creesch's recent activity
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Comment on Why emoji picker default on? in ~comp
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Comment on Will you be left behind if you don't use LLMs to code? in ~comp
creesch Link ParentMan, I am glad I am not making my living in the US or for such a company. I realize that this is the case for a lot of people working in development. But, there are also companies out there where...but developers are measured on how much working code they ship.
Man, I am glad I am not making my living in the US or for such a company. I realize that this is the case for a lot of people working in development. But, there are also companies out there where developers are judged on the quality of their overall work (which includes more than just code) and the quality of the overall product.
Just a nuance I wanted to place since this might seem like true, it isn't an absolute truth.
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Comment on Will you be left behind if you don't use LLMs to code? in ~comp
creesch Link ParentCan you define falling behind? I already did leave a reply here to Rudism as I am largely in agreement with them. But no matter how I look at it LLMs are mostly a tool to either make work go...Full stop, no matter what metric of productivity, you will fall behind if you do not use LLMs at all in a professional capacity
Can you define falling behind? I already did leave a reply here to Rudism as I am largely in agreement with them. But no matter how I look at it LLMs are mostly a tool to either make work go faster for people with experience. Or, and maybe that is what you are hinting at, allowing them to apply their technical skills and foundation to a broader field. Which is extremely nice, but most often comes down to velocity again as they likely would have been able to do so already given the time to research a subject themselves.
Anyone, with a sufficient technical background, picking up LLMs now can be up to speed within a week compared to people who have been using them for years in my opinion. Unless I am missing something really obvious, there is no real moat around the tooling or LLMs themselves. In that regard they really aren't all that different from picking up other tooling in the past.
Which is often where people get stuck. Learning tooling before understanding technology which locks them into a niche.
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Comment on Will you be left behind if you don't use LLMs to code? in ~comp
creesch Link ParentThat might be the future at some point. But certainly not the reality right now. In fact, models have progressed to the point where their hallucinations (or however you want to call it) become...I suppose if you're of the opinion that the ability to read and comprehend code is no longer a meaningful skill in this new world where LLMs do all the coding, then maybe my point is moot. I
That might be the future at some point. But certainly not the reality right now. In fact, models have progressed to the point where their hallucinations (or however you want to call it) become much less obvious and in that sense much more damaging since it can take a while to pick up and requires a lot more to fix.
As it is, the more skilled you are with the core of the technologies you ask them to work with the better you will be at using them.The tooling surrounding them, which I guess is what you could be "left behind" on also isn't that complicated to pick up on. At least not when you have a strong technical background, critical thinking skills and are somewhat adequate at writing.
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Comment on Shopping around for a new-and-improved backup solution in ~comp
creesch LinkI am using restic through backrest which just makes it slightly more convenient with a visual overview. It all goes to a hetzner storage box. I can choose what files/folders specifically to...I am using restic through backrest which just makes it slightly more convenient with a visual overview. It all goes to a hetzner storage box.
Or can I navigate into the repo and just manually grab files?
I can choose what files/folders specifically to restore/download as well from each snapshot.
As far as the parent directory changing goes. I guess that might be an issue, but I don't do that very often. Certainly not for directories that contain large files. Movies and series are sitting on my NAS and aren't backed up, development stuff sits in git repos and doesn't need to be included. So my restic backups are fairly consistent in size.
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Comment on Does generative AI have a natural limit without a major innovation? in ~comp
creesch (edited )Link ParentThe company I work for and many others are all in on ai use and explicitly use the term genAI. To me the term is one used by those in management and suffering from the corporate fomo.especially in circles that don't much think about the topic and use it as a shorthand for "the product I don't like".
The company I work for and many others are all in on ai use and explicitly use the term genAI. To me the term is one used by those in management and suffering from the corporate fomo.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
creesch Link ParentSince this is a short bit above ground with few corners and no elevation changes I'll be able to grab the coordinates from bluemap. I'll try to remember to do it today.Since this is a short bit above ground with few corners and no elevation changes I'll be able to grab the coordinates from bluemap. I'll try to remember to do it today.
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Comment on An interactive introduction to the terrific experience of rendering Arabic typography and its technical debt in ~tech
creesch LinkAn incredibly detailed look at the challenges of Arabic typography on the modern web. A subject I never really had thought about before. I really love the detailed history providing extensive...An incredibly detailed look at the challenges of Arabic typography on the modern web. A subject I never really had thought about before.
I really love the detailed history providing extensive context to the entire story. As someone with both a history related degree and IT career this truly hit both interests perfectly
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An interactive introduction to the terrific experience of rendering Arabic typography and its technical debt
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Comment on USB power delivery: Plugging into the benefits in ~tech
creesch Link ParentI don't think they mean karma as a site feature with an actual number. But more metaphorical karma as in being seen contributing in good faith and it being reflected in the comments/submissions...I don't think they mean karma as a site feature with an actual number. But more metaphorical karma as in being seen contributing in good faith and it being reflected in the comments/submissions when checking out their profile.
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Comment on What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist? in ~games
creesch Link ParentI haven't given it a go myself yet, but have had it on my wishlist for a while Microlandia claims to at least check some of these boxes.I haven't given it a go myself yet, but have had it on my wishlist for a while Microlandia claims to at least check some of these boxes.
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Comment on rsync and outrage in ~comp
creesch Link ParentYes, this is also my concern as well. Professionally both through how I see juniors acting during onboarding and how my and other companies look at them. But in the OSS sense it is also why I am...I don't love LLMs, I think we are absolutely taking an axe to the talent pipeline that I don't think we will ever recover from
Yes, this is also my concern as well. Professionally both through how I see juniors acting during onboarding and how my and other companies look at them. But in the OSS sense it is also why I am still weary when I see an
AGENTS.mdorCLAUDE.mdfile as I don't have a strong sense what the repos owner baseline is in knowledge, experience and overall critical thinking. Sometimes you can get somewhat of an impression by the contents of these files but overall I very much do understand why people rather not have LLMs involved with software they rely on.At the same time I am absolutely not on board with calling anything LLM related slop and lashing out to individual developers who end using it, certainly not when they do try to do so responsibly.
I know that people are against LLMs in principle and I think that is valid for all sorts of reasons. At the same time, and people might disagree here, I firmly believe that if everyone was always 100% true to their principles we would be living in an even more polarized world than we already are. In fact, I think it is impossible to do so.
That's not to say that I think people should throw away their principles or even meet others in "the middle" because that is also problematic for a whole host of reasons. What I do mean is that people should try and be aware of the practical limitations on some of their principles.For example in this case. If you have a OSS project, you will be faced with a massive increase of CVE reports that originate from the use of LLMs. By all accounts these reports over the past half year have increasingly become reliable exposing actual exploitable CVEs. If we take a 100% purist route of not wanting any LLM involvement at all, should OSS maintainers just ignore those reports? Hope that a human finds the same vulnerabilities manually? We know that the latter isn't happening, so even if someone wants to avoid LLM involvement if they care about security they are already forced to accept some.
Which brings me to my next point and where it comes back to rsync. How then are OSS maintainers expected to magically find more time to actually fix these CVEs? Many OSS projects have been chronically understaffed and have been for quite some while. This xkcd meme isn't actually a meme and true for a worryingly large amount of projects. Speaking from some experience (though not nearly on this scale) finding people to actually stick around and do more than incidental contributions can be next to impossible.
In summary, I don't think it is practically next to impossible to demand no LLM involvement at all in software development. Certainly not when we are dealing with software like rsync, curl, etc where security is essential. I am not advocating that people who demand this tack up the slack and start contributing their time or anything. But I do think they should stop and consider who they are actually directing their anger against.
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Comment on rsync and outrage in ~comp
creesch Link ParentHave you gone over the code to verify thar this is the case? The article is pretty clear that most regression was due to CVE fixes. Someone also did put in some actual work and showed that there...Have you gone over the code to verify thar this is the case? The article is pretty clear that most regression was due to CVE fixes. Someone also did put in some actual work and showed that there are not significantly more bugs in the last two releases compared to previous ones. In fact they found a previous release from before AI that had significant more regression.
https://tildes.net/~comp/1ujj/did_claude_increase_bugs_in_rsync
This doesn't rule out that Claude did introduce bugs. But I am also not convinced the regression was introduced because of Claude or because tests didn't cover those areas. Basically, if they had written the code themselves would the bugs not have been there?
To be clear, I am also not comfortable with many projects starting to more heavily rely on claude code. Even more so because my own experimentation has shown you really need to be on top of things to work. At the same that same experimentation has shown me that someone with solid experience can achieve goos results if they are diligent, methodical and disciplined in how they use a harness like claude code.
Given this article and the other article I linked I strongly feel that has been the case here. I see no tangible evidence that rsync has gotten worse because the author used claude.
Which leaves only the fact that some people are against LLM usage out of principle. For that group I understand them being disappointed that yet another project involves LLM usage. But, that is also not what the outrage was claimed to be about.
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Comment on People who want less AI are breaking up with Google Search in ~tech
creesch Link ParentSearxng is a meta search engine combining other search engine results. I guess it is sort of distributed in that sense but also very different.Searxng is a meta search engine combining other search engine results. I guess it is sort of distributed in that sense but also very different.
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Comment on Rich Markdown Editor Userscript for Tildes in ~tildes
creesch Link ParentFor the failure scenario maybe store a timestamp and ttl value that is relatively short. That assumes of course that the network error is short lived. More elaborate as far as UI and UX go is not...For the failure scenario maybe store a timestamp and ttl value that is relatively short. That assumes of course that the network error is short lived.
More elaborate as far as UI and UX go is not loading it by default but have an indicator a saved draft is available
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Comment on Rich Markdown Editor Userscript for Tildes in ~tildes
creesch LinkVery nice! Autosaving comments is also a nice but if I hit cancel and get the "Discard your reply?" popup I feel like that should also clear the autosaved content. Though I am not entirely sure if...Very nice! Autosaving comments is also a nice but if I hit cancel and get the "Discard your reply?" popup I feel like that should also clear the autosaved content. Though I am not entirely sure if it is possible to act based on the native confirmation dialogue. It might be possible to replace it outright for a similar result.
In the same sense when I reply with a top comment a way to clear the saved content might be nice.
Bit of a tangent, but also good to see that EasyMDE is being maintained again. I looked at using it a while ago (apparently two years ago or so) and thought it was no longer maintained.
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Comment on What change would make you quit Tildes? in ~tildes
creesch Link ParentThere are a few extensions and user scripts around that do give you slightly more to work with. For example, here is a very meta screenshot. No need to remember the syntax just press the buttons...There are a few extensions and user scripts around that do give you slightly more to work with. For example, here is a very meta screenshot. No need to remember the syntax just press the buttons like you'd do with word.
They are listed on this wiki page: https://tildes.net/~tildes/wiki/customizing_tildes
I am using a heavily customized version of Tildezy.
But I also noticed on that page that @TangibleLight made a fancy rich editor very recently giving you a full blown rich text editor.
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Comment on My Accessibility Stack and the future on Wayland in ~comp
creesch Link ParentBeing a developer and face of a big open source project a lot of people depend on sadly comes with a lot of unwarranted hostility. GNOME is no exception there, but the project overall always has...Being a developer and face of a big open source project a lot of people depend on sadly comes with a lot of unwarranted hostility. GNOME is no exception there, but the project overall always has stood out to me. It is one thing to be opinionated about UI and UX, it is a whole other thing to look like you are actively fighting large parts of your user base. This partially falls into that as far as I am concerned.
A obvious example was the introduction of GNOME 3 where it took years for basic features to be added back. Stuff like Minimize/Maximize buttons, no options for a visible taskbar of any kind, no icons on the desktop, no system tray, no power off button (unless you knew to use alt).
Even if I still think that people shouldn't be hostile towards OSS devs in general. I do understand why there might be more hostility aimed towards GNOME devs in general.
Having said that, I do feel that in this case you probably are reading a bit too much of the escalating tone in there. To be clear, I do think that @Barney is reading way too little of it in there either. The fact that they specifically work on accessibility shows they do care about the subject, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it. Which I think also adds to their frustration about people saying it isn't enough. Which from both points is actually valid, they are trying to add the features but can't add them all at once but until those features are present it simply isn't enough for the people that need them.
What they do get wrong is being absolutely dismissive to people needing the features and not contributing. Which I think is a) likely wrong exemplified by people with disabilities in their own project and other places they use as examples b) unfair to users as GNOME and GTK explicitly are user facing products made to serve a very wide audience.
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Comment on My Accessibility Stack and the future on Wayland in ~comp
creesch LinkIt looks like there is some good news. As others found, part of the issue isn't Wayland but the fact that the Talon dev basically was fed up with Linux in general. Well, as it turns out the guy...It looks like there is some good news. As others found, part of the issue isn't Wayland but the fact that the Talon dev basically was fed up with Linux in general. Well, as it turns out the guy who also works on xdotool also decided to have a go at Talon and made some good progress.
It should be noted that this is the same dev who last year still found that porting xdotool to wayland was not feasible and the whole situation a confusing mess. Apparently he had another go this year and made more progress in finding a way to make it work. He did set up a kickstarter for xdotool for wayland so I do suspect it still involves a lot of work (and I wonder how much of it is working around Wayland or if Wayland also made some things easier in the last year) but it at least gives some hope for the future.
Edit:
Apparantly it is a lot of work arounds
I asked how he's doing it, and he mentioned that right now it's unfortunately a lot of brute-force code: a separate conditional implementation for GNOME / KDE / wlroots + various compositor-specific tweaks. Apparently this requires interfacing with all-of wayland/wlroots protocols, DBus, GNOME's RemoteDesktop protocol, writing a GNOME extension
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
creesch Link ParentWe also have some sponges floating around somewhere I believe. That might the process somewhat easier.We also have some sponges floating around somewhere I believe. That might the process somewhat easier.
Yup, I have said it before , it is one thing to be opinionated about UI and UX, it is a whole other thing to look like you are actively fighting large parts of your user base. With GNOME it often looks like the latter in how far they go.
Things have progressed since the years since the GNOME 3 release, I use it at work without too many annoyances. But at home I am very happy that KDE Plasma is also available. As a note, KDE Plasma improved leaps and bounds over the years in my experience. I whole heartily people who haven't tried it in a few years to give it a go.