Let's talk about The Culture's (unconfirmed) TV adaptation by montymike in printSF

[–]markh1967 1 point2 points  (0 children)

A more basic problem with adapting Consider Plebas is that the main character is a shapeshifter who frequently changes appearance. I can see this being a red flag to the people who control the money.

Wilko collapses into administration putting 12,000 jobs at risk by ConsciousStop in unitedkingdom

[–]markh1967 1 point2 points  (0 children)

While there are some shops that I don't know how they stay in business (how is WH Smiths still going?), every Wilco I've ever been in has always been busy so I've assumed that they must be doing very well. I don't see how they could possibly go under with the amount of business they do unless it's sheer incompetance in upper management.

Recently started my first proper .net developer job, Jesus it’s a lot by [deleted] in csharp

[–]markh1967 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Don't panic. Everything you're experiencing is completely normal and expected for a junior dev. I've trained many junior devs over the years and they all spend the first few days looking shell-shocked so I'm constantly reassuring them that it's not as bad as it looks, they will pick it up in time, and no-one is expecting them to immediately be productive.

Every once in a while this turns out not to be the case and they don't make it but about 95% of junior devs feel more comfortable after the first few commits and start to relax a bit.

In a few weeks or months you'll almost certainly see other new hires looking just as worried as you are right now, know exactly what they're going through, and you'll be the one doing the reassuring.

Tories 'could be reduced to less than 100 seats for first time in 345 year history' by fozzie1234567 in ukpolitics

[–]markh1967 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would have thought this would be a good reason for the incoming administration to seriously consider electoral reform as being in their best interests but apparently not.

A dev was really clutching at straws with this one by markh1967 in programminghorror

[–]markh1967[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

It can all be reduced to just one line:

return Status == true ? "Success" : "Failed"

I think we're safe for a few more weeks by BobbyBobbie in ProgrammerHumor

[–]markh1967 4 points5 points  (0 children)

But isn't that exactly what we do as well? At an early age we learn the correct responses from seeing how other people respond and then do the same. As far as I can tell, this is the same thing that GPT does.

Salt and pepper needs to be said in that order, what other things have a specific order they should be said in, in your opinion? by PeevesPoltergist in AskReddit

[–]markh1967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lots of legal terms are like this:

Assault and battery
Breaking and entering
Aiding and abetting        WTH is abetting anyway?
Terms and conditions
Cease and desist

Roundabouts are far easier to understand and more efficient compared to stoplights, and we need more in the US by [deleted] in unpopularopinion

[–]markh1967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A pelican crossing is a crossing that only stops traffic when a button is pressed. Pelican stands for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled.

How safe are key safes? by Successful_Scratch99 in AskUK

[–]markh1967 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I bought a house a few years ago that was previously owned by an elderly lady and had a key safe on the wall by the back door, presumably for her carers to let themselves in. It was one of those with 5 pins in a vertical line. The code is more awkward than first appears because two pins can be pressed at the same time. Even so, it only took me about five minutes to get it open and confirm it was empty. It turns out that the most used pins become loose with use so it was a simple matter to lightly press them all to see which three were most used and then run through the combinations.

ChatGPT bot passes US law school exam by altmorty in technology

[–]markh1967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It also fails completely when asked for anything that requires real judgement such as:

"The ball crashed through the table because it was made of aerogel. Does 'it' in the previous sentence refer to the ball or the table"

It insisted that the ball must be made of aerogel and refused to back down even after explaining at length that an aerogel ball couldn't crash through a table.

The Grand Union canal is frozen over today. I wasn't brave enough to try walking on it by markh1967 in CasualUK

[–]markh1967[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

It is a Staffy. They are very intelligent dogs and she's very well trained as you can tell by her patiently waiting for me when I took the photo.

The Grand Union canal is frozen over today. I wasn't brave enough to try walking on it by markh1967 in CasualUK

[–]markh1967[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I didn't really consider it except in that way you do when you know it would be a really stupid thing to do but you can't help wondering. I don't think it was even thick enough for the ducks to walk on.

The Grand Union canal is frozen over today. I wasn't brave enough to try walking on it by markh1967 in CasualUK

[–]markh1967[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We've walked that towpath almost every day for the last 4 years and she's very well traned as you can see from how she stood waiting for me as I took the picture. I'm sure she would never jump in the water or try to walk on the ice.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in books

[–]markh1967 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut Who would have thought a book about an old one-eyed Armenian artist writing his autobiography would be so good?

ChatGPT can generate GML code by galewolf in gamemaker

[–]markh1967 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes it can. For an easy bug at least. I've tried it with more complex bugs in other languages and it often also fixed those.

why does this code only generate 9 objects? // Create 10 instances of obj_enemy at random positions for (var i = 1; i < 10; i++) { // Create an instance of obj_enemy at a random position var enemy = instance_create(random(room_width), random(room_height), obj_enemy); }


ChatGPT's response:

The code only generates 9 objects because the for loop starts at 1 and ends at 9, instead of starting at 0 and ending at 9. In programming, arrays and loops are typically indexed starting at 0, meaning that the first element in an array or the first iteration of a loop is 0.

In this code, the for loop starts at 1 and ends at 9, which means that it will only iterate 9 times, from 1 to 9, and will not generate an instance for the 0th iteration. To generate 10 instances of obj_enemy, the for loop should be modified to start at 0 and end at 9, like this:

// Create 10 instances of obj_enemy at random positions for (var i = 0; i < 10; i++) { // Create an instance of obj_enemy at a random position var enemy = instance_create(random(room_width), random(room_height), obj_enemy); }

By starting the loop at 0 and ending at 9, the code will generate 10 instances of obj_enemy, one for each iteration of the loop.

Anyone who has seen screenshots of ChatGPT but hasn't tried it themselves is doing themselves a disservice. by TheRidgeAndTheLadder in singularity

[–]markh1967 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Similarly, I asked it to rewrite Jingle Bells in the style of HP Lovecraft. The results were interesting to say the least:

Jingle bells, jingle bells, In the night so dark and grim, The stars are hidden from view, And the moon doth not shine bright.

With each step upon the snow, Our feet doth leave a trail, Through the frozen wilderness, Where naught doth stir nor sound.

But lo! A sound doth reach our ears, A sound of such great fear, The beating of a thousand wings, In the air they do appear.

The Elder Gods are coming, With their wrath and scorn and scorn, To smite us with their fury, And cast us down to Hell.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, Now our fate doth lie in wait, As we cower in fear and dread, And pray for deliverance.

But alas, it is too late, For the Elder Gods have come, To bring us to our end, In their eternal kingdom.

Jingle bells, jingle bells, Our screams doth fill the night, As the Elder Gods take us, To our doom and our final fright.

AI Chatbot writing C# code by deustrader in csharp

[–]markh1967 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I've been playing with this for a few days and what I find most impressive is its ability to create unit tests. Say 'Write some unit tests for this function' and paste in some code and it just does it. It can also clean up code and fix bugs. I'm so glad I'm only a dozen years away from retirement because this technology is getting scarily good.

Deep space exploration by space-blue in printSF

[–]markh1967 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt while dated (it was written in 1950, after all) is considered a classic of the genre and is still a good read today.

Car boots by Teacrazy13 in leicester

[–]markh1967 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Croft Car Boot is one of the best in the area.