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• Post #4347324

  For some time, I have been discomfited by operating systems putting requirements to run specific userspace code onto arbitrary programs. Sure, some amount of startup code usually exists; even C has to cons up the arguments to `main`, after all. And of course, to execute a system call or access some OS-provided object, allocate memory, and so on, requires some kind of contractual interface with the OS. But that's not what I'm referring to. It's things like libraries coll...

• Post #3657936

  Is the C standard a formal document? I suggest that no, it is not. Of course, it's written in a formal register, and it certainly strives for precision, but at the end of the day it is prose and in some places ambiguous. That's not a dig, it's just an inherent limitations of using English to define a programming language. I rather hope that doesn't happen to Rust. What I'd _much_ rather have happen there is to see the language precisely defined by an oper...

• Post #3657935

  Our cat has started coming into the bedroom every morning at 5am, jumping onto the windowsill, and attempting to communicate with the birds that are outside chirping their morning song. She makes a trilling sound that, I suspect, is meant to mimic the birds' calls and lure them in...so that she can catch and eat them. Fortunately, no birds were harmed in the making of this cuteness.

• Post #1630987

  "Have I told you about my new idea for an AI-enhanced gardening spade? It measures temperature, moisture level, and nitrogen content, all as you dig! Think Theranos, but for potting soil."

• Post #1464101

  What is it good for? https://youtu.be/ztZI2aLQ9Sw?si=8xaTAbT__L2Z0Q58

• Post #1407460

  @chuksawa it seems weird to say this, but I wonder if we are a lot closer to a military coup than a lot of people think possible.

• Post #1407459

  @chuksawa yeah, 25th amendment, definitely. This insanity is about to spiral out of control.

• Post #791077

  @krismicinski@types.pl @shriramk @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek really?! That's depressing. I find these things _maddening_ to use. It feels like trying to neatly typeset your ideas by by dragging wet toilet paper dipped in ink across a piece of sandpaper. Are they capable of some impressive things? Yes. Do I think they're a good tool as an augment for a sophisticated user to go faster? Honestly, not really. The NLP aspect is neat; the multiple round-trips through Englis...

• Post #791076

  @krismicinski@types.pl @shriramk @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek "but it can give you a great hollandaise recipe!"

• Post #791075

  Definitely feeling some FutureShock at the moment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUpidCc7wwY

• Post #791074

  @krismicinski@types.pl @shriramk @gwozniak @steve @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek as I've been playing around with these things the last few weeks, doing so as a practitioner who is keenly aware that the a) the world is changing, b) I did not ask it to change, c) it's changing in a way that feels bewildering given my professional experience thus far, I have a few thoughts about the externalities. First, I think there is a lot of emotion surrounding these things. Beyond the...

• Post #791073

  Shout out to @mattblaze for aggressively blocking cranks. I appreciate that I don't see their demands to prove a negative on my timeline (or see those only fleetingly), thus keeping my blood pressure at some barely-tolerable baseline. God speed, Matt. You put up with a lot.

• Post #507427

  Someone recently said that, "the cloud is just a landlord for your data." If that's the case, then LLMs are like the company store that is leasing you the tools that you use to do your work.