extent that this degradation is wholly voltage/power related, laptop chips are much less likely to degrade. They are selected to run at lower voltages and power AND their peak boost frequency is lower.

To the extent that this degradation is caused by poor design, the laptop chips that are binned versions of their desktop chips are vulnerable to the same sorts of issues.

edit: I am familiar with the 13900HX because that's what I have in my laptop and I have been trying to follow along in case I need to RMA my laptop or do some microcode update for it.

Ataraxic··on An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus
I don't understand it that way.

My understanding of the underlying cause of tinnitus iirc, is that it's caused by damage to hair cells in your inner ear. Our brains interpret this damage and loss of signal as a signal; thus, we hear a high-pitched tone even when it is silent.

Training your brain to ignore this seems like treating the underlying cause, which is a misinterpretation of auditory signals or the lack thereof.

I have tinnitus but most times I don't notice it. Go to a loud venue for a while and even with earplugs it noticeably comes back for up to a week or two.

Ataraxic··on An open source initiative to share and compare heat pump performance data
It doesn't have to be all heat pump. You can have a backup gas heat for the coldest days, or even resistive heat. I'd bet there are heat pumps that integrate those technologies to ensure a nice experience.
Ataraxic··on 4B If Statements
View their obstinance: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm/issues/794

8 years later and despite much support for the `.node-version` file.

Someone else started using the .node-version file years ago, and because all open source packages won't form a committee to standardize this file, nvm will not support it.

They have a lot of hills. JS Private Properties was another.

Ataraxic··on Police raid Worldcoin warehouse in Nairobi
> The ideal UBI system would let you threaten to overthrow your government...

Crypto Anarchism is not attractive the vast majority of people.

I'll argue the UBI people want involves their government sending them a check, direct deposit, or cash.

Ataraxic··on Police raid Worldcoin warehouse in Nairobi
I'm actually significantly more skeptical of OpenAI after discovering that one of their founders is behind this.

The tag line of universal basic income is so absurd for an iris scanner built on the blockchain.

Are we still in the world of 0% interest rates???

Ataraxic··on Fast machines, slow machines
I kinda disagree with this. I have definitely noticed that my cursor can be slow to respond when some linting/formatting (I can't quite tell what is causing it, I just notice it) is going on. Totally usable, but I'm also coming from emacs and it's not like emacs is known to be blazing fast so I actually think my experience is sort of inline with the article's point.

Despite or because of emacs being older, it's more responsive than vscode in my usage.

Ataraxic··on Debris found came from missing Titan sub, says friend of passengers
Sound does travel extremely well in water.

http://resource.npl.co.uk/acoustics/techguides/seaabsorption... -- here is a quick calculator for sound loss by distance. I think actual geography is important too but from understanding whether or not it's hypothetically possible, it certainly looks like it.

For example, at the default inputs we see .061 db/km absorption. This is at 1khz. Higher frequencies attenuated more and lower frequencies less.

I have no idea what frequencies an implosion generates, but given that, a sound at 120db might still be 60db 1000km later. Certainly seems possible and in fact given what we have seen from the US Navy (detecting imploding soviet subs in the middle of the pacific ocean) it seems totally possible to me that this small sub could be detected if microphones were places in quiet spots offshore of the continental US and Canada.

I think we don't have enough information to rule out that this was detectable.

Ataraxic··on Reddit’s blackout protest is set to continue indefinitely
Reddit is different because it has been different. Not everything needs to conform prior social media models.

I think the cause is totally fine. I think framing it as some social justice cause is incorrect though. People really liked a thing and now reddit is taking it away in the name of money. The most downvoted post of all time on reddit is an EA post responding to monetization concerns in a star wars game. Seems right in line to me.

Ataraxic··on Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’
Anyone can make a subreddit if it's not been taken but you're right in that the real impact is by # of users affected.

I think if what I read is true that ~ 1/2 of the top subreddits went dark that is a big outage. FWIW my reddit is not really usable except for 1 sub that I read.

Ataraxic··on Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’
Reopening is one thing but moderating an internet forum for no pay is not universally appealing.

Losing the most motivated mods may be a big loss, or extremely active users who post and/or make content. Hard to know right now but I think we'll get an early glimpse when some reopen.

Ataraxic··on Reddit CEO tells employees that subreddit blackout ‘will pass’
Framing this as a battle between the mods and reddit admins isn't correct. Many of the subs I subscribe to have asked for user engagement on whether or not to join the blackout and they're following what their participants requested.

After all, the most vocal are by the users of the 3P apps and they vastly outnumber the mods.

Ataraxic··on Windows Market Share Drops to 57% in the US
I could consider moving to a windows laptop if the quality/performance of their laptops was anywhere close to apple.

I don't even use an iphone or have any other apple products but the hardware is just _that_ good! The M1 totally changed how I could use my laptop and windows has to at least match it's efficiency, not to mention that the unibody chassis of macs is extremely durable and I no concerns traveling with it without using a case or sleeve of any kind.

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