Notes for Americans:
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RE: https://nomenloony.com/@nomenloony/116019280517956996
Notes for Americans:
1. Until 1992 you had to wire your own plugs onto new electrical appliances in the UK (they were sold without pre-molded plugs).
2. Mains voltage is 230VAC, not 110VAC. It'll kill ya.
3. If you follow ChatGPT's advice *YOU WILL DIE*.
@cstross Oddly, you might live. That drawing was SO %$&*ed up that it appeared to have a whole extra pin!

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@cstross this is still ok, right?
No, just no. It's a good quality socket (MK are one of the best, and used to be the automatic choice for the building trade), but you have no idea what's behind that faceplate and if it's been correctly wired. Sticking _anything_ conductive into an electrical outlet is a very bad idea. (And a metal door key is probably one of the worst things you could use.) 3:O(((>
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@josh0 @DJDarren @winkleink @cstross
Yeah that fuse will last about 0.001 seconds. Safe!

@Phosphenes @josh0 @winkleink @cstross In fairness, there aren't many sockets that could accept that plug.
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There are WORSE AI-generated images of how to wire a UK mains plug. Here's one I saved last year.
@cstross ah the elusive 3-phase UK plug
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@Phosphenes @josh0 @winkleink @cstross In fairness, there aren't many sockets that could accept that plug.
@DJDarren @Phosphenes @winkleink @cstross you know what they say: when you have a hammer, you can solve any problem with it.
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@elaine1helen AIs are *generative* and they're designed to generate an answer shaped object, not provide an *actual* answer.
@elaine1helen @cstross Yes, one key point of failure for asking "simple" questions of genAI is that they are designed to generate something original, combining and randomizing their training inputs instead of just copying one.
And for something like this, there's the issue that they don't really have a 3D model of the world, so every different angle of an image is like a different variation on the diagram, and these then get combined in ways that don't make sense from a real-world perspective.
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@cstross this is still ok, right?
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RE: https://nomenloony.com/@nomenloony/116019280517956996
Notes for Americans:
1. Until 1992 you had to wire your own plugs onto new electrical appliances in the UK (they were sold without pre-molded plugs).
2. Mains voltage is 230VAC, not 110VAC. It'll kill ya.
3. If you follow ChatGPT's advice *YOU WILL DIE*.
@cstross #3 often applies all on its own, independent of the first two.
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RE: https://nomenloony.com/@nomenloony/116019280517956996
Notes for Americans:
1. Until 1992 you had to wire your own plugs onto new electrical appliances in the UK (they were sold without pre-molded plugs).
2. Mains voltage is 230VAC, not 110VAC. It'll kill ya.
3. If you follow ChatGPT's advice *YOU WILL DIE*.
Imagine the bomb disposal trope. Countdown running out. Hero has to decide which wire to cut, asks a LLM
BIG
Wiring a plug was part of the Standard Grade Science course in Scotland (going back a few years). Towards the end of its lifetime we were forbidden from teaching it on grounds that you are no longer able to do it. It did not come up in the exam.
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@cstross And the reason that pre-fitted plugs were made mandatory was because so many people didn't know how to correctly wire one.
Which I find intensely depressing, as I have known how to wire one from very young.
We were expected to learn how to wire a plug at school (late 80's, probably). My dad had already taught me, so I got full marks for doing it properly -- short live length, some slack in earth, and so on.
I then demonstrated to the teacher that I could do it again (properly, still) with a butter knife and my teeth...
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There are WORSE AI-generated images of how to wire a UK mains plug. Here's one I saved last year.
@cstross unlike the first image this one isnβt plausible enough to follow
The first image will mislead people

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There are WORSE AI-generated images of how to wire a UK mains plug. Here's one I saved last year.
@cstross gotta watch out for that BLIVE pin.
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@ErikJonker
But that is still quite different from the large language model-approach which is used for the 'foundational models ' like Claude and ChatGPT. The LLM approach has structural weaknesses and is the cause of the enthusiastically pushed falsehoods. As it does no know anything and has no real world feedback, every output is always based
on probabilities deduced from its corpus of inputs and training.
In specific cases, within specific/limited areas of competemce AI has proven very useful. But, that is very far removed from AGI. So far the LLM approach is mostly misused for internet slop, useless reports and articles and avoidance of responsibility by governments, like Israel's or ICE target selection...
@sotolf @cstross -
@ErikJonker
But that is still quite different from the large language model-approach which is used for the 'foundational models ' like Claude and ChatGPT. The LLM approach has structural weaknesses and is the cause of the enthusiastically pushed falsehoods. As it does no know anything and has no real world feedback, every output is always based
on probabilities deduced from its corpus of inputs and training.
In specific cases, within specific/limited areas of competemce AI has proven very useful. But, that is very far removed from AGI. So far the LLM approach is mostly misused for internet slop, useless reports and articles and avoidance of responsibility by governments, like Israel's or ICE target selection...
@sotolf @cstross -
We were expected to learn how to wire a plug at school (late 80's, probably). My dad had already taught me, so I got full marks for doing it properly -- short live length, some slack in earth, and so on.
I then demonstrated to the teacher that I could do it again (properly, still) with a butter knife and my teeth...
@rogerlipscombe @cstross My dad always used to strip wires with a match (burn the insulation off).
Not sure it is the method that would be taught in schools.
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There are WORSE AI-generated images of how to wire a UK mains plug. Here's one I saved last year.
@cstross Who needs AI when the first track on your album is titled "Death Trap" and the cover art is a deliberately mis-wired 13 amp plug? (It caused enough of a stir that later releases had it covered with a "non-removable sticker", and I'm sure my CD has the correct wiring colours...)


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There are WORSE AI-generated images of how to wire a UK mains plug. Here's one I saved last year.
@cstross
I know true art when i see it. -
@cstross i told it how useless and dangerous the slopmachine is and in the end i shamed it into giving me parameters of its python sandbox
@cstross @Nfoonf
#Slopmachine. TIL. Nice
