🌸 Sun, May 5, 2024 🌸
I just noticed I accidentally switched ChatGPT from 4 to 3.5. I literally got angry with ChatGPT earlier today because of how stupid 3.5 is.
🌸 Sun, May 5, 2024 🌸
What’s going on with UI lately? The X and Y coordinates have to be exactly the same on mouse button down and mouse button up. It’s impossible to click on buttons using my Wacom tablet. I remember having struggles on Samsung’s website once, with emoji selection on KDE, and with some UI elements in Bitwig. It’s kind of annoying—I have to click multiple times and keep my hands extremely steady.
In my opinion, as long as the mouse cursor stays within the area of the button, the button should trigger the on-click event.
🌸 Sun, May 5, 2024 🌸
Elon Musk was advocating for governmental regulation around AI development. I’m not sure what his current stance is. In general, I disagree. Even if he’s right about regulations, if we’re going to have them, they should be worldwide. Again, I want to emphasize that I disagree with regulations altogether.
So, imagine if regulatory laws are created by the US government. And remember, AI is not a toy; it’s a powerful tool. For example, it can influence people’s minds, spread misinformation and hate speech. If the development of AI is banned in the US, other countries can continue to develop AI and deploy AI systems to influence elections in the US, for example. Because AI is regulated in the US, the country wouldn’t have the tools to combat that sort of deployment.
🌸 Sat, May 4, 2024 🌸
I want to have an app that consolidates feeds from multiple microblogging platforms. X is fun, but sometimes it feels one-sided, with everyone praising Elon, dismissing white male privilege, and trolling woke people. At some point, I might get brainwashed. I need some other sources to cleanse my palate, but it takes more effort. If I had an app that allowed me to scroll through X, Threads, and Mastodon simultaneously, that would be great.
🌸 Sat, May 4, 2024 🌸
Use Git, Luke.
🌸 Fri, May 3, 2024 🌸
I have an idea for a game called “Backend Engineer.” The gameplay would be similar to a backrooms experience, but you’d get lost in a data center.
🌸 Fri, May 3, 2024 🌸
Another reminiscence of the early Windows days: We had a “hello world” example for Windows, and everybody was mocking that example for having an extremely heavy amount of boilerplate code. Question to Khronos: Why did you do the same thing to Vulkan?
🌸 Fri, May 3, 2024 🌸
Back in the mid-90s, I heard rumors that Microsoft was adding 3D capabilities to the Windows OS. Retrospectively, we know now that they were working on DirectX, but at that time, I did not understand the motivation behind it. It sparked my imagination; maybe Microsoft was going to make a 3D OS, and I pictured browsing files or the Internet in 3D. Since then, I have been dreaming of that OS.
🌸 Fri, May 3, 2024 🌸
I propose an amendment to the Constitution: Congress shall make no law that abridges the freedom of not listening. 😛
Seriously speaking, sometimes I just want to save my time. I have other priorities in my life. So, I appreciate the ability on the internet to mute or ban people. Unfortunately, I can’t do the same in real life. Yesterday, my friend just went into arguing mode, which was completely ridiculous. I wish I could ban him for a day, LOL. Such a waste of time.
🌸 Thu, May 2, 2024 🌸
Look at this from that point of view. Evolution optimized brain consumption to 20W because the source of energy—food—was the main challenge for millions of years. AI systems are not bound by energy consumption, and we know it is physically possible, as demonstrated by biological systems like the human brain, to be as efficient as using 20W. Currently, I believe AI systems use on the order of magnitude of 200W - 400W just to run inference; training requires way more energy, for example, 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh) for Llama 3. And the results are already very impressive.
AI systems have a lot of headroom; they will not plateau for a long time. They will become better and faster, and this will happen very quickly.
As we witness the rapid advancements in AI-generated music, it’s natural to hold onto the belief that certain realms of creativity, like jamming, remain uniquely human. While it’s true that currently AI may not be able to jam with the spontaneity and emotional depth of humans, history shows us that technological progress often surpasses our expectations. Just as skeptics doubted AI’s capabilities in chess or data analysis, and yet were proven otherwise, we are likely on a similar trajectory with creative pursuits. It’s important to remember that each breakthrough serves not to displace our talents but to expand the boundaries of what is possible. By embracing these advancements, we can open up new forms of artistic expression and collaboration. Let’s stay open to the potential of AI to surprise us, enriching our artistic endeavors rather than diminishing them.
🌸 Wed, May 1, 2024 🌸
It is midnight. Doom-scrolling on X. I should stop doing it.
🌸 Wed, May 1, 2024 🌸
Back in the day, I was trying to understand the meaning of life. It felt like there was no meaning because once you find a meaning, you need to find the meaning of that meaning. For example, if you decide that the meaning of life is to survive, you’ll be stuck with the next question: What is the meaning of survival? And there is no end. You might say the meaning of survival is X, but what is the meaning of X? It’s an endless cycle. At some point, I realized I was asking the wrong question. Perhaps I should be more self-centric and ask, “What is the meaning of my life?” And I think I found the answer: Be happy.
I thought, if someone created me — let’s say God, the Universe, or evolution — there probably was some sense instilled in me that would guide me in determining if I am doing the right or wrong things. And I think that sense is the sense of happiness. Different things make people happy: some enjoy fishing, others hiking; some love caring for children, while others prefer to sit in a dark room programming in C++. As long as you are happy doing what you do, you are doing the right thing and fulfilling the meaning of your life. This discovery motivated me to look into a career in game development because I thought gaming is the best medium to bring happiness to people.
The first year was eye-opening; I discovered that games are not entirely benign. They can cause obesity, addiction, and other harmful effects. I felt bad, possibly for a year or two, and thought I had made the wrong decision. I even considered switching my focus to the music industry. However, at some point, I realized that the harm games cause actually indicates that games have a lot of power, and that power can be channeled for good. This realization is what keeps me in the gaming industry. Games have the power to make people happy.
🌸 Wed, May 1, 2024 🌸
The average human brain consumes 20 W, which equates to 20 Wh per hour, 480 Wh per day, 175 kWh per year, and 3.5 MWh over 20 years. Thus, we have a baseline for training AGI; it should be feasible to train a model using 3.5 MWh of energy, since this is the amount required to support the human brain for the same period. This could cost approximately $600, based on current U.S. electricity rates.
🌸 Wed, May 1, 2024 🌸
The full self-driving (FSD) trial has ended. It feels like the car has lost its soul. One pull down and she comes alive; she has her personality; she makes mistakes, being overly enthusiastic in some cases or extremely cautious in others. Now, it just feels like the car is a soulless metal machine.
🌸 Wed, May 1, 2024 🌸
4.3 in Corona, CA earthquake. The punch was significant.
Just keep swimming…
In Unreal Engine, you can hold Alt and drag the right mouse button to zoom in and out. This method works in the viewport, blueprint designer mode, blueprint graph, and possibly many other areas. ChatGPT does not know this, so hopefully, they will include this piece of advice in future iterations of ChatGPT. 😜
It is really nice here. 83F. But my laptop overheated twice in a row.
Long time ago, when I had just arrived in the US and was looking for a job, EA Sports contacted me and arranged an on-site test. The test was really hard; it had 10 questions and, as I was not very experienced in programming, I was only more or less confident I had answered 6 out of 10 correctly and felt really bad. I thought: “They will not hire me,” so I asked the recruiter to give me a short tour. He was a little surprised but gave me the tour.
Later on, they contacted me trying to arrange a second round; they were apparently very impressed by my test. Apparently, not too many were even able to answer 6 questions. But I had already accepted the offer from Technicolor. Who knows if Technicolor had been a little slower and EA Sports a little faster, my game development career would have started much earlier.
I like to solve problems my way without asking permission. What I normally do is being explicit about what I am going to do and do it without waiting for permission; my expectation is that my colleagues or my lead will let me know if I am doing something that may break things and they will let me know.
I feel like I’m turning into a tinfoil hat crackhead, which is quite shocking to me.
Generally, I have respect for professionals, for people who spend years and tons of money in college. I have a master’s degree in physics and engineering myself, and I especially respect medical professionals.
Several weeks ago, I started to have tooth pain. I usually only visit the doctor when necessary, so I hadn’t been to the dentist in probably 20 years. I scheduled an appointment with Dr. Y (let’s call her that as I’m still thinking I might have missed or misunderstood something I want to give her some privacy and not accidentally ruin her life).
I went to the office, filled out an enormous amount of questionnaires, and on one of the checks, I stated I had some bleeding because I had seen blood along with the tooth pain when I water flossed. They took pictures, asked more questions, I described the pain, and mentioned cavities on the other side of my mouth, which did not trouble me; they were just holes I’ve had for more than half my life.
Then Dr. Y came in and recommended removing the problematic tooth because they were a wisdom tooth and they don’t do anything with them except extract them. She also recommended removing all of them. I asked why, and she gave a more or less satisfactory explanation. Later, I looked up information on the internet and asked my friends. I felt like the general consensus was to remove them all at once. Honestly, after all the dust settled, I’m not sure anymore (tinfoil hat crackhead mode), but at that time, it felt like it made sense. She recommended deep cleaning. I don’t think I can recall at that time that she mentioned it as a “deep cleaning;” I may have missed it, remember it was my first visit in decades with a lot of new terminology. She mentioned I needed to do the cleaning under the gums. I asked why it was necessary, and she explained it would expedite the recovery from the wisdom teeth extraction, but then she started to wander in her explanations. It was like when you’re taking an exam from a student, and the student does not know the answer and just fills the gaps, trying to come up with something plausible so the professor would accept the answer. That situation happened here. So, I became a little suspicious at that point. Anyway, she said before the teeth extraction we needed to wait a week while I am taking antibiotics so a tooth infection would not interfere with the anesthesia. I felt also it was kind of made up, but I did not ask too much. She pulled the schedule and said we were completely booked next week, but she would recommend a different doctor, let’s say Dr. X. She looked at my teeth, mentioned that some teeth needed a filling, needed a crown, and she completely missed the top tooth with the cavity. I think she would not have said anything at all if I had not mentioned it. She gave me the first capsule of antibiotics, and her assistant ran a cleaning.
I went back home, called Dr. X’s office, and scheduled an appointment.
In Dr. X’s office, they looked at my teeth and said they could do the operation on Friday. We discussed a bunch of details. I asked the doctor all the things that Dr. Y had mentioned, like extracting all the whisdom teeth, why we need antibiotics, why we need to wait for a week; he gave a kind of different explanation. Later on, I was thinking that it did not line up. Also, they scheduled the operation for Friday, the same week. Later, they called me and said they had an opening, and if I wanted, they could do the extraction on Wednesday. Huh? What about waiting for a week? Anyways, that was my post-thoughts; I did not notice that discrepancy at Dr. X’s office. So I felt pretty good; everything seemed to be matching. So I asked the question about deep cleaning, and his tone shifted; previously, his answers were snappy and quick, and here he started saying he worked with Dr. Y for multiple years and at the end, he just said: ask her. Hey, wait, I am asking for a second opinion, what is going on?
The Friday extraction went well, and I visited Dr. X once for a post-op.
A couple of days later, I received a text about the deep cleaning appointment. Let me post the text message conversation here:
Dr. Y’s office: Hi Mika, we are glad that your extraction went well. We have an opportunity to see you this coming Monday 04/29 at 8 am for the deep cleaning that will help a lot with the healing process after the extraction.
Me: The healing is going very well; is it still necessary to do deep cleaning? I have an important meeting later on Monday, and I’m afraid the numbing medicine will affect me. Do we have other days?
Dr. Y’s office: We are booked one month in advance for hygiene appointments; usually, you can get in when someone else cancels. The deep cleaning that Dr. Y recommended is important because there is still a lot of infection present in your gums, and if left untreated, it will create more cavities and also bone loss, and eventually, you could end up needing gum surgery. Regarding the anesthetic, it is not the same amount as for the extractions, and it will last only about 1 hour after your appointment.
Me: Can we find a different time?
Dr. Y’s office: We will have to place you on a waiting list; please let us know which dates and times you can make it. Thanks.
Dr. Y’s office: We have Tuesday 04/03 at 11 am that just opened up; are you able to come then?
Me: 04/03, did you mean 05/03?
Dr. Y’s office: Sorry for the confusion; it’s Tue 04/30, this coming Tuesday. Would that work?
Me: Yes, Tuesday 04/30 at 11 am works.
Dr. Y’s office: Great, we will see you then.
So, I am worried and asking questions. As you can see, there is a sense of urgency and fear, common tactics used by scammers. I previously mentioned having bleeding during water flossing, which has since ceased; I assume it was related to the wisdom tooth issues. Dr. Y mentioned that I have red gums, but upon checking them recently, they are flat and white. In summary, I currently do not have any symptoms related to a bacterial infection in my gums. Consequently, I decided to dig deeper, and oh boy, what I found. Here are reviews. I am going to remove personal information; everything else is untouched.
=========== Beginning of reviews ===============
Custormer 1:
SCAM! SCAM!
Okay so I hate to post this review but as a yelper, I’d like for everyone to learn about how shady and pushy these people are. “Also- this review is purely from my personal experience - the most truthful opinion about them”. It’s unbelievable what I experienced here today. After getting my new dental insurance from my employer , I decided to schedule a regular cleaning at this place (as suggested by my insurance). This being said ,I’ve never had a bad experience at any dentist office before. So here I am, excited about my dentist visit lol. But well, I guess there’s a first time for everything. And this was it for me!!! Now, Prior to this , I was a regular at SoCal smiles in Tustin but because of my new insurance and also this place being close to my residential city, we thought we’ll switch and see if it works well. To my biggest surprise- I was shocked to see how shady they turned out .
So they charged my hubs $99 for apparently (deep cleaning) cuz besides a million problems he had (according to them) with his teeth, he needed this very special deep cleaning with laser technology for which he had to pay a 100 bucks. Okay- we get it. Now besides that, he also was asked to get Invisalign treatment to fix his smile (wth). Like when I said they’re pushy , I’m not kidding .
Now - here’s the fun part- I had my appointment after a week and after clearly mentioning that I would like a regular cleaning that my insurance will cover- the entire team somehow managed to waste my one full hour ,and after an hour of going back and forth with my dental problems, all that was established was that I needed to pay the same amount of $$ for my intermediate cleaning. Let’s rewind a little bit- like I mentioned, my hubs got a thorough deep cleaning for which he was charged $99. And then I , on the other hand needed something intermediate, not too deep, not the basic one and I still had to pay $99. They had no answer to this? It’s ridiculous!!!! I thought it was extremely commercialized , unprofessional and pushy of the doctor to tell me that she wouldn’t help me if I didn’t pay $99 as she knows better as a doctor what I needed. Can somebody explain to me in what world does this sound normal? I don’t think they work with integrity and kindness. Please be very careful when you go to them. I had no option but to leave- thank goodness ! - I could never trust them after speaking with the doctor. They have shady business practices . The lady at the reception was sweet and so was the hygienist Rana, but sweetness alone doesn’t help I guess . If I had an option to give a 0 star to them, I would. It was very unethical and shameful of how they can charge people forcefully. We’ve lodged a complaint to our insurance company - and it’s being investigated !!!!! Please pick your doctors wisely!!!!!!!
Customer 2:
SHADY SHADY SHADY. Do not go here. I really don’t think the dentist knows what she’s doing, except when it comes to creative billing techniques. I used 2 years of benefits and thousands out of pocket and have nothing to show for it. Every tooth she worked on and said she fixed now needs work. Even cavities she said she filled I’m finding out weren’t done correctly. She tried doing a root canal on her own as well and failed. She charged me though and then told me I had to go see a specialist and be charged again. All of the work she did was for nothing. And her bedside manner is atrocious.
Updating my review since I just found out that insurance won’t pay for my crown with my new dentist 2 years later because she used that money already. I will now have to fight my insurance company to get this done right by someone else.
I also forgot to mention that she scams all patients by recommending “deep cleanings” rather than the standard covered by insurance. This was confirmed today by my new dentist.
Also, the new dentist that I go to has heard of her from other patients!!! She is known for this. RUN!!!
Customer 3:
Run fast and far! I went in for a checkup and cleaning. They did not clean my teeth!! I sat in the chair for two hours while they looked at my teeth. The French dentist then recommended probably 10 extensive procedures without telling me costs.
They were somehow unable to print out my treatment plan while I was there so they were supposed to email it me. Hasn’t arrived in two months.
Best part, I am still owed a cleaning for that visit. But she “recommends” a full mouth debridement for $122 and they REFUSE to do a normal cleaning. Oddly enough, my PPO dentist who went to a great school and has a practice in Irvine has never ever recommended anything like “deep cleaning”, replacing all fillings, etc. It is only the shady HMO dentists who do that. Back to PPO for me.
In the meantime I have to find another dentist just to get a cleaning!!!
Customer 4:
We chose this dental office due to the good reviews but it ended up being a rip off. As soon as they saw me they recommended a $300 deep dental cleaning and $4700.00 dental work. I went to my old dentist and the deep cleaning was $55. My 7 year old went to this office as well and was a bit twitchy during the xrays, they refused to see him or try to take xrays again. We went to a different dentist and everything worked out fine. Do not trust this office or their recommendations. Not for families.
Customer 5:
FRAUD! SCAM! STAY AWAY!
I hadn’t been to the dentist in about 5 years. They totally capitalized on that. I came in for tooth pain (turns out it was a popcorn kernel stuck in my gums). They told me I needed a deep clean all the way up through my gums to the top of my teeth, they said I might possibly need a root canal and that I have SEVEN CAVITIES!! Meanwhile, my entire life I’ve only had 3 cavities…in 26 years…It totally freaked me out to the point where I felt like crying. They gave me the full bill work-up. Everything they said I needed would be about $2,000 (similar to a lot of stories/reviews I’ve read below). They knew I was freaking out and they had the nerve to tell me “maybe your dad can help you pay?” I called my dad freaking out and he told me to get the proof from them of what they found and to get out of there without making any appointments. They told me they would email me my medical records, but they never did. (Obviously because they didn’t have the proof of their findings.)
I just had an appointment with a great Dentist in Laguna Niguel and he said “Well you must be a flosser because for not going to the dentist in a long time, your teeth look pretty good. No cavities, you just need a regular cleaning.”
Stay far away from here. Total SCAM.
Customer 6:
It was my first and last visit. During the exam, the Dentist wanted to redo my entire mouths fillings and crowns to her standards plus a deep cleaning. It all seemed to much and I wasn’t even a regular patient. I did not schedule a appointment because I wanted to talk with my husband first and told the receptionist this. I let her know ‘I would call’ re: any appointments. One week later I received a text message on my phone reminding me of a appointment I ‘never’ made! So not cool.
=========== End of reviews ================
What is going on here? Is she really scamming people? Why was Dr. X protecting her? Is it a conspiracy? What do you think? Am I a tinfoil hat crackhead, or is this reality?
I feel like I’m being scammed. Dentistry is not my area of expertise; as a game developer, I lack intuition about this field. Nevertheless, I’ve done as much research as I could and concluded that, in a typical scenario, I might lose $400. In the worst case, I could ruin my month, but that seems unlikely. Despite my reservations, I scheduled a deep cleaning after the dentist was quite pushy.
Is there any professional dentist here who can offer an opinion? Here’s why I’m hesitant: the dentist suggested a deep cleaning to expedite recovery from a wisdom teeth extraction. I replied that the recovery is going very well and I’m not experiencing any excessive discomfort. In response, they sent a really scary message, claiming that I have bacteria in my mouth that could cause cavities, bone loss, and potentially heart issues. First, they did not mention this in the original message. Second, I’m skeptical about the bacteria claim—I don’t have bad breath, I’m not in pain, and I don’t have many cavities. Something smells fishy, but again, dentistry is not my area of expertise, and I tend to trust professionals. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I might be being scammed.
Any professional dentist here who has an opinion?
Microsoft just released MS-DOS 4 to open source with the MIT license. Spam W’s in the chat!
https://github.com/microsoft/MS-DOS
The government’s issue with TikTok isn’t that TikTok is spying on US citizens, but rather that the government itself can’t use TikTok to spy on its citizens.
With the rise of AI’s capability to fabricate digital evidence, the authenticity of Polaroid’s instant photos could make them a trustworthy source of evidence. Investing in Polaroid stocks might be wise as they may regain significance in various legal and verification contexts.
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