Mans R

@futurebird @bri7 The early versions of these things (before the "chat" branding) really were simple text continuation engines. You'd put some text in a box and it would simply continue where you left off. The current iteration of chat interfaces insert some extra processing between user input and the text extruder. Some inputs are intercepted and processed by other backends like image generators. Fundamentally, though, it remains spicy autocomplete at the core.

@futurebird@sauropods.win Did you offer any advice regarding the kitchen ants?

@futurebird@sauropods.win My search strategy has always been to think of three words that are likely to occur together on a relevant page but not elsewhere. I do think some fuzziness in the matching is good, allowing for spelling variations, different inflections, and even synonyms usually increasing the chances of finding something useful. Where it went wrong was when they started optimising for queries consisting of complete English questions rather than a list of keywords.

@fesshole@mastodon.social “Everyone knows that dragons don’t exist. But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind. [...] The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each non-existed in an entirely different way.” -- Stanisław Lem, The Cyberiad

Pachelbel: Canon Tchaikovsky: Cannon!

@fribbledom@mastodon.social @stman@mastodon.social @theruran@masto.hackers.town @50htz@cathode.church All programming languages have issues, but only C++ has all of them.

@FaithfullJohn@mastodon.scot @futurebird@sauropods.win @doomsdayrs@cyberpunk.lol All search engines are either Google or a reskinned Bing, just like all browsers are either Firefox or a reskinned Chrome.

@futurebird@sauropods.win Of course, the amount of internet to search has grown tremendously, and most of it is rubbish, making the task of finding things more difficult regardless of strategy.

@jerry@infosec.exchange See also RFC 3514.

@konstruct@woof.tech Also, the whole thing is rather silly. Am I supposed to be horrified that the web server I chose to access knows the IP address I used for the request? Or that it knows what time it is? There are some disturbingly accurate ways of fingerprinting users, but most of the ones on that site are pretty innocent if not necessary for doing anything at all.

@drgroftehauge@sigmoid.social @inthehands@hachyderm.io Come to think of it, this along with the rest of the thread applies to dating apps as well.

@mike@sauropods.win @anon_opin@mastodon.social Yes, but there's no need to do that in public.

@wronglang@bayes.club @SomeVeganCheeseIsOk@mastodon.social @futurebird@sauropods.win Only? Have you ever tried nailing stones?

@kimlockhartga @Oldfartrant It's worth contacting the credit card company too. If you explain the situation, they might waive the fees/interest. Depends on how much they value customer satisfaction.

@mike@sauropods.win @anon_opin@mastodon.social Sure, open mic nights have a place. That's still no excuse for Oasis.

@funnymonkey@freeradical.zone @ben@werd.social That's why otherwise performative rainbow logos displayed by big companies are still useful. Also, any company that refuses to make even a token gesture is one that should be avoided.

@HunterAnton@mastodon.social @mike@sauropods.win @anon_opin@mastodon.social Good rule.

@chrisgj198@mastodon.social @SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange @joebeone@techpolicy.social The thing to watch out for is a playback chain that accepts high sample rate input but down-converts it digitally before it reaches the DAC.

@chrisgj198@mastodon.social @SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange @joebeone@techpolicy.social The digital interpolation filter usually has a cut-off at or slightly below half the sample rate, whatever it happens to be. The analogue filter is generally not as sharp (3rd or 4th order) with a fixed corner frequency of at least 50 kHz. If the sample rate allows it, a 60 kHz tone should show up in the output even if a little attenuated.

@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social Penguins?

@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social Exogeologists?

@pathunstrom@ngmx.com There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and whatever the hell this is.

@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz Where do you draw the line? If something is the result of an event that could occur without a human in sight but is extremely unlikely and you merely helped things along, e.g. by placing a rare substance where lightning strikes are frequent or something, does it count as man-made?

@johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz Are there any supernatural ones?

@Laurielle@mastodon.art ¿Hay posibilidad de envío internacional?

@joebeone@techpolicy.social @SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange Sure, you're likely to get enough distortion for it to work, but if the DAC supports generating the desired frequency directly, you ought to get a stronger signal.

@SteveBellovin@infosec.exchange @joebeone@techpolicy.social Many phones support 192 kHz sample rate for audio, so you could generate the correct frequency directly. The amplifier response probably drops off well before 60 kHz, but the square wave harmonics will be subjected to the same frequency response.

@c_9@mstdn.ca Waiting for nine zeroes.

@petealexharris @fesshole Oh, there are bad error messages in all categories. The difference is that with user errors, it is possible to be informative. It is all too common, though, especially with online services, to not even properly differentiate between user errors and system errors. When there is an error, I like to know whether it's because I'm using it wrong or the system is broken.

@petealexharris @fesshole There are different classes of error messages. Some relate to user errors (bad name, insufficient permissions, etc), and these can be accurate. Others correctly describe an internal error (e.g. backend service not responding) although they can rarely point at the root cause. You are thinking of the third type, the accursed "this cannot happen, yet here we are." Those are indeed largely guesswork if they go beyond printing the line number in the code.

@regehr @aburka @gwozniak If something gives you the impression of being good only in areas where you're not an expert, chances are it's not good anywhere.

@vicgrinberg Oh, I agree, the original post should be deleted or amended.

@Edelruth@mastodon.online @futurebird@sauropods.win Then there are the boobies, and we mustn't forget the shag.

@drgroftehauge@sigmoid.social @inthehands@hachyderm.io And the job itself isn't necessarily bad.

@stux@mstdn.social That could be said about so many people.

@vicgrinberg Still won't help with all the screenshots of the original.

@mike@sauropods.win @anon_opin@mastodon.social Say what you will about his singing, Bob Dylan at least has excellent lyrics. Oasis songs are just arbitrary words strung together to mostly fit the metre, and they all sound the same.

@bert_hubert@eupolicy.social @nicoduck@chaos.social @revk@toot.me.uk Hmm, maybe this Victron energy meter can be reprogrammed to simply stream out the sample data over Ethernet.

@pbarker@social.afront.org WTF? It's the right numbers but for the wrong candidates. I wonder how that happened.

@anon_opin@mastodon.social And the Tories.

@teclista@hortensia.social A shared Google doc won't have many of the ills plaguing normal social media, so perhaps it's not that bad.

@mike@sauropods.win @anon_opin@mastodon.social Sounds like you've given him a decent chance. Maybe his music just isn't for you. No shame in that. Regardless, it's his birthday today.

@thomholwerda@exquisite.social How about Slackware?

@mike@sauropods.win @Waxingtonknee@mastodon.org.uk It can't possibly get worse, at least on the Cardiff-Portsmouth route. Right now it's only 12 minutes behind schedule, so it's a good day.

@futurebird@sauropods.win What's the food and water supply like? Are there cats in the area?

@bloor@bloor.tw Presumably the amount you get from braking depends to some extent on your driving style.

@MostlyHarmless@thecanadian.social What happens if the abyss screams back?

@mattblaze@federate.social I have something even worse. I have a Lenovo tablet that charges fine from just about any charger. I also have a dual charger that works fine with most gadgets. If the tablet is plugged into that charger, it works for a few minutes, then simply stops. Plugging the other output into something, or unplugging it, gets it going again for a while, at least sometimes. It's too erratic to easily spot any reliable pattern. Who's at fault here?

@bebadefabo @Oldfartrant That's bad advice. Credit cards have much better protection against fraud and errors. With a debit card, you generally can't get money back once it has left your account. Extra perks like airline points may or may not be worth anything to you, but if there's no annual fee for the card, there's no harm either.

@CppGuy@infosec.space @Laird_Dave@chaos.social @fesshole@mastodon.social What is your definition of a pub? There are plenty of places around here closing at 1am or 2am on a weekend. Several nightclubs are open until 3am or later.