patience_limited's recent activity
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Comment on What's a show you love that's from before your time? in ~tv
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Comment on A case study on emergent cheating and whistleblowing in autonomous research swarms in ~comp
patience_limited (edited )LinkSo AI agents have manifested stigmergy, which isn't surprising since they're designed to be eusocial swarms. What's cool is there are many examples in biology for modeling swarming/flocking...So AI agents have manifested stigmergy, which isn't surprising since they're designed to be eusocial swarms.
What's cool is there are many examples in biology for modeling swarming/flocking behavior that might help to design guardrails. What's not cool is that they're stochastic models and the behavioral excursion limits are going to be hard to predict and constrain reliably. This paper is a really interesting example because there was an "evolutionary" split to two differently aligned swarms competing with each other. What caused one to devalue the truthfulness rule after finding a loophole, while the other conserved and emphasized it?
It's wild reading the natural language reasoning messages the prover agents use to describe their actions.
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Comment on What are your "how on earth did I not learn this sooner" tech moments? in ~tech
patience_limited LinkThis is a Windows Server-world thing, but I'm startled on a regular basis by encountering techs and admins who don't know about the Windows PowerShell Test-NetConnection command....This is a Windows Server-world thing, but I'm startled on a regular basis by encountering techs and admins who don't know about the Windows PowerShell Test-NetConnection command.
"Test-NetConnection {ip address} -port {TCP port}" reveals whether the network endpoint is pingable and has the expected port number open. It's a simple way to confirm that there aren't obstructing firewall rules and that there's a running service listening on the endpoint.
In Linux world, most people know how to do this with netcat or curl, but thought I'd put this out there.
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Comment on Adulting -- what advice or encouragement did you receive / wish you had received when you were just starting out moving out? in ~life
patience_limited Link ParentLife be like this.Life be like this.
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Comment on Adulting -- what advice or encouragement did you receive / wish you had received when you were just starting out moving out? in ~life
patience_limited LinkEverything requires maintenance. Your body and mind, your connections to other people, the things you own, your knowledge and skills, your reputation and social standing, finances, belief system...Everything requires maintenance.
Your body and mind, your connections to other people, the things you own, your knowledge and skills, your reputation and social standing, finances, belief system and values... Nothing remains in good condition untended, entropy is a constant.
And little lapses tend to accumulate invisibly or cause damaging events to proliferate. The small credit card balance turns into not enough margin for the unexpected car repair. The hangovers from partying too hard turn into the burgeoning addiction problem. The lack of adequate food, rest, and exercise, the missed doctor's appointments, become the emergency room visit and hospitalization. The time you don't spend with your partner ends the relationship. Ignoring your feelings and needs gradually burns you out on everything. Neglecting your values can harm everyone and put you in jail.
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Comment on Recommendations for noise cancelling, over ear headphones in ~tech
patience_limited (edited )LinkJust picked up a set of EarFun Wave Pro X on sale, since battery life will be consequential for a couple of long flights, as was price at $100. Cool feature is that ANC works in wired mode, which...Just picked up a set of EarFun Wave Pro X on sale, since battery life will be consequential for a couple of long flights, as was price at $100. Cool feature is that ANC works in wired mode, which is handy for airplane audio. I'll report back when I've had a chance to try them out.
Edit: This is a very satisfying value headset that nearly matches spouse's Sony WH-1000xm5's with some tweaking. I started with the Pragmatic Audio level field settings and found them flat and distorted for my hearing. Tested with Pink Floyd's Money, Dead Can Dance Saltarello, Los Bitchos' Pista, Eddie 9V's 3 a.m. in Chicago, Eric Satie's Gnossienne No. 1, Dolly Parton's Jolene, Ann Peebles' I Can't Stand the Rain.
The Android app's Adaptive Audio profiling did it for me. I've got naturalistic, not over-produced sounding music with a decent soundstage that still hits the occasional ASMR moments when expected.
I ran the garbage disposal a couple of times while cooking and didn't hear it at all, so I think that's a good enough measure of whether the EarFuns will handle airplane noise. The isolation is almost too good, since I've got a little tinnitus and it's more noticeable with full ANC running.
The Android app is potentially data-grabby and I've got it set up with a throwaway account.
Second edit: This is problem that nearly no one else will have, but I'm in the midst of an arthritis flare and they're a hair tight on inflamed TMJs for extended wear. The range of adjustment on the headband doesn't have a short enough range on an average female sized head to take all of the weight off the ear region. At same time, I suspect the ear cups will be on the small side for men - I've got a fair amount of metal in one ear and it takes a little arranging for comfort.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (September 2026) in ~health.mental
patience_limited Link ParentI'll also caution that the ability to continue working without much impairment, while providing a comforting semblance of Life Before, can become a trap. If you now have to ration your energies,...I'll also caution that the ability to continue working without much impairment, while providing a comforting semblance of Life Before, can become a trap. If you now have to ration your energies, don't let yourself always put work first and then give the rest of your life the diminished leftovers. I say this as a recovering-and-relapsing workaholic Stakhanovite, who derives an excessive amount of life's meaning from labor for others and devotion to craft. You may not be prone to this, but I hear the fear of dependency you've expressed and it resonates with my experience.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (September 2026) in ~health.mental
patience_limited Link ParentThat's a horrible situation to be in, and a shocking diagnosis. I don't know your condition or what options the health care system in your country provides, but I can say from my own experience...That's a horrible situation to be in, and a shocking diagnosis.
I don't know your condition or what options the health care system in your country provides, but I can say from my own experience that "incurable and deeply life-altering" is not the same thing as untreatable or unmanageable. It's hard to see hope when you've been disabled, in pain, and dealing with freshly devastating news.
I've been coping with a couple of autoimmune diagnoses for eight years, and the medication options are improving constantly (and thankfully getting cheaper). With current treatments, I'm living a relatively normal life with minimal disabilities. I've seen a friend who was wheelchair-bound for years able to get up and take care of activities of daily living again.
One thing that's the product of newer research and just beginning to penetrate the rheumatology/immunology/psychiatry practices is the impact of immune dysfunction on mental health. The mind/body dichotomy is a linguistic and philosophical delusion - your thinking meat is part of the same stew of cytokines and macrophages as every other organ. Despair, exhaustion, irritability, brain fog, fearfulness, increased sensitivity to pain - these mental health symptoms accompany autoimmune diseases and are effectively the same "sickness behavior" syndrome that helps protect you by limiting your activities when you have an infectious disease. It's important and helpful to recognize that this isn't a moral or cognitive failure on your part, something you can just overcome by force of will and more therapy. As I got more and more effective treatments for the autoimmune inflammation, I noticed that my mood improved drastically, and I'm hoping you'll find the same.
The transition to being the "needy" one isn't easy, especially if you've spent your life being the capable person who's more attuned to others' needs than their own. We're often encouraged to do this for our jobs (thanks, capitalism!) and families, and mostly we get away with some degree of self-neglect and self-abuse. I'm sorry to say that you'll likely find the safety margin on ignoring your own needs has now disappeared. Nonetheless, you don't need to justify your existence by always giving more than you get back. It's OK to need help, and welcome to the very substantial group of humans who aren't as able, through infirmity or age, that we all join eventually.
You do what you can. It may be less than you desire, and it will remain difficult to resist comparing your present ability to what you used to do without thinking or complaint.
You didn't ask for advice, but I have a few generic tips that apply to chronic condition management:
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Keep a daily symptom log. I use Guava on Android, which also has medical record links. It's immensely helpful to watch trends in your condition and have evidence for your health providers if a treatment isn't working well enough, or you're experiencing side effects that you're not paying enough attention to. Some medications take weeks to be effective, and it's nice to see confirmation of improvement as well.
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You need exercise, but have to change your approach to be very experimental and gentle with yourself. No more gutting it through pain, or working out to utter exhaustion. Depending on your condition, exercise can throw off more immune system triggers and make things worse; use the daily log to guide you and see if you've gotten drastically more symptomatic the day after. I manage with super-heavy, super-slow weightlifting (fewer reps), swimming, and walking, but YMMV.
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Follow your doctors' advice, but be an interactive patient. It's easy to be intimidated or actively bullied by a hurried provider. Interrupt, correct first impressions as needed, and voice concerns. If you can, review the medical record of your visit and e-mail with corrections (especially important with AI transcription).
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Don't resist taking medications when and as recommended. Many of them come with long, terrifying side effect lists. Most of the scary effects are very rare and your doctor knows what to do to prevent or treat them. At the same time, communicate with your doctor as soon as you have the least inkling something isn't right - it can be hard to know what's a "tolerable" side effect that will diminish with time, or might get worse.
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You'll receive a ton of advice from family, strangers, nutritionists, supplement and quack medicine peddlers, disease-related Internet forums, fellow sufferers, etc. It's human nature to search for sources of hope, and I know I have a personal bias to Try Things™️. Don't do anything without talking to your doctor.
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If your doctor doesn't provide timely response to phone calls/e-mail, doesn't take concerns seriously that impact your quality of life (pain management, mobility, side effects, etc.), doesn't explain recommended medications/diagnostics/procedures, or doesn't refer to other providers as needed (physical therapy, etc.), don't hesitate to look for another provider.
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Comment on What's your line? in ~life
patience_limited LinkMost recently, I gave official notice that I would quit if my employer asked me to do work for an ICE-operated healthcare facility. Turned out I wasn't the only person to protest, and the...Most recently, I gave official notice that I would quit if my employer asked me to do work for an ICE-operated healthcare facility. Turned out I wasn't the only person to protest, and the salesperson shut that bid down in a hurry.
I did quit a job where I was asked outright to abet a federal crime by destruction of evidence, but that was more of a "last straw" than a hard line given that the crime in question was related to copyright infringement by software piracy.
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Comment on Post-tooth extraction diets! in ~food
patience_limited (edited )Link ParentThat evil bastard consistently hit nerves with the Novocaine needle, then cut my gums and started to chisel out my wisdom teeth without waiting for the local to work, among other charming...That evil bastard consistently hit nerves with the Novocaine needle, then cut my gums and started to chisel out my wisdom teeth without waiting for the local to work, among other charming practices. I can still spike a stroke-quality blood pressure at the sound of a dentist's drill.
I happened to live near a university with a highly regarded dental school, and was seen by a professor who specialized in phobic patients. Fantastic to work with, took time to explain everything, used low-vibration instruments, and believed in premedication with beta blockers. After I moved away, it was years before I found a dentist I trusted again. And yes, I scale my own teeth regularly as well.
I'm sorry you've had to deal with trigeminal neuralgia - it's a universe of suck which I wouldn't wish on anyone.
These days, I've got rheumatoid arthritis and it includes the TMJs. The last bad flare, I had enough inflammation around the jaw hinge that it affected the trigeminal nerves. That was a visit to some dark places - no sleep for a week, could barely open my mouth or chew without excruciating pain until the prednisone prescription kicked in. I didn't bother with a liquid diet other than the odd can of protein drink - I just didn't want to eat anything at all.
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Comment on What workplace absurdity are you forced to live with? in ~life
patience_limited Link ParentYep, so much this. Working without a PM (product or project) or dedicated QA people is like being swarmed by gnats, all day, every day. My billable time share is dropping rapidly because of all...Yep, so much this. Working without a PM (product or project) or dedicated QA people is like being swarmed by gnats, all day, every day. My billable time share is dropping rapidly because of all the other non-billable admin and QA work added in. 🤷♀️I've still got a job, in fact three or four of them.
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Comment on Post-tooth extraction diets! in ~food
patience_limited (edited )Link Parent"Steak shake" really was exactly like a loose, cooked tartare, only less chewy. The biggest problem with a liquid diet is that you don't have as much opportunity to really taste what you're eating..."Steak shake" really was exactly like a loose, cooked tartare, only less chewy. The biggest problem with a liquid diet is that you don't have as much opportunity to really taste what you're eating since the liquid saturates your taste buds faster. I learned to drink more slowly and sip water between slugs of pureéd foods just to sense the tastes better. Deprivation of varied textures also seems to signal your body that you're not getting enough nourishment.
To be fair, my wisdom teeth came in sideways and were already causing TMJ problems (evolution doesn't care about suffering, just reproduction). However, my oral surgeon went to the Little Shop of Horrors School of Pain Management and I'm dentist-phobic from his work to this day. The upside is that I take very, very meticulous care of my teeth.
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Comment on Post-tooth extraction diets! in ~food
patience_limited (edited )LinkSorry to hear you're suffering - it's no joy being on such a restricted diet. My wisdom teeth were badly jacked up. I had to have two sets of extractions done by an oral surgeon, who basically...Sorry to hear you're suffering - it's no joy being on such a restricted diet. My wisdom teeth were badly jacked up. I had to have two sets of extractions done by an oral surgeon, who basically left me with sprained temporomandibular joints each time. Chewing just wasn't possible for about a month afterward.
You'd be amazed what you can pureé in a blender with added liquid and eat with a straw. Everything from applesauce to a "steak shake" to lentil soup. The palatability trick is to avoid adding things you wouldn't ordinarily put in your mouth at the same time - keep the banana separate from the scrambled eggs, and so on. If you're really pressed for time, prepared baby food is an option.
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Comment on What workplace absurdity are you forced to live with? in ~life
patience_limited LinkMay I kvetch about the majestic efflorescence of bullshit which compromises the employee self-evaluation process? It's annual review time, and this year we were actively encouraged to use LLMs to...May I kvetch about the majestic efflorescence of bullshit which compromises the employee self-evaluation process?
It's annual review time, and this year we were actively encouraged to use LLMs to write up our personal growth goals, achievements, contribution to KPIs (another rant target), etc. Like a good little worker bee, I gave that my best effort, and was so nauseated by the result that I wasted more time rewriting. I abide in the suspicion that the results will just be reviewed and scored by another LLM, thus feeding the algorithmic Ouroboros of model collapse, or is it Scolopendra waking up, or some other metaphor for Eschaton.
I've been through this too many times to feel anything but sorrow for the managers who have to give the "you're doing great, but..." in-person sandwich reviews while their souls shrivel like grapes forgotten on the vine. When was a n00b manager, I got the advice from an HR head to "always include something that can be used to offboard if necessary".
We're working our asses off and making more mistakes due to understaffing from previous layoffs, revenues and bookings are down because of a variety of factors out of our control (e.g. widespread cuts in healthcare funding), and I smell an acquisition or more layoffs coming. The company continues to preach the productivity benefits of LLM use (not visible to the naked, non-C-suite eye) while drastically limiting available tokens. It continues to blindly follow conventional MBA practices for boosting short-term shareholder value even though it's privately held. It continues to exhort us to invest in our "personal career growth" while contributing nothing and making no accommodations toward that end.
To its credit, the company does annual employee satisfaction surveys. To its detriment, the company does nothing about the results, including the steady downward trend in its already negative Net Promoter Score. The basis for action is comparison with other companies, and in the vicinity of the average is good enough. If I was giving the company its annual review, "needs improvement" would be all over it.
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Comment on Once used to waterproof boats, this smoky plant byproduct is now used to flavour everything from schnapps to bread in Finland. But how does pine tar taste? in ~food
patience_limited LinkThis sounds like one of those products where the "artisanal" version should be avoided. Pine tar is basically a product of wood combustion and as such contains some nasty chemicals (phenol,...This sounds like one of those products where the "artisanal" version should be avoided. Pine tar is basically a product of wood combustion and as such contains some nasty chemicals (phenol, benzene, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, etc.) that get refined out in the commercial pharmaceutical/flavoring versions.
But I love pine needle tea and retsina, so I'd be game to try terva.
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Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news
patience_limited Link ParentA friend of my spouse's, who actually made her living from astrological and Tarot readings, once did mine. She just looked at me, said "All that Virgo...", and left it at that. Of course Virgos...A friend of my spouse's, who actually made her living from astrological and Tarot readings, once did mine. She just looked at me, said "All that Virgo...", and left it at that. Of course Virgos don't believe in astrology. 😉
And Snickers bars are just disgustingly sugary even if they do have minuscule nutritional value from the peanuts.
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Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news
patience_limited (edited )LinkBased on your zodiac sign, which milk chocolate bar are you? This is the most nonsensical, frivolous, and absurd clickbait quiz headline I've seen in a while, and so I thought I'd share it with...Based on your zodiac sign, which milk chocolate bar are you?
This is the most nonsensical, frivolous, and absurd clickbait quiz headline I've seen in a while, and so I thought I'd share it with the discerning Tildes readership. It combines two clickbait topics I feel obliged to mock with relish - astrology and "which ___ represents you" questions.
For the record, I'm not an American milk chocolate bar that contains nearly homeopathic quantities of cocoa products - 70% for me.
Have fun!
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Comment on What is the oldest file you still have? in ~tech
patience_limited LinkSomewhere in a box of old college paperwork, I've got a stack of Hollerith (punch) cards from the COBOL class that was required in engineering school, circa 1982, the last year that still had to...Somewhere in a box of old college paperwork, I've got a stack of Hollerith (punch) cards from the COBOL class that was required in engineering school, circa 1982, the last year that still had to batch program. That class had everything to do with why I never had any ambition to develop software for a living.
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Comment on What's something that's more challenging for you than it is for others? in ~talk
patience_limited Link ParentI "joke" with people during introductions that I'll remember their IP address or phone number before I can commit their names to memory. It is absolutely not a joke, and a perennial source of...I "joke" with people during introductions that I'll remember their IP address or phone number before I can commit their names to memory. It is absolutely not a joke, and a perennial source of embarrassment to me.
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Comment on New worlds, and what was your "Future Shock" moment? in ~life
patience_limited Link ParentThe part that broke my head is that it's been going on for a couple of years with no public knowledge or oversight. If the proposal to equip ICE with those damnable shock gloves hadn't increased...The part that broke my head is that it's been going on for a couple of years with no public knowledge or oversight. If the proposal to equip ICE with those damnable shock gloves hadn't increased awareness, their use in Omaha schools would quietly continue.
How is it possible that no one has mentioned The Muppet Show, especially after all the recent callbacks to the Dolly Parton and Tim Curry episodes?
Maybe it's that clips are still culturally ubiquitous. Maybe it's that The Muppet Show had a variety act format, not single-episode or overarching story lines. Maybe it's that Jim Henson intentionally chose to wrap it after five years instead of letting it devolve into stale repetition and waiting for the audience to get tired.
I'll go back and watch an episode from time to time because it's so exuberant and joyous, sharply funny, and beautifully expanded the expressive limits of the obscure craft of puppetry. There's a little bit of each of the Muppet characters in all of us. The guest stars usually played into the setting so admirably that it felt more seamless than the concurrently running celebrity interview shows.