gertlex (u/gertlex) - Readit News

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

dgan · 2 days ago

I consider myself fluent in English, I watch technical talks and casual youtubers on English daily, and this is the first time I encounter this word lol.

The only "stride" I know relates to the gap betweeb heterogeneous elements in a contiguous array

gertlex · 2 days ago

I wonder if you've heard the expression "hitting your stride".

(native english speaker who was a bookworm as a kid; I admittedly had to ask gemini to recall the general phrase that I had in mind)

gertlex commented on Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban reuters.com/legal/litigat... · Posted by u/chirau

indymike · 7 days ago

Father of five here, and founder of a social media marketing company (exited). Our kids are up against problems we didn't have during the great expansion of social. The three big things:

1. State level actors and well funded not for profits are fighting an information war to influence our kids. And they are very good at it. Down to having troll farms to talk one on one. Every time something new happens in the world, my younger kids ask me about what they saw on Tik-Tok and their initial understanding is shaped by a well funded actor, and is often completely a false narrative. The solution is be open and talk about it with your kids.

2. Criminals are even better at social than state level actors. They are smooth. And they are on platforms you wouldn't expect - like games. And criminals aren't all about fraud. They sell drugs, they try to physically steal in real life from your kids,they'll try to get your kids to do something embarrasing and blackmail them with it, and even can be human traffickers. Again, the solution is be open and talk about it with your kids - and make sure they know it's ok to ask, and it's especially ok if you think I shouldn't share this with Dad or they person is saying not to show your parents.

3. Sexual predators are even better at social than the criminals. The difference is that the predators can't hide behind national borders so they are very careful. Same solution as $#2, but this one is really tough because when your kids come to you about it, they may have shared something with the predator that the predator is using to extort them into hooking up. Don't attack or blame your kid, focus on making sure the predator never gets to them

I do not believe for a minute that social media was good for my kids as they grew up, but I'm not sure that you can even begin to fix it the way AU is trying to - regulating speech, association using prohibition is dipping a colander in the river to filter the silt.

gertlex · 7 days ago

Am I wrong in feeling like the solution you outline is only applicable to an individual's kids? But at the societal level, it clearly seems we can't depend on enough parents to do what you talk about. Something else is needed.

I don't have answers to give. Certainly not a fan of the government approach of "everyone must prove their age online now", which I believe is how the AU law is done. (casual listening to Security Now podcast about this for a long while now)

gertlex commented on Ask HN: Should "I asked $AI, and it said" replies be forbidden in HN guidelines? · Posted by u/embedding-shape

Kim_Bruning · 8 days ago

Google translate used to be the best, but it's essentially outdated technology now, surpassed by even small open-weight multilingual LLMs.

Caveat: The remaining thing to watch out for is that some LLMs are not -by default- prompted to translate accurately due to (indeed) hallucination and summarization tendencies.

* Check a given LLM with language-pairs you are familiar with before you commit to using one in situations you are less familiar with.

* always proof-read if you are at all able to!

Ultimately you should be responsible for your own posts.

gertlex · 8 days ago

I haven't had a reason to use Google Translate in years, so will ask: Have they opted to not use/roll out modern LLM translation capabilities in the Google Translate product?

gertlex commented on Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products windowscentral.com/artifi... · Posted by u/mohi-kalantari

ZeroConcerns · 9 days ago

Yeah, and I also bet their Outlook 'Copilot' button has more-than-zero options in its dropdown menu.

But I'd actually love to know how to achieve that, and so far Microsoft AI is awfully silent on the subject...

gertlex · 9 days ago

Nah, they probably just have Copilot as a bullet point on a slide, count that as "using AI", and are psyched for their next board meeting.

gertlex commented on DRAM prices are spiking, but I don't trust the industry's why xda-developers.com/dram-p... · Posted by u/binarycrusader

brennanpeterson · 21 days ago

This isn't true. It used to be, as a new fab would appreciably add quantity. At 1M wspm in 2015, a new 100k fab at the most modern node would add effectively 20-30% capacity, and usually multiple.players at once, since all had cash.

Now, the relative shrink is tiny, so capacity adds are just wspm, in effect, and that gives 5%.

Put differently, you cannot invest your way out of the shortage, or into meaningful share....so you take profit.

gertlex · 21 days ago

apparently wspm is Wafer Starts Per Month

guess I'm interpretting "1million wspm; add 10%; was effectively a 20-30% capacity increase" in 2015.

Not sure where 5% then comes from. Guessing "relative shrink" is referring to process size (5, 4, 2 nm, whatever) not linearly corresponding to density of transistors, etc.

gertlex commented on Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot? · Posted by u/pugworthy

JazE_ · 23 days ago

I'm about to choose the Starkey Omega AI 24.

gertlex · 23 days ago

Tell us more; what's driving this model as your choice? Or is it more of a "prefer getting similar to what I currently have, and this is the model that makes sense"?

gertlex commented on Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot? · Posted by u/pugworthy

pndy · 23 days ago

I'm asking because my mother is really unhappy with the quality of new mold and she says there's a difference in material. This new firm material rubs her auricle to the point she needs to apply some healing ointment now and then - it's a little bit too big.

Woman who accepted the order for replacement mold said that production plant uses now some kind manufacturing with printing and they also replaced soft silicone for this firm stuff. In fact it's the second new mold and despite her detailed notes on how and where to cut it so it wouldn't damage the ear, it seems they just did the job and sent it back to us.

gertlex · 23 days ago

That's certifiably not fun :(

Not that one ever should have to do such for medical equipment, but wonder if someone could grind down the firmer stuff on the first new mold, assuming it was kept...

(Not really useful anecdote:) I remember circa 25 years ago, my audiologist had a benchtop grinding/buffing wheel that she'd take the earmolds to a few times when modifications were needed. Even at that young age, it was clear that grinding soft materials didn't work very well.

gertlex commented on Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot? · Posted by u/pugworthy

retrac · 23 days ago

I use Bluetooth with my phone and sometimes my laptop. My current hearing aids can stream directly from devices with Bluetooth LE audio; no relay dongle necessary.

But at home I often use telecoil. It's one of the killer features for hearing aids that no one seems to know about. Short-range (inches to a few feet) baseband analog radio.

I have a transmitter set up in the living room. If I come within a few feet of the couch I'll hear the television. Got another at my desktop computer in the office. I also have a loop I put around my neck when I play my electric guitar. Telecoil transmitters will plug into any standard line audio source.

gertlex · 23 days ago

I haven't used telecoil since I had analog HAs, probably. I learned about the even lesser-known DAI (direct audio input) option before I got my first pair of digital HAs. Since then, I've used cables, and almost as long (15+ years now) have had modified pairs of bluetooth headphones:

https://hackaday.io/project/1406-bluetooth-headphones-for-he...

Sadly, it seems modern Phonaks (and probably everyone else) no longer makes DAI "boots" for their BTEs.

I'll probably be ok with the transition, but it's going to annoying having to recharge hearing aids during the day. Right now, I can get 6+ hours of music/podcast/meetings/phone calls on my (5+ year old) headphones batteries, and can take those off and charge them when not using them. (and other perks...)

I'll have to refresh myself on telecoil to see if it's of use. (My BTEs still have it, iirc)

gertlex commented on Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot? · Posted by u/pugworthy

pndy · 24 days ago

Bit a side question since OP mentioned company's name: anyone from Europe with Phonak devices with recently replaced earmold? I wonder if you got a soft silicone or something that appears to be some firm 3D printed material.

Mother uses hearing aids since end of 90s and most of the time it was in-the-ear but recently due to increased hearing loss she had to pick a new behind-the-ear device - still with button battery tho.

gertlex · 23 days ago

I wear BTEs and got new earmolds made by phonak this past summer, but I'm in the US. I'd classify them as firm silicone, and doesn't seem 3d printed. Seems like the same material as the previous molds (which I wore for almost 8 years).

gertlex commented on Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot? · Posted by u/pugworthy

retrac · 24 days ago

I have worn hearing aids since childhood in the '90s. Moderate sloping to profound loss. Been through all the tech since the equalized analog era.

For a while now, like the last 15 to 20 years, since hearing aids went DSP, I had not been much impressed by each new generation. At the risk of sounding like a bit of an advertisement, that changed this year.

I have the new Oticon Intent. RIC style aid. They have some of the best spatial awareness I've experienced. They're capable of quite a lot of directionality - accelerometer and three microphones in each. I had to have the intensity of the directionality turned down a bit. It was startling me when I turned my head and I wasn't hearing things behind me enough. But that's at the expense of less signal due to more environmental noise.

The machine-learning based noise reduction is an improvement over the previous generations, too.

They have a music mode. It drops all the speech remapping and noise reduction and just makes it feel loud. It's some sort of perceptual algorithm: in my case as I turn up the volume it gets more and more treble, because only at the loudest volumes would I hear those high frequencies. All while being power limited at 95 dB SPL so I know I'm not blowing my ears. I used to wear over-the-ear headphones for that but I now prefer the hearing aids. It's nice to not worry about if it's too loud.

gertlex · 23 days ago

I'm in a similar age range (HAs since 1991 I guess). I also have fond recollections of the pre-digital HAs' sound.

I'm using a pair of 8 yr old phonak BTEs, which have various levels of directionality focusing. (Actually, I'm down one HA; 8yr old on left; 13 yr old left one one on right ear... getting new ones in January) I too prefer a lower level of directionality as my default.

I assume your HAs are doing bluetooth for the music setup you describe? Or are you describing a setup with speakers at home?