jbloggs777
@jbloggs777@discuss.tchncs.de
Just a regular Joe.
- Comment on Popular self-hosting services worth running 2 days ago:
You sir, need an AI agent to maintain your self-hosting addiction and free you from the shackles of homelab responsibility. Automate the automations that maintain the automations. That’s the real endgame. /s
- Comment on Claude Code deletes developers' production setup, including its database and snapshots — 2.5 years of records were nuked in an instant 3 days ago:
It would be interesting to see the logs of your sessions, and compare them to the session logs of happy/productive-AI-coders.
I suspect that some people just think and express themselves in ways that don’t vibe with LLMs. eg. Men are from Mars, AI coding agents are from Venus.
- Comment on AI chatbots provide less-accurate information to vulnerable users: Research finds leading AI models perform worse for users with lower English proficiency, less formal education, and non-US origins. 2 weeks ago:
Indeed. Additional context will influence the response, and not always in predictable ways… which can be both interesting and frustrating.
The important thing is for users to have sufficient control, so they can counter (or explore) such weirdness themselves.
Education is key, and there’s no shortage of articles and guides for new users.
- Comment on AI chatbots provide less-accurate information to vulnerable users: Research finds leading AI models perform worse for users with lower English proficiency, less formal education, and non-US origins. 2 weeks ago:
Bio and memory are optional in ChatGPT though. Not so in others?
The age guessing aspect will be interesting, as that is likely to be non-optional.
- Comment on AI chatbots provide less-accurate information to vulnerable users: Research finds leading AI models perform worse for users with lower English proficiency, less formal education, and non-US origins. 2 weeks ago:
The LLMs aren’t being assholes, though - they’re just spewing statistical likelihoods. While I do find the example disturbing (and I could imagine some deliberate bias in training), I suspect one could mimic it with different examples with a little effort - there are many ways to make an LLM look stupid. It might also be tripping some safety mechanism somehow. More work to be done, and it’s useful to highlight these cases.
I bet if the example bio and question were both in russian, we’d see a different response.
But as a general rule: Avoid giving LLMs irrelevant context.
- Comment on AI chatbots provide less-accurate information to vulnerable users: Research finds leading AI models perform worse for users with lower English proficiency, less formal education, and non-US origins. 2 weeks ago:
I agree. What you get with chatbots is the ability to iterate on ideas & statements first without spreading undue confusion. If you can’t clearly explain an idea to a chatbot, you might not be ready to explain it to a person.
- Comment on Tesla Switches Full Self-Driving to Subscription Only 2 weeks ago:
They rolled this update out mid-journey, and I had to scramble to swap seats with the manequin driver. Not cool, Elon.
Not. Cool.
- Comment on Consumer hardware is no longer a priority for manufacturers 4 weeks ago:
There is plenty of consumer hardware that is supported on Linux, or will be as soon as a kernel developer gets their hands on it, reverse engineers the protocol if necessary, and adds support. For things like keyboards, there are often proprietary extensions (eg. for built-in displays, macros, etc.). It pays to check for Linux support before buying hardware though. Sometimes it’s not the kernel drivers, but supporting software (eg. Steam input) that might not support it.
First class vendor support for Linux is more common for niche/premium hardware designed in the west, than cheap chinese knockoffs that follow it. Long term customer support is not their strong suit.
- Comment on Consumer hardware is no longer a priority for manufacturers 4 weeks ago:
Sure… but why would el cheapo hardware want/need to support proprietary drivers? Now, for premium hardware and software, they might still want vendor lock-in mechanisms… So unless you absolutely have to, you should avoid hardware on Linux that needs proprietary drivers.
- Comment on Consumer hardware is no longer a priority for manufacturers 4 weeks ago:
That’s capitalism for you. But also Linux, where it’s typical to upstream hardware support and rely on existing ecosystems rather than release addon drivers or niche supporting apps.
China has made some strategic investments in Linux over the years though – often domestically targeted, like Red Flag Linux, and drivers for chinese hardware, etc.
- Comment on China reveals 200-strong AI drone swarm that can be controlled by a single soldier — ‘intelligent algorithm’ allows individual units to cooperate autonomously even after losing communication with oper 1 month ago:
One of the interesting use-cases for LLMs is to find potential inconsistencies (across many sources), brainstorm abuse vectors & potential legal challenges, and then rewrite natural (including legal) language in a less ambiguous way. If this process were guided and vetted by talented lawmakers, it could be quite a useful tool, and is probably already used that way in many quarters.
The current executive will almost certainly abuse it and come up with hilariously bad proposals, vetted only by a marketing team, which will be ridiculed for years to come. Popcorn time.
- Comment on Asking the right questions... 2 months ago:
salutes
- Comment on Asking the right questions... 2 months ago:
It’s accelerating trends that have already been well underway in the world, with the US leading the pack, and doubling down on its own demise (and apparently also working toward the active demise of European Democracy and Freedom) under trump and jd vance.
The analogy I always think of is: We’ve got shovels and we are in a big hole … which way are we going to dig? In my experience, most people keep digging down because it seems easier now, and eventually find themselves in a deeper hole.
- Comment on I Went All-In on AI. The MIT Study Is Right. 2 months ago:
That this is and will be abused is not in question. :-P
- Comment on I Went All-In on AI. The MIT Study Is Right. 2 months ago:
While this is a popular sentiment, it is not true, nor will it ever be true.
AI (LLMs & agents in the coding context, in this case) can serve as both a tool and a crutch. Those who learn to master the tools will gain benefit from them, without detracting from their own skill. Those who use them as a crutch will lose (or never gain) their own skills.
Some skills will in turn become irrelevent in day-to-day life (as is always the case with new tech), and we will adapt in turn.
- Comment on I Went All-In on AI. The MIT Study Is Right. 2 months ago:
Indeed… Throw-away code is currently where AI coding excels. And that is cool and useful - creating one off scripts, self-contained modules automating boilerplate, etc.
You can’t quite use it the same way for complex existing code bases though… Not yet, at least…
- Comment on Dead mosquito proboscis used for high-resolution 3D printing nozzle 3 months ago:
Interesting fact: You can use an elephant’s trunk as a low-resolution 3D printing nozzle
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
Hah, yeah. Vibe coding and prompt engineering seem like a huge fad right now, although I don’t think it’s going to die out, just the hype.
The most successful vibe projects in the next few years are likely to be the least innovative technically, following well trodden paths (and generating lots of throwaway code).
I suppose we’ll see more and more curated collections of AI-friendly design documents and best-practice code samples to enable vibe coding for varied use-cases, and this will be the perceived value add for various tools in the short term. The spec driven development trend seems to have value, adding semantic layers for humans and AI alike.
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
Yeah - there’s definitely a GIGO factor. Throwing it at a undocumented codebase with poor and inconsistent function & variable names isn’t likely to yield great revelations. But it can probably still tell you why changing input X didn’t result in a change to output Y (with 50k lines of code in-between), saving you a bunch of debugging time.
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
Most code on the planet is boring legacy code, though. Novel and interesting is typically a small fraction of a codebase, and it will often be more in the design than the code itself. Anything that can help us make boring code more digestible is welcome. Plenty of other pitfalls along the way though.
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
I have a suspicion that the guy took issue with my use of “one” instead of “you”, more-so than the content. Maybe it comes across as uppity these days.
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
It’s a changing world, and there is going to be an ever increasing amount of AI slop out there, and even more potential programmers who won’t make the leap due to the crutch.
At the same time, there are always people who want to and will learn in spite of the available crutches the latest tech revolution brings.
There will also be many good engineers who will exploit the tech for all its worth while applying appropriate rigour, increasing their real productivity and value manyfold.
And there will be many non-programmers who can achieve much more in their respective fields, because AI tools can bridge gaps for them.
Hopefully we won’t irreversibly destroy ourselves and our planet while we’re at it. 🙈
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
Hm? Oh, I obviously misread the room. It seems I interrupted a circle jerk? My apologies.
- Comment on Microsoft says Copilot will 'finish your code before you finish your coffee' adding fuel to the Windows 11 AI controversy that's still raging 3 months ago:
No, but it can help a capable developer to have more of those moments, as one can use LLMs and coding agents to (a) help explain the relationships in a complicated codebase succinctly and (b) help to quickly figure out why one’s code doesn’t work as expected (from simple bugs to calling out one’s own fundamental misunderstandings), giving one more to focus on what matters to oneself.
- Comment on Firefox is Getting a New AI Browsing Mode 3 months ago:
Which they will provide without being asked for it.
- Comment on Enthusiasts bond twelve 56K modems together to set dial-up broadband records — a dozen screeching boxes achieve record 668 kbps download speeds 5 months ago:
This was similar to a trick that a few smaller (less serious) hobby-ISPs did back in the days of 14.4k/28.8k modems to take advantage of the “reasonably priced” business plans for ISDN. They’d register multiple businesses at a single address to qualify for the plans, then balance new egress connections across the pool using squid and other magic. Fun times…
- Comment on Exactly Six Months Ago, the CEO of Anthropic Said That in Six Months AI Would Be Writing 90 Percent of Code 5 months ago:
I find it pretty useful to help get me over mental hurdle of starting something. So it’s faster than me procrastinating for another day. ;-)
- Comment on Firefox Nightly Adds CoPilot AI Chatbot + New Tab Widgets 5 months ago:
I think its popularity as a viable alternative to the google dominated browser ecosystem contradicts this.
So long as it’s an optional feature that doesn’t impact core functionality, who cares?
- Comment on Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain' 6 months ago:
Hmm. You are right, but they might not need it for every region. Steam is probably big enough that existing regional companies would come to it and be eager to form partnerships. They could become more of a payment processor aggregator, focused on a low risk market segment. And of course they can do CCs directly too - that’s the easy part.
The challenge will be to get consumers on board. I know that I groan every time I need to enter my CC details online these days.
They would face anti-competitive behaviour from Peepal though. So it’s a risk.
Internally, they are probably already working on ways to appropriately segment their catalog based on payment provider. “Sorry User, you cannot purchase title X using Paypal. We recommend $Competitor instead.”
- Comment on Steam payment headaches grow as PayPal is no longer usable for much of the world: Valve hopes to bring it back in the future, 'but the timeline is uncertain' 6 months ago:
It sounds like some payment processors are treating mastercard’s contractual requirements as a hard risk in this case - maybe it’s justified, maybe not. Try getting corporate lawyers to be risk averse in the finance world. Mastercard doesn’t seem to want to soften their wording but talks platitudes in public statements. Shrug.