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Comment Re:comms (Score 1) 172

"I want to use claude code to run 10 unattended Chrome beta testers [more info about what is being tested and specifics]. Write me one or more md files to execute and give me instructions for enabling Chrome mcp, then give me an sh script to launch 10 separate Chrome instances on macos."

I wrote that exact prompt, more or less, a month or two ago, and then other iterations since then, and it's been working very well.

Using LLMs to create prompts for LLMs to use was a good realization.

Comment Re:comms (Score 1) 172

I still don't really understand what AI skills are. Communication? They want employees who can ask things? What?

This makes me laugh! I see classes at universities and colleges on using AI. Not just in the tech arena either, I'm talking liberal arts--med school, law school, you name.

As best as I can tell, "how to use AI" is more or less "don't be a dumbass."

To be succesful with AI, you need the same skills you need to be successful otherwise. Analyze problems, test solutions, think critically, etc. Unattended vibe coding or turning in of AI slop is the same as people who cribbed essays, copied and pasted from Wikipedia, etc.

Comment Re:Yeah, I Noped Out (Score 2) 172

IMHO, you still need to be a developer to be able to use AI effectively. If you start with a really solid schema, or an existing framework, AI is great at building on top of that. If you give it specific guidance for what and how you want it to develop code, it can do a good job. It is NOT just "lol write me a network utility lol" -- that is a path to disaster.

I've also had good luck with updating and modernizing older code, migrating to a new frameework, and refactoring.

If i'm using claude code, my steps go something like this.

1. Using plan mode, analyze the code base, create a thorough plan and testing strategy for XYZ (Or I provide SQL schema, or I provide a thorough plan of what I want to do, etc.)
2. Refine Claude plan mlutiple times until I'm happy with it
3. Start with writing a set of unit tests to confirm current behavior
4. Implement the first part of the project (this is not coding the whole thing in one shot)
5. Run unit tests, check for regressions.\
6. Rinse and repeat..

Steps 1 and 2 -- with no code being written -- are probably the most important parts.

I should also add that, imo, this will be a relatively short moment in time. I've seen people who are spinning up dozens of agents at the same time -- backend designer, frontend designer, security consultant, css specialist, etc -- that all work together and iterate amongst themselves.

We've been running a beta test of some new software, and one beta tester out of ~30 people hit an error. We could not reproduce it. Claude took ~5 hours, but using Claude to remote control Chrome, in conjunction with analyzing the state of the backend database, and auditing the codebase, Claude was able to reproduce the error and suggest a fix. In this case, we disagreed with the fix (rather, we went for a bigger logical change as opposed to a bandaid), but we've had really great luck with using Claude Chrome mcp as a beta tester.

Comment Re:Antropic literally asked for this (Score 1) 40

I'm personally convinced they're a cutout. They're being used to intentionally push this fear agenda so that the government can crack down and further implement the panopticon.

It's the only reasonable response to them repeatedly saying, "our products are dangerous". They're pushing for government intervention, and for whatever reason, want industry regulation or governmental industry control.

Comment Re:I want to see inexpensive plugin hybrids but .. (Score 1) 135

You might want to read up on how current hybrid vehicles actually work, 'cause it seems you have more than one misconception going on.

I have. For instance, my latest vehicle is the Ford F-159 XLT,, the full-hybrid model of the F-series pickup truck line. Power train is:
  - 6 cylinder dual-turbo engine. (runs low power but approoximately doubles output when a lot is needed.)
  - 47 HP motor-generator "pancake" on the engine side of the ttransmission, to scavenge / return power to./from a 1.5 kWhr lithium battery.
  - 10-speed automatic transmission, working with the lithium battery;s main alternator to fine-tune match the engine/mogen to the current driving situation. Max power of engine plus hybrid mogen; 430 hp.
  - full four wheel drive.

So it's primarily a gas-engine power train with an electric-car motor mechanically coupled to the engine shaft. Many other hybrids, from the venerable prius onward, are similar, with plug-in variants having a big scavaging/peaking battery good for pure electric operation of tens of miles rather than a minute or so and a wall-powered charger added.

What I'm looking for is essentially a pure electric - totally electronic "transmission" consisting of alternator(s) between the batteries and the motor(s), plus a tiny engine-generator able to burn gas and feed some teens of KW of charging power into the batteries when running down the road or parked near it.
 

Comment cobalt chemistry, not so nice. (Score 1) 115

Do the Waymo batteries use one of the lithium chemistries including cobalt, or a non-cobalt chemistry such as lithium iron phosphate?

Cobalt chemistries have a higher power/weight and energy/weight ratio, which made them the go-to chemistries for vehicle batteries. But they also produce oxygen when the cells overheat, leading to an unextinguishable runaway fire hazard: A burning cell makes enough heat to ignite the adjacent cells, so the whole assembly of them goes. Bad enough when it's a car's worth, but a disaster if it's a shipping-container sized module of a utility energy storage site. (And even worse when the site is a building full of racks, which someone had "protected" from fire with water-spraying, equipment-shorting system, so the whole site burns up, as happened recently with one in California creating a toxic mess.)

That's why purpose-built stationary lithium energy systems use non-cobalt chemistries - heavier, but a shorted cell just kills itself without getting hot enough to light off its neighbors.

Comment I want to see inexpensive plugin hybrids but ... (Score 1) 135

I want to see inexpensive plugin hybrids.

But not like the current ones, which are primarily an engine/tranny powertrain with a motor/generator + small battery for scavenging downhill/braking energy for later accelleration/uphill/cruise/power-boost.

I want ones that are primarily a battery-electric with a small aux engine-generator (say 15-20 HP range), big enough to power crusing with a bit left over for gradually charging. That would let you range-extend by the size of your gas tank plus fillups (i.e. indefinitely if only gas is available) or go from battery empty to back on the road in a couple tens of minutes.

The backup engine would only run at max-efficiency speed and could use an atkins-like cycle (see "liquid piston engine") to get the max power out of the fuel. Most operation would use power-grid charging (when available and cheaper than fuel).

Comment Re:Yeah.... no (Score 1) 130

Exactly.

You expect me to believe the thing that provided some income disparity relief for a large percentage of remote workers (same pay, lower costs from relocating) is at fault for others not having jobs? I've worked (remotely) with young people. They seem eager and capable, far more so than most other age demographics.

This is just companies finding excuses, looking to claw back more control.

Comment Re:Lawsuit in 3... 2... (Score 1) 190

It sounds like you don't understand how the court system works. The SCOTUS only hears cases which are brought before it, and then selectively.

Which cases specifically do you feel indicate corruption on the part of the SCOTUS? There are definitely some dissenting decisions which don't adhere to the US constitution, and there is definitely a long running theme in the courts of activist judges re-interpreting well defined language, and perhaps (probably) even a couple judges who are compromised, but I'm not aware of any evidence of corruption.

Comment Re:It's not NeXTStep (Score 3, Informative) 39

tl;dr it seems like it's been different things at different times, officially, and that NeXTSTEP has been used for a long time.

From the Wikipedia page, this 0.9 release doc lists "NextStep" as a registered trademark.

https://vtda.org/docs/computing/NeXT/NeXT%200.9-1.0%20Release%20Description.pdf

Some CD images show all caps:

https://auctions.c.yimg.jp/images.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/image/dr000/auc0403/users/dec444a55bdd461a83b1b7c3f2c8e7fa3a731b8b/i-img1000x901-1678086322oe8huf16.jpg

Some show mixed:

https://wagtail.cds.tohoku.ac.jp/coda/topics/nextstep/index.html

1.0 manual goes with "NEXTSTEP":

https://dn710300.ca.archive.org/0/items/NeXTSTEP_User_Guide_1994/NeXTSTEP_User_Guide_1994.pdf

1993 book uses "NeXTSTEP"

https://simson.net/ref/1993/NeXTSTEP3.0.pdf

This marketing flyer uses "NeXTSTEP"

http://www.kevra.org/TheBestOfNext/NeXTProducts/NeXTSoftware/NS-Release3/files/page625_1.pdf

Comment Re:I'll get the popcorn... (Score 1) 131

Not much. Plutonium isn't like uranium, it's effectively safe for human contact outside its fissioned form. This has been pretty well documented.

This is a step forward which is a long time overdue. It should've happened 30 years ago, and we'd have averted having to depend on China for our electricity production (wind + solar) without the net-zero production problems those two 'sources' introduce.

Comment Re:RIP (Score 2) 22

It's clear the original trilogy was lightning in a bottle for many reasons, and it's clear that Marcia Lucas and other skilled editors had an absolutely huge impact. But can you really say the editor is the "more talented" Lucas? Seems to me that for a time, whatever partnership George and Marcia had personally and working together, worked really well.

After the split, neither one of them ever created something as on target as the originals.

Then again, Star Wars is almost unique for the cultural impact it's had. Hard to do a repeat.

Comment Re:Siri continues to be Apple's shittiest product (Score 1) 58

Example, my 17 pro is pretty big and heavy, so you end up gripping it every time you pick it up. But with the extra buttons on the sides you end up engaging something you didn't want. So then you menu-dive into system settings just to turn off extra buttons.

My kids call me a boomer when that happens to me. And yeah, it happens.

Though to be fair, I actually really like the side button -- the one on the lower right that is touch sensitive. I use it for activating and using the camera. I just ALSO sometimes activate it when reading in landscape mode. Oops.

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