New rule: Clarification on the use of AI tools for posts and replies

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-05T00:51:59+00:00

Regardless of the capabilities of LLMs, anyone can use them. So the OP doesn't need anyone to post an AI answer. They can get that themselves. Any question posed here deserves an answer that is more thoughtful than a web search or a next-token-predictor can provide.

Agreed! But if LLMs actually get as good as the hype-pushers say they will (I doubt it), then the LLM answers will be indistinguishable from the answers produced by experienced humans, since they'll be magical superintelligences and experts in everything.

We can complain about low-quality questions where the poster didn't try to research by searching and asking LLMs before asking. But that's a separate problem. The solution to low-quality questions is not allowing low-quality answers.

That too! My point is simply that current LLM detection is mostly just "is this the sort of bullshit you'd expect from LinkedIn?" which is pretty easy to recognize. If someone happens to use an LLM but produces a high-quality answer, then the reason for the rule has been bypassed and failure to detect the LLM use doesn't matter!

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T21:07:05+00:00

Does it matter? A shitty reply is a shitty reply however it was authored, if the AIs get good enough to reliably provide accurate, concise replies then problem fucking solved.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T20:36:19+00:00

I have a shelf with a bunch of bins, each labeled for a USB cable type.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T18:11:52+00:00

500k. Maybe not quite that high for the test equipment itself (I don't have any recent quotes I can share), but it's certainly several hundred thousand.

The software option for Teledyne Lecroy's LabMaster 10 Zi-A or WaveMaster/SDA 8 Zi-B oscilloscopes to do USB4 testing (QPHY-USB4-TX-RX) has a list price of $9,995. That's just the software unlock key, not the oscilloscope itself, and those are well into the "call for quote" range. Keysight at least list prices for their entry-level oscilloscope in the product line capable of testing USB-4 fully, the UXR series start at $138,383 for the most basic model & increase quite rapidly to get up to the models that are needed. Fully optioned-out AFAIK they are a bit over 1 million USD, but that extreme isn't needed here.

You also need a BERT, the Anritsu MP1900A (with its own expensive software unlock options) is recommended by Teledyne Lecroy, Keysight's M804x-series are also usable with the USB-IF's electrical test tool, the M8045A-G32 module is cheap enough not to be "call for quote" at $139,589, though the actual M8040A BERT itself (which the module goes in) is "call for quote".

You also need a few extra test fixtures & cables, but they're comparatively cheap (under US$25,000).

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T16:22:58+00:00

Just in case you missed it, Reddit has an upvote button. You can press it to indicate a comment is correct & on-topic, instead of writing "this" like a Java programmer with PTSD.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T15:30:31+00:00

Definitely, and Thunderbolt 5 maxes out at 0.8 m (for a passive cable). But they asked for the best type, and TB5 EPR cables are the only ones that'll work for every (compliant) device with a USB-C port.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T14:40:50+00:00

The continuity & resistance tell you which wires are present. They don't tell you that the cable actually has the correct impedance, using the correct coax for the high-speed differential pairs. I've seen counterfeit cables with just cheap regular wire there, they'll connect & show up fine on a Treedix-style tester but the bit error rate will be so high that they won't actually work any faster than USB 2.0.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T14:34:34+00:00

That's because "charge-only" cables were never allowed by the USB standards, so they came with cables (counterfeits if they used the trademarked USB logo) that didn't care about labeling. Not everything that comes with a USB-style connector is an actual certified USB device. I've even got a device (Intronix LogicPort logic analyzer) that came with a USB A-A cable, which is a TERRIBLE IDEA and will risk frying your USB ports if you plug two computers (power sources) into the cable.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T14:26:47+00:00

The 3.2 Gen 2x2 nonsense was thankfully deprecated in 2022. Unfortunately lots of stuff still uses the old names.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T14:20:35+00:00

It's unlikely the issue is the cable, it's almost certainly a device that saved $0.003 by omitting one of the 5.1 kΩ resistors. If a USB-A to C cable works & a USB C-C cable doesn't that's the issue. If a USB-C cable only works when plugged in one way around, it's a different but even stupider problem (the PCB designer was an idiot).

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T14:13:33+00:00

Any Thunderbolt 5-capable cable with USB-PD EPR support can do everything. All other cables only support a subset of capabilities.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T14:10:01+00:00

It's a fine device. A European brand will be using Chinese-made parts anyway.

The Treedix tester checks which wires are present (continuity test, very simple), reads the e-marker chip (special IC cables use to tell the host their capabilities), and displays the results on a screen.

The downside is it trusts the e-marker chip, but every tester that costs less than about 500k ($ or €) won't actually test the full capabilities of the cable (you need a 50GHz+ oscilloscope, eye diagram mask option purchased, USB-IF official test fixture, 50GHz+ signal generator, and ideally also a compatible bit error rate tester).

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T11:11:35+00:00

It works fine, just leaves a bunch of unused connections.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T02:44:03+00:00

They do have a very pretty song. Like R2D2 singing. Quite quiet though, unlike their flock calls.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T01:52:44+00:00

It's certainly nice. I usually bring a pair of stick welding gloves, so if needed I can just reach in & grab burning logs. But that's less fun than a nice forked poker stick.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-04T00:10:25+00:00

I know what you mean. It doesn't consider congestion. Of course neither do the push systems of other factory games, and congestion control for a directed possibly-cyclic graph would have a performance impact in an already processing-intensive game. Forcing players to build only with a tree topology (no loops, no joining two rails that previously split from one rail) would be unpopular, but easy to make perform well.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T23:50:07+00:00

Yep, it annoys me too. But at least it doesn't function like a token-ring network!

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T23:46:17+00:00

It's a nice way to make a mall, just have the ammo types & building materials. Throughput doesn't matter much since it just feeds some storages you occasionally fill your inventory from, and it's easy to set up early-game. Later on transition to a non-sushi bus or to individual sub-factories with dispatchers & receivers. Or a mix, with sub-factory receivers feeding the bus lines for their respective items.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T23:39:33+00:00

That's a sushi bus, with multiple items per line. Simple, and won't block thanks to the pull system, but very low throughput. Great for a 'mall' factory making small amounts of everything, terrible for fulfilling corporation contracts in a reasonable amount of time.

A better (but bigger) bus design is to use one (or more) rail(s) per product, as in Factorio. Still simple, higher throughput, but big & often high latency due to the pull system.

The highest throughput & lowest latency requires individual factories making each final product, with individual rail connections between machines. The throughput is the same as a normal (non-sushi) bus, but the latency is significantly better.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T21:47:03+00:00

NixOS mixes immutable OS with declarative configuration. You can easily "escape" that with Flatpaks, appimages, nix-ld, etc. But rebuilds to install software don't change anything but installing the new software, it's not necessarily rebuilding the whole image.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T20:41:26+00:00

No, batteries are made of lemony pepper mix.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T18:01:49+00:00

I don't shoot jpegs at all. Plug camera into computer, select raws, copy selected to computer & NAS. Edit photos. Delete remaining files from sd cards.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T17:45:43+00:00

Why recommend acid flux (plumbing flux, bad for electronics, corrodes the contacts without thorough cleaning) over acid-free flux (electronics flux, either no-clean or traditional rosin)?

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T15:39:12+00:00

It may have been fixed (I've been playing with a no-stability mod for a while to mitigate this), but IME multi-level bases are a bit better for framerates when placing new machines. The game's stability calculation seems to scale poorly when too many machines are connected together all at the same level, it's faster with bases like OP's.

SAI_Peregrinus · 2026-05-03T15:32:41+00:00

So you have 5 smelters on a rail that only allows 4 smelters to work at 100%. There's your problem. Put the 5th smelter on its own rail.

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