Akir's recent activity
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Comment on Am I German or autistic? in ~health.mental
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Comment on Is new music dying? Everyone’s flopping. in ~music
Akir LinkI don’t see this as a particularly bad problem to have. If you know some basic music history, you would know that before recording and radio, some of the most popular music was folk music. Things...I don’t see this as a particularly bad problem to have.
If you know some basic music history, you would know that before recording and radio, some of the most popular music was folk music. Things that were passed on from generation to generation and were regional.
This concept of a megahit or universal culture seems like it’s always been like this but that’s just because it’s been for our lifetimes. In reality, it was just a blip caused by the advent of inexpensive audio recording and duplication methods.
When I hear stories of the music industry suffering I can’t help but think of historical figures like John Phillip Sousa, a man who was the closest thing to a superstar before ubiquitous recordings. He really didn’t like records because he felt that it would decimate a culture of musicianship, cheapen the work of both players and composers, and discourage people to learn how to perform music. And for the most part he was right. How often are you going out to listen to live music? Theres a pretty good chance you had wanted to be a musician at one point in your youth, but you didn’t because it’s so difficult to make money in it.
Will the death of the musical monolith repair this historical damage? Not likely. But the spirit of music can’t be killed. It is a fundamental aspect of being human. The culture of music is changing and I see that as a good thing because it’s resulted in a true explosion of creativity and there are countless indie artists who are producing music with more passion than the big corporations could have ever mustered. We are living in good times; let’s not let the death of this norm bring us down.
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Comment on Am I German or autistic? in ~health.mental
Akir LinkBoy that last question was really painful to answer. None of those are the “real problem with the world” by a long shot. If we try to answer the question as objectively as possible, the real...Boy that last question was really painful to answer. None of those are the “real problem with the world” by a long shot.
If we try to answer the question as objectively as possible, the real answer is man made climate change. We systematically destroy biomes at our convenience and in a global level we are destroying the atmosphere, something that affects not only us humans but all living things on the planet.
If we take “the world” to be society, I’ve got plenty of better options:
- unchecked capitalism
- the inability of people to recognize fascism
- the corruption of power in general
- cultures where it is acceptable to not have compassion for “others”.
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Comment on Tildes Gardening Group: Week 6/4/26 in ~hobbies
Akir Link ParentHa! It's really me being a lazy chump. But I do advocate for lazy gardening techniques like no-till. I'd probably practice it if my backyard wasn't entirely concrete.Ha! It's really me being a lazy chump. But I do advocate for lazy gardening techniques like no-till. I'd probably practice it if my backyard wasn't entirely concrete.
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Comment on Amazon killing purchasing, borrowing and downloading books for older Kindles in ~tech
Akir Link ParentYou may have been in KUAL, which is typically how you launch koreader. If you were in koreader you also had the option of changing where it considers to be your home folder where your books are....You may have been in KUAL, which is typically how you launch koreader.
If you were in koreader you also had the option of changing where it considers to be your home folder where your books are. That way you don’t have to navigate beyond subfolders if you have any. It’s the only “must configure” option IMHO. You also have the ability to configure the view in a lot of nice ways, including the ability to hide books you’ve already read.
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Comment on Tildes Gardening Group: Week 6/4/26 in ~hobbies
Akir Link ParentI’m honestly amazed that I don’t I live in an HOA neighborhood too. I personally have a much worse opinion of the neighbors who have the cheapest possible astroturf lawns. But hey, I still have a...I’m honestly amazed that I don’t I live in an HOA neighborhood too.
I personally have a much worse opinion of the neighbors who have the cheapest possible astroturf lawns. But hey, I still have a higher opinion of them than I do of the ones with perfectly manicured grass.
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Comment on Tildes Gardening Group: Week 6/4/26 in ~hobbies
Akir LinkI am an anti-gardener. In previous weeks I have been trying to covertly toss away my husband’s potted plants. A few years ago we basically just gave up on the front lawn and it continues to be our...I am an anti-gardener. In previous weeks I have been trying to covertly toss away my husband’s potted plants.
A few years ago we basically just gave up on the front lawn and it continues to be our best landscaping idea yet. Local plants have found the area where the grass has died and over time has taken over the place. We do need to lop away some of the taller ones from time to time but it is essentially self-maintaining otherwise. The native plants also have the quality of improving the soil it’s grown in so if we wanted to plant something more purposefully decorative it should be pretty successful.
There are some who might be tempted to point and say that my lawn is overrun by weeds, but my response to that is that nature is frickin’ beautiful and can’t you see the pretty wildflowers? My lawn is imperfect and it browns seasonally, but in my eyes we have the best landscaping in the neighborhood.
The back yard, on the other hand, remains a concrete maze of potted succulents and cacti. Sigh….
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Comment on Half-baked idea for metered inline image allowances in ~tildes
Akir Link ParentI honestly hate that a lot of how-to content has moved to video for the same reasons. They either waste my time because I have to dig through it or they waste my time because it was too short and...I honestly hate that a lot of how-to content has moved to video for the same reasons. They either waste my time because I have to dig through it or they waste my time because it was too short and didn’t tell me what I needed to know.
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
Akir LinkLast night I finished my last weight training day of the week, as well as the end of the second week of training with Claude. There’s been lots of hiccups. If you have been reading my story you...Last night I finished my last weight training day of the week, as well as the end of the second week of training with Claude.
There’s been lots of hiccups. If you have been reading my story you would know that I started after recovering from a workout injury and am using Claude to help me improve my routine. It’s a very different experience than the few times I’ve had with trainers in the past, who have basically just told me what to do from on high. Claude gives me the feeling that I am working with it rather than for it. Sadly I still have to nail down a routine 100%, but that’s not really an issue because at this point it’s just small adjustments and trying out a handful of alternatives. Besides, it can’t actually be set until I see a physical therapist on the 16th to deal with my body issues.
This is slight hyperbole, but working with Claude has really been a game changer. It has taught me to build my mind-muscle connection and trained me to stop if I’m feeling the effort in the wrong place, in which case Claude can help me with my form or adjustments to the gear I’m using. I’ve learned that it’s a small miracle that I haven’t been injured more.
In spite of that I don’t know if I’d recommend using Claude for this purpose to everyone. I’ve seen hallucinations, so you do need to have a baseline of understanding how things work before you get started so you can push back against Claude’s occasional bad advice. It’s also not particularly good at figuring out exercise machines if you just take a picture of it, so you are better off telling it the exact model you are using; doing so will usually cause it to search the web and give you a much better response. Though I will warn you that the last time I used it, it cited a whole lot of TikTok. I suppose that’s fine because it’s one of the places I would have looked at myself if I made different choices.
The new training poses and routines have already had a noticeable impact on me. At first I felt disempowered because the weight I was putting on the stacks was lower, but with the improvements in form and the growing mind muscle connection I actually feel stronger after working out than I was before. In the past working out was something that would completely drain and exhaust me, but now after working out I tend to have something of a second wind. My experience with exhaustion and muscle fatigue are also completely different because I am properly focusing on specific muscle groups instead of bringing all those unrelated muscles in with each movement. Ever since I got my last injury I was dreading going to the gym because it took so much out of me and I felt infirm. Now I’ve reclaimed that feeling that I actually want to go back! That alone is a huge victory.
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Comment on Why Microsoft’s war on Windows’ Control Panel is taking so long in ~tech
Akir Link ParentIt really was not. It was hot garbage when it launched. Because it had higher base specs it introduced the “experience index” benchmark to illustrate how well your computer could run with Vista,...It really was not. It was hot garbage when it launched. Because it had higher base specs it introduced the “experience index” benchmark to illustrate how well your computer could run with Vista, and famously it would get so slow over time it would actually downgrade you.
Even basic operations were slower for seemingly no reason. If you copied a file with Explorer it would be noticeably slower than using the copy command from the CLI.
On top of that Microsoft really fucked gamers over by forcing DirectX 10 to be a vista exclusive, so a great number of hugely important new rendering techniques were locked behind a system that would reduce performance for those games just from the vista tax. Microsoft also famously lied about the visual improvements in very blatant ways, offering poorly doctored screenshots to demonstrate the difference in rendering. Seriously, I remember they showed a DX9 comparison shot that they just cut the contrast and brightness.
Vista did have some good ideas behind it and eventually they got it to be good, but that point is when Vista turned from Windows 6.0 to Windows 6.1 - which Microsoft branded Windows 7.
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Comment on Why Microsoft’s war on Windows’ Control Panel is taking so long in ~tech
Akir Link ParentThe program my university applied to in order to get Microsoft services to its students recently downgraded the entire tier to exclude the desktop applications for Office. Now attempting to use...The program my university applied to in order to get Microsoft services to its students recently downgraded the entire tier to exclude the desktop applications for Office. Now attempting to use the desktop applications will prompt me to use the web versions.
It might be the biggest middle finger a tech company has given me after Google clawing back their free storage after promising an eternally expanding amount.
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Comment on Why Microsoft’s war on Windows’ Control Panel is taking so long in ~tech
Akir Link ParentIt honestly bewilders me that people don’t realize how bad chrome is. People who are more technically minded are often quick to handwave the insane memory usage. I bought a very early Chromebook...It honestly bewilders me that people don’t realize how bad chrome is. People who are more technically minded are often quick to handwave the insane memory usage.
I bought a very early Chromebook and because I wanted to run Linux apps on it I installed crouton. Even though Firefox had a bad reputation at the time for being slow, and even with running it with the extra weight of another desktop environment running on top of ChromeOS’s, Firefox was still notably faster than Chrome.
Fast forward to today and Chrome has even more bloat than ever before, including a bunch of APIs that probably shouldn’t even be in a web browser.
Our computers are so unbelievably fast and powerful. But we don’t realize that because our software is so bloated.
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Comment on Anthropic announces deal with Google, Broadcom, says revenue has tripled in ~finance
Akir Link ParentYour profile has a “personal preferences” section which is global to all conversations. With Claude Code you can make an installation level or project level preferences file named CLAUDE.md. I...Your profile has a “personal preferences” section which is global to all conversations. With Claude Code you can make an installation level or project level preferences file named CLAUDE.md. I think there’s something simelar for Claude Desktop, but that’s a step too far for me to try long enough to find out.
Edit: also forgot you can use Projects for the phone and web apps, which let you add in context in a similar manner, including using other types of documents like PDFs and images.
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Comment on Anthropic announces deal with Google, Broadcom, says revenue has tripled in ~finance
Akir Link ParentHonest question to anyone who knows these things: is Grok actually meaningfully better at any given metric than any other AI? I feel that it’s only ever mentioned because it’s going amok on X...Honest question to anyone who knows these things: is Grok actually meaningfully better at any given metric than any other AI? I feel that it’s only ever mentioned because it’s going amok on X (which I am amazed is still culturally relevant, itself).
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Comment on Anthropic announces deal with Google, Broadcom, says revenue has tripled in ~finance
Akir Link ParentHey, I wrote that! For the reference I didn't mean that to say that Claude is completely untrustworthy, but just like any AI you should actually check it's reasoning and ask it to find sources for...Hey, I wrote that!
For the reference I didn't mean that to say that Claude is completely untrustworthy, but just like any AI you should actually check it's reasoning and ask it to find sources for its information. Claude is less sycophantic than other mega-sized LLMs that I've used but it's still there. When I tried asking it about local communities and we went back and forth on if a particular group was part of it - it said it was, I thought it wasn't and it agreed with me, then I did more research on it and it turns out that it actually was and Claude agreed with me again. You basically have to use it as a research assistant rather than a full-blown researcher.
As far as I can tell (and Claude backs me up on this), Anthropic doesn't have any business dealings with xAI or any of Musk's companies; it just brings up Grokipedia articles because it was the one that it came up with that seemed to fit the best. Heck, it might be getting picked because the articles are long-winded and have the appearance of authority.
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Comment on Amazon killing purchasing, borrowing and downloading books for older Kindles in ~tech
Akir Link ParentWell clearly that’s because you’re doing something wrong and there are problems with your brain. /s In all seriousness I’m surprised you don’t like the navigation. That was something i found to be...Well clearly that’s because you’re doing something wrong and there are problems with your brain. /s
In all seriousness I’m surprised you don’t like the navigation. That was something i found to be a major improvement. You can also customize it quite a lot. Mine is also an old model - I’m not sure exactly how old, but it’s one of the first paperwhite models. I’d like to know more about why you think that koreader is less easy to use than the Kindle reader given that most of the advanced options are somewhat hidden away.
I can’t tell you much about Libby syncing because I never used that feature but I wouldn’t be surprised if you had problems with it given that it relies on Amazon’s DRM platform.
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
Akir LinkAnother week goes along and another physiological problem gets found. This week I discovered that when doing shoulder shrugs, the joints in my shoulder pop every time. The good news is that I...Another week goes along and another physiological problem gets found. This week I discovered that when doing shoulder shrugs, the joints in my shoulder pop every time.
The good news is that I managed to get an appointment with a physical therapist, which I will be seeing in about a week or so.
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Comment on Half-baked idea for metered inline image allowances in ~tildes
Akir (edited )LinkI’m very much against this, honestly. Inline images would fundamentally change the quality of conversation. I remember when Reddit started doing it and it felt like the entire site dropped down by...- Exemplary
I’m very much against this, honestly. Inline images would fundamentally change the quality of conversation. I remember when Reddit started doing it and it felt like the entire site dropped down by 20 IQ points in a single day.
But it’s not entirely about “image dumb”; it’s really the ancillary changes inline images would bring. Having people talk and describe concepts reveals things about what they believe and why. If they can just post a diagram or infographic it puts another barrier in between the reader and writer. I believe that this happens even with hyperlinked images, even if it’s not to the exact same extent, so images in general should be discouraged, not encouraged.
Edit: I do appreciate getting exemplary tags, but in the future please refrain from using it as a “super agree” button. I don’t think that’s what it is there for.
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Comment on Keychron Hardware Design — hardware design files for Keychron keyboards and mice in ~tech
Akir Link ParentI think you may have missed where I was asking about their mice. 😅 I actually do have a Keychron keyboard - a K10 Pro if I recall correctly. I like it because it is a big brick of a keyboard that...I think you may have missed where I was asking about their mice. 😅
I actually do have a Keychron keyboard - a K10 Pro if I recall correctly. I like it because it is a big brick of a keyboard that stays in one place and has a 10Key. Shortly after buying it I swapped out their red switches for another style - I think it were Kailh box jades. I kept the reds on the modefier keys though; something about keeping those smooth seemed appropriate.
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Comment on Keychron Hardware Design — hardware design files for Keychron keyboards and mice in ~tech
Akir Link ParentI have the MX Master 2S as well but I tend to keep it in my bag for the few classes I teach where laptop trackpads don’t quite work. A comparable ergo mouse at that price is really compelling so I...I have the MX Master 2S as well but I tend to keep it in my bag for the few classes I teach where laptop trackpads don’t quite work. A comparable ergo mouse at that price is really compelling so I may splurge on a second one just to keep at home.
I got normal. I’m just very anal and have opinions. Many many opinions.
Although I do have to say I appreciate that the result page called out the possibility of me just presenting well. I will admit that I find it amusing to try to unwrap the questions in personality tests to figure out why they are asking and what the answers represent. I did try to answer honestly though.