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ed312 commented on Block YouTube ads on AppleTV by decrypting and stripping ads from Profobuf (2022)   ericdraken.com/pfsense-de... · Posted by u/udev4096
abricq · 6 months ago
I know that I, as a user, ultimately have 2 choices: to pay for a subscription, or the choice to not use these services.

Option (1) does not block infinite scrolling content, it only removes adds. So this is missing the point. All i want is to not see these dumb shorts videos that I genuinely give no fuck about, but that manages to catch my attention regardless.

Then sure, I can always delete my social accounts, and ultimately i might end up doing it. But let me try to explain why I think this is difficult, and also unfair.

I give 2 purposes to these social networks: First, they play a role in personal-life balance as a way to be more integrated in my group of friends / local communities. Second, they play a role as citizen of my region (in my case, France and switzerland) by being a (sorta reliable) source of information through following accounts and newspapper on them.

Initially, none of these social-networks came with this super-fast / addictive content. They only started to integrate it, in my experience, since 5 years. So it seems to me that these companies have broke the initial contract that they "sold" to us: to connect with our friends & communities and to allow us to follow a specific set of public influencers.

I guess that I am mad that we, as a society, have allowed these companies to gain such an important role in our daily lifes (social life and public life) that they can now say : we will allow you to interact with some of our friends, but you will also have to watch our stupid videos... And unfortunaltey, it's not easy at all to spin up a concurrent social networks that would be full-filling this initial contract. Probably lots of people actually like to scroll on insta Reels and youtube Shorts.

ed312 · 6 months ago
This is why you fundamentally cannot rely on private companies to build the "town square". This will _always_ happen because every company has a profit motive (even if its a loooong tail via SV-style funding). The problem behind the problem is people want great communities and tools, but don't way to provide any effort to build them.
ed312 commented on Adding iodine to salt played a role in cognitive improvements: research (2013)   discovermagazine.com/heal... · Posted by u/1970-01-01
sitkack · 7 months ago
> Iodine deficiency today is the leading cause of preventable mental retardation in the world. It’s estimated that nearly one-third of the world’s population has a diet with too little iodine in it, and the problem isn’t limited to developing countries — perhaps one-fifth of those cases are in Europe (pdf), where iodized salt is still not the norm.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200820212020/https://www.who.i...

> The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for iodine is between 220 micrograms (mcg) and 290 mcg in pregnancy, and 290 mcg when breastfeeding. [1]

Iodine affects the thyroid which produces hormones that regulate how the brain develops in the womb. If these T3/T4 hormones aren't strong enough, brain cells don't get into the right places.

Apparently Iodine intake needs to be 50% higher than the normal healthy level during pregnancy (and higher during breast feeding). Taking prenatal vitamins now in case I get pregnant.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582771/

[2] https://www.phind.com/search?cache=l34zoyrwfc8ocb3vcodcsc46

So when neurons form in the brain, they are born in a nursery and then migrate to their final destination. Here is a movie showing this, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMYHx7dRe8g

Mapping Postnatal Neuronal Migration: A Late Path to Neurodevelopmental Disorders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4FZiv-rtTU

Neurogenesis in the mammalian brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2RINOAeONw

ed312 · 7 months ago
This was both a new topic to me and a remarkably succinct (and well-cited) comment. Did you happen to do this research independently or do you reference a more comprehensive source?
ed312 commented on Making an intersection unsafe for pedestrians to save seconds for drivers   collegetowns.substack.com... · Posted by u/raybb
hombre_fatal · 8 months ago
The Texas government decided that red light cameras can't enforce the law. That's how car-brained we are.

Muh privacy or something.

ed312 · 8 months ago
The core issue is those red light cameras create a persistent database of who is where, which is then sold at a marginal cost to whoever wants it to advertise to/manipulate/track a population. Adding cameras everywhere invites a dystopian nightmare vs better urban design and occasional traffic police would solve the same problem.
ed312 commented on Governor Newsom signs bill to protect kids from social media addiction   gov.ca.gov/2024/09/20/gov... · Posted by u/Cyclone_
falcolas · a year ago
The TL;DR: for "addictive feeds" is basically blocking a feed that is built based on their previous interactions with posts (whether associated via the device or the account). Doesn't impact searches or followed feeds.

So, you can still use TikTok or Facebook or Instagram, just without the hyper-personalized discovery/FYP/etc feeds.

I'm cautiously optimistic, since this kind of block doesn't really create a moat around existing businesses. And frankly, I like that kind of non-personalized feed sometimes.

EDIT: Downvoters, that's from the text of the bill itself. I recommend reading it if you don't trust (or don't like) this TL;DR.

ed312 · a year ago
I wish they'd go a step further and offer this for adults too. Facebook has become the lowest common denominator communication platform (at least in my family/friend circles). It would be great to have a site to log in and periodically scroll through family photos, hear about milestones, etc. without influencers and video shorts. I'd even pay $ to have that feed without ads.
ed312 commented on An Interview with Lola De La Mata about tinnitus   thequietus.com/interviews... · Posted by u/Afforess
JPLeRouzic · a year ago
No, I didn't.

It may be dumb but I had things to manage like work and children in their teens, so tinnitus management had a low priority. Still, I look avidly at discussions about tinnitus. I tried the method of tapping on the neck, but it did not work for me. I tried hearing aids, but it didn't help either.

ed312 · a year ago
I'm not a doctor, and I couldn't give you medical advice if I was, but tinnitus can be caused by health conditions you really should get checked out. High blood pressure etc.
ed312 commented on Toyota showcases compact engines adaptable to different fuels   reuters.com/business/auto... · Posted by u/belter
toomuchtodo · a year ago
20% of new car sales globally last year were EVs (very roughly total 2023 new US auto sales). At BYD and other mass market EV manufacturer ramp rates, combined with battery cell manufacturing capacity ramp, light vehicle electric mobility is already solved for.

https://electrek.co/2024/03/02/1-in-5-new-car-sales-globally... | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39575172

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-12/china-... | https://archive.today/8Dy4D

> BNEF is tracking 7.9 TWh of annual battery manufacturing capacity announced for the end of 2025. That’s compared to demand projections of 1.6 TWh, and even that assumes steady EV demand growth and very rapid growth in batteries for storage applications. Even half that total announced capacity would be enough to equip almost every car sold in the world next year with a 50 kWh battery pack.

The above assumes no additional battery manufacturing capacity is planned or comes online, which is unlikely as the world continues to electrify everything. It is very likely we continue to build more batteries faster and cheaper.

I admit that some use cases will liquid fuels for the foreseeable future (aviation, marine, with methanol or ammonia solving for this, produced using clean energy), but we are already accelerating towards pushing fossil fuels out of majority consumption use cases (electric grid, buildings, light vehicles).

ed312 · a year ago
Those global sales are a bit skewed due to China's industrial dumping of EVs that are sitting in lots rusting.
ed312 commented on Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging at 0.05 Tesla   science.org/doi/10.1126/s... · Posted by u/Jimega36
vhcr · a year ago
Where do you draw the line? RAW, HDR, photo stitching, blur removal?
ed312 · a year ago
This is an excellent ponit, and I don't know where to exactly draw the line ("I know it when I see it"). I personally use "auto" (probably heuristic, maybe soon-ish AI-powered) features to adjust levels, color balance etc. Using AI to add things that are _not at all present_ in the original crossed the line into digital art vs photography for me.
ed312 commented on Ask HN: Going from CTO to Developer?    · Posted by u/thatguyagain
convolvatron · a year ago
the only problem with this is that as an IC when your manager is really doing poorly and not grasping their job, its _really_ hard not to say 'dude wtf, that's just not right'. that can go pretty badly. so you really have to work hard to stay extra constructive and support them as if you were _their_ manager, without the authority that usually implies. and that's a heavy burden as an IC
ed312 · a year ago
As an eng manager, I always make it super clear (many times) when new engineers onboard they're always welcome to say "this doesn't make sense" ask for more details. Sometimes (maybe even often) they're right. I also enourage them to "assume good intent" from other devs and managers. Fundamentally no one manager knows everyone and no one engineer is right about everything.
ed312 commented on 'No AI Fraud Act' Could Outlaw Parodies, Political Cartoons, and More   reason.com/2024/01/17/ai-... · Posted by u/elsewhen
elif · 2 years ago
Sorry but you will never regulate memes.

The actually harmful AI deepfakes like fake Elon and Mr beast scamming old people with fake crypto, and deepfake porn, are already illegal and still impossible to regulate.

Are you going to fine Google everytime a throwaway account uploads to YouTube.

Let's be realistic here, this law will only be used by celebrities hiring lawyers to attack comical parody.

ed312 · 2 years ago
Yes. A simple fine for each verified instance prominently displaying a clearly fraudulent advertisement seems like a reasonable solution. Maybe instead of spending engineering cycles thinking of how to jam a larger volume of ads down our throats, Google can develop better ways to detect and reject scams. Win/Win.
ed312 commented on No joke: Feds are banning humorous electronic messages on highways   nbcnews.com/news/us-news/... · Posted by u/jawns
ceejayoz · 2 years ago
I think this is silly. That said...

> “Why are you trying to have the federal government come in and tell us what we can do in our own state? Prime example that the federal government is not focusing on what they need to be.”

My guy, you're welcome to decline Federal highway funding.

ed312 · 2 years ago
In practical terms this is like saying "you're welcome to decline food". Part of the argument for limiting federal government in the first place is to prevent this kind of arm twisting.

u/ed312

KarmaCake day887September 28, 2015View Original