“Language models don’t apply to us because this is not a language problem,” Nesterenko explained. “If you ask it to actually create a blueprint, it has no training data for that. It has no context for that…” Instead, Quilter built what Nesterenko describes as a “game” where the AI agent makes sequential decisions — place this component here, route this trace there — and receives feedback based on whether the resulting design satisfies electromagnetic, thermal, and manufacturing constraints… The approach mirrors DeepMind’s progression with its Go-playing systems.

This is kind of interesting and cool, and it’s not a hallucinating LLM. I’ve designed a couple of simple circuit boards, and running traces can be sort of zen, but it is tedious and would be maddening as a job, so I can only imagine what the process must be like on complex projects from scratch. Definitely some hype levels coming from the company that give me pause, but it seems like an actual useful task for a machine learning algorithm.

Thank you. That looks plausible and should keep the mental wolves at bay, LOL.

Okay, somebody here has to know of have better image searching skills than I do. What is the Visor prop? It’s clearly not a spray-painted hair clip like (the inspiration for) Geordi’s, but it doesn’t look bespoke, more like some sort of removable support rib from… something. Grrr.

I think there’s something about the parasitic nature of it, taking over an otherwise healthy ear of corn. We tend to think of our edible fungi as growing out of the dirt like a plant, or a fallen tree, or at worst sort of calmy sitting on top of whatever it is using for its own food. THe fact that this has invaded kernels makes them very bad corn kernels and triggers something instinctive. Corn smut is one of those “the first person to try this was in a bad spot” kind of foods.

Legitimate? Basically none. Illegitimate? First, lazily fixing a fuckup on putting up strings of Christmas lights where you can’t daisy chain them properly, with bonus points for the likeliehood of needing to break off the grounding pin. Second, injecting power from a generator into a single circuit of your house if the power is out.

In one sense, you could argue conductors are conductors and if you think through every eventuality you can mitigate risk, but on the other, if you find you’re in a situation where one of these seems useful, you are not the type of person thinks through every eventuality.

Cue the James Joyce letters in 3… 2… 1… ({}).

I have it on good authority that the Starbucks protein coffee gives you the double-shits.

Got a lot of sticktuitiveness.

I don’t think I should go against the grain here.

Only if they get James Gunn to do it, and only if they can find something eye-shaped to graphically pierce.

belaboring every little plot point to connect up to four

That would be one of the “new ones” I was thinking of, and they didn’t even do it well. Leia remembers her real mother, explicitly in the script, so Lucas just says, “nah… it’d feel cooler if she died in childbirth.” Make the nerds hand-wave something about the Force until I can rewrite and re-film Ep6.

Prequels were trash, but 3 was the worst of them.

TWO was the worst of them, IMHO, but you deserve credit for realizing that 3 is overrated and a saber battle with lava and a bunch of good guys dying just makes it dark, not good. It has every issue that 1 and 2 do, and adds a few new ones.

Dial back Jar Jar, age Anakin up 5 years, and accept that Liam Neeson is the lead, and you’ve got a halfway decent Star War.

Q: Why did Qui-Gon lose to Maul?

A: He was tired from carrying the whole movie.

Yes, but regardless, the real LucasArts Outlaws is on GoG.

OH MARRRRSHALLLLLLLL!!!

I like Rogue One, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why people love Rogue One. It’s a decent enough Dirty Dozen riff in a Star Wars Skin Suit, but it has terrible pacing, a story that didn’t particularly need to be told, unengaging leads (rewatch after Andor helps some but not entirely), and too much fan service. It’s nice that it allows some whisps of moral ambiguity into the Rebellion, and it’s absolutely saved by the climactic battle, but I do not get the universal and enthusiastic acclaim.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Episode 8 is better.

Bah. A dremel has no torque (by design). You need a Milwaukee Hammer Drill Arse-Whisk.

Only because it’s not wearing its aftermarket cooler.

I suppose it’s better than the lively fisting that a bolt-action would require.

I doubt I’m saying anything novel here, but good lord Kilmer stole that movie for himself, and he’s therefore a big part of the reason nobody gives a shit about the Costner one, the rest being that anything “epic” that Costner did after Dances with Wolves was a self-indulgent and overlong toboggan-ride over the top-most surface of whatever theme he claimed to be exploring.

Not that the rest of the Tombstone cast didn’t have their moments, but they were all dancing to Doc’s tune. Without him, it’s a B-movie that punches slightly above its weight and gets filed away with the likes of Young Guns 2.

Yeah, not the best angle. The PS/2 port is that little silver box. The USB-C port is on the PCB. This was assembled to go inside a vintage keyboard to semi-permanently convert it, but I’ve been using it to test other boards. If a board is fully intact, I’ll just use an external converter, but there used to be a practice of snipping the cables on hardware that businesses retired for accounting purposes if they were written off, which can be a good, if risky, way to get an eBay buy for cheap.

You’ve been warned.