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Comment Re: Consequence culture? (Score 1) 207

We're off to the Netherlands on Thursday.

You are not the only one. I have seen an uptick of Canadians lately in NL, Amsterdam. Or actually: I have _heard_ an uptick in Canadians lately.

Every time I hear someone in Amsterdam speak English with a North-American accent, but with civilised manners, they always turn out to come from Canada. They do not shout, they do not interrupt you and are generally calm and seem genuinely friendly.

And they all smile I ask them if they are from Canada, in light of the above. As if they are happy to not be mistaken for US-ians.

Comment Re:Fucking morons (Score 1) 94

True. I think the false notion of 'LLM's know facts like humans' stems from the observation that there are lots of humans that are less coherent in their communication than LLM's.

There are loads of humans who cannot handle facts properly. LLM's also cannot handle facts, but they are in lots of cases outperforming lots of humans.

So humans know facts and LMM's don't know facts, but what lots of humans produce with those facts can be worse than what LLM's produce without knowing facts.

Comment Very misleading title (Score 1) 32

The title is more aimed at being clickbait than attempting to be informative.
The only thing in the underlying article is that specific neural networks are good and efficient at producing approximate solutions to large sparse systems of linear equations. Nothing else.

Such big systems of equations result when you try to solve partial differential equations on a finite-element mesh by substituting a lot of base functions.

There are broadly 2 ways of solving such systems: direct (e.g. using the sweep method) or iteratieve. The neural networks are just a way of implementing the iterative method. The only thing interesting is that the specific neural networks proposed to do this can be calculated efficiently (also energy-efficiently) on specific hardware optimised specifically for that flacour of neural network.

The OP post tries to link 'math' and 'AI' here because, well, partial diffferential equations count as 'math', and neural networks are a form of 'AI', right? And that's how the OP 'justifies' its title.

Sorry folks, but his is a highly technical development which in no way merits the hoo-hah the OP throws at it.

Comment The first link is clear and accessible (Score 3, Informative) 37

Personally I find this explanation (the first link of the OP) quite clear and accessible (non-technical): https://www.sciencealert.com/f...
In summary: you can sustain denser plasma's if you can precisely control the way your plasma is started. That's useful because it helps your reactor reach a break-even point between energy cost (to make, maintain, and contain the plasma) and the amount of energy the plasma emits during its existence.

Comment Re:Good plan (Score 1) 34

No they aren't. By your logic, any resistors in an electronic circuit would also be a 'bad idea' (which they aren't).
Tariffs add costs to imports. That cost increase is merely an instrument which can be used stupidly, indiscriminately, and inappropriately (like the Trump tariffs) or appropriately. As with any cost-structure adjustment, for it to have any impact at all, there must be positive effects for some and negative effects for others. Depending on your objectives the benefit can absolutely outweigh the cost.
Take the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism for example: it penalises any (steel) imports with excessive carbon emissions (e.g. from older coal-based production plants) compared to steel produced through more modern and less polluting processes.
What that does is to internalise external costs in order to clean up certain production processes.
Now why would that be a bad idea? (oh, and don't bother to reply if you only argument is that 'da gubbamint' shouldn't intervene in markets at all or if you feel that CO2-footprint reduction is either unnecessary or should only be done at zero marginal cost.)

Comment Re:This is NOT NORMAL (Score 1) 205

I just hope that Mr. Trump and his advisors realise that this enactment of the Monroe doctrine implies that
(a) Asia is now China's backyard and Europe is Russia's (A deal is a deal, right?)
(b) national sovereignty has now become a lot more conditional (by common agreement).

By consequence, anyone who wants an uninterrupted supply of chips from TSMC had better be prepared to be extremely polite to China within a few years.

Comment Re:Good plan (Score 1) 34

Apparently Europe is working to correct its mistakes and take back control of its strategic production lines. Just like the US.
Problem is: Europe's got a lot of ground to cover, they don't have a single government, and they're less prone to use import tariffs as a blunt instrument in every trade dispute.
Perhaps because they have more to lose and can inflict less pain on their trade partners than the US can.

Comment "Smaller than a hair" - no (Score 1) 15

If you read the article carefully, they are talking about lenses THINNER than a hair. I see several of the posts here thinking the width/radius of the lenses is this small, a reasonable mistake given the way this was written. Having a radius that small would severely reduce their light gathering ability, requiring very bright light or very dim images or very long exposure times.

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