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foxyv

4,874 karma · joined January 6, 2015

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foxyv··on Claude Science
LLMs are essentially a text prediction engine. This can be used for basic reasoning tasks, however the LLM doesn't have much in the way of actual knowledge. However, it can use knowledge that exists to predict text better. For instance, if you plug a bunch of scientific articles into it, it will be really good at answering questions about the subject of those articles.

The problem is that context windows are very short. 200k-1M tokens or so. This means that the model needs to focus down on very specific information if possible. This is what makes tool using, reasoning, and agentic AI very powerful. The model can find the most relevant information it needs within its limited context and generate relevant answers to questions. The LLM pulls from web searches, documentation, long term memories in graph databases, and database queries to answer the questions using real information.

foxyv··on Claude Science
Raw dog Chat LLMs are pretty worthless. But run an agent with tool invocation and they get scary good. It's amazing how much reasoning is packed into the English language. Provide your model with enough information and it can pull some miracles out of thin air. It's not the "Replace humans" level yet, but you can automate a lot of stuff you wouldn't expect to be able to automate.
foxyv··on Advanced Nintendo Entertainment System (ANES) – NES Modded to Use 2 PPUs
Imagine if OnlyFans was a subscription service to see your favorite personalities do electrical engineering and software development! Oooh lah lah!
foxyv··on Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
If so, that's pretty on-brand.
foxyv··on Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
I think that this is doable. Similar to having a new employee shadow a more experienced one and observe, you could implement a sort of program where AI shadows experienced employees and asks questions when they do something it doesn't understand.

But this is difficult to implement since AI doesn't have a body to follow someone around and it would take immense amounts of compute to do so using telemetry and cameras. You would literally be spying on employees 24x7 for weeks at a time with the express goal of replacing them someday.

foxyv··on Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
I think most of them were losses by attrition. Where they don't replace lost employees. That's usually the preferred method of downsizing if you can get away with it.
foxyv··on Ford AI hiccups push carmaker to rehire ‘gray beard’ inspectors
There are two kinds of knowledge. There is explicit knowledge which can be codified easily in markdown files or a wiki. Then there is tacit knowledge which is mostly encoded in the experience of an organization's individuals. Explicit knowledge is like the tip of a giant institutional knowledge iceberg.
foxyv··on A Farmer Donated Land to Turn into a Park. The City Is Building a Data Center
Meanwhile I can't build a carport for my driveway because of the "Character of the Neighborhood"
foxyv··on Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
In America it is a little different. Unfortunately California is still using 48% natural gas at this point. But they are moving in the right direction. Most states are continuing this trend. Driving in Texas you see wide load trucks hauling wind turbine parts almost every day.

https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/califo...

foxyv··on Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
I am not aware of a "System" line item on the accounting for cost. Do you mean the capital put forward to construct the system? That is included in LCOE.
foxyv··on Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
That is not entirely correct. Typically you will see LCOE for Solar grouped with the LCOE of Solar and energy storage.

EG: > Solar photovoltaic $1,327 $1,333–2,743 $31–146 12–30% > Solar PV with storage $1,748 $2,044 $53–81 20–31%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source#...

foxyv··on Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
Typically power is priced by Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) where you amortize the total cost of ownership across the total power generated to get a per kwh cost which is what most grid operators care about. After all, large scale investors and governments don't care if a plant costs a billion dollars if it produces 20 billion in electricity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelized_cost_of_electricity

What you are talking about is the Payback Period (PP) or Return on Investment (ROI) which is more important to homeowners adding a solar plant to their homes.

Both of these types of measure take into account both capital and operating expenses.

foxyv··on Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
> I think you've missed that all generators have upfront cost.

Why do you say this?

foxyv··on Wind and solar generated more power than gas globally in April 2026
Solar/wind is the cheapest form of power generation by far. You just can't beat it because they don't have any fuel costs. Gas peaker plants will always make sense until we have enough grid scale batteries. They will hold on for now until the price of natural gas hits rock bottom. But with the current advances in low cost battery technology I see them becoming less and less necessary. They would probably already be dead if hydrofracturing hadn't propped up the cost of gas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source

foxyv··on Can the stockmarket swallow Anthropic, SpaceX and OpenAI?
I'm not sure if it was intentional, but roaring is an interesting word to use here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roaring_Twenties

foxyv··on Ozempic may be reshaping the brain, scientists say
People underestimate how much hormones change their brains. We all think "I have free will!" Then the progesterone comes in and is like "The heck you do! Time to eat that cake!"
foxyv··on It Will Never Be the Year of the Linux Desktop
The year of the linux Desktop was the friends we made along the way... fixing our Linux desktop.
foxyv··on Trump administration to send Americans exposed to Ebola to Kenya
The person was sent home before the Ebola diagnosis. He would still have been sent home under this new protocol.

The USA, similar to other nations, is extremely well equipped to treat Ebola patients once they have been diagnosed. Doctors just don't expect it because it is so rare.

foxyv··on Steam Deck OLED is back in stock, with a price increase for both models
Prices have been a little weird lately. After a quick check on Newegg I'm seeing prices:

16GB of RAM - $250

Low-Mid GPU - $700

1TB SSD - $250

foxyv··on You Can't Stop This Data Center, a Mom Was Told. She Won't Quit
Local government is so messed up. No you can't have that unattached mother in law house because it doesn't "Match the Character of the City", but Jeff Bezos can build his 6000 acre datacenter in your water restricted city and they will re-zone and bend over backwards. Meanwhile your water has turned brown and your power keeps cutting out because the city infrastructure is 60 years old and has been maintained with barely functional fixes.
foxyv··on Public have more fear than hope on AI and future of work, study finds
I would feel a whole heck of a lot better about AI if we were making progress towards a society where people who work for a living won't die in poverty when there are no more jobs for them.
foxyv··on A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be
If you cannot be replaced, you are un-promotable. Your entire career becomes tied to a single point of failure. Then, when they replace that piece of software with a new product you have no experience elsewhere.
foxyv··on Military Snipers Are Being Put Out of a Job by Drones
Considering that snipers in modern warfare were mostly used as forward recon, it makes sense that drones are replacing them.
foxyv··on Googlebook
What CPU architecture does it have? No comment.

What operating system will it use? No comment.

Will I be able to play games on it? It has AI!

foxyv··on California cities seek to bless polyamorous unions: it will get messy in court
We need to re-work marriage laws anyways. Most of them are exploitative and archaic. There is a reason fewer people are getting married now. We could easily replace it with a corporate structure like a partnership model. Communal assets owned by the corporation with liability laws to match. Maybe create a special equity share for family corporations accounting for unpaid domestic labor.

Marriage should be a cultural thing. Not something governed by the state.

foxyv··on U.S. Treasury will have to borrow $2T this year just to continue functioning
When US currency stops being backed by huge amounts of petrochemicals and the largest economy in the world. Or when China stops accepting dollars for stuff maybe? Who knows when it comes to macroeconomics. It's a bit like predicting weather.
foxyv··on McDonald's is a premium product now (2024)
This reminds me of Demolition man when he wakes up in the future and Taco Bell is fine dining.
foxyv··on B.C. residents baffled as shape floats through night sky
So... a lonely cloud just after sunset? This is always the coolest thing to see when the sun under the horizon illuminates things at high altitude. It happens a lot with rocket launches like this:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K_zd8YAUYDY/hqdefault.jpg

foxyv··on U.S. Senators Vote to Ban Themselves from Trading on Prediction Markets
It would be nice if government officials had to do a national index fund (Vanguard or similar) stock purchase plan along the lines of employee stock purchasing in private companies.
foxyv··on Woman weaponizes swarm of bees against deputies trying to carry out an eviction
The officer was attempting to prevent her from tipping over the hive. You can see that the hive was tipping towards the camera and the officer's hands were on the side closest preventing her from flipping it. The officer attempts to replace the lid too. She was shoving on the hive as hard as she could until it tipped over.

https://youtu.be/aTKyAwexLZM?t=67

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