Re: acceleration I’d heard the theory but wondered if the rise of e-bikes had made acceleration less of a faff.
I'm not going to zoom through a public park if I can use a nearby road without feeling like I'm going to die.
The park in a question has exits on Road A and Road B. There’s a road that connects the two but it’s further down and has traffic lights, so the park path has become a highway for delivery people on bikes who act like the pizza drivers in Snow Crash. It’s not a safety issue per se.
Corvos
6d ago
Right, and I assume that the price of Chinese goods will rise on a lag, as did the goods of Germany*, Japan and Taiwan.
*”Jerry-rigged” used to have the same valence as “Chinesium” if I remember correctly.
Corvos
6d ago
Isn’t this largely purchasing power? Stuff in China is cheap, so you don’t have to pay workers very much, so stuff in China is cheap.
#NotAllCyclists but I will say that as a non-driver I find the worst cyclists far more aggressive than the worst of anything else, both in terms of how they move and what they say (shout). And especially doing it in places that aren’t meant to be used as highways, like public parks.
I think it’s the combination of speed and vulnerability as people have suggested. Cars who act like that get a call from the Transport Authority, and pedestrians move slowly.
To put it another way, I get why non-car Americans are impatient at car-Americans but bicycles also seem to have inherent issues that cause aggressive behaviour regardless of how else the space is being used.
Personally I’m holding out for the return of the Segway. They look ridiculous but they’re wonderful to drive.
Corvos
6d ago
Quite possibly - this was in a remote area in the 60s.
Thanks for doing the hands-on research, I’ll give it another go when I can.
Corvos
6d ago
Its also good at reading my many, many emails and flagging ones where people are asking me to do something specific, or touch on a number of topics I've flagged at important.
Do you use a specific service for this, or something custom?
Corvos
6d ago
Here we are on the Motte, exchanging tokens with strangers…
There is a certain purity to it.
Corvos
6d ago
This would have been my next step but a relative (who had used them in anger) told me that they stank and to use electric lights and be grateful for them.
I was going to spend a week without electric lights (plus no PC etc.). Partly for the romance of it, partly because I thought I might sleep better and be perkier if I let myself go with the natural day/night cycle.
I bought a lantern and some slender beeswax candles, and didn’t realise that this was good enough for mood lighting but not nearly enough for anything practical.
Corvos
7d ago
Are you an actual doctor? (I’m not.) I’ve found LLMs good at coming up with plausible hypotheses but bad at blocking them off.
Corvos
7d ago
Use an AI-integrated IDE like Cursor or Windsurf (now bought by OpenAI sigh).
Your query looks like ‘I have an error that look like paste text and I think it’s being caused by @Object1 not being destroyed properly during garbage collection’.
The IDE gives the codebase structure to the model, which queries the object you mentioned, its headers, etc. then does a search of the repo for where it’s used, then…
But I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a codebase that you would consider large and of course this only works for a monorepo.
Corvos
7d ago
Can you link? I enjoy that sort of thing; there was another couple who did the Victorian version with an icebox instead of a fridge etc.
I tried it myself once but it turned out that lighting even a small room with candles is surprisingly hard. You need a fairly serious candelabra if you want to be able to read a book after dark.
Corvos
7d ago
Thanks, that’s good to know! LG seems to be the best brand, although Sony have some nice ones.
IMO he’s saying that:
- IF there are important things genuinely worth spending money on (there always are).
- AND it is the case that the US needs to be careful about the budget (it does).
- THEN the Republican Party should make the case for spending on things they think are genuinely important, leaving it to the Democrats to urge caution and reduce the deficit because they know the Republicans won’t.
- CAUSING the Republicans to get at least some of what they want and become popular, while the Democrats have to sacrifice their own objectives and cut spending in a way that makes them unpopular.
In short, play the game of chicken to its end in an attempt to reverse the usual dynamic where Democrats make heartrending pleas and inspiring plans while Republicans explain why lots of things have to be cut and dodge rotten tomatoes.
@FCfromSCC is this a fair summary?
Corvos
9d ago
I think ‘buying trinkets’ is an okay way to say essentially ‘frivolous spending that has no long-term advantage’.
Since we’re talking about literal spending here, perhaps more context would be better in this case to be clear that you aren’t literally talking about buying physical things like jet planes.
Corvos
10d ago
Do people use the chat history / user memory features? I found them kind of intrusive and I prefer having a blank slate for queries, so I turned them off.
Corvos
11d ago
Ancient dwarven motto:
If your head is level with their navel, their groin is level with your teeth.
Corvos
12d ago
I don't literally mean 'want' as in literally 'will happily tell you that this is their intention'. I mean 'want' as in 'cannot be swayed from their path' i.e. they act as though they want to self destruct. Saying so is a defense mechanism, yes, but it's also that I have known such people and they will reject, subvert and oppose anything that will actually help them so actively that 'want' seems to be the correct word for it.
I do not think that ordinary people can help this subset of addicts and the mentally ill because that would require the power and authority to straight-up enforce 'help' on unwilling recipients, and in some cases it would take active mind-control.
Corvos
12d ago
@self_made_human, how are you getting on with the new PC?
I actually copied your specs, on the basis that you seemed like someone who knew what he was talking about, and I'm liking it very much but I need a proper monitor. You were going to get an OLED TV rather than a conventional monitor - did you? And if so, what do you think of it?
EDIT: apologies for the repost, I had the wrong Tinker Tuesday.
Corvos
12d ago
One think to look into is prefills - writing the first part of the AI's answer for them and then letting them 'continue' it. It's quite good for overcoming the more mind-killing varieties of fine-tuning that the big players use. Generally used for overcoming censorship but I think probably also good for directing approaches to problems, etc. For example, "Hmm, I should think about this very carefully, it's important I don't get it wrong" or "Oh, that's easy. Just...".
He hated them :P
But no, it’s a phrase about using weapons for their intended purpose (“he owned an antique blunderbuss but had never fired it in anger”).
The phrase is often extended to non-combat items. In this case, what I mean is that he used for its intended purpose in its intended context (making light in a place without electricity) rather than as a LARP.
Apparently it’s a British English phrase: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30939/is-used-in-anger-a-britishism-for-something
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