Akir's recent activity

  1. Opinions wanted on regular DEXA scans

    ~health Ask (advice)
    I’ve gone a bit too deep on a rabbit hole after an offhand comment about protein intake and how much protein I should actually be consuming. It turns out that the 1.6g/kg of body weight is fairly...

    I’ve gone a bit too deep on a rabbit hole after an offhand comment about protein intake and how much protein I should actually be consuming. It turns out that the 1.6g/kg of body weight is fairly arbitrary and body weight itself is not a particularly good point to use for an estimate if you are overweight. With that in mind I have been wondering about getting a DEXA body composition scan. It would be useful, I think, because it can also tell me about visceral fat which is an area I am particularly concerned about.

    It turns out that it’s pretty cheap to get done; about $45 if you sign up for quarterly scans with a company called BodySpec. Their whole thing is making things cheaper by having repeat visits; a quantity discount, if you will.

    Before I decide to do this (and while I wait to hear back about if I can get one done for free with my health plan), I just wanted to get people’s opinions on them. Have you had one or a series done? And more importantly, how has it empowered you to improve your health?

    In all honesty I’m not sure the results will encourage me to make any particular change in my lifestyle or routine that I wouldn’t have been able to figure out without it.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on OpenAI shuts down Sora AI video, Disney drops planned $1B investment in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I think it’s worth celebrating because it’s one of the AI tasks that take up the most resources and thus are the most impactful for the environment. It may not be stopping this kind of things from...

    I think it’s worth celebrating because it’s one of the AI tasks that take up the most resources and thus are the most impactful for the environment. It may not be stopping this kind of things from happening in the future but it’s at least slowing things down.

    8 votes

  3. Comment on US regulator bans imports of new foreign-made routers, citing security concerns in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I hate to agree, but yeah. Most routers sold to consumers are garbage and shouldn't be trusted. Unfortunately I don't believe for one second that enforcing a "US made" policy would do anything to...

    I hate to agree, but yeah. Most routers sold to consumers are garbage and shouldn't be trusted. Unfortunately I don't believe for one second that enforcing a "US made" policy would do anything to fix it regardless of the existence of such a domestic industry.

    5 votes

  4. Comment on US to pay TotalEnergies $1 billion to stop developing offshore wind in US in ~enviro

    Akir
    Link Parent
    It is almost comical how the president who was supposedly elected to "fix the economy" is doing everything he can to destroy it.

    It is almost comical how the president who was supposedly elected to "fix the economy" is doing everything he can to destroy it.

    15 votes

  5. Comment on US regulator bans imports of new foreign-made routers, citing security concerns in ~tech

    Akir
    Link
    This would be funny if it weren't real. It's astonishing how incompetent and deliberately damaging this administration is.

    This would be funny if it weren't real. It's astonishing how incompetent and deliberately damaging this administration is.

    17 votes

  6. Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health

    Akir
    Link
    AI is taking over my life, it seems. After having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things after my shoulder injury, I decided to ask Claude to help me with my routine and we...

    AI is taking over my life, it seems. After having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things after my shoulder injury, I decided to ask Claude to help me with my routine and we eventually worked out that the problem I was having was with lifting too much weight. So now I'm having it give me tips to improve my mind-muscle connection, figure out what weights I should be lifting, and how to get the proper form that I've apparently not gotten right after all this time.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on "People are turning themselves into lab rats" – the injectable peptides craze sweeping the US in ~health

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I’m am kind of glad that I never made it into Silicon Valley. I hear so many stories about people taking crazy drugs and diets there that I wonder what kind of stressful lives these people live to...

    I’m am kind of glad that I never made it into Silicon Valley. I hear so many stories about people taking crazy drugs and diets there that I wonder what kind of stressful lives these people live to pressure them into these risky behaviors.

    7 votes

  8. Comment on "People are turning themselves into lab rats" – the injectable peptides craze sweeping the US in ~health

    Akir
    Link Parent
    Fair. I haven’t paid much attention to them for a while for some reason.

    Fair. I haven’t paid much attention to them for a while for some reason.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on "People are turning themselves into lab rats" – the injectable peptides craze sweeping the US in ~health

    Akir
    Link Parent
    Honestly I think that investigative journalism is mostly dead at this point. I can’t remember any stories this year that broke from a news agency.

    Honestly I think that investigative journalism is mostly dead at this point. I can’t remember any stories this year that broke from a news agency.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Any beginners advice or resources on developing a 2D RPG/Puzzle video game? in ~comp

    Akir
    Link
    If you are new to gamedev, I wouldn’t recommend trying to make an RPG as your first game. They tend to be kind of like making multiple games in one; you have to make a game that is the map screen,...

    If you are new to gamedev, I wouldn’t recommend trying to make an RPG as your first game. They tend to be kind of like making multiple games in one; you have to make a game that is the map screen, a game that is the battle system, and a tiny game that is all the menus you will have to build. It’s fairly broad in scope so you’ll be stuck on what to do because there will be so many things to do.

    What I would suggest is to try to build the simplest part of your game you can make standalone first. In your case, try to make the match three part. That also happens to be the keystone of your game since it’s the battle system so you can prototype it and see if you can make it fun to start with. Once you have that pretty nailed down you can start to implement more and more RPG elements.

    I’m partial to the LÖVE framework since I’ve been using it for a while and it’s pretty easy since lua is a simple language. Doing this is going to be very programming-forward since you’ll be building your game engine. If that doesn’t sound good to you start learning Godot. Unity is probably easier to learn and use if you are ok with proprietary software with legal encumbrances (they are the guys who were trying to get studios to pay more retroactively).

    16 votes

  11. Comment on Project Hail Mary - Discussion thread in ~movies

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I’m actually considering reading the book for this too. I actually got a rather random recommendation to read it as part of a “brain rot cure” discussion, so I figure it must be a pretty good read.

    I’m actually considering reading the book for this too. I actually got a rather random recommendation to read it as part of a “brain rot cure” discussion, so I figure it must be a pretty good read.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Project Hail Mary - Discussion thread in ~movies

    Akir
    Link
    I saw it in IMAX. It’s probably the first movie I’ve seen in theaters and actually enjoyed since the pandemic. The extra vertical dimension really makes the cinematography feel immersive when...

    I saw it in IMAX. It’s probably the first movie I’ve seen in theaters and actually enjoyed since the pandemic. The extra vertical dimension really makes the cinematography feel immersive when compared to the regular print, even though IMAX is smaller than it used to be. When I asked my husband about the screen seeming to be small, he responded that he picked the theater because it was the largest surviving IMAX screen in our area, which is pretty sad when your area is Los Angeles.

    The story has quite a lot of twists and I imagine that it must have been very difficult to decide on how to adapt the screenplay. One thing that I appreciated is that when the main character gets their memory back they aren’t doing the trope of it happening through a migraine - it’s just a scene transition to a cropped frame. But at the same time it makes it difficult to know if he’s actually getting the memories back or if this is just the silent narrator telling us more of the story.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I’m referring to the endless swarm of messaging apps before Google decided to conquer RCS.

    I’m referring to the endless swarm of messaging apps before Google decided to conquer RCS.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on When you were first getting your driver's license, what were you afraid of? in ~transport

    Akir
    Link
    Bureaucracy. When I was a young man getting a drivers license was more of an “if” than a “when” because my man child of a father didn’t keep any of my important documents. I had to go through a...

    Bureaucracy.

    When I was a young man getting a drivers license was more of an “if” than a “when” because my man child of a father didn’t keep any of my important documents. I had to go through a lengthy period of searching for documents to get a social security card before I could even think about getting a government ID.

    But of course the thing that always freaked me out the most was other drivers. They were really unpredictable - they still are, but now I am more familiar with the madness. Sure enough I would lose my first car for a driver who decided to pull out into oncoming traffic.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    Like I said, the spec wasn’t detailed enough for interoperability. You could have easily sent HD videos without RCS by opting in to google’s services but now your data goes through them regardless...

    Like I said, the spec wasn’t detailed enough for interoperability. You could have easily sent HD videos without RCS by opting in to google’s services but now your data goes through them regardless of your opinion on it.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I think that’s an extremely charitable way to characterize Google’s takeover of the standard. The problem with RCS before google eas that it was a really shitty standard. There were more pages on...

    I think that’s an extremely charitable way to characterize Google’s takeover of the standard.

    The problem with RCS before google eas that it was a really shitty standard. There were more pages on the user interface than there were in how to actually implement it on a protocol level, so most RCS implementations were incompatible. Google solved this by forcing themselves in to be the de facto standard.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    RCS is a pretty bad example given that it’s a protocol that nobody is allowed to implement without paying Google for it. If you think about it google’s “open garden” is basically them insisting on...

    RCS is a pretty bad example given that it’s a protocol that nobody is allowed to implement without paying Google for it. If you think about it google’s “open garden” is basically them insisting on control over the foundations - even the web itself is this way.

    10 votes

  18. Comment on That one study that proves developers using AI are deluded in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I’d be teaching how to use codex to build websites. That being said the curriculum itself seems to be AI generated itself and not particularly well thought out so it’s feels more like an extended...

    I’d be teaching how to use codex to build websites.

    That being said the curriculum itself seems to be AI generated itself and not particularly well thought out so it’s feels more like an extended daycare activity….

    I would complain about it but the sole student I am teaching this to has some form of intellectual disability combined with a language barrier, so the goal of teaching him is more to support his development in the softer things more so than to add a skill to his repertoire.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on That one study that proves developers using AI are deluded in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    I’m actually about to start working with Codex since I’m going to be teaching a class using it. I overheard one of my coworkers saying they thought it was worse than Claude but I’ll be getting the...

    I’m actually about to start working with Codex since I’m going to be teaching a class using it. I overheard one of my coworkers saying they thought it was worse than Claude but I’ll be getting the chance to evaluate it soon enough.

    Coincidentally we also have a new internal system they are developing and somehow I am only now connecting the dots and realizing they are probably vibe coding. It makes sense since they are going big on AI right now and the program features a ZUI for no particular reason.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on That one study that proves developers using AI are deluded in ~tech

    Akir
    Link Parent
    Yes, I used Claude Code for the video game project I was referring to. It would have been very difficult to make those changes if I hadn’t because it reached into many different files. I haven’t...

    Yes, I used Claude Code for the video game project I was referring to. It would have been very difficult to make those changes if I hadn’t because it reached into many different files. I haven’t used cowork though, since I don’t trust it that much.

    It should be worth noting, though, that this video game project is the first time I’ve done a major video game project and the first time I’ve used lua to an appreciable level (outside of tinkering with things like nodemcu).

    One thing I really like about Claude in particular is that it really has a lot of small touches that make it useful in surprising situations. I’ve used the Learning style to help me with complex concepts that I’ve struggled with for almost a year and it’s been a great help. I think it’s going to be great when I resume university classes in the coming weeks, and it almost makes me regret not taking more classes that would challenge me.

    3 votes