captain_aggravated

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

There is a post that’s circulating around the Lemmyhood where someone asks an LLM to solve the “there’s a goat, a wolf and a cabbage that need to cross a river” problem, and it returns grammatically correct logically impossible nonsense. I think this is instructive as to how LLMs work and how useless they really are.

Presented with a logic problem, it doesn’t attempt to solve any problems or apply logic. That it does is search through the sumtotal of all human communication, finds dozens if not hundreds of cases where this or a similar problem has been asked, and then averages the answers. Because answers might be phrased in different orders or different sentence structures, or some people published wrong or joke answers sometimes but it has no means to detect that, they get averaged in with equal weight and so the answer it puts out begins with “Take the wolf and the goat, leave the boat behind. Take the boat back.” It has a fascinating ability to output seemingly relevant and grammatically impeccable worthless noise. Just like everything I say.

The only compelling use case I’ve seen for these things is writing frameworks for fictional stories. There was an episode of the WAN Show back when LMG still existed where Linus gave ChatGPT a prompt to create a modern take on the premise of the movie Liar Liar. And it came up with an actually compelling outline, I’d go see the movie made out of that outline. Because it’s fictional, it doesn’t have to conform to reality.

I doubt it could write an entire acceptable movie script though, it would have gaping plot holes, would have no theme or cohesive narrative structure, but every individual line of dialog would make grammatical sense and some conversations might even seem coherent.

As a research or information gathering tool, they’re worse than useless because it has no way of detecting if information is up to date or obsolete, serious or farcical, correct or incorrect, it just averages them all together, basically on the same theory as the Poll The Audience lifeline on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Most of the crowd is almost always right. Except with this approach what happens is it will cite a completely fake made up paper and attribute it to a genuinely real scientist who works in the relevant field and allegedly published in a real reputable scientific journal. It looks right, it passes the sniff test. It’s also completely useless.

And that’s when they’re not throwing weird emotional tantrums.

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

I think you can get there in TF2 when considering subclasses via weapons loadouts. Demoknight for instance is a completely different play style than normal pipe/sticky demoman.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

there’s no sex in your violence.

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

Welcome to the world according to Republicans.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

I always liked this game’s theme song.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

pumped water or flywheels maybe? you lose a lot of energy compressing gas to heat dissipation.

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

What does “a good heat exchanger” look like in this case? You compress air, the pump heats up, so you ventilate it to keep it cool. The air in the tank is hot, and starts to cool as it sits in the tank, and this causes a decrease in pressure, which is why even with no leaks a shop air compressor will run for awhile, stop, then after awhile cut back on again.

I get that I’m applying a shop tech’s “machines that I can move with a hand truck” understanding to factory-size operations here but…

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

Does the cybertruck specifically have a 110V inverter?

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

Yeah the bodywork isn’t what’s wrong with the DeLorean.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

I mean, my angle grinder runs on drill batteries? I’m pretty heavily invested in a cordless battery system for power tools and lawn equipment.

And that’s kind of the problem with stainless steel. My dishwasher has a stainless steel front and it looks like the inside of a shower drain 6 minutes after I wash it.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

I guess what I was saying was it should be a moot point if there’s 110VAC available, your truck grinder should have its own power.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

I’m a CFI. on the subjects of aerodynamics, navigation, instrumentation, aircraft systems, aviation law, my word is usually accepted. I’m apparently the least knowledgeable person in the world on the subjects of aviation physiology and aeromedical factors. What could a pilot possibly know about hypoxia?

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

your truck is bad and you should feel bad.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

better idea: shut down the phone network entirely.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

There are very practical reasons for heritage rail to convert to oil burning rather than coal, including less abrasive grit flung all over the exposed running gear to not throwing burning embers all over the nation.

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

I’m largely pulling from a video that Hyce published recently on the topic, that that there are several pros, cons and factors involved. Keeping a historically coal burning engine as original is definitely something a museum would like to do, but apparently as the world’s coal power plants are shutting down, so are the mines. Modern coal plants burn coal that is ground fairly finely, steam locomotives prefer large chunks, so that’s still a bit of a special order. Meanwhile it’s fairly easy to find bunker C or used motor oil or even used cooking oil.

Firing a coal-powered engine is a back breaking exercise because the fireman IS the fuel pump, shoveling literal tons of coal from the tender into the firebox, but given the mass of the fire it is fairly automatic when responding to changes in throttle from the engine. Oil fired engines are a matter of turning valves, but without the mass of the coal bed a change in demand from the engine requires fairly swift action from the fireman.

Shutdown of an oil steamer is a lot easier, when you’re done you close a valve, the fire goes out and she’ll spend the next week cooling down to room temperature. With a coal burner you’ve got to extinguish or dump the fire, fuck around with ash, etc.

And, fires are a thing. Early in her heritage career, UP’s Challenger just about burned down all of Utah. The state wasn’t going to let them run it again without converting to oil. They had to do the same with the Big Boy for the same reason. Other heritage railways are making the move to oil firing because it’s making more and more sense for 21st century steam traction.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

That’s why them bell bottoms were worn fairly tight for most of their length too, doesn’t explain the cuffs.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

If I were to guess, I’d say that there’s no color you could dye painter’s clothes that wouldn’t get ruined by paint, so it’s more cost effective to just leave them cotton white.

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

I did want to kneecap the idiot that decided to use a leaf blower to blow the sand off the parking lot of the apartment I used to rent in. Was kind of tempted to send the manager a bill for a new clear coat on my car.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

with a bucket, a mop, a broom and dust pan, a shelf with some bottles of Windex and Soft Scrub and other S.C. Johnson® products, a stack of furnace filters against one wall and the front one always falls over, and probably a vacuum.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

How does your world view account for relationships where the woman makes more money than the man?

It is my understanding that these relationships are rare because of how many women categorically reject them, and relationships that didn’t start out that way up but get there via promotions/layoffs whatever are on borrowed time or doomed.

Edit: what genre of music do you think Polymer Bicuspid would play? Would they be whatever blarp techno shit Freezepop is?

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

First off… “chicks”?

In my part of the world it’s simply the distaff counterpart of “dudes.”

No-one wants to be around a misery like you.

Works for me. You think Ted Bundy bought his cabin from someone, or did he just…go way the fuck out in the woods and just built something? I’m not sure the tenses in that last sentence entirely matched but I can’t think of how to better phrase it.

So you’re still saying that there’s no difference in physical attractiveness between Brad Pitt and say… you? ;P

I don’t know, back in college I was usually compared more often to Orlando Bloom, but that’s probably because Brad Pitt was already obsolete as a sex symbol by then.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

You remember back in high school or college, there was that group of friends that you always hung out with, you saw eye to eye with, you knew them, they knew you, you’d get a phone call at 2 in the morning, one of them is beside the road with a flat tire and you’re who they called, so of course you go help? Like they don’t ask because it’s not a question, it’s what you do, you’d do it for them, they’d do it for you?

First they stop texting you first but they’ll reply when you text them. Then they stop replying. Then you stop reaching out. Then you delete their number. Then you get a text “Hey you still drive that truck?” By my mid-20’s, there were none left.

Few mechanisms exist to meet new people beyond college, few people ever exchange contact details, of those that do, few answer the first time. I live in a town, lots of people live next door, across the street, down the block. None have introduced themselves.

Oh and “romances.” So called. After the college sowing oats phase, in my actual adulthood, the one-night stands and short term flings were always 100% healthier than any attempt at long term romantic relationships. Communication…happened. “Here’s what I expect, here’s how long I want this to last, here are my deal breakers,” etc. I will trade you one licked clitoris for one sucked penis. Deal, who goes first? Both simultaneously? No i prefer to be on my back. Okay, I’ll do you then you do me. Great, let’s go. That right there is 100% transactional, you could write it as a legal contract with consideration, terms and conditions. Anyone where you’d change your relationship status on Facebook for? No can’t have that; that’s beneath them. What ensues is 4 months of we go out on whatever dates I can come up with, ball is always in my court, she never knows what she wants, we have plenty of sex, but I almost always initiate, then about 2 months of vetos, shorter answers and "not tonight"s, then a week of “I hate that place” and “that’s all you think about” and then it’s done. She apparently wanted something from me, she was not willing to directly tell me what it was, preferring instead to see if she could get it by pretending to be my #1 groupie for a few months and then getting very resentful and angry when that didn’t work. I’m not trying that again.

Do I personally view relationships as “transactional?” Yes, by derivation from first principles. Ask the question “Just what the fuck are relationships even for, anyway?” And the stock answer is “humans are highly social animals and they require interactions with other humans for their mental health” and, like, the very basic concept of a “relationship” is the mutual fulfilling of that need. “I will trade you one ‘you heard someone’s voice today say something not about work’, in exchange for one ‘I heard someone’s voice today say something not about work’.”

My first thought on writing that was “21st century wedding vows if ever I heard them.” I was once broken up with for saying “I think I need to go to the dentist” so “to have and to hold in sickness and in health” is apparently out of the question.

captain_aggravated, 8 days ago

If someone were to call me a “short king,” I would have their name legally changed to “Cellulite Queen” or “The Right High Honorable Sir Shriveldick Pissinbed III” or some other such.

captain_aggravated, 9 days ago

An Epson XP-830. Full disclosure: When it was brand new it was a severe pain in the ass because it wasn’t supported by CUPS yet, I had to go out to Epson’s website and download a driver in .rpm fromat and install it with alien. Bought it a couple months before I abandoned Windows for Linux and had to make it work. After about a year CUPS suddenly knew what to do with it and it’s Just Worked™ ever since.