Mastodawn

The real question isn't whether Generative AI is self-aware (it isn't), but whether *humans* are… apparently I just told my friend for the third time that Richard Pryror was a national treasure, and Superman III is underrated.

Dave Horlick Mar 16

Classic Doctor Who rewatch takeaway: Nyssa is a freaking rock-star, good at everything except maybe initiative. Accordingly, Tegan + Nyssa = dream team

Dave Horlick Mar 12

re: NYT's "Coding After Coders" article… if Generative AI has really resulted in a "20×" increase in software development productivity, where are all the great new features and apps? Why are all the GitHub issues still open? Why are websites just as sh-tty as they've always been?

Dave Horlick Mar 11

Seems to me Generative AI is…
1. overhyped
2. a speculative bubble
3. incapable of "understanding" anything
4. frequently incorrect, sometimes spectacularly so
5. distressingly good at deep fakes
6. super confirmation bias-y

But also:
7. good for organizing thoughts
8. can provide help solving math problems, implementing straightforward algorithms & designing circuits
9. no doubt cribbing from somebody else (maybe the questioner!), but occasionally produces answers of surprising prescience

Dave Horlick Feb 27

I understand Disney is planning to reboot The X-Files. Here's my pitch: basically the same show, but this time, Sculley is always right!! They go around conclusively disproving the existence of vampires, alien bounty hunters, homicidal vestigial twins, etc.

I'd watch

Dave Horlick Feb 23

I don’t think park-hopping is a great deal, unless you 1) are super-pressed for time 2) would plan to leave the park in the middle of the day, anyway or 3) might never be back. But to each their own.

I always know I’ll be back in Orlando again. So I can "park-hop" in deep time.

Dave Horlick Feb 14

The most implausible part of Project Hail Mary isn't what we encounter in space or what happens to the sun… it's that Earth (and the USA in particular) would take a critical threat to our planet seriously. The EPA preparing to roll back its ability to regulate greenhouse gases this week demonstrates that we would do nothing.

Dave Horlick Feb 9

It would be hard to find good help in a post-scarcity economy.

Dave Horlick Jan 11

Everybody loves Keychron, but for my money, the best value 100% keyboard is the Glorious GMMK. They look sharp. They're wired. They have RGB LED's, if you're into that sort of thing. And the switch sockets are hot-swappable! You can generally pick them up used on ebay for $35-$40. The stock keycaps kind of suck and having to run Windows to remap the keys is a *little* bit of a drag, but since it's full-sized, you probably won't even need to.

Dave Horlick Nov 23

For the most part, I am content to work in C++ these days and it is fine. But I think the thing I miss most about Java is the Collections API… Well thought-out Interfaces I can reference collections behind. Iterators that I don't have to perpetually remind myself how to use and that can easily remove items. And pop methods that actually return an element!

I'm sure I'm saving a few cycles by not having all this, but I'd happily trade them back.