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  • Commented on Made of lies (and more lies)
    A colleague (software developer) recently asked a group of us with electrical / electronics engineering skills for our opinion about the possible uses and benefits of such LLM models in engineering. After we stopped laughing, pointed out the ridiculousness of...
  • Commented on I should blog more, but ...
    mistyped "The Dosadi Experiment" :-(...
  • Commented on I should blog more, but ...
    @Pigeon at #379: Reminds me of the premise for the Bureau of Sabotage in Frank Herbert's "Whipping Star" and "The Disadi Experiment"....
  • Commented on Make Up a Guy
    JohnS at 135: How would that work when a "customer" calls back with a repeat or on-going problem? ... has a "ticket number" from a previous call? Within the original story, the virtual personalities handling support tickets are encouraged by...
  • Commented on Make Up a Guy
    HowardNYC at 107: ...as I previously mentioned there's a short story, "Cookie Monster" wherein the unwitting virts realize they are trapped in an endlessly re-zeroed single workday in support services. It's a short story by Vernor Vinge. One of the...
  • Commented on Strong and Stable!
    @1277: I was thinking something along the lines of 'gap year', 'sabbatical' or spending a year at a kibbutz (if that's still done now that most are privatized). My impression is that the 'gap year' is a UK thing -...
  • Commented on Strong and Stable!
    729: And, for bonus humour, Bozo gets to play the elder statesman and implicitly criticise Sumach for not taking the climate crisis seriously. Time for Johnson to have another taxpayer-funded foreign holiday. Extra bonus points for embarrassing his replacement who...
  • Commented on Strong and Stable!
    Oh and don't skip the Tiffany Aching books. Although they are marketed as "young adult" fiction, they include some of his most emotional and moving writing....
  • Commented on Strong and Stable!
    Got thru Color of Magic and Light Fantastic, waiting on Equal Rites from another library. In my opinion the first two books are the weakest, although they do define the setting nicely for the later books. (Sir) Pterry started...
  • Commented on Necroqueen!
    Most excellent! :-) CASE NIGHTMARE ROYAL BLUE?...
  • Commented on The ends of education
    @Heteromeles at 560: I read somewhere earlier today that Liz Cheney's goal is simply to stop Trump from being elected again. If she runs for president, she doesn't expect to win, she only wants to divert enough R votes to...
  • Commented on Crimes against Transhumanity
    I haven't seen the second season of the Netflix series, but the synopsis on Wikipedia suggests it's a mashup of SOME elements from books 2 & 3, but doesn't actually follow either of them. Season 2 is mostly a...
  • Commented on Crimes against Transhumanity
    156 gasdive: The most recent version of this I've seen was an episode of Black Mirror. Series 4 episode 4, "Hang the DJ", where two people experience a simulated set of dates to determine their mutual compatibility....
  • Commented on Crib Sheet: The Labyrinth Index
    @857, 858 It seems simple childbirth is a touch expensive in the US... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/17/baby-got-bills-week-in-patriarchy-arwa-mahdawi...
  • Commented on A death in the Firm
    @1372: Notice that in 2001 the whole station rotates, including the docking hub. Much simpler engineering, if more challenging for approaching pilots. Surely the whole next generation or two of prospective spaceship pilots have been practicing manoeuvres for docking manually...
  • Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
    @1438, 1439, 1441 Hong Kong supposedly has a similar rule limiting the height of tall buildings in the main financial district, to preserve the view of Victoria Peak from the harbour. This is why the IFC Tower is only as...
  • Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
    ...& "fire that motha up!" Probably by tomorrow night. Good luck and I hope there's no escape of magic smoke......
  • Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
    Cobblers You plainly haven't a clue. wtaf? You don't know me, my social background or my educational background, you're in no position to judge how many clues I may or may not have. I take it you're not in...
  • Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
    Whitroth @879, Mr. Tingey @ 882 I think there's a significant difference between things like orchestras, ballet companies, where basically they rehash old and thoroughly approved 'classics', and other things like writing, painting, sculpture, composing, where the 'artists' are creating...
  • Commented on All Glory to the New Management!
    724, 726, 736 etc. Larry Niven's transfer booths / puppeteer stepping discs. He had some interesting thoughts on the side effects on, for example, flash mobs or 48 hour birthday parties following the sun. 749, 757 Vernor Vinge's The Witling,...
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    Heteromeles at 1357: I'm trying to remember who's done SFF like this in the past. In geological timescales, this is one of the plot points in David Brin's second Uplift trilogy. The illegally settled sooners on Jijo restrict themselves to...
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    684: ...I (naively) expect ebikes to be ubiquitous before eCars become the norm... Visiting Shenzhen and other cities in south China, it is impressive how quickly electric vehicles of all kinds are becoming the default, ranging from what look like...
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    648: I'm aware that some people, amazingly enough, do not want to spend an hour listening to some nerd natter on... I remember some time ago watching a program about history and warfare. A historical re-enactment team designed, built and...
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    799, 805: I am not surprised that I have not met that as a dystopian apocalypse in fiction. Bacteria causing plastics to decay faster. "Mutant 59: The Plastic Eater", by Kit Pedler, published 1971. Apparently based on the Doomwatch TV...
  • Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
    Re: Dejah Thoris Frazetta's second painting of the the original cover for A Princess of Mars sold last week for over $1M. https://boingboing.net/2020/09/10/frazettas-a-princess-of-ma.html...
  • Commented on Dead plots
    Social insects and societies... Reminds me of Frank Herbert's "Hellstrom's Hive"....
  • Commented on Dead plots
    Our newer conference rooms all have names rather than numbers. They follow a different theme in different location. Not seen it for floors of a building yet....
  • Commented on Dead plots
    Many hotels in Asia avoid using the 4th floor, because of superstition around the similar sounding words for '4' and 'death'. I once stayed in a hotel in Taipei that had no 4th, 13th or 14th floor, observing both western...
  • Commented on Dead plots
    Just to add to the discussion about wiping hard drives... ... I have used Eraser (https://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/) which seems to be a simple-to-use tool form Windows machines....
  • Commented on "It'll all be over by Christmas" (Part 2)
    I am quietly happy to see the newly added seagull avatar/icon :-)...
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Propaganda