nyan

@nyan@lemmy.cafe

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google develops AI tool that fills missing words in Roman inscriptions⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  It isn’t quite as crazy as it sounds when you consider that a lot of inscription texts are pretty formulaic—epitaphs, dedications, and such. Plus, we have plenty of surviving writings in classical Latin, so we know the grammar pretty well. Given those things, I’d expect an AI trained on the corpus of inscription texts that have survived without significant damage to be able to make reasonable suggestions about formulaic texts.

  Really, when you think about it, a trained human presented with a damaged inscription text won’t be doing anything much different from what an LLM would do: they’ll try to fill in the text with the most likely words based on any remaining traces of letters, and their knowledge of other, similar texts. The problem is getting the LLM to communicate its level of certainty about the fill-ins it’s offering.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Epochalypse: It’s Y2K, But 38 Years Later⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a problem with the internal represensation of a C/C++ type alias called time_t, mostly. That’s the thing that holds the number of elapsed seconds since midnight on Jan. 1, 1970, which is the most common low-level representation of date and time on computers. In theory, time_t could point to a 32-bit type even on a 64-bit system, but I don’t think anyone’s actually dumb enough to do that. It affects more than C/C++ code because most programming languages end up calling C libraries once you go down enough levels.

  In other words, there’s no way you can tell whether a given application is affected or not unless you’re aware of the code details, regardless of the bitness of the program and the processor it’s running on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In China, delivery robots now ride the subway to restock 7-Eleven stores⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  If the bots are required to have paid transit passes and if they’re confined to off-peak hours when the subways aren’t full anyway, this could actually be a net win for mass transit: they’re putting money into the system while consuming relatively few resources, so the bots can fund improvements that benefit humans.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Study finds AI tools made open source software developers 19 percent slower⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  These AI dev tools absolutely have a direct negative impact on developer productivity, but they also have an indirect impact where non-devs use them and pass their Eldritch abominations to the actual devs to fix, extend and maintain.

  Sounds like the next evolution of the Excel spreadsheet macro. Or maybe it’s convergent evolution toward the same niche. (I still have nightmares about Excel spreadsheet macros.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit users in the UK must now upload selfies to access NSFW subreddits⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Why do I have a feeling that a handful of people are going to suddenly become n-tuplets?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nyaight of the Living Cat - Episode 2 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It becomes that much more difficult to survive a zombie apocalypse when the “zombies” are cute and fluffy and you really don’t want to run them over . . .

  (Also, I’m wondering if they’re ever going to run out of cat-joke brand names. “Mewtube”, yet.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spring 2025 AOTS & Summer 2025 Top 10 Week 1 Results (Anime Corner)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Surprised and rather pleased to see Takopii in first place. I don’t know whether I’m going to be able to finish the series without quitting in self-defense, but the first ep certainly had substance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Crunchyroll & Now Netflix Both Confirm Anime Sub Watchers Are the Minority on Their Platforms⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The big streaming platforms probably get pretty much all of the casual watchers, who favour dubs, but have to split the more hardcore fans who favour subs with the high seas. That’s going to skew the stats a bit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nyaight of the Living Cat - Episode 1 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would not survive ten seconds in that universe. 😅

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Robot performs first realistic surgery without human help: System trained on videos of surgeries performs like an expert surgeon⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d bet on at least twenty years before it’s in general use, since this is a radical change and it makes sense to be cautious about new technology in medicine. Initial clinical trials for some common, simple surgeries within ten years, though.

  This is one of those cases where an algorithm carefully trained on only relevant data can have value. It isn’t the same as feeding an LLM the unfiltered Internet and then expecting it to learn only from the non-crazy parts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When tech hardware becomes paperweights⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you can. Medical devices are particularly nasty: there may be only one or two brands on the market that do what you need, because such devices understandably require extensive certification. If the only available option requires an app, you’re stuck. If you need something that meets other legal or professional certification requirements, you might also have very limited options.

  For just about anything else, I agree that there’s probably some alternative to an app-locked device, although some level of convenience tradeoff may be necessary.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 • Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 2nd Season - Episode 24 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sad to say, the first thing that popped into my head when Maomao said, “It was a woman,” was, “For someone who grew up in the pleasure district, you sure lack imagination.” I guess I’m incorrigible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨China bans uncertified and recalled power banks on planes⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They have less power density than other lithium-ion chemistries when both are new, but the dropoff over time is also less. That means that unless you replace your power banks fairly often, the LiFePO₄ version is likely to have higher density for much of its lifetime. They also tolerate at least double the number of charging cycles.

  Not sure how to go about marketing that in our current disposable society, though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PNG has been updated for the first time in 22 years — new spec supports HDR and animation⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There were two different animated PNG extensions, MNG and APNG. Neither of them ever really caught on. I guess they’re hoping to do better by baking it into the core spec.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK to be first country to use AI healthcare system to prevent future scandals⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So they’re outsourcing causing scandals to an LLM? I suppose that’s a novel use of the technology.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spring Anime Season Wrap-Up, Summer Kickoff, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 27]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Trigun - Verrrry slowly been watching the OG classic. I’m only a few episodes away from the end. Finally some more backstory filling in details! It’s good, but I’m not quite blown away, while something like OG Cowboy Bebop still holds up.

  It’s the last four episodes that really make the show on this one, so you may yet change your mind.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Decline of Usability: Revisited | datagubbe.se⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  People who wonder why I use a Linux desktop environment whose appearance and behaviour are basically unchanged from what they were 20 years ago, and daily drive a browser that forked from Firefox 27 and still uses that UI: this is why.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Misogyny and Violent Extremism: Can Big Tech Fix the Glitch?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Betteridge’s Law of Headlines . . . but they’re not even trying.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨12 New Summer Anime Releases to Add to Your Watch List Right Now⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Lord of the Mysteries

  I’ll watch. It wasn’t in the seasonal list for summer, so nice catch
  

  I suspect it wasn’t on the seasonal list because it’s a donghua rather than an anime in the strict sense. The first episode suggests it may end up being style over substance, but it’s got enough style that I’ll continue with it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spring Anime Season Wrap-Up, Summer Kickoff, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 27]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Silly Awards Time!

  • Toilet Humour Award: Apocalypse Hotel, which was surprisingly good despite the number of times poop came up.
  • Most Overhyped: Lazarus, which was an okay popcorn action series but didn’t deserve anything like the amount of promotion it got. At least it was better than Fractale.
  • Most Deceptive First Episode: Kowloon Generic Romance, whose first episode plays like, well, a generic wallflower x pushy asshole romance setup. Until you hit the very end and realize that it’s something else entirely. Runner-up: Yami Healer, whose first episode was just awful, while the rest of the show was okay brain candy. Honourable mention: Once Upon a Witch’s Death—I haven’t finished it yet, but as of the midpoint it seems to be morphing from tearjerker-of-the-week to having a larger plot that affects more than just Meg and her town.
  • Biggest Missed Opportunity to Transmit Lore: Your Forma. Instead of repeating the “amicus robot” blurb at the very beginning of each episode, they could have put different sequences in there each time to provide direly needed explanations about other aspects of the setting. The only way to figure out what “your forma” actually is is to read the series’ description blurb on a website; it’s never explained inside the show.
  • Dishonourable Mention for Harm to Kitties: Your Forma again.
  • Most Confusing: Bye Bye Earth, still. The reveal in the next-to-last episode explains some of the weirdnesses of the setting, but not others. A lot of the lore surrounding the swords is still incoherent, for instance.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spring Anime Season Wrap-Up, Summer Kickoff, and Discussion Thread [2025, Week 27]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  One thing I have wondered since season 1 is why its target demographic is seinen. IMO suspense is one of those genres that cater to all age groups and genders.

  Hmmm. Shounen publishers might have thought that a political-intrigue-based story with a female lead wouldn’t be popular enough with their demographic, and josei tends so strongly toward mundane modern-day settings with romance that an historical whose romance is very slow burn might have been a hard sell. Shoujo might have fit, but I suspect there weren’t enough flowers, sighs, and bishounen. (Saiunkoku Monogatari, which is the most similar other series I can think of, has a much higher number of pretty young men in the cast and was published as shoujo.)

  So it might have ended up seinen by default.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What horror anime scared you the most?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The last part (or two parts?) of the Vampire Princess Miyu OAV when I first saw it ~30 years ago. Of course, it probably didn’t help that I was watching it at weird o’clock in the morning.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"I Left My A-Rank Party" Season 2 Announced with Visual⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  got to admit the first season wasn’t exactly memorable

  Yeah, it’s pretty much mediocre from start to finish. Not horrible in any category, but the only thing that makes it stand out from all the other “loser is thrown out of adventuring party, then shows that he’s actually pretty competent and gets a harem masquerading as a new party” shows of the past few years is the fact that they made a second cours of it (and now, apparently, a third).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Apothecary Diaries Season 2 • Kusuriya no Hitorigoto 2nd Season - Episode 23 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  though, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the resurrection potion

  Loulan’s words to Jinshi about people who have “already died once” being let off the hook feels like they almost guarantee it, but I guess we’ll find out for sure next episode.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apocalypse Hotel - Episode 12 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If the problem is purely allergies, careful exposure to the allergens under controlled conditions should have some of them able to walk around without suits within a generation. Although they’ll likely need to carry hayfever meds and epi-pen equivalents around.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[JS Required] Boeing’s Inadequate ‘Training, Guidance and Oversight’ Led to Mid-Exit Door Plug Blowout on Passenger Jet⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That they didn’t have enough technicians trained in this to be able to ensure that one was always available during working hours, or at least when it was glaringly obvious that one was going to be needed that day, is . . . both extremely and obviously stupid, and par for the course for a corp whose sole purpose is maximizing profit for the next quarter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman • Katainaka no Ossan, Kensei ni Naru - Episode 12 discussion⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Beryl’s former students need to band together and get him some etiquette lessons if he keeps having to rub shoulders with the royal family, or he’ll sooner or later end up feeling terminally embarassed about something to do with a dessert fork.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Name an older anime you'd love to see make a full comeback?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Escaflowne - with modern animation and a full orchestra

  Much of the original soundtrack was recorded by the Warsaw Philharmonic, if I recall correctly, so it’s already had the full orchestra treatment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Name an older anime you'd love to see make a full comeback?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d like to see Pumpkin Scissors and Zipang completed up to the ends of their respective manga (although Zipang was controversial enough that it might be really difficult to get it made). Likewise, Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi up to the end of the light novel series. And, just as an extra, it would be nice to see the last arc or two of Ghost Hunt make it to anime, although that would have to be an OAV as I’m pretty sure it would make six episodes max.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Name an older anime you'd love to see make a full comeback?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But . . . but that would put the “I don’t care about series continuity” joke in the second OAV at risk!