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Comment The level of tracking is scary (Score 1) 42

The level of insight that a good pattern of life analysis can achieve is stunning. The telemetry that is embedded or externally collected is a torrent.

The argument that data collection is protected free speech is a weak argument. First, just because it is collected and available for purchase should not mean the government can use it without a warrant. Second, massive data collection and integration was not even a concept when the Bill of Rights was written.

Comment It's not privatization (Score 4, Interesting) 42

JPL is a FFRDC and CalTech has been the incumbent contractor since the beginning. According to the rules in the Federal Acquisition Register (FAR) it should have been free and open competition a long time ago. I do not have specific knowledge on the JPL contract, but it is likely the sole-source justification has not had much scrutiny.

I am not saying the contract should go to a for-profit corporation (in California that would make it subject to taxes--an instant cost increase). I do think opening up competition would force a revisit to the cost structure, which is a healthy process.

Comment Re: Taxpayer-funded should always mean Open Source (Score 1) 69

Typically that is something that is negotiated. A company (which often includes government created corporate entities) can offer a lower rate if they retain IP rights as that offers the opportunity to monetize. For example, CSIRO licenses technology that was funded by taxpayers and revenue from licensing IP.

Comment Very true (Score 4, Informative) 36

I am seriously impressed with Claude. I have it doing coding tasks that I have no interest in doing. That lets me focus on the parts that are in my specialty. I was able to knock a fully-functional proof of concept in about half the time.

The other tools are so far behind. I describe Claude Code like a first year graduate student and the others (like Gemini) like a high school student looking for a date. Perplexity is probably the closest to Claude Code capability, but it is a distant second.

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