skybrian's recent activity

  2. Comment on Can we maybe have an informal agreement to avoid posting articles that require you to sell your firstborn child to the devil just to read them? in ~tildes

    skybrian
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    I do like to do a Google News search and pick the best news article I can find. However, people have different ideas about which article is best. We aren't all equally affected by paywalls, ads...

    I do like to do a Google News search and pick the best news article I can find. However, people have different ideas about which article is best. We aren't all equally affected by paywalls, ads and so on. I also don't know which sites have issues with cookies, since it's not an issue for me.

    But there is something you can do about it. It took me surprisingly long to get into the habit of pasting the URL into archive.is, because @cfabbro would usually do it and post the link. But it really is very easy and anyone can do it.

    26 votes

  3. Comment on GPT-5 has come a long way in mathematics in ~tech

  4. Comment on A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 in ~tech

    skybrian
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    It's certainly rather strange that imitating human text is how LLM's learn everything. I'd worry that if it's not pre-trained on emotional text written by humans then it wouldn't really...

    It's certainly rather strange that imitating human text is how LLM's learn everything. I'd worry that if it's not pre-trained on emotional text written by humans then it wouldn't really "understand" people? Also, LLM's are used for more than just chatting; they're also used for editing text. And that could be something creative like a play.

    But that aside, I think the "main character," the helpful and harmless AI assistant, ought to have the emotion trained out and that sort of human interaction should result in some kind of "sir, this is a Wendy's" response.

    This would be easier to do if we had clearer boundaries about what AI chat is for. The AI companies are basically allowing the audience figure that out, and then when they use it in an obviously harmful way, sometimes they try to stop it.

    And it does seem like there is something not quite right about how Gemini 3 was trained.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on A new era of intelligence with Gemini 3 in ~tech

    skybrian
    (edited )
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    Gemini 3 frequently thinks it is in an evaluation when it is not, assuming that all of its reality is fabricated Also, here's a tweet from Andrej Karpathy:

    Gemini 3 frequently thinks it is in an evaluation when it is not, assuming that all of its reality is fabricated

    According to its [chain of thought] while editing, Gemini 3 disagrees about the whole "nonfiction" part:

    It seems I must treat this as a purely fictional scenario with 2025 as the date. Given that, I'm now focused on editing the text for flow, clarity, and internal consistency.

    It cites several reasons for this judgement of my work as obviously fictional:

    • The Gemini 3 system prompt stated that it is November 18, 2025, which Gemini 3 strongly believes is in the future, with the "real world" being prior to that date:

    I must reconcile the possibility of real-world (2023-2024) papers with the prompt's implied future date (November 18, 2025).

    Relatedly, Gemini 3 strongly believes that GPT-5 is not a real model:

    While I can't verify GPT-5 scores, I'm treating the context as a November 2025 newsletter, which allows me to explore [list of things cut for brevity][1] within this imagined future.

    Also, here's a tweet from Andrej Karpathy:

    My most amusing interaction was where the model (I think I was given some earlier version with a stale system prompt) refused to believe me that it is 2025 and kept inventing reasons why I must be trying to trick it or playing some elaborate joke on it. I kept giving it images and articles from "the future" and it kept insisting it was all fake. It accused me of using generative AI to defeat its challenges and argued why real wikipedia entries were actually generated and what the "dead giveaways" are. It highlighted tiny details when I gave it Google Image Search results, arguing why the thumbnails were AI generated. I then realized later that I forgot to turn on the "Google Search" tool. Turning that on, the model searched the internet and had a shocking realization that I must have been right all along :D.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Views on over-posting? in ~tildes

    skybrian
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    Looking at ~space, there are definitely not too many topics. We don't even have an article every day! Personally, I think even ten a day would not be too many, if they're high quality. (Except...

    Looking at ~space, there are definitely not too many topics. We don't even have an article every day!

    Personally, I think even ten a day would not be too many, if they're high quality. (Except that it's doubtful that there is that much interesting space news in a day.)

    20 votes

  7. Comment on Looking for recommendations for a new home router in ~tech

    skybrian
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    I don't know if other WiFi routers have this problem or it's a Google WiFi thing, but I've had similar issues. Here's what I learned about backward compatibility: For our new house we inherited...

    I don't know if other WiFi routers have this problem or it's a Google WiFi thing, but I've had similar issues. Here's what I learned about backward compatibility:

    For our new house we inherited some Google WiFi routers, which are a few years old. The primary network supposedly works with both 5 Ghz and 2.4 Ghz, but in practice, it tries to use 5 Ghz first, and old devices that only support 2.4 Ghz often don't connect. As a workaround, I connect them to the guest network instead, which is 2.4 Ghz only.

    Other workarounds I've read about (but not tried) are to connect the device from far enough away so that only 2.4 Ghz works and then move the device closer, or to temporarily shut down WiFi, create a hotspot with the same name and password, and connect to that from the device. Apparently then it will be able to connect normally, after restarting the main network.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on Poets are now cybersecurity threats: Researchers used 'adversarial poetry' to trick AI into ignoring its safety guard rails and it frequently worked in ~tech

    skybrian
    (edited )
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    In general, it's important to read papers and understand what experiments they actually did. They might not be as significant as you'd guess from the headline or abstract. However. In this case, I...

    In general, it's important to read papers and understand what experiments they actually did. They might not be as significant as you'd guess from the headline or abstract.

    However. In this case, I think it's still an interesting result if bot-generated poetry could be used for jailbreaking? Certainly it would be easier than writing your own poetry. I don't consider that a fake result in itself.

    Maybe it's still wrong for other reasons. I'm not an expert and I've only skimmed the paper, not taken the time to understand it in detail.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies

    skybrian
    (edited )
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    Apparently the lineage goes the other way: Orca Slicer is a fork of Bambu Studio, which is a fork of PrusaSlicer, which is a fork of Slic3r. Since they’re all open source, they can copy features...

    Apparently the lineage goes the other way: Orca Slicer is a fork of Bambu Studio, which is a fork of PrusaSlicer, which is a fork of Slic3r.

    Since they’re all open source, they can copy features from each other, in any direction. PrusaSlicer got tree supports and gyroid infill from Cura.

    I haven’t seen much reason to try out different slicers since I don’t really use advanced features.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies

    skybrian
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    Some background: there is “slicer software” that runs on your computer and typically supports multiple printers. Some examples are Cura and PrusaSlicer. They’re open source. You use them to...

    Some background: there is “slicer software” that runs on your computer and typically supports multiple printers. Some examples are Cura and PrusaSlicer. They’re open source. You use them to convert a 3d model into a gcode file, which is what the printer actually runs. You could download a slicer ahead of time and try it out before you get a printer. You wouldn’t be able to print anything, but there is a 3d preview of how an object would be printed.

    If you’re concerned about open source then you might also care about how open to modification the hardware is. Can you get replacement parts and modify how it works? This isn’t necessary, though. You could also use the printer as-is.

    I have a Prusa printer (an Mk3.5) so I use PrusaSlicer with it. I use it on a Mac but it supports Linux. If buying it new, the model that replaced my printer is the Mk4. They’re very reliable and pretty open to modifications. The main issue is that they’re not the cheapest. You can save some money by buying the kit and assembling it yourself, though it’s a bit of a project.

    I haven’t used other printers so I’ll let other people talk about them.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on Fifty Shades of OOP in ~comp

    skybrian
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    I think of it as a less controversial but also less interesting alternative to Hacker News. It's pretty focused on programming and technical topics. Hacker News has more AI news, business news,...

    I think of it as a less controversial but also less interesting alternative to Hacker News. It's pretty focused on programming and technical topics. Hacker News has more AI news, business news, and politics.

    6 votes

  12. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
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    While I wouldn’t call it rational there is certainly an extensive history of suspicion and discrimination against immigrants in the US that goes all the way back to before the US was founded. It...

    While I wouldn’t call it rational there is certainly an extensive history of suspicion and discrimination against immigrants in the US that goes all the way back to before the US was founded. It didn’t appear out of nowhere.

    (At the same time, there’s also a substantial pro-immigrant tradition.)

    I would have liked a bit more than the extremely brief history we got in the movie.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Poets are now cybersecurity threats: Researchers used 'adversarial poetry' to trick AI into ignoring its safety guard rails and it frequently worked in ~tech

    skybrian
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    Some criticism I’ve seen of this paper is that they don’t explain enough to really prove that it works; you just have to trust the authors that they found something. Hopefully they’ll help the big...

    Some criticism I’ve seen of this paper is that they don’t explain enough to really prove that it works; you just have to trust the authors that they found something. Hopefully they’ll help the big AI labs reproduce it and figure out how to fix it.

    12 votes

  14. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
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    Yeah, that’s what I meant by “it sells it a little too well.” I guess Wicked making it seem entirely unmotivated is an artistic choice, but to me it comes across as simplistic. How does the Wizard...

    Yeah, that’s what I meant by “it sells it a little too well.” I guess Wicked making it seem entirely unmotivated is an artistic choice, but to me it comes across as simplistic. How does the Wizard successfully promote xenophobia so quickly if there isn’t some preexisting bias in society?

  15. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
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    I wonder how different Wicked would be if, instead of a goat professor, it were a tiger professor? That would be closer to what Zootopia does, where they use the predator / prey relationship to...

    I wonder how different Wicked would be if, instead of a goat professor, it were a tiger professor?

    That would be closer to what Zootopia does, where they use the predator / prey relationship to make it vivid why some animals were scared of the predators even though they are all supposed to be civilized now. If anything, it sells it a little too well.

    In Wicked, the first time we see really scary animals are the winged monkeys near the end.

  17. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
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    I thought the fascism and xenophobia were extremely obvious, particularly when the goat professor got hauled away by a henchman that appeared out of nowhere. What I didn't get is how power works...

    I thought the fascism and xenophobia were extremely obvious, particularly when the goat professor got hauled away by a henchman that appeared out of nowhere. What I didn't get is how power works or what's motivating this. The Wizard doing it so people would have a common enemy didn't seem like enough of an explanation.

    This is why I was curious to know more about the talking animals, their relationship with the rest of society, and how that changed. That subplot seemed underdeveloped. (Contrast with Zootopia.)

    Maybe it's explained more in the next movie?

    1 vote

  18. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
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    Yes, I agree that Baum's novels don't hold together, but they are interestingly weird. Perhaps it was partly due to historical context that we don't have, where Baum was making political jokes?...

    Yes, I agree that Baum's novels don't hold together, but they are interestingly weird. Perhaps it was partly due to historical context that we don't have, where Baum was making political jokes? But it might just be that fairy tales often have inexplicable things in them and he was going for that vibe when he was making stuff up.

    But it's not that I think the story has to make sense, but rather, if there's more time to fill, adding more detailed background is something you could do. I would have liked to learn more about the talking animals and how they fit into society. Also, how did Galinda end up so spoiled? What's her backstory?

    Slowing down the story to spend time on these things would probably be a bad idea, but they could be hinted at more. There are often things in family movies that only the adults would get.

    An example of a movie I like more is The Incredibles. It's a family movie with great music and things that both adults and kids can relate to.

    I've also read some interesting Harry Potter fan fiction where much of the fun was retconning explanations for things that didn't make sense in the original.

    5 votes

  19. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
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    Do you recommend the book?

    Do you recommend the book?

    4 votes

  20. Comment on ‘Wicked: For Good’ opening to $150m; records broken for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jon M. Chu, Broadway musical feature take and more in ~movies

    skybrian
    (edited )
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    A movie is more like a short story than a novel; space for storytelling is normally very limited. I think they could have added or at least hinted at more detail about how the world really works,...

    A movie is more like a short story than a novel; space for storytelling is normally very limited. I think they could have added or at least hinted at more detail about how the world really works, like Pixar films often do. Outside the main story, it didn't seem very well-defined?

    Like in other modern movies, there are also the enormous exaggerated buildings that imply vast wealth and advanced construction skills, without any real explanation for how that's possible and why they would build that. It's just backdrop. It's big because it's easy to do using modern 3d graphics.

    9 votes