talklittle's recent activity
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Comment on What the hell are we doing with hierarchical tags? in ~tildes
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Comment on This site is fast in ~tildes
talklittle Link Parenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ActiveXMicrosoft's framework
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Comment on Gloria Estefan: Tiny Desk Concert (2025) in ~music
talklittle LinkI listened to this yesterday. What a feel-good performance! She gave nice commentary. Toward the end it seemed like her storytelling energy was running out but even so, they brought the energy for...I listened to this yesterday. What a feel-good performance! She gave nice commentary. Toward the end it seemed like her storytelling energy was running out but even so, they brought the energy for that last song!
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Comment on Itoki Hana - ぼくの死因 Cause of My Death - Singing with Piano (2025) in ~music
talklittle LinkA lonely song. I like the vocals. It's a simpler version of a 2021 song which had more arrangement. I prefer this piano version. She also sang Skies Forever Blue (bittersweet video game themed...A lonely song. I like the vocals.
It's a simpler version of a 2021 song which had more arrangement. I prefer this piano version.
She also sang Skies Forever Blue (bittersweet video game themed song) and The Greatest Living Show (abuse themed, beautiful hand animated music video) around 2023, collaborating with Toby Fox of Undertale video game fame.
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Itoki Hana - ぼくの死因 Cause of My Death - Singing with Piano (2025)
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Comment on 2025 Nobel Prize – This year's Nobel Prize announcements will take place between 6th - 13th October 2025 in ~science
talklittle Link Parent[Offtopic] Oops didn't see you were already posting the individual prizes in the comments here. Oh well, I thought the quantum one was interesting so doesn't hurt to have as a top-level topic IMO.[Offtopic] Oops didn't see you were already posting the individual prizes in the comments here. Oh well, I thought the quantum one was interesting so doesn't hurt to have as a top-level topic IMO.
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Comment on 2025 Physics Nobel awarded to three scientists for work on quantum computing (in the 1980s) in ~science
talklittle LinkThe timing makes sense given how quantum computing is getting more attention than ever. Kind of funny the committee chose work from 40 years ago in spite of all the supposed progress being made...The timing makes sense given how quantum computing is getting more attention than ever. Kind of funny the committee chose work from 40 years ago in spite of all the supposed progress being made today. Maybe a lot of today's quantum research is difficult to objectively validate and therefore controversial?
"To put it mildly, it was a surprise of my life," said Professor John Clarke, who was born in Cambridge, UK and now works at the University of California in Berkeley.
Michel H. Devoret was born in Paris, France and is a professor at Yale University while John M. Martinis is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara.
[...] The Nobel committee recognised breakthrough work performed by the three men in a series of experiments in the 1980s on electrical circuits.
In the words of the committee, "the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit".
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2025 Physics Nobel awarded to three scientists for work on quantum computing (in the 1980s)
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Comment on Humble Choice - October 2025 in ~games
talklittle Link ParentOh boy. Didn't realize that extra free time would lead to one-man plays being written. Now I'm having some regrets about the extension. Should have created it a long time ago!Oh boy. Didn't realize that extra free time would lead to one-man plays being written. Now I'm having some regrets about the extension.
Should have created it a long time ago! -
Comment on Harvard physicists working to develop game-changing tech demonstrate 3,000 quantum-bit system capable of continuous operation in ~science
talklittle Link ParentAnswering myself: After thinking and rereading, I realized this stability presented in this article is separate from the circuit design. There's not any claimed breakthrough in number of qubits or...Answering myself: After thinking and rereading, I realized this stability presented in this article is separate from the circuit design. There's not any claimed breakthrough in number of qubits or the circuit size. The decay is happening in the circuit itself due to the materials and tiny nanoscale environment it's dealing with. So temporally a quantum circuit will naturally decay, and these researchers found a way to stabilize that temporal decay by replacing the atoms leaving the system.
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Comment on Harvard physicists working to develop game-changing tech demonstrate 3,000 quantum-bit system capable of continuous operation in ~science
talklittle LinkI'm having trouble finding it but there was an interesting graphic, maybe on Mastodon or Bluesky, illustrating how adding one logic gate to a quantum circuit could increase the required components...I'm having trouble finding it but there was an interesting graphic, maybe on Mastodon or Bluesky, illustrating how adding one logic gate to a quantum circuit could increase the required components by an order of magnitude? Very fuzzy but it was something like: 5 logic gates requires around 20 fundamental gates, and 6 logic gates requires hundreds of fundamental gates. Does anyone know the graphic I'm talking about?
Is that quantity at all related to the 3000 qubits talked about here? Implying that going from 300 qubits to 3000 qubits allows one additional logic calculation added to a circuit?
Ah, I see this article that explains it better: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/microsoft-new-quantum-chip-explained
One inherent issue is that qubits are notoriously error-prone; building error-corrected systems typically requires a massive overhead of additional qubits to stabilize just a few “logical qubits” that do the calculations.
(Referring to Microsoft's "Majorana 1" quantum chip that they announced earlier this year, claiming it will lead to a million qubits on a single chip.)
The major problem with the terminology is that "qubit" is so overloaded. Can't tell at a glance if the qubits are doing actual logical work, or if they are helpers there to stabilize the logic qubits. Even with these systems that introduce stability like in the posted article, it's unclear to me if that means fewer qubits are needed on a circuit to do the same amount of work.
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Open-source robotics simulations on Godot and Unreal Engine, and ROS2
I'm info dumping some links about open-source robotics. The rabbit hole runs deep and this barely scratches the surface. Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of these yet. Based on a cursory search and...
I'm info dumping some links about open-source robotics. The rabbit hole runs deep and this barely scratches the surface.
Disclaimer: I haven't tried any of these yet. Based on a cursory search and following links from the great Open-source robotics Wikipedia page.
Robotics simulation on Godot
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https://github.com/flynneva/godot_ros - Proof-of-concept integrating ROS2 (Robot Operating System) with Godot, for a 3D robot simulation environment. (Updated 8 months ago)
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https://github.com/nordstream3/Godot-4-ROS2-integration - A fork(?) of the above. The readme is clearer with visual examples of what it's meant for. (Updated 12 months ago)
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https://github.com/plaans/gobot-sim - A top-down 2D factory simulation of packages being processed by machines. (Updated 3 months ago)
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https://lab.nexedi.com/nexedi/godot-modbus-demo - Exposing a modbus interface to control simulated industrial components. (Updated 5 years ago.) Comes with a blog post which might be more recent (a year ago?).
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https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.18408 - "Exploring Flexible Scenario Generation in Godot Simulator" about generating simulated physical scenes for testing computer-controlled cars. Write-up only with no code. (Submitted 9 months ago)
Robotic car simulation on Unreal Engine and Unity
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https://github.com/carla-simulator/carla - "CARLA is an open-source simulator for autonomous driving research." They mostly target Unreal Engine. Regularly updated and popular with 13k stars on GitHub.
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https://github.com/microsoft/AirSim - Microsoft and IAMAI collaborated (plus DARPA funding?) to create an open source simulation platform for both flying drones and autonomous cars. Targets Unreal Engine and experimentally Unity also. Soon being sunset and replaced with a new project confusingly named "Project AirSim."
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https://github.com/iamaisim/ProjectAirSim - The successor to AirSim. The GitHub shows it's only at version 0.1.1 though.
Robot Operating System (ROS2)
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https://docs.ros.org/en/kilted/Tutorials.html - Tutorials beginning with TurtleSim, a top-down 2D turtle scene where you control turtles. Looks like ROS2 uses familiar network messaging patterns like Publish-Subscribe.
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https://vimeo.com/osrfoundation/videos/sort:date - Presentation videos. Looks like the Open Robotics foundation just completed a developers' conference in Japan two days ago. The presentations from ROSCon JP are Japanese-language-only. Next one is coming very soon this October in Singapore.
How to get started?
That's a lot of links. I'd first figure out what I want to do. Humanoid robots seem popular lately—like the Berkeley 3d printed robot—so it'd be interesting to start there, although it doesn't map cleanly onto the projects I linked. So maybe if I imagined a robot with a human torso and arms, but with wheels and car-like locomotion. Then I could use a combination of the car simulators and probably ROS2 to deal with the upper body components? Or maybe there is another solution for the torso and arms that is a more direct fit than ROS2? Maybe iRobot/Roomba has a better solution for the car-like locomotion at this small scale?
Anyone used these before and have a story to share? Anyone curious to try one out and report back? I plan to, but no idea on my schedule.
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Comment on Berkeley engineers develop customizable, 3D-printed robot for tech newbies in ~tech
talklittle LinkThis looks awesome. What could a 1-meter-tall robot be used for? The article mentions it can walk and grasp objects including a Rubik's cube. Risk of theft/vandalism aside, could this feasibly...This looks awesome. What could a 1-meter-tall robot be used for? The article mentions it can walk and grasp objects including a Rubik's cube.
Risk of theft/vandalism aside, could this feasibly walk down a city sidewalk to the corner store and buy a sandwich? How about staying home, boiling water and cooking instant noodles, and serving it in a bowl? Cracking an egg without leaving any shell in it?
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Comment on Horror games to play during October in ~games
talklittle (edited )LinkApparently SOMA got a patch last week on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/282140/view/542243094205040852?l=english Game: - Fixed faulty spam filters on Simon’s PC Users may still...Apparently SOMA got a patch last week on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/282140/view/542243094205040852?l=english
Game: - Fixed faulty spam filters on Simon’s PC Users may still receive suspicious correspondence due to treemail 0.1 filtering process issues. Misc: - Bug Fixes ▔░▕▄ ▋▕▛▕░▜ ▀▚▀█//////////▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▀ ▒█▍▂▄░▄ ▔▇▀▍▊ ▜▎ ▕ ▅░▎ ▌ ▅░█▂▔█▎ ▍▀▋ ▆▀▌▌▌▄▄▄▄▄▒▒▒/////▒▒▒▒▒Unfortunately doesn't look like it's on sale though: https://isthereanydeal.com/game/soma/info/
[Edit: Now on sale for $2.99 until October 6.]It was also released on Switch this July.
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Looking forward to Apple Container/Containerization tool in macOS 26, an alternative to Docker
Haven't been following the macOS updates closely but a big feature I'm looking forward to in macOS 26 is Apple's container solution as an alternative to Docker. The "container" command line tool:...
Haven't been following the macOS updates closely but a big feature I'm looking forward to in macOS 26 is Apple's container solution as an alternative to Docker.
The "container" command line tool: https://github.com/apple/container
The underlying Containerization package: https://github.com/apple/containerization
The main improvement over Docker on Mac is that it uses separate lightweight VMs per container, instead of one shared Linux VM hosting all containers. This means the RAM allocation can be dynamic instead of the user having to decide how many total GB to allocate for the Docker VM. So if I'm running a lot of containers I expect it to work without manually changing settings, and if I'm running only a single container then I expect it won't waste resources with allocated-but-unused RAM.
Currently these repos are on version 0.4.1 and 0.8.1 respectively, which tells me they're not ready yet. Hoping they're ready around the time macOS 26 releases to GA.
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Comment on KeenWrite 3.6.3 in ~comp
talklittle Link ParentI reached out to someone I know who is very well versed in academic research and publishing papers. Hope this doesn't sound too discouraging but this is what they had to say. When it comes to...I reached out to someone I know who is very well versed in academic research and publishing papers. Hope this doesn't sound too discouraging but this is what they had to say.
When it comes to technical papers, in this person's opinion, LaTeX still dominates and there's not really a replacement. They pointed out that convenience tools around LaTeX are immensely popular, including things like the online LaTeX editor Overleaf.
Apparently Markdown is considered niche and for technical users, who are technical enough to go ahead and learn LaTeX anyway.
Non-technical users tend to go with the traditional Word doc or Google doc.
Hope that is helpful info, even if it's not the encouragement that I'd hoped to provide. At least among technical users there might be room for a comfortable niche for a Markdown-based tool.
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Comment on Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (April 2025) — Version 1.4 adds a text size setting in ~tildes
talklittle Link ParentSorry for the inconvenience. I investigated more and there is a bug affecting Android 11 and earlier, when voting. I'm pushing out a fixed version 1.4.5. It's apparently been broken since version...Sorry for the inconvenience. I investigated more and there is a bug affecting Android 11 and earlier, when voting. I'm pushing out a fixed version 1.4.5. It's apparently been broken since version 1.3 released in February.
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Comment on Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (April 2025) — Version 1.4 adds a text size setting in ~tildes
talklittle Link ParentUnfortunately I have to ask that you re-login fully. That means deleting the account from the System Settings under Accounts, then going back to the app and logging in. When the login session...Unfortunately I have to ask that you re-login fully. That means deleting the account from the System Settings under Accounts, then going back to the app and logging in.
When the login session expires, there are cases where the app cannot automatically refresh it, and the app doesn't handle it well. Targeting the next version after 1.4.4 I've added some additional checks, but still will require the user to login again.
In the future, depending on how the Tildes API ends up being implemented—which there has been some movement on recently, largely thanks to contributions from @polle—there might be more elegant solutions.
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Comment on Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (April 2025) — Version 1.4 adds a text size setting in ~tildes
talklittle Link ParentThanks for reporting. I've pushed out a fix version 1.4.4 which may take a day to get through Play Store review. (Apparently YouTube is getting stricter about API clients setting the HTTP Referer....Thanks for reporting. I've pushed out a fix version 1.4.4 which may take a day to get through Play Store review. (Apparently YouTube is getting stricter about API clients setting the HTTP Referer. Many apps are affected this past week.)
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Comment on AI content warning label in ~creative
talklittle LinkThe best proof I've seen is when artists have a video/stream documenting their work process so the audience can watch the artwork evolve. Digital artists sometimes provide (often for sale) their...The best proof I've seen is when artists have a video/stream documenting their work process so the audience can watch the artwork evolve. Digital artists sometimes provide (often for sale) their work assets like layered Photoshop files, which as I understand it, is difficult for AI to produce, but I'm not sure if that's still true.
The following is tangential as it's a physical rather than a digital watermark: There is some research on light-based watermarks that can be applied in real life settings while recording a video, as one measure to protect against deepfakes. The light signatures are supposedly difficult to reproduce with generative AI available today. So if someone is recording a video on a camera they could potentially use some kind of physical watermark like that.
The "tag aliases" feature has been brought up several times before as a solution to this. So the current hierarchical tags might be chosen as the "canonical" tag and then aliases would exist, so we could have both instead of forced to choose one over the other.
This is one of the things I've been wanting to add when I have time/energy to work on Tildes properly again. As an aside: I don't need to explain to the techie crowd here, but the software industry is in many instances moving to an extremely demanding—and on an individual basis likely unsustainable—pace. So the maintainers here are also swamped with work, and of course non-work life things as well.