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How my genius roommate changed my perspective

farhadg.com

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Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#241

Post by corobo »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #239
marginalia_nu wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the few genres of YouTube videos I can stand is "old man dismantles electronics". It's a very peaceful and educational genre. Here are some channels I like: https://www.youtube.com/c/Techmoan https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtM5z2gkrGRuWd0JQMx76qA The latter channel is perhaps not great for children because of his somewhat relaxed attitude toward mains voltage, but it's great for me.

>The latter channel is perhaps not great for children because of his somewhat relaxed attitude toward mains voltage, but it's great for me. PhotonicInduction is the extreme version of this, he's an electrical engineer / "mad scientist" who builds ridiculous things such as enormous capacitor banks for blowing things up, power supplies that deliver many kV for feeding to various household appliances, record players tha…

https://www.youtube.com/user/Photonvids

For those ever so slightly more lazy than me and beyond :P

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#242

Post by phrozenone »

doctoboggan wrote: post #58

There is something very fulfilling (at least to me) about working this way. Not solving the problem in the best way, but solving it in the way you can _right now_. When I was younger this was how I solved most problems, but in my professional life I can't really do that (and for mostly good reasons). I follow someone on YouTube who moved to a small island in Panama, built his house, many boats, and lots of other item…

I'd highly recommend Jeremy Fielding's channel to people looking for workshop projects without the odd eccentricity, but still using scavenged and repurposed materials.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_SLthyNX_ivd-dmsFgmJVg

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#244

Post by spywaregorilla »

GhettoComputers wrote: post #240
spywaregorilla wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not my point. My point is that the story element has no purpose. The entire transaction is entirely irrelevant. The wisdom of thinking of alternative use cases could have been conveyed with the traveler simply being clever and identifying the use case thinking outside the box without the part where he buys it for an outrageous amount of gold. The silk washer has no ability to even make use of the knowledge tha…

I think you should consider that your position might be interpreted as racist or implying western superiority in storytelling, it’s an old story that might not be succinct enough to you but you’re not familiar or xenophobic against foreign ideas and presentation, he’s known for poetry and wordplay. If you don’t like it, consider it’s age and why it’s still relevant and referenced today. I have no idea what a cattie i…

There's nothing racist or supremacist about observing how an old chinese story differs from western storytelling norms. I did not say it's worse. Nor do I have any reason to believe its representative of its peers. I said there's a lot of emphasis on a tangent that doesn't lead anywhere, which is particularly unusual for a short tale like this, which was presumably intended to carry a lesson to impart. I've no interest in debating whether you perceive my perception to be perceivable as racist though.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#245

Post by GhettoComputers »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #244
GhettoComputers wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you should consider that your position might be interpreted as racist or implying western superiority in storytelling, it’s an old story that might not be succinct enough to you but you’re not familiar or xenophobic against foreign ideas and presentation, he’s known for poetry and wordplay. If you don’t like it, consider it’s age and why it’s still relevant and referenced today. I have no idea what a cattie i…

There's nothing racist or supremacist about observing how an old chinese story differs from western storytelling norms. I did not say it's worse. Nor do I have any reason to believe its representative of its peers. I said there's a lot of emphasis on a tangent that doesn't lead anywhere, which is particularly unusual for a short tale like this, which was presumably intended to carry a lesson to impart. I've no intere…

>how an old chinese story differs from western storytelling norms

What norms? Who set them if anyone has at all? Is the Bible not the bedrock of Westen civilization? Is it perfectly clear in its ideas and lack emphasis on tangents that doesn't lead anywhere?

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#246

Post by saeranv »

Fezzik wrote: post #195
saeranv wrote: post #191

Random question: how does that "book bench" work in the first image of the blog? I can't figure out why the suspended books on the "bench seat" aren't just sliding down, given the lack of lateral force pushing them together. My best guess right now is that compressing the spine of the books inwards, naturally creates a moment force on the covers that pushes the page-side of the book outward. So the whole thing works…

Probably lots of glue and maybe resin, though it doesn’t look like it’s coated in resin… maybe some screws/nails that are artfully places. It doesn’t look free/standing to me though.

You're right, screws and nails make sense. Glue, I think, would shear as soon someone sat on it.

Re: How my genius roommate changed my perspective

#247

Post by still_grokking »

markus_zhang wrote: post #216
still_grokking wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW, great example why machine translation still doesn't work for quite different languages. Google Translate outputs the following given the Chinese input: > The people of Song Dynasty have good medicines for not tortoises, and they have always used 洴澼絖 as their business. If you hear it, please buy one hundred gold. Gathering together and seeking out the family, said: "My life is a 紴澼絖, but I only count gold; now I…

Haha I guess it's extremely difficult to translate ancient Chinese into English. TBH there are a few words I don't recognize.

I'm not sure the issues is that it's ancient.

I've just recently learned that Chinese is a very "analytical" language: The meaning of something is apparently to a large degree determined by how words are combined and isn't contained so much in the separate words by themself (at least that's my uninformed understanding of that subject, as I don't speak Chinese).

So without actually understanding the context it's likely hard to translate something. But a machine does not understand things. It doesn't have world knowledge so it can't interpret things in context. (An ancient context doesn't make things simpler either of course).

You would likely need AGI with a lot of world knowledge to translate such an things. But at that point machine translation for any language would be a solved problem anyway I guess.

The other thing is: How do you look up words you don't know having a writing system based on pictures? Without a computer this seems almost impossible to me. That's a big issue with such a writing system imho.

I would be keen on trying to learn a little bit Chinese as it's for sure interesting to learn to think in a very analytical language—if the writing system wouldn't be. I have already a hard time with the German orthography, even it's my main language…

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