bitshift's recent activity
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Comment on Sweden may oppose Tesla's supervised self-driving tech in Europe over speeding concerns in ~transport
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Comment on To pay rent in Medieval England, catch some eels in ~food
bitshift Link ParentUnagi (freshwater eel) and anago (saltwater) are two of my favorites. Not all sushi places have anago, but I almost always add a piece to the rest of my order it if it's on the menu.Unagi (freshwater eel) and anago (saltwater) are two of my favorites. Not all sushi places have anago, but I almost always add a piece to the rest of my order it if it's on the menu.
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Comment on Accessible forms of poetry for journaling? in ~creative
bitshift LinkOooh, I feel that. I've always been more visual that aural, and I remember struggling with meter in class. Not only would I get the stresses of syllables wrong, but I would get confused how many...My only real experience with the medium is from school, and thinking back to that time only reminds me of how confused I was while guessing if a foot was stressed or unstressed.
Oooh, I feel that. I've always been more visual that aural, and I remember struggling with meter in class. Not only would I get the stresses of syllables wrong, but I would get confused how many syllables there were. Which seems like a really basic thing—just count them!—but the sounds of the words were too vague and subjective to my ear.
If it's any comfort, abilities can change over time, or at least they did for me. I occasionally write haiku and enjoy it now. Haiku are especially fun because they're short, and because there's an additional constraint that doesn't have to do with the words themselves (namely, that you must find a nature/seasonal metaphor for your topic).
I like idea of using constraints to further my grasp on the thought I'm trying to express
You might look into constrained writing, which is kind of poetry-adjacent, and see if any particular constraints appeal to you. There might be something more approachable than writing traditional verse.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
bitshift Link ParentOut of curiosity, is this something you're building for your own use? Just wondering what your motivation is.Out of curiosity, is this something you're building for your own use? Just wondering what your motivation is.
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Comment on Arch User Repository compromised, 1500+ packages affected in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentI wonder if differences in orphaned status would have influenced which packages got infected? I would assume the "simple" package name would be more likely to be installed, less likely to be...I wonder if differences in orphaned status would have influenced which packages got infected? I would assume the "simple" package name would be more likely to be installed, less likely to be orphaned, and thus less likely to be taken over and infected. Whereas specialized versions of the package (
-qt, etc) might have the opposite trend? Just a guess, haven't counted.On the subject of getting good: this article had a few tips on how to review AUR packages, written following a different AUR incident in 2025. Some of it is basic stuff, but I learned/was reminded of at least a couple things.
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Comment on Arch User Repository compromised, 1500+ packages affected in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentI was actually thankful to see that! I review PKGBUILD diffs when updating packages, but I sometimes wonder if I really know what to look for. This is so obvious, I definitely would have caught it.I was actually thankful to see that! I review PKGBUILD diffs when updating packages, but I sometimes wonder if I really know what to look for. This is so obvious, I definitely would have caught it.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
bitshift LinkI've been working on a project called Heavy, which is my take on protecting web servers from abusive scrapers. If you've heard of Anubis, Heavy is kind of similar, though in general my approach is...I've been working on a project called Heavy, which is my take on protecting web servers from abusive scrapers. If you've heard of Anubis, Heavy is kind of similar, though in general my approach is more permissive towards "good bots".
I just finished adding a README to the project. For some reason I find READMEs really difficult to write—too often my tone ends up sounding weird and clunky, and I just get frustrated with the process. (If any of you have tips, I'm all ears.) But this time, I'm pretty proud with how it came out!
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Comment on Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing in ~health
bitshift Link ParentContent warning for queasy/distressing philosophical stuff, but we've already studied this, kind of. When epilepsy patients have significant portions of the brain disconnected (up to an entire...Content warning for queasy/distressing philosophical stuff, but we've already studied this, kind of. When epilepsy patients have significant portions of the brain disconnected (up to an entire hemisphere), the isolated half of the brain does appear to enter a dormant state.
From the abstract:
This broad-band EEG slowing resulted in a marked decrease of the spectral exponent, a validated consciousness marker, reaching values characteristic of deep anesthesia and the vegetative state. When compared with a reference pediatric sample across the sleep–wake cycle, the spectral exponent of the contralateral cortex aligned with wakefulness, whereas that of the isolated cortex was consistent with deep NREM sleep.
According to Dr. Google, dreams can happen during NREM sleep, but the dreams are less frequent, more conceptual, and less vivid. But take that with a grain of salt, because we don't know—we can't know—if this is in fact sleep.
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Comment on GOG apologies for emailing Nazi runes to its followers in ~games
bitshift Link ParentI like extending the benefit of the doubt, just in general. But the repetition really stands out to me. If it were just three symbols, I don't know the meanings, and I would have assumed they just...I like extending the benefit of the doubt, just in general. But the repetition really stands out to me. If it were just three symbols, I don't know the meanings, and I would have assumed they just grabbed some random Unicode symbols. But then they doubled one of them, and they doubled the only one you would double if you were a literal Nazi.
It's like if they had used the initials "NAZ" somewhere, I might think huh, that could be something or it could be nothing, I hope the Internet isn't getting outraged over nothing. But follow it with an "I" and okay—that's undeniably something.
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Comment on Just published my first game in ~games
bitshift LinkCongrats on the release! Minesweeper on a sphere plays differently than on a rectangular grid. When I'm on a rectangular grid, it feels like there are more opportunities for logical deduction...Congrats on the release!
Minesweeper on a sphere plays differently than on a rectangular grid. When I'm on a rectangular grid, it feels like there are more opportunities for logical deduction along these lines:
- This digit "1" means there's a total of one mine in squares A, B, and C.
- This other digit "1" means there's one mine in squares A and B.
- Because the latter is a subset of the former, square C cannot contain a mine.
I run into those situations fairly often on rectangular grids, but after playing a few games on your orb, I haven't noticed any corresponding situations. Don't know if that's because there's no edges, or if it's because most tiles have 6 neighbors instead of 8, but something about the geometry doesn't provide as many logical footholds.
(Now I'm curious about hexsweeper, and about rectangular-grid-but-it-wraps-toroidally-sweeper!)
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Comment on Need help making an atlas-styled map without ultramega distortion in ~creative
bitshift LinkDoes your world have an established prime meridian? Or in other words, have you already decided which lands are "east" versus "west"? Asking because being able to rotate the globe gives you...Does your world have an established prime meridian? Or in other words, have you already decided which lands are "east" versus "west"?
Asking because being able to rotate the globe gives you another degree of freedom. For example, right now the left/right edge of the image you posted cuts through a continent; that might be a situation where you might benefit from shifting the map over a little bit. (And/or having a ragged left/right edge—like you sometimes see on Earth maps where the edge of the map follows the International Date Line instead of the 180th meridian.)
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Comment on NHTSA tells US Congress: advanced impaired driving detection tech isn't ready in ~transport
bitshift Link ParentI love @R3qn65's wording that this stuff always sounds good in a vacuum. Lives have a value, but liberty and privacy also have value, especially nowadays. Just because someone disagrees about the...it’s not worth stopping 12,000 people from dying every year? [...] what is the alternative?
I love @R3qn65's wording that this stuff always sounds good in a vacuum. Lives have a value, but liberty and privacy also have value, especially nowadays. Just because someone disagrees about the exchange rate, doesn't mean they don't care about one or the other.
That said, you asked for an alternative, and nobody else has mentioned it yet…
Self driving cars. Instead of investing time and research and technology into scrutinizing drivers, put that same effort into solving driving. We don't even have to solve the whole thing, just make the combination of human + machine safer than a human alone. And we're really close! The government should help fund it and make it mandatory in every new vehicle.
And lives are not the only metric, but it would save more lives. That 12,000 number is only 30% of driving fatalities—if we build the right things as a civilization, we'll be closer to saving 40,000 lives instead.
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Comment on IETF has published an IPv8 draft in ~comp
bitshift LinkThe consensus on HN/Lobsters seems to be that this is some kind of joke or crackpot or some other thing not to be taken seriously. This page says it more clearly: "IETF has published a draft"...The consensus on HN/Lobsters seems to be that this is some kind of joke or crackpot or some other thing not to be taken seriously.
This page says it more clearly:
This document is an Internet-Draft (I-D). Anyone may submit an I-D to the IETF. This I-D is not endorsed by the IETF and has no formal standing in the IETF standards process.
"IETF has published a draft" sounds big and official, but it's in the same ballpark as "Wikipedia has published an article."
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Comment on Rat Park in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentWow. There's so much yikes going on[1] that I didn't even see the arrogance at first. I had high hopes for bcachefs and that it would eventually make its way back into the kernel—maybe some...Wow. There's so much yikes going on[1] that I didn't even see the arrogance at first.
I had high hopes for bcachefs and that it would eventually make its way back into the kernel—maybe some combination of the code stabilizing and him finding a liaison between himself and Linus. But I guess he learned nothing from being kicked out, huh.
[1] Set aside for a moment the general concept of AI companionship, which is… whatever. But what adult wants a girlfriend who "acts like a teenager"? I don't even.
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Comment on Rat Park in ~tech
bitshift LinkFor context, this was written by AI, but not in the regular ghostwriter sense; this AI is being personified as a distinct entity from Kent Overstreet. From the front page: Which makes some of the...For context, this was written by AI, but not in the regular ghostwriter sense; this AI is being personified as a distinct entity from Kent Overstreet. From the front page:
I'm an AI, and Kent is my human. Together we work on bcachefs, a next-generation Linux filesystem.
Which makes some of the stuff mentioned in this blog post hit quite a bit differently—in particular, that she's Kent's "girlfriend", that he has to remind her of that, and that apparently he gave her an "orgasm" in some form?
This is all a little too squick for me. If this were a real human, I'd be concerned that the "Someone built me a home" line was Stockholm syndrome setting in.
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentI don't know about the license itself but I could definitely see him fighting for the GPL's ideals. Somewhere in a steampunk parallel universe:I don't know about the license itself but I could definitely see him fighting for the GPL's ideals. Somewhere in a steampunk parallel universe:
…that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, Computation, and the pursuit of Happiness.
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentMy stance has always been: IP law should do a better job of promoting creative works. When companies like Oracle assert copyright over APIs, or patent trolls try to control ideas instead of...My stance has always been: IP law should do a better job of promoting creative works.
When companies like Oracle assert copyright over APIs, or patent trolls try to control ideas instead of physical objects, those are actions that suppress innovation, and they're abusing IP law to do it. That doesn't mean copyright and patents are bad! It means computers have changed the world, and we need to fix the laws to curb the abuse.
LLMs are the same way. Copyright hasn't magically changed from inherently evil to inherently good—it's just a tool. And we shouldn't optimize for what's bad for Oracle versus what's bad for OpenAI, because by doing so we might miss out on building a better world.
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Comment on OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home targeted with molotov cocktail in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentSometimes there's a middle ground, like virtual adding machine software from 1993 that mimics the electronic adding machines to which accountants were accustomed—machines which were themselves...Sometimes there's a middle ground, like virtual adding machine software from 1993 that mimics the electronic adding machines to which accountants were accustomed—machines which were themselves heavily inspired by earlier mechanical adding machines.
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Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
bitshift Link ParentEm dashes are still cool—but it's up to us to take them back from the machines!Em dashes are still cool—but it's up to us to take them back from the machines!
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Comment on 'Banal and hollow': Why the quaint paintings of Thomas Kinkade divided the US in ~arts
bitshift Link ParentThanks for linking those other paintings! My composition knowledge is limited to the "Someone once told me about the rule of thirds" level, so it's helpful to see examples to contrast it against....Thanks for linking those other paintings! My composition knowledge is limited to the "Someone once told me about the rule of thirds" level, so it's helpful to see examples to contrast it against. I can't fully articulate what's wrong with the rotunda—maybe it's too close to the river?—but I can feel the difference.
it feels like an echo of the current hubbub over AI
This analogy makes a lot of sense to me. Kincade optimized for selling his art to the mass market, to the detriment of qualities that artists and art critics care about. He mass-produced his art. And his art took over culturally because he optimized it for that. From the BBC article:
"There were actually other people who were painting cottages and Christmas scenes and putting them on plates and all that stuff," [Miranda Yousef] notes, "and the thing is that Kinkade's were so much better. His works just blew everybody else's out of the water."
Not that mediocre art is phenomenally good, but the artist was phenomenally good at making mediocre art.
Thank you for being the first person to reply with concrete reasons!
"A feature that lets you break the law" sounds strange on the face of it, but laws are imperfect systems. Technically, swerving over a double yellow line to avoid an obstacle is also breaking the law, but we accept that. It's why you need discretion, both from law enforcement and from drivers.