Hacker News Reader

altruioson Qwen 3.8 27B

'They' - in this case - are those who are unable to empathize. People who only learn of other's struggles through visceral personal experience. Conservatives, in general, struggle with this class reasoning... Very much a 'if I don't experience it then it doesn't exist' kind of mentality. Frustrating and exhausting. A lack of imagination, a lack of empathy, they just are lacking in these regards.

altruioson Qwen 3.8 27B

There are a lot of people who are apathetic to what musk is, people that don't care are not people who should inspire you. What the hell is so inspiring about apathy anyway?!

And yeah, people that don't care DO make the world worse through their apathy.

altruioson Qwen 3.8 27B

remember to let llama.cpp catch up to anything new in this model. Save your judgment until about 2 weeks of use.

altruioson Grok 4.6 scores 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

What is your fixation and preoccupation with that site? Also, you sound unwell...

altruioson Grok 4.6 scores 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

What has the elon-verse been spewing out that has you in such an altered state?

altruioson Grok 4.6 scores 61 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Elon did that twice, actually, in real life!

altruioson Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

Costco isn't perfect, and things slip through still.

For example: this is a minor annoyance, but comes readily to mind.

https://www.costco.com/p/-/orgain-organic-protein-and-superf...

The problem is labeling conventions leading to inaccurate assumptions of what's even IN that "protein powder"...

you would think the protein, being the largest in print, is the primary ingredient but no. A serving is 51grams, and the protein makes up 21grams of that serving: less than half, that's not a 'protein powder' if the primary ingredient isn't protein.

It should be labeled "SUPERFOODS with protein" not the other way around.

There have been other things similar in scope less readily recalled. It may seem minor to some... but labeling accuracy and transparency is something we had to fight for collectively.

altruioson If coding has been solved, why does software keep getting worse?

pulse audio's pain points were in setup for me, and in setup alone. using it has been a breeze.

altruioson Unitree As2-W

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA8WuXDXfcI

relevant link.

I remember watching this video with the takeaway: if you want it secure, build it yourself... which is what I am currently doing.

altruioson What happens when the information runs out

> Any tool that tries to enhance a low quality image or video is just going to be making up the missing data.

So there is some things that instinctively don't sound correct here.

A frame may not contain the info to enhance, maybe it's too blurry... but a series of frames can (I'm pretty sure) between them have enough info to deblur an object in the background, it really helps to know the focal length, and distance maps...

My only point is information in a video is more than the sum of the information of it's frames, it also captures delta, not just from frame to frame, but relevant frame to relevant frame. That's a fair bit to work off of.

I do agree with our general point when information is 'absent'. I disagree how much absent information is in a video which can't be reconstructed by this delta. It certainly isn't zero, or 100%.

Inventing colors from a grayscale is a good example of absent information and of where this goes awry. Deblurring/blurring operations, less so.

altruioson Who's Afraid of Chinese Models?

What are you even trying to say: "undercut the professor"...

The further you try to constrain this topic into this illformed analogy the weirder it becomes. If we start off with a better analogy...

altruioson Who's Afraid of Chinese Models?

This is a silly perspective, inaccurate, and out of bounds framing.

Public libraries, in this instance, is curated data from all the internet, obtained through not legal means (I don't have a problem with this other than lack of attribution, being copy-left). Just to be clear.

But in answer to your incredibly leading and inaccurate framing... they are required (by their job title) to teach to those who who show up in the classroom, it's not their place to discriminate against anyone/thing (even those like itself (other robots)) that also show up in the classroom.

But you can't teach at a university using only knowledge learned from the library. you need a degree. You are free to teach at the park, where anyone can hear you. public in -> public out.

altruioson When A.I. is a member of the family

> "...I am a computer program that generates responses to your prompts based on what my training data tells me is most likely to be correct and sensible."

This is correct only for a toy mental model of what an llm is capable of.

However it gets murky once you realize that (on a per token level) the llm is capable of changing it's temperature (rng %'s on picking the next token) top_k/top_p (how many options are shown per token). Adding in that bit of control to it's own output muddies that statement, as this, in effect, renders a 'mood'/'mode' in the LLM's response. so 'correct and sensible' are no longer the correct adjectives (well... unless you consider the 'me' in that statement to be a 'reasoning agent'... the fact is we don't have good words to work with here), but 'realistic / agentic' might be more in tune.

altruioson Grok uploaded my user directory to xAI's servers

I agree with this. And also think that we should train and select for trustworthy models. I also agree that these models may never truly be trustworthy.

altruioson GLM 5.2 is nearly as accurate as a human book keeper

Regardless of how correct they are, they assume liability: which is a metric that you do not improve with more bookkeepers.

altruioson GLM 5.2 is nearly as accurate as a human book keeper

does this assume a maximum of one malicious bookkeeper?

altruioson GLM 5.2 is nearly as accurate as a human book keeper

...again: liability is the key issue. Cost savings a not exactly an isolated issue here.

altruioson GLM 5.2 is nearly as accurate as a human book keeper

Why would I want both a less accurate book keeper and to incur all of the liability of doing the books myself?!

altruioson Re: I'm Begging You to Leave Your AI Note-Taker at Home

AI only needs to be better than a human, which is also fallible.

But I would only accept AI note taking if it was reconciled (in a timely manner) by a human listening to the audio recording and verifying accuracy. Without that, it's an unacceptable loss of accountability. Even with that, privacy concerns are abound with frontier models.

STT local models offer different concerns, but generally are pretty good at transcribing in a quite environment.

Capitalistic pressures reduce quality of health care far too often. Everything from artificially limiting how many doctors get degrees, to pushing doctors to see more people per day from such tech. The enshittification will continue until moral improves.

altruioson Learning to code is still worthwhile

Besides the reward of a more capable brain, the reduced effects/risks of dementia, the contrarian need to argue, the altruistic desire to help neighbors with difficult problems, the selfish urge to daydream... yeah, there are people for whom none of those are motivating factors.

altruioson Learning to code is still worthwhile

The most compelling reason to learn to code is exactly the same reason to read lots of books (fiction or otherwise). It exercises your brain. A brain that can easily sort, parse, and understand basic logic and control flow is more resistant to propaganda and influence. Which is the same benefit a lot of reading does, but for different avenues of thinking (more worldviews exposed to -> more critical thought of each of those views -> more critical thinking in general).

altruioson Zuckerberg says AI agent development going slower than expected

If AI was a productivity boon: wouldn't a company employ the same or more employees to capture more market share at a competitive edge. Shedding employees because they are more efficient seems like shooting yourself in the foot to try and stand in the same spot in a race.

AI should have caused a job market boon: because less skilled employees would have been more hirable/useful. That this is not the case leads me to suspect that AI is an excuse to reduce employee count, but not the root cause.

altruioson Introduction to Genomics for Engineers

...well actually...

There are more combinations than merely having only X, or an XY combination. And there is more fuzziness even in the Y and X expression, as you said. It's fuzzy all the way down. The tale of Binary results has always been from compression of reality: Always has been.

altruioson Most arguments are about ego, not ideas

I do not believe it exists. If it is never, then it must not exist.

proofs I would accept:

(for Christianity)

Biblically accurate angels descend onto earth, to everyone, and submit themselves to scientific testing, which conclude they are made of something non-physical.

Divinity is proven to be a measurable and testable attribute of reality.

Reality warping magic, demonstrated to not be any sort of trick or technology, and limited to those devout to said religion.

God shows his ass to everyone, the only part of him that - according to the bible - won't make a human insane.

the basis of these proofs can be distilled down to some basic requirements: - It must happen in 'reality' not 'in my head'. - It must be testable, and repeatable. - It must have no 'natural/scientific' explanation. - It must be viewable by everyone.

That's not 'all' of the requirements, but regardless of which religion we are talking about: those are the common primitives.

Nothing I've encountered have met these standards. But if those standards of mine are met...

altruioson Most arguments are about ego, not ideas

> Someone who does not believe in god will not be convinced to believe by a proof of god's existence.

But of course that's not true. I would believe in a God with proof of their existence. I simply have not encountered such proof that hold up to my standards of proof of such an extraordinary claim.

altruioson A US military exercise to launch a satellite on short notice

One idea that stuck out to me was an array of giant thin solar powered spinning metal Crookes radiometers magnets in a line to make a railgun-like launcher. Materially cheap to do.

Related, but not exactly what I was thinking of: https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2025/08/05/a-rotating-probe-... The original source I'm thinking of may be lost to time :( I'll keep hunting.

edit:found!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDM1COWJ2Hc

altruioson Crypto in 2026: Oh, This Is the Bad Place

> Fiat currency isn't just a matter of belief or stories

... Then how do we, as a society, determine how much a dollar is worth?! We do use force to enforce the stories we tell about fiat. But 'believe this story about how much a dollar will buy you and how much you owe, or else we will send thugs to your house' isn't disproving the point at all.

altruioson Ear Training Practice

Thank you for the clarification. Music is weird. My understanding was the well-tempered clavichord was one of the oldest deviations (that was written) from the concept of just intonation: you learn something everyday.

altruioson Ear Training Practice

We actually have multiple names for all the notes - which have a 'reason' to exist. A B-double-flat and an A-natural, and G double-sharp exist, distinct for notational purposes... yes, it sounds dumb. Music IS arbitrary in a lot of ways.

For example: 12 tone equal-temperament was chosen/invented (nearly) (by Bach) over just intonation because of 'musical gags' like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Musical_Offering (also written by Bach).

Music making neat, orderly, mathematical sense is the struggle, and reality doesn't play nice with harmonics like we would like... (much like with irrational numbers throwing a wrench with Pythagoras' ideals) so stop being a Pythagoras :p

Music IS weird: no matter how you try to quantify it.

altruioson Reading for pleasure is sharply down among schoolkids, report shows

Reading causes your brain to hallucinate. Visualization is a muscle: reading is the weights at the gym.