Promonk's recent activity

  1. Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    ChatJizzPT ClaudeBalls Insemini Couldn't come up with anything for Grok.

    ChatJizzPT
    ClaudeBalls
    Insemini

    Couldn't come up with anything for Grok.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on OpenAI releases findings on 377 math problems, further roiling field in ~science

    Promonk
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I think "booster" vs "believer" is a distinction without a difference. I have, to the point that I'm not particularly concerned with being charitable about it. I will be civil about it though,...

    I think "booster" vs "believer" is a distinction without a difference.

    I have never seen them reply in a way that remotely dips over the line.

    I have, to the point that I'm not particularly concerned with being charitable about it. I will be civil about it though, which is why I phrased my response as I did. I've seen a few instances in which Skybrian's demeanor while discussing this subject flirts with disrespect for their interlocutors, but I've always refrained from commenting before now.

    Skybrian is more than welcome to their opinion, which is why I suggested not engaging with them if you are an AI skeptic. There's just no point to it.

    8 votes

  3. Comment on OpenAI releases findings on 377 math problems, further roiling field in ~science

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    You are. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but @skybrian is something an AI booster. That user is the source of many if not most of the AI hype-cycle links posted here these days. They reply...

    I think we're just operating on completely different wavelengths when it comes to LLMs.

    You are. I don't know if you've noticed or not, but @skybrian is something an AI booster. That user is the source of many if not most of the AI hype-cycle links posted here these days. They reply in strong terms whenever anyone criticizes the claims made by OpenAI et al., to the point that I would say they occasionally dip a toe over the line of Tildes's number one rule. But as skybrian is an established power user here, and as Deimos appears pretty disinterested in doing much with Tildes any longer, I wouldn't expect anything much to happen because of it.

    I suggest not engaging with them on this topic. I don't think they're interested in the same kind of discussion about it that you or many others of us are.

    10 votes

  4. Comment on Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ finally breaks Mariah Carey’s all-time record for weeks at US no. 1, eclipsing ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ in ~music

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Looking back, I don't think I was responding to you so much as those were my thoughts about said discourse, and a reply to you seemed as good a place as any to share them unasked. I've been sorely...

    Looking back, I don't think I was responding to you so much as those were my thoughts about said discourse, and a reply to you seemed as good a place as any to share them unasked.

    I've been sorely distracted today, so sorry if I came off as argumentative or something. 'Twas not my intent.

  5. Comment on Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ finally breaks Mariah Carey’s all-time record for weeks at US no. 1, eclipsing ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ in ~music

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    If someone wants to come and inject some actual soul and life into country music, I'm all for it. Even better if the country-fied folk rock scene that's been vibrant during the last twenty-odd...

    If someone wants to come and inject some actual soul and life into country music, I'm all for it.

    Even better if the country-fied folk rock scene that's been vibrant during the last twenty-odd years of bland corporate country drivel can get some love too.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Ultima Online retrospective | The last hurrah in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    If you're curious, the private shard that Majuular played on is open to the public now. You can jump in and experience something like the OG experience for yourself. There's a link in a pinned...

    If you're curious, the private shard that Majuular played on is open to the public now. You can jump in and experience something like the OG experience for yourself. There's a link in a pinned comment on the video. I've been poking around in the shard and its Discord server today, and said hello to Majuular himself.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Ultima Online retrospective | The last hurrah in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I fell hard into UO at the launch of The Second Age, and fell out of it maybe two years later due to frustration and changing life circumstances. Even though I quit in anger, this damn game from...

    I fell hard into UO at the launch of The Second Age, and fell out of it maybe two years later due to frustration and changing life circumstances. Even though I quit in anger, this damn game from this damn period has occupied a surprising amount of my mental real estate for a quarter of a century. I think everyone who experienced this chaotic meat grinder of a game in just the period this video covers probably has stories to tell.

    I trust you'll forgive me for having posted this link before I could possibly have watched the thing, but I had faith that if anyone could do justice to the madness that was early Ultima Online, it would be Majuular. Even though I'm less than an hour into this behemoth, I can tell you he did not disappoint.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Ultima Online retrospective | The last hurrah in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    We've got a handful of old-head UO players around here. Pretty much everyone who was playing in Second Age or earlier has some wild stories to share. It was the freaking Wild West of MMORPGs, for...

    We've got a handful of old-head UO players around here. Pretty much everyone who was playing in Second Age or earlier has some wild stories to share. It was the freaking Wild West of MMORPGs, for sure.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on Ultima Online retrospective | The last hurrah in ~games

    Promonk
    Link
    Been waiting for this installment of Majuular's Ultima Retrospective series since he started it. This one's my Ultima.

    Been waiting for this installment of Majuular's Ultima Retrospective series since he started it. This one's my Ultima.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on What is your dream game? in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I don't know, I think the dictator's voice journals are pretty engaging and more than a little chilling, especially with the way politics have gone in the Western world over the last decade. It's...

    I don't know, I think the dictator's voice journals are pretty engaging and more than a little chilling, especially with the way politics have gone in the Western world over the last decade. It's no War and Peace, but it'll do.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on Do you think you're special? in ~talk

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    That's just one reason I've never understood the hullabaloo over trans athletes in school sports. Even if there was evidence of boys claiming to be trans just to dominate girls' sports (a patently...

    That's just one reason I've never understood the hullabaloo over trans athletes in school sports. Even if there was evidence of boys claiming to be trans just to dominate girls' sports (a patently ridiculous notion pretty much on its face), do we really need to be so precious about the sanctity of school sports competition? Will society crumble if a kid on puberty blockers manages to get to a podium?

    Seems to me the most useful aspect of sports is that it gets kids being active together with other kids and forming social bonds. That's a greater good than finding the best shotputter in the 13-15 age bracket, by my lights.

    I lack that bone in my body that gets a person super sweaty about competition though, so maybe I'm off-base.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on What is your dream game? in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    On the off-chance you haven't already played it, I recommend you drop what you're doing now and wishlist Just Cause 3 XXL. It often goes on sale for next-to-nothing on Steam (I think I spent $10...

    I'm a sucker for actual open-world games with satisfying ways to move around.

    On the off-chance you haven't already played it, I recommend you drop what you're doing now and wishlist Just Cause 3 XXL. It often goes on sale for next-to-nothing on Steam (I think I spent $10 altogether on it, and that was buying the base game separate from the DLC pack).

    JC3 has the most satisfying traversal mechanics of any game ever made, and that includes the various Spidermen, with or without hyphens. The story can be a bit goofy at times, but is also oddly engaging. David Tennant gives a characteristically fabulous performance as the foreign journalist who gets press-ganged by the resident dictator into the official propaganda mouthpiece.

    My advice is to hold off on any DLC questlines until you've completed the main path, as the gadgets you get from them will utterly wreck any remaining challenge, especially the air-themed one.

    8 votes

  14. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    The original games (primarily thinking of the first three) are best understood to be 3D elaborations on the old Prince of Persia formula. The platforming is tile-based and deterministic, which is...

    The original games (primarily thinking of the first three) are best understood to be 3D elaborations on the old Prince of Persia formula. The platforming is tile-based and deterministic, which is why the controls function as they do. The choice to offer a "modern" control scheme in the remasters is baffling to me because it completely breaks things, unless the idea was to highlight why the game had tank controls to begin with.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Michael Parenti - The Assassination of Julius Caesar - A people’s history of Ancient Rome in ~books

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Any single thing Cicero ever wrote beats the self-aggrandizing extended tweet that is Caesar's "Gallic Wars," that's for sure.

    Any single thing Cicero ever wrote beats the self-aggrandizing extended tweet that is Caesar's "Gallic Wars," that's for sure.

    1 vote

  16. Comment on Michael Parenti - The Assassination of Julius Caesar - A people’s history of Ancient Rome in ~books

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    He was a patrician Roman. That was the bare minimum expected of someone in his milieu. Judging him for that would be like judging a duck for liking white bread floating on a pond. The thing that...

    Guy was an elitist only interested in serving the interests of his class and unashamedly as well.

    He was a patrician Roman. That was the bare minimum expected of someone in his milieu. Judging him for that would be like judging a duck for liking white bread floating on a pond.

    The thing that makes Cicero a little different from others like him is he actually believed in serving the interests of his class. The others conflated serving the senatorial class with serving themselves (vide: the aforementioned Cato, may he burn in Tartarus). Cicero was at least capable of seeing that sacrifices sometimes need to be made to serve an ideal–even up to literal personal sacrifice. We may not share that ideal he sought to serve, but it at least indicates a breadth of understanding that marked him out from his contemporaries.

    I should say that I feel no personal stake in the man's reputation. About the only thing I can say about his effect on my life is that he wrote Latin in a way that was accessible to a second-year Latin student, which isn't precisely hero worship by my lights.

    2 votes

  17. Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I'm a little leery of blending starchy vegetables, particularly potato. The texture always seems to come out gluey to my reckoning. When I make potato leek soup I usually mash the taters a little...

    I'm a little leery of blending starchy vegetables, particularly potato. The texture always seems to come out gluey to my reckoning.

    When I make potato leek soup I usually mash the taters a little to get it thickening. It doesn't turn out as smooth, but it also doesn't come out reminiscent of wallpaper paste.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Michael Parenti - The Assassination of Julius Caesar - A people’s history of Ancient Rome in ~books

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I think for a dude who died over 2,000 years ago it's probably best to judge relative to his contemporaries. By that measure, Cicero was relatively "enlightened." And at least he wasn't Cato.

    I think for a dude who died over 2,000 years ago it's probably best to judge relative to his contemporaries. By that measure, Cicero was relatively "enlightened."

    And at least he wasn't Cato.

    7 votes

  19. Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food

    Promonk
    Link
    I don't know how interesting it is, but I made roasted root veg as a side for dinner last night. Cubed up some carrots, potatoes, turnips, onion and red bell pepper, then tossed them with a fair...

    I don't know how interesting it is, but I made roasted root veg as a side for dinner last night. Cubed up some carrots, potatoes, turnips, onion and red bell pepper, then tossed them with a fair bit of oil and some kosher salt, cracked black pepper, dried thyme and rosemary. Baked at 350°F for about an hour stirring regularly, then bumped it up to 425°F for another 30 or so to finish browning.

    The turnips ended up feeling a little less cooked than everything else (turnips are far denser than potatoes), so I think when I make this again I'll parboil them for maybe 10 mins before tossing them together with everything else. I did something similar with parsnips a couple months back, but I didn't like the flavor as well. The turnips kept a bit more unique flavor through the cooking process, IMO.

    I only mention it because it seems like people are forgetting about all the different tubers there are in the world. Potatoes are possibly my favorite vegetable, but there are a lot of other good ones with subtle flavors and slightly varied textures that are worth trying out.

    6 votes

  20. Comment on IKEA Kallax “Storageborn” in ~games

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Until Todd decides you desperately need whatever Creation Club bullshit they've cooked up this month and pushes an update that breaks your modlist. That motherfucker pulled that shit on me three...

    Until Todd decides you desperately need whatever Creation Club bullshit they've cooked up this month and pushes an update that breaks your modlist. That motherfucker pulled that shit on me three times in the span of two months last year between Skyrim and FO4.

    3 votes