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ciscoriordan

3,037 karma · joined March 11, 2008

Francisco Riordan

cisco.riordan (at) gmail (dot) com

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ciscoriordan··on Apple's new SpeechAnalyzer API, benchmarked against Whisper and its predecessor
The article just says that SpeechAnalyzer size is "system." It actually treats each locale like an on-demand resource and Apple doesn't document how much space each one takes up or under what circumstances they get cleared.

In my own tests a few months ago, it was faster than both small/large Whisper models I compared it to with accuracy competitive with both of them (each model had different quirks).

ciscoriordan··on Shepherd's Dog: A Game by Fable
My Belgian Tervuren and I have a basic herding title and about 4 years of herding experience.

The sheep movement is excellent. You could make it even more realistic by having them favor lusher areas and by having one occasionally bolt spastically (hard mode?)

A handler mode where you play as a human and shout commands at the dog could be cool too!

ciscoriordan··on A dumpster arrived behind my university's library
You’re so wrong.

‘“I think some faculty worry that everyone is going to discard willy nilly and then before you know it there won’t be anything left,” Walker said. “No, libraries have gotten together, research libraries and others, and joined a consortium called LOCKSS – Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe – and people have agreements like Harvard is the place that will always keep a print copy of x. And there’s multiple ones of all of it. So there’s backup in case Harvard gets blown away by a nor’easter or something.”’

https://dakotastudent.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Apr-10....

ciscoriordan··on A dumpster arrived behind my university's library
Exactly. Basically a cardboard shell with realistic covers.
ciscoriordan··on A dumpster arrived behind my university's library
I stayed at an Airbnb that had fake books on the shelves! I looked them up and they aren't even especially cheap. But they probably get stolen a lot less.
ciscoriordan··on A dumpster arrived behind my university's library
You're confusing the other library in the article with the (unnamed) one mentioned in the title, the Chester Fritz Library.
ciscoriordan··on A dumpster arrived behind my university's library
Sensationalism. That's routine collection management.

Here's another article about the same library, the Chester Fritz Library, acquiring one of the 11 remaining copies of a 444-year-old book: https://blogs.und.edu/und-today/2026/02/chester-fritz-librar...

ciscoriordan··on Ask HN: What's the best charting library for customer-facing dashboards?
AG Charts is in a simple/powerful sweet spot.
ciscoriordan··on The legal rule that computers are presumed to be operating correctly (2022) [pdf]
Related to that: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/software_prob...

Defense attorneys in a DUI case got their hands on the source code for the breathalyzer. It turned out to have terrible programming, e.g. calculating new averages by averaging a new value with the previous average. The case went all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which still found the device to be acceptable.

ciscoriordan··on French company ramps up production to meet demand for its military drone radar
A depression cuts both ways -- lower tax revenue, but lower labor costs too.
ciscoriordan··on An Air Force officer who spent $11M searching Earhart's plane may have found it
An electrical issue could cause a gauge to misreport. E.g. vibrations cause a bad ground.
ciscoriordan··on Off-duty pilot allegedly tried to shut off engines on Alaska Airlines flight
Cheap flights, expensive parking. Paine Field doesn’t have massive garages like SeaTac. I’ve taken the flight from the article and my airfare was lower than my parking costs for just a weekend trip.

Ubers are expensive but only ~20% more than SeaTac with a Cap Hill starting point.

All things considered, Paine Field is my first choice airport for the area.

ciscoriordan··on F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/russian-su-34-fullback...

“The statement went on to add that the crash was caused by an issue with one of the engines during takeoff, but the jet's two crewmembers are said to have ejected safely and survived. The extent of the injuries to the apartment building's tenants as well as civilians in the surrounding area is unknown at present.”

ciscoriordan··on I fixed a parasitic drain on my car in 408 days
I had a parasitic drain on my Tacoma from my Automatic device (OBD-II reader / GPS tracker). I parked in a garage with no cell service and it drained the battery by constantly trying to connect. It was a non-issue when I commuted daily but started killing the battery when COVID happened and I switched to WFH.

Hard for mechanics to diagnose because they had no idea what that device was and also one of their first steps was to unplug it, put it in a cupholder, and plug their own OBD-II reader in.

Now the Tacoma is parked again most of the time because I got a Tesla and I'm noticing a voltage drop. I need to do more research, I don't know if this is normal for being parked or if there's a drain.

ciscoriordan··on The Tyranny of ‘The Plan' (2013)
Possibly including John von Neumann, one of the greatest polymaths ever. Everyday life now would be different if he had lived to a normal life expectancy instead of dying to aggressive cancer at 53.
ciscoriordan··on The McMurdo Wastewater Treatment Plant
If you like this, I recommend "Big Dead Place" (https://www.amazon.com/Big-Dead-Place-Menacing-Antarctica/dp...) by Nicholas Johnson, a garbageman at McMurdo.
ciscoriordan··on “The books will stop working.”
They moved due to overcrowding:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Library_of_Washington....

ciscoriordan··on SEC Charges Rothenberg Ventures in Fraudulent Scheme
Whistleblower here. It took 25 months from when I reported the fraud until the settlement.
ciscoriordan··on How a Chinese businessman became the largest supplier of pyrotechnics in the US
The first line of the article is: "Roughly 70 percent of all Chinese fireworks entering the United States come here under the control of a Chinese businessman who has used his influence to raise prices and block competitors, leaving many U.S. executives fearful of losing access to their most important Fourth of July inventories."

The word "monopoly" doesn't appear anywhere in the article. The article's claim is that Mr. Ding is anticompetitive, not that he operates a monopoly.

ciscoriordan··on Keyboard Service Program for MacBook and MacBook Pro
I'm on the phone with Apple customer service right now. It looks like I'm going to get a refund for the $257 I paid to have my spacebar fixed in March. The rep on the line says I'm the first person she's talked to about this but she expects a lot more.
ciscoriordan··on The Death of a Once Great City
That's the line that made me give up on the article. The author twists the truth to fit his narrative.
ciscoriordan··on We Shouldn’t Be Surprised at the Theranos Fraud
It shifted away from Silicon Valley investors as time went on.
ciscoriordan··on Theranos investors cannot pursue class action: U.S. judge
https://cases.justia.com/federal/district-courts/california/...
ciscoriordan··on Carnegie Mellon Launches Undergraduate Degree in Artificial Intelligence
Math Foundations of Computer Science (15-151) covers proofs, combinatorics, etc.

https://csd.cs.cmu.edu/course-profiles/15-151-Mathematical-F...

ciscoriordan··on Ask HN: Side project you're working on?
https://oneminutefax.com - Send free faxes online without having to create an account.
ciscoriordan··on Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it cool?
It’s huge in healthcare, and in other industries still used in some back offices.
ciscoriordan··on Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it cool?
Their big patent, https://patents.google.com/patent/US6208638, expired last year
ciscoriordan··on Ask HN: What are you working on and why is it cool?
https://oneminutefax.com - Send free faxes online without having to create an account. Proof-of-concept is up.
ciscoriordan··on Amazon's policies promote counterfeiting
It’s not a simple as you make it out to be. Amazon launched a new Brand Registry last year and all the companies in the previous version were dumped and told to re-apply.

Source: I’m a seller on Amazon and I actually bought one of these counterfeit headphone holders.

ciscoriordan··on Napoleon’s Equine Strategy in 1813 (2013)
You would probably enjoy “Six Frigates” by Ian Toll and “Black Hawk Down” by Mark Bowden.
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