ulyssessword
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User ID: 308
ulyssessword
1mo ago
I'm not actually a programmer, and learning how to work with Windows to build a UI would be a long and annoying process relative to delegating it. On the other hand, I had already set up a script for more complex control of the laser, so creating a stripped down version was easy.
The project took me about three hours between writing my part, delegating the other, and testing them both together.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
Commissioner Brendan Carr of the FCC provided a good writeup here (p14 of the "Order on Review", or the "Carr Statement") of why he believes that his committee's decision was driven by anti-Musk sentiment. (I also recommend reading the Simington statement: "...the majority today lays bare just how thoroughly and lawlessly arbitrary [this decision] was.").
Key quotes:
President Biden stood at a podium adorned with the official seal of the President of the United States, and expressed his view that Elon Musk “is worth being looked at.”
...
Two months ago, The Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote that “the volume of government investigations into his businesses makes us wonder if the Biden Administration is targeting him for regulatory harassment.”
...
Indeed, the Commission’s decision today...cannot be explained by any objective application of law, facts, or policy.
Here is a story of the White House denouncing him after he "endorsed a post on X".
And-- why do you think elon musk is somehow especially and irrationally persecuted?
I don't think either of those things. It's bog-standard waging the culture war, which is instrumentally rational for the perpetrators.
I think it's bad.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
Wait. Which penis pills do I have to take after the penultimate ones? Is the product name supposed to be a cliffhanger? Is it just preparation for the ultimate penis pills? Should I be looking for antepenultimate penis pills before using those? I have so many questions about a product that doesn't exist.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
Seems like I would have the option to buy a sofa for about $1000 new
And you believe that's a good price? As far as I can tell, rental-purchase prices exist to fool suckers and justify their exorbitant rental rates (and occasionally to dodge laws that set maximum rates based on purchase prices).
I didn't find that exact couch anywhere else, so instead compare the PS5 available for $449.99 from Best Buy to the PS5 available for $766 Cash + $942 lease fees = $1709 = $84.99/month for 18 months. Sure, you could compare buying it for nearly double the market price to leasing it for double that again. Or you could pay less.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
it's perfectly reasonable to fear and despite...
Sure, then you treat people you fear and despise with respect, impartiality, and professionalism when you are representing the government. I'm not judging the officials for thoughtcrime here.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
I think so, but I wasn't involved in that half beyond providing the specs and testing it.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
Notice anything?
I noticed that you listed accounts like that. I have no idea what the base rates are.
By the Chinese Robber fallacy, you could have literally a million examples of something and still have no point (more like hundreds for Twitter pay, given the population size).
I respect random Motters more than journalists, but still not enough to take you at your word here.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
We had a tiny coding project at work last week, and one part of it kind of struck me.
My coworker's half of the project was to show the user a simple form where they would input two lines text and click the "submit" button. It would then write that info to a text file and launch my half.
My half of the project took that data, stuffed it into the middle of some XML, then launched the newly-created file.
Try to guess the spoiler. My coworker's half was
ulyssessword
1mo ago
Is there anything the government could feasibly do to nudge Republicans towards accepting the results of the election in the event that Trump loses?
One (unfortunately) underappreciated way to build trust is to be trustworthy.
At least some of the claims about fraud are at least superficially plausible, so any plan that doesn't acknowledge and fix that is just more effective deception.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
If your so-called-union doesn't have legal recognition, then
- 51% of the members can't strongarm the other 49% into line, and certainly can't extort union dues from them.
- the terms of your contract don't bind non-union workers
- Hiring replacement workers is as simple as hiring workers
EDIT: I may have misread that. I interpreted it as "a union movement for semi-anonymous labour", like the gig economy. The biggest problem with forming a union is that workers don't want to be in a union. Any workplace that has majority support (by definition) could gather memberships, call a vote, and unionize.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
Give it five or ten years and I'll agree with you. LLMs haven't proliferated to the same extent that search engines have.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
I wanted to check one of the settings/capabilities on a robotic manipulator arm, but didn't know which menu it was buried in or how to access it. I knew that the procedure was laid out somewhere in one of four(ish?) manuals, each of which are 600+ pages. I asked copilot, and it gave me the correct step-by-step instructions on the first try.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
The Story of VaccinateCA
One interesting passage that ties in to the anti-union post downthread:
One reason was that, while governmental actors could collaborate with volunteer-based organizations, they could not use the work of volunteers directly, due to a raft of considerations. One mentioned to me was union-negotiated labor rules. There is no one employed by the government whose job is calling pharmacists to get this information, true, but if that person hypothetically existed they would be a union member, which means that a volunteer doing that job is nonunion labor competing with them. Unions are extremely predictable in what they think of their employers using nonunion labor.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
I argue against a lot of things that are in the actor's best interests. Theft is the most obvious example: it gets you stuff, why wouldn't you do it?
Their fight against automation is anti-social, so opposing the unions is justified IMO.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
The bullet probably won't gain a lot of velocity without a barrel to contain the pressure, though.
Generally, the primer blows out the back instead. The case probably won't shatter, but I wouldn't bet my fingers on that.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
would the kid literally starve itself to death
For my one cousin, yes. Or at least to the point of fainting. IIRC, it started when she started eating food, and lasted pretty much to adulthood. I'm not sure if she even qualifies as "picky" anymore, given her improvement over the deacdes.
ulyssessword
1mo ago
ulyssessword
1mo ago
IIRC, themotte.org is a stripped down version of rdrama.net, and they have subreddits holes. Creating a Reddit clone isn't a technical challenge anymore.
ulyssessword
2mo ago
I thought you were going somewhere else until the last paragraph. The tools of violence that the police have access to aren't actually very good at their jobs: Guns cause deadly wounds and may unintentionally hit bystanders, Tasers are much less reliable, and hand-to-hand fights (possibly with batons) inherently involve risk to the officers.
A remote-controlled (not autonomous) bot has the potential to be safer and more targeted than a gun, more incapacitating than a taser, and less risky than getting personally involved. If the police had an effective bot (that doesn't exist in 2024) in the subway, they could've simply arrested him after he started brandishing the knife. No muss, no fuss, and only the only risk is some equipment damage if he gets a good stab in.
ulyssessword
2mo ago
I wouldn't rate that as stronger, but maybe I'm missing some relevant aspects. Specifically:
- Fighting words and threats are less of a justification for force than tackling and grappling
- "looking like" he had a gun is a weak standard to base your actions on
- A lack of video evidence makes everything wishy-washy (granted, that does favor the defense in criminal trials).
How do you judge the strength of a case? It's clearly not the same as I do if you're using that example.
ulyssessword
2mo ago
They (or rather, "We", since I do it too) use that when the leadership is an aberration that does not represent its constituents. Sometimes it's a reach.
The IDF's actions in Gaza are popular among Israelis, so they are fighting for Israel. I'd sure like if Hamas was unpopular in Gaza and only represented themselves, so I'm tempted to say their combatants are only fighting for themselves.
I see the same thing at a smaller scale with politics:
- Something great: "Canada did..." (or "We did...")
- Something good: "The Federal Government did..."
- Something bad: "The Liberal Party did..."
- Something very bad: "Justin Trudeau did..."
ulyssessword
2mo ago
their claims of self defense were much stronger than this guy's.
Can you expand on that? I'm having a hard time imagining how someone leaving a bar at closing time would have a better self-defense case than someone exercising their constitutionally-protected right to free speech. At minimum, their judgment would be in question after a night of heavy drinking.
ulyssessword
2mo ago
I (half-jokingly) lean the other way: a picture is supposedly worth a thousand words, so let's make it earn it. "Face With Stuck-Out Tongue And Tightly-Closed Eyes, Medium Brown Skin Tone" is only 1/77th of the specificity that should be possible.
ulyssessword
2mo ago
It's not the most technical, but I'd include Zvi Mowshowitz in your blogroll. His weekly AI roundups are enough to keep up with the field.
I found a much clearer example this morning: California officials cite Elon Musk’s politics in rejecting SpaceX launches (via here):
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