@pieist@qoto.org
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

pieist

@pieist@qoto.org

Consulting SW Engineer, mostly Pacific Northwest these days.

Medical Informatics - Carrier-Grade Network Video Distribution - Real Time Clinical Telemetry

Formerly: Motorola, Tektronix, Intel, HP, Qualcomm, Nintendo; others you're less likely to have heard of.

"Millions for nonsense but not one cent for entropy."

Will code for pie. 🥧

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

When deciding what sentence to impose on a convicted in New York State, does the judge take into consideration the defendant’s contrition or lack thereof? Does anyone know?

Asking for no particular reason.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@JamesGleick

Also, do they take into account a guy outside the courthouse wearing a fur vest and a horned helmet shouting "Soros bought the jury"?

jmaris, to ai
@jmaris@eupolicy.social avatar

The Trilemma: or why AI won't be as revolutionary as we expect.

We are in the midst of an AI revolution... or are we? As business leaders around the world scramble to integrate AI into their products and business practices, the cracks are beginning to emerge. We've seen GPT4 fail at basic reasoning, Google's AI search telling people to jump from a bridge, Microsoft's copilot inventing quotes from Vladimir Putin, and recidivism algorithms that continue to send the wrong people to prison.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@jmaris Speaking as someone who's actually tried to use things like ChatGPT to speed up coding simple and relatively obvious tasks, it's ridiculously obvious that it's trained substantially on StackExchange, without even the to ability to distinguish the problem code from the solution code -- where the latter is even present -- nor bad answers from good ones -- ditto.

thomasfuchs, to random
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io avatar

Computers as tools for humans are so useful exactly because they can’t think and do tedious work like calculations or information storage and retrieval for humans in a deterministic way.

It took like nearly 90 years of digital computers to make them powerful enough to run a wasteful algorithm that pretends to think (but doesn’t) and to deliver bullshit non-deterministic results while using absurd amounts of computational and environmental resources.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@thomasfuchs

There's something telling about how we've entered this weird phase in which the next Great Leap Forward -- first cryptocurrency, now this -- absolutely requires squandering resources. As if being preposterously computationally intensive was the actual point, and now they're just trying to find ways to sell it to us.

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

This would explain so much, about so many modern collections on public show

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/09/german-art-museum-fires-worker-for-hanging-his-own-painting-in-gallery

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@davidallengreen I think we need more stories like this.

"Publishing house fires employee for inserting his own fan fiction chapter into an edition of the Bible."

rpilocator, to RaspberryPi
@rpilocator@mastodon.social avatar

What accessories are you waiting on an update from Raspberry Pi?

There has been mention of updating the touch screen display.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@rpilocator Was really hoping for an official PoE hat for the RP5, but they don't have a release date for it yet. Waveshare's looks OK, and their reputation for board quality is good, but given the new peripheral power management scheme I'd be much more comfortable with one from the factory.

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

Sounds logical, but is it?

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@JamesGleick We're doomed.

Most of my experience with AI is using it to accelerate coding by asking it for an implementation of a straightforward, easily described algorithm, simply to save the time of coding it myself.

I then waste a bunch of time pointing out to it that not only does its code fail to meet my specifications in obvious, fundamental ways, -- which it clearly "understood" given that it accurately paraphrased those requirements back to me -- it fails to match its own description of what it was giving me. It apologizes, agrees with me, gives me another implementation that's just as wrong, sometimes in exactly the same way.

Rinse, repeat a few times. Then I give up and write it myself anyway.

fulelo, to random
@fulelo@journa.host avatar

Shooting in Moscow's Krokus City Hall during a gig - there are victims, info still coming in - Mediazona live page in Rus:

https://zona.media/chronicle/krokus

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@fulelo The idea that Ukraine would have any interest in or be willing to spare the resources for an attack on Russian civilians in the middle of Moscow kind of strains credulity. "Hey, we're in the middle of enduring an unprecedented bombardment, let's launch a terror attack of a kind we've never done, which cannot serve any conceivable purpose, because we want to look evil and we've got a lot of free time."

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@fulelo FSB should look at a map. Where else were they going to run? Belarus is effectively Russia. They'd never get through a border with an EU or NATO country. A war zone is their best bet. Just another Russian self-own.

rpilocator, to random
@rpilocator@mastodon.social avatar

Stock Alert (UK): Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is In Stock at The Pi Hut https://rpilocator.com?instock

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@rpilocator Y'know, I'm starting to get the distinct impression that the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is in stock at The Pi Hut UK

freemo, to random
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

is back after a long migration in the first stage of our upgrade. Now that we are on a new home we will give it 24 horus to see if the move was bug free (As it seems to be) and then we will start upgrading versions one at a time day by day.. The upgrades are prepared and ready and should be much quicker.

The move took a while as we keep a backlog of every message to the start of the fediverse so our media and DB stores are quite large and it took a long time. But we are back!!!

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@freemo If 24 Horus doesn't work, give it five or six Amun-Ra

JamesGleick, to random
@JamesGleick@zirk.us avatar

The NY Times catches up with Trump encouraging Russian aggression against NATO, and look how they minimize the story:

  1. It’s old news. “… repeating a claim he has made previously …”
  2. It’s just braggadocio. “… to highlight his negotiating skills …”
  3. The first reaction quoted is not from the White House (¶6) but from Putin (¶4)—who promises never to invade anyone.
  4. Trump says he caused “hundreds of billions” to be paid in. NYT doesn’t mention that this is a lie.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/10/us/politics/trump-nato-russia.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Uk0.dKTF.98bjZvA6foyi&smid=url-share

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@JamesGleick They do this every election year: they "level" the competition by excusing the lunacy and idiocy on the Republican side and fabricating an equivalence with whatever the Republicans are saying about the Democratic side. I guess having one candidate who's stunningly unfit for office doesn't sell papers.

pieist, to Bulgaria
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

The current Prime Minister of Poland, and President of the European Council 2015-2019, today:

rpilocator, to RaspberryPi
@rpilocator@mastodon.social avatar

Stock Alert (US): RPi 5 - 4GB RAM is In Stock at Pishop 3321 units in stock. https://rpilocator.com?instock

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@rpilocator Goodness.

ottocrat, to random
@ottocrat@eupolicy.social avatar

But I thought we wanted our politicians to be truthful?

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@GlasWolf @ottocrat Could you document your experimental data about Liz Truss and a marzipan dildo?

yaneerbaryam, to WFH

Office occupancy continues to be low—50%. Work from home reduces time & energy consumption in commuting, less burnout, lower risk of infection, high quality employee selection, and higher productivity. https://whn.global/newsletter/work-from-home-revolution/

Updated data: https://kastle.com/safety-wellness/getting-america-back-to-work/

@whn

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@yaneerbaryam @whn @carlysagan And given that during my career we've gone from offices to cube farms to much smaller cube farms to open-plan to hot-desking, there is simply no upside to going into the office at all. Nobody benefits. It's an uncongenial, unhealthy (between sick-building syndrome and the unending pandemic), massively distraction-prone waste of time and energy.

freemo, to random
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

While some of these are certainly debatable the vast majority are clearly misrepresented by the media against Trump. I never got this since there is soooo much legitimate reasons to attack him.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@freemo @realcaseyrollins Yeah, not exactly exculpatory, is it: "Not a piece of that precise flavor of shit, but still actively and unequivocally demonstrating with every fibre of his being that he's a massive piece of some kind of shit."

simon, to random
@simon@simonwillison.net avatar

It’s OK to call it Artificial Intelligence: I wrote about how people really love objecting to the term "AI" to describe LLMs and suchlike because those things aren't actually "intelligent" - but the term AI has been used to describe exactly this kind of research since 1955, and arguing otherwise at this point isn't a helpful contribution to the discussion.

https://simonwillison.net/2024/Jan/7/call-it-ai/

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@simon Is it also OK not to?

Stephenleet, to random

A link to the electoral reform society's petition against Liz Trusses honours list. Please sign and share.

https://action.electoral-reform.org.uk/page/133708/petition/2

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@ottocrat @Stephenleet @ArtBear

Perhaps as a compromise they might create The Order of the Lettuce and just give them all that.

sundogplanets, to random
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social avatar

COOL!! I just got invited to give the public talk for a big conference!!!!!!!

(Although I guess this means I have to travel...eeek...)

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@sundogplanets I guess this refutes my lifelong assumption that astronomers can astrally project.

davidallengreen, to random
@davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

Unpopular opinion: Sherlock Holmes is not a detective. More a cold-reading mystic. More Shaman than Sherlock.

Almost none of the original stories stand up. They are great atmospheric, charismatic, characterful literature. But they are not usually rational.

In that way, Cumberbatch does a faithful portrayal.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@davidallengreen Conan Doyle was not himself entirely rational. Very much into spiritualism and seances.

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@davidallengreen As Raymond Chandler says in his superb essay The Simple Art of Murder, "Sherlock Holmes after all is mostly an attitude and a few dozen lines of unforgettable dialogue."

https://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/chandlerart.html

pieist, to random
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

Fun fact: every year hundreds of Australian visitors to the US are treated for pulled muscles in their eyeballs when they encounter an Outback Steakhouse.

freemo, to Funny
@freemo@qoto.org avatar

Tits the season...

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@freemo Pretty impatient birdwatchers.

rpilocator, to RaspberryPi
@rpilocator@mastodon.social avatar

The Pi 5 is the best product launch @Raspberry_Pi has had in YEARS in terms of availability.

Tons of Pi 5 available right now.

Zero 2 W, cough, cough

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@rpilocator @CalcProgrammer1 @Raspberry_Pi Now if they can come up with a ship date for the PoE hat.

ct_bergstrom, to random
@ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org avatar

NOT NEWS: Stanford epidemiologist who published 324 papers from 2020-2022 expresses grave concern about the proliferation of "extremely productive authors" who wrote a mere 180 or more papers during the same period, suspects fraud is at play, blames global South.

NEWS: Nature sees fit to cover it.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03865-y

pieist,
@pieist@qoto.org avatar

@ct_bergstrom

"Let's blame the global South"

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • GTA5RPClips
  • osvaldo12
  • love
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • khanakhh
  • everett
  • kavyap
  • mdbf
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • provamag3
  • magazineikmin
  • InstantRegret
  • normalnudes
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • ethstaker
  • modclub
  • cisconetworking
  • Durango
  • anitta
  • Leos
  • tester
  • JUstTest
  • All magazines
    •