wilburTheDog

I wonder if a stingray could be used to force a software update in a flock camera. If so maybe it could brick all the flock cameras it can connect to.

At what point does it become more sensible to black hat these zero days? If the company you are helping out isn't willing to give you more than the finger for your help it seems like you're the fool in that arrangement.

Feeling grumpy today, I guess.

An LLM is a tool. It's your choice how you use it. I think there are at least two ways to use it that are helpful but don't replace your thinking. I sometimes have a problem I don't know how to solve that's too complex to ask google. I can write a paragraph in ChatGPT and it will "understand" what I'm asking and usually give me useful suggestions. Also I sometimes use it to do tedious and repetitive work I just don't want to do.

I don't generally ask it to write my code for me because that's the fun part of the job.

It stays stationary because you're effectively tightening one bolt and loosening the other. Imagine the point of contact between the bolts is a line drawn on a stationary nut instead. Is that line moving clockwise or counterclockwise around the bolt? One way tightens, the other way loosens. And it's opposite for the two bolts.

That's not a valid argument, though. Firstly nobody lives forever. Second you don't have to exert all the effort at once, so the totality of effort doesn't matter. At any given time you just have to decide whether to have the snickers bar or the apple. And that's not an impossible effort. We don't live our entire lives all at once. We just have to be present for one moment at a time.

Edit: In my opinion it's hard for two reasons. We have cravings for high calorie foods. And no one candy bar will make you fat, so it's easy to think "I'll exercise more tomorrow to make up for this indulgence." But then you don't, because that's hard too.

So what? It's easy to find people who believe nothing is wrong. All they have to do is ignore all the measurements of temperature, sea ice, CO2, methane, species extinction, peak oil, and whatever else contradicts their fondly held world view. Hey, don't look behind the curtain, look over here, everything is fine.

So SBF is a con-man who realized that it's easy to scam the EA community. All you need to do is learn their language and "pledge" to give away a lot of money. Then the donations will start pouring in.

I guess it's not that different from any other in-group. If you're seen as a trusted member, others will give you the benefit of the doubt as far as they can.

I don't see that much of a difference between those two definitions. Cory's explanation was more specific, but it still referred to a service taking steps to be more profitable and in the process making the experience shittier for users and business customers.

Occidental's first DAC facility has a goal of removing 1 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year.

Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry were 37.12 billion metric tons (GtCO₂) in 2021

So we'd only need about 38,000 of these plants to remove the carbon we release into the atmosphere every year.

Then there's also the over 2 trillion tons of CO2 we've already released that's currently overheating the planet.

A neighbors cat was being harassed by a bird once. It would dive bomb the cat then fly away quickly. It did this multiple times while I watched. The cat got tired of it after a while and stood perfectly still. The bird swooped down toward it and, just as it was close enough, the cat leapt in the air twisting its body upside down mid leap and grabbed the bird from the air. It was the first time I saw how a normal cat could be such an effective natural killer.

I am not a lawyer. That said, I'm not sure this counts as news.

The Rogers test comes from the 1989 case Rogers vs Grimaldi where a Ginger Rogers sued the defendants for making the flim "Ginger and Fred", saying they used her name and people thought she was involved in the film. The court ruled in favor of the defendants, finding that the film was a work of artistic expression, not a commercial product, an therefore not subject to the Lanham Act. The court used the Rogers test, which states that the use of a third-party mark in an expressive work does not violate the Lanham Act “Unless the title has no artistic relevance to the underlying work whatsoever, or, if it has some artistic relevance, unless the title misleads as to the source or the content of the work.”

Since then the Rogers test has been used rather inconsistently by various courts. In Cliff Notes vs Bantam, the defendant was selling books that parodied cliff notes, and used their distinctive black and yellow trade dress. The court ruled for the defendant, saying Rogers test applied because the defendant's use did not create a strong likelihood of confusion, ignoring the artistic relevance part of the Rogers test. Other courts have required a "particularly compelling" likelihood of confusion and have generally favored artistic expression, though not always.

(https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?refer...)

The article argues that this is a reversal of a long standing clear precedent. But the precedent is not really clear. Various courts have struggled to determine whether a product was "artistically relevant" and whether consumers would be confused as to whether the paordied product was sponsored or created by the original since the Rogers case. And they have applied the precedent somewhat inconsistently that whole time. This is just one case where the court has ruled for the plaintif.

As of January this year Russia provided about 1/4 of the diesel imports for Europe. That's down from pre-war levels.

https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insight...

"Although still high, Europe's dependence on Russian diesel has almost halved from pre-war levels when the region sourced 46% of its diesel imports from Russia, the data showed."

Not smarter. Not even trying to hide it. And Russia is selling oil at a price they set. It's just the EU that's paying more to pretend they aren't doing business with Russia.

"India’s diesel exports tripled to ~1,600,000 barrels per day in March 2023, compared to a year ago, making diesel one of the largest components of India-EU trade."

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/India-Leads-In-Russian...

Hadn't heard of "basic TV mode" but it seems to be a feature of any Google TV device made in the last year or two. They say it will disable all smart tv features and leave only the HDMI inputs and antenna input.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/02/the-best-feature-of-...

https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10408998?hl=en

I think of clubs and interest groups as a good way to make friends that you can then hang out with.

To be fair, I turn subtitles on for half of the movies I watch and I'm a native English speaker.

It sounds like you're arguing that we can't decide to change what our priorities are as a society because previous generations already made a decision for us. In the US the decision was made around 100 years ago to focus on cars and focus less on public transit because it's easier to make money selling cars. The most important policy consideration in the US is always 'will it produce more profit for the owning class'. So we developed infrastructure that forces us to rely on cars. Different priorities prompted different decisions in other countries. In the Netherlands 27% of all trips and 25% of trips to work are made by bike. There are still fat people (though fewer), old people, and disabled people there. But they have collectively decided that bikes are a good idea. They have winters there. It rains there. The only real argument against biking in the US is we don't have as much infrastructure built for it as other countries. And that's because we have decided not to have it. We can always change our minds and build it.

Does #5 sound like a tautology to anyone else?

"In order to know how to solve problems get more experience solving problems so you know how."

or maybe

"To know the answers to your questions learn what you need to know to answer them"

Sri Lanka is an interesting case study. President Rajapaksa suddenly banned using pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. It caused significant reductions in crop yields and ended up costing the country a great deal of money. This article in Vox seems to cover it in a pretty balanced way (https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2022/7/15/23218969/sri-la...).

I like organic farming. I use an organic approach for my home garden. But yields are lower than with conventional farming. Even the most positive studies agree on that (see https://news.berkeley.edu/2014/12/09/organic-conventional-fa...). It also takes more effort, which means more people would have to be farmers than currently.

They've apparently moved to https://curlie.org

Their discussion forum is https://www.resource-zone.com/forum/

It may be what's used in dechlorinator products, but vitamin C (ascorbic acid, or Sodium Ascorbate) does a good job of converting chloramines (or just chlorine) to salt, NaCl. I used an ascorbic acid shower filter for years when living in a city that used chloramine in their water. It worked well and I could tell every five months or so that it needed to be refilled because my skin started itching from the chlorine.

We learned in March of this year that my wife has cancer. Chemo started, there were complications, surgery was performed and the tumor was excised. After the recovery from surgery chemo resumed and as of today there is one round left. Then comes radiation and more surgeries. I work from home, as many of us these days, and have continued working throughout, taking individual days of medical leave as needed.

I have to admit it's been difficult to focus on work. Much of the time I can't concentrate well and I'm not nearly as productive as I was. I would have taken more time off if we had single payer health care in the US. I did tell a few people at work so they would understand when I seem distracted or end up taking more frequent breaks throughout the day. My wife is putting in a lot of effort to stay as healthy as possible through this. She walks a mile or two every day. Sometimes a neighbor will walk with her, but often they aren't available and I do. I think what I'm trying to say is talk with a supervisor, or someone at work who notices what you do. Let them know how this is affecting you and that you will not be able to give 100% for the next little while. Best case they'll say do the best you can, and give you some slack. Worst case you end up looking for a better job. It's a good market to be looking.

Also, I think it's important to talk with someone about how you feel. There may be a social services department associated with the oncology department of your local hospital. I am currently attending a caregivers support group run by a social worker from the hospital. It's very helpful to be able to talk about my own emotions to someone who knows how to listen and with whom I feel free to express myself. If you can't do that the whole experience ends up much harder because you're trying to support someone else emotionally, while also shoving down your own upsets. I've been surprised at the support services there are for cancer patients and families. We even found a house cleaning service offering discounts to cancer patients.

It's a very difficult thing to endure. And chemo only gets worse as it goes. Line up some support now so you don't end up burned out or depressed as it drags on.

Edit: I just noticed I was assuming you live in the US, as I do. If you don't, and health care rules in your country are more rational and compassionate, some of this may not apply.

Actually you can. EVGA has a step-up program that allows you to buy just about any EVGA graphics card, register it, and pick the new better card you want when it's available. I bought a 2070 about a year ago and just got an email today that my 3080 is in the mail. I had to jump through a few hoops, but nothing onerous. And I had to pay the difference in price, but it was the only way I could come up with to get a registered high-end card. As far as I know EVGA is the only company that offers this, and it's the reason I went with them instead of another.

If the advice is to eat lower on the food chain - more simple whole foods - instead of highly processed foods and sugary snacks, it seems like good advice. At least it has been in everyone I know who does so. On the other hand if it is an indictment of simple carbohydrates like potatoes, I'd say it's too simplistic. One guy ate nothing but potatoes for two months; his health improved and he lost weight[1]. If it's just simple carbohydrates are bad that shouldn't have happened.

1. https://spudman.com/article/all-potato-diet-eight-years-late...

So do you no longer have the same take on it? How would you feel today about an email whitelist with a pay-to-bypass option?

I've heard good things about the Nvidia Shield. I've even considered getting one to replace my Roku, but they cost so much more than all competitors it gives me pause. They do run Android, though, so that's pretty flexible. Does anyone think they're worth the price?

I'll be honest with you. I haven't totally figured that out yet. Mostly because there is still too much uncertainty to know exactly what is going to change and when. In broad strokes, though, my plan is to arrange my living situation to reduce my dependency on products I need but cannot produce and cannot acquire locally. I think food/water/shelter is a good place to start. Do you own your own home? Do you have a well you can use if the power goes out, or do you collect rainwater? Do you have gardens and know how to preserve what they produce, or is there a reliable small farm nearby? Without those basics other types of preparations don't make much sense. After that what will make your life comfortable? I like reliable electric power, so I think a solar power system with battery backup is a good idea. I like to stay warm, so I have a wood stove. I think all of these types of things improve my life even if I expected the status quo to remain unchanged.

I know humanity lived without fossil fuel for thousands of years before we found coal, but there were societal systems in place then that supported that type of lifestyle. We weren't all driving cars to big grocery stores filled with 10000 mile products [1]. And a lot more of us were farmers [2]. Hopefully as fossil fuel resources dwindle we can restore some of those older systems, or figure out better ones. But that depends on how fast the oil production declines. And if it takes a while to set up new systems you might need to provide for yourself in the interim. What to provide is up to you. What do you need and what would you not want to live without?

1. https://cuesa.org/learn/how-far-does-your-food-travel-get-yo...

2. https://www.vox.com/a/explain-food-america

No, the peak is that point of the curve where production begins to decline because it no longer makes sense to continue. I always heard it described in terms of EROI. And EROI is not an economic problem. It's an energy problem. If it takes more than one barrel of oil to run the machines to produce a barrel of oil, then it makes no sense to continue extracting. The remaining oil in that well will stay in the ground. Up until that point we can throw cheap money at producers to get them to extract oil despite the costs. That part is economic. But once you pass parity in EROI (or get close enough to it, really) it's not.

I think those of us who try to anticipate problems and prepare for them are often easily dismissed and or ridiculed. It's true nobody really needed their cold-war bomb shelters, and the TV shows about people doing bug-out drills to their fortified heavily armed wilderness compounds paint a picture that's hard to relate to. But the two problems I'm concerned about right now are way bigger than me. No matter how hard I try to avert disaster, we are going to continue to see increasing effects of climate change and oil supply depletions. It's hard to predict exactly when, but I expect either or both to be quite significant in my lifetime, and I'm not a child. As such I am trying to arrange my life so that said effects do not constitute a disaster for me. And if I'm completely wrong, and GE develops a clean Mr. Fusion reactor next week, and the Gates foundation figures out an easy way to remove 2-3 trillion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, well then I'll enjoy my gardens and my hobbies and never think of it again. But just because I'm preparing for problems in the future doesn't mean I want them to happen. Don't worry about that.

People have been talking about 'peak oil' for years. It was predicted to peak about 15 years ago, at least in the US, but then the government started throwing money at the fracking industry (which as far as I know has never made a profit). This is not news for anyone who has been paying attention. If you haven't started planning how to live your life while our fossil-fuel based economy is collapsing around us, you should start now. Does you think that sounds alarmist? The EIA estimates about 80% of US energy consumption comes from fossil fuels [1]. And there are a large number of things we just can't do with renewables [2], at least not until we figure out how to store energy much more effectively than we can today. There are big changes coming. And I expect a lot of people are going to be caught unprepared.

Edit: If you disagree, please let me know why. I would love to hear why I'm wrong about this.

1. https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=45096 2. https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=1114