@rvkennedy@mastodon.social
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

rvkennedy

@rvkennedy@mastodon.social

Dr Roderick Kennedy

Virtual Reality #VR #XR #SpatialComputing #SpatialInternet #Metaverse
@teleportvr

#vrawards judge
https://mastodon.social/@simul
he/him https://roderickkennedy.com

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wonderofscience, to random
@wonderofscience@mastodon.social avatar

Timelapse of the Falkirk Wheel in action; the only rotating boat lift of its kind in the world.

Video Credit: David Iliff / CC BY-SA 3.0
Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkirk_Wheel

Timelapse video of the Falkirk Wheel, with its curved arms cradling water-filled gondolas rotating around a central axis, seamlessly raising and lowering vessels between the joining canals, all under an overcast sky that casts a soft glow on the wheel and the green landscape.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@wonderofscience it's "made in Scotland... from girders!"

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

CNN just ran a report with their crew getting super rare access to a 33-hour B-52 mission. I want to say something about the B-52. The first one was delivered in 1955. The last one in 1962. It featured prominently in "Dr. Strangelove" (1964). Not only are they still flying today, but the Air Force currently plans to fly them through 2050! Obviously they've had upgrades of all sorts (especially instrumentation, avionics, etc.), but it's still the same air frame. When all is said and done, they may have been flying for nearly a full century.

Now, here's the punch line. Who manufactured the B-52? Boeing.

How far they have fallen.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@lauren my question is more: who has the maintenance contract? Because if it's Boeing...

paninid, to random
@paninid@mastodon.world avatar

For those in the back, updated Godwin’s Law.
https://flipboard.com/@theroot/latest.-e1cr885lz/-/a-yXHMAdofRQe3PUi0YOT3gA%3Aa%3A1779546199-%2F0

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@paninid maybe Godwin has three laws, like Isaac Newton, Isaac Asimov or Isaac Thermodynamics.

harrymccracken, to random
@harrymccracken@mastodon.social avatar

I really regret the era of the dumb TV era.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@harrymccracken So very, very many things that technology companies do right now should be entirely illegal. And forcing updates with contractual terms embedded onto hardware consumers own is pretty high on that list.

capheind, to random
@capheind@mastodon.radio avatar

@pluralistic
"... to how white
nationalists who were radicalized in Vietnam formed an armored-car robbery gang to finance modems and Apple ][+s to link up neo-Nazis across the USA."

I'm sorry, whaaaaa?

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@capheind @pluralistic it's the plot of The A-Team! Except, you know. With Nazis.

funcrunch, to books
@funcrunch@me.dm avatar

Great article (as usual) by @pluralistic on "bestselling" books, botshit, and bezzles:

https://doctorow.medium.com/how-a-billionaires-mediocre-pump-and-dump-book-became-a-bestseller-2ed7a8c472d7

(Paywall-free link)

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@immibis @pluralistic @funcrunch @kcoyle no. Real currencies have value because they are enforced by governments that have judicial systems, police forces and armies. You need US dollars for example in the USA because they're the only way to pay US taxes, and you can be at the last resort, physically arrested for refusing to pay.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@JorgeStolfi @immibis @pluralistic @funcrunch @kcoyle Sorry, but no. Worldwide trust of the USD is a second-order effect. At the bottom of it is the stability of the US government, and its ability to enforce the use of its currency in its borders. Your saying "people trust the USD because they trust the Fed" leads to the question, "why do people trust the Fed can do what it intends?" Which leads to "because the US govt and all its apparatus of state backs it up." Which leads to my point above.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@JorgeStolfi @immibis @pluralistic @funcrunch @kcoyle this is the opposite of what happens though. When a US govt shutdown looms due to Congress' refusal to raise the debt ceiling (print money), the dollar typically loses 1-2% of its value. If "printing money" was a concern in the currency markets, it would gain value when this happens.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@shiri @pluralistic @funcrunch @JorgeStolfi @kcoyle @immibis "Taking on more debt" by issuing bonds is how governments create money. It's one of only two ways money is created: the other is by banks lending (under licence from governments).

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic @shiri @funcrunch @JorgeStolfi @kcoyle @immibis they can - but do they? I'm not aware of a modern example but would be interested to hear of one. Perhaps I should say that money is created by governments spending on their central bank current account: which is usually converted into bond issues.

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

So the head of "Open"AI is bragging about how text generators like his product mean there are gazillion words being generated every day.

The great Ted Sturgeon said that "90 percent of everything is crap."

Thanks to AI, we need to revise that to 99 percent of everything is crap.

What will it be in a decade?

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor yep. Said this exact thing on here some time ago.

Daojoan, to random
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

I just think men are too emotional to be President. They should focus more on the home and being good fathers. It’s the natural order.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@Daojoan (whisper it) hormones...

codinghorror, to random

I feel like nobody wants to hear me on this, but for VR to really work we need massive advices in basic physics & biology, like, being able to project images/video/sound directly into the brain and eye so they are literally indistinguishable from "reality". I do think Apple's device is an important and useful step forward -- the first one actually worth trying -- but a baby step nonetheless.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror this feels a little bit like saying "horse-drawn carriages are useless because what we really need is cars". In 1800.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror in that case, can you say it about full-on brain-interface VR? What problem does that solve?
But what VR is for, or really XR in general, is to allow us to interface spatially with spatial data. It's a UI, nothing more or less. And because we live in a 3D world, that's a useful thing. It's not there to replace reality and if you expect it to, yes, you'll struggle.

Daojoan, to random
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

If your startup is sending 1,200,000 cold emails a week I respectfully suggest that you should burn in hell

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@Daojoan is it time for email itself to become a locked down, permission-based protocol?

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Proposition: Star Trek's "Federation" was essentially fascist. Discuss.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@lauren it's socialism, no-one needs money. Everyone is equal. But if you happen to inherit a huge vineyard and estate in France, you're more equal than most.

dangillmor, to random
@dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

Reminder that no one should buy a printer from HP, ever: https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/19/hps_ceo_spells_it_out/

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@dangillmor I can understand someone buying one HP printer. I did that, once. What I can't begin to fathom is how anyone ever buys a second one. Just get a Brother already.

Daojoan, to random
@Daojoan@mastodon.social avatar

Release the Snyder cut of 2023

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@Daojoan the same stuff happens, but everyone is angry and it seems to go on forever... oh god, we're in the Snyder cut right now aren't we.

carnage4life, to random
@carnage4life@mas.to avatar

I love that EU regulators are now going to have the contradictory positions of social media companies should make less money from ads because targeted advertising is creepy but also they should hire thousands more content moderators.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-x-has-fraction-rivals-content-moderators-eu-says-2023-11-10/

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@carnage4life Content moderation is not creepy, because it's direct and necessary to a healthy site, where surveillance advertising is not. And it's not a contradiction to impose costs that the platform should not be operating without. If some platforms lose (more) money as a result, they shouldn't be in business.

aral, to Israel
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

“[W]hat I’m seeing unfolding at the moment isn’t just self-defence. It looks, it resembles something more approaching revenge. I don’t think that’s how Israel will guarantee its future freedom and its future security.”

– Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister)

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/11/03/israel-hamas-war-israel-war-resembles-something-approaching-revenge-taoiseach-says/

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@aral Ireland: "Bin yer man, Netanyahu!"

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

In the 21st century, there will be toilet tissue that tears along a wavy line instead of a straight line.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@lauren fooled me about the jetpacks, not falling for this one.

ned, (edited ) to random
@ned@mstdn.ca avatar

Paint Drying, rated U, is a 2016 film that was produced, directed, and shot by Charlie Shackleton, to protest film censorship in the UK and the cost to independent filmmakers. The film contains 10 hours & 7 minutes of white paint drying on a brick wall, forcing the BBFC to watch all ten hours to give the film an age rating classification. He initially shot 14 hours of 4K footage and opened a Kickstarter to pay the BBFC's per-minute rate for as long as possible. It raised £5,936 from 686 backers.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@ned there are not enough U certificate films these days. Can I get this on streaming for next time my child demands to watch telly?

rvkennedy, to StarTrek
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

Me, every time I take a lift at a train station: (best Patrick Stewart voice) "Bridge!"

c0de517e, to random
@c0de517e@mastodon.gamedev.place avatar

Is there a way to set a breakpoint on the first instruction of a program, in visualstudio? No I don't mean on main - I mean on the very first thing, i.e. global constructor code. Also, I tried to set a breakpoint on mainCRTStartup and... it doesn't trigger? I suspect there is some write protection so that the debugger can't patch the int instruction? Is this a new thing?

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@c0de517e breakpoint, I don't know. But just pressing F10 will get you there.

rvkennedy,
@rvkennedy@mastodon.social avatar

@c0de517e Yes you're quite right. Interestingly, breakpoints can be set e.g. in main.cpp on any line that produces runtime code, such as a declaration that launches a constructor. But how to stop at the first code.. Looking up my callstack (and this will be compiler- and runtime-dependent) I see a fn called _initterm() which loops through initializer functions calling them in turn. This seems to be where the globals are created. You can break in _initterm, I don't know if that's the first.

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