Notes for Americans:

[dearlove@mathstodon.xyz]

@mewsleah @cstross Basic balancing your bank balance is there in the app or online that your bank provides. Of course bank always provided statements, but the difference now is you can have it in real time, any time.

[mewsleah@meow.social]

@dearlove @cstross oops, sorry! didn't realise you were fishing for an argument

[chigaze@mstdn.ca]

@nygl @cstross I feel like these are evidence these things are becoming aware and actively working to kill us.

[tofugolem@mastodon.social]

@cstross
My apologies

[th@social.v.st]

@cstross this is still ok, right?

[barnesmaurice@mastodonapp.uk]

@tautology @ssilvonen @cstross The mist on't moor, yer best homing pigeon at yer breast an't sound o't chippy van bell in't distance. "Kathy yer daft begger, you'll catch yer death, gerroff'om wi'yer sen."

[elaine1helen@mstdn.social]

@cstross So here’s what I don’t understand. If I search “How to wire a UK plug” and ignore the AI, the first handful of sites I checked all have correct wiring diagrams. There must be hundreds of correct diagrams online. So if the AI is basing its answers on what it finds, why is it getting this wrong? It should be easier to get it right than wrong !

[_thegeoff@mastodon.social]

@SteveClough @cstross We still teach it in some ~15yo science classes, but having assisted in some of them it can end up being "little enough knowledge to be dangerous". Students who didn't entirely nail it may be left with false confidence. Should be taught later, 5th or 6th year (17/18), when students are a bit older and more motivated.

[mhoye@cosocial.ca]

@th @cstross

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@elaine1helen AIs are *generative* and they're designed to generate an answer shaped object, not provide an *actual* answer.

[mbirth@social.mbirth.uk]

@th @cstross The hidden marvels of BS1363!

[marjolica@social.linux.pizza]

@th @cstross well in terms of electrical connections this is how many double insulated/unearthed appliances (such as phone chargers) already do it in the UK, except they hide the lack of connection of the earth prong inside a regular UK plug or 2-pin adapter.
Still I'd rather not do it as shown.

[faraiwe@mstdn.social]

@ErikJonker @cstross *its

And *it's* easy to identify the ai techbro dickbag shills.

There is no good from LLMs, the evil they wrought is overwhelmingly superior to any hurrr-useful trivial bullshit.

[josh0@babka.social]

@th @cstross I mean, I have a ‘universal’ travel adapter that literally just provides a little rectangular plastic pin to insert in the ground slot of a type g socket to open the shutters for the two other pins.

[dtl@8bitorbust.info]

@cstross aha, that's how the electrician learned to wire up this socket then.

[mtconleyuk@mastodonapp.uk]

@RolloTreadway @cstross @zakalwe
UK plugs and outlets are brilliant. A power switch — ON THE OUTLET! I love them.

US plugs: Eh, maybe it'll stay in if I bend the prongs a bit ...

[djdarren@mendeddrum.org]

@winkleink @cstross Always keen to jump on a bandwagon, I just asked Gemini to draw me a diagram of how to wire a UK plug. And, well, I'm not asking Sundar Pichai for any DIY help any time soon.

[axeln@norden.social]

@DJDarren @cstross @winkleink Looks perfectly fine to me.

[josh0@babka.social]

@DJDarren @winkleink @cstross at least this one won’t burn your house down?

[phosphenes@mastodon.social]

@josh0 @DJDarren @winkleink @cstross

Yeah that fuse will last about 0.001 seconds. Safe! 👍