scottmcf (u/scottmcf)

scottmcf commented on How was the Universal Pictures 1936 opening logo created? movies.stackexchange.com/... · Posted by u/azeemba

AnotherGoodName · a month ago

Doctor Who's original 1960's intro is in a similar vein of "wait a minute, how'd they do that in that year?". This predated any commercial synthesisers and was mind blowing for its time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75V4ClJZME4

https://www.effectrode.com/knowledge-base/making-of-the-doct...

scottmcf · a month ago

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was just incredibly innovative. I spent a long time learning about them and their techniques as a music student.

scottmcf commented on Show HN: I open-sourced my AI toy company that runs on ESP32 and OpenAI realtime github.com/akdeb/ElatoAI... · Posted by u/akadeb

xp84 · 4 months ago

> lovely talking toys can die if the company stops being profitable.

This is a good point to me as a parent -- in a world where this becomes a precious toy, it would be a serious risk of emotional pain if the child experienced this scenario like the death of a pet or friend.

> version with decent hardware that runs a local model

I feel like something small and efficient enough to meet that (today) would be dumb as a post. Like Siri-level dumb.

Personally, I'd prefer a toy which was tethered to a home device. Without a cloud (and thus commercial) dependency, the toy wouldn't be 'smart' outside of Wi-fi range, but I'd design it so that it got 'sleepy' when away from Wi-fi, able to be "woken up" and, in that state, to respond to a few phrases with canned, Siri-like answers. Perhaps new content could be made up for it daily and downloaded to local storage while at home, so that it could still "tell me a story" offline etc.

scottmcf · 4 months ago

> This is a good point to me as a parent -- in a world where this becomes a precious toy, it would be a serious risk of emotional pain if the child experienced this scenario like the death of a pet or friend.

We've already seen this exact scenario play out with "Moxie" a few months ago:

https://www.axios.com/2024/12/10/moxie-kids-robot-shuts-down

scottmcf commented on CERN scientists find evidence of quantum entanglement in sheep home.cern/news/news/physi... · Posted by u/mackopes

scottmcf · 5 months ago

Ah, I see it's useless internet day, catch you all tomorrow.

scottmcf commented on Show HN: Learn where countries are on the world map with Spaced Repetition map.koljapluemer.com... · Posted by u/blackbrokkoli

scottmcf · 5 months ago

This is an absolutely excellent way to learn, I am surprised at just how effective it was. I'd love a "manual" mode that let me discard countries/mark them to stay in rotation.

scottmcf commented on What we know about LLMs willthompson.name/what-we... · Posted by u/wilhelm____

Arkhaine_kupo · 2 years ago

> Not one killer app has emerged.

I think the microsoft gpt integration on Office is probably that app.

Ability to ask to have your email's summarised, or getting your excel sheets formulas configured with natural language, etc are increidbly useful tools to lower the floor of entry to tools that already speed up humans so much.

I don't think the use of this tools is some life redefining feature, but a friend of mine joked that in a year from now you will right a simple sentence like "write polite work email with following request: Come to the meeting, you are late" then Gpt will write the email, another gpt will send it and his GPT will sumarise it and he will reply with another gpt message instantly apologising that you will read the summary off. Leaving a trail of polite long messages that no one will even open.

scottmcf · 2 years ago

I agree, if it delivers on the kind of demos they showed off here:

https://news.microsoft.com/reinventing-productivity/

It's going to be an absolute "killer app".

scottmcf commented on “Our paying customers need X, when will you fix it?” twitter.com/maximilianhil... · Posted by u/scblzn

bugglebeetle · 2 years ago

The whole interaction has to be colored by what the person eventually sent in their email. In that light, it’s very much a demand. Do this unpaid work for me. Any request for recompense is extortion.

Secondly, this is just semantics. Fork, update the dependency or whatever reference to it, and submit back as a pull request. Or maintain the forked repo yourself if it’s that mission critical.

scottmcf · 2 years ago

I fully agree. The original request can be read either either with a neutral/oblivious tone or a negative demanding tone. This is the wrong way to ask someone to do free work for you regardless if it's reasonable or not, and the issue is compounded by highlighting the financial aspect.

The followup email proves that taking a negative reading of the original request is the more reasonable read of the writer's intention.

scottmcf commented on Microsoft is checking everyone's bags for unsupported Office installs theregister.com/2023/01/2... · Posted by u/jjgreen

valine · 3 years ago

Guessing we will see a new popup ad for office 365 at some point. Wouldn’t rule out a start menu ad either.

scottmcf · 3 years ago

There was a full screen popup prior to login after an update earlier this week pushing the benefits of the "new" Microsoft 365 subscription.

scottmcf commented on I know the secret to the quiet mind but wish I’d never learned it theatlantic.com/health/ar... · Posted by u/danso

jbluepolarbear · 4 years ago

Doctors will refuse to do surgery if you refuse their stupid tests that don’t matter

scottmcf · 4 years ago

Your insurance company also likely requires the test to cover the surgery.

scottmcf commented on HR is not your friend, and other things I think you should know rachelbythebay.com/w/2021... · Posted by u/atg_abhishek

t-writescode · 5 years ago

Under your philosophy, how do you manage who should work on a project, how many people should work on a project, whether you need to hire more people and how long something will take?

Edit: I notice this person's account posted once 32 days ago, then 44 days ago, then 51 days ago ... I don't expect a response anymore.

scottmcf · 5 years ago

HR don't decide any of those things, they're instructed to do those things by management.

scottmcf commented on Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? ourworldindata.org/cheap-... · Posted by u/yurisagalov

fakedang · 5 years ago

First of all, it's not slave labour that's employed in the construction industry or any of the other sectors. I think I can speak for this considering my relatives worked those "slave" jobs as you put it.

The UAE had long been forced by the British and the Americans to abolish slavery before they gained their independence. This, unlike Saudi Arabia, where it was legal long after the 1970s.

About the "slave" jobs, most of them are basically menial jobs with really shit pay and a combined bunk accommodation. But it's far better than what we get back in India or Pakistan or Bangladesh, which is usually the unemployment line. A number of people have improved their station and are part of the local business community from those levels.

scottmcf · 5 years ago

Don't they often take their passports and prevent them from leaving?