carsonc's recent activity

  1. What are your forgivable sins?

    ~talk Ask
    The user @trim posted an interesting question in ~Tech and it made me wonder: what are my forgivable sins? What kinds of misdeeds on the part of companies that are suppliers of goods or services...

    The user @trim posted an interesting question in ~Tech and it made me wonder: what are my forgivable sins? What kinds of misdeeds on the part of companies that are suppliers of goods or services do I tacitly concience or to which I will turn a blind eye?

    Whenever there is a scandal, the easy answer is, "I don't know, but definitely not that." This, however, is just an ad hoc definition that can be applied to any unsavory revelation on the part of a service or product provider. What would I be left with? I couldn't retreat from society if I wanted to and the cost of commercial puritanism would be prohibitively high.

    What I realized in that topic was that (1) I will not sanction providers merely for doing business with others to whom I am opposed and (2) I will not sanction providers merely for issuing words or statements that I disagree with.

    That said, I'm curious about others. What are your criteria for bad behavior in a service or product provider that you would judge to be nonetheless admissible?

    19 votes

  2. Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link
    Do what makes you happy, I suppose. I think everyone has a schema in mind for what kind of behavior they would concience and what they wouldn't. For me, "Does business with a bad search engine"...

    Do what makes you happy, I suppose. I think everyone has a schema in mind for what kind of behavior they would concience and what they wouldn't. For me, "Does business with a bad search engine" isn't a sufficient criteria for sanction, but that's just me, and I make no claims of being a paragon of virtue whose example should be followed. If that's beyond the pale for you, if it bothers you, then you might consider ending your support of Kagi. Do what makes you happy.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Tips for increasing online privacy (without going insane)? in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    My standards have fallen far. I no longer consider the moral failings of the people who make the things that I buy. I just like having a thing that isn't actively, obviously, constantly,...

    My standards have fallen far. I no longer consider the moral failings of the people who make the things that I buy. I just like having a thing that isn't actively, obviously, constantly, maliciously spying on me.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are struggling to build more advanced AI in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    I didn't really think about it that way. Good point!

    I didn't really think about it that way. Good point!

  5. Comment on OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are struggling to build more advanced AI in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    I don't think it's quite so clear. How would you discuss Moore's Law in relation to automotive design? Though easily grasped, automotive analogies might be inapt. If the public believes that AI...

    I don't think it's quite so clear. How would you discuss Moore's Law in relation to automotive design? Though easily grasped, automotive analogies might be inapt. If the public believes that AI progress will resemble exponential growth, then the expectation of eye-popping advances every year is warranted. The hype might be wrong, but such a belief would not be unreasonable, given the track record of computing advancement over the past 60 years.

    To me, the "growth" of AI is both unambiguous and highly subjective. Perhaps it's more like the adoption of the automobile than it is the mechanics of an automobile. When cars started to take over roads, we made the roads better for cars, then cars got better, and more people drove them, and the roads got better, and so on. At any point, you could say, "We couldn't possibly become more car-friendly!" But here we are, expanding lanes and spending more money on cars.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Tips for increasing online privacy (without going insane)? in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link
    I'll happily recommend the FUTO keyboard for Android, if you are uncomfortable with your search engine reading every keystroke. The speech-to-text feature is the best one that I've found. Good luck!

    I'll happily recommend the FUTO keyboard for Android, if you are uncomfortable with your search engine reading every keystroke. The speech-to-text feature is the best one that I've found. Good luck!

    8 votes

  7. Comment on How do I trick my brain into accepting eating less? in ~health

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    Again, I am not a therapist, but I have found the work of David Burns very useful. His book, Feeling Good, is well regarded, and his podcast, The Feeling Good Podcast, is also very informative. If...

    Again, I am not a therapist, but I have found the work of David Burns very useful. His book, Feeling Good, is well regarded, and his podcast, The Feeling Good Podcast, is also very informative. If you think it would be useful, there is also an app that he collaborated on called... can you guess the name? That's right, the Feeling Good App!

    TEAM-CBT is best for anxiety and depression, but it is also good for behaviors, addictions, and relationships. Personally, I have found the tools helpful in my own life and will attest that I believe that I am happier for having learned them. But, of course, to each their own.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on How do I trick my brain into accepting eating less? in ~health

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    As different individuals, we should expect different responses to the same treatment. For me, it is difficult to take 13 g of psyllium husk fiber as capsules, although I do it out of convenience...

    As different individuals, we should expect different responses to the same treatment. For me, it is difficult to take 13 g of psyllium husk fiber as capsules, although I do it out of convenience when travelling. The capsules hold about 0.5 g each, so the 13 g in the diabetes paper would take 26 capsules. One bottle of psyllium fiber capsules will hold 100 capsules, making it last a whopping 4 days.

    Even at 13 g, though, it's nowhere near the recommended daily allowance for adult women at 25 g per day and 38 g per day for adult men. So not even 13 g of fiber constitutes a heroic dose, albeit it kind of feels like it when knocking it back.

    If lack of fiber isn't a problem, then additional fiber probably won't help, however the literature indicates that, if it is, then you might not see much benefit at <10 g/day supplementation.

    It surprising to me that no one talks about this. Metabolic syndrome is a serious public health challenge. How much of it comes from a severe, widespread lack of fiber in our diet? Why isn't it the first intervention when cholesterol or A1c are elevated? Why am I learning about this from obsessive late-night Google Scholar searches and not from my doctor, who ordered the tests and reviewed the results?

    1 vote

  9. Comment on How do I trick my brain into accepting eating less? in ~health

    carsonc
    Link
    I am not a dietician and I have no "it worked for me" story, but I do have something concrete that you can try at very low expense with virtually no adverse consequences. Fiber. There is a nice...

    I am not a dietician and I have no "it worked for me" story, but I do have something concrete that you can try at very low expense with virtually no adverse consequences.

    Fiber. There is a nice paper on one of the effects of fiber here. That looks at the effect of viscous fiber on diabetes treatment, but if you are interested in cholesterol, that paper is here.

    But you are interested in satiation. That paper is here.

    Viscous soluble fibres may be useful because they prolong the intestinal phase of nutrient digestion and absorption. This means that there is a longer time over which the macronutrients can interact with the pre-absorptive mechanisms of satiation and satiety, as well as prolong the time course of post-absorptive signals.

    How much fiber is enough? Well, I don't know what's right for you, but the first paper talks about 13 g/day of viscous fiber. There's a lot that's covered under the term "viscous fiber", but psyllium husk powder is a good place to start. You can buy it in bulk at very affordable prices. At 13 g/day, you can get 1 kg every 3 months.

    Drinking 2 large glasses of water a day with ~7 g of dissolved psyllium husk fiber each takes a little getting used to, but if you notice a desireable change in your appetite patterns, then it is a relatively simple, low cost, low effort, low risk way to improve your metabolic health and reduce appetites that you seem to feel are problematic.

    If not, then the problem might be related to something else and you should keep looking for a solution.

    Good luck!

    8 votes

  10. Comment on Solar + power bank for household appliances in apartment - can I reduce my electricity bill? in ~life.home_improvement

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    For context, we live in a single-family house in the same region as you. We installed rooftop solar last year and, while I do enjoy having solar power, we are not saving money at this point. I...

    For context, we live in a single-family house in the same region as you. We installed rooftop solar last year and, while I do enjoy having solar power, we are not saving money at this point. I don't think we will be saving money for another 9 years. I don't think the system will pay for itself for another 7 years after that. I don't think anyone will save much money, if any, for any solar right now, low solar panel prices be damned.

    If energy prices go up, it will shorten the payoff period, but if solar takes off, the price of power will fall (good for you) and lengthen the payoff period (bad for us). Ultimately, I'm glad that we have something to provide power in the event of another heat dome/heat wave, like we did last summer. The grid held and no one in the area got a brownout, but they were issuing warnings about the possibility. Next year might not be so lucky.

    If we can stay cool next summer, it will be money well spent.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Solar + power bank for household appliances in apartment - can I reduce my electricity bill? in ~life.home_improvement

    carsonc
    Link
    First, buy a Kill-a-watt meter or similar and get an idea of how much power any of your appliances actually consume during a 24 hour period. Then pick one that would make for a good test....

    First, buy a Kill-a-watt meter or similar and get an idea of how much power any of your appliances actually consume during a 24 hour period.

    Then pick one that would make for a good test. Reasonably important, near a window, not too high a power requirement. The sun only provides so much energy, and you can look up what that might mean with a standard 1.6 m² solar panel here.

    But it's really just around 1 kWh per day with a 1.6 m² panel. I have a suspicion that a 1.6 m² panel may be out of the question (or maybe not, apparently, but anyway), so let's do half of that and get 0.5 kWh out if it. Now, if we can get about 1 kWh of battery storage, we can run that device off the sunlight, off the grid, reasonably reliably, for a long time. I kept looking for anything that looked remotely like affordable battery storage at this point for so long that I lost my first post. You are on your own here, friend.

    Assuming about a 20¢/kWh in residential supply and delivery charges, I believe that system will save about 10¢ a day, $3 a month with that system in reduced electricity, when the weather cooperates. At this point, you can just scale this up to the amount of solar panels that you want to buy.

    Does that seem right?

    5 votes

  12. Comment on Tildes Book Club Discussion - Kindred by Octavia Butler in ~books

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    Discovering that Kevin was White was a revelation that hit very close to home. I had read Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents and have admired the multifaceted way that Butler handles...

    Discovering that Kevin was White was a revelation that hit very close to home. I had read Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents and have admired the multifaceted way that Butler handles race, but that caught me off gaurd. That, coupled with the very intimate portrayals of violence, stopped me in my tracks.

    5 votes

  13. Comment on Following its Singaporean pilot project, carbon sequestration start-up Equatic aims to build a massive plant in Quebec in ~enviro

    carsonc
    Link
    This seems great! I had not heard about electrolysis CO₂ capture, but the economics are the best I have seen: Other estimates have even lower costs. I worked on a CO₂ sequestration project and...

    This seems great! I had not heard about electrolysis CO₂ capture, but the economics are the best I have seen:

    In this study, over 99 % of the Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions were converted into pure calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate hydroxide. According to the study, 1000 m³ simulated concentrated seawater can mineralize 4.65 tons CO₂ and produce 9.97 tons of magnesium carbonate hydroxide and 2.02 tons of calcium carbonate. Only 5676 kWh of electric power (about USD 567.6) was used in the whole electrolysis process, while the products were valued at as much as USD 6649. Xie, 2015

    Other estimates have even lower costs.

    I worked on a CO₂ sequestration project and have felt that many of the complaints against CCS overlook the obvious benefit - indeed, likely necessity - of CCS for preventing future catastrophes. This approach seems to circumvent many of possible complaints.

    • It's not attached to a coal- or natural gas-fired power plant (God forbid we try to capture emissions at the source, where the concentration highest, lowering the difficulty involved in reducing emissions).
    • The CO₂ captured can't be used for enhanced oil and gas sequestration (God forbid we try to create profitable business models to fund the development of the technology using reliable customers with deep pockets).
    • The carbon isn't sequestered underground, at a depth of 10 km, where it might contaminate the deepest, briniest underground aquifers that we could ever imagine drinking (the horror).
    • The technology doesn't involve regenerating the CaOH as the sorbent, which always seemed like "Let's road trip in first-gear" approach. (Better than nothing, though).
    • It might work at the tera-tonne scale. $122T USD amortized over 20 years would be $6T per year to remove ~50 GTonnes of CO₂ per year. What would we do with the >100 Gtonnes per annum of calcium and magnesium carbonates?

    This is good news, though.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on Tildes Book Club - Voting thread winter spring 2024-2025 in ~books

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    Look, every Adrian Tchaikovsky book I've read has a touch of horror to it, and so does this one. I think it's one of his calling cards. However, to me, this book is more Beauty and the Beast than...

    Look, every Adrian Tchaikovsky book I've read has a touch of horror to it, and so does this one. I think it's one of his calling cards.

    However, to me, this book is more Beauty and the Beast than Call of Cthulu.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Tildes Book Club - Nominations thread in ~books

    carsonc
    Link
    I think Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer just came out. The last book in a Trilogy (Tetralogy, now) wouldn't be a good choice, but what about Annihilation?

    I think Absolution by Jeff Vandermeer just came out. The last book in a Trilogy (Tetralogy, now) wouldn't be a good choice, but what about Annihilation?

    3 votes

  16. Comment on Tildes Book Club - Nominations thread in ~books

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    I'll totally second Hyperion, partially because I've read it and I won't have to read it again to participate in the book club and I feel guilty about not finishing some of the books in time. But...

    I'll totally second Hyperion, partially because I've read it and I won't have to read it again to participate in the book club and I feel guilty about not finishing some of the books in time.

    But mostly because it's a book that I would very, very much like to hear/read about the opinions of other Tildes readers.

    6 votes

  17. Comment on GSM-Symbolic: Understanding the limitations of mathematical reasoning in large language models in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    Even in the context of the logical reasoning, I would think that an llm's insensitivity to negation would be problematic. For example, I can imagine that wording a problem "Peter has fewer apples...

    Even in the context of the logical reasoning, I would think that an llm's insensitivity to negation would be problematic. For example, I can imagine that wording a problem "Peter has fewer apples than Sarah" might get a different response than "Peter does not have as many apples as Sarah" while both statements can play the same, necessary role in a word problem.

    I didn't see it explored in the paper, but I wonder if it would affect the outcomes.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on GSM-Symbolic: Understanding the limitations of mathematical reasoning in large language models in ~tech

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    Getting dismissed by ChatGPT on the basis of perceived irrelevance would be hilarious. "I can't delve into your question right now because there doesn't seem to be anything relevant in your...

    Getting dismissed by ChatGPT on the basis of perceived irrelevance would be hilarious.
    "I can't delve into your question right now because there doesn't seem to be anything relevant in your prompt. Perhaps you can reword it to establish a higher degree relevance."

    The article doesn't seem to treat the issue of negation in LLMs. Is this also <ahem> irrelevant?

    2 votes

  19. Comment on 2024 Nobel Prize – This year's Nobel Prize announcements will take place between 7th - 14th October 2024 in ~misc

    carsonc
    Link Parent
    Ah, thank you for the clarification. Apologies for the gripes. Seeing the Physics prize get handed to Hinton was also odd. Computer science is a wonderful field, but I'm confused as to why...

    Ah, thank you for the clarification. Apologies for the gripes. Seeing the Physics prize get handed to Hinton was also odd. Computer science is a wonderful field, but I'm confused as to why Geoffrey Hinton, who never studied or published in Physics, is receiving the Nobel prize in physics. At least they included John Hopfield.

    3 votes

  20. Which game themes inspired M83's DSVII?

    ~music Ask
    I've been listening to M83's Digital Shades Volume II (the album can be heard here on YouTube). I didn't think too much about it until I read that it was partially inspired by 80's video game...

    I've been listening to M83's Digital Shades Volume II (the album can be heard here on YouTube). I didn't think too much about it until I read that it was partially inspired by 80's video game sound tracks, according to Anthony Gonzalez.

    I started wondering if I could identify the game that inspired the song. For example, the song A Bit of Sweetness seems to me like it borrows from Zelda's Fairy Theme. Particularly, the descending arpeggiation that can be heard in the background of the M83 track bears an uncanny resemblance to the Zelda theme.

    Other tracks are harder to place, but if you are "game", take a listen and share the song you think was inspiration for one of the DSVII tracks.

    7 votes