timdnewman

sarajw, 26 days ago to random

Oooh there's another chance coming:

https://bbc.com/news/articles/c163j8551ygo

Also I feel shamed as a once-physics-teacher - I didn't know or remember that the sun changed polarity every 11 years. That's cool and weird and mind blowing.

#astrophysics

timdnewman, 26 days ago to random

Have hurt my back. The real kicker was having spider fren crawl over my foot in the night.

I love SF in an abstract sense, but the practical reality of SF on your foot means lil Tim the lizard brain speaks up. He no likey.

Owwwwwwwww.

hl, 1 month ago to random

Late update, but today's random pick from my shelves for #CDFriday is this Billy Idol greatest hits. While his constantly scowling face always make it look like a he's just realised that he forgot to take the bins out, you have to admit he writes a catchy tune.

sarajw, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to cycling

Got it!

It's a funny looking thing and might not be great for if I ever go climbing hills on my sportier bike - but I've not done that for a long time now. I'll keep the old one for that distant eventuality 😅

In case anyone wants to know, it's a medium Specialized Tone, heavily reduced at the moment, scores five stars in the Virginia Tech tests, has MIPS.

#cycling #helmet #beSafeBeSeen

sarajw, 2 months ago to random

Since I got my latest phone, running Android 14, I've been suffering from a lot of jank and jumps or sudden scrolls up or down when reading longer web pages.

It doesn't seem to be images or other components popping in late, it almost seems like phantom taps or swipes, but I've turned on visual feedback for taps in the developer options, and don't see anything out of the ordinary.

Another issue is the swipe down from the top to open the notifications & quick settings sometimes just won't work.

cstross, 2 months ago to random

New blog entry: Announcement time! https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/03/announcement-time.html

(Yes, I'm on one of the Hugo award shortlists. And there's other stuff too …)

sarajw, 2 months ago to random

Short "epic emo" playlist. Please feel free to add your own in reply:

https://youtu.be/bMHHCpQ9M-Y
https://youtu.be/GNm5drtAQXs
https://youtu.be/RRKJiM9Njr8

sarajw, 2 months ago to random

There are roadworks happening near us totally closing off one road, making the little residential street where we take our kids on their bikes to and from kindergarten into a traffic rat-run. This street really isn't big enough for all the buses now going along it, and isn't safe.

There is NO information anywhere about what these roadworks are. The diversion signs reckon it going to last until 5th of April. I even called up the city hotline for building sites, and they have no info either ?!

timdnewman, 3 months ago to Netflix

The problem with #AvatarTheLastAirBender on #Netflix is that in the UK "Bender" is a slur for homosexual and some of this dialogue is hitting different in REALLY unfortunate ways

timdnewman, 4 months ago to random

Your face simply shouldn't make an audible squelch when you touch your nose. It's not right.

timdnewman, 4 months ago to random

There is almost nothing less conducive to the technical problem-solving I had scheduled today than the earache that kept me awake all last night and currently feels like I'm having my head soldered shut.

"You keep saying January was bad, am I a joke to you?" - Feb '24

hl, 4 months ago to Parenting

Child B is ill with scarlet fever, and I seem to have caught the strep throat too 😔 . I wonder if my antibiotics will have the same cute bug squashing tracker on the side like Child B's does?

#parenting #sick

jenniferplusplus, 4 months ago to random

I can't stop thinking about the fawning copilot demo from a very senior engineer I saw earlier today. It starts out like "this interface changed and I need to update the usages"

prompt
Look at that it's exactly right
prompt
fix the imports
Yes, that's exactly the implementation I already did in a different place
prompt
correct the snippet
It's just amazing how productive this is

trochee, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

The boom in LLMs is going to hollow out a number of knowledge-worker industries — for example, writing boilerplate code or technical documentation

Not because it does it well but because the flacks can sell upper management on the idea that it can do it at all, as @pluralistic recently pointed out

This sale is a pig-in-a-poke, and the winning move is to not be holding the bag when the actual code or documentation is found to be terrible

1/

timdnewman, 5 months ago to random

Listening to Chariots of fire, it's good, but not good for coding like the Blade Runner soundtrack.

Now if I could put my finger on what makes Blade Runner amazing for that and Chariots of fire not then I'd be a happier man.

It's possible that, as a data scientist, the Blade Runner soundtrack better fits the vibe of bringing about a dystopian hellscape. Whereas Chariots of fire might be better if I needed to run to the shops. Understandable given they are written to spec.

timdnewman, 6 months ago to random

The guy picking up Helens rental looked like he was on a mission. Unfortunately it looked like it was a mission from god so I nearly turned him away before he asked about the car.

timdnewman, 6 months ago to javascript

So I need to learn #JavaScript (or a successor?) and a framework for building interactive app like interfaces (think something a bit like Google slides) What's the best way? I know python, I probably don't need to start at hello world.