You could train an AI just to play chess. Sites like chess.com have tens, hundreds of millions of games to use as training data. But the AI isn’t “thinking” though, it’s just being asked given this input, what’s the most likely outputs and picking one based on its settings. Then the other player moves, the context updates, rinse, repeat. Such an AI would likely whoop most people’s asses but experienced players might figure how to lead it down a path where it doesn’t sufficient training data to play strongly.

But it’s not a generalized LLM like ChatGPT where it’s picking up a handful of chess games from god knows without knowing or enforcing the rules or anything else.

Likewise I bet we’ll see AIs for poker and other lucrative online sports. I bet a lot of online casinos have amassed huge stores of data to produce AIs, as well as players using scraping or logs to do the same. I could even see online casinos running AIs in games because it’s a way of taking money from players beyond the normal rake.

Javascript is a dogshit language that everyone is stuck with. The best that we can hope for is the likes of typescript take the edge off of it. Even though it’s like smearing marzipan over a turd. At least it’s ok if you don’t take a deep bite.

Doesn’t matter, had sex

Jesus Christ, everyone should know it especially if they’re flying there, to the island known as Ireland. And yes all the locals would.

Yes there are parts of Ireland and Scotland which are close but the engineering challenge is so vast that it would cost hundreds of billions if not trillions. The channel tunnel was a major feat of engineering made possible by the relative shallowness of the channel and boring through soft rock and chalk.

The sea between Ireland and Scotland is 2-3x as deep and through granite & igneous rock. A tunnel isn’t an option. People have proposed a bridge instead, assuming they can figure a way to sink piles 100-150m into the sea floor and build a 20 mile bridge over waters that can have 15-20m freak waves, high winds and storms. Or the seafloor that is scattered with thousands of tonnes of unexploded ordinance.

But even if they did all that, trains in Ireland / UK aren’t even on the same track gauge. Nor would anyone to travel to the tip of Ireland to get to the hinterlands of Scotland, to change trains, to get another train to catch another train to get anywhere in England. Not when it would be easier and faster to get a ferry/coach or just fly.

So basically the idea comes up every now and again but it is not practical or feasible.

The odds are and were actually zero since no such tunnel exists. And if people are aware of the chunnel spanning 20 miles they sure as hell would be aware of a tunnel between Ireland and England which would be a nigh impossible feat of engineering whether it went directly, or circuitously through Wales or Scotland.

I had a US colleague stay with me in Ireland for a week and he was asking if it was possible to catch a train to England. It’s amazing the geographic ignorance of some people and Americans seem to be especially afflicted. Maybe it’s because the USA is so big, large cities so far apart, and public transport so terrible it doesn’t occur to them that Europe is not the same.

Only the headline asserts “built-in backdoors”, the actual link… not so much.

A reasonable reading of the proposal, assuming it came into effect, is that ISPs, banks, telcos etc would be asked to retain certain records for a number of months or years in a harmonised way. Law enforcement agencies would be required to ask for it in the exact same way they ask for records right now and all the rules concerning GDPR etc would still apply.

Open source tech has zero to do with it, it’s a matter of policy.

Data retention != mass surveilance. Data retention != built-in backdoors. Even the link summary spells out exactly what the purpose of the proposal is (criminal proceedings) and the intended objective (data retention standards).

What I’d wonder is why it’s such massive expensive for Duolingo to hire 2 or 3 people to cover a language anyway. Presumably most of the work is contractual - hire somebody competent to produce a course, get somebody to say the lines, refine the course based on feed back and that’s mostly it.

Where did I write they were directly equivalent or as bad when I didn’t? Such an idiotic response quite honestly. At least address what I actually wrote not what you imagine I did.

This not a tough concept - the legal consequences for road users of varying types should be similar. Assholes on bikes are a thing and they should suffer the through the same legal framework as their vehicle brethren.

I think cyclists should be treated the same as drivers in so far as possible. And that includes obeying traffic signs, issuing of tickets and so on. I’ve almost been run over by cyclists who run red lights or go the wrong way up one way streets. It’s small consolation that a bike is “lighter” than a car if it still means some 120kg asshole slams into you because rules are for other people.

Stole it? I think adopted is more apt. And curry isn’t one thing and varies from region to region in India. But Britain loved it so much that there is an Indian (or Pakistani) restaurant practically everywhere. And while Indian / Pakistani chefs have invented new dishes (e.g. chicken chasni is the best goddamned curry ever), I wouldn’t call it cultural appropriation.

British people love curries and other spicy things. For most people curries, biriyanis are going to be in the rotation. Even “traditional” British food will usually have things like black pepper, nutmeg, mace, ginger, cumin, cloves, mustard, bay leaves, juniper berries in it. More recently cumin, paprika, tumeric, coriander, curry powder might be thrown into dishes.

Actually what would happen is dem support would crash even more because the GOP playbook works. AOC will be branded a socialist, a communist, ready to sell out, to take people’s property etc. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, the electorate will believe it. If the dems want to win they need to lose the haughtiness and a projecting an air of superiority that they know what’s right for people and appeal to blue collar workers again. i.e. messaging needs to change. That might make people more receptive to left wing / progressive views. They also need to read the GOP playbook and create some divisive issues for the right to deal with. But expecting people to accept/embrace/own socialism is a joke. It won’t happen. Think smart.

Harris lost. That’s the point. If the dems want to win they need to learn from their mistakes, not give even more wedges to the right to scare away voters.

Sorry to say but it would be a bow wrapped gift to the GOP. It’s very easy to brand her a socialist and on top of that she’s a woman.

Don’t blame the devs, blame the timelines and the pressures of implementing features.

Some of the boat plans are limited data. It’s a completely arbitrary and bullshit restriction (and expensive) since boats can be held to ransom because the alternatives are even worse - sat phones and suchlike.

I wouldn’t use this service unless I literally had no other option. But sadly “no other option” is why they are able to jack up the prices and change the terms and conditions as they feel like with impunity.