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RickRussell_CA

@ RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

Posts
8
Comments
184
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • The Coming Slow Fade of America’s Corn Ethanol Industry

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  • Technology Connections' excellent overview of current solar technology has a simple cost-benefit analysis of corn ethanol, which concludes that even if corn ethanol required ZERO energy inputs, it would still be easily outperformed by current solar + battery storage with exceedingly conservative estimates on efficiency, watt-hours per acre, etc.

  • Tortilla, broccoli, ‘a piece of chicken’: US agriculture secretary mocked for ‘money-saving’ meal

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  • I have the simple American diet that will work for at least 70% of people:

    Less

  • In 1982, a physics joke gone wrong sparked the invention of the emoticon - Ars Technica

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  • \_/

  • Double harvest: Vertical solar panels and crops thrive side by side

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  • one vertical, east-west-facing system

    Oh, the panels are running in lines N-S, and they've got a 2-sided arrangement that faces east and west. Yeah I didn't quite get the geometry either.

  • Double harvest: Vertical solar panels and crops thrive side by side

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  • Crop success should get better as you go south and get directly under the sun -- the panels will cast smaller shadows.

    Solar efficiency might get much worse.

    In the end, it's a range: you can angle the solar panels not at all, or a little bit, or a lot. The effect on crops will vary and eventually you'll have to stop planting in the persistent shadow of the panels. But perhaps there are lower-light broadleaf vegetables you could plant there.

  • Moto-whoa-la

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  • Every girl's crazy about a sharp-dressed Gram

  • They thought they were making technological breakthroughs. It was an AI-sparked delusion.

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  • "second guessing your doctor” and the like

    Oh my dear and fluffy lord

  • The Browser Company, maker of Arc and Dia, is being acquired

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  • Oh. Arc and Dia.

  • Ben-Hur on a computer screen

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  • I started losing my digital privacy in 1974, aged 11

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  • Was it useful? That information had nothing at all to do with the author's case of COVID.

  • Politics @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    Police in LA fire a bean bag gun at a journalist

    bsky.app /profile/bubbaprog.lol/post/3lr5er5twjs2a

  • Brian Eno, creator of the Windows 95 startup sound, calls on Microsoft to sever ties with Israel

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  • the most generous reading of your arguments is that you are philosophically defeatist

    That's probably a fair assessment.

    But I feel like the core of my argument remains: I'm not disputing that MS or Google or Amazon or Apple services are sold to people and orgs who use them to commit evil. Of course they are.

    But these aren't munitions. They are general-purpose computing products being turned to evil outcomes by bad actors. The article, for example, cites Microsoft's open-source LAVENDER, which is a general purpose image and video analysis tool for AI. Describing it as:

    ‘Lavender’, an AI-powered system designed to identify bombing targets

    This simply isn't true. Somebody in the Israeli military used LAVENDER to process video data to identify bombing targets, like somebody might use a hammer to smash someone's head in. The articles you cite are full of rhetorical tricks to imply that Microsoft corporate had some hand in the decision making, but it's genuinely all "well the Israeli military has some Azure servers, therefore Microsoft killed people".

    Which militaries should Microsoft (or Google or Apple or Amazon, etc) be allowed to sell products to? Who makes that determination? A cohort of employees or consumers? NGOs?

    If government makes the call -- distilling a public consensus on the matter, one hopes -- then I can see some reasonable way to approach this question.

    EDIT: Details on LAVENDER:

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/lavender-unifying-video-language-understanding-as-masked-language-modeling/

  • Brian Eno, creator of the Windows 95 startup sound, calls on Microsoft to sever ties with Israel

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  • I just don't see it doing any good. Why would Israel's military, supplied with US military hardware, care about Microsoft? Or Apple or Google or Amazon or... I'm sure none of their critical military infrastructure is in danger if one or several of these companies turn on them.

    And how does Microsoft even enforce this ban? Turn off Windows remotely? It's not even clear how such a ban on Israel-linked business would work.

    If world governments want to put sanctions on Israel and Gaza to try and make the two governments come to the table, I think that's a much better strategy.

  • Brian Eno, creator of the Windows 95 startup sound, calls on Microsoft to sever ties with Israel

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  • Honestly, I struggle to draw a connection between world conflict and non-military technology like Windows or cell phones or whatever.

    Is every single Israeli resident complicit in what their government is doing? None of them should be allowed to use Windows? What about Israelis outside of Israel? What about people who support Israel? What about (gasp) Jews? How do you even enforce any of this without massive overreach by the companies?

    Call on Microsoft or Apple all you want, ultimately I don't think a company should ban sales to customers on the argument that those customers might not have morals aligned to the company. Not that it's even possible, with world supply chains being what they are.

  • Yes, AI will eventually replace some workers. But that day is still a long way off

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  • Capitalism does an extremely poor job of planning beyond the next accounting period.

  • Yes, AI will eventually replace some workers. But that day is still a long way off

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  • With respect to the article, it's wrong. AI help desk is already a thing. Yes, it's terrible, but human help desk was already terrible. Businesses are ABSOLUTELY cutting out tier 1 call center positions.

    LLMs are exceptionally good at language translation, which should be no surprise as that kind of statistical chaining is right up their alley. Translators are losing jobs. AI Contract analysis & legal blacklining are going to put a lot of junior employees and paralegals out of business.

    I am very much an AI skeptic, but I also recognize that people who do the things LLMs are already pretty good at are in real trouble. As AI tools get better at more stuff, that target list of jobs will grow.

  • Voice actors speak out on AI in video games

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  • Took them 30 seconds to throw animators under the bus to make their point.

    It's hopeless. We're all just gonna eat each other so the billionaire class can go live in a giant space station.

  • Against Google Monopoly in the web: Building a truly independent browser using Servo as a web engine! - Servo, the embeddable, independent, memory-safe, modular, parallel web rendering engine

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  • It was the style at the time.

  • Amazon Workers Launch Largest Strike Yet: 'It Doesn't Feel Like a Job That Should Be Legal'

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  • Unfortunately the strike ended just a few days ago -- organizers have vowed to come back with a new plan, since Amazon refused to negotiate.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

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  • Well, game journalists need to sell gaming hardware and AAA games. Those guys have the ad money.

    Just play what you like.

  • Humanities & Cultures @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    What Are a Museum’s Obligations When It Shows a ‘Problematic’ Artist?

    www.nytimes.com /2024/05/10/magazine/museum-problematic-artist-ethics.html
  • Environment @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    Why EPA Efforts to Clean Up Kentucky Town Haven’t Worked — ProPublica

    www.propublica.org /article/calvert-city-kentucky-epa-pollution-westlake-sacrifice-zones
  • Technology @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    AI Lie: Machines Don’t Learn Like Humans (And Don’t Have the Right To)

    www.tomshardware.com /news/ai-doesnt-learn-like-people-do
  • Space @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    Norwegian space port for polar and sun-synchronous orbits

    spacewatch.global /2023/07/andoya-prepares-to-build-norways-first-spaceport/
  • Humanities & Cultures @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    Museum ethics - more than lip service

    www.science.org /doi/10.1126/science.adj4713
  • Space @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    Unintended Satellite Emission May Harm Radio Astronomy

    skyandtelescope.org /astronomy-news/unintended-satellite-emission-harm-radio-astronomy/
  • Science @beehaw.org
    RickRussell_CA @beehaw.org

    60,000 People Died from Blistering European Heat Waves, New Analysis Finds

    www.scientificamerican.com /article/60-000-people-died-from-blistering-european-heat-waves-new-analysis-finds/