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romseb

457 karma · joined April 10, 2014

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romseb··on Psilocybin bests SSRI for major depression in first long-term comparison
What are the more preferred plants/substances for personal growth and mental health?
romseb··on TexTube: Chat with any YouTube video transcript in ChatGPT fast
It does not work with long form conversations like podcasts.

"I was unable to retrieve the transcript for this video due to its large size."

romseb··on Hezbollah pager explosions kill several people in Lebanon
After seeing some videos of faces and hands that were blown off, it's clear that the tiny batteries could not have caused explosions like this.
romseb··on OpenAI starts rolling out new voice mode
Full tweet:

"We’re starting to roll out advanced Voice Mode to a small group of ChatGPT Plus users. Advanced Voice Mode offers more natural, real-time conversations, allows you to interrupt anytime, and senses and responds to your emotions.

Users in this alpha will receive an email with instructions and a message in their mobile app. We'll continue to add more people on a rolling basis and plan for everyone on Plus to have access in the fall. As previously mentioned, video and screen sharing capabilities will launch at a later date.

Since we first demoed advanced Voice Mode, we’ve been working to reinforce the safety and quality of voice conversations as we prepare to bring this frontier technology to millions of people.

We tested GPT-4o's voice capabilities with 100+ external red teamers across 45 languages. To protect people's privacy, we've trained the model to only speak in the four preset voices, and we built systems to block outputs that differ from those voices. We've also implemented guardrails to block requests for violent or copyrighted content.

Learnings from this alpha will help us make the Advanced Voice experience safer and more enjoyable for everyone. We plan to share a detailed report on GPT-4o’s capabilities, limitations, and safety evaluations in early August."

romseb··on Living in a Lucid Dream
As a child, for a few years I had a recurring nightmare with multiple false awakenings, sometimes five or six until I would wake up for real.

I would wake up in bed, get up and at a specific point, an overwhelming feeling of impending doom would overcome me. Then at the peak of this emotion, a monster would grab me by my ankles and violently drag me back up the stairs and into bed. I would then wake up and repeat the process.

Sometimes, I was not sure anymore if I landed in reality or if this existence will turn into horror again.

romseb··on Language is primarily a tool for communication rather than thought [pdf]
I am the same and would say it could be a form or side effect of aphantasia.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia

romseb··on Apple Silicon MacBook batteries can't be replaced under warranty by third party
Was the stain gate the one where you could remove the coating with lots of vinegar and scrubbing?
romseb··on Apple Silicon MacBook batteries can't be replaced under warranty by third party
Lots of glue involved, but it was relatively "easy" to replace the battery in a 2019 Macbook Pro. I would take a swappable battery with a thicker case in an heartbeat though.
romseb··on Possible association between tattoos and lymphoma
Genetic predispositions, obesity and a lot of other factors also play a role in the risk of developing lymphoma.

From the article: "we found that the risk of developing lymphoma was 21 percent higher among those who were tattooed"

Let's put this number into context, because "percent of increased risk" is always something I struggle to picture"

"Overall, the chance that a man will develop NHL in his lifetime is about 1 in 42; for a woman, the risk is about 1 in 52." [1]

So the overall risk is ~2 %. That means getting a tattoo will bring your overall risk of developing NHL from 2 % to 2.5 % instead.

[1] https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/abo...

romseb··on Imperceptible sensors can be printed directly on human skin
The press release didn't mention it at all. This figure shows three possibilities: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-024-01174-4/figures/4

* Augmented touch perception via dual-ECG sensing with person-i wearing bioelectronic fibre arrays and person-ii without. * A breathable skin-gated OECT on a fingertip * Dual-modal sensing for augmented perception of mist pulses with acidic, alkaline and neutral compositions distinguished through colorimetric and electrical readouts.

That is amazing.

romseb··on Jimmy Carter UFO Incident
This shape specifically (black triangle with white lights in each corner and an independent round red ball in the middle) has been reported numerous times over the decades, most prominently presented in the Belgian UFO wave 1989-1991 [1][2], including F-16 chases.

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vague_belge_d%27ovnis [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7psGj4M1ZI

romseb··on Shutting down the letsblock.it project and its official instance
At least for the YouTube filter templates, https://unhook.app is a great alternative.
romseb··on Latest ChatGPT 4 System prompt (1,700 tokens)
If it is the recipe book of your Grandma, then yes. For everything else, there's a sad reality: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36040967
romseb··on Pentagon ex-UFO chief says conspiracy theorists in government drive spending
It is sad that out of all the things that happen in this space, this is the news article that gets to the front page.

Kirkpatrick has been contradicting himself for months now. Another recent Guardian article is more insightful. There has been a concerted effort to remove very specific parts from a new legislation about the disclosure of non-human intelligence and materials:

“If it is the case that there is no substance to the UFO/UAP issue beyond misperceptions, paranoia, delusions, hallucinations, gullibility and disinformation then the government, military and academic organisations need to openly and transparently look under every alleged rock in this topic,” says clinical psychologist Daniel Stubbings of Cardiff Metropolitan University. “But they have chosen to do the exact opposite, which increases the suspicion that there is something to hide.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/14/what-happens...

romseb··on Show HN: Citadel – a Calibre-compatible eBook management app
Awesome.

I have been using calibre-web for many years, which (unlike Calibre) has a decent look and all the functionality I need.

romseb··on Do It Yourself Blind Repair
I agree this is well-made.

> This site really has it all.

It doesn't have German Rolladen though.

romseb··on Resetting the timer in my toothbrush
For my interdental spaces, an interdental brush does not work, my dental hygienist also tried and agrees. I used floss before, but a few years ago I switched to an italian-made oral irrigator that does not require batteries and is connected to the faucet: https://www.sowash.it/

I was skeptical about it at first, but it does the job just fine because the jet is more powerful than any of the electric oral irrigators.

While I'm not doing it anymore, a ketogenic diet also had a huge effect on the buildup of plaque.

romseb··on Resetting the timer in my toothbrush
Thanks for the educational text.

> you obviously have many misconceptions about dental hygiene/ brushing teeth

What misconceptions do you see? I go to the dental hygienist twice a year already and my oral health has never been better since using the Miswak in lieu of an electric toothbrush.

romseb··on Resetting the timer in my toothbrush
The fresh stick is quite flexible, so you can reach all surfaces after a small learning curve, but I actually combine it with this handle: https://www.swak.de/was-ist-die-swak/swak-miswak-zahnbuerste...
romseb··on Resetting the timer in my toothbrush
After spending way too much time looking for the "perfect" toothbrush, I eventually ended up with a twig from a tree [1]. I do not look back after dealing with non-replaceable batteries, expensive heads and generating way too much electronic waste than necessary [2]. My teeth have been perfectly clean and healthy after years of use. I do not need toothpaste and am much more inclined to clean my teeth in between meals because I do not need to stay in the bathroom for it anymore.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miswak

[2] If everyone would switch to twigs, we could save thousands of tons of waste every single year. "The global electric toothbrush market size was USD 3.16 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow from USD 3.27 billion in 2023 to USD 4.37 billion in 2030"

romseb··on The Best Timed Shot in TV History (Probably)
There is a cut a few seconds before the launch, so they didn't have to time 1 minute exactly, "just" ~20 seconds.
romseb··on Show HN: I built a Hacker News inspired newsboard for AI and robotics
emergentmind.com was presented here on HN, too, which had a similar concept in the beginning: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35356928
romseb··on Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Agostini, Krausz, and L’Huillier
I found this lab tour with Ferenc Krausz himself to be a great introduction to the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZIUJb85BAQ
romseb··on Update on KDP Title Creation Limits
There is some irony in Sam Altman bringing us the cause (AI) and purported solution (Worldcoin) for your problem at the same time.
romseb··on Every type of plastic used by LEGO (2022)
Plastics have become part of our culture. Just about everybody wears it on their bodies.

As for environmentally friendly alternatives, the German company Anker offers “real” bricks made of a mixture of quartz sand, chalk, and linseed oil.

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

romseb··on A curated list of uBlock origin filters
For YouTube, I go the other way and instead of blacklisting channels, I use https://unhook.app to only see my subscriptions and nothing else. No Home feed suggestions, no sidebar, no end screen cards, etc.
romseb··on Twitter Is DDOSing Itself
"curlprit" for too many GET's causing a 429 is just the perfect typo.
romseb··on Nanoplastic Ingestion Causes Neurological Deficits
This is what you ingest when you drink/eat food from a can: https://youtu.be/pGZyT9vGraw?t=135
romseb··on Intelligence Officials Say U.S. Has Retrieved Craft of Non-Human Origin
This is in parts to remove the baggage that comes with the word, but also to be more precise in what is described here: https://i.redd.it/sm2tecjyuqf91.png
romseb··on FTX stored private keys to crypto assets in plaintext, without access controls
That sounds like a perfect clone of Mt.Gox. They did the same 12 years ago.
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