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aimoron Going in circles without a real-time clock

Two nights ago I rebooted my router and it wasn't able to update its clock. The logs were filled with "ntp: start NTP update" every 5 seconds.

Well, it was something related to using AdGuard's (94.140.14.14) DNS and pool.ntp.org. I added Google's (8.8.8.8) to resolv.conf temporarily to get the clock synced. But I'm still not sure what the root cause was.

aimoron Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

Arroz con Pollo

Ingredients

    3/4 cup dry white wine
    pinch of saffron threads
    4 chicken thighs (we used 2 split chicken breasts cut in half)
    salt and pepper for seasoning chicken
    3 tablespoons olive oil
    1 small onion, diced
    2 cloves garlic, minced
    1- 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes (mostly drained)
    1 bay leaf
    1 1/2 teaspoons salt (or to taste) and 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
    2 1/4 cups chicken broth
    1 1/2 cups white rice
    1 cup large green pimento olives

Directions

    Combine wine and saffron in a small bowl. Set aside.
    In a large, heavy-bottom saucepan or dutch oven, heat olive oil over medium heat. Season both sides of the chicken generously with salt and pepper.
    Place chicken pieces, skin side down, in the hot oil. Allow to crispy and fry for 5-7 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces from the hot pan and place on a clean plate.
    Add onions and garlic to the pan. Cook, stirring, until soft and tender, about 5 minutes.
    Add the partially drained can of tomatoes, bay leaf, salt and pepper, and saffron wine. Allow to simmer, uncovered, until the mixture has reduced by half, about 10 minutes.
    Add the rice to the pot. Add the chicken broth and chicken pieces. Top with olives. Reduce the heat to low, place the lid on the pot, and allow to simmer until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed, about 30-40 minutes.
    Check the rice after 30 minutes to make sure that it is cooking evenly. Add more broth if necessary.
    Once cooked, allow to rest for 10 minutes with the lid on before serving.

aimoron The speed of sight: Individual variation in critical flicker fusion thresholds

Yes, I think that the light being stationary is an important distinction, though it's a good thing to control for because motion complicates things.

I came to the comments here because of a flickering effect (different from what they're testing for) I often observe: the tail lights of cars. Sometimes when I move my eyes (not my head) very quickly I will see a dashed trail from the red tail lights of certain cars (I'm assuming they're pulse modulating for some reason). I've been thinking about this in terms of the often-cited phenomena where our brains 'black out' our vision briefly when moving our eyes. I think this (brain 'blacking out' our vision) is not what happens, and some others have similar evidence: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf2218

aimoron Saffron: The Most Expensive Spice

Yes, a couple years ago I started a few beds of saffron at home (zone 7). They're crocus, and bulbs, so I figured why not. I ordered online and planted in the fall and they all flowered that year. I went out after work and picked the saffron by hand, not nearly as difficult as blogs would have you think it is (no, they don't need to "be harvested at mid-morning, when the flower is fully open to the Sun"). Just pinch with your fingers and pluck. I harvested about 1 tablespoon (didn't weigh it), worth maybe 1/3 the cost of the bulbs.

The next year two of my three locations came back with strong leaves and offshoots, but almost nothing flowered. A big disappointment. This year I'll split them up (or maybe split up just one bed) and see what happens. Despite this, I'd encourage anyone in the right climate to give it a shot.

Also, if you're looking for easy expensive spices to grow, try bread (opium) poppy.

aimoron Thirty Seven

I wish I could, on mobile Firefox, force the viewport or at least easily change it.

    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">

aimoron AI hallucinates software packages and devs download them

I like to think of them as Artificial Idiots.

aimoron Hexagons and Hilbert curves – The headaches of distributed spatial indices

Thanks for sharing, I've needed this for years and never stumbled across it.

aimoron My favourite animation trick: exponential smoothing (2023)

https://jsfiddle.net/u1vybhqg/

  input:checked + .slider:active:before {
    transform: translateX(8px);
    transition: 1s;
  }
  
  input:not(:checked) + .slider:active:before {
    transform: translateX(18px);
    transition: 1s;
  }

aimoron Why Python's integer division floors (2010)

What do you do in Python when you want different behavior? Sometimes it's desirable to fix, floor, ceil, or round depending on the situation.

aimoron Stable Diffusion 3

Yes but that was not a copyright or trademark violation. This article explained it to me:

https://grr.com/publications/hey-thats-my-voice-can-i-sue-th...

aimoron Python datetime pitfalls, and what libraries are (not) doing about it

Thank you for answering, I understand the dilemma now and why you chose to force users to explicitly convert to UTC.

When I see the example my thinking is: Well, if you want a time offset relative to Europe/Paris then define your time zone that way instead. Of course I haven't seen other libraries give that option and maybe for good reasons.

aimoron Python datetime pitfalls, and what libraries are (not) doing about it

I don't really understand why OffsetDateTime doesn't allow adding time deltas (reason provided is that it might have it's offset change relative to UTC). Is the offset supposed to be relative to UTC or is it supposed to be relative to ANY TimeZone (including those with time changes)? I thought it was relative to UTC, but even the other way I just don't understand why that's a problem. I might be making some assumptions about the behavior I expect.

aimoron No focus, no fights, and a bad back – 16 ways technology has ruined my life

I've felt this way for a long time, but for a slightly different reason.

I like talking to my friends, I like intimate conversations. When a question comes up I don't really want the answer. Sure truth and facts are nice, but what I want is to hear what someone else thinks about the topic. Taking out a phone and searching for the answer doesn't just resolve the dispute, it breaks the person's train of thought and stops their mind from wandering to new places.

aimoron No focus, no fights, and a bad back – 16 ways technology has ruined my life

"And I’m here to tell you that when you forsake modern technology the world generally refuses to take part in the experiment. You find this out the first time someone behind a ticket window looks you in the eye and tells you to just download the app."

This happened to me twice just last week: first at a museum when I asked for a map and was told they simply didn't have them anymore and I'd have to use my phone, then at a restaurant where it was the same story. Browsing a menu on a phone is a really poor experience, it's just not enough space to see much at once and that's even without accounting for whatever awful navigation they built. This isn't a big problem, but it is worse than how things used to be and nobody likes when technology makes things worse.

It reminds me of how rail stations have moved to digital signs. In the past there were kiosks displaying a paper map of the rail lines, and there were other kiosks displaying ads and other things. Well now there are new digital signs that cycle between the rail map and a bunch of ads. It's a worse experience, it makes pulling up the app seem pleasant by comparison.

aimoron No one should be the second person to die on a dangerous street

This is the intersection BSMB wanted to save when they posted the image in 2023: https://maps.app.goo.gl/XLZ6VLo4x2JBmVBa9

aimoron Does gear matter?

You might be surprised how interested people are in the tools of any trade

https://www.tagari.com/is-stephen-king-still-typing-away-on-...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27407502

https://www.cassidycash.com/quill-pen/

aimoron Only 90s Web Developers Remember This (2014)

This week I ran into a problem with vertical centering I couldn't figure out: Text in a flex item with overflow ellipses and vertical centering. Other people online have shared solutions that did not work for me, but I've since convinced myself it looks better as-is. Billions of dollar is not an exaggeration.

aimoron The Naz.API Credential Stuffing List

Why has authentication moved away from making passwords safer? I like to imagine a system where the only thing that ever sees my easy-to-remember password is the browser, everything downstream gets a unique client-side hash. We did this manually in the past with various schemes, we do this today with extra steps using password managers, why aren't browsers simplifying this? (or maybe they are?) My understanding is that these schemes (say, hash your password with the domain name) are vulnerable with enough samples, but it's still better than sending your easy-to-remember password out to the internet. The answers I hear online are that there's no value added since everyone should use unique passwords to begin with, but people don't do this because it's extra work even using a password manager is extra work, the default needs to be more secure.

aimoron How to Be More Agentic

Ancient Simian Proverb

That's how it's attributed in Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson and it stuck with me too.

aimoron On the Pleb Filter (2023)

I think it's good for the soul to practice being genuine, open yourself up to trusting your own judgement. You'll survive even the most mundane abstract dada colorfield art exhibit if you just trust yourself that a blue canvas is not interesting and everyone else is just as bored as you. You'll also be able to watch Freddie Got Fingered and admit that the movie's fun has a 20-minute half-life. Once you get past that hurdle it's easy to talk more, and that's what all these social in-groups and whatever really care about: having people to t̶a̶l̶k̶ bullshit with.

I like the last section, especially the part about reckless ambition that's not contrarianism but a vision beyond old standards.

aimoron The cheesy charm of the Clapper

The Clapper was my first voice assistant. I could shout "light on!", "light off!" and it would do its thing. Two minutes later, when that lost its appeal, I just quietly tapped on the box twice (I had the thing next to my bed to control my lamp).

aimoron Things are about to get worse for generative AI

This is correct

aimoron Things are about to get worse for generative AI

I think the same argument would have to compare 7zip's compression to some other compression algorithm. Then we can say things like "7zip is a better/worse model of human writing". And that's probably a better way to talk about this as well.

You're right that a better baseline could be made using books not in the training set, to understand how much is the model learning prose and how much is learning a specific book.

aimoron Things are about to get worse for generative AI

I did an interesting thing and looked at how well the Llama2 models could compress text. For example, I took the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book and recorded the index of the 'correct' predicted token. The original text, compressed with 7zip (LZMA?) to about 14kB. The Llama2 encoded indexes compressed to less than 1kB. Then, of course, I can send that 1kB file around and decode the original text. (Unless the model behaves differently on different hardware, which it probably does)

What I get from this is that Llama2 70B contains 93% of Harry Potter Chapter 1 within it. It's not 100% (which would mean no need to share the encoded indices) but it's still pretty significant. I want to repeat this with the entire text of some books, the example I picked isn't representative because the text is available online on the official website.

aimoron Amazon Prime Video starts showing ads in January unless you pay $2.99/month xtra

They saw a year over year drop in Prime subscribers in Q1 2023. I completely agree, but that "sticky" thing could also be improving the Prime shopping experience.

I got sick of seeing things on Amazon listed for one price without Prime shipping and a higher price with Prime shipping.

aimoron Amazon Prime Video starts showing ads in January unless you pay $2.99/month xtra

I tried Tubi about a year ago and kind of love it. I don't like the ads (it's very similar to TV). But how great it is to have a streaming service with movies I actually want to watch! I've been catching up on all kinds of movies, big and small, having a great time, and it's 'free'. It still suffers from the "they had this movie last month and now it's gone" problem (my watch lists on Hulu and Netflix are useless because 100% of the movies are no longer available). But for now Tubi has not abandoned old movies in favor of "Tubi Originals" like Netflix and Hulu have done.

As an aside, the ad format (forced ~2 minutes of ads every ~20 minutes) is way more tolerable than something like YouTube (Skip button roulette every ~5 minutes). I can mute the TV, use the bathroom, make a snack, just like the good old days.

aimoron Perplexity Labs Playground

I only included the last one (pplx-7b-online) because it's "online", it looked up the answer from riddles.com.

aimoron Perplexity Labs Playground

I think it's understandable these models get tripped up by math problems. But if you want another way to ground lofty expectations, ask word riddles.

---

"Answer this riddle: Which one of Santa's Reindeer can you see in outer space?"

pplx-70b-chat: "You can see Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, in outer space."

llama-2-70b-chat: "The answer to the riddle is "Rudolph." Rudolph is the only reindeer with a red nose, and red noses are often associated with astronauts and space travel. Therefore, Rudolph is the reindeer that can be seen in outer space."

mixtral-8x7b-instruct: "The answer to the riddle is "Comet," which is one of Santa's reindeer. The reasoning behind this is that a comet is a celestial body visible from outer space, and it shares its name with one of Santa's reindeer, as mentioned in the Christmas song 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.'"

---

"Answer this riddle: A doctor and a bus driver are both in love with the same woman, an attractive girl named Sarah. The bus driver had to go on a long bus trip that would last a week. Before he left, he gave Sarah seven apples. Why?"

pplx-70b-chat: "The bus driver gave Sarah seven apples because he knew that he would be away for a week, and he wanted to make sure that she had something to remember him by and to take care of her while he was gone. Each apple represented a day of the week, and he hoped that Sarah would eat one apple each day and think of him while he was away."

llama-2-70b-chat: "The bus driver gave Sarah seven apples because it was a way for him to show his love and affection for her while he was away. The number seven is often associated with perfection, completion, and abundance, so the bus driver may have chosen this number to represent the depth of his feelings for Sarah. Additionally, apples are a symbol of love and fertility in many cultures, so the bus driver may have chosen them as a way to express his desire for a long-term relationship with Sarah. The fact that the doctor is also in love with Sarah adds a layer of complexity to the riddle, as it creates a love triangle that is not uncommon in literature and real life."

mixtral-8x7b-instruct: "Because an apple a day keeps the doctor away. He gave her one for each day he would be gone to ensure she wouldn't need to see the doctor during that time."

---

"Answer this riddle: When is a doctor most annoyed?"

pplx-70b-chat: "A doctor is most annoyed when they have to deal with a patient who is not taking their health seriously or is not following their recommendations. This can lead to frustration and annoyance on the part of the doctor, as they want to help the patient but are limited by the patient's own actions."

llama-2-70b-chat: "The answer to the riddle is: When he's feeling under the weather. Explanation: The phrase "under the weather" means feeling unwell or sick, so a doctor would be most annoyed when he himself is feeling sick, as it would be a contradiction to his profession of helping others feel better."

mixtral-8x7b-instruct: "A doctor might be most annoyed when their patient does not follow their medical advice, ignores their health concerns, or does not take their treatment seriously. Additionally, a doctor might be annoyed when they are unable to diagnose a patient's condition or when they are unable to help a patient in need. Overall, a doctor might be most annoyed when they are unable to provide the best possible care for their patients."

pplx-7b-online: "A doctor is most annoyed when he is out of patients. This riddle plays on the double meaning of the word "patients," which can refer to both the people who need medical care and the source of a doctor's frustration."

aimoron BMW EV achieves 1000km in range using Dual-Chemistry batteries

And just 608 miles in the article

aimoron Report Phone Spam – Shut down robocallers and text spammers

Thank you for putting together this resource!

I read the rest of the FAQ, signed up for Twilio, and their API worked to identify the number.