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kersplody

406 karma · joined October 13, 2014

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kersplody··on Tesla takes on $30B in credit as it approaches unprofitability
Why not a Cyberbus based on the cybertruck platform? I’d kill for 8–12 passenger minibuses in the LVCC tunnels during CES instead of the 3 passenger Teslas.
kersplody··on California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law
Cool now let's exempt hobbyists from the 3-D printer must certify you are not printing gun parts pending legislation.
kersplody··on CIA funding helped keep NeXT afloat in the 80s
And for people that know their history, the DoD basically built Silicon Valley as we know, funding research and buying essentially 100% of the output of valley fabs for several years for Radars, then ICBMs, and then flight computers (F14 was arguably the first modern microcomputer) from about 1962-1972. Only when silicon companies scaled beyond this demand did the consumer computer revolution begin to take flight.
kersplody··on Tesla's profits slide despite growing revenue as it pivots to robotics and AI
It's the negative free cash flow combined with the intention to pivot away from the car industry to humanoid robotics is what I'm tracking.
kersplody··on California AB 2047 makes 3D printers off-limits to students, educators, business
A single shopping to trip to Walmart or Home Depot can buy items that can be repurposed into bombs and physical and chemical weapons with only a little bit of know-how. Are we going to require mandatory ID and shopping cart analysis to all shopping too?
kersplody··on How NASA built Artemis II’s fault-tolerant computer
NOPE, RAD hardened space parts basically froze on mid 2000s tech: https://www.baesystems.com/en-us/product/radiation-hardened-...
kersplody··on The U.S. Government Just Followed Through on Its Ban of DJI Drones
For now. FCC could change this in a couple of months. There is talk of canceling FCC certifications for Autel/DJI.
kersplody··on Microsoft Will Preload Windows 11 File Explorer to Fix Bad Performance
Could MS Just fix explorer.exe crashes when dragging directory windows between a 1080p display and a 4k display in a multi-monitor setup? Please?
kersplody··on Waymo has received our pilot permit allowing for commercial operations at SFO
Yep. 0ft-1000ft AGL Takeoff, Climb, Approach, and Landing are the tough bits. The rest (Cruise) is very low demand and much easier than driving.
kersplody··on Starship's Tenth Flight Test
Next flight should be a mass simulator of at least 100 tons to orbit. This flight was around ~10 tons to almost orbit.

The economics of Starlink basically require high cadence Starship launches with 50+ Starlink v3 satellites on each flight.

kersplody··on Starship's Tenth Flight Test
Not quite, but it's a major milestone. Still quite a bit of work to go on the rapid reusability part (burnt flaps, oxidized body, missing tiles, tile waterproofing). Starship might actually deliver payload to orbit on flight 11.
kersplody··on I hacked Monster Energy
HACKER NEWS ADMINS: You might want to remove this thread for legal reasons :)
kersplody··on I hacked Monster Energy
Or Europe. Or the UK. 10+ prison plus civil damages in all three jurisdictions should it be prosecuted for various "Unauthorized computer access" laws. Even just browsing protected endpoints is a criminal violation. Publishing any info is even a bigger crime.

FYI, if you are a hacker:

1. Stop immediately after discovery and don’t go further than the minimal step that proves the vulnerability exists.

2. Document, don’t exploit

3. Report responsibly

4. Do not publish until fixed. Do not publish documents/images without permission.

5. Intent doesn’t erase liability: even “just poking around” can be charged under CFAA (US) or CMA (UK).

kersplody··on Wikipedia loses challenge against Online Safety Act
At least wikipedia has an out in the legislation by disabling content recommendation engines for UK users, this includes:

1. “You may be interested in…” search suggestions on the Wikipedia interface—these are algorithmic, content-based recommendations.

2. Editor suggestion tools that propose pages to edit, based on prior activity. Academic systems helping newcomers with article recommendations also qualify.

Most links within articles—like “See also” sections or hyperlinks—are static and curated by editors, not algorithmically chosen per user. That means they do not meet the recommender system definition.

The legislation text for reference:

"Category 1 threshold conditions 3.—(1) The Category 1 threshold conditions(10) are met by a regulated user-to-user service where, in respect of the user-to-user part of that service, it—

(a)(i)has an average number of monthly active United Kingdom users that exceeds 34 million, and

(ii)uses a content recommender system, or

(b)(i)has an average number of monthly active United Kingdom users that exceeds 7 million,

(ii)uses a content recommender system, and

(iii)provides a functionality for users to forward or share regulated user-generated content(11) on the service with other users of that service.

(2) In paragraph (1), a “content recommender system” means a system, used by the provider of a regulated user-to-user service in respect of the user-to-user part of that service, that uses algorithms which by means of machine learning or other techniques determines, or otherwise affects, the way in which regulated user-generated content of a user, whether alone or with other content, may be encountered by other users of the service. "

kersplody··on Immigration raids leave crops unharvested and California farms at risk
Look at UC Davis Gifford Center’s April 2024 “Farm Labor Issues in the 2020s” summary report: https://gifford.ucdavis.edu/events/past/april-4-2024-farm-la...

Very few U.S.-born workers respond to job ads for seasonal crop work, Show up when work begins, or Stick around through the harvest season. "Even when wages reach—or exceed $20–$30 per hour, seasonal U.S. workers overwhelmingly opt out of field labor. That persistent gap is why American agriculture depends so heavily on immigrant and guest‐worker programs, and why mechanization continues to accelerate."

kersplody··on Car companies are in a billion-dollar software war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiant_Mercury
kersplody··on DigiKey's Tariff Resources
There is also a plan afoot to replace income taxes with tariffs following the McKinley Economic model, involving high tariffs, gold standard, focus on industrialism, and economic imperialism. It kinda made sense in the days where there was a manufacturing base to protect and one could plunder 3rd world economies, but those horses have long left the barn. Also this plan is moronic when you look at the cash flows if implemented today.
kersplody··on Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting
The connector could reasonably be shrunk. It just now has essentially no design margin so any minor issue immediately becomes major! 50A DC is serious current to be treated with respect. 5A DC is sanely manageable.
kersplody··on Nvidia's RTX 5090 power connectors are melting
12vhpwr has almost no safety margin. Any minor problem with it rapidly becomes major. 600W is scary, with reports of 800W spikes.

12V2x6 is particularly problematic because any imbalance, such as a bad connection of a single pin, will quickly push things over spec. For example, at 600W, 8.3A are carried on each pin in the connector. Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 connectors are typically rated to 8.5A -- That's almost no margin. If a single connection is bad, current per connector goes to 10A and we are over spec. And this if things are mated correctly. 8.5A-10A over a partially mated pin will rapidly heat up to the point of melting solder. Hell, the 16 gauge wire typically used is pushing it for 12V/8.5A/100W -- that's rated to 10A. Really would like to see more safety margin with 14 gauge wire.

In short, 12V2x6 has very little safety margin. Treat it with respect if you care for your hardware.

kersplody··on New Mac Mini with M4
Correct, the stage 2 bootloader and system firmware must be on the SSD. The OS can then boot from an external volume.

https://support.apple.com/guide/security/boot-process-secac7...

kersplody··on MVSplat: Efficient 3D Gaussian Splatting from Sparse Multi-View Images
Volumetric live action performance capture. Basically a video you can walk around in. Currently requires a large synchronized camera array. Plays back on most mobile devices. Several major industry efforts in this space ongoing.
kersplody··on 'The big problem is water': UK ebike owners plagued by failing motors
Wet mud and sand is far easier to clean than the thick black tar that accumulates on road bike chains. Tire and tarmac dust is nasty.
kersplody··on U.S. clears way for antitrust inquiries of Nvidia, Microsoft and OpenAI
It's fine to be a monopoly because you have the best product. It's not OK to use that monopoly position to stifle competitors.

So has enough anticompetitive behavior occurred to distort the market? Unless I'm missing something, I'm just not seeing this investigation having legs.

kersplody··on The world has probably passed peak pollution
And ironically decreasing coal and fuel pollution decreases albedo causing faster warming which will persist for a few decades until things balance out. Less pollution is good, particularly when it comes to reductions in sulphur dioxide from bunker fuel and PM2.5 from coal emissions, but it does have side effects amounting to a couple of degrees Celsius of warming according to recent papers. Hanson's "Global Warming in the Pipeline" is a sobering read.
kersplody··on LLaMA now goes faster on CPUs
Local LLMs are also a fantastic too for creative endeavors. Without prompt injection and having the ability to modify the amount of noise and "creativity" in the output, absolutely bonkers things pop out.
kersplody··on Why is it so hard to build an airport?
It's more of a city state encircled by greater London. The City of London has a separate government and rights that predate England, inclusive of the right to opt out of any parliamentary law or ignore the mayor of Greater London. The City of London even considered remaining in the EU after the brexit vote, but it wasn't logistically feasible.
kersplody··on AI and satellite imagery reveals expanding footprint of human activity at sea
Not that simple: Most of these Chinese fishing boats are classified as Chinese Merchant Marines, a devision of the Chinese Military, so sinking them is an act of war. This is a real headache for managing illegal Chinese Fishing of Vietnam waters and other countries within the 9 and 11 dashed lines.
kersplody··on US Air Force's new B-21 Raider "flying wing" bomber takes first flight
Russian and Chinese Surface to Air Missile (SAM) systems are really good. Modern versions can detect and target most stealth aircraft at a range of 15-35 miles, depending on radar cross section and electronic countermeasures in use.
kersplody··on Ship of Fools
It's only a little worse (14t/yr/pc vs 13t/yr/pc). Oil and gas extraction related emissions is the primary driver of that difference.
kersplody··on The concurrence of three climatic events
It is the only practical solution. The only way to get humanity's energy equation to balance is to dramatically reduce the population or dramatically reduce energy use per capita or invent and deploy a mythical free energy source within the next 30 years. And this just covers replacing black energy with green energy -- even more energy will be needed to address the climate problem.
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