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clort

1,827 karma · joined March 10, 2015

I am just a hacker
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clort··on Returning from vacation? The government can search your phone without a warrant
There may be a difference between the passport you are presenting, and your passport. Until the border agent determines that those are equivalent, you are not necessarily who you say you are.
clort··on Netherlands pulls gold out of the US
Not just so that you don't lose it in case of an invasion, but it is proof that you would be willing to help out the host country in the case they were invaded. Also, that you would not invade them.

In the olden days, the local lords would marry their children together, to create familial groups and ensure that for the forseeable future the local areas would not have a conflict. Modern democracies don't have such valuable family members, we use valuable objects instead.

clort··on Netherlands pulls gold out of the US
Interestingly, 59 tonnes of gold was sold in USA and bought in London. So that means perhaps "Somebody" transferred 59 tonnes of their gold holdings to the USA.. who was that?

This is similar to what the French did last year.

The other thing I noticed, is that as the article chose to mention:

> Gold that is held with the Bank of England must meet modern international trade standards

with implication being that the gold it previously held in the USA was not meeting those standards, but is that just journalistic fluff? what are those standards? (could be exact weights in g rather than purity?)

NB the Netherlands still has >200 tonnes of gold held in the USA & Canada.

clort··on Debian votes to allow "responsible use of generative AI"
the age is not the measure of quality. the GP said they left the posts/comments open. anybody can read that and check if they are or not a serious contributor
clort··on Luanti removed from Google Play due to baseless AI copyright notice
Could be, but unfortunately (3) can generate the code but it is not copyrightable (Thaler v. Perlmutter)
clort··on Aphantasia Beginner's Guide
I think the poll itself is faulty. You appear to be suggesting that the two things - seeing an afterimage and being able to consciously superimpose an imagined image into your visual field are related. An afterimage is literally a physical phenomenon as I explained before, and it passes quickly. There is an explanation of this, in an article that somebody posted a link to the other day in the discussion about Olo. https://dynomight.net/colors/

> Can you superimpose onto your actual visual field an arbitrary imagined image? Not just imagine what it would look like, but see it

This is your only question. No I cannot is my answer.

I don't know if its because I am aphantasic (which I definitely am) or not or if a phantasic would be able to do that either. Just because they can see something in their minds does not mean that they could superimpose it over the visual world they were seeing. I can only guess at this, but 'minds eye' is like another dimension. You can imagine things there, and your brain can simply focus on them instead of the signals you are getting from your optic nerves, or your auditory sensations, or the feelings from your butt as you sit on the chair.

I do not see things in my minds eye but I can conceptualise them perfectly well. I basically never remember if I have any dreams, perhaps I do not, but I do remember waking as if from a dream and realising that I had had a significant recognition moment, as if I had experienced a thing before. Perhaps I had a non-visual dream.

clort··on Aphantasia Beginner's Guide
I think I've read the article differently to you. It does not say that the afterimage is a test. In fact it calls it an illusion.

> This afterimage illusion, while a product of perception, serves as a bridge to understanding visualization

The way that illusion works is simple. You expose your eye to green light without moving your gaze (stare at the dot). The green receptors in your eye become tired in the receptor pattern of the apple. Then, you switch to the white light which is broad spectrum. You fail to see the green, leaving red (blue is almost green, and our colour triangle is not equilateral). So, you see an afterimage of the apple but in red. This fades quickly as your green receptors recover from the overload. It has nothing to with aphantasia and the article does not claim it does.

clort··on My Friend Aaron
maybe add it at the end also :)

I found that some of the timeline seemed out for my worldview. I'm not really sure how long the whole AI bubble has been out there, but it just seems so recent that I wasn't sure how they fitted all that in in the current timeline. Perhaps that will mature, in 5 years it won't all seem so new and perhaps more plausible.

To address the GPs point though, I do think that with LLM-assistance even now you can certainly create such sites pretty quickly with a low skill level, and that will only become easier. The big problem with creating things (in that way, or manually) is that you are the architect and artistic director, and in truth many people just don't have the ability to manage the end-result in a way that will work. We see this in websites created by developers for their own software which get posted here. Too many times there are massive assumptions that the viewer knows all about the software, which means it is almost incomprehensible to the incomer who may be interested but leaves before engaging (that is: me). I don't suppose that was a problem for Aarons bot society, but it could have affected the launch.

clort··on I set a trap for a book-marketing scammer (2025)
I recognise these scammers. I run a website for a small community group which just has a bit of information about them which has a contact us page with minimal protection. It comes in waves the language is very similar offering SEO and suchlike. I don't allow any of that through to the community because they are mostly non-technical and somebody will no doubt reply.

This scam spam has been arriving since I set the website up (2019 IIRC), well before LLMs became available. Now that I consider it, haven't seen any lately I guess they have a new target.. I'd better brace myself for a new AI generated onslaught.

clort··on NetBSD and my life (2005)
As to why, Gary didn't say.. or even contribute again, so we could surmise it was a made-up name to make sure the company he worked for wasn't identified, but some of the replies to his mail went into more detail about why they did, you can find them here

https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-advocacy/2005/09/

clort··on How Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots
I don't know about iOS but if it saves it to your Files and lets iOS deal with the synchronisation then it should not have any network permissions?

(I use KeePassDX from F-droid it does not have network permissions)

clort··on How Bluesky draws its logo on screenshots
Keepass database is an openly documented format, and there are several apps available on iOS that use it and can store the database in your iCloud (ie syncthing is not required, unless you need to sync to non-iOS devices)

Just search for keepass in the app store (Keepassium, KeePass Touch, Strongbox, ...)

clort··on The only known trebuchet casualty in history
Trebuchet were used primarily to hammer the walls of the castle to break them down. Not really possible to aim at a person; the soldiers clambering over the broken walls will do that.
clort··on The Bit Player: My Father with Steve Zissou
He really did look like Bill Murray - when I got to the photo I wasn't sure if it really was Bill or the authors father..
clort··on 50k Boat Names
TFA said the names were taken from published AIS data, so perhaps Boaty has not shown up on USA AIS receivers as yet. Since IIRC it is an AUV thats not surprising I wonder if it even has an AIS transmitter. The ship they were asking for names for was actually named Sir David Attenborough in the end.
clort··on 50k Boat Names
They exist, but generally for more significant voyaging. For example

  - Joshua Slocum - Sailing Alone Around The World (1900)
  - H.W.Tilman - Mishief Among The Penguins (1961)
  - Sir Alec Rose - My Lively Lady (1968)
  - Annie Hill - Voyaging on a Small Income (1993)
at least are on my bookshelf
clort··on I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]
I went for an eye test earlier this year because I felt I had a massive floater that would not go away after several months, the optician said that a very early cataract was developing - so, its really just a normal floater but when it sits in front of the occlusion, the effect is magnified. Optician said a couple of years for the cataract to be significant enough to remove.
clort··on What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
sorry my figures were slightly out and too late to edit

the new flat tax rate is 42% and the $20k guy takes home $23.6k

clort··on What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers
Dont forget that with a UBI system, it is not simply that everybody is $12k better off. It needs to be arranged against tax reform so that there is an income level which stays the same. Below that level, you would be better off. Above that level worse.

I'm not using actual proposed values, just an example. Lets choose $100k as the pivot point.

So person earning that currently pays $30k tax, meaning they get take-home of $70k. The new system means they get $12k UBI and tax needs to leave them $48k so they stay at the same salary level. They now pay $52k tax.

That means 52% tax rate, across the board.

The guy who previously earned $20k and paid $2k tax had a take home of $18k. He gets $12k UBI. Now he pays 52% tax on the $20k, so $10.4k. His take home is now $21.6k.

The closer you get to the floor, the better security there is. You can live on the $12k but you are not rich, and nobody goes without.

The $1m high earner should have paid $400k in tax but actually paid $100k because he pays $20k to an accountant. He now gets $12k UBI and pays $520k in tax because income tax rate is flat and the accountant needs to find another way to earn a crust, though he gets UBI, so..

clort··on My phone detects going on a run as “someone snatching my phone and running off”
Is it really insane? That is less than 200 per day, in a city of 15 million people.. a single gang of 20 thieves could likely manage that! The real question is, how does this compare to other cities of this size and demographics?
clort··on NetBSD 11.0
NetBSD has had Bluetooth for 20 years?
clort··on Show HN: Gander, an Android file viewer that asks for no permissions
That is listed in the Roadmap section right at the end of the README.md file
clort··on Upper stage impacting the moon on 2026 August 5
something they didn't mention, what is in this upper stage? I'm presuming a rocket motor and some fuel is that right..? They do a calculation of energy release on impact, but I'm wondering if there is any fuel left and whether that would affect their equation?
clort··on AI companies are shredding rare books
The complexities are the problem. I've always thought a fixed term is best. Then, you can purchase a work - it says Copyright <dddd> on it. Then, you know that after dddd+term the copyright is lapsed. You don't need to hunt down the author to see if they died. No guessing, just written on the work that you purchased. No, don't have optional extensions - that just means you have to look it up. It should say it right there on the work you purchased when the copyright expires.

It is said that the vast vast majority of works don't earn anything significant after a few years in any case, meaning the only possible reason to have long copyrights is so that a very few people can get stinking rich. But those people already got rich, in the first few years.. society does not benefit from them getting richer.

20 years fixed term is my proposal.

clort··on London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service
Since you have to book in advance, I guess you give them the number plate details. They can look it up online to see what kind of vehicle it is and can decline to book if too heavy. They can cross check the number plate when you arrive.
clort··on London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service
Unlikely to be normal, but I have been doing it at a couple of places I park at this year, since I'm there for a while, have to park in the sun and the places are semi-enclosed (ie, it is fenced so random people not walking around but not secure compound level). Also, my car is 17yrs old, I got it for free and don't keep valuable items inside. I prefer leaving the window open to coming back to 38degC inside. No aircon.
clort··on London Gatwick has launched a robotic airport parking service
it picks it up by the tyres, so no random pressure points
clort··on Count Binface
His sister still calls him Alex, at least.
clort··on Count Binface
Farage is the current MP for Clacton. He has resigned because he is being investigated for taking massive amounts of dodgy money and not declaring it. He thinks he claimed the upper hand by saying that the voters would decide if that was ok or not, but the other parties have declined to participate. Now, it is a battle between himself and an alien being with a bin for a face.

Notably, if he is re-elected, the Parliamentary Standards Committee will simply continue their investigation into his dodgy finances.

clort··on Female US rower completes historic solo journey from California to Hawaii
sealed compartments. harness and tether for outside equipment and personnel.
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