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Comment Re:some doubts: (Score 1) 235

Something like 80% of all causalities in the war right now are coming from drones.

Source?

That's a bold claim.

There are many ways around jamming

The article I linked to speaks about that. Essentially: Yes. But: Not the cheap stuff used, and stuff like fiber optics come with their own drawbacks.

(unsure which "cheaper" weapons you believe exist...drones are dirt cheap)

The article I linked to includes prices.

Comment some doubts: (Score 3, Interesting) 235

according to the Wall Street Journal

Meanwhile, some reports from the frontlines indicate that while drones are ubiquituous, they aren't the game-changer the tech-industry wants them to be.

tl;dr essential bits: a) most drone strikes could have been done by other, cheaper weapons. b) drones are an unreliable weapon due to jamming, dependency on weather and light and many technical failures.

Comment Re:Trump has expanded the high skill work visas (Score 2) 230

No, the H1-B program has not changed this year under Trump. The number of new visas issued annually remains capped at 65,000, plus an additional 20,000 for people with a masterâ(TM)s degree or higher.

Under Trump's first term, there was increased scrutiny and stricter enforcement on H1-B, leading to higher denial rates (24% vs. 6%) and more requests for evidence. Much of that was overturned in the courts, and the denial rate is back to normal.

Prior to 2004, H1-B numbers were legislatively higher (195,000).

Comment Re:Same "pilot" problem crashed the 737 Max's (Score 1) 238

You missed the part where all pilots were qualified to fly the 737 MAX according to Boeing. Well, Boeing lied.

This cannot be emphasized enough: Boeing lied.

I do not remember all the details right now. But in order to fit a larger engine with enough ground clearance, they had to change its thrust angle slightly. They told the FAA there were no changes that pilots needed to know about or retrain for. They lied, to airlines, to the FAA and to the public. The two crashes were due to pilots not knowing about the changes.

Comment A poem by Howard Nemerov (Score 1, Interesting) 112

        Because I am drunk, this Independence Night,
        I watch the fireworks from far away,
        from a high hill, across the moony green
        Of lakes and other hills to the town harbor,
        Where stately illuminations are flung aloft,
        One light shattering in a hundred lights
        Minute by minute. The reason I am crying,
        Aside from only being country drunk,
        That is, may be that I have just remembered
        The sparklers, rockets, roman candles and
        so on, we used to be allowed to buy
        When I was a boy, and set off by ourselves
        At some peril to life and property.
        Our freedom to abuse our freedom thus
        Has since, I understand, been remedied
        By legislation. Now the authorities
        Arrange a perfectly safe public display
        To be watched at a distance; and now also
        The contribution of all the taxpayers
        Together makes a more spectacular
        Result than any could achieve alone
        (A few pale pinwheels, or a firecracker
        Fused at the dog's tail). It is, indeed, splendid:
        Showers of roses in the sky, fountains
        Of emeralds, and those profusely scattered zircons
        Falling and falling, flowering as they fall
        And followed distantly by a noise of thunder.
        My eyes are half-afloat in happy tears.
        God bless our Nation on a night like this,
        And bless the careful and secure officials
        Who celebrate our independence now.

Comment Re:I still get terrible results from "coding" agen (Score 1) 64

It's like visual coding or RAD all over again. Whenever suits and PHBs are told there's a magic wand that'll allow them to do without paying people for the nitty-gritty bits, they get all excited and convince each other in their echo chamber that their dream of a company of all managers and no workers is just around the corner.

Then reality says "hi", the hype dies down, a few scam artists got rich and the world continues as it was, with a couple new cool tools in the toolbox of those who know how to use them correctly - which is generally the same people that were supposedly being replaced.

Comment a free intern for everyone (Score 1) 64

That's how I see AI. I've been writing software for the better part of 40 years. What I see from AI is sometimes astonishing and sometimes pathetic. I would never, ever, ever put AI generated code into production software without carefull checking and refactoring, and I would fire anyone who does.

Code completion is mostly in the "astonishing" part. If I write a couple lines of near-identical stuff, like assigning values from an input to a structured format for processing, the AI most of the time gets right the next line I want to write. Anything more complex than that is hit-and-miss.

Mostly, I use AI the way I would use an intern. "Can you look up how to use this function correctly? What are the parameters and their defaults?" or "Write me some code that's tedious to write (like lots of transformation operations) but not rocket science by far.
Essentially, it does faster and a little bit better what previously I'd have done with Google and Stackoverflow.

I have no fear it'll replace developers anytime soon. Half of the time the code is outright wrong, most of the time it has glaring security issues or isn't half as fault-tolerant as it should be, and for any case where I know how to do it without any research, I'd be faster writing the code myself then going through several iterations with an AI to get it done.

Comment Re:400m more LInux desktops -- Year of Linux Final (Score 2) 116

I think anti trust still loomed when they had their best shot at mobile too.

When they had windows mobile and Xbox was the largest console in the US I thought for sure they'd be able to dominate.

I basically pictured them using a Microsoft account to allow for the phone to participate in Xbox chat and let people talk to their gaming friends on the go. It seemed like a no brainer to me that they could dominate chat, have significant phone penetration with gamers, and keep people a reason to stick with the Xbox ecosystem.

Instead they went with Skype and a weak mobile effort neither integrated with Xbox.

Comment Re:400m more LInux desktops -- Year of Linux Final (Score 1) 116

I imagine just 400 million less desktops as they in general become less and less important.

I know a lot of people that have a work laptop and just use a tablet/mobile otherwise.

People that wouldn't have dreamed of not having a desktop or laptop (or even one of each) 10 years ago.

I have a desktop and a laptop, but haven't turned on either for months unless you count my steam deck (which I have docked for some light desktop work).

Comment Re:This is the way. (Score 1) 127

Diminished maybe, but not all that much.

I think we can reasonably assume that if there's a huge blackout, it won't last forever. A lot of smart people will work hard on getting things up and running again. A few years ago in the USA it lasted for a bit longer, what was it, a week or two? Recently in Spain it lasted a few days. But all those power stations and power grid operators don't just shrug and go home. So getting through those days is probably all it takes for any reasonably realistic scenario.

And you can build things up piecewise. I've got my solar now. The next thing will be a battery. Once I have that, I can think about an electric car.

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