| 17:14 |
asciilifeform |
http://logs.nosuchlabs.com/log/asciilifeform/2026-01-08#1117270 << this box/chan is (and has been for some time) strictly an emergency fallback for the pestnet. before the latter stood up, there were various fleanode irc chans in use by some of the folx you see here. |
| 17:14 |
dulapbot |
Logged on 2026-01-08 07:08:46 svw: asciilifeform: Why use the long sequence of IRC messages form of organization for discussion and reference? Wouldn't there be an advantage in a more structured space or is the ease/simplicity/familiarity too important? |
| 17:15 |
asciilifeform |
the problem with 'structured space' is -- where? somebody's www? there were a bunch, most -- dead nao. and not always preserved anywhere, nor easily tied into a thread anyone could hope to follow if he hadn't already tuned in in the old days |
| 17:16 |
asciilifeform |
whereas irc logs, for all the barbarism, are simple to preserve and follow. and the pestnet solves this problem correctly, all participants , past and future, have synchronized logs. |
| 17:17 |
asciilifeform |
( see also ) |
| 17:20 |
asciilifeform |
pestnet convo can continue for so long as anyone wants it to, and pick up precisely where left off, until the asteroid falls. the continuity of the net is not tied to the lifespan, financial solvency, or good will of any individual participant. |
| 17:22 |
asciilifeform |
in stark contrast to the www. |
| 17:29 |
* |
adlai never peered any station due to significant "impedence mismatch" re: e.g. NAT |
| 17:30 |
adlai |
much simpler to not bother people who don't want any background noise; and if bother, do so over maximally-greppable text. |
| 17:32 |
asciilifeform |
adlai: i'll peer you if you want to plug in |
| 17:33 |
* |
adlai will need a few "long kettles" before bothering people is productively, morally, defensible |
| 17:33 |
adlai |
otherwise, what? "sup" "nmu" with synchronized timestamps? |
| 17:33 |
adlai |
it's not like I'm babysitting a webcam in Tehran |
| 17:34 |
* |
adlai has no news, and the lack of news can be accurately approximated with "was not conscripted" |
| 17:35 |
adlai |
asciilifeform: any reference implementations I should be weighing, before sweeping the table clean and writing a fresh one? |
| 17:36 |
* |
adlai hasn't followed things closely enough to discern whether blatta and/or smalpest are officially abandonware, in addition to smelling that way from ~5 seconds of skimming www |
| 17:41 |
asciilifeform |
adlai: all 3 still work |
| 17:42 |
asciilifeform |
adlai: phf has another (unpublished, afaik) and asciilifeform has been writing yet anuther (ditto) |
| 17:42 |
asciilifeform |
adlai: if you bake own pestron, will be following in the tradition where moar or less erry participant did it ! |
| 17:43 |
asciilifeform |
it's a simple enuff thing if you aren't concerned with gui or other ornamentals |
| 17:43 |
asciilifeform |
certainly easier than writing a usable ircd, for instance. |
| 17:50 |
adlai |
how did this count reach three? I listed blatta and smalpest, you listed two more; ...? |
| 17:52 |
asciilifeform |
akris, blatta, smalpest |
| 17:52 |
asciilifeform |
the 3 currently posted pestrons |
| 17:53 |
asciilifeform |
trinque/signpost also baked one recently, tho afaik not posted yet |
| |
~ 29 minutes ~ |
| 18:22 |
* |
adlai does not recall encountering "akris" |
| 18:35 |
asciilifeform |
adlai: it's linked right there on billymg's www |
| |
~ 22 minutes ~ |
| 18:57 |
adlai |
thanks; I still 'crawl' the www using tabs in an actual browser, so I don't find things quickly |
| 18:58 |
adlai |
and honestly, for better or for worse, I probably have a higher "LLM bill" than my pro-rata share of google etc's operating costs |
| 18:58 |
* |
adlai mostly uses phree LLM services for breakdowns of foreign-language 'news' |
| 19:12 |
asciilifeform |
adlai: asciilifeform to date not found these remarkably useful for searching or other human-lang processing, but did find other uses believe or not |
| 19:12 |
dulapbot |
(pest) 2025-12-03 asciilifeform: re bots, asciilifeform managed to get mostly correct linux kernel driverola outta ($$$, 'arcade token'-powered) bot with ~reasonable effort, to the point where +ev |
| |
~ 50 minutes ~ |
| 20:02 |
* |
adlai does not use them like "google translate", FWIW; more like (mapcar #'wiktionary gobbledygook) |
| 20:05 |
adlai |
it is honestly existentially depressing how often dumb chucklefuck telegram group admins have banned me "with extreme prejudice" because apparently nobody is bilingual, let alone capable of using more than two different punctuation marks correctly in one message, without obviously pasting copy from GPT; |
| 20:05 |
adlai |
... denying this, means that you are obviously an Iranian spy! |
| 20:06 |
adlai |
it's mildly amusing when idjits reply "forget about XYZ; do you like apple pie?" |
| 20:07 |
adlai |
although getting banned, and having hundreds of messages deleted so that anyone else who tries to read conversations where I participated, now finds that half the messages are expunged... that is incredibly frustrating. |
| 20:15 |
adlai |
asciilifeform: I've also found them reasonably good for generating the sort of 'recipe' you might find on dozens of SEO-targeting blogs, without needing to suffer the SEO swamp of actual search engines; e.g., "cutting toxic ppl" is 19 characters, 3-4 'tokens', and usually gets about a kilobyte of good-enough HTML or markdown |
| 20:16 |
adlai |
it's almost costless when the services are free, and it's definitely quicker than getting identical advice from a shrink or 'coach' |
| 20:19 |
* |
adlai is quite surprised how much difficulty the typical "normie" has at "prompt engineering" |
| 20:22 |
adlai |
I don't like considering "prompt" a subdiscipline of engineering, although the qualifying might be like "buyer"... maybe the "buyer" is a wife shopping with her husband's card; or maybe it's an office, handling acquisitions for an entire building |