cutmetal's recent activity
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Comment on Balcony solar is spreading across the US in ~enviro
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of March 30 in ~society
cutmetal Link ParentUsually the AP calls a spade a spade, even when it's Trump's lies. It's refreshing.Usually the AP calls a spade a spade, even when it's Trump's lies. It's refreshing.
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Comment on MIRAGE: the illusion of visual understanding in ~tech
cutmetal Link ParentYeah definitely. The explanation is probably a lot more mundane than what I'm suggesting above, I just like to imagine profound possibilities :)Yeah definitely. The explanation is probably a lot more mundane than what I'm suggesting above, I just like to imagine profound possibilities :)
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Comment on MIRAGE: the illusion of visual understanding in ~tech
cutmetal LinkJesus wtf. This is pretty fucking out there, but: what if this sort of "super-guessing", where real truth is hidden in imperceptible details, explains things like intuition or even psychic...Prompted by these findings, we train a text-only “super-guesser” model on the public training set of ReXVQA, the largest and most comprehensive benchmark for visual question answering in chest radiology imaging, and show that our model outperforms all the frontier AI models, as well as radiologists, on a held out test set. It provides plausible explanations for the questions, indistinguishable from human-written ground-truth, all while lacking access to any visual input.
Jesus wtf.
This is pretty fucking out there, but: what if this sort of "super-guessing", where real truth is hidden in imperceptible details, explains things like intuition or even psychic phenomena? In general I write off all pseudoscience and I'm sure that all robust empirical studies of psychics have shown it's not real, but there's also creepy anecdotal evidence of eerily accurate cold readings. And intuition is often real, but pretty hard to put your finger on a satisfying explanation for. Maybe this AI behavior is more or less the same thing.
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Comment on Landslide: a ghost story in ~humanities
cutmetal LinkThis person is taking a very abstract and interesting approach to the multidimensional problems we're facing today. It feels extremely novel to me, and while I did read the whole thing, I don't...This person is taking a very abstract and interesting approach to the multidimensional problems we're facing today. It feels extremely novel to me, and while I did read the whole thing, I don't feel like I have the bandwidth to really engage with it on a deeper level than to say: yes, this is good, this seems like it could be a really promising approach.
Deep in the piece they linked to Unbreaking, which is a thing the author is part of. Group blog? Information collective? Sociopolitical documentation project? Idk what to call it but it's in line with the ideas expressed in the linked article and worth a look also.
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Comment on This eerily accurate ‘LinkedIn Speak’ translation tool will help you sound like an instant thinkfluencer in ~tech
cutmetal Link ParentPeople who legit post on Linkedin make me think of this old Gunshow classic https://gunshowcomic.com/343People who legit post on Linkedin make me think of this old Gunshow classic
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Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
cutmetal Link ParentYour "suspect lobbying sources" link really gets to the core of this issue, better than anything I've read so far....Your "suspect lobbying sources" link really gets to the core of this issue, better than anything I've read so far.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reddit-user-uncovers-behind-meta-154717384.html
Really hope we can rise up again and keep this from happening. We've done it before.
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Comment on Are there any small Android phones comparable to the size of an iPhone 12 mini? in ~tech
cutmetal LinkI went deep down this rabbit hole late last year, trying to find a decent Android smallphone. All the options available are fringe. The least fringe option is Unihertz which someone else has...I went deep down this rabbit hole late last year, trying to find a decent Android smallphone.
All the options available are fringe. The least fringe option is Unihertz which someone else has already mentioned. I've never had one of their phones, a friend who had once told me that the build and software quality is what you'd expect given the price - you'll probably be looking for another phone in a year. Also I'm not sure who the aesthetics of the Jelly phones are for, but it's not me.
Someone else mentioned the Ikko Mind One, when I was looking that hadn't released yet but was supposed to come out in January. The emphasis on AI is off-putting, but the form factor is fascinating. I worry that flip camera wouldn't be durable. Props to them for trying something different.
The one I nearly pulled the trigger on was the Bluefox NX1. It might be ok, there was very little info at the time, might be some more out there now a few months later. https://aiphor.com/
^ that Aiphor site has a bunch of other smallphones that are basically NIB e-waste. Most are quite old, and these things will never get an Android version beyond what is on them now, so you should probably avoid them unless you're somehow ok being stuck on an Android version so old it had a food-based codename. Also a lot of these phones have fake cameras - one of the camera apertures on the back is real, but the rest are just plastic doodads mimicking the arrays you'd find on a decent phone. I'm guessing maybe this can be a selling point for teenagers in third world markets?
There's also the Palm Phone. No relation to the Palm Pilot. I so, so wish this thing didn't suck, it looks amazing. But the battery life is supposed to be hilariously bad, the Android is super old, yadda yadda.
Then if you go back 3-4 or more years there were some Nokia "throwback" models released, but they were way low volume so you aren't likely to find any left in decent shape.
I kept the p9p I had gotten a few months earlier, and then the free pro access to Gemini kicked in, so now I'm probably locked in to Pixels for a while to keep that going.
There are other phones from a few generations back that might get you close - I had a few Sonys and always really liked them. Xperia I ii and Xperia 5 iv, IIRC. At various times it's looked like Sony would finally throw in the towel on the US phone market, but sure if they have or not. But the phones had been getting bigger, and losing the unique throwback features like the notification LED 😢
Sorry I don't have anything better to report. If someone finds a legit smallphone let me know! I had been thinking maybe the smallboye would be my at-home lightweight wifi unit, and then take the pixel on the road.
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Comment on Doomers in love in ~life
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Comment on Doomers in love in ~life
cutmetal LinkThe writer is quite talented, that was an engrossing read. Loved the quote at the end: But... if this writer's experience is typical, then holy shit I feel bad for single/young people now. If...The writer is quite talented, that was an engrossing read. Loved the quote at the end:
“‘Bad times! Hard times!’: People say this. Let us live good lives, and the times are good. We make our times; such as we are, such are the times.”
But... if this writer's experience is typical, then holy shit I feel bad for single/young people now. If civilizational collapse occurs when the complexity of a society outweighs its utility, and fucking/procreating is too much trouble to bother with any more, then we're pretty boned.
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Comment on World Health Organization prepares for nuclear scenario, including weapons use, in Iran in ~society
cutmetal LinkI don't know united24media so I was a bit suspicious, but they link to what appears to be their source at Politico.eu...I don't know united24media so I was a bit suspicious, but they link to what appears to be their source at Politico.eu
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Comment on I made a word association game - Noun Sense in ~games
cutmetal LinkNoun Sense and enclose.horse from that linked Tildes thread have bumped NYT Spelling Bee down to my tertiary daily game.Noun Sense and enclose.horse from that linked Tildes thread have bumped NYT Spelling Bee down to my tertiary daily game.
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Comment on In the world of tech, people constantly ask “Could chatbots ever be conscious?” but I feel like asking “Are you?” Take the test! in ~tech
cutmetal Link ParentWe're all just trying to serialize our ineffable vectors into sensible output tokens.
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Comment on Shadow fleet dominates Hormuz crossings as Iran ramps up bypass loadings in ~transport
cutmetal LinkFor anyone who like me wanted mostly to know what the Shadow Fleet is, it's at the very end and it's about what you might expect:For anyone who like me wanted mostly to know what the Shadow Fleet is, it's at the very end and it's about what you might expect:
- Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as being part of the Shadow Fleet if it engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices indicating that it is involved in the facilitation of sanctioned oil cargoes from Iran, Russia or Venezuela. Or it is sanctioned for participation in sanctioned oil trades or is sanctioned for links to a company that is sanctioned for facilitating the export of sanctioned oil. Or it participates in a cargo delivery where at some point over the course of the delivery one party in the chain engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices.
Lloyd’s List defines an LPG carrier as being part of the LPG Shadow Fleet if it engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices, or if it is sanctioned by the US, UK or EU.
- Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as being part of the Shadow Fleet if it engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices indicating that it is involved in the facilitation of sanctioned oil cargoes from Iran, Russia or Venezuela. Or it is sanctioned for participation in sanctioned oil trades or is sanctioned for links to a company that is sanctioned for facilitating the export of sanctioned oil. Or it participates in a cargo delivery where at some point over the course of the delivery one party in the chain engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices.
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Comment on Why do I almost never catch colds anymore? in ~health
cutmetal LinkInteresting observation! I feel like I too get way fewer colds than I did before covid, but in my case it's probably because I also drink 99+% less than I did before covid. Maybe something like...Interesting observation! I feel like I too get way fewer colds than I did before covid, but in my case it's probably because I also drink 99+% less than I did before covid. Maybe something like that is a factor for you too - do you live a more healthy lifestyle now?
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Comment on Charli XCX reveals she wants to ‘quit music’ for new career path in ~music
cutmetal LinkThat would make me so sad but really, after years of relative obscurity followed by the phenomenon that is Brat, I'm not surprised. Topping Brat would be nearly impossible, and so many musicians...That would make me so sad but really, after years of relative obscurity followed by the phenomenon that is Brat, I'm not surprised. Topping Brat would be nearly impossible, and so many musicians futz along releasing mediocre music after they've lost the spark.
At least this way, if she's making movies that she's jazzed up about, we might still get to see some some more magic out of Charli XCX.
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Comment on Is it worthwhile to run local LLMs for coding today? in ~comp
cutmetal Link ParentSo interesting timing on this question. Replying to you because you seem to know what you're talking about and I'm curious what you think. I'm waiting on delivery of a pair of Nvidia Tesla P40...So interesting timing on this question. Replying to you because you seem to know what you're talking about and I'm curious what you think.
I'm waiting on delivery of a pair of Nvidia Tesla P40 data center GPUs. You can get them used on ebay right now for a little over $200/ea, shipped. They each have 24gb vram, and I'm planning to put them into a machine with 64gb ram. (You do have to come up with a cooling solution as they're made to have server-grade blower fans wind-tunneling them, I found some cheap 3d printed shrouds that funnel 120mm fans through them. They also have non-standard power inputs so you need adapters for that too.)
My understanding is I should be able to run 70b parameter models with a decent context window and speeds - does that sound realistic to you? In any case I'll find out next week!
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Comment on Living human brain cells play DOOM on a CL1 in ~tech
cutmetal LinkWhen a person has a stroke or other traumatic brain injury, parts of their brain stop working, and their awareness dims. When we were little kids, our brains grew and our awareness brightened....When a person has a stroke or other traumatic brain injury, parts of their brain stop working, and their awareness dims.
When we were little kids, our brains grew and our awareness brightened.
Where is the line? Who's to say that there isn't a glimmer of consciousness in these smears of human brain cells that are showing us they can learn and remember?
It's fascinating research, but also horrific.
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Comment on Tell me about your favourite web-based logic puzzles! in ~games
cutmetal Link ParentWow, thanks! I'll try it out now! Edit: it worked! If that was you who friend-requested me sorry but I accidentally removed you after adding. The "remove" button was cut off visually and I didn't...Wow, thanks! I'll try it out now!
Edit: it worked! If that was you who friend-requested me sorry but I accidentally removed you after adding. The "remove" button was cut off visually and I didn't realize what I was clicking. Also friends show up as a GUID so idk who it was that requested me lol.
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Comment on The fifty most underappreciated movies of the 21st century in ~movies
cutmetal Link ParentIt's been a very long time since I've seen it, but this is how I felt about Donnie Darko. To me that movie was like, "Oh look, here's a series of weird images," which is fine if they're telling a...It's been a very long time since I've seen it, but this is how I felt about Donnie Darko. To me that movie was like, "Oh look, here's a series of weird images," which is fine if they're telling a coherent story, but in the end Donnie Darko just added up to nothing. Someone once told me that you have to read/watch some companion piece or other to understand it, which completely loses me.
Anybody running one of these systems? I guess in the simplest setup you just need a couple panels and an inverter right? Like $200 per 100w panel, maybe $200 for a cheap inverter? What do your generation numbers look like?