ThrowdoBaggins's recent activity
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Comment on Norwegian influencer buys failed property development in Spain to build ‘self-sufficient’ eco-community – Modern Eco Village plans to erect 500 homes, schools and shops in ~design
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Comment on US Pentagon leverages AI in Iran strikes amid feud with Anthropic in ~society
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentWait, are large language models deterministic? I’ve always assumed not, because if I open a new window and copy paste the exact same prompt, the result can be different. Maybe only slightly...Personally, an algorithm is (at least somewhat) deterministic and can be tested and debugged.
AI can do this as well.
Wait, are large language models deterministic? I’ve always assumed not, because if I open a new window and copy paste the exact same prompt, the result can be different. Maybe only slightly different, but even an infinitesimal difference in output from the same input means it’s not a deterministic algorithm underneath.
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Comment on I need to talk to someone with social mobility experience, and I'm out of ideas in ~health.mental
ThrowdoBaggins LinkI’m currently on a similar path to you, and currently I’m in a place where I’ve aggressively reduced my spending and also have a decent paying job, and last year I finally hit the milestone of...I’m currently on a similar path to you, and currently I’m in a place where I’ve aggressively reduced my spending and also have a decent paying job, and last year I finally hit the milestone of more $ going into “life savings” every month than I’m paying rent each month. I figure currency conversion might make numbers misleading, but this ratio is, I feel, a good place to be.
I’ll admit that luck has played a part in my first step. I was able to pivot from a low wage supermarket job into a corporate job, because I took a (possibly irresponsible) leap in 2022 because everyone was talking about how it was totally an employee’s market. Even then, I quit my old job before I had a new one lined up, and ended up living off savings for three months, which is why this could have been a much bigger risk if it didn’t pay off. Even with the skills I’ve developed since then, I don’t think I would be able to pull off the same attempt in 2026, so lucky timing (or “grabbing the opportunity when it presented itself” if I was more of a bootstraps boomer) is a big part of how I took this first step.
However, not long after I made that step, I watched a video by Economics Explained which described how entire national economies develop, and how they transition to what we call “advanced economies”. I can’t remember which video it was, because it’s a concept that repeats in a number of videos as they examine different countries. The general arc seems to be that countries go from natural resource/extraction economies (mining, oil drilling, farming etc) to processing/synthesis economies (smelting, manufacturing, construction etc) to knowledge/service economies (finance, engineering, advanced manufacturing etc).
I’ve been starting to apply this same model to the possible trajectory of my own career, and in broad terms it seems to be applicable. In general, physical jobs like warehouse or factory work tend to be lower paid, and difficult to turn into higher paid jobs. However, within my supermarket job, I was able to move from shelf stacking to more customer service type roles, which didn’t necessarily pay better but had more of a career trajectory into 2IC and management type roles. And from my customer service role, I was able to move into the junior levels of management. I believe the reason I was able to move into the corporate world was because customer service included transferable soft skills. And now that I’m on the bottom rungs of the corporate world, I can see a pathway to specialise and eventually climb up to better paying roles (albeit probably not up to c-suite or executive positions) by picking up experience rather than entirely from retraining and education.
With all this said, I’m not sure if the pathway I’ve identified is something you’d be interested in, having a much lower ceiling that plants me firmly in middle class income levels. But I find it to be a helpful framework to think about things — a poor country with abundant resources cannot switch into a manufacturing or service economy overnight, but it’s certainly a trajectory they can aim for and build towards. For my own life in particular, slow and steady growth with more certainty is much more attractive than explosive but risky growth, but I somewhat get the impression you are approaching this post with more urgency than my ideas would offer.
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Comment on What are some bands you regret not seeing live (or, just never had the chance to see in the first place)? in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentPretending I’m a time traveller from the future, letting you know that future-you is in another one of these kinds of threads 15 years from now, looking back, and saying “damn I know there were...She's touring this year and actually coming to cities within 4-6 hour near me, but the tickets are super $$$.
Pretending I’m a time traveller from the future, letting you know that future-you is in another one of these kinds of threads 15 years from now, looking back, and saying “damn I know there were challenges but I wish I hadn’t missed this one”
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Comment on What would you do with a video game style inventory? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins LinkSome assumptions for my use of powers here: I only need to be capable of lifting something above my head to be able to store it, I don’t actually need to lift it above my head for the action. the...Some assumptions for my use of powers here:
- I only need to be capable of lifting something above my head to be able to store it, I don’t actually need to lift it above my head for the action.
- the object does not need to be a willing participant.
Step 1, I start going to the gym and get hella swole
Step 2, I use my powers to make enough money to start travelling the world on a whim
Step 3, kidnapping billionaires by handshake
I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide what happens to the contents of my inventory when I eventually die of old age, but they’re probably not being released voluntarily by me
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Comment on What are you working through? in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentIn a small way, I can relate to this bit. My partner and I have been together for long enough that people are usually surprised to learn that we’re not actually married. We’ve talked about it...as if we arent basically married with all the "sickness and in health" that entails
In a small way, I can relate to this bit. My partner and I have been together for long enough that people are usually surprised to learn that we’re not actually married. We’ve talked about it plenty of times, and I make sure to actively bring it up every few years to make sure we’re still on the same page (it can be so easy to just assume the status quo remains, without actually checking in on it) but we’re both in agreement that it’s not something in the cards.
In the past year, some financial complications with siblings has meant a review of my parents wills and medical power of attorney if required. It’s got me thinking about maybe working on those marriage-adjacent legal things that you usually get (eg if either of us are hospitalised, my partner or I might have trouble with visitation rights etc) even if we’re not wanting proper actual marriage at this stage.
I know it’s not the same, your situation is more challenging with just straight up losing access to necessary supports, but reasons aside that vibe of “excuse you I am very committed to this relationship and you don’t get to push me away if things get difficult” is something I can relate to.
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Comment on Palantir was allegedly hacked, exposing CIA collusion and deep-rooted global surveillance/meddling in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkSo... they downloaded a copy of the Epstein files...? /noiseaccumulated the biggest archive of blackmail material
So... they downloaded a copy of the Epstein files...?
/noise
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThe same issue I have with lots of these kinds of theories is that if “their” intention was to keep this a secret from “the rest of us” then they’ve done a bad enough job that this one dude is...The same issue I have with lots of these kinds of theories is that if “their” intention was to keep this a secret from “the rest of us” then they’ve done a bad enough job that this one dude is literally making a living from spreading it around.
There’s quite a lot wrong with the numbers and timelines you’ve painted here, but I suppose the core of every good conspiracy theory (if that’s what we call this) is a handful of technically-correct or verifiable details which paint the overall picture as more realistic than it actually is.
Firstly we know that the magnetic poles flip every ~100,000 years and that we’re probably overdue another one by now, but we also know that it’s not some huge release of energy that moves continents around. But this magnetic pole reversal is the kind of thing that takes a long time to happen, which means we will have plenty of heads up that it’s starting to happen well before it’s actually causing issues. Even if it’s a blip on geological timescales, that can still mean decades or centuries.
Second, you mentioned that the solar system drifts in and out of a major dust ring on a cycle that repeats every 12,000 years, and the implication of “that’s why governments are acting the way they do” implies that we’re due for another event “fairly soon”. For example, if the harmful part of the cycle was still 2,000 years away, there would be no need to be taking action today. We can’t even imagine the level of technology we’ll have in 500 years into the future so no point preparing today if it’s a while away. But this premise is immediately counteracted by your suggestion that biblical or historical record confirms this cycle — the bible is about 2,000 years old at best, and our oldest writing is from a bit over 5,000 years ago, well short of the 12,000 year cycle you’re talking about. Even at the most generous interpretation, where the 12,000 year cycle includes passing through the plane of the galaxy twice per cycle, and we’re due for another within a few years, that’s still 6,000 years since the last one, and we don’t have written record that far back.
We do have spoken record dating back much further - Aboriginal Australians have oral traditions passed down over generations which include Dreamtime narratives which relate to natural events that occurred around 37,000 years ago. If these people have passed down localised geological events and accurate star maps over that timescale, they would have experienced this 12,000 year cycle cataclysmic debris event 3-6 times by now, and their star maps would not be accurate if the land they lived on had been rapidly rotated on lava flows.
Thirdly, people are people, and I have a hard time believing politics of 50 years ago is so dramatically different from politics today — specifically with regards to the moon missions, it’s much easier for me to believe the space race was a dick-swinging competition between USA and USSR than it is to believe that collecting rocks from the moon to verify some theory in secret without telling the rest of the scientific community was the point of billions and billions of dollars pushing the very limits of engineering to get people safely into space and back again. I feel like scientists are much more well known for sharing their discoveries with the international scientific community, with little regard for international politics or secret keeping.
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentOkay excellent, glad to hear there’s enough similarity in features for the ability to whip up an isolated group of channels etc. I’m no network wizard but the concept of a “server” these days —...That way you can send a single invite code to your friends for the space, and it should allow your friends to join every room in the space, and have them grouped neatly together. You should be able to adjust power / permissions levels from there
Okay excellent, glad to hear there’s enough similarity in features for the ability to whip up an isolated group of channels etc.
And yes, Discord calling random groups a "server" has grated on me for years
I’m no network wizard but the concept of a “server” these days — for every service that uses the word! — seems so far removed from what a server actually is, especially with all these cloud services and mirrored local/nearby versions for lower latency. (is this called “edge hosting” or something like that?)
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI recently looked into TeamSpeak and oh my gosh they’ve come such a long way! TS6 even looks like it’s 90% of the way to being feature matched for Discord, or at least considering the features...I recently looked into TeamSpeak and oh my gosh they’ve come such a long way! TS6 even looks like it’s 90% of the way to being feature matched for Discord, or at least considering the features that I personally care about. It’s probably the one that I’m going to try to push for among my friends, if there’s ever a preference for leaving discord
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentYou mentioned hosting, which unfortunately might be a dealbreaker. I think I might be the most technically competent person of my friends groups, but self hosting or home server stuff is currently...You mentioned hosting, which unfortunately might be a dealbreaker. I think I might be the most technically competent person of my friends groups, but self hosting or home server stuff is currently beyond my ability, and will likely be beyond my available time and energy to learn for the foreseeable future.
When you say “join another server” could my friends and I create our own small instance within someone else’s server, preferably private and invite-only with my friends? Or would it just be finding a space within a larger combined server where anyone can drop in or drop out? I know different services use different language to mean different things, so I’m trying to understand this Matrix platform and how much or how little it can translate from my existing experiences with Discord.
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI just wanted to reinforce your point and weigh in on this one. I’m in Australia and I guess my Discord account got flagged as “potentially not an adult” because I was asked to verify my age a few...Privacy-protecting process. Discord and k-ID do not permanently store personal identity documents or users’ video selfies. Images of a user's identity documents and ID match selfies are deleted directly after their age group is confirmed, and the video selfie used for facial age estimation never leaves their device.
I just wanted to reinforce your point and weigh in on this one. I’m in Australia and I guess my Discord account got flagged as “potentially not an adult” because I was asked to verify my age a few months ago.
I’ve already had my ID picked up in Optus’ horrendous data breach a few years back, so I’m careful about not giving my ID to companies, even ones I should ostensibly be able to trust, via any digital means. If any phone company needs my ID ever again, I’m happy to physically walk into a store and have it verified manually, but I’m not comfortable with it being digitally stored given how clearly that leads to breaches.
So when Discord popped up offering these two options — give them my ID or try the AI video-selfie feature — I decided to test out the claims of “no video leaves your device” and “on-device processing”. To do this, I used my phone, and navigated through the prompts until it asked for camera access. Turned on airplane mode and accepted — oops something went wrong. Followed the prompts multiple times, turning on airplane mode at various different stages, including waiting until the next page had loaded, but ultimately there was no point at which I could cut the internet connection and still have the system verify me.
This tells me with confidence that a live internet connection is required for the age recognition feature, which means the claim of “on-device processing” is dubious at best, but likely an outright lie. It also means it’s impossible for anyone to verify the claim that the video selfie “doesn’t leave the device”.
It’s so disappointing because I genuinely don’t think it would be particularly difficult to design a system which did the same thing without having data leave your device, but they’re not even bothering to pretend that’s what happens.
Edited my second paragraph to be a bit less needlessly combative.
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Comment on Voyager Technologies CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved in ~space
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentIn that case I think you might have made the situation even more complicated, because the combo foundry + data centre has a place to put the hot and a place to put the cold, so the problem is only...In that case I think you might have made the situation even more complicated, because the combo foundry + data centre has a place to put the hot and a place to put the cold, so the problem is only how to effectively move heat around where you need it as you need it.
But having them isolated, with stored heat bricks to be shipped off to the other facility, means you’re already working with the challenge of moving heat around, but with the added complexity of trying to capture industrial levels of heat in a relatively small object that somehow doesn’t melt the pods/shuttle that ferries back and forth between the facilities, and also now your heat needs to be quantised into “how much useful heat (or cold) can this brick hold without being damaged” rather than just moving heat around continuously.
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Comment on Voyager Technologies CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved in ~space
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI think the problem with this idea is that waste heat is usually not hot enough for industrial applications. And because the system will always try to move towards equilibrium, if you have enough...Smelting? Welding? Refining? This is the topic I have done the least research into. We use heat to do these things on earth. If we mine other planets and/or asteroids it may make more sense for a lot of the refining and manufacturing of those raw materials to happen in space before moving back into the atmosphere. Especially if waste heat is a cheap and plentiful source of energy.
I think the problem with this idea is that waste heat is usually not hot enough for industrial applications. And because the system will always try to move towards equilibrium, if you have enough heat for industrial applications, eventually your whole satellite/space base will be that temperature, and any electronics will have failed long before you get there. The system is always trying to average the temperature across the whole satellite.
There’s an interesting XKCD What-If? about a hairdryer sealed in a box, and what to expect, which touches on equilibrium of energy input and external temperature assuming it’s in an atmosphere which is convecting away the heat. But it also looks at the simplified relationship between energy input and heat, because all the energy you pump into the system has to go somewhere. So if it’s not radiated away, then it’s sticking around.
With things like heat pumps, you can move it around a bit, so you can make one room hotter while you make the other room colder. Theoretically (but I don’t think we have the current technology to achieve) you can get to the kinds of extremes where you have some parts of your satellite cool enough to run a data centre, and the other end hot enough to run a foundry. But you have to constantly be adding energy into the system just to run these heat pumps, because thermodynamics is always trying to bring the whole satellite towards the average temperature. And heat pumps that we have in houses will dramatically lose efficiency when trying to operate outside the narrow ideal band of temperatures they’re designed for, so you would definitely need to be using different technology to enable foundry-to-cool room levels of heat pump effectiveness.
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Comment on What do dreams mean? in ~science
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI had that same feeling! Sometimes like a weird version of vertigo as I was falling asleep, but sometimes it would incorporate the feeling into my dreams. And the dream version would often be me...I had that same feeling! Sometimes like a weird version of vertigo as I was falling asleep, but sometimes it would incorporate the feeling into my dreams. And the dream version would often be me in a mundane situation but then I lean back against a wall and suddenly the wall would give way and fall over with me kind-of stuck flat to the surface. Not always a nightmare, sometimes the feeling was really peaceful and relaxing.
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Comment on The AI industry doesn’t take “no” for an answer in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentIt feels related to how, from Amazon’s perspective, I’m a “customer” first and “person” second (or never?). And their algorithmic suggestions just have to latch onto whatever it can to suggest...Just because I’m using it in one way doesn’t mean I have any interest in using it in a different product.
It feels related to how, from Amazon’s perspective, I’m a “customer” first and “person” second (or never?). And their algorithmic suggestions just have to latch onto whatever it can to suggest more of the same.
I remember hearing someone talk about how they resisted using Amazon for years, but gave into the same-day shipping because their toilet seat broke and they wanted a replacement ASAP. But then because that was the only data point that Amazon had on this customer, their follow up emails were filled with more suggestions for more toilet seats. From the simplistic algorithm’s perspective, I get it, that’s the only data point it has to work with, and it’s gotta stuff something into the emails.
But as a person, they were like “thanks Amazon but I’m not some kind of toilet seat connoisseur, I don’t need dozens of toilet seat suggestions. I had a singular need, and that’s now been fulfilled.”
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Comment on What healthy habit has made a difference for you? in ~health
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentMore than everything else I’ve read before, this has given me insights and motivation to try it. I think because it feels like a genuine lived experience not trying to sell me on “the latest new...On the physical side, cutting out carbs and sugar down to the essentials and upping protein and fiber. I had this epiphany when I learned how to bake bread a couple of years ago and seeing firsthand the sheer amount of sugar that I had to dump in to make cakes and pastry tasty enough to match the taste of a commercial bakery. I enjoy the sweetness of fruits with their natural fructose instead of them tasting like watery chunks. Soft drinks taste like drinking syrup to me now, and I've had to dilute the occasional grocery store juice with water.
My overall energy levels have been much more even throughout the day, appetite spikes and hangry incidents have drastically gone down to being practically nonexistent. I eat because I have to and I don't immediately crave for things and shove them in my mouth. I'm just not hungry for a large part of the day, which surprised a number of friends and family that felt I must be fasting or secretly hiding an eating disorder.
More than everything else I’ve read before, this has given me insights and motivation to try it. I think because it feels like a genuine lived experience not trying to sell me on “the latest new diet trend” or distilling every positive factoid into a single place. It’s just a few positive things you’ve noticed, and that feels so much more genuine (and therefore attainable?) than most things I’ve come across before. Thank you for sharing! Maybe I’ll try some stuff too!
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Comment on Lawsuit alleges that WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentAh, good spotting, I’ve made that edit now. I rewrote and restructured my comment a few times to soften it and make it less blunt, but also didn’t have 100% mental resources to bring it to a place...Ah, good spotting, I’ve made that edit now.
I rewrote and restructured my comment a few times to soften it and make it less blunt, but also didn’t have 100% mental resources to bring it to a place I was totally happy with. I ultimately posted with the mindset of “don’t let perfect be the enemy of good” so apologies for the outcome that I wasn’t as
(gentle? Considerate? Generous?)good as I would have liked to be. -
Comment on Lawsuit alleges that WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins (edited )Link ParentI think I can weigh in here with my own situation, and at least partially explain the difference between WhatsApp’s help articles and people’s actual lived experiences here. Two years ago, my...I think I can weigh in here with my own situation, and at least partially explain the difference between WhatsApp’s help articles and people’s actual lived experiences here.
Two years ago, my iPhone stopped working because of water getting inside (despite being IP67 rated). Australia has very strong consumer protections, so I was able to walk into an Apple retailer, explain that my phone stopped working and was new enough to still be under warranty etc, and they handed me a new one. Important to note here that my old phone was dead and gone before they handed me the new one, so phone-to-phone transfer was not possible. My current phone has all the chats that my previous phones have had, so despite the unusable phone, I still have continuity and history.
In trying to piece together my own experience with what you’ve said here, I took a look at my settings within WhatsApp to see how I can have continuity despite claims of E2EE. I found a setting buried a few layers deep which backs up my message history to iCloud (Settings > Chats > Chat backup). This section includes frequency (daily/weekly/monthly) and a toggle for whether to also back up videos, and interestingly also a toggle for whether turn on E2EE for this back up or not. My settings when I checked were “monthly backup, without video, without E2EE”
I’ve stayed in the Apple ecosystem for a very long time now, so I can’t tell you if this was the default for a new user downloading WhatsApp for the first time or if it’s something I chose to do (or if it’s one of those nag settings that keeps telling you to “do X or be at risk of problems!” that companies love to use these days) but at the very least, this can explain why some* users have the experience of zero-effort continuity between phones.
*edited to add in “some”
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Comment on Disrupting the world's largest residential proxy network in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkMaybe I’m way too cynical but I wonder if disrupting these kinds of networks will have any impact on LLM scrapers and crawlers? My memory is imperfect but I feel like I remember conversations on...Maybe I’m way too cynical but I wonder if disrupting these kinds of networks will have any impact on LLM scrapers and crawlers? My memory is imperfect but I feel like I remember conversations on Tildes in the past year talking about how there was little to no pattern in IP addresses that were used to crawl/scrape websites, which is why some of the “tarpit” traps were developed?
Oh my gosh, I’ve never come across a benchmark like that, but it definitely puts into perspective how abysmal house prices are in Melbourne Australia.