StrictDabbler

8 ms·

31.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
I am trying to think of a good reason to open-carry into a police station apart from "making a point". You won't be the "good guy with a gun" in an active shooting. You won't be robbed. You won't be attack
32.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
This is the ultimate skeuomorphism. Do we keep the Triglyph and metopes when we no longer have transverse wooden beams in our temples? Sure, we're still building a temple shaped object. Do we keep the floppy disk and phone icons even t
33.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
My childhood pride in being able to spell "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" induced a lifelong fear of silica dust and other industrial particulate hazards. At that time silicosis was mostly a mining hazard. It is sa
34.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Abortion was not illegal in the US when the constitution was written... not even until the AMA formed in 1847 and shortly thereafter started pushing for criminalization. The process was slow at first. After the civil war many people became
35.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
In order to view that image I had to assure Imgur that I'm over 18. I guess colors and folds are enough to trigger the warning.
36.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
$0.08-$0.12/word is the rate for a quality short story in a moderately respectable science fiction magazine like Clarkesworld or Asimov's Science Fiction. This is also a generally-quoted rate for blogspam. The blogspam rate will c
37.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
I respect the soft sciences. They ask questions to which we need answers. They may sometimes fall short or lack rigor but it's not like we have an alternative way to address those issues. At the same time I am disturbed by a soft scien
38.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Terry Pratchett was about as mentally stimulated as a human being can be. Perhaps that helped delay his case, perhaps it didn't, but it's very clear that stimulation is no guarantee.
39.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Asimov is seeming more prescient now: "I'm sorry, I cannot do that, I am unable to tell if it would conflict with the first law" is basically the response GPT4 now gives to even minor tasks. There are stories where the robots
40.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
I don't think you sound snarky. I think it's easy to look at an issue like this through a cultural lens. Heavy tint is indeed popular among jerks. As for necessity, studies suggest that skin cancer rates vary according to the side
41.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
No. It doesn't always hit 112 F. Temperature is a function of sensible and latent heat. So Dallas, for example, is only 84 F with a humidity of 83% right now at 9:23 AM central. That's a heat index of 95 F. The high temperature wi
42.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Where do you live? It's currently 112 F where I am and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Humidity is very low so water isn't absorbing radiation. Nobody is riding a bicycle or walking long distances six months of the year here,
43.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Absolutely. "Dull" is relative. They're cut-off wire. It hasn't been sharpened but it hasn't been dulled. A bird flying in for a landing can certainly impale itself if it doesn't realize the spikes are there. A
44.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
On the topic of relative risk, millions of Americans spend time at firing ranges breathing in aerosolized lead and covering themselves in lead dust. They of course wash their clothing in the same washing machine that launders their family&#
45.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Bird spikes are dull. The goal is not to hurt birds. They just create a surface that is less practical to land or rest on. They do this by being vertical, parallel, and too close together for a bird to get a good sideways grip on any one sp
46.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
I see this comment all the time on this topic used to justify any number of pricing inequities. It doesn't hold up here. Yes. The US has a very widely distributed population. It has expensive internet and cellphone coverage. Yes, Canad
47.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
It's a surprisingly late place for this in Filfre's overall story. So much of the early Filfre content was Zork focused, and Zork's Coconut of Quendor is such a direct nod to the Amulet of Yendor, that I would have expected t
48.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Imagine you meet a human who is eloquent, expressive, speaks ten languages, can pass the bar or the medical board exams easily, but who cannot reliably distinguish between truth and falsehood on the smallest of questions ("what is 6x9?
49.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
That's immediately inaccurate in a way that distorts the whole article. The author was trying to produce a single banana on a grey background. The monkey was a later attempt at prompt engineering. That AI summary is completely misleadi
50.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
It was originally called a "Hot Dog Sandwich", "Frankfurter Sandwich" or "sausage sandwich" around the turn of the 20th century. This was the straight-forward terminology. Nobody has to go back and prove it fro
51.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Yes. The 78-year-old Pulitzer-prize winner with forty years of tenure, several fellowships, multiple books in every library in the country, who spent his entire life trying to develop AI software, is merely "worried" that AI is go
52.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
I'm sure she did use this exact example because Hofstadter and others have been using it since the mid 80s, yes. I don't think he invented the test. I have seen the chatbot fail at it and I've seen it succeed, more or less at
53.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
"Hey Smitty, profits are down at your retail locations! Why?" "Uh.... shoplifting?" "We can't have that! How can you fix it? We'll pay any reasonable amount." "Um... we could put locked doors on
54.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Hofstadter won a Pulitzer in 1980. His books are among the most important ever written about the meaning and structure of AI. He's had four decades where he could have milked that reputation for money or influence and he's chosen
55.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Current AI doesn't give us what Hofstadter has said he wants from AI. If you try ChatGPT on any of his creative analogy problems it fails completely. Given abc->abd, what does xyz go to? ChatGPT says xyd until you further prompt it.
56.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
The other day I searched for "canned cabbage soup". The mobile website locked into a mode I've never seen before. It would only provide blogspamish recipes for canning your own cabbage soup linked through the tiled suggestion
57.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
Imagine walking in to your boss and saying "boss, the battery pack works, but some sweaty Europeans may be forced to sit naked in their uncooled apartments without a belt to hang it on. I think we should delay the launch." This is
58.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
The main thing I miss from Reddit is talking about cast-iron pan reseasoning so this is a self-defeating circular argument.
59.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
This is definitely a paid advertising piece sponsored by the commercial real estate industry. Like, regardless of the merits of WFH or in-office, this reeks of propaganda and marketing.
60.
by StrictDabbler 3y ago
BeeHaw just defederated from sh.itjust.works and lemmy.world. A poster came onto sh.itjust.works claiming responsibility for that. They described the very minor trolling they used to achieve it. They say they work for Reddit and are persona

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