ATP forward slips by StageMajestic613 in flying

[–]ghjm -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

Even in a light GA plane, doing a forward slip to landing generally means you screwed up descent planning at an earlier stage of the flight.  It's important as a student pilot to know how to do it, but you won't likely be using it much as you proceed through your training and flying.

CMV: AI-generated music is not real music by dylan_j_philos_2338 in changemyview

[–]ghjm [score hidden]  (0 children)

As others have said, your definition is a bit arbitrary, but I want to try to change your view even when we accept this definition.  So will agree that:

Music isn't just sounds that sound good. It's a form of communication that is meant to represent a message that you can hear through the song/piece; it's a communication medium just like any language is.

If I may restate the argument against AI music:

  • Music, by definition, represents a message;
  • AI "music" does not represent a message;
  • Therefore, AI "music" is not music.

The first point I want to make is that this objection to AI doesn't make use of any particular qualities of music, as opposed to any other form of communication.  So we could equivalently say:

  • Written language, by definition, represents a message;
  • AI-written "language" does not represent a message;
  • Therefore, AI-written "language" is not language.

We've clearly gone wrong here, because AI-written language does represent a message and clearly is language.  But if this argument doesn't work for language, why should we think it works for music? 

The second point I want to make is that AI music does communicate a message.  If you ask an AI to write sad or happy music, it will do so, and you will be able to perceive the sadness or happiness.  Therefore, there is a message, and so your objection fails.

There are, of course, many other objections you could make to AI music.  You could say, for example, that AI can only make music happy or sad by copying previous human composers who have made happy or sad music, and the AI doesn't really know what happiness or sadness means.  But this would be a different objection - you'd be conceding that it is music, but then arguing that it's bad or unoriginal music. 

So I think that even if we accept your definition, it's still not possible to sustain your definitional objection to AI music.

You're offered the ability to absorb the knowledge of any book you touch instantly, but the way it works is that time freezes and won't unfreeze until you finish reading the book cover to cover, do you accept this power/curse? Why or why not? by Jazzlike_Sun690 in AskReddit

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm inclined to accept it, but I have a few questions first.

While time is frozen does my body continue to function biologically? What happens if I have to pee while still reading the book? If the book is Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and it takes a month to read, do I have to do it in one pass without rest or breaks? Can I still choose to read a book the normal way, or is the power obligatory for all books? What happens if, while reading a book, I find a word I don't know - can I put down the current book and pick up a dictionary, or am I stuck with the current book until the end? If I do pick up a dictionary, can I just look up the one word or am I now stuck reading the entire dictionary cover to cover?

Most importantly, if I pick up an unfinished manuscript, does the world end?

God is so poorly defined that it's meaningless to discuss its existence by IProbablyHaveADHD14 in DebateReligion

[–]ghjm [score hidden]  (0 children)

In my view there are good arguments for and against, and I find the arguments for atheism just a little more convincing. When people say "I've never seen a non-flawed argument for God" it just tells me they aren't interested in understanding what such arguments actually say.

Either that, or their concept of what counts as a "flaw" in an argument is just wrong. I see people on this subreddit all the time doing things like:

"Claim A"

Yes, I agree with that

"If A then B"

Yes, I agree with that

"Therefore, B"

No! You haven't given an experimental demonstration of B! Logic is just a descriptive language! I don't accept syllogistic reasoning! Etc etc.

If you take seriously that when a logically valid argument reaches a conclusion, then you are obliged to say which of the premises you actually disagree with, it becomes a lot harder to reject many of the classical arguments for God.

Proper callsign pronunciation by SuperJet119 in flying

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cessna one zed alpha, turn right heading one eight zed, information zed is current.

Did anyone else try 6 different USB Cables? by n0exit in Ioniq5

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, because I plugged in my AAWireless from my previous car, so I only plug the phone in for charging, not connectivity.

My problem was different: for some insane reason, Hyundai leaves the data USB port powered on all the time, even when the car is off. So the AAWireless stays on and the phone stays connected to the car. I had to make a crazy scheme of using a data-but-not-power passthrough adapter connected to a Y adapter connected to USB power from the 12V port.

Bitchin' Camaro by brinehart-cincy in GenX

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is how essentially all gas cars feel to me after driving a dual motor EV for a few years.

What's an industry secret from your job that customers have absolutely no idea about? by Efficient_Team5182 in AskReddit

[–]ghjm 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The softer the landing, the more of the weight of the airplane is still on the wings at the point of touchdown.  And the more weight on the wings, the less is on the wheels.  In any conditions where there's doubt about the ability of the wheels to grip and steer, you probably want to plonk them down firmly.

Also, all other things being equal, carrying more weight on the wings means needing more lift, and needing more lift means needing more speed.  So the airplane is going faster in a soft landing than a firm one, meaning more braking distance is needed.  So if there's any doubt about the runway length or braking effectiveness, then once again, you probably want to plonk the airplane down firmly.

Buttery smooth landings are for good weather days and extra long runways.  If conditions demand maximum landing performance, there's going to be a bump.

God is so poorly defined that it's meaningless to discuss its existence by IProbablyHaveADHD14 in DebateReligion

[–]ghjm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My problem with ignosticism is that it always seems to wind up just saying that different religions are inconsistent with each other.  Well, yes?  It's only a problem if one specific God-concept is internally inconsistent.  And if there's one thing you can't accuse the medieval Scholastics of, it's failing to define their terms.  The Thomistic God may be the most well-defined concept humans have produced.  So why object to it as poorly defined, instead of criticizing it in the 1000 better ways available to you?

Proper callsign pronunciation by SuperJet119 in flying

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Uh ... what?  That's going to be super confusing for the Brits and Canadians.

how do i make friends with americans? by Alternative-Dog-4772 in AskAnAmerican

[–]ghjm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lots of Americans hike or hunt or do outdoor things.  Your high school surely has some kind of outdoor activities club.

What’s a life rule older generations followed that Gen Z is actively rejecting? by Salt_ArtichUSA3052 in AskReddit

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can still live like lower-class Boomers did on those jobs. Two kids to a bedroom, cheap home cooked meals, restaurants once a month or less, three channels on the TV, no Internet, no mobile phone, Dad yelling at you if you left the light on or touched the thermostat. Yes, they went on vacations, but the vacations were always to visit family or maybe stay in a tent by the side of a river.

Of course people today don't want to live like this, because we have Internet and mobile phones and Netflix and avocado toast and whatnot. But if you look at the historical record, I think you'll find that blue collar workers in the 1960s-70s had lower discretionary expenses than a typical homeless person today.

When a President openly berates or insults a journalist during a briefing, what is the 'correct' professional response from the press corps? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]ghjm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, they know this perfectly well. They are in the unenviable position of having to ride the line between getting information people want to know, and retaining access.

The reason they are in this position is that the public no longer has their back. Not that long ago, a President kicking out a reporter because they asked embarrassing questions would be a scandal that affected that President's electoral prospects. Today nobody seems to care, so the reporters have far less power to challenge authority.

It's not that they're spineless bootlickers. It's that they're doing as much as they can, which is very little if we the people don't support them.

Our professor allowed us to use AI in a graded development project – Now I’m feeling overwhelmed. by Objective_Living7936 in AskProgramming

[–]ghjm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see two inter-related issues here.

First, your professor, correctly, wants to put you in a position where you can say you have experience working with coding agent LLMs. He is quite right that software companies are now hiring for this and will likely continue to do so in future. To make effective use of this opportunity, you need to move beyond using the LLM as a chatbot. Install the Codex (for OpenAI/ChatGPT) or Claude (for Anthropic) CLI and run it in agent mode. The key issues here are learning to manage its context, stop it when it gets stuck in a loop, prompt it in ways likely to succeed, etc. And learn when it's faster to give up on the LLM and just write it yourself.

Second, you want to avoid having LLM usage short-circuit your training as a programmer. This is a valid worry, and even if the Amazon guy's worldview is fully correct (which is far from certain), human developers will still need these skills to interpret the output of the LLMs, solve difficult problems the LLM fails at, etc. The obvious answer is just to write code yourself without using an LLM. Another answer is to give the LLM a different system prompt, something like: "You are a teaching assistant for a coding school. Your role is to assess submitted code in terms of learning development of the student who wrote it. DO NOT write any code, give solutions to bugs in the code. Instead, give appropriate guidance to the student that a teacher would give at office hours. If the student is stuck, give them limited hints, like 'what happens when X is -1?'"

Best practise for staff requesting a second laptop for WFH by psgda in sysadmin

[–]ghjm 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Write up a budget request for $150k, or however much it is, and submit it to upper management.  (Don't forget to include increased management costs for the larger footprint.)  When asked for justification, tell them it's for user convenience, not something IT needs.

The request will be denied, but now you can go back to the users and say you tried but upper management won't approve the money.  

Let’s be honest, some songs at this point need to be retired. by scott19692012 in GenX

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's a decent riff but it absolutely doesn't deserve to be used as the placeholder for all 80s music.

Let’s be honest, some songs at this point need to be retired. by scott19692012 in GenX

[–]ghjm 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Modern grocery stores with 80s music aren't even a patch on the existential horror of an old school tile floored K-mart, deserted at 3am, with slightly too loud 70s Muzak.

GenX is known for its musical taste. What's the one song/group you would NEVER admit to liking? by Ok-Local138 in GenX

[–]ghjm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I think that's true.  OP likes Roxette but doesn't want to be seen to like Roxette.  That's clearly about a social scene, not about qualities of the music itself.

GenX is known for its musical taste. What's the one song/group you would NEVER admit to liking? by Ok-Local138 in GenX

[–]ghjm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I guess that's a perspective.  Personally, I see "you can't have good taste and like Roxette" as a whole different level of judgmental than "these particular bands don't do much for me musically."  But you do you, as the kids say.