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Are they allowed to choose X vs Y?

I’ve wondered if it makes sense to buy Intel along with Cerebrus in order to use Intels newest nodes while under development to fab the Cerebrus wafer level inference chips which are more tolerant of defects. Overall that seems like the cheapest way to perform inference - if you have $100B.

About 10 years ago my AC failed. Decided it was time to replace both my units including the air handler. Bought the equipment online from Alpine Air and it arrived in a few days. Then I put an ad on Craigslist for a AC installation. Paid $1000 for each unit to be installed. Watched a bunch of YouTube videos to learn what “good” looked like, and just watched over the guys shoulder the whole time, asking him questions about how he was measuring the vacuum etc. Saved around $10k compared to the quotes I’d received from Home Depot and Lowe’s. Would do it again.

I subscribe to the $50 plan, and for the past day, my results have been laggy. Once the query actually starts, it’s as fast as normal, but time to first token wouldn’t even be the best way to describe the issue - it appears to be a problem with getting my request even into the hardware. Possibly an overloaded queue on the front end?

I’d wondered about using moon bouncing in order to distribute video streaming keys (piracy) in a way which would make it impossible to locate the sender. Unlikely to be viable at scale, as the moon isn’t always visible, but it’s an intriguing covert broadcast mechanism.

Hadn't thought of it from this perspective. An untraceable signal coming from the moon would also be useful for military communications. Electronic warfare and signals intelligence have been powerful tools for both sides in the Ukraine-Russia war.

It's not that untraceable when you have satellites that could pick it up before the bounce.

I have no understanding of the physics involved, but could the broadcast location be reverse engineered? (With triangulation and clever math?)

Your location is very very visible to any plane or satellite passing overhead.

Indeed, though it would take some coordination to actually narrow it down precisely. You'd need a few different planes/satellites to detect the signal and share their reading to allow triangulation. With only a single plane or a single satellite that is not in geosynchronous orbit, you could take multiple readings and get a rough idea of location, but the inability to turn from a straight line (not impossible for a plane of course, but it would require intentionality and willingness for the crew/commanders and typically not cheap as it disrupts whatever flight plan they previously had) would be a hindrance. That said, with how many satellites are up there I doubt it would take much extra effort to do that coordination if the satellite operators have motivation to do so.

Highly directional antennas on a moving platform can perform effectively radio direction finding independently.

Let's remember that there is also a antenna array with LOS yo the mooon.....

The moon is visible to ?half? the earth at a time? That’s a huge search area. Certainly the antennas broadcasting to the moon are quite directional, and outside the main beam, would be hard to detect?

I don’t understand how? Wouldn’t the signal be highly directional? Surely it wouldn’t be easily detectable unless the viewer’s POV intersects the path of the beam?

The IBM Tucson tape lab was able to recover the data from the space shuttle challenger’s tapes. I expect they could recover 52 year old tapes too.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/08/us/melodee-buzzard-missing-se...

How was all of this data gathered without being a violation?


This is a reasonably common (sadly) methodology that many agencies utilize.

"We are not legally permitted to blanket surveil/ALPR entire neighborhoods/towns, etc. ...

... and we can't pay a private company to do this for us ...

... but nothing prevents us from paying a private company who is doing it already, to give us that data."

The line between the last two is blurry but also utilized - you can't put out an RFP for a company to capture such data that you're not permitted to, but if that company is doing it because it sees a/your market for it, then it's a free-for-all.


Flock (YC S17)

Bets on this strategy having been part of their seed pitch deck? Guess they would've left it out, keeping it as nudge nudge wink wink and discussing during QA.


> YC S17

Ahh that year was somewhere between blockchain and ai - no surprise they would default back to surveillance capitalism, go with what you know.


I know it's sarcasm but to be pedantic, '17 was very much part of peak blockchain so they didn't need that kind of excuse.

> Flock (YC S17)

Ah, and there it is. Why shouldn't Y-Combinator be a force for evil like the rest of them? Paul Graham has been off his rocker for about as long as I can remember now, unfortunately my memories of people like this doing anything good for the world are so far in the past, they're fading. What a shame.


"Why shouldn't Y-Combinator be a force for evil like the rest of them?"

We should figure out a way to hold YC accountable for their helping these companies screw our rights and privacy.


I don’t know where this idea that YC is supposed to be an ethical investor comes from. It’s certainly not in their principles:

https://www.ycombinator.com/principles/


> We should figure out a way to hold YC accountable for their helping these companies screw our rights and privacy.

Good thoughts like these are why I’m sort of surprised they still run HN on such an obviously, directly, unambiguously attributable domain name.

The watering hole effect, perhaps.


And, I assume, you can pay them to put up a "this is how fast you are going, slow down" sign. And they can add a camera to it, that has nothing to do with you paying them to put it up in the first place... and then sell them access to data from the camera.

Yeah, it's very nudge nudge wink wink. Which is why Flock advertises to HOAs and private businesses too. Because then they'll agree to share their data and hey look, Flock can say "we have ALPR and other data from this HOA, you can have it because you didn't ask us to get it for you".

My good friend just died from a heart attack at 60. 90% blockage in 2 arteries, even though he exercised regularly and appeared perfectly healthy. This triggered my exploration of my own risk and I came to the realization that although my lipid panels were ok, I could also have a 90% blockage and be completely unaware. I ended up getting a Calcium CT scan which showed no blockages, but I realized that without my friends death, I’d have no idea of my score. In the US, insurance doesn’t cover the screening. I’m now a believer of all people having a scan at 50, and likely every 5 or 10 years afterwards.

Been on Mounjaro/Zepbound for the past 2 years. Lost around 80lbs, and my brain feels like I’m 25 again. Almost no urge for alcohol and have an opened bag of Halloween candy in the closet which isn’t calling my name. But the most surprising part hasn’t been that… it’s that my no limit poker game has gotten really quite good. I’ve played for 20 years, and been well above average, but after the glp-1, something just clicked. Maybe I no longer go on tilt or something? Played in the World Series of poker for the first time last year and placed in the money, in the top 10% after having not played since before Covid. I just started playing in a house game that I’d previously played in 10 years ago. Same people, and before I’d never placed in the money. I’ve now won in 3 of the last 5 games. Something’s different. Is playing poker pleasurable? Not in the least, but a good friend invited me, and played for the social aspect, but now I’m just stunned at how good I’ve suddenly become. Disliked the World Series so much last year, that I opted against playing again, even though I expected to place again. Maybe other poker players will adopt it.


With each HN post GLP-1 drugs sound more and more like a miracle to me. Now it also makes you good in poker? Damn...


I think a lot of drugs are like this though. When concerns and worries are removed, you have more mental capacity for the task at hand.

Small amount of psychoactive substances seem to help a lot of people get into "the zone".


I find it funny there are so many skeptics on HN surrounding GLP-1, but will readily accept the benefits of LSD and micro-dosing.


When my first house was under construction in 2001, I created my own key from the builder’s key. When I finally moved in, my key would then disable the builder’s key. Curious how this work, I disassembled my lock and found that there were (iirc) 8 keys which would open all my neighbors houses, even after they had moved in and had disabled the builder’s key. Of course I rekeyed my house to prevent that vulnerability, but in theory it remains on all my neighbors. I also didn’t disclose the vulnerability.


I don't know about builder's keys from that era, but modern builder's keys aren't vulnerable to this problem. The builder's key uses a deeper cut on one or more pins, but the owner's key can and should be pretty unique. The only real requirement is that there be at least one cut to a high enough number to allow for a builder's key. There's a good video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUCW4OnE6Mc

Maybe they used a master key system instead.


Um, that’s the exact system I was able to defeat. Do a bit more analysis. You’ll figure it out.


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