novalis

@mjd@mathstodon.xyz @MicroSFF@mastodon.art There's a bit of this in Dungeon Crawler Carl, where they need a certain number of troll hands, but they only have one troll...

@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org @wouter@pleroma.debian.social @mjw@mastodon.nl @collinfunk@mastodon.social @pinche_compinche@tuiter.rocks This is why man strstr gives the arguments as haystack and needle instead of trying to use the word target.

@mjd @robinhouston Those are called "polyiamonds", which must have been what was meant; I think it's false because of polyiamonds with holes.

@mjd @robinhouston I think there's still a problem with long spiky caltrop shapes.

@crystalvisits I once went to a podiatrist for a sprained ankle. Sure, there was an elevator to his office. But to get to the elevator, you had to go down a flight of stairs. It was a very wide flight of stairs -- 4 or 5 meters wide. They could have put in a lift. A podiatrist.

@bkuhn @mastodonmigration @lumi @ossguy Maybe cars would be a better analogy: expensive, environmentally destructive, makes your body atrophy, but damn they're convenient.

@lumi @bkuhn @mastodonmigration @ossguy GenAI has a case where it's useful: producing small software when you don't know how to write code. To my mind, this is a software freedom issue: what use is a pile of source code that you don't know how to modify? Sure, you could hire someone (if you're rich). It also seems to (since November) be sometimes able to help experienced practitioners produce software faster than they otherwise would be able to -- especially in areas where they are unfamiliar with the ecosystem. You may or may not believe that this justifies the harm, but it is a use-case. Finally, one weird-ass use-case which I admit is niche: I use it to remove ads from podcasts. Imagine doing that like 90s spam filtering, with a pile of regexps. Yuck. LLMs (while not perfect at the job) make it straightforward. My kid is much happier not listening to ads.

@lumi @ossguy @bkuhn @mastodonmigration Right, that's the car analogy: cars aren't sustainable. (If you're asking whether it genuinely helps, I would encourage you to look at what other experienced programmers you respect are saying -- in particular, I think @mjd is worth listening to, as he is one of the best programmers I personally know). But also, unfortunately, it seems really unlikely that we will manage to outlaw either cars or LLMs.

@lumi @bkuhn @ossguy @mastodonmigration I have always been in favor of a narrow definition of Free Software -- that is, I think it means software that respects the four freedoms. A piece of Free Software could be bad for other reasons. Bitcoin comes to mind as being unnecessarily bad for the environment. Perhaps software useful only to send spam. Or (hypothetically) software made with enslaved labor.

@mjd @christianp I heard a suggestion that the stops on the 6 train be used to remember degrees Celcius -- 33rd St is ~0 C, 42nd is ~5C, 50th is ~10C, etc.

Apple TV has just produced a version of the Scottish Play set on a plane: MacBeth Air.

Has anyone ever tried Board? It looks pretty cool.

Thinking back on it, the most unrealistic thing about Star Trek: Voyager is Seven of Nine.

She would have just had a UUID.

Sesame cake from NGW picnic: recipe as I made it; proposed tweaks to follow

1c flour
1c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4tsp salt

1 oz toasted sesame oil
1 oz earth balance buttery spread (or, butter)
1/2 oz neutral oil
1 oz tahini

2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

1/2 c soy milk (or, milk)

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Whisk the dry ingredients together. Melt the butter. Whisk in the tahini, then the oils, then the eggs and vanilla, then the milk. Add the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Bake at 350 in a 9-inch cake pan; I used a parchment liner. After 5 or 10 minutes, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top, then continue baking for a total of 20 minutes.

I thought it was pretty good, but I would have made the following changes:
1. Bake it for two more minutes
2. Try a little less sugar -- maybe 7/8c
3. More sesame seeds

Mutex is a master of silly naps.

You know how there's Wikipedia, and then there's the spin-off Wiktionary for words, and Wikidata for data? They should do one for units of measure. They could call it Wikifeet.