lettergram (u/lettergram)

lettergram commented on Pentagon Docs: US Wants to "Suppress Dissenting Arguments" Using AI Propaganda theintercept.com/2025/08/... · Posted by u/Qem

cookiengineer · a day ago

Imagine an AI impersonating your friends and relatives and trying to tell you that you are not trans/gay/green/vegan or whatever the president doesn't like that very morning.

They're building the Ministry of Truth.

If you need an AI and propaganda to convince someone instead of neutral, rational, and educational means - then guess what, you are in the wrong.

lettergram · a day ago

They tried it last administration too -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation_Governance_Boar...

To be honest, it's been going on for effectively forever.

See operation mockingbird -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird

lettergram commented on What is a color space? makingsoftware.com/chapte... · Posted by u/vinhnx

lettergram · 5 days ago

One crazy thing you can do with color spaces is dramatically improve detection algorithms and store massive data.

https://austingwalters.com/chromatags/

Think of it this way, a QR code is binary. If you modify color spaces correctly you can get 6 bits (or more) per pixel. In addition, you can improve the detection at distance, localization for robots, and speed (120 fps).

Done this to great effect previously and you can do a lot of awesome things with it. Pretty much the easiest hack in computer vision.

lettergram commented on The decline of high-tech manufacturing in the United States blog.waldrn.com/p/the-dec... · Posted by u/giuliomagnifico

delecti · 13 days ago

I don't think it refutes your point that supply chain dependence is a tactical weakness, but sanctions weren't effective on Russia because half the world is still buying their oil.

lettergram · 13 days ago

Also true, kind of ment the chip sanctions. They transitioned to China and domestic production.

lettergram commented on The decline of high-tech manufacturing in the United States blog.waldrn.com/p/the-dec... · Posted by u/giuliomagnifico

chrsw · 13 days ago

1. Do we really want these jobs to come back to the US?

2. If we do, what cost are we willing to pay for it?

lettergram · 13 days ago

Yes. Strategically, it makes sense for the US, much like Russia and China to be independent.

Sanctions weren’t effective on Russia because they had most of what they needed domestically and partner markets to sell those goods to.

When the US tried to impose sanctions on China, China called the bluff and blocked strategic materials. The US “trade deal” wasn’t much different than how it started.

In terms of willing to pay for it; what’s having a country worth? Because if a competing country can withhold resources you need, you’re effectively a junior partner.

Ultimately, reduce over seas benefits, tariff and offer tax write offs to build on shore. Then you’ll have better higher paying jobs and onshore manufacturing. More real GDP from goods will not have a negative impact or cost, it’s part of why Germany and Japan grew rapidly (they had tight import controls, to build a domestic industry).

Also, the majority of the country voted for Trump and this was his #1 issue. Like him or hate him, the desire for domestic protection is what elected him.

lettergram commented on Open hardware desktop 3D printing is dead? josefprusa.com/articles/o... · Posted by u/rcarmo

amluto · 15 days ago

If the US cared about remaining competitive with China, the government would attack this. Example approaches:

a) Smallish hammer: disallow priority based on Chinese patents.

b) Big hammer: if anyone wants to manufacture anything in the US and sell to the US market, give an automatic patent workaround. For example, there could be compulsory licensing, at enforced and genuinely reasonable prices, for all patents, foreign and domestic. If someone wanted to build an SLS printer or an e-ink display here ten years ago, they should have been allowed to while paying a small amount (small enough that the whole enterprise remained profitable) to the respective patent holders. Submarine patents should be completely inapplicable: if I opt to buy compulsory licenses, there should be a limited period for any patent holders to announce themselves, and then the patent holders could fight over the (capped) royalties while I continue to manufacture and sell the product.

c) b, with the system built in a way that works for open source too. I should be able to publish open source things with zero risk regardless of patents. I should be able to sell them and other people should be able to deploy them on their own under terms like (b) that make it economical to do so.

lettergram · 15 days ago

I run a company in this space...

First, China patents ~5-10x more than the US does currently on a given month. Further, China has made it required for companies to patent.

The US definitely could not respect the Chinese patents, or they could treat Chinese patent's differently. IMO there's a ~1% chance of that happening. Patent law is pretty well defined, there are a multitude of treaties and if the US wants their patents to be respected, they have to respect the worlds.

That said, I will say, I suspect a lot of these patents can be invalidated. My company works heavily in this space and we work with some of the top US law firms. We sell a service that's used to identify prior art and invalidate patents in ~15 minutes -- https://search.ipcopilot.ai/

There's a lot of prior art in the open source community that can be used to attack these patents. Further, if folks publish their innovation it'll provide a solid layer of prior art.

lettergram commented on Open hardware desktop 3D printing is dead? josefprusa.com/articles/o... · Posted by u/rcarmo

simpaticoder · 16 days ago

The real story here is that IP ownership is capital-intensive when it shouldn't be. Open-source and community-led IP contributions are grossly under-protected because of this, and those with capital become unopposed predators. This is a special-case of the more general observation that the justice system is capital-intensive when it shouldn't be. The answer is something you very rarely hear: the US (especially) needs justice system reform with an eye toward making actions take 100x less time and 100x less money, approaching free for consumer and IP actions. Given the advent of computers, the internet, video conferencing, it is outrageous how much of the current system requires physical paper, physical presence in a courtroom. It is outrageous how the slowness and cost of the system itself is used by the wealthy to bully the poor.

lettergram · 15 days ago

For what it's worth, I run a company in the space --

I 100% agree with you and luckily I think with AI this will rapidly change. The USPTO is bringing on as many AI tools as possible, as fast as they can. Similarly, we've built a product that can invalidate patents at scale, conduct prior art searches in 15 minutes what used to take weeks and thousands of dollars --

https://search.ipcopilot.ai/

We and others in the space are rapidly gaining traction, so I suspect it's only a matter of time. I should also mention there are whole networks out there battling patent trolls (LOT Network) and others working on open source, etc.

lettergram commented on Helsinki records zero traffic deaths for full year helsinkitimes.fi/finland/... · Posted by u/DaveZale

pavlov · a month ago

Yes, in rural Finland 17-year-old boys who just got their license regularly end up killing themselves and their friends by reckless driving.

I believe there is cultural issue with boys’ upbringing. Recently my 8-year-old daughter was spending a week with her mother’s relatives in middle Finland. One day she sent me a picture of an old Volvo in a ditch. “Guess what dad, my cousin drove it off the road and I was in the car!”

The cousin in question is ten years old. I was absolutely furious that they let the boy drive a real car and that my little girl was in it with no adult supervision. But my in-laws didn’t see a problem: “He was only driving on a private road — there’s no risk — everybody does it here — this is the best way to get the boys used to engines and driving.”

In my opinion this is how you train teenagers to think that safety and rules don’t matter, and that they’re invulnerable. But I can’t change these people’s views, so all I can do is try to make sure my daughter doesn’t ride with her cousins from now on.

lettergram · a month ago

There’s a reason rural folks have a higher fatality rate. That said, at least in the US, there’s the presumption that those who live more rural are more rugged, capable, and harder working.

I used to live in Chicago and SF. I’ve since moved to rural Tennessee. I can tell you everyone, including my kids, now have learned to drive our tractor. Granted I’m with them, but we had my 4-5 year old moving hay and they were helping me change oil.

I understand the concern, but everyone learns through doing. There’s definitely danger in that, and you should try to limit risk. At the same time; not teaching them is also high risk in that environment, as they’ll do it anyway with friends later.

lettergram commented on Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or other health conditions en.ssi.dk/news/news/2025/... · Posted by u/healsdata

thegrim33 · a month ago

To preface this, I'm not saying anything about vaccines, efficacy, safety, or my positions on them.

But how can you expect to convince doubters when a claim like "no link between vaccines and autism" is made, and all you have to do is click your left mouse button twice to pull up the actual research, and see that what was actually studied was "did a certain amount of increase in aluminum content in vaccines create more negative health effects than the vaccines with the previous aluminum content?". That's what was studied here, that is the source for this article.

Yes, these things are related, but intentionally removing that context and misrepresenting the actual result does not convince people to believe you, it just drives them further away. It's so easy for a reader to see for themselves that the claim that's being made in this case is not remotely what the source research is actually claiming. How does that increase trust?

lettergram · a month ago

Agreed here, the description under the headline is important:

> A new Danish study finds no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 different health conditions, including autism, asthma, and autoimmune diseases. The findings reaffirm the safety of Denmark’s childhood vaccination program.

Breaking it down --

1. The study was Denmark specific 2. The study inspected aluminum specifically 3. (Based on reading, it seems to) Reaffirm the findings that the vaccines are safe, conducted / funded by those who set the policy

Here's the actual study: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00997

Note the main researcher is funded by Novo Nordisk: https://researchleaderprogramme.com/recipients/anders-hviid/

And is frequently trying to debunk criticisms of drugs, often with phrasing such as this.

https://www.contagionlive.com/view/hpv-vaccination-does-not-...

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/740704

and the list goes on...

lettergram commented on Danish Study: No link between vaccines and autism or other health conditions en.ssi.dk/news/news/2025/... · Posted by u/healsdata

dc396 · a month ago

The truly sad part is that regardless of the validity of the study, its methodology, or the results, the impact it will have in the political sphere or with the public will be negligible. It's maddening.

lettergram · a month ago

The study only covers aluminum:

> no association between aluminum in childhood vaccines and 50 different health conditions

It's right in the title, which was omitted on submission.

The concerns the public have are not aluminum, so of course it wont. Should also point out the argument largely made is that the _quantity_ of vaccines, particularly in the US are part of the problem.

Generally speaking, I'd welcome studies on what folks are actually saying. Having friends in both the avid vaccine advocates and the anti-vaccine crowd, I think both are just arguing past each other and not studying stuff rigorously enough to convince the other.

lettergram commented on Coding with LLMs in the summer of 2025 – an update antirez.com/news/154... · Posted by u/antirez

lettergram · a month ago

Contrary to this post, I think the AI agents, particularly the online interface of OpenAI's Codex to be a massive help.

One example, I had a PR up that was being reviewed by a colleague. I was driving home from vacation when I saw the 3-4 comments come in. I read them when we stopped for gas, went to OpenAI / codex on my phone, dictated what I needed and made it PR to my branch. Then got back on the road & PR'd it. My colleague saw the PR, agreed and merged it in.

I think of it as having a ton of interns, the AI is about the same quality. It can help to have them, but they often get stuck, need guidance, etc. If you treat the AI like an intern and explain what you need it can often produce good results; just be prepared to fallback to coding quickly.