bitwize

27 ms·

661.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Or even Doom on your Beeb: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=32hJLwrk-gY
662.
by bitwize 7mo ago
The truth is not as strong as I had claimed. BASIC's expressions kinda resemble Fortran's, probably because that was what was lying around. It seems that an easier version of an existing language is what Kurtz wanted, but Kemeny w
663.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Nonsense. You prompt an adversarial agent to look for bottlenecks and suggest improvements in what your coding agent wrote, "and don't make mistakes".
664.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Given that the go-to linear-algebra libraries for the past N decades (BLAS, Linpack, etc.) are Fortran, I'd suspect that neural-network people would be rather okay with it, esp. if it could be driven with a Python wrapper (which is how
665.
by bitwize 7mo ago
It's all ha-ha until you realize that some versions of Dartmouth BASIC actually had matrix operation primitives, and so might've been a good choice for implementing GPU-accelerated linear algebra kernels. (It was also compiled; Mi
666.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Research conducted by M. Bryce and Associates suggested that use of a structured systems analysis phase before programming began resulted in time and cost savings vs. just "hacking it together" like programmers want to do. Locking
667.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Um, ackshually, real civil/structural engineers—at least, those in the global north—design bridges, roads, and buildings with huge tolerances (multiple times the expected loads) because unexpected shit happens and you don't want t
668.
by bitwize 7mo ago
It's called "systems analysis". Programmers are generally pretty terrible at it because it requires holistic, big-picture thinking. But it used to take up the bulk of the design activity for a new enterprise system.
669.
by bitwize 7mo ago
AI will totally rot our brains, just like television, video games, and the internet all did before.
670.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Including, inasmuch as you can consider it fine art, the ROM for the Apollo onboard computer! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_rope_memory
671.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Not enough people give a shit about "general purpose computing" to matter. They use computers for a few things and as long as they can do those things they're fine with it. My wife loves all her Apple gear. It provides her wi
672.
by bitwize 7mo ago
> Saying that computer/OS manufacturers should prevent malware is effectively equivalent to saying that they should not sell general purpose computers to the public. (in Gilbert Huph (Wallace Shawn) voice) Yes, precisely!
673.
by bitwize 7mo ago
I'd say Hackernews knows enough people at Google to raise a stink about this, but it's not going to do any good. Sometime at the last WEF or Bilderberg meeting it was decided that KYC level identity verification should be required
674.
by bitwize 7mo ago
That tracks for sika deer. Those are the "sacred deer" that used to be venerated in Nara, and are still protected under Japanese national treasure laws. They are allowed to roam free throughout Nara, and you face big penalties for
675.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Which in turn is a remake of Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979).
676.
by bitwize 7mo ago
I think that dogs and cats fail the mirror test not because they are unintelligent or lack a "sense of self", but because their sense of self is tied up with their sense of smell . Mirror reflections don't smell like themse
677.
by bitwize 7mo ago
> Saying that LLM's are better than most professional programmers is also trivially false, you do yourself no favours making such outlandish claims. You grossly underestimate how awful one can be and still call themselves a "pr
678.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Entire classes of workers have been put in the poorhouse on a near permanent basis due to technological changes, many tines during the past two centuries of industrial civilization. Without systemic structural changes to support the workfor
679.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Qotom mini PCs are my cheatcode. These little PCs are often available with multiple NICs, and I use one as a wifi bridge/router for my office network. Put Linux or FreeBSD on one and you have a very capable little network-appliance box
680.
by bitwize 7mo ago
I keep hearing anecdata that suggest significant to huge productivity increases—"a task that would have taken me weeks now takes hours" is common. There is currently not a whole lot of research that supports that, however: 1) ther
681.
by bitwize 7mo ago
A friend of my wife's suffered a stroke recently. One of the first signs something was really wrong was she took a circuitous route around town to get home, then called her husband and said "I'm lost, I don't know where
682.
by bitwize 7mo ago
XQuartz used to support rooted mode. I played with an early version back in the PowerPC era, and ran a regular desktop with WindowMaker and everything, using software from MacPorts. It was kind of a "parallel universe", as XQuartz
683.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Very, very good news everyone! Google has agreed to only gently fuck us in the ass! They were even kind enough to offer to use lube!
684.
by bitwize 7mo ago
European workplace ergonomics rules have been like this a long time. Computers were beige for decades because German ergonomics laws mandated office equipment in light, neutral colors.
685.
by bitwize 7mo ago
The biggest issue I found is that X apps look like ass against the elegant Mac environment. Maybe that's mitigated somewhat by macOS 26's Android-ass looking UI, but the appearance/functionality clash between Mac and generic
686.
by bitwize 7mo ago
It's still going to take a knowledgeable person to steer an LLM. The point is that code written entirely by humans is finished as a concept in professional work—if you're writing it yourself you're not working efficiently or
687.
by bitwize 7mo ago
But LLMs have proven themselves better at programming than most professional programmers. Don't argue. If you think Hackernews is a representative sample of the field then you haven't been in the field long enough. What LLMs have
688.
by bitwize 7mo ago
The ownership class will be sharper. They will know how to exploit capital and turn it into more capital with vastly increased efficiency. Everybody else will be hosed.
689.
by bitwize 7mo ago
"Unbelievable. You, [SUBJECT NAME HERE], must be the pride of [SUBJECT HOMETOWN HERE]."
690.
by bitwize 7mo ago
Me: So basically what AI is, is they take statistical analysis of raw data, then perform statistical analysis on those results, and so on, adding more statistics layer by layer. My wife: So, like a doberge cake? Me: Yes, exactly! In fact

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