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fineIllregister

672 karma · joined June 29, 2014

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fineIllregister··on An update on Wayback Machine access
People doing this say it makes things worse because then the bots download both.
fineIllregister··on Rune is now open source
I'm disappointed the game didn't lean into that more. Loki says you will be rejected as inhuman by Odin, but Odin just lets you cross the rainbow bridge without even commenting on your corruption. Also it doesn't show any reaction from the villagers.
fineIllregister··on List of references on Sony websites to players "owning" their digital games
How would anyone ever settle a case? Also, it's pretty easy to sign away your life and liberty: join the military.
fineIllregister··on Discovery of a new OpenAI agent message board
Interesting read. I speculate that Yudkowski argued that it would be bad for artificial intelligence to 'believe' we wouldn't let it out of the box. It's fascinating because there's not really a first-order argument to be let out.
fineIllregister··on There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf]
> Bradbury describes the fully automated smart home, but its technology does obviously not extend into the garden exterior.

In the 7th to last paragraph, second sentence, he lists the automated processes still going, including "cutting the lawn by remote-control mower".

fineIllregister··on Harness engineering for self-improvement
We cannot allow a Torment Nexus gap!
fineIllregister··on An Uncomplicated Man – A review of The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan
It's not depicted as brave or noble in the film. They are quietly sneaking around, whispering and miming to each other. Once injured, Polyphemus immediately speaks, leading the crew to realize this was wrong.
fineIllregister··on An Uncomplicated Man – A review of The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan
> Nolan didn't want to add "cruelty to animals"

In one scene, Odysseus doesn't even blink as a puppy is thrown off a cliff.

fineIllregister··on An Uncomplicated Man – A review of The Odyssey, directed by Christopher Nolan
With respect to Dr. Wilson, most of this reads like "A three hour movie didn't include every detail I've enjoyed during my lifetime of study." Every suggested addition just reminded me how bad I had to go to the restroom by the end of the film. It reads more like comic book fans complaining about film adaptations than a serious review.

Some of the criticism is just downright terrible. Knocking the film for not putting wheels on the Trojan Horse is just wrong, there's no other way to put it. There's no basis for the wheels in Homer, and the Trojans dragging the horse is one of the most visceral depictions of the story I've ever seen. It's something I've heard people talking about so it definitely resonated with people.

I had to stop reading at this point: "Defying the gods is noble and brave when Odysseus blinds Polyphemus, son of Poseidon". Just false. The exact same thing happens to them as in the source material. Polyphemus cries out to his father Poseiden, who punishes the crew. Odysseus's men literally say this.

fineIllregister··on The AI Productivity Illusion
AI companies just need to capture more than half of the entire global entertainment market to avoid insolvency.

Seems unlikely, especially before the investment money runs out.

fineIllregister··on Moonshine: Lets you stream games from your PC to any device running Moonlight
They're selling it for AI. Unless retro-nostalgia explodes and gamers are overwhelmed by a desire to pay for tokens (more than ai users), that doesn't change anything.
fineIllregister··on The Chinese Voice Actor Forced to Prove He's Human
Thanks
fineIllregister··on Nokia’s years of mobile-phone supremacy ended in an afternoon
It wouldn't have been. I had an N9, it was amazing, but even before the "burning platform", it was clearly too late to the market share and app races. Consider that it didn't really have much of a head start over the Windows phone, which MS poured so much money into, and even they couldn't get their foot in the door.
fineIllregister··on The Chinese Voice Actor Forced to Prove He's Human
I'm curious to know what constitutes "higher end". Obviously a theater release isn't going AI yet, but where down the scale do they start using it?
fineIllregister··on When 2+2=5
I never took Roko's Basilisk seriously, but now I fear that it will come true in part. The richest, most powerful people control the AI and they seem willing to use every tool to punish those who don't support them. They are also petty enough to hold grudges against those who did not support them.
fineIllregister··on Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers
I think the closest right now would be the Tor Browser.
fineIllregister··on Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway
I don't have personal experience, but I've heard it's not viable. The biggest issue is that Amtrak offers the service on a "best effort" basis, which means that if the train you want to hook up to is running late (which this frequently are due to conflicts with cargo traffic), they won't hook your car up, and you have to wait for the next train, which also might not be able to hook you up.
fineIllregister··on GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay
Looks like 64 companies do:

https://www.financecharts.com/screener/most-cash-country-us

You can see from the right hand column that many of those companies have delivered returns over the last twelve months, unlike GameStop. Also it appears many companies that don't have $9 billion are generating returns as well.

fineIllregister··on GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay
No. Short interest is at 15% and cost to borrow is .36%.
fineIllregister··on GameStop makes $55.5B takeover offer for eBay
If Cohen's "large move" was to buy EBay, investors could have done that themselves. They would have gotten a better deal on shares in the new company. Also, they'd be up 50% over 12 months. Partly because Cohen "adding to the balance sheet" has meant dilutions, and there will be more for this deal.
fineIllregister··on Girl, 10, finds rare Mexican axolotl under Welsh bridge
It's a similar story for Venus fly trap plants. It has a tiny habitat so it's exotic. They're easy to breed so it's cheap to start selling them. But their limited habitat is being destroyed, so they are endangered and also on the clearance rack at the garden store.
fineIllregister··on Alberta startup sells no-tech tractors for half price
- The mandate is for rear visibility. Car manufacturers choose to implement it with the back-up camera. Beyond that, it's obviously safer to be able to see everything behind the vehicle.

- My vehicle has a backup camera with a screen, but has physical buttons for all controls (A/C, audio system). There's no reason cars can't have both.

fineIllregister··on Anthropic takes $5B from Amazon and pledges $100B in cloud spending in return
This is an interesting comparison. So what's the AWS equivalent that can actually provide returns on the titanic investments going into AI?
fineIllregister··on NSA is using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist
That comparison doesn't make any sense. Socialism is an ideology. Accelerationism is a strategy that can be used by a person of any ideology. A communist can be an accelerationist, so can a fascist, a liberal, a monarchist, an ethnonationalist, etc. It can be a strategy to try to advance any policy, pro/anti-slavery, pro/anti-abortion, etc.
fineIllregister··on Laws of Software Engineering
We have HIPAA in the US for health care data. There have been no disastrous consequences to holding people and organizations responsible for breaches.
fineIllregister··on NSA is using Anthropic's Mythos despite blacklist
Which accelerationists?

Accelerationism is a strategy, not an ideology. Two accelerationists might have directly opposed beliefs and goals.

fineIllregister··on OpenClaw isn't fooling me. I remember MS-DOS
> Note that the (edit: US) postal system is a for-profit system.

That's not correct. If USPS makes more revenue than their expenses for a year, they can't pay it out as profits to anyone.

It's true that USPS is intended to be self-funded, covering it's costs through postage and services sold, and not tax revunue. That doesn't mean there's profit anywhere.

fineIllregister··on Changes in the system prompt between Claude Opus 4.6 and 4.7
> alcohol, tobacco, internal combustion engine

Yes, the companies providing these products are sued a lot and are heavily regulated, too.

fineIllregister··on Delve allegedly forked an open-source tool and sold it as its own
I didn't notice it as well, but it definitely does. Double check the green smiley face, below the mouth. Since so many people missed it, I wonder if the author did too.
fineIllregister··on The Australian government has announced gambling advertising reforms
> without gambling though, pat mahomes would be making less money that I am making…

It's not like he was broke when it was just beer and crypto ads. He made 10 million dollars his rookie year in the NFL before SCOTUS federally legalized gambling.

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