rainsford

7 ms·

61.
by rainsford 7mo ago
We moved from the mainframe era to desktops and smaller servers because computers got fast enough to do what we needed them to do locally. Centralized computing resources are still vastly more powerful than what's under your desk or i
62.
by rainsford 7mo ago
I'm not sure that's infinitely true as long as AI costs to the user are proportional to the cost it takes to run the model. Even if user costs are heavily subsidized by investment, as long as they are non-zero and go up when mode
63.
by rainsford 7mo ago
I wonder how much is truly preference at this point rather than societal inertia. Actual walkable cities with good public transit are incredibly rare in the US and as a result tend to be very expensive (which itself should tell you somethi
64.
by rainsford 7mo ago
Why do you think anybody was operating under the assumption that this was free? But keeping your car topped up now is hardly free either, especially lately, so the question is really about cost comparison. And that's before you get i
65.
by rainsford 7mo ago
Why? The vast majority of cars spend most of the day stationary. I'd even venture to say most cars spend most of the day stationary in the same spot. If that spot has charging, slow or not, it would likely cover the daily energy use
66.
by rainsford 7mo ago
I'll take the possibly controversial position that WireGuard's opinionated approach to cryptographic choices without the option for negotiation was indeed the right call, but it would have been a better and even more successful pr
67.
by rainsford 7mo ago
You're right that it seems close enough, but only as long as we're talking about the time it takes a single vehicle to "fill up". Taking 2 minutes vs 8 minutes to fill up your car doesn't matter to you personally,
68.
by rainsford 7mo ago
Unless you're independently wealthy, even the most traditional two parent nuclear family with a married mom and dad requires at least one parent to spend a significant portion of their day away from their children earning a living. I&
69.
by rainsford 7mo ago
The article at least partially addressed that. The argument isn't that the pronatalists aren't truly in favor of higher birthrates, it's that they're selectively in favor of higher birthrates for certain groups of peopl
70.
by rainsford 7mo ago
It makes a lot more sense if you think about WFH in terms of flexibility rather than being able to be home with your children all day every day. As you point out, the latter is unlikely to be super productive if you have young children. B
71.
by rainsford 8mo ago
As I understand it, light sweet crude is in fact easier to refine, but refineries still have to be set up for it to get optimal or economically viable results, which US refineries largely are not. US refineries certainly could switch, but
72.
by rainsford 8mo ago
Yeah the inclusion of Columbus is admittedly not great, but it's part of the original quote and the overall point is still a good one.
73.
by rainsford 8mo ago
Sure, but you have to consider Carl Sagan's point, "The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright
74.
by rainsford 8mo ago
Not a lawyer, but I found the majority opinion's position on "regulate" much more compelling than the dissent. In particular, the majority's argument that "regulate" is a pretty common function of the executiv
75.
by rainsford 8mo ago
This example and others like it really reinforce for me the idea that LLMs fundamentally don't "understand" things the same way humans do and it's not a problem that's going to be fixed by more training or more GPUs
76.
by rainsford 9mo ago
We also shouldn't overlook the fact that the proposal entirely glosses over the implication of the alternative benefits we might realize if humanity achieved the incredible engineering and technical capacity necessary to make this vers
77.
by rainsford 9mo ago
The Technology Connections Youtube channel recently did a great video arguing pretty convincingly that the land used to grow corn for cars would be vastly more efficiently used from an energy perspective if we covered it with solar panels.
78.
by rainsford 9mo ago
Even if the source of electricity used to charge an EV is mostly generated by fossil fuels, EVs are still probably more energy efficient because gas powered cars are not particularly efficient at turning gasoline into useful energy compar
79.
by rainsford 9mo ago
That idea seems like a pretty common one around this issue. While it's not entirely unreasonable on the surface, I'm skeptical of a political argument where only one side is expected to be fully paid up adult members of society w
80.
by rainsford 9mo ago
> The expansion of the federal government, especially the powers of the executive branch, is the problem everyone seems to dislike (when their favored party isn't controlling this branch), and that's what needs to change Yeah b
81.
by rainsford 9mo ago
Any reasonable substantive analysis of the situation can't possibly limit itself to just the direct benefits of "having Denmark in our camp", especially considering the context of this thread. Would having the support of Den
82.
by rainsford 9mo ago
Looking at it in terms of the direct near-term military benefit of NATO in a conflict with China is focusing on the wrong thing. The real question isn't how strongly NATO membership would directly benefit the US military in a conflict
83.
by rainsford 9mo ago
I used to have that perspective, but I actually think it's even simpler than selective application of principles or hypocrisy as the parent commentator put it. It's not so much that they believe in an ideal but struggle to apply
84.
by rainsford 9mo ago
A more sci-fi apocalyptic angle on this fact is the argument that fossil fuels, especially easily accessible ones, are necessary to bootstrap a futuristic multi-planetary civilization. They provide the easy energy necessary to support an i
85.
by rainsford 9mo ago
The idea of being anti-AI for art or game design vs pro-AI for software or websites is interesting because it presumably reflects the fact that those people value art and game design more than they do software or websites. Their view of AI
86.
by rainsford 9mo ago
The thing is Tesla probably has a solid enough foundation of smart people and technology to out compete other EV manufacturers, but they're not going to because they're saddled with today's version of Elon Musk instead of the
87.
by rainsford 9mo ago
> If the ABA misbehaves, the people of Texas can do... nothing. That seems like a very interesting perspective to offer in response to an article about the government of Texas stripping the ABA of the ability to approve law schools. Whil
88.
by rainsford 10mo ago
I had a similar reaction. Although I can't help but notice that even in something like this it included the now obligatory combative culture war framing with "we are ending the war on protein".
89.
by rainsford 10mo ago
The ubiquity of fat religious Americans with no impulse control suggests that religious vs secular is perhaps not the right reference frame to examine this particular issue. Your argument about abstinence being the most practical solution
90.
by rainsford 10mo ago
I'm even struggling to come up with counter examples where a major established company is able to successfully pivot when the business model that brought them success is no long as viable as it once was. Maybe IBM counts in that they

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