I didn't read this. They're Romanian btw.

I've been reading some Effective Altruist writings and learned that even if AI had moral goals it could be very dangerous .

Like imagine an AI whos goal was to maximize the number of mosquito nets given to Africa, sounds great right?

NO! Because the AI would be willing to do anything in order to achieve it's goals it might do something like commit one of the largest acts of fraud in history to get the money for more mosquito nets!

Hmm... what does this remind me of?

https://github.com/redlib-org/redlib

People are throwing around accusations of compromised github accounts left and right !codecels get in here and start accusing people of being bad actors

Any tips on getting a job right now?

Could you hire me?

This is a recording from an official conference/workshop/whatever for xorg- something that is used by most Linux distributions for their desktop environment, so it's not some small or unknown project by any means.

I won't mention anything else, just skip around the video and tell me if you notice anything

• For large screens, centres text so it's not way over on the left (some subs have custom html styles, hence the two sections)
• Expands images automatically
• Hides the image hiphopcirclejerk stuck over their sub (thx j cole drama)

// ==UserScript==
// @name         old_reddit_improver
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      2024-01-26
// @description  Make old.reddit.com more usable
// @author       You
// @match        https://old.reddit.com/*
// @icon         https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?sz=64&domain=reddit.com
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';
    console.log('---- tampermonkey initiated ----');

    // Remove hhcj pic.
    let earl = document.querySelector('a[href="#EARL"]');
    if (earl) {
        earl.style.display = 'none';
    }

    // Centre page body.
    let body1 = document.querySelector('div[id="siteTable"]');
    if (body1) {
        body1.style = 'width: 70%; margin: auto;';
        console.log('body1:', body1);
    }
    let body2 = document.querySelector('div[class="commentarea"]');
    if (body2) {
        body2.style = 'width: 70%; margin: auto;';
        console.log('body2:', body2);
    }
    console.log('ran centre aligner');

    // Expand images.
    let xpath = "//a[text()='<image>']";
    let iter = document.evaluate(xpath, document, null, XPathResult.ORDERED_NODE_ITERATOR_TYPE, null);
    let array = [];
    let text_elem = iter.iterateNext();
    while (text_elem) {
        array.push(text_elem);
        text_elem = iter.iterateNext();
    }
    array.forEach(i => {
        let img_tag = new Image();
        img_tag.src = i.href;
        img_tag.style.maxWidth = '500px';
        i.parentElement.appendChild(img_tag);
        i.parentElement.removeChild(i);
    })
    console.log('---- tampermonkey complete ----');
})();

Alright so I have a cheap laptop that I loaded debian / plasma onto.

Keyboard cover is wonky and sometimes when I hold left or right arrow it self-inserts a '4', which is fixed with turning off the num pad.

So any time I switch to another window, any time I try to upload something and the popup comes up for me to select a file, the left or up arrow is automatically pressed. Right now it's doing it with the up arrow.

You'd think "you just said your keyboard is messed up why is this shocking" well to that I say here's the weird part.

It doesn't happen randomly, it happens specifically when I change to another window, or a window is popped up like when saving or uploading a file. As soon as I press any arrow key it stops.

For example I'm on my browser now.. if I click to groomercord it will try to edit my last message (up arrow is held), and will keep scrolling up unless I press a random arrow key. When I click back to the browser where I'm writing this post, it begins to scroll up (up arrow held) and again I have to press a random arrow key to stop it.

WTF is going on? Why is me clicking another window triggering an arrow key?!!?! It won't ever happen randomly either. It will never do it again until the window is changed.

To add a weird cherry on top, if I click my terminal (Konsole) it won't scroll up my command history. It won't trigger this weird shit, but as soon as I click to another window it'll trigger the up arrow. First half of today was the left arrow, abot an hr ago it started doing the up arrow.

Pls help solve.

orange site: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40107370

related drama: https://rdrama.net/h/slackernews/post/262545/marseychudindian-marseyautism-cannot-stop-seething-about

Eelco Dolstra is the creator of Nix and CppNix, […]. However, he exhibits several corrosive social behaviours that have created a culture that directly led to today's governance problems, which are an existential risk to the continued viability of the project as a going concern — especially the years-long pattern of unforced errors by the NixOS Foundation.

The signatories of this document intend to switch to, as well as actively support, any fork efforts for the entire Nix community unless something significantly changes soon. If there is no satisfying progress in action on Eelco's resignation from positions of authority in all parts of the Nix project by Wednesday May 1, 2024, we intend to ensure this letter reaches a wide audience.

I usually don't game on this laptop, and even when I do, it seems like the games I am interested in are available on there. The only thing I can think of is that I have multiple tabs open in my browser that I plan to one day read. I would lose them if I did it.

I haven't made an effort post in forever so here is me being about Apple.

I asked ChatGPT to give me the top 20 complaints about Apple and I went through and collated a list from there

Apple is expensive

Models

In general I find the price discussion a weird "gotcha" when discussing iPhones in particular. You can find a smartphone to match just about every price bracket you want to and the iPhone is no exception with the current gen SE as low as $429 or the a max spec'd iPhone Pro Max going for $1600. Of course these numbers aren't through a cell provider which offer discounts for a ton of models. This is also excluding used phones which are always a great idea in $CURRENT_YEAR if you're not a huge smartphone person or just want to get a deal.

Laptop-wise I feel the M1 MacBook Air is still an excellent choice at it's $650-$700 price point - clearly not a bargain laptop but the experience of using it is very solid and a great gateway into the Mac ecosystem.

The M2 Mac Mini is a very easy sell at $599 to for an ultra-slim desktops.

Storage and Memory upgrades

This is my biggest complaint with Macs.

The storage and memory upgrades are highway robbery. It's clearly a tool in their "price ladder" strategy and simply used to get you to work your way up to the next highest model.

While I feel like the base model M1 MacBook Air is an excellent machine for a lot of people, it's crazy they're shipping much higher priced models with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.

The copium you hear from Mac fanboys about macOS running fine 8GB RAM because the "storage is so fast" makes no technical sense - NAND used in storage is measured in microseconds and DRAM is measured in nanoseconds. The latency differences we are talking about here are an order of magnitude different.

Privacy / Security Concerns

Privacy and security inspire the most religious fervor out of any IT topic. It's extremely hard to have discussions about privacy and security in a logical manner with nerds because they'll often see glowies that aren't there and ignore the glowies in front of them.

The most important question to ask for any security question is what is your threat model?

Are you trying to avoid nation state actors? Good news, you can stop worrying because they will win! Stop using computers for anything that will get Israel after you, they have an unlimited budget and carte blanche to ignore the law.

If you are expecting the glowies to lack the ability to infiltrate GrapheneOS or Tails supply chain, I have a bridge to sell you.

If your threat model is "I don't want my smartphone data to be cracked in a few minutes", good news - both Android and iOS are fully encrypted and your data is safe. The most important thing there is choosing good passwords (passphrases).

If your threat model is more privacy focused I think there's a better case to be made for custom Android ROMs but if you're anything approaching normie I think it's self-explanatory why Apple is easier than a custom ROM more trustworthy than an advertising company.

Apple is lacking repairability front

Planned Obsolescence

The planned obsolescence take is easily taken down by the fact of Apple's software support on iOS devices. Apple released the iPhone SE (1st Gen) in March 2016 and released a security update last month.

"Battery Gate"

The entire saga of battery gate I think I've argued about on here multiple times so I'll recount what I've argued before:

Lithium ion batteries degrade over time, they also are reduced in performance if they're too hot or too cold.

If old enough or cold enough lithium ion batteries can reach levels where they won't supply enough power for your device to function at all.

To support this let me quote, not Apple, but Sammy:

If you're experiencing frequent shutdowns, visit your nearest service center.

It may be time for a battery check-up, as batteries are consumables, which naturally wear out over time.

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/galaxy-battery/care-and-maintenance/

Apple of course outlines this on their own page too

https://support.apple.com/en-us/101575

The takeaway then is your can either 1.) let a phone shutdown when it can't get enough juice or 2.) reduce the amount of juice being used.

Apple chose to do two and, clearly communicated this poorly hence the lawsuit , but the act itself is the obvious correct choice. This is due to the nature of lithium ion batteries not the jews of planned obsolesce.

Overheating

Overheating was an issue of MacBooks in the past, my theory is that Apple simply believed Intel's roadmap which had them getting past the 14nm process much sooner than they ever did. I also think this was what finally pushed them to go Apple Silicon as the headache of transitioning to an entirely new architecture would be worth it if they could get chips that actually worked at their listed thermal specs.

I think that Apple Silicon has been a resounding success in this regard.

andres freund: genius programmer responsible for one of the most widely used pieces of software in the world, just single-handedly stopped a huge attack from happening. nyt journalist: 'i am too fucking stupid to understand his work and won't even try but it's very boring!!!' pic.twitter.com/eOw54Kzshb

— anton (𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔦𝔪𝔢) (@atroyn) April 4, 2024

UPDATE: THANK YOU TO EVERYONE THAT SUGGESTED USING THE PARALLEL PORT WRAPAROUND CONNECTOR METHOD TO REMOVE THE BIOS STARTUP PASSWORD ON THIS TOSHIBA LAPTOP!

I’ve used paper clips for this and it actually worked! 🖇️🎉 https://t.co/kRWJ4Su49K pic.twitter.com/xcZsPTXJwi

— Bob Pony (@TheBobPony) March 30, 2024