Ethan Soutar-Rau
@ethansr.bsky.social
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
This entire weekend
December 15, 2025 at 3:58 AM
This entire weekend
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Choosing to focus, on hearing the news of Rob Reiner's passing, to remember this moment where he was so overcome with joy and laughter that he - the director of the movie - was one of many people banished from the set in order to finish filming.
TIL nearly all of the "Miracle Max" scene from Princess Bride was improvised by Billy Crystal, and it took three ten hour days to shoot, because they couldn't get through his improv without everyone (cast and crew) laughing so hard it ruined the audio.
Mandy Patinkin bruised a rib holding it in.
Mandy Patinkin bruised a rib holding it in.
a man and a woman are standing next to each other and laughing .
Alt: Miracle Max and his wife waving goodbye from the Princess Bride.
media.tenor.com
December 15, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Choosing to focus, on hearing the news of Rob Reiner's passing, to remember this moment where he was so overcome with joy and laughter that he - the director of the movie - was one of many people banished from the set in order to finish filming.
A big part of this is the insistence on “clean history” in git.
If you have history which is “messy” with intermediate commits, merges, or whatever then you do potentially have this. Claude loves to sign commits.
If you squash and rebase… lol.
If you have history which is “messy” with intermediate commits, merges, or whatever then you do potentially have this. Claude loves to sign commits.
If you squash and rebase… lol.
Agree! And another missing piece: given how good vibe-coding is for [small low-stakes isolated features well covered by the training data], eg. interfaces, visuals, classical algos, it's normal for a large repo to have diff amount of human vetoing to diff parts of it. But there's no way to track it!
Unpopular opinion:
Current code review tools just don’t make much sense for AI-generated code
When reviewing code I really want to know:
- The prompt made by the dev
- What corrections the other dev made to the code
- Clear marking of code AI-generated not changed by a human
Current code review tools just don’t make much sense for AI-generated code
When reviewing code I really want to know:
- The prompt made by the dev
- What corrections the other dev made to the code
- Clear marking of code AI-generated not changed by a human
December 14, 2025 at 4:31 PM
A big part of this is the insistence on “clean history” in git.
If you have history which is “messy” with intermediate commits, merges, or whatever then you do potentially have this. Claude loves to sign commits.
If you squash and rebase… lol.
If you have history which is “messy” with intermediate commits, merges, or whatever then you do potentially have this. Claude loves to sign commits.
If you squash and rebase… lol.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
we still have their confederate flag
friendly reminder of what happens when you get Minnesotans truly pissed off
December 14, 2025 at 3:25 PM
we still have their confederate flag
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Come on, person handling this account now, please do alt text right. Please. Prior to this account being managed by someone else it always did. This place has been very supportive this entire time please stop refusing to be supportive back.
December 14, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Come on, person handling this account now, please do alt text right. Please. Prior to this account being managed by someone else it always did. This place has been very supportive this entire time please stop refusing to be supportive back.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
The Oracle at Delphi emerging from her cave absolutely dripping in Parmesan:
I can’t explain it but I think Alfredo sauce is about to get fuckin huge
December 14, 2025 at 1:30 AM
The Oracle at Delphi emerging from her cave absolutely dripping in Parmesan:
A lot of people who obviously never touched a stove like to talk shit on this website.
December 13, 2025 at 10:21 PM
A lot of people who obviously never touched a stove like to talk shit on this website.
The ISW has been publishing complete garbage for so long that it’s not surprising someone went there.
Who is to say which fan fiction synthesized from some telegram posts is the truth?
Who is to say which fan fiction synthesized from some telegram posts is the truth?
Appears the allegations were true
December 13, 2025 at 9:10 PM
The ISW has been publishing complete garbage for so long that it’s not surprising someone went there.
Who is to say which fan fiction synthesized from some telegram posts is the truth?
Who is to say which fan fiction synthesized from some telegram posts is the truth?
who gets to decide what gets made is changing very fast
Just used Claude Code to make a multiplayer 3d first-person Christmas game in the browser my daughter and I are playing together on two computers over the LAN. The future is nuts
December 13, 2025 at 6:14 PM
who gets to decide what gets made is changing very fast
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
I saw a lot of people posting their favorite cover songs and thought I’d add mine to the mix
December 10, 2025 at 3:57 AM
I saw a lot of people posting their favorite cover songs and thought I’d add mine to the mix
I think as a person growing up at this time my perception of what was happening was mediated by artistic renditions of cybernetics…
But the reality was just whatever businesses defaulted to at the time.
But the reality was just whatever businesses defaulted to at the time.
So many famous creative powerhouses in games history look like prison cells, or sets from THX-1138. Maybe it compels you with pent up ideas or something. Konami's unstoppable run of PS2 heaters were made in a white collar gulag that terrifies me more than Silent Hill itself.
square, game studio (1993) archive.org/details/MSXF...
December 12, 2025 at 1:49 AM
I think as a person growing up at this time my perception of what was happening was mediated by artistic renditions of cybernetics…
But the reality was just whatever businesses defaulted to at the time.
But the reality was just whatever businesses defaulted to at the time.
It’s sort of interesting to consider the case of eternal life where you are no longer capable of novel patterns of thought or speech… that everyone knows your schtick.
SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: IT SEEMS THAT YOUR PARISHIONERS LIKE YOU
PRIEST: I hope so—
SKULL: FURTHER, THEY SAY YOU'RE THE BEST PRIEST EVER
PRIEST: Oh, I see what you're doing. "On the contrary—"
SKULL: ON THE CONTRARY
PRIEST: Yep.
SKULL: YOU ARE SO TRULY WEAKENED BY SIN
PRIEST: I hope so—
SKULL: FURTHER, THEY SAY YOU'RE THE BEST PRIEST EVER
PRIEST: Oh, I see what you're doing. "On the contrary—"
SKULL: ON THE CONTRARY
PRIEST: Yep.
SKULL: YOU ARE SO TRULY WEAKENED BY SIN
December 11, 2025 at 6:22 AM
It’s sort of interesting to consider the case of eternal life where you are no longer capable of novel patterns of thought or speech… that everyone knows your schtick.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
I’m running for Congress because we need leaders who will fight, not fold. I recognize this moment, and I’m ready to meet it. #FightDontFold #LanderForNYC #LanderForCongress
December 10, 2025 at 10:49 AM
I’m running for Congress because we need leaders who will fight, not fold. I recognize this moment, and I’m ready to meet it. #FightDontFold #LanderForNYC #LanderForCongress
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Sickos_yes dot j peg
Editors at a Springer Nature logic journal resign and launch new open-access journal, Philosophical Logic.
Editors at Springer’s Journal of Philosophical Logic Resign, Launch New Open Access Journal - Daily Nous
All of the editors-in-chief and associate editors of Springer Nature's Journal of Philosophical Logic have announced their immediate or pending resignation and the launch, as of today, of a new "diamo...
dailynous.com
December 11, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Sickos_yes dot j peg
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Dale Nichols (American, 1904–1995)
"Deep Snow", 1967.
Gouache on Cardboard, 18 × 14 inches.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
"Deep Snow", 1967.
Gouache on Cardboard, 18 × 14 inches.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
December 10, 2025 at 4:21 AM
Dale Nichols (American, 1904–1995)
"Deep Snow", 1967.
Gouache on Cardboard, 18 × 14 inches.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
"Deep Snow", 1967.
Gouache on Cardboard, 18 × 14 inches.
Private Collection.
#art #painting #artist #BlueSkyArt
It’s always been a fascist font, now it’s official.
Marco Rubio ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor's decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move
Rubio Stages Font Coup: Times New Roman Ousts Calibri
The secretary of state called it a "wasteful" diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.
www.huffpost.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:51 AM
It’s always been a fascist font, now it’s official.
The other point us that a lot of human writing, especially technical writing, is opaque even if factually accurate.
If you misread a document and encounter a contradiction elsewhere, then subjectively it is inaccurate.
If you misread a document and encounter a contradiction elsewhere, then subjectively it is inaccurate.
So, when a critic says, “Ah hah! That app makes shit up!” A lot of people will nod politely. And then they will think to themselves, “Well, so does the newspaper, and so does Facebook, and so do politicians, and none of those help me do this task or say nice things to me when I ask them questions.”
December 9, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The other point us that a lot of human writing, especially technical writing, is opaque even if factually accurate.
If you misread a document and encounter a contradiction elsewhere, then subjectively it is inaccurate.
If you misread a document and encounter a contradiction elsewhere, then subjectively it is inaccurate.
Messing with the calendar is such a great bit
Then he and Frog ran outside to see how the world was looking in the spring.
December 9, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Messing with the calendar is such a great bit
people want the discourse to be mediated by stuff like Bayesian probability that have limited expressiveness and only produce useful statements when heavy qualified
this is intractable in practice, so it becomes debate *around* those media rather than *in* those media. And it comes out as soup.
this is intractable in practice, so it becomes debate *around* those media rather than *in* those media. And it comes out as soup.
imo the strongest critique of rationalist discourse norms is that they failed operationalize rationality as a team sport. emphasis on internal steelmanning over structured public debate (and dismissing all related prior art as "rhetoric") is a notable example
it's actually amazing how badly the quality of discourse falls short of, uh, the actual stated values of the thing. like there is no prohibition, formal or informal, against "just being a nitpicky asshole who runs out my opponent's energy"
December 9, 2025 at 1:04 AM
people want the discourse to be mediated by stuff like Bayesian probability that have limited expressiveness and only produce useful statements when heavy qualified
this is intractable in practice, so it becomes debate *around* those media rather than *in* those media. And it comes out as soup.
this is intractable in practice, so it becomes debate *around* those media rather than *in* those media. And it comes out as soup.
the way it casually crushes a full water bottle on the way on the way down…
can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot
December 8, 2025 at 3:34 PM
the way it casually crushes a full water bottle on the way on the way down…
its instructive to see how this burns out in the prequels.
The references are much more explicit and much less interesting.
They pass through recognizable but evocative into something which parodies its own intent.
The references are much more explicit and much less interesting.
They pass through recognizable but evocative into something which parodies its own intent.
the man took 50s and 60s car culture--workshops full of cars getting repaired and modified--and he blended it with a "feast your eyes on this flash gordon-ass miracle!" and it's so fucking good because of that. like, he knows it's weird and beautiful
December 8, 2025 at 6:24 AM
its instructive to see how this burns out in the prequels.
The references are much more explicit and much less interesting.
They pass through recognizable but evocative into something which parodies its own intent.
The references are much more explicit and much less interesting.
They pass through recognizable but evocative into something which parodies its own intent.
(lauditory)
people logon on social media platforms and develop a very weird idea of 'toleration'. but the blocking culture on here just reflects a very normal reaction to the fact that our access to each other online outstrips our accountability to each other
Thanks for this nice example of someone who gets an insta-block.
December 8, 2025 at 2:23 AM
(lauditory)
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
So far imho the best optimistic description of AI is that it can provide avenues to lower the barriers to distribution of knowledge, that it reduces the distance between minds.
Socializing the means of production has even better odds of succeeding with AI. It's much easier to copy and share a language model than a cotton mill.
Imagine you time travel back to 1847 and you find the left response to industrialization is a) machines will never be as good as human weavers or b) we need to copyright loom patterns or c) it’s a speculative bubble.
You’d say “Y’all. Not helping. What you need is obviously a labor movement.”
You’d say “Y’all. Not helping. What you need is obviously a labor movement.”
December 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
So far imho the best optimistic description of AI is that it can provide avenues to lower the barriers to distribution of knowledge, that it reduces the distance between minds.
Reposted by Ethan Soutar-Rau
Shrimps, crabs, and hermits everywhere.🦀
The biodiversity here is just outrageous.
The biodiversity here is just outrageous.
December 7, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Shrimps, crabs, and hermits everywhere.🦀
The biodiversity here is just outrageous.
The biodiversity here is just outrageous.