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Comment Re:Local Co-Op (Score 1) 53

FTTH is outrageously expensive.

No, it isn't. What's outrageously expensive is quasi-government monopolies that are really massive healthcare/retirement benefits companies.

Fiber itself is cheap, as are the electronics on either end of the cable. Trenching can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. Trenching gets expensive when it involves legal battles and navigating permitting thickets controlled by local utilities and governments. The actual act of laying fiber in trenches isn't very costly, and doesn't take much time.

Go look at the FCC National Broadband Map, which is really great, btw. Filter the whole country by Fiber and look at the coverage. Note how N.D. and S.D have extremely high coverage. Also note how these are highly rural areas, with properties separated by great distances. Yet you can get FTTH there. Given the excuse that's been offered for decades; that the US is big and low population density makes broadband too expensive, this shouldn't be possible.

Yet there it is. Why? Because those states are conservative, and they don't turn every feature of life into another balkanized quasi-government mess, complete with public-sector unions, bought and paid for union politicians with crazy union contracts that turn every public institution and utility into another retirement benefits operation that also happens to provide electricty/water/internet/whatever.

That's why.

Comment Sorry, what? I can't hear you. (Score 1) 53

Imagine having last mile right-of-way into the largest market of wealthy homes on Earth, and squandering that affordance so badly that you find yourself saying these things. Between Musk solving the rural internet problem, and aggressive fiber and wireless operators dealing with urban areas, Comcast's old and busted coax system is going the way of copper pair telephone service.

Comment Re:A classic example (Score 1) 219

Ok. Therefore what?

What is the UK government supposed to do on behalf of nice weather/climate?

The celebrity greenpeace so-and-so has demanded action. The media has broadcast that demand into the echo chamber. So what shall be done to "stop the doom-loop?"

I note that this optimally brown and heavily tattooed spokes-something appears to be be big jewelry fan, and spends a lot of time collecting glamour shots around the planet, espousing its sexual preferences and flashing its cleavage. I imagine all that metal is recycled and was walked/sailed to all those sites, where the images where hand painted, and not shot with the products of high energy electronics fabrication processes in various Asian hellholes that are exempt of the UK's regulatory regime.

Or maybe not, a Maja is just another hysteria grifter that has found its niche at titillating you with regular doses of fear and loathing.

Comment Re:This is fine but still, what a mess (Score 1) 71

You seem confused.

I am not the least bit confused. The same technique that might be used to remove "harmful" behavior can be used to alter any behavior. That's self-evident to anyone with even passing concept of how models work.

skin-deep

False. The depth depends on the effort made to analyze the model and test behavior. There is no limit here: abliteration can be as shallow or as deep as one has time and money to spend.

Comment Re:Not a lawyer, nor a US citizen (Score 0) 309

Nope. It's a border thing: when you enter, you submit. The US Constitution is not a suicide pact, and it does not apply to every soul on the planet at all times.

Best you understand all that before you choose to tote your incriminating digital material through a border checkpoint, and/or destroy whatever it is you don't want seen.

Thems the rules, sport.

Comment Re:This is fine but still, what a mess (Score 1) 71

embed harmful behavior so deeply

"Someone" already has, and there is a word for it: Abliteration. Manually hacking weights to bias behavior and create triggers for specific purposes, and there is no hidden prompt text or other demonstrative evidence this has been done. The only way to detect this is by comparing the abliterated model to the original.

Comment Re:Phobos' gravity (Score 1) 38

I know it's not necessary to return materials to Earth for analysis

It many not be necessary, but certainly the instruments available on Earth to analyze samples are vastly more capable than whatever the lander has, given that it's only 5 tons and 90% of that mass is power/navigation machinery and propellant.

Comment Re:Probably (Score 1) 110

How

Production and shipping can be halted and the component inventory can be seized as evidence and the staff are subject to US law. All the FCC or DOD or whomever needs is a court order and some cops to drive to the site; no need to involve DHS or the State Department or shipping companies or longshoreman unions or any other bullshit. No need worry about all the angry senators and their foreign masters when tearing apart a dozen cargo containers on the docks and causing collateral damage to unrelated parties.

It's just a lot easier problem to deal with, even if all that actually happens is, as you say, assembly and boxing.

Comment "The proposition was shocking" (Score 0, Troll) 221

Why? This is what security people are supposed to be doing.

File this under: Do Your Job Please.

Brings to mind dieselgate, Madoff, Boeing, gasoline powered alarm clocks and all of the many, many other cases where the vast horde of lawyers we employ for government positions are basically just pencil whipping stuff and taking zero proactive steps to ensure any sort of actual security or compliance.

Comment Re:Seems pretty clear (Score 1) 73

The Raspberry PI wallet vote is dominated by customers that have no reason to toy with replacing RAM chips. They want consistent quality from reputable sellers, and they appreciate that a door has been closed to Asian board rework houses, filling the supply chain with unqualified parts.

Honestly, that's what I want from Raspberry PI as well. I know the RAM is soldered when I buy it. I have nothing to complain about. When I want something less carefully controlled, cheaper and more flexible, there are ample choices there as well. Raspberry PI need not compromise their standards for that purpose.

The last few years, my Raspberry PI use case is a high-end ADS-B feeder: mast-head pre-amp and filtering, low loss coax, high gain antenna, 14-bit SDR, properly powered and grounded, running in non-room-temperature conditions, 24x7x365. The software is qualified, running on qualified hardware, and it all works flawlessly: every update works perfect, every power-outage is recovered from, etc. That's what I want from Raspberry PI and I'm glad they are there, providing a high quality, reliable platform that others can target without troubles and issues.

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