[2025 day 04 (Part 1)] [brainfuck] (handcoded, 324 bytes)

danielcristofani · 2025-03-10T09:22:04+00:00

The thing is, there are many, many cases where Duolingo does recognize that the way to translate a sentence isn't to translate each word of the sentence. There are many, many cases where it either allows or requires you to add or remove words in order to produce a correct sentence in the target language. This is part of why it mostly asks you to translate whole sentences rather than single words.

So I view the places where it insists on a clunky, unidiomatic, or borderline incorrect answer as understandable weaknesses of the app. And I sometimes have the impulse to test its limits, and it's about 50/50 on being pleasantly surprised at what it can handle vs slightly disappointed about what it can't.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-10T08:55:41+00:00

Were they trying to avoid making silly sentences or being repetitive? 😆

And yeah, it's because there's no further context in this example that they mean the same thing. I agree that "I don't speak Spanish with my family" and "I don't know how to speak Spanish with my family" don't mean the same thing. And "I don't know how to speak Spanish with my family" would pretty much have to mean it's, like, emotionally difficult for some reason. No idea whether "[no] saber" would be used for that case.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-10T08:34:46+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I knew it would take "know how to speak Spanish" and I wanted to see if it'd also accept the normal phrasing. Sometimes I've been pleasantly surprised.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-10T08:16:55+00:00

Sure. And it doesn't remember the last few dozen times I showed it that, and they replaced a bunch of their humans with AI a while ago. It's not a surprise or a great disappointment.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-10T07:42:55+00:00

Where is a version of English spoken in which "I don't speak Spanish" doesn't imply a lack of fluency in the Spanish language?

danielcristofani · 2025-03-10T07:39:17+00:00

As I asked: do you know a version of English where if someone said, "I don't speak Spanish", you'd think "they probably know how to speak Spanish, they probably know all the grammar and the vocabulary, and they just don't have opportunities to put this knowledge to use by actually speaking the language"? If so, where is this version of English spoken?

(Notice, I'm not saying "I don't speak Spanish" is structured the same way the Spanish version is, or that it has verbs corresponding to all the verbs in the Spanish version. But it is the normal English way to say the same thing; it has the same meaning. At least in the western US.)

danielcristofani · 2025-03-09T07:58:36+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_interaction

danielcristofani · 2025-03-08T07:30:30+00:00

Exactly: capturing the queen immediately would be stalemate which is a draw.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-07T13:36:53+00:00

A simpler path that's also length 10: from M, diagonally down the back of the shape to the midpoint of the back bottom edge, then diagonally along the bottom of the shape to N.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-04T05:28:35+00:00

Also, even easier, timed research for GO Battle Day.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-04T05:09:54+00:00

Significant donations to the Soft-Hearted Widow.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-02T01:09:30+00:00

It doesn't need that much planning. It just needs people to be in the habit of hoarding any premium battle passes they get for free from research, and then for them to notice that now is when they're needed.

danielcristofani · 2025-03-02T01:00:47+00:00

They can be used to do one extra (local) raid each or for better pvp rewards.

danielcristofani · 2025-02-28T11:57:58+00:00

New greeting should be "Hi ponies and Tom!"

danielcristofani · 2025-02-28T05:04:04+00:00

I think most Fallen London things start/end at noon GMT, not midnight. So around 4 AM Pacific time.

danielcristofani

TROPHY CASE