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ryzvonusef

4,803 karmajoined 13 वर्ष पहले
Based in Islamabad, Pakistan

I write articles sometimes, do read and comment:

https://substack.com/profile/27961964-rizwan-yousaf

[email protected]

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/ryzvonusef; my proof: https://keybase.io/ryzvonusef/sigs/HHB4PzqVK4CYbvIiQt1ln-VWIlisKG71ihOdGRnqdj4 ]

Submissions

Political Neutrality Benchmark of popular AI models

neutralityproject.org
5 points·by ryzvonusef·15 घंटे पहले·0 comments

The Digital Sovereignty Trap

statedept.substack.com
3 points·by ryzvonusef·19 दिन पहले·0 comments

SpaceX signs computing power deal with AI startup Reflection worth up $6.3B

cnbc.com
14 points·by ryzvonusef·20 दिन पहले·1 comments

Tesla poaching engineers from chip manufacturing companies like TSMC

money.udn.com
1 points·by ryzvonusef·4 माह पहले·2 comments

Neuralink has had 21 'Neuralnauts' in the past 2 years

neuralink.com
1 points·by ryzvonusef·6 माह पहले·0 comments

SpaceX built a docking system from bicycle parts

washingtonpost.com
7 points·by ryzvonusef·10 माह पहले·3 comments

Amnesty says Pakistan spying on millions through phone-tapping, firewall

reuters.com
20 points·by ryzvonusef·10 माह पहले·3 comments

comments

ryzvonusef
·7 घंटे पहले·discuss
I do too, but you need buy-in from your fellow tax-payers/voters if they are willing to fund it also.

I live in a 3rd world country, and due to the limitation of our weak taxpayer base, we can afford to fund only limited number of seats, which are won by certain competitive exams, and anything beyond that is considered 'self-finance' (i.e. figure it out on your own). Your country will have to decide its own limits.
ryzvonusef
·8 घंटे पहले·discuss
I'm not an american, my profile clearly states I'm from the 3rd world.

My father grew up dirt poor, and a basic associate degree (gotten via his saving from a factory job plus a partial scholarship he won) changed his entire trajectory from being a random labourer to an white collar office worker with enough funds to educate his own kids, especially his daughters.

My father and my siblings helped fund my education, a privilege I'm very cognizant of, and I'm very jealous of countries with free education.

But as someone living in a country with a very poor economy and an even poorer tax base, I also have very realistic expectations in terms of what tax money purchases and what reasonable expectations one should have.

I desperately want an expansion in the education base of my country, but also realise the current tax payer base has limit on how much they can pay to purchase this expansion.

And this fact also extrapolates to rich countries, they may have more money but at the end of the day the math is the same, there is a limit to how much they wish to indulge.

In fact I'm currently applying for a chance to win a PhD abroad, which would clearly be funded by foreigner tax payers. I would be at the whims of their largesse to get paid to study, and if I don't win, it's clearly because they do not wish to expand this indulgence to me, a bitter fact I must accept with grace and move on.

I may cry and moan about it, but one has to be realistic about these things.
ryzvonusef
·8 घंटे पहले·discuss
I actually wrote Egyptology in my comment but then deleted it and wrote XYZ instead ;p
ryzvonusef
·8 घंटे पहले·discuss
> We live in a society and to some extent we decide what that means

Precisely my point! Tax-payers/Voters (effectively the same thing) get to decide how much indulgence they want to give.

In Australia you are happy to extend the base, but in the US it seems they are reducing the base, and thus they are limiting options.

Some countries limit the indulgence not by limiting access to loans/aid, but by limiting available seats in university instead.

Ultimately it's up to the paying party how much risk they want to tolerate.
ryzvonusef
·8 घंटे पहले·discuss
As in, you and the college can decide privately if they want to teach you XYZ in return for money from you. Getting tax payers to chip in brings in a 3rd party and then they have right to decide whether you get to learn or not.
ryzvonusef
·8 घंटे पहले·discuss
Perhaps I should have written it a bit more clearer, but in my mind I was comparing degrees with certifications. I feel studies/degrees that have an associated certification (possibly legally mandated) linked to it should have a different loan profile as compared to open-ended degrees.

Whether you are going to Trade school to become a Plumber, or Med school to become a Doctor; in both cases there is the study part (that may or may not issue a degree also) and then there is the certification part, and that certification part is what's important for the job and thus directly linked to it. You studied medicine but your certification is specifically for Cardiology, so THAT's you career path. Please stop looking at kidneys, you are disturbing the Nephrologist.

But ordinary college degrees NOT linked to certification, just have the study part... and there is NO direct linkage with a job.

An English degree can be done just for the sake of it, or to become a Teacher, or to become a Journalist or Author or whatever.

The degree itself isn't linking itself to one single career or closely related group of careers; they may waggle their eyes and pose innuendoes, but unless there is a specific certification, they are open ended, and that's deliberate by choice.

They WANT it to be open-ended because then the responsibility isn't on them. Oh you did Chemistry? Look at ALL the career options you have! We are just here to broaden your mind with the wonderful world of chemicals!

You might have the potential to become a chemist or pharmacists or a lab tech or who knows even a famous researcher; look at this example of XYZ who become world renowned in lithography machine lubrication who studied chemistry at this very institution! Or look at ABC, they now work at NASA, wouldn't YOU like to be an astronaut-chemist doing stuff on the ISS? Go forth, the world is your oyster!

The possibilities are limitless, and therefore the degree is NOT about the job, it's just about the education. Whether you end up as a chemistry teacher or a drug dealer in like Walter White is up to you.

And thus it's your duty to research, what job options do you feel are possible for you after the degree? and is a loan worth it for you?

Compare that with career-specific certifications, and there you have exact data of how many jobs are in demand and more importantly you KNOW you will be locked to a certain path and thus you (and the loan giver) can plan accordingly.

Sorry if this reply was a bit of a ramble, but I hope I was able to clarify what I meant.
ryzvonusef
·14 घंटे पहले·discuss
The purpose of a college degree is NOT a job... but the purpose of a college LOAN is 100% a job, and it's very important to differentiate between the two.

The whole point of the loan is to buy time; you don't want to wait for when you have savings to purchase the degree, you want to do it now. If you are not doing it for the job, then why the loan, what's the rush?

If knowledge and prestige is all that matters, then don't take the loan, take the scenic route, get your degree slowly as and when you have the time and money, and one day you will have something to look back at.

But if you are doing it so you can start earning as soon as possible, when you are still young and energetic... then you are doing it for the job, and in that case the degree better be financially worth it.

You have the right to a degree in XYZ... you should NOT have the right to a taxpayer backed grant/aid/loan/whatever to gain said degree unless you're on a reasonable path to become a tax payer yourself as soon as you are done with the degree.
ryzvonusef
·15 घंटे पहले·discuss
[dead]
ryzvonusef
·10 दिन पहले·discuss
I feel that...if this only ever useful for limbs and not the head or torso.. it could STILL be a useful device given how cheap and useful it is.
ryzvonusef
·17 दिन पहले·discuss
Please share your review of the device and how you read on it when you get the device. It will be interesting to see how your reading habits change.
ryzvonusef
·18 दिन पहले·discuss
I have been trying to move away from doom scrolling, and the vice I've replaced it with is online webnovels and webcomics.

Reading from RoyalRoad or WebToons is hardly mentally stimulating, but I feel it's at least better than random tweets or vertical short form content. There are quite a few stories that I've come to really enjoy and look forward to reading when the new chapter comes out.

It's not like I've stopped reading books, but there is a lot of time between releases of a book series and each book requires quite a lot of time commitment, whereas a single web chapter require much less time to read.

Also, kinda sad but... tbh as I get older I've gotten a bit calcified in my literary habits; I'm now a bit reticent and less eager to discover new book series and have decided to stick to a few authors I'm more comfortable with (time requirement to discover if I like a new one is just too much). With web stories, just a few chapters let me know if I like the vibe, and picking/dropping stories has much less friction.

A device like the X4 would be ok for epubs downloaded from the internet, but for stuff like what I read now, due to its lack of internet connectivity [1] would mean I'd be reading LESS.

I'm not saying it SHOULD have internet... its purpose as a doomscroll-killer makes it obvious why it won't... just that these things have unintended consequences.

[1]: afaik, it has wifi but not an internet browser or app support that would allow constant linking/updating from such web sources.
ryzvonusef
·19 दिन पहले·discuss
[flagged]
ryzvonusef
·20 दिन पहले·discuss


    > Under the agreement, Reflection will get immediate access to Nvidia GB300s, top-of-the-line AI chips used to train and run advanced models, and has agreed to pay SpaceX $150 million per month beginning July 1, 2026, through 2029, according to materials viewed by CNBC.
As someone said on twitter, SpaceX is becoming the AWS for AI

really wish the AI division was a (differently named) subsidiary
ryzvonusef
·26 दिन पहले·discuss
they had the option, but hadn't executed on it... now it seems they have.
ryzvonusef
·पिछला माह·discuss
All that wailing and gnashing about Spacex ipo 'forcing' index fund to invest and thus 'loot' poor people's retirements... when all you had to do was just...add a waiting clause.

It can still be a passive fund, not the end of the world.

Index trackers hire talented people surely they can add a waiting clause in their tracks too, just like S&P.

If your index isn't adding waiting clause, it's simply because they are greedy.
ryzvonusef
·2 माह पहले·discuss
Would you be willing stake some money on your claim and short the stock?
ryzvonusef
·2 माह पहले·discuss
Karpathy's career arc feels similar to Jim Keller's; a butterfly flitting from one flower to another, gathering experiences and creating magic everywhere they go.
ryzvonusef
·2 माह पहले·discuss
> Yes, Elon is very sane.

tbf, a 'sane' person wouldn't have started a rocket company and an ev company, at the same time, in a recession.

He has never been sane. and that has made all the difference.
ryzvonusef
·2 माह पहले·discuss
I grew up in Nairobi during the 90's, and corporal punishment was common. We had massive work loads (by grade 7, we had 13 subjects and like 50 books, and no locker system like in america so had to drag two bags everyday) and there was often some chance of us not being able to complete a certain piece of homework... so we got hit on the hands or the butt with a pipe. Not quite caning, but still very painful.

Not sure how it helped, I just lived in constant stress of homework. But more importantly, the 'naughty' kids got immune to it. If you pipe everyone for minor infractions, then people just took it in stride.

____

Then we were posted in to Saudi in the early 00's, and I vividly remember an event. I was in an all boys high school by then (segregated because saudi, duh), and one day, just an hour or so before end of school, we were all ordered to assemble in the main ground. It was surprising since no event was planned, and the teachers were grim faced.

Soon a van came into the forefront, and out came the police (both the normal uniformed police and the religious police, remember this was saudi like 3-ish kings back) and a few kids.... who were caned in front of us. Not much, 3-4 strikes each, and their backs were clothed, but it was whole dramatic production nonetheless, with a speech in arabic and everything.

Turns out (explained by teachers after we came back to class) they were boys from our school who had loitered around the girls section, and upon the security guard's attempt to shoo them away, had bullied and hurt him badly.

Now THAT put the fear of god in the kids, at least for awhile. It didn't mean there weren't kids smoking in the bathrooms or other teenage bullshit even after, but the reminder that you could be caned in front of the entire school did put a damper on the amount of mischief that kids committed for some time.... until of course the kids who saw the scene graduated and the memory was lost, I guess.

____

So, while there is some merit to public corporal punishment and the humiliation ritual... but even then, kids are stupid and will justify to themselves many things (hey I'm not going to the extent of going to the girls section, nah it's just me and the lads messing around with a fellow classmate, doesn't rise to the level of caning, does it?)

And secondly, teachers will react by lower the bar further and further down until they go back to corporal punishment for everything (when all you have a hammer...)

____

One of the best way to control mischievous kids, imho, is to just kick them out.

Sounds brutal, but when you have a collective environment like a school, you can't waste the time of the overwhelming majority of kids for the very few who just don't want to 'fit the system'.

And yes, 'fitting the system' was a deliberate choice of words, because usually that terminology is used for kids who need guidance... but these aren't 'naughty' kids who just need a 'creative outlet', we are talking about bullies here; if you have reached highschool age and you still haven't grokked that you can't just hit fellow students just because you are miserable... then you need to spend time elsewhere and learn the costs of fitting in society.

Maybe very [south]asian-coded of me, but our parents put a lot of time and expense in our educations (literally the only source of social uplift for us), and if we can't study because some other parent is lacking in raising their child.... that should not affect us, the education market is already very competitive and we can't risk falling behind.

The question of course arises, what to do with the kids who have been kicked out? Can't let them roam around or the problem gets worse, nothing more dangerous than a teenager with no goals, they are walking loose cannons.

Honestly... I don't know. Caning will work for a bit... but how long before the shock value passes? Some sort of juvie? That again just gets them into the crime pathway. Maybe some special school for them? But isn't that a juvie by another name?
ryzvonusef
·3 माह पहले·discuss
Quick, someone tell slashdot!