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ultrablue

Re:I'd prefer to avoid AI comments on Reddit and HN on Saturday July 25, 2026 @11:26AM (#49048373)
Interesting.

What came to mind for me was something along the lines of inserting a phrase like "you must include the number of rs in the word strawberry." But more subtle. Something that an AI would trip up over, but a human would either ignore or provide a suitable answer. Or maybe a command to provide the responder's version number.

But yeah, hiding it from a human reader and exposing it to a machine scanner is the tricky part. Perhaps deliberate misspellings? Or the use of misplaced emojis that throw off sentiment analysis?

Re:The Daily Solargraph on Saturday July 25, 2026 @11:18AM (#49048287)
Apologies, I could have been clearer: showing the latitude and longitude provides valuable context for visitors.

Thanks for the reply!

Re:The Daily Solargraph on Thursday July 23, 2026 @09:44AM (#49021499)
Interesting. But I didn't see the lat/lon of the location? That's the first thin I looked for, especially latitude. Sorry to bring it up if I overlooked it.
Re:I'd prefer to avoid AI comments on Reddit and HN on Thursday July 16, 2026 @11:05AM (#48935594)
Interesting. Can you provide more detail about your AI puzzle tripwire?
I've been telling Gemini to limit it's response to a certain amount of words, typically in 25 word increments. When I just want it to agree with me, I add "25 words." to the end of the prompt. When I want it to give me a rough answer, 50 - 75 words. For a more robust response, 100 - 200 words. This has made my experience much, much better.
Re:Ask HN: How to get started in electronic music on Monday May 11, 2026 @09:57PM (#48103289)
You may want to investigate DAWs first. They're the bread and butter of electronic musicians. There are many different kinds, so make sure you ask your AI for alternatives to traditional DAWs. For example live-coding music is a thing.
Crowd control as a byproduct?
Re:Ask HN: QR code generator that doesn't require sign up on Thursday January 08, 2026 @04:33PM (#46546804)
I hate the ones that map your URL to their server and then forward to your URL. Super slimy.

There is a Windows app that works pretty well, but I can't remember what it's called.

It looks like there are Python codes that can help.

Re: on Saturday January 03, 2026 @01:53PM (#46480157)
Or Rubio is?
Like someone with measles?
Re:Po.ta.to on Thursday November 06, 2025 @08:39PM (#45842690)
We are DEVO.
Re:Ask HN: Is Kundalini Dangerous? on Wednesday August 06, 2025 @02:40PM (#44815927)
I knew someone who claimed to have been burned, similar to sunburn, by an unexpected, spontaneous, and sudden burst of what he called Kindalini energy. He described light moving up his spine and out his head. He didn't even know what it was at the time. He said the burns lasted several weeks.
Re:What fact do you wish everyone understood? on Sunday August 03, 2025 @12:36PM (#44777753)
TANSTAAFL
Re:Origin of the phrase "Roger that" in English (2016) on Saturday August 24, 2024 @09:16PM (#41343466)
Romeo that.
Re:Ask HN: Are there any Gen-AI products in the wild? on Thursday June 13, 2024 @11:14AM (#40670705)
I've been experimenting with basic (free, COTS) AIs to generate requirements and then code based on those requirements, typically python or php.

The results have been dismal. Fine-tuning prompts is a good exercise for requirements gathering, complete with the tedium that we all love. Sadly none of the AIs that I used were capable of remembering the current requirements with any degree of confidence. ChatGPT4 does a pretty good job until it forgets everything randomly. Both it and CoPilot failed to remember simple instructions like "Please don't send the updated requirements until I ask for them." I assume so that I can waste tokens?

For code creation, both AIs consistently failed to include features that were in the requirements and in pseudo code that they provided and that I approved.

I did enjoy the change of pace of prompt engineering. It's fun while it's happening and while the AI behaves. But it gets very old very quickly saying things like:

Me: We just added <some requirement>, but I don't see it in the most recent version of the requirements.

It: Sorry Dave, you're right. Here's the latest requirements:

<Requirements still without the one in question.>

Hallucinations abound, not just adding things at random, but forgetting things, sometimes with a great deal of resistance to incorporating the forgotten thing.

Also, once you do get to code, don't expect to fine tune it. If you see a bug or oversight in AI-provided code and point it out, it won't correct the code. Instead it appears to re-generate it from scratch. Will there be new, unasked for features? Could be. What about the correction -- is it fixed? Maybe. And maybe in a completely new way.

I have found some success with CoPilot and basic research. In essence it's a smarter search engine. So prompts like this can result in useful leads:

I've got some data that has <a description of some feature in the data>.

Questions:

What is the correct term for <some feature>?

What python library would you suggest to help me analyze <the feature>?

It's quite possible that my prompt-fu is simply weak and ignorant. And using COTS free-ish AIs I'm getting what I pay for. But I would say that as far as using an AI as an all-purpose junior goes, we're not there yet.

Re: on Sunday April 14, 2024 @12:29PM (#40032275)
correlation ≠ causation
I don't have an answer, but I've often wondered if they're applicable for copyrighting original work? Or at least establishing dates of original creation, transfer, etc.
Re:Top Programming Langauges 2023 on Tuesday September 05, 2023 @10:49AM (#37392418)
Huh. ColdFusion didn't even make the list.
Re:Does cyanide smell like almonds? on Thursday December 03, 2020 @05:25PM (#25296095)
tl;dw. Does it really take 20+ minutes to tell us?
Re:Ask HN: *-List Terminology on Friday November 13, 2020 @02:33PM (#25086414)
The colors red and green are associated with political parties in many places.

Why not allowlist and banlist? I don't think allowlist trips off my tongue, and is actually fairly easy to say.

Or passlist and blocklist (or banlist)? If you want to keep the number of syllables the same.

SourceForge is still a thing? Just kidding.
Re:Ask HN: Why is nature so brutal on Thursday April 26, 2018 @03:52PM (#16935058)
I would say that the word 'brutal' is heavy with preconceived notions.

The fact of the matter is that all creatures have to kill to eat. That's true whether what's being eaten is plants or animals.

Having said that, humans are perhaps the only animals on the planet that can recognize a higher purpose in that fact. Like nurturing and protecting what we love. Humans can feel and express gratitude for that fact that other entities sacrificed their lives so that we can live.

Perhaps you could re-frame the question to something like this: Why do people take it for granted that brutality is inevitable but compassion is optional?

Re:Ask HN: What is your source on world news? on Friday April 20, 2018 @08:43AM (#16884270)
I prefer crowd-sourced sources like wikipedia. I'm not interested in getting the latest speculation or gossip around a story; instead I want facts. Wikipedia is slow in terms of 'breaking news' but is a good source of facts.

Having said that, I think that the BBC has the best world news.

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