AI is a forever-in-the-future technology. When I was in school, fuzzy logic controllers were an active area of “AI” research. Now they are everywhere and you’d be laughed at for calling them AI.
The thing is, as soon as AI researchers solve a problem, that solution no longer counts as AI. Somehow it’s suddenly statistics or “just if-then statements”, as though using those techniques makes something not artificial intelligence.
For context, I’m of the opinion that my washing machine - which uses sensors and fuzzy logic to determine when to shut off - is a robot containing AI. It contains sensors, makes judgements based on its understanding of “the world” and then takes actions to achieve its goals. Insofar as it can “want” anything, it wants to separate the small masses from the large masses inside itself and does its best to make that happen. As tech goes, it’s not sexy, it’s very single purpose and I’m not really worried that it’s gonna go rogue.
We are surrounded by (boring) robots all day long. Robots that help us control our cars and do our laundry. Not to mention all the intelligent, disembodied agents that do things like organize our email, play games with us, and make trillions of little decisions that affect our lives in ways large and small.
Somehow, though, once the mystery has yielded to math, society doesn’t believe these decision-making machines are AI any longer.
A 3D, first person pacman clone that I played on a 286 MS DOS laptop in the nineties. I don’t remember its name and I’ve never seen it since.
A programming game from the early 2000s called something like Fleet Commander. (But none of the many games named something like Fleet Commander that I can currently find online are it.) This game had a VB-inspired, event driven programming language. You used it to command fighters, bombers and fleet command ships. Each ship had its own AI script it would execute.
Mad Max Fury Road. They defeat the tyrant, and get the control of the water valves. Then they open the valves and seemingly keep them open. One problem, how long is the water reservoir gonna last now?...
Ok, so the resource allocation of the moon/earth society is completely broken and the moon-dwelling oligarchs sucked. Agreed.
But the end of the movie makes the computer system unable to differentiate between the handful of moon lords vs the unwashed masses on the earth’s surface. There are not enough resources to go around in Elysium. All that medicine and food from the moon bastards is gonna run out in about ten minutes and then the last bits of society will finish collapsing. Any hope of ever rebuilding a functioning society ends about a week after the end of that movie.
Edit: (Slice of bread with a hole cut in the middle and an egg fried in it.) I have always called them daddy-o eggs but I have recently been informed that is incorrect.-
I’ll go first. Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It’s like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds
I like both movies, but I think The Matrix has a billion times more spectacle going for it. I still think about The Thirteenth Floor regularly, but I’d rather sit down and watch The Matrix again for entertainment’s sake.
I like Generations way more than say, First Contact.
Generations, for all its flaws, was a science fiction story passing the torch from TOS to TNG, and saying something about the characters and world of Star Trek.
First Contact was a generic action-adventure movie wearing a Star Trek uniform.
Honestly, I consider Generations to be the only interesting TNG movie.
Ah! A fellow holder of the belief that time travel stories are better when they are internally consistent! I hate e.g. Looper for having time travel that makes no goddamn sense. It takes me out of the story when the characters are literally watching the timeline change before them as it magically radiates out from one point. And then our protagonists somehow remember the original timeline… Bah.
…So I must ask - have you seen Primer? If not, maybe you’d like it!
I mean, yeah, sure. …but I’m still conflicted about the local heroin addicts standing in the frozen aisle scarfing a bucket of ice cream.
I mean, I don’t really give a shit about the theft, but they tend to stand there with the door open and thaw the rest of the ice cream while they’re at it. It’s enough of an issue locally that a couple of local chains have literally started chaining up their ice cream like it’s the goddamn crown jewels. I just want non-crystallized ice cream!
Also… In my experience, people mostly don’t steal food outside of cases like having the heroin hungries. Food banks do an okay job at keeping people fed at least. (Aside: When you donate to your local food bank, donate money, not food! They can buy much more food in bulk - your dollars will go farther that way!) Mostly, I see people stealing things like resaleable electronics or OTC drugs that have useful precursor chems.
Don’t get me wrong - I know fuckin’ Krogers can take it. I just see this meme about seeing people stealing food and like… That’s mostly not a thing. Food banks and food stamps work okay. They aren’t great, the food often sucks - but generally speaking, you don’t have to steal food to survive when you’re poor in America. You might need to steal drugs and airpods though.
There are a bajillion distros out there and you already have a lot of suggestions here, so instead, allow me to note a few things I think are handy while learning Linux.
Most Linux distros are customized versions of a few base distros. Once you learn how the base distro lays things out, that knowledge is transferable (more or less) to other distros in the same family. But solutions that work in one family of distros may not work on another!
Some common base distros:
Debian: Stability-above-all; all-rounder distro. Updates slowly, but provides a very-well-tested base that many other distros build on. Ubuntu and its derivatives are built on Debian.
Red Hat: A commercially-focused distro that I haven’t used in a looong time, so I won’t say too much about it. Slightly less popular as a desktop basis than Debian, perhaps, but also a solid all-rounder.
Arch: If computers were cars… Arch is for the Hot-Rodders. You have a ton of control to optimize and tweak Arch to precisely meet your needs. When you want to really dig into the machine and tune it to peak performance, this is where you begin. Fortunately, Arch-based distros often forego the detailed install of their parent and just provide a fast-updating, highly-tuned Linux experience. SteamOS is said to be a customized Arch.
Software installation / updating is simpler and more confusing than either the Windows or Mac worlds.
It’s very rare to have a Linux program require an installer like Windows, and it’s not as simple as drag-and-drop install like Mac. Linux has had the equivalent of “app stores” for a looong time, just minus the tracking and selling parts.
Most programs in Linux get installed via a package manager tool. There are various front ends, but under the hood, there’s usually a command line program handling installation and updates.
Generally speaking, Debians use “apt”, RedHats use “yum” and Arches use “pacman”. There are also “flatpak” and “snap” both of which are more recent managers that attempt to solve dependency hell.
The terminal is gonna come up. Love it or hate it, the terminal is still at the heart of the Linux experience. There are guis for pretty much anything you want to do, but because Linux is so highly customizable, help forums and such tend to give solutions in the one constant: bash scripts.
That said, you can get around just fine without it if you really want to. Just recognize that you might be swimming upstream at times.
You can customize anything! Your desktop environment is pretty much a given on Windows and Mac. On Linux you can install something comfy, like Gnome (customizable, lightweight, akin to Mac UI) or KDE (less customizable, very pretty Windows-style UI).
Or try something experimental like Ratpoison - a window manager that requires no mouse inputs!
Part of the fun of Linux is trying out alternatives and truly customizing your personal computer.
Last time I checked there aren’t nerve endings in our brain, so it should be impossible to feel sensations in my brain. However, at random times during my life, like seeing the plot twist in Fight Club for example, I’ve felt feelings in my brain. I just felt it again now while doing some intense introspection, and I just...
If it’s like a pleasant tingling through your head, it might be ASMR. It can be triggered by sounds (hence the bajillion YouTube channels), but for me it’s more often when I’m really enjoying thinking about something. It’s a weird sensation for sure.
I got the earwax but good. I usually abuse qtips too.
But.
If you want to really know what a clean ear canal is like, get a squeeze bulb. You fill it with hot water (hot like tap, not like boiled) and then hydroblast your ear holes until all the wax melts and runs out.
When you get rid of a real bad wax ball… Aww man, it’s amazing. It’s like you just removed earplugs. The world is suddenly so much louder.
Gentoo is the og, “Linux from scratch” distro, where you compile everything yourself. Arch is kinda like that, except everything is compiled already. 😁
You still select all the parts of your Linux system, from the desktop environment (if any) all the way down to which initialization system you want to use. Along the way, you’ll dive into a lot of the various text files Linux uses for configuration and learn which files live where.
It’s a very thorough dive!
If you’re looking for reading material about Linux though, I don’t really have any books to recommend offhand… I will say that the basic tooling in Linux, the POSIX-standard stuff, like grep, vi, sed, and so forth remains mostly unchanged (at least in all the important ways) from year to year. Some of it has remained essentially the same since the seventies, so even a six year old book will still be able to cover all of that just fine.
The things that it would not be good for would be some of the more recent developments in, say, UI tech, like the slow, but ongoing migration from X to Wayland.
Command line scripts and config files are likely to largely be the same (though a few files have a tendency to move around depending on the distro).
Tools for administration outside of the venerable POSIX tooling is gonna be a crapshoot in book-form. Still, it’ll give you a place to start from!
“Mirroring” isn’t an insult, or necessarily manipulative. It is literally built in to us humans! Our brains have specific portions dedicated to imitation and empathy called “mirror neurons”.
These neurons help us feel what others around us are feeling. It’s why you feel sad when you see someone else being sad. Or why it can make us smile to see someone else having a great day!
The behavior of mirroring someone is a form of social bonding (“See! I’m like you!”) which is the basis of building human relationships.
Having in-jokes and picking up particular quirks of people around us probably has a special jargon to psychologists.
Nowadays I find a lot of games feel like too much work and/or anxiety when I just want to relax for like, 30 minutes to an hour after a long day. On the other hand, the games specifically designed to help you unwind just feel boring imo....
After the mildly stressful intro (which isn’t bad, just uses more sticks than carrots in the tutorial section), you basically just pick a direction and go.
If you wanna quest, there are quests available in (almost) every system.
If you wanna farm, pick a nice planet and get to building.
If you wanna fight, go find a planet with hostile Sentinel presence.
There’s always something interesting to do, but you can also just find a nice view on some planet, build a couch and just watch the iridescent grass blow in the wind for a bit.
Plus one for prazosin. I have a family member with PTSD nightmares. Prazosin has made them able to actually sleep for the first time in their adult life.
I’ve been at places where the corporate policies were just buzzword doublespeak and they are a waste of time. Everyone knows it’s bullshit.
I’ve also been at exactly one place where the leadership team gave serious thought to what their goals were for the organization. Then they wrote down a set of goals that were
simple
coherent
actionable And that actually made it easier to do our jobs. When we had to make a decision, we could actually refer to these principles and use them.
It was crazy helpful!
…And then they hired a fuckton of Ex-Amazon managers into high-level roles and they promptly drove away all the best people and replaced the helpful principles with Amazon’s work-or-die philosophy. So I bailed. 😭
The name of “Amazon” carries cachet. It sounds like impressive experience.
The thing is, Amazon famously treats its employees like shit - even the highly paid ones. There’s a sorta Stockholm Syndrome that develops, where you convince yourself that this misery is the cost of “doing great things” or you decide to bail while you can and go someplace that doesn’t suck.
Managers who spend any amount of time at Amazon tend to be the former. They end up with this mindset that if your team isn’t miserable, you just aren’t working hard enough and that having “tough” conversations means that you berate people until they break.
So beware Ex-Amazon managers. They’re not all bad, but a sudden influx is not a good sign.
(In fairness - One of the best managers I ever had was at Amazon. If he left that place, I’d be thrilled to work with him again. Just. Not there.
The hands-down worst manager I ever had was at Amazon as well.)
Eating super refined sugar like candy causes a chain raccoon of events in your body to occur:
Your blood sugar spikes. Even in non-diabetic people, eating a sugary treat can cause a spike above 150mg/dL (healthy levels are usually below 100 when fasting and below 130 after eating)
Your body ramps up insulin production to help use the sugar.
Because your levels have (probably) spiked so high, your body produces a lot of insulin, but your digestion isn’t sending any more sugar - you already finished digesting it and got the whole load at once.
Your body burns through all the excess sugar in your system and your blood sugar levels fall… precipitously because there’s still a lot of insulin floating around.
Your blood sugar levels fall low enough that your system decides it must be time to eat.
You get the munchies. And since your blood sugar is now lower than your body wants it to be, you crave something extra carby. …Like more candy.
Repeat this process long enough and your pancreas (which makes insulin) burns out. Congratulations! You now (like me) have Type 2 Diabetes! 🎉✨💫
So… To not eat all your candy at once, do a few things to keep your blood sugar from spiking, triggering cravings for more.
Eat fibrous veggies. And eat them at the start of a meal. Getting the fiber into your digestion first slows down processing the rest, keeping your blood sugars from spiking.
Eat carby treats as dessert to a meal, not on an empty stomach. Same reason as above.
If you’ve really gotta indulge, try to drink a Tbsp of vinegar (diluted in a glass of water, so you don’t melt your teeth) just beforehand. The acetic acid in vinegar interferes with digesting carbs. It’s not as good as broccoli, but it helps. (Citric acid does not work like this.)
In addition to the other tips here (Especially keeping treats out of sight), keeping your sugar levels from spiking and crashing helps a lot to curb carb craving.
Am I the only one getting agitated by the word AI?
Am I the only one getting agitated by the word AI (Artificial Intelligence)?...
Every goddamn time (sh.itjust.works)
Non microsoft git repo
Hello,...
What is an obscure piece of media or videogame that you think nobody else here has heard of? (kbin.social)
It could even be a youtube video or movie that you don't think anyone reading this has heard of besides you.
If You Had to Worship or be the Champion of an Ancient Greek God/Goddess Which One Would You Pick?
Ngl Athena is based.
What are some happy endings that really wasn't all that happy?
Mad Max Fury Road. They defeat the tyrant, and get the control of the water valves. Then they open the valves and seemingly keep them open. One problem, how long is the water reservoir gonna last now?...
It's the holidays, time to impress the family. (startrek.website)
Edit: (What do you call this dish?) (sh.itjust.works)
Edit: (Slice of bread with a hole cut in the middle and an egg fried in it.) I have always called them daddy-o eggs but I have recently been informed that is incorrect.-
What is your unpopular flim opinion
I’ll go first. Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It’s like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds
What are your "poor person" money life hacks?
Let’s get a list going. Like with a Target debit card you can get $40 cash back and it takes 1 to 2 days to be withdraw from your checking.
What Linux distro should I choose?
I’m moving away from Windows and I’m looking for distro for coding and occasional gaming. If more context is needed please let me know.
Can anyone else feel sensations in their brain?
Last time I checked there aren’t nerve endings in our brain, so it should be impossible to feel sensations in my brain. However, at random times during my life, like seeing the plot twist in Fight Club for example, I’ve felt feelings in my brain. I just felt it again now while doing some intense introspection, and I just...
The misuse of Q-Tips was a problem even in the 23rd century (startrek.website)
Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook?
Hello,...
What is that thing called where you like randomly start picking-up/doing something that you saw someone do and now its a shared "thing" about you cuz you both do it genuinely
Like when Charlie becomes/starts doing a Griecko thing or Michael Scott imitates Ryan’s ridiculous facial hair
What game do you play to just chill?
Nowadays I find a lot of games feel like too much work and/or anxiety when I just want to relax for like, 30 minutes to an hour after a long day. On the other hand, the games specifically designed to help you unwind just feel boring imo....
I read that weed makes you not dream, then when you go off weed you have crazy dreams. So heavy, heavy weed users that quit, how long did you have crazy dreams for?
Weeks? Months? Years? Any other interesting experiences?
Which internet meme, if somehow erased from ever emerging, might have the biggest impact?
Is there a fundamental internet meme that has had such a major impact that it would have notable repercussions if it had somehow disappeared?
What's the purpose of strategy statements and other "corporate plans" in office culture
What exactly is accomplished when corporate culture sits everybody down and has a power point about the strategy, business goals for the next year....
How do you keep yourself from eating all your candy-stash in one sitting? (lemmy.world)
Many of you have either been trick or treating themselves or have leftover candy from handing it out for halloween....
Do you have a mantra that keeps you going through tough times?
“it do be like that sometimes” is starting to lose it’s magic a little