j3n's recent activity

  1. Comment on How much of an echo chamber is Reddit/the internet, really? in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Yes, hence the caveat that you have to read "several hundred" reddit comments to get a vague impression of an honest opinion. If you have any leads on where I can go to get commentary on a wide...

    Yes, hence the caveat that you have to read "several hundred" reddit comments to get a vague impression of an honest opinion. If you have any leads on where I can go to get commentary on a wide range of goods and services with a lower ratio of astroturfing, I'd love to hear it.

    1 vote
  2. Comment on Sweden may oppose Tesla's supervised self-driving tech in Europe over speeding concerns in ~transport

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Oh yes, I agree it needs to encode the local average behavior. Probably computed live on board minute by minute. I'm not claiming this is an easy task, but I do think it is a necessary one.

    Oh yes, I agree it needs to encode the local average behavior. Probably computed live on board minute by minute. I'm not claiming this is an easy task, but I do think it is a necessary one.

    1 vote
  3. Comment on Sweden may oppose Tesla's supervised self-driving tech in Europe over speeding concerns in ~transport

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Well, in most places that would be excessive, but if you're driving in light to moderate traffic in San Diego, you're still getting passed regularly at 85. One of the biggest problems here is that...

    Well, in most places that would be excessive, but if you're driving in light to moderate traffic in San Diego, you're still getting passed regularly at 85. One of the biggest problems here is that "normal" behavior varies quite a bit, even within relatively small geographic areas. I don't think that changes the basic fact that self-driving cars need to follow what the humans around them are doing until we get to the point where the human drivers are in the minority.

    4 votes
  4. Comment on Sweden may oppose Tesla's supervised self-driving tech in Europe over speeding concerns in ~transport

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Strong disagree, at least in the short term. All vehicles, whether driven by a human or a computer are safest when driven predictably. Computer driving systems should encode human behavior first...

    A general go 10kph above speed limit seems bad (even if that's what the general populace does).

    Strong disagree, at least in the short term. All vehicles, whether driven by a human or a computer are safest when driven predictably. Computer driving systems should encode human behavior first and foremost. Laws are going to have to adapt over time if self-driving tech actually advances enough to become commonplace anyway. The current laws are far less relevant than current actual human behavior.

    7 votes
  5. Comment on How much of an echo chamber is Reddit/the internet, really? in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Where do you go to get something resembling an honest product review of some random thing you need to acquire? I hate reddit, but I'll be damned if I can figure out a better way to assemble some...

    Where do you go to get something resembling an honest product review of some random thing you need to acquire? I hate reddit, but I'll be damned if I can figure out a better way to assemble some semblance of an honest impression of most products aside from reading several hundred reddit comments and trying to manually filter out any biases I can detect.

    6 votes
  6. Comment on Thinking of getting Proton and using it as my day-to-day email, but I have concerns in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    This is where I landed as well. I gave Proton a shot first, but I found their apps to have an unacceptable amount of jank and I just don't have a need for the features that differentiate Proton...

    This is where I landed as well. I gave Proton a shot first, but I found their apps to have an unacceptable amount of jank and I just don't have a need for the features that differentiate Proton from a theoretically less secure BYO domain email host.

    1 vote
  7. Comment on Supermarket rewards card- yes or no? in ~finance

    j3n
    Link
    I don't know how they do it in the UK, but in the US rewards accounts are tracked by phone number. <local area code>-867-5309 has never failed me.

    I don't know how they do it in the UK, but in the US rewards accounts are tracked by phone number. <local area code>-867-5309 has never failed me.

    18 votes
  8. Comment on California attorney fined for using twenty-one AI hallucinated cases in court filing in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Looking him up, it seems like he has an independent practice, so there's no one to fire him in way that would be more significant than a $10k fine.

    Looking him up, it seems like he has an independent practice, so there's no one to fire him in way that would be more significant than a $10k fine.

    18 votes
  9. Comment on Salt vs. potassium in ~health

    j3n
    Link Parent
    This is exactly why I don't watch my sodium (or anything else) intake. Nutrition sciences seems to me to be one of the least settled areas of science across all disciplines. I can put nearly...

    I would recommend people be wary of taking everything he says as gospel

    This is exactly why I don't watch my sodium (or anything else) intake. Nutrition sciences seems to me to be one of the least settled areas of science across all disciplines. I can put nearly infinite effort into tracking various aspects of my health, but there's no guarantee at all that it will amount to anything. I've decided to just stop worrying about it. I do my best to eat a macro-balanced diet of fresh foods and check my weight daily. Anything more seems unlikely to be worth the effort.

    14 votes
  10. Comment on Wallet voting in ~life

    j3n
    Link
    "Vote with your wallet" is just a tautology wrapped in advice. You're always voting with your wallet. If it seems like your vote doesn't matter, it just means that your vote isn't winning because...

    "Vote with your wallet" is just a tautology wrapped in advice. You're always voting with your wallet. If it seems like your vote doesn't matter, it just means that your vote isn't winning because most other people are voting another way.

    10 votes
  11. Comment on Google's new AI video tool floods internet with real-looking clips in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Do we need to ban Photoshopped images as well? I fail to see a fundamental difference. If you know that any form of media, whether it's written text, still images or video is easily manipulated or...

    Do we need to ban Photoshopped images as well? I fail to see a fundamental difference. If you know that any form of media, whether it's written text, still images or video is easily manipulated or faked, you simply discount the validity of anything in that form of media that doesn't come with some independent verification.

    20 votes
  12. Comment on AI is creating a generation of illiterate programmers in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    SO became useless for me after about year 2 of my career as a software engineer. If you're working on anything remotely interesting, the problems you encounter are too complex and niche for SO to...

    SO became useless for me after about year 2 of my career as a software engineer. If you're working on anything remotely interesting, the problems you encounter are too complex and niche for SO to help. So far my limited experience with "AI" is that it's largely the same. Even vastly simplified questions are too nuanced for it to provide useful answers.

    5 votes
  13. Comment on NASA moves swiftly to end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, ask US employees to “report” violations in ~space

    j3n
    Link
    This is a bullshit headline for the record. The acting NASA administrator just sent out the memo she was told to by OPM, just like every single ever agency head. It's just pure chance that someone...

    This is a bullshit headline for the record. The acting NASA administrator just sent out the memo she was told to by OPM, just like every single ever agency head. It's just pure chance that someone happened to screenshot the NASA version and post it on social media.

    10 votes
  14. Comment on Where can I buy affordable, high quality Micro SD Cards within Canada? in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    I mean, practically by definition, yes? If they're not giving it to Amazon, they're giving it to FedEx/UPS/etc.

    I mean, practically by definition, yes? If they're not giving it to Amazon, they're giving it to FedEx/UPS/etc.

    5 votes
  15. Comment on I hate 2FA in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    I think they have changed this at some point. My work switched to Fidelity this tear and I didn't have to jump through any weird hoops to set up TOTP with the app of my choice.

    I think they have changed this at some point. My work switched to Fidelity this tear and I didn't have to jump through any weird hoops to set up TOTP with the app of my choice.

    2 votes
  16. Comment on Amazon drone delivery footage in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    This remains to be seen, unless you can back that statement up with some serious research. I'm a researcher in this field. I work on the government side so I'm not extremely knowledgeable about...

    but it would/will be cheaper in the long term.

    This remains to be seen, unless you can back that statement up with some serious research. I'm a researcher in this field. I work on the government side so I'm not extremely knowledgeable about the economics of these systems, but they are very expensive to run. In the slightly larger small passenger vehicle segment, many companies have closed up shop in the last few years without ever delivering a working product.

    Aircraft are extremely expensive to operate compared to wheeled vehicles. We've know this long before the ubiquity of multirotor vehicles. Adding a bunch of extra rotors doesn't make it any cheaper.

    2 votes
  17. Comment on Performance Improvements in .NET 9 in ~comp

    j3n
    Link Parent
    Yep, same for me. Firefox on ios.

    Yep, same for me. Firefox on ios.

    1 vote
  18. Comment on What the death of Cohost tells me about my future on the internet in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    It reads fine to me as-is. "Makes [...]" has the same meaning to me as "makes [...] what they are", with an implication that what they are is something positive.

    It reads fine to me as-is. "Makes [...]" has the same meaning to me as "makes [...] what they are", with an implication that what they are is something positive.

    3 votes
  19. Comment on San Leandro tech startup to sell drones the size of several cars, flying 600 miles at a time in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    They are obviously comparing emissions of a partially electric aircraft to those of a gas/diesel powered truck. This kind of doublethink is rampant in the industry.

    They are obviously comparing emissions of a partially electric aircraft to those of a gas/diesel powered truck. This kind of doublethink is rampant in the industry.

    4 votes
  20. Comment on Reddit won't allow me to delete my comments in ~tech

    j3n
    Link Parent
    This used to be explicitly not the case for edits to reddit comments, hence overwriting the comment with junk instead of deleting it outright. Apparently that has changed at some point.

    Golden rule of prod data is to tombstone, never delete.

    This used to be explicitly not the case for edits to reddit comments, hence overwriting the comment with junk instead of deleting it outright. Apparently that has changed at some point.

    2 votes