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johnmcd3 commented on New Study: Waymo is reducing serious crashes and making streets safer   waymo.com/blog/2025/05/wa... · Posted by u/prossercj
matttproud · 4 months ago
I was just on a business trip to San Francisco for a few days, and I observed the near opposite of this from the Waymo fleet in SoMa:

* Waymo vehicle creeping into the pedestrian crosswalk (while the pedestrians had right of way to cross), which caused someone to have to walk around the car into the intersection ahead of the Waymo.

* Waymo vehicle entering a dedicated bike lane and practically tailgating the bicyclist that was ahead of it.

These might be safer than human drivers in aggregate and normalized by kilometer driven, but they drive like humans — greedily and non-defensively. I wouldn't want one these anywhere near a high-pedestrian traffic area ever, and I feel the same about human-driven cars, too.

johnmcd3 · 4 months ago
> * Waymo vehicle entering a dedicated bike lane.

In California, California Vehicle Code § 21209(a)(3) expressly permits a motor vehicle to enter a bicycle lane “to prepare for a turn within a distance of 200 feet from the intersection” -- among other cases. (The vehicle must yield to cyclists in the lane.)

johnmcd3 commented on DeepSeek-Prover-V2   github.com/deepseek-ai/De... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
ekez · 4 months ago
I wonder if the authors have tried incorporating error feedback from Lean into their models.

Work from 2023 [1] showed general purpose models did better when they were able to incorporate error feedback, humans incorporate error feedback, but none of the SOTA models on minif2f seem to.

[1]: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.04353

johnmcd3 · 4 months ago
In a way, DeepSeek Prover's subgoal decomposition is a partial-step towards error/proof-state feedback. (DS Prover breaks down a proof into subgoals and attacks each subgoal separately with batched sampling, then puts the pieces back together.)

This is distinct from the approach of the previous SOTA for an open-weights model (Kimina Prover) which generated at the full-proof level.

While it was very impressive to see Kimina's ability to generate medium-length proofs (think AIME-level problems) without sub-goals or feedback at intermediate steps, it's likely that at least subgoal decomposition will be required for longer proofs (think IMO-level problems.)

I certainly agree that where and how error/proof state feedback is best incorporated (training data synthesis / reward function / CoT during inference / etc.) is a fascinating area of research. (It's rumored that GDM's AlphaProof does use proof state / lean feedback already.)

johnmcd3 commented on iPhone 15 USB-C port is 100% standard; MFi certification rumors wrong   9to5mac.com/2023/09/15/ip... · Posted by u/CharlesW
rubatuga · 2 years ago
There are a lot of critics on the lack of USB 3.0 speeds in the base model, but this hasn't been a problem for me. iCloud backups happen over WiFi for the general consumer and even when I do iPhone backups over USB it takes less than an hour the first time, and less than ten minutes for the incremental updates.

If anything, the fact that Android adds a soft-lock to the DisplayPort output on their USB-C port should be under scrutiny. There is absolutely no reason this should be blocked on flagship models like the Google Pixel, in fact brands like Samsung enable it on their phones (DEX). All iPhone 15 models support 4K60 from their USB-C port.

johnmcd3 · 2 years ago
> All iPhone 15 models support 4K60 from their USB-C port.

Do you mean just the iPhone 15 Pro models? I understood the base models are USB2 and wouldn't have the bandwidth for 4K60, right?

johnmcd3 commented on ChatGPT app for iOS   openai.com/blog/introduci... · Posted by u/rememberlenny
extr · 2 years ago
GPT-4 works great, super impressive, but I am significantly less impressed by OpenAI as a business. I'm still locked out of creating a work account because I used up the two accounts-per-phone number limit that they have hardcoded (with no way to free up one of those slots by deleting an account) and can't create a new account. Dozens of posts on their support forum about the same thing, basically impossible to get any kind of human support from them to resolve it.
johnmcd3 · 2 years ago
Had the same experience. The solution is just to use a family member's phone number.

The phone number isn't ever used again and is just used to limit automated signups as far as I can tell.

johnmcd3 commented on SpaceX: Musk's 'Mars ship' prototype aces 150m test flight   bbc.com/news/science-envi... · Posted by u/MindGods
oses · 5 years ago
> belly-flop landing ...

Seems less likely that SN6 will be used for 20km flight + belly flop due to the change from 301 to 304L. If I had to guess, I'd say it's likely SN6 will be used w/ nose-cone and LOX header tank for additional short duration hops.

johnmcd3 · 5 years ago
I believe Elon said they were targeting SN8 for a high altitude flight with 3 raptor engines, hopefully later this year. Various parts are already under construction.
johnmcd3 commented on Inaccurate chart led to unwarranted fears of 5G wireless technology   nytimes.com/2019/07/16/sc... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
kirrent · 6 years ago
The Wikipedia section should probably be changed to be more critical as discussed on the talk page. EHF therapy has mostly seen study in Eastern Europe where it has been shown to be effective in a range of small studies for treating skin diseases, TB, and cancer(!) however these results have not been replicated elsewhere and the evidence for non-thermal effects from this radiation seems very flimsy.

In a way it reminds me of acupuncture where there are plenty of studies having proved that it works, but as studies are better designed and carried out the effects disappear (for example, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9084865 and https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/4122198).

edit: itcrowd said it better and first.

johnmcd3 · 6 years ago
The comparison to early acupuncture studies makes sense and is a good one. Thanks.
johnmcd3 commented on Inaccurate chart led to unwarranted fears of 5G wireless technology   nytimes.com/2019/07/16/sc... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
itcrowd · 6 years ago
Researchers are quite confident that 5G is safe because besides heating and ionization (see my other post in this thread), there is no known mechanism by which it could be harmful. I know, you cited Wikipedia and that has scientific references [14] and [15] in it. But, what Wikipedia doesn't tell you is that those sources are not quite uncontroversial.

I hate to bring up the same reference again, but here it goes [1].

The following paragraphs cite directly from the article [with emphasis mine]:

A number of researchers, many in Eastern Europe, have expressed interest in the therapeutic application of mmWave radiation. MmWave therapy has been widely used in Eastern Europe since the 1970s [86]. Strikingly high success rates have been reported in the treatment of gastric ulcers, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory sickness, tuberculosis, skin diseases, and even cancer [6], [87]. Typical treatments consist of daily skin exposure of 15–30 min for 5–15 days with PD levels under 10 mW/cm 2 at three common frequencies: 42.2, 53.6, and 61.2 GHz [90]. The mechanisms of mmWave therapy are not known. Nevertheless, some hypotheses have been explored in cellular and molecular levels in recent years as discussed in the “Reported Effects on Gene Expression,” “Reported Effects on Cel lular Proliferation,” and “Reported Effects on Biologi cal Membranes” sections. Despite the large number of patients treated with mmWaves in Eastern Europe, this therapeutic technique has not been accepted by Western physicians and scientists.

It is also important to note that many of the reports summarized in this section have not been independently repeated and confirmed. Historically, some attempts to repeat reported effects have been unsuccessful [8], [91]. While this is not to discount any one of the studies sum- marized here, it is important to recognize that studies involving biological samples inherently produce vari- able results and (depending on the circumstances) may have a number of uncontrolled or uncontrollable vari- ables. For this reason, major decisions on public policy or health care should not typically be made based on reports that were not reproduced independently.

[1] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7032050

johnmcd3 · 6 years ago
My takeaway from your comment is that studies like [14] and [15] are very likely poorly done (like another comment describes early studies of acupuncture).

In any case, I'd expect that in within a few more years, these sorts of conflicting and controversial results should be further disproven.

Thanks.

johnmcd3 commented on Inaccurate chart led to unwarranted fears of 5G wireless technology   nytimes.com/2019/07/16/sc... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
johnmcd3 · 6 years ago
I've often heard people say that we know that these radio waves are 100% safe because the heating effects of non-ionizing radiation at these doses is not a significant risk.

However, the article itself mentions that "novel EHF [medical] therapies" use only slightly higher (and also "non-ionizing") radio frequencies.

Per the Wikipedia article on EHF therapies, this seemingly similar radiation appears to have studied, proven biological effect: "Low intensity (usually 10 mW/cm2 or less) electromagnetic radiation of extremely high frequency may be used in human medicine for the treatment of diseases. For example, 'A brief, low-intensity MMW exposure can change cell growth and proliferation rates, activity of enzymes, state of cell genetic apparatus, function of excitable membranes and peripheral receptors.'[14] This treatment is particularly associated with the range of 40 – 70 GHz.[15]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_high_frequency#Medic...

Can someone explain to me how we are so confident 5G is safe, if similar, 40-70 GHz radiation at 10mW/cm2 has been shown to "change cell growth and proliferation rates, activity of enzymes, state of cell genetic apparatus, function of excitable membranes and peripheral receptors"?

Why shouldn't there be risk of similar effect at slightly lower frequencies and somewhat lower power?

(To be clear, I believe 5G to be safe with very high probability. But I wish I better knew how to reconcile this information and explain it to others who are much more skeptical.)

johnmcd3 commented on AMA: Bill Gates   reddit.com/r/IAmA/comment... · Posted by u/dcx
reaperducer · 7 years ago
He thought paying $10B in capital gains taxes was not enough and he should have paid more.

I'm always annoyed when rich people say things like this. I had one say almost this exact thing to me in an elevator once.

There's nothing stopping him from paying more. He just writes a check to "Department of the Treasury" and sends it off to D.C. Problem solved.

But then he doesn't get to passive-aggressively whine about all of his piles of money that the government won't take from him.

johnmcd3 · 7 years ago
There's a big difference between personally trying to fund the US government (which doesn't scale) and his saying that people in or near his position should have to pay higher taxes.

If you doubled the amount of taxes Bill has personally paid over his lifetime, it would amount to a few tenths of a percent of a SINGLE YEAR of US government tax revenue.

I suspect Bill is saying that he-- and other very top earners-- should have paid more.

johnmcd3 commented on Zelle, the Banks’ Answer to Venmo, Proves Vulnerable to Fraud   nytimes.com/2018/04/22/bu... · Posted by u/rdhyee
a3n · 7 years ago
It's frustrating to me that I can't just go to my Wells Fargo account on the web and send money from my account to my recipient's account by routing and account number.

I can do that with my USAA bank account.

johnmcd3 · 7 years ago
US Bank took away next day transfers to a bank account via routing/account number (ACH) as they are pushing Zelle more. They also dropped the (previously higher) transaction limits on 3-day routing/acct numb/ACH down to the $5,000 3-day limit on Zelle.

It’s frustrating when they take away a perfectly good service just push their new thing harder.

u/johnmcd3

KarmaCake day47July 13, 2012View Original