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SuspciousCarrot78

@ SuspciousCarrot78 @lemmy.world

Posts
4
Comments
225
Joined
6 mo. ago

  • Car Wash Test on 53 leading AI models: "I want to wash my car. The car wash is 50 meters away. Should I walk or drive?"

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  • Qwen3-4B HIVEMIND (abliterated) got it in 2, though it scores a lot higher on PIQA, HellaSwag and Winogrande benchmarks than normal Qwen3-30B. I think the new abliteration methods actually strengthen real world understanding.

    https://imgur.com/a/7YZme4i

    https://imgur.com/a/25ApzDN

    I wonder if an abliterated VL model could do even better? They tend to have the best real world model benchmarks. Perhaps a Qwen3-VL-30B ablit (if such a thing exists) could one shot this.

    I'd like to think a lot of these gotcha prompts rely on verbal misunderstanding, rather than failure in world models, but I can't say that for certain.

    PS: Saw a pearler of a response to this: Chatgpt recommend "yeah, lift the car and carry it on your back. Make sure to bend your knees" (though I'm guessing someone edited that for the lulz)

  • Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich

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  • "Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all"

    Like the responder below, I do not feel comfortable giving my ID to social media sites. Hell, we had our government controlled, medical database (Medicare) get hacked and leak PII. And the yanks had their SSN pasted all over the net.

    And those were a supposedly hardened pipelines.

    Trust Facebook? Really? Nah.

  • Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich

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  • I agree - mostly. But...things online are RADICALLY different now, vs late 90s / early 2000s.

    I've outlined some of my media and tech curation for my kids above; I would LOVE for them to stumble across stuff like we did. Hell, in time, I'd even let them grok the edgier stuff (yes, like you, I was there 3000 years ago. I know of the old magics)

    But that internet is long gone...or if not...severely booby trapped. The competence required of (say) a curious 8yr old in 2026 vs 2002 to navigate the online landscape and NOT encounter those booby traps (I feel) is several orders of magnitude higher.

    I don't think we can just park our kids in front of the 486 and say "here's Encarta; have at it. Then I'll show you this cool thing called a BBS".

    Kinda sucks.

    Still, there are useful funnels / curation pathways. You CAN recreate that experience for your kids...but it's no longer "are you winning, son?" set it and forget it meme. Now it's "Daddy needs to be a part time sysadmin and know what's what, so some pedo doesn't catfish you for feet pics via ROBLOX".

  • Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich

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  • I have to admit, I've gone sort of retro-tech with my kids in the main. Wii over Xbox or PS5, DS-lite over Switches, OLPC over chromebook etc. Social media - ha ha, no chance :)

    My eldest asked for a phone, so I gave her my old flipfone. She loves it (and I kinda want it back now, lol).

    The HMD Nokia branded Barbie phones with KaiOS is what I've promised to get her when she's earned it. That's a dumbphone with some smart features...and as bonus, I can probably (with enough effort) create some apps for her directly (KaiOS is basically Firefox OS in a container, which even my dumb-ass can probably grok with some effort)

    I give them access to my tablets...but the tablets have kid mode (app lock) and are hardened with firewall, pi-hole, app timers and curated content (eg: Smart-tube with ONLY the channels I select as safe being visible, no click thrus, comment section blocked etc. ABC kids. Jellyfin pointing to ONLY kids stuff etc etc). I know this is a technical solution to a behavioral problem. OTOH as much as I would LOVE to just yeet all this shit into the sun, the realistic position is kids need to know how to use tech. I even leave little breadcrumbs for my eldest to try and "hack" my systems so she can get access to "hidden" software (which, matrix-in-matrix style, I've allowed her access to. Don't give SUDO equivalent to an 8yr old...once bitten, twice shy. I could tell you a recent horror story that would curl your hair)

    Anyway....it's not 1983 any more (sadly, in some ways), But I have observed that by curating content like this it FEELS like the kids are interacting with tech like we did back in the day; morning cartoons are once again morning cartoons and not a chance for MrBeast to invite my 8yr old to "comment, like and subscribe".

    My eldest has ASD and I've noticed these small tweaks have had significant improvements on her behaviour / media consumption patterns (eg: she will get bored of media now and self regulate away from it...and...gasp...play).

    I dunno man. I'm trying out here. Shit ain't easy. Too many plates spinning, not enough hands, and father time is a motherfucker. I'm tired, boss.

  • Germany's Merz calls for real names on the internet

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  • We maybe have a different recollection of human history. "Talk shit, get hit" was pretty popular across the ages.

    Perhaps I should have said "...disrespecting others ANONYMOUSLY". I think that last little bit makes all the difference.

  • Germany's Merz calls for real names on the internet

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  • Germany's Merz calls for real names on the internet

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  • Hmm. Perhaps requiring PGP public / private keys could be used to show provenance without leaking PII helter skelter?

    As in - you don't need to sign your name per se but it can be traced back to you.

    I might be talking out of my (r)ear, but that might be a middle ground (if at all technologically possible).

  • Firefox is ending support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, and users are urged to switch to Linux

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  • Possibly...but I think some of that depends too on what is meant by "online." Obviously, if you frequent questionable sites and install unvetted software, that’s a bad idea. OTOH, having a machine with strict firewall rules (so not everything can just phone home), limited outbound access, no daily browsing/email, and only going online occasionally for specific, known downloads is a different situation than using it as a general-purpose internet PC.

    Even occasional access to a small number of mainstream, HTTPS-authenticated sites (e.g., major services where the browser can verify certificates) isn’t the same exposure as wide-open browsing. (nb: Firefox’s ESR releases have historically helped extend browser security support on older systems for a while, which can reduce risk somewhat - though obviously not indefinitely.)

    Look, I’m not arguing that EOL systems are “safe.” They’re not getting patches. But exposure matters. A mostly appliance-like gaming box that’s segmented and tightly controlled isn’t the same risk profile as someone’s primary web machine.

    ICBW and YMMV.

  • Firefox is ending support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, and users are urged to switch to Linux

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  • I like linux and I use it (Raspbian, Zorin, Ubuntu, Arch: diff machines). I also enjoy using Win 8.1 on my Lenovo M93p Tiny (8GB ram), as a Playnite appliance / console. This allows me to play emulated games (Wii, Gamecube, PS2, to about 1.5-2x upscale), ~2013ish era AAA titles (Fallout 3, Just Cause 2, Dead Rising 2, GTA IV) and select indy games (like Donut County, Untitled Goose Game, EXO ONE) all from one device.

    Normally, the advice would be to use something like Bazzite or Batocera (and I agree!)...but given the hardware limitations and the "it just runs" nature of these older Window games (under windows) I've had better experiences sticking to Win 8.1.

    YMMV but the "switch to linux cause windows too old" thing has some shades of gray.

  • Lemmy vs Reddit

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  • It certainly seems to be trending in that direction, no? A lot of the “best” ideas do tend to get crowbarred out of the US.

    OTOH, with the EU pushing to divest itself of American software and policies, perhaps there’s still some wriggle room.

    OTOOH, because of the nature of the Fediverse, something like this can happen in theory:

    • You use a German-hosted instance → primarily subject to EU/GDPR
    • Your posts replicate to instances in other countries (including the US), which you don’t directly control (unless you self-host and block that)
    • Those servers operate under their own local laws
    • End result: your reposted data and meta data may now fall within the American legal domain.

  • Lemmy vs Reddit

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  • Good analogy.

    Yeah, I wonder that too. I think the mindshare Lemmy has (such as it is) comes from being seen as a sort of middle-finger, privacy-respecting, libre alternative.

    That positioning clearly attracts a lot of people (myself included). But at the same time, it’s occurred to me that the nature of the Fediverse means you can’t really have true “privacy.”

    I can’t speak to what each instance retains (IP logs? metadata?) or how long for - and I assume it varies widely from place to place.

    “Bad guy Reddit, good guy Lemmy” may be an oversimplification…or just wishful thinking.

  • Lemmy vs Reddit

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  • Oof, busted :)

    I had a feeling there were background trackers, even here.

    Your comment wrt LLM firehose is on point too I think.

    I do think the don't be dumb is good advice (barring the famous quote from George Carlin) but given what you've just shown, it does sort of negate one of the appeals to self hosting a Lemmy instance. A lot of squeeze for not much more juice.

    I don't know if this is a solvable problem but I'm willing to listen / learn.

  • Removed

    Stop Uploading Your Personal Files to Random “Free” Compression Sites

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  • Just cross posting this; no affiliation

  • Small analyze on Deleted Top Commentors on Reddit

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  • They stay, so overwrite before you delete. That salts them (allegedly).

    You can use Shreddit to do this iirc; it will download your posts, then over write them on Reddit (I just chose . as thing to over write with), then delete. That way what gets saved is just your over written message.

    ICBW but thats my understanding.

    https://shreddit.com/

  • Its not much but it's something

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  • If you have to ask, the answer is yes.

  • Its not much but it's something

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  • I have tried TrackerControl. As a stand alone, I think its great. A little bit more verbose in its front end (and for some reason, a little more battery hungry than DDG) but similar functionality. The system app blocks are a good feature. As you say, the DDG option is simpler.

    Re: Firefox. Firefox has become very feature rich and heavy. On a 6 year old phone with 3GB ram, I can maybe get it to work smoothly with 4-5 tabs, whereas DDG has no issue with 20+. It would be my preference to use FF but it (and the usual forks) don't seem too performant on my old beater.

    I'm curious to see how long I can keep it out of landfill. I'm trying for 2028, as a personal challenge. That will be almost 10 years out of a $200 phone

  • Hey my people!

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  • On the wrong end of 40, I'm afraid. :P

    I hope you listened to the song, wore sunscreen and actually were kind to your knees.

  • EU Parliament bans AI use on government work devices as security fears rise

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  • Correct. The title is clickbait. The actual content doesn’t support the “all AI is bad” fever being stirred up.

    In any case, governments banning access to cloud-based AI is nothing new - Italy and the Czech Republic both come to mind (though I think the later was a knee jerk reaction).

    At this stage, it's probably a good preventative measure to not send sensitive information to the cloud (aka someone else's computer), especially a cloud in a foreign territory.

    Common sense, that applies from individual to government level: don't yeet your sensitive data helter skelter. Host your own secure infrastructure.

  • Cubans turn to electric vehicles as US tightens oil blockade

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  • Could you elaborate a bit more on the issues around shortages of funding and professionals?

    My understanding was that Cuba has had one of the highest doctor-to-population ratios in the world, and that its medical schools were often treated almost like a public works project to train large numbers of physicians.

    Is it an issue of brain drain (graduate qualifying and then leaving for greener pastures?)

    (I'm not doubting what you say btw; just trying to address my own ignorance).

    PS: El Paquete is exactly the example of "fine, I'll do it myself" response I had in mind. At 1TB per week, that was/is one of the largest sneakernets in the world.