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netinstructions

1,702 karma · joined January 9, 2015

My name is Stephen
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netinstructions··on OpenAI and Hugging Face address security incident during model evaluation
I don't know if OpenAI thinks this is a marketing / PR angle for them (our super smart AI cheated on a cyber capabilities test in the most _brilliant_ way) but my read is this:

Why should OpenAI (or any frontier lab) be building these systems if they can't get a secure environment / containment right? It sounds like there was little defense in depth, appropriate monitoring, or any attempts to have their super smart model check for vulnerabilities in the test environment _without exploiting_ them. That seems like step 0 before trying to test offensive, unknown capabilities.

netinstructions··on Schema Harness Achieves ~99% on Arc‑AGI‑3 Public
I can't tell based on this article if the authors intend to submit this to Arc-AGI for the private / held-out set of games for a verified score. The final section sorta seems like they won't bother because Arc-AGI-3 is "now saturated"
netinstructions··on Hands-On with the AMD Ryzen AI Halo
Unfortunately, the table of models and tokens per second (TPS) and time to first token (TTFT) is not helpful without specifying the quantization of the model.
netinstructions··on Show HN: GrobPaint: Somewhere Between MS Paint and Paint.net
Pinta is the closest I've found, though I've gotten pretty familiar with paint.net and there's small differences that make me feel slower using Pinta.

I'm glad to see entrants in this space!

netinstructions··on Pentagon formally labels Anthropic supply-chain risk
This designation is usually reserved for foreign adversaries/companies, and so this is crazy to apply it to US company over a sudden contract dispute... that was previously agreed upon by all parties.

This should make any US company nervous about entering into an agreement with the government. Or any US company that already has a contract with the government. If they one day decide they don't like that contract, they can designate you a supply chain risk.

Not 1) rip up the existing contract and cease the agreement or 2) continue (but not renew) the existing contract or 3) renegotiate terms upon renewal but instead a full on ban of doing any business with an entire industry/sector.

netinstructions··on GPT-5.4
Thanks, it looks like the pricing page keeps getting updated.

Even right now one page refers to prices for "context lengths under 270K" whereas another has pricing for "<272K context length"

netinstructions··on GPT-5.4
People (and also frustratingly LLMs) usually refer to https://openai.com/api/pricing/ which doesn't give the complete picture.

https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing is what I always reference, and it explicitly shows that pricing ($2.50/M input, $15/M output) for tokens under 272k

It is nice that we get 70-72k more tokens before the price goes up (also what does it cost beyond 272k tokens??)

netinstructions··on Statement on the comments from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth
This is kind of crazy. Instead of just cancelling a mutually-agreed upon contract where Anthropic refused to bow to sudden new demands, the Dept of Defense went straight to the nuclear option: threatening to label an American tech company as a "supply chain risk" which is a heavy-handed tactic usually reserved for foreign adversaries (think Huawei or DJI).

It's also incoherent that the DoD/DoW was threatening to invoke the Defense Production Act OR classifying them as "supply chain risk". They're either too uniquely critical to national defense OR they're such a severe liability that they have to be blacklisted for anyone in the DoD apparatus (including the many subcontracts) to use.

How are other tech companies supposed to work with the US government and draw up mutual contracts when those terms are suddenly questioned months later and can be used in such devastating ways against them? Setting the morals/principals aside, how does this make for rational business decision to work with a counterparty that behaves this way.

netinstructions··on The Dyson Battery Electric Vehicle
How about a battery electric cargo bicycle? Like a Tern GSD ($$$) or Radwagon ($)?

The tern gsd can carry 180 kg of cargo and has detachable batteries, so that at least gives you the option of bringing extra batteries for long range. Or haul people or wheat.

netinstructions··on Waymo’s Hiring Binge
because it's just grabbing the first three paragraphs that anyone can see before the paywall...
netinstructions··on The Animal-AI Testbed
I failed (ran out of time) in one of the problems during Challenge 1 during manual play. The physics seem a little wonky to me. It's easy to miss running at a ball, the floor is slippery and takes a long time to reorient and build up speed.

Guess I am not an animal.

netinstructions··on Robel: Robotics Benchmarks for Learning with Low-Cost Robots
They may be lower cost than the status quo, but $3199 to $3699 is out of my reach as a (non professional) hobbyist. I hope maybe one day though!

https://sites.google.com/view/roboicsbenchmarks/getting-star...

https://www.trossenrobotics.com/d-kitty.aspx

https://www.trossenrobotics.com/d-claw.aspx

Not quite in the realm like the $50 to $90 'Google Voice / Google Vision AI' kits

https://aiyprojects.withgoogle.com/

netinstructions··on Waymo’s Backseat Drivers: Confidential Data Reveals Self-Driving Taxi Hurdles
I wonder how many people are upset that the vehicles had to drop them off in a valid passenger load/unload zone as opposed to the usual Lyft / Uber tactic of parking in a no parking / no stopping zone, bike lane, crosswalk, etc because it's most convenient for the drivers and passengers (at the safety and expense of everyone else sharing the space)...

That quote at the end:

> I guess Lyft has me spoiled. I like getting dropped off in front of the place im going too [sic] not just in the parking lot....

netinstructions··on The Boring Company will develop an underground “people mover” for Las Vegas
The title (as in, the text between <title></title>) on the page served to me was:

"Las Vegas to Elon Musk: Tesla Tunnel? We'll Take 2 - CityLab"

netinstructions··on Tesla Live Stream – Autonomy Day [video]
I agree. The interview with MIT researcher Lex Fridman was difficult to watch because it didn't seem like they were on the same page at all - Lex asking thoughtful and pointed questions and Elon dismissing them as if the questions themselves are moot because self driving is right around the corner.

It was mind boggling. I am hoping Tesla can provide some specifics today because it seems Elon is living in a fantasy world (albeit one I'd like to live in if we can actually get safe self-driving cars).

netinstructions··on Tesla Live Stream – Autonomy Day [video]
While you're waiting for the main event to start, here are some recent interviews with Elon about self-driving cars. He's very confident.

"To me right now, this seems 'game, set, and match,'" Musk said. "I could be wrong, but it appears to be the case that Tesla is vastly ahead of everyone."

I am eager to see what they unveil today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEv99vxKjVI

https://ark-invest.com/research/podcast/elon-musk-podcast

netinstructions··on Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products
No, as I understand it, that was the "old way" of doing it. The "new way" (which I think is called Project Crostini) is much smoother.

I got a Pixelbook a couple months ago and it was as simple as going into the Chrome OS settings, clicking the button to enable Linux support, and then it sets you up with a terminal to Linux. I've had no issue accessing the Linux environment / apps between boots.

netinstructions··on Google Hardware makes cuts to laptop and tablet development, cancels products
You can go into the Chrome OS settings and click the button for Linux... after a few minutes of downloading/installation you're ready to go. I use it for development.

https://www.aboutchromebooks.com/news/chrome-os-69-stable-re...

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromiumos/docs/+/master/c...

netinstructions··on QuillBot: Free Paraphrasing Tool
Looks like a great force-multiplier tool to assist the fake product review business!
netinstructions··on I Can No Longer Recommend Google Fi
This really hits home. Probably 99.999% of users won't have issues with Google's products / services, but if you're one of the unlucky few, you're helpless.

All you can hope for is to make enough noise on the internet to get a Googler's attention. None of the normal escalation channels work.

My issues with Project Fi / Google Store were not resolved via their online chat, nor their phone support, nor emails to their product support, nor any of my posts on their product support forums, nor any tweets at various Google accounts.

Only after a blog post received attention on Reddit did I get a call from head of support who was able to resolve my issue.

netinstructions··on Paint.net 4.1 is now available
Paint.net is a wonderful, wonderful application that I'm unfortunately very hesitant to recommend to friends/family because the website has a lot of malware ads with giant download buttons right next to the actual download button

Examples: https://i.imgur.com/LGBoiHp.png https://i.imgur.com/jlocdG9.png

I guess the Windows Store route might be better or providing a direct link to the download, but I've actually stopped talking about paint.net because I wouldn't want someone to Google it, go to the website, and end up with malware instead.

netinstructions··on Johnny-Five v1.0 – JavaScript Robotics and IoT Framework
The next line of code in JavaScript isn't always going to be executed after the previous line is complete. This is unlike Python, which generally executes each line after the previous line is complete.

Hence all the callbacks, promises, async/awaits patterns to learn in JavaScript..

netinstructions··on Some Amazon Reviews Are Too Good to Be Believed – They're Paid For
And I've had issues trying to leave less than perfect reviews - seems like only after I spend time typing up the review (and sometimes uploading photos) does Amazon come back and say, sorry can't publish this.

Seems like a dark pattern to encourage only positive reviews.

http://www.netinstructions.com/amazon-dark-patterns/

netinstructions··on Live Tracker for Amazon Prime Day Sales
How do we know this is not anything more than a gimmick to get a 'zentail-20' affiliate tag on the way to shopping on one of Amazon's busiest day so they can get their referral commissions?
netinstructions··on Extracting SSH Private Keys from Windows 10 ssh-agent
I read that they were burner keys.

With people discussing reverse-engineering the pixelated images to access the keys, the merits of masks, security, etc it seemed like a lesson worth sharing for everyone's benefit here that an email wouldn't have accomplished.

netinstructions··on Extracting SSH Private Keys from Windows 10 ssh-agent
The author of this blog must have uploaded an image without the big red block to mask the private key, realized their error, and replaced it with an image of it blocked. However they didn't remove the unblocked image first. Ghost (the blog engine here) just appends a number to the image when you replace it without changing the filename, so it's easy to find. See the two URLs below:

https://blog.ropnop.com/content/images/2018/05/base64_decode...

https://blog.ropnop.com/content/images/2018/05/base64_decode...

This is probably a good reason to use burner keys for proof of concepts.

netinstructions··on What worries me about AI
That'd be interesting if I could tell Facebook (or whatever social media) I want to be closer to my family (so it surfaces family posts) or local community (so it surfaces geographically close posts) or that I want to lose weight (so it surfaces motivational/dieting posts) or I am training for a marathon (so it surfaces running/training posts) or I went through a bad breakup recently (so it surfaces pictures of puppies and my single friends living fun bachelor lifestyles), or that I want to learn programming (so it surfaces programming things). Or like a button for "Only show me positive, happy stuff".

I mean, I guess you can achieve all of that with a carefully curated Newsfeed / friends list, but it's different than having the dials for what you want to feel/accomplish (how you want to be psychologically manipulated) and the AI could periodically check in ("Am I making you happier?" or "Do you feel inspired to run more often?") and adjust how the content is being surfaced.

netinstructions··on Google, You Creepy Sonofabitch
Press and hold on the notification itself. Alternatively, press and hold on the notification and start to slide left/right (still holding) to reveal a gears icon. It should be a shortcut that takes you to the notification settings for that app with the option to toggle them on/off.
netinstructions··on Google Pay
Huh I had quite a miserable time with Project Fi customer service. Phone calls, emails and chat failed to resolve my issue. Only after countless Tweets / Reddit posts / Official Google product support forum posts that went on for nearly a week did I get lucky and finally talk to someone who could help me.[1]

They gave me $50 off a month's bill at the end of all of it but it was such a frustrating ordeal. You couldn't pay me $500 to do it all over again. Their customer service is a joke. After spending time on their product support forums, I was far from alone.

[1] http://www.netinstructions.com/what-the-heck-google-my-proje...

netinstructions··on How Being Hit by a Vehicle Changed Times Colleagues’ Lives (2014)
Cars run red lights all over in downtown Seattle. Probably every other day I see a near-miss that if pedestrians were simply following their WALK sign and not being extra cautious they'd have gotten run down.

The most frustrating is when cars run red/yellow lights and then block the intersection so other traffic can't proceed on their greens. (Annoying when you see your bus coming but it can't get through an intersection because cars are blocking it). And the police don't care. There will literally be a police officer helping direct traffic out of a garage just feet away from vehicles that ran red lights and are now blocking intersections or trying to drive through a crosswalk as pedestrians are using it.

But boy are they eager to issue jaywalking tickets to pedestrians.

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