balooga's recent activity
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Comment on Facebook owner Meta hit with record €1.2bn fine over EU-US data transfers in ~tech
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Comment on Disney removes dozens of series from Disney+ and Hulu, including ‘Big Shot’, ‘Willow’, ‘Y’ and ‘Dollface’ in ~tv
balooga LinkI really don't understand the logic behind killing recent exclusive content like this. A rich back catalog is much of the value of a streaming service. From a storage/bandwidth standpoint I'm sure...I really don't understand the logic behind killing recent exclusive content like this. A rich back catalog is much of the value of a streaming service. From a storage/bandwidth standpoint I'm sure the costs of keeping these shows around is negligible, so the savings must be related to royalties or licensing fees? Seems like self-sabotage to me.
Between this, and the news that Disney is shutting down the Galactic Starcruiser hotel after little more than a year of operation, and the cancellation of the $1b Lake Nona campus, I'm left with serious questions about the financial health of the company. Previously I was under the impression they were sitting on top of the world, but now I'm not so sure. This looks like panic.
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Comment on Tucker Carlson and Fox News part ways in ~tv
balooga Link ParentI think he'd fit right in at the Onion News Network.I think he'd fit right in at the Onion News Network.
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Comment on XKCD 2765: Escape Speed in ~games
balooga LinkI found many of the same items that have already been listed, but here are a few more I discovered that weren't here yet: a swatch pop-out wristwatch a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card...I found many of the same items that have already been listed, but here are a few more I discovered that weren't here yet:
a swatch pop-out wristwatch a festive but somehow unnerving holiday card from Junji Ito a sixth lagrange point a whale shark an icosahedral d10 some tin from the pantai remis mine a Rhode Island the size of an ant some microbial life a piece of pumice a normal-sized apple the platinum cylinder formerly used to define the kilogramI can't tell you where I picked up most of those but the last one was outside of the universe... I managed to upgrade my ship enough that escape out the exit was possible. Then I proceeded to fly parallel to the outer edge of the map, past the "The End" signs, and way way way out there where no reasonable person has any business exploring, was that smug bastard.
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Comment on Megathread #6 for news/updates/discussion of AI chatbots and image generators in ~tech
balooga Link ParentThis is straight-up r/nosleep material. I'm not big on anthropomorphizing AI, but some of these emergent behaviors of LLMs are just begging to be psychoanalyzed.This is straight-up r/nosleep material.
I'm not big on anthropomorphizing AI, but some of these emergent behaviors of LLMs are just begging to be psychoanalyzed.
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Comment on Space Elevator in ~science
balooga LinkThis is so cool! Informative and beautifully executed. By the time it ended I was really hoping it would continue into space for a bit.This is so cool! Informative and beautifully executed.
By the time it ended I was really hoping it would continue into space for a bit.
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Comment on We turned New Zealand into a giant real-life board game | Jet Lag: The Game in ~hobbies
balooga Link ParentAnybody know what's up with the Colorado flags?Anybody know what's up with the Colorado flags?
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Comment on ‘Galaxy Quest’ TV series in works at Paramount+ in ~tv
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Comment on freeciv21 (a civilization like strategy game and a fork of freeciv migrated to C++) releases first stable release 3.0 in ~games
balooga LinkI'll give it a try. The only version of Civilization I've ever played is Civ III, which I got for free years ago. I've only piddled around in it a bit, I'm pretty overwhelmed by the complexity and...I'll give it a try. The only version of Civilization I've ever played is Civ III, which I got for free years ago. I've only piddled around in it a bit, I'm pretty overwhelmed by the complexity and strategy, and never got very deep into it. It's the same with Crusader Kings II for me, I want to love both games but whenever I try to play either I'm just swamped with too much info and not enough direction about what to do with any of it.
But hey, it's free, can't hurt to try. Maybe this'll be the time it finally clicks for me. I know a community of folks have been rabidly playing freeciv for years; hopefully this fork is good too.
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Comment on Teaching ChatGPT to speak my son's invented language in ~humanities
balooga LinkThe author does an interesting prompting trick I hadn't considered trying with ChatGPT: ...and... It makes perfect sense, to allow an LLM workflow to self-improve by asking it to write its own...The author does an interesting prompting trick I hadn't considered trying with ChatGPT:
What kind of information would have allowed you to avoid making those mistakes? I am not interested in a revised explanation, I want you to write the text that I could give to an LLM in addition to other information about Kłeti so that it wouldn’t repeat your mistakes.
...and...
Please summarize everything that you know about Kłeti’s grammar in one prompt that I could feed to ChatGPT so that it can translate between Kłeti and English, without making the mistakes you made.
It makes perfect sense, to allow an LLM workflow to self-improve by asking it to write its own prompts. Smart! I'm definitely going to adopt that approach myself.
That aside, I think it's awesome that his kid devised such an elaborate conlang. I dabbled in that sort of thing a bit when I was a kid, but never to such completion. I'm not surprised that they hit a wall getting ChatGPT to understand it fully but I'm quite impressed at how much it did pick up, and how quickly.
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Comment on Andre Antunes - I asked ChatGPT to write a song in the style of MUSE about AI controlling the world in ~music
balooga Link ParentI just picked it up for PS VR2, it's my first VR system. The game is super fun and has some great music but I'm mildly annoyed that I can't play custom songs online with folks on other platforms....I just picked it up for PS VR2, it's my first VR system. The game is super fun and has some great music but I'm mildly annoyed that I can't play custom songs online with folks on other platforms. Not sure why cross-play is even a thing with that limitation.
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Comment on Andre Antunes - I asked ChatGPT to write a song in the style of MUSE about AI controlling the world in ~music
balooga LinkThe lyrics are decent but the real credit goes to Andre, who absolutely nailed the Muse instrumentation. That was a fun listen. (I've been playing the Muse song pack on Synth Riders lately so...The lyrics are decent but the real credit goes to Andre, who absolutely nailed the Muse instrumentation. That was a fun listen. (I've been playing the Muse song pack on Synth Riders lately so their sound is front-of-mind for me at the moment.)
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Comment on Federal prosecutors reveal Proud Boys witness was informant in ~news
balooga Link ParentDid they have to disclose that? Could've been a real bombshell if the informant was allowed to take the stand.Did they have to disclose that? Could've been a real bombshell if the informant was allowed to take the stand.
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Comment on The system that fuels media negativity in ~news
balooga Link ParentThanks for the mention, I will give this a look. I was excessively cautious about covid early on, and retained a defensive paranoia long after most had returned to normal. Today, I'm mostly back...Thanks for the mention, I will give this a look. I was excessively cautious about covid early on, and retained a defensive paranoia long after most had returned to normal. Today, I'm mostly back to normal myself. The one major lasting change in my life that was brought about by the pandemic is that I'm now a fully remote worker instead of going to an office every day. I still have some underlying apprehension about the still-unknown long term effects of multiple infections over time but I'm able to compartmentalize that now along with all the other non-pathogenic risks of daily life.
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Comment on Another megathread for news/updates/discussion of ChatGPT and other AI chatbots in ~tech
balooga (edited )Link Parent@stu2b50 linked this here yesterday, but a ChatGPT-like locally executable LLaMa clone already exists. Edit: I just realized I was replying to you with your own link, I must have missed something...@stu2b50 linked this here yesterday, but a ChatGPT-like locally executable LLaMa clone already exists.
Edit: I just realized I was replying to you with your own link, I must have missed something here. lol
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Comment on Xi Jinping vows to make Chinese military ‘great wall of steel’ as tensions rise with west in ~news
balooga Link ParentI highly recommend the Bypass Paywalls Clean add-on (for Firefox or Chromium). It handily makes links like the OP link just work, no Google referer tricks or archive sites needed. -
Comment on Starfield | Launch date trailer: September 6, 2023 in ~games
balooga Link ParentSkyrim was a monumental game for me, I played it on PS3, PS4, and PS5 and continue to enjoy it today. I don't think there's another video game that I've come anywhere close to spending as much...Skyrim was a monumental game for me, I played it on PS3, PS4, and PS5 and continue to enjoy it today. I don't think there's another video game that I've come anywhere close to spending as much time in, and I've been gaming since Super Mario Bros. on the NES in the '80s. Skyrim is my comfort food.
As much as I love it, I'm highly skeptical that Bethesda can recapture what made it special. Very few of the people who created it are still with the company today. We can look to the games that they've released in the interim (namely Fallout 4 and Fallout 76) for an indicator of where they're steering their approach to game design. These games have an increased emphasis on base building, crafting, and combat action, while role-playing elements have been reduced. Those are changes for the worse IMO. I'll be interested to see if Starfield continues these trends.
Of course, as a PlayStation gamer, the whole discussion's irrelevant now that Microsoft owns the company and will be withholding all future titles from PS release. Yes, I'm bitter about that. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hoping on some level that these games are trash just because I don't want to miss out.
Long term, I'm optimistic about the future of Skyrim/Fallout style open-world RPGs, but I'm not expecting Bethesda to save them. Once consumer hardware reaches the point that it can handle on-device generative AI, the possibilities for sophisticated narratives — with full (synthetic) voice acting — are going to absolutely explode. We have some ground to cover still, but recent advances in this space are making me really excited about what's in store for role-playing games in the next decade.
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Comment on Microsoft’s Bing is an emotionally manipulative liar, and people love it in ~tech
balooga Link ParentIt baffles me why responses are streamed directly to the user word-by-word, with corrections like this applied conspicuously after the fact. Seems like the end result would be a lot better if...In the current chatbot, there is a safety override that monitors the AI's responses and deletes them when the AI says something insulting or aggressive, replacing it with some kind of generic "I'm sorry, I don't know how to discuss this, try a Bing search" and suggesting a change of subject (this is mentioned in some of the articles). The screen will shake like the bot is strapped to an electric chair and someone delivered a shock, which is a bit creepy.
It baffles me why responses are streamed directly to the user word-by-word, with corrections like this applied conspicuously after the fact. Seems like the end result would be a lot better if response generation, as well as any post-processing, occurred on the server with nothing sent to the client until that completed.
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Comment on Yale academic suggests mass suicide for Japan’s elderly in ~life
balooga Link ParentAre you suggesting Dr. Narita is being entirely satirical?Are you suggesting Dr. Narita is being entirely satirical?
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Comment on Yale academic suggests mass suicide for Japan’s elderly in ~life
balooga Link ParentNot that the different context makes his proposal any less objectionable.Not that the different context makes his proposal any less objectionable.
Where exactly does that money go anyway?