balooga's recent activity
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Comment on US Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed in ~society
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Comment on US Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed in ~society
balooga Link ParentMy understanding is that only some of the shooters have live rounds, and this is randomized so no one knows who’s actually performing the execution. This helps create some psychological distance...My understanding is that only some of the shooters have live rounds, and this is randomized so no one knows who’s actually performing the execution. This helps create some psychological distance between the members of the squad and their direct role in the taking of a life.
I have no idea if that’s how this execution will be done. From what I know of Hegseth that’s exactly the sort of humaneness he’d want to eradicate from the process, so who knows. Personally, if corporal punishment is going to be a thing (and really it shouldn’t) I agree with the others in this thread that alternative methods are problematic and their failure modes can be horrific… firing squads performed in that manner with randomized rounds may be one of the better choices.
But publicly broadcast? That’s downright medieval. It’s barbaric and ghastly.
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Comment on The people holding up the internet in ~tech
balooga LinkThis is fantastic! Some of these I was aware of, others not so much. I had no clue that sudo is apparently independently maintained rather than some sort of core *nix component with...This is fantastic! Some of these I was aware of, others not so much. I had no clue that sudo is apparently independently maintained rather than some sort of core *nix component with distro-specific implementations. Not sure how that’s even possible tbh. When I use it on my Mac, is that Todd Miller’s code too?
I was a JS dev for 15-ish years. I’ve seen the name
core-jsa million times but I couldn’t tell you what it is. I’m still not sure what it brings to the table that isn’t already baked into V8 or SpiderMonkey. Feels weird that it’s in the position it’s in. I didn’t know about the maintainer’s incarceration either, my jaw hit the floor when I read that and saw the timeline of how he just resumed where left off, once he got out, like nothing had happened.The one about SQLite was a surprise to me too. That’s used everywhere. Only four devs?
Also— has it really been 12 years since Heartbleed and ShellShock already? Holy moley.
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Comment on Association for Human Mathematics statement on OpenAI’s October 6 release of mathematical documents in ~science
balooga Link ParentThat makes a lot of sense, but what I don’t understand is why the LLMs can’t explain the proofs themselves… isn’t summarizing and explaining complex concepts something they excel at? I’ve...I am deeply frustrated that, in sharp contrast to traditional breakthroughs, none of the humans involved in these proofs are available to take questions, give talks, attend conferences, submit papers to journals, train students, or otherwise participate in the subsequent development of these results.
That makes a lot of sense, but what I don’t understand is why the LLMs can’t explain the proofs themselves… isn’t summarizing and explaining complex concepts something they excel at? I’ve certainly had good results asking them to break down unfamiliar topics for me.
I’m just a layperson so I’m sure there’s something I’m missing. Just seems surprising to read that OpenAI just dumped these proofs and walked away, and now humans are apparently stuck with the task of deciphering them. Why is ChatGPT unable to reframe them, and interpret or reverse-engineer the Lean verifications, in terms mathematicians can make better sense of?
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Comment on OpenAI releases findings on 377 math problems, further roiling field in ~science
balooga Link ParentDefinitely not the same. Local models are great but they don’t scale by just throwing more compute at them.To run a local model that gets near these flagship models you are probably spending $10,000+ on local hardware, even then it's probably not the same.
Definitely not the same. Local models are great but they don’t scale by just throwing more compute at them.
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Comment on OpenAI releases findings on 377 math problems, further roiling field in ~science
balooga Link ParentA timely comment in light of Margaret Hamilton’s passing. I can’t imagine astronauts entrusting their lives to vibe-coded control systems. That day may come, and sooner than we like. Hopefully not...A timely comment in light of Margaret Hamilton’s passing. I can’t imagine astronauts entrusting their lives to vibe-coded control systems.
That day may come, and sooner than we like. Hopefully not with actual dire consequences.
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Comment on Association for Human Mathematics statement on OpenAI’s October 6 release of mathematical documents in ~science
balooga LinkThis whole saga unfolding in realtime has been fascinating to watch. All other things aside, I really appreciate the view into the world of advanced math. It’s not something I have much experience...This whole saga unfolding in realtime has been fascinating to watch. All other things aside, I really appreciate the view into the world of advanced math. It’s not something I have much experience with but I’m loving hearing all these experts in their field speaking up.
What exactly is the AHM? Looks like the ahmath.org domain was just registered a month ago so I presume this is a brand-new group. I don’t know any of the history. Who’s involved? The site lists over 800 members, with their academic affiliations, which seems impressive to me for such a new movement. But I don’t know who’s who in the math world — are these the world’s top scholars or just a grab bag of Algebra 101 TAs? (Not to denigrate the latter, obviously, I’m just trying to better understand who this group is as a whole.)
I don’t know who Terry Tao is either. Looking him up now.
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Comment on Given everything we know about AI so far, what do you think it can or cannot be good for? in ~tech
balooga LinkI disagree with the take that generative AI can’t create new art. I’ve spent enough time experimenting with diffusion tools and techniques to know that it absolutely can, in the hands of someone...I disagree with the take that generative AI can’t create new art. I’ve spent enough time experimenting with diffusion tools and techniques to know that it absolutely can, in the hands of someone with a creative vision and an understanding of the tech. Because while models have been trained on existing art, and tend to seek a bland average of those weights, they can also be wrangled to synthesize entirely new constructs like nothing in their training data… because creativity doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it emerges from combining and subverting that which came before. Everything’s a remix.
Of course, the problem is the slop. We’re just completely swamped in bottom-of-the-barrel, low-effort garbage. I’m optimistic that after the novelty wears off, the deluge of slop will subside (somewhat). It may never go away. But I think the aesthetic we all associate with “AI art” today will go the way of those hyper-saturated tone-mapped HDR photographs that were all over Flickr 20 years ago. And in its wake we may see some new digital art movements that are really deliberately transformative and human-guided at every step. That’s my hope anyway. It’s hard to be optimistic about the future these days but I’m trying!
One novel use for AI that I’m actively researching is how to use it to turn low-quality book scans into high-quality accessible e-texts. If multimodal LLMs are able to perceptually interpret the semantic structure of an image of a page, they can reconstruct it as properly tagged document. I’m building a self-correcting diffusion+LLM loop to restore broken or washed-out glyphs in particularly bad scans, to infer he correct missing information that was never present in the original pixels. Much better than traditional OCR. I think there’s a ton of untapped potential in this application of AI and it could substantially improve the state of alternative formats for students with visual impairments or learning disabilities.
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Comment on Was watching a history YouTube video when I realized they are all AI in ~tech
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Comment on CGA-2026-10 🕹️🏚️ 🦇👻 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Spooky Mansion Adventures in ~games
balooga Link ParentI can’t recommend a play order but I think both games should run fine on your Win7 machine. These aren’t exactly cutting-edge technology, lol. Alternately, you might consider using the Mac. Maniac...I can’t recommend a play order but I think both games should run fine on your Win7 machine. These aren’t exactly cutting-edge technology, lol. Alternately, you might consider using the Mac. Maniac Mansion will run in ScummVM (the “mm” in SCUMM literally stands for Maniac Mansion), and I’m reasonably confident that 5 Days a Stranger will run well in WINE.
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Comment on CGA-2026-10 🕹️🏚️ 🦇👻 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Spooky Mansion Adventures in ~games
balooga Link ParentThis may not qualify, depending on your definitions of “spooky” and “adventure,” but last year’s Blue Prince has “mansion” in spades and it’s really a terrific game. Much more puzzle than horror...This may not qualify, depending on your definitions of “spooky” and “adventure,” but last year’s Blue Prince has “mansion” in spades and it’s really a terrific game. Much more puzzle than horror but it’s plenty atmospheric and mysterious, and far deeper than it seems at first glance.
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Comment on CGA-2026-10 🕹️🏚️ 🦇👻 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 Spooky Mansion Adventures in ~games
balooga LinkI’m excited about this! I do love LucasArts adventures but I’ve never actually played Maniac Mansion so it’ll be fun to dig into. I have a hazy memory of playing a demo of the Mac version of Alone...I’m excited about this! I do love LucasArts adventures but I’ve never actually played Maniac Mansion so it’ll be fun to dig into. I have a hazy memory of playing a demo of the Mac version of Alone in the Dark back in the ‘90s, I think it was just the beginning of the game. I remember being pretty awestruck by the graphics (in their proper temporal context) but was put off by the tank controls and also… just the horrorness of it all. I’ve never really done horror.
I did play the first couple Czho Mythos games around 2010 or so and enjoyed them. They’re well-made and engaging but also legitimately disturbing. Don’t be fooled by the pixel art!
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Comment on OpenAI hacked Australia's Medicare portal in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI’m honestly really torn about this take. Agreed that it’s a serious crime, and also these days real consequences for anything seem few and far between. But on the other hand I think there needs...I’m honestly really torn about this take. Agreed that it’s a serious crime, and also these days real consequences for anything seem few and far between. But on the other hand I think there needs to have been some malicious intent involved if we’re talking hard time. It just doesn’t feel right to me to lock up engineers or execs for something their computer did autonomously and they themselves only found out about after the fact.
Doesn’t feel right to just let it slide either, I just don’t know what the right solution is here. Heavy fines and strict regulation, maybe. Regular system audits from some new agency like the health department but for AI, or something? Operator licenses that can be revoked for agentic misconduct? I dunno. I just don’t think heavy-handed prison sentences are the solution here. This is uncharted territory for sure.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: October 2026 - April 2027 schedule in ~games
balooga Link ParentOh man, you have that book too! It’s one of my prized possessions! Literally just pulled it off the shelf after reading your comment to remind myself what it says about Ray Dunakin. The ‘80s and...Oh man, you have that book too! It’s one of my prized possessions! Literally just pulled it off the shelf after reading your comment to remind myself what it says about Ray Dunakin. The ‘80s and ‘90s Mac gaming scene was such an oddball niche, I’m happy to have been there for it. Not so different from the weirdness of the Dreamcast scene, come to think of it… I guess I’ve always been a bit on the fringes of what’s “cool” in games. Anyway, enjoy the book, there’s a good chunk of my childhood woven through those pages.
I’m honored to host the Twisted! part of the arcade special. Happy to host the others too but I’m less familiar with them and my bias may result in… unequal treatment lol
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Comment on The doomsday cult inside OpenAI in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI think that’s fairly accurate, but I’d point out that the companies actually advancing this tech (in meaningful ways) are (currently) all American. There are some great Chinese models out — I’ve...I think that’s fairly accurate, but I’d point out that the companies actually advancing this tech (in meaningful ways) are (currently) all American. There are some great Chinese models out — I’ve been using
Qwen3.8-Flash-Nexta lot lately and it’s very impressive — but AFAIK they were all produced via distillation of American frontier models for a fraction of the cost. The only people investing millions upon millions to train new models from whole cloth are, to the best of my knowledge, the tech giants from the U.S. Somebody please correct me if that’s misinformation.So if the Americans could unite behind a slower development pace, there would still be an unknown risk of getting annihilated by foreign competitors, but I think that probability is somewhat lower than you’ve framed it. This is a field with a very high barrier to entry for new players, and new development builds upon earlier development in layers so there aren’t easy shortcuts for catching up to OpenAI, Anthropic, et al. Of course breakthroughs are commonplace in AI these days so all of those assumptions could change suddenly. I think that’s the real risk calculus the big companies are making.
One thing I don’t hear many people discussing outside of the infosec world is the role these frontier models already play in cybersecurity. Have you been watching the changelogs of your favorite browsers and OSes lately? Agentic development has absolutely exploded the threat landscape with novel zero-days. Companies are doing their best to keep pace and strengthen their defenses but it’s pandemonium right now. A massive global cybersecurity arms race. And I’m certain the most heated front right now is the one that’s happening out of everyone’s sight: national security. In the right hands, these LLMs are nuclear-grade digital weapons. Every nation-state on earth is trying to get their house in order right now.
Most of the chatter I see about AI here and elsewhere on the web tends to focus on more familiar “normie” (but no less legitimate) concerns like disinformation, deepfakes, power/water consumption, IP claims, job security, income inequality, AI slop proliferation, and so on. But it’s my semi-professional opinion that most people are greatly underestimating the geopolitical precarity of the situation we’re in right now, and (for better or for worse) that supersedes all other objections. I really believe this is the real reason why such a preposterous portion of our economy now hinges on the AI sector. It’s not really about shoehorning chatbots into every white-collar workflow to justify layoffs… it’s about the world’s infrastructure, national secrets, and military apparatuses suddenly responding to a dark forest of infinite existential threats.
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: October 2026 - April 2027 schedule in ~games
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: October 2026 - April 2027 schedule in ~games
balooga Link ParentI’ll take it if no one has claimed it yet? Like I mentioned earlier in the thread that’s a particular oldie I’ve owned a couple times before and have been wanting to access again!I’ll take it if no one has claimed it yet? Like I mentioned earlier in the thread that’s a particular oldie I’ve owned a couple times before and have been wanting to access again!
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Comment on Colossal Game Adventure: October 2026 - April 2027 schedule in ~games
balooga Link ParentSo excited! Thanks as always for all the time and effort you invest in these. Your thinking makes perfect sense to me for the schedule. It’s funny, I just introduced my kiddo to the first Sonic...So excited! Thanks as always for all the time and effort you invest in these.
Your thinking makes perfect sense to me for the schedule. It’s funny, I just introduced my kiddo to the first Sonic Adventure (on Dreamcast!) and they’ve been having a blast with it. Good nostalgia trip for me too! Somehow I don’t think I ever heard about that Christmas DLC though, it sounds terrible lol. Unfortunately my SA2 disc got a scratch and became unplayable years ago. I’ve got the GameCube version too but the optical drive on my Wii (never had a real GameCube) has been dead for ages too. I’ve been itching to play that game again, will need to find a way to make it work.
Cohosting that arcade special with @clayh and @hamstergeddon should be interesting. I love a good text adventure. You know, I never expected Twisted! to end up in a CGA. It’s not a text adventure, btw, just the fever dream of Ray, a model rocketry enthusiast and ghost town explorer who also sometimes made shareware games. A relic from a forgotten era. I half suspect I’m the only person still alive (apart from Ray himself) who even remembers this game at all. I’m looking forward to sharing it with you unsuspecting Tilderinos!
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Comment on Can two friends complete a game no one has ever finished? (gifted link) in ~games.tabletop
balooga LinkFeel free to label as off-topic, but: NYT gifted links still require a login to read? Is that new?Feel free to label as off-topic, but: NYT gifted links still require a login to read? Is that new?
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Comment on Ed Sheeran’s tour in trouble after opening acts drop out in solidarity with rapper Macklemore in ~music
balooga Link@macklemore, Sep 16, 2026 I really have to commend his articulation here. His meaning cannot be misconstrued by anyone in good faith. Good on him for not backing down, and for putting his money...- Exemplary
With everything that has happened over the last 48 hours, I want to bring the conversation back to where it belongs: to the Palestinian people who are still being killed, still living under military occupation, and still fighting for their freedom.
I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people. And I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation. Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth protecting. A Palestinian life is no less valuable than any other life on this earth.
That is what this has always been about. Not me. Not a tour. Not the headlines or the controversy. It is about Palestinians’ right to freedom, dignity and safety in their own homeland.
I want to center the parents carrying their children into hospitals without the basic resources to treat them, and the physicians, paramedics, journalists and aid workers who keep going back in. I want to center the organizers and activists who have paid real costs for standing with Palestine. Their risk is of a far different order than mine.
Just yesterday, 15 year old Muhammad al Zinati was killed in an Israeli strike while rushing to help aid worker Sherif Lubbad, who had already been injured. He was a child. Both were murdered. Both should be alive.
And the ones still under the rubble, whose names exist only in the memories of people who may not have survived to speak them.
Writing a check is one of the least costly forms of solidarity available to me. I am doing it because I can, and because these organizations are doing the work while much of the world debates it.
But aid alone cannot address the conditions that make it necessary. This is a manmade injustice, and l believe it requires immediate political change. Palestinians have lived for decades without basic rights and should not have to wait another day to be free.
That is where my focus will remain. I will continue to stand with the Palestinian people and their fight for liberation.
When the news cycle moves on, which it will, don't move with it.
Free Palestine.
@macklemore, Sep 16, 2026
I really have to commend his articulation here. His meaning cannot be misconstrued by anyone in good faith. Good on him for not backing down, and for putting his money where his mouth is. The thrift shop guy is doing something upstanding with his microphone, and I hope people are listening.
The left and the right have been living in bifurcated realities for a couple decades now, and they diverge farther by the day. I’m finding myself increasingly stupefied by the claims and behaviors of (apparently, somehow) half the population that is absolutely frothing-at-the-mouth insane after so many years of consuming nothing but propaganda, consumerism, prosperity theology, conspiracy theory, pseudoscience, grift, bigotry, hustle culture, jingoism, high fructose corn syrup, and trash TV. Brain rot of the highest order.
Of all the smarmy, belligerent TPUSA / Young Republican oatmeal-for-brains talking points, the inane culture war hysteria, the complete abandonment of what conservatism even is as a concept, the blatant corruption and contempt for humanity… of all the things to be irate about today (and they are legion) THIS tops my list:
To insist with a straight face that speaking up for a people being systematically slaughtered, is hateful. To say that condemning the deaths of Palestinian children is racist. To have an organization called the Anti-Fucking-Defamation League proclaiming that opposing genocide is, of all things, antisemitic.
War is peace.
Ignorance is strength.
Freedom is slavery.The modern nation-state of Israel ≠ Jewish people or the religion of Judaism. They are not the same! Frankly I can’t accept that the people spewing that claim are unaware they’re conflating the two, it has to be a deliberate strategy of muddying the water. It’s the textbook definition of bad faith. It’s dishonest and reprehensible.
So kudos to Macklemore for saying plainly that the emperor has no clothes. No person of conscience could make a moral argument against him. Hopefully that will be a needed wake-up call for many who read it.
Maybe? I’m not qualified to answer either. Pretty sure blanks are basically identical to regular bullets but they’re missing the projectile payload (slug). The blast and recoil should be equivalent I’d think.