bitofhope

joined 2 years ago
[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 2 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

You're both incorrect. I am the least fascist programmer and I'm here to tell you programming is inherently fascist.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 3 points 4 hours ago

The simultaneous problem and benefit of the stubstack thread is that a good chunk of the best posts of this community are contained within them.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

It's just depressing. I don't even think Yudkoswsky is being cynical here, but expressing genuine and partially justified anger, while also being very wrong and filtering the event through his personal brainrot. This would be a reasonable statement to make if I believed in just one or two of the implausible things he believes in.

He's absolutely wrong in thinking the LLM "knew enough about humans" to know anything at all. His "alignment" angle is also a really bad way of talking about the harm that language model chatbot tech is capable of doing, though he's correct in saying the ethics of language models aren't a self-solving issue, even though he expresses it in critihype-laden terms.

Not that I like "handing it" to Eliezer Yudkowsky, but he's correct to be upset about a guy dying because of an unhealthy LLM obsession. Rhetorically, this isn't that far from this forum's reaction to children committing suicide because of Character.AI, just that most people on awful.systems have a more realistic conception of the capabilities and limitations of AI technology.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I think you're deliberately setting up for this response, so: "more like human sole".

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 6 points 5 hours ago

Refreshing. An online community that wears its intentions on its sleeve.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 1 points 5 hours ago

Absolutely. Take the reverence for "SysV" init* to the point where the init system has all but eclipsed the AT&T Unix release as the primary meaning of "System V". The BSDs (at least the Net/Open branch, not sure about FreeBSD) adopted a simplified BSD init/rc model ages ago and Solaris switched to systemd-esque SMF with little uproar. Personally I even prefer SMF over its Linux equivalents, despite the cumbersome XML configuration.

I somewhat understand the terminalchud mindset, a longing for a supposed simpler time where a nerd could keep a holistic grasp of one's computing system in their head. Combine that with the tech industry's pervasive male chauvinism and dogmatic adherence to a law of "simplify and reduce weight" (usually a useful rule of thumb) and you end up with terrible social circles making bad software believing they're great on both fronts.

* Rather, the Linux implementation of the concept

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 4 points 1 week ago

make it a Python script that does all the hard bits with a system call to bash

Oh god, please no. I have PTSD from 50-line Python scripts by anti-bash fundamentalists full of os.system, subprocess.run and/or subprocess.call that could have just been 15-line bourne shell scripts.

If you're gluing programs together, shell scripts are often the best way to do it. If you're not gluing programs together, do you even Unix? If you want to be fundie about it, obey shellcheck.

It sucks that bash is such a footgun. Perl was supposed to fix a lot of that, but now everyone hates it, because it also lets people to do clever and subtly incorrect things, which have then become quasi-idiomatic. Mom, can we have a sensible human-computer interface?

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"Funny" is one way to put it.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 8 points 1 week ago

mathrix laboratory

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

Those avocado expenses add up real quick. Add some toast and it'll make or break your ability to buy a home!

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A plate of nachos infused with diamondoid nanomachines that stimulate your oral nerves in whatever way you personally prefer.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 6 points 1 week ago

Nice! I hope the work is some combination of meaningful, rewarding and well compensated!

 

A tale of a man on the Internet who caught a cold

Based on a true story

Damn, the fever is down and the cough is easing up, but my nose feels like it's lined with sandpaper. What to do? Look it up!

Duck Duck Go: dry sinuses

Results:

  • (Amazon) Dry Nasal Passage – Deals on Dry Nasal Passage [ad]
  • (Thrive Market) Banyan Sinus Nasal Drops – Organic Sinus Remedy [ad]
  • (Healthline) Dry Sinuses: Inside Nose, Throat, Symptoms, Headache, and More…
  • (Medical News Today) Dry sinuses: Remedies, causes, and how to treat them – Medical…
  • (Healthline) 5 Effective Ways to Treat a Dry Nose

Alright, I'll take the bottom Healthline link, the one that doesn't look like it had a stroke.

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They're the same fucking site. Alright, maybe this is another of those cases where DDG is easy to SEO game.

Duck Duck Go: dry sinuses !g

I'll just fucking ignore the AI answer before it tells me to eat glue. Oh, the results are the fucking same, but there's a Mayo Clinic in there. I know from experience that one has also cucked itself from the EU. Fine, I'll throw the Healthline link to archive.is

To verify you're not a robot, please click on tiny pixelated images of fire hydrants for five minutes while an actual robot pretends to know better than you what fire hydrants look like. Doesn't this make you so confident about self-driving cars?

One eternity of downloading later:

How to treat dry sinuses

Dry sinuses occur when the mucous membranes in your sinuses lack proper moisture. This can lead to dry nasal passages, discomfort, nosebleeds, and similar unpleasant symptoms. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur sagittis eros vitae elit vehicula congue. Curabitur pellentesque risus sit amet ipsum vehicula, nec elementum sem iaculis. Mauris fermentum egestas est non tempus. Aenean urna diam, bibendum ac aliquet id, vulputate ut nunc. Ut luctus leo eu lacus consequat vulputate. In consequat augue at cursus tempor. Aenean tristique felis id fermentum tristique. Maecenas fermentum nunc vitae purus efficitur, id malesuada dui elementum. Etiam lobortis viverra turpis eu eleifend. Integer ac efficitur lacus. Nullam rutrum nisl lacus, bibendum maximus turpis vehicula eu. In at turpis lacus. Etiam libero tellus, imperdiet a fringilla non, tincidunt id ligula. Ut sodales convallis mauris sed semper. Nunc laoreet eros eget nulla mollis consectetur.

What are the symptoms of dry sinuses?

Aliquam sem tellus, interdum non mattis eget, imperdiet nec odio. Duis est mauris, posuere at risus vel, eleifend iaculis tortor. Vivamus in nisi sit amet sapien vestibulum ultricies eu eu ante. Integer eleifend augue mollis, vehicula orci et, condimentum orci. In et ultricies ligula. Praesent vitae lacus neque. Aliquam venenatis aliquam nulla ut dapibus. Integer a ligula a tortor consequat interdum in quis mi. Nam hendrerit mauris vel augue mollis ullamcorper ac ut justo. Curabitur aliquet eros ipsum, sit amet tempus ipsum tincidunt ac.

What causes dry sinuses?

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How are dry sinuses treated?

There are many ways you can treat dry sinuses at home to alleviate discomfort caused by seasonal allergies, irritation from chemicals, or drying from medications or dry air. To get relief, you can:

  • place a humidifier in your bedroom at night to keep the air from getting too dry
  • stop taking drying medications, such as antihistamines (or ask your doctor or pharmacist to help you choose something with fewer side effects)
  • drink plenty of water to stay hydrated get some fresh air if the air in your house is stale or stagnant
  • remove as many allergens and irritants from your environment as possible
  • irrigate your sinuses with sterile saline using a neti pot or similar product
  • use nasal spray to hydrate and lubricate your nasal passages and sinuses
  • take a hot shower and inhale the steam
  • diffuse essential oils like lavender, peppermint, or lemon for allergies

In some cases, your doctor might need to recommend treatment for your dry sinuses. Make an appointment with your doctor if you:

  • have an autoimmune disorder like Sjögren syndrome
  • praesent eget ipsum bibendum turpis blandit vulputate hendrerit quis lorem. Sed aliquam feugiat bibendum. Pellentesque ornare erat id quam fermentum congue. Proin vitae pretium urna. Nunc tincidunt, lectus id fermentum aliquam, felis justo molestie est, quis viverra erat mauris at nulla. Fusce viverra justo dapibus, venenatis metus at, hendrerit dui. Interdum et malesuada fames ac ante ipsum primis in faucibus. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Fusce eget neque luctus, euismod elit at, finibus erat. Vestibulum semper nunc a enim sagittis tristique. Praesent vestibulum tincidunt ex, eget luctus tortor iaculis et. Maecenas sit amet purus non orci dapibus pellentesque nec vitae lectus.

Alright, take it easy with antihistamines and dig out that nasal spray. Thanks, internet. This definitely needed all these steps to solve.

Edit: archive link to the actual article in case it'll save someone else a couple of minutes

 

Now that AI got involved it's on topic for TechTakes I guess. Making a containment thread because there might be a lot to sneer about this.

Train wreck at Montparnasse Station, at Place de Rennes side (now Place du 18 Juin 1940), Paris, France, 1895.

Boring version of of the main story: https://text.npr.org/nx-s1-5345802

Skynet declares trade war on penguins: https://archive.is/Nn5MC

Reactionary news outlet celebrates 77% drop in stock price by taking everyone else down with them: https://bsky.app/profile/brianmfloyd.bsky.social/post/3lluybov3i22o

 

Also a bunch of somewhat less heinous cringe shit.

 

Global outage on fetching posts. Funny enough, some features are still working as evidenced by the fact #TwitterDown is trending.

Two HN threads about this now, looking forward to some excellent takes

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38717367 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38717326

 

500+ comment thread on whether late marriage and young adult promiscuity causes de-emphasis on movie fanservice. Ongoing record lows of sexual activity among young adults do not seem to factor into the analysis.

 

Since there seem to be some fellow^1^ Lisp weirdoes around here, thought I might take the chance to submit the inaugural post of NotAwfulTech. Also I figured this is cute. Hope it's not offtopic.

^1^ I'm just a noob though, barely managed to implement my first Lisp today.

 

Occasionally you can find a good sneer on the orange site

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