skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm in that slice of the population that is captivated by the potential of crypto while disgusted by everything that it currently is.

I would like to see more discussions around the theoretical limits of the value of web3 with regards to computing efficiency. Even the world's most efficient public blockchain would see a huge replication factor if it saw widespread adoption. The problem is, the larger the replication factor, the larger the inherent cost of compute, as limited by the energy it costs to replicate that compute.

In other words, if AWS Lambda is priced at X% premium over the electricity consumed executing code, even the world's most efficient blockchain would be priced hundreds of times that premium if the blockchain is widely adopted/replicated; there is no free lunch, so if you have a distributed system replicating data across thousands of machines, then the people bidding to put data on those machines are paying for that replication.

In other words, the pricing of running your application backend on a popular blockchain (say, Ethereum) will never ever be as cheap as running your application backend on a public cloud. In a broader sense, this means that the only data that shows up on a public chain is data considered "valuable", such as recording the transactions of cryptocurrency or NFTs or other pyramidal investments; never something silly and worthless, like a system for recording nontradable in-game achievement system.

On the other hand, not every blockchain is popular. My belief is that IF web3 has a future, it will involve inter-chain protocols between many cooperative blockchains, and that compute will go into a chain that fits the value of the compute.

For example, suppose I want to make an app that uses a microtransaction scheme on the order of pennies, e.g. you can tip 1 penny to an author or something like that. I'm obviously not using Ethereum because a transaction on Ethereum costs vastly more than 1 penny to record. However, a smaller chain with a replication factor of say 10 machines can probably handle 1 penny transactions with far less than a penny fee.

Right now, there's no good way to treat blockchains themselves as fungible compute objects that are secured & priced based on their replication factor. Just as you wouldn't move a single penny on Ethereum, you also wouldn't move a million dollars in tokenized assets on a chain with only a few machines replicating. I think making an ecosystem of fungible blockchains, with the ability to easily transfer funds inter-chain[0], is going to be the next evolution of web3 that actually enables real consumer application backends to be hosted on the crypto universe.

[0] This is something that's being worked on in a limited sense, e.g. the "Wormhole" project that allows you to tokenize and move assets between Ethereum and Solana and a few others
Yes, I would. And several people have done it succesfully.

You can still write about vast heterogenous places (or continents) - and give accurate information about the conditions there, without the cliches.
> The ADHD community is a parody of the HN crowd in that regard, people share new "super effective" tricks and routines enthusiastically all the time. Finally we found the solution!

sounds a bit like https://reddit.com/r/thanksimcured
Curiously, according to Wikipedia, A free, downloadable Control Creation Edition [of Visual Basic 5.0] was also released for creation of ActiveX controls.

Visual Basic 6.0 was the best thing since sliced bread.
These arguments aren't very good. While I'm not interested in Web3 outside a couple of use cases, the arguments against in the article make it more appealing because now I want to find how to take a bet that the author is wrong.

The argument that blockchains and the associated protocols aren't decentralized reduces to anything happening between more than one counterparty is now defined as centralized, and that the correlation from co-ordinating their activities via a blockchain protocol means it's centralized. These are circular definitions.

The climate argument against proof of work using electricity ignores how demand for electricity creates the economics for green tech innovation that actually solve the carbon problem. The article is another example of rhetorically exploiting basic human energy needs as a crisis narrative in support of levering in more centralized governance.

As soon as we have viable geothermal and nuclear solutions, I'm pretty sure the climate people are going to move on from carbon and start militating against heat and entropy next. They don't want solutions, they just need an infinite conflict that they can be the managers of and gatekeepers to. Conflict is energy in politics, and so permanent revolution against some basic unresolvable conflict is a source of political justification to organize people against something. The nebulous, unsolvable crisis is the perpetual motion machine of political organizing, and it is as much of a fraud as a purported physical one. If you think cryptocurrency people are cynical grifters, may I introduce you to political activists. Their "narrative" is just a fancy euphemism for conspiring to lie.

Whether it's useful to point this out or not, the quiet part of Web3 is it is clearly an "exit" from the hegemonic internet (hegemonet?), and they're inventing peaceful technological alternatives to what was essentially a managerialist putsch, co-opting, and occupation of the internet. The criticism in the article seems like just another vehicle for standard complaints and ingroup concern signalling.

>Blockchains don’t solve the problems they’re supposed to solve. They do cause new problems though. There’s a huge negative climate impact associated with it. The miners buy so much hardware that it’s been affecting the availability of graphics cards for years now. It makes grifters rich. Just to name a few.

The real objection to web3 reduces to the same old tropes about the wrong kind of people becoming financially independent and not having to be accountable to the narratives of political hucksters. Web3 is at the peak of it's hype cycle, so there isn't much to defend about it, but arguments like these against it seem like a straw man for the same old tropes.
> I never met him and yet I knew. He is notorious for doing that.

Met him once and that wouldn’t surprise me at all. He made a huge number of mistakes over his career and those eventually came back to haunt him. I’m not judging whether it’s fair or not, just acknowledging such things happen when you are a public figure.
My older stuff got turned into TV PCs. I pair them up with a Logitech K400 wireless keyboard and just run Chrome or Firefox on them. Each tab is a different streaming service, plex or youtube. I could use Chromecast or FireTV, but they feel like less freedom than just running a browser.
I prefer laravel as well but it’s definitely not as snappy as an spa since I have to load a full page of html at each click. What are you doing differently that I should be doing?

Currently, I’m doing a hybrid sometimes where I’ll have jquery do a call inside the page when I want one particular area to be fast.
I am curios to know right reason(s) for this because I hear different answers from different people.
I use it for my solo projects as well, but my commit messages (and history manageent in general) is much better when I'm writing for other people.
the way I’ve dealt with this issue in the past is to put all my apps into one folder on the Home Screen (iPhone). Then the only practical way to access apps is by searching for them. So you have to remember why you went on your phone in the first place. I’ve slid back a bit, by not keeping on top of notification settings but generally it works.
It's certainly not sarcasm.
People will say “works fine for me” but I’ve experienced this with iOS Safari (and particularly webviews) repeatedly. Crashes are incredibly hard to pin down and replicate (maybe there’s also another tab dominating CPU? Maybe you’re on a lower end device like an iPhone 6? Maybe you’re on an older iOS version?). Some of the most frustrating user feedback to get.
Zooming in really close, some parts look like a satellite image of earth
I am thinking of one particular journal that had a problem with historical reference libraries under RefMan that all broke after the EndNote migration. A library of thousands of purchased articles, including pivotal trials that are commonly referenced, essentially became inaccessible after RefMan was purchased by EndNote. I believe EndNote also remotely inactivated the software and engaged in some other chicanery. That experience turned me off of reference manager software. Maybe Zotero has gotten it right this time! I don't know. I just know that few things last in tech and least of all libraries of data housed in software that may or may not be updated or supported by future systems.
I imagine they use the same chemicals as marine toilets / portapotties. It breaks down poop and toilet paper into a liquid so that it can be pumped / emptied easily. Not sure why the article focuses solely on urine...
> I got to over 500 commits in this tree and had to throw away my second attempt

But wait, why didn't you just break the task down into sub-tasks that could be estimated in four-hour increments in the first place? Every single "scrum master" I've ever labored under has insisted that every software development task can be broken down this way.
when you can enter into samadhi state then you are doing it right for the first step.
How to do it is hard to describe in this comment. It takes time to understand first step.
Yes, amazing work is being done, but preach it! We still need more quality of life changes on the desktop.
Laravel. I have no particular love for PHP, but Laravel just "gets it right" and understands the needs of a web developer. After years of working with Python/NodeJS (Flask/Express), Laravel was like a key that fit a lock. The ecosystem of paid plugins and services around it are really well built as well.
I really appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I'm writing up a little recap to catalogue what I'm seeing here, so that's why I'm a little silent in the comments. But, keep sending in your ideas, and I'll do my best to draw up a little overview and put it in the comments. Also, trying to keep up so I can upvote you all.
I think the argument would be that formerly corrupt enforcement entities, or entities with no track record, would use a blockchain as proof of their commitment to impartial enforcement going forward. "We know you don't trust us, but here is a public record that you know we didn't manipulate, so if we are going to steal your land we have to do it openly."

That said, the same thing can be accomplished by outsourcing the public ledger to a third party with a reputation for trustworthiness. The same way that countries that cannot make a credible commitment to not devalue their money will often peg their currency to the dollar or the euro.
Heh. We have a similar philosophy. And I'm always a fan of quitting gaming (like I'm a fan of quitting drinking; I'm pretty sure I could do it if I wanted to). I was a lucky foo who registered a lot of mail.yahoo and gmail accounts before they checked identity, but it's still totally possible to be semi-anonymous these days. I have a couple burner phones; once you bootstrap a google ID it's not that hard to move it around. But also, buy a bunch of cheap ass domains, you can get all the inbound mail you want. Outbound is a little trickier, but who fucking cares. Highly recommend just for your sanity that you invest the time to set up a few fake identities while you're refusing to game... it's not going to get any easier in 2023.

[edit] I should clarify that I'm probably such an asshole, I didn't even suggest letting my gf use one of my fake accounts to set up the Roku. Not that she gave me a chance; she was already done with the verification email by the time I started decrypting my list of them.
>What is needed is a set of objects which change state immediately.

Yes, these objects are called Schrödinger's underwear. Washing one results in the other becoming instantly fresh, and they can never be destroyed or something.
This is probably one of the best write-ups I've seen around the basics of automotive control unit reverse engineering.

More modern VW control units are the same in broad strokes - they use UDS on ISO-TP instead of KWP on TP2.0, but this is just evolution of the same fundamentals. And instead of the wacky SGO format inside of FRF update files, they use the ASAM MCD-2 D-ODX format to define flashing layers. Most European automakers are similar.

One interesting difference and trend in automotive control modules (also mentioned in Willem's fantastic write-up) is that many EU modules started adding signature checking and encrypted updates in the late 2000s, while most US and Japanese automakers have only done so in the last 2-3 years.

These encrypted and signature checked updates are by and large still fairly vulnerable - often due to logic errors in the complex upgrade processes and occasionally due to a strange insistence on using RSA using PKCS#1.5 with e=3 and inadequate padding validation.
1. What data did the CCP delete?

2. Facebook ham-fistedly censored conspiracy theory posts that the virus was man-made and later realized that they were also censoring actual lab leak discussion and fixed their policy.

3. Google turned off autocomplete because most of the autocompletions were crazy conspiracy theories. People could still search for whatever they wanted.

None of this stopped actual investigation of the lab leak hypothesis, which you claim could not have happened due to Facebook's actions.
Agreed; Slack search is next to useless for me as well.

However, what is meant here is that content in Discord isn't reachable via search engines such as Google. Whole communities are invisible to traditional search indexing and only reachable through either a special client or an API, both of which require an account and empower gatekeepers.
Neat. This can run as a Windows background using https://github.com/rocksdanister/lively
I worked at Sutherland Global a few years ago. They would literally just pull any random manager to do interviews, with no instructions or qualifications for the task whatsoever.

I found out that one of the managers who was in charge of interviews for about 6 months drunkenly revealed to some colleagues that he invited people back based on whether they looked cool or not.

I recently had an interview at a company named Fluz. The CTO cancelled last minute and had an engineer fill in. Presumably, this engineer had no bias training, interviewing training or management training, not to mention the lack of preparation time. It seemed like he made the questions up as we went. This was not a technical interview whatsoever. They then ghosted me.

I interviewed at Dwolla and they did a panel interview as the last step. Again, several dozen questions completely irrelevant to the role I applied for. Why is a person on the marketing team interviewing me, a full-stack engineer?

I did a technical screening for givemomentum.com. I applied to a Node/React job. The interviewer used Java. Thanks for the lack of heads up on that curve ball. Ghosted.

The whole process is a joke.
Two people couldn't even cover up Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. You want tens of thousands of people to cover up massive chip orders?
Really? I am immediately skeptical of random influencer recommendations especially on social media, its slightly better on youtube where respected creators/reviewers are transparent about sponsorships to maintain their credibility
To be honest, Git is pretty good about dealing with 'unexpected technical problems'.

It even handles running multiple instances of git commands at the same time rather well.
The last core update needs to be rolled back. I am getting top 10 results / rich-results sites showing adult ads on a regular basis now.
>Covid supply chain issues didn't help

It would be nice to get to the bottom of these issues I keep hearing about. Yeah, COVID was/is a big thing but when it comes to feet on the ground, what's the impact? Not this much surely.

Not to be conspiratorial but is this a cover story we're being given? Why does it feel like there's suddenly this massive void in productivity?
Definitely true. The heavy roasted flavor that's common amongst all dark roasts definitely hides the lack of true complex flavors. A nice Colombian med/med-dark can still get you that darker/nuttier flavor, but way more complex.
Great article. If you're interested in this topic, recommend watching "Living Soil" documentary on YT: https://youtu.be/ntJouJhLM48
Yeah unless you have a whole proper espresso setup for $1k+.... aeropress is really good. I have an amazing rich cup in like 3 mins.
You haven't provided any evidence of a link between the 1918 flu and the Nazi Aktion T-4 mass murder program.
Innovation week at the chile pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai
Exclusive interview with our founder, today in Albayan News, the written press of Dubai UAE.

Eduardo Cornejo explained, at the fair, we seek to attract the interest of investors in the United Arab Emirates, which will support our efforts to raise the necessary funds to expand the dissemination of this innovation. "

"The best development of our company is the combination of virtual reality and electroencephalographic (EEG) neurofeedback technology to relieve pain, control stress and control anxiety," he described.
"The technology was developed in Chile, and this is the revolutionary technology that our company is presenting for the first time at the Expo," he added.

He continued: "We are currently in talks with local companies, to obtain their support in order to introduce our technology in the UAE market, especially since the UAE Health and Technology Sector is international, and they have of a clear vision of the wise leadership of the state, attracting the latest revolutionary technologies ”.
Womp.
I feel like we didn't learn a lot about the TFA author in this comment, but more about a pet concern of yours?

The author critiques the cliches, misinformation, wrong ideas, and romantization journalists use when writing about Africa.

These are not merely some "opinions they disagree with", these are wrong and lazy writing, and it's a bad public service (they are getting millions of people the wrong ideas about a place). It surely deserves to be critiqued.
Interesting that while your brain seems to ignore the usernames, my brain automatically parses the username when reading the comment, somehow. I'm not thinking about it, it just gets associated automatically.

As I mentioned before, I grew up back when the internet was mostly text, so maybe that's why? Are you perhaps a bit younger than that?
You have to know at least some things yourself when talking to an accountant or tax adviser. When I was looking for a CPA, I met with several with good reputations before deciding on one. What I found was that all but one was deficient in some of their knowledge when it came to my specific situation, despite all of them having years of experience in small business accounting. One gave me outright illegal advice as a "tax optimization" strategy. So I would say it's essential for the business owner to have some knowledge before going to meet a financial professional (or any other kind of professional, really).
1. The same thing we do with Raspberry Pi's

2. Retro gaming / retro development, which given the age of something often means C or C++.

3. If things are really broken, e-waste is probably the only option.
I'm thinking of turning my old phones into webcams
I remember reading this in high school. It's actually from 2005. More recently, a journalist suggested a moratorium on the use of the word "Africa" in reporting; the country, and region of the country, should be used instead.

It's disappointing that neither piece has been taken seriously.
My opinion: dramatic increase of demand for stuff vs services due to covid - as most services involve face-to-face contact and are either unavailable due to lockdowns, or people are afraid of using them for the fear of getting infected. Because money is saved on using services, people pour it into stock market (hence bubble) and buying stuff, hence shortages.

People who are more likely to be concerned with covid (more educated) are also more likely to consume electronics, so demand on electronics is particularly increased.

Supply side issues are secondary and by now they aren't a big deal at all.
> I also want to add that one of the arguments on moving everything to the web (applications I mean) was that the web interface was intuitive and didn't require documentation.

I strongly disagree with this. The reason most apps (or rather, most software) moved to the web is because of a few factors:

1. No installer necessary - this made getting people running much faster and more reliable.

2. You could monetize in a way you simply couldn't with offline software. Instead of selling it once, on the web you have myriad ways to finance software, e.g. SaaS, other forms of selling continued access, advertising, etc.

Note that point reason 2 is exactly my point - companies moved to the web in large part because it was far more profitable. (And I say this as someone who's been a developer during most of the time this shift was happening, and was part of companies making the business-model transition to subscription software.)

> When apps were local, you could always hit F1 and get context sensitive documentation on the particular form you were on and it would (try) to explain what the app was looking for. Apps also had a conformity being all Windows apps using the Windows SDK. It certainly wasn't perfect, but at least it was something.

And again I have to chime in here as a long-time computer veteran - if you think what most people do with computers today is harder than it was in the past, you are just plain wrong. Being able to hit F1 to get help was something that was done by maybe .1% of the population. Yes, desktop software supposedly enforcing UX conformity was an advantage, but not as crazy an advantage as you would think.

As someone who has been helping users out for years, I have no doubt at all that the average UX has gotten way better.

(Though side note, I don't think this is just the influence of the web... we've also just gotten better as an industry on making software, IMO)
This rant wasn't aimed at Apple - sorry if that was unclear. It's aimed at YouTube devs (and developers in general) - the ones who stopped their support.
That comment was hilariously oblivious
Occam's razor: the simplest explanation is that during global disasters (even slow-moving multi-year disasters) supply chains have trouble coping.
What is braid? I just get a blank page.
Back of the envelop: assuming 3 characters per token, 3 bytes per character (unicode is 1-4), that's 18 trillion bytes. So about 18 TB? Reasonable for disk size, unreasonable to be loaded in GPU memory.

Compute: Building the database requires lots of BERT pre-computation. But at inference time, RETRO is at least one BERT forward pass (a batch of all the chunks that it broke the input prompt into). Then the neighbors are computer via the Retro encoder (which seems small at 2 Transformer layers). Then the input prompt is processed similar to a GPT of 32 layers (with attention to the neighbors).

Run on a laptop? Perhaps on CPU. Try running T0 [1] which is larger at 11B parameters.

[1] https://huggingface.co/bigscience/T0pp
you seem to be very good at your work. I would use the extra funds to create something more teslaic
Buggy software update wipes 77TB of critical research
Tips hat, good sir.
Thanks for you and all that you do Jay.

Any plans to do one on MOE for LM?