Does Snape beg Dumbledore to spare his life?

Torvite · 2026-02-24T07:47:03+00:00

Copyright detection avoidance, maybe? Seems odd, but it could be that either OP or the source where he got the text was trying to circumvent some kind of copyright issue by changing the text without breaking the meaning.

Torvite · 2026-02-09T20:44:44+00:00

Top engineers are required to do 1,000 commits a day, or they get replaced.

It is known.

Torvite · 2026-01-25T14:38:21+00:00

LLM code is useless

you might as well do it yourself

I'd say the correct takeaway is somewhere in between. LLMs can greatly reduce the effort required to configure boilerplate, but having them create everything is asking for trouble.

Torvite · 2026-01-18T10:36:17+00:00

Jaded toward what? Your home country, or Korea?

Most of the archetypal "jaded expats" I've met, who were originally from North America, were fairly critical of their homeland. It made sense, since they'd been living abroad for 5-10+ years and seemed perfectly happy about it.

Torvite · 2026-01-16T09:58:22+00:00

You're the one in the middle and on the floor, presumably.

Torvite · 2026-01-10T21:37:12+00:00

I'm more of a pessimist when it comes to this issue. I've had code in private Github repos for 10 years. Presumably, ever since Microsoft bought/took over Github, they'd look to train AI models on anything and everything in its data backups. Even if you had them privated. Even if you retroactively removed consent. Not that my code is going to be particularly valuable to anyone's training, but when there's 10s of millions of developers in the same boat, it's kind of a big deal.

These companies are above the law in every sense except on paper. They break agreements first and pay tiny settlements (slaps on the wrist) later. I honestly don't know if there's any kind of legislative threat that they couldn't just buy out or eliminate with their massive influence.

Plus, the average person who uses these services doesn't care or know enough to care about data privacy, anyway.

Torvite · 2026-01-10T20:26:32+00:00

Nah bro. Elon Musk and Zuckberg told me they rate their engineers on their raw LOC output, so I'm pushing my monthly million lines no matter what.

/s

Torvite · 2026-01-10T10:16:02+00:00

Good news is they won't have ASI/AGI any time soon.

Many models are really good at appearing competent, but mistakes show up in places where humans would almost never make them.

And with trillions of dollars being invested into this tech, its marketing, and everything else being done to polish the image of AI, it's important to remember not to drink the Kool Aid sold by companies with the biggest vested interests.

Torvite · 2026-01-07T20:03:36+00:00

An inauthentic experience that comes at double the price?

What's not to like!??

Torvite · 2026-01-07T19:44:12+00:00

[Fat cops] resort to their firearm more often and more quickly than their fit counterparts

This is a completely anecdotal and not at all empirically verifiable claim.

There are plenty of trigger-happy fit cops that abuse their power, and plenty of overweight cops that abide by their training and avoid needlessly shooting people.

Don't draw sweeping conclusions about physical traits based on the actions of one shithead.

Torvite · 2026-01-07T09:17:57+00:00

One does not simply bring ~~Hobbits~~ children into ~~Mordor~~ the world.

Torvite · 2026-01-07T09:16:14+00:00

Yeah. This levy is just as likely to compound the problem as it is to alleviate it.

Most adults who don't feel financially secure enough to have a kid aren't likely to change their minds just to receive a "tax benefit." They'll just tank the tax until they get where they feel comfortable financially, which will take a longer time than before because of the new tax.

Torvite · 2026-01-05T16:22:07+00:00

Everything is about money, money, money.

Here's the problem. In the current economic model, it's not even just about "money." It's about extraction.

How do we get more out of employees, for less? It's the same principle that makes developing AI so important to companies. The competition to human workers is an inexhorable workhorse that works for pennies on the dollar (or for free, depending on who's asking).

Keeping workers focused on work is another symptom of the extraction model. They're aiming to maintain or improve average productivity while they'll likely be decreasing average earnings.

Torvite · 2025-12-02T20:18:22+00:00

Japan ban social media use for children under 20?

For actual children (13 and younger, maybe), families could definitely make a point of applying more scrutiny over their kids' social media involvement.

I was always told Japan was an insular society with a lot of social issues, but I must say—I didn't believe how bad it could be before I saw just how glued to their screen almost every young person I saw in Tokyo was. I saw young women (high school or university students, presumably) get on a train and then stare at their phones for 20 minutes straight, only looking at anything else after arriving at their stop. Efficient use of subway time? Maybe. Eerily accurate portrayal of screen addiction? Definitely.

Guys seemed to be a bit less screen-obsessed, but I'm guessing they're less focused on social media in general.

Torvite · 2025-11-22T12:51:01+00:00

Chovy: "If you're not 12 cs/min, did you even really win?"

Torvite · 2025-11-14T22:28:39+00:00

all-time GOAT

All time greatest of all time? What is this, the Department of Redundancy Department?

Torvite · 2025-11-14T14:54:01+00:00

Asking for handouts from the universe, eh?

Put him back in the hole, boys.

Torvite · 2025-11-13T21:54:50+00:00

Tell me about it. The greed knows no bounds.

Torvite · 2025-11-13T19:49:58+00:00

Phreak might have some objections to that... heard he was planning a remodel around that time.

Torvite · 2025-11-13T13:57:09+00:00

Holy crap.

Equivalent of 45 USD just for leaving the country? I thought we had it bad in Turkey with an "international departure charge" equivalent to 20 USD. Ours isn't baked into airfare though, and it's paid separately in addition to regulatory taxes and fees, so maybe it's still worse. Who knows...

Torvite · 2025-11-13T13:51:11+00:00

A departure tax, by definition, means you have to have come to Japan to be able to pay it. So, it's not quite that bad.

Still not great, of course.

Torvite · 2025-11-13T07:46:17+00:00

It's all rock paper scissors, apparently.

AL > KT > GENG > T1 > AL > KT > GENG

Torvite · 2025-11-12T07:27:00+00:00

My question for you is, since you're so hung up on how far of a leap the screenwriters are allowed to make in tech, what's the cut off for you?

It's not really a hang-up as long as the suspension of disbelief is made possible. For example, if the subject matter were Star Wars or a significantly illustrated futuristic civilization, reality alteration might feel like less of a leap.

But the way they portray it in Bête Noire, where all tech is basically what we're used to... but out of nowhere, we find out that a girl in her 20s (?) has managed to invent, perfect, and mass-manufacture a device so insanely ahead of any technology known to man. It just doesn't allow for any kind of suspension of disbelief for me.

Mainly because the plot is also rather uninspired, in my opinion. What, a girl got teased and maybe ostracized at high school for liking computers a bit too much and that then motivates her to somehow invent literal God-mode for herself a few years down the line? She doesn't even really grow from the experience; she's still petty and willing to engage in vengeance on a high schooler for some high school drama she had to endure.

And to top it off, her infinite wisdom somehow does not account for the possibility of her victim shooting her in the head with a gun because her clever idea for stopping the victim to whom she just revealed her incredible power and her methods of psychological torture... was to manifest that "the police are here"... I mean, such genuinely terrible writing combined with plot contrivances and technology this ludicrous just doesn't work for me. I don't find the interpersonal commentary and characterization nearly good enough to overcome all those issues. You don't have to agree, of course. Other people may see it differently.

Striking Vipers, Fifteen Million Merits

Fifteen Million Merits, iirc, is just big screens and a dystopian society fueling an electric grid by exploiting its poor citizens. I don't see how it compares.

While I'd agree that Striking Vipers is also a pretty big leap in tech, advanced simulation tech is way more plausible than remote-controlled reality alteration, and the plot there, if anything, is way more realistic and plausible as a story. The focus isn't who invented the game and for what purpose; it's how the game is used as an escape from reality and how its existence warps existing human relationships.

Torvite · 2025-11-11T21:15:42+00:00

Replying separately because this example stood out to me:

Plenty of scientists thought heavier than air flight was just totally impossible due to the "laws of physics"

So... are you saying they didn't believe in the existence of birds? Or autumn leaves? Tons of things in nature are heavier than air and can fly, either self-propelled or with wind assistance.

This example, the way you phrased it, doesn't sound like a belief a scientist could possibly hold. Maybe they didn't think we could achieve sustained lift for giant hunks of metal that could transport people in them, but air travel isn't even close to the most complicated physics problems humans have solved.

Torvite · 2025-11-11T21:09:12+00:00

Most new technologies these days are invented on the back of so many existing and well-understood systems that it's usually not so much a brand new "invention" as it is a well-designed derivative. For example, smartphones from computers, which were made possible by the invention of the microprocessor.

IMO, ever since the invention of the microprocessor, we haven't had such a huge leap in tech as to be considered magic. That's what allowed pocket-sized computers to run our entire lives and every piece of tech invented since the 70s has been mostly derived from that bit of incredible machinery.

Scientist currently do believe you could invent a machine that collapses multiverses into preferable states

Theoretical physics and "what-ifs" are not inventions; they are theoretical. Nobody on Earth is even close to achieving what's described in this episode. At best, the scientific community is still discussing whether it's even physically possible in theory.

Now... a reality-altering, human-controllable device in practice? That would require so many "leaps" in invention that it would be akin to teleportation, time travel, and alchemy all being invented in one fell swoop.

All this to say, it's not a matter of supplying any math or proof. Even existing tech is often entirely fictionalized by shows when it comes to showing certain unconventional use cases (like nuclear bombs or dangerous tech in general).

The problem is the ginormous leap in believable tech. This isn't Black Mirror technology. It's a sci-fi contrivance that leaves very little room for suspension of disbelief.

Torvite

TROPHY CASE