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archonteson Don't be fooled–LLMs don't reason

I disagree. I haven't finished the article yet, but it smacks of arguing for mechanism over result.

If by some mechanism other than what a gatekeeper would call 'reasoning', a machine produces outputs that approach indistinguishable from 'well reasoned', the argument that it didn't get there by reasoning is, well, not useful at the very least.

archonteson The Legend of von Neumann (1973) [pdf]

By all means, let's let him.

archonteson The Legend of von Neumann [pdf]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)

The Martians (of which von Neumann is usually the most regarded) were mostly Hungarian jews. It's a point on which some people have mused, so it's easy for the thought to point in that direction when von Neumann is brought up.

archonteson HuggingFace: Security.txt

In the end, this might even be a useful element for defining 'life'.

archonteson John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement

My response is typically, "I have literally everything to hide. I don't want you to know my middle name. I don't want you to know what I had for breakfast. It's none of anyone's business."

And weirdly, the response I get is, "Oh yeah, fair."

archonteson Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads

Wild that they increased the ipad prices as well; the entire point of the ipad is that it's a handicapped tool to avoid cutting into macbook marketshare.

archonteson Countries are competing to see which can carry out mass surveillance the best

Too many cameras and not enough food.

archonteson Spherical Voronoi Diagram

Now compensate for the oblateness of the Earth.

archonteson The FBI Wants to Buy Nationwide Access to License Plate Readers

The way it should work is that if a government can't do a thing, then they can't pay for the same thing.

Remove the demand and the activity will dry up.

archonteson Congress Wants You to Pay $130 a Year Just to Drive an Electric Car

Nonlinear.

archonteson NASA Force

This has got Russell Vought's fingerprints on it, mark my words.

There's some way this is enshittified.

archonteson Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

Sure, but that's a problem for my lawyer, not me.

And sounds like a great way to plead guilty to a lesser crime, but IANAL.

archonteson Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

You are correct, which is why that compulsion will be accompanied by immunity.

archonteson Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional

In America, we have the fifth amendment, and the right not to divulge any information whatsoever unless we're granted immunity.

It is enough to say absolutely nothing, and request the government to prove its case.

If someone shot a person with my gun, I would invoke the fifth amendment, and ask the government to prove who did it beyond a reasonable doubt.

archonteson 4k NASA employees opt to leave agency through deferred resignation program

NASA has been downsized with a machete.

And Russell Vought is holding the weapon.

archonteson Prohibition and ice cream in the US Navy

Navy-strength rum.

archonteson Canadian math prodigy allegedly stole $65M in crypto

I can't tell if this is a typo or not, and it's perfect.

archonteson Canadian math prodigy allegedly stole $65M in crypto

Define theft.

If you write a contract and give it to a lawyer with the instruction, "Anyone who satisfies this contract gets this money." And someone satisfies the contract to the lawyer's -but not your- satisfaction, and the lawyer sends the money, did the third party steal from you?

archonteson Canadian math prodigy allegedly stole $65M in crypto

Imagine I write a contract and empower an AI to execute it. I put $10,000 in a bank account and write, "I'd like a nice car."

I do this of my own free will, at my own hazard. I know I'm playing this game. I have intentionally elected to use a system that will execute without any further intervention or oversight on my part. Verbally, I state that I am confident enough in the writing of my instruction that I feel secure in whatever outcome it may bring.

The system automatically executes and someone has sold me a very nice remote control car.

I sue that person.

Why should I have standing?

archonteson Training AI Using 'Pirated' Content Can Be Fair Use, Law Professors Argue

It's a stretch to call training an AI creating a 'derivative work' by the legal definition.

You could count the words in a book and publish the word count, and while the information is based on the contents of the book, that would fall incredibly short of being a derivative work.

I suspect they committed whatever copyright violation is committed when they downloaded the copyrighted works. Training an AI on them is simply not related to the protections that copyright offers.

archonteson Apple has locked me in the same cage Microsoft's built for Windows 10 users

I'm not even a Linux "enthusiast". I simply find Windows to be a terrible product and Linux to be a better product. I simply use the least terrible option.

archonteson Show HN: Recommendarr – AI Driven Recommendations Based on Sonarr/Radarr Media

Can it differentiate between different household members?

archonteson $30 Thrift Store Find a $223,000 Jet Engine Valve

+1. There's a lot of money invested in having very very high confidence a part is perfect all the way through.

archonteson Show HN: Game Bub – open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld

Apologies for the tangent, but may I ask what you use to write your blog? I love how clean it is.

archonteson Microsoft cracking down people upgrading to Windows 11 on unsupported hardware

+1 Steam works wonderfully on my Ubuntu VM.

archonteson Donut Lab's next-generation in-wheel motors

I'm thinking about the motorcycle motor. If they're really lighter than competing motors, I don't see the downside of using them like a traditional motor, taking the weight savings, putting it inside a sealed cavity, and coupling it to a driveshaft. Simplifies some of the other problems with sealing and bearings mentioned elsewhere, avoids unsprung mass.

archonteson Nearly Half of US Unicorns Have Foreign-Born Founders

Do you not think it would be more informative to look at the global percentage of people who are wealthy enough to take multiple bites of the unicorn apple?

archonteson Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell

Dismissing disagreement as jealousy always bothered me. To think a person is jealous of you requires a lot of ego, like... narcissistic amounts of ego in my opinion. Either that or a world view so small that it can't conceive of other world views that don't align with yours.

Some folks just can't imagine buying what some folks are selling.

archonteson AI poetry is indistinguishable from human poetry and is rated more favorably

We've reached the era of Trurl's Electronic Bard.

https://electricliterature.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Tr...

archonteson Artists score major win in copyright case against AI art generators

I agree that interested parties are trying to steer the ship there. I just don't see the legal arguments that will get them there.

Given the fact that images are transmitted to a person in a manner that doesn't violate copyright (and even if they are, the transmitter, not receiver is guilty of infringement), training an AI is not something that copyright law limits.

The AI weights that result are about the farthest thing from a derivative work, as the weights as a separate object, don't seem to contain the slightest remnant of the original work.