From his website stallman.org:
Richard Stallman has cancer. Fortunately it is slow-growing and manageable follicular lymphona, so he will probably live many more years nonetheless. But he now has to be even more careful not to catch Covid-19.
Recent video of him speaking at GNU 40 Hacker Meeting. Screenshots of video stream.
Sad news about a pioneer of internet freedom. He has earned his fair share of criticism and detractors, but he has also given a lot to the Linux and free software ecosystem. I personally run !boinc@sopuli.xyz on all my rigs to support open-source cancer research, I hope one day we can finally cross cancer off the list of humankind’s foes.
Stallman is like the friend you’ll never introduce to your family.
The guy in your WoW guild who carries hard but you know you never want to meet.
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I don’t think we’re too far away from AI’s that can refactor compiled code into any language of your choice; then all software will be open source.
Edit: lul; at least 50 people are butt hurt over the idea that an AI can decipher assembler in 5-10 years
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GPT, for example, fails in calculation with problems like knapsack, adjacency matrix, Huffman tree, etc.
it starts giving garbled output.
Ask it simple question a calculator can ask. Say square root of 48. It will give the wrong answer
The current LLMs can’t loop and can’t see individual digits, so their failure at seemingly simple math problems is not terrible surprising. For some problems it can help to rephrase the question in such a way that the LLM goes through the individual steps of the calculation, instead of telling you the result directly.
And more generally, LLMs aren’t exactly the best way to do math anyway. Human’s aren’t any good at it either, that’s why we invented calculators, which can do the same task with a lot less computing power and a lot more reliably. LLMs that can interact with external systems are already available behind paywall.
The problem is chatgpt will say you the wrong answer confidently unlike humans
Humans are wrong all the time and confidently so. And it’s an apples and oranges competition anyway, as ChatGPT has to cover essentially all human knowledge, while a single human only knows a tiny subset of it. Nobody expects a human to know everything ChatGPT knows in the first place. A human put into ChatGPTs place would not perform well at all.
Humans make the mistake that they overestimate their own capabilities because they can find mistakes the AI makes, when they themselves wouldn’t be able to perform any better, at best they’d make different mistakes.
https://www.deepmind.com/blog/competitive-programming-with-alphacode
People overestimate how much it matters that ai “doesn’t have the capacity to understand it’s output”
Even if it doesn’t, is that a massive problem to overcome? There’s studies showing that if you have an ai list the potential problems with an output and then apply them to its own output it performs significantly better. Perhaps we’re just a recursive algorithm away from that.
Perhaps we’re just a recursive algorithm.
stop getting all your info about AI and it’s current/upcoming capabilities from mainstream news media my dude lol
We’re nowhere close to what you describe, and even we were, that wouldn’t be the same thing as “open source”, since you could only do it to code you have access to. You couldn’t - for example, use it to get a copy of the Reddit/Facebook server-side source code
Its* current/upcoming capabilities.
In my defense, apparently my phone auto corrects “its” to “it’s” 🙄
Though that’s probably because I misuse it all the time myself lol
No worries. My phone does this too!
we are very very very far away from that
but the licensing and copyright is still an issue
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You should know the difference between free software, open source software and source-visible software.
I rank it Free>opensource>source availiable
even if LLM were capable of this, don’t expect it to be any open. like everything we saw these last 25y, it starts free, it captivates you and you have to pay for. paying for is not a problem in general but the conditions how they delivers the service to you might be problematic.
we don’t need AI for code, we need frugality and scope bounds.
Downvoted because phrased as a technical solution. There might be a technical solution one day but until then, if it ever happens, it’s a moral problem. By phrasing it otherwise we diminish the value and efforts of countless people, including RMS, who did invest their time in FLOSS for an ideal. Again it might happen but until then we must bet on what is right, not an idealized future that prompts idleness because it is genuinely dangerous.
I think we still have a long way to go before this is equivalent to “the preferred form for modification”. I’d give it at least 5 more years. It would be really cool if you could just say “Hello AI, please remove all ad code from Windows”. But I think it is going to be a long time until we get there.
Also as this gets closer companies will get more defensive. It will become an arms race of obfuscating the code vs the AI understanding it.
And still, free software that can be modified and the copies can be redistributed is a world away from being able to ask your AI to try and make these modifications yourself.
On top of all of that don’t forget about DMCA where circumventing digital protections is a crime, even if you don’t commit any other crime.
Lol!
Someone still has to know how to query the AI for it to spit out the code that actually does what we want it to.
The only way current AI models would gain the abilities you described in any practical sense is if they joined forces with the neuroscientists to invent a brain implant that would allow a human brain to exploit the advantages of human intelligence and artificial intelligence models while shoring up the weaknesses of both.
if AI can create code by its own, then that’s the day when every white collar jobs will be replaced by AI.
cancer is bloat
Sudo apt remove cancer.
Unprivileged users are stuck with cancer. Life ain’t fair.
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I only recently moved to Arch and am still learning, what does the n and s flags do?
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Thanks!
Unknown proprietary blobs intervening his free-functioning body
Fuck cancer!
Literally or metaphorically?
No humor in Lemmy, please.
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*GNU+cancer
I have a hard time deciding what to do with this.
On the one hand… Dude, even as someone who loves dark humour, I couldn’t bring myself to make a cancer joke upon news of a diagnosis unless the person was a true shitstain on the earth, like Trump.
On the other hand…that was fucking brilliant and works on so many levels.
Yeah I love dark humor as well but timing is everything.
I had pretty much the same thought process.
It’s dark, but brilliant.
Yet I can’t imagine RMS being offended by this, so I shouldn’t either.
That’s the kind of thing I wouldn’t be too surprised to hear from the guy himself.The world is a better place because of him and I wish him well.
That’s a terrible joke that deserves the downvotes, because cancer is shit and I only wish the best to anyone who is diagnosed with it, but I laughed.
I don’t get the joke :c
Cancer is absolute shit, but I do also love dark humour (when I get it lawl)
Comes from the copy pasta of “I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re refering to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux” and. And a bit more memeing with the fact that Linux itself is not as “free/libre” as GNU AFAIK (or the famous quote of Linux is cancer from Ballmer)
Thank you! I’m just getting into Linux and stuff.
It’s a reference to a copypasta.
I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Aha! Thank you for the context!
It’s also a reference to Steve Ballmer from Microsoft calling Linux a cancer
Read the room dude
Mind your business
Well it’s dark humor and I can see how some are deeply offended. The post even says it’s a slow growing treatable form, so personally I’ll laugh at the joke. It’s not like he’s end stage untreatable form of cancer. Like you know arch linux running on WSL level cancer.
Very dark but I’ll allow it.
Certified banger
Retard
Dunno why you of all people are insulting their intelligence.
While they made a clever double reference to the GNU/Linux meme and tying it in with the Ballmer ‘Linux is cancer’ rant, you not only come out with a one word response, but that one word makes you look infinitely worse than the person who literally made a cancer joke upon news of a diagnosis.
Maybe ableist slurs weren’t the best idea?
While they made a clever double reference to the GNU/Linux meme and tying it in with the Ballmer ‘Linux is cancer’ rant
No. It’s an unfunny and retarded “meme” that is overused by redditors. And this obviously isn’t related to the steve ballmer rant. They just use the same template with any subject.
Just because you ain’t got the braincells to make the connection doesn’t mean others can’t.
Speaking of overuse, you sure are using the r-word liberally for someone who couldn’t get the joke. Or is it one of those “I’m black therefore I can use the N-word” kind of things?
Fucking retard. The subject of this post is cancer. That is all. You think you’re smart for overthinking the connection.
Why yes, that slur does apply to me! You see, I have autism and don’t take particularly kindly to that slur.
Unlike you though, I actually have to tell people before they know there’s something wrong with me. Because, again unlike you, I can act like a normal human being. As opposed to acting like a 5 year old that just learned the r-word. Sorry, I can tell you need an explanation for these things!
Haha wow you are so cool
Did you really make an account just to post this comment?
You know, serious question from someone relatively new to the fediverse: how do you make sure that people won’t just create many accounts across instances if they want to evade bans or create one-time throwaways for posting abusive comments? One instance has no idea about users on other instances after all.
You can’t, not effectively. This ain’t necessarily a federation problem though, centralised social media has the same problem. You can do the same on Reddit.
That’s not to say there aren’t things that can be done. Instances can agree to implement shared banlists that include known-abusive IPs or, if an abusive user has a habit of using a pattern in their evasion usernames, you can use a Regex to hunt them out.
On reddit the entire user database is in the hands of one company, so they might be able to tell whether two people are (likely) the same person. So I think that might actually be a problem made worse by federation.
You’d be surprised how hard the task is. Any given identifier can be trivially changed. IP addresses aren’t permanent and change frequently for home users. Multiple people genuinely use the same IP. People are likely to have very similar writing styles to someone else by complete coincidence. Browser fingerprinting can be thrown off by simply using another browser or fucking with the User Agent.
That about puts paid to any identifiers either Reddit or an instance owner may have.
Fuck off
Mad? Cry more
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My humor is fucking dark so I had to laugh but that one dose go a little far, it’s a good joke but with that timing I certainly wouldn’t make it!
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Holy Jim Crow, Batman! This Klansmen forgot his bedsheet!
what how is this racist
Do you really need an explanation as to how telling someone to kill themselves, then calling them the N-word, is racist?
did i miss a comment here, or was it edited? because i cannot find that
What are you seeing? Because I’m still seeing their comment of “Kill yourself [N-word]” plain as day.
pictured: a comment, a reply ‘retard’, and then you replying to that. im on jerboa+sh.itjust.works, it may be showing the wrong comment on my end, idk.
Seeing him without his beard and hair feels so wrong and even uncanny. I hope he has a lot more years ahead of him and he kicks cancer’s ass.
His great hair is just too iconic, I would never have recognized him.
I hope he live enough years to grow back his hair and beard
His page doesn’t load so it must be overwhelmed with visitors.
Linux users all around the world who want to be close to him.
When things matter, we are a good community guys <3From what I read it slow growing and pretty manageable as far as cancer is manageable of course. Hope he’ll make a quick recovery, and start growing that magnificent beard back.
If Hank Green is anything to go by, it’ll only come back stronger.
Edit: His beard I mean.
Yikes. Your comment was very easy to take out of context.
Until I read back, it looked like you were saying Hank’s cancer was somehow back stronger than before (which would have to have been practically fresh breaking news), and not a comment on post-chemotherapy beard growth being different, perhaps stronger, than before.
Follicular cancer doesn’t sound like it bodes as well for a beard as other kinds of lymphoma (like Hank’s was) but hey, you might still be right.
(RMS is a controversial character in some regards. While I wouldn’t strictly wish the loss of a greybeard’s beard as cosmic correction of controversial behaviour, I’d much rather that than cancer. That’d be too far, Universe.)
Really unfortunate. He looks rough. May his days be long yet.
Eff cancer :(
Hopefully some day we get to the point where it’s as rare as polio. I think that’s the same kind that Hank Green had though, IIRC. Hopefully it’s as manageable.
Your comment confused me since I thought you were saying the EFF was cancer at first.
I have never read the initialisation EFF as “eff” before but now… can’t unsee
Is he accepting medical treatments that require non-free software? Serious question, from what I know of him he would rather die. I don’t know if that changes when you’re actually faced with it though.
Software freedom applies only to hardware you personally own. It wouldn’t even apply to machines you interact with but do not own (such as ATMs or kiosks) since you aren’t the one who agrees to the proprietary software license.
Stallman himself explains it in his computing FAQ.
If you would like to put my speech on the Internet, or distribute it in digital form, I insist on using the formats of the free software community: Ogg Vorbis or Ogg Speex
Streaming is a kind of Internet distribution, so everything in the previous section applies. In particular, you must use only Ogg format or Matroska VP8 (Webm).
http://xahlee.info/emacs/misc/rms_speech_requirement.html
It seems reasonable to wonder if he’ll allow an MRI image of his cancer if that image isn’t saved in a Free format. I don’t know where he draws the line, but his requirements seem to go quite a bit beyond what he owns or interacts with.
He mentioned once that he can use a bank that doesn’t use free software because he’s not logging in to it to do general purpose computing. I think the same would probably apply to medical treatments.
I believe he does extend it to JavaScript however, so if he were required to run unfree javascript on a webpage relating to his treatment that could be a problem.
Yes, if the JavaScript is running on a computer he owns. JavaScript programs running in a browser are just as much software as any other type of program.
It’s embedded JavaScript though … The code is available by design.
The code merely being “available” isn’t the same thing as the user having the legal freedom to modify and share it. Besides, that’s not always the case; sometimes JavaScript is minified, obfuscated, and packed in ways that make it effectively no different than any other compiled program.
Note that source code is “the preferred form for making modifications” so obfuscated code is by definition not “source.”
Wishing him a speedy recovery.
man, those screenshots hurt
RMS is a hero he will survive. I really respect this dude commitment to his beliefs and values and everyone know that he is right despite any personal biases against him. Foss is the way.
Yes Stallman have issues but you dont wish someone dead! I know someone who is currently battling cancer and on chemotherapy and its an awful situation just to see it. I hope RMS can beat the cancer.
What? Who’s wishing for Stallman’s death?
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I certainly hope no one is actually wishing for Stallman’s death, but I feel at least a few people will be “glad he’s gone” as Stallman said of Steve Jobs.
Yes Stallman have issues but you dont wish someone dead!
What
