captain_aggravated

captain_aggravated , 4 days ago

A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer are led into a long room. At the other end stands a beautiful naked woman. "When I ring this bell," she says" you may cross half the space between us. When I ring the bell again, you may again cross half the space between us." Both the mathematician and physicist groan and wander off. "Ah, it's Zeno's paradox, we can never actually reach her." The engineer, waiting for the bell, says "I think I can get close enough."

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

There is a post that's circulating around the Lemmyhood where someone asks an LLM to solve the "there's a goat, a wolf and a cabbage that need to cross a river" problem, and it returns grammatically correct logically impossible nonsense. I think this is instructive as to how LLMs work and how useless they really are.

Presented with a logic problem, it doesn't attempt to solve any problems or apply logic. That it does is search through the sumtotal of all human communication, finds dozens if not hundreds of cases where this or a similar problem has been asked, and then averages the answers. Because answers might be phrased in different orders or different sentence structures, or some people published wrong or joke answers sometimes but it has no means to detect that, they get averaged in with equal weight and so the answer it puts out begins with "Take the wolf and the goat, leave the boat behind. Take the boat back." It has a fascinating ability to output seemingly relevant and grammatically impeccable worthless noise. Just like everything I say.

The only compelling use case I've seen for these things is writing frameworks for fictional stories. There was an episode of the WAN Show back when LMG still existed where Linus gave ChatGPT a prompt to create a modern take on the premise of the movie Liar Liar. And it came up with an actually compelling outline, I'd go see the movie made out of that outline. Because it's fictional, it doesn't have to conform to reality.

I doubt it could write an entire acceptable movie script though, it would have gaping plot holes, would have no theme or cohesive narrative structure, but every individual line of dialog would make grammatical sense and some conversations might even seem coherent.

As a research or information gathering tool, they're worse than useless because it has no way of detecting if information is up to date or obsolete, serious or farcical, correct or incorrect, it just averages them all together, basically on the same theory as the Poll The Audience lifeline on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire: Most of the crowd is almost always right. Except with this approach what happens is it will cite a completely fake made up paper and attribute it to a genuinely real scientist who works in the relevant field and allegedly published in a real reputable scientific journal. It looks right, it passes the sniff test. It's also completely useless.

And that's when they're not throwing weird emotional tantrums.

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

sigh would you look at all that stuff...

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

I think you can get there in TF2 when considering subclasses via weapons loadouts. Demoknight for instance is a completely different play style than normal pipe/sticky demoman.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

there's no sex in your violence.

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

Welcome to the world according to Republicans.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

I always liked this game's theme song.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

I'm a CFI. on the subjects of aerodynamics, navigation, instrumentation, aircraft systems, aviation law, my word is usually accepted. I'm apparently the least knowledgeable person in the world on the subjects of aviation physiology and aeromedical factors. What could a pilot possibly know about hypoxia?

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

your truck is bad and you should feel bad.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

better idea: shut down the phone network entirely.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

It's more like pfffff rather than brrrrrr but yeah.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

I graduated in 2005, and by then bell bottoms on girls were back in fashion; they didn't quite hit the ground, there was just a little bit of the sole of her tennis shoe and a bit of toe visible. I kinda liked that look, then we went with 20 years of "heat shrink that ends an inch above the ankle" for some reason.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Yeah aren't the pictures above of "flares" rather than bell bottoms?

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

In the late 90's, jeans with gigantic legs were in for both genders, IIRC jeans that were tight/normal down to the knee and then went completely conical down to a huge cuff were called "flares." Or you had the JNCO style 'eight sizes too big" parachute pants look, which was somehow completely separate to the "hammer pants" thing.

The early 2000s had their own take on bell bottoms. Unlike 60's70's bell bottoms which were worn much higher up on the waist, were fairly baggy their entire length with kind of ruffled cuffs worn by both sexes, 21st century bell bottoms were pretty much only a female thing, they were worn much lower at the waist overlapping the "hip hugger" trend, and were worn fairly tight down to lower calf and then had a significantly curved trumpet bell shaped cuff to cover the upper of the shoe but not sweep the floor like 90's parachute pants. Meanwhile guys wore a lot of boot cut carpenter jeans that all had that pointless hammer loop on the left leg.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

I took carpentry in high school, and the school issued me a tool belt & tools. I'm left handed, so I wore my hammer on the left side, and the bottom of the handle would catch in that loop and that would keep it parallel with my thigh, it didn't bang around. It actually worked out fairly well; if I were to start wearing a full tool belt with a hammer again I might go back to carpenter jeans if they even still make them.

But, most people are right handed and wear their hammers on the right, and having tried it I can say hanging a hammer straight from that loop; it'll bash your knee out. It's too low.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

That's why them bell bottoms were worn fairly tight for most of their length too, doesn't explain the cuffs.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

If I were to guess, I'd say that there's no color you could dye painter's clothes that wouldn't get ruined by paint, so it's more cost effective to just leave them cotton white.

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

I did want to kneecap the idiot that decided to use a leaf blower to blow the sand off the parking lot of the apartment I used to rent in. Was kind of tempted to send the manager a bill for a new clear coat on my car.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

with a bucket, a mop, a broom and dust pan, a shelf with some bottles of Windex and Soft Scrub and other S.C. Johnson(R) products, a stack of furnace filters against one wall and the front one always falls over, and probably a vacuum.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

As far as I can tell, "body positivity" is for ugly chicks. Pretty chicks don't need it and physical attractiveness doesn't exist for men.

As a man, the only thing about me that matters to anyone else is what value they can extract from me, and when the answer becomes "none" I will be discarded. Doesn't matter if a man looks like the inside of a kidney as long as he can pick up the check. Everything else about you is irrelevant.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

It's obvious having ever met people.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Brad Pitt isn't a real attractive man, he only plays one in movies. I'm sure both Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Anniston both told him his dick was both huge and tiny depending on how mad they were at him, and both of them lied both times.

You can believe in Russel's Teapot as much as you want, even if it is true, which it obviously isn't, it can't possibly matter. Anyone who calls you handsome, who says they want to fuck you, who says they like you for who you are? They are lying to manipulate you. No one will ever like you for any reason. They will only pretend to like you so they can get money, things and chores from you. "That's not true my wife genuinely loves me" Break your spine, lose your job and spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair, see how much longer she "loves you for who you are."

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

My hourly rate for day labor is $40/hr. I will not give you anything or do anything for you for free.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Give the second man the first man's cosmetic surgery budget and they'd bear a striking resemblance. Or he could just pay people to call him whatever he wants to be called. I mean, Donald Trump has ever gotten laid. Whether attractiveness or repulsiveness in men exists, it doesn't matter because no one uses it for anything.

Women's worth is based on their physical appearance. Ugly women are worth less as people than pretty women, which is why "body positivity" is only ever mentioned by lumpy misshapen women and corporate advertising firms who want to sell them cosmetics. Men are not worth anything in and of themselves; their value is found in that they own and control. That's how the world actually works, and hippy bullshit like "all lives matter" will never change that. NO LIVES MATTER, least of all yours and mine.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Hey you're the perfect stranger asserting I have "value" despite having no possible idea what it might be. You might as well have said "Jesus loves you." It would be equally untrue and I'd know whose bullshit you're trying to get me to buy.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Aren't we all?

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

I'm 36 years old, I've been around long enough to see the shame in people's eyes when asked "What exactly do you want from me?" One man is more visibly damaged than the other. Vaginal wetness because of facial symmetry isn't real. Vaginal wetness because a movie star's pay means mansions and limousines is real. There aren't legends of men so beautiful that women destroyed civilizations to be with him, because that's not what men are valued for.

Teaching young men that they can be liked for who they are is just...harmful. To everyone outside of himself, a man is only as valuable as what you can get out of him. If you can't get much out of him, he will be treated VERY badly, even worse if he dares to have needs of his own.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Yeah here's the thing about the women who just want to "be comfortable and have fun"...life has a way of becoming not comfortable or fun sometimes. Call up Little Miss "He makes me laugh" and tell her you've had a table saw accident and you need her to drive you to the hospital. See how much longer she sticks around.

I had a girl break up with me once because I said to her "I think I need to go to the dentist." Like the next words she said to me were "I don't think this is going to work out." Whatever we were, it certainly wasn't "friends." Turns out I was right, I've got a polymer bicuspid now.

The women who want to be around you because you're fun will walk out of the theater the second they're no longer enjoying the show. It's about what value they can extract from you. Always is.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

I didn't assert myself as high valued. I asserted myself as non-free.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Would you ever write “penile stiffness” when talking about getting hard?

I probably would, yeah. That sounds like how I talk, though on reflection I'd probably use the word "hardness."

What exactly is the woman getting out the guy she’s fucking in secret?

So I'm the misogynist while you're over here like "Have you considered that women are shallow cheating sluts?" And why is said cheating slut still involved with her "less-than-attractive" husband? Yeah, she sounds like a great person who I should...put a lot of work into myself to be worthy to be around. Sign me right the fuck up.

even people like you can improve

I'm not the problem here. I live in a world where most employers would pay you in company scrip rather than USD if, nay, when they're allowed to get away with it again. I live in a world where 100% of the phone calls I get are scams or reminders of doctor's appointments. I live in a world where packages of food labeled 12 ounces have 9 ounces of food in them. Everyone is out to scam you. EVERYONE. What method they choose to use is at least partially a factor of who they are to you. Are they an employer, a retailer, a banker, a young blonde? NONE of them care about your well being. None of them will call you an ambulance unless it would reflect badly on them not to.

Repeat after me: No, they don't love you. They don't like you for who you are as a person. You did not win the Spanish lottery. Your car does not have an extended warranty. We are not like a family here.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

There are people who have some of the same ancestors as me that I hear from once every couple of years when they need some furniture moved.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

How does your world view account for relationships where the woman makes more money than the man?

It is my understanding that these relationships are rare because of how many women categorically reject them, and relationships that didn't start out that way up but get there via promotions/layoffs whatever are on borrowed time or doomed.

Edit: what genre of music do you think Polymer Bicuspid would play? Would they be whatever blarp techno shit Freezepop is?

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

First off… “chicks”?

In my part of the world it's simply the distaff counterpart of "dudes."

No-one wants to be around a misery like you.

Works for me. You think Ted Bundy bought his cabin from someone, or did he just...go way the fuck out in the woods and just built something? I'm not sure the tenses in that last sentence entirely matched but I can't think of how to better phrase it.

So you’re still saying that there’s no difference in physical attractiveness between Brad Pitt and say… you? ;P

I don't know, back in college I was usually compared more often to Orlando Bloom, but that's probably because Brad Pitt was already obsolete as a sex symbol by then.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

You remember back in high school or college, there was that group of friends that you always hung out with, you saw eye to eye with, you knew them, they knew you, you'd get a phone call at 2 in the morning, one of them is beside the road with a flat tire and you're who they called, so of course you go help? Like they don't ask because it's not a question, it's what you do, you'd do it for them, they'd do it for you?

First they stop texting you first but they'll reply when you text them. Then they stop replying. Then you stop reaching out. Then you delete their number. Then you get a text "Hey you still drive that truck?" By my mid-20's, there were none left.

Few mechanisms exist to meet new people beyond college, few people ever exchange contact details, of those that do, few answer the first time. I live in a town, lots of people live next door, across the street, down the block. None have introduced themselves.

Oh and "romances." So called. After the college sowing oats phase, in my actual adulthood, the one-night stands and short term flings were always 100% healthier than any attempt at long term romantic relationships. Communication...happened. "Here's what I expect, here's how long I want this to last, here are my deal breakers," etc. I will trade you one licked clitoris for one sucked penis. Deal, who goes first? Both simultaneously? No i prefer to be on my back. Okay, I'll do you then you do me. Great, let's go. That right there is 100% transactional, you could write it as a legal contract with consideration, terms and conditions. Anyone where you'd change your relationship status on Facebook for? No can't have that; that's beneath them. What ensues is 4 months of we go out on whatever dates I can come up with, ball is always in my court, she never knows what she wants, we have plenty of sex, but I almost always initiate, then about 2 months of vetos, shorter answers and "not tonight"s, then a week of "I hate that place" and "that's all you think about" and then it's done. She apparently wanted something from me, she was not willing to directly tell me what it was, preferring instead to see if she could get it by pretending to be my #1 groupie for a few months and then getting very resentful and angry when that didn't work. I'm not trying that again.

Do I personally view relationships as "transactional?" Yes, by derivation from first principles. Ask the question "Just what the fuck are relationships even for, anyway?" And the stock answer is "humans are highly social animals and they require interactions with other humans for their mental health" and, like, the very basic concept of a "relationship" is the mutual fulfilling of that need. "I will trade you one 'you heard someone's voice today say something not about work', in exchange for one 'I heard someone's voice today say something not about work'."

My first thought on writing that was "21st century wedding vows if ever I heard them." I was once broken up with for saying "I think I need to go to the dentist" so "to have and to hold in sickness and in health" is apparently out of the question.

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

If someone were to call me a "short king," I would have their name legally changed to "Cellulite Queen" or "The Right High Honorable Sir Shriveldick Pissinbed III" or some other such.

captain_aggravated , 5 days ago

Your name is now Baron von Halitosis Drinksfromcarton Esq.

captain_aggravated , 7 days ago

so. derpy.

captain_aggravated , 7 days ago

yeah I have to listen to space documentaries and such to keep my mind quiet so I can sleep. Astrum and SEA keep me sane.

captain_aggravated , 7 days ago

You have to click? I turn on my networked printer and every Linux machine on my network sets it up whether I wanted them to or not.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

An Epson XP-830. Full disclosure: When it was brand new it was a severe pain in the ass because it wasn't supported by CUPS yet, I had to go out to Epson's website and download a driver in .rpm fromat and install it with alien. Bought it a couple months before I abandoned Windows for Linux and had to make it work. After about a year CUPS suddenly knew what to do with it and it's Just Worked(tm) ever since.

captain_aggravated , 8 days ago

It is the horns of meowdor!

captain_aggravated , 7 days ago

On the rare occasions I'm scanning through FM radio stations, the reason I hit the Next button the fastest when I find myself "listening" to a hip-hop station? The hi hat. tss ts ts ts ts ts tss ts tssssss. It's most of what you hear, everything else is mixed down in the mud beneath it. I'm informed this is an...artistic choice?

captain_aggravated , 7 days ago

My grandparents used to watch this show on TV called Club Dance. Imagine Soul Train for old white people; it was shot in a fictional "saloon" and they'd have both professional country dancers and amateurs who wanted to be on the show. Most of the music I remember hearing about the show was basically about dancing. The whole "truck jeans beer girl creek boots truck" phenomenon hadn't been invented yet.

captain_aggravated , 8 days ago

Your terms are acceptable.

captain_aggravated , 6 days ago

Well like, I am a woodworker. I haul several barrels of sawdust to the dump every year, and I'm only going to make more as time goes on and I start selling my work. I'm thinking of installing a pellet stove in my house and making my own wood pellets, which would save me a couple hundred bucks a year on gas AND the $30 or so I spend at the dump every year hauling out sawdust. I could further detach myself from the fossil fuel industry and the evils therein. This would require purchasing a machine that cost about what my table saw did, or about my take from the sale of one Morris chair.

captain_aggravated , 8 days ago

It should also be common or required practice to make note of "Google account required" or something in the app's description.

captain_aggravated , 8 days ago

Especially on something like Flathub and especially for apps that can plausibly run locally. Like, I kinda know beforehand I'll need an account with Discord to use the Discord app, because it's primarily for communicating with other people. But a todo app? Dafuq does that need the internet for?

captain_aggravated , 8 days ago

I'm starting to think, especially with high contrast and high brightness flat panels, having working light and dark modes are an accessibility feature. Apparently folks with bad astigmatism or some other such struggle with light text on a dark background? Me I'm just very light sensitive and a modern LED backlit monitor showing large areas of white is physically uncomfortable for me to look at.