Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - It's the end of the world as we know it

[dobby]

Know someone else back from Vegas recently and was saying the same thing about it being horrendously expensive. That he went expecting to waste money, as well it's Vegas, but was almost overwhelmed by just how incredibly expensive it actually was.

Yeah, it's absolutely nuts. Still can't wait to get back there again though.

[zuutroy]

At one point I ordered a mojito and a peach schnapps and pineapple at the poolside bar and she brings them out all in one glass along with a bill for $23+tip!

[zuutroy]

I've heard great things about the poker scene in Texas; I plan to take a trip there soon enough.

It seems to be absolute chaos there....apprently 2-5 actually means 2-5-10-20, occasionally 40...so choose your stakes carefully! I generally give streams a wide berth, but there's one guy that plays on The Lodge live stream and he's out there incinerating money every time I've seen him.

[Hectorjelly]

It seems to be absolute chaos there....apprently 2-5 actually means 2-5-10-20, occasionally 40...so choose your stakes carefully! I generally give streams a wide berth, but there's one guy that plays on The Lodge live stream and he's out there incinerating money every time I've seen him.

Sounds like the Norwegians!

[Hectorjelly]

So I set up a new twitter account yesterday for my David Sacks Parody bot, and I just followed a few people in Sacks circle, one of whom is Elon. It's crazy how crazily right wing my feed is, every post is calling COVID a scam, complaining about trans people or stanning Putin, it's quite breathtaking. I wonder is that what neutral twitter account is like now? Or would it change dramatically if the first accounts I followed were all hippies.

[BennyHiFi]

I've heard great things about the poker scene in Texas; I plan to take a trip there soon enough.

Crafty. Texas Dolly dies, HJ slithers right in, like it ain’t no thang

[Strewelpeter]

This is the kind of stuff that gets lost in AI news which is incredible. AI finding ways that we couldn't come up with ourselves that could potentially completely transform our current technology and AI itself. Deepmind has come up with a sorting algorithm much faster than humans have ever found. Sorting in computer science is a huge deal.

DeepMind AI creates algorithms that sort data faster than those built by people



Edit - Link to the published paper

Spent way too much time looking into this today.
There is no new algorithm, the improvements that they claim only apply for very short sequences and the < 2% improvements that apply to sequences larger than 2^16 come from optimised assembly routines and exploiting the latest compiler features.

Still impressive in that its been known that these kinds of optimisations are available but no one would be bothered to do it outside specific implementations where efficiency is critical.

[dobby]

Know someone else back from Vegas recently and was saying the same thing about it being horrendously expensive. That he went expecting to waste money, as well it's Vegas, but was almost overwhelmed by just how incredibly expensive it actually was.

I played a $100 crapshoot in the Orleans to tilt off after busting the tourney in December. Way off strip. Bust 3 bullets before the break and went to the bar while waiting for my mate (FieryWasabi here for those that know him) whiskey sours were only $7 so I guess there is still value to be had if you venture away from the centre. Same drink was $25 in the bar at Resorts World.

Saying that, I'd definitely play those lower buy in games at Orleans again. Every table I went to all chatting and lots of questions about Ireland, stories from people who had family connections. Was a fun spot, just a little run down.

[Opr]

Spent way too much time looking into this today.
There is no new algorithm, the improvements that they claim only apply for very short sequences and the < 2% improvements that apply to sequences larger than 2^16 come from optimised assembly routines and exploiting the latest compiler features.

Still impressive in that its been known that these kinds of optimisations are available but no one would be bothered to do it outside specific implementations where efficiency is critical.

The reddit thread has some great posts about it.

The sort 3, sort 4 and sort 5 algorithms in the LLVM libc++ standard sorting library are called many times by larger sorting algorithms and are therefore fundamental components of the library.

We reverse engineered the low-level assembly sorting algorithms discovered by AlphaDev for sort 3, sort 4 and sort 5 to C++ and discovered that our sort implementations led to improvements of up to 70% for sequences of a length of five and roughly 1.7% for sequences exceeding 250,000 elements.

These algorithms were sent for review and have officially been included in the libc++ standard sorting library3. It is the first change to these sub-routines in over a decade

Better article here from the Deepmind team about the whole thing.

AlphaDev not only found faster algorithms, but also uncovered novel approaches. Its sorting algorithms contain new sequences of instructions that save a single instruction each time they’re applied. This can have a huge impact as these algorithms are used trillions of times a day.

We call these ‘AlphaDev swap and copy moves’. This novel approach is reminiscent of AlphaGo’s ‘move 37’ – a counterintuitive play that stunned onlookers and led to the defeat of a legendary Go player. With the swap and copy move, AlphaDev skips over a step to connect items in a way that looks like a mistake but is actually a shortcut. This shows AlphaDev’s ability to uncover original solutions and challenges the way we think about how to improve computer science algorithms.

This year, AlphaDev’s new hashing algorithm was released into the open-source Abseil library, available to millions of developers around the world, and we estimate that it’s now being used trillions of times a day.

The thing to keep in mind is that this is a generalized AI for algorithms and wasn't tasked with solving this particular problem.

[Lazare]

Loved that report Zuut, but I can't help feeling it turning me off the idea of going back to Vegas.

[cardshark202]

I still use calibre as a library for epubs but for years now I've been reading books almost exclusively on my phone and mostly just upload to google play.

Some questions about the Supernote and reMarkable

Can any of these be trained to translate scrawl to a more readable form?

I scribble loads of notes 95% of which will never be re read, I do it to help remember things that are new or significant so at the end of a meeting or when asked to revisit I can literally look at the page and without actually reading it I am back in the context and can recall the bits I was trying to capture. And that is just as well as my scribbles are utterly unreadable to anyone else and close enough to it for me!
That is a problem for the 5% that I might want to revisit in the future. Mostly I will know that something is important and write it clearly and highlight it but that doesn't always happen.

I have loads of specs and docs that I used to keep hard copies of with my own highlighting and notes scribbled on them, I would love to be able to do that again.

I think I really want one of these unfortunately I don't work in the over resourced third level education sector!

Supernote can translate notes to word doc form. Obviously it isn't perfect so if your handwriting is atrocious it will likely struggle. I don't bother with this feature for the most part as I find it easier to just keep them in written form as I can fit more on the page by doing that. But it is possible and is a nice feature.

[Lazare]

Got a first bit of new tech in ages today using the work annual slush training fund. The reMarkable2. Anyone have one? They seem to be one of the few new gadgets out there doing something clearly new and useful. Went for the full works - the pen with eraser, the keyboard etc.

Decent review of it here:

Fucking hell that guy needs to smoke some grass or something and stop neurotically stressing out about every single minutiae of his day to day life.

Fuck me.

Want one though.

[Solksjaer!]

You Ukraine supporters are all just blow ins . Some of us on our 12 year

[Opr]

ieo14aekie4b1.jpg

[Raoul Duke III]

Crafty. Texas Dolly dies, HJ slithers right in, like it ain’t no thang

Textorjelly

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Fucking hell that guy needs to smoke some grass or something and stop neurotically stressing out about every single minutiae of his day to day life.

Fuck me.

Want one though.

ha yeah - the bit where he is setting up his desk with only certain things allowed on the desk in certain positions.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Don't want to go all DavidMcWilliams predicting something 20 years before it happens, but can't escape the feeling that we are in a phony war phase before a proper economic recession kicks in.

[pokerhand]

Don't want to go all DavidMcWilliams predicting something 20 years before it happens, but can't escape the feeling that we are in a phony war phase before a proper economic recession kicks in.

That's hardly a bold prediction given the cyclical nature of economies
Be a major shock if it didn't

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

That's hardly a bold prediction given the cyclical nature of economies
Be a major shock if it didn't

Indeed. And Europe is already in recession. My worry is only about whether its a major recession or a minor blip. We seem to have all the ingredients, with the exception of unemployment, for something serious to happen.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Ryanair complaint:

“The DAA owns lots of land immediately surrounding Dublin Airport (such as the Dublin Airport Driving Range for example), which could be opened as a temporary car park at very short notice, releasing pressure on Dublin Airport car parking and more importantly keeping the cost of car parking low for customers,” it claimed.

Dublin Airport response:

“DAA refutes the simplistic view that we can simply open up fields at Dublin Airport this summer and conjure up additional car park spaces,” a spokesperson for the airport operator said on Friday.

They added: “Car parking requires infrastructure which requires planning permission. We are running the fifth largest transatlantic hub airport in Europe, not a County Fair.”

ha, that's what you get when you hire a Ryanair boss as DAA head. Lovely to see.

[coillcam]

Ryanair complaint:




Dublin Airport response:





ha, that's what you get when you hire a Ryanair boss as DAA head. Lovely to see.

Have the courts come to any conclusion on the sale of QuickPark (via NAMA) to the DAA?

The underbidders went straight after DAA for the obvious monopoly it provides. Not really in the punters best interest for the DAA to scoop up the only real independent competition as their own car park.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Have the courts come to any conclusion on the sale of QuickPark (via NAMA) to the DAA?

The underbidders went straight after DAA for the obvious monopoly it provides. Not really in the punters best interest for the DAA to scoop up the only real independent competition as their own car park.

I feel that's a dud-argument put out there by the losers - DAA already has a 'monopoly' on flights out of the airport, on restaurants in the airport, on security in the airport, why wouldn't they also be allowed to control carparking at the airport. The losers should have probably just bid an appropriate amount.

[Hectorjelly]

Spent way too much time looking into this today.
There is no new algorithm, the improvements that they claim only apply for very short sequences and the < 2% improvements that apply to sequences larger than 2^16 come from optimised assembly routines and exploiting the latest compiler features.

Still impressive in that its been known that these kinds of optimisations are available but no one would be bothered to do it outside specific implementations where efficiency is critical.

Super niche meme - I wouldn't have understood it if it wasn't for this post!

https://twitter.com/tszzl/status/166...987652097?s=20 Screenshot 2023-06-09 093305.png

[coillcam]

I feel that's a dud-argument put out there by the losers - DAA already has a 'monopoly' on flights out of the airport, on restaurants in the airport, on security in the airport, why wouldn't they also be allowed to control carparking at the airport. The losers should have probably just bid an appropriate amount.

I'd have no problem with a parking monopoly if the DAA didn't charge such ridiculous rates for parking. Quickpark was brilliant for consumers as it kept the prices reasonable and the service was decent too.

If public transport was better there would be less parking spots required. By the time public transport catches up, we'll be teleporting away for holidays.

[Hectorjelly]

I just had a great encounter in the local Oxxo; there was a very confused Chinese man at the counter, and the assistant thought I could help since I spoke English. Unfortunately, the Chinese guy only knew a few words of English and no Spanish so we had a three-way conversation in broken English, Chinese and Spanish that just confused everyone further. I tried to set up a two-phone translation system, but that just made things worse. Eventually, the Chinese guy used my phone to ring his friend who spoke all three fluently! Legend The Chinese guy was lost and his phone had stopped working. I gave him a little money for his taxi and he was on his way, thanking us and bowing repeatedly.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I'd have no problem with a parking monopoly if the DAA didn't charge such ridiculous rates for parking. Quickpark was brilliant for consumers as it kept the prices reasonable and the service was decent too.

If public transport was better there would be less parking spots required. By the time public transport catches up, we'll be teleporting away for holidays.

oh yeah, competition is better definitely. I just don't get how its a valid argument worthy of a court case in this situation. Like, it seems odd that an airport or any business would have to have competition around their parking.

[Solksjaer!]

The most annoying song , transformed.- or rather returned to its roots

[BennyHiFi]

The most annoying song , transformed.- or rather returned to its roots

Lovely.

[oleras]

Was very skeptical, very, about starting "Silo" Apple+ TV but 5 in and its all kinds of decent, we have been through this post apocalyptic/dystopian future too many times now, but I think we finally have a winner when it comes to, OH !

4/5 wombats.

[Solksjaer!]

Trump in sitting in the toaster , PLUG IT IN , PLUG IT IN. (to the tune of LOCK HER UP)

[Tar.Aldarion]

Was very skeptical, very, about starting "Silo" Apple+ TV but 5 in and its all kinds of decent, we have been through this post apocalyptic/dystopian future too many times now, but I think we finally have a winner when it comes to, OH !

4/5 wombats.

Enjoying this silly show, better actors than they usually have. CGI is terrible though haha.

[Raoul Duke III]

Jarvis sounds pretty good atm. Hope Daughter #1 is enjoying...let's all wake up in the year 2000.

Daughter #2 is having a birthday sleepover here with 'eight of my closest friends', feckin' loud. Hopefully poisoned 'em with the hot dogs.

[Raoul Duke III]

Yep, defintely best crowd response of this concert series. Lionel Richie a close second last weekend.

[zuutroy]

Can hear it perfectly in Beaumont.

[Raoul Duke III]

Check out my rack - didn't go too ambitious size-wise but fits the space nicely. Thanks to Mellor and Lao for the tips.

Now to get cabinetry guy to put a nice door, with a lock, on it.

20230609_210857.jpg

[zuutroy]

Got another stash from France today. Need to stop this madness. Mine is missing the cassoulet though!
.
PXL_20230609_204930037.jpeg

[AndyFatBastard]

If you're not watching the Whitehouse Plumbers you're missing an absolute treat

[AndyFatBastard]

Jarvis sounds pretty good atm. Hope Daughter #1 is enjoying...let's all wake up in the year 2000.

Daughter #2 is having a birthday sleepover here with 'eight of my closest friends', feckin' loud. Hopefully poisoned 'em with the hot dogs.

I was at their "last ever gig" in Sheffield 2013, whopper set they played for nearly 4 hours.

[Raoul Duke III]

Got another stash from France today. Need to stop this madness. Mine is missing the cassoulet though!

It's actually duck. The cassoulet is in another cupboard.

I need to start that madness you need to stop.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

It's actually duck. The cassoulet is in another cupboard.

I need to start that madness you need to stop.

Its such a mad supermarket, Carrefour. In many respects, a continental version of Tesco, but their Reflets range which you have there and their mid-range wine are ridiculously good. Like way better than even Galerie Lafayette.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Trump in sitting in the toaster , PLUG IT IN , PLUG IT IN. (to the tune of LOCK HER UP)

It seems really serious, even by Trump standards. Like, he's been caught on tape saying he knew he had classified material that he wasn't allowed to have. Like, its straightforward criminality. I have, reluctantly, once again gone deeper for my bet on that hapless gombeen Ron. He does seem brutal, but realistically no-one is getting the nomination if Trump goes. I wonder is the market making their classic Trump mistake of overestimating him - that he has got out of all manner of scrapes in the past, so he will again. But this is a whole different kettle of fish - caught on tape saying he knows he is breaking the law, jaysus.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Just read the full indictment here. They seemingly got one of his attorneys to give evidence against him from reading between the lines. Really hard to see him getting out of this given he is damned, quite clearly, by his own words admitting he knew he was committing a crime. And then, and this is the beautiful bit, requesting that his lawyers (a) destroy the documents, and (b) submit a false affidavit to the investigators.

I guess there will be a fair bit relying on the reliability of the attorney who gave evidence against him, but there seems to be all manner of electronic data support also.

[Hectorjelly]

It's hardly between the lines, it's there in plain text! FyM0hemWIBQvJQK.png

[Strewelpeter]

The most annoying song , transformed.- or rather returned to its roots

Nice version but I don't get how thats a return to it's roots

[Strewelpeter]

Was very skeptical, very, about starting "Silo" Apple+ TV but 5 in and its all kinds of decent, we have been through this post apocalyptic/dystopian future too many times now, but I think we finally have a winner when it comes to, OH !

4/5 wombats.

I was thinking of giving up after e03, I thought the whole fixing the power unit thing was very poorly done and didn't sit well with the style of the rest of it. Will give it another chance.

E01 of Shane Madows Gallows pole was good.

[Solksjaer!]

Nice version but I don't get how thats a return to it's roots

Don't you ???

[Lazare]

Just read the full indictment here. They seemingly got one of his attorneys to give evidence against him from reading between the lines. Really hard to see him getting out of this given he is damned, quite clearly, by his own words admitting he knew he was committing a crime. And then, and this is the beautiful bit, requesting that his lawyers (a) destroy the documents, and (b) submit a false affidavit to the investigators.

I guess there will be a fair bit relying on the reliability of the attorney who gave evidence against him, but there seems to be all manner of electronic data support also.

This is a really fun run down of events..

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

It's hardly between the lines, it's there in plain text! FyM0hemWIBQvJQK.png

You are, once again, a king of technical correctness

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Was listening to a clip on Fox News yesterday, just to see their perspective, and even they were saying : "yeah, once it goes Federal you're fucked, as obstruction of justice cases are the meat and butter or a federal prosecutors life.".

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Was listening to a clip on Fox News yesterday, just to see their perspective, and even they were saying : "yeah, once it goes Federal you're fucked, as obstruction of justice cases are the meat and butter of a federal prosecutors life.".

[Solksjaer!]

Got another stash from France today. Need to stop this madness. Mine is missing the cassoulet though!
.
PXL_20230609_204930037.jpeg

Looks like how classified documents are stored in Mari Largo

[Solksjaer!]

Moneys down. Come on Inter

[Lazare]

Hitch, any sign of that app?

Rooting around here trying to find the manual for my oven.

[MysteryGuest]

Lol at sending a shakedown request from your work email account- (Matheson) pretty fucking dim- south Dublin def has highest concentration of scumbags in the country

[Raoul Duke III]

Was listening to a clip on Fox News yesterday, just to see their perspective, and even they were saying : "yeah, once it goes Federal you're fucked, as obstruction of justice cases are the meat and butter of a federal prosecutors life.".

The legal angle pales into irrelevance compared to the political one. Entirely possible Trump becomes more popular with the GOP base, especially when most Republicans feel compelled to denounce all prosecutions of him as political in nature.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

The legal angle pales into irrelevance compared to the political one. Entirely possible Trump becomes more popular with the GOP base, especially when most Republicans feel compelled to denounce all prosecutions of him as political in nature.

Maybe. Although there is some data on that:

Trump’s bigger problem is probably with the general electorate. We’ve previously found that scandal-plagued incumbents in general elections between 1998 and 2016¹ performed an average of 9 points worse than they’d otherwise be expected to. Of course, voters are more dug into their partisan camps today than they were in the early 2000s, and Trump was already facing plenty of scandals when he won the presidency in 2016. But a May poll from WPA Intelligence found that an indictment in the classified-documents probe would shave a few points off Trump’s margin in a hypothetical general election against President Biden. WPA Intelligence’s initial query found Biden leading Trump nationally 47 percent to 40 percent. But when asked to suppose that Trump was indicted for mishandling classified documents, allegedly refusing to turn them over and misleading investigators as to their location, respondents said they would support Biden 50 percent to 39 percent.

I guess the issue is whether Republicans decide to give up totally on winning the presidency when nominating someone, as there seems a close to zero chance that Trump is getting elected even if Biden's dead corpse needs to be Weekend at Bernied on the campaign trail.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Love stories like this.

A spokesperson said: “The completed project will yield in the order of 50% energy reduction from the baseline, resulting in a saving of 9GWh of electricity or 2,500 tonnes in CO2, annually.

“Once the project is completed, the city’s 47,000 public lighting lanterns will be of LED technology of a similar colour and managed by a computerised system known as a central management system.”

Its small in the grand scheme of things - just the equivalent of taking 500 cars off the road and is taking a whopping 8 years to complete - I guess this is because they'll only replace a bulb when an old one blows. But, its more the sign of progress. That all these little decisions are gradually making things better and nicer. Now, presumably, when a bulb goes out in a dark park a red alert alarm goes off in Dublin Streetlighting HQ and off somebody goes to replace it, rather than trying to work out by dumb luck what bulbs need replacing.

[zuutroy]

All good for energy security etc, but when you see how little they give a fuck in the US it's hard to be optimistic. Here's Gordo burning a fuckload of gas because why not?

PXL_20230606_170914680.jpeg

[Lazare]

That indictment is some read. Holy fuck.