friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

So my project where I'm trying to reverse engineer the charm stat in @SDF.ORG's Legion of the Rare Dragoon game has had some progress and some setbacks. I'm keeping a record of my in-game "purchases" along with my charm stat at the time to see how my charm affects my discount rate. I'm then building a table to try to project an estimated discount rate at various different charm levels.

Where I've succeeded: being able to automatically compute an equation that perfectly fits the collected data.

Where I've failed: The resulting discount table looks reasonable up until it gets to charm levels larger than the ones I've already recorded. Then it gets real whacky real quick.

I'm hoping that as I gather more data points, I'll end up with better predictions.

#emacs #lisp

Edit: Here's the calculated table: codeberg.org/jlamothe/lord-cha…

#emacs #lisp @SDF.ORG

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
subpost about "AI"

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

I hear a lot of people expressing their dislike for all things "AI" and in general, I agree with them, but...

The problem I have is that "AI" is an ill-defined term. It's used as a hand-wavey buzzword to mean a whole bunch of different things. Mostly these days, it's pretty synonymous with LLMs and similar technologies, but it's actually a broader term than that. It's much like how the cryptocurrency industry appropriated the word "crypto", but I digress...

I've been dabbling with digital art lately. The idea of using "AI" to generate my art is extremely distasteful to me. That said, I do digital art because it affords me tools that I wouldn't have available to me otherwise. For instance, I, as a human, could not replicate the various filters I've applied, or the liquefy tool. That said, those tools don't need to destroy the planet and plunder the commons to be created. That's an important distinction to me.

The thing is, those tools could be argued to be a form of "AI" given the squishiness of the term to begin with. Also, I don't feel right about calling my art something like "100% human created", because a computer has (under my explicit direction) enhanced the work I've done.

There's a lot of nuance here that's difficult to express in a single post. At what point does the use of a tool overshadow the human involvement in an endeavour? To be honest, I don't exactly know.

I guess my issue, as is frequently the case, is that I get hung up on the precise meaning of words, and I lack a precise definition.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

diaspora - Link to source

Isaac Kuo

If people don't specify exactly what sort of AI they mean, I just take it as read that they're specifically talking about LLM (text, computer code) and Stable Diffusion (art).

Same thing with "crypto". If they don't specify exactly what they mean, I just take it as read that it's block-chain garbage.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
So I'm working on an #OrgMode document that's probably about 2/3 #emacs #lisp code. I'm planning on releasing it shortly, but I'm not sure what to do about the licensing. Normally I use the #AGPL for my code, but since this isn't strictly code, I'm wondering if some version of the #CreativeCommons license might be a better fit. Do they have a #copyleft variant?
#creativecommons #copyleft #emacs #orgmode #lisp #agpl

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Just spent a day and a half hunting down a bug that was making me question my sanity. As it turns out, #emacs #lisp's / function silently drops the decimal in its result if both of its inputs are integers... so (/ 1 2) evaluates to 0, not 0.5. Granted, this is also the way that C does it, but in my defense, #CommonLisp does not do this.
#emacs #lisp #commonlisp
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов

As a first approximation, I suggest thinking of Emacs Lisp as closer to MacLisp than to Common Lisp.

A precise description of "closer" would be fairly long.
For example, Emacs Lisp acquired things like bignums and lexical bindings fairly late.

Again as an approximation, the descendancies are:
MacLisp → Emacs Lisp
MacLisp and others → Common Lisp
(Those others include, in alphabetical order, Interlisp, Scheme, Zeta Lisp, etc., but not Emacs Lisp.)

And then an important aspect of these approximations is the `cl' package, also a late addition that evolved quite a bit.

Transferring knowledge about C to Emacs Lisp is rather tricky, even though the implementation of a part of Emacs (including the Emacs Lisp virtual machine) is written in C.

#CommonLisp
#Elisp
#Emacs
#EmacsLisp

@me

#emacs #commonlisp #elisp #EmacsLisp @Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

diaspora - Link to source

Greg A. Woods

yup of course, but that's integer math, not floating point math

GNU Clisp and SBCL don't show decimals for integer division, but return fractions instead!

* (/ 1 2)
1/2

But of course if you use floating point representation for the parameters then the result is a floating point number as expected:
[1]> (/ 1.0 2.0)
0.5

Elisp, with floating point parameters, also works as expected:
(/ 1.0 2.0)
0.5

In C, with IEEE 754 double values, then 1.0/2.0 = 0.50, exactly, no rounding or epsilon comparison needed.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Spent several hours today trying to figure out why my #elisp code was misbehaving. Turns out, I made a mistake while trying to be clever. Instead of doing:

(when (and cond1 cond2)
  stuff
  ...)

I did:
(and cond1 cond2
  stuff
  ...)

...which would only work if every instruction in stuff returned a non-nil value.

I should stop trying to be clever.

#emacs

Edit: when, not while

#emacs #elisp

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

For the morbidly curious, this is the (now corrected) code:
(defun jrl-collect-data (table input output)
  "Collect table data into lists of outputs per input"
  (let (res record in-val out-val collection)
    (while table
      (setq record (car table)
            in-val (assoc input record)
            out-val (assoc output record))
      (when (and in-val out-val)
        (pop in-val)
        (pop out-val)
        (setq collection (assoc in-val res))
        (if collection
            (push out-val (cdr collection))
          (push (list in-val out-val) res)))
      (pop table))
    res))

I should probably throw some comments in here, but essentially the assoc in the when block always returns nil on the first iteration of the loop, and if it can't progress past that point, it'll always return nil on subsequent loops and nothing will ever happen. As a result, any list I might feed into this function is always going to result in a nil output.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

So, I think I might be a nerd.

@SDF.ORG is running a BBS called bitzone. On this BBS they have a door game called LORD (League of the Rare Dragoon (not to be confused with Legend of the Red Dragon, of which it is clearly a knock-off)).

The fact that I'm playing this game in the first place is kind of nerdy, but wait, there's more.

In said game you have a character with various stats. One of these stats is "charm", which seems to get you discounts in the shops. Unfortunately, there's nothing to say exactly how this relationship works. So I've decided to try to reverse-engineer it with #emacs #org-mode.

I've created a table to track my purchases. It tracks my charm at the time of purchase, the list price for the item, and the price I actually paid. There's also an additional colum that calculates the actual discount, but that's trivial.

Anyhoot, I'm adding some code to this file that reads the values in the table and computes the simplest polynomial function that satisfies the equation:
$$price_{actual}=f(charm,price_{list})$$

This is done with the aim of predicting how much I'd actually spend on an item before actually buying it. It of course assumes that the equation being used is a polynomial equation, but I'm hoping it'll at least be able to approximate with a large enough set of data points.

Am I doing this because it's reasonable?

No.

I'm doing it because it's an interesting challenge... and I'm a nerd.

CC: @tob

#emacs #org-mode @SDF.ORG @tob
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

So it occurs to me that the approach I was considering is probably not going to work for a couple reasons:

  1. I thought the technique I use for curve fitting a single input function could be adapted to multi-dimensional functions. I realize now that it can't (at least not in the way I was thinking).
  2. Even if I do sonetning like calculating the discount value based on the list price and actual price and fitting a curve between that and the charisma stat, the discount is going to have to be constrained within a range between zero and the list price. A polynomial function with a finite series of terms just isn't going to be able to cut it.

I'll continue collecting data to see if any patterns start to emerge, though.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Gave myself a bit of a scare. My aNONradio stream cut out on me and when I went to investigate, I found the router dead. No lights. Nothing. Disconnectd the power cable from the back and re-attached.

Still nothing.

When I followed the power cord, I found that the wall wart seemed to have come mostly unplugged from the power bar. I have no idea what caused it to spontaneously disconnect, but I'm back now.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

This question doesn't lend itself well to plain text, so I LaTeX'd and screenshotted it. I'll do my best with the alt text.
Is there a way of writing the expression<br>\[ \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \]<br>in a way that omits the term where $n=a$?</p><p>I know it could be written as<br>\[ \left( \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \right) - f(a) \]<br>but this doesn't work when $f(a)$ is undefined.

#math #maths #mathstodon #AskFedi

Edit: It turns out that Friendica has a MathJax addon. Who knew?

Also, it seems like there are a number of options. The one I like best is:
$$\sum_{\begin{matrix}1 \le n \le m\\n \ne a\end{matrix}} f(n)$$

Edit 2: It looks like this doesn't render properly when federated to a server without MathJax support. I suppose I should've seen that coming.

#askfedi #math #maths #mathstodon

Mathematics Channel reshared this.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Here's a big part of the reason* I don't use so-called #AI to write code for me: I actually enjoy writing code. I wouldn't offload this task to AI for the same reason I wouldn't use it to go for a walk in the woods, or eat a delicious meal for me. Why would any sane** person do this?

* It's not the only reason, but this is a fedi post, not an essay.

** This post should in no way be considered as me claiming to be sane. 🙃

#AI

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Had the weirdest dream last hight. I dreamed I'd gone back to the Mormon church. It was very strange. I was happy to see many of the people I considered friends, but the whole thing felt dishonest because I was still an unbeliever. For all of its culty aspects, it does impose a lot of structure, and structure is a thing my brain very much likes.

For many reasons, this is not a thing I'd actually consider in reality.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

gotosocial - Link to source

R.L. Dane 🍵

I had a similar dream four years ago.

Went back to my old church, was glad to see a few people I really loved again.

Stayed for a couple months, but it had really devolved into a cult.

Noped out of there when the pastor invited people to come up to the front to receive healing and repent for taking the COVID vaccine.

🤦🏻‍♂️

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I've suspected for a while that I'm probably on the spectrum. It seems to fluctuate, but for the past few days I've been experiencing something that sounds very much like what I understand autistic burnout to be like.

Tasks which should be simple (e.g.: feeding myself) become insurmountable obstacles. I'm exhausted all the time, and when it's at its most acute, communicating what I'm experiencing becomes impossible. I literally lose the ability to form coherent sentences.

Is that what this is? Do others experience this? And more importantly, has anyone found any kind of strategies to help manage/minimize it?

The best way I've found to deal with it is to simply disengage from everything until I manage to build up a spoon reserve again. Unfortunately, this does not exactly seem compatible with the responsibilities of adulthood.

#AskingAutistics

Edit: I realize that I may have given an incorrect impression in this post. I have experienced this before. It's just been particularly bad the past few days. It seems to ebb and flow.

In fact, I've had a term to describe this since high school. At the time, I had dubbed it a "neural meltdown".

#askingautistics

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Drew 🇵🇭

Could be autistic burnout, could be extreme fatigue for other reasons, could be a major depressive episode, could be dehydration as others have said. Could be a combination. (I speak from experience of all four)

Look after yourself. Hydrate and rest and try not to be angry or frustrated at yourself for going through this. It's not disrupting your life; it's an episode _in_ your life. It will pass.

in reply to Drew 🇵🇭

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

@Drew is still tired 🇵🇭 I guess the best thing I can do is focus on the knowledge that it always passes (at least mostly). Hopefully the things currently on fire won't get too out of control while I do so.

I am fortunate to have a partner I can lean on when I need help, but I don't want to lean too hard. She has her own struggles to deal with.

@Drew 🇵🇭
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Elisabeth M

Burnout and depression are diagnostically different in that doing small gentle things generally helps with depression, but is counterproductive with burnout. I'm struggling with burnout myself, and the deskilling is one of the scariest parts. Your description sounds to me like autistic burnout. I second what @pathfinder said. Also, read this: heyasd.com/blogs/autism/autist…

Autistic Burnout: Signs, Stages & Recovery

Autistic burnout is the deep exhaustion that follows years of masking and overload. Here is what it feels like, the stages, and how recovery actually begins.
HeyASD.com Team (HeyASD)
@Kevin Davy
This entry was edited (Saturday, July 18, 2026, 2:55 AM)

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
onpoli
I don't watch YouTube much any more, but seemingly every time I do, I keep getting this ad about how Ontario (where I live) is hiring more police, building more prisons, making parole harder to get, etc. It makes me want to flip a table that they're trying to frame this as a good thing.

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Ryan Robinson

re: onpoli

Not just YouTube either. Those ads are on billboards, podcasts, FM radio.

Doug Ford really loves spending money on ads about how great his government is (if you agree this is great, which I like you do not) instead of actually fixing problems.

The variant that enrages me the most is how "safer" means less encampments. Spending all that money telling us to be afraid of homeless people instead of spending it to house them.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Dear @Nextcloud 📱☁️💻,

If the official solution to a file getting randomly locked is to shut the whole server down and then manually edit the database, something's been done wrong. If this were to happen to a random non-admin user, they'd have no solution (other than pinging their sysadmin). The owner of a file should be able to manually clear its lock if necessary.

@Nextcloud 📱☁️💻

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