“I just chose words carefully”

Post by Xirdus » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:13 PM UTC

kccqzy wrote: post #306

Xirdus wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newspapers figured out wide text lines are awful for reading some 100 years ago. We're still waiting for web designers to catch up...

Old newspapers have overly narrow columns that make both full justification and hyphenation ugly. I don’t think we should be looking at 100-year old newspapers for inspiration. Maybe look at them and see how far we’ve come and how much improvement we have in modern printed matter. Instead we should look at modern books. Without paying good money to use tools like InDesign, just use LaTeX with microtype together with…

Post by Xirdus » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #319

Xirdus wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Newspapers figured out wide text lines are awful for reading some 100 years ago. We're still waiting for web designers to catch up...

Narrow columns leave more room for ads. Ads that aren't even slightly aligned with products you're interested in.

Post by eudamoniac » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:20 PM UTC

Post by fasterik » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:29 PM UTC

delis-thumbs-7e wrote: post #187

fasterik wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also reminded of how David Milch supposedly wrote a lot of Deadwood in iambic pentameter. I only learned about this after seeing the show, but I did pick up the "Shakespearean" feel of some of the dialogue. Constraints often force creativity.

Interesting claim. ELLSWORTH (CONT'D) I tell you what -- I may have fucked ~~ life up flatter"n hammered shit, but I stand before you today beholden to no human cocksucker and working a paying fucking gold claim -- and not the U.S. Government saying I'm trespassing or the savage fucking Red Man himself or any of these other limber-dick cocksuckers passing themselves off as prospectors had better try to stop me. I can…

  You have been tested, Al Swearengen.
  And your deepest purposes proved, there’s gold
  On the woman’s claim. You might as well have shouted
  It from the rooftops. That’s why I’m jumpin’
  Through hoops to get it back. Thorough as I fleeced
  The fool she married, I will fleece his widow, too.

  Using loyal associates like Eustace
  Bailey Farnum as my go-betweens and dupes.
  To explain why I want her bought out I’ll make
  A pretext of my fear of the Pinkertons.
  I’ll throw Farnum a token thief. Why should
  I reward E.B. with some small fractional
  Participation in the claim? Or let him
  Even lay by a little security
  And source of continuing income, for
  His declining years. What’s he ever done for me?

  Except let me terrify him every
  Goddamned day of his life ’til the idea
  Of bowel regularity is a forlorn
  Fuckin’ hope. Not to mention orderin’
  A man killed in one of E.B.’s rooms.
  So every fuckin’ free moment of his life
  E.B. has to spend scrubbin’ the bloodstains
  Off the goddamned floor! To keep from havin’
  To lower his rates. Goddamned that motherfucker!

Post by eudamoniac » Mon, Aug 31, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

crackalamoo wrote: post #105

someguyiguess wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Robots would excel at writing that sort of copy I’d assume. (I haven’t tested it but doubt an LLM couldn’t handle that)

An raw LLM no, but given code execution it can do a good job. I had my Claude Sonnet write a sonnet in this form after 14 rounds of iteration with Python: The autumn wind moves slow across the field, and every falling leaf now yields its fight. The summer gold at last has ceased to yield, and short days now give way to longer night. I walk alone beside a calm and quiet stream, and watch it slowly carry every fallen l…