nyquildotorg

nyquildotorg, 8 months ago to random

I've been talking about how AI will directly lead to an Idiocracy (2006) scenario for some time, but today's update to the "can you melt eggs?" saga is as clear an illustration of how as I think it's possible to ever have.

Quora's AI answers made up the melting point of eggs, and then Google picked it up and responded affirmatively that you can indeed melt eggs.

Then people wrote articles about how stupid it is that Google says eggs can melt. The Google fixes the answer.

Then Google ingests an article about how stupid it is that Google says you can melt eggs, and suddenly Google starts answering affirmatively again that you can melt eggs, citing the article about how stupid Google is for thinking you can melt eggs.

nyquildotorg, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

The Ghostbusters (1984) theme just started blasting at the kid-friendly pool, so I assume Halloween must be starting. I'm not about to judge a foreign culture, but this song is not a Halloween song in America, and I will die on that hill.

Might as well put on Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Old Tom Joade
.

nyquildotorg, 8 months ago to random

Running TypeScript inside WASM seems like a cursed idea to me.

nyquildotorg, 6 months ago to random

The "if buying doesn't mean owning, piracy isn't stealing" take drives me nuts.

IP licensing is, has been and always will be gross, but you can't just use your misunderstanding of what you get with your purchase to link those two completely disparate ideas together. Yes, you own the paper that book is printed on, the plastic that DVD is made from or that MP4 file, but you do not "own" the contents of those things.

You can say that IP licensing shouldn't be a thing, or that all information should be free, whatever, but you can't just decide for yourself the terms of a purchase.

nyquildotorg, 10 months ago to random

Cohost absolutely had the correct idea on differentiating replies from posts. Replies dumping into feeds was always just another way to "increase engagement" for advertising purposes, and I remember when everyone was mad about that.

That some of these people who were mad about replies in feeds on Twitter are now like "how dare you suggest that replies should be a different thing than posts!!1" is frustrating.

nyquildotorg, 5 months ago to random

Huh. Google remotely installed Google Opinion Rewards into my Windows Subsystem for Android (that I added Google Play Services support to so I could run YouTube Music under it). Didn't expect that...

nyquildotorg, 5 months ago to random

Filing a complaint with the BBC because of all the deus ex machina in Doctor Who

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago to random

I'm the guy who still masks in public and continues to be bothered by humanity's response to COVID. But I am not upset about redefining the term "airborne transmission" to be more accurate.

Also, Pluto isn't a "planet," a tomato is a "fruit," and we don't have a clear enough definition of "sandwich" to determine whether a hot dog is one or not.

Maybe someday that will be resolved once and for all — by redefining the definition of "sandwich."

nyquildotorg, 8 months ago to random

I have kind of an aversion to "music video edits" of songs, where what plays on MTV is a different song than what plays on the album, but like 30 years later I have to admit that the video edit of Metallica's One, where it intersperses clips of audio and film from the film Johnny Got His Gun (1971), is kind of incredible.

My assumption is that someone was like "we can't play two minutes of no lyrics on MTV, splice some shit in there," but the result is hard to argue with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM8bTdBs-cw

nyquildotorg, 11 days ago (edited 9 days ago) to random

Microsoft: takes screenshots of the screen, OCRs them and places the data in an unprotected sqlite file for later recall.

Apple: creates new NPU architecture designed to save PDFs of the screen and OCR them, storing the data in CoreData for later recall by authenticated users.

Ubuntu: every time the computer sleeps, it wakes up slightly slower than the last time, until you reboot it.

nyquildotorg, 6 months ago to random

Just saw a roundup post including quotes from 6 different fediverse users complaining about the experience, threatening to leave, making the case that the fediverse has a real problem with dicks.

All the quotes from posters with 5-6 figure follower counts.

Weird 🤔

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago to random

I know basically nothing about 3D modelling. I do know there are data formats that allow you to move models between applications, but do those include "bones" and other animation rig stuff?

Can I create and rig something in Blender and then down the road use all that work somewhere else outside of Blender?

nyquildotorg, 8 months ago to random

Hot take: there doesn't need to be a Google Podcasts app.

Hot take 2: podcasts don't belong in YouTube Music, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, etc.

Get literally any other podcast app and you'll be in good shape.

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago to random

For some reason I'm uncomfortable with Mark Hammill using Star Wars to campaign for Biden.

nyquildotorg, 4 months ago to random

I have seen exactly one episode of Thomas the Tank Engine and it's the one where they punished a locomotive by walling him up inside a tunnel forever. Never felt the need to watch another, lol.

It's kind of the exact opposite of that story where an excavator gets stuck down in a hole and eventually gets converted into a stove or something in the basement of the house they built on the spot.

nyquildotorg, 2 months ago to random

Does anybody know when the next Spider-Man origin story film comes out?

I think they're basically neck and neck with Fantastic Four origin films now, right?

nyquildotorg, 8 months ago to random

iPhone 15 Pro users will pay full console price for Resident Evil 4 remake
Will they, though?

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

A local Mediterranean restaurant offers some of the best fried potatoes I've ever eaten.

There are two options: medium cut potato rounds and large cut potato rounds, and the size describes the diameter of the slices of potato that are then fried.

The larger ones often end up in a super state where half of one is thin and crispy like an American "chip" (a UK crisp) while the other is thick and fluffy like an American fry (UK chip).

They are amazing.

nyquildotorg, 5 months ago to random

As I walk around downtown, I see a lot of Twitter bird logos on businesses, which seems like a real missed opportunity. Those things are going to take decades to change, so Elon should send out transparent X stickers for people to put overtop the bird.

In the meantime, I've just been doing it for him with a Sharpie.

nyquildotorg, 6 months ago to random

Oh geez, just realized I've had a couple hours long discussion without untagging people who popped in at some point hours ago. Sorry about that!

nyquildotorg, 5 months ago to random

When I was a kid, there was a period where "killer bees" were in the nightly news a lot. I remember because it scared the crap out of me, probably because of the terrible "killer bee" TV movies that were popular at the time.

This is just a reminder that "killer bees are getting closer" is a story that will run in the news while "killer bees are no longer getting closer" absolutely will not, ever.

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago to random

I talk a lot about how I believe YouTube Premium is the only thing that can make consuming YouTube videos approach being an "ethical" activity, which is surprisingly controversial.

This old Tom Scott video does a pretty good job of explaining how some of what people hate the most about YouTube is actually an extremely rational approach to problems they don't even realize exist.

Watching this and even fully agreeing with Tom on this take won't get you all the way to where I'm at, but my hope is that it increases the awareness of just how much the way YouTube has handled things actually aligns with the way people consuming and creating for YouTube have become accustomed to working.

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago to random

The TV version of Fallout feels reminiscent of the TV version of Westworld, just without all the excruciating tediousness.

In addition to being prestige, well-produced television, it's also actually fun to watch.

nyquildotorg, 1 month ago to random

Does Apple's white-text-on-green-bubbles actually violate their own accessibility guidelines or is it just really really close?

nyquildotorg, 5 months ago to random

I was recently like "you know what this organization could really benefit from? A password manager."

The response was "Hey, good idea! You figure out which one we should use and get back to us!"

Do you have recommendations for a password manager system that allows granting individual users access to specific things in one UI?

Bonus points if it's integrated with Office365 or whatever they call the Outlook server infrastructure, because everything there is using Microsoft stuff. Searching seems to indicate Office365 doesn't offer this natively?

(Boosts appreciated)