throwaway2037

Joined 5 years ago

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Jan 1

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Comment · 1 hour ago

The author's homepage: https://jiahao-shao1.github.io/

... says:

    > My research aims to build a general-purpose agent that can understand, reason, and act in the physical world — at the intersection of multimodal learning, generative modeling, and embodied AI.

His tweet says:

    > got tagged for "training a competitor,"

I don't get it. To me, it sounds like he is training a competitor. Do I misunderstand? Is there a Chinese equivalent LLM that he can use instead?

Also, give the national security sensitivity around AI/LLMs, I can understand why Anthropic wants to be especially cautious with mainland Chinese researchers, including those from blocked regions (Hongkong, in this case).

Comment · 2 hours ago

Here is the sample code from the article:

    > MISSING = sentinel("MISSING")

    > def update_email(user_id: int, email: str | None | MISSING = MISSING) -> None:
    >     if email is MISSING:
    >         return  # nothing to update
    >     elif email is None:
    >         db.delete_email(user_id)
    >     else:
    >         db.set_email(user_id, email.lower())  # narrowed to str

I see this style frequently from long time Python programmers. The language is so dynamic that people begin to think this is a good way to program. Hot take: It is not. Why not two different functions called delete_email() and set_email()? That would be more clear.

Comment · 8 hours ago

Jesus, what do they spend 12B USD per year on expenses?

Comment · 1 day ago

More likely Apple factors this used return rate into the pricing. They must have lots of data when new products are released, including with radical changes.

Comment · 1 day ago

I think Samsung is on their eighth generation of foldable phone. That would quite a corporate vanity project if unprofitable!

Comment · 1 day ago

    > to using the larger screen instead of Mac

I wonder if the Apple product development team considered this canabalisation risk.

Comment · 1 day ago

    > Screen ratios make reels-like addictive content less appealing which is great for me

This is interesting feedback! Can share more? Is it not possible to rotate the double screen vertically?

Comment · 1 day ago

I think this interpretation is needlessly judgemental/negative. The author probably intended it is a post-purchase review. This is very common for non-professional tech reviews.

Comment · 1 day ago

I agree. I have never once done it my life. This behavior is wasteful.

Comment · 1 day ago

What a weird post. No Face ID would be a pre-purchase "no go" for many people.

What happens to these returned phones?

Comment · 1 day ago

Thanks for the helpful reply!

    > lots of tools ship their own CA bundle.

Can you give an example for Homebrew? And did the package maintainer explain why?

With the exception of Java, on a modern enterprise Linux box, all packages use the same CA cert pack.

Comment · 1 day ago

His final solution is so tricky. I needed to re-read it a few times to understand the trick of using post decrement in the for loop condition. Personally, I would never write code like that. I would always find a way to use ssize_t.

This part was an interesting requirement:

    > ssize_t is a POSIX thing so you'd have to define it yourself on windows.

That seems like a lot of mental gymnastics to avoid this very simple macro:

    > #if defined(_WIN32) && !defined(ssize_t)
    > #define ssize_t SSIZE_T
    > #endif

Read about the Win32 macro SSIZE_T here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winprog/wind...

To me, this solution is more readable and maintainable:

    > for (ssize_t i = count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
    > {
    >     if (haystack[i] == needle)
    >     {
    >         *where = i;
    >         return 1;
    >     }
    > }
    > return 0;

Alternatively, you can use a while loop where the condition appears at the end of the loop:

    > size_t i = count - 1;
    > while (1)  // true
    > {
    >     if (haystack[i] == needle)
    >     {
    >         *where = i;
    >         return 1;
    >     }
    >     if (0 == i)
    >     {
    >         return 0;
    >     }
    >     --i;
    > }

Comment · 3 days ago

Nerd Catnip Alert! Can you share the X.com account that "specializes in CNC sculpting of Renaissance quality marble statues"?

Comment · 3 days ago

I would to love to learn more about the metals used in their drill bits. I think about oil/gas drilling and tunnel boring machines. They are facing some of the harshest conditions possible. (Imagine a tunnel boring machine trying to carve through granite rock in Manhattan or Swiss Alps. It is tough!) These CNC machines are doing similar on a "micro-scale". How often do they need to sharpen or replace these drill bits? And what is the cost?

Comment · 3 days ago

    > Homebrew ships its own CA bundle

No trolling by this question: Can you explain your decision? I can see some pros and cons of this decision. Was it simply removing dependency upon Apple if there was a disagreement on which CA certs to trust? (You can act without permission from Apple to add/remove CA certs?) Also: How does Homebrew decide which CA certs to include/exclude? Do you get a CA cert pack from Oracle/Mozilla/Google/Microsoft/Amazon/Apple?

Outside of an enterprise environment, I never thought about having multiple "golden sources" of CA certs on a single host. (I have no experience working outside of classic enterprise environments, so please do not read my surprise as immediate dismissal of this idea!) For those unaware, in enterprise environments, it is very common to use a common CA cert pack from Oracle/Mozilla/Google/Microsoft/Amazon/Apple, but add 2-5 CA certs from your own company that act as trust roots.

I did some Googling on this matter. It looks like the "Big Four" of CA cert packs are: Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, and Google. (I guess there is one or two in China also, be leave that alone for the moment.) What happens if they are in disagreement? This is a complex problem! If anyone is involved in this process, I would like to learn more.