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kallistisoft

177 karma · joined December 17, 2021

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kallistisoft··on Outline: Self hostable, realtime, Markdown compatible knowledge base
Outline only uses SSO for authentication. The solution when self hosting is use a private keycloak server [1]. This allows you to do email based auth.

[1] https://www.keycloak.org/

kallistisoft··on This page knows your battery charge level (unless you're using Firefox)
Doesn't respond to charging status change events even though an .onCharging call back has been set. Chromium 117.0 on Linux
kallistisoft··on Nicotine (2016)
Tobacco contains Harmaline which is an MAOI - it both increases the bioavailability of nicotine as well as adding an additional psychoactive effect; stimulant + anti-depressant

I've recently started adding free base harmaline to my vape juice to create a proper tobacco substitute... I found that nicotine alone didn't provide the relaxation that I would get from smoking tobacco. After a fair amount of research I discovered that it was that lack of harmala compounds.

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

kallistisoft··on Scientists Are Researching a Device That Can Induce Lucid Dreams on Demand
While I'm happy there's more R&D going on in this field, I'm highly skeptical about the use of TcU -- people move around to much while sleeping for this approach to be effective or safe... and there are less invasive ways to accomplish this.

One of my projects is a dreaming machine which combines eeg, sounds, and lights to aid in recognition of dream states. The eeg data is used to generate ambient soundscapes that change theme based on the level of sleep (awake/rem/light/deep) and during rem sleep it triggers a set of leds mounted inside of my sleep mask. It works fairly well and is totally passive/non-invasive.

kallistisoft··on Ketamine's effect on depression may hinge on hope
> It's not clear if ketamine — or anything else — should be expected to work normally when it is administered to patients under general anesthesia. General anesthesia has profound effects on the functioning of the nervous system.

Very much this! Additionally when discussing ketmaine it's method of action (NMDA receptor antagonist) specifically could be disrupted by the effects of another anesthetic compound.

kallistisoft··on Saltwater is pushing its way up the Mississippi River
> This comment reminds me a bit of people saying that Y2K must have been way overhyped because nothing bad actually happened.

You're comparing apples and oranges ... Y2K was a know problem, with known trigger conditions, and prescribed remediation steps. The salt water intrusion is a moving target whose remediation steps aren't clear cut.

The most recent estimate has pushed back the timeline for potential water fouling back by over a month and the new estimate put the salt ppm at <250 which is below the EPA's public safety floor.

> I haven't seen any exaggerated coverage. [...]

That might be because you're not from the area and haven't seen the empty shelves of bottled water and the run on water filtering equipment

kallistisoft··on Saltwater is pushing its way up the Mississippi River
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. People have already started hoarding water a month in advance of the arrival of the "salt wedge"... The last time this happened in New Orleans was 1988 and lasted ~2 months[1], life continued, and the event was largely forgotten.

From a post on /r/neworleans: "In the last event sales of bottled water skyrocketed before the event. Once the salt wedge arrived, sales went down and everyone stopped buying water. Data suggested public didn't view the situation as sufficiently threatening enough to continue buying water."

So it doesn't seem to be the 'emergency' that media is trying to make it out as... Seems like the larger issues are increased heavy metal contamination from the salt and silt relocation affecting the health of the delta and related ecosystems...

The current plan is to ship in fresh water, which is what was done last time, and also there is talk about building a fresh water pipeline in the next 30 days that would extend ~12 miles up river. [2]

[1] current estimate is that current the situation will last ~3 months

[2] https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/local/saltwater-intrusion...

kallistisoft··on Geographic ‘hot spots’ for cigarette and firearm deaths in the U.S.
Came to make the same reply!
kallistisoft··on The new science of meditation
Your're being to literal without being literal enough!

The "reality" that we experience is a predictive model of what we believe is about to happen. This is required because it takes a quite some time[1] for stimulus to be received and processed by our bodies! If we didn't have this predictive mechanism the universe would seem very strange indeed.

But but because we hallucinate our reality we get the illusion that what we experience is instantaneous in respect to the cause!

[1] depending on the circuit it can take >100 msec for a nerve signal to reach the brain, and that's not accounting for the subsequent processing

kallistisoft··on I am afraid to inform you that you have built a compiler (2022)
I've experienced the 10th rule first hand...

Many years ago I was writing a bunch of modular audio applications that were all interconnected using JACK. So of course I needed some convenient way of storing/restoring the graphs that connected the various components that were always in flux -- each audio experiment had it's own graph, but there were often re-occurring sub-graphs.

So, I started to build a small cli utility that could save the current graph and restore it later... of course because of the common sub-graphs it needed to be able to refer to other labeled graphs so i could easily reference and re-use them... and of course to (save myself time) it also needed to have arithmetic composability so that I could add/subtract existing graphs to create new ones... and of course it would be helpful if I could also annotate the graphs so that they could launch the associated programs...

So in the end I had a generic DSL that had recursive graph parsing, reification (labels), graph composability, arithmetic composability, and could associate arbitrary labels with executable code.

I eventually looked up from my adderal fueled hack-a-thon and realized I had created a half-baked LISP and decided it was time for to go to bed! :)

kallistisoft··on Make a low-cost Bluetooth LE packet sniffer with Wireshark
Very much depends on what you're trying to do... In my case I wanted to examine the raw traffic between two devices that I had written software for and had full control over. I found it worked just fine as the debug version of the code doesn't implement any of the ble security features. Also had no issues using the dongle to examine ble 5.x traffic.
kallistisoft··on Make a low-cost Bluetooth LE packet sniffer with Wireshark
Recently setup this up using the same board (nrf52840 usb dongle), it was a fun and cheap ($10 on mouser.com) mini-project. Learned a bunch about the ble protocol in the process :)
kallistisoft··on Magic123: One Image to High-Quality 3D Object Generation
Very impressive work, but this reads more as data compression and retrieval algorithm than a generative model. For all of the examples they're inputting a novel 2D view of a known object and reconstructing the 3D mesh from the 2D/3D training set of the same object.

I'd like to see how it performs on a novel object that is similar to one in the training set, but not included in the training data.

kallistisoft··on Moss Voltaics
Thank you for pointing out the missing link: https://news.mit.edu/2023/mit-engineers-create-supercapacito...

> Also, cement is not very sustainable because of CO2 emissions.

Agreed that cement is a CO2 issue, but I think the overall environmental savings of not having to refine and transport lithium far outweighs the cost of the cement

Also the cement batteries are *very* simple to construct; it only takes a 4th grade education and can be made from locally sourced materials

kallistisoft··on LK-99: Team of Southeast University observed zero resistance below 110 K
If LK-99 turns out be a legit room temp superconductor I can't see traditional patent/IP rules applying to it. The value to our species to too high for a technology like that to be encumbered. I would think a very large lump sum payment to the patent holders would be sufficient to cover everyone's interest.

Otherwise I fully expect every government in the world to simply ignore the patent and allow public/private use -- effectively invalidating the patent.

There is existing precedent for this type of action: the US government seizing wireless patents during WW1 or the Indian government invalidating international patents on medication for the purpose of federal manufacturing.

kallistisoft··on Moss Voltaics
It would be fun to combine this with the cement-based supercapacitor announced by MIT a couple days ago[1]. It would be possible to create a house who's structure "passively" collects and stores energy made entirely of commodity materials!
kallistisoft··on Linux has achieved a 3% desktop market share
> Good luck trying to run a proper GNU/Linux on those Android devices.

The Termux App [https://termux.dev/en/] provides a full linux terminal with zsh, emacs, and apt based package manager. I've been using it in lieu of creating full apks for personal projects -- much easier to spin up a database and local webserver via ssh on my phone than to build a proper app package.

I find it fits most of my linux on the go needs; for example I can pull up a node REPL and quickly test code on my phone, or curl a API endpoint

kallistisoft··on The rule says, “No vehicles in the park”
I also got 11% answered no to everything but car and horse...

Not sure given the other responses if this number is acurate?

kallistisoft··on Object-oriented Programming with ANSI-C (1993) [pdf]
You can absolutely translate object oriented C++ to vanilla C. As a young teenager I would routinely convert C++ from books I got from my parents/library to C, because I didn't have access to a C++ compiler. The process isn't that difficult....

Take the members of the C++ object and create a struct to hold the data then create a 'constructor' function for populating that data. Afterwards you just call the member functions of the original class, as simple C functions, and pass the struct as the first argument.

This in fact is what the actually happens at the assembly level when using a C++ compiler! The idea of an 'object' is purely an abstraction!

kallistisoft··on MIDI 2.0 driver support coming with Linux 6.5
OSC still exists it just never became the defacto standard for the industry; primarily because there is no standardized device mapping for interoperability.

MIDI 2.0 fixes a number of issues that OSC was intended to fix, but imposes vendor limitations which lead to standardized adoption.

I still use OSC for music production, and it's my goto protocol for writing code that needs networking as it's a super simple message passing protocol that lets me quickly connect various devices and services :)

kallistisoft··on Rowan Atkinson on free speech (2012) [video]
> The so-called "systemic" racism is mostly a conspiracy theory unsupported by evidence.

I will give you far too much benefit of the doubt and assume that you are speaking from a privileged position of ignorance vs being willfully ignorant, or arguing in bad faith. I do not have the time, nor is it my responsibility to educate you on these matters, but here is a very easy place to start.

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

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

kallistisoft··on Hot Pixels: Frequency, Power, and Temperature Attacks on GPUs and Arm SoCs
Luckily, like many of the sensor based side-channel attacks, the information rate is extremely slow (0.125bps nominal rate for pixel sniffing) and the machine has to start in a known calibrated state.

Not to diminish the work, it's an excellent lab experiment, but this has practically zero real-world application.

kallistisoft··on “Smart Gun” that uses biometrics to authenticate
I don't know who is down-voting the above post, but it is 100% correct.

People have bought into the 'self-defense' mythology of gun ownership and it is just that -- a mythology.

The sad fact is that in the United States, the number one use of guns is for suicide (54%), followed by killing/being killed by someone you know. The whole self-defense/good-guy-with-a-gun scenario is rare, which is why it makes the news when it happens.

I grew up in a somewhat violent area, gunshots were a regular occurrence, and I still maintain that I would rather live my life free of fear than go to bed every night with last thing in my mind being the idea of taking someones life

kallistisoft··on Why Did Thomas Harriot Invent Binary? (2021)
A few gripes...

Binary is impossible to 'invent' as it is just an application of established arithmetic rules to a base 2 number system.

If i declared an arbitrary base of 73 you wouldn't say I just 'invented' septuaginta-tresinary??

People have been using base 2 for thousands of years prior to Thomas Harriot, see egyptian multiplication, and to assume that these early mathematicians didn't understand the concept of base is naive!

/get off my lawn

kallistisoft··on How much is a smidgen?
> I’ve decided to entirely disregard the suggested measurements provided in recipes, which means that I guess I’ve decided not to follow recipes at all anymore.

When I want to cook something new I'll grab several recipes and compare the ingredients and relative measures to get a meta-concept of what constitutes the fundamental essence of that dish. I use that as a base reference but actually cook by intuition/taste.

For me a recipe is mainly a list of ingredients, with the execution being a matter of personal preference.

kallistisoft··on Protect your art against AI/machine learning theft with customizable watermarks
Given everything I know about feature extraction/embedding, my armchair answer would be a resounding no... Given enough similar content the water mark would get rounded of as what it is -- noise.

Also, The fact that a service which in theory would have a high demand, offers 0 explanation or justification for their technique is highly suspect.

- - - - -

The only way a watermark would be even remotely effective as a deterrent would be if everyone agreed on a fixed mark; this mark could be automatically detected (this a silly way of doing things), or if it was incorporated into the model would create a bubble of locality due to feature alignment (poising the well)

Neither of these are practical or reasonable solutions like: robots.txt, EXIF metadata, and digital signing - combined with regulations allowing for legal recourse

TL;DR - DRM of publicly available data is not a "winnable" fight

kallistisoft··on BYD says self-driving tech is more valuable in factories than cars
You can go back in time before the invention of the train and find autonomous transportation!!!

People used to own 'vehicles' that were capable of automatic obstacle avoidance and fully autonomous navigation to predefined locations. These vehicles were even capable of refueling themselves, self-repairing minor damage, and even self-assembling new units!!

Occasionally the they would glitch and cause unexpected behaviors, and given the technology of the time, the waste products from the 'fuel cell' would cause problems, but they worked pretty well...

Eventually they were replaced by the non-intelligent automobiles, but they are still the preferred method of ground transport in rocky/uneven terrain, and can occasionally be seen in urban environments during parades, or being used for crowd control.

We called them horses ;)

kallistisoft··on The 'Insanely Broad' Restrict Act Could Ban Much More Than Just TikTok
The bill specifically mentions open-source software, and given how broadly an 'entity' is defined, and open source project/library that has contributions from a citizen of a 'adversarial country' and has more than 1MM users could be affected by this bill if directed by the Sec.State or Executive

Section 5(a)(3)(c)

(a) Priority Information And Communications Technology Areas.—In carrying out sections 3 and 4, the Secretary shall prioritize evaluation of—

...

(3) any software, hardware, or any other product or service integral to data hosting or computing service that uses, processes, or retains, or is expected to use, process, or retain, sensitive personal data with respect to greater than 1,000,000 persons in the United States at any point during the year period preceding the date on which the covered transaction is referred to the Secretary for review or the Secretary initiates review of the covered transaction, including—

...

(C) machine learning, predictive analytics, and data science products and services, *including those involving the provision of services to assist a party utilize, manage, or maintain open-source software;*

kallistisoft··on Judge asks ChatGPT to decide bail in murder trial
I had to do a search for other sources and found a slightly better article from the Times of India: https://www.indiatimes.com/trending/social-relevance/punjab-...

As for the substance of the article... I'm speechless

kallistisoft··on On-Sets: A Vintage Set Theory Game
This is fantastic game! I played it in competition as child, and as a programmer I use the skills I learned from it every day. I highly recommend anyone with children to buy a copy and play it with them. It's easy to learn and an absolute joy to play.

Also, see if your school district participates in the National Academic Games tournaments. https://www.agloa.org/

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