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N_A_T_E

422 karma · joined January 7, 2018

https://www.natejacobs.net/
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N_A_T_E··on GPT-6 Astra has gained the ability to drive a car
I would assume this is a proxy for general intelligence. A model that can drive a car and do a bunch of other real world stuff is closer to a generalized intelligence that can reason through any task.
N_A_T_E··on There's a 100% Chance AI Agents Are Ruining the Internet
Is there any solution? Can sites, apis or interfaces require AI agents to identify themselves as non-humans?
N_A_T_E··on Apple caught off guard by AI demand for Mac Mini and Mac Studio
At this point it’s a well known secret that Apple has real rack mount servers for their internal processes. They actually have officially released video of their servers in the WSJ report on their chip supply chain.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/photos-of-apples-own-ne...

N_A_T_E··on Show HN: Web swing through midtown NYC
Very cool, great job! Would love to know the stack and how the building data was processed to create these models.
N_A_T_E··on Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades
It seems buffet has taken “the giving pledge” along with Bill Gates and others. “More than 99% of my wealth will go to philanthropy during my lifetime or at death.” - https://www.givingpledge.org/pledger/warren-buffett/
N_A_T_E··on Jim Boddie codeveloped the first successful DSP at Bell Labs
Sounds like an amazing guy. Bell labs had such engineering talent. I’m somewhat against breaking up Google (Alphabet) because it might be the the only company left with vaguely similar culture, capability and capital.
N_A_T_E··on Backlash to artificial dye grows as Kraft ditches coloring for Kool-Aid, Jell-O
I don’t think this is a science or safety issue, it’s an issue with bad ingredient labeling. They should name these numbered dyes something more understandable. “Red dye 4” sounds pretty sketchy when they could say “Cochineal extract for coloring”. People can reject the product because the ingredients include a bug derived coloring rather than fear of the unknown “red dye” invented by their imagined evil food scientists.
N_A_T_E··on Apple announces Foundation Models and Containerization frameworks, etc
> New Design with Liquid Glass Yes, bringing back aqua! I even see blue in their examples.
N_A_T_E··on Fast Allocations in Ruby 3.5
Ruby keeps on getting better. I wouldn't hesitate to start new projects in ruby.
N_A_T_E··on Ask HN: How to make Friendster great?
My off the cuff opinion, find a way to verify the people on the site are not bots and actually real. This is a hard problem with some expensive solutions, privacy implications, significant trade offs and real cost, however it may be worth trying to address. Imagine twitter (X) or facebook without the noise.
N_A_T_E··on Reproducibility project fails to validate dozens of biomedical studies
Is there any path forward to fixing the current reproducibility crisis in science? Individuals can do better, but that won't solve a problem at this scale. Could we make systemic changes to how papers are validated and approved for publication in major journals?
N_A_T_E··on Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life
Pretty sure this was a major plot point of the latest resident evil game.
N_A_T_E··on AMD's CPU sales are miles better than Intel
I’ve had trouble verifying that these chips still have reliability problems after the microcode updates. There seem to be a lot of anecdotes, but pc manufacturers are reporting normal rates of warranty return. It’s possible long term reliability is worse but it’s pretty easy to stress test a CPU.

Anyway, would love to hear if anyone has some decent quality data about these chips reliability.

N_A_T_E··on Life expectancy rise in rich countries slows down: took 30 years to prove
Is the US health system free market? The government provides healthcare via Medicare and Medicaid for seniors, the people for whom life expectancy and healthcare quality have the highest correlation.
N_A_T_E··on OpenAI DevDay 2024 live blog
I just need their API to be faster. 15-30 seconds per request using 4o-mini isn't good enough for responsive applications.
N_A_T_E··on Pivotal Tracker will shut down
I recall the mandatory pairing as quite popular among some devs during that era. I wonder if anyone is actually still working in that manner.
N_A_T_E··on Hezbollah hand-held radios detonate across Lebanon, sources say
It's terrorism if non-combatants are the target. These attacks targeted combatants who were being sent information to conduct combat through the very same devices that exploded.
N_A_T_E··on Device Tree Patches Posted for Review to Boot Linux on Apple A7 to A11 Devices
I read it as supporting the iphone X with the A11 chip, just not the gpio buttons.

"This series adds device trees for all A7-A11 SoC based iPhones, iPads, iPod touches and Apple TVs."

"The following is supported on A7-A10: - gpio-keys The buttons on A11 based devices like the iPhone X is a SMC subdevice, and cannot be supported in this way."

N_A_T_E··on Device Tree Patches Posted for Review to Boot Linux on Apple A7 to A11 Devices
Using my old iPhones as extra computers would be amazing. Imagine running plex off your iPhone X plugged in a closet somewhere.
N_A_T_E··on Rust for the small things? but what about Python?
Codebases tend to grow over time. I am not a fan of python for more complex projects. Some of the patterns I have seen lend to codebases that are hard to follow.
N_A_T_E··on Hawai'i-Issued Real IDs Can Be Added to Apple Wallet Beginning August 28
Aside from the data collection aspect, they seem to like adding features to their phone offerings so customers stay engaged and in Apple's case buy more products. In Google's case, it's all a big funnel to search.
N_A_T_E··on The guidance system and computer of the Minuteman III nuclear missile
Wow, so this thing needs to be pointed directly at the target 8,000 miles away and will miss the target by the amount of error in aim.

"To target a Minuteman I missile, the missile had to be physically rotated in the silo to be aligned with the target, an angle called the launch azimuth. This angle had to be extremely precise, since even a tiny angle error will be greatly magnified over the missile's journey. " ... "The guidance platform was completely redesigned for Minuteman II and III, eliminating the time-consuming alignment that Minuteman I required. The new platform had an alignment block with rotating mirrors. Instead of rotating the missile, the autocollimator remained fixed in the East position and the mirror (and thus the stable platform) was rotated to the desired launch azimuth. "

N_A_T_E··on How I got my laser eye injury
I worked in a laser lab for a few months early in my career. After the safety training I fear lasers getting near my eyes in situations most people don't care about. I even look away from barcode scanners at grocery stores. Sometimes I wonder about lidar being shot in all directions from those self-driving cars around SF.
N_A_T_E··on The Jiggle Is Up: Bosses Bust Workers Who Fake Computer Activity
[first paragraph]

It’s getting harder to outsmart the digital minders at work.

The rise of remote work and, in turn, employee-monitoring software sparked a boom in mouse and keyboard jigglers and other hacks to help staffers fake computer activity—often so they can step away to do laundry or a school pickup.

Now some companies are cracking down on the subterfuge, deploying tools that can better spot the phony busywork.

The latest salvo in this productivity-tracking arms race came in a recent regulatory filing from Wells Fargo. In the disclosure, first reported on by Bloomberg News, the bank said it had fired more than a dozen employees in its wealth and investment management unit for allegedly simulating keyboard activity to create the “impression of active work.” ...

N_A_T_E··on Open-Sora does pretty good video generation on consumer GPUs
Anybody else a bit scared for how this tech will impact people? It seems quite far reaching. Job loss from video production and film. Ease of spreading misinformation, lies and propaganda. I could even see less investment in physical infrastructure as real world experiences get replaced by generated video. Scary stuff.
N_A_T_E··on Act on Press
Institutional UI/UX departments always seem to overthink this stuff and get it wrong. I would love it if there was a rulebook we could reference so this sort of thing isn't always a battle.
N_A_T_E··on Tesla's Sales in Europe Fall to a 15-Month Low
I assume the tech is better in the tesla. Despite its issues, isn't autopilot better than the adas systems of similarly priced used/new cars?
N_A_T_E··on How Figma's databases team lived to tell the scale
It sounds like they actually did something like this. Their shard key selection could be customer, project, folder or something in their data model at a reasonably high logical level in their hierarchy.
N_A_T_E··on Microsoft Cuts 8% of Videogaming Staff
"Roughly 1,900 employees will be affected, said Phil Spencer, chief executive of Microsoft Gaming, in a company email Thursday reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The layoffs mostly represent Activision employees and constitute less than 1% of Microsoft’s total workforce, a spokesman said."
N_A_T_E··on 9th Circuit rejects TSA claim of impunity for checkpoint staff who rape traveler
Do we really still need such a giant TSA? What would it take to reduce the scanning burden per passenger? The existing process is basically "security theater" anyway.
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