fional's recent activity
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Comment on The Oatmeal: A cartoonist's review of AI art in ~comics
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Comment on DIY haptic input knob: BLDC motor + round LCD in ~tech
fional Link ParentThanks for the callout, if only I weren't like five projects deep in my ADHD DIY stack!Thanks for the callout, if only I weren't like five projects deep in my ADHD DIY stack!
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Comment on I don’t want to be famous on the Internet anymore in ~tech
fional Link ParentI do miss the free wellspring of trust that existed back then, growing up it felt like if you had something novel or interesting to show the world, that was enough--we were all so freely giving of...I do miss the free wellspring of trust that existed back then, growing up it felt like if you had something novel or interesting to show the world, that was enough--we were all so freely giving of our attention and could assume the people on the other side were real people.
It seems like social media figured out how to transform it all into a saleable commodity--I sometimes wonder if this is how commoners felt during the medieval 'enclosure' movement.
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Comment on I don’t want to be famous on the Internet anymore in ~tech
fional LinkI've gone through a similar change, but I think much of it is also a change in the internet. Growing up, the internet felt like a distinct community. I was in IRC chat rooms, specific forums;...I've gone through a similar change, but I think much of it is also a change in the internet. Growing up, the internet felt like a distinct community. I was in IRC chat rooms, specific forums; being "internet famous" was a tongue-in cheek joke, but it was also being popular and well regarded in the community I most identified with. Everyone wants to be the cool kid in their school, right?
Similarly, the internet was way more accessible. Everything that is twitch/live streaming today was "post a 'Let's Play' video to the SomethingAwful forums of literally just you playing a game." Most podcasts were just a few friends with microphones, before podcasts ate talk radio in its entirety. The few dinosaurs that held out have adapted with the times and are now more like production companies with a familiar figurehead sitting on top.
But beyond the much wider moats and barriers to entry, being 'internet famous' is just now being 'famous'. Not only have I outgrown wanting to be the cool kid in school, but the school is effectively dead, the community grown and homogenized to the point where it's now just 'all people'. I miss those days, but I've also had to find newer, smaller communities to replace the internet, and putting my time into them is much more rewarding.
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Comment on Recommendations for a measurement microphone in ~tech
fional Link ParentThere’s definitely cheapo measurement mics, I have a few of these e.g.: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ECM8000--behringer-ecm8000-measurement-condenser-microphone But with any measurement...There’s definitely cheapo measurement mics, I have a few of these e.g.: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ECM8000--behringer-ecm8000-measurement-condenser-microphone
But with any measurement apparatus your final result will always be constrained by the accuracy of the measurement tools. The $25 mic might be sufficient for comparative measurements where the mic is held constant, but the absolute trustworthiness of the measurement will be diminished.
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Comment on Recommendations for a measurement microphone in ~tech
fional LinkI’ve heard good things about Earthworks—looks like they’ve got a variety of options depending on how high you need to measure: https://earthworksaudio.com/measurement-microphones/ I would assume...I’ve heard good things about Earthworks—looks like they’ve got a variety of options depending on how high you need to measure: https://earthworksaudio.com/measurement-microphones/
I would assume you would need an interface that can do at least double the sampling rate of the highest frequencies you want to capture, for Nyquist reasons.
What’s the specific application?
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Comment on What artist, regardless of medium, did the most to progress their field? in ~arts
fional LinkI think the creative rivalry between the Beatles and the Beach Boys was pretty foundational in the transformation of audio production as a creative endeavor in its own right. Up til their era,...I think the creative rivalry between the Beatles and the Beach Boys was pretty foundational in the transformation of audio production as a creative endeavor in its own right. Up til their era, musical recording largely evolved as musical reproduction--the goal was to capture the musicians as accurately as possible.
Their efforts (and the intersection with the right people and right equipment at EMI/Abbey Road) introduced a lot of the modern vocabulary of pop music: multi-tracking, ADT/doubled voice tracks, etc. -
Comment on Two sides of the same coin in ~humanities
fional LinkIt seems related to the “problem of induction”. Paraphrasing, we expect past events to be predictive of future events because, in the past, they have been, but that is only satisfactory as...It seems related to the “problem of induction”. Paraphrasing, we expect past events to be predictive of future events because, in the past, they have been, but that is only satisfactory as evidence if you’ve already assumed the hypothesis. In this case, we expect the flip side to be tails because every time in the past we’ve picked up the coin it’s been true.
From the perspective of a zero-knowledge proof, you could flip 50 coins, check the other side of 49 of them, and, assuming that your choice of 49 was made freely, that would give you progressively increased confidence that the last one is tails. Approaching, but never equal to 100% probability.
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Comment on It’s up to us in ~society
fional LinkI feel like... the last few decades have seen the population stratify by political affiliation in a way that makes this a lot easier said than done. I don't think I even know a swing voter,...I feel like... the last few decades have seen the population stratify by political affiliation in a way that makes this a lot easier said than done. I don't think I even know a swing voter, letalone a Trump voter--at this point I can be no more persuasive than any other stranger.
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Comment on What was it like choosing your own name? in ~lgbt
fional Link ParentNot currently, I can dig around for it but it was like 7-8 years ago.Not currently, I can dig around for it but it was like 7-8 years ago.
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Comment on What was it like choosing your own name? in ~lgbt
fional LinkI wrote a Chess ELO-style algorithm to start from a list of first names scraped from social security data and pit them 1v1 against each other (with the algorithm setup so that it only evaluated...I wrote a Chess ELO-style algorithm to start from a list of first names scraped from social security data and pit them 1v1 against each other (with the algorithm setup so that it only evaluated statistically close matchups rather than having to try every name against every other name). Once I'd whittled it down to a dozen or so I ended up picking one semi-random.
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Comment on Sound engineers, help me name this vocal sound in ~music
fional LinkTo me, it sounds like overly heavily handed autotuning. I’m not sure if the little vibratos were in the original recording and then clamped down in post, or if they’re artificial vibrato added by...To me, it sounds like overly heavily handed autotuning. I’m not sure if the little vibratos were in the original recording and then clamped down in post, or if they’re artificial vibrato added by the autotune plugin, but either way they sound weird.
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Comment on Six months from now this channel stops in ~tech
fional Link ParentI suspect from a YouTube optimization perspective, if you don’t private these videos there’s a good chance it will end up in people’s autoplay or recommendations well after it has outlived its...I suspect from a YouTube optimization perspective, if you don’t private these videos there’s a good chance it will end up in people’s autoplay or recommendations well after it has outlived its usefulness and people dropping out of the video early will effect a negative penalty on the channel in the algorithm.
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Comment on Report: Potential New York Times lawsuit could force OpenAI to wipe ChatGPT and start over in ~tech
fional LinkI suspect the concern here is going to be search engines: supplementing if not replacing organic search results with ChatGPT/Bing or Bard/Google is a natural use for LLMs. However, there's already...I suspect the concern here is going to be search engines: supplementing if not replacing organic search results with ChatGPT/Bing or Bard/Google is a natural use for LLMs. However, there's already a brewing conflict over Google's increasing use of snippets and other sorts of widgets that profit off of a website's content without giving them traffic. Injecting a chatbot into the top of the page is similar, but even worse, as there won't even be an attribution to the source material.
I think you could make a reasonable analogy to money laundering, wherein you mix small amounts of legally tainted money into an otherwise diverse cash stream and then claim the entire flow to be clean. Likewise, training an LLM allows you to mix small amounts of legally tainted content into a diverse stream and then claim the entire output to be clean.
There's even analogies to structuring--it's a crime to break up large transactions involving tainted money to smaller amounts to avoid arousing suspicion. Prompting your LLM to avoid verbatim repeating its source material feels similar in a way. "Plagiarize that thing, but not too much, ya know?"
At any rate, it's going to be a hot mess. I don't envy whomever is saddled with the task to work through the legal and moral implications.
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Comment on What are your favorite animes and what do you like about them? in ~anime
fional LinkHmm, in the last few years I’ve been watching a lot more anime, there’s been quite a few standouts, but I’ll throw ODDTAXI into the ring. It’s about a walrus who drives a taxi in a modern day...Hmm, in the last few years I’ve been watching a lot more anime, there’s been quite a few standouts, but I’ll throw ODDTAXI into the ring. It’s about a walrus who drives a taxi in a modern day Japan inhabited by anthropomorphic animal people. The absurdity of the concept is expertly played off what is at its core an exceptionally charming character driven storyline.
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Comment on Is anyone else just fed up with companies being greedy? in ~talk
fional Link ParentI’ve always taken a stance that the benefits we attribute historically to capitalism are really the benefits of competition, and we should be striving to maximize the quantity and quality of...I’ve always taken a stance that the benefits we attribute historically to capitalism are really the benefits of competition, and we should be striving to maximize the quantity and quality of competition. The “free market” is a wonderful invention but the concept has been corrupted in our era to be equivalent to an unregulated market. Instead, I see capitalism like nuclear energy: properly regulated and there’s wonderful benefits to all, left to run unregulated it will eventually blow its lid off and turn everything in the vicinity into a wasteland.
Pro-competition:
- Too big to fail is too big to exist, creative destruction is a prescribed burn that clears the forest for new growth. A pro-competition stance says that companies should be regulated to be small enough that the failure of any one is at most painful but not catastrophic.
- Income inequality transforms markets from democracies into autocracies. “Rising tides” arguments are bullshit; relative wealth disparity disenfranchises the common person. A pro-competition stance works towards an equal enough wealth distribution that the allocative power of markets is democratic.
- Non-living wages are a trap—if your economic activity demands a person make a Hobson’s choice between a crushing job or risk starvation and death, then you’re barely better than slavery. A pro-competition stance generates a social safety net that fundamentally gives people an alternative to taking jobs that otherwise do not compensate adequately for their downsides.
- Regulatory capture lets companies dig a moat around themselves and pull up the drawbridge. Convenient that OpenAI launches a massive AI regulatory lobbying effort months after launching the most successful AI project in recent memory, right? That’s not to say that all regulations are inherently bad—many were written in blood—but we tend to see the immediate negative outcomes being restricted without seeing the long term incentives that have changed. A pro-competition stance regularly evaluates the ongoing costs of regulation against their benefits and how that balance plays out over time.
I don’t know if there’s an official term for this political philosophy; it doesn’t seem to strictly fall into one party or another.
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Comment on Is anyone else just fed up with companies being greedy? in ~talk
fional Link ParentIt’s also that Discord’s taken nearly a billion dollars in VC money at a valuation of $15b, so almost regardless of the specific details of how, Discord is locked into the road of increasingly...It’s also that Discord’s taken nearly a billion dollars in VC money at a valuation of $15b, so almost regardless of the specific details of how, Discord is locked into the road of increasingly desperate and invasive ways to try to show a return to their investors.
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Comment on The origins of precision in ~engineering
fional Link ParentIf you ever want to get into the nitty-gritty of how parts are brought into reference tolerances, this is a neat video on how people did it (and still do it!) manually with a carbide scraping...If you ever want to get into the nitty-gritty of how parts are brought into reference tolerances, this is a neat video on how people did it (and still do it!) manually with a carbide scraping tool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJXqHpSh3SE
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Comment on The origins of precision in ~engineering
fional Link ParentWithout having seen the video, I’d assume that, given a known flat surface plate, you’d first grind/lap three maybe-squares checking against the plate until they have one flat reference surface....Without having seen the video, I’d assume that, given a known flat surface plate, you’d first grind/lap three maybe-squares checking against the plate until they have one flat reference surface. Then, using the surface plate to constrain them along their known-good axis you would then a/b/c them against each other on their protruding side to bring them collectively into square. You would need at least three for the same reasons you would making the original surface plate.
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Comment on How trans singers adapt to their changing voices in ~lgbt
fional LinkAhh, as a trans woman, I'm in this bucket! I'm fortunate enough to have a very extended upper range, and can hit a pretty convincing mezzo-soprano, but I'm always aware that I can't really...Ahh, as a trans woman, I'm in this bucket! I'm fortunate enough to have a very extended upper range, and can hit a pretty convincing mezzo-soprano, but I'm always aware that I can't really generate the tonal depth or color I want in that range. I suppose, to some degree, it's a trope that most people can't stand their own voices, but I think being trans adds complications--I'm always aware of what my pre-transition voice sounded like, and it's really hard to not hear elements of it in my voice that might not even register to an external listener. It's probably healthiest to embrace an attitude that one's voice is unique and worthwhile even if it's somewhat atypical, but it's hard not to be frustrated by comparing myself to others.
I think, for me, 'Art' is a two-way conversation between me and the artist. They make a promise of depth, and that if I invest the time in comprehending the work, I'll be rewarded by finding new subtleties in that depth, and learn something, about them, myself, or the world. Historically, that promise is communicated by technical expertise and the medium; the more I can perceive the amount of time and effort that went into a piece, the more depth I expect to find. Likewise, I would expect to spend more time delving into a wall-sized oil painting than a wall-sized blown-up photograph. I know the latter was ultimately a button-click on the part of a photographer, and that could've been a lot of up-front work and time spent in the right place to get the perfect shot, but on initial glance, I have a cultural model that tells me "big photo == work", "big painting == WORK!".
I believe a big part of my disappointment on encountering AI generated stuff is that it's a direct contradiction and invalidation of the cultural model I have on these relationships. They make gigantic implicit promises that they then fail to deliver on, because the conversation with the artist is shallow. They said something, to prompt, to LORA, to inpaint, but it's less than what was promised. If I then start critically inspecting the work, expecting a reward, I get nothing, because the detail was 'the statistical median of our training set', not artistic intent. Disappointment.
Going forward, I think this will resolve in two ways: first, my cultural model will update. I will learn that technical expertise is not a promise of depth, and I will treat works with more trepidation. Photorealism went from the pinnacle of paint artistry, to attainable by dangerous and technically difficult works by photographers, to everyone's phone in their pocket. I don't assume a photo is art, without some other mechanism that tells me the conversation is worth initiating (hanging in a gallery, winning an award, etc.). AI does that for art more broadly.
Second, artists will learn to have deep conversations using AI. They will discover how to feed enough of themselves into a work through AI that the resultant work communicates something about themselves, and more universal truths, and will be worth the effort on my part to meet them there. We're not there yet.