Only if you have a sign posted, reading “All ye who enter here forfeit thine selves – body, mind, spirit, and soul – to the owner of these lands, until such time as ye leave or are slain,” with the sign carved from stone by hand, with a willowbark dagger, blessed under the light of a blood moon, approximately eight feet tall, flanked by two shrubberies – that look nice and are not too expensive – and visible to all who enter, lit eternal by the captured light of the new moon.
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Cake day: July 14th, 2023
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2·15 days agoPlease, enlighten me - how do you propose we use the term “AI” in a way that’s more useful than a definition that includes machine learning, large language models, and computer vision?
I doubt I’ll agree with your definition, but I’m curious to see how you would exclude machine learning, computer vision, LLMs, etc., from your definition. My assumption is that your definition is going to be either a derivative of “AI is anything computers can’t do yet” or based on pop culture / sci fi, but maybe you’ll surprise me.
To be clear, I’m a software engineer; I’m not speaking in sales speak. I’ve derived my understanding of the term from a combination of its historical context and how it’s used in both professional and academic contexts, not from marketing propaganda or from sci fi and pop culture. I’m certainly aware of the hype machine that’s ongoing, but there are also tons of fascinating advancements happening on a regular basis, and the term “AI” is at minimum a useful term to refer to technologies that leverage similar techniques.
it’s not ‘ai’, it’s just a poorly trained voice recognition system that’s trying to decipher any random person’s voice.
I’m baffled that you can say “It’s not ‘AI,’ it’s a machine learning powered speech to text system” with a straight face.
Even if we were to agree that ML-powered speech to text isn’t AI (and I don’t agree to that premise, for the record), there’s still the matter of processing the transcription to transform it into something that can be understood by the point of sale system - aka natural language processing. And while that NLP could be implemented without use of an LLM, given LLM’s current level of hype and the ease with which they can be shoved into any given product, I wouldn’t bet on Taco Bell execs approving such an approach, much less asking for it.
If you’re a size 4-24, the Gloria Vanderbilt “Amanda” line has a variety of jeans with almost bo embellishments. They come in multiple shades of blue, black, mint, khaki, white, off white, etc… The colors other than blue are a bit stiffer and less stretchy, but they fit very similarly. They also have “Ponte pants,” basically business casual dress pants (though basically only in black), which I also recommend. I’ve worn the black jeans to the office mid-week and could probably get away with wearing the khaki ones, too.
I get them at Kohl’s, but from a quick web search I see they’re also available at Amazon, Walmart, JC Penny, Macy’s, and Costco. MSRP is around $50, but I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $30 for a pair. I see some listed at $20 or so right now and I think I’ve gotten some (maybe on clearance?) for as cheap as $15.
Do NOT buy the “Pull-On” versions! Those either lack pockets entirely or have inadequate pockets. I could fit my phone in, sideways, but it dug into my side (my hipbone, I think, though it’s been a while since I wore those and tried to use the pockets).
Sizing is split between products (at Kohl’s at least): 4-18 and 16W-24W, with 16W being one size above 18 as opposed to overlapping. There are also Short (or Petite in the Ponte Pants) and T/L variants.
For reference, I have a standard sized iPhone - specifically the 15 Pro - in a case, with a MagSafe wallet. I often carry a similarly sized work phone in the same pocket, also in a case, so my pockets need to be able to handle both. The top of my phone is basically flush with / right below the opening of the pocket, which I prefer. A taller phone, like a Pro Max iPhone, would fit, but would need angled a bit to not have the top poking out.
Some other info on these:
- The fit, for me at least, is comfortably snug, but not tight. The cut is flattering, but not lewd.
- Durability is better than expected for fairly stretchy jeans. I ended up with a hole in the first pair I bought after a year or so, just from walking around (inner thigh friction basically) - but to be fair at that point I was wearing them twice a week, so that’s like 100 wears, 50 or so washes… I think that’s reasonable. However I don’t think they’d hold up as well if I wore them while doing yard work or something similarly stressful.
- Sizing down - I can fit into up to two sizes down, but even one size down: the fit wasn’t flattering, they were less comfortable, and they were so tight that my phone barely fit into my pocket (and wouldn’t have fit if I were sitting).
- Sizing up - one size up is great. I haven’t tried two sizes up. The fit isn’t as flattering, but it’s still fine. I generally wear a belt when wearing a sized up pair, since the waistband ends up a bit loose otherwise, but they’re still snug around my hips, so they stay up well enough without a belt.
If you’re a size 0 or a size 2 and don’t want to size up, they sadly aren’t an option (I may be wrong - their size chart goes down to 2, but I didn’t see any offered in a 2). If so I can keep an eye open for decent jeans in that size range, but I won’t be able to speak to fit, of course, as I’m nowhere near a size 2 myself.
To be clear, I’m not saying most women’s pants have pockets. I’m saying that there are options, and I’m of the opinion that if you care about something enough to complain about it, you should also care about it enough to do something about it.
I own dozens of pairs of women’s pants and shorts with pockets large enough to comfortably fit my cell phone. Several pairs where I can not-so-comfortably. Probably a dozen each of dresses and skirts with decent pockets, too.
Would you like some recommendations?
This is basically an “I can’t have my cake and eat it, too” complaint. If none of your pants have good enough pockets, it’s either because someone else is buying your clothes or because you didn’t prioritize having pockets when you bought them.
When buying women’s pants or shorts (and even dresses and skirts), you have the choice between a pair that has decent pockets and a pair that doesn’t, generally because the designer chose to prioritize aesthetics over pockets. If you buy the cuter pair, despite their lack of suitable pockets, you’re reinforcing the designer’s decision.
Even leggings / yoga pants and short running shorts / leggings have versions with pockets. Not every brand, sure, but enough.
With men’s pants and shorts, there’s much less variety. You have to go out of your way to find pants without decent pockets, but at the same time:
- Your pants and shorts are all bulkier and thicker than the equivalent women’s style
- Your shorts all come down to the knee, if not a bit further
- You don’t have the option of skirts, dresses, capris, leggings, etc…
- You don’t get the same options within a given style, i.e., far fewer embellishments, less stretch (in, e.g., jeans), often fewer colors, and most cuts are looser
Now, maybe the store you’re shopping at or the brand you love doesn’t sell women’s pants with pockets. I’m sure there are many like this. If it bothers you, find another store that does. Buy from a different brand.
2·27 days agoI could’ve sworn I’d used Foobar2000 on Linux years ago and now I feel like I’m experiencing a mini Mandela effect
Fascinating, thanks for sharing. I didn’t check for every one of those but surprisingly the ones I did check, VLC doesn’t support.
Apparently I should have asked if you’d tried foobar2000, because it has support for all of those, or Audio Overload, which has support for many of them.
PSF
Interesting, it appears Winamp supported PSF via a plugin that basically handled hardware emulation. I found a still open ticket from 2015 for adding support to VLC, though.
According to https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=PSF, foobar2000, which has a Linux client, has support. I’ve used foobar2000 before and it’s decent.
Audio Overload is also listed, with a parenthetical - though it’s possible that support has improved since the article was last updated (in 2019). I’ve never used it myself, though.
NSF
Per https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=NSF the same players are available, this time without a warning on Audio Overload (notably this article is from 2022). Nosefart is also listed as supporting it and having Linux support.
2SF
https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=2SF only lists foobar2000 and Winamp
Various PCM Streams
That’s a lot - and I suspect some of those are supported by VLC based off the codecs listed - but according to https://github.com/vgmstream/vgmstream, foobar2000 has a plugin for vgmstream.
VGM
https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=VGM lists foobar2000 and Audio Overload, as well as VGMPlay, which I’ve never heard of before.
GBS
https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=GBS again lists foobar2000 and Audio Overload
SPC
https://www.vgmpf.com/Wiki/index.php?title=SPC - same deal.
What kinds of formats does Winamp support that VLC doesn’t support?
18·28 days agoThe original Switch was constantly sold out. I assume there were supply issues. It’s likely that it would have outsold the Switch 2 if they’d had the same supply.
Case in point, I have no clue what you wrote, but the intent is clear:
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
Not sure why you’ve gotten downvoted for that, as it’s part of the referenced rule and also true. Unless you’re someone who sees a word in a foreign language and has their brain turn off in response, this should be intelligible to someone who understands English and who doesn’t understand Spanish.
It helps that more than half the words are in English / are used by English speakers: Steam, Proton, Grand Theft Auto 5, Gabe Newell, Linux Mint, Microsoft, Windows, RAM, 100 FPS, 75 FPS
And the important Spanish words are easy to understand:
“Gracias” is pretty commonly understood even by bon-Spanish speakers.
“Uso Software Libre” is pretty obvious, since Libre is a term used in FOSS communities. “Uso” is the most complicated part and I suspect if I didn’t know Spanish I’d just think it meant “Use,” and “Use Libre Software!” is close enough to the intended meaning
Unless Telemetria doesn’t mean Telemetry, it’s pretty obvious.
If I blanked out all the other Spanish words I think the effect would be pretty much the same.
How is that an assumption at all? If you provide the same amount of infrastructure for bikes as for cars, then you still have half the infrastructure for cars, so people can use both / either.
And for those of us living in places where we don’t have bike friendly infrastructure, it’s useful to be able to point out that converting car infra to bike infra would have the capacity to reduce congestion, particularly if the area commits to making those changes more widely.
13·1 month agoWhile police may resent offensive words, they cannot use their authority to punish individuals for lawful, protected conduct.
Factually incorrect.
First, consider that regardless of whether they are prohibited from arresting people for insulting them, they do. Those charges are often dropped or thrown out, sure - albeit with no consequences for the police officer - but I would consider having to deal with that hassle “punishment” that they can inflict purely because of their authority.
But there’s also institutional support for an officer to punish you for lawful, protected conduct. If you upset an officer and in response, he cites or arrests you for a minor but legitimate offense that he’d have otherwise not cared about, you’re very unlikely to get that technically legitimate charge thrown out of court. It may be that police are technically prohibited from doing this, but in practice, “He only arrested me for — insert random crime here, let’s say jaywalking — because I called him a pig, said I’d engaged in coitus with his mother the previous night, and asked if he’d like to watch next time or if he had a night in with his partner’s nightstick planned” isn’t going to suffice to get the charge thrown out, even if the judge believes you, if you were actually breaking the law in question. And since pretty much everyone is breaking laws all the time, this means that as long as the police officer can find one that you’re currently breaking, you’re fucked.
By chance did you make her unintentional malapropism a canon part of the history of the company’s name? Like Google’s backstory (it may be an urban legend, but I heard they’d intended to name it “googol” but didn’t know how to spell the word, and misspelled it as “Google” when submitting their application).
Strange, I suddenly want to have an Italian-inspired, high class restaurant in my game called “Bone Apple Tea”
3·2 months agoClaiming that GTA is responsible for mass shootings is an example of what pro-gun activists do in order to deflect the blame off of guns.
Certainly the latter.
I have pretty decent insurance through work, but if I’m picking up a prescription, it’s cheaper for me to say I don’t have insurance and use a free discount card (like GoodRx) than to use my insurance. We’re talking $150-$200 for one prescription (a one month supply) with insurance vs $30 without.
To be fair, I have an HDHP with an HSA so my insurance is only supposed to negotiate a discount until I hit the deductible, rather than paying for it. Full price is $200-$250, I think? (I get generics and each generic variant has a slightly different price.) So technically they’re providing a discount, just not a very good one.
Insurance also likes to require a “prior authorization,” which was always a fun surprise after making it through the pharmacy line. That normally takes a couple days to resolve, at minimum, and sometimes longer. If you’re not familiar with prior auths, it’s basically when the insurance company says “Hey doc, can you justify why you’re prescribing this and answer these eight questions?” and then they have someone without a medical degree review the answer and see if it’s good enough.
The only downside to paying out of pocket with a discount card is that the $30 doesn’t go toward my deductible. But since my deductible is multiple thousands of dollars, unless something else happens during the year, I won’t hit my deductible off the $150-$200 prescriptions + regular doctor visits alone. But that’s at most $360 out of pocket that wouldn’t have gone toward the deductible, assuming I had a health crisis in December, vs $1440-$2040 saved if I don’t.
X-rays are even worse, because you’re not told the price ahead of time.
2·2 months agoI’m a millennial and I did it more than once on hardware older than I was, but because I wanted to, not because there were no other options.
And then what?