is it cynical that i find the idea of a “latent space” a bit goofy? may just be because i think data science is kind of a joke and much machine learning is “we threw shit at our model but don’t know what a category error is”

like it’s just dimensionality reduction with new vocab?

colonise the light cone by exploring latent space

Can someone explain what this is referring to? I don’t understand it.

Breaking free from the butthole

is this the best thing i’ve ever read?

<3

i am an android user, but in the us not having an iphone can be tedious, so i set up openbubbles

did y’all know that apple lets its users create emojis with “AI” and these things come through as images to non-iphones?

thought i was past the “apple users incidentally harass non-apple users through imessage” thing, but this shit makes me want to just tell everyone that i will only answer messages on signal messenger

Thank you for the expression of sympathy. The good news is I actually love computer science, it fucking rules.

Also, I recorded this professor screaming at me and have documented all the plagiarism. I am waiting to officially leave the university to file a formal complaint. He may not get in any real trouble (universities will always go to bat for abusive researchers as long as they bring in grant money), but news will get out eventually.

So when I see people using LLMs to create things instead of doing it themselves, I can’t relate. Why do that when you can get the pleasure from doing it yourself? I guess if making money is the primary motivating factor, then it makes sense. But for me it is totally self-defeating.

I have a theory (similar to that “it’s been vibe coding all along” post) that it’s a combination of wishful thinking, lack of knowledge of real science, and a lack of any liberal arts skills, that altogether produces this farce.

I think it’s a good explanation for “the code has been battle tested because it’s so old and widely used, if it had bugs/security issues, we would have discovered them by now”, as well as the widespread “we invented a tech solution that is just a worse engineering solution”. Looking at you, chain of self-driving cars.

The reason I do CS is because a professor of computer science lied to me about the kind of work I’d be doing to get me to enroll in the CS PhD program instead of math. Guy later physically threatened me in his office and plagiarized my work, but I’m not sure if this reflects poorly on computer scientists, academics, or CS professors.

Anyway I have a chip on my shoulder.

the students in my cs department are overwhelmingly promptfondlers and even my strong students are doing the “qualified praise” thing.

fuck me why did i go into computer science

i thought it was pretty funny <3

thinking about how often code will be like

[-1] * len(array) # -1 is a place holder because I don't know the vocabulary term "sentinel value"

and justified because “it just needs to work”

and now we have professional vibe coders

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguish

half as good as expert human

60% of what a senior can do

is there like a character sheet somewhere so i can know where i fall on this developer spectrum

fn silly is what it is

the closest i’ve ever come to being an idea guy is saying ‘yeah, i have ideas, they are [shit them out explicitly]. they are half-baked at best but let me know if you do anything with it’

coming up with ideas is fucking easy, for example:

pick a (palatable) villain from anything
put them in a setting that is banal but unusual for them
write jokes

BAM

Number magic?

they use numerology.ai as a backend

“we encode shit as numbers in an arbitrary way and then copy-paste it into chatgpt”

do not eat

Why are people paying for it… is it only for some fancy editor integration so it sends off/reads back the code as needed?

from what i understand, having had a promptfondling former friend try to sell me on it, is that it is just LLM-autocomplete for code, so yeah the editor integration

my best attempt at emulating it:

def what_was_that_sorting_algorithm_called_again(array, length_because_i_dont_know_python_semantics_so_i_use_cursor):
    if ... # [here, i guess it would suggest something stupid like checking if the array is already sorted]

edit: that is, i don’t think this can be done directly through the LLMs they plug into. but idk, i haven’t touched any of these since 2023

trying to explain why a philosophy background is especially useful for computer scientists now, so i googled “physiognomy ai” and now i hate myself

https://www.physiognomy.ai/

Discover Yourself with Physiognomy.ai

Explore personal insights and self-awareness through the art of face reading, powered by cutting-edge AI technology.

At Physiognomy.ai, we bring together the ancient wisdom of face reading with the power of artificial intelligence to offer personalized insights into your character, strengths, and areas for growth. Our mission is to help you explore the deeper aspects of yourself through a modern lens, combining tradition with cutting-edge technology.

Whether you’re seeking personal reflection, self-awareness, or simply curious about the art of physiognomy, our AI-driven analysis provides a unique, objective perspective that helps you better understand your personality and life journey.

i have a potato that can study, send me your venmo if interested

i googled for discussion around how a VPN can protect (or not) against a MITM attack, and came across this:

We are a small team of men trained through stoicism, currently, as newcomers to cybersecurity, we’ve taken the biggest risk by betting everything on ourselves and the leverage we can gain by sacrificing everything that is not essential.

and while the technical parts seem fine based on a surface-reading, this thick as molasses STOIC MANLINESS of their red-teaming is the silliest shit ever

(ps: read their website in the voice of foghorn leghorn, it’s pretty fun)