skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country in ~society
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Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
skybrian Link ParentIt's not in the title anymore, and the stories are not all about hiring. Also, I think it's healthy for us to be able to talk about mistakes made by "our side" on Tildes, hopefully in a respectful...It's not in the title anymore, and the stories are not all about hiring.
Also, I think it's healthy for us to be able to talk about mistakes made by "our side" on Tildes, hopefully in a respectful way. I was pleasantly surprised that someone was willing to do this, and there are some decent stories.
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Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
skybrian Link ParentI don’t think that’s true since some of the stories are about mistakes made by management.I don’t think that’s true since some of the stories are about mistakes made by management.
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentResponsibility for accidents in large organizations is often complicated. I think there are some more useful questions to ask: How fast do they fix the problem? What are they doing to ensure that...Responsibility for accidents in large organizations is often complicated. I think there are some more useful questions to ask:
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How fast do they fix the problem?
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What are they doing to ensure that nothing similar ever happens again?
A responsible, safety-conscious organization will have processes to drive accident rates towards zero. This often has little to do with figuring out which employee is to blame. Sometimes someone needs to be fired due to malace, but that’s often not the case.
But I have no confidence that X is like that, due to its leadership.
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Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society
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Comment on US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country in ~society
skybrian LinkSome say there's nothing to cheer about, but apparently there are a lot of Venezuelans who disagree? In exile, Venezuelans greet Maduro’s fall with joy — and fear of what comes next ... It seems...Some say there's nothing to cheer about, but apparently there are a lot of Venezuelans who disagree?
In exile, Venezuelans greet Maduro’s fall with joy — and fear of what comes next
Across the United States, Venezuelans gathered in major cities home to significant diasporas to celebrate and cautiously muse with relatives back home about what comes next after U.S. forces captured and swept the South American president out of the country on drug trafficking charges. Venezuelans across the nation and globe have been pining for Maduro’s ouster for years, and many had begun to worry it was a day they might not live to see.
But the embattled leader’s removal through a U.S. military intervention and the continuing presence of Maduro allies in the government also fueled anxiety. Soon after news of the president’s arrest, his authoritarian government’s top officials and his own son assured Venezuelans that Maduro left behind a plan that ensures their uninterrupted authority over state affairs.
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Some Venezuelans are approaching the moment more cautiously, warning that the situation inside the country remains volatile and unresolved. In remarks aired on state television, Rodríguez condemned the U.S. intervention and said Venezuela will never be “slave” to another nation. She continued to refer to Maduro as “president.”
“Everyone is wondering if the Venezuelan military is still with the government or will go against it,” said Ana Gil Garcia, a Chicago nonprofit leader assisting Venezuelan migrants. She added that members of the military have long propped up the legitimacy of the Maduro government. “That is worrisome, because a civil war could erupt.”
It seems far too soon to say how it works out for Venezuela. There are other cases where things got worse after getting rid of a dictator.
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Comment on Luxury apartments reduced rent in some big US cities in ~finance
skybrian Link ParentI suspect they built thousands of luxury apartments in some sunbelt cities because the land was there, they were allowed to, and the demand was there. It's harder to build in some cities than others.I suspect they built thousands of luxury apartments in some sunbelt cities because the land was there, they were allowed to, and the demand was there. It's harder to build in some cities than others.
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Comment on Scalable oral exams with an ElevenLabs voice AI agent in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentI don't think there are many jobs where you just read and write papers? Academics are expected to be able to teach, too. Also, most papers are collaborations these days, at least in the sciences....I don't think there are many jobs where you just read and write papers? Academics are expected to be able to teach, too. Also, most papers are collaborations these days, at least in the sciences.
I started working before widespread videoconferencing. I valued being able to talk to teammates about technical problems in an informal meeting in front of a whiteboard. I'm under the impression that academics have conversations in front of whiteboards too? There's the old stereotype of mathematicians chatting together while writing equations on a blackboard.
Google was founded by two graduate students and I think that's the sort of experience that Google's interviews tried to replicate with in-person interviews, however imperfectly: are they someone that I'd want to work with to come up with a design to solve a technical problem?
On the other hand, since we normally write code in front of a computer, not at a whiteboard, I always thought pair programming together would be a good interview test, but it wasn't done. Nowadays, maybe they'll start testing people on their ability to vibe-code, who knows?
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Comment on Luxury apartments reduced rent in some big US cities in ~finance
skybrian (edited )Link ParentYeah, it's a funny way to put it. The nationwide average might as well be rounded to "no change." Nobody lives in a nationwide average, though. People live in specific places. Apparently rents for...Yeah, it's a funny way to put it. The nationwide average might as well be rounded to "no change."
Nobody lives in a nationwide average, though. People live in specific places. Apparently rents for some apartments in some cities decreased.
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Comment on Luxury apartments reduced rent in some big US cities in ~finance
skybrian Linkhttps://archive.is/N1ArH [...] [...] [...]The US’s average rental rate fell 0.18 percent in November, the largest monthly drop in more than 15 years, according to real estate research firm CoStar. Driving that decline: lower rents in big cities like Austin, Denver and Phoenix, as well as vacation destinations like Naples, Florida; Asheville, North Carolina; and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
New building openings are bringing rents down as wealthy tenants trade up, forcing landlords to drop prices for older apartments. Rents for older units have fallen as much as 11%, and some are now on offer at rates as low as homes that are usually designated as “affordable” and come with restrictions including rent control and rent stabilization.
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The cities where older buildings’ rents fell the most saw new apartments built at a much higher rate than the national average. In the cities that added new apartments at lower rates — below the national average — rents barely budged.
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The supply of luxury buildings over the past couple of years has driven down rents and helped ease some of the affordability issues in those cities even though the development of affordable housing was comparatively slow, amounting to hundreds rather than thousands of new units built per quarter.
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To be sure, relying on luxury developments to address the housing crisis isn’t a long-term solution — with developers already pulling back on plans for new buildings in places where rents have fallen the most. The number of new apartments opening for rent across the country is expected to drop by half next year from its mid-2024 peak.
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Luxury apartments reduced rent in some big US cities
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Comment on Scalable oral exams with an ElevenLabs voice AI agent in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentMaybe it makes sense to compare this to playing music. If you know how to play, you should be able to play something in front of someone else, right? But now it's a high-stress situation. I don't...Maybe it makes sense to compare this to playing music. If you know how to play, you should be able to play something in front of someone else, right? But now it's a high-stress situation. I don't know how to fix it except by practicing and performing enough that I build up some confidence. And... I do okay sometimes, but I haven't really reached that point yet.
Similarly, it seems like you should be able to have a conversation with someone who wrote a paper and they should be able to answer questions about it. The question is how to do it without making it high-stress, when how well they do actually matters to them. Hopefully practice helps?
I did hundreds of job interviews over the years while working at Google and it was the worst part of the job, even though I wasn't the one being tested. I hate judging people. Eventually I stopped doing them. I hope something better comes along.
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentYeah, if it’s open source, maybe they used it. Who knows? But there are plenty of other ways for ideas to spread in a fast-moving field. For example, when AI researchers come up with a new...Yeah, if it’s open source, maybe they used it. Who knows?
But there are plenty of other ways for ideas to spread in a fast-moving field.
For example, when AI researchers come up with a new technique, they will often write a paper about how they did it, because that’s how you make your reputation and it also helps with hiring. There is also sometimes open source code to go along with a paper.
If the technique isn’t published, I expect that the AI labs are watching each other and attempting to work out how other firms did it.
I wouldn’t expect all that much direct copying of proprietary code because they have different systems and rewriting it to work locally is part of understanding it.
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
skybrian LinkGrok Is Being Used to Depict Horrific Violence Against Real WomenGrok Is Being Used to Depict Horrific Violence Against Real Women
In addition to the sexual imagery of underage girls, the women depicted in Grok-generated nonconsensual porn range from some who appear to be private citizens to a slew of celebrities, from famous actresses to the First Lady of the United States. And somehow, that was only the tip of the iceberg.
When we dug through this content, we noticed another stomach-churning variation of the trend: Grok, at the request of users, altering images to depict real women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.
Much of this material was directed at online models and sex workers […]
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentI still think getting to the point where locked-down devices are mostly harmless would be a step up. Also, cooperating to beat the challenge is a lesson in itself :-)I still think getting to the point where locked-down devices are mostly harmless would be a step up. Also, cooperating to beat the challenge is a lesson in itself :-)
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Comment on Scalable oral exams with an ElevenLabs voice AI agent in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentWould it help if you could do it at home, and you could try again as many times as you like? It seems sort of like beating a video game.Would it help if you could do it at home, and you could try again as many times as you like? It seems sort of like beating a video game.
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Comment on In praise of legal puzzle-solving in ~society
skybrian (edited )LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
On December 23, 2025, in Trump v. Illinois, the Supreme Court denied the federal government’s request to stay a lower-court order that prevented the President from deploying the National Guard in Chicago. The Court preliminarily concluded that the statutory prerequisite for deploying the National Guard—that the President be “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States”—was not satisfied.
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Overwhelming evidence supports the district court’s and Professor Lederman’s view that “the regular forces” means the full-time military. “Forces” refers to the military; “regular” refers to the full-time military, as opposed to the reserves. [...]
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[...][T]he Posse Comitatus Act says: “don’t use the military to enforce the law unless an exception applies.” [...] Congress is saying that if the President tries and fails to enforce the law using the military, he can use the National Guard, not that he’s “unable” to enforce the law using the military when Congress tells him not to.
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You might find this reasoning dissatisfying.
At every step, this analysis treats the interpretation of 10 U.S.C. § 12406 as a kind of linguistic puzzle to be solved. The first step addresses how the words “regular forces” would have been understood in 1908. The second step focuses on how people communicate with their babysitters. The third step starts with an old-school statutory interpretation canon and adds some nifty deductive reasoning.
This analysis is so … limited. There is nothing about the policy merits of using the military for domestic law enforcement, the policy merits of using the regular military versus using the National Guard, or the reason we even have a National Guard. [...] Can you really interpret this statute correctly without achieving a deeper understanding of these issues?
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I support this approach because it is consistent with textualism, the mode of interpretation that I favor. Textualism prescribes both a goal—interpret statutes according to their ordinary meaning at the time of enactment—and a means of achieving that goal—consider only those materials that illuminate the meaning of the text and ignore the rest. [...] I will spare you an apologetic for textualism and instead highlight a few ways in which Trump v. Illinois shows textualism’s benefits.
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In praise of legal puzzle-solving
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentI do have programming knowledge, and I'm not sure I could break my simple scheme using only an iPad with parental controls on. If there's a reliable way for the device to figure out which websites...I do have programming knowledge, and I'm not sure I could break my simple scheme using only an iPad with parental controls on. If there's a reliable way for the device to figure out which websites are adult-only, and you don't have programming tools on the device, the most obvious solutions are to install a VPN (which maybe the parental controls don't let you do) or use another website to forward the web pages.
Building a website isn't so hard, but you need somewhere to build it. And if those Internet services are mostly adult-only themselves, it might be hard to find.
If you have outside help, it's a lot easier, though.
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Comment on Grok AI generates images of ‘minors in minimal clothing’ in ~tech
skybrian (edited )Link ParentYeah, I think society is going to have to decide about what's a tool and what's supposed to be a walled garden. I don't think making the entire Internet into a walled garden is practical or...Yeah, I think society is going to have to decide about what's a tool and what's supposed to be a walled garden. I don't think making the entire Internet into a walled garden is practical or desirable, but there are things that could be done to make the Internet less dangerous.
An example of that: it should be trivial to make an adults-only website. Like, there's a software setting where you set adults_only=true, and that enables some kind of HTTP header, and all mainstream browsers know they need to check if the user is an adult or not. (And sure, with a bit of programming knowledge you could work around it, but it would help.)
Maybe it's not quite that simple, but this probably could have been done decades ago if society and the browser vendors in particular made it a priority.
There's plenty of cheap crap made in China, but there is high-quality manufacturing too. For example, Apple products are manufactured there.
Since I don't know much about the Chinese navy, I would want to read more it before drawing any conclusions. Have you read anything good?