unkz's recent activity
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Comment on Two pizzas for me - What is this article trying to say? in ~tech
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Comment on GPT-4o in ~tech
unkz Link ParentDidn't they say they weren't releasing a search engine, and that something else was in store?...Didn't they say they weren't releasing a search engine, and that something else was in store?
In Short
Reports of OpenAI planning a Google Search competitor had surfaced online Sam Altman has denied these reports He added that new announcements regarding ChatGPT are in store -
Comment on GPT-4o in ~tech
unkz Link ParentYes, Rabbit and Humane are entirely obsoleted by this. I'm thoroughly impressed by this tech demo, it's a major leap forward.Yes, Rabbit and Humane are entirely obsoleted by this. I'm thoroughly impressed by this tech demo, it's a major leap forward.
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Comment on Seattle’s law mandating higher pay for food delivery workers is a case study in backfire economics in ~finance
unkz Link ParentI'm not arguing that anyone "should" be paid less, but I am saying that there are people who can't be profitably paid a living wage to do a job because employing them would be a net cost. What are...who should be paid less
I'm not arguing that anyone "should" be paid less, but I am saying that there are people who can't be profitably paid a living wage to do a job because employing them would be a net cost. What are the options for these people? If we demand that they be paid a living wage if they work, then they will be de facto excluded from the job market because they are not usable as employees at that rate.
Or are you suggesting that corporations should be required to hire people at a living wage rate to do jobs they aren't capable of as some kind of compulsory welfare program?
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Comment on Seattle’s law mandating higher pay for food delivery workers is a case study in backfire economics in ~finance
unkz Link ParentI'm not 100% clear on this proposal. Are you saying that the government should require people to work for the government in order to get welfare? What if they don't? Or what if they are just......There are plenty of things that "not valuable" people can do for society that don't just give their time and labour directly to a corporation. Picking up trash from public spaces, maintaining public parks, teaching/assisting with workshops at the public library, sorting books at the same library, etc. The government is already paying for these people (often via food stamps), why not just pay them real money and give them a job that helps society?
I'm not 100% clear on this proposal. Are you saying that the government should require people to work for the government in order to get welfare? What if they don't? Or what if they are just... bad at the job, for the same reasons that they aren't good enough at working to do a job for a company?
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Comment on Seattle’s law mandating higher pay for food delivery workers is a case study in backfire economics in ~finance
unkz Link ParentThis is possible, but only if we exclude certain people from the job market entirely. Why should we prevent people who are not capable of generating sufficient value to support themselves from at...I have an idea. Perhaps we make sure that all jobs are paid such that nobody working a reasonable amount of hours (let's say 35 hours a week) needs state support to not starve and have basics like shelter, heating and so on.. that's a broad-power, whole-society move and should be reasonably inescapable.
This is possible, but only if we exclude certain people from the job market entirely. Why should we prevent people who are not capable of generating sufficient value to support themselves from at least partially supporting themselves?
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Comment on Seattle’s law mandating higher pay for food delivery workers is a case study in backfire economics in ~finance
unkz Link ParentKind of, yes. It’s a means of paying certain people something when they don’t provide enough value to earn a living wage. What else should we do with people who are just kind of… not valuable?...If people being paid a living wage means the "solution" isn't feasible anymore, then was it a solution in the first place?
Kind of, yes. It’s a means of paying certain people something when they don’t provide enough value to earn a living wage. What else should we do with people who are just kind of… not valuable? Better that they subsidize themselves a bit rather than live entirely from the public purse.
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Comment on Is Emacs or VIM worth learning in today's day and age? in ~comp
unkz LinkI spend most of my time in vim, and the rest in Jupyter. If you spend most of your time developing on remote servers, it’s a big benefit. If you for some reason do mostly local development, you...I spend most of my time in vim, and the rest in Jupyter. If you spend most of your time developing on remote servers, it’s a big benefit. If you for some reason do mostly local development, you might not have much of a need, although I still prefer vim for local development as well over vscode/pycharm/eclipse/other IDEs.
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Comment on Are most political talks performative? in ~talk
unkz (edited )Link ParentI think this is the wrong characterization. It’s not too little or too much, it’s too little and counterproductive. There are lots of actually productive things to do, but they are hard and...So between those two moderate extremes which are either too much or too little, there doesn't seem to be room to do much.
I think this is the wrong characterization. It’s not too little or too much, it’s too little and counterproductive.
There are lots of actually productive things to do, but they are hard and involve more than just being loud or irritating.
Join a political party. Research actual solutions. Influence policy. Volunteer on the ground. Do serious journalism. Write articles that are designed to change opinion rather than rage farm. Donate actual money. Meaningfully engage with people with opposing political views.
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Comment on Florida man worries about his ruined reputation after pulling gun on Uber driver dropping the man's daughter off at their house in ~transport
unkz Link ParentIs the pronoun about gender neutrality or is it because it’s the only possible choice for describing the house of a plural group of people?Is the pronoun about gender neutrality or is it because it’s the only possible choice for describing the house of a plural group of people?
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Comment on Chevrolet Malibu heads for the junkyard as GM shifts focus to electric vehicles in ~transport
unkz Link ParentThat's not really how I read it. It sounds like people don't really want to buy midsize sedans, so they're focusing on what people actually want to buy -- SUVs and electric vehicles. Maybe I don't...That's not really how I read it. It sounds like people don't really want to buy midsize sedans, so they're focusing on what people actually want to buy -- SUVs and electric vehicles.
Maybe I don't quite understand what you mean by "weird"?
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz Link ParentThis is a technology under development, so I don’t know why we would be judging it based on its current state of development. The target is net positive and it should be achievable. There are...This is a technology under development, so I don’t know why we would be judging it based on its current state of development. The target is net positive and it should be achievable.
There are other factors here too. Treating the heat (which is by far the greatest energy input) as interchangeable with electricity is incorrect. That heat capture is going to be pretty close to maximally efficient, since it’s actually used as heat.
Compare that to the high inefficiency of converting incinerator waste heat to electricity — it’s on the order of 19-26%.
in order for direct capture to make sense we must have already replaced all CO2-producing electric generation with green generation
I don’t know where this leap of logic occurs.
Is tobacco really that far-fetched?
Yes. We are in the process of legalizing marijuana smoking throughout the whole of the US. There’s even significant progress in making cocaine and heroin legal in many jurisdictions. There’s no universe where politicians decide that smoking marijuana is legal and smoking cigarettes isn’t.
People don’t want this:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1717/tobacco-smoking.aspx
Should smoking in this country be made totally illegal, or not?
19% yes, 78% no, 3% no opinion
That’s an impossible bar to clear.
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz (edited )Link ParentThey're pretty up front about their metrics. https://www.carbonbrief.org/swiss-company-hoping-capture-1-global-co2-emissions-2025/ So for pure electrical consumption, that would be 18,000,000 kwh,...They're pretty up front about their metrics.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/swiss-company-hoping-capture-1-global-co2-emissions-2025/
Driving the Climeworks process uses 2.5 megawatt hours (MWh) of heat, at around 100C, for each tonne of CO2, along with 0.5MWh of power. This energy requirement is roughly equivalent to the 12GJ/tCO2 estimates set out above, though the firm hopes to shave 40% off this figure, bringing it down to around 7GJ/tCO2. Gebald says an increase in energy resources – he points to wind and solar – would be needed to scale up direct capture.
So for pure electrical consumption, that would be 18,000,000 kwh, with an additional 90,000,000 kwh of waste heat consumption (it is attached to a municipal incinerator for that), for a total of 108,000,000 kwh. Their target is ~64,800,000 kwh total consumption, but I can't say how much of that efficiency gain would be on the electrical side and how much on the waste heat side.
However, there are many easier wins we could make. We could ban all tobacco production.
This isn't an easier win. It's actually impossible. No major government is going to do this.
But setting that aside, let’s imagine it is politically feasible to globally ban tobacco. Sure, let’s do it — why would that preclude also doing DAC? Can we as a society of 8 billion people not walk and chew bubble gum at the same time?
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz Link ParentSure, we should try to do that but we also have to be cognizant that in many countries that won't happen. China and India will be relentlessly increasing CO2 production for the foreseeable future....Sure, we should try to do that but we also have to be cognizant that in many countries that won't happen. China and India will be relentlessly increasing CO2 production for the foreseeable future.
Even in America, consider that 58% of Republicans say the country should prioritize expanding exploration and production of oil, coal and natural gas.
Look at what is on the table from a Trump presidency on this front:
In front of more than 20 executives, including from Chevron, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, he promised to increase oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, remove hurdles to drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, and reverse new rules designed to cut car pollution. He would also overturn the Biden administration’s decision in January to pause new natural gas export permits which have been denounced as “climate bombs”.
“You’ll get it on the first day,” Trump said, according to the Post, citing an unnamed dinner attendee.
We can't put all our eggs in the policy basket. Other strategies are going to be necessary, and carbon capture is one of those strategies.
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz Link ParentHumanity is going to continue generating colossal amounts of CO2. Any plan to mitigate catastrophe needs to account for that. Carbon capture is going to be a necessary component of any successful...Humanity is going to continue generating colossal amounts of CO2. Any plan to mitigate catastrophe needs to account for that. Carbon capture is going to be a necessary component of any successful strategy because people suck.
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz Link ParentI don't need to, the evidence is already here. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country That graph speaks louder than any opinion poll, because it avoids what people...You don't speak for everyone.
I don't need to, the evidence is already here.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-country
That graph speaks louder than any opinion poll, because it avoids what people wish and cuts through to what people are doing. Yes, developing nations will suffer from climate change. But, they want the same standard of living as we have in the west and that's the larger driver in actual behaviour.
Is there any evidence we can? Or you just have faith in the current systems and technology?
You've entirely misread my statement. What I am asserting that we can and will do, is "keep mass producing crap we don't need, made out of crap that is harmful to us and the environment."
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz Link ParentHere’s the thing: it’s not me rejecting your proposal, it’s the overwhelming majority of the population of the planet. We can, and we will, at least within the time frame where we have a chance of...Here’s the thing: it’s not me rejecting your proposal, it’s the overwhelming majority of the population of the planet.
We can't just keep mass producing crap we don't need, made out of crap that is harmful to us and the environment
We can, and we will, at least within the time frame where we have a chance of mitigating climate change. That’s a constraint in the system that we need to address and not pretend that it doesn’t exist.
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Comment on A big new facility built to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere opened up in Iceland. It's a stepping stone to bigger plans in the US. in ~enviro
unkz Link ParentI mean, proposal rejected. Now what? The only way we are going to achieve any kind of good outcome is through a multi pronged approach. Developing countries will, somewhat rightfully, reject any...I propose we build less stuff instead
I mean, proposal rejected. Now what?
The only way we are going to achieve any kind of good outcome is through a multi pronged approach. Developing countries will, somewhat rightfully, reject any kind of plan that proposes to keep them in a third world condition.
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Comment on ProtonMail discloses user data leading to arrest in Spain in ~tech
unkz Link ParentI see it as more a public awareness issue. Like, learn your opsec, take it seriously.I see it as more a public awareness issue. Like, learn your opsec, take it seriously.
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Comment on Weekly Israel-Hamas war megathread - week of May 6 in ~news
unkz Link ParentThis entire situation happened because Hamas murdered and kidnapped hundreds of people. It's continuing because Hamas hasn't released them. Hamas can stop this literally any time they want, but...This entire situation happened because Hamas murdered and kidnapped hundreds of people. It's continuing because Hamas hasn't released them. Hamas can stop this literally any time they want, but they are choosing not to.
Israel has an obligation to its citizens to recover hostages and minimize future attacks. Stopping fighting does exactly nothing to help that goal, and just gives Hamas time to rearm and commit another atrocity.
Hamas also has an obligation to its citizens -- keep in mind they are the elected government of Gaza -- but they are not fulfilling that obligation and are instead doing the exact opposite, by holding and killing hostages while knowing that as long as they refuse to release the hostages, Israel will continue attacking. Every action Hamas takes hurts Palestinians, who they should be helping instead.
OE is a real problem in the tech sector, now that WFH has become so commonplace.