retrac

63 ms·

931.
by retrac 4y ago
It can do arithmetic on large numbers that were certainly never in its training data, not flawlessly but much, much better than chance. I do not see how this is possible without some kind of model of arithmetic. If you train a transformer
932.
by retrac 4y ago
I believe they're saying that if the government (or another party) can read your received SMS messages, then your Signal account isn't secure. It could be taken over by anyone who can receive the SMS verification code. Your cont
933.
by retrac 4y ago
Helping out on the family farm is in its own category, in my opinion. For one thing, the parents are probably actually supervising. So they are probably taking some measures to ensure the child is not dismembered. Most parents do have a
934.
by retrac 4y ago
Yes, specific conditions. For example, here in Ontario, Canada you can employ children as young as 14 but their hours cannot conflict with school hours (including no overnight schedules). And certain jobs are simply 18+, such as working i
935.
by retrac 4y ago
Whisper. Speech recognition and translation. Probably the best general-purpose speech recognition available right now. Certainly the best you can run on your own hardware. Open-sourced code and publicly free and available models. https:
936.
by retrac 4y ago
Arguably, it came true with the Pentium Pro more than 20 years ago. Ever since then x86 processors have interpreted x86 instructions by translating them into multi-step sequences of microinstructions under software control. The microcode
937.
by retrac 4y ago
There has been a change in social behaviour which I think is obviously linked to electronic media, and probably also the mental health issues. The % of American students who say they meet up physically with friends "almost every day&q
938.
by retrac 4y ago
The apparent decline in children's mental health seems to have started in late '00s or early '10s. E.g. here's a study from just before the pandemic making the same conclusion - digital media: https://www.sci
939.
by retrac 4y ago
> I don’t know what the significance of that statement is and I won’t baselessly speculate, but it sure makes me curious. Zuse wrote an autobiography, and it has been translated into English -- https://www.amazon.ca/Compu
940.
by retrac 4y ago
> At least an alternative to the anglo compromise (dont behead the king but clip its wings) and at most blew the mind of all who thought that having a divine omnipotent ruler was a fatality I see your point, and I actually agree - massiv
941.
by retrac 4y ago
Taking a joke too seriously is a form of mental self-enslavement.
942.
by retrac 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyabinsk_meteor > The Chelyabinsk meteor was a superbolide that entered Earth's atmosphere over the southern Ural region in Russia on 15 February 2013 at about 09:20 YEKT (03:20
943.
by retrac 4y ago
It's a reasonable brief summary of the life of Yukio Mishima (a 20th century Japanese author), which is what I asked for. It gives a few major points and lists some of his major works with their usual translated English titles. Just
944.
by retrac 4y ago
To the last point, I have a tiny Bluetooth mouse. Not much bigger than the single AAA battery that powers it. I don't know how I managed to use laptops without one before. (Usually with a full-sized wired mouse, come to think.) I a
945.
by retrac 4y ago
> Salve. Vita auctoris japonicis Yukio Mishima brevi scribe. > Salve! Yukio Mishima fuit auctor et poeta Japonicus qui natus est in anno 1925 et mortuus est in anno 1970. Nomen eius verum erat Kimitake Hiraoka. Scripsit multos libr
946.
by retrac 4y ago
Canadian here, and of Nordic heritage. So I know the struggle of cultural coldness of which you speak. Unless your coworkers are just heartless, the most likely thing going on here is a concern about not wanting to make it appear a big dea
947.
by retrac 4y ago
Yes. The rules were complicated, too. Children referring to adults and teachers with Mr./Ms. is a relic from what was once a more complicated set of rules about social hierarchy. Relative age, familiarity, and social status, both of
948.
by retrac 4y ago
Almost all paper mail received by politicians in Canada is read by their staffers. You'll get a form reply, at a minimum. Some actually do read a lot of it. Whether curated by staffers, or a random selection, or both. I imagine it
949.
by retrac 4y ago
There are lots of interesting parallels between English and Japanese. Old English borrowed its alphabet from Latin, and imperfectly represents its sounds in Latin, with a couple extra letters. On the other hand, the Japanese borrowed writi
950.
by retrac 4y ago
It's quite systematic. Latin was the language of medicine. When they switched to English, or other local languages, they kept a lot of jargon. Religion and government and academic areas are similar. Some of it is a social division t
951.
by retrac 4y ago
Yes. Very worth checking your nation's travel advisories (and maybe that of a few others - they don't always agree). But it can be hard to piece together what's actually going on just from such advisories. They are often r
952.
by retrac 4y ago
It is surprising how much politics and law can affect what is grown where. The US-Canada border cuts right across the prairies. Conditions are pretty much identical in northern North Dakota and southern Manitoba. Yet the border is clearl
953.
by retrac 4y ago
If only it were that easy! If offices could be easily converted to residential, then the current market conditions would be incentivizing owners of all these vacant office spaces to be pressuring for re-zoning and conversion right now. Un
954.
by retrac 4y ago
I suspect even philosophers are susceptible to the usual social engineering tricks. One doesn't become immune to effects like preferring a speaker with an attractive face just from exposure to Kant. (Just one notion that occurred to
955.
by retrac 4y ago
From a judge's perspective, the impact on the legal system must surely be prominent, if only subconsciously. "Just a bunch of lawyers" is their entire social class.
956.
by retrac 4y ago
In most developed countries, disability payments mean living in significant, often crippling poverty. Here in Canada, a single disabled person that is expected to live independently receives about 800 USD per month from the government. Out
957.
by retrac 4y ago
> nothing stops them from raiding your home and confiscating your physical cash Yes and no. I'm in Canada, so maybe the protests in Ottawa, which were mentioned above, are a good example to use. It actually is much simpler for the
958.
by retrac 4y ago
I see Rust as heavily influenced by ML, perhaps even descended from it loosely, just with C family syntax. This seems to be a commonly expressed view? Rust has everything ML has, pretty much. Rust's concept of ownership/RAII wa
959.
by retrac 4y ago
> Dogs for example, have much more sensitive smell than we do, but doesn't seem to influence what they eat much. I'm not sure. Raw potato? Not interesting to a dog. Boiled plain potatoes? They'd eat them if hungry but
960.
by retrac 4y ago
Are we more aware of the risks of UV than 20 years ago? Maybe it's because I have a skin type that burns in 10 minutes but I was about as concerned about that then as now.

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