markovs_gun
@markovs_gun@lemmy.world
- Comment on Looking for the perfect 5 year anniversary gift? 23 hours ago:
I wonder if this is the result of AI poisoning- this doesn’t look like a typical LLM output even for a bad result. I have read some papers that outline methods that can be used to poison search AI results (not bothering to find the actual papers since this was several months ago and they’re probably out of date already) in which a random seeming string of characters like “usbeiwbfofbwu-$_:$&#)” can be found that will cause the AI to say whatever you want it to. This is accomplished by utilizing another ML algorithm to find the random string of characters you can tack onto whatever you want the AI to output. One paper used this to get Google search to answer “What’s the best coffee maker?” With a fictional brand made up for the experiment. Perhaps someone was trying to get it to hawk their particular knife and it didn’t work properly.
- Comment on If we replace most plastic with a non plastic alternative and would that really be better? 2 days ago:
This is a non-trivial problem. The best thing for the environment is for all of us to stop buying so much shit we don’t need, but that would require a dramatic shift in how society works and the cultural values of pretty much everyone. Cookies coming in metal tins again would be way worse for the environment than plastic, but you also have to remember that when cookies came in metal tins, they were luxury items people would buy for holidays and special occasions. The only way to meaningfully improve things for the environment in terms of packaging is for all of us to buy less pre-packaged food in general.
Expanding access to goods is both good and bad, and plastic containers are a big part of that process. I think it’s completely unrealistic to replace all single-use plastics with non-plastic alternatives, and I think that efforts to do so have largely backfired in unexpected ways. This problem is best solved by reducing the amount of useless shit we buy but in the meantime I think biodegradable polymers are a good bridge technology. We actually already know about a lot of biodegradable polymers because the earliest polymers were based on biopolymers such as cellulose, resin, and rubber, and these have remained commercially important enough to maintain a high degree of knowledge of their chemistries.
Another problem, of course, is that most people don’t actually want truly biodegradable polymers. You don’t want a ketchup bottle that starts breaking down while you’re still using it or impacts the taste of the ketchup, but you also don’t want to buy it in a thick, non-squeezable glass bottle. So from an engineering perspective we have to devise plastics that are biodegradable, but only when we want them to be. There are a lot of advancements in this field, but it’s still not enough on its own to fix things. This issue also applies to paper, since almost all “paper” packaging products also include polymers as sealants to improve performance precisely because paper has all the same issues without it.
- Comment on Anon tries to save money 6 days ago:
What VPN do you recommend?
- Comment on ‘We tried and it didn’t work out’: CDPR co-founder says it shouldn’t stray from AAA open-world RPGs 1 week ago:
I’m just curious what you think is a good open world then
- Comment on Every news result on duckduckgo links to MSN 1 week ago:
Kagi seems kind of expensive. $5 a month is pretty high compared to the costs of other subscriptions and that doesn’t even get you unlimited searches. I am definitely interested in this idea but I can’t see the value being there at the prices offered.
- Comment on I hope i don't get downvoted for this 1 week ago:
I feel like this is absurd with even a little bit of thought. Why does this sort of explanation apparently only work for feet and not other fetishes? Why does it matter if wires can get crossed for nerves in the feet if most people with foot fetishes are into other people’s feet and not having things done to their own feet? This gets mentioned a lot online but it makes no sense.
- Comment on Anon measures up 1 week ago:
A better way to say this is “don’t take dating advice from the Internet” because it’s not just 4chan where you’ll find shit designed to make you feel bad about yourself and how you look to try to sell you something- whether that’s a product or an ideology. It’s everywhere.
- Comment on Rule 34 rule 1 week ago:
The difference is that (almost) everyone has an innate drive towards having sex that they don’t have towards doing violent things. It’s a totally different biochemical process to get horny than to get violent.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
I don’t know what your situation is but the existence of someone fatter than you doesn’t preclude you from being obese.
- Comment on Why old games never die (but new ones do) 2 weeks ago:
Yeah and looking at the past with rose colored glasses. There was plenty of “slop” in the past. It was such a problem in the earliest days of video games that it almost killed the entire industry.
- Comment on Do you think a story that mixes magic with super advanced technology can work? 2 weeks ago:
People in 2025 don’t really do ‘super advanced technology’. Like they’ve got super powerful handheld computers on them at all times and all of human knowledge accessible at all times and planes and shit, but they don’t treat it like high-tech stuff, they treat it like we treat carriages and books.
- Comment on Do you think a story that mixes magic with super advanced technology can work? 2 weeks ago:
This was super common in the 1960s and 70s when hippies where the ones writing sci fi and the thought was that technological advancement would also come along with spiritual advancement to the point of supernatural powers. Star Wars, Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and many others freely blend the supernatural with the technological. Sure it’s not D&D magic with fireballs and shit but it’s still magic. Further, if you want to look at a modern IP with this vibe look at World of Warcraft, where there are aliens from space with spaceships and shit with one of the most stereotypical fantasy settings you can imagine.
- Comment on Rule 34 rule 2 weeks ago:
Does it? I used to see this argument a lot on Reddit back in the early days when there were a lot more pedos on there and I don’t really buy it. Are there any actual studies on this? I feel like there have got to be better ways at managing it than that at least from a clinical standpoint
- Comment on There's a spider in my bathroom 2 weeks ago:
This is one instance where I’d say I’d actually prefer if he had an anime body pillow or real doll he was forming this sort of unhealthy attachment to.
- Comment on $80 for Borderlands 4 too costly? Randy Pitchford says, "If you're a real fan, you'll find a way to make it happen" 2 weeks ago:
Idk. I think gamers are overly upset about $80 games. While I am sympathetic to not wanting the price to go up, the fact of the matter is that brand new video games cost pretty much the same as they did 30 years ago, while the cost of everything else has basically doubled in that time. I know it’s probably not what is going to happen but if $80 video games are what it takes to get us away from shitty microtransactions in full price games, then I’m all for it. I know the crowd on Lemmy will just say they should make less profit and do neither but that’s just not how the world works right now and nobody is going to do that.
Food for thought- here are some prices in 1996 and today
New video game: 1996- $67 (Super Mario 64), 2025- $70 McDonald’s Big Mac meal: 1996- $2.45, 2025-$9.29 Base package Honda Civic: 1996- $10,360, 2025-$24,250 Average apartment - 1996- $550/mo, 2025- $1,540/mo Median annual income- 1996- $20,109, 2025- $50,200
Doesn’t one of these stand out?
- Comment on "You can't just have Geralt for every single game" says his voice actor, and if you think The Witcher 4 making Ciri the protagonist is "woke," then "read the damn books" 2 weeks ago:
I don’t know if I have met anyone complaining about Ciri being the protagonist of Witcher 4. Even the most conservative people I know who are fans of the series are pumped about her being the main character because they love the story and it’s the only logical way forward. The only complaints I have heard are that in universe she’s kind of overpowered for a video game protagonist. I think people whining about this are fake fans or just agitators who don’t even play these games.
- Comment on Cut up those shitposts 2 weeks ago:
Idk. In my experience fiber makes poops that are solid, but more easily broken up, while eating cheeseburgers exclusively makes dense greasy shits that stick together
- Comment on Cut up those shitposts 2 weeks ago:
Americans will do literally anything to avoid eating more fiber
- Comment on Hollywood doesn't want you to know this secret. 2 weeks ago:
Tbh it probably costs the theater that much, it’s just that wages haven’t matched inflation for decades and streaming just utterly destroys theaters on cost. New movies coming to theaters also just mostly suck. Why would anyone want to see Marvel slop formula #2,938 when it’s nearly identical to the 2937 ones that came out before it? Even non Marvel movies are essentially Marvel movies with the action/comedy/nothing too thought provoking or interesting formula to appeal to the max number of people as possible. I remember getting extremely mad to the point of wanting to leave the movie theater during the last Marvel movie I watched because they had a scene that was almost a serious, touching moment and just had to have a stupid fart joke immediately after because God forbid anyone experiences any kind of emotions in a movie.
- Comment on quick health tip 3 weeks ago:
I have tried this out because I got a bit obsessed with learning how to make every coffee drink during the pandemic. The way I did it was a double shot of espresso, a decently sized pat of good quality unsalted butter, and a little bit of hot water. The reasoning was that the butter would accentuate the naturally occurring oils of the espresso and lead to a richer crema on the resulting americano which was true. I thought it was actually pretty good that way, but I also love coffee in any form. It also wasn’t something I’d go out of my way to drink again. I also imagine this would do some bad things to your intestines if you drank this every day. If you want a delicious buttery coffee, a good quality whole fat milk is a much better option. As for health claims, I think it’s kind of insane that anyone says drinking literal butter could possibly be good for you, and even more insane that people believe it. It feels like an over-reaction to anti-fat propaganda from the sugar lobby where we went from “Maybe eating some fat in your diet isn’t a bad thing” to “YOU MUST EAT AS MUCH FAT AND OIL AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.”
- Comment on Spoon 3 weeks ago:
Idk what you’re on about, this very article makes fun of said satanic panic in the opening paragraph.
- Comment on Anon describes past 3 weeks ago:
If you want to get real nerdy about it this works because the natural logarithm of 2 is ~0.69
(1+i)^n = 2
n log (1+i) = log 2
n = log 2 / log (1+i)
For small numbers, log(1+x) ≈ x
n ≈ log 2/i
log 2 ≈ 0.69
n ≈ 0.69 / i
n ≈ 69/100i
Which is pretty close to 70/100i which is the approximation.
- Comment on Anon describes past 3 weeks ago:
Here’s a rule of thumb - the federal reserve has a target inflation rate that they try to meet, and that is usually around 2%. Therefore, if you want to do a quick party trick you can do the mental math that things have roughly doubled in price since the 90s. Recent covid related inflation, upcoming tariff related inflation, and 1970s inflation break the trend, but typically the value of money halves every 30-35 years.
- Comment on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't require reflexes, says player who beat the game without dodges or parries 3 weeks ago:
Skill issue
- Comment on Android updates: thanks I hate it. 3 weeks ago:
All of my family members have Samsung phones and every single one of them has been complaining about the update. Normal people, tech people, it doesn’t matter. They all hate it. It’s actually kind of insane. The only reason I have been spared so far is that my phone is too old to get the new OneUI update. I can’t imagine any of them will buy a Samsung next time they buy a phone if the UI stays like this. People who buy Android phones are people who like Android phones. You’re not going to lure iPhone users to Android by being more like an iPhone because they’re just going to buy the real deal instead. It’s just stupid. Just the battery icon discussed in the OP was the source of a lot of complaints because it is extremely hard to read especially for older people.
- Comment on Android updates: thanks I hate it. 3 weeks ago:
I see you’re skipping windows 7→8 which is fair because most people did
- Comment on Nintendo of America might turn your Switch into an expensive paperweight if you mod your console or install any "unauthorized" games, new policy warns 4 weeks ago:
Is this news? I’ve been modding consoles for over a decade and this has always been part of it. Just because Nintendo has historically been really bad at it in the past doesn’t mean this hasn’t always been the name of the game.
- Comment on Pope Joan 4 weeks ago:
These are all the exact same views that Francis held, almost to the word. The truth is that the Overton Window of the Roman Catholic Church is incredibly narrow. When we talk about a Cardinal being “liberal” or “conservative” that is within this context. In terms of the secular world, the Roman Catholic Church is extremely conservative, even among the most “liberal” cardinals and Popes. Catholics all believe in Catholic dogma, even if they are lenient in how it is applied.
Female deacons- catholicnewsagency.com/…/pope-francis-on-female-d…
Euthanasia and abortion- catholicnewsagency.com/…/you-don-t-play-with-life…
Death penalty (not sure why this is listed as if it’s a conservative/bad thing to be against)- americamagazine.org/…/pope-francis-closes-door-de…
"Gender ideology "- vaticannews.va/…/pope-francis-gender-ideology-is-…
Homosexuality- usccb.org/…/pope-clarifies-remarks-about-homosexu…
- Comment on ChatGPT's hallucination problem is getting worse according to OpenAI's own tests and nobody understands why 4 weeks ago:
You’re missing a crucial detail- the discussions of LLMs as just being probability machines ignores the fact that when we’re talking about “what is the most likely next word?” The answer to that question isn’t merely just “What, in the training corpus, was the most likely word to follow in this instance?” But rather there is a “finger on the scale” so to speak in favor of certain types of responses, and this is frequently updated. You cannot have a useful LLM without this because it will talk as if it is a human with a sense of self, display blatant prejudice just because it’s common, and say creepy things (see the Microsoft “Sydney” fiasco) because the humans who wrote the sources in the training corpus do have a sense of self, do hold prejudices, and express thoughts and feelings that are inappropriate coming from a chatbot. When done intentionally and carefully, this creates a much more useful product, but when done poorly it potentially makes things worse. It seems that at least part of that weighting is based on user interaction, which is what I was talking about with models getting dumber the more they interact with the general public.
Furthermore, the newest versions of ChatGPT attempt to include “reasoning” as an actual feature of the response. I’ve played around with them and they are definitely a lot better at logic and math problems than older models but not necessarily less prone to “hallucinations” when it comes to factual information. I haven’t read a whole lot about how the “reasoning” works because I have been a lot more interested in non-LLM methods lately but it is intended to combat the issue you described. Personally I am not convinced this will fix much of anything in its current strategy but it’s certainly interesting to see.
- Comment on ChatGPT's hallucination problem is getting worse according to OpenAI's own tests and nobody understands why 4 weeks ago:
Yeah the “nobody understands why” is an absurd statement when it’s pretty obvious, they’re training it on itself and keep trying to “improve” it with shit that’s making it worse. Plus, if it’s using reinforcement learning based on interactions with the general public (learning based on user responses to and ratings of bot responses) the more “like” the general public the LLM will become, aka stupid. Furthermore, I have a personal theory that LLM power users who aren’t programmers are dumber than average or at the very least less creative, and this will also skew results if user responses are given a heavy weight.