monotremata
@monotremata@lemmy.ca
- Comment on Fuck you in particular 1 week ago:
Don’t forget that he paid for and directed a music video specifically to make fun of Kapoor. It’s called “Bean Boy.”
- Comment on 1 week ago:
It’s because, for the most part, it doesn’t actually have access to the text itself. Before the data gets to the “thinking” part of the network, the words and letters have been stripped out and replaced with vectors. The vectors capture a lot of aspects of the meaning of words, but not much of their actual text structure.
- Comment on Inside the Underground Trade of ‘Flipper Zero’ Tech to Break into Cars 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, I definitely read that as an effort to preempt the folks who were going to yell about how clearly this means the Flipper Zero should be illegal. Hacking has been so poorly represented in TV and films that there are a distressing number of people who don’t realize the term can even have a positive connotation.
- Comment on nooo my genderinos 4 weeks ago:
Also the mathematicians wouldn’t decline to give an answer.
Are you sure? I only minored in math, but even I would struggle to provide an answer to this. It would have to be something incredibly vague, like “a number is a mathematical object that has certain properties that has certain consistent properties relevant to the field of study.” Because otherwise you get situations like “is infinity a number?” and you can’t answer categorically, because usually it’s not, but then you look at the transfinite numbers where you can indeed have omega-plus-one as a number. And someone asks if you can have an infinite number of digits to the left of the decimal place, and you say “well, not in the reals, but there are the P-adic numbers…” and folks ask if you can have an infinitely small number and you say “well, in the reals you can only have an arbitrarily small number, but in game theory there are the surreal numbers, where…”
So yeah, I’m not sure “what is a number” is even a math question. It’s more a philosophy question, or sometimes a cognitive science question (like Lakoff and Nuñez’s “Where Mathematics Comes From”).
- Comment on Hot take: 3D printing toys kinda sucks 2 months ago:
Thanks! I haven’t actually published these pieces yet. (Well, the slide-glide cyclide thing was published by someone else, but I think it was later taken down–there may be plans for the original mathematician to sell them?) The puzzle box is just a little too kluged together to really publish; I modified a lot of things after the fact to get it together, and I’m not comfortable publishing it in that state, but I also don’t really want to put in the work to finish it. The kaleidoscope would actually be okay, but it’s limited–it’s a bit tricky to actually cut the mirrors, and it really only works to reflect things right up against it. I want to design an adapter for it that will hold an acrylic sphere (which you can get inexpensively from China) so that you can use it to look at scenes as well. But I haven’t actually gotten around to that yet either. I’ll give some thought to publishing it as-is, though.
- Comment on Hot take: 3D printing toys kinda sucks 2 months ago:
I dunno. I agree with this to some extent for sure–I don’t print a lot of the meme models that are everywhere on 3d printing forums. But there are toys that would not exist without 3d printing that I think are pretty great.
I designed a kaleidoscope that reflects things not to tile a plane, but instead to tile the surface of a disdyakis triacontahedron: imgur.com/gallery/i-made-kaleidoscope-P4atHey I had to cut the mirrors from acrylic by hand, but the templates for them and the shell that holds them in place are all 3d printed. And that thing is a pretty great toy.
This thing: imgur.com/…/make-of-cyclidial-iris-by-vergo-henry…
is a math sculpture that I didn’t design, just printed, but it’s completely beautiful, and it’s had real staying power as both a toy and a decoration. It sits out on our coffee table all the time, but my niece plays with it every time she’s over here.
And this puzzle box I designed: imgur.com/…/i-made-puzzle-box-nieces-birthday-U1q…
was a big hit with her too. I’m not sure if she’ll continue to play with it long-term, but based on my own tendencies as a kid, I think she might end up investigating the mechanisms involved for some time to come.
Things that you could buy at the store you’re generally better off buying at the store. But there are things it’s not economical to mass produce, and it never used to be possible to design and make your own toys. Both ideosyncratic toys and bespoke toys are pretty great uses of 3d printing in my opinion.
- Comment on Up to half of the earth's population doesn't have an inner monologue, up to half of the earth has never had a shower thought 2 months ago:
Really! I find that fascinating.
When I try to think of a tune (often because I haven’t recalled the lyrics yet and am still trying to identify the song), I am just listening to the song in my head, trying to think of the notes and instrumentation of the next bit.
When I try to throw something–I said basketball because I figured it would be more relatable, but the sport I actually played was Ultimate (Frisbee, but that’s a trademark, so the sport is just Ultimate)–I’m picturing the path of the disc, how it will arc on the wind, the precise angle, how to roll it off my fingers, how long it will be in the air and how far to lead the runner. It’s a struggle to even come up with words for it now. It all feels visceral.
It’s hard for me to imagine using words for those kinds of things because words are so vague and general. Words deal with categories we impose on the world, rather than the world as it is. Like, I learned to juggle as a teenager; I could never do that if I had to use words to think about every way to maneuver my arms and how the balls would land and so forth. I just have to reach where the ball is going to be, and throw where my hand is going to be. When I first learned Mills’ Mess, I got it mixed up a bit (because I was learning from a VHS tape), and I had an extra throw in there. It took me quite a while to figure out how I mixed it up, and how to do it without that extra throw. But it was a spatial puzzle. I wouldn’t even know how to convey the issue in detail without just doing it.
I dunno. I shouldn’t be surprised that people’s inner lives are very different, but this particular point confounds me a bit.
- Comment on Up to half of the earth's population doesn't have an inner monologue, up to half of the earth has never had a shower thought 2 months ago:
When you’re thinking about how to throw a basketball to get it through a hoop, do you use words for that?
When you are thinking of the tune to a particular song, is that in words?
I think a lot of people overestimate the role of words in thinking. There’s a lot of non-verbal thought.
- Comment on Moire/Vernier Radius Gauge 2 months ago:
Not as far as I know. Practically speaking there are several disadvantages–the slots limit the light on the markings, parallax effects can mess with the reading, it requires two full surfaces sliding against each other which increases friction, etc. Plus with a regular vernier scale you can see both sides of a line, which could give you a better sense of how they line up (“vernier acuity”). But in a case like this, where precision isn’t a top priority and ease of use might outrank it, I think there’s an argument to be made for it.
- Comment on Moire/Vernier Radius Gauge 2 months ago:
I wouldn’t have caught that the gallery link was wrong if you hadn’t mentioned not knowing how the tool was used, so thank you as well!
- Comment on Moire/Vernier Radius Gauge 2 months ago:
Yeah, it’s definitely not the most precise thing. It’s good to around ±1mm. I tried to measure 1.75mm filament with it, and it just reads 1, not even between 1 and 2, so for critical measurements the physical matches are definitely better.
And yeah, here the vernier effect is not giving very high precision; it’s just giving a way to space the marks out enough to be printable, but indicate movements that are as small as a printed line.
- Comment on Moire/Vernier Radius Gauge 2 months ago:
Vernier calipers are absolutely ingenious, and it’s a shame that more people don’t know how to use them.
- Comment on Moire/Vernier Radius Gauge 2 months ago:
Sorry, just realized I also had the wrong link for the gallery that included photos of the tool in use! I edited the post, but here’s the corrected version of that: imgur.com/…/moire-vernier-radius-gauge-design-3d-…
- Comment on Moire/Vernier Radius Gauge 2 months ago:
Sorry all! I meant to post a video of the moire/vernier effect in action, which is the most eye-catching part of the whole project, as the main image for the post, but it didn’t upload. And now when I try to edit in a link, or post a link to it in the comments, it’s telling me “blocked URL.” But there’s a link on the printables page, and the version with the older version is in the imgur gallery which is linked.
- Submitted 2 months ago to 3dprinting@lemmy.world | 13 comments
- Comment on I don’t want to live here (USA) anymore 3 months ago:
Precisely that. cnn.com/…/dhs-vetting-immigrant-reality-tv-show
- Comment on We don't have 3 months ago:
By that logic conception only occurs when you’re two weeks pregnant. That’s an extremely silly way to count it. (Not saying you’re wrong, just that it’s frustrating.)
- Comment on In North Korea, your phone secretly takes screenshots every 5 minutes for government surveillance 3 months ago:
Seriously. This is exactly what people object to about Windows Recall. In its re-released version at least it’s opt-in for now, but it’s still eerily close to this.
- Comment on So close! 3 months ago:
So, in defense of this, the corned beef in question usually has a pretty complex seasoning profile. It’ll have a big packet with peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, dill, mustard seed, coriander, and a few other things. (Sometimes mace or nutmeg? It varies with the seller.) The “corned” in the name comes from all the spices (it’s “corn” like in peppercorn). And at the table it’s often also served with mustard or Worcestershire sauce, which brings a whole additional suite of spices, as well as pickled beets. So it’s not as flavorless as that description makes it sound. But it’s true that the corned beef does contribute a salty, savory note, especially to the cabbage.
It is legitimately a very mild, comfort food kind of dish. Vindaloo this isn’t. And we like that too! This just fits a different kind of mood.
I guess I just think it’s hilarious how much of an anti-advertisement the name is. Like, it’s so emphatically not going to appear on the menu of any fancy gastropub. Caramelized pear and arugula flatbread with candied walnuts and gorgonzola? Nope. Boiled dinner. Deal with it.
- Comment on So close! 3 months ago:
My brother-in-law considers it frankly offensive that there’s an actual thing called “New England boiled dinner.” My sister and I love it, but he can’t get past the name.
- Comment on If AI was going to advance exponentially I'd of expected it to take off by now. 3 months ago:
They’re not saying that slow growth is definitely evidence it’s exponential. They’re saying that slow growth doesn’t prove that it isn’t exponential, which seemed to be what you were saying.
It’s always hard to identify exponential growth in its early stages.
- Comment on do you think freewill truly exists? 3 months ago:
This exactly. “Do you think free will exists” could, in fact, be small talk, if neither of you is particularly interested in the topic.
- Comment on Trump says a 25% tariff "must be paid by Apple" on iPhones not made in the US, says he told Tim Cook long ago that iPhones sold in the US must be made in the US 3 months ago:
Good news on the latter front, actually: tomshardware.com/…/tsmc-expands-investments-in-th…
- Comment on 'End of 10' to Windows 10 Users: The Environment Wants You to Use Linux 4 months ago:
I guess I sort of agree? It’s a bit tricky to get it set up, for sure. Even just installing windows is probably beyond the average user, and this has a few more quirks and gotchas than normal.
E.g., in IoT LTSC 11 (which is what I’m actually currently using), when you connect a controller, it’ll bring up an error message about not having a handler for ms-gamebar, and fixing that calls for regedit. (One it’s fixed, though, it stays fixed.) It also got itself into a bit of a weird state during the initial installation where it wanted me to log in with a kind of account I don’t have, and while I was able to bypass that, I don’t think I did it in quite the right way, and it broke something in the install and I had to do an in-place repair install to fix it before it would install certain updates successfully. It was also failing to download the in-place repair install, so I had to look up how to do it manually using the install DVD I’d burned previously. But that fixed it, and it’s been fine since.
So, yeah, it’s got pitfalls and quirks and glitches. That’s also been my experience with other Windows installs, though, so it didn’t seem all that different in general.
But once you get those initial hurdles sorted out, it’s really just like normal Windows. Better, even, since it doesn’t have all the cruft built into it, like Cortana, Teams, OneDrive, start menu ads, nag screens about upgrading to 11, the Microsoft Store, etc. (Though you can add most of those if you really want them.) My aging parents aren’t willing to upgrade to 11 because they’re afraid too many things will have changed, and I’m thinking I’ll probably switch them to 10 IoT LTSC instead. I’ll just have to be careful to make sure everything they want to do works before I leave them to it. It still gets monthly security updates and everything.
- Comment on 'End of 10' to Windows 10 Users: The Environment Wants You to Use Linux 4 months ago:
Unless you switch to IoT LTSC, which will continue to get security updates until 2032. It’s kinda bullshit that they’re still making the security patches and then just refusing to give them to consumer 10 users.
- Comment on What is your favorite indie game? 4 months ago:
Sticking only to ones I haven’t seen mentioned:
- Tandis : geometry puzzler
- Gateways : a 2d portal-style puzzler
- Elliot Quest : pixel adventure
- Phoenotopia Awakening : also a pixel adventure, had trouble with the final boss but the rest is great
- Wuppo : flash-animation-style comedy adventure
- Alba : sweet game about a girl who loves wildlife
- Salt and Sanctuary : 2d soulslike
- Legend of Grimrock : tile-based first person dungeon crawler (“dungeon master” spiritual successor)
- A Short Hike (really short but amazing exploration game)
Ones I have seen mentioned but can’t bear not to mention:
- TIS-100 : the finest of the Zachlikes; a programming puzzle game
- Crosscode : 2d adventure with incredibly fine-tuned combat and puzzles
- Outer Wilds : fantastic time-loop puzzle
- FTL : space adventure “one more run!” game
- Slay the Spire : deck-drafting “one more run!” game
- Comment on What is your favorite indie game? 4 months ago:
I’m pretty excited about the upcoming “Free Stars: Children of Infinity.” I backed them on Kickstarter.
- Comment on What is your favorite indie game? 4 months ago:
I liked Horace okay at first, but it definitely gets bastard hard in a hurry.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
Alright, how about the fact that the TFR in the US has been below replacement since the 1970’s, then. (It got close to 2.1 during the 2010s and then dropped again, and is currently around 1.6-1.7.) Is that relevant enough for you? Antinatalism is just as toxic as pronatalism these days. I swear, neither side is willing to actually look at facts.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
The US population in 1980 was around 226 million, and in 2020 it was around 330 million. That’s an increase of about 50%. By comparison, the GDP in 1980 was about $2.75 trillion; in 2020 it was over $20 trillion, an increase of more than 600%.
The problem isn’t that we’re spreading out the same amount of money over too many people. It’s that we’re making much, much more money, but concentrating it in the hands of a tiny number of people and letting everyone else scramble for scraps.