MetaFilter

Sorry, but Google isn't really a healthy or creative company. It's one in which engineers are rewarded for shipping something, anything, and maintenance and support are considered low-status jobs. None of these products are built to last. Nothing is documented. It's why you have to spend hours every few months walking your parents through the process of making a call on their phone after the latest Android update. It's why Mail keeps getting worse. It's why I laughed out loud when they... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by phooky at 11:07 AM on June 13, 2023

This bit was interesting:The good news, according to Onnalee Blank, the four-time Emmy Award–winning sound mixer on Game of Thrones, is that it’s not your fault that you can’t hear well enough to follow this stuff. It’s not your TV’s fault either, or your speakers—your sound system might be lousy, but that’s not why you can’t hear the dialogue. “It has everything to do with the streaming services and how they’re choosing to air these shows,” Blank told me.

Specifically,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by TheophileEscargot at 2:43 AM on June 13, 2023

Pretty clear to me that Werner Herzog is the perfect replacement.

you have elected to spin the wheel, a choice as pointless yet inevitable as life itself. having spun, you cry out for 'big money,' yet the money you seek is but a pittance compared to that controlled by forces which, unseen, shape your very existence. the wheel continues to spin, its outcome ambiguous for the moment. i invite you to remain in that moment, to allow the wheel to spin... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by logicpunk at 7:57 PM on June 12, 2023

I vote David Lynch.

“We’re looking for a phrase. Screaming Teapot, you have the wheel.”

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“We have one ‘A’”

DAMN G🟩🟩D C🟩FFEE
posted to MetaFilter by leotrotsky at 6:51 PM on June 12, 2023

Who will be the LeVar Burton of this hosting succession, a grassroots candidate who despite being immensely talented and beloved in their own right is not quite a good fit?

I vote David Lynch.
posted to MetaFilter by HeroZero at 6:30 PM on June 12, 2023

I liked Wheel of Fish better.
posted to MetaFilter by Ickster at 5:29 PM on June 12, 2023

America could have turned out much differently if Nixon hadn't been pardoned, imo.

Or if RFK hadn't been shot.
posted to MetaFilter by EmpressCallipygos at 1:40 PM on June 9, 2023

How did anyone so stupid and lazy ever get to be president.? Jesus.


“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” ― H.L. Mencken
posted to MetaFilter by Heywood Mogroot III at 6:23 PM on June 8, 2023

and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming and they don't stop coming
posted to MetaFilter by Jacqueline at 11:02 PM on June 8, 2023

Arnold, what is best in life?
posted to MetaFilter by staggernation at 5:05 AM on June 8, 2023

I was watching some lecture on the rise and dominance of neoliberalism and the point was made that governments used to actually do things to shape society -- building highway systems for example. But that since the neoliberals have taken over, the only thing the governments do is keep the markets happy. The point behind the lecture was to say that we could be living in a much better world if governments stepped in, starting "picking favorites" in markets and market approaches, and... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by hippybear at 7:24 AM on June 2, 2023

The fishing technique is trawling, not trolling.

It seems this article is trolling older internet users on multiple fronts.
posted to MetaFilter by eviemath at 3:07 PM on June 2, 2023

What a fascinating article. I was a Snopes DORK back in the 90s - I'd read basically every article on the site many times same checked multiple times a week for new stuff. I knew they were locals (the site claimed to be owned by "the San Fernando Valley Urban Folklore Society" or something of that nature), and I was a valley kid myself and took a certain amount of hometown pride in the site. I think I emailed them questions and tips a few times, even. Here's hoping the new team gets... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by potrzebie at 9:16 AM on June 2, 2023

Thanks, mark k and jackbishop, you just saved me from spending longer than I'm about to on saying much the same thing.

The LLM is not built to evaluate meaning. Not of of the language samples used to train it, and not of its own output. Not unless you strip enough meaning from the word "meaning" so that all you're talking about is cross-correlations within language, as opposed to anything that language refers to in the... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by flabdablet at 9:48 AM on May 31, 2023

AI potentially gives small-time dictators and would-be Dr. Evils another tool. Putin's damage in dividing the democratic world about anything he wanted is yet to be assessed, and presumably ongoing. He was only limited by the amount of language fluent writers and hackers he could hire.
posted to MetaFilter by Brian B. at 8:23 AM on May 31, 2023

Like a messiah complex happened by accident and then did their best with their charge.

There really aren’t a lot of people in the last fifty years who’ve managed to bootstrap a durable subculture out of basically nothing who turned out to be decent, growing people standing in front of a decent crowd of inclusive, stand-up folks, face paint be damned.

I don’t know what they saw or how they did it, but if they could bottle it,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mhoye at 12:24 PM on May 28, 2023

What would be the purpose of revealing the Daily Doubles?

The only thing I can think of is that some sportsbook is taking action on it now (Prop bet / Holzhauer finds it in 4 moves over/under)
posted to MetaFilter by JoeZydeco at 8:03 AM on May 25, 2023

A handful of predictions for LLMs:
1. LLMs are going to replace a lot of thoughtfully-crafted web UIs with a vastly cheaper and significantly less reliable chat interface.
2. LLMs are going to replace a lot of frontline customer service workers. This is basically the same thing as #1 - an expensive interface to business logic gets replaced with one that's cheaper, worse, but unfailingly polite!
2a. People are going to get less polite because they'll have less... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by McBearclaw at 12:50 PM on May 25, 2023

I'm waiting for the inevitable reckoning of security pitfalls inherent in the LLM structure, which of course will be ignored until someone important enough gets burned. Oops, someone fed it some classified info? Good luck getting it out without some Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-like memory erasure tech. All you can do AFAIK is filter the output, which of course then adds another vulnerability. The latest I've heard is the indirect prompt-injection attack (Wired link), such as using tiny,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by sapere aude at 11:14 AM on May 25, 2023

Neither Ethan Mollick nor Lilach, his equally AI-obsessed research collaborator at Wharton and his spouse, are AI experts by background.

I never would have guessed.

Like everybody else I've seen be this kind of excited about LLMs, they are both in the world of business. Academic business studies shares a lot in common with the culture of its graduates.

Also:

Now,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Dysk at 11:34 PM on May 24, 2023

It's "ICONS" instead of "ICOWS" because she wasn't troubled at a change that elided the word of least importance.
posted to MetaFilter by allium cepa at 11:43 PM on May 23, 2023

So yeah, this is posted as a demonstration of how twisted our discourse on free speech has become, especially around the preferred first speaker fallacy. It doesn't help that the author is way too credulous, with lines like:

In 2022, (former professor Joshua) Katz was fired from Princeton after the university said that, among other things, he had not been fully honest and coöperative during an investigation into a consensual sexual relationship that he had with another... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by NoxAeternum at 11:10 AM on May 23, 2023

The term of art for this reserved time is “Director’s Discretionary Time.” Here is the 10.5 hours that were used for this particular event.
posted to MetaFilter by rockindata at 5:40 PM on May 24, 2023

So, what do we do with our lives
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light or end in the dark?


She certainly shined; her music, her story.


.
posted to MetaFilter by nubs at 12:56 PM on May 24, 2023

Simply the best.
posted to MetaFilter by Parasite Unseen at 12:25 PM on May 24, 2023

Because it's a little dicey, as interpretations go. Superman isn't an artificially-created being, for one thing.

Superman more neatly fits into another Jewish story, that of Moses: a child separated from his parents and sent to a far-off land, found and raised by others, eventually discovers his true heritage and the power that comes with it and uses that power to protect the oppressed.
posted to MetaFilter by star gentle uterus at 8:58 PM on May 24, 2023

i still can't get past this moment of the grodd arc from the third season of legends of tomorrow, which did of course reference the flash.
posted to MetaFilter by i used to be someone else at 5:24 PM on May 24, 2023

My own first name, Ben, used to hit right at a sweet spot: It was a perfectly 'normal' name with some Biblical roots, I never had to spell it; but also, there was almost never another Ben in my classes and I've never worked with another Ben. Normal, but not too common. Now, of course, every third preschooler is named Ben.

I am really heartened to see, as BuddhaInABucket points out, that even the current dominant names are nowhere close to the past... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Tomorrowful at 12:29 PM on May 22, 2023

Downplaying or poohpoohing the dangers of AI at this point seems like flat out denial. The semantics of its sentience or lack thereof aside, it's going to change and affect our world and society in such incredibly major ways. I think denial is normal as part of grief, and I think our world as we know it is about to change so much that grief is appropriate. I've changed my life outlook from feeling like I had a reasonable idea of what to expect from my life, to hanging on and enjoying the ride... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by EarnestDeer at 7:47 PM on May 17, 2023

If one online dates for any length of time, this all rings true. The best conversations happen with those people who leave those doorknobs in their chats, in their profiles. Poor matches are those who don't leave doorknobs, or even worse, don't use the doorknobs left right in front of them. (I've always called them 'hooks' rather than 'doorknobs', but same thing.)

"(“What’s up?” is one of the most dreadful texts to get; it’s short for “Hello, I’d like... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Capt. Renault at 7:02 AM on May 11, 2023

The big problem with the Metaverse, AFAICT, is that the limits of its appeal were already known and way too small to sustain any serious technological development behind it. Gaming telepresence is one thing, and the idea of using a headset and tactile controls for sports and sports-like interactions have pretty clear fans, but who's interested in "talking head" telepresence where all that you get to do is interact socially? A nonzero number of people — one might even... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by jackbishop at 7:32 AM on May 9, 2023

So, in the end, the Metaverse didn't have legs
posted to MetaFilter by chavenet at 7:18 AM on May 9, 2023

I was a teenager during their run in the 80s so their 2-3 singles per year were a pleasant addition to the soundtrack of the times.

Summer of '85 was my gap before starting college so "A View To A Kill" certainly added to the general good feelings of that summer, like I suppose "Live and Let Die" did for people of the previous generation.

Like most of the superbands in my CD collection, as they petered out toward the end of... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Heywood Mogroot III at 4:47 PM on May 7, 2023

I love Edmund Fitzgerald's voice
posted to MetaFilter by philip-random at 8:36 AM on May 3, 2023

Milf, her cable broken! Her pizza absent, her stomach empty!
posted to MetaFilter by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:16 AM on May 4, 2023

"When a man of Scotty's years falls in love, the loneliness of his life is suddenly revealed to him." -- The Lights of Zetar
posted to MetaFilter by johngoren at 2:16 AM on May 4, 2023

This is great (although I wish the narrator had pronounced "Willem" correctly). It's definitely at least partially made by AI. It's got the same look as the "Tron as directed by Jodorowski" images that were posted here a while ago.

Also: Wes Anderson's Star Wars Audition Tape from Conan
posted to MetaFilter by jonathanhughes at 8:48 AM on May 4, 2023

Gord’s Gold was regularly on the record player growing up. One of my favorite singers, one of my favorite records. This one hits hard. Feel like I’m winning, but I’m losing again.
posted to MetaFilter by caution live frogs at 2:21 PM on May 2, 2023

"Ten-hut! Draft dodger, eh? Well, see if those trees you're always hugging save you when Gordon Lightfoot's creeping 'round your back stair."

.
posted to MetaFilter by Faint of Butt at 1:45 PM on May 2, 2023

Massive loss. Not unexpected, since he was in poor health and nearly died in 2002. But just a massive loss nonetheless.

"Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" has some absolute clunkers in its lyrics ("as big freighters go it was bigger than most"), but it's an epic song and I'll always love:

Does anyone know where the love of God goes /
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by fortitude25 at 11:48 AM on May 2, 2023

Centuries hence, I imagine scholars arguing furiously over whether the poem "roses are red, violets are blue" constitutes proof that for some reason we were all incapable of seeing that violets are violet.
posted to MetaFilter by kyrademon at 5:12 AM on May 2, 2023

A reminder that capitalism's main trick is pitting people against each other.
posted to MetaFilter by wemayfreeze at 12:17 PM on May 1, 2023

There's an excellent 33 1/3 book discussing Koji Kondo's creation of this soundtrack.
posted to MetaFilter by TheKaijuCommuter at 7:53 AM on April 13, 2023

But once someone stumbles, Clinton and rural places like it don't do much to stop the fall.

Teegeeack, that excellent sentence summarizes both the article and the awful problem. For many teens there's no second chance. You either make zero mistakes, or you're doomed.
posted to MetaFilter by mono blanco at 2:02 PM on April 8, 2023

Long before the Blurred Lines debacle, Robin Thicke had carved out a decent niche for himself as one of the few White artists you'd hear on Black FM stations during their late night "Quiet Storm" programs. That is where I first became aware of him, so when Blurred Lines came out I remember being somewhat disappointed he had decided to sell out with an obnoxiously cheap pop song. The music video was just icing on the crap cake.
posted to MetaFilter by fuse theorem at 6:34 PM on April 2, 2023

While trump is no Conservative in most senses, in the only sense - the Wilhoitian sense - he VERY MUCH IS


“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect."
posted to MetaFilter by lalochezia at 10:04 AM on March 31, 2023

He's so indicted
And he just can't fight it
He's about to lose control
And I think I like it.
posted to MetaFilter by essexjan at 5:35 AM on March 31, 2023

Been hitting refresh on Metafilter for the last seven years, waiting for this.
posted to MetaFilter by chrchr at 3:52 PM on March 30, 2023

A highly valid hot take [WaPo link]:

Yusef Salaam, one of the five people exonerated for the Central Park jogger attack decades ago, released a brief statement Thursday about Donald Trump’s reported indictment. After noting that Trump had never apologized for taking out a full-page ad calling for the death penalty against Salaam and his co-defendants, he said: “Karma.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by mandolin conspiracy at 3:21 PM on March 30, 2023

No it isn’t. You can buy smart bulbs that you can set to any color you want for less than $8 a bulb

No. The entire point of this article is that you can't describe all the characteristics of a light source with one or two numbers that you can just set with a dial. Light and color are so much more complicated than that.

And wow, nothing makes me feel more like a gaslit crazy person than talking to people who can't see any... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by straight at 2:30 PM on March 30, 2023