post_below's recent activity
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Comment on Rewriting Bun in Rust in ~comp
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Comment on Alleged Scattered Spider hacker arrested in Finland – Peter Stokes was apprehended in April and extradited to the US following an Interpol Red Notice in ~tech
post_below Link ParentOften a ransom attack encrypts data (and backups) so the company is effectively shut down digitally. In that case the ransom is to get access to your systems and data back rather than prevent the...Often a ransom attack encrypts data (and backups) so the company is effectively shut down digitally. In that case the ransom is to get access to your systems and data back rather than prevent the release of something.
So possibly they figured out a way around the encryption, most likely they had a backup the hackers weren't able to encrypt or destroy.
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Comment on A theory of prompt injection (and why you should study roles) in ~comp
post_below Link ParentAs I understand it, they send an encrypted block in lieu of thinking blocks, for which the client does not have the key. This keeps the cache working. The only visible thinking the client gets is...As I understand it, they send an encrypted block in lieu of thinking blocks, for which the client does not have the key. This keeps the cache working. The only visible thinking the client gets is summarizer results, which are informational only, not part of the actual session context.
So in a way they're hiding as you said, but they can't be found. If they could, there would be no barrier for distillers.
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Comment on Meta is adding ridiculous ‘rate limits’ and a soft paywall to its smart glasses in ~tech
post_below LinkAt this point we can rely on Meta to consistently do dumb things. I'm here for it, I hope they continue to fail to achieve network effect level adoption outside of FB, WhatsApp and Instagram....At this point we can rely on Meta to consistently do dumb things. I'm here for it, I hope they continue to fail to achieve network effect level adoption outside of FB, WhatsApp and Instagram. Here's to no (meta owned) metaverse and no meta owned global video and audio surveillance system.
Specific to their glasses subscription: Seems like the wrong bet. The focus feature is indeed a killer use case for hearing impaired and older people but it's also something you can get from other companies for less money. They need something no one else can do (well) if they want a working paywall.
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Comment on A theory of prompt injection (and why you should study roles) in ~comp
post_below LinkRole confusion is genuinely important when it comes to prompt injection, or even just understanding LLM behavior. Even the best models get confused about who said what, which can be dangerous....Role confusion is genuinely important when it comes to prompt injection, or even just understanding LLM behavior. Even the best models get confused about who said what, which can be dangerous.
However I'm confused by a couple things:
gpt-oss-20b
Is the model mentioned in their testing multiple times. That's a (comparatively) small, dumb, outdated model. Nothing you discover against that model is likely to generalize to models magnitudes larger with much more extensive post training. I don't understand the value of using it for research, except possibly that's it's cheap.
I'm also confused by their assertions about CoT (model thinking) blocks. Using Claude models as an example, the outputted thinking blocks are summaries generated by a smaller model. The model doing the real inference ignores them completely. They only exist for the user to read. I don't think any of the frontier models output real thinking, in order to protect against distillation. The whole CoT concept in the paper seems to be about behavior that no longer exists.
Am I missing something?
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Comment on My parent is a bad person [rant] in ~life
post_below LinkI hear your rant. Being disappointed in your parents is rough, it runs up against identity and security in big ways.I hear your rant. Being disappointed in your parents is rough, it runs up against identity and security in big ways.
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Comment on ‘Citizen Vigilante’ and the rise of basedsploitation in ~movies
post_below LinkI rotten tomatoed this movie yesterday, the critic's reviews (all 7 of them) made it clear that it's thinly veiled anti-immigrant propaganda. One called it "astonishingly bad". If that wasn't...I rotten tomatoed this movie yesterday, the critic's reviews (all 7 of them) made it clear that it's thinly veiled anti-immigrant propaganda. One called it "astonishingly bad".
If that wasn't enough to convince me not to watch it, apparently Musk made it available for free on X for 48 hours.
It looks to me like yet another bit of media that's vaguely popular with the alt-right and absolutely no one else. Also the movie is banned in Germany.
Side note: "basedsploitation" is a silly term no one asked for. Also, looking at the Prime video top 10, the movie is not on the list at all, let alone number 1. I feel like the article is exaggerating the importance and popularity of the film.
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Comment on Power consumption of LLM's in ~tech
post_below LinkSince we don't know what frontier model power use looks like, we can extrapolate from open weight model power use and just scale it up to larger models. It's not perfect but even with a very large...Since we don't know what frontier model power use looks like, we can extrapolate from open weight model power use and just scale it up to larger models. It's not perfect but even with a very large margin of error it's clear that the power consumption from individual LLM use is negligible.
That includes training because, to do the math in good faith, you need to amortize the training cost among all users over the full life of the model.
Without doing emotionally motivated math I don't see a way to make individual usage into a significant concern.
The concern is about the power demands of the industry as a whole. How much will it increase prices? How many coal and gas plants will stay online longer (as opposed to being replaced by renewables) to meet demand? Will legislators do anything about it? If datacenters had to factor in the cost of their impact and otherwise take responsibility for externalities, it would solve most of the problems. They'd be investing in renewable energy for their facilities, installing closed loop cooling (it's not new technology, just a bit more expensive) and taking efficiency seriously.
As it is right now in many places, datacenters are able to offload costs onto the surrounding communities via the power grid and water supply. The solution is to make them pay those costs.
IMO it's a mistake to follow the petrocarbon industry climate change playbook and misattribute responsibility onto individuals to distract from the only real problem: The datacenter operators, the model labs and the money behind them.
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Comment on The White House now determines which customers can access new AI models in ~tech
post_below Link ParentNow worries, it's easy to miss, especially since they did some post editing.Now worries, it's easy to miss, especially since they did some post editing.
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Comment on The White House now determines which customers can access new AI models in ~tech
post_below Link ParentIt's an interesting development, but I bet we can find sources that aren't AI written.It's an interesting development, but I bet we can find sources that aren't AI written.
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Comment on Should the plural of "milf" be "milfs" or "milves"? in ~humanities.languages
post_below Link Parent/MIL(FS?|VES)/i/MIL(FS?|VES)/i
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Comment on Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic in ~tech
post_below Link ParentAt the moment the majority of AI content is pretty easy to spot once you've seen the patterns enough times. And hard to spot until you have. Here's a good place to start:...At the moment the majority of AI content is pretty easy to spot once you've seen the patterns enough times. And hard to spot until you have.
Here's a good place to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Signs_of_AI_writingI haven't seen any credible estimates of the percentage of content that's AI generated. It can really only be a wild estimate at this point since there aren't any perfect detection tools.
The volume of LLM posts and articles is really high though, I come across multiple examples every time I visit a big aggregator like HN.
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Comment on Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic in ~tech
post_below Link ParentThat's great, may it never change! If the login is a publicly accessible page: to be safe, don't get a public certificate for it or visit it in chrome. Edge either.That's great, may it never change! If the login is a publicly accessible page: to be safe, don't get a public certificate for it or visit it in chrome. Edge either.
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Comment on How important is sexual chemistry/ability/quality to you when you date/marry/whatever? in ~life
post_below Link ParentI've experienced that, including when they seem to have the instinct to do the opposite of what makes sense. Some people don't feel confident physically when they're on top, or otherwise in...This last partner I had, which is what opened up all of this in my brain, whenever we were in a position that relied on her movement, physicality, and ability. It didn't really seem like either one of us were enjoying it. When I tried to help in those moments, her physical instinct was always to fight against it
I've experienced that, including when they seem to have the instinct to do the opposite of what makes sense. Some people don't feel confident physically when they're on top, or otherwise in control. Sometimes they're in their head about how they look, or whether they're doing it right. Some people get tired quickly. Maybe they're in the particular position because they think it's expected of them rather than because they want to be. In all those cases they're not comfortable, which means they're not flowing. No one has perfect instincts when they're uncomfortable.
But I wouldn't say that's a lack of skill. It's just that the situation doesn't work for them for some reason. In my experience time, communication and trust solves it.
Although of course, without really good drugs, trust isn't usually on the table for casual sex. Time isn't always an option either. In which case I guess the skill framing makes more sense.
But it still feels like a contradiction in terms. Mind blowing to one person is awkward and uncomfortable to another so there aren't really any universal skills. Unless we're talking about skills like emotional intelligence, or understanding the basics of the other person's anatomy.
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Comment on Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic in ~tech
post_below Link ParentTrue, then once they find a WP endpoint and add the site to a list that gets passed around, they start coming more often.True, then once they find a WP endpoint and add the site to a list that gets passed around, they start coming more often.
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Comment on Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic in ~tech
post_below Link ParentTo add to this, if you put a page/site online today that isn't linked anywhere on the internet (thus effectively invisible) and you just put a security certificate on it, within days you'll be...To add to this, if you put a page/site online today that isn't linked anywhere on the internet (thus effectively invisible) and you just put a security certificate on it, within days you'll be getting 100s of bot hits/day. Once it's indexed, multiply that by 10, double it if there's a contact form or comment boxes, triple it if it's running software that's a popular target (like wordpress), multiply by 10 again if it becomes a reasonably popular social site with user generated content.1
1 napkin math based on real world sites
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Comment on Bot web traffic has overtaken human web traffic in ~tech
post_below LinkI don't have any links for you, but a clarification: Bot traffic very likely first started outpacing human traffic at least a decade ago. Scrapers, search engine spiders, bots sniffying for common...I don't have any links for you, but a clarification: Bot traffic very likely first started outpacing human traffic at least a decade ago. Scrapers, search engine spiders, bots sniffying for common vulnerabilities, social media link info grabbers, even SMS and messaging apps send bot hits. A single bot instance can hit multiple pages a second for tiny fractions of a penny in electricity costs, humans never stood a chance.
So bot traffic volumes versus human aren't really that interesting, bots were always going to have higher volume. The interesting question is about content that people are actually consuming/interacting with. How much of that is automated?
Almost definitely bots are already ahead of humans on content creation volume, but traditionally the majority of that is SEO spam that people only interact with accidentally and rarely stay long. Humans are still way ahead when it comes to content that people actually engage with.
Now with LLMs there's a real possibility that could change, but it hasn't happened yet.
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Comment on How important is sexual chemistry/ability/quality to you when you date/marry/whatever? in ~life
post_below LinkI'd frame it completely differently. There's no good or bad when it comes to sex, just different. Sure experience makes a big difference, but only in that it hopefully teaches you to pay...I'd frame it completely differently. There's no good or bad when it comes to sex, just different. Sure experience makes a big difference, but only in that it hopefully teaches you to pay attention. Without presence it's just down to chemistry and luck, maybe with a side of context and lead up.
But with women that can’t dance I often find that they struggle to keep up with anything I’m trying to do. Like if I’m trying to set a rhythm they fight against the rhythm, not on purpose, it’s like dancing they just don’t have the rhythm.
Perhaps they weren't fighting your rhythm, just dancing to a different one. Or misreading you possibly. It doesn't make them bad at sex, just incompatible with your version.
From my perspective sex is like a conversation, the most important skill is listening. Their body will tell you how they want to dance, even if they don't know it consciously, if you pay attention.
Almost anyone can have a good conversation if someone approaches them with curiousity and empathy.
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Comment on The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars. He fears for an America where generosity is trolled. in ~tech
post_below Link ParentThanks for the links, I don't have time to watch them now but I'm kinda curious what Craig is like liveThanks for the links, I don't have time to watch them now but I'm kinda curious what Craig is like live
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Comment on The founder of Craigslist has given away half a billion dollars. He fears for an America where generosity is trolled. in ~tech
post_below Link Parent'The Farm Poor People for Longevity Blood Infusions for the Rich' Foundation just doesn't have mass appeal.'The Farm Poor People for Longevity Blood Infusions for the Rich' Foundation just doesn't have mass appeal.
The confidence is key, given the mixed sentiment about AI coding agents. The rewrite alienates a lot of developers. I have no idea exactly how many people/orgs have stopped using Bun as a result (or are in the process of migrating) but it's definitely not none.
Something more than "we did vibed security review" and "we setup fuzzing" might go a long way to convincing people they can trust this massive bet on vibecoding. It's a huge rewrite and the timeline makes it clear that the initial rewrite was nearly 100% vibecoded. What have they done since to take ownership over the codebase? How much will humans be in the loop going forward? Will the project be largely maintained by agents? If so it's going to get progressively uglier under the hood unless new generations of models are much better than what we have now. Personally I'd never consider building a project on top of a runtime like that, the risk/reward is all wrong.