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frob

3,233 karma · joined February 1, 2013

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frob··on X glitch wipes out most pictures and links tweeted before December 2014
You don't need reliability engineers until you NEED reliability engineers.
frob··on Show HN: Superfunctions – AI prompt templates as an API
Interesting project. How do you propose to sanitize the results? I used your example endpoint above and called it for chartreuse. Instead of just giving me a direct hex code like `#0000FF` for the blue example, it returned `The hex code for chartreuse in CSS is #7FFF00.`, which I'm pretty sure most systems would choke on. It seems to do this for a about 1/3 to 1/4 of my queries. Asking for a color it doesn't like causes it to choke and return an "I'm sorry, I cannot blah blah blah" response.
frob··on All of Physics in 9 Lines
These are the scales at which neither General relativity nor the standard model (QM, QFT, etc) dominate, so you cannot just ignore one and do the calculations with the other. To solve systems at these scales, you need a working system of quantum gravity. We do not yet have one of those. These quantities are essentially where our current models of physics break down and we can no longer make anything resembling a prediction.
frob··on All of Physics in 9 Lines
To be additionally pedantic as a physicist, dW = 0 means we have extramized the action. Technically, we are looking for a path of stable action (i.e. a small change to the path does not change the action), so both maxima, minima, and even saddle curves are allowed solutions.
frob··on Executive Function Theft
On a side note, the author's example is exactly why I have chosen to not use FSAs. Sure, it saves me 20% or so since it's pre-tax money, but is my stress, time, executive function, and sanity all worth that? Plus if I screw up and don't spend the money or file something wrong, I lose it or pay penalties.
frob··on UCLA floor tiles decoded, pay homage to first internet message (2013)
> “We succeeded in transmitting the ‘L’ … and the ‘O’ — and then the system crashed,” Kleinrock said. “Hence, the first message on the Internet was ‘LO’ — as in ‘Lo and behold!’ We didn’t plan it, but we couldn’t have come up with a better message: short and prophetic.”

I like to take this story one step further. After doing some work, the two tried again. And, of course, they tried to log in. So the first three letters typed across the internet were "LOL".

frob··on How to communicate when trust is low without digging yourself into a deeper hole
Wow, that's quite the accusation. I did some quick searching and couldn't find anything, but it's not the sort of thing that I would expect to be easily findable.

What leads you to believe this?

frob··on My resignation letter as R7RS-large chair
It's the Revised Revised Revised Revised Revised Revised Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme, or (Revised)^7 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme, or R7RS.
frob··on Students are submitting answers saying “I am an AI language model”
My favorite solution to this is to embrace the technology and have students really learn its uses and limitations.

Tell the students to prompt their LLM of choice to write an essay on a given topic or set of topics. Have the students include the prompt as well as the generated response. The actual assignment is for the students to then edit and critique the LLM-generated essay. This both requires them to demonstrate an actual expertise in the subject matter and directly shows them the limitations of LLMs.

frob··on Cruise vehicle gets stuck in wet concrete while driving in San Francisco
Doing something like that takes massive public investments in changing our roads and infrastructure. Given that this money will come from the public, I would argue that it should be spent on publicly accessible tools and services, like enhanced public transit. I do not want to spend public money to build public infrastructure for the gain of massive private companies' experiments.
frob··on The Cuts at WVU
This reminds me of when MIT was putting student hacks, like the fire truck on the dome, on the front of their promotional material while prosecuting those same students for exploring unlocked areas of the campus.
frob··on MIT Pirate Certificate
For a few semesters at least, the phys ed requirement was a pool system. You wod choose your top 3 or 6 options. There were lotteries if classes were oversubscribed and those who didn't get their first choice, got lotteries for their second choice, and so on.
frob··on Las Vegas approves 68 miles of underground transportation tunnels
They've also announced solar shingles and a self-driving vehicle. Tesla's "plans" are worth less than the electrons storing them.
frob··on Most cars still cost more to charge than to fill up with gas
I can just say that I live in the middle of the US and it currently costs me about 4 cents per mile to drive my Volt on electric and about 9 cents per mile to drive on gas. The factor was closing in on 5 when gas prices peaked.
frob··on Most cars still cost more to charge than to fill up with gas
This doesn't actually compare marginal costs. It factors in fixed costs like the cost of the charger for the EV amortized over five years. It counts road taxes for both types of vehicles, but road taxes are marginal for gas vehicles and fixed for electric ones. It doesn't count the additional marginal costs of maintaining an ICE vehicle over an EV.

And all of the taxes come from Michigan, which is one of those states that charge EV and hybrid owners extra to register and have lower gas prices than the rest of the country. I'm almost certain this would give a different result closer to the coasts.

This overall study feels like statistical cherry-picking to eeek out a marginal result.

frob··on For the love of god, stop microwaving plastic
Scratch that. I was off by a factor of a million. It's slightly more than one part in a quintillion.
frob··on For the love of god, stop microwaving plastic
"Millions" sounds like a huge number until you remember that Avogadro's number is six hundred thousand million million million.

A cup of milk is on the order of a mole of particles (+/- 90%), so that's only slightly more than one part in a trillion.

frob··on “I'm pretty convinced it's over” (regarding the superconductor)
On this site, yes. As are WaPo and NYT.
frob··on “I'm pretty convinced it's over” (regarding the superconductor)
Given how Twitter doesn't allow you to see anything without an account now, this link is essentially useless. It's just someone stating a contextless opinion, which is guess is what the original Twitter was.
frob··on Twitter has officially changed its logo to ‘X’
Feels like he got that one backwards
frob··on Ask HN: Why do web sites not place the cursor for input?
I have this battle with newer developers quite frequently. They immediately want to reach for a framework for everything and they try to abstract away as much html and css as possible.

A common experience has been with new grads who have a lot of experience with tailwind. They're used to being able to just apply a tailwind class for everything. However, I find they often lack the understanding of what is actually going on at a css-level so are unable to easily do anything that breaks the tailwind mold. I often have them sit down with a more senior developer to watch them use raw css (with some developer ergonomics like styled components or sass) for a bit, and they come away with a new appreciation for how the fundamental languages of the (modern) browser are quite expressive and powerful.

frob··on In Phoenix, this is life at 113 degrees for more than 20 days
And in their last appropriations bill, the GOP nutjobs running the house literally stripped out funding even for that. Fortunately, the Senate will probably put it back, but the GOP are just out-to-lunch on this.
frob··on The Bear Market Has Nearly Been Erased, Fewer Than 20 Months After It Began
Every time I click this link, it tries to redirect me to the android store to install some app. Is anyone else having this issue?
frob··on Important Coding Habits
The articles dated July 2 and 6th are both about how to hide api keys and say basically the same thing. The header images all look like they came from the same base prompt. And, just for icing, the rest of the posts are all about how to use chatGPT
frob··on Right-Wing Websites Scam Loyal Followers with Phony Celebrity Pitches
The dude tried to overturn our goddamned government. There is no "derangement" here. He literally tried to be a dictator.
frob··on WormGPT – The Generative AI Tool Cybercriminals Are Using
Did the author huff glue before writing this?

`The results were unsettling.`

The provided example basically says. "Hi, I have no pre-existing relationship with you, but your website makes it look like you are the person who pays the bills. Give me money, please!"

frob··on Right-Wing Websites Scam Loyal Followers with Phony Celebrity Pitches
I'm not arguing with you there at all
frob··on Right-Wing Websites Scam Loyal Followers with Phony Celebrity Pitches
The "democrat party" just isn't. The name of the party is the Democratic Party. For someone who seems to be attacking it from the left, you should know that you're using a phrase popularized by Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich.
frob··on Facebook turns over chats to police resulting in abortion charges (2022)
That's not an abortion; it's infanticide. Words have meaning. Use them correctly.
frob··on Facebook turns over chats to police resulting in abortion charges (2022)
Stop using innuendo and say what you mean. It really helps with getting your point across.

What I am assuming you mean is that doctors in the USA are killing live babies post delivery because the mother doesn't want them. That is infanticide. It is illegal. Full stop. And it is not happening at any sort or rate worth mentioning. The only place it happens is in the fever dreams of right-wing politicians who want to scare up support to ban abortion and the rubes who believe them. It is a lie designed to get people to react with disgust to something that isn't happening so that they can be manipulated into supporting conservative causes.

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