unkz's recent activity

  1. Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Not for live public rides, but Waymo has "tens of thousands of miles" in snow. I don't think it will be far away. https://waymo.com/blog/2025/10/creating-an-all-weather-driver I know they are...

    Not for live public rides, but Waymo has "tens of thousands of miles" in snow. I don't think it will be far away.

    https://waymo.com/blog/2025/10/creating-an-all-weather-driver

    For years, we've been advancing our system in some of the snowiest conditions across the country —regularly driving in Upstate New York, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and the Sierra. We've amassed tens of thousands of miles in diverse, snowy conditions. This has allowed the Waymo Driver’s AI to learn from real driving experience and train to navigate a wide range of winter weather.

    I know they are actively lobbying in BC to drive here, and we get our fair share of snow every year.

  2. Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk

    unkz
    Link
    Looking at last year's predictions, here are some of the good ones IMO @OBLIVIATER "We're going to see several more high profile 'assassination' attempts." - Charlie Kirk, Melissa Hortman, John...

    Looking at last year's predictions, here are some of the good ones IMO

    • @OBLIVIATER

      • "We're going to see several more high profile 'assassination' attempts." - Charlie Kirk, Melissa Hortman, John Hoffman (attempt), Josh Shapiro (arson attempt), I probably missed some others

    • @kingofsnake

      • "We'll have an election following the resignation of Justin Trudeau (I'm calling it for January)." - Trudeau resigned on January 6, 2025, we did indeed have an election

    • @X08

      • "Israel/Palestinian war will escalate further into surrounding region." - The conflict spread regionally, involving strikes in Iran and Qatar.
      • "New temperature records during the summer for nearly every part of the world." - July and August 2025 confirmed as the third-warmest on record globally.
      • "Cowless cheese gains traction." - The market for cow-free dairy and cultivated meat did quite well IMO
      • "California gets hit by biggest forest fires yet." - California experienced a severe wildfire season, especially with the January fires in LA.

    • @EarlyWords

      • "Next year the bill for the climate comes due. The days of having the climate catastrophe 'ahead of us' are now over." - Arguably, hotter than ever before at least. I feel like every year the bill has come due, and we keep paying.

    • @DynamoSunshirt

      • "Big Tech move from AI to ramming self-driving tech... across as much of the USA as possible." - Waymo is killing it, self-driving cars are everywhere
    5 votes

  3. Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Almost all successful “Indie“ games are still multimillion dollar operations. AI tools have the potential to open the space to motivated single individuals.

    Almost all successful “Indie“ games are still multimillion dollar operations. AI tools have the potential to open the space to motivated single individuals.

  4. Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games

    unkz
    Link Parent
    At the rate models are becoming capable of running on local hardware, I’m seeing this as less and less of a concern. Pretty much all of the best in class image models are perfectly capable of...

    At the rate models are becoming capable of running on local hardware, I’m seeing this as less and less of a concern. Pretty much all of the best in class image models are perfectly capable of being run on my (admittedly powerful) workstation. LLMs are still generally only effective on cloud scale hardware, but I think that will change in the relatively near future.

  5. Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games

    unkz
    Link
    This is just silly. AI is the perfect tool to make Indy games competitive with major studios. We should be celebrating the use of AI for field leveling in these industries.

    This is just silly. AI is the perfect tool to make Indy games competitive with major studios. We should be celebrating the use of AI for field leveling in these industries.

    21 votes

  6. Comment on As a reindeer herder, I am watching Norwegian renewable energy projects threaten our land, livelihoods and an Indigenous way of life the state once tried to erase in ~enviro

    unkz
    Link Parent
    I find it odd to constantly see this repeated as some sort of undisputed fact. Did people say this when windmills were invented too? Because nowadays they are considered charming and quaint....

    Wind farms are ugly.

    I find it odd to constantly see this repeated as some sort of undisputed fact. Did people say this when windmills were invented too? Because nowadays they are considered charming and quaint. Personally, I love wind farms.

    33 votes

  7. Comment on As a reindeer herder, I am watching Norwegian renewable energy projects threaten our land, livelihoods and an Indigenous way of life the state once tried to erase in ~enviro

    unkz
    Link
    I don’t question that this is meaningful to them, or that the history here is ugly. But “this is our culture” isn’t a trump card. Climate change is a global, existential problem. Decarbonizing at...

    I don’t question that this is meaningful to them, or that the history here is ugly. But “this is our culture” isn’t a trump card.

    Climate change is a global, existential problem. Decarbonizing at scale is not optional, and it’s not cost-free. Every energy transition disrupts someone’s way of life. Coal towns, fishing communities, dam projects - many people have lost jobs, land, and entire futures. The issue is, the alternative is worse.

    Indigenous land rights should mean real consultation, mitigation, and compensation. They shouldn’t mean a permanent veto over nationally critical infrastructure. If every historically rooted land use could block renewables, large scale decarbonization simply wouldn’t happen.

    30 votes

  8. Comment on /r/politics moderators in ~tech

    unkz
    Link Parent
    But aren’t you shaming them with this post? But in a way where nobody can judge whether they deserve that shame?

    But aren’t you shaming them with this post? But in a way where nobody can judge whether they deserve that shame?

    1 vote

  9. Comment on /r/politics moderators in ~tech

    unkz
    Link Parent
    But that’s kind of what you are doing, except you aren’t giving their side of the story?

    But that’s kind of what you are doing, except you aren’t giving their side of the story?

    5 votes

  10. Comment on How Nick Fuentes’s coordinated US raids and foreign fake-speech networks inflate his influence in ~society

    unkz
    Link
    Just wanted to point out how dumb this one paragraph is. Come on now. There’s lots of actual evidence here, but this ain’t it.

    Just wanted to point out how dumb this one paragraph is.

    Fuentes Himself is Involved in Coordination: His manipulated reach is not accidental; full show transcripts reveal hundreds of real-time commands to “retweet this” and “retweet me,” establishing raid-style amplification as a core operating method. These directed raids built the behavioral infrastructure of his account and laid the groundwork for consistent X policy violations by the anonymous and foreign network now amplifying him.

    Come on now. There’s lots of actual evidence here, but this ain’t it.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on I don't care much for symbolism in ~creative

    unkz
    Link
    I’m always reminded of Steven King’s approach to symbolism. He writes without any conscious regard for symbolism, but then after he is done he reads his work and looks for the symbolism and then...

    I’m always reminded of Steven King’s approach to symbolism. He writes without any conscious regard for symbolism, but then after he is done he reads his work and looks for the symbolism and then he goes back through and emphasizes what he found in its nascent form. In that way, it isn’t too forced but it still adds depth to the writing.

    30 votes

  12. Comment on At dusk, fifty people went to San Francisco's longest dead-end street and all ordered a Waymo at the same time in ~transport

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Non-zero chance someone gets their ass kicked by an angry Uber driver.

    Non-zero chance someone gets their ass kicked by an angry Uber driver.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on Finland cut Russian energy imports and closed the shared border, erasing €12 billion in trade. The shocks deepened the Nordic nation's deficit, already strained by defense and welfare spending. in ~society

    unkz
    Link
    They should get credit for actually taking a hit to stand up to Russia

    They should get credit for actually taking a hit to stand up to Russia

    34 votes

  14. Comment on A post on X claiming that Denmark has introduced an IQ threshold of at least 85 for sperm donors has sparked confusion, debate and memes, but ultimately is misleading in ~health

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Maybe the original on X (which I refuse to use), but it has popped up on instagram and Reddit for me. I think it has more reach than you think.

    literal shitpost on X that was seen by less than 20k people

    Maybe the original on X (which I refuse to use), but it has popped up on instagram and Reddit for me. I think it has more reach than you think.

    9 votes

  15. Comment on You’re probably using the wrong dictionary in ~books

    unkz
    Link
    TLDR: Thesauruses exist and are more suitable for some writing purposes than dictionaries. A long time ago Noah Webster wrote a thesaurus and called it a dictionary. The author John McPhee likes...

    TLDR: Thesauruses exist and are more suitable for some writing purposes than dictionaries. A long time ago Noah Webster wrote a thesaurus and called it a dictionary. The author John McPhee likes to use this thesaurus.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Why humanity needs a Lunar seed vault in ~space

    unkz
    Link
    I wonder if it might be more plausible to just genetically sequence these seeds and print them later once we have the requisite technology.

    I wonder if it might be more plausible to just genetically sequence these seeds and print them later once we have the requisite technology.

  17. Comment on How to actually feed America (food bank logistics) in ~society

    unkz
    Link
    I never would have guessed that food banks employ a market based approach for distribution, or that they would employ negative value bids.

    I never would have guessed that food banks employ a market based approach for distribution, or that they would employ negative value bids.

    7 votes

  19. Comment on Against 'Metroidbrania': a landscape of knowledge games in ~games

    unkz
    Link
    The list is missing 12 Minutes, which I highly recommend.

    The problem there is that there's very few games that actually meet this description. Out of the list above, the only ones I'd put in that list are Animal Well, Outer Wilds, and Tunic.

    The list is missing 12 Minutes, which I highly recommend.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on The DoorDash problem: How AI browsers are a huge threat to Amazon in ~tech

    unkz
    Link Parent
    I don’t entirely agree with the premise. For me, I think there are other aspects which are comparable in importance. like you said, upsells. Insulating me from upsells and advertising on that “buy...

    If the value of the AI is figuring out what to purchase

    I don’t entirely agree with the premise. For me, I think there are other aspects which are comparable in importance.

    • like you said, upsells. Insulating me from upsells and advertising on that “buy now” page is something i want.
    • that last mile of completing the purchase is still something I don’t want to have to do
    • privacy and profiling — I think there are ways agentic buying can operate that preclude websites from associating my agent’s browsing from profiling me. All the stores know is that some cloud entity with a clean cookie jar was looking for X product.
    3 votes