Untitled. Wait... Curse you, Russell!

I'm a programmer living in the United States, particularly interested in Rust and formal verification. I'm interested in rationality, science, science fiction, fantasy, computers, programming, system administration, mathematics, linguistics, writing, transhumanism, improving the world, and pretty much anything else.Live long and prosper, don't forget to be awesome, etc.

[sparrowlucero]

the among us show being a total gorefest on par with john carpenter's the thing is a really fun choice

[sparrowlucero]

the among us show having a gay orgy in the middle of it is another really fun choice

[sparrowlucero]

realizing many people don't know about infinity train creator owen dennis' among us show from years ago, which has been trapped in unreleased limbo all this time and was just dumped on streaming this morning with no advertisement. they don't even know about its weirdly stacked cast

[nonevahed]

holy shit it's actually real.

i thought you were goncharov-ing me

[shieldfoss]

Are you implying Goncharov isn't a real masterpiece?

[daniel-r-h]

[Overly pretentious voice] It might be a real masterpiece but it is no more “real cinema” than the MCU.

[femmenietzsche]

[Town crier roaming the streets ringing a bell] Hear ye, hear ye. In case you were wondering scientists still haven't proven that sponges are the most basal group of animals. The question remains open.

[daniel-r-h]

What would the claim mean if it were true? Sponges have spent just as long evolving from the first animals as anything else has.

…I guess technically slightly less time because general reliability means less time passes as the bottom of the ocean, but I assume that’s both negligible and not exactly what’s meant.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Whenever I come across some internet commenter who seems to think that the fallout series isn’t political I have to wonder what exactly it is that they’re smoking

[what-even-is-thiss]

Even with the “war never changes” motif aside, Liberty Prime, the communism hating robot introduced in fallout 3, a Bethesda title btw, is programmed to say a lot of different lines, one of which is “embrace democracy, or you will be eradicated.”

Another line of his is “democracy is non-negotiable”

How can you follow behind this giant robot with comically violent lines about “democracy” that throws nukes at things and not realize that something here is being made fun of? Perhaps some sort of common policy? Of a political sort perhaps? Some sort of common justification for war perhaps? I wonder what it could be.

[what-even-is-thiss]

There’s also those who try to tell me that Bethesda took the politics out of fallout? I guess?

Do you need me to point aggressively at the anti communist robot again?

[what-even-is-thiss]

Yeah, New Vegas has a terrible no good very bad ending and three mostly morally grey endings. Point being that sometimes neutrality isn’t possible even in imperfect circumstances. You’ve gotta choose a side eventually even if that means some bad things happen.

Some folks are still convinced that the legion are the logical choice somehow though. Not sure what happens with that. Maybe they see the cool bull flag and pass out or something.

[jarl-deathwolf]

I think its mostly people taking Caesar at face value. I usually see them reason that since the Legion path is the one that requires the least intervention from the Courier to succeed, that makes them the most efficient faction.

Which is nonsense for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that even if they are efficient, its efficiency at pillaging and slaving.

[gloryofdawn]

Bethesda didn't take politics out of Fallout, they took themes and nuance out. Fallout 3 wanted you to understand there were Morally Correct Good Guys and Morally Evil Bad Guys, and there wasn't any question as to who was who or whether one side might have different merits than the other. Fallout 4 barely does better with this; there's less of an objective good guy, since the Brotherhood are decidedly fascist, but they forget to give nuance to the Institute, who kidnaps people and replaces them with synths because... They can?

[what-even-is-thiss]

There’s clear nuance to the brotherhood of steel in fallout 3 even if they are clearly the “good guys” in the story.

Also I’ll admit that the institute’s deal isn’t immediately apparent. They should’ve made their deal a bit easier to find for people who don’t wanna dig into every holotape there is.

The institute is what happens when a community is isolated for so long that they don’t view outsiders as human. They’re convinced that outsiders are doomed to die out and that they’re allowed to take what they need from the surface without question. They take supplies, take test subjects, take energy, power, and water.

The institute is an example of a bad guy who thinks that they’re morally in the right because they speak calmly. Because they don’t look angry. And I do kinda wish that it took a little less digging for that to become clear to people.

There’s a lot of nuance and social commentary to be found in Bethesda games but in my experience most of it isn’t in the main story points that are thrown in your face. It’s in side quests, environmental storytelling, and notes and books you can find scattered around.

And you might very well think that this type of more ambient social commentary and worldbuilding focus is inferior. It might be for you. For me though, it feels profound. It feels like it seeps into the cracks of everything in the world.

I’ve played New Vegas and I like New Vegas but almost everything in that game goes back to the conflict between the legion and the NCR and that isn’t my favorite type of open world game. Bethesda fallouts have a lot of stuff related back to the main quest but they also have things in the world that are unconcerned with the main quest.

Like that “normal American suburb” of people in Fallout 3 that are a) cannibals and b) republicans. That’s funny. That’s social commentary. That’s completely unrelated to the conflict with the enclave. I love it. I love it so much.

Also if what you want is a story where all choices involved make you feel like a piece of shit, go play the Far Harbor dlc.

[shieldfoss]

Whenever I come across some internet commenter who seems to think that the fallout series isn’t political I have to wonder what exactly it is that they’re smoking

And I continue to be astounded when the "everything is political" people don't understand what the "this isn't political" people are getting at. You don't even have to try the slightest bit hard to find out.

[daniel-r-h]

Technically, everything is political because, like most things, being political is a spectrum and it is difficult-to-impossible to land on the exact zero point; that doesn’t make it a useful observation for everything.

But I’m confused by the relevance of that to Fallout. I have not played the games or watched the series but everything I’ve seen about it has had enough politics that “Fallout is political” just seems true instead of “well, technically, if you insist”.

[apolladay]

Imagine someone presents you with incontrovertible proof that your current reality is a simulation. Whatever evidence you need, they can provide it, and you are fully convinced. They offer you the option to switch back to the real world, which is mostly the same, but you are substantially and measurably less happy. You are worse off, things go badly for you more often, your mood is worse, you have more pain.

Assume whoever is making this offer is able to offer you any assurances you need that this switch is real, possible, and permanent.

Would you accept this offer to leave the simulation?

Yes, absolutely

Yes, but it would be a tough decision

I genuinely can't decide

No, but it would be a tough decision

No, absolutely not

I refuse to engage with this thought experiment in good faith/show results

Imagine someone presents you with incontrovertible proof that your current reality is a simulation. Whatever evidence you need, they can provide it, and you are fully convinced. They offer you the option to switch back to the real world, which is mostly the same, but you are substantially and measurably less happy. You are worse off, things go badly for you more often, your mood is worse, you have more pain. Assume whoever is making this offer is able to offer you any assurances you need that this switch is real, possible, and permanent. Would you accept this offer to leave the simulation?

Yes, absolutely

Yes, but it would be a tough decision

I genuinely can't decide

No, but it would be a tough decision

No, absolutely not

I refuse to engage with this thought experiment in good faith/show results

Remaining time: 6 days 1 hour

[daniel-r-h]

This one, however, I cannot answer without more information. Is anyone I know real and conscious? Can I stay in the simulation but get information about the real world/access to the outside Internet?

This looks like it’s supposed to be parallel to the other question but it really isn’t.

[apolladay]

Imagine you had the option to switch your mind into a simulated reality, which would be indistinguishable from the real thing, except that you would experience a substantial and measurable increase in happiness. The simulated reality isn't perfect, but it would still be a noticeable improvement over our current world. Things go better for you more often, your mood is generally better, you have less pain.

Assume whoever is making this offer is able to offer you any assurances you need that this switch is real, possible, and permanent. You can live out the rest of your life in this simulated world without any side effects or gotchas, other than the knowledge that it is a simulation.

Would you accept this offer to live in a simulation?

Yes, absolutely

Yes, but it would be a tough decision

I genuinely can't decide

No, but it would be a tough decision

No, absolutely not

I refuse to engage with this thought experiment in good faith/show results

Imagine you had the option to switch your mind into a simulated reality, which would be indistinguishable from the real thing, except that you would experience a substantial and measurable increase in happiness. The simulated reality isn't perfect, but it would still be a noticeable improvement over our current world. Things go better for you more often, your mood is generally better, you have less pain. Assume whoever is making this offer is able to offer you any assurances you need that this switch is real, possible, and permanent. You can live out the rest of your life in this simulated world without any side effects or gotchas, other than the knowledge that it is a simulation. Would you accept this offer to live in a simulation?

Yes, absolutely

Yes, but it would be a tough decision

I genuinely can't decide

No, but it would be a tough decision

No, absolutely not

I refuse to engage with this thought experiment in good faith/show results

Remaining time: 6 days 17 minutes

[daniel-r-h]

Only if I get reassurances unrelated to the situation being real, possible, or permanent. I need to have communication with the real people I already know, access to real information, etc.

[janmisali]

oh I know how to make a poll's results look like the letter E watch this

what is the rightmost digit of the number of responses this poll has right now? (it should be visible before you vote.)

0, 1, or 2

3

4 or 5

6

7, 8, or 9

Remaining time: 5 days 3 hours

[elamarth-calmagol]

Confused by the numbering choices here

[janmisali]

that's the order numbers go in.

[theres-a-hole-in-my-wall]

but you have 12 options

[janmisali]

this poll has five (5) options actually

[theres-a-hole-in-my-wall]

i meant you have the choice of up to 12 options when you make a poll mb

Like why not make it 1-10 one choice for each number. Instead of grouping some numbers

[daniel-r-h]

Because that doesn’t make the poll results look like an E; it makes them look like an I.

[iamaine]

it's important to have your own unique door knock so people know it's you. a knock consists of stressed knocks, unstressed knocks and silences. as the creator of this system and thus the first person to note down my knock, i will claim the knock consisting of only silences (it's a zero-based index). Now would you please answer the door

[fragariavescana]

But *how many* silences does it consist of? How do I know it is you, rather than somebody who refrains from knocking on the door a different number of times?

[ceausescue]

it can be shown without too much work that the trivial knock is precisely the knock which, concatenated with itself, is unchanged

[daniel-r-h]

Also it should be a prefix-free code, so you don’t think one person is at the door when really the knock hasn’t been completed. So nobody else can start a knock with silence.

[longseasons]

[gwydionmisha]

Bonus: If I buy a book I get to keep it! The publisher can't turn up at my house at random and confiscate all the books I bought.

[daniel-r-h]

Most of that can be had with digital media also. Not everything needs ads, you can take backups more easily so that even if a hard drive wonʼt last 300 years a file can, and nobody can take a file off your computer.

Some people will try to break your files with DRM or stop you from getting them in the first place with streaming, but that isnʼt inherent to the medium.

[phaeton-flier]

You have some responsibility, I think, to not be a moron, to not shoot yourself in the foot, for your own sake. and certainly you have a responsibility to not tell others that shooting themselves in the foot is a good idea. If you do that and then people shoot themselves in the foot, I think you have some of the blame for the harm

[daniel-r-h]

But what about [very specific situation where shooting yourself in the foot is the least-bad option]? Surely it’s better to say that shooting yourself in the foot is a valid thing to do, for situations like that?

[queer-as-city-folk]

Anti-city people are just plain fascinating to me

[daniel-r-h]

I hate shopping and it is more efficient if I do it more at once. There are reasons to still get lots of stuff at a time.

But yeah, carts or cargo bikes work fine.

[phaeton-flier]

Ok but why are the index funds changing the rules to let SpaceX in early. Do they honestly think that valuation is sensible and long lasting? What is the benefit here

[phaeton-flier]

Anyhow rip "Just invest in Index Funds", you were good financial advice for generations. You are survived by "Just invest in low-fee open mutual funds" and their new wife "* unless they fucking buy growth stocks"

[daniel-r-h]

I can’t evaluate on an object level whatever the rule changes are good but I still hate this. Are there any non-total indexes which aren’t changing the rules specifically for two or three companies?

I use VT so I think I’m not really affected by the rule changes anyway (I think their definition of “everything” would include them pretty quickly anyway?) but even if I were convinced the index changes were good in theory I wouldn’t want them to happen just for SpaceX and Anthropic. If I were managing the funds I’d say “this change takes effect after one year from when the change is approved and only affects IPOs after that date” if I still thought it was good.

[succumbing-song]

[daniel-r-h]

This does not address whether “autological” is autological. It isn’t a paradox in the same way as heterological is, but it still doesn’t work normally.

[succumbing-song]

[daniel-r-h]

This does not address whether “autological” is autological. It isn’t a paradox in the same way as heterological is, but it still doesn’t work normally.

[kineticpenguin]

I think that one of the most frustrating things about algospeak, after the "compliance in advance" self-censorship, is that there is no actual evidence-based justification for it. Everyone who uses it does so because they heard from a guy who heard from a guy that The Algorithm will bury their content if they don't use cutesy euphemisms.

[balaclava-trismegistus]

it's weird how its a literal superstition about algorithms, and it's significantly changing English as it's used

[daniel-r-h]

People have done experiments on YouTube videos and found it does matter, even for things they claim doesn’t. I don’t know about other platforms but I would be surprised if it didn’t matter on most of them.

My information is several years old; maybe the AI censorship is smarter than the viewers at figuring out implications now so doing simple substitutions doesn’t help. But it was definitely a thing as some point.

[phaeton-flier]

It would be helpful to link those studies when you mention them as evidence!

[daniel-r-h]

As I said my info was several years old; I wasnʼt sure if I could find it. But it looks like this is the claimed list of words that might have issues, and on the right of the first tab they have several links talking about details and methodology. The first link is in the particularly annoying over-energetic YouTube format, but the second is a written description of the study.

As itʼs been several years I might misremember how good the study is but I think I thought it was a strong indication of at least some of its claims when I first saw it.

They mainly talk about words in titles, not in the video itself; in theory they might only look at the titles and not the contents but that would be weird.

[kineticpenguin]

I think that one of the most frustrating things about algospeak, after the "compliance in advance" self-censorship, is that there is no actual evidence-based justification for it. Everyone who uses it does so because they heard from a guy who heard from a guy that The Algorithm will bury their content if they don't use cutesy euphemisms.

[balaclava-trismegistus]

it's weird how its a literal superstition about algorithms, and it's significantly changing English as it's used

[daniel-r-h]

People have done experiments on YouTube videos and found it does matter, even for things they claim doesn’t. I don’t know about other platforms but I would be surprised if it didn’t matter on most of them.

My information is several years old; maybe the AI censorship is smarter than the viewers at figuring out implications now so doing simple substitutions doesn’t help. But it was definitely a thing as some point.

[janmisali]

when will it be possible for me specifically to listen to the entire Mario Kart World OST

once people on youtube finish finding and posting every song in the game

they won't find all of them. it won't be until someone datamines the audio

an actual official release of the OST will happen before either of those things

you'll be able to listen to all the music after some other event

[show results]

Voting ended onJun 21, 2025

[janmisali]

clubhouse games 51 worldwide classics fans stay winning

[janmisali]

donkey kong jr math fans stay winning

[janmisali]

lol

[janmisali]

captain toad treasure tracker fans stay winning

[janmisali]

accidentally kirby air riders almost then deleting the announcement then nothing at all fans stay winning

[janmisali]

a small selection of kirby air riders tracks the next day fans stay winning

[janmisali]

super mario party jamboree - nintendo switch 2 edition + jamboree tv fans stay winning

[janmisali]

super mario bros wonder - nintendo switch 2 edition + meetup in bellabel park fans stay winning

[janmisali]

oh of course they don't add the whole thing at once. why would you expect them to

[daniel-r-h]

And that’s why I chose the datamining option. It’s when you know you can listen to all the music, instead of just when you think you can.

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

"only a poor artisan blames his tools" is such bullshit, in almost every imaginable line of work the quality of the tools you have access to plays a massive role in the quality of the end product, sometimes in excess of the role played by individual skill! For example, some people have to code in javascript

[feathershy]

On the other hand, "my code doesn't work because of a compiler bug" is almost always the incorrect deduction (unless the compiler crashes or tell you this), despite compilers being full of bugs. It is just that my code likely has even more bugs. So "a poor artisan blames his tool too much sometimes" is a failure mode, but that is not pithy at all. It can be hard to tell if one is bad at something because of bad tools or because of bad skill.

[shieldfoss]

I have (finally!) been a programmer for long enough to see compiler bugs affecting my code and not just be a weird thing that you sometimes hear about affecting other people's code.

It took over 10 years, and happened while I was using some flags that aren't in super common use.*

[daniel-r-h]

For me it was actually my first job out of college. My code (well, the relevant section of it) did not have UB, but the compiler has an I Can Do What I Want As Long As It Works license and was adding something that worked but would be UB if I wrote it. Which would have been fine; it did usually work and the compiler does have that license, but its transformation happened before ubsan.