whbboyd's recent activity
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Comment on What lesser-known sci-fi reads do you recommend? in ~books
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Comment on Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentIt is probably straightforward, but there are plenty of ancillaries you're not going to do with a curl script that they could pick up on (like, did your IP pull down the page that's supposed to...It is probably straightforward, but there are plenty of ancillaries you're not going to do with a
curlscript that they could pick up on (like, did your IP pull down the page that's supposed to make this request within a reasonably recent window) and filter on.(You could drive e.g. a Selenium instance, of course, but that's well outside the realm of "simple scripting". Also I think Amazon ships a fair amount of pre-rendered HTML? That's technically an API, but the "A" is a web browser and extracting structured data you care about may not be straightforward.)
The bigger problem is that those internal interfaces are likely to be frightfully unstable. It's not hard to do once, but if you're rewriting it weekly, it rapidly stops being worth the effort.
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Comment on Less than a year on, Microsoft tells Mico to pipe down in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentI have a lot of disrespect for everyone working at Anthropic, but whichever designer got them to plaster their product with an absolutely no-questions-asked butthole is a goddamn hero.I have a lot of disrespect for everyone working at Anthropic, but whichever designer got them to plaster their product with an absolutely no-questions-asked butthole is a goddamn hero.
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Comment on Defective D&D magic items in ~games.tabletop
whbboyd LinkMost of the ones where the downside is under the user's control seem pretty exploitable to me. For instance, the Cloak of Screaming Invisibility: if the user finds somewhere out-of-the way (or...Most of the ones where the downside is under the user's control seem pretty exploitable to me. For instance, the Cloak of Screaming Invisibility: if the user finds somewhere out-of-the way (or with tolerant neighbors) and screams for 24 hours straight, they then get a week and a half of durable invisibility to go and delve whichever dungeon you want. (If your DM wants to insist that you sleep, then every eight hours of screaming plus eight hours of sleep gets you three days. Every additional day nets two additional days to the accumulated sum. If you actually expected to need a month, and you had enough time to prep, you could make that happen at the low cost of probably needing to keep a healer on retainer to fix up your throat.)
Someone else mentioned Morrowind's Boots of Blinding Speed, which are kind of the same—they seem like a joke item at first glance, but there are a load of ways to exploit them and they are in practice incredibly overpowered. First, you could just put them on and take them off again repeatedly. Second, any magic resist at all functionally nullifies the effect—the way the "blind" effect works in Morrowind, 99% blind just means the perfectly-crisp rendered scene is very dark. (2.5th, getting high levels of resist magic to avoid even that inconvenience is straightforward. And you only really need it for the instant you put on the boots.) Third, depending on how lightly you're willing to take roleplaying, it's entirely possible to navigate via the minimap. It turns out basically nothing can attack you at that speed, so the biggest risk is actually launching yourself off a steep slope and taking fall damage.
I dunno, maybe I'm coming at this from too much of a computer RPG perspective. My tabletop experience is limited. That said… I still really like these (much like I like the Boots of Blinding Speed, exploitability notwithstanding. And heck, it's Morrowind—everything is exploitable). One is, presumably, playing or running this game to have fun, so it should probably be fun. =)
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Comment on New passenger train linking Finland and Sweden has begun running – creates the first rail connection between northern Finland and southern Europe in nearly forty years in ~transport
whbboyd Link ParentYou can definitely take high-speed rail from Paris to Madrid in roughly 10 hours. From my literally less than thirty seconds of research, there's a proposed/in-progress high-speed extension of the...You can definitely take high-speed rail from Paris to Madrid in roughly 10 hours. From my literally less than thirty seconds of research, there's a proposed/in-progress high-speed extension of the AVE into Portugal, which would presumably enable that last step in another few hours once it's complete. But also, there is absolutely no way it takes 14 hours to take mass transit the 600-ish km from Madrid to Lisbon (especially since the AVE can get you right up to the border). I suspect shenanigans on the part of Google's transit routing.
To your broader point, though… yeah, Europe's rail wasn't really designed for crossing the continent.
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Comment on As Reddit stock falls, CEO questions value of Google’s AI Overviews in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentThe fediverse (mostly, but not entirely, Mastodon) is… decentralized, anyway. It's at best debatable if it does or even attempts to model face-to-face social structures. But no single server or...The fediverse (mostly, but not entirely, Mastodon) is… decentralized, anyway. It's at best debatable if it does or even attempts to model face-to-face social structures. But no single server or corporate entity has the ability to bring down or substantially degrade the entire network on its own. (The best estimate is that there are roughly 1M active users across the fediverse, of which about 300k are on mastodon.social. That's a concerningly large chunk! But it's not even half the total network; and the next biggest server is pixelfed.social with 65k, and then there's an extremely long tail of servers with ~10k or fewer users.)
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Comment on Reminder to myself that my employer does not give a shit about me in ~life
whbboyd Link ParentThe bigger thing for most companies than the fact that people tend to take less PTO on unlimited plans is that they don't have to pay it out when people leave. Accrued PTO is part of an employee's...The bigger thing for most companies than the fact that people tend to take less PTO on unlimited plans is that they don't have to pay it out when people leave. Accrued PTO is part of an employee's comp, and if they quit with a balance, it needs to get paid out like the last paycheck. For a larger company with reasonably generous PTO policies, this can be a substantial liability.
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Comment on Emily Wilson’s critique of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” in ~movies
whbboyd Link ParentI don't think so; or at least, that's not what I took from it. Wilson isn't critiquing Nolan's Odyssey for being an unfaithful adaptation of Homer's Odyssey; indeed, as she points out, Homer's...Whereas the rest seems to ignore many of the constraints, intentions, and effects that truly come with that and instead attempts to critique the movie's story in isolation against the 120k word original source.
I don't think so; or at least, that's not what I took from it. Wilson isn't critiquing Nolan's Odyssey for being an unfaithful adaptation of Homer's Odyssey; indeed, as she points out, Homer's Odyssey is itself already an unfaithful adaptation of earlier oral mythology. Rather, she's critiquing it for being internally inconsistent, in ways that Homer's Odyssey is not. You can write good literature about a lunkhead who gets lost at sea and beats everyone up until he gets home again, and you could even get away with calling it "The Odyssey", but you probably shouldn't have characters extol the lunkhead protagonist's scheming brilliance, as—apparently (I haven't and am not likely to watch it)—Nolan's Odyssey does, against everything it actually presents.
Honestly, I think the first paragraph ("like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display – and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth") is the most savage part.
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Comment on Atari makes Universal movie deal for ten iconic game properties in ~movies
whbboyd Link ParentI'm somewhat disappointed ET isn't in here. It would make absolutely no sense, of course, but it would also be hilarious.I'm somewhat disappointed ET isn't in here. It would make absolutely no sense, of course, but it would also be hilarious.
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Comment on Your cookware got worse on purpose: who owns Pyrex and All-Clad now in ~food
whbboyd Link…This is whining about borosilicate, isn't it? read Yeah, sure is. Okay, so, here's the thing. There are clear tradeoffs between borosilicate and tempered glass cookware. Borosilicate has much...…This is whining about borosilicate, isn't it?
read
Yeah, sure is. Okay, so, here's the thing. There are clear tradeoffs between borosilicate and tempered glass cookware. Borosilicate has much better temperature resistance, but tempered glass is much tougher (and, when it breaks, tends to shatter into tiny square-edged pieces rather than big knife-like shards; more annoying to clean up, perhaps, but much safer). And, it turns out a lot more people break their glass cookware by dropping it than by thermal stress. Did Corning switch to tempered glass because it's cheaper than borosilicate? I mean, it almost certainly contributed to that decision, but I doubt it was the sole driving factor.
Is Pyrex crap since Corning switched to tempered glass? Maybe! But the answer isn't obviously yes or no.
The borosilicate discourse is especially frustrating to me because I'm pretty sure Corning has been slowly reducing the quality of their tempered glass. My newer glassware from them has had a lot more surface and finish imperfections than the stuff from just a few decades ago. I even had one container arrive broken in shipping (to their credit, they replaced it no questions asked). But I haven't seen any discussion of this because all anyone talks about is borosilicate.
Anyway, in general: be suspicious of anyone trying to sell you something, and recognize that "this product is crap now" is in fact a sales pitch (even if it may also be true).
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
whbboyd LinkMy wife and I were spending a few days in Córdoba, Spain on a vacation. We are early risers, even by American standards, and had the absolute damndest time finding a place to serve us coffee...My wife and I were spending a few days in Córdoba, Spain on a vacation. We are early risers, even by American standards, and had the absolute damndest time finding a place to serve us coffee before we'd been up for hours and hours. We eventually found an American-style coffee shop that opened at, IIRC, 9, and was obviously the preferred haunt of all the expats and visitors getting up way too early for the locals.
We tried to get dinner at a nice-looking restaurant somewhere around 6:30 and the maître d' ("maestro del"?) told us to come back at 8. I asked if we could reserve a table and he told us that absolutely was not necessary; and he was right, the place was empty except for us for at least another hour. The food was delicious, but we were still eating way past our bedtime.
At a different restaurant, on a different trip, in Vienna, we ordered a wine pairing with dinner, and they absolutely plied us. That was the drunkest I've ever been, and I went to some pretty boozed-up parties in college. It was a good thing Vienna is a very safe city! I think an American server would have been a lot more circumspect about it, and not just to save the restaurant money. Europeans really like their wine, lol.
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Comment on Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows in ~tv
whbboyd Link ParentFandom aside, I suspect one of the things that makes the Locked Tomb's hiatus more tolerable is that the books we have are fun to reread. They're silly, downright ridiculous in places. Harrow the...Fandom aside, I suspect one of the things that makes the Locked Tomb's hiatus more tolerable is that the books we have are fun to reread. They're silly, downright ridiculous in places.
Harrow the Ninth spoilers
For example, probably my favorite moment in the series is in Harrow when Harrow extracts her own bone marrow and cooks it into a stew in order to use it as a necromantic focus to murder another character. It nearly works, too, until God intervenes. Gruesome, obviously, but over-the-top in a way that wraps back around into being funny.In contrast, the thought of rereading A Song of Ice and Fire is just… uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. Just thinking about it gives me ennui. The books are long and drag (especially the later ones) and a great deal of what goes on in them is… just unpleasant. It's shocking and subversive when you read it the first time, but when you know
A Storm of Swords spoilers
the Red Wedding… do I really need to spoiler-tag this?is coming up, it's just more terrible things happening to whoever passes for good characters in the setting.
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Comment on Modern, abstract art makes me angry in ~arts
whbboyd (edited )Link ParentNo, I actually think this is the point. Comedian (the banana piece) is art in part because it's novel. It makes you feel something because nobody had taped fruit to an art museum wall before. But...(I'm mostly joking?)
No, I actually think this is the point. Comedian (the banana piece) is art in part because it's novel. It makes you feel something because nobody had taped fruit to an art museum wall before. But now, if I sneak into the MoMA and tape a grapefruit up in the exhibit spaces, that's much less artistic. Cattelan had the thought "what if I taped a piece of fruit to the wall"; I would be having the thought "what if I copied this other thing". (And, of course, I chose to copy Comedian because execution of the copy requires a wall, a piece of fruit and a roll of tape. Nobody talks about bootlegging the Sistine Chapel or what that would mean, because it's obvious nobody's going to do it.)
Novelty isn't the only thing that makes art, but it is something that makes art. Modern art trades a lot on novelty, which tends to ruffle the feathers of the sorts of people who think the value of a piece of art is determined by the amount of effort that went into it.
(If I do my bootleg with a peach, does it become art again due to commentary on fruit as metaphor for human genitalia?)
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Comment on The end of [Marcin's] AArch64 desktop experiment in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentBiggest criticism of this article series: no htop screenshot! ;)Biggest criticism of this article series: no
htopscreenshot! ;) -
Comment on The end of [Marcin's] AArch64 desktop experiment in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentIt's actually an Atheros (a QCNFA765, specifically), and so I kind of suspect a hardware issue over software support, but who knows. It hasn't been bad enough for me to try to replace it, and...It's actually an Atheros (a QCNFA765, specifically), and so I kind of suspect a hardware issue over software support, but who knows. It hasn't been bad enough for me to try to replace it, and Thinkpads (even x86 ones) have a bad habit of putting hardware whitelists in the firmware, so a swap may not be straightforward.
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Comment on The end of [Marcin's] AArch64 desktop experiment in ~tech
whbboyd LinkLobste.rs thread I find this kind of interesting because I'm using an arm64 computer (a Thinkpad X13s) as my daily driver (I'm literally typing this on it right now) and… none of his complaints...I find this kind of interesting because I'm using an arm64 computer (a Thinkpad X13s) as my daily driver (I'm literally typing this on it right now) and… none of his complaints resonate. I think his problem is really with trying to daily drive an Ampere processor, which is neither designed nor intended to be used in a desktop system.
As a point-by-point comparison:
- I'm running vanilla Debian stable with Debian's kernel (I'm using the one from backports, but the stable kernel works fine as well). At this point, no shenanigans are required to run at least Debian on this device. (Some shenanigans are still required to install it, however.)
- The single-core performance of the Snapdragon 8cx gen3 CPU in this thing is… fine? It's not noticeably slow, and beyond that, I really don't care. In terms of gross CPU, performance is roughly comparable between this thing and my Ryzen 5 2600 desktop for compiling Rust code. Because the laptop is fanless, you will get thermal throttling if you try to run the CPU at 100% for an extended period, though.
- The integrated Adreno GPU… works? To be fair, I have made no attempts to really exercise it (that's what the desktop is for).
It's definitely not perfect. There's no real sleep mode (the kernel parks all the threads and shuts down at least some peripherals, but the CPU is still running; it'll get something like 24hr on battery in this mode. But this doesn't really have anything to do with ARM, some recent-model x86 systems are also defective in this manner); integration with the system firmware is kind of limited; the wireless card is weirdly flaky. Also I have complaints about the industrial design of the laptop, which you can read about at length if you really want. But I'm definitely sold on the concept of a fanless, efficient ultraportable, which is at best really hard to swing with x86.
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The end of [Marcin's] AArch64 desktop experiment
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Comment on Steam Machine prices revealed, starting at US$1049.00 in ~games
whbboyd Link ParentI put 32GB of RAM in my desktop for $150 in 2012. (This was a patently ridiculous thing to do at the time.) I got a good deal on it, but RAM definitely shouldn't be more expensive fourteen years...I put 32GB of RAM in my desktop for $150 in 2012. (This was a patently ridiculous thing to do at the time.) I got a good deal on it, but RAM definitely shouldn't be more expensive fourteen years later.
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Comment on Singer Oliver Tree dead at 32 following tragic helicopter crash in ~music
whbboyd Link ParentIt's the birthday paradox (in this context, sometimes also called the "big sky theory", with the implication that it's not a great theory). Sure, there's a lot of sky up there, but the risk of a...It's the birthday paradox (in this context, sometimes also called the "big sky theory", with the implication that it's not a great theory). Sure, there's a lot of sky up there, but the risk of a collision is between every pair of aircraft in it, a number which grows as the square of the number of craft and gets high enough to make mid-air collisions concerningly likely fairly quickly.
There's also the fact that the sky may be big, but the set of runways and helipads people take off from and land on are not, and every flight (ideally) starts and ends at a runway. The vast majority of collisions happen near takeoff and landing, when craft are far denser in the air than mid-flight.
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Comment on The "go fix a minor annoyance" togetherness topic in ~life
whbboyd Link ParentCould you switch to a non-smoking form of nicotine (i.e. gum, patches)? That would let you satisfy the nicotine addiction without the smoke, though it obviously wouldn't replace any of the other...Could you switch to a non-smoking form of nicotine (i.e. gum, patches)? That would let you satisfy the nicotine addiction without the smoke, though it obviously wouldn't replace any of the other aspects of smoking. At least in the US, both gum and patches are available over-the-counter.
I'll second Mote as one of my absolute favorite books of all time.
One detail from it that I really like:
The Mote in God's Eye spoilers
When the human characters first arrive in the (alien) Motie system, they offhand mention spectrogram results in a list of various readings. There's an anomalously strong helium line. This isn't really remarked on, and at the time it's just sort of treated as one oddity among many others, but it turns out to be foreshadowing: the Moties have been using fusion power for an extremely long time, enough that the helium "exhaust" has "polluted" their system.
It's just a little thing, but I love the attention to detail it reveals.