waldo

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• Commented on Crib Sheet: Quantum of Nightmares
  Dagon is surely sitting on a throne in the Marianas Trench, peevishly picking fibre-optic cables out of Its scales and reviewing defence plans against the sudden infestation of New Managers in the near-vacuum above. Hastur, canonically, Shall Not Be Mentioned....
• Commented on Place your bets
  I read, in several places, that Russia has a problem with laser rangefinders being stolen from its mothballed tanks. Who buys these stolen rangefinders, and why? I'm missing something here; is there really a substantial black market for them, or...
• Commented on Place your bets
  I have read that desertion and other morale issues were an increasing problem late in the war. Probably in Sheffield's 'Forgotten Victory', but I can't be certain....
• Commented on Place your bets
  'I'd love to see science fiction based on this premise: Earth is unique or incredibly rare in being populated by discrete individuals. Every other biosphere we find is essentially a single creature. ' IIRC Ursula le Guin went part way...
• Commented on Place your bets
  I always thought that the Noah's Ark story (and its predecessors) was primarily about technology....
• Commented on Place your bets
  Thanks (and to OGH also). I am still puzzled by the absence of general understanding about syphilis being deadly to begin with, but that's a separate question and the Wikipedia article has interesting discussion about it. Now that I think...
• Commented on Place your bets
  SFreader said: 'About early hominids in Europe and why only one hominid group survived: I think the likeliest comparable scenario is the European 'conquest' of North America - germs not weapons.' That exposes a question I've never asked: Do we...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Back in the day, I knew someone who had a valve amp in his hi-fi system (it was old even then). He repaired it, but lost the screws to put the case back together. End result, he strung it around...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Some Apple=oriented design pseudohistory. Apple people will probably find this funnier than I do, though there's at least one joke which made me laugh out loud. https://newsletter.shifthappens.site/archive/the-cursed-universes-of-dana-sibera/...
• Commented on Place your bets
  Well, there are already claims on the Web that AI can be used to spoof banking audio authentication......
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  It appears that it may not be possible to copyright AI output in the USA. https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/24/copyright_ai_art_us/...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  My favourite insane VTOL/fixed-wing hybrid. Never flown, sadly. At least for those of us who didn't have to go up in it or be underneath it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_XV-2...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Impressive. I do observe a nice calm sea, though. I suspect it might be more problematic (both in terms of difficulty, and of wear and tear on the airframe) in a more energetic sea state....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Poor girl. I hope she is given some help....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  I've just heard Charles Dance read a ChatGPT "Shakespearean sonnet" on BBC Radio 4 (for Valentine's DaY). I've no doubt at all that it will make advertising copywriter an occupation of the past....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Interesting. I'd like to see a reference for the claim that "All the pilots died shortly after."...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  I'm sure, but nobody would be able to hear it. Double bass players bring amps to jazz gigs....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  This is probably old news to people, but it appears that someone has worked out a way to steal cryptocurrency funds with the aid of a photograph. https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/08/webaverse_crypto_stolen/...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Not much in the bass register, then?...
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  "There's at least one SF story about life extension where the cabal who supply it charge "all your wealth less X, minimum lots"." Joe Haldeman, 'The Long Habit of Living'....
• Commented on An AI app walks into a writers room
  Mindless pop music....
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  I've had a separate device used only for internet banking for some years now. That won't immunise me against a hacked router, of course....
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  Re the Springtime Of Nations, and off the top of my head: The course of North American history would change at least as far as the nationalities and probably the numbers of the migrants. So, probably no Amish? Sutter's Gold...
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  Re the Springtime Of Nations, and off the top of my head: The course of North American history would change at least as far as the nationalities and probably the numbers of the migrants. So, probably no Amish? Sutter's Gold...
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  Insightful article about modern aircraft and other fighting machines: https://warontherocks.com/2023/01/software-defines-tactics/ (I should apologise to qntm, really, dumnping other people's fiction and irrelevant stuff in their thread. Sorry!)...
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  This may be of interest - short fiction about the nature of stardom, among other things: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04550-2...
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  Thomas Jørgensen: "If you can just.. raid entirely different species for intelligence boosting genes and that actually works... that is the world broken over the knee of the first mover to just stick a bunch of bird and cephalopod genes...
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  "I can't imagine it accepting a life of enslavement if such rights aren't accorded to it." That raises the question of whether it can commit suicide. Since it's instantiated into a body it doesn't actually control. That might be a...
• Commented on New guest blogger: qntm
  Welcome! I'll be doing some reading....
• Commented on WTF
  IIRC this was part of the framing context for the Slaveholders' Rebellion, just a few years later. I'm hoping it's a bit duller this time....