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John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

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111–120 of 267 posts

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't surprise me - I've read some stuff on card counters and seen a few videos, seems like there's a whole other side of successful card counting beyond the technical skill where you have to read out the social situation, since any pit boss worth their salt will be able to spot a card counter a mile away. Which I'm guessing Carmack didn't really care to do since he was just on an intellectual kick.

Good card counters are always a team, you can't go far solo as it's pretty easy to tell when you're betting 20 dollars one hand, and 500 another. You usually have a few smaller players just playing fixed bets who call over some higher roller that will do the big betting when the count is high, and then just leave when the count gets low. Rumor has it that the security cameras now have software that will tally the cou…

Can confirm that the facial recognition cameras and correlating faces to blackjack play is not rumor. To abuse a joke, "There are more cameras in a casino than in a East Village camera close out store." :-)

Back in 2005 I was approached by one of the casino groups that was looking for a director of technology to manage the team that did "camera analytics". Seemed like a pretty neat job technically.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who actually work in AI know that AGI being possible is still an IF and IF it is possible, it is centuries or even further away (basically some indeterminate time frame because we don't even know if we're on the right path). The techniques we're using today are likely not going to be applicable to AGI. John Carmack is very smart, but I wouldn't place him on the same pedestal as any of our great historical…

I am not saying that he will solve AGI on his own (he did quit rocket science after all), but you are greatly underestimating the impact he can have in the field. He basically evolved almost on his own two multi-billion dollar markets by doing noticeable technology leaps and finishing things at the right time. That must count for something. I would bet he cannot solve AGI, but he will surely leave something inspiring…

> He basically evolved almost on his own two multi-billion dollar markets

Not sure what this had to do with AGI, I don't even think there is a relationship in the skillset required

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#113
post #3

I thought he was working on AGI? Gave up already?

Most people who actually work in AI know that AGI being possible is still an IF and IF it is possible, it is centuries or even further away (basically some indeterminate time frame because we don't even know if we're on the right path). The techniques we're using today are likely not going to be applicable to AGI. John Carmack is very smart, but I wouldn't place him on the same pedestal as any of our great historical…

> [know that AGI] is centuries or even further away (basically some indeterminate time frame because we don't even know if we're on the right path).

How can you, in the same sentence, say the time frame is indeterminate and that it is 100+ years away?

We just don't know, period.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#114
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who actually work in AI know that AGI being possible is still an IF and IF it is possible, it is centuries or even further away (basically some indeterminate time frame because we don't even know if we're on the right path). The techniques we're using today are likely not going to be applicable to AGI. John Carmack is very smart, but I wouldn't place him on the same pedestal as any of our great historical…

> IF it is possible, it is centuries or even further away Just out of curiosity, would you have been willing to bet that something most people will agree on being AGI will not be developed before 2221 at the earliest? Because given the history of science and technology since 1821, that seems like a statement that's just drawn out of thin air. "I don't know" would make sense. "Definitely not in the next 200 years" doe…

Sorry, the time frame was arbitrary, I clarified in parens what I intended by that statement (an indeterminate amount of time)

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#115
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What social situation?

You need to leave before the pitt boss makes you leave.

More like you need to leave before they notice you and make the decision to ban you (once they make that decision it doesn't matter if you've left already or not; you ain't coming back either way).

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#116
post #10

If OpenBSD knows what's good for them they will encourage him to read and contribute as much as possible! What I'd give for John Carmack to clean up my code...

OpenBSD doesn't need their code cleaned-up. Theo is the Liam Gallagher of development mangers.

Ah, but there is so much value in fresh eyes. Miod, who has been involved with OpenBSD development for 20 years and has surely seen those function names a thousand times, provided the historical reason (they thought they might need to allocate memory) but agreed they never ended up using that.

The fresh eyes don't have the history and are thus able to point things out that the older eyes inherently accept.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#118

Here is your daily reminder to read "Masters of Doom", a book about the early days at ID Software. It's an amazing look into a really cool time in gaming and software as a whole. It's a great book, mostly about John Carmack and the guys at ID! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_Doom

This thread reminded me that Carmack has been a free software advocate in the past, and my citation is, quite amusingly, that book: > It was February 8, 1998, and Carmack was about to put his brain to the test: counting cards in blackjack. This had become something of a new fascination of his. “Having a reasonable grounding in statistics and probability and no belief in luck, fate, karma, or god(s), the only casino g…

Why not Poker? As someone who feels similarly, Poker is fun because you play against other people, rather than just statistics.

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people who actually work in AI know that AGI being possible is still an IF and IF it is possible, it is centuries or even further away (basically some indeterminate time frame because we don't even know if we're on the right path). The techniques we're using today are likely not going to be applicable to AGI. John Carmack is very smart, but I wouldn't place him on the same pedestal as any of our great historical…

> [know that AGI] is centuries or even further away (basically some indeterminate time frame because we don't even know if we're on the right path). How can you, in the same sentence, say the time frame is indeterminate and that it is 100+ years away? We just don't know, period.

Well what we do know is that current AI methods are very task specific and there is nothing that generalizes well to many tasks. If it was happening in the next century we would at least have some idea how to start generalizing to many tasks with a single model or something comparable to that. We had the analytical engine in 1830s and we didn't see a turing machine or lambda calculus until the 1930s

Re: John Carmack is reading and contributing to OpenBSD source code

#120
post #66
post #23

Is there any more context to OP's post? I guess someone just noticed in the mailing list, but it's not clear whether maybe John Carmark does this with all code everywhere in the universe. And then probably still has some interesting coffee break conversations... On a different note. I am something of a Ubuntu fan and try to be more involved there. But then again the xBSDs where x = {Free, Open, Net, ...} are one of t…

For me *BSD is like Plan9 or ZX Spectrum emulator … guilty pleasure with absolutely no practical use whatsoever.

I think you're confusing BSD with posting on HN.
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