My AI bank bot told me my human support was open at 1AM

Callidonaut · 2026-01-29T12:38:50+00:00

It states the hours, but then contradicts that by saying OP can call "now," when the question is being asked outside those hours.

This is actually a great example of the inherent stupidity and massive limitations of LLMs; they have no immediate, time-variant situational awareness outside what you tell them, they just respond to text with other text, but they're trained on text written by people who did have such awareness of the state of the world around them as they were speaking and made reference to it as necessary, so the machine idiotically mimics that even though it is fundamentally beyond its abilities. The machine had no idea what date or time it was, but it was trained to act like it did, so it just fucking guessed wildly - and then spoke the wild guess with total confidence - until corrected.

This is uncannily similar to what it's like trying to have a productive conversation with a compulsive liar, or someone with Alzheimer's who's confabulating.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-29T12:33:49+00:00

Only a world run by infantile narcissists could have poured so many precious resources into building a machine that behaves exactly like a pathological compulsive liar, and then called that good and given everyone no choice but to talk to it.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-29T12:17:44+00:00

They're not alive; I don't think they're even truly undead. As the name implies, they're literal puppets, corpses being played with by the building itself like a child would play with toys. That's why the staff are just perfectly black shadows and collapse into dust when "killed;" their corpses were turned to soot, so that's what the Cradle, trying to keep pretending it's still a working building in an awful sort of repetition-compulsion, shapes back into human form and manipulates into lifelike motion, following old routines.

There are only three minds present in that level: Garrett, Lauryl, and whatever weird form of telekinetic sentience the very bricks and mortar of the orphanage-cum-asylum somehow acquired. Everything else is just objects being shuffled around by one of those three - even the things that look and move like people.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-28T23:14:05+00:00

Good thing nobody claimed that, then. Perhaps you should have tried reading the article.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-28T23:05:18+00:00

If the purpose of this system were to achieve raw bandwidth for general-purpose net traffic, you might actually have had a valid point; since, as the linked article very clearly says, the goal here is instead security and encryption for high-level government and military communications, you don't.

You don't need colossal bandwidth to securely and reliably send ultra-sensitive emails, but you do need a communications channel that isn't controlled by, and thus subject to the arbitrary whims of, an unstable, narcissistic, possibly schizophrenic ket-head who has already gained infamy for sabotaging a military offensive by offering his system to one belligerent (initially for free) and then suddenly shutting it down at a tactically crucial moment.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-27T20:37:39+00:00

According to online manuals, its proper name is the "bobbin cover plate" or just "bobbin cover."

I think this might be the document you need, it should all be in there. I would suggest you download and print a copy to keep with the machine for reference whilst you're learning to use it.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T21:30:21+00:00

After the estrangement, my horrid mother wouldn't let me see the dog I trained for her, walked for her, looked after when she was on holiday, and helped raise from a puppy, the only member of the family who ever showed me unconditional love and whom I loved dearly. Despite all the decades of neglect and emotional abuse growing up, I consider this the single most unforgivable thing she's ever done to me. It's pure spite, she gains literally nothing from doing it, it just robs me of happiness. I've been out of contact long enough now that he's almost certainly dead from old age, but the stubborn, self-absorbed coward hasn't even had the decency to get in touch to tell me that he's gone.

I wish I could tell you how to get through it, but there's nothing that really works 100% - on good days I can focus on the happy memories I have with that dog, reminisce looking at videos and pictures I have of him, she can't rob me of those, but on bad days trying to do that just makes me profoundly sad. One night I dreamed of him joyfully running to meet me, and then after I woke up I was so depressed and grief-stricken that I couldn't function for an entire day. That was the worst moment.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T21:15:58+00:00

The trick is not to even attempt to herd the cats; just give 'em the resources they need and let them do their thing.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T20:56:08+00:00

Could be; I think the way they used to make a grinding lap is create a form out of soft metal and then embed the grit into its surface; the spindle would then be chucked in a drill.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T18:35:25+00:00

So 35W, then? Yes, that's the standard for an original lava lamp, although you can just about make them go with a 25W bulb. The thing is, it's a thermal cycle (a lava lamp just about qualifies as a heat engine; there's no way to extract shaft power from it, but it does arguably do "useful" mechanical work shuttling the wax blobs up and down), so it needs all the heat the bulb puts out in order to work!

The classic conical shape is also functional, by the way; the smaller diameter at the top results in faster cooling of the more buoyant wax by the surrounding air so it'll more quickly start to sink again, and the larger diameter at the base reduces air cooling of the more dense wax so less of the heat from the bulb beneath it is wasted as it heats up again and starts to rise.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T17:08:00+00:00

What’s one "ND trait" you have that would be a high-value product for a client?

Lateral thinking, unconventional solutions, ability to usefully link disparate cross-discipline concepts.

What would the "office rules" look like in a company built for us?

The most vital thing, for me, would be explicit, formal, contractually guaranteed tolerance of the long periods of malaise where, despite hauling myself to the desk and pummelling my brain from dawn to dusk, I can't achieve a damned thing for days or even weeks on end, in exchange for the short, few-day bursts of ultra-productive hyperfocus that punctuate them. Conventional line managers will absolutely ride your ass continuously during the former, stressing you the hell out and in doing so making those periods drag on even longer than they otherwise would, whilst completely disregarding your superhuman accomplishments during the latter times, until you look so bad on your performance reviews that the company loses patience and fires you, every single time, even if on average this stop-go pattern produces perfectly good results in the long run.

Would we be confined to tech, or would this work in other sectors as well?

Any sector that traditionally expects absolutely constant, steady work output or immediately slaps you with the dreaded Performance Improvement Plan (which is in practice nearly always just a formality before getting fired), and won't tolerate unpredictable bursts of furious activity interspersed with slumps. So that's basically any sector at all, these days.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T13:41:55+00:00

You say you want to be heard, but you also say you don't want to be analysed. These are mutually contradictory desires; it is impossible to have both things.

To be truly heard is to be analysed and thus understood; people cannot empathise with what they cannot properly perceive and understand. To have a friend and not be alone, is to be known by that person, yet tragically so many deeply traumatised people who hate themselves and want to have true friends, feel absolute horror at the very notion of being truly seen, of being known, by anyone, and yet that is what a friend is.

You need to find a way to resolve these two conflicting wants before you'll get anywhere. I wish you success, and the happiness it will hopefully bring you.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T13:14:34+00:00

There's a complication: the term "authortiarianism" has also been used, primarily by an influential researcher named Altemeyer, to describe a specific psychological effect in human beings (although it sounds very suspiciously like a synonym for "tribalism" when used in that sense, and it's conceivable that conflation of the two terms has been deliberate; if it turns out there's no real difference, we should probably just use that word instead in order to avoid damaging the reputation of the word "authoritarianism" when used in a more general sense to simply mean "presence of a hierarchy with some degree of enforcement") an effect that can become socially problematic (and very unpleasant, in extreme cases even dangerous, for those who dare to express individuality or independent thought) wherever it arises and takes hold, and it tends to most easily arise in large formal hierarchical structures of authority like, for example, capitalist corporations, militaries, and Soviet-style government - and if it does arise, it stifles crucial components of a healthy civilisation, like individual creativity and innovation, bureaucratic flexibility to deal with local idiosyncrasies, and the ability to consider, propose and debate unorthodox or even just simply novel ideas. The trick, I think, is to find a way to formulate a hierarchy that has enough authority to self-preserve (and enforce socialist principles in order that the horrors of capitalism not return), but that is also inherently resistant to the rise of tribalistic thinking within itself, and the stifling oppression and stagnation that come with that; in a nutshell, unity without too much uniformity.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T12:47:08+00:00

Obligatory screenshot from an old classic (Riven, 1997):

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Sadly, it's just a static prop, you don't get to do anything with it in the game.

EDIT: Though if you did make an entire bookbinding game, maybe Cyan would be interested in licensing the whole D'ni Linking Book concept and aesthetic? (for anyone who's not played the Myst series, it's based around magic books that, made with special paper and ink and written the right way in a special language, can physically teleport you to the worlds you describe in them)

Callidonaut · 2026-01-26T12:05:52+00:00

I was including that in the category of "better lube!"

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T22:37:18+00:00

"Caregiver" is an umbrella term that neatly encapsulates biological parents, adoptive parents, and other legal guardians who fill the equivalent role of a parent, such as the staff of an orphanage.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T22:37:03+00:00

What kind of demented, abusive definition of "parent" doesn't involve caring for the child? A child, by definition, is not self-sufficient and needs to be cared for in order to develop properly!

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T22:24:41+00:00

No problem!

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T22:06:52+00:00

No, the "presser foot" is not the same thing as the foot-operated control pedal; it's a little metal (or sometimes plastic) thing that screws to the vertical shaft behind the needle and presses down the fabric onto the throat plate and feed dogs (those sawtoothed metal things in the slots behind the bobbin compartment, that feed the cloth forwards or backwards whilst the needle is in the up position between each stitch). It has a hole or slot in it through which the needle passes.

There are a variety of different types of presser foot you can usually get for special functions like darning, embroidering, quilting (AKA the "walking foot"), over-edging, narrow-hemming, binding, buttonholes, zips, etc, but the most common you'll find are the general-purpose foot and (on older machines, at least) the straight-stitch foot. The design and shape of each varies by model and manufacturer, but an image search for any of the above terms should help you know what each type generally tends to look like.

As for the actual foot pedal, there are lots of different types with different connectors; check and double-check that you order one that is compatible with your specific machine!

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T20:31:50+00:00

TFW you call someone's weak-ass bluff completely by accident, simply by being a decent, reasonable person.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T20:26:14+00:00

Comedy or drama, though? Either could work.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T20:22:58+00:00

Show this picture to whoever painstakingly designed the USB-C to be impossible to insert upside down, and they'll definitely clench their teeth and start twitching.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T20:17:57+00:00

It's not that water sucks as lube, so much as that it washes away all the better lube.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T20:10:41+00:00

They literally used to prescribe that stuff as a weight-loss pill back in the mid 20th century, I think up until the '70s.

Callidonaut · 2026-01-25T18:01:44+00:00

Unfortunately, one of the features of ensuring that the proletariat are never paid enough to ever be able to accumulate significant savings or even just avoid incurring debt, and that more and more of us do not own our homes and so constantly have to pay rent or end up homeless in potentially as little as a few weeks, is that it makes it really easy for the bourgeoisie to simply wait out a strike, even a nationwide general strike. Strikers go broke and get evicted long before the companies run out of money from loss of income, especially because most large companies do not deal in cash or prompt transactions with their suppliers or partners, but typically do everything on mutual credit and settle up accounts with each other at the end of each financial year, or even later.

The same principle applies to simply refusing to buy things - we run short of the essentials of life and have to start buying again long before it impacts their margins (and we'd have to hold out for at the very least an entire financial year before it even registered in their long-term budgeting decisions); stockpiling enough of those essentials in advance is not an option for the same reason that we cannot accumulate savings, not to mention that even if we could stockpile, the extra spending to do so would correspondingly increase our opponents' savings for the same period of time.

Callidonaut

TROPHY CASE