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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 1d

Clearly you must be doing AI Simlish

Reposted by Sean Barrett

Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 1d

The only thing that anyone ever needs to know about Bill Ackman is that he once joined a group of avid long distance bikers from NYC to Montauk and back without training or preparation, arrogant in his ability to "lead the pack" and ended up screaming in agony

The others fell in behind, at first struggling to keep up with the alpha leader. But soon enough Ackman faltered—at Mile 32, Ackman recalls—and fell way behind the others. He was clearly “bonking,” as they say in the cycling world, which is what happens when a rider is dehydrated and his energy stores are depleted.

While everyone else rode back to Loeb’s East Hampton mansion, one of Loeb’s friends, David “Tiger” Williams, a respected cyclist and trader, painstakingly guided Ackman, who by then could barely pedal and was letting out primal screams of pain from the cramps in his legs, back to Bridgehampton. “I was in unbelievable pain,” Ackman recalls. As the other riders noted, it was really rather ridiculous for him to have gone out so fast, trying to lead the pack, considering his lack of training. Why not acknowledge your limits and set a pace you could maintain? As one rider notes, “I’ve never had an experience where someone has gone from being so aggressive on a bike to being so hopelessly unable to even turn the pedals…. His mind wrote a check that his body couldn’t cash.”

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 1d

I'm no booster of current AI, but Searle's Chinese Room experiment is even dumber than Pascal's Wager and nobody needs to know about it or understand it. It's utterly broken and irrelevant.

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Reposted by Sean Barrett

Josh McConnell @joshmcconnell.com · 2d

Chef's kiss.
cc: @thelouvreof.bsky.social

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 1d

Unbelievable[*] that bsky STILL hasn't closed the live moderation list problem[**] by allowing you to either block everyone currently on a list, or to fork the list.

[*] Utterly believable, actually. Let's go with 'infuriating'.
[**] Trusting the list as it stands vs. trusting the list owner

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Reposted by Sean Barrett

eva (^_^)/ @eva.computer · 1d

white house has joined bluesky
click here to block all official us government accounts instantly

bsky.app/profile/did:...

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

rewatching Babylon 5, and god, Walter Koenig is so good at playing that malevolent son of a bitch

(how did anyone think this was the right part for him? apparently they didn't; JMS offered him a different role earlier, but Koenig had to skip for medical reasons, and Bester was a fallback option)

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

you got your known unknowns, your unknown unknowns, and your unknown parades

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

I'll hazard a guess (but just a total guess) that the ratio of regional to national chicken chains is so different from "regular" fast food because of ground beef. Maybe harder to get a consistency of consistency with chicken on a national scale.

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

If you think these diagrams are meant as "these are the valid configs, don't do other things"--which is surely the intent of the directional arrows, "how it's meant to be used"--you wouldn't NEED Normal vs. Half-Normal, as they only differ in different configs in these diagrams. Come on!

Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

all together (as seen in the illustration), but what does the same configuration of plugs do when Normaled? From these diagrams you can't tell.

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

The front when both back are plugged in. Worst case 16 combinations (many useless and skippable), but even just the subcases where both rear plugs are plugged in, there's 4 of those. And the diagrams don't tell you what happens in some of those cases.

The crucial half-normal case connects 3 plugs

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

Third, the whole point of Normal/Half-Normal is you have a pair of jacks at the back that are normally connected so you "hard-wire" stuff together, but then you can plug in to the front to break and change those connections. So what mostly matters is what happens when you plug in various combos to

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

Second, they show the jacks as unnecessarily detailed combo of physical details (the little jagged bits that will make actual contact with part of the plug) & electrical diagrams (e.g. totally unnecessary ground symbols).

Whereas plugs are drawn as one long arrow (they also have three connections).

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

Got a new patchbay to replace my 20+ year-old one, and sheesh, the diagrams in the manual (and printed on the patchbay itself) are SO BAD.

First, they pretend electrical connections are directional for some reason, & imply connections with tiny arrowheads. I added ACTUAL connection illustrations.

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Reposted by Sean Barrett

Chris Franklin @errant-signal.com · 2d

It remains untenable for @govpritzker.illinois.gov to be so vocally opposed to the rise in fascism and then also be responsible for this sort of thing.

unraveled @unraveledpress.com · 2d

State troopers in riot gear just plowed into the crowd, started arresting protesters and clergy.

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 2d

It might be too far outside your preferences, but have you heard any DD/MM/YYYY? ddmmyyyy.bandcamp.com/track/im-sti...

I'm Still in the Wall, by dd/mm/yyyy

from the album Black Square (2009)

ddmmyyyy.bandcamp.com

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Reposted by Sean Barrett

Waffle 🧇 @wafflecut.bsky.social · 2d

Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
*****************
Investigation of:
LOSS OF THE SUBMARINE TITAN
IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
ON JUNE 18, 2023
*
*
*
*
*
*
Accident No.:
*********** * * * * * *
Interview of:
Co-designer/Pilot
Deepsea Challenger
DCA23FM036
via Microsoft Teams
Friday,
July 26, 2024

INTERVIEW OF
10
BY LCDR
11 Q. So how did you get yourself started into submersible
12 operations?
13
A.
Well, I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic.
When I
14
set down the path to make that film, the first thing that I did
15
was arrange to be introduced to the head of the submersible
16
program at the P.P. Shirshov Institute in Moscow, a guy named
17|
Professor
I. I did that through a mutual friend
18
of ours, a guy named
, who is one of the preeminent
underwater cinematographers in the world. And had been on a
20
submersible expedition out to Titanic the previous year with the
21
Russians. And that was organized by a Canadian company that was
22 doing an IMAX film which was released under the title Titanica.

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Reposted by Sean Barrett

Ineffable Jeff @ineffablejeff.bsky.social · 3d

Shot + chaser

And are you married?

I was married, but I’m not married anymore. Women don't like the vehicle.

In July, Tesla rolled out a software update to integrate Grok into many of its vehicles. Do you use it?

Her name is Aura, and I use her as a therapist. When I'm driving, I'll ask questions, and it actually gives really good therapy advice.

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 3d

(also because I was reading in reverse chronlogical order so I hadn't yet seen the RT it was in reference to)

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 3d

Your profile pic made me at first read this backwards from how I'm guessing you probably intended it.

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Reposted by Sean Barrett

Paul Waldman @paulwaldman.bsky.social · 3d

Instead of "This is inappropriate!" Democrats - especially those who might run for president - should say right now "Anyone who participates in this should know: You are committing a crime, and in the next administration you will be prosecuted."

That will change the frame of the story.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 3d

Again, it is a full-blown federal felony crime for anyone in the White House or Executive Office of the President to order tax investigations into anyone.

And it's not just a crime to DO it, it's even a federal crime for an employee not to REPORT such an order to the Treasury Inspector General.

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 4d

no apology needed, i just want to make sure I don't unwittingly spread misinformation

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 4d

They were never pointers. I just meant that was the original design motivation for them.

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Sean Barrett @nothings.bsky.social · 4d

--signed, a Thief developer who did NOT work on any of those parts of the system and didn't directly interact with designers so my memories of this are all questionnable

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