Hacker News: l8_to_catch_up

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT"

l8_to_catch_up — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 19:34:33 +0000

I just tried it (free account), and it felt underwhelming, not many search results, or particularly interesting ones, for the image and video stuff I searched.

There was little to no spam, though, but not much to look at either. Maybe it might be useful when searching for stuff that usually has high amount of confusing spam, but otherwise not really useful for me...

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Scientists have 20-minute "conversation" with a humpback whale"

l8_to_catch_up — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 23:55:33 +0000

Terrible article.

The crucial info that's missing from the article is that they used AI to translate whale language to human, and then from human to whale again.

So there was, in fact, a conversation, mediated by AI; a lot like using Google Translate to talk to a whale.

Wait for a better article on it.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "2023: A year of groundbreaking advances in AI and computing"

l8_to_catch_up — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 22:46:30 +0000

Gemini Pro, with arguably comparable quality to GPT4, competes with GPT4 with its superior pricing and speed.

If you actually use Gemini Pro, you will find that it gives nearly instantaneous full responses, which makes me use it more than even GPT4 Turbo for a lot of quick questions. And certainly more than Bing AI with GPT4, which is so slow and awkward to use and which I gave up on.

It's something that doesn't get discussed: speed and pricing, with near top quality. That's maybe how Google is planning to win for now.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Around 15% of All Reddit Content Is Corporate Trolls Trying to Manipulate Public"

l8_to_catch_up — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 11:37:28 +0000

So is 4chan nowadays.

Don't expect them to stay confined to one forum all the time.

It's actually more effective to demotivate, undermine and exhaust political opponents with pointlessness, knee-jerk cruelty and rudeness, and blatant stupidity than to try to change their minds, by the way.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "The Remarkable Decline in Home Burglary Rates in Japan"

l8_to_catch_up — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 12:33:30 +0000

If they get a gun, she can get a bazooka.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "The Remarkable Decline in Home Burglary Rates in Japan"

l8_to_catch_up — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 11:11:39 +0000

The cameras are not there to stop crime, anyway, but to spy on and inform interference with the lives of all citizens for the benefit and power of government officials.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Mistral's success comes at the expense of Llama2 ecosystem"

l8_to_catch_up — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:32:38 +0000

Meta/Facebook instilled such hatred and distrust against themselves by their behavior, which continues to this day and will continue in the future, that people are happier to seek out feasible alternatives to anything they produce.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Playstation removing previously purchased Discovery content"

l8_to_catch_up — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 19:52:04 +0000

People don't own the stuff they paid for, by design.

Pirate it or get it in Blu-ray.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Chrome's next weapon in the War on Ad Blockers: Slower extension updates"

l8_to_catch_up — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 09:48:29 +0000

Fuck Google. They do evil.

You don't need Chrome. You have Firefox.

Download Firefox now: https://www.mozilla.org

Addons for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "French ministers to ditch WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram over security fears"

l8_to_catch_up — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 07:21:16 +0000

Political.

Signal is safer than whatever the unproven Olvid is.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Reasonable expectation of effectiveness for large dog lifespan extension"

l8_to_catch_up — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 06:15:47 +0000

Actually, lab rats are special genetic lines that are too different from pet rats, so it's untested if the drugs that extend the life of lab rats will also work on pet rats.

Not even other rats benefit from animal experiments.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Nanoparticle-remodeled gut microbiota slows neurodegeneration via gut–brain axis"

l8_to_catch_up — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 14:28:12 +0000

And not just any mice; specially bred mice.

So it's not even generalizable to all mice, much less humans.

More studies are needed.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus"

l8_to_catch_up — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 21:14:33 +0000

I truly appreciate the opinionated and detailed blog post, but maybe we should start calling Silicon Valley billionaires, and their endeavors, as the Nexus Of Torments for politically-minded liberal arts majors.

New comment by l8_to_catch_up in "Spying on a smartphone remotely by the authorities: feasibility and operation"

l8_to_catch_up — Sat, 08 Jul 2023 17:35:29 +0000

I know for a fact that my electronics (including smartphone) is being monitored (including this post) by my government.

That probably doesn't surprise others. What isn't as known is that the government also intrudes into chats with other people on social media.

They don't just monitor, but actively interfere.

Edit: By the way, Nokias and other dumbphones (without physical off-switches -- the PinePhone has them, but good luck getting one) can also get their mic and GPS remotely activated. The partial solution is to get one with a removable battery and remove the battery whenever not in use.

iPhones can be hacked into through IMEI if you connect them, but are useful, encrypted offline-only PDAs if you don't install any app.

Also, if your electronics are being spied on by the government to this degree, chances are you are also being physically monitored.