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blacksmith_tb

4,952 karma · joined December 28, 2010

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/tobiasboyd; my proof: https://keybase.io/tobiasboyd/sigs/iX-9_2r3YbpyeqwkJt3XxYphjZ5_81_zDFvJHsH5niA ]
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blacksmith_tb··on The people who actually want AI to replace humanity
Not the OP, but I think the implication is you can't run a consumer economy if the consumers aren't making any wages to buy the products and services those cheap and efficient robots are churning out. Or pay taxes. So the entire socioeconomic system we currently enjoy/endure vanishes, robotic factories included.
blacksmith_tb··on Cheese Paper: a text editor specifically designed for writing
Maybe it would explain itself better if that said "specifically designed for writing fiction"? (lots of other sorts of writing don't have characters, for example...)
blacksmith_tb··on It's hard to justify buying a Framework 12
Also possible that people have paid for licenses / apps and thus want to stay with the OS those will run on, instead of having to pay again (if it's even an option).
blacksmith_tb··on Ruby for Good
That seems like it would depend quite a bit on the project? I would think many nonprofits would want a webapp of some flavor, and Ruby (or Python) are still not bad choices there - my experience with Claude is that it handles Ruby well.
blacksmith_tb··on Meta deletes popular 1M follower account after Kuwaiti request
Embarrassing, but the statistic cited there is 6 cases in 2017 for a single crossing point, looks like there are ~1.5M visits a year[1] so I would imagine even if we're talking hundreds of cases (generous), still not too common?

1: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/as-canadian-visits-to-t...

blacksmith_tb··on Scientists “bottle the sun” with a liquid battery that stores solar energy
Angle though isn't ideal, unless the PV panel pops off the lid so you can position it better (and still be able to open the screen far enough back to read - though that's often not great in bright sun). I remember the OLPC could be run by hoisting a bucket of sand or water up on a rope and pulley on a tree branch and letting it drive a small generator as that came back down - and that was almost 20yr ago).
blacksmith_tb··on Scientists “bottle the sun” with a liquid battery that stores solar energy
Sure, so a solar-only laptop is not practical, but generating the power in its battery on your roof is a solved problem.

This MOST process doesn't immediately look like it has home-scale applications (maybe in cold climates), but for heat to make steam, promising.

blacksmith_tb··on StarFighter 16-Inch
Not the OP, but some older laptop designs had a small trackball where modern machines have a touchpad, e.g. the early PowerBooks[1]

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_180

blacksmith_tb··on HERMES.md in commit messages causes requests to route to extra usage billing
Is that reason customer service? My only experiences with AWS along those lines have not been great...
blacksmith_tb··on The Joy of Folding Bikes
Don't miss the Low Tech piece on Chinese one-wheel wheelbarrows:

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2011/12/how-to-downsize-a-...

blacksmith_tb··on The Orange Pi 6 Plus
I have an even cheesier competitor, which randomly has a dragon on the lid (it would be a terrible choice for all but the wimpiest casual gaming... but it makes a good Home Assistant HAOS server!)
blacksmith_tb··on The Orange Pi 6 Plus
There are quite a few x86-64 machines in the 70mm x 70mm form factor[1], which is close?

1: https://www.ecs.com.tw/en/Product/Mini-PC/LIVA_Q2/

blacksmith_tb··on Generative art over the years
Hmm, isn't that a little like saying "now that we have cameras, no one needs to paint any more!" AIs can generate realistic video and images, but for me the fun of generative art is that it isn't realistic, it has texture, you can get a sense of what kind of patterns it will make, like echoes of the algorithm. Sure, you could probably prompt for some kind of geometric image, but if you asked for a little script that made them, then you could make tweaks and see what happens...
blacksmith_tb··on Car harm: A global review of automobility's harm to people and the environment
From the paper: "Crashes kill 1.3 million people per year including 700 children per day." I have always thought it's striking that people drive so much in spite of knowing that each time you could easily kill or be killed. Imagine if phones were equally dangerous - who'd carry one in their pocket?

Obviously cars are useful, but we've built our cities to maximize that (and we still spend a lot of time stuck in traffic, even so). That doesn't mean that there aren't more useful possibilities, just that the inertia in the system makes them seem like a dream.

blacksmith_tb··on Ju Ci: The Art of Repairing Porcelain
Beautiful work, but the cup can't hold water (or tea, or wine) now I assume? So a partial restoration. It does make me wonder if you could do a mechanical repair like that and then reglaze and refire it (but I suppose that'd melt most metalwork soft enough to hammer onto a delicate cup...)
blacksmith_tb··on GrapheneOS will remain usable by anyone without requiring personal information
But the "fact" that I told the OS I was 99yr old might be the data they're getting? To anyone who's setting up their own machine, it will be effectively optional: if you just want to make sure you fall in the "adult" bracket, you will tell the OS you're 25 (even if you're 13... or 99...). For kids whose parents are setting up devices, it could be an actual headache (assuming they're honest), but in that sense it's like a lot of other nannyware solutions, probably clunky, but possibly not all bad?
blacksmith_tb··on GrapheneOS will remain usable by anyone without requiring personal information
I appreciate the principled stand, but on the other hand the CA law only requires users to self-identify when setting up accounts (and then the OS will expose age to apps), that seems fairly toothless (though wrongheaded) compared to TX and UT wanting to scan photo IDs[1]

1: https://www.tomshardware.com/software/operating-systems/cali...

blacksmith_tb··on Ryugu asteroid samples contain all DNA and RNA building blocks
"The simple truth" being Genesis, for which there can be no evidence possible?
blacksmith_tb··on Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story
That's a strong libertarian position I think few would agree with. A similar case would be fentanyl - what harm does it do to me if people are dying on the sidewalk from overdoses? Well, the cumulative impact of that on society is considered negative enough that we've outlawed its recreational use. That argument of course doesn't apply equally to my neighbor taking shrooms, which doesn't have any impact, go ahead. The question is if you see gambling as closer to fent than to shrooms - I would suggest that it has a significant blast radius[1].

1: https://commonwealthbeacon.org/by-the-numbers/sports-betting...

blacksmith_tb··on Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story
That's an interesting idea, though of course while we've done that with crop or livestock futures, we seem to have coped pretty well without betting on absolutely everything until now.
blacksmith_tb··on Polymarket gamblers threaten to kill me over Iran missile story
Let me make an obvious opposing argument: what is the social benefit in allowing people to gamble on the outcome of a sports match, or any other event? We encourage investment in the market in theory to allow companies to grow and produce things many people might benefit from (how well that works is another thing...). Gambling as far as I can see is net negative to everyone but the winners, and not entirely positive to them. Imagine if your next door neighbor dropped a cash-filled envelope that you found - lucky you? And if that was your neighbor's rent money? Like a lot of scams, the 'value' is only accrued by fleecing rubes, and it also creates a new class of super-bookies, which also not positive.
blacksmith_tb··on The MacBook Neo
Ah, that's a good point, it would make sense (and be a small but real gotcha of using a phone CPU in a laptop).
blacksmith_tb··on The MacBook Neo
I think that makes it a non-standard implementation though (I agree it's certainly more practical for the user), sounds like it's usb-c pd but with nerfed data, an odd choice that feels like it would actually have cost more to develop than just adding two identical usb-c 3.x ports...
blacksmith_tb··on Because Algospeak
Not really different from "just cuz" is it? Though I suppose it is a little worse, given that it's a different word, not an obvious contraction.

It doesn't make me want to explode like "pacific" instead of "specific" does...

blacksmith_tb··on Amazon wins court order to block Perplexity's AI shopping agent
It's interesting to see that argument was based on Amazon having dedicated employee time to blocking Perplexity. Obviously bots can be a drag, but if these were agents shopping on behalf of users, that seems counterproductive (I take it Amazon's vision is that the only AI agents they want to support are their own, but imagine trying to claim that you needed to spend a lot of your employees' time on painting the windows of the office building so your competition couldn't see inside...)
blacksmith_tb··on A basket of new fruit varieties is coming your way
I could agree to a point, the most commonly planted GMO crops are Roundup-Ready grains and soy, which encourage spraying even more atrazine on fields[1]. That does of course also mean increased yields, but the tradeoff is not unambiguously good. However the varieties discussed in this article clearly don't have that problem, knocking out genes to emphasize desirable characteristics seems much more appealing, though I suppose I'd rather see increasing nutrient density over making seeds less chewy, even if that meant adding DNA from other plants[2].

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundup_Ready

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_tomato#Biotechnology

blacksmith_tb··on To the Polypropylene Makers
That's the nuance missing from the parent's snark, masks are most effective at preventing the wearer from transmitting infections to the people around them (especially important in an operating theater). Masks may also help prevent the wearer from inhaling airborne pathogens, though they're less effective there.
blacksmith_tb··on Pentagon formally labels Anthropic supply-chain risk
I don't get the impression Anthropic tried to walk anything back, they just balked when they were informed that the DoD wasn't willing to abide by their terms to refrain from using Claude for surveillance or straight up selecting targets to kill. But you're right that means Anthropic's hands are not exactly clean, just less bloody than OpenAI's or xAI's
blacksmith_tb··on Female astronauts face clotting risks, five-day weightlessness simulation sugges
Odd then that with 25 of the 120 people who have crewed the ISS[1] being women we haven't seen anyone develop serious clots?

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crew_of_the_Internatio...

blacksmith_tb··on Billy bookshelves as a retro motherboard "rack"
Ironically, the Lack's top is made of a cardboard honeycomb laminate that looks quite a bit like a wasps' nest in fact: http://www.imajeenyus.com/optical/20131206_xray_ikea_vhs/ind...
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