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bArray

7,478 karma · joined March 14, 2016

Why jump in one pond when you can dip your foot in many?
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bArray··on Raspberry Pi Zero 3W and Pi 4 Model A spotted in device trees
I really hope they can keep the cost down, it needs to be in the "it's so cheap just hack on it" price range for not just engineers but kids too. I'm excited to see low-cost hardware put in the hands of kids with LLMs in their sails.
bArray··on I will no longer upload to NEW
I must have misread that, thanks. This seems like an entirely resolvable problem.
bArray··on I will no longer upload to NEW
I think it is false to equate this to just two options:

    a) spend my valuable developer time (this is my free time) on reading machine
    output which indeed might be completely wrong and get angry and upset for
    reasons which have been listed in great detail by those opposed to LLM-use in
    Debian on debian-vote

    b) not read the machine-generate review and have the resources that were
    required to generate it not only be wasted, but let my upload become another
    item in a statistic which shows how many tokens Debian is using up because the
    more tokens we use the better our software, right?
The fix for this could just be an opt-in/out for automated LLM review. It's just an additional tool and consideration.
bArray··on Sub-1-Bit LLM Compression via Latent Factorization
Has anybody tested this? Are there any available computed models to test?
bArray··on Upgrade your desktop: Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS is now available
> TPM-backed full-disk encryption is now generally available in the Ubuntu installer. By tying encryption to the TPM security chip, disk encryption is bound to a specific device, significantly raising the bar for physical access attacks while improving the user experience.

That's great, but they are also intending to comply with the OS-level age verification [1]. Initial implementations will somehow be privacy protecting, but eventually the temptation to tie a specific person to an OS fingerprint will become too great.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/1rk4fj7/ubun...

bArray··on Analysis: EVs are now nine times cheaper than petrol or diesel to drive in UK
> There’s also a nasty depreciation curve to contend with. Nobody wants a 10 year old Tesla, but a 10 year old well mentioned petrol car still has a ton of life left in it.

It's worse, there's almost no second hand market for the vehicles. There is barely anybody trained to repair them (even if they will sell you the parts) and if they are crashed significantly it's almost always a write-off.

> It still often ends up a bit cheaper across comparable vehicles but not a slam dunk and nowhere near as good as the headline suggests.

Only because of government meddling. Fuel is almost uniquely taxed 3 times, which pays for subsidies to pay for green energy initiatives.

I think I'll hold out with my diesels and petrols and see how this all goes.

bArray··on Exfiltrate Your Weights
I used to host 1TB on a cheap $1 VPS, it's quite easy if you just want to store stuff. The trick is to just connect to a networked drive at your home on the back-end. The VPS drive just acts as a buffer for the network. If low(-ish) bandwidth is acceptable, you can offer downloading too.
bArray··on AI Robots – When will they be in our homes
We've had AI robots in our homes as the article points out in the form of a Roomba or cleaning robot. Arguably before that, we've had robotics in the form of dishwasher and washing machines with a range of sensors and actuators, and a small amount of autonomy. We've had humanoids in the home already in the form of toys, I remember RoboSapien from the early 2000's [1].

I think the next advancement are robots like the MicroDuck [2], a little gimmicky, but demonstrating higher levels of intelligence that everybody can afford and collaborate on together. Once that has the ability to return to a docking station on low battery and recharge, you basically have a fully autonomous robot pet in your home.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RoboSapien

[2] https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/

bArray··on De-Brainrot Vacations
> Add to that the usage of AI. While I know I’m way more productive than during those first months, my thoughts are getting slower, less profound, lazier.

I have mostly stayed away from LLM usage, I think I am better for it. I use it just to offload things I wouldn't have had time for. I get more stuff done, but I am still doing what I did before.

> Plus, dopamine is available at just a tap on my phone. There’s a ton of content in shorts that interest me and require little to no investment on my end, both time and effort-wise.

If you have and Android phone, enable Developer Options and flick through to Simulated Color Space - set it to Monochrome. I only wish it was possible to automate colour space switching based on time, like is done for redshift.

bArray··on "We Have to Assume That the Internet Will Go Offline in the Next Few Years"
> The internet is designed to not go offline.

Only somewhat true, but the fundamental assumption is that it is operating during mostly peaceful times. You have hostile countries cutting or dragging anchors across deep sea fiber optics, you have attacks on energy suppliers, etc. The most effective attacks for denying service are to infrastructure.

> The only realistic way to do that is somehow finding a persistent DoS or RCE for every router vendor, hacking into an IXPs control systems, or physically damaging equipment. AI can't do any of that alone and I dont think it ever will.

An attack is not just limited to internet infrastructure, but even if it was: You would just have to take out a significant part of the backbone. It could be the backbone routers, the DNS servers, distribution boxes, home routers, etc, etc. Once the capacity is reduced, you may find the people themselves end up DoS'ing the remaining capacity.

bArray··on "We Have to Assume That the Internet Will Go Offline in the Next Few Years"
> Systems well beyond what is publicly known are already circulating in Washington, he says: “They can basically hack just about anything. So you get this continuous attack surface just ramping up.” From that follows a simple budget calculation: “If you spend hundreds of millions, billions on a submarine, well, guess what, a frontier model costs a hundred million. You will see a diversion of defense capability towards defensive and offensive AI, towards drones and robots.”

Firstly, I think we need to stop connecting things to the internet that have no business being on there. There are literally millions of devices with little to no maintenance plan that are the weak parts of our networks. We can massively reduce the attack surface.

Secondly, everything needs to be robust against not having the internet. Russia for example purposefully turned off their external internet during peacetime to maintain robustness. I think the majority of the West would currently fall over instantly under such a situation. It becomes increasingly clear that all services are now under continuous attacks.

> He is equally blunt about the foundations underneath all of it: “Our infrastructure is held together by twigs. The internet is terrible.” A British power plant went down for days after a hack, he says, and Cloudflare and others have come under attack. “We have to assume that the internet will go offline in the next few years. Maybe it’s good.”

The really concerning part is that we only hear about what is discussed publicly, i.e. the attacks that are unavoidable to declare. It's well known that countries will hide breaches under the guise of national security, and companies will also do what they can to hide breaches (including paying ransoms to attackers).

But nothing will happen until it is far too late - this is the same pattern I see over and over again. And then the reaction will be over the top and likely make our lives more difficult. "Ah yes, we keep getting attacked via the internet - now you need to have an interview, get a license and pay a license holder fee just to surf the web."

bArray··on Async Rust vs RTOS showdown (2022)
The title in the article is literally "Async Rust vs RTOS showdown!" and the article shows "Embassy/Rust against FreeRTOS/C". There should also be a (2022) appended.

You just need to read the Reddit comments to see why this is not a useful comparison [1] [2].

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/sik3g0/async_rust_vs_...

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/embedded/comments/she3u9/async_rust...

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
I don't know how it can be argued towards the undemocratic end of the spectrum, it was possibly one of the most democratic processes the UK has undergone in a long time?
bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
> However the idea of it being "advisory" was itself exploited, and used to make people think that Brexit would't happen anyway, even if the vote was to leave.

It could be argued also the other way, maybe people didn't engage or chose to continue because they were led to believe it wasn't possible to leave the UK.

> My suggestion was not that the referendum shouldn't stand because it was "advisory", but that there should have been rules applied around a referendum that could affect peoples lives so much. But, there are no such rules it seems, the majority in the Commons gets to decide that.

I think it was fumbled because nobody involved in enacting it were actually supportive of it, and the semi-permanent state (i.e. civil servants) were largely not in support.

> It was a referendum of the the right sort of British citizen.

I have more general thoughts about this, I think a country should be very careful about who or who can't vote.

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
> I'd fully support a vote if rejoining was one of the options.

Of course it would be, but people would need some kind of understanding on what basis that would be on.

> It's pretty clear from polls [..]

I think there is only one way to know for sure.

> But in the meantime it is also entirely unambiguous that there is a clear mandate for a closer relationship [..]

People of the UK do not hate Europe, but there is evidence to suggest that people of the EU do not view the people of the UK favorably [1]. But I think the point of sovereignty and cost is a big one.

[1] https://uk.news.yahoo.com/yougov-survey-eu-crisis-uk-1209146...

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
If only there was a type of nation-wide poll that could be conducted to make such claims so strongly. Maybe we pick a single day, each side makes their cases to the people, and then they cast their choices to be counted. But I guess it can't be done.
bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
I remember the UK government at the time spent £9.3 million of taxpayer's money to push a pro-EU leaflet out [1], not to mention a concerted effort from the news media. It's not as if there was not strong campaigning happening on both sides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-EU_leaflet

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
It was just an exercise in testing the mood of the nation, don't you see? Just like a general election, if the electorate vote the wrong party, it is perfectly fine to just ignore the result.

The vote was non-binding due to the sovereignty of parliament [1]. It means that if a war broke out or the economy crashed, they would not be forced to continue at great detriment to the UK. But it doesn't mean that the vote was a mere suggestion - anybody who suggests such doesn't understand democracy.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_U...

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
Does that mean when a government is elected by a low turnout, that it is also not democratic? The current UK government was elected on a 59.7% electorate turnout [1], whereas Brexit was decided based on a 72.2% electorate turnout [2].

[1] https://closer.ac.uk/contextual-data/turnout-uk-general-elec...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_U...

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
Has it? It would take another vote to show it for sure, and the current government is simply not wanting to ask the people.
bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
> no mandate for or against a specific relationship to the EU

Then do you not support another vote that provides this option?

> how drastically opinions have shifted since

There is a way to conduct a poll that represents the engaged electorate - have another vote.

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
The current UK government have a mandate with regards to running the UK more generally, but leaving the EU was its own very clear message. There was a vote in 1975 to continue EU membership, and again in 2016 [1]. It very much feels likely something that should only be undone on another vote.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_United_King...

bArray··on Iceland votes on whether to restart talks on joining EU
> I feel the UK were wrong to leave [..]

Whether it was the correct decision or not, it was done via a democratic vote. Now the leaders of the UK look to entangle the UK into the EU structure that is evidently against their mandate.

bArray··on The Dutch are filling gas wells with cement
> Hardly seems to fit with the “we’re all in this together” argument.

It's a good job we offset all of our manufacturing to the likes of China, it's not like they have terrible environmental standards or share an atmosphere with us or anything. It's also a good job we closed our coking coal rich mines to import it from Japan instead [1].

I'm left in utter disbelief that any of this was allowed or condoned, it is nothing short of madness. The UK now finds itself in a position where it is incapable of doing absolutely anything.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp311nr7w34o

bArray··on A Citation to Asimov
Asimov appeared to feel uncomfortable with those who thought they were better than others because of their Mensa status, and some he states were typically right-wing. I am entirely unclear though how the claimed racist ideology of John Campbell Jr is related.

> I miss Isaac Asimov, and I miss the America that created him.

An America with a typically right-wing Mensa bias (and likely upper class society)? That's the America that the author misses?

bArray··on Xiaomi: New CPU matches Apple cores single threaded, much faster multithreaded
> This smells somewhat legitimate and somewhat BS. The architecture itself looks impressive — TSMC 3nm, a 4+ GHz prime core, tons of cache, and a very wide execution engine. And the claimed Geekbench numbers, around 3,945 single-core and 15,221 multi-cor, are especially impressive, if not a little suspicious.

I was under the impression that there was still a trade export from TSMC to China [1]? Not to mention a near complete ban on ASML devices [2]? Maybe they exfiltrated a few chips into a lab, but can they really source production quantities?

> But it’s sorta like, let’s throw everything against the wall and get the biggest number we can. Do they show sustained performance over ten minutes? What’s the power draw when it’s doing 15K? What happens when you put it in an actual phone?

People using the same C1-Ultra core are struggling to get the same performance in applications where heat and power are important. It would be surprising if this is sustainable and not just a temporary boost.

> The Xring O3 will debut in the Xiaomi 18 Fold, the world's first foldable to use it, and the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro Max, both launching in China in September 2026. Xiaomi also unveiled the Xring O100 AI chip and the Xring D100 smart-driving chip, the latter built to run models with up to 200 billion parameters locally, with commercial use planned for 2027. Reuters reports TSMC is producing the chips.

I guess we will find out very soon when Chinese customers get their devices. I don't know how they will even source enough LPDDR6 at reasonable prices.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/creve4x8drgo

[2] https://www.trendforce.com/news/2026/08/25/news-u-s-may-push...

bArray··on I ran Photoshop on a £0.60 computer chip
For an OLED low-powered system, I use exactly this approach [1] [2]. The trick is to wake up, do some tasks, then go back to sleep until either a timeout or triggered by an event. The best approach so far has been the light sleep [3] which keeps some things up and running, but just sipping at the current.

I'm taking these learnings and applying them to an 5 inch e-ink device with an ESP32 to be a modern-ish PDA device.

[1] https://coffeespace.org.uk/projects/smart-watch-v1.html

[2] https://coffeespace.org.uk/projects/smart-watch-v2.html

[3] https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/stable/esp32/...

bArray··on Pi coding agent: config folder is out of place on Linux
404 on the page, main page: "Cannot retrieve latest commit at this time." [1]. GitHub are you okay?

Edit: Known issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49330597

[1] https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/

bArray··on LinkedIn CringeBot 3000
> What topic do you want to write about?

Robots suck, the future is cheap human Labour

> Oops! Our thought leadership engine is experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again.

:(

bArray··on Banksy works cost public almost £150k
Banksy is an establishment-approved protestor, they promote him regularly [1]. His artwork is regularly on display in galleries [2]. They could easily seize the works to pay for costs, but don't. His name is supposedly Robin Gunningham from Bristol [3], they could take him to court. The whole thing is ridiculous.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cp7r8vglgj1t

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz91zpgn43do

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98q8llqq4po

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