zw123456

I was wondering the same thing. Even the prediction as I type this in is pretty good. It seems like LLM's could be even better.

That might be a bit too advanced for a 6 year old perhaps.

It's an analogy, meant to show the similarities between two things in a limited way, to illustrate an idea. They do not have to be exactly the same in every way.

The way I would explain it to a 6 year old would be like this:

Infinity isn't a number really, it's a concept, like the word many or the word few. If someone says they have many of something, you don't think is that odd or even you just know they have a lot of it. Infinity is kind of like that, it explains the idea of things going on forever, not an exact quantity of things like the number 10 or 11.

OK I watched it. I think it would have been better if I had smoked some weed before hand. One of those 80's stoner movies for sure. Very cool "trip" down memory lane :)

Nicely done!

I thought it's a control room for a reality TV show that we all star in.

I know, I was there once. But a time will come. Cherish the moments now. And later, enjoy the freedom. Perhaps too soon.

I call it a me day. I take a day off and do NOTHING. Not all the time, every once in a while. No plan, just do whatever I feel. So many times, it resulted in something interesting, I write something or invent something or just nothing but joy. Sort of Zen like but sometimes we all need a break from everything. Just me and a sketch book at the park, or just laying around staring off into space.

Try it.

I know I have said this before on here, but when I was in college in the 1970's... yes, I am and old fucker. I lived in a co-op house and there was this guy that was studying environmental science, which was a new thing back then. He explained global warming to me, the whole Co2 thing etc. I listened, and I said, I am sure that we will do something before then. that will address it. He was predicting exactly what has happened. It's not a new idea or a surprise, it's the classic frog in the pan of boiling water. I was wrong, no one has done anything. Or certainly not enough. Listen to the scientists.

Yeah, but awaiting and expansion were in there so I guess we can cut it some slack perhaps.

I always thought it was one of those legacy things because the max frame size for frame relay was 9000 Bytes. But in theory, a frame for Ethernet can be 64K I believe but that is not really practical of course for reasons mentioned in other threads here about re-trans.

Yes, I stuck a PDF of Godel, Escher and Bach, which is a book that my favorite prof in grad school gave me when I graduated back in 1980, of course the PDF is a much later version. But I thought it was pretty decent poem about the book. For anyone who doesn't know, a black out poem means it can only use words from the book or work you provide it.

Me: Can you write a blackout poem inspired by this book?

PDF: Sure, here's a blackout poem inspired by "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid":

Golden strands of music and math, A puzzle of paradoxes and paths. Recursive structures, self-reference, A journey through the mind's expanse.

Bach's fugues and Escher's art, Gödel's theorems that tear apart Our notions of truth and certainty, And lead us to infinity.

An eternal braid of ideas and themes, That weave together like a dream. A musico-logical adventure awaits, For those who dare to contemplate.

Hahaha, not bad :)

Thank you for sharing thins. I agree, although there is surely scientific explanations, nevertheless, we humans have feelings when a loved one passes.

I am an atheist, a science-based person, but I have been in the presence of someone passing a couple of times. I can tell you that, I do not care how science based you are, there is something about this experience that you simply cannot dismiss.

I was with a person who I loved deeply, the details are, personal and I am going to skip over. But when she passed...

Her breathing moved from the rattle to just a quiet rhythm, and after a long time, slowed and finally stopped, with her last breath, I kissed her on her forehead, and said, “I will always love thee my sweet love."

I felt something, I sensed something, her spirit pierced through me, an energy, so intense, so much love. I know it was her spirit, she passed through me on her way to her journey to the beyond.

I had a vision. I don’t know if I fell asleep or exactly what happened, but in my vision, I was on a sandy beach with her on an island, there was a large campfire, it was dark, no moon and the milky way was splashed across the sky so vividly, like diamonds on velvet. I was a child and so was she, an old man as dancing around the fire.

He stopped and smiled at me, he waved his hand across the fire and embers trailed his hand as he traced the arc of the milky way, the embers seemed to mingle with the stars. It was so beautiful; I cannot explain it fully. He turned to me and smiled and nodded, and I nodded back, as if to say, I see, I understand now. He took her hand, she smiled at me, and they walked together into the sea.

Something of her stayed with me, I feel her, and him, both her spirits, some little piece. She was and she is, and he was, and he is, with me, in spirit. I wrote this poem about the experience.

Dämmerstunde (Twilight Hour)

When I stand at the window in the twilight, I see the sea in front of me in deep silence, Star upon star shines high above me, I like to think of long-forgotten childhood days.

How I yearned from my mother's womb, When she asked the great sky spirit, With wispy white hair, an old man, How he splashes the lights across the sky?

How then, she tenderly taught me, To hold dear the great spirit. How the omnipresence works and creates, With immeasurable love, kindness, strength.

Does he love me too, Mommy? Am I too small? Certainly, my child, you must be sincere and true, Stay strong, always trust in him, He will never renounce his love for you.

Oh mother, how often, with patience, Have you explained to me the great beauty of the spirit. Then I fell asleep, tired from many questions, You carried me lovingly and carefully to my little bed.

You left me so long ago, you're in the light, My mother, sees me from the spirits eye, But when my lifetime is up, Come home to thy glory!

I know, I am an idiot. Or crazy. I hope this is not out of line Again, I am not a believer, but I am questioning myself. I am so sorry if this is out of bounds.

Thank you for putting up with my silliness.

I am old enough to have one and know how to use it. My dad gave me one when I was in high school and said I wanted to be an Engineer. When I went off to college in 1975, he gave me an HP-25, I still have it and it still works. But there is something special about a slide rule, the way it's made with such precision. I still have that one my dad gave me.

Big deal. I lost a wife. My fault though, I get it.

Yup, they called amplifiers repeaters and it would boost the analog signal. They would busy it out but the tubes were still hot so the glove was needed.

Yeah, I think maybe that was where it came from but whenever I have searched on it for a link I get a lot of other things like radio repeaters. But it was a real thing for sure.

Oh wow, thanks for that link! We had the old WECO handbook on tubes with all the specs and how to make them and they were tossing them and I grabbed one. I wished I kept more of that stuff.

It will break some people's hearts to hear this perhaps, but way back in the day, around 1976, when I was at Bell Labs, we came up with a solid-state replacement for the 300Bs and other tubes used in repeaters (the word they used for an amplifier back in those days because it replaced a person who would repeat, a whole other fun story). But this solid-state replacement was called a Fetron, it used FETs and was plug compatible with the tubes. We had armies of people with asbestos gloves pulling out the hot tubes and throwing them in huge trash bins and plugging in the replacement Fetrons. We smashed 300B's by the thousands back then. Bunch of old junk! was the cry.

BTW, the repeater used to be a person's job, mostly women, they would sit in a small both and a call from say New York would come in and it could not reach Chicago with just simple copper loop so their job was to listen to what the person in New York said and repeat it into the next loop and so on until it go to Chicago, the longest loop would be maybe 100 miles. Originally the booth was 2 feet wide, just wide enough for a woman to fit into. It was a repeater bay, with little side walls to isolate the sound somewhat between repeaters. This was before electronic amplifiers.

One day, along comes an efficiency expert from HQ who figures out they can add a couple more repeater bays into the line up if you just shrunk it down by an inch to 23 inches. Then later, when electronic amplifiers came along, tube type of course, it replaced the jobs of all these women who were repeaters. Put them out of work. Later came the Fetron. But that is why bays are 23 inches wide to this day. Sort of like the old lore about railroad widths being the same as roman carriages,this was the lore passed down to me from what were the old timers then. Guess that's me now :)

I recently went to the AWP Conference (https://www.awpwriter.org/). It was very interesting to walk around the exhibition hall and talk with all these small independent book publishers and presses. I bought a couple of books, one is a poetry book, which I confess, I have never bought a book of poetry before, but the author was there and signed it and I sort of fell in love with her and her poems.

I asked a number of the people from these independent publishers what they thought about Amazon. I was surprised at their answers, it varied of course but they agreed it was somewhat of a love hate relationship. On the one hand, Amazon gave them a marketplace, but on the other hand, they could be a bit of a malevolent master. There were also a number of literary magazines there and they had similar feelings.

I wish Amazon could find a way to do more to support the literary world, seeing all these brilliant little presses often who specialize in various genres that give new authors opportunities.

Good points. Maybe time to say goodbye.

Maybe too handy.

All of the above, plus, maybe, don't let people see you put in your pin. don't take security for granted. Be careful. I guess the lesson I learned is you need to pay attention to security.

Ugh, yeah, if this was not someone I know, the pictures, yikes !

No, never. HN is pretty much the only social media I use, the rest of it is not really my thing.

I will, assuming I buy him enough drinks, I am sure I will wriggle it out of him. That little F---er.

Yeah, I sure want to, especially on April 1st. Maybe I should do and Ask HN, how do I get back at my dickhead friend on April fools day :)