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smegma2

272 karma · joined October 22, 2019

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smegma2··on Second study finds Uber used opaque algorithm to dramatically boost profits
Yeah but it looks like it shouldn’t work in this case since the location permission wasn’t given:

> Before scheduling any notifications using this trigger, your app must have authorization to use Core Location and must have when-in-use permissions.

smegma2··on Waymo's market share in San Francisco exceeds Lyft's
Not for Uber and Lyft. I and many people I know don’t ever tip and there’s no pressure since the tip is shown only after the ride (and rating) is done.
smegma2··on The Rise of the Japanese Toilet
Use an extension cord? That’s what I do
smegma2··on Live facial recognition cameras may become 'commonplace' as police use soars
How would it chill things that aren’t crimes without deterring actual crimes? This seems like a convenient set of assertions if you’re a priori against surveillance. You’re also missing the aspect of catching crime rather than deterring it.
smegma2··on US President Donald Trump Seeks to Cancel NASA's Mars Sample Return
Any search term or article to share about the funding being at risk since before Trump? This is the first I’m hearing about the mission
smegma2··on Era of U.S. dollar may be winding down
YouTube link without paywall: https://youtu.be/pT2cohNt6a4
smegma2··on Achieving Human Level Competitive Robot Table Tennis
The paper addresses this. Part of the goal was to let the world model be learned rather than modeled explicitly by the programmer.

> To date, the Omron Forpheus robot [73], [62] has the closest capabilities to the agent presented in this work, demonstrating sustained rallies on a variety of stroke styles with skilled human players. A key point of difference is that our agent learns the control policies and perception system, whereas the Forpheus agent uses a model-based approach. More specifically, Forpheus leverages rebound and aerodynamics models in order to identify the optimal configuration of the robot so as to return the ball to a target position. The Omron system represents a highly engineered system that cannot easily be customized to new players, environments, or paddles.

> While there have been many demonstrations of robots playing table tennis against human players in the past, we believe this research is one of the first human-robot interaction studies to be conducted with full competitive matches against such a wide range of player skill levels.

smegma2··on Fintech founder charged with fraud; AI app found to be humans in the Philippines
> Alphabet's Waymo was also having humans take over for some of the driving as well.

Not sure if this used to be the case but today Waymos can’t be controlled remotely by humans, only ‘guided’: https://www.govtech.com/transportation/waymo-robotaxis-getti... (ctrl+f “cannot be controlled”)

smegma2··on Can Your Phone Ban You from the U.S. in 2025?
It is interesting that this article from a Canadian news source doesn’t have any mention of what Canada’s border policy is for comparison.

Canada’s customs may also confiscate or search a device with no justification: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/edd-ean-eng.html

I don’t necessarily endorse the policy but I feel that it undermines the article’s point. It would be useful to know how common this practice is in other countries for reference.

> Canadians (and all travelers) are left to grapple with a sobering truth: crossing into the U.S. means surrendering more than just your passport.

So does returning to Canada I guess?

smegma2··on PG&E asks to raise rates for California customers so it can pay investors more
profit = revenue - cost

Revenue and cost both increase by 10% due to inflation

profit = 1.1 * revenue - 1.1 * cost

profit = 1.1 * (revenue - cost)

So profit also increased by 10 percent.

smegma2··on JPMorgan Chase Disables Employee Comments After Return-to-Office Backlash
I guess the technical solution is something like Blind, but I’m not sure about the adoption rate for normal companies. Also I prefer to stay away from that site personally.
smegma2··on What the TP-Link Ban in the US Means for You
Your comment history shows an interesting pattern
smegma2··on Tokyo University Used "Tiananmen Square" Keyword to Block Chinese Admissions
> It also says it’s updated its source code check-in verification procedures to prevent anyone from entering the keyword into the University’s HTML code a second time.

I agree that the phrase shouldn’t be used to intentionally filter out Chinese students but this sounds like a horrible precedent. We shouldn’t adopt the same censorship outside of China.

smegma2··on Divide-and-conquer dynamics in AI-driven disempowerment
History has shown that only the top 1% have benefitted from the invention of the textile mill.
smegma2··on AI Toolkit: Give a brain to your game's NPCs, a header-only C++ library
Really cool
smegma2··on Underrated reasons to be thankful
Bro has beef with a holiday
smegma2··on Write a note to your spouse every day
Did you consider that your comment sounds a little mean towards the author?
smegma2··on Waymo car swarmed by skaters in San Francisco 'hill bomb'
In a world where self-driving cars exist, far fewer people will need to own cars.
smegma2··on Infants' sense of pain is recognized, finally (1987)
Why did you click on this thread? The climate needs fixing!
smegma2··on Diablo Immortal won't release in the Netherlands and Belgium due to loot box law
Agree to disagree maybe, but I'm happy that many games are free because of microtransactions.
smegma2··on Dhall: A Gateway Drug to Haskell
I was also wondering about this. I can't think of an example of a library implementing Functor in a surprising way, or in a way that somehow differs from another library.
smegma2··on GitHub user sends notification to 400k users

    while(vbucks < Long.MAX_VALUE)  {
        ++vbucks;
Incredible
smegma2··on Can the SEC stand up to the richest man on the planet?
It undermines their credibility when they can't get a simple fact correct. If an article led with "the earth is flat", it may not relate to the article but it nevertheless makes me less likely to believe the rest.
smegma2··on Show HN: I made a browser-based RTS game
This is interesting, thanks! So sounds like there is too much data to send the entire game state every time.
smegma2··on Show HN: I made a browser-based RTS game
Hi Gluten, I never wrote a real-time game, so I'm curious about a lot of things.

* Does the server have a tick rate and it updates clients at a set interval, or does it only update when things happen?

* Did you ever run into any issues getting enough throughput from the server? e.g. maybe too many events happening at once to update everyone?

* Do you have to manage situations where two clients have a different view of the game state (due to extra latency for example)? If so, how do you resolve it? For example, I know that Team Fortress 2 follows the rule for guns that "if the shooter thinks it hit, then it hit", which means that people get shot around corners sometimes.

I'm working on a turn-based game using websockets which has been hard enough, a real-time game seems much harder to make! Thanks for sharing!

smegma2··on Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal
Sorry for assuming bad faith. It sounded like you were playing dumb in which case I feel there's no other way to respond.

I feel that 'assume good faith' has its limits since those who comment in bad faith have no restrictions while others are forced to respond as though nothing is wrong. So sometimes I feel the need to respond a bit more aggressively, maybe that's not in the goals of the site though.

smegma2··on Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal
You know where I'm getting it. If I say: "could this be the worst presidency our country has seen?" It's clear that it's not a real question, but an assertion. Similarly, when someone says "could this be the end of Twitter?" they are suggesting that it is in fact the end of Twitter.
smegma2··on Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal
It's more that your parent comment doesn't convey much information. I read it as "I don't think Musk acquiring twitter is a good thing" without explaining why and extrapolating that everyone else will feel the same way.
smegma2··on Calling NSA to find your encryption key after a few bits were flipped (2010)
That code has a race condition :^)
smegma2··on Google Docs will “warn you away from inappropriate words”
Got it. Sorry, I think I am too used to sarcasm on HN.
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