cultural reviewer and dabbler in stylistic premonitions

  • 113 Posts
  • 344 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: January 17th, 2022

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  • big oof.

    We can conclude: that photo isn’t AI-generated. You can’t get an AI system to generate photos of an existing location; it’s just not possible given the current state of the art.

    the author of this substack is woefully misinformed about the state of technology 🤦

    it has, in fact, been possible for several years already for anyone to quickly generate convincing images (not to mention videos) of fictional scenes in real locations with very little effort.

    The photograph—which appeared on the Associated Press feed, I think—was simply taken from a higher vantage point.

    Wow, it keeps getting worse. They’re going full CSI on this photo, drawing a circle around a building on google street view where they think the photographer might have been, but they aren’t even going to bother to try to confirm their vague memory of having seen AP publishing it? wtf?

    Fwiw, I also thought the image looked a little neural network-y (something about the slightly less-straight-than-they-used-to-be lines of some of the vehicles) so i spent a few seconds doing a reverse image search and found this snopes page from which i am convinced that that particular pileup of cars really did happen as it was also photographed by multiple other people.





  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mltoProgrammer Humor@lemmy.mlcarrot.py
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    15 days ago

    only hobbyists and artisans still use the standalone carrot.py that depends on peeler.

    in enterprise environments everyone uses the pymixedveggies package (created using pip freeze of course) which helpfully vendors the latest peeled carrot along with many other things. just unpack it into a clean container and go on your way.












  • Arthur Besse@lemmy.mlto196@lemmy.blahaj.zoneTransmasc Godzilla Rule
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    22 days ago

    After a minute of research I’m inclined to believe Godzilla egg-laying only happened in Roland Emmerich’s 1998 film.

    Here is some contemporary reporting about it: https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/05/19/godzilla-lays-an-egg-does-this-surprise-you/

    Big, buff and bodacious, he’s so cool he can even reproduce himself–or herself. Turns out, Godzilla’s a hermaphrodite.

    Consistent with the mythology, this giant lizard is a mutant by-product of nuclear radiation. As the only member of its species to have survived a bomb test in French Polynesia, Godzilla must assume male and female reproductive functions to maintain the lineage.

    Why Godzilla feels compelled to travel all the way to Manhattan to lay its eggs is a mystery not clearly explained in the script, but, like any Sinatra fan, the monster probably thought, “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.” So, it was off to New York, New York, where–like the Knicks–the creature lays a lot of eggs in Madison Square Garden.

    see also: https://fictionhorizon.com/how-does-godzilla-reproduce/




  • The headline should mention that they’re breaking 22-bit RSA, but then it would get a lot less clicks.

    A different group of Chinese researchers set what I think is the current record when they factored a 48-bit number with a quantum computer two years ago: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.12372

    I guess the news here is that now they’ve reached 22 bits using the quantum annealing technique which works on D-Wave’s commercially-available quantum computers? That approach was previously able to factor an 18-bit number in 2018.

    🥂 to the researchers, but 👎 to the clickbait headline writers. This is still nowhere near being a CRQC (cryptanalytically-relevant quantum computer).