131–140 of 276 posts
Finally, a chance to say what I really think about computers! I feel that the majority of time working with computers is not actually computing numbers (addition, subtraction, multiplication) but LOGISTICS. Logging into systems, Moving data around in memory and between servers, into registers for a function call, to and from a REST API, installing packages, finding dependencies, chaining together library functions.
Finally, a chance to say what I really think about computers! I feel that the majority of time working with computers is not actually computing numbers (addition, subtraction, multiplication) but LOGISTICS. Logging into systems, Moving data around in memory and between servers, into registers for a function call, to and from a REST API, installing packages, finding dependencies, chaining together library functions.
80% of the time spent on construction is moving materials from one place to another
Isn't that expected and natural? As performance of a system is being optimized, the relative size of un-optimizable parts goes up. Sure, your banking app crashes sometimes and annoys you. How about you delete it and instead take a bus to a postal office to pay your bills this way - no annoying apps involved, it will just take 1h instead of 1m.
Huh? Have ever actually paid a bill without using a computer? It doesn't work like you describe at all (unless you live in a really rural area or you're deliberately trying to make it difficult for yourself). Here's how it works:
1. Get a bill in the mail.
2. Open it, and write a check for the amount.
3. Put the check in the envelope, stick a stamp on that, and then put it all in your home's mailbox.
4. The mailman comes and picks it up, and it goes where it needs to go.
No buses, no trips to the post office required.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the real “safety” problem with AI. Since it’s so good at generating convincingly wrong answers, eventually we are going to build it into all sorts of mission critical systems and and everything from finance to healthcare will start to accumulate sophisticated, non deterministic failures over time. Like a trojan horse or a perhaps a civilization-level virus.
It's not that dissimilar to the sophisticated, non-deterministic failures already introduce over time by humans.
When I started as an IT manager at a small events firm in 1997, I had 40 hours of work every week, just keeping things alive. By the end in 2013, things just ran smoothly, and I waited for something to break. Windows got reliable between Windows 97 and Windows 7, servers got reliable, networks got reliable... everything stopped breaking. There's no way 20% of peoples time is wasted on borked computers, that's a whole…
My MBP is currently running at ~800 MHz; it will be until about October or November, when I feel the coming chill of winter upon my skin. macOS thermally throttles the chip down, even if the chip is not actually that hot: the CPU is only ~65℃. But the surface temp on the keyboard is 109℉. All I can guess is that even though there's plenty of thermal headroom at the chip, you'd roast the user's hands if you attempted…
I actually suspect Apple sabotaged their own Intel-based products when M1 was on the horizon to make performance look better in comparison. Their attempt to basically passively cool an i3 that had a thermal output that clearly couldn't be cooled in such a way can only be described as either intentional or incompetence somewhere in the chain.
With the new ARM chips, things have changed for Apple. Their cooling solution is still worse than the competition, but their excellent CPUs don't need nearly as much cooling. The GPU sucks, but that doesn't matter for most productive use by using hardware acceleration (in select applications, for select formats). You're not going to be doing CAD work on a Macbook Air anyway.
The sad truth is that Apple's competitors are doing worse these days. AMD is doing relatively well, beating Apple in most benchmarks, but with lower performance per watt in the end. Intel is still trying to compensate for their inferior CPU designs by squeezing more power into their silicon, leading to impressive numbers for anyone hooking their computer up to the wall, but terrible battery life if you try to use that performance in a laptop.
I expect AMD to eventually get competitive based on the direction their mobile CPUs and GPUs are taking, but they still lack the production capacity to make a dent in the laptop space.
What I don't understand is why even people working in the office all day every day end up with laptops hooked up to docks and dongles. Even the excellent Macbooks get beaten hands down for cheap by normal desktop components that are available prebuilt with excellent warranty and on-site service for very similar prices. Just use a desktop! You don't have to pick between top-of-the-line laptops and bargain bin desktops!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dude on HN was describing the other day how they’re moving to use an AI to generate a list of cars with specific features in their inventory and how this was a great part of the AI future. But as we see frequently even on the most sophisticated AIs, they get shit wrong… a lot. So this company decided to replace an actually working, guaranteed to produce proper results filtering system with a guaranteed to not produce…
This is the real “safety” problem with AI. Since it’s so good at generating convincingly wrong answers, eventually we are going to build it into all sorts of mission critical systems and and everything from finance to healthcare will start to accumulate sophisticated, non deterministic failures over time. Like a trojan horse or a perhaps a civilization-level virus.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that dissimilar to the sophisticated, non-deterministic failures already introduce over time by humans.
It will be interesting to see. People are already involved in business-critical processes, and they have a far-from-100% success rate. You can see this with self-driving cars; 0.00001% of the time, they decide to swerve into oncoming traffic for no reason. But they can't get drunk! So whether or not that's a win is something that only time can tell. (People will be outraged, because no person would ever do what the A…
That is an opinion, not objective fact.
If Grandma June accidentally hits the accelerator, jumps the curb and kills a kindergartener, we can throw her in prison. She is held accountable for her actions.
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/01/25/Woman-83-gets-3-y...
If Grandma June is sitting in her "self-driving" car and it spontaneously accelerates, jumps the curb and kills a kindergartener, what can we do? Who is held accountable?
Something something "fix the problem, not the blame", but accountability is part of fixing a problem. Improving numbers in the aggregate is good, but it is not (and should not be) the sole matter in discussion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Om...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the real “safety” problem with AI. Since it’s so good at generating convincingly wrong answers, eventually we are going to build it into all sorts of mission critical systems and and everything from finance to healthcare will start to accumulate sophisticated, non deterministic failures over time. Like a trojan horse or a perhaps a civilization-level virus.
It's not that dissimilar to the sophisticated, non-deterministic failures already introduce over time by humans.
It's not dissimilar at all, just significantly faster and now in the hands of anyone with a laptop.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that dissimilar to the sophisticated, non-deterministic failures already introduce over time by humans.
It will be interesting to see. People are already involved in business-critical processes, and they have a far-from-100% success rate. You can see this with self-driving cars; 0.00001% of the time, they decide to swerve into oncoming traffic for no reason. But they can't get drunk! So whether or not that's a win is something that only time can tell. (People will be outraged, because no person would ever do what the A…
For example, if self-driving cars end up being prone to hitting children darting out on to city streets in new and unpredictable ways, then you have created impediments to the growth and development of children that did not previously exist. Would this be balanced by enhanced safety in other situations? Maybe.
These are complex topics like whether and how long schools should have stayed closed during COVID. Balancing the death and disability effects largely falling on adults vs. the educational interests of children.