em-dash's recent activity
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Comment on Enough phone (compact phone) kickstarter is up in ~tech
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Comment on Let’s build a brain in ~tech
em-dash LinkNeat little demo of neural networks with low-single-digit numbers of neurons:Neat little demo of neural networks with low-single-digit numbers of neurons:
In this article, we’ll build a tiny creature called a spark, and we’ll give it a very simple brain. As you’ll see, even this tiny brain can create rich and unexpected behaviors.
Its goal in life is to reach the light. [...] So we’ll give it a rudimentary eye — a single neuron that detects brightness and converts it into electrical pulses. It also needs a way to move. So we’ll give it another neuron that can wiggle a flipper.
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Let’s build a brain
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Comment on Popular fanfic site "Archive of Our Own" (AO3) down for 2-4 weeks in ~tech
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Comment on Amazon uses its tracking data to guess whether shoppers have a flat butt and no friends in ~tech
em-dash LinkI have four cats. I enjoy that this information is editable (through an llm, but still). It now knows that I am a cat and my hobbies include meowing and prompt injection.Has a cat
I have four cats.
I enjoy that this information is editable (through an llm, but still). It now knows that I am a cat and my hobbies include meowing and prompt injection.
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Comment on Timasomo 2026: Week 1 Updates in ~creative.timasomo
em-dash Link ParentThis is amazing, I love it. That's you projecting your own cultural associations onto it. It's more basic than that: a diamond has four points and four sides, and there are four suits. The cards...This is amazing, I love it.
Diamond shape just seems glamorous to me.
That's you projecting your own cultural associations onto it. It's more basic than that: a diamond has four points and four sides, and there are four suits. The cards are rectangular; rectangles have four sides. Many art variants have four instances of the card number printed on each card.
Clearly four was an important number to these people. Much like seven is often considered a "lucky" number today, four (and, by association, the suit of diamonds) symbolized luck or fourtune.
(also the heart shape is obviously a butt, symbolizing waste)
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Comment on Announcing the eighth annual Tildes' Make Something Month (Timasomo)! in ~tildes
em-dash Link ParentUndecided if I'll participate this year, but I'd like to stay on the list!Undecided if I'll participate this year, but I'd like to stay on the list!
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Comment on Dragon Con 2026 in ~hobbies
em-dash Link ParentOkay but important question: if that's where you're doing security, do you still get to participate in enforcement of the Frankenstein Rule?My favorite event is the robot battles. (I never got to go to any events when I worked security, unless you count guarding the door.)
Okay but important question: if that's where you're doing security, do you still get to participate in enforcement of the Frankenstein Rule?
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Comment on Dragon Con 2026 in ~hobbies
em-dash Link ParentThe engineering is most of the fun for me, so a destroyed bot is mostly just an invitation to do more engineering. Spicy Donut has been through like five revisions at this point, and has...The engineering is most of the fun for me, so a destroyed bot is mostly just an invitation to do more engineering. Spicy Donut has been through like five revisions at this point, and has alternated between being a ring and shell spinner. I think shells are easier to build, but I never got the not-being-flipped-over part working well enough, so for this one I've gone back to the one that can just drive upside down.
The event itself is from 10:00-14:00, I think. (We get there earlier for setup.)
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Comment on Dragon Con 2026 in ~hobbies
em-dash Link ParentI have a 1lb (Flippin' Heck, a lifter) and a 3lb (Spicy Donut, a ring spinner) with me this year. You would have missed last year's exciting ending where the previous iteration of Spicy Donut took...I have a 1lb (Flippin' Heck, a lifter) and a 3lb (Spicy Donut, a ring spinner) with me this year. You would have missed last year's exciting ending where the previous iteration of Spicy Donut took a sawblade directly to the battery and filled the arena with smoke :D I'm not entirely confident in the redesign, but it's kind of my "fuck around with new ideas and see how they go" platform, so it'll be fun regardless.
It's a fun and surprisingly welcoming hobby. There are antweight kits you can get if you want to try it out without diving directly into fully custom everything.
Feel free to come say hi if you're there! I'm usually the only purple-haired transfem in the room, probably will have a table near the middle of the pit area.
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Comment on Dragon Con 2026 in ~hobbies
em-dash Link ParentI'm on my way there right now! Fourth year for me, I think? The big event for me is the robot battles on Sunday (I have two robots I'm running). My group is also doing one of the swordplay...I'm on my way there right now! Fourth year for me, I think?
The big event for me is the robot battles on Sunday (I have two robots I'm running). My group is also doing one of the swordplay workshops this year, which should be fun. Other than that, mostly wandering.
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Comment on Claude Code is the ceiling on vibe-coded software in ~tech
em-dash Link ParentI'm not sure it follows that the people who make a tool will necessarily be the best at using that tool, especially for something with this much adoption. I believe that they are among the...I'm not sure it follows that the people who make a tool will necessarily be the best at using that tool, especially for something with this much adoption. I believe that they are among the heaviest users of it, but that's not going to be perfectly correlated with output quality, especially in the very likely case that the best results with LLM coding tools come from people who don't delegate 100% of their thinking to them.
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Comment on Introductions | July 2026 in ~talk
em-dash Link ParentYou should not attempt to bite the TiC apple.You should not attempt to bite the TiC apple.
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Comment on Do you cook with cast iron? Is it the hassle everyone says it is? in ~food
em-dash Link ParentI just pull my smoke alarm off the ceiling and leave it outside until I'm done cooking. (My kitchen was designed by morons so there's no ventilation anywhere near the stove. At some point I want...I just pull my smoke alarm off the ceiling and leave it outside until I'm done cooking. (My kitchen was designed by morons so there's no ventilation anywhere near the stove. At some point I want to add a range hood.)
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Comment on Do you cook with cast iron? Is it the hassle everyone says it is? in ~food
em-dash LinkOn cleaning: if you pour water in it while it's still hot, ideally immediately after you finish cooking, the burnt food bits get much easier to scrape off with a spatula. Even if you're going to...On cleaning: if you pour water in it while it's still hot, ideally immediately after you finish cooking, the burnt food bits get much easier to scrape off with a spatula. Even if you're going to use soap on it afterward, it means you have much less scrubbing to do at that point.
Deglazing to make a pan sauce is the same thing except you usually use other liquids and don't discard the result.
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
em-dash Link ParentTwitter and Instagram aren't the only kind of social media. We're having a conversation on a social media site right now. There are several people I primarily communicate with on Fedi/Mastodon....Twitter and Instagram aren't the only kind of social media. We're having a conversation on a social media site right now.
There are several people I primarily communicate with on Fedi/Mastodon. Turns out Twitter-style feeds aren't so bad when you have the ability to curate them.
But also, I have little faith that people won't try to put e.g. Discord in that group, just because it's closer to that line than most IM apps are.
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
em-dash Link ParentPracticalities aside, I am so very tired of this "clearly the solution is to just not have social media" attitude all the minimalist-phone manufacturers seem to have. This isn't the first time...Practicalities aside, I am so very tired of this "clearly the solution is to just not have social media" attitude all the minimalist-phone manufacturers seem to have. This isn't the first time I've seen it.
It's a communication device! Banning one of the main ways I communicate with people makes it useless to me!
I don't need or want protection from myself, I want protection from companies trying to override my preferences for their own reasons.
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Comment on We're so back in ~tildes
em-dash Link ParentStill doesn't beat that time the site broke because we had a thread about software that misinterprets the text "null" as an actual null value, and then we found out Tildes had that exact bug. -
Comment on Your URL bar can be a CLI for searching websites in ~tech
em-dash Link ParentI also insist on split address/search boxes, but for an entirely different conceptual reason: URLs are just a different sort of thing than search strings in my mind, and so entering a URL is a...I also insist on split address/search boxes, but for an entirely different conceptual reason: URLs are just a different sort of thing than search strings in my mind, and so entering a URL is a different action than searching and belongs in its own UI component. It's the same reason it would never occur to me to try to search for files from a shell with
cd search terms.I'm oddly fascinated by this thing where you've arrived at the same conclusion via a path that is completely alien to me.
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Comment on What change would make you quit Tildes? in ~tildes
em-dash Link ParentI am here for the April 1 joke where we all post ASCII art renditions of memes for a day.I am here for the April 1 joke where we all post ASCII art renditions of memes for a day.
I backed a laser engraver for around $500 once. I received it, it works as advertised. It was from a company that already made other related projects though.
This is a sample size of one and I would definitely not generalize to "it's always fine".