Stephen

Code, art, ecetera

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@yacineMTB Facebook isn’t foundational tech. You could scrape it off the internet and everything would still work.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@R2rule1 @TheHumanoidHub They’re androids, meant to be compatible with interfaces designed for humans

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@AdrianDittmann The Oatmeal online comic published the authoritative treatise on Mantis Shrimp: https://t.co/Jbs5qeeLhQ

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@TeslaTrip @grok - what’s your estimate of the size of the Uber fleet in Austin, TX?

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@goodday_upup @BislaHodl Maybe, but don’t forget Mars’ excellent background music choices; iconic.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@SwiftOnSecurity Minivans are brilliant in their environment. I think your average tool-loving functionally-minded geek could appreciate them as multi-tools.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@Rainmaker1973 This chart is a crime

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

My understanding was that the problem was integrating the information between multiple sensor types. If the vision and LIDAR sensors disagree, which one do you pick to make decisions?

To get better results from training the AI, Tesla shrank the problem space by limiting the training to the one sensor type that was absolutely necessary, vision.

Tesla then maxed out the information they get from the cameras by removing the usual image processing performed by cameras. That reduced latency, improved light sensitivity, and broadened the spectrum relayed by the camera on the red and blue ends.

Then they did the rest: increased the fleet size, collecting real-world edge cases, created synthetic data, made huge training clusters, custom training chips and networks, all to crack how to drive using the primary sensor we all use; vision.

After that? After RoboTaxis are possible? It’ll probably be simpler to network the cars together. Automated transport offers a lot of possibilities. You could dedicate roads to automated traffic, with networked autonomous vehicles no longer needing lanes or signals. Traffic capacity on existing infrastructure would soar.

But that’s all beyond the first most important step; solve vision.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@davepl1968 @ChipHarbour It’s gorgeous; great work!

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@MohammedF710 @VarunNavani https://t.co/XqXeB34vBs

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@n3c8 @o_lalonde @davepl1968 True. It doesn’t look like he took a photo with his iPhone. The dude is writing Matrix-style screensavers in C for his VT100, so it’s hard to guess what’s actually going on behind the scenes

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@o_lalonde @davepl1968 This is Dave Plumber; that’s no emulator, he got a PDP-11 up and running in his garage:

[Dave W Plummer @davepl1968]

I wish it were possible to get clang/llvm to output PDP-11 binaries. If I could write new C++ for old hardware, they'd have to pry me off that stool...

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@neoeno Fascinating; thank you

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@DrAllyLouks @PDT1060 @dieworkwear ICYMI there is a Russian series translated as “The Sniffer” who, yes, solves crimes with his exquisitely sensitive nose. I’ll leave the trailer here should you require inspiration: https://t.co/jL9bUOFT7r

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@girldrawsghosts The production design of Mystery Men is absolutely bonkers-brilliant. It was marketed as a snarky comedy, but looks like DELICATESSEN or CITY OF LOST CHILDREN.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@elonmusk @BillAckman Git blame style?

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

I agree. The demographics for both Russia and China are not great. Eastern Siberia might be a priority for China more for the arable land rather than natural resources, but that’s obviously anyone’s guess (link below for fun).

I agree that an actual coup is unlikely. The Russian Federation breaking up, with various ethnographic groups newly aggrieved over being used as cannon-fodder in Ukraine, seems far more likely. They might not march on Moscow, but they could well chase of the remaining Russian forces and declare independence.

Guessing at particulars is fun, but a waste of time as any speculation will be wrong. Directionally though? It’s difficult to see how Russia gets through this without a fundamental renegotiation/demotion of its position and relevance in world politics.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

Despite Russia’s best effort, the EU has not frozen. And with the loss of Syria, Russia will have a much harder time supplying Wagner in their ongoing destabilization of North Africa.

Russia couldn’t defend Armenia, maybe failed at staging a coup? Whatever the story, it’s hard to interpret events as a positive sign for Russia.

Even declaring Russia a gas state is a tacit admission of the sad reality that their economy has devolved to simple resource extraction.

Everyone can watch the satellite images of the Federation stockpiles being drawn down, read about Russian artillery fire dying down even with NK shells and barrels, itself another humiliation.

A Russian civil war seems all but inevitable, with Chechnya already sparking up. China will “secure/stabilize” a buffer, carving off a huge portion of the east where they’re already in place, because Russia no longer has the resources or expertise to exploit what’s there.

As the kids say, “Putin might not have a succession plan, but China does.”

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

Sure, if the EU actually hadn’t been learning to do without Russian energy for the last few years.

And then there’s that past-tense. Russia “had” a bunch of stuff. It’s an open question if Russia can restore any of it. Russian stocks are crashing, interest rates skyrocketing, and the only reason the central bank can afford to stabilize the Ruble is because so few are actually traded.

About the only positive economic news is those pallets of cash Assad brought with him as yet another Russian satellite state (Armenia was earlier) collapses because Russia doesn’t have the resources to spare.

I think it’s pretty unlikely Russia will ever be in a position to exploit those gas fields.

[Stephen @FnordPrefect]

@willshawison @joni_askola @siproj And the only thing they’re missing is a pipeline from the Donbas to China.