Different fields attract people with different circadian rhythms. What percentage of software engineers are morning people? The field is so heavy on night owls, you cannot chalk it up to chance. When I was in college, half the computer science classes would tell you on the first day, "ignore what the course catalog says, this class will be meeting at 9pm" and nobody complained.

Conversely, every sleep researcher I've ever met is a morning person. I know they have a lot to teach society, and I try to believe scientists, but in this case I think they are trying to force people into a mold of what they think is typical, without thinking that some people's brains are just different.

It is stupid to act like we are somehow in some new legal territory just because we attach the word "intelligence" to the technology. There is a person or a company responsible for setting the technology loose on the public, and they had the choice not to.

If I mount a gun to Roomba and set it loose on a public street, I will be charged with murder. I don't get to say that it was my robot acting on its own. It was my stupid use of technology, so I have responsibility.

Why should this be any different?

There has to be an inverter, the panels generate DC and it needs to put AC into your outlet. They'll match the phase in the same way.

Your rooftop solar already shuts off the inverter when there is no power on the other side (to keep from sending power to the grid when workers are fixing an outage), this would do the exact same thing. You cut the breaker it is plugged into and the inverter shuts off.

I have a hard time believing people are looking at their phones that much to skip/repeat tracks and whatnot, especially given that most cars have buttons that let a driver do that without taking their eyes off the road. I'm wondering if people keep glancing at the lyrics, that's all I can think of that would grab a driver's attention enough for a 15% increase in accidents.

Too many Chevy commercials have convinced people that the only legitimate use for a truck is hauling around bales of hay and towing horse trailers. Trucks carry whatever you put in them. Some people have big cargo needs, and they shouldn't buy this truck. However, there is no shortage of people who need to carry stuff that will fit in this bed.

I admit that I chuckled picturing scientists climbing the scaffolding around a 9 ton telescope, and strapping a Timex to it. They'd probably forget to set it, and it would forever be stuck at 12:00, just like my microwave.

There are myriad animals whose diet depends on mosquitos, many of which are threatened or endangered. I'm no biologist, but I would think that taking measures to preserve those species and their habitat would be the best way to control mosquito populations. Wiping out the base of the food chain, while beneficial to humans in the short term, is not something to be taken lightly.

Now is a time when I really wish the EPA hadn't been gutted, so I could have confidence that proper scientists were being consulted.

I would love to have my network constantly pegged

It's been many years since I've worked at a place that uses mainframe computing, and I really have not kept up with the current state of affairs in the mainframe world. However, speaking as somebody who had posters of the Cray Y-MP and Thinking Machines CM on my childhood walls, it makes me feel cozy knowing that somebody is still making those giant machines. Now if only IBM would make a model that has a padded seat built into it ...

I can't believe all the comments from people making it sound like they are being mowed down by kids on e-bikes on a daily basis. I live in Oakland (same place the bill's author is from), and have never seen a problem. The biggest issue I've had with e-bikes is that I feel bitter when they pass my out-of-shape ass as I struggle up a hill.

Where I live is incredibly hilly. Unless you are an Iron(wo)man, you can't run errands on a regular bike. I think it is awesome that regular people use e-bikes around here to get groceries and take their kids to school. I'd hate to see that trend falter because it is too much friction to get a proper license.

It depends on what you are hauling. My friend who drives refrigerated loads said that standard practice is to have 2 drivers in the truck, and you never stop except to fuel. For those routes I'm not sure they would be happy with the need to charge for 30 minutes every 300 miles.

Just as all phones are standardizing on using electromagnetic fields for charging. I can already picture it: a dongle you put in your car's wireless charging compartment, with a wire running out plugged into your phone that's bouncing around your floor.

Wait, so now the "guns don't kill people, people kill people" crowd is claiming that LLMs kill people?

I personally do think that the AI companies should put safeguards in place to stop their products from giving out harmful advice. That said, I don't see how this AG can argue that they are criminally liable while the gun manufacturers are not.

I agree. I don't care if you have a datacenter or a widget factory, if you are disrupting the electrical grid or polluting rivers you are a problem. Instead of legislating a specific industry, they need to put broader environmental laws in place. That way if somebody wants to make a green datacenter they can, and when the next environmental nightmare fad comes along no new legislation is needed.

My wife is an emergency physician, so I have seen how Abridge tends to be used.

Previously, doctors would come home after a 12 hour shift and have to write notes on dozens of patients. Even if the care they provided was perfectly suitable, it was easy to forget to document certain things because they were tired and all the patients start to blend together. This could lead doctors who saw the patient later being confused as to why certain decisions were made.

Now they have a little device that listens to their conversations, and pre-populates parts of their notes. The AI is not making any medical decisions, and the doctors still have to read through the entire note to fill in details before they submit it.

I am not much of a proponent of AI in general, but I'd have no problem with my doctors using this. Nevertheless, in her hospital they have been all been instructed to ask the patient for permission when they walk in the room (the same way they ask if a medical student can observe the interaction). A small minority say no, and the doctor turns the device off and does the note old style for that patient (which is really not that big a deal). I'd be very surprised if Sutter didn't similarly instruct their doctors, but I assume that some people got cavalier and forgot to ask.