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aardvarkr

1,807 karma · joined September 21, 2020

Physicist, computer & electronics enthusiast, musician. Gadgeteer.

Passionate about understanding how things work, and making things work. Hoping to learn about tools and techniques that will make my work more productive / fun.

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aardvarkr··on $100 AI Music Video: Claude Fable 5 vs. GPT-5.6 Sol
Released October 2022? That’s a very human piece of art even if the images may have been generated by an algorithm
aardvarkr··on A better way to tie gym shorts (or any drawstring) [video]
Amazing, I love learning about knots! Is there a better shoelace knot? Not faster, but better
aardvarkr··on As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
Prove it
aardvarkr··on As downtown Seattle offices empty, city facing years of 'zombie' towers
Residential real estate appraisals are done by under employed real estate agents. They’ll always find a way to justify the number that you paid, like during Covid when I bid $200k over asking for a $1M house, the appraiser didn’t bat an eye and got to that number. That was totally based on vibes.
aardvarkr··on European digital ID wallets rely on safety services of Google and Apple
Is any of that capable of replacing google and apple on mobile?
aardvarkr··on Ornith-1.0: self-improving open-source models for agentic coding
They both feed off of hype. The people posting about crypto are not the same people gpu mining crypto so I wouldn’t chalk it up to the same hardware
aardvarkr··on Pinocchio is weirder than you remembered
If stranger things ended with everyone dead and no happy ending then sure but no, everything is fair and the heroes always win. Horror has always been mainstream fyi, it’s not a recent invention
aardvarkr··on Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price
Sounds like you just want a car from the year 2000.
aardvarkr··on Judge blocks Pentagon effort to 'punish' Anthropic with supply chain risk label
That’s fine. They can choose to use whatever model their political hearts desire. the supply chain risk designation means EVERYONE who works with the government isn’t allowed to use Claude. Nearly everyone in tech has some sort of contract with the government.
aardvarkr··on US private credit defaults hit record 9.2% in 2025, Fitch says
Survivorship bias and the corporate finance world of today is completely unrecognizable from the world of Google and Apple. Just look at the resulting performance of the SPAC craze
aardvarkr··on Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies’
It’s a $200M contract. That’s not nothing but it’s definitely not such a huge sum for these companies at their scale when they’re spending billions on infrastructure.

I’m sure anthropic has signed up more revenue this week in response to this debacle to cover it. Where they’re actually screwed is if the gov follows through and declare anthropic a supply chain risk.

aardvarkr··on Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies’
I don’t care who is in the whitehouse. Snowden revealed the crimes of the NSA in 2013 when Obama was president. They’re all going to want to use AI for mass surveillance
aardvarkr··on Dario Amodei calls OpenAI’s messaging around military deal ‘straight up lies’
I hate this so much. The nsa’s spying on everyone in 2010 was “legal” and I can only imagine how much worse it is now with AI to follow your digital footprint around everywhere. Too bad we don’t have any more whistleblowers like Snowden
aardvarkr··on MacBook Neo
Capture the student market 100%. I’d buy one for my kids tomorrow. These machines are made with an iPhone chip so they’re going to be great at browsing the web and studying. I wouldn’t buy one for myself To do actual work on but for light users it’s the perfect device. Start them early and get them hooked in the ecosystem so they’re grow up and keep buying iPhones, Apple Watches, AirPods, and iPads.
aardvarkr··on GPT‑5.3 Instant
It’s more a factor of how they structure the desired output. They follow a template instead of trying to come up with something on the fly
aardvarkr··on Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability
Ugh I have actually started hating Gemini for this specifically.
aardvarkr··on Meta’s AI smart glasses and data privacy concerns
They look like any other pair of sunglasses. No piece of glass over one eye reminding everyone you meet that you’re wearing a camera. They’re incredibly stealthy
aardvarkr··on We do not think Anthropic should be designated as a supply chain risk
This is the same government caught spying on its citizens by Snowden so I don’t trust them at all.
aardvarkr··on Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court
Huh? In what world was the tariff on sand 2000%?
aardvarkr··on Trump's global tariffs struck down by US Supreme Court
The feds are the ones that control import duties, not the states. The courts will decide two years from now what to do.
aardvarkr··on The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones
No, you can think of them more like unarmed artillery shells. Can you walk down the street to buy some artillery munitions?

Even if they were considered arms for the purpose of 2a this isn’t a ban on drones but a specific manufacturer. They government can definitely refuse to grant a manufacturer license to sell on this country.

aardvarkr··on Quill OS: An open-source OS for Kobo's eReaders
If you read one book a quarter then yeah it’s not for you. If you read one book a week you can queue up fifty good books and wait for that one to come available at some point in the year.
aardvarkr··on Crypto got everything it wanted. Now it's sinking
So what makes a bitcoin worth $100k if it’s such a shit currency?
aardvarkr··on Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake
Medical tourism is a huge industry. A 3 month supply costs more than $3k in the USA. A flight to Canada costs $300 and takes a few hours of your time. I’d definitely do it if I was taking the drug.
aardvarkr··on Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake
Generics are so cheap and easy to make that they can reasonably justify that it will save the government money by making the population healthier. Just think about how much less heart disease and cancer and every other obesity-affected disease costs the taxpayer.
aardvarkr··on Novo Nordisk's Canadian Mistake
This article is saying that the patent elapsed in 2018 because thy didn’t pay the $250 to renew the patent. Instead they relied on “data exclusivity” which means their trial data is exclusively theirs and anyone who wants to sell in Canada must first run safety trials of their own at a huge expense. It’s just as good as a patent but has a shorter window of exclusivity.
aardvarkr··on Software update bricks some Jeep 4xe hybrids over the weekend
Any update can brick your device if done poorly. This device just happens to be a car.

You misunderstood what OP was saying. They claimed that an update to the infotainment system shouldn’t be able to brick the other systems in the car. The response points out the car’s OTA update subroutine has access to update every critical system in the car by design. It’s flawed logic to assume that OTA updates only affect the infotainment system.

aardvarkr··on Wall Street is worried the private credit bubble will burst
Shorts are people pointing out bad activity in the market and making it public. I’d prefer the bad actors get called out
aardvarkr··on Electromechanical reshaping offers safer eye surgery
I had it done in late 2022. The doctor does close to zero work and it’s all in the laser. I called almost every lasik specialist in the city to figure out what laser they use and what their price is and then narrowed that list further with in person consultations. Don’t go for the absolute cheapest but there’s zero reason to pay quadruple.

At the time it was about $1k per eye and of course vision insurance sucks and won’t make a difference for lasik. My company even had a lasik benefit ($1k/eye) but the offices that worked through insurance cost $2.5k/eye.

If I recall correctly there’s three major laser brands and they’re on the fifth generation lasers. The buzzword at that time was waveform technology.

Overall it has been AMAZING and everyone should do it. Literally can’t express how wonderful it is to no longer need contracts or glasses. It’s probably paid for itself already as well but the quality of life improvements are worth it even if there was no break even point.

aardvarkr··on Electromechanical reshaping offers safer eye surgery
That’s amazing. I love hearing about basic research like this. Keep the innovations coming!
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