confusiondiffusion's recent activity
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Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk
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Comment on As I get older, I get more and more disillusioned with "activism", and I'm fine with this in ~talk
confusiondiffusion LinkI was much more politically active when I was younger. I've started movements and protests that you have probably heard about. Lately, I just want to build a community of like-minded people and...I was much more politically active when I was younger. I've started movements and protests that you have probably heard about. Lately, I just want to build a community of like-minded people and live in peace. And I have.
While it's fun to make politicians beg you to stop, that is a hard life. I'm good at it, but it wears on me. Also, I don't enjoy having power over people. It feels gross to give people ideas and have them get beaten or arrested for doing the things you encourage. People have died doing things I helped start. I have the skills to never have been injured or prosecuted, but others do not. It's not really fair for me to lead people into danger.
As much as I want to believe people are autonomous agents making their own decisions, many people just aren't. I mean, look at wars. If you tell someone to go die for your cause, and you've convinced them you're right and respected, certain people will take bullets for you.
There is a lot wrong with the world. What do you do about it? I focus on building the world I believe in rather than tearing the old one down. I am part of a very large polycule consisting of highly skilled people. At home, I'm working on growing cheap, self-assembling, neuromorhic computing hardware to make AI accessible to the masses and further our understanding of the nature of intelligence and our place in the universe. At work I do electronics design work on a scientific data collection platform. I use my skills and money from tech companies to support my friends and loved ones who pursue their own ways of making the world a better place. One of my partners is an ecologist out in the field helping to preserve critically endangered species. I support her journey. Our other partners are up to similarly important work.
Voting helps, I suppose. Admittedly, I don't think politicians or laws do much for us. I firmly believe it's up to us to make the world better. There is no system of laws that will make a decent society out of a group of people who hate each other and only want to destroy things. I think people increasingly sit at home doomscrolling news and becoming afraid of their neighbors. I try to work toward whatever the opposite of that is.
Of course, I think activism has a place. I just think a lot of the problems I see (I'm in the US) are not going to be solved by activism. No one is going to accept trans people or stop buying disposable plastic water bottles because they saw a sign. They're going to consider changing when their friend has a talk with them about it. It's a conversation. People need to talk to each other. I think once we have that figured out, then protest can be used to get politicians to fall in line with the will of the people. The issue I see is just bigger than politicians being jerks. We don't have a deep enough understanding of our fellow humans to bring forward our collective vision. Activism can be a part of that process of gaining understanding, but as a thing in itself, I think activism is limited.
You may also consider all positive work activism. Protest being a specific kind. There are many ways to cause change.
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Comment on Supreme Court rules Donald Trump can remain on Colorado ballot (gifted link) in ~society
confusiondiffusion (edited )Link ParentAlso, Congress always had the power to intervene and prevent a state from disqualifying a candidate. If the disqualification is contested, why not allow the disqualification and then have Congress...Also, Congress always had the power to intervene and prevent a state from disqualifying a candidate. If the disqualification is contested, why not allow the disqualification and then have Congress undo it per section 3?
My interpretation is that we're taking this protection we had against insurrectionists and throwing it away. I think it's a lot better to have the country fail to decide on a leader than it is to elect someone so bad that states are trying to remove them from the ballot.
I think the decision is ridiculous. Section 5 doesn't say states can't disqualify people. It says Congress can create legislation. Section 3 doesn't say Congress gets to decide if someone is disqualified. It says Congress can undo such a decision.
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Comment on Seeking advice for solving USB-C hell on new laptop in ~tech
confusiondiffusion (edited )LinkSome ideas: Are your keyboard and mouse wireless? If so, check the batteries. Also, the dongle might just be too far away or in an unlucky spot signal-wise. USB prioritizes traffic based on type....Some ideas:
Are your keyboard and mouse wireless? If so, check the batteries. Also, the dongle might just be too far away or in an unlucky spot signal-wise.
USB prioritizes traffic based on type. Keyboards and mice have guaranteed bandwidth allotments and the USB controller knows to poll them periodically to see if they need to transfer data. So you really shouldn't have problems with them, but I would try moving the mouse and keyboard to the separate USB-A port on a cheap hub by themselves just in case.
If your USB-C hub and or cable is poorly shielded and is using the 3.X standard, it can radiate 2.4 GHz and probably also be impacted by interference from 2.4 GHz. So if you have a wireless keyboard and mouse operating on 2.4 GHz, that could be your problem.
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Comment on REVR plans to turn your ICE car into a plug-in hybrid for US$3,200 in ~transport
confusiondiffusion Link ParentThanks for the correction. I confused the two. I have pedal position available over OBDII on my 2000 ford focus.Thanks for the correction. I confused the two. I have pedal position available over OBDII on my 2000 ford focus.
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Comment on REVR plans to turn your ICE car into a plug-in hybrid for US$3,200 in ~transport
confusiondiffusion LinkI think it could work on some cars. Some (most?) cars have accelerator pedal position available on the CAN bus, so that would solve that issue. Manual transmissions should be fine. Automatics on...I think it could work on some cars. Some (most?) cars have accelerator pedal position available on the CAN bus, so that would solve that issue.
Manual transmissions should be fine. Automatics on the other hand don't like being towed in neutral because the fluid pump isn't running to keep things lubricated.
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Comment on No more phone number swaps: Signal messaging app now testing usernames in ~tech
confusiondiffusion Link ParentIt was TrueCrypt. As far as I know there were never any major problems found with it. Veracrypt is an active project and is afaik considered safe to use. It's unclear why TrueCrypt disappeared....It was TrueCrypt. As far as I know there were never any major problems found with it. Veracrypt is an active project and is afaik considered safe to use. It's unclear why TrueCrypt disappeared.
You may be thinking of the Dual_EC_DRBG algorithm which was not included in Truecrypt. It was included in OpenSSL but not used by default. This is basically the only known truly backdoored cipher out of the NSA.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCrypt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_EC_DRBG
An aside--DES is another interesting story. The NSA took a cipher submitted by IBM. They then reduced its key size to 56 bits but also increased the strength of its sboxes. The result was DES, a cipher that could only be broken by brute force with the computational power available to the NSA and few others at the time. Brute force is really the front door of a cipher. So not really in the same class as Dual_EC_DRBG.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard#NSA's_involvement_in_the_design
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Comment on What's the big deal about running a half marathon? in ~life
confusiondiffusion LinkIn general, you will not truly understand the struggles and accomplishments of other people doing things you haven't experienced. If you want to share this experience with your wife, then you'll...In general, you will not truly understand the struggles and accomplishments of other people doing things you haven't experienced. If you want to share this experience with your wife, then you'll have to start running. Otherwise, you'll cheer her on without feeling it in the way she is. I don't think there's any way around that.
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Comment on Energy efficiency of different land transport means in ~transport
confusiondiffusion (edited )LinkI'm skeptical of the ebike efficiency vs regular bike. Pedal powered bikes are typically much lighter and more aerodynamic than ebikes. In any case, I don't see any chance for ebikes to be over...I'm skeptical of the ebike efficiency vs regular bike. Pedal powered bikes are typically much lighter and more aerodynamic than ebikes. In any case, I don't see any chance for ebikes to be over twice as efficient.
One possible explanation might be the energy used in making food, but that sort of thing doesn't seem to be addressed on this page and the sources for the ebike efficiency seem to be looking at straight aerodynamics and power at the battery/motor and not where the energy comes from. Also, source 15 for the pedal bicycle is for running vs walking? 23 is gasoline vs metabolic calories. No idea what's happening there.
I didn't look deeply into this, but I suspect an error. I suspect ebikes and pedal bikes should be almost the same in terms of efficiency at the drivetrain, with pedal bikes winning out slightly on average (nice road bikes pushing the average up). Ebikes may be better if we get into food production vs electricity production, but again that doesn't seem to be what's happening on this table.
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Comment on Opinion by Brian Merchant: I’ve always loved tech. Now, I’m a Luddite. You should be one, too. in ~tech
confusiondiffusion LinkI think there are ways, as a technically inclined person, to avoid many of the downsides of consumer tech while still using it. And I think this is a separate issue from the wider political...I think there are ways, as a technically inclined person, to avoid many of the downsides of consumer tech while still using it. And I think this is a separate issue from the wider political concerns of technology.
Personally, use an adblocker, restrict time on social media, put your IoT things on their own VLANs and control their connectivity where possible. My google apps run in my work account on my 5 year old, used, rooted, unlocked phone running LineageOS 20 (latest android) that I just replaced the screen, USB port, and battery on and plan to keep for as long as parts are available. My car is 23 years old and I do all work on it. I'm considering rebuilding my own transmission. Etc. I'm not often bothered by the whims of the billionaires because I have the knowledge to take what I want out of all the poisoned apples companies pump out. Even on the AI front, my hobby produces neuromorphic hardware beyond the state of the art, in case OpenAI's superintelligence needs a talking to.
That's great for me! The real problem I see is the exploitation of people who are less fortunate. In that case, I think the most important part of a "Luddite" movement is the social aspect of the movement itself. I'm sure the smashing of looms was never expected to actually cause the change. The awareness the shocking act produces is the real point. I think a lot of people fail to understand this sort of thing. For example, the Occupy Movement. Or when people smash bank windows. No one is expecting to inconvenience the billionaires. The expectation is to start a conversation.
My takeaway from some control of chaos and complex system experiments I've done is that one way to control a system, maybe like society, is to give it many little pushes in the direction you want. It's easy to say "oh that's pointless, the billionaires don't care that you're protesting!" But it could be, and probably once in a great while it is true, that smashing a loom is the first step on a journey that ends quite unfavorably for the billionaires in question.
Anyway, I think it's important to point out the difference between a movement and not buying lightbulbs with servers in them. They're both important but very different things.
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Comment on Are the memes about setting up and troubleshooting printers overblown nowadays? in ~tech
confusiondiffusion Link ParentI used to run a print shop for local activists. Before I upgraded to a completely unreliable commercial office printer, I put several pallets of paper through an old HL-1440 Brother laser printer...I used to run a print shop for local activists. Before I upgraded to a completely unreliable commercial office printer, I put several pallets of paper through an old HL-1440 Brother laser printer by running it almost continuously for over a month. I think it jammed once? That was after I had it for almost a decade.
I did IT for small offices for a while. I still have no idea why people can still be suckered into terrrible printers. There are so many crappy HP inkjets out there. It's like people go to office supply stores, pause in the printer aisle, look past the Brother laser printers and go for smallpox instead.
I've admittedly given up on several printers on jobs. I developed a parallelized pi generation algorithm in assembly when I was 15. I have a fridge full of nanoparticles that self-assemble into artificial neurons. I had two grad students in my first quarter of university. I have completely rebuilt giant commercial office printers. The reason I can't get your $60 inkjet printer working is because--well, let's back up a bit.
The universe requires entropy sinks for all of creation. All order in the universe requires the transfer and concentration of disorder. Beyond the edge of the universe, the creative and destructive processes are at equilibrium. In the universe as we know it, the destruction is pushed away, revealing order and all that we know. In some religions, there is a great battle or conflict between good and evil. This is that conflict.
The decay, the disorder, and all the horrors that go along with it, are concentrated and moved somewhere to make way for all that we know and love. But where does it go?
Slaps crappy plastic panel Inkjets! Also in the 300MB driver that keeps asking you to subscribe to ink cartridges.
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Comment on Hanging 100lbs punching bag in ~life.home_improvement
confusiondiffusion LinkI'm not a structural engineer or framer, but my intuition is that the weakness here would be the bag swinging and loading the 2x4 sideways, perpendicular to its length, and also torsion. It might...I'm not a structural engineer or framer, but my intuition is that the weakness here would be the bag swinging and loading the 2x4 sideways, perpendicular to its length, and also torsion. It might help to use a 2x6 with a 2x4 bolted down the center in a T shape with the bag bolted through both. Maybe you could rest the 2x6 on top of a top plate with the 2x4 hanging down and bolt it through, maybe with a joist hanger too. I'm not sure how happy a joist hanger alone would be with the lateral and torsional load of that bag swinging. I don't think they're designed for that.
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Comment on Many people think cannabis smoke is harmless − a physician explains how that belief can put people at risk in ~health
confusiondiffusion Link ParentI had a housemate move out recently. When I saw her room I thought there was a small fire there. The walls and ceiling were black. I spent days scrubbing the oily soot off. She just liked candles!...I had a housemate move out recently. When I saw her room I thought there was a small fire there. The walls and ceiling were black. I spent days scrubbing the oily soot off.
She just liked candles! I wonder what her lungs look like.
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Comment on Many temptations of an open-source browser extension developer in ~tech
confusiondiffusion (edited )Link ParentI helped start the movement that later became Occupy. I did security stuff. Being intentionally vague here. That was in 2009, way before it was a big thing. We had a member of our group thrown...I helped start the movement that later became Occupy. I did security stuff. Being intentionally vague here.
That was in 2009, way before it was a big thing. We had a member of our group thrown from bed at gunpoint at 4AM by unidentified men wearing skimasks and interrogated. We had a fundraiser for victims of police brutality infiltrated by undercover cops and then busted with flashbangs and beanbag rounds fired from shotguns. That was a completely normal, tame, house party. We were followed around. Physically followed, probably because they were left with no other option and or to intimidate. This was in the SF bay area.
Anyway, it was hard to organize then. If you ever want to get protesty now, in a way that is actually meaningful, it's going to be much harder.
I think you're also assuming a rational adversary. If you ever step on toes, people get petty. We had such ridiculous amounts of resources thrown at us for what we were doing.
Speaking of petty, this is going to sound completely made up. Last week I was eating lunch, in an otherwise empty lot, next to a van with someone clearly living in it. It had signs all over it about how police mistreat and target this person. You know, obvious mental health issue, right? A fucking police helicopter came and swooped at her van and played a siren. She got out and started yelling about how they got her letter. She came up to me and asked if I saw that, told me no one would believe her. She's right.
Don't underestimate petty assholes. Google isn't going to get into your business for no reason. But don't forget these companies and government institutions are comprised of regular, irrational, people. People you might one day offend, people who might be convinced to do things they're not supposed to do. And if they do come after you, will you actually have recourse? Against Google? Meta? Etc. We expect such things to make the news. But what if they don't? If these companies and government institutions do bad things, would we always hear about it? Or is it like the woman in the van?
Also, the data is forever. You're protecting yourself against the future assholes too.
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Comment on New acoustic attack steals data from keystrokes with 95% accuracy in ~comp
confusiondiffusion Link ParentI remember hearing about this forever ago. Surprised the accuracy is as low as 95%. Another interesting attack is via electromagnetic emissions. There's Tempest For Eliza which allows you to play...I remember hearing about this forever ago. Surprised the accuracy is as low as 95%.
Another interesting attack is via electromagnetic emissions. There's Tempest For Eliza which allows you to play mp3s by simply displaying patterns on your screen. You can pick up the radio waves with an AM radio. I've tested this with modern LCDs and it works. Of course this means you can also read what's on monitors through walls and probably capture key strokes too. I assume the limit is your budget for RF equipment, spy balloons, etc.
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Comment on Superconductor megathread in ~science
confusiondiffusion Link ParentMost of the power in a processor is wasted across the wires between the transistors and most of that is wasted in a small number of those wires. PDF That trend has been increasing for a number of...Most of the power in a processor is wasted across the wires between the transistors and most of that is wasted in a small number of those wires. PDF
That trend has been increasing for a number of years. Processors contain miles of copper wire.
I think the biggest challenge is figuring out how to fabricate new materials and reliably get them on silicon. We used aluminum instead of copper wires in processors for a long time, even though aluminum is inferior, just because it stuck to the silicon better and we couldn't figure out a way to make copper work. Any defects become very significant when you're working on the nano scale.
I did a project investigating the feasibility of using optical (or plasmomic) interconnects to replace copper. Heat wasted on interconnects is such a glaring and frustrating problem because it's so simple to understand yet hard to fix.
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Comment on Tesla jailbreak unlocks in-car paid features in ~transport
confusiondiffusion Link ParentI think your point stands with a lot of other hardware, but with batteries it's probably not as bad as it seems. Batteries should last longer (in terms of cell degradation) if you don't charge or...I think your point stands with a lot of other hardware, but with batteries it's probably not as bad as it seems.
Batteries should last longer (in terms of cell degradation) if you don't charge or discharge them as much. Same sort of thing with power. A power restriction (both charge and discharge rate) would increase battery lifespan. The cells wouldn't be wasted if the range or power is locked up. Actually, unlocking that range might be paying to waste more resources by burning through your cells faster.
However I think there are downstream consequences of crippling batteries--slowing adoption, etc., to consider.
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Comment on Suggestions for a new Android phone, please in ~tech
confusiondiffusion Link ParentI bought a 6T in 2021 with 8GB/128GB for $170. I like it. I'm running LineageOS 20 / Android 13. I plan to keep it for at least another 5 years. Will probably replace the battery soon.I bought a 6T in 2021 with 8GB/128GB for $170. I like it. I'm running LineageOS 20 / Android 13. I plan to keep it for at least another 5 years. Will probably replace the battery soon.
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Comment on Is the Tildes code base really only 1.3MB? in ~tildes
confusiondiffusion Link ParentMy first language was assembly. I used to marvel at the size of things like printer drivers. "How is this 40MB? Is it sentient?" I couldn't imagine writing a program 1 whole megabyte in size. Then...My first language was assembly. I used to marvel at the size of things like printer drivers. "How is this 40MB? Is it sentient?" I couldn't imagine writing a program 1 whole megabyte in size.
Then I learned modern programming and continue to be increasingly horrified.
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Comment on I tried to convince Steve Curry not to take his deadly hike when I met him in Death Valley. The memory haunts me. in ~hobbies
confusiondiffusion LinkThis article started off interesting. I thought it was going to be about people overestimating their preparedness. But then it made a sudden turn to climate change. Climate change is so...This article started off interesting. I thought it was going to be about people overestimating their preparedness. But then it made a sudden turn to climate change.
Climate change is so tangentially related to the facts of this man's death. It's barely relevant. If it were only 125F, it's still not okay to hike across the desert with a liter of water, alone, when you're 70+ years old. It hit 134F on July 10, 1913 in Death Valley. It's not like it suddenly got unexpectedly hot in Death Valley due to climate change and therefore this man couldn't possibly anticipate the weather. We've known how hot it gets there since forever.
A man dying in the desert, while tragic, is also pretty low on the concern list for climate change. I think food and water security, etc. are much more concerning and worthy of discussion. The scary thing isn't needing air conditioning. It's millions or billions of people having their food and water sources threatened.
Also, I'm a little annoyed with these articles that constantly link global warming with it simply being hot outside. It's misleading and I think the oversimplification leads to misunderstanding and feeds the skeptics. People should understand that sometimes adding energy makes things colder locally. Air conditioning, for example. Climate change leads to more extreme weather, not just "it's hot out."
Lots of progress! I invented and fabricated some of the first memristors in the world about 17 years ago. These were monolithic solid state devices at around 200um. I brought these into a university lab and got about $3M in grants using these to create sound localization neural circuits. I also had some pretty basic pattern recognition results.
I developed a self-assembling chemistry a few years later and this produces devices around 5nm. I've done some work integrating these into artificial cell membranes to reduce leakage currents (these devices live in a solvent) and developing devices that perform threshold switching, integrate and fire, and more complex behaviors like chaotic firing--closer to something you might call an "artificial neuron." I've built some complex architectures with this and external analog circuitry, but mostly I've focused on the hardware side rather than computational results.
These days, I'm working on integrating living organisms to manage the cell wall upkeep and also power distribution. I want to scale this to obscene levels. I see no reason I can't achieve human brain scale in this kind of network (which is of course totally different than reaching brain performance). I'm just starting my lab up after a year of life getting in the way, so we'll see!
One of the most beautiful results so far has been the emergence of self-regulating pulsating structures that pump raw materials through the dish and enhance the growth of the neurons nearby.