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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • It is an interesting article, even if it’s conclusions are entirely too rosy. The “storefront” was a single vending machine, and the bot was instructed to interact with Anthropic employees (with an hourly cost attached) to do all physical interactions. While the bot did a decent job managing the stock most of the time, it made a lot of bad decisions based on trying to be too helpful to it’s customers. It also frequently hallucinated, with some hilarious results I wont spoil here. But as anyone who owns a small business knows, one bad decision could put it under, so saying that an AI can manage a vending machine well “most of the time” is equivalent to saying it cant do the job at all.

    Their conclusion is that with a bit more work, Claude might be able to perform as a middle-manager. To me, that says more about how useless middle-management is than how capable their AI is.







  • I’ll save you all a click

    Disney is planning to introduce “virtual storefronts” to its popular streaming services, including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN. These storefronts will allow viewers to order snacks or pick out products they’ve seen in their favorite shows, all while continuing to stream their movie or show. Disney+ subscribers will see interactive ads pop up as well.

    So, basically, stuffing more ads into the premium service you paid for (presumably to avoid ads). These people don’t get it, do they?


  • As a man, I’ve never been made to feel excluded by gender equality in any way whatsoever.

    Same here. However, I suspect you and I are not zero-sum thinkers, and can conceive of a future in which both men and women can apply themselves to their full potential.

    But it seems like a key part of the counter-movement to gender equality is based on the notion that every time a woman gets a job, they are taking it away from a more qualified man. It seems to be built on a mountain of insecurity more than anything else.


  • My experience is that managers don’t normally “overcompensate in the other direction” on purpose. After all, if they are friendly with someone, they will be inclined to help them.

    Two exceptions:

    1. Bad managers make bad decisions generally, and usually for illogical reasons, so they might do this by accident.

    2. Owners of family businesses can be much harder on their kids when they first start out, because the owners mean to have the kids run the business when they retire, so want to do a “trial by fire”


  • So, in that case, since we can rule out him trying to get in your pants (unless he happens to be in the closet, but that seems unlikely) the key thing you need to watch out for is any appearance of favoritism. Even if the guy is a good manager and is not letting his free time with you affect his decisions, it might affect how other people on your team perceive your assignments. It could also make your boss uncomfortable if they think that you have more access to the CEO.

    And everyone is human, the CEO might be older but he clearly has his own issues. Look out to make sure he is not using you as a proxy for his son. But, on the other hand, if he simply has a desire to mentor someone and you happen to share similar enough interests, there is nothing wrong with that.

    Like anything else involving adults, though, communication and transparency is the key thing. When people ask you what you both talk about, be honest, without oversharing. And try not to accept any gifts or favors that make you feel uncomfortable – you are allowed to say no, even if the other side perceives it as “generous”.


  • Sorry, but my answer to this post will be a bit different based on your gender and orientation. There is a huge difference between advising a young professional guy who has a few beers with upper management now and then and a young professional woman who finds the CEO “enjoys my company” but there is a “power dynamic”, if you get what I mean.


  • A bet isnt a bet until there are multiple opposing sides matched together. If there is no bookie managing it, then it’s up to the individual participants to do it. If someone says “5 bucks on the big strong guy” it’s not an actual bet until someone comes along and puts money down opposite it.

    When the supporting character comes along and says “100 bucks on the other guy whose win moves the plot along”, it’s like he’s saying " I will match all the announced bets on the big guy so far, and everyone else’s up to a total of $100".

    They could take the time to show that person taking out a wad of 5’s and physically matching the bets already thrown down, but it’s more expedient to just do the shouting and then cut to the end of it.



  • If your goal is to roll a 7, then no, weighting one die doesn’t help, because it doesn’t matter which side comes up in the weighted die.

    (Another way to look at it is that you can place 1 die on whatever side you like, then roll the 2nd die: you still have a 1/6 chance of rolling a combined 7).

    However that is only the case for a 7, because you can roll a 7 with any combination of the first die (and a particular value in the 2nd). If your goal is to roll a 12, then weighting one die towards 6 will affect the odds, because you need a 6 on that first die to roll a 12; any other outcome makes it impossible.



  • I tend to agree (and also an EE). Airplane mode isn’t a total panacea, though. It just disables the cellular radio. While it also disables the Wifi and Bluetooth, those can always be turned back on, even while Airplane Mode is active. A motivated state actor can absolutely track via Wifi or Bluetooth. (Possibly even NFC, but the range on that is so low that I think it would impossible to do without seeing what is tracking you).

    Turning the phone off is the best solution if you want to keep rhe phone on your person. Guaranteed that all possible avenues for tracking is off, and also has the advantage that even if the phone is seized, the latest phone OSes require the passcode before doing anything at all when they first power up. Even the Police are limited in the data they can get off a phone that has just powered up and is asking for the passcode.


  • I am one of those people who engaged in the sarcasm and mockery, particularly mocking American Exceptionalism. But you can argue that American position as an Indispensible Nation is (well, perhaps was) a real thing. But it’s important to acknowledge that status was not accorded to us because we’re special, but because we aligned our interests to many of the world’s democracies. They didn’t follow us because of any inherent birthright, they followed because we shared their values and interests.

    John Kerry got skewered when he implied that American interests might be subject to a “global test”, but he was 100% correct. Other countries backed us because we backed them. If looking to America for leadership is no longer in their best interest, they will shop somewhere else for leadership.

    And that’s what makes Trump so insidious. Generations of Americans (politicians, service people, etc.) put this country in a position of respect, and this guy is tossing it all out the window by being a pety asshole who doesn’t listen.