cibyr (u/cibyr) - Readit News

cibyr commented on I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me marcusolang.substack.com/... · Posted by u/florian_s

tptacek · 5 days ago

Right, it is currently incapable of providing a straight answer without clearing it's throat selling the answer. It reminds me of those recipe blogs that just can't get to the fucking recipe. It's bad writing! But it's not bad technically, in a style-guide kind of way.

cibyr · 5 days ago

Sometimes I wonder if the throat-clearing is an indispensable part of getting to the "good bits" that follow. Like, do those extra tokens give it more "room to think" even if they're basically meaningless in themselves?

cibyr commented on Using secondary school maths to demystify AI raspberrypi.org/blog/seco... · Posted by u/zdw

phantasmish · 8 days ago

The simulation isn't an operating brain. It's a description of one. What it "means" is imposed by us, what it actually is, is a shitload of graphite marks on paper or relays flipping around or rocks on sand or (pick your medium).

An arbitrarily-perfect simulation of a burning candle will never, ever melt wax.

An LLM is always a description. An LLM operating on a computer is identical to a description of it operating on paper (if much faster).

cibyr · 8 days ago

It seems to me that the distinction becomes irrelevant as soon as you connect inputs and outputs to the real world. You wouldn't say that a 737 autopilot can never, ever fly a real jet and yet it behaves exactly the same whether it's up in the sky or hooked up to recorded/simulated signals on a test bench.

cibyr commented on A Cozy Mk IV light aircraft crashed after 3D-printed part was weakened by heat bbc.com/news/articles/c1w... · Posted by u/toss1

ToucanLoucan · 16 days ago

Also, strictly as a combo 3D-printing and engine enthusiast: Never with a GUN to my head would I install 3D printed parts in a CAR engine, let alone in an aircraft engine. This is spectacularly poor judgement on the part of the owner.

cibyr · 16 days ago

I'm sure it's fine you do it properly ([1] for example). The issue here was the utter lack of engineering, not the specific manufacturing technique (although those do seem to be highly correlated, due to low-end 3D printing having become very cheap and easy).

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV74KhPNg1w

cibyr commented on You can't fool the optimizer xania.org/202512/03-more-... · Posted by u/HeliumHydride

commandlinefan · 17 days ago

> won't work if num is negative

I remember reading (although I can't find it now) a great analysis of all the optimizations that Javascript compilers _can't_ do because of the existence of the "eval" instruction.

cibyr · 17 days ago

The extra fun thing about this is that eval has different semantics if it's assigned to a different name, in order to allow JavaScript implementations to apply extra optimizations to code that doesn't call a function literally named "eval": https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Refe...

Andy Wingo (of course!) has a good explanation of this: https://wingolog.org/archives/2012/01/12/javascript-eval-con...

cibyr commented on White House rules out bailout for AI as bubble fears grow telegraph.co.uk/business/... · Posted by u/zerosizedweasle

cibyr · a month ago

My "will not bailout AI companies" t-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt.

cibyr commented on ICE Will Use AI to Surveil Social Media jacobin.com/2025/10/ice-z... · Posted by u/throwaway81523

ilikehurdles · 2 months ago

It has always been legal to deny visa/entry to people based on speech and affiliation. Pretty long list of evidence for that.

As for non-citizens lawfully present in the U.S., they have more First Amendment protections than those seeking entry, but still less than citizens.

All this can get visa holders deported:

1. Material support for terrorist organizations (even verbal/written advocacy.

2. Speech deemed to violate the terms of their specific visa category.

3. False statements to immigration officials.

4. (Most obviously) Criminal convictions stemming from speech acts (fraud, threats, etc.)

cibyr · 2 months ago

What does the word "material" in "material support" mean if advocacy counts?

cibyr commented on Ryanair flight landed at Manchester airport with six minutes of fuel left theguardian.com/business/... · Posted by u/mazokum

gmanley · 2 months ago

That example is so well known due to how exceptional it was, especially how the pilots handled it. Robert Pearson, the captain, was a very experienced glider pilot. That's something that not many commercial pilots have.

There were also two factors in the landing, that allowed for this to happen. You're going to be coming in really fast for a landing, when gliding in a commercial jet, and you don't have access to your thrust reversers to slow it down. There was a repurposed runway, that they used to land, that just happened to have been used as a drag racing track and had a guard rail. They were able to slow down by scraping across that. It also just so happened the nose gear didn't deploy fully so scraping the nose of the plane against the ground also helped slow it down.

Needless to say it was a bunch of very fortunate events that allowed it to not end in disaster. In any case I would consider it very risky.

cibyr · 2 months ago

The "scraping helped slow it down" theory makes no sense to me. What do you think has a higher coefficient of friction - tire rubber on asphalt, metal on asphalt, or metal on metal?

cibyr commented on New Bill Would Give Marco Rubio "Thought Police" Power to Revoke U.S. Passports theintercept.com/2025/09/... · Posted by u/mdhb

perihelions · 3 months ago

The US did this before; there was a Cold War-era law SCOTUS ruled unconstitutional in 1964.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptheker_v._Secretary_of_State ("Aptheker v. Secretary of State" (1964))

> In Aptheker, the petitioner challenged Section 6 of the Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, which made it a crime for any member of a Communist organization to attempt to use or obtain a passport.[1]"

Some expanded context,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_movement_under_Unit... ("Freedom of movement under United States law")

cibyr · 3 months ago

Good thing the current supreme court has such respect for precedent!

cibyr commented on Analysis of the GFW's Unconditional Port 443 Block on August 20, 2025 gfw.report/blog/gfw_uncon... · Posted by u/kotri

mschuster91 · 4 months ago

It was five boats [1], an good story nonetheless. Think whatever you want about Mossad, it can not be denied that these guys have balls.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherbourg_Project

cibyr · 4 months ago

One might even say they have chutzpah.