Recent submissions

Comment · 23 hours ago
Most of the Security framework still dates from OS 9.
Comment · 1 day ago
I'd rather something tell me exactly why this popped up in the first place, as every new OS version seems to introduce more triggers. I have apps that now pop this up when I quit, which doesn't make much sense.
Comment · 5 days ago
Once the OS and app hooks are in place, I think its biggest win is going to be plain language automation. Even if we don't have it write all of our emails and report, simply being able to say "show me the emails Bob sent about the project" or "did Bob ever say he was going to call Phil?" and get an accurate answer will be huge. We're approaching that in programming, when I can use general terms to automate operations within a codebase. The dream of "programming" with plain language may finally be realized.
Comment · 8 days ago
You could certainly argue US pardons are supposed to work the same way too, it's just no one has standing to challenge the blanket pardons, but I don't think anyone has tried recently. And the current regime is happy to keep such things around so they can use it on the way out the door.
Comment · 8 days ago
Biden did not pardon "everyone around him". He made specific, targeted pardons for people the GOP had already stated they were going to persecute, like his son and Fauci.

But yes, preemptive pardons shouldn't be possible, but we'll need an amendment to reform the power at all.

Comment · 8 days ago
I imagine Faro would be fine taking advantage of Yellowstone were it not for the fact that Firebreak and Cyan were keeping it from erupting.

Really hope we get Horizon 3 sooner than later, I loved The Frozen Wilds and it would be great to get back up there.

Comment · 13 days ago
More than ten years ago a coworker wrote a tool to generate Swift from iOS storyboards, to pass data through segues and give us typed access to identifiers. First version of it used XSLT to transform the storyboard XML. A powerful, if niche technology.
Comment · 17 days ago
How was it better than an AppleTV playing ripped Blu-rays? With Infuse on the AppleTV I've been able to play every rip I have (4K HDR movies, dozens of TV episodes).
Comment · 17 days ago
The MV3 API isn't enough to block YouTube ads on their own, but Safari ad blockers which also include web extension API blocking can see enough traffic to block YT ads. 1Blocker does this, and even StopTheMadness Pro's blocking have enough flexibility to do it.
Comment · 23 days ago
I don't usually correct this, but in her iconic photo she's standing next to printed output of an Apollo simulator run, not the actual source code for the AGC or lunar module.

Edit: this may or may not be true. From what I can find it's probably a combination of both.

IIRC she was running the simulation side of the lab that produced the AGC and LEM guidance software at the time of Apollo 11, then the AGC side, then the unified lab when it was reorganized in 1970.

Comment · 28 days ago
This is why I use Terminal as my primary terminal, and iTerm as my AI terminal. iTerm gets no permissions, I move specific things to Terminal to do it. Plus I can then style them to optimize for the different usages. And iTerm has better harness hooks anyway.

I would still like to see not only more granular permissions, but single use permissions. Once I grant iTerm access to Documents for whatever reason, it always has such permission. I would be nice to limit that to a single use, or a single harness session.

Comment · 1 month ago
Eckert and Mauchly weren't reliable narrators of the history of their work, given how much they needed to claim in order to get the patents that were later invalidated. They claimed quite a few things that were later disproven in court or through historical study. At the least, Eniac was designed by the team at the Moore School.

von Neumann's "First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC" was both a summary of discussions by the Eniac team as well as von Neumann's own original work proving and expanding on various aspects of those discussions. It's called the von Neumann architecture because he was the author of the seminal paper, not because he laid any particular claim to the ideas. Eckert and Mauchly were mostly upset about the paper's existence, regardless of author, because it made it impossible for them to patent the stored program idea in general.

Comment · 1 month ago
I'm pretty sure Kay's not quite correct about the Eniac not being a stored program computer. In it's original form it obviously was not, as it had to physically reconfigured to solve different problems. However, after the war it was rebuilt to operate like any other stored program (von Neumann architecture) computer, as it was the first recipient of the design philosophy seen in the EDVAC report. It operated in that mode from '48 to '55, when it was decommissioned.

ENIAC in Action: Making and Remaking the Modern Computer is an excellent summary of the initial design and redesign of the Eniac.

Comment · 1 month ago
Even if the Democrats take the House and the Senate this year, and pass a new Voting Rights Act, there's no reason to believe it will have any effect, since it will be immediately vetoed by the President. So I'm not sure your expectations are in line with reality here.

26 - 28 I expect the Democrats to investigate, write reports, block nominees, and occasionally pass legislation they know will be vetoed but otherwise have no effect. I hope everyone is ready for reality here.

Comment · 1 month ago
Which was always pretty stupid. At best it means the Cylons can't hack the whole ship, just whichever part they exploited to gain access remotely in the first place. But really the Cylons would've needed exploits for each individual system anyway, since simply connecting them with wires shouldn't just do that. And unless those other systems are completely air gapped with no wireless or other access, it would be trivial for them to still gain remote access, or have one of their infiltrators provide a local connection of some kind. AFAIR that was never a plot point, which was odd.

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