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_moof

4,606 karma · joined July 10, 2021

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_moof··on Can we have the day off?
So, are you getting your share of the surplus or not?

And what exactly does it mean to "compete"?

_moof··on Can we have the day off?
Whenever a new way is found to improve efficiency, choices have to be made about how to distribute the new surplus.

Choices are made by people who have power and imposed upon people who don't.

The people with power under current systems don't care about the people who do the work. They care about getting rich. So if there's an efficiency gain to be had, all of that new efficiency is going to be put towards increasing output or reallocating work. None of it - under current power structures - will ever go towards allowing workers to work less, because workers aren't the ones deciding where it will go.

_moof··on NTSB pulls docket after AI recreates dead pilots' voices
> it's public domain data.

Are you sure about that? Just because it's now in the custody of the NTSB doesn't mean it's public domain. The NTSB didn't create it.

_moof··on The Claude Delusion: Richard Dawkins believes his AI chatbot is conscious
Dawkins doesn't know what consciousness is. He doesn't know what it is because nobody knows what it is. We can't measure it. We can't even detect it, except in onesself. Any claim, by anyone, that someone or something other than themselves is conscious is based entirely on inference or faith.

I'm using the terms consciousness and conscious in the "hard problem" sense here.

_moof··on Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations
Aviation has stricter laws when it comes to customers. I don't have citations off the top of my head but it's not a normal customer-business relationship.

EDIT: 14 CFR Part 260.

_moof··on Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations
Which law? 14 CFR Part 260 requires air carriers to refund tickets on cancelled flights.
_moof··on Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations
You've just decided, all by yourself, that customers are "low priority people." Why?
_moof··on Spirit Airlines Is Winding Down All Operations
The customers are creditors.
_moof··on Drone pilot makes US rescind no-fly zones around unmarked, moving ICE vehicles
Drones are already regulated. You aren't allowed to fly higher than 400' AGL without ATC authorization, an altitude chosen because it has special significance in the National Airspace System. Nor are you allowed to fly in the vicinity of an airport without authorization.

This particular restriction we're talking about was completely unjustifiable. But the regs exist, and they aren't just made up nonsense. They're the result of systems engineering and a real risk management process.

_moof··on SFO Quiet Airport (2025)
Ha. Last time I went through DCA the ads were all "Here's why TikTok isn't evil!"
_moof··on Palantir employees are starting to wonder if they're the bad guys
The need for belonging is also really powerful, and companies actively try to fulfill that need. Not, generally speaking, for nefarious purposes, but because people do better work when they feel a sense of belonging.

If you decide that your work is against your values, you're also deciding to separate yourself from the group, even if you don't actually leave the company. That's painful. It's not an excuse, but it is a powerful motivator.

_moof··on It's OK to compare floating-points for equality
Something I've observed as someone who works in the physical sciences and used to work as a software engineer is:

Very few software engineers understand that tolerances are fundamental.

In the physical sciences, strict equality - of actual quantities, not variables in equations - is almost never a thing. Even though an equation might show that two theoretical quantities are exactly equal, the practical fact is that every quantity begins life as a measurement, and measurements have inherent uncertainty.

Even in design work, nothing is exact. It's simply not possible. A resistor's value is subject to manufacturing tolerances, will vary with temperature, and can drift as it ages. A mechanical part will also have manufacturing tolerance, and changes size and shape with temperature, applied forces, and wear. So even if a spec sheet states an exact number, the heading or notes will tell you that this is a nominal value under specific conditions. (Those conditions are also impossible to achieve and maintain exactly for all the same reasons.)

Even the voltages that represent 0 and 1 inside a computer aren't exact. Digital parts like CPUs, GPUs, RAM, etc. specify low and high thresholds, under or over which a voltage is considered a 0 or 1.

Floating-point numbers have uses outside the physical sciences, so there's no one-size-fits-all approach to using them correctly. But if you are writing code that deals with physical quantities, making equality comparisons is almost always going to be wrong even if floating-point numbers had infinite precision and no rounding error. Physical quantities simply can't be used that way.

_moof··on Adobe Has Run Out of Allies
I hope Adobe dies and becomes a warning to others - sorry, a "case study" - that is taken seriously. I adored Photoshop, starting with version 3, and watched in horror as Adobe stripped itself for parts. The damage is done, but hopefully we can still get some good out of this if it makes other companies realize that abandoning your users is a death sentence.
_moof··on Europe has "maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left"
Airlines and aircraft manufacturers are already heavily incentivized to be fuel efficient. It's the most expensive part of a flight. (Sometimes crew salaries are more expensive but not by much.)
_moof··on Europe has "maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left"
Because rationing isn't step one. Putting out a warning that rationing will be necessary if things don't change is step one.

Rationing causes serious problems. A warning in advance gives people and powers time to turn things around before rationing becomes necessary.

_moof··on There's yet another study about how bad AI is for our brains
Interesting. Seems analogous to the atrophy of navigation abilities caused by over-reliance on GPS. I wonder if there's a common underlying mechanism.
_moof··on I wrote to Flock's privacy contact to opt out of their domestic spying program
The information being collected isn't your license plate, it's your location. (Still might not be personal information.)
_moof··on I wrote to Flock's privacy contact to opt out of their domestic spying program
They seem to be implying that because they are a "service provider," they aren't responsible for complying with CCPA rules even though they are the ones with the data.

Does this hold water? I'm reading the CCPA rules now but if anyone knows, it would save me some tedious research.

_moof··on In Denmark, the spread of solar panels has become a divisive issue
I don't understand why energy production must be profitable.
_moof··on Bring Back Idiomatic Design (2023)
Yes, the Cmd key has been around since 1984.
_moof··on Bring Back Idiomatic Design (2023)
The Mac desktop era before its iOS-ification was, in fact, awesome. It was a triumph of consistency. The UI guidelines were excellent. Nearly every application worked in predictable ways. I appreciated it at the time and I miss it terribly.
_moof··on Bring Back Idiomatic Design (2023)
You're wrong. There's a body of literature on this. I encourage you to review it.
_moof··on Bring Back Idiomatic Design (2023)
There's tons of research on this. Use words.
_moof··on Bring Back Idiomatic Design (2023)
Honestly, if we could even get that level of thought, it would be an improvement.
_moof··on Artemis II safely splashes down
The short bursts are just the period of the control cycles. Control cycle starts, loop sees error, commands thrust; next control cycle starts, loop sees error is nulled (or in deadband), commands no thrust.
_moof··on Artemis II safely splashes down
It was for attitude adjustment.
_moof··on Artemis II safely splashes down
You're a VC arguing with an aerospace engineer about aerospace engineering.

I'm also a pilot (CFI). My day job is space operations. And I can tell you've had too many hangar arguments about how wings work.

Pilots don't understand lift. Aero engineers understand it just fine.

_moof··on Artemis II safely splashes down
The first-order approximations are easy. When you start adding up all the other factors, it gets complicated fast. The solar wind, which isn't constant, affects trajectories. Earth's atmosphere is neither homogenous nor perfectly predictable along many dimensions: upper-level wind speeds and directions, air density, and temperatures, to name a few. The Moon's gravitational field is very lumpy. Earth's gravitational field, while relatively smooth compared to the Moon, also isn't perfectly uniform. Propulsion systems have tolerances. Same with parachutes. The location of the vehicle's center of gravity affects everything.

All of these factors and more have to be taken into account if you want your predictions to be accurate. Aside from telemetry processing, most of the computing power on the ground during a space mission is used for churning out navigation solutions.

_moof··on Artemis II safely splashes down
Yes, Challenger - although program management knew they were violating a launch constraint (temperature), and it was the low temperature that produced the conditions necessary for SRB failure.

As with any aerospace mishap, it's a chain of events, not just one cause.

_moof··on Artemis II safely splashes down
Helicopter -> large boat is much easier, and much faster, than small boat -> large boat. And it's not riskier. I know the inherent risk in flight is greater, but it's also much more managed, so the actual risk is less.
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