I didn’t think that through; what I really meant: replace all numbers and letters with nothing. Even if you had years to memorize everything before that change, I don’t think you’d fare well. As you seem to have pointed out in your second-to-last paragraph.

BTW the metro in Mexico City uses (Aztec, Mayan?) symbols for its routes (in addition to numbers iirc) because many people can’t read. Same with many preschool games: instead of trying to teach numbers/letters/counting prematurely, they just use colors or animals instead.

And when you think that through, letters and numbers on signage aren’t all that different from “take a left at that big oak”. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But then there’s all sorts of non-essential stuff, ads, stickers on lamp posts, serial numbers…

Thought experiment: take that whole situation you just described and replace all letters and numbers with meaningless alien symbols. Does it still work?

I’m just glad people are waking up to how fiercely controlling Google is even in its “free” and “open” source endeavors.

Ask Cory Doctorow, he has good answers well beyond that one term he coined.

It’s really a pet peeve of mine, that term. So typical for what Google/Alphabet is doing to control the narrative around what’s “secure” and what isn’t.

Just listened to someone attempt a Freudian analysis on the X that he seems so obsessed with. It was trite.

‘Not optimistic he will create anything very useful right now’

Or ever create anything (he’s just stealing other people’s creations, at best)

G O O D

AI simply needs regulation. Not sure this is the best there is, but just doing something is a step forward.

I also read today that some leaders are pushing for AI sovereignty, i.e. being independent of US corpos and running their own.

On the downside, they want to fully embrace that shit for “preemptive data storage”.

Also many go with Palantir regardless, and I don’t understand how that goes together with the call for sovereignty.

Question:

Does buying arms from the USA essentially necessitate using Palantir or related products?

edit: I got the gist of the article wrong. Anduril does produce arms, and the deal is about producing them, not buying. My question stands though.

The Raspberry Pi’s built-in Wi-Fi is perfect for our outdoor setup. It wirelessly connects to our home network, so no extra wiring was needed.

I want to call out that my router and Wi-Fi network are not solar-powered; they rely on my existing network setup and conventional power sources. So while the web server itself runs on solar power, other parts of the delivery chain still depend on traditional energy.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool project to make a solar-powered minicomputer, but the thing that makes it a server is conventional.

Agreed.

Still, OP is making a good point.

I sometimes try to imagine what it would be like to not be able to read. Esp. In an urban environment, as opposed to fields & forests. There’s just so much everywhere, signage, ads, displays…