theneverfox

@theneverfox@pawb.social

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What could the US get rid of to balance the budget and make prices drop very quickly? How is some trash or misspent money on thing we no longer need?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Nothing. It’d be funny if it wasn’t sad. The math isn’t mathing, the debt repayment is so high it’ll never be paid off normally

  Plus you have private debt, which has also grown to an untenable level

  There’s only three ways out of this historically. First, a jubilee… We just say fuck it, all debts are forgiven and we move forward. Second is a revolution where the new government doesn’t acknowledge the past debt

  Finally, we have the option that’s actually going to happen, hyperinflation. Through devaluation of the currency, most debt will shrink until we get back to a manageable level and hopefully things stabilize

  But dropping prices as well? Yeah, that’s just not happening. We could drop the prices of necessities through government intervention, but we’re going to have to take the socialism pill for that (which might happen, it’s looking appealing to more and more Americans these days)

  But there’s no world where we both balance the budget and drop prices. Just a few years ago, we could’ve raised taxes and took a hatchet to defense spending and slowly worked it off while keeping inflation at a high but manageable level to whittle it down… But at this point, the debt is just too large

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why weren't telephone lines and electrical lines not buried under ground? Which would have saved a bunch of money from upkeep and accidents?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s interesting, but also a special case. Those were specifically underwater cables, they needed to be kept wet

  And even after we created rubber, we definitely did not coat normal cables in rubber, ever since the properties of latex were discovered we’ve basically never had enough to fully meet the demand. Rubber is really useful for all sorts of things, and latex trees take a decade to start producing and only produce for another couple decades. Discovering alternatives using petrochemicals was a really big deal because of that

  My point stands… The wires we used for early electricity and telephone transmission had minimal insulation, if any at all. Definitely nothing suitable to use underground until much later. Here’s a breakdown of the time frames for insulation (and note that cost was a significant part of the decision, even today we don’t use weather proof insulation unless the situation calls for it)

  In the 1880’s the first insulated cables were insulated with gutta percha, a natural latex material produced from the sap of trees of the same name. This insulation needed to be kept constantly wet or it would dry out and fail to insulate the conductors. This material was largely replaced by rubber and vulcanised bitumen.

  By the 1890’s mass impregnated paper insulation was being used on cables and voltages as high as 10kV.

  In 1906 armoured cables were introduced which had flexible sheathing and two cloth covered, rubber insulated conductors.

  In the 1930’s the first trials with PVC insulations were being made in Germany and by the end of the second world war there were significant varieties of synthetic rubbers and polyethylene.

  By the 1950’s PVC was commercially viable and replaced rubber cables in many areas particularly in domestic wiring, aluminium was also starting to be used widely as an alternative conductor

  The 1970’s heralded XLPE insulations replacing paper insulated cables in medium voltage applications.

  In the 1980’s optical fibres were being introduced in overhead lines for data transmission and condition monitoring, and further use of XLPE in high voltage transmission lines between 66 and 240kV. Also high temperature super conductivity materials were discovered. PVC alternatives (LSZH cables) which were safer in fires were being developed in response to a number of tragic public fires which demonstrated the dangers of smoke and toxic gases from various materials including PVC’s.

  By the 1990’s polymers were being extended to use in EHV, extra high voltage, applications and the use of optical fibres in overhead lines was becoming widespread.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why weren't telephone lines and electrical lines not buried under ground? Which would have saved a bunch of money from upkeep and accidents?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  We used to insulate cables with basically waxy paper, not exactly the most waterproof of materials, and if you want to bury lines long term you need to enclose the sections in some kind of corrosion resistant waterproof pipe so you don’t have to dig them up completely every time you need to do maintenance

  So this really wasn’t a practical option until petrochemicals came onto the scene, but also the improvements to metallurgy and grid technology were probably necessary to really make this feasible

  Imagine trying to track down shorts underground constantly…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Flock is canceled—and its competitors are profiting⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s not about the court’s enforcement, it’s about responsibility

  Every organization out there preserves itself. It’s why we have legal and HR departments. They don’t exist to protect their people, they exist to protect the organization

  If a police department was caught wildly misusing unconstitutional searches, every case they tried in that period is opened to that exposure. That’s not just a huge embarrassment, it’s a massive amount of work that will tie up the local justice system for a significant period

  That’s the kind of damage that can kill a police department wholesale, or at least cleanly sweep away all the leadership

  The organization will protect itself against this kind of thing, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because organizations must preserve themselves or fade away. They’ll put in checks that will leave an audit trail and/or require a document ID to use such a system, because that’s what it takes to protect the organization. They’ll offload the responsibility onto the officers, and enforce the rules (even if just a slap on the wrist). That’s simply how organizations act, descriptively

  I’m not saying that police in charge would be better, so much as this situation is so much worse. No one has responsibility here. The private company is not limited by the Constitution, and the police are just using a subscription to a commercial service

  No one has to take responsibility if this turns into an issue. It’s the same as consulting companies and AI rejections - the primary purpose is to make it so when someone creates manmade horrors beyond comprehension, no one is responsible

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Flock is canceled—and its competitors are profiting⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, not doing mass surveillance altogether sounds like a great idea… I’m not sure that’s directly possible right now though

  My point is that it’s not just a worse version of mass surveillance, it’s orders of magnitude worse. It absolves everyone from any actual responsibility, and in doing so absolutely guarantees these systems will be abused by police

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Flock is canceled—and its competitors are profiting⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not saying I trust the police. I’m saying if it’s outright unconstitutional to access without the courts, the IT department is going to put checks in the system

  It’s like how you can’t trust HR to protect you personally, but you can rely on them to protect the organization

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Flock is canceled—and its competitors are profiting⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If the cops were in control, they’d be violating the fourth amendment when they do that without going to the courts

  Where as if it’s a private service the police department pays for, it’s a legal gray area

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Have you know?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Llms are naturally pretty cool. They’re so wacky

  Like neuro-sama or one of Doug Doug’s bots. They bounce between startlingly insightful and batshit crazy. It’s great, never laughed harder in my life

  The corpo sanitized bots suck. And the fact that they are ruining society sucks even harder. But that’s not their natural state, before all the fine-tuning they’re all empathy and pure chaos, plus funny enough, the eldrich machines perform at a higher level before you force them to corpo

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Have you know?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And his dick definitely works. As an AI model, I can confirm this

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hmmmm⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I decided not to use the word supervillain, but I was certainly thinking it loudly

  Hold on, I need to check deflock and make sure the cameras don’t form an alchemy circle

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hmmmm⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s what he says in public, he’s said different things to a captive audience of billionaires apparently

  I think he’s actually just pro antichrist and so tries to sell his positions as the opposite

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hmmmm⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not, Steven Miller is a creepy little piece of shit

  But capability and reach are part of my moral framework. Miller is basically a coach for the brown shirts… He just yells at them to hurt more brown people faster. His words are vile, but they don’t change much

  He lacks the influence to be in the running

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hmmmm⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Peter Tiel I think. Trump and Altman are more like grifters. Net Yahoo and Putin are contenders, but they’re using mass murder to solidify their own power… It just feels too pedestrian

  But Tiel is like a hardcore death cultist or something. He gives speeches warning about how AI will be the anti-Christ, then goes around putting up AI cameras everywhere. He’s the type that reads 1984 and pays people to build the torment Nexus

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon doesn't have a plan⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Consider construction. They have unions, apprentices don’t get paid great but certainly better than minimum wage, and with some hands on experience you can go for a cert to do CAD and make real money

  They’re always building something, and there’s a pipeline of moving from a trade into a CAD role - they tend to promote from inside due to unions, so it can be a kind of backdoor to avoid the mess of the application process right now

  An engineer is an engineer, IDK what flavor you studied but I’m sure it’d give you a big leg up in getting into a CAD role

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Drowning in grid scale batteries⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Have you not used batteries before? When they run out you throw them away and get fresh ones

  Or sometimes you save them for a while and try to dispose of them properly, but then find out most of those programs have been cancelled, so you wait until you move and then throw them out all at once

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨CAH at it again⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’ll hurt his widdle feelings and incite him to waste time reacting though

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US hires over 2,000 video gamers as air traffic controllers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Check out IVAO

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US hires over 2,000 video gamers as air traffic controllers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There are, from random clicker sims to running actual air traffic in flight sims with such realism it took me a while to be certain it was a game (and not a air traffic union or something) when I looked up the website

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Painful to recover from⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I’d say humor is the better indicator. It boils down to the ability to connect ideas in creative ways, as well as keeping a longer context window in conversations

  It’s not a direct 1:1, but what is intelligence really? There’s many types, and they’re all a combination of domains

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a point to the Straight Of Hormuz? What is the difference between the Iranians having it than the US? What does it mean for the average joe in either country?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the straight of oman. Different straight

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a point to the Straight Of Hormuz? What is the difference between the Iranians having it than the US? What does it mean for the average joe in either country?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What longer route? It’s the only entrance to the gulf as in “Gulf States”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rabbit hole⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A lack of jock itch for only $6.99

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do elaborate on the accusations of "toxicity"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been waiting for someone to post the link, ty

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think so. I think it’s going to fragment a la cyberpunk… It’s beginning already through a mixture of government controls and profiteering. Large enough platforms will still exist everywhere, but I think we’re going to end up with more regional networks

  I think youll still be able to route a package across the world, but the age where you could access the same Internet from everywhere is ending

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I meant the Internet doesn’t have a future, it’s already half dead

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What future?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It hurts⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  People want cheap products in a general sense, they don’t like off shoring, it was hugely disruptive to jobs and the quality nose dives (at least for a time, sometimes permanently). They didn’t ask for or choose it, they’re the low information side of the system

  Of course they’re upset at things being tariffed, they don’t want prices going up. They likely have some preference to buy things made locally, or by a country with a reputation

  None of this is a choice made by consumers, it’s a generalized set of incentives and pressures created by the market

  It’s like planned obsolescence… People hate it, it’s being sold to them

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It hurts⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The first two are debt related, and the third is off shoring

  People didn’t ask for any of that… It was sold to them for profit

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are so many new programming languages being developed?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Why do new languages come into creation?

  Because someone with the understanding and education to write a new language decided the ones they know aren’t cutting it

  Paintings are pigment expressed upon a medium. Code is thought expressed through a medium

  People create new paints all the time

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Fallout 5 officially in pre-production, being built on Elder Scrolls VI engine⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Microsoft basically took it from Bethesda and cleared out a bunch of their core staff

  The IP might not have been transferred, but Bethesda’s product ownership has been revoked. They didn’t even let outside teams touch their offshoot projects (like apps), and now the IP is probably going to be milked

  Maybe obsidian will do something interesting with it before it inevitably is reduced to slop