Notcoffeetable's recent activity
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Comment on Why do some gamers invert their controls? Scientists now have answers, but they’re not what you think. in ~games
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Comment on Is anyone else having trouble focusing? What strategies do you use to help with focus? in ~society
Notcoffeetable LinkThis was the key phrase in a social media post I saw years ago. And I've been in a similar mental state due to a confluence of factors (quit nicotine, stressful work, moved from my home of 10...The lion's habitat is lacking sources of stimulation.
This was the key phrase in a social media post I saw years ago. And I've been in a similar mental state due to a confluence of factors (quit nicotine, stressful work, moved from my home of 10 years, vague gesturing at it all).
This week I've achieved a bit of traction though, I took a day off mid-week and focused on sharpening some programming skills. This led to a simple linear algebra problem (degree 10 polynomial interpolation) that I worked out on my whiteboard by hand last night. It's been years since I worked on something in that way and it's felt like being in touch with myself again. I'm trying to bring this type of thing back in to my job.
So I dunno, I guess rather than focusing on the chaos, I'm focusing on reinforcing my own identity 🤷.
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Comment on Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor | Official version 1.0 launch trailer in ~games
Notcoffeetable LinkThis has been one of my go-to travel games over the last year and a half. I don't always travel with my steam deck, but on work trips I do and this is a great "unwinding in the hotel catching up...This has been one of my go-to travel games over the last year and a half. I don't always travel with my steam deck, but on work trips I do and this is a great "unwinding in the hotel catching up on a favorite podcast" type games.
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Comment on Seeking recommendations for a solo journey to London in ~travel
Notcoffeetable LinkWhat are you planning on doing the first 5 days? Kinda hard to make recommendations without knowing what you already have on the list.What are you planning on doing the first 5 days? Kinda hard to make recommendations without knowing what you already have on the list.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Notcoffeetable Link ParentI agree with this description, I generally like "hard" games. But I find my self more drained playing this game, enemies just feel so dang spongey. It's doing the thing where I know how to win in...Silksong is not like that. I think the best way to put it is that the game is not substantially more difficult than the above games, but it is much more taxing. Because bosses, enemies, and Hornet herself all have really complex movesets, and you die in way fewer hits than the first game, you basically have to be fully locked in the whole time.
I agree with this description, I generally like "hard" games. But I find my self more drained playing this game, enemies just feel so dang spongey. It's doing the thing where I know how to win in combat, I "get" it, but the focus it requires just limits the amount of time and energy I have to repeatedly attempt stuff.
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Comment on Throwback Thursday: Let's talk old flash and memes! in ~talk
Notcoffeetable Link ParentShoot another classic: Numa NumaShoot another classic: Numa Numa
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Comment on Throwback Thursday: Let's talk old flash and memes! in ~talk
Notcoffeetable LinkA lot of the classic posted but not the one that lives in my head: Leek Spin (Loituma Girl)A lot of the classic posted but not the one that lives in my head: Leek Spin (Loituma Girl)
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Comment on Throwback Thursday: Let's talk old flash and memes! in ~talk
Notcoffeetable Link ParentThat was a favorite of mine as well! To the point I used "orly" in text communication a bit too much.That was a favorite of mine as well! To the point I used "orly" in text communication a bit too much.
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Comment on Noncompete ban abandoned by Donald Trump's US Federal Trade Commission in ~society
Notcoffeetable Link ParentSo is the trade secret an employee’s skillset? If so they should be compensated competitively and with benefits to make poaching difficult. Non-competes are literally anti-competitively and the...So is the trade secret an employee’s skillset? If so they should be compensated competitively and with benefits to make poaching difficult.
Non-competes are literally anti-competitively and the only function is to weaken labor’s leverage.
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Comment on Silksong’s real final boss: The translator who broke his NDA and wrote like a dead poet in ~games
Notcoffeetable Link ParentI’ve played 2 hours, up to the second boss. There were no spoilers.I’ve played 2 hours, up to the second boss. There were no spoilers.
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Comment on Epic Systems’ mythical and sprawling campus in ~design
Notcoffeetable LinkI interviewed with Epic back in 2021. I talked to some employees that I could contact through friends/family. I’d say that I was generally discouraged from working at Epic if I had better options....I interviewed with Epic back in 2021. I talked to some employees that I could contact through friends/family.
I’d say that I was generally discouraged from working at Epic if I had better options. But everyone agreed that it was a solid place to build a resume for a year or so. Former employees told me that only true believers really stuck around for very long.
I didn’t get a job offer, I don’t think I was a “culture fit.”
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Comment on Bland, easy to follow, for fans of everything: what has the Netflix algorithm done to our films? in ~movies
Notcoffeetable Link ParentCounter-point: TTRPG based shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20 are huge now. In many ways these feel like the successors to radioplays.Counter-point: TTRPG based shows like Critical Role and Dimension 20 are huge now. In many ways these feel like the successors to radioplays.
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Comment on Pioneering method turns plastic into fuel with 95% efficiency in ~engineering
Notcoffeetable LinkScientifically interesting! though I’m unsure if more efficiently transferring stable hydrocarbons into burnable hydrocarbons is a productive result? For sure we have a plastic problem, but is the...Scientifically interesting! though I’m unsure if more efficiently transferring stable hydrocarbons into burnable hydrocarbons is a productive result?
For sure we have a plastic problem, but is the atmosphere the right place to put it? (That’s a rhetorical question.)
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Comment on What are some of your favorite Nintendo Switch games? in ~games
Notcoffeetable Link ParentI would contest whether TotK is a better game. It's a different game and I'd encourage the Zelda-curious to try both. I'm in camp BotW, but it's like preferring pie versus cake.I would contest whether TotK is a better game. It's a different game and I'd encourage the Zelda-curious to try both. I'm in camp BotW, but it's like preferring pie versus cake.
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Comment on Guilt and video games in ~health.mental
Notcoffeetable Link ParentThis is a great succinct checklist. On bullet 2, the big thing is communication. Beyond just “tonight I’m hoping to play a bit of X.” What is your family’s body language telling you? Is there...This is a great succinct checklist. On bullet 2, the big thing is communication. Beyond just “tonight I’m hoping to play a bit of X.” What is your family’s body language telling you? Is there stuff happening that you should be a part of? If they’re also just gonna be reading or watching TV, is it possible to play your game in their company, say on a Steam Deck?
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Comment on Most people, even highly technical people, don't understand anything about AI in ~tech
Notcoffeetable LinkIt sounds like you have skin in the game on the side AI success. That isn't a bad thing but it is a contextual lens for your understanding of the technology. I think you have accurately accessed a...It sounds like you have skin in the game on the side AI success. That isn't a bad thing but it is a contextual lens for your understanding of the technology. I think you have accurately accessed a generally dicotomous distribution of opinion on AI. My opinion has shifted from antagonistics towards ambivalent as I've began to understand the opportunities of agentic workflows*.
But I do not work in a tech company, I work in upper management position at a small margin large manufacturing company subject to high variance cyclical commodity markets. The name of the game is cost and I am agnostic towards the toolset. So while productivity gains are critical to business perfomance, I am also extremely attuned to individual competency.
My team is allowed to use AI but I don't want to hear about it; there is no incentive to use one tool over another. Work is evaluated on the final product. Occasionally an issue comes to my attention and I dig down into it, talk to the person who created the output and I'll hear something like "oh well I used an AI for that." The AI doesn't know our business context, it doesn't know the personalities and relationships in the office. My team does and part of their job is to navigate that (or call in support from me, which is very common) to get our work done.
My apprehension around AI is that this little busy work of drafting email or writing boilerplate is valuable because it keeps us sharp. Like an muscle, communication requires practice. Writing and debugging code requires practice. I don't care if it takes a little bit longer to have a person do it because even if you've done it a 100 times, it is still practice. If we develop an agent to do something, that process must have an owner who is as accountable to the result as if a person did the work. Because otherwise we'll end up in a culture where there is no ownership or responsibility and that is anathema to a sustainable company.
* pending acualization
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Notcoffeetable Link ParentHave you played MechWarrior Online? It is hands-down my favorite mech game. It feels extremely stompy, it's PvP but combat is highly strategic. An underpowered team can mop the floor with a team...Have you played MechWarrior Online? It is hands-down my favorite mech game. It feels extremely stompy, it's PvP but combat is highly strategic. An underpowered team can mop the floor with a team with heavier firepower purely out of positioning. It likely holds second on my list of games with most hours played right behind WoW.
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Comment on Taylor Swift reunites with producers Max Martin and Shellback for her 12th studio album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ in ~music
Notcoffeetable LinkMy partner excitedly announced this album on Tuesday. She got a preorder in for the vinyl and we’ll have a listening party on the ol’ Marantz 1060!My partner excitedly announced this album on Tuesday. She got a preorder in for the vinyl and we’ll have a listening party on the ol’ Marantz 1060!
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Comment on Master Boot Record - C:\chkdsk /F (2016) in ~music
Notcoffeetable Link ParentThanks for the recommendation! I'll be checking out Keygen Church tomorrow during work. My favorite Kraftwerk album is Radioactivity, but Computer World felt apropos :).Thanks for the recommendation! I'll be checking out Keygen Church tomorrow during work.
My favorite Kraftwerk album is Radioactivity, but Computer World felt apropos :).
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Comment on If you're a programmer, are you ever going to believe an AGI is actually 'I'? in ~tech
Notcoffeetable LinkI think about this quite a bit. As "AI" systems are built from first principles there is less of a black box as we have with biological life. TNG episode 35 The Measure of a Man plays in my head...I think about this quite a bit. As "AI" systems are built from first principles there is less of a black box as we have with biological life. TNG episode 35 The Measure of a Man plays in my head anytime we have stories about some allegedly emergent emotion coming out of chatbots.
Quick summary, Commander Data is an android played by Brent Spiner. As the audience watching an android played by a real human, we have an implicit assumption of sentience and human-ness for Commander Data. In universe he is a one-of-a-kind (as far as we know at this point in this series) android in possession of a brain created by the social pariah Noonien Soong (also played by Brent Spiner later in the series; he is a narcissist). Many in Starfleet are not convinced that Commander Data is endowed with bodily autonomy. Further Commander Data (at this point in the series) lacks many hallmarks of consciousness/sentience. In particular he does not dream nor does he have emotions.
Anyway, a cyberneticist Commander Bruce Maddox believes that if he can experiment on Commander Data he might make the necessary breakthrough to understand and replicate Dr. Noonien Soong's work. In Commander Data's estimation, Maddox does not display the necessary understanding or expertise to perform these experiments with a reasonable chance of preserving Commander Data's existence. So Data would prefer to opt out of the experiment. Unfortunately Maddox has the ear of some high level admiralty. So we get one of the best types of TNG episodes: a court case.
Again, as an audience member, you are generally on Data's side since you've already 35 episodes of this character and seen his growth. Also Maddox has a fairly cavalier attitude toward's Data's safety and we observe many micro-aggressions in their interactions. But often in discussions of AI sentience I find myself fearing that in some ambiguous future I could be Maddox; unable to understand that the human creation I'm studying has passed an invisible bar of personhood.
A similar episode is TNG episode 18 Home Soil, in which the crew observes systems going haywire when visiting a terraforming colony. What they find is a sand-like material. Individual grains are not especially differentiable from silicone sand. But in the aggregate it forms a type of emergence sentience. There is debate with the terraforming scientists as to whether this creature is protected by the prime directive (non-intervention with pre-spacefaring species). But it again raises the question: how do we recognize consciousness/sentience?
I really don't know, but I suppose it softens me stance a bit towards what we might recognize as a human created sentience. A type B error seems preferable. But god knows that we're bad enough with the sentience we're already surrounded by. Even if we recognize sentience, I expect there will be a period of time that we have a subjugated/domesticated species of our own creation.
Finally, I've been thinking about the Turing Test and how I believe we severely misunderstood it's objective. All it determines is how good a system can mimic humans. Clearly all the chatbots from Eliza to ChaptGPT have had passing this test as a primary measure of success. In doing so I believe we have designed systems to trick ourselves rather than system which are actually intelligent. I think we should abandon the the Turing Test entirely: mission accomplished. But a true AGI would not necessarily appear human. Much like Commander Data.
My partner is not a gamer but also prefers inverted controls if she plays something like powerwash simulator.
But the real trippy part is that she also inverts the direction her computer scrolls. But she swipes the same direction as the rest of us.... which is technically inverted right? Does anyone invert their swipe direction on their phone?