Lvxferre [he/him]

The catarrhine who invented a perpetual motion machine, by dreaming at night and devouring its own dreams through the day.

  • 0 Posts
  • 1.44K Comments
Joined 1 year ago
Cake day: January 12th, 2024
  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyztoPiracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com•They don't want people to pirate, but this is the service they want people to pay for.English
    27·
    8 days ago

    I don’t see what the problem is with using AI for translations. if the translations are good enough and cheap enough, they should be used.

    Because machine translations for any large chunk of text are consistently awful: they don’t get references right, they often miss the point of the original utterance, they ignore cultural context, so goes on. It’s like wiping your arse with an old sock - sure, you could do it in a pinch, but you definitively don’t want to do it regularly!

    Verbose example, using Portuguese to English

    I’ll give you an example, using PT→EN because I don’t speak JP. Let’s say Alice tells Bob “ma’ tu é uma nota de três pila, né?” (literally: “bu[t] you’re a three bucks bill, isn’t it?”) . A human translator will immediately notice a few things:

    • It’s an informal and regional register. If Alice typically uses this register, it’s part of her characterisation; else, it register shift is noteworthy. Either way, it’s meaningful.
    • There’s an idiom there; “nota de três pila” (three bucks bill). It conveys some[thing/one] is blatantly false.
    • There’s a rhetorical question, worded like an accusation. The scene dictates how it should be interpreted.

    So depending on the context, the translator might translate this as “ain’t ya full of shit…”, or perhaps “wow, you’re as fake as Monopoly money, arentcha?”. Now, check how chatbots do it:

    • GPT-4o mini: “But you’re a three-buck note, right?”
    • Llama 4 Scout: “But you are a three-dollar bill, aren’t you?”; or “You’re a three-dollar bill, right?” (it offers both alternatives)

    Both miss the mark. If you talk about three dollar bills in English, lots of people associate it with gay people, creating an association that simply does not exist in the original. The extremely informal and regional register is gone, as well as the accusatory tone.

    With Claude shitting this pile of idiocy, that I had to screenshot because otherwise people wouldn’t believe me:


    [This is wrong on so many levels I don’t… I don’t even…]

    This is what you get for AI translations between two IE languages in the same Sprachbund, that’ll often do things in a similar way. It gets way worse for Japanese → English - because they’re languages from different families, different cultures, that didn’t historically interact that much. It’s like the dumb shit above, multiplied by ten.

    If they’re not good enough, another business can offer better translations as a differentiator.

    That “business” is called watching pirated anime with fan subs, made by people who genuinely enjoy anime and want others to enjoy it too.

  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyztoWorld News@beehaw.org•In a world first, Brazilians will soon be able to sell their digital data
    2·
    1 month ago

    As usual for Latin America, law enforcement is abysmal in Brazil, specially in matters that don’t involve violent crimes. If the amount of money is small, a police report is toilet paper; if the amount of money is big, the process might take a literal decade to go through. (That is not a bug of the system - it’s a feature against the population.)

    For small amounts you’re also “encouraged” to use the pequenas causas (small litigations) system. That basically means you, a literal nobody with zero law expertise, against a team of lawyers of the corporation/mafia/business you’re suing.

    So in practice the law does not benefit customers whatsoever here. At most, it’ll give corporations an easy way out, when it’s proven they’re stealing your data: “Mr. Judge, I’ll throw some money on that thing’s snout in exchange for its data. It should be enough, right?” “Okay, justice has been served. Next case.”

  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzto[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation @lemm.ee•PC gamers, what was the last upgrade you made to your system?English
    4·
    1 month ago

    ARGB LED strip and three fans. Picture related:

    It’s only fluff. Or, like my folks jokingly say, LPAJ (luz para agradar jacu = lights to please hillbillies). But I like how it turned out.

    The second last upgrade was the Radeon RX 6600, visible in the pic. I bought it juuust before all that tariffs ruckus; I had to get one because my old video card was ancient. (I remember mentioning this, but my nephew was crawling around my computer when I installed that video card. The same nephew is now studying to get into an university.)

    Overall I’m rather pleased with my current rig. It isn’t top grade, but I think I got a good cost/benefit.

  • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzto[Migrated, see pinned post] Casual Conversation @lemm.ee•Whats a useful moneysaving tip you want to share?English
    7·
    1 month ago

    I’ll focus on food money saving tips. Don’t follow them blindly, check if they apply or not to where you live (it varies quite a bit). It all boils down “buy cheaper, when cheaper, and use it well”.

    1. Bulk preparation saves money twice: one less reason to buy prepared food when in a rush, and you can buy larger amounts of the ingredients when they’re cheaper.
    2. At least where I live, cost for proteins go like: mutton > beef > pork, chicken > eggs. Focus on the cheaper ones; this doesn’t mean you need to eat only eggs, but that if you can include eggs into your dish it’ll probably turn out cheaper. [Vegetarians: the reasoning should be the same for seitan, soy protein, tofu, lentils, beans, etc.]
    3. You can introduce a lot of variety into your meals, without raising their prices up, by changing the main carb: polenta, rice, potatoes, bread, pasta, yucca, etc. This gives you a bit more of leeway to repeat the protein, so you buy the cheaper ones more often.
    4. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can grow herbs in old margarine pots in a window. Herbs make do for variety of base ingredients.
    5. Deboned chicken is typically more expensive by kilogram of meat than bone-in chicken. Plus check #7 on the bones.
    6. If you’re OK with offal, it’s often cheaper. Chicken liver, cow tongue, etc. can be delicious if prepared correctly.
    7. Have a container in the freezer for bones, veg peels etc., that you can use to make stock. Stock + leftover ingredients = soup for almost no cost.
    8. Veg oils are pretty much interchangeable - pick whatever it’s cheap where you live. Don’t fall for the trap that it’s “imported”, “fancy”, “with health benefits” whatever. (For me it’s soy oil.) This does not include extra virgin olive oil.
    9. Waste not, want not. Have a few recipes just for the sake of repurposing leftovers. For me it’s rice/vegs croquettes, vegs/meats omelette, and potato pancakes. Note that rice croquettes can render even overcooked rice into a treat.
    10. Banana peels and citrus skins can be made into sweets. No reason to throw them away.
    11. Don’t go too hard on yourself, otherwise you’ll binge expensive food. Also, take nutrition into account; if you reduce costs at expense of your health you aren’t saving money, meds are more expensive than food.