skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on US support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement reaches 50% in ~society
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Comment on US trade court takes first steps toward ordering tariff refunds in ~society
skybrian (edited )Link ParentOkay, but another way to model a tariff that gets refunded is that it's as if a cartel agreed to temporarily raise prices. Monopoly profit margins generally are higher than profit margins in...Okay, but another way to model a tariff that gets refunded is that it's as if a cartel agreed to temporarily raise prices. Monopoly profit margins generally are higher than profit margins in competitive markets. Competition is what keeps prices closer to costs.
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Comment on US trade court takes first steps toward ordering tariff refunds in ~society
skybrian Link ParentNot sure which company or what research you're talking about. This is getting rather theoretical and hypothetical. I imagine it varies by company and what market they're in.Not sure which company or what research you're talking about. This is getting rather theoretical and hypothetical. I imagine it varies by company and what market they're in.
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Comment on US trade court takes first steps toward ordering tariff refunds in ~society
skybrian Link ParentThat's a counterfactual claim and it depends on what you're assuming for the alternative scenario. What prices would they have charged if there were no tariffs? I'm assuming they would have been...That's a counterfactual claim and it depends on what you're assuming for the alternative scenario. What prices would they have charged if there were no tariffs? I'm assuming they would have been lower, so revenue would have been lower. But maybe they would have sold more at a lower price?
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Comment on US trade court takes first steps toward ordering tariff refunds in ~society
skybrian Link ParentThere are a few businesses that have said that they will, but it's up to them. Otherwise, the cost of goods for the importer was lower than they expected, so their profit is retrospectively higher...There are a few businesses that have said that they will, but it's up to them.
Otherwise, the cost of goods for the importer was lower than they expected, so their profit is retrospectively higher than it was.
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Comment on US trade court takes first steps toward ordering tariff refunds in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...]From the article:
The order, issued by Judge Richard K. Eaton of the United States Court of International Trade, amounted to an early victory for the thousands of businesses that have already sued to recover the taxes they paid, plus interest, now that President Trump’s global tariffs have been struck down. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Trump could not use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose tariffs on U.S. trading partners.
Many trade lawyers said they were still deciphering the scope of the judge’s three-page directive. But they generally agreed that its mandate could prove short lived, with the Trump administration expected to quickly challenge it. Judge Eaton has scheduled a hearing in the case for Friday.
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Judge Eaton appeared to deliver an early warning shot to the Trump administration in one of the lesser-noticed cases. His short order essentially opened with a declaration that “all importers of record” that paid taxes under Mr. Trump’s emergency tariffs were “entitled to the benefit” of the Supreme Court’s decision that those duties were illegal.
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Judge Eaton also ordered the Trump administration to stop calculating importers’ tariff bills based on the emergency duties that have been declared illegal. The government by its own admission has continued to do so as part of the final closeout process for goods brought into the United States over the past year.
Judge Eaton further appeared to apply the same requirement to certain imports that already had their tariff bills finalized in the process known as liquidation, though lawyers disagreed on the scope of what the court had mandated.
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US trade court takes first steps toward ordering tariff refunds
8 votes -
Comment on Eyes of Iran: how the regime secretly monitors its citizens in ~society
skybrian Link ParentThis seems overly dismissive of a nonprofit that's apparently doing good work reporting about violence against reporters in many parts of the world. Looking at their funding page, they get funding...This seems overly dismissive of a nonprofit that's apparently doing good work reporting about violence against reporters in many parts of the world. Looking at their funding page, they get funding from many sources. Not liking one of the organizations on the list doesn't mean a whole lot.
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Comment on Apple announces Macbook Neo, a new budget Mac in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentWell sure, but those are niche uses and there are people who seem to think that 8GB isn't enough for most people.Well sure, but those are niche uses and there are people who seem to think that 8GB isn't enough for most people.
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Comment on Apple announces Macbook Neo, a new budget Mac in ~tech
skybrian (edited )Link ParentI have an M2 Macbook Air with 8MB. It's faster than any previous laptop I've had and it's always been snappy. I don't do a whole lot with it though. I have VS Code and Chrome open all the time and...I have an M2 Macbook Air with 8MB. It's faster than any previous laptop I've had and it's always been snappy. I don't do a whole lot with it though. I have VS Code and Chrome open all the time and it's mostly idle. All Macs seem crazy fast these days.
The people who complain that 8GB isn't enough memory must somehow be using their computers a lot differently than me. It's rather puzzling.
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Comment on Amazon Bahrain facility targeted for US military support: Iran media in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article:From the article:
Amazon’s data center in Bahrain was targeted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the company’s support of the U.S. military, Iranian state media said Wednesday.
The company’s cloud computing unit said Monday that one of its facilities in Bahrain was damaged due to a nearby drone strike on Sunday. Two data centers in the United Arab Emirates were also damaged after they were “directly struck” by drones.
All of the facilities remain offline, according to the Amazon Web Services health dashboard.
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Amazon Bahrain facility targeted for US military support: Iran media
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Comment on Meta’s AI smart glasses and data privacy concerns: workers say “we see everything” in ~tech
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
In Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten’s investigation, the people behind Meta’s smart glasses testify to the hidden stream of privacy-sensitive data that is fed straight into the tech giant’s systems.
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The company they work for is called Sama and is a subcontractor to Meta. Here in Kenya’s capital, thousands of people train AI systems, teaching them to recognise and interpret the world.
They are called data annotators, and they are the manual labourers of the AI revolution. On the screens they draw boxes around flower pots and traffic signs, follow contours, register pixels and name objects: cars, lamps, people. Every image must be described, labelled and quality assured.
All to make the next generation of smart glasses a little more intelligent – a little more human.
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The employees have signed extensive confidentiality agreements – if they break them they can lose their jobs – and be thrown back into a life without income, often to the slums. Therefore we publish no names.
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The workers in Kenya say that it feels uncomfortable to go to work. They tell us about deeply private video clips, which appear to come straight out of Western homes, from people who use the glasses in their everyday lives.
Several describe video material showing bathroom visits, sex and other intimate moments.
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“Someone may have been walking around with the glasses, or happened to be wearing them, and then the person’s partner was in the bathroom, or they had just come out naked”, an employee says.
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“We see everything – from living rooms to naked bodies. Meta has that type of content in its databases. People can record themselves in the wrong way and not even know what they are recording. They are real people like you and me”.
The workers describe videos where people’s bank cards are visible by mistake, and people watching porn while wearing the glasses. Clips that could trigger “enormous scandals” if they were leaked.
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“There are also sex scenes filmed with the smart glasses – someone is wearing them having sex. That is why this is so extremely sensitive. There are cameras everywhere in our office, and you are not allowed to bring your own phones or any device that can record”, an employee says.
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Together with a system developer at Svenska Dagbladet we try to find out whether what the salesperson said is correct, that we can choose not to share our data with Meta. We try to use the glasses without internet connection turned on.
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But that makes it impossible to get help interpreting what we see. The glasses urge us to turn on the connection. When we then analyse the network traffic from the app, we see that the phone has frequent contact with Meta servers in Luleå, Swden, and Denmark.
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Meta’s AI smart glasses and data privacy concerns: workers say “we see everything”
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Comment on Electricity use of AI coding agents in ~enviro
skybrian Link ParentAs a consumer I don't have direct control over that, though. One possibility is to use an older model or a cheaper model instead of the latest and greatest? I'm mostly using Sonnet instead of Opus...As a consumer I don't have direct control over that, though. One possibility is to use an older model or a cheaper model instead of the latest and greatest?
I'm mostly using Sonnet instead of Opus because Sonnet seems good enough.
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Comment on US support for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement reaches 50% in ~society
skybrian Link ParentTaking a position could help them in the primary if it's competitive, or perhaps in the general election if it's competitive and it would help get out the vote. There are probably a fair number of...Taking a position could help them in the primary if it's competitive, or perhaps in the general election if it's competitive and it would help get out the vote. There are probably a fair number of incumbents with safe seats? Maybe they'll come out in favor later on?
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Comment on US Democrats weigh Donald Trump school vouchers, with billions at stake in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
Blue states have long rejected school vouchers as bad for public schools and bad for taxpayers. Now the nation’s first federal program is making an offer that Democratic governors may find hard to refuse.
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If governors opt in to the program, tax dollars will go toward private school tuition for children in their states, something many Democrats are uncomfortable with. But if they say no, their states will lose out on a new bottomless bucket of federal cash that could help public school students, too.
Twenty-eight governors have said they will opt in, including all but one Republican (who remains undecided), according to tracking from EdWeek, a news organization that covers education. Two Democratic governors have said their states will participate, and four have said they won’t, but most have ducked the question, as pressure rises from all sides.
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These tax credits, including the new federal version, incentivize taxpayers to donate money to scholarship granting organizations, or SGOs, which then give money to students.
Starting in 2027, donations up to $1,700 to SGOs will qualify for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit. That means that as long as donors owe at least $1,700 in federal taxes, they will see their tax bill reduced by the amount of their donation. In essence, taxpayers are directing money they owe in taxes to these SGOs rather than to the government. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the program will cost the federal government $25.9 billion over 10 years.
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The Treasury Department has said it anticipates that states would not be able to pick and choose which SGOs they want to allow — meaning that states that want to opt in to taxpayer-funded donations for public school students would have to allow private school scholarships, too — and vice versa.
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Undecided governors say they are waiting for the Treasury Department to issue rules detailing how the program will work. Those are expected by this summer.
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US Democrats weigh Donald Trump school vouchers, with billions at stake
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Comment on Electricity use of AI coding agents in ~enviro
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...]From the article:
On a median day, I estimate I consume 1,300 Wh through Claude Code—4,400 “typical queries” worth. (For those wondering, this is $15-20 of token spend on a typical day.)
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So, if I wanted to analogize the energy usage of my use of coding agents, it’s something like running the dishwasher an extra time each day, keeping an extra refrigerator, or skipping one drive to the grocery store in favor of biking there. To me, this is very different than, in Benjamin Todd’s words, “a terrible reason to avoid” this level of AI use. These are the sorts of things that would make me think twice.
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Electricity use of AI coding agents
14 votes
One difference is that the ICE hasn't been around for very long (it's post 9/11), so doing some kind of radical reorganization seems a lot more feasible than, say, getting rid of the New York City police and starting over. What would NYC do about crime in the meantime?
Personally I'm in favor of making whatever immigration enforcement might be needed within a state (having to do with residents already there) the job of a division of the state police - take the federal government out of it altogether. Then the federal government could fund efforts to increase immigration enforcement but they shouldn't be able to hire the staff or give them orders.
And then if some states just don't see it as a priority then nothing needs to be done.