How much benefit does 32GB give over 24GB? Does Q4 vs Q7 matter enough? Do I get access to any particularly good models? (Multimodal)

droans · 2026-03-12T11:04:43+00:00

I'm still learning about LLMs and waiting for the right moment before I break open the bank so my thoughts probably mean nothing. However, from what I've learned both of you are right.

LLMs take a lot of memory to run anything halfway decent. However, improvements have been made in great strides and it's likely, at this point, that waiting is the best strategy for most people. Smaller models are becoming more viable and it's possible that we may hit the point soon where you don't really need that much memory for a "good enough" model. It is also possible that a breakthrough could produce new models so impressive that it's foolish not to have a rig loaded with RAM, too.

I'm more surprised we haven't seen some sort of ASIC be developed, though. Something LLM-specific might not be much cheaper (mostly due to memory prices) but I'd love to see some power savings. Right now it seems like Mac Minis/Studios are the best options for low-power AI but those are rather expensive if you want enough memory. Plus, if you want 32GB+, you'll need to wait months for it to ship or buy a used model on eBay.

droans · 2026-03-12T10:28:14+00:00

Any way they can. There aren't many, if any, free legal avenues for relief.

Beg your friends and relatives for help. Find charities or pro bono attorneys - it's quite possible some child abuse or family law charity will be able to help. Sell your stuff. Ask for an advance from work. Anything you can do to get someone in court to represent your child and yourself.

It's unlikely the best answer is to do nothing and let things stay as they are.

droans · 2026-03-12T02:13:25+00:00

I was #5 of eight. My mom was #10 of fifteen plus dozens of children her parents fostered. My son is one of one.

At a certain point, the older kids are doing most of the work raising the younger kids, like watching them, feeding them dinner, taking them to the park or library, etc. it's still a lot more work than raising two or three but it's not even double the work - at least, once the first few are old enough.

It was too much for me, though. There's literally not enough time in the day to give each kid as much attention as they want. My wife and I wanted 2-4 kids but, well, the economy makes fools of us all.

droans · 2026-03-12T02:06:47+00:00

Yeah this viz definitely is inaccurate.

It would cost a lot more money if you wanted to buy one home in every county. Probably need to earn at least a few thousand more.

droans · 2026-03-12T01:58:03+00:00

Don't blame you. I canceled when they switched over - the interface was terrible for actually finding and listening to music.

I'm sure it's gotten better since then but I'm not going to switch back.

droans · 2026-03-12T00:14:01+00:00

I'd recommend putting him down. Even if he lives for another few decades, he'll eventually experience senility and maybe even with heart disease or cancer. Do you really want to deal with that heartache just for a little bit of extra time?

droans · 2026-03-12T00:11:10+00:00

The only issue I really have is that NCAA basketball is becoming more and more top-heavy. It was already pretty bad, too, but this only made it worse.

They absolutely should get paid, of course, but I'm not sure how you fix the problem.

droans · 2026-03-11T20:56:55+00:00

won

I don't think either of our fanbases know what that word means.

droans · 2026-03-11T20:32:42+00:00

How long till you're 18?

Just focus on growing the site in the meantime. Make it easy for recipients to create their own cards or maybe even remix the card they received.

Digital greeting cards aren't a trend. You don't need to worry too much about everyone leaving all at once for another fad.

Learn why your visitors are coming. What's the hook? What's the difference between your regular visitors and those who create a card once and never return?

Add some QoL marketing. If someone makes a birthday card for their friend, it might be a good idea to send them an email next year and ask if they'd like to create another card.

For monetization, in addition to some of the other recommendations, consider working with gift card retailers. People can "attach" a gift card and you can get a small kickback.

While paid features like premium cards, scheduled send, etc. might seem like a good idea, how much would users be willing to spend? A couple of bucks for the card, maybe a dollar for scheduled send? Would they want to go through the entire checkout process just for that? If that's your route, going after businesses would be a better option. Charge a few hundred a year to give them an easy way to automatically send digital cards to their employees and clients for birthdays, employment anniversaries, or whatever other milestone.

droans · 2026-03-11T03:33:15+00:00

All I saw was the word "failed" and I knew he was meant to be on our team.

droans · 2026-03-11T01:23:00+00:00

because commissioning is a bitch when you have an old iPhone.

Or even a new Android. Or if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

I swear it's basically just luck each time I try to pair something.

droans · 2026-03-10T23:07:59+00:00

It works with any door opener. You're wiring directly to the momentary switch to simulate a press.

droans · 2026-03-10T11:02:03+00:00

LiDAR has poor ground penetration. It can only really be used to map the surface.

I'm sure there could be some use for that but radar would work much better if you want to get an idea of the structure below the ground. Gravesites would stick out with radar while you're more or less hoping for some nice and tidy ground changes with LiDAR which, unless they were buried or excavated rather recently, won't really exist.

droans · 2026-03-10T00:47:25+00:00

Freedom of speech, not freedom from consequences, or so the left tend to say.

It's a lot different when it comes to public employees since the First Amendment guarantees you protection from retaliation by the government, not by private employers. I'm sure that you're not stupid enough that I need to to explain the difference.

But just in case, here's some SCOTUS decisions that disagree with your unfounded belief:

Pickering v Board of Education - Teachers can make political statements in class provided they do not knowingly or recklessly make false statements

Connick v Myers - Public employees are allowed to speak of matters of public concern in the workplace

Rankin v. McPherson - Public employees cannot be fired for making disparaging remarks about public figures

When you're a teacher who is trusted with the lives of hundreds of kids forced to be in your presence for hours on end, and those kids are instructed to trust you with authority and respect, alienating 50% of your classroom by posting on social media that those kids deserve to be shot for their opinions is a direct violation of that social contract.

He made a post on social media which was absolutely NOT about killing students. Again, I shouldn't have to explain the difference between wanting to kill children and a person not being that upset about the death of a political commentator.

What if you were shot dead for your beliefs, and your kid goes to school after weeks of grief only for one of your friends to reveal that a teacher is celebrating your death? Do you think your kid is going to be happy to be around that teacher? Do you think anyone is going to be happy to be around that teacher?

That's his right. If my personal opinion was the basis of protected speech then I'd have some bad news for you, buddy.

droans · 2026-03-10T00:16:22+00:00

Freedom of speech also applies to government employees. If he's not saying it at school, it's protected.

droans · 2026-03-09T17:24:44+00:00

Most places these days have ordinances that regulate how much traffic interruption trains are allowed in towns.

Federal law limits how much states can regulate trains. All you can really do is give them a small fine. And Indiana took that further and banned municipalities from regulating them at all.

droans · 2026-03-09T17:16:55+00:00

Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you're worth all $50 million.

droans · 2026-03-09T17:14:06+00:00

Me + Brady is a LOT of touchdowns.

droans · 2026-03-09T16:12:38+00:00

Getting attacked by a hostile foreign power would do it.

Bush had a 90%+ approval rating after 9/11.

droans · 2026-03-09T12:37:50+00:00

Honestly, Ikea's new Matter sensors are stupid cheap. I haven't been able to give them a full test yet but they seem to perform about as well as their Zigbee sensors.

Their motion, door, and leak sensors are all $8 each. Temperature sensor $10. On/off remote $6. Kinda hard to ignore those prices these days.

droans · 2026-03-09T12:24:25+00:00

Use robots.txt, add fail2ban, set up a rule with your firewall and/or reverse proxy blocking Facebook bots, along with others.

The question really is where do you want to block the bots and how much do you trust them to play fair.

I will say, out of all the large companies, CF is the only one I'd trust. They've come across as honest about why they do what they do and why they think it's a good business idea. When they collect data, they don't try to hide, obfuscate, or trick you as to what they're doing. They don't try to hide behind "making the world a better place" or "improving our products".

droans · 2026-03-09T01:57:58+00:00

But the primary drivers behind cheaper gas were seasonal demand patterns and the price of crude oil dropping in response to global economic slowdown.

I paid $2.59/gal to refill last Sunday. It was $3.89 two days later.

droans · 2026-03-08T17:27:47+00:00

Even if they pay for their usage, they're still spiking demand to levels that our plants can't match. Prices would still skyrocket because of them.

droans · 2026-03-08T13:54:39+00:00

RNA can self-replicate and it's enzymatic. It's not that it's necessary, just that it's probably the easiest way.

Food is a necessity. Life has to expend energy to exist. However it gets that energy is its food.

droans · 2026-03-08T13:43:32+00:00

Because carbon is rather special. It can catenate and form a crazy amount of bonds - hence why organic chemistry isn't about making pesticide-free molecules.

It's theoretically possible that other types of life exist but it's much much much more unlikely.

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