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tjohns

4,470 karma · joined August 26, 2009

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tjohns··on The FAA's plan to fix air traffic? $875M worth of AI
> Weather data can be published every minute and shown live as a full map over the screen

This already exists via FIS-B.

> not as random abbreviations of wind and cloud coverage

The abbreviations (METARs) are a feature, not a bug. There are numerical legal minimums for weather that determine whether a landing is legal or not. A graphical map doesn't tell you this. The METARs are condensed because they're easy for professional pilots to skim.

(Back in the days of teletypes they also saved bandwidth, but that's just a historical note at this point.)

Regardless, pilots already have access to both textual and graphical weather products in the cockpit.

> And we already know where each aircraft is, and where they took off, and where they're headed. So practically speaking the radio talk can be limited to only the important communication and emergencies, while increasing the situational awareness by at least ten fold.

As a pilot myself, I think you're vastly misunderstanding the nature of ATC communication. 90% of communication on the radio are time-sensitve, important things - mostly heading and altitude changes to avoid other traffic.

Weather and clearances (when not relayed by ACARS, FIS-B, or CPDLC) are routinely handled on dedicated frequencies and aren't really causing meaningful frequency congestion.

tjohns··on The FAA's plan to fix air traffic? $875M worth of AI
> That sounds like a system that was bound to fail, because it was kept limited to a certain range of capabilities.

You're always going to be limited to a limited range of capabilities. You can't run a full web browser in every cockpit - you need a standardized interface that works across different vendors, across borders, and over a low-bandwidth radio link.

And I don't think anybody considers CPDLC a failure. The goal was never to 100% replace voice communication.

> One can easily imagine a system that broadcasts the weather

That exists, it's called FIS-B. Everyone uses it.

> and clearance

Clearance isn't something that can just be broadcast. You need to have a conversation with the pilot to make sure the clearance is acceptable to them. The pilot needs the ability to reject the clearance and request amendments.

> even aircraft location data close to real-time, and provide great situational awareness to everyone involved.

This exists, it's called ADS-B. Everyone uses it.

tjohns··on The FAA's plan to fix air traffic? $875M worth of AI
CPDLC exists and is used. It has its limitations though - it doesn’t provide as much flexibility for pilot replies, pilots don’t always have a free hand to text with (especially in turbulence), and is generally slower and more clumsy than voice so is only suitable for routine, non-time-sensitive messages.
tjohns··on Poll: Are You Aphantastic
Yes, I can superimpose an arbitrary imagined object (in full photorealistic detail)... however it's still in a separate/parallel "channel" of my mind and I intuitively know it's not something I'm seeing physically.

The best way to describe it is that I'm copying what I'm seeing through my eyes into my mind's eye, and superimposing the image there. This happens in real-time, effortlessly. I then have two streams of visual information that I can chose to pay attention to, one with the superimposed object and one without. If I chose to focus on the scene in my mind's eye, it's as if I have superimposed the object into my actual visual field. I can switch back and forth between the two parallel visual streams at will.

I'm not sure which option this would place me in.

tjohns··on England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C
It's free if you don't bring up things that should technically have been a dedicated own appointment.

The idea behind physicals is they're considered preventative care... catching problems early, often before there's any overt symptoms. For example, checking your cholesterol and A1c levels before they progress to heart failure or diabetes.

Once you're showing symptoms, you've left the realm of preventative care and it's now diagnostic/treatment for a established issue.

(ACA only provides 100% free coverage for visits that are 100% within the "preventative care" box.)

tjohns··on WorldClaw Agentic 3D open-world generation at scale
There is no code. The GitHub repo is empty.
tjohns··on England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C
Actually, I would've have assumed the other way - that the NHS was better than the US system. Which was why I was shocked when you said health checkups aren't allowed before age 40. :)

US healthcare plans offer an annual physical exam every year at all ages. Looking at the UK NHS website, it seems to be only offered there after age 40, and limited to once every 5 years? Am I reading that right?

tjohns··on England set to be one of the first countries to eliminate hepatitis C
From a US perspective, even this seems wild to me. I've always been told that at least an annual physical exam with bloodwork is highly recommended as the standard of care for adults of all ages.

Not everyone chooses to get them, of course. But ACA insurance plans here offer at least one annual physical exam free of charge (considered preventative care).

tjohns··on Photos of items from families in different countries with different incomes
You have it backwards. Housing is astronomically expensive in San Francisco precisely because there are so many people with high incomes bidding against each other.

When you have a highly inelastic supply (constrained by zoning laws, density limits, and geographical boundaries), prices rise to the maximum margin of what the highest-income buyers are capable of paying.

Regarding taxes: Since taxes apply to all local high-earners equally, it doesn't change their relative purchasing power against one another in the local housing market. If taxes were suddenly halved, that extra liquidity would be priced into the next bidding war, driving home prices even higher.

tjohns··on Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)
Yes, you need to register with a phone number, but publicly you'll show up as your @username and that's how most people will interact with you.

And I agree, I think yours is an accurate assessment. Telegram is indeed much more community centric.

tjohns··on Mysteries of Telegram Data Centers (2022)
- Messages send quickly and reliably, even under poor and sometimes hostile network conditions. Telegram just seems to work even when other chat apps struggle.

- Telegram uses usernames instead of phone numbers by default, which is good if you're using it as an IRC replacement instead of an SMS replacement.

- You can have the client open on essentially unlimited devices simultaneously, including a web app if you need it.

- Messages can be edited at any point after sending with no expiry.

- You can schedule messages to send later, or send a message silently so it doesn't wake people up.

- Different group types - announcement channels, Discord-style groups with sub-channels, flexible moderator roles, etc. (I believe WhatsApp has some of this.)

- Support for bots, which is also very helpful for managing large communities.

- Community-created, sharable stickers. Seriously, people underestimate how nice these are.

The downside is that a lot of this requires state to be stored on the Telegram servers, so most chat's aren't E2E encrypted. (They do have an option for E2E encrypted private 1:1 chats, but you lose most of the polish by using that.)

Also, the official apps are open source, so you can modify them if needed.

tjohns··on John Deere owners will get the right to repair equipment under FTC settlement
While I suspect this is actually profitable for them, you can't attribute 100% of their profit to anti-repair activities.

At a minimum, you'd have to break out profit from equipment sales vs service contracts.

tjohns··on OpenPrinter
The tech specs say it uses HP 63 cartridges (or HP 302/803 outside the US), and that the cartridges can be refilled using a refill kit.

The photos clearly show HP cartridges installed.

tjohns··on OpenPrinter
On the technology side, I'm somewhat hopeful because it looks like they're using off-the-shelf HP ink cartridges for this. HP cartridges embed the printhead into the cartridge itself, and that printhead is arguably the most complicated part of the entire device. Outsource the printhead, and you're just designing a plotter with a PCL interface.

I agree that the bigger challenge is going to be patents.

It also wouldn't surprise me to see HP add DRM to cartridges to authenticate the printer itself if this catches on. (Possibly requiring a printer driver/firmware update.)

tjohns··on Global review confirms mRNA vaccines are safe, effective and full of promise 
It's worth clarifying that the adenovirus-based (viral vector) vaccines that article is discussing were a completely different technology from the mRNA vaccines.
tjohns··on We can still stop California's 3D printer surveillance scheme
> Then what, ban stepper motors?

Don't give them ideas.

But seriously, given that the 3D printer movement started out with people building their own printers from scratch and there continues to be a healthy open-source hardware ecosystem within the community, I can't see this stopping anyone.

Unless you also make it illegal for 3D printers to print 3D printer parts...

tjohns··on U.S. pulling ocean sensors a 'shock' for Canadian research as El Niño nears
Dismantling monitoring programs which show evidence of climate change is one of the Project 2025 priorities.

Specifically, their plan calls for downsizing the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025, p. 676), and breaking up NOAA (p. 674), because they view these agencies as a source of "climate alarmism" and that "the preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded."

tjohns··on Waymo Premier
An oil change is quick, like 30 minutes. If I grab a granola bar instead of sitting down for breakfast and then instead use that time to do the oil change, the time expenditure is basically a wash.
tjohns··on Waymo Premier
Oil changes cost like $35/year if you do it yourself. Decent tires last 4-5 years, so that's like $100/year (to be generous). Air filters are so cheap and need replacement so infrequently as to not even be worth counting.
tjohns··on Waymo Premier
"Incurred violations" should be effectively $0. How often are you getting a traffic ticket? I think the last time I got a ticket was a decade ago...
tjohns··on The Permanent Upper Crow
I don't think any of those fall under the umbrella of consumerism. So no, that's not a continuation of my list at all.

Looking after your health or taking proper care of your kids is really not in the same category as spending less on veblen goods.

(I'm noticing that people are getting very different messages from this game.)

tjohns··on The Permanent Upper Crow
I just grabbed random things I've seen from behavior in other people. If you don't fall victim to those consumerist traps, then that's legitimately great.

Yes, I absolutely know folks who buy new phones every year, and who lease new cars and upgrade every 3 years. Most of whom really can't really afford to do these things but do it anyway and end up in increasing debt.

And sure, buy clothes from Walmart if you have a Walmart location near you. I just picked the nearest big-box store to me, for some reason Walmart doesn't have much of a presence out where I am.

(The takeaway I got from the game is "don't try to buy the hat, it's a trap". I'm curious what your takeaway was?)

tjohns··on The Permanent Upper Crow
I'm absolutely not saying this alone is sufficient - particularly if you're unemployed or your job truly doesn't pay a living wage. There are absolutely people who don't make enough to survive - and that's a bigger problem of course.
tjohns··on The Permanent Upper Crow
I'd argue it's not about selling everything. Instead, avoid buying things by default and trying to keep up with the Joneses. You don't need to move to the wilderness, you just need to choose to escape consumerism.

For example:

- Do you really need a new car, when a lightly used one will do just fine and will be more economical?

- Do you really need to upgrade to a new phone every year when your current one is still working fine?

- Do you really need to buy premium clothes from the mall when the ones from Target are much cheaper?

tjohns··on FBI Arrests CIA Official with $40M in Gold Bars in His Home
Many community libraries offer free NYTimes access to their patrons.
tjohns··on Valve raises Steam Deck prices
It's always been a good idea to have a UPS in front of any digital electronics anyway.

Brown-outs are arguably more dangerous to your electronics, and those are more common now with more frequent heat waves during the summer, stressing the electric grid and triggering public safety shutoffs on the US west coast.

I also think the concerns in the article are overblown. I grew up in the mountains where the electric grid was notoriously poor quality, especially when buildings would fail over to (often poor-quality) generators. It would make computer monitors misbehave, but rarely did it actually damage anything.

tjohns··on That Methyl Methacrylate Tank
This is basically what the glass repair kits sold at auto parts stores are. (They also include a suction cup with syringe, to vacuum any air bubbles out.)
tjohns··on Claude for Legal
If you are preparing for your own defense and don't have an attorney (you're acting pro se), your own LLM use would likely be protected under work product doctrine. The court would extend you some of the same protections an attorney would have, for the limited purposes of preparing your case.

This is a very narrow exemption, however.

(You would also want to make sure you're using a paid AI plan with contractually guaranteed privacy protections, otherwise it could be construed as third-party communications, which implicitly waives privilege.)

See: Warner v. Gilbarco, Inc.

tjohns··on Claude for Legal
#1 is a little complicated. Communications with an AI are possibly sometimes protected by work-product doctrine... but only if you're representing yourself as a pro se litigant, and strictly limited to mental impressions and opinion work product of counsel (in this case, extended to the pro se litigant). See: Warner v. Gilbarco, Inc.

There's a good summary of the current state of things here: https://www.akerman.com/en/perspectives/ai-privilege-and-wor...

Also worth noting that none of this is binding precedent, so expect this field to evolve over time.

tjohns··on Artemis II fault tolerance
Once you've lost more than ~2 processors, you're probably into the realm of common mode failures and voting won't save you. At that point, it's entirely possible you're just working with random data coming out of all your processors.
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