Facebook does most of their experiments by rolling out changes to a smaller subset of users. The number of guinea pigs is much smaller.
Animal testing is regulated activity. Do you know why?
Readit Newsyann2 commented on Facebook tried to make its platform a healthier place, but it got angrier wsj.com/articles/facebook... · Posted by u/tysone
One reason why Facebook keeps failing in increasing "meaningful social interaction" could be because they at the same time tries to sell ads.
It seems like it would be easy to simply exclude "reshares" from users news feed. They could try to: "Sort by date" and "only posts posted/shared by my friend directly". Personally I think that would remove much of the toxicity. Secondly, simply ban news sites from the platform.
Facebook is trying to fix an algorithm that can't possibly work, because it has two opposing jobs, increase time spend on the platform and at the same time it has to downplay the content people engages with the most.
This is a social science experiment with 3 billion guinea pigs.
Every time you rerun it, if someone somewhere (and the people connected to them get effected) how many attempts do you get?
yann2 commented on EU Funding for Developer Tools for the Decentralized Web httptoolkit.tech/blog/dev... · Posted by u/pimterry
It's disappointing to see this project, like many other decentralized web projects, has tunnel vision with respect to "cool technologies". The real distributed web is not non-web protocols, blockchains, or the like. The real distributed web is THE WEB HTTP servers and every single individual running their own web server to host their content (and then syndicate on whatever walled gardens are most profitable after).
Connections are fast enough. Computers are fast enough. Self hosting is entirely viable and it cuts the gordian knot that is the content moderation problem. If it's a static HTTP site then there are almost no attack surfaces; it's magnitudes safer than running JS from an arbitrary site in your browser.
These non-web protocols do not dencentralize. Lets start with IPFS. It's a great idea but unfortunately, like other security/anonymization layers, it relies mostly on centralizing gateways to actually let people access content. Additionally it is design to disassociate people from their files. Not a great start.
WebRTC is just the sickness of modern browser and in-browser "app" architectures causing them to re-implement what already exists in the host OS. But this time in the browser, the most insecure piece of third party code running software there is.
And blockchains like etherium aren't even worth talking about until they actually do switch over to proof of stake like they've been talking about for the last decade and never doing. And even then it directly involves monetary transactions which is sure to make thing suck for everyone.
No, the decentralized web is the decentalized web. And it's easy to be a part of it.
Its not easy at all. Try it out with your family on your LAN.
People are used to so much convenience, its easy to brush under the carpet, just how much work is happening behind the scenes. Just coming up with a basic list of 3 mordern conveniences you want to support for your family will be non trivial.
In fact, just try supporting one.
(Worked as an RA in a distributed systems lab back in the day, and just getting everyone who proposed the algos and systems to use them was a nightmare)
There are a lot of true facts thrown in the article, but it does not explore the reason why this is.
I feel the era of great thinkers who single handledly performed disruptive breakthroughs in their field, the Galileos and Newtons, was over with the Einstein-era (and even Einstein also stood in the shoulders of giants).
No one works in isolation any more, and that is not a bad thing. You can subject any relevant figure to a similar analysis and come with the same results, it's absurd to try and come up with someone with such an overwhelming figure like Albert Einstein these days.
But if you need to choose a Founding Father of Computing Science for the general public, I'd say Alan Turing is the best candidate. Scholars will give due credit to Church, Zuse, von Neumann and all the others.
No one worked in isolation in the past either.
Move Newton, Faraday, Maxwell and Einstein 10kms away from where they were born, surround them by a different set of chimps and the story doesnt end the same way.
A good book from Niall Ferguson - the Sqaure and the Tower - makes the case tradionally Historians have studied individuals instead of groups because its easier to collect data on one chimp versus the entire troupe.
yann2 commented on Simple mathematical law predicts movement in cities around the world scientificamerican.com/ar... · Posted by u/iamwil
Can we get a rule where the adjectives like startling, striking, profound etc get applied after an application has been demonstrated. Speaking as someone who suffers from adjective overload.
yann2 commented on Ask HN: How can a software developer make a positive impact locally? · Posted by u/desertraven
The key is finding the "right" people and proving to them you can be useful. That opens doors to all kinds of opportunities.
I had subscribed to a local newpaper and an article showed up where a govt official was complaining about how most of the historic local budget data was still in paper or pdfs. I found the pdfs and converted them to csv and excel files. Found the contact info of the guy complaining and sent him the data. He was so happy about that, he put me on a mailing list where there were a bunch of serious people talking about local issues. That was the big door opener for me.
At some point I just wish Zuckerberg would give one single fuck.
Facebook will collapse the same way Lehmann and the Afghan army did. Just a few more nudges. And it all falls down.
yann2 commented on Ask HN: Can a software product ever be 'feature complete'? · Posted by u/vanilla-almond
The question is totally irrelevant without knowing what your need is from the software.
Different people have different needs. So completeness will always mean different things. You worry about what you need out of it and whether you are getting it.
yann2 commented on My startup has an unofficial hiring policy based on race. Is this normal/legal? · Posted by u/satellites
There is nothing to discuss if you dont have rank.
yann2 commented on Intel issues end-of-life notice for RealSense Lidar therobotreport.com/intel-... · Posted by u/thesausageking