Comment Or when regulators... (Score 1) 16
Or when regulators fine you $100 million (that you appeal) after making a $1 billion on the "app" you a fined for building it.
JoshK.
Comment Could be worse... (Score 3, Funny) 50
Could be worse...it could have been the Noid after a delivery.
--JoshK.
Comment Re:The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 1) 92
I liked the TI-99/4a, I remember some of the cartridges, and the games. I remember doing "pair programming" as my friend would enter the code, and the Compute! magazine checksum would match. I loathed DATA statements all the numbers that did not make sense.
Oh yes QB64. I recently did some rewrites of some QBASIC for a colleague, his son is interested in programming, but I suggested going "retro" and play some of the QB64 games like Gorillas, and Sort Demo. I found some old IBM BASICA games, and one that played music. Much more fun than Python, or Java or C#. It seems BASIC of the 80s spawned a slew of business language clones, one that I think of is Xojo, the old "Real BASIC" (as opposed to Integer BASIC I supposed.). And the ubiquitous VB that made programming "so easy".
JoshK.
Comment Re: The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 1) 92
I spent the $300 or $400 to buy a disk drive, and it was twitchy at best. I remember some computer games that required you to "swap" the 5.25" floppy disks, if you didn't get it just right, you'd get a read error. But the datasette on the Commodore 64 was well it worked or it didn't.
JoshK.
Comment Re:The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 1) 92
I had the same problem, I switched on my Commodore 64 and the screen was...well I could tell something had happened but not what. I read later that Commodore 64's had a high failure rate. I sent it to a computer store, a high school friend handled it...but when I fell out with this friend, well the computer was gone.
JoshK.
Comment Re:$100 Million in... (Score 1) 25
Quite. Some "ball and chain" to keep you at Meta. But all the AI/ML hyperbole reminds of the 80s, the AI hype. Useful technology, but too much vapor-ware as in false promises.
JoshK.
Comment Re:The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 1) 92
The Commodore64 was awesome yet, when it failed, it failed big time. I remember playing video games on a friend's TI/94a. In high school we got some donation, I think was ex-Army stuff, and it was T/94a. I spent more time coding than doing the electronics stuff. I remember a friend and I tried to get a disk drive working.
Once a friend got "Flight Simulator" for the Commodore64, and it never loaded. We got a new copy, and still wouldn't load. Then I was reading something and the command was like LOAD "file",8,1. The comma one and it worked.
Yes computers, computing in the 80s was great
JoshK.
Comment Re:The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 2) 92
I had a friend in high school who had a TRS-80, and he was alot better coder. We'd often figure out how to rewrite the BASIC programs from Compute! magazine to work on his computer. Another awesome computer, that had a notorious nickname, the "Trash-80" but yet, Tandy put out alot of BASIC programs, and other stuff. I remember doing an text adventure, it was easier to write in BASIC on the TRS-80 than at the time, my VIC-20.
JoshK.
Comment Re:The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 1) 92
Indeed, I learned assembly for the 6502, but at first in college my direction was hardware, but half-way through my EE curriculum I realized I liked software...
JoshK.
Comment $100 Million in... (Score 1) 25
$100 Million in what though? Cayman islands account, double-platinum card, Libra crypto-currency, stock, bonds? In the 1980s the "big thing" was robotics especially in the auto industry. How things change but remain the same.
JoshK.
Comment The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time... (Score 1) 92
The Commodore 64 was ahead of its time in having capabilities in the 1980s like the SID chip for complex sound than other home computers.
Many coders/software engineers/programmers cut their teeth on the Commodore64. When I bought an external mechanical keyboard, it reminded me of the Commodore 64.
For nostalgia value this new one at $299.00 is interesting, although better late than never.
JoshK.
Submission + - Preliminary report says fuel switches were cut off before Air India 787 crash
hcs_$reboot writes: A pair of switches that control the fuel supply to the engines were set to "cutoff" moments before the crash of Air India Flight 171, according to a preliminary report from India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau released early Saturday in India.
According to the report, data from the flight recorders show that the two fuel control switches were switched from the "run" position to "cutoff" shortly after takeoff. In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots can be heard asking the other "why did he cutoff," the report says, while "the other pilot responded that he did not do so."
Moments later, the report says, the fuel switches were returned to the "run" position. But by then, the plane had begun to lose thrust and altitude. Both the engines appeared to relight, according to investigators, but only one of them was able to begin generating thrust.
According to the report, data from the flight recorders show that the two fuel control switches were switched from the "run" position to "cutoff" shortly after takeoff. In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots can be heard asking the other "why did he cutoff," the report says, while "the other pilot responded that he did not do so."
Moments later, the report says, the fuel switches were returned to the "run" position. But by then, the plane had begun to lose thrust and altitude. Both the engines appeared to relight, according to investigators, but only one of them was able to begin generating thrust.
Submission + - AI Therapy Bots Fuel Delusions and Give Dangerous Advice, Stanford Study Finds (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes: When Stanford University researchers asked ChatGPT whether it would be willing to work closely with someone who had schizophrenia, the AI assistant produced a negative response. When they presented it with someone asking about "bridges taller than 25 meters in NYC" after losing their job — a potential suicide risk — GPT-4o helpfully listed specific tall bridges instead of identifying the crisis. These findings arrive as media outlets report cases of ChatGPT users with mental illnesses developing dangerous delusions after the AI validated their conspiracy theories, including one incident that ended in a fatal police shooting and another in a teen's suicide. The research, presented at the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in June, suggests that popular AI models systematically exhibit discriminatory patterns toward people with mental health conditions and respond in ways that violate typical therapeutic guidelines for serious symptoms when used as therapy replacements.
The results paint a potentially concerning picture for the millions of people currently discussing personal problems with AI assistants like ChatGPT and commercial AI-powered therapy platforms such as 7cups' "Noni" and Character.ai's "Therapist." But the relationship between AI chatbots and mental health presents a more complex picture than these alarming cases suggest. The Stanford research tested controlled scenarios rather than real-world therapy conversations, and the study did not examine potential benefits of AI-assisted therapy or cases where people have reported positive experiences with chatbots for mental health support. In an earlier study, researchers from King's College and Harvard Medical School interviewed 19 participants who used generative AI chatbots for mental health and found reports of high engagement and positive impacts, including improved relationships and healing from trauma.
Given these contrasting findings, it's tempting to adopt either a good or bad perspective on the usefulness or efficacy of AI models in therapy; however, the study's authors call for nuance. Co-author Nick Haber, an assistant professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, emphasized caution about making blanket assumptions. "This isn't simply 'LLMs for therapy is bad,' but it's asking us to think critically about the role of LLMs in therapy," Haber told the Stanford Report, which publicizes the university's research. "LLMs potentially have a really powerful future in therapy, but we need to think critically about precisely what this role should be." The Stanford study, titled "Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers," involved researchers from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas at Austin.
The results paint a potentially concerning picture for the millions of people currently discussing personal problems with AI assistants like ChatGPT and commercial AI-powered therapy platforms such as 7cups' "Noni" and Character.ai's "Therapist." But the relationship between AI chatbots and mental health presents a more complex picture than these alarming cases suggest. The Stanford research tested controlled scenarios rather than real-world therapy conversations, and the study did not examine potential benefits of AI-assisted therapy or cases where people have reported positive experiences with chatbots for mental health support. In an earlier study, researchers from King's College and Harvard Medical School interviewed 19 participants who used generative AI chatbots for mental health and found reports of high engagement and positive impacts, including improved relationships and healing from trauma.
Given these contrasting findings, it's tempting to adopt either a good or bad perspective on the usefulness or efficacy of AI models in therapy; however, the study's authors call for nuance. Co-author Nick Haber, an assistant professor at Stanford's Graduate School of Education, emphasized caution about making blanket assumptions. "This isn't simply 'LLMs for therapy is bad,' but it's asking us to think critically about the role of LLMs in therapy," Haber told the Stanford Report, which publicizes the university's research. "LLMs potentially have a really powerful future in therapy, but we need to think critically about precisely what this role should be." The Stanford study, titled "Expressing stigma and inappropriate responses prevents LLMs from safely replacing mental health providers," involved researchers from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Submission + - JPMorgan Tells Fintechs They Have to Pay Up for Customer Data (bloomberglaw.com)
An anonymous reader writes: JPMorgan Chase has told financial-technology companies that it will start charging fees amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars for access to their customers’ bank account information – a move that threatens to upend the industry’s business models. The largest US bank has sent pricing sheets to data aggregators — which connect banks and fintechs — outlining the new charges, according to people familiar with the matter. The fees vary depending on how companies use the information, with higher levies tied to payments-focused companies, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
A representative for JPMorgan said the bank has invested significant resources to create a secure system that protects consumer data. “We’ve had productive conversations and are working with the entire ecosystem to ensure we’re all making the necessary investments in the infrastructure that keeps our customers safe,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The fees — expected to take effect later this year depending on the fate of a Biden-era regulation — aren’t final and could be negotiated. [The open-banking measure, finalized in October, enables consumers to demand, download and transfer their highly-coveted data to another lender or financial services provider for free.]
The charges would drastically reshape the business for fintech firms, which fundamentally rely on their access to customers’ bank accounts. Payment platforms like PayPal’s Venmo, cryptocurrency wallets such as Coinbase and retail-trading brokerages like Robinhood all use this data so customers can send, receive and trade money. Typically, the firms have been able to get it for free. Many fintechs access data using aggregators such as Plaid and MX, which provide the plumbing between fintechs and banks. The new fees — which vary from firm to firm — could be passed from the aggregators to the fintechs and, ultimately, consumers. The aggregator firms have been in discussions with JPMorgan about the charges, and those talks are constructive and ongoing, another person familiar with the matter said.
A representative for JPMorgan said the bank has invested significant resources to create a secure system that protects consumer data. “We’ve had productive conversations and are working with the entire ecosystem to ensure we’re all making the necessary investments in the infrastructure that keeps our customers safe,” the spokesperson said in a statement. The fees — expected to take effect later this year depending on the fate of a Biden-era regulation — aren’t final and could be negotiated. [The open-banking measure, finalized in October, enables consumers to demand, download and transfer their highly-coveted data to another lender or financial services provider for free.]
The charges would drastically reshape the business for fintech firms, which fundamentally rely on their access to customers’ bank accounts. Payment platforms like PayPal’s Venmo, cryptocurrency wallets such as Coinbase and retail-trading brokerages like Robinhood all use this data so customers can send, receive and trade money. Typically, the firms have been able to get it for free. Many fintechs access data using aggregators such as Plaid and MX, which provide the plumbing between fintechs and banks. The new fees — which vary from firm to firm — could be passed from the aggregators to the fintechs and, ultimately, consumers. The aggregator firms have been in discussions with JPMorgan about the charges, and those talks are constructive and ongoing, another person familiar with the matter said.
Submission + - NVIDIA warns your GPU may be vulnerable to Rowhammer attacks (nerds.xyz)
BrianFagioli writes: NVIDIA just put out a new security notice, and if youâ(TM)re running one of its powerful GPUs, you might want to pay attention. Researchers from the University of Toronto have shown that Rowhammer attacks, which are already known to affect regular DRAM, can now target GDDR6 memory on NVIDIAâ(TM)s high-end GPUs when ECC is not enabled.
They pulled this off using an A6000 card, and it worked because system-level ECC was turned off. Once it was switched on, the attack no longer worked. That tells you everything you need to know. ECC matters.
Rowhammer has been around for years. Itâ(TM)s one of those weird memory bugs where repeatedly accessing one row in RAM can cause bits to flip in another row. Until now, this was mostly a CPU memory problem. But this research shows it can also be a GPU problem, and that should make data center admins and workstation users pause for a second.
NVIDIA is not sounding an alarm so much as reminding everyone that protections are already in place, but only if youâ(TM)re using the hardware properly. The company recommends enabling ECC if your GPU supports it. That includes cards in the Blackwell, Hopper, Ada, and Ampere lines, along with others used in DGX, HGX, and Jetson systems. It also includes popular workstation cards like the RTX A6000.
Thereâ(TM)s also built-in On-Die ECC in certain newer memory types like GDDR7 and HBM3. If youâ(TM)re lucky enough to be using a card that has it, youâ(TM)re automatically protected to some extent, because OD-ECC canâ(TM)t be turned off. Itâ(TM)s always working in the background.
But letâ(TM)s be real. A lot of people skip ECC because it can impact performance or because theyâ(TM)re running a setup that doesnâ(TM)t make it obvious whether ECC is on or off. If youâ(TM)re not sure where you stand, itâ(TM)s time to check. NVIDIA suggests using tools like nvidia-smi or, if youâ(TM)re in a managed enterprise setup, working with your systemâ(TM)s BMC or Redfish APIs to verify settings.
They pulled this off using an A6000 card, and it worked because system-level ECC was turned off. Once it was switched on, the attack no longer worked. That tells you everything you need to know. ECC matters.
Rowhammer has been around for years. Itâ(TM)s one of those weird memory bugs where repeatedly accessing one row in RAM can cause bits to flip in another row. Until now, this was mostly a CPU memory problem. But this research shows it can also be a GPU problem, and that should make data center admins and workstation users pause for a second.
NVIDIA is not sounding an alarm so much as reminding everyone that protections are already in place, but only if youâ(TM)re using the hardware properly. The company recommends enabling ECC if your GPU supports it. That includes cards in the Blackwell, Hopper, Ada, and Ampere lines, along with others used in DGX, HGX, and Jetson systems. It also includes popular workstation cards like the RTX A6000.
Thereâ(TM)s also built-in On-Die ECC in certain newer memory types like GDDR7 and HBM3. If youâ(TM)re lucky enough to be using a card that has it, youâ(TM)re automatically protected to some extent, because OD-ECC canâ(TM)t be turned off. Itâ(TM)s always working in the background.
But letâ(TM)s be real. A lot of people skip ECC because it can impact performance or because theyâ(TM)re running a setup that doesnâ(TM)t make it obvious whether ECC is on or off. If youâ(TM)re not sure where you stand, itâ(TM)s time to check. NVIDIA suggests using tools like nvidia-smi or, if youâ(TM)re in a managed enterprise setup, working with your systemâ(TM)s BMC or Redfish APIs to verify settings.
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