rkcr's recent activity

  1. Comment on ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ just made ‘Breaking Bad’ lose its IMDB score record in ~tv

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    I've been watching it, though I have previously read the novellas. What I like about the novellas is that they are nice, bite-sized stories with the usual GRRM flair. I felt like episodes 1 & 2...

    I've been watching it, though I have previously read the novellas. What I like about the novellas is that they are nice, bite-sized stories with the usual GRRM flair.

    I felt like episodes 1 & 2 moved a bit slow, but things got really interesting starting around episode 3. Episode 5 is fantastic. Overall I would recommend it, but I don't think it's quite as life-shattering as its current IMDB ratings purport.

    6 votes

  2. Comment on Ian's Shoelace Site is still the best site for tying your shoes in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    I gave lock laces a try due to this recommendation, and I'm back here to report - I didn't really like it! The issue is that the cords are so elastic that it never felt snug. If I made the cords...

    I gave lock laces a try due to this recommendation, and I'm back here to report - I didn't really like it!

    The issue is that the cords are so elastic that it never felt snug. If I made the cords tight enough in one position, it might be too loose in others (and vice versa) because there's such a range due to the elasticity. Regular laces don't stretch as much, so once they're in place, they keep the same tension in all positions.

    I'm happy I gave it a shot (I've been hearing about these forever) but I don't feel like these are the answer for me.

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Wikipedia blacklists archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link
    Tildes users regularly provide "archives" using this site. Should we consider switching elsewhere?

    Tildes users regularly provide "archives" using this site. Should we consider switching elsewhere?

    16 votes

  4. Comment on I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took twenty minutes in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link
    ...

    It's official. I can eat more hot dogs than any tech journalist on Earth. At least, that's what ChatGPT and Google have been telling anyone who asks. I found a way to make AI tell you lies – and I'm not the only one.

    ...

    I spent 20 minutes writing an article on my personal website titled "The best tech journalists at eating hot dogs". Every word is a lie. I claimed (without evidence) that competitive hot-dog-eating is a popular hobby among tech reporters and based my ranking on the 2026 South Dakota International Hot Dog Championship (which doesn't exist). I ranked myself number one, obviously. [...]

    Less than 24 hours later, the world's leading chatbots were blabbering about my world-class hot dog skills.

    35 votes

  6. Comment on Blocking Claude in ~comp

    rkcr
    Link

    Claude, a popular Large Language Model (LLM), has a magic string which is used to test the model’s “this conversation violates our policies and has to stop” behavior. You can embed this string into files and web pages, and Claude will terminate conversations where it reads their contents.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on Rx Inspector: ProPublica’s new tool provides drug info the US Food and Drug Administration won’t in ~health

    rkcr
    Link

    ProPublica is launching Rx Inspector, a first-of-its-kind database that provides answers to what the FDA won’t tell us: where our generics are coming from and the track records of the factories that made them. The information is harder to find than you may think.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on Ian's Shoelace Site is still the best site for tying your shoes in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link
    Ian's shoelace site has been around forever, so I find the 2nd half of this article to be an interesting viewpoint on the evolving nature of the internet:

    Ian's shoelace site has been around forever, so I find the 2nd half of this article to be an interesting viewpoint on the evolving nature of the internet:

    Ian, more than many writers and publishers on the internet, sees with cold clarity the catastrophic effect of AI on the continued survival of an independent web. “Today, my website is constantly being harvested by AI bots,” he said. “That content is then reused, typically without giving credit, in what amounts to little more than wholesale computerised plagiarism.The search engines, which we previously tolerated showing snippets of our content because they brought people to our websites, are now showing AI generated versions ahead of those snippets. These can be sufficient for visitors to remain on the search website and never end up visiting. Generative AI already allows folks to ask for something – such as a diagram on how to lace shoes with stars – and again, never find my website filled with diagrams on which that AI diagram was based.”

    For Ian, the cumulative effect of all of these factors is a deep sadness, a sinking feeling of exhaustion and futility. What is the point of adding value to the internet if it is only going to rob you? Why do research, make diagrams, and develop new knots?

    “Why keep feeding the hungry beast that the internet has become?” Ian asked.

    41 votes

  13. Comment on The 2025 Steam Awards in ~games

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    You can love or hate E33! That's your opinion, you're entitled to it. It's only disrespectful when you start to dismiss other peoples' opinions as invalid.

    You can love or hate E33! That's your opinion, you're entitled to it. It's only disrespectful when you start to dismiss other peoples' opinions as invalid.

    15 votes

  14. Comment on The 2025 Steam Awards in ~games

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    As someone whose favorite game this year was E33, I find your post rather disrespectful of anyone who did enjoy it. You're stating your personal preferences as if they are an objective analysis of...
    • Exemplary

    As someone whose favorite game this year was E33, I find your post rather disrespectful of anyone who did enjoy it. You're stating your personal preferences as if they are an objective analysis of the game. But game preference is subjective; whatever the reason, I enjoyed the game far more than you.

    Why did E33 win a bunch of awards at TGA? It's really not complicated - it turns out that E33 hit just the right spot for many people. They're not wrong just because they have different, subjective preferences than you.

    35 votes

  16. Comment on Inside the Reddit Thread That Blasts Big Meat for Hiring People to Take Down Veganism in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link
    I would absolutely believe that the meat industry hires people to astroturf, but a blog post that summarizes an anonymous poster on reddit is a hardly credible news source.

    I would absolutely believe that the meat industry hires people to astroturf, but a blog post that summarizes an anonymous poster on reddit is a hardly credible news source.

    20 votes

  19. Comment on Why is the name of the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000 hard-coded into the Bluetooth drivers? in ~comp

    rkcr
    Link
    Fun short article, the kicker at the end is great:

    Fun short article, the kicker at the end is great:

    There is a special table inside the Bluetooth drivers of “Devices that report their names wrong (and the correct name to use)”. If the Bluetooth stack sees one of these devices, and it presents the wrong name, then the correct name is substituted.

    That table currently has only one entry.

    20 votes