Posts by ovid@fosstodon.org
(DIR) Post #AY58SUXMf8iWZWj4qW by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-07-26T07:06:51Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Stumbled across the name "Baldur's Gate" and that certainly brought back memories. Then I found out they're releasing a new version and one of the races you can play is Githyanki. https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/GithyankiI only mention that because those were created by none other than Charlie Stross.@cstross (He also created Githzerai, Slaadi, and Death Knights)
(DIR) Post #AY58SWSpUyHIY2cU3U by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-07-26T09:08:33Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@golgaloth @cstross Side comment: we're creating a free sci-fi game called "Tau Station" (https://taustation.space/) which isn't quite ready for prime time, but you can play "variants" of humanity who've been genetically engineered for different roles. I hate the name "race" (and connotations) so much that I called them "genotypes."
(DIR) Post #AYIRidJvba5Q5KXDoO by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-08-01T15:16:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@cstross I want to see a werewolf novel where some of the wolves are fat, drunk bubbas in real life and keep that after transforming.Or the skinny nerd transforming into the runt of the litter.Or the type 1 diabetic whose terrified of the full moon because they can't get their shots.Or the paraplegic who ... yeah, not gonna go there, but you get the idea.And while we're at it, the Muslim vampire held off by a copy of the Qur'an.
(DIR) Post #AYTZlr3WhmwYi7pssy by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-08-06T08:05:00Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
I'm guessing Musk is one of those people who don't understand the difference between irony and sarcasm.(Yes, I read the article)"Elon Musk says X will fund legal bills if users treated unfairly by bosses."https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66420177
(DIR) Post #AbCfeATQES46jA0dWa by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-10-27T11:53:30Z
13 likes, 15 repeats
The Moon, cosplaying as Saturn for #halloween Source: #NASA #Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2020 March 16.https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200316.html
(DIR) Post #AbrjohJV2rv7cnooHQ by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-11-16T12:34:24Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Learned of a company that is still developing their business using OS/2. All of their hardware is terribly out-of-date, down to their keyboards!The justification isn't the cost of upgrading. The company points out that they have no viruses and OS/2 is such a small target that threat actors ignore them.
(DIR) Post #AcKZoWLOSt0Ze7oqlk by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-11-30T08:53:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I was reading an article about terraforming #Mars and came across this:“Even if there were living microbes deep under the surface of Mars, the value of millions of multicellular species would surely outweigh the value of microbes.”There was no further explanation.Do you agree with this?#astrobiology #nasa #space #science #ethics
(DIR) Post #AcKayy4ML0RyU6Ofrc by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-11-30T11:51:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Revertron Since we have no idea how extraterrestrial life might present, we can't know if we can coexist. On earth, plenty of invasive species drive native species to extinction.As for making a place for them to live, it would require that we understand all of the conditions necessary for them to live.We're in the awful position of having planning without having knowledge.
(DIR) Post #AcZ83R2ca0SwCLlEf2 by ovid@fosstodon.org
2023-11-04T07:58:13Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Ever wanted to learn (or relearn) #calculus? #Math seems hard to many people, but this book might be a great introduction for you.You can read it online for free at https://calculusmadeeasy.org/The text from the screenshot is in chapter 1: https://calculusmadeeasy.org/1.html
(DIR) Post #AhdX0vmvjI3r17ceAK by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-05-06T08:24:33Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
In #Python, this is a useful and common idiom:if __name__ == "__main__": ...But it silently fails if __main__ is misspelled and it's extremely non-obvious to new developers. I'd prefer for this common functionality to be baked into the language:if running_as_script(): ...Now, it's completely transparent what it does and if you misspell the function, it doesn't silently fail. It kinda feels wrong to have a weird special case in the language, but it's so ubiquitous.#Programming
(DIR) Post #AhqPo9xPZ3qEZZy0dU by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-05-06T10:37:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Today is shaping up to be crap. HTTP requests failing under the debugger, and the reams of stack traces hid the one line "Timeout was reached" message.So I bump the timeout to 10 minutes if I'm running under the debugger. Still fails. I failed to set it on the request.Set it on the request, still fails. I passed `timout` instead.(Sorry, Tim)Fixed that, still fails. I passed `timeou` instead.It's just after noon and already I need a drink.#Programming #Software #KillMeNow
(DIR) Post #AhqzlU99dnx4fcU3PM by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-05-06T08:33:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
GOP: Biden is suffering from age-related dementia and eats breakfast out of a sippy cup.Also GOP: Only Trump is clever enough to defeat Biden.Wait, hol' up ...
(DIR) Post #Ai0TK3TfQyj1BbYQ88 by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-04-02T10:24:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I keep telling myself that I will never break down and add the following to my .bash_aliases file alias mdkir=mkdirBut it's so, so tempting.#linux
(DIR) Post #Ai0TK866G1qPVxZAae by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-04-02T10:34:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I will confess to having the following in my .bash_aliases: alias :e="vim"
(DIR) Post #Aj1K0ngVeLKDaSuAnw by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-06-17T13:46:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ZachWeinersmith That bonus panel killed me :)
(DIR) Post #AlGPfmutgtnHWHPEFU by ovid@fosstodon.org
2024-08-22T14:45:25Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Some ads just don't age well.Humble Oil became Standard Oil became Exxon became ExxonMobile became monsters.#climate #ClimateChange
(DIR) Post #AxOF4LE87XKSekT53w by ovid@fosstodon.org
2025-08-21T08:13:10Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Had guests over. Both French but comfortable in English. In discussing tongue twisters, I said "The sixth six sheik's sixth sheep's sick." They didn't understand, but I couldn't translate it to French because I didn't know the word for "sheik."Enter ChatGPT's voice mode. "Hey, ChatGPT, translate the following to French ..."Result? "du sexe, sexe, sexe."Turns out even septuagenarians appreciate naughty humor.
(DIR) Post #Az1mrLucESV24MkfOS by ovid@fosstodon.org
2025-10-09T07:36:02Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
OpenAI has published amazing research about how to reduce hallucination rates to almost zero. It's bloody obvious in retrospect.Except that AI is now polluting so much information that it's not easy to separate truth from lies any more. So while the #AI might not hallucinate its output, it still might lie to your face and not know it
(DIR) Post #B0GTQxZLPzHPePRpa4 by ovid@fosstodon.org
2025-11-15T07:21:28Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Even the most die-hard anti-AI people would have a hard time arguing against this.Someone used #Claude tools to go through the Epstein emails and build a site allowing you to search through his network and see the original docs. Trump's name shows up a lot.https://epstein-doc-explorer-1.onrender.com/Via https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1ox1qgb/epstein_relationship_networks_extracted_from/
(DIR) Post #B1GaHAJxpNML6PmdWK by ovid@fosstodon.org
2025-12-15T07:02:33Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
Claude is once again being a whiny b*tch. It wrote tests that emitted warnings. I told it to fix them, and it claimed it wasn't responsible for the warnings. I told it to fix them again and it replied:"The warnings you're seeing are from pre-existing tests for other components (QuickAccessButtons and JumpDialog), not from the TitleScreen component I just created. These warnings existed before I started this task and are outside the scope of task 4.7."