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abhibeckert

@ abhibeckert @lemmy.world

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Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Browser maker love-in snubs Google-shunned JPEG XL

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  • Why do you need to transition from jpeg to anything else? Just keep using jpeg for old files.

    Chromium is literally the only reason jpeg-xl isn’t being adopted right now

    That's not a "reason" it's a "decision". Their actual reason is pretty good — they don't want to support every image format that comes along. That's a slippery slope, there are several hundred image formats - should they all be supported? How many of them have security flaws? How much work is it to check for security flaws even if none exist?

    The original image formats for the web, jpeg, gif, png, svg, all have major benefits compared to each other. That's why they were successful. There used to be other widely used image formats but they all fell by the wayside because the goal is to try not to have many formats. Ideally we'd only have one.

    And WebP moves a long way in that direction, it does basically everything except vector images. AVIF is still around for efficiency reasons (it's very really easy/fast/low battery consumption for camera hardware to create an AVIF).

    JPEG-XL has advantages but unlike those two they are really small and not worth the effort.

  • Kids Don’t Think Congress Has Their Best Interests In Mind With Their Grandstanding ‘Protect The Children’ Hearing

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  • Um… as a parent, there’s no way kids know what is good for them.

    Not saying congress is right, but we shouldn’t be asking kids. Sorry to any kids reading this.

  • Apple’s Vision Pro battery pack is hiding the final boss of Lightning cables

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  • It has 24 pins. Power would be two or three pins.

    24 is exactly the number you'd need to have a thunderbolt connection... which could be interesting, though I don't think Apple has said anything about it being used for that.

  • Apple’s Vision Pro battery pack is hiding the final boss of Lightning cables

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  • The law does apply to "this specific thing".

    The law is essentially that (most) battery charge cables must use USB-C, and Apple's headset does use a USB-C cable to charge the battery.

  • Apple’s Vision Pro battery pack is hiding the final boss of Lightning cables

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  • For what?

  • FCC to declare AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal under existing law

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  • But how stupid would you have to be to take a call from half way around the world and listen to their advice about the upcoming election? A phone call that claims to come from a local politician is a lot more believable if it comes from a local number.

  • Amazon could soon be on the hook for safety of third-party products it sells and ships — Government order could classify it as a distributor, potentially exposing it to more legal claims

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  • Um, no. Normally you would use a regular male to female extension cable for that. Your electrical panel would have a male plug on the wall which is specifically wired up to safely provide power to your home.

  • Removed

    Will Technology Replace Teachers In The Future?

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  • I wouldn't look at this from the teacher's perspective.

    Large Language Models, in particular, are an incredibly valuable tool for students. It provides instant high quality answersa to questions like "Will technology replace teachers in the Future?" — see the answer ChatGPT 4 gave me at the end of this post.

    For most students such a high quality answer to the question just isn't available - you can't ask a teacher, because unless the question happens to be part of the unit they're teaching right now they won't have time to give you an answer this detailed. The student's best option (before Generative AI) was to try to find an article or book that was specifically written for your question. But even if that exists, it's likely really difficult to find and there's a very high probability of failing to find a good article/book.

    In reality the only reliable way for a student to get a good answer to any random question is to spend months researching it. And while that certainly should be encouraged... there are only so many things you can research in a life time. And a lot of questions just aren't worth that much effort.

    It's a shortcut to a reasonably good answer to any question no matter how trivial and it allows students to quickly elevate their understanding on any particular subject to a level where they will have questions that are genuinely difficult for anyone (or any thing) to answer.

    Going back to teachers - I think LLMs can replace a subset of the work teachers currently do. But that doesn't replace teachers at all - it just frees up some of the teacher's time so they allocate more of it to other parts of their job.

    ChatGPT 4's response to "Will technology replace teachers in the Future?"

    The question of whether technology will replace teachers in the future is complex and involves multiple factors, including advances in technology, educational theory, societal values, and economic considerations. Here's a breakdown of key points to consider:

    1. Technological Advancements: With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and virtual reality, technology is increasingly capable of delivering personalized learning experiences. Tools like adaptive learning software can tailor educational content to meet individual students' needs, potentially improving outcomes. However, these technologies are typically seen as supplements to, rather than replacements for, human teachers.
    2. Role of Teachers: Teachers do more than just deliver content; they mentor, inspire, motivate, and understand the emotional and social needs of their students. The nuanced understanding and emotional intelligence of human teachers in fostering a supportive learning environment are currently beyond the reach of technology.
    3. Hybrid Models: The future is likely to see more of a partnership between technology and teachers rather than a replacement scenario. Hybrid models that combine online learning with traditional classroom instruction can leverage the strengths of both teachers and technology, providing a more flexible and personalized learning experience.
    4. Societal and Cultural Factors: Education is not just about transferring knowledge; it's also about building communities, socializing, and developing soft skills. The value placed on these aspects by societies will influence the extent to which technology is integrated into educational systems.
    5. Economic and Accessibility Considerations: Technology can potentially make high-quality education more accessible to students in remote or underprivileged areas. However, the cost of implementing and maintaining advanced educational technologies, and ensuring all students have access to necessary devices and internet connectivity, poses significant challenges.
    6. Continuous Learning and Professional Development: As educational technologies evolve, so too will the role of teachers. There will be an increasing need for teachers to adapt and integrate new technologies into their teaching practices, emphasizing the importance of continuous professional development.

    In summary, while technology will undoubtedly play an increasingly central role in education, it is unlikely to fully replace teachers. Instead, the future of education will likely be characterized by a collaborative relationship between technology and teachers, with each complementing the other to enhance the learning experience. The human aspects of teaching, such as emotional support, understanding, and real-world problem-solving, remain critical components that technology cannot replicate.

  • TikTok sounds go silent as songs disappear from app

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  • Every social media site does the exact same thing

    I sure hope Blåhaj Lemmy isn't doing any of that crap.

    the US government buying people’s information from data brokers. How is that any different?

    Um, isn't that obvious? The US government accesses information collected by private companies. The Chinese government controls a source of news that is used by billions of people. Those are totally different things.

    Sure, TikTok insists they have no ties to the government. But there's plenty of evidence exposing that as a blatant lie.

    Not sure what Meta/Twitter/YouTube have to do with this. Bringing them up is at best a distraction. If you don't trust them (I don't, for the record) don't use those platforms. Simple.

  • Making a PDF that’s larger than Germany

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  • I’m guessing (gut feeling) Acrobat probably supports the most features overall, Firefox probably supports the vast majority of those used in practice, and Preview only allows Apple Approved™ PDF features and extensions deemed worthy of Their Appleness’s consideration.

    OK... stepping out of gut feelings into reality:

    • Adobe originally had a maximum page size of 45 inches square.
    • In 2001 they increased that to 200 inches
    • And in 2004 Adobe increased it to 15,000,000 inches (a bit larger than Germany) which is still kinda sucky if you want to show a map on a PDF

    As for "Their Appleness's consideration" they generally use floating point numbers for coordinates and sizes. Which is how, as it says in the OP's article, it's able to handle a PDF trillions of light years in size. A double precision floating point number can be really big.

    More important though, it means you can process it with hardware accelerated floating point operations which are incredibly fast. And Apple's PDF renderer needed to be fast because for years PDF was the data format used by the window manager for pretty much all screen drawing operations. They weren't doing that on modern fast hardware either, they were doing it decades ago on slow hardware. With decent performance.

    If there are features missing it's probably because they would slow things down too much.

  • Apple’s Vision Pro battery pack is hiding the final boss of Lightning cables

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  • I think it's reasonable.

    First of all they didn't want to put a battery on the headset. Fair enough, even without a battery it's heavier than most headsets.

    That decision means the cable doesn't just need to provide average power consumption, it also needs to be able to handle peak power consumption. It seems reasonable that the headset has similar peak power to a Mac Mini - which has a 185 Watt power supply.

    USB can provide up to 240 Watts, however it needs relatively high voltage to do that over thin cables permitted in the USB specification. 48 Volts for 240 Watt power delivery and 20 Volts for 100 Watts.

    Vision Pro is only 13 Volts - which means that cable almost certainly has thicker wires than a standard USB cable. If you tried to power a Vision Pro over a standards compliant thin USB wires it would likely be a fire risk at only 13 Volts.

    Apple could solve that by using 48 Volts... but then they'd have to convert 48V down to 13V... and they need to do it with very light weight and small components. Those conversions are not free, especially with DC power. It might even be that the conversion is so inefficient that you need more than 240 Watts to power the headset.

    But even if 240 W is enough (it probably is), it would also reduce battery life. And battery life is already an area where the headset isn't really good enough. So, in summary, yeah I do think it's reasonable to use a proprietary power cable. This headset is just too close to the technical capabilities of a USB cable.

    Worse... a lot of USB cables aren't even compliant with the specification. You could burn someone's house down if the cable is non-compliant.

  • UK law that could ban Apple security updates worldwide is an unprecedented overreach

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  • No there’s teeth to this law. They have to wait for the government to “review” the change before it can be deployed. And the government can order them not to make the change.

    The guardrails are basically “if it might hamper intelligence or police work, we can reject it”.

    As an example Apple has been doing foundation work that will likely lead to photos having similar protection to passwords. Photos are obviously incredibly valuable for spooks and cops since most photos have location metadata and face recognition.

    They could easily reject that change.

  • Taylor Swift AI images prompt US bill to tackle nonconsensual, sexual deepfakes

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  • People are still going to do it regardless.

    Would they? Last year a woman was awarded $1.2b in damages after her ex boyfriend distributed revenge porn.

    How many people would hit that retweet button, if they knew it might lead to damages on that scale? Presumably her ex-boyfriend went bankrupt and lost everything he owned, having to give all of it to her (and her lawyers).

    Sure, some people would still take that risk but not very many. And at least the victims would get a nice pay day out of it.

  • Mass Blackout Takes Russian Internet Offline

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  • Sure - but was the "quibble" a mistake or intentional?

  • Mass Blackout Takes Russian Internet Offline

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  • That doesn't mean the servers are physically located in Russia. It just means they are controlled by an organisation that considers Russia their primary country.

  • Boeing withdraws bid for safety exemption for Boeing 737 MAX 7

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  • There's nothing wrong with requesting an exemption. It's only a problem if the exemption is granted when it shouldn't be.

  • Apple Has Sold Approximately 200,000 Vision Pro Headsets

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  • If our necks can handle that, I think they can handle a headset.

  • Apple Has Sold Approximately 200,000 Vision Pro Headsets

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  • Our necks are really strong. Far stronger than, for example, our arms or even our shoulders. In cultures that hadn't invented the wheel, it was commonplace to carry heavy things with your neck. Your neck can carry loads similar to a wheel barrow, comfortably, all day long.

    I'd be a lot more worried about eye health than your neck.

  • Apple Has Sold Approximately 200,000 Vision Pro Headsets

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  • That's mostly about Light Seal and optical lenses which come in literally thousands of combinations.

    You can buy them separately - and you will have to with a scalped (or secondhand) headset.