Diff's recent activity
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Comment on Someone made a dataset of one million Bluesky posts for 'machine learning research' in ~tech
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Comment on ‘Do not pet’: A robotic dog named “Spot” made by Boston Dynamics is the latest tool in the arsenal of the US Secret Service in ~tech
Diff Link ParentNets are a little less commonplace than blankets, but even humans struggle with them. Robots find them so impossible to deal with they're typically banned from bot combat tournaments by my...Nets are a little less commonplace than blankets, but even humans struggle with them. Robots find them so impossible to deal with they're typically banned from bot combat tournaments by my understanding.
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Comment on Teachers: what do you do with a class that couldn't care less about what you have to say? in ~talk
Diff LinkYeah, that's certainly a thing, even teaching an elective course. It's pretty demoralizing, but in a class setting there's always at least a few who are motivated and interested. I just try to...Yeah, that's certainly a thing, even teaching an elective course. It's pretty demoralizing, but in a class setting there's always at least a few who are motivated and interested. I just try to focus on them even though the rest of the class needs to be dragged through every activity by the ears. Just the existence of a large population of demotivated students though tends to mute the engaged ones as well.
It is crazy though, the two classes I teach are Adobe Illustrator+Photoshop (which, to be fair, counselors just throw kids in sometimes) and Advanced Game Art & Design which is designing 3D videogames at the end of a long course pathway with a lot of prerequisites. You'd think getting to make videogames would guarantee engagement but no, I still have kids who opt to do nothing instead of making videogames with their friends.
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Comment on Why is Google Gemini saying we should die? in ~tech
Diff Link ParentIf you read through, it only looks like they were prompting it for information with the question on their homework/quiz, then copying that information back into a new prompt to ask for it in...If you read through, it only looks like they were prompting it for information with the question on their homework/quiz, then copying that information back into a new prompt to ask for it in paragraph form for written response questions.
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Comment on Russian court fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in ~society
Diff Link ParentYes, at least at the time of this comment it's nametagged in the first sentence of the article.Yes, at least at the time of this comment it's nametagged in the first sentence of the article.
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Comment on Morrowind doesn't have any rivers in ~games
Diff Link ParentHe has a variety of similar videos for The Legend of Zelda, Grand Theft Auto (tracing power grids), woodworking (zelda and skyrim), unemployment rates for a large variety of videogame cities,...He has a variety of similar videos for The Legend of Zelda, Grand Theft Auto (tracing power grids), woodworking (zelda and skyrim), unemployment rates for a large variety of videogame cities, tracing where the bombs dropped in fallout, and other weird, overly-literal game topics.
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Comment on The Stallman report in ~tech
Diff (edited )Link ParentI must have had some at one point, I was also too young to care about audio plugin compatibility at the time. Not quite sure where the center of discussion was back then, Slashdot? LWN? Just...- Exemplary
I must have had some at one point, I was also too young to care about audio plugin compatibility at the time. Not quite sure where the center of discussion was back then, Slashdot? LWN? Just mailing lists? But I'll do some digging.
It stems from the fact that GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible. While some software is licensed as "GPLv2-or-later," not all is, and software that can't resolve their license conflicts can't legally be used together, even software at arm's length like plugins and the software they're plugging into.* This happened in the professional audio landscape on Linux, and splintered an already small niche into mutually incompatible islands.
While I'm pretty sure my brain didn't just make this up, many, many links have rotted and the Wayback Machine is a bit flaky at the moment. Keeping my tabs open overnight, and in the mean time here's a nice collection of
GPL incompatibility headaches, both modern and historic.
In more recent years, ignoring this kind of incompatibility detonated one open source sub community. After years of mixing GPL code with proprietary software in relative peace, one prolific developer DMCA'd the entire thing into the ground when the community found out that Mojang had acquired the server years earlier and that they'd been doing free work for them. ( http://rdwl.xyz/blog/the-bukkit-implosion/ )This article has a section that mentions some of the issues this splintering caused at the time:
The official stance is that projects shouldn't be v2-only, they should always be v2-or-later. I'll let you try to persuade Linux to switch. Oh, and good luck with PDF readers, too; the only open source PDF readers at the moment are based on xpdf, which is GPLv2-only. The FSF is frantically trying to write a new PDF library to get around this limitation, and licensing it as GPLv3-or-later.
Here's a talk from 2013 by Rob Landley I've seen referenced twice about the issues it caused the ecosystem as a whole, with a few specific examples:
- Copyleft is dying. - GPLv2 was category killer, synonymous with copyleft. - terminal node of a directed graph of license convertability - universal receiver - A license was either GPL-compatible or it wasn't. - GPLv3 broke "the" GPL into incompatible forks that can't share code. - Linux and Samba can't share code, implement 2 ends of same protocol. - QEMU caught between GPLv2 Linux drivers and GPLv3 binutils/gdb processor instruction set descriptions. Can't take code from both. - "GPLv2 or later" give to both but can't take code from _either_one_. - FSF expected universal compliance, but hijacked lifeboat clause when boat wasn't sinking. GPLv2 not rendered unenforceable, they just pulled a Darth Vader "I am altering the bargain, pray I don't alter it any further." And then shipped The Phantom Meanance. - This has poisoned copyleft. GPL use declining. Multiple GPLv3 successor projects (http://xkcd.com/927). - The one thing GPLv3 achieved was undermining GPLv2. - fragmentation only increasing http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2905643/posts [editor's note - dead link, not on wayback] https://lwn.net/Articles/538839/* An aside on linking
Someone who's more knowledgeable might want to chime in here, but something I've seen recurring in my research is people questioning whether or not this is actually the case. According to the FSF, linking to any GPL library creates a combined work that must also be licensed under the GPL. This applies to static linking, where compiled code from the library is baked into the compiled code of your program, and dynamic linking where they are compiled separately, stored separately, and only meet once your computer runs the program and the linker dynamically loads both chunks of code into memory.
But the FSF are the only ones making that claim. That particular point has never been tested in court. If the two aren't combined until they're run on the user's computer as-needed and are never distributed or stored in their combined format... well, if you read into that Minecraft story above, that sounds awfully similar to the singing and dancing that Spigot does to marry GPL and proprietary code.
If the FSF is wrong on this point, then it's entirely possible that the audio plugin case was never an actual legal issue, just an invented one. But this is almost definitely something that would need a court to settle.
Sorry for the formatting here, a lot of small things are breaking in weird ways, from spacing between paragraphs to links stubbornly refusing to be linkable, but I've tried to neaten things up as best I can.
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Comment on The Stallman report in ~tech
Diff Link ParentSoft skills (and to be clear, I'm inappropriately lumping "basic human decency and social skills" under soft skills) are just as valid and important to have as hard skills. Stallman's lack of soft...Soft skills (and to be clear, I'm inappropriately lumping "basic human decency and social skills" under soft skills) are just as valid and important to have as hard skills. Stallman's lack of soft skills has been soaking up time and energy from the people around him for decades as they try to get ahead of him and put out fires. And that same lack of "soft skills" has driven off countless contributors, many only after clashing with him, but even more who were turned off open source at the outset by this weird dude who really wants to make it clear that it's okay to be attracted to 13 year olds. That is offputting to most. Enough to never engage with open source. Again calling back to the report, only 3% of the open source community is made up of women vs 23% in the wider software development industry. That's a lot of technical skill that's lost and untapped due to an unwise choice of leader.
To be clear though, there are interconnected issues driving skill away from open source. It's not just Stallman, it's a community that is willing to overlook things, from "unrelated" opinions to outright asshattery as long as they write good code. There is a point where the people driven off by a maintainer's behavior are a loss greater than the technical value provided by that maintainer.
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Comment on The Stallman report in ~tech
Diff Link ParentHis technical leadership leaves much to be desired, too. The whole GPLv3 transition was a mess that some corners of the ecosystem are still set back from. And Stallman's direct meddling has...His technical leadership leaves much to be desired, too. The whole GPLv3 transition was a mess that some corners of the ecosystem are still set back from. And Stallman's direct meddling has hamstrung a lot of useful progress in GCC as he used his influence to prevent any sort of internal compiler state from being accessed outside of GCC, something that has attracted a lot of developers and attention to open source compilers not under his control.
Under his watch, GPL usage has declined severely. The FSF is failing to adapt to new technological landscapes with a leader who still browses the web by reading through HTML as plain text that he fetches by sending specially crafted emails.
Not only is he an ineffective leader, as others have mentioned, his technical knowledge is bitrotting and actively holding GNU projects back.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
Diff Link ParentI don't disagree at all that it logically follows from past rules, but that's not where things are actually at, now, in practice. Without copyright, all* AI work (maybe it'd be more accurate to...I don't disagree at all that it logically follows from past rules, but that's not where things are actually at, now, in practice.
Without copyright, all* AI work (maybe it'd be more accurate to say "output"?) is public domain, that's some distance behind the front lines of the litigation currently. But you are right that I did neglect to mention that sufficient human input can pull it back out of the public domain. I still feel justified in my earlier reply though. To say flatly that AI generated work is not in the public domain like GP did is substantially more inaccurate than saying that AI output is not copyrightable.
* Since we're talking about accuracy now, it's probably also worth mentioning that there's always exceptions. For example, the output of an AI model can be copyrighted if it's ingested or has otherwise been fed copyrighted creative works.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
Diff Link ParentAt least in the US (head's up, direct PDF link), no AI-generated work can be copyrighted. While any creative work automatically has copyright granted to the author, AI-authored work has no...At least in the US (head's up, direct PDF link), no AI-generated work can be copyrighted. While any creative work automatically has copyright granted to the author, AI-authored work has no legal/human author, and so has no copyright. And if it has no copyright, well, that's what the public domain is.
Whether or not AIs themselves are violating copyright with their training data is another question. But on the "is AI-generated content public domain" front, while things may change, they are currently clear.
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Comment on OFTC IRC network loses 20,000 users overnight in ~tech
Diff Link ParentGood catch, I didn't notice when I saw this post earlier. Looks like there have been some followups: A Total Lack of Transparency: Open and Free Technology Community (OFTC) Fails to Explain Why...Good catch, I didn't notice when I saw this post earlier. Looks like there have been some followups:
A Total Lack of Transparency: Open and Free Technology Community (OFTC) Fails to Explain Why Over 60% of Users Are Gone (Since a Week Ago)
OFTC Lost Almost Two Thirds of Its Users in 5 WeeksAccording to the first link,
They queried clients repeatedly (for version-related information) and then loads of users got eliminated.
Techrights seems to get pretty up in arms about the situation across these two (and one other) posts but with that bit of info it looks like a bot sweep or similar to me.
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Comment on OFTC IRC network loses 20,000 users overnight in ~tech
Diff Link ParentThere's a mention of the event in the article with links to more information about it... but I found the writing very stream-of-thought and difficult to digest. Here are official posts on the...There's a mention of the event in the article with links to more information about it... but I found the writing very stream-of-thought and difficult to digest. Here are official posts on the topic from Libera and Matrix:
https://libera.chat/news/matrix-bridge-disabled-retrospective
https://matrix.org/blog/2023/08/libera-bridge-disabled/ -
Comment on Hezbollah is hit by a wave of exploding pagers that killed at least nine people and injured thousands in ~news
Diff Link ParentSomething extra has got to be going on here. Lithium batteries are barely tamed beasts, but they won't detonate. They'll burn ferociously and unstoppably, but I'm not sure they can be coaxed into...Something extra has got to be going on here. Lithium batteries are barely tamed beasts, but they won't detonate. They'll burn ferociously and unstoppably, but I'm not sure they can be coaxed into an explosion.
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Comment on Introducing Steam Families - now out of beta! in ~games
Diff Link ParentShould be just that easy. Games can save their files anywhere they like on your system, but as long as you put them in the right place, Steam Cloud will slurp them right up when the game halts.Should be just that easy. Games can save their files anywhere they like on your system, but as long as you put them in the right place, Steam Cloud will slurp them right up when the game halts.
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Comment on Jpeg XL in ~tech
Diff Link ParentI thought WebP and AVIF both (differingly distant) hailed from WebM, which is notorious for its slow encoding. AV1 even more so. Is it a difference of expectations for image vs video?I thought WebP and AVIF both (differingly distant) hailed from WebM, which is notorious for its slow encoding. AV1 even more so. Is it a difference of expectations for image vs video?
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Comment on Moving to Raleigh, NC in ~life
Diff LinkBeen living in Raleigh for a year now, along with my wife who's lived here for about 8 years. I'm enjoying myself a lot, having missed all the activity in the nowhere town in Kansas I moved from....Been living in Raleigh for a year now, along with my wife who's lived here for about 8 years. I'm enjoying myself a lot, having missed all the activity in the nowhere town in Kansas I moved from. And my wife enjoys the area a lot, too. There's a lot of events going on, she says they're generally good to meet people if you're cool with just going up and talking to randos.
Asked her about living in Raleigh, and she said:
- Living off Glennwood is expensive.
- Capitol Blvd is very central and has a lot of places to go, but not walkable. (This is where we live now and we like it fine).
- Cary's a bit cheaper than Raleigh but it's still close and near a lot of stuff.
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Comment on American teachers are burning out on the job in ~life
Diff Link ParentDefinitely feeling the micromanagement here. This year, admin decreed that everyone should match late work and grading policies across their departments, but the career skills department is...Definitely feeling the micromanagement here. This year, admin decreed that everyone should match late work and grading policies across their departments, but the career skills department is grouped by how varied we are, not how similar we are. School started today and I had to tell my students to expect a syllabus some time next week as the arguing continues.
Worse than that, there's no time to prepare. There were four work days, two eaten by training (I did not need valuable workday time swallowed up by a group read of "PLC+: The Plus Is You"), one by a freshman event, and one by the arguing above. Smeared across those four days were maybe 3 hours to prepare for my classes, one of which is new to me with very little existing content to steal. With the only info available being mismatched and conflicting, I was only barely able to figure out what this class is supposed to look like on the semester-scale before today. I still have nothing as far as lessons. I hope I can hammer something out in the next couple of hours before I turn in for the night.
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Comment on Tubi explodes in popularity, outranking Max and Apple TV+ in ~tech
Diff Link ParentThat's one of the major pain points for my wife and I watching Hulu. There are ads and glitches galore. Watching the same ads practically on repeat, having a 33% chance that an ad break just skips...That's one of the major pain points for my wife and I watching Hulu. There are ads and glitches galore. Watching the same ads practically on repeat, having a 33% chance that an ad break just skips the rest of the episode, forcing you to watch more ads to resume the episode you were just watching, and paying quite a bit for the privilege of dealing with this steamy mess. Even though we have paying access to these shows, often we end up watching on one of the many pirate streaming platforms just for a better viewing experience.
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Comment on 'Skibidi Toilet' film & TV franchise in the works from Michael Bay in ~movies
Diff Link ParentSkibidi Toilet goes way beyond that, there's currently 70+ episodes, some of which are 10 minutes long, and there's been several narrative arcs surrounding the power struggles between the skibidi...Skibidi Toilet goes way beyond that, there's currently 70+ episodes, some of which are 10 minutes long, and there's been several narrative arcs surrounding the power struggles between the skibidi toilets and the fraction, including some internal power struggles among the toilets. Still very short-form and very silly, but across everything that's been put out, there's quite a bit of narrative and backstory, all told with (mostly) the only spoken word being "skibidi." I don't know how well this can adapt into a cinematic movie, but there's certainly enough raw material to work with when you dive into it.
There's no way this could happen in reality, but if the training data became flooded with that kind of signal, it'd cause random breakages from the filter after as the LLM before started rarely but randomly reproducing that signal. Best place for it would be stashed away in the same overly formal sounding text that it tries to reproduce, but human people writing formal text probably aren't easily swayed (at least as a whole) by these kinds of shenanigans.