cecilkorik

@cecilkorik@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm confused which company is sending data to which company for processing. For example, in the list in the picture, it says OpenAI is one of the Companies. So is OpenAI sending the information...⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  These are described as “subprocessors”, so generally, this means that Persona is (potentially) sending any data they receive to these companies/platforms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What books have a lot of useful information should I get? (I mean like a Wikipedia thing with vast knowledge, but non-electronic.)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ll probably get vote-murdered for this, because this is unfortunately not a popular opinion for a lot of very justified reasons that I actually mostly agree with, but I’m going to throw this out there anyway, and I hope people hear me out for long enough that you can decide for yourself instead of just kneejerk downvoting.

  Imagine if someone created a statistical numerical model that was based on, and could therefore approximately reproduce something close to the cumulative total of all human knowledge ever recorded on the internet which probably represents exabytes of information, but this numerical model was only the size of a few movie files, and you could dump those numbers into a simulator that within some margin of statistical error, reproduced almost any of that information on currently available consumer-level hardware.

  If you’re not picking up what I’m putting down, I just described open weight LLMs that you can download and run yourself in ollama and other local programs.

  They are not intelligences and they do not represent knowledge, because they don’t know anything, can’t make their own decisions and can never be assumed to be fully accurate representations of anything they have “learned” as they are simply greatly minimized and compressed statistical details about the information already on the internet, but they actually still contain a great deal of information, provided you understand what you’re looking at and what it’s telling you. The same way demographics can provide a great deal of information about the world without needing to individually review every census document by hand, but never tell the entire story perfectly.

  While I agree with the suggestions to get a proper encyclopedia or just download Wikipedia, for a more reliable and trustworthy dataset, I think you’re doing yourself a disservice if you dismiss the entire concept of LLMs and vision models just because a few horrific companies are hyping them and overselling them and using them to destroy the world and civilization in disgustingly idiotic ways. That’s not the fault of the technologies themselves. They are a tool, a tool that is being widely misused and abused, but it’s also a tool that you can use, and you get to decide whether you simply use it wisely, or abuse it, or don’t use it at all. It’s your call. It’s already there. You decide what to do with it. I happen to think it’s got some pretty cool features and can do some remarkable things. As long as I’m the only one in charge of deciding how and when it’s used. I acknowledge it was plagiarized and collected illegally, and I respect that (as much as I respect any copyright) and I’m not planning to profit from it or use it to pass off other people’s work as my own.

  But as a hyper-efficient way to store “liberated” information to protect ourselves against the complete enshittification of content and civilization? I don’t see the harm. Copyright is not going to matter at that point anyway, the large companies who control the data and the platforms for it have already proven they don’t respect it and they’re going to be the ones dictating it in the future. They won’t even let us have access to our own data, nevermind being able to do anything to prevent them from taking it in the first place. We, the people and authors and artists and musicians and content creators it was designed to protect, now have to protect ourselves, from them, and if that means hiding some machine learning models under my bed for that rainy day, so be it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do Computer power supply issues look like?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Unlikely. Power supplies usually have internal protection, and as a result, if they become overloaded, they will trip off (and the whole computer either shuts down or reboots). Is it possible the internal protection is not working? Maybe. But it is far more likely the issue is with other hardware, or even more likely, with software/device driver issues. Try booting a LiveCD/LiveUSB with Linux on it or something and see if the problem goes away.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is #FFFFFF white, but mixing red green and blue paint is black?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Subtractive colors like paint create color by selectively removing some colors from existing light.

  Additive colors like backlit or light-emitting displays create color by creating colors of light in various proportions that are then combined.

  If you are in a dark room, all paint is black. Until you turn on something with RGB, because then you have some light for it to selectively absorb. However if your RGB is only displaying green light, and you shine it on red paint, it will look exactly the same as black paint (within a certain ballpark of imperfect materials, anyway). Green paint will look green, or white, depending on how your eye adapts, and green and white will be indistinguishable.

  That’s the difference between the two color models. Does it rely on other light sources (subtractive), or is it a light source (additive)?

  How the brain actually perceives color is really, really wild, so this is all a bit… fluid when you start getting into the weird edge cases, but the general principles of additive=light emitting and subtractive=light absorbing are generally applicable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨12-hour days, no weekends: the anxiety driving AI’s brutal work culture is a warning for all of us⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Americans have had business interests blowing smoke up their ass for so long they just think it’s constantly foggy. Canada’s not much better, but we do our best given our proximity to source of this madness.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Did anyone really think the Final Fantasy 7 remake was better than the original PS1 version?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s a fair criticism. The combat/random encounters are generally the most tedious part of any jRPG but certainly FF in particular. There are some really unique and interesting random battles or areas where the constant battling is intense and exciting rather than annoying, but they are rare.

  Overall though, I think the rest of FF7 more than makes up for it. I can certainly understand not being able to get past that though, although I’m curious how far you got. The game goes through a lot of different “stages”, which is one of the things I like about it, but it means the gameplay while you’re stuck in Midgar is quite distinct from the open world, and becomes distinct again once you get access to the Golden Saucer, or the airship, or into Midgar again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Did anyone really think the Final Fantasy 7 remake was better than the original PS1 version?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  FF has been steadily turning from actual role playing games where the gameplay was once in the driver’s seat and the scenes and story add spice and flavor, to vaguely interactive “cinematic experiences” where the story being endlessly shoved down your throat is the purpose, and the gameplay is just a repetitive distraction from the real novelty which is the crazy stories and cutscenes they come up with.

  Ironically FF7 itself was probably the beginning of that trend, thanks to the ability of Playstation CDs to hold so much FMV compared to the limits of ROMs at the time. They dove in headfirst and never looked back, and that came to define the franchise from that point forward. 3 Discs of FMV was pretty over-the-top for their first release on the platform, but the franchise’s addiction to relentless cinematics never waned, it only increased. And the relegation of gameplay being put in the passenger seat, then the back seat, then the trunk, then dragged behind the vehicle to its inevitable death as the art and story become the sole focus became more pronounced with each new entry in the series.

  I loved FF7 (and 8, and somewhat less 9, and even 10, and 12 have some redeeming qualities) but the steady and continuous trend away from compelling gameplay towards visual spectacle is abundantly clear.

  I haven’t played an FF game since 12, remakes or otherwise, and I don’t plan to. I’ve read the writing on the wall, and I see who they’re making games for, and it’s not me. Maybe it’s other people. Maybe it’s themselves, I don’t know. All I know is it’s not me. I have no interest.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do you cut a cucumber so that the round slices don't roll all over and off of your cutting board?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My cousin thought pickles came from a different plant than cucumbers and it was glorious, we will never let him live it down.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is amperage more "obscure" than voltage (or watts)?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Steam turbines are actually self regulating because of this. The more power being used, the more amps are automatically produced. Once you spin it up it manages its own speed.

  This is sort of true, within a narrow operating window and an idealized environment, but also pretty simplified. That sort of application of Ohm’s law only works according to the naive interpretation when you’re talking about ideal DC devices. In reality, inductance and capacitance become significant and muddy the waters a lot when you start getting into real power grids with huge inductive loads like motors and transformers all over them, and steam turbines trip and/or bypass all the time to avoid overload or overspeed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you think people from more "privilaged" backgrounds have a right to complain about the struggle and/or abuse that they went through? (eg: "Middle Class" or "Rich" family)⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  People from privileged backgrounds didn’t choose to have a privileged background either. What matters is what you have experienced in your life and what you do with that experience. Suffering and trauma is not a competition, there are no winners. Everyone’s experience is valid. Everyone has a right to complain.

  Not everyone has a right for their complains to be listened to and followed up on, though, because complaining on its own doesn’t mean anything. What’s more important is what your complaint is trying to change, what is your purpose in complaining? That makes all the difference, that’s what decides whether you have a “right” for your complaint to be actioned, and that has nothing to do with what background you come from.

  Some people from privileged backgrounds might complain in order to assert, protect and extend their privilege, obviously, that’s not valid. Others may complain because they want their abuser brought to justice or want other people protected from the same situation, and that’s absolutely valid. Has nothing to do with the person being privileged or not, it has to do with their intent.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Games you fell out of love with.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Among several other things, yes, that is indeed one of my bugbears, I could name countless others too.

  But like I implied it’s not just one specific bad decision for me, just the general attitude and direction of the developers. Not that they’ve lost the plot completely, but that they just have a specific plot in mind that diverges pretty significantly from mine and it is never going to satisfy me. Every time it updates the feeling grows that it’s always going to be a struggle to get the game I want to play out of Avorion’s future, that I’m always going to have to be plastering mods over top of the decisions I don’t like, and it’s just… exhausting.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Video Games Need to Be Cheaper to Buy⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s what indie games are for, instead of these absurd-budget blockbusters that often aren’t even fun, but also, the world just needs to be cheaper to live in. Games are first on the chopping block because disposable income for entertainment is always the first to collapse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Games you fell out of love with.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Check out the workshop for it too. The ship builder is extremely flexible and people create works of art with it, and it can make the game look truly incredible. Of course, things like battle-bricks and battle-sticks (or battle-bricks WITH battle-sticks) reign supreme at actual combat effectiveness, so it’s sort of a tradeoff.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That makes sense, and given that I am both incapable and unwilling to understand anything lawyers do, that checks out and explains why I can’t understand it at all.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Games you fell out of love with.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Avorion… like, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got 1,200+ hours in it, and on paper it still features literally everything that is like digital crack cocaine to me… but the updates and changes just keep going in directions that don’t interest me, at all, and even though they’re not explicitly bad per se, I find myself overwhelmed with disappointment about what the updates could’ve been, and I just become less interested, and end up playing less and less, to the point that I never even bothered installing it in 2025 and still don’t have it installed and when I do install it I generally just play it for a little bit and quickly become bored and disillusioned and end up going back to the X series or something to scratch the itch that it’s just not scratching for me anymore.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI retired its most seductive chatbot – leaving users angry and grieving: ‘I can’t live like this’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For a company named “Open” AI their reluctance to just opening the weights to this model and washing their hands of it seem bizarre to me. It’s clear they want to get rid of it, I’m not going to speculate on what reasons they might have for that but I’m sure they make financial sense. But just open weight it. If it’s not cutting edge anymore, who benefits from keeping it under wraps? If it’s not directly useful on consumer hardware, who cares? Kick the can down the road and let the community figure it out. Make a good news story out of themselves. These users they’re cutting off aren’t going to just migrate to the latest ChatGPT model, they’re going to jump ship anyway. So either keep the model running, which it’s clear they don’t want to do, or just give them the model so you can say you did and at least make some lemonade out of whatever financial lemons are convincing OpenAI they need to retire this model.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would you describe that post sneeze smell?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  All-dressed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can turkey motion machines be used for producing electricity?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It would theoretically work, but you would probably need dozens, maybe hundreds or even thousands of them to power a single lightbulb. They create almost zero power. They have barely enough energy to move themselves under their own power. There is almost nothing leftover to turn into energy. As soon as you add the resistance of an electric coil, they will just stop, especially if even the merest hint of electrical load is placed on them, like you dropped them into a bucket of glue. If you don’t think adding a mere coil of copper wire can stop such a movement, it absolutely would do so, instantly, like slamming on the brakes. As an experiment, try dropping a magnet down a copper pipe, or look at what this guy does. Moving magnetic fields (which are what you need to turn that motion into energy) are really wild and counterintuitive the way they instantly counteract their own movement.

  The problem with this kind of device is that its physical power output is so limited, even at scale, it would a waste of physical space that would be far more productive with wind turbines, solar panels, or even just batteries storing energy from some other renewable source.

  There is no physical impossibility, it’s just really, really, really, really impractical. It would be like trying to power your farm equipment by growing millions of potatoes to use as batteries for an electric tractor whose only purpose is to farm more potatoes. Okay, great thought, that’s technically renewable energy, except you’d be better off farming something much more energy-dense and turning it into biodiesel or ethanol or something, and suddenly about 99% of the farmland you were going to use for battery-potatoes can now be used to grow actual food or cash crops, and you’re still just as renewable and environmentally friendly so like… why would you want potato batteries, except just to say you can? Same with this idea. It’s nearly impossible to get any useful amount of energy out of it. Yes it’s “free” energy, and sure it’s funny, but… nah.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it wrong that my cat casually uses the N word, in my head when I anthropomorphize her?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You should probably talk to a psychiatrist about it to be honest. I’m not a professional, and I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but the fact that you seem to be having trouble distinguishing your fantasy from reality, and choose to write that your cat says these things, without taking responsibility for the fact that it is you saying these things in your own head, suggests you may be suffering from some mental illness, in which case you need to see a mental health professional, or you’re trolling, in which case kindly go fuck yourself with a rusty knife.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it wrong that my cat casually uses the N word, in my head when I anthropomorphize her?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Your cat doesn’t do anything. You are doing it. That said, thoughtcrime is not a crime. However, you should probably spend some time having some deep thoughts about why you choose to imagine your pet this way, because it says a lot more about you than it does about your cat, and maybe by continuing this, you’re not reinforcing helpful thoughts, ideas, and behaviors for yourself. Or maybe it’s just a harmless fantasy. I’d be more concerned with outcomes than the actual method you’re getting there in your own head. Do you think this is having a positive impact on your life? Is it relieving stress and giving you joy? If that’s all it is, no judgement, have fun with it. Just make sure it doesn’t start leaking out of your head and into your real life where it doesn’t belong.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Would the United States actually risk a Tiananmen Square incident?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There is no more United States. They would have to be United for that name to still apply. Now there is only the Disunited, Distracted States of America and the rapidly growing Fourth Reich taking their territory from within.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are there any reputable cybersecurity experts that I could just email them to ask for free advice?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You get what you pay for. Sometimes you get more than you pay for, sometimes you can get lots for free, but you’ll never get a guarantee. If you want anything resembling a guarantee, you have to pay.

  You sound like you want guaranteed advice, but for free. That isn’t going to happen.

  If you want non-guaranteed advice, just ask anywhere on the internet, like here for example. You’ll get lots of answers, none of them guaranteed, but some of them quite possibly very correct. Is that worth the price of “free”? It should be.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the right community to escape from Reddit for good, honestly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How much RAM is in your average EV car, and is it DDR5?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  According to this reverse engineering effort, Tesla MCUs have 4GB of DDR4 onboard.

  That is just the MCU, mind you, and I’m not sure what exactly it’s responsible for besides media, but besides whatever AI nonsense they use for self-driving which might have a good chunk of RAM onboard, it seems likely to me that most other computerized components are just using SOC (system-on-chip) processors with integrated onboard memory, not dedicated DDR. I am not an expert though, and may be wrong.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are the limits to masked so called ICE agents? Are they just let off the hook and disobey laws while not identifying themselves? Why can't I be in the right by them stopping me first and shoot?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Civil rights are far beyond the back-burner, they’ve already been left out to cool, then emptied into the garbage and now put in the dishwasher, where they’re currently getting thoroughly rinsed clean.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Provided they’re not nazis or fascists or sex traffickers or anything like that. There are bad people out there who prey on vulnerable depressed people and they can be really really nice (at first), and they can wear any costume they want, to fit into any subculture. But some subcultures are more hospitable for them than others. Most subcultures are pretty okay, there’s a few where I would potentially be very careful. Just be smart about it, and be vigilant for abusive behaviors, grooming, and other red flags.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there anything of any interests for the tech bros in Greenland?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s probably also so Canada’s surrounded so that when he invades us too Europe won’t be able to help. I wish I was joking. I now think that’s a real possibility. And it might come sooner than we think.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What common American habits do people find quietly annoying?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Some people are screaming. Most are not. And the words, from those screaming, are cheap. The silence of actions continues to be, and likely will continue to be, deafening.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not for long!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'I swapped my personal trainer for AI - and it's working'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’ll keep working too, maybe until it encourages you so much you have a heart attack and die, because you know, it’s AI, it doesn’t have any knowledge or accountability and it certainly doesn’t have any concern for human life.