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voidUpdate

4,349 karma · joined February 29, 2024

she/her/hers voidupdate.co.uk
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voidUpdate··on The Clouds of Hiroshima
I think that everybody who supports the use of nuclear weapons should look at these pictures and listen to the experiences by the survivors of the blast about what it was actually like just afterwards and think critically about if any creature deserves to be subjected to that
voidUpdate··on When 2+2=5
No, as opposed to code, which cannot simply be asked to work incorrectly
voidUpdate··on When 2+2=5
Yet again, simply asking an LLM to be naughty in the right way causes it to be naughty, and yet we still trust them with our code and data
voidUpdate··on The Sneakerweb
From what I can tell, you can basically take your USB drive of "websites" to your friend, and sync it with their local folder of "websites", and now you both have the most up to date versions of your combined group of "websites". (if your usb has Website A version 1 and Website B version 2, and you sync with someone who has Website A version 2 and Website C version 1, you'd both end up with Website A V2, Website B V2 and Website C V1)

The application also apparently has protections in place so you can't just create an updated version of someone else's website and distribute it the same way to impersonate them

voidUpdate··on Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own
Especially since, afaik, you plug it in and it just works. No messing around with installing operating systems, setting up users (aside from signing into steam) or anything. It's essentially a console that plays PC games, but it's also a PC for the purposes of upgradability and ability to do other, non-console stuff with it
voidUpdate··on Valve open-source the Steam Machine e-ink screen so you can make your own
Given computer part prices recently because of new datacenters, I think the price is already justified, as they don't want to sell it at a loss
voidUpdate··on NASA launches robot to save Swift telescope falling to Earth
Latest update is that it is in orbit, which is a good sign (Not sure what the timeline of the mission is though) https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/07/03/mission-to-b...

A really good video about this rocket and its mission by Alexander the Ok: https://youtu.be/Up0LNTMPnjI

voidUpdate··on The Day I Played Hide-and-Seek with an AI
> "Frida is my own work, written by hand over several years"

It's definitely impressive to write a large language model, image generator and listening model entirely by hand

voidUpdate··on Right to Local Intelligence
I'd probably want something other than an LLM running farming machines. I'd rather a purpose build machine learning system that is actually designed to run them, not just a tractor that goes "you're absolutely right! I ignored all the rules you set for me and harvested the wheat 2 months early. It's not just stupid, it's irresponsible"
voidUpdate··on CarPlay Is Additive
Just give me a head unit with an aux in and a cd player and I'll be happy
voidUpdate··on This blog is written in en-GB
Should probably have told the writers of Wicked to not associate Elphaba with a (children's book level) evil witch. I think the Wicked Witch of the West is pretty appropriate for JK
voidUpdate··on The vibration of the pager has a sound all its own
> "Then I run the XABCs, a rapid field assessment protocol"

It seems like every time I read about first aid procedures, there's something new since I last learnt it. This is the first time I've seen the X at the start. TBH, I'm still trying to remember if you do rescue breaths or not while doing CPR

voidUpdate··on Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions
Given the amount of web scraping LLM providers have been doing, I'd say it's likely that any code that is publicly accessible on the internet has been incorporated into it's training data, whatever its license
voidUpdate··on Godot will no longer accept AI-authored code contributions
I think the main functional reason is that because a human hasn't written the code, its potentially more likely to have subtle hidden bugs that a human cant explain because they didn't write it, as well as large pull requests that have to be validated by a human when smaller human written ones would be better. But I think it's generally the non-functional reasons that projects are rejecting LLM-generated code. Some developers just find LLM generated code icky, and would prefer not to be associated with it
voidUpdate··on Free the Icons
Maybe it's just me, but I never really liked the detailed older mac icons, like the examples at the bottom of the page. I've always enjoyed more minimalist, simple user interfaces. And I can understand what Apple are trying to do by standardising their icons on the squircle (even if the execution is a bit iffy sometimes, the big grey border doesn't look great). Though, judging by everyone else's writings, I'm probably in the minority
voidUpdate··on I used Claude Code to get a second opinion on my MRI
How does a Large Language Model process images then?
voidUpdate··on I used Claude Code to get a second opinion on my MRI
How do LLMs get information from images? Do they have to run essentially the opposite of an image generation model, taking an image and converting it into a description? I'm just concerned that the description wouldn't be able to encapsulate the information needed to differentiate exactly what is wrong with a shoulder. The image -> text model would need to know what it should actually report back to the LLM about the image, so that it doesn't just say "this is an MRI of a shoulder" or similar. It would be like a layperson describing a bridge, and asking an engineer if the bridge is safe based on that description
voidUpdate··on Examining circuit boards from the Space Shuttle's I/O Processor
It's pretty tiny in the grand scheme of things. Wikipedia says it's 30ft long, 14ft wide and 9 ft tall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37#Specifications_(X-...). The space shuttle was 122ft long, so around 4x the size. When you don't need to put space station modules inside the payload bay, or humans in the cockpit, you can make it pretty small and hard to find against the vastness of space
voidUpdate··on You can't unit test for taste
I'm pretty sure there's more points of interest in the entirety of Iceland than just Reykjavík and Route Number One
voidUpdate··on Why Does Everyone Hate AI?
How much do you really hate a company if you're still going to give them money regularly to use their products?
voidUpdate··on Why Does Everyone Hate AI?
Given the amount of people on HN happily using LLMs for their everyday work and extolling the virtues of LLMs, "everyone" might be a bit excessive
voidUpdate··on Mixing Visual and Textual Code
I was going to mention holyC here, but I don't think it is the same thing. holyC lets you embed images etc in the code, but those images don't become part of the logic. This paper is talking about mixing graphical programming languages with textual ones (like a file with both scratch blocks and c code in)
voidUpdate··on OpenAI unveils its first custom chip, built by Broadcom
Do failed wafers have to go in the trash, or can you recycle them?
voidUpdate··on OpenAI unveils its first custom chip, built by Broadcom
> "Downside is this chip would be huuuuge - a whole wafer."

Why don't we have chips like that? If a CPU the size of a postage stamp can do x amount of performance, imagine how much performance you could get if you used an entire wafer of chips running in parallel. Obviously there would be certain use cases, like you couldn't fit an entire wafer in a phone, but still

voidUpdate··on UTFS: A Tar-Like File System for Embedded Systems (2025)
Depends on your layout. My € is in the corner of my 4 key, and the only alt letters I get are accented vowels, ¦ and €. I use a UK English keyboard and windows
voidUpdate··on Dirty Little Zine – a tool for making an 8 page printable Zine
I keep hearing about zines and how they're cool and awesome, but I've never really seen one, so I can't really get a sense in my head for what they are. Does anyone have like an online gallery of zines or something? Are they literally just a small, independently made magazine?
voidUpdate··on Optocam Zero: a Pi Zero based digital camera made using off the shelf components
https://mitxela.com/projects/thermal_paper_polaroid talks about making a camera with a raspberry pi, and by using Buildroot they got it down to acceptable boot times
voidUpdate··on The Traditional Vi
I wish it took up more than 640 pixels on the left of my 1920 pixel screen. I changed the CSS of the body to be 900pt instead of 480, and it renders at 1200px wide, which looks a lot nicer to my eyes. Didn't bother trying to center it though, which would have improved it even more
voidUpdate··on AI Built a Nuke and Still Lost
Well this looks like a perfect example of why an LLM should never make any governmental decisions ever
voidUpdate··on UTFS: A Tar-Like File System for Embedded Systems (2025)
I just googled it to type my comment. And if you're using it enough to need quick access, you can do alt + 0181 on your numpad on a windows system
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