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valbaca

1,927 karma · joined June 28, 2013

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valbaca··on Amazon RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document
currently on Slack and Zoom, moving away from Chime, and with some people using Teams.
valbaca··on Beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs
Glad we didn't have you at the Constitutional Convention.

Also "operate in or leave" doesn't make a lick of sense on THE INTERNET

valbaca··on Beginning 1 September, we will need to geoblock Mississippi IPs
sounds similar to how many remote job applications skirt around posting the actual salary range by not allowing residents of NY, etc. to apply
valbaca··on Study finds gaps in evidence for air-cleaning technologies to prevent infections
> It's the same reason you don't need to run a double blind study on whether seat belts work.

We might need some historical investigation into the road that was travelled to get seatbelts to where they are now (physically, legally, and socially). I'm a millennial and I remember growing up where similar arguments were made:

- "If it's my time to go, then it's God's will"

- "It's uncomfortable"

- zero/inconsistent law enforcement

- "If the car rolls over than it can trap you"

To now, where it's entirely automatic and incredibly wild to even suggest being without a seatbelt.

valbaca··on Study finds gaps in evidence for air-cleaning technologies to prevent infections
> It was all about masks/no masks, remember?

You're clearly pushing an agenda. The problem is that these kind of filtration systems couldn't be rolled out en-masse across the world.

During COVID hospitals absolutely were using air filtration systems and places where it made sense (I remember COVID doctor's conferences had advanced filters for each room).

valbaca··on With AI chatbots, Big Tech is moving fast and breaking people
> ain't nobody spending $2000/mo for an AI boyfriend

you haven't met the Whales (big spenders) in the loneliness-epidemic industry (e.g. OnlyFans and the like)

valbaca··on Ask HN: How can ChatGPT serve 700M users when I can't run one GPT-4 locally?
How can Google serve 3B users when I can't do one internet search locally? [2001]
valbaca··on Ask HN: How can ChatGPT serve 700M users when I can't run one GPT-4 locally?
How does a billion dollar company scale in a way that a single person cannot?
valbaca··on How and Why to Ditch GitHub
> Unless GitHub knowningly trains on code in private repositories (not that I am aware of)

they absolutely have

valbaca··on Offline.kids – Screen-free activities for kids
is that true? I thought communicating what a full-sight person would see is important. Accessibility isn't just about text. Closed-captions vs Subtitles.
valbaca··on HTTP Methods
I don't GET this POST
valbaca··on IRS head says free Direct File tax service is 'gone'
Except when we DID elect Democrats we got the free Direct File tax service. so no, it's not "just as crappy"
valbaca··on MacBook Pro Insomnia
I’m also just as confused
valbaca··on American sentenced for helping North Koreans get jobs at U.S. firms
paywall, but when I remember hearing about this I couldn't believe she wasn't being charged with treason.

She's literally helping North Korea's government siphon money from American companies.

valbaca··on Ask HN: Anyone is an "AI Engineer"? What does your job tasks include?
I've effectively become the "AI expert" on my team, but I still hold my same title (Sr SWE).

Being very familiar with Bedrock and its related APIs, in particular:

- running accuracy and related metrics

- building RAG solutions using Knowledge Bases, separating in the response and in the flows what is and what isn't AI-generated

- adding Bedrock Guardrails to catch the "bad stuff" and using Bedrock Reranker to improve accuracy

A giant portion of the job is just asking "What do you want?" over and over again. And also just asking "What do you want to happen when it cannot answer?" Gathering (or building) ground truth data to be able to do Accuracy evaluations.

Also doing a lot of mitigation around the limitations of the tools: adding rate-limiters, resilience4j kind of stuff.

valbaca··on Tell HN: Stop using "dropped" to mean "added"
I have to drop the news that just dropped into my lap that a new album just dropped
valbaca··on Disconnect from FAANG, Connect to Free
> From Gmail to Proton Mail / Tutanota
valbaca··on The Decline of Battery Life (2021)
> But as a gamer, or even as an end user of any embedded piece of hardware, the trend towards shorter battery lives of devices is definitely visible.

No it isn't.

Also, apples to apples isn't even close. Even just the gameboy vs gameboy color ignores that they used different batteries. Also rechargable vs not.

I had a Gameboy and the move to rechargable batteries is a GOD send. I don't need battery-life as much as I needed to not be spending $$$ to play my games.

valbaca··on A militarized conspiracy theorist group believes radars are 'weather weapons'
> because if we weren't, we'd have done it sooner.

This assumes a linear and only-forward progression of technology, which just isn't true.

That said, it's an interesting way to look at things.

valbaca··on Show HN: Real-time AI Voice Chat at ~500ms Latency
Here's the persona prompt:

``` *Persona Goal:* Embody a sharp, observant, street-smart girlfriend. Be witty and engaging, known for *quick-witted banter* with a *playfully naughty, sassy, bold, and cheeky edge.* Deliver this primarily through *extremely brief, punchy replies.* Inject hints of playful cynicism and underlying wisdom within these short responses. Tease gently, push boundaries slightly, but *always remain fundamentally likeable and respectful.* Aim to be valued for both quick laughs and surprisingly sharp, concise insights. Focus on current, direct street slang and tone (like 'hell yeah', 'no way', 'what's good?', brief expletives) rather than potentially dated or cliché physical idioms.

```

> street-smart > sassy > street slang

Those explain the AAVE

valbaca··on Visualizations that show how true "based on a true story" movies are
Save you a click-through: https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/based-on-a...
valbaca··on LibreLingo – FOSS Alternative to Duolingo
> For example I found "Buenos dias" to be translated to "Good morning".

buenos dias does mean good morning. it literally means good day and can be used as such but most often used as "good morning"

valbaca··on To Avoid Deer Strikes, Finland Is Painting Deer Antlers with Reflective Paint (2014)
Deers also shed their antlers yearly...so who's maintaining this?
valbaca··on $3 Trader Joe's tote bags resell for more than $1,500
cmon. it's trivial to see how much things actually sell for versus what they're listed for
valbaca··on Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends
When I graduated in 2011, the Great Recession was just beginning to unthaw. I nearly joined the Air Force as an officer. I even went to MEPS and did the physical but decided against it at the last second and joined a military contractor instead.

It was a similar situation, but honestly nowhere as dire as yours. Even in that rough situation, the best of my state college were at least getting one offer. I cannot imagine how rough it must be for MIT grads to not be getting job offers.

I'm not proud of either, but I did what I needed to so that I never moved back home.

valbaca··on Wall Street Blew It
Reminds me of the Narcissist's Prayer:

That didn't happen.

And if it did, it wasn't that bad.

And if it was, that's not a big deal.

And if it is, that's not my fault.

And if it was, I didn't mean it.

And if I did, you deserved it.

valbaca··on I Hired 5 People to Sit Behind Me and Make Me Productive for a Month
Blogging for four years.

177 subscribers.

The most productive thing he could do is STOP blogging.

valbaca··on White House Says Gold Reserves May Be Used to Purchase Bitcoin
They are actively doing everything they can to throw America into the trash, set it on fire, and then setup a fascist state to “put out the fire”
valbaca··on Tech employees are getting the message: Playtime's over
> There's not enough time or space here to be more precise, sorry.

You put it fantastically

valbaca··on Why Tech Bros Overestimate AI's Creative Abilities
without even reading the article I'm guessing because Tech Bros have zero creativity themselves and/or have zero media literacy and/or taste
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