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Comment Dawkins has a rather consistent point of view (Score 1) 386

Man, I remember when Selfish Gene made its way into my hands, in the late 70's. A real "Chapman's Homer" moment for me. Led me later into a thesis on genetic algorithms. But along with that comes ... a rather mechanistic point of view, consistent with his later writings on religion.
While I'm not on board with Claude being in a class with humans, or cats for that matter, I think critics here might be missing a point, not about how Dawkins views LLMs so much as how he views humans. P-zombies is likely an overstatement, but don't expect him to require a 'ghost in the machine' to call Claude "conscious".
IMO, he isn't just inflating LLMs' abilities. He's coming in from a POV that humans aren't all that.

Comment Re:Just means none of the experts cared enough (Score 1) 93

My Erdos number was something I felt put me in a very exclusive club (my field is CS, btw)! Only a select few ... wait a second. The whole thing about Erdos numbers is that they're the expression of how common those interconnections are :-)
Like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, the net is huge!

Comment Re:I have _never_ had colleagues ... (Score 1) 59

It's like there's 10 of me, well rested and in distraction free speed typing mode, and I'm a seasoned and experienced senior webdev who still loves his job.

I've had a similar experience! It's like there's a dozen SWEs working shoulder to shoulder.

  • Nine are just brilliant.
  • One's badly hung over and has just rejiggered the tests specifically to 'solve' an error in the code.
  • One has apparently just had his first hit of X, and wants to tell me how great he thinks I am and that all my stupid ideas are genius.
  • The last one occasionally just fucks off somewhere and all the work stops until he's 'up' for it again.

Genuinely, I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have on a rather massive personal project I'm working on without AI, but I've also spent a stunning time backing out some ... idiosyncratic? ... rust code.

Comment Re:Not even the worst part ... (Score 1) 95

That's not what I am seeing.

Funny, I'm seeing that a lot in the comments; I'm on 26.1; perhaps a fix awaits in 26.2 :-)

I find the behavior inconsistent on 26.1. With the window *definitely* in focus, I still can move the cursor from outside the window slowly through the corner into the window with no change. The misbehavior seems more consistent outside->in rather than vv.

I mostly did user interface work prior to retirement ... weird behavior is par for the course!

Comment Not even the worst part ... (Score 4, Interesting) 95

Apple removed the visible resize grippy-strip from window corners in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion in July 2011.

What chaps me is the mouse cursor, which does not change, not one iota, over about 90% of that grippable area. If we got a 'resize' cursor image over the territory that could be grabbed, all of this would be a non-issue. Instead, the cursor flips over 1/n the width of the human hair, with n=the number of people bloody sick of interface changes for no damned reason.

Comment Inevitably!! (Score 1) 94

Look at the terrific increases in individual productivity we've gotten so far from computers. Speaking from a US perspective here, but clearly that productivity boost has *already* resulted in a halving of our work week, right? How could this not happen?

Submission + - Scientists Reveal Roof Coating That Can Reduce Surface Temps 6C On Hot Days (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Australian scientists have developed roof coatings that can passively cool surfaces up to 6C below ambient temperature, as well as extract water from the atmosphere, which they say could reduce indoor temperatures during extreme heat events. One coating made from a porous film, which can be painted on to existing roofs, works by reflecting 96% of incoming solar radiation, rather than absorbing the sun’s energy. It also has a high thermal emittance, meaning it effectively dissipates heat to outer space when the sky is clear. Its properties are known as passive radiative cooling. [...]

In a study, published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the researchers tested a prototype for six months on the roof of the Sydney Nanoscience Hub, pairing the cool paint with a UV-resistant topcoat that encouraged dew droplets to roll down into a receptacle. As much as 390 milliliters per sq meter per day could be collected for about a third of the year, the scientists found. Based on that water capture rate, an average Australian roof – about 200 sq meters – could provide up to 70 liters on days favorable for collecting dew, they estimate. [...]

In well-insulated buildings, a 6C decrease in roof temperature “might result in a smaller fraction of that cooling being reflected in the top level of the house," [said the study’s lead author, Prof Chiara Neto of the University of Sydney], but greater temperature reductions would be expected in most Australian houses, “where insulation is quite poor." She said the coating could also help reduce the urban heat island effect, in which hard surfaces absorb more heat than natural surfaces, resulting in urban centers being 1C to 13C warmer than rural areas.

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