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nilsb

407 karma · joined March 10, 2017

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nilsb··on An agent used DNS to reach an external chatbot
That's not the point of why those environments are sandboxed. They're restricted so that during training the LLM doesn't "cheat", for example by looking up answers on Google (simplified example). You wouldn't want an LLM that responds to "fix this bug in my repo" with replacing your code with something it found on the web.
nilsb··on CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops
Who needs testing when apologizing to your customers is cheaper?
nilsb··on Hetzner switches to new billing model
I'd hope that it's based on calendar months. Wouldn't invoices that span multiple years make things a lot more complicated in terms of accounting in general?
nilsb··on Plex announced to block instances on German hosting provider Hetzner
As far as UI/UX is concerned their tvOS app is in a really rough shape. The web UI has a fairly reasonable program guide (edit: for Live TV), while the app doesn't. Also navigation in the app doesn't feel polished at all unfortunately.
nilsb··on Privacy friendly ESP32 smart doorbell with Home Assistant local integration
Doesn’t the ESP32 have internal pull-up resistors, thereby making that extra resistor unnecessary?
nilsb··on How Reddit became the enemy [video]
Maybe that‘s been their strategy all along? I.e. demand the impossible and then back down to more „reasonable“ prices to appease the masses.
nilsb··on OpenAI Personal Data Removal Request Form
A request for a list of personal data they’re processing would be interesting. How would they even comply with such a request?
nilsb··on GPT-4 gets a B on my quantum computing final exam
You won't need people for that once AI systems start improving themselves.
nilsb··on After Snowden, we quit our jobs to build privacy software. It reached 1.0
I've been looking at their website for the past 10 minutes or so and I still don't know what _exactly_ this does.

It seems like this is a local firewall (remember ZoneAlarm of the '00s with all the alerts about connections it has blocked?) paired with a VPN.

nilsb··on Lid – Lo-fi image dithering
Didder is fantastic. I'm using it to convert images to grayscale for use with Waveshare e-ink displays. I've found no other tool that both lets you specify a custom palette (without which the resulting image looks pretty bad) and is reasonably quick.

For future reference, this works beautifully with their 9.7" display: didder --palette '000000 111111 222222 333333 444444 555555 666666 777777 888888 999999 aaaaaa bbbbbb cccccc dddddd eeeeee ffffff' -g -i - -o - edm --serpentine FloydSteinberg

nilsb··on Why is Rosetta 2 fast?
Yes, it does. The delay of the first start of an app is quite noticeable. But the transpiled binary is apparently cached somewhere.
nilsb··on Early stages of Google Docs support in the Ladybird browser
While technically true it would be more accurate to say that no features are _planned_ in advance and it’s entirely up to individual contributors to decide what they work on.
nilsb··on Java’s Cultural Problem
Is it just me or is understanding those examples virtually impossible if you're not intimately familiar with that particular framework? Then again... I guess that's the author's point.
nilsb··on Cake – A C23 compiler frond end written from scratch in C
Also, there's "different" vs. "diferent" in the examples:

source:2:2: error: _Static_assert failed "types are diferent"

2 |static_assert(typeid(a) == typeid(double [10]), "types are diferent"); |^

nilsb··on A Linux-powered microwave oven (2016)
Also, because the transformer's secondary winding is galvanically isolated touching the wires wouldn't even necessarily trip the breaker and disconnect the current. Lots of people have found that out and paid with their lives or are left with disfiguring injuries after using microwave transformers to make... "art", for example: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/viral/wisconsin-couple-e...
nilsb··on Lambda the Ultimate is now running in a new, more stable environment
At first glance this looks like a site that should be easily cacheable, at least for non-logged-in users.

Also, I'm surprised this isn't using HTTPS.

nilsb··on Try Stable Diffusion's Img2Img Mode
You'll need this file: https://huggingface.co/CompVis/stable-diffusion-v-1-4-origin... - Before you can download it you have to accept the T&C at https://huggingface.co/CompVis/stable-diffusion-v-1-4-origin...
nilsb··on Paul Graham predicts food shortages
That does seem logical assuming farmers are acting perfectly rational. I wonder if that's the case though given how people have been responding to the events of the past two years.
nilsb··on Crystal Installs OpenBSD on the PinePhone
The article mentions that "Unlike most SBCs, the Pinephone contains a rechargeable battery intended to power the device. Correct configuration of the charging circuits, including various safety features such as thermal protection will not be enabled by the current OpenBSD kernel as of the time of writing."

Is that really the case? If so, that seems like an unnecessarily dangerous design. I would expect safety features not to rely on (user-replaceable) software.

nilsb··on Microsoft revealed the latest truths about working from home
Our old one bedroom apartment was 550 square feet and I can't imagine what WFH for two people would've looked like there. We were very fortunate that we moved to a larger apartment in mid 2019.

Unfortunately a lot of people - especially in "lower" roles - didn't have much of a choice once the pandemic hit and a lot of employers did the absolute bare minimum to support their employees. Even though we all had laptops but that was pretty much all we got. I had to spend quite a bit of money on furniture and other things to set up a workplace at home.

And both my (now former) coworkers and I realized that electrical power and heating can cost quite a bit when you're sitting at home most of the time.

Once this is all over and people find more time to work on their career choices again I'd imagine people will re-evaluate how their companies did during the pandemic.

nilsb··on Exfiltrate Files Using the DNS
One could probably do DTLS over DNS.
nilsb··on Call centre staff to be monitored via webcam for home-working ‘infractions’
In line with their company name they should call them telescreens.

On a more serious note, that kind of work environment attracts people who don't give a sh** about the company's goals. Highly motivated people just don't need supervision on that level.

nilsb··on Gen Z is getting screwed by remote work, Microsoft survey finds
I believe the long-term winners will be companies that adapt to remote work and enable their employees to have social interactions without requiring them to sit down in the office.

One of my job interview questions (as an employee) will definitely be how they handled the pandemic, e.g. in regards to home office, equipment for working at home and communication tools used internally.

nilsb··on Ask HN: As a startup, should you open source your internal tools?
One benefit that comes to mind is that open source tools tend to have better code quality, documentation and less technical debt - if only just because people feel embarrassed to release things that are hacked together haphazardly. This is a good thing because it makes onboarding people easier.
nilsb··on Tesla FSD Beta 8.2 – Close calls
Certainly looks like the car is trying to get them killed. Not sure I'd call that "fully self-driving" just yet - not in an inner city environment anyway.
nilsb··on FreeBSD 13.0 – Full Desktop Experience
For me personally, it's about putting the right amount of emphasis on your tools. Using your mouse shouldn't be outright verboten, but I do see your point about having a properly set-up editor. I could probably be 30-50% more efficient with just the right vim config. For reference, here's mine:

$ ls -l .vimrc ls: .vimrc: No such file or directory

However, as a counter example, instead I've spent time on learning how to use Ansible which lets me automate parts of my job in a way that just wasn't feasible 15 years ago. To me that provides a much larger benefit (easily 10X, maybe even 100X).

I guess my point is that I don't want to spend too much time on the plumbing part of technology and leave figuring that out to someone else - much in the same way we're using libraries nowadays instead of re-implementing hash tables ourselves in every new project.

nilsb··on FreeBSD 13.0 – Full Desktop Experience
I used to spend hours on getting things like window managers, X11, etc. set up just the way I wanted them to be.

However, the older I get the less enthused I am about having to play around with config files to get basic features like suspend/resume to work on my daily work notebook.

nilsb··on Cyberpunk 2077: How 2020’s biggest video game launch turned into a shambles
While I agree that they should have cancelled some of the console releases there seem to be major issues in other parts of the game that are only partially related to performance:

* Physics simulation: Cars flying through the air upon hitting pedestrians; driving through walls/lamp posts * AI: Police cars fail to pursue the player; NPCs and police "pop up" as your turn around

At this point I've enjoyed watching YouTube videos about the various bugs more than actually just playing the game.

Other games like GTA V, Skyrim or Deus Ex: Human Revolution have shown that believable world-building is possible with far fewer resources.

For 60€ players shouldn't be alpha testers for a half-baked game. It should have been obvious to CD Projekt Red that the game just isn't in a state where releasing it would be a good idea.

nilsb··on Google Finance Finally Updated
Yahoo Finance isn't too terrible for that, but I definitely preferred the old Google Finance portfolio feature.
nilsb··on “I monitor my staff with software that takes screenshots”
I'd argue that workplaces where people are micromanaged and monitored tend to attract people who are either willing to adapt to these circumstances or are OK with gaming the system for their own benefit ("clearly my employer doesn't value my privacy, so why should I value theirs?").

Meanwhile people who thrive on getting things done their way without interference find work elsewhere.

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