Comment on: Why 2020 Is the Perfect Time to Revisit IRC
I actually self host an instance of [Rocket.Chat](https://rocket.chat/). It's pretty easy to get up and going, especially if you're ok with running their official Snap installation. It provides a lot of the features of Discord out of the gate, with the exception of voice channels. It has all the things you'd need like user access control, fun things like custom emojis and sounds, and the ability to provide custom CSS and scripts that fit your needs. It has a fully functioning native mobile app that has really improved over the years and is now top tier in my opinion. The default settings allow you to utilize Rocket.Chat's official push servers and is configured to use [Jitsi Meet](https://meet.jit.si/) for channel video/audio calls, but you can also disable those features or point them to your own private push and Jitsit Meet instances. It even has a built in IRC bridge if you want to connect to an IRC server and forward messages.
Rocket.Chat gets my endorsement for being pleasant for users, easy to administer, and privacy minded for people that are seeking that.
2
25 Aug 2020 08:02
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Google Has a Plan to Disrupt the College Degree - Its new certificate program for in-demand jobs takes only six months to complete.
Which is a shame. I know the whole memery surrounding those types of classes. But in and of themselves there is nothing wrong with learning new perspectives that challenge your preconceived notions, even if you leave the class disagreeing. There is real value in learning how to think, critically analyze new or controversial ideas, and expand the way you think. Taking in new information about the world is a skill that needs to be honed, which includes taking in and processing ideas that some, most, or all would consider "wrong."
Colleges are actually pretty good at that, more or less. You can argue that they treat these subjects too much like fact recitation than academic presentation, but that's only part of the problem. The real problem is that colleges also treated like job preparation factories; that they're currently pretty bad at. But there is no incentive to improve because everyone involved just pretends otherwise and the money keeps coming in. College administration, industry, K-12 educators, and parents all still pretend that college is the one-stop-shop for everything that you'll need for a successful life. We're just now starting to wake up to the idea that no, that isn't the case.
We need both. We need mind training and job training. Prices need to be brought back down to reality. Employers need to start investing in training their employees instead of pretending that general educations will do it for them. There are so many aspects that need to change, and I really hope the baby doesn't get thrown out with the bathwater.
4
22 Aug 2020 07:41
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: I Tried to Live Without the Tech Giants. It Was Impossible. - The New York Times
You'll need to block 1e100.net, Google's internal routing servers, as well. This will break a lot of websites that use Google APIs. You'll have to do that at the router level.
1
08 Aug 2020 05:34
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Stop donating to "foundations", donate directly to developers if you want to help open source
Good points. A lot of open source projects are just passionate programmers working on projects that they themselves find useful. Donating directly to projects that you find helpful is a huge boost.
13
07 Aug 2020 06:07
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Airbus' self-flying plane just completed successful taxi, take-off, and landing tests, opening the door for fully autonomous flight
good. the more we can automate, the better.
4
28 Jul 2020 05:58
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Nvidia collaborates with the University of Florida to build 700-petaflop AI supercomputer
Where did you get that from? This machine is going to be used in research and education. Per the article:
>UF and Nvidia say the revamped HiPerGator will give faculty and students the tools to apply AI across focuses including rising seas, aging populations, data security, personalized medicine, urban transportation, and food insecurity. Already, AI models at UF Health are being deployed to help collect, organize, and monitor patient conditions in real time through a system known as DeepSOFA.
1
25 Jul 2020 01:18
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Long-form: Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized | June 17, 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
bingo.
1
13 Jul 2020 19:54
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Long-form: Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized | June 17, 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
lol i mean if our brain doesnt work according to some physically based algorithm, then we have to assume our brain is somehow acting as an antenna or portal through which external influence is received.
1
13 Jul 2020 04:07
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Long-form: Why general artificial intelligence will not be realized | June 17, 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
What else would it be?
1
13 Jul 2020 02:29
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Uber wants to resume self-driving car tests on public roads
20 years? No way. AI is advancing way too fast to have to wait that long. I think you're way underestimating what AI models can do with the chaotic information they receive from the autonomous car sensors. And the way the AI models train themselves, it's not so much that we're programming the fine details as much as we're giving overall guidance and the computer is teaching itself how to meet those goals. And on top of it all, we don't even have to get to 100% safe autonomous driving before we should absolutely switch over. We just have to be better than people, who crash and have accidents all the time. Once AIs make 1% fewer mistakes than humans, if we switch over completely and immediately we'll start saving [over 370 lives per year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year). And that's just 1% better!
1
12 Jul 2020 06:38
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Nvidia eclipses Intel as most valuable U.S. chipmaker - Reuters
I think it's safe to say that this is because of CUDA's mass use in AI development. AI is **the** next big thing, for all fields everywhere. Some people doubt what it can do, but they're wrong. We're in the baby stages and we already have some incredible models like [StyleGAN](https://github.com/NVlabs/stylegan) and [Jukebox](https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/). And this is all possible on consumer grade hardware that you can go out to BestBuy and pick up off the shelf. [Dedicated chips designed for AI](https://coral.ai/) are already available. And even though model creation is currently pretty costly in terms of resources, the barrier-to-entry is going to plummet as time goes by.
Last year, I volunteered to be a judge at a local science fair. Two of the projects done by highschoolers involved training custom AI models to detect diseases in normal, off the shelf medical imaging. One of the projects had a working demo on his *phone* that detected cancer in lung x-rays.
1
12 Jul 2020 05:47
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Microsoft and Zoom join Hong Kong data 'pause,' will not process data requests made by Hong Kong authorities
which seems so dumb. just like crack, doing business with China has some unhealthy long term side effects, like losing all your intellectual property when a state-owned business steals it and the the government just bans your service when they don't need your secrets anymore.
6
08 Jul 2020 08:20
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: U.S. lawmakers unveil bid to boost domestic chipmaking industry
Good. It's about time we pay what these devices are actually worth. If we can't have something without literal slave labor, we shouldn't have it at all.
1
03 Jul 2020 18:34
u/wagesj45
in g/technology
Comment on: Hey I'm trying to start learning programming but i am having a hell of a time starting. Is there a correct pathway to starting the adventure that is programming?
Learning the IF conditonal is a terrible idea if the programmer doesn't know where the whole idea of an IF statement comes from. It's easy to forget but the conventions we accept as normal in programming exist because of the way the machine physically works. I've had to clean up a lot of code because previous programmers knew how to do something, but not why you do it. For better or worse, you need to start at the bottom. Programmers that start at the top are the bane of my existence because they almost always are the ones that are the most confident and the ones that most need cleaning up after.
Comment on: Hey I'm trying to start learning programming but i am having a hell of a time starting. Is there a correct pathway to starting the adventure that is programming?
I've always thought starting with high level languages like Python is the wrong way to go. I think it is much more beneficial to start with simple C programs, or even bare and basic assembly, so you can start off learning what your computer is actually doing. Having this fundamental understanding of what the chip does really helps shape your world view when you start moving to other, higher level languages.
If all the nitty gritty is abstracted away right from the beginning, you never get a chance to learn the nitty gritty.
Comment on: Hey I'm trying to start learning programming but i am having a hell of a time starting. Is there a correct pathway to starting the adventure that is programming?
First of, no to ITT Tech. Just no. Find a good state university with degrees in information technologies or software engineering.
Second, I wrote an article a while back on my website that discussed my thoughts on what is the best way to learn programming skills.
tl;dr - Start with a low level language, learn the basics of what your machine is actually doing under the hood, then branch out from there.
Comment on: Is there m.voat or mobile app in progress ?
Apple doesn't let you publish apps if the source is under GPLv3.