hermitcrab

Thanks!

Love how the home page of the website doesn't say what a KVM switch is or why you would want one.

>It's just that they are larger-than-life personalities

That is a very generous assessment of Frank Dux and George Dillman.

Dillman at least started off as the real deal. Dux was a total fantasist. I still find it hard to believe any bought into his 'blood sport' story, let alone made a film about it.

Some context. Many styles of Kung Fu/Gung Fu do not spar in any meaningful sense. Consequently, they have an overinflated opinion of their own ability and generally do very badly against MMA fighters (who do lots of sparring and pressure testing). There are lots of videos on Youtube of Kung Fu 'masters' getting battered by relatively inexperienced MMA fighters. This was sufficiently embarrassing for Chinese martial arts that they created a sport oriented form called Sanda.

I once saw an early black and white film of 2 Chinese Kung Fu masters fighting in a ring. Some sort of grudge match I think. It was embarrassing. You would see better technique outside a Wetherspoons pub at 2am.

>Run it on a throwaway system, pick a codebase you’ve always wanted to fix something about but didn’t have the time.

Thanks for the suggestion. But I don't have a throwaway system. All 3 of my codebases are commercial software that I charge money for. Also, I don't trust an AI not to serve substantial parts of my codebase to a competitor. Maybe I will try it if I start a new project. I fancy a go doing some Webassembly graphics at some point.

>Or you want to rewrite part of a program in rust for performance/security improvements.

My code is battle tested and robust through years of use. I don't rewrite stuff unless there is a real need.

I thought it was Xenophon. MSCopilot assured me it was Herodotus. The irony! ;0)

(I spent a few minutes checking, but couldn't find the original quote)

Japanese martial arts generally come in 2 forms. -do (the way) and -jitsu (the art). -do forms are about self improvement, -jitsu forms are about effectiveness. You can see this with judo and jujitsu. Carmac is clearly aware of this difference as he says:

"We aren’t there yet, but carefully writing code completely by hand is moving from a -jitsu to a -do. "

IIRC Carmac has done judo (I'm not sure to what level).

Herodotus wrote about finding people living in the ruins of a great city (Babylon) who had no idea who built it or how they built it.

I thought stringly-typed was a typo. Apparently not.

https://www.hanselman.com/blog/stringly-typed-vs-strongly-ty...

This resonated with me as someone who: has read the book of 5 rings (translated), has done quite a lot of martial arts and has been coding for ~50 years.

I work for myself developing apps and selling online. So I have no employer pushing to use AI. But I feel a bit like a dinosaur watching the incoming comet.

Currently, I just use MSCopilot as enhanced StackOverflow and I find it useful for that. But I have been nowhere near Cursor, Claude, harnesses, agents or 'vibe coding'.

It seems my options are:

1. Keep use AIs as an enhanced StackOverflow (e.g. to answer questions about APIs)

2. Embrace the new AI coding tools

Really not convinced about option 2. I don't trust AIs with code bases that I have built over 20 years. Also, I'm not far off retiring and I'm not sure I can be bothered to completely change how I work (again). Would be interested to hear what conclusions any fellow coding dinosaurs have come to.

>AI-assisted coding, on the other hand, rekindled my passion for computers.

I would be interested to know what you mean by AI-assisted coding.

I've been coding for 50 years (40 professionally) and maintain several largish C++ code bases for commercial apps. There is no way that I am going to let an AI scan (train on), let alone edit, my code. But I do ask MSCoPilot questions, basically using it like turbo-charged StackOverflow. And I do get some value from that, even if it is often wrong. Is that what you mean?

Hypnogogic and hypnopompic auditory hallucinations occur when you are falling asleep or waking up, so it might be something different if it is happening if you are in deep sleep. (not an expert on this)

Proctalgia fugax (https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/oddities/proctalgia-fugax/), also known as "shooty arse":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USB90D7ywiE

>About the second thing, I have felt something similar. Especially the part about it originating around the collar bone and neck. It's probably something like a nerve misfiring.

Possibly. Or a pinched nerve.

I don't think it is a cosmic ray, or it wouldn't always occur in the same part of the body. ;0)

>I sometimes think it's weird that the body doesn't misbehave more often than it does

Indeed.

>if I’m about to fall asleep and I happen to hear a loud noise nearby,

https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/oddities/hypnagogic-halluc...

>I also see a flash of light with my closed eyelids.

You might want to talk to a optician about that. It can be a sign of issues with your retina.

I see flashes in a dark room when I wake up, because I have PVDs (posterior vitreous detachment) in both eyes.

Edit: I just re-read your post. If they both happen together, I think it is something different.

I believe sensation of a presence in the room is very common in sleep paralysis.

Interestingly the belief of what the presence is has changed with culture. It used to be demons, now it is more likely to be aliens.

Why do you miss it? It is usually described as being terrifying.

BTW sleep paralysis is likely the cause of many 'alien abduction' reports: wake up, can't move, presence in the room, sexual element (e.g. probing!).

I also had something like this. Again as a kid, with fever. Very unsettling. But I don't remember having it as an adult. Strange.

Interesting site.

I get the occasional Hypnopompic auditory illusion ( https://vester.si/bodily-oddities/oddities/hypnagogic-halluc... ). This is when you think you hear a sound as you wake up. For me it is normally an illusory door bell. It is very convincing. You rush down to the door and there is no-one there and my wife heard nothing. Maybe happens 2 or 3 times a year.

I also get the occasional weird nerve shock. It feels like an electric shock down through my collar bone. It lasts less than a second, is always completely unexpected and is quite unpleasant, enough to make me flinch. It doesn't seem related to what I am doing. Maybe happens 6 times a year. Didn't see it mentioned. Does anyone else get this, or am I just weird?

"The wrong trousers" is also close to perfect.

You will be happy to read this then:

https://www.ciwf.org/media-and-news/press-releases-and-media...

"Other Minds" is definitely worth a read.

Wallace and Gromit have bought a lot of joy to multiple generations of my family. "Curse of the Were-rabbit" is as close to the perfect comedy film as I have seen. Hard to think of any way in which it could be improved.

The article linked ( https://www.404media.co/automattic-automatic-trademark-matt-... ) is behind a paywall. But reading https://www.searchenginejournal.com/automattic-disputes-use-... it sounds like the claim 'Automattic attempted to claim it owns the word “automatic"' might not be accurate.

>Most recently, Automattic attempted to claim it owns the word “automatic.”

What is wrong with these people?

The sociopaths running the show at present are probably hoping for a future that looks like the film "Elysium".

>I want smaller phones.

You want a Zanco phone. They are tiny. Apparently designed to be small enough for prisoners to keep in their orifices.

But only if we buy lots of his chips?

Your faith is touching.

We are entering a Kafkaesque world where all powerful companies are the gatekeepers, but there is no chance to talk to a human to appeal their decisions. Your only hope is if a) you have an inside contact or b) you can create enough stink on social media.

I sympathize. My Google Adwords account (that had been running continuously for 10 years at that point) got suspended for (I shit you not) hyperlinking to another domain. I believe it was due to a very poorly trained contractor. The whole sorry saga is here:

https://successfulsoftware.net/2015/03/04/google-bans-hyperl...