creesch's recent activity
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Comment on Fifty Shades of OOP in ~comp
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Comment on Fifty Shades of OOP in ~comp
creesch Link ParentShould is a big word, but I find it a nice addition sometimes. As troberston says, it certainly beats the complete dumpster fire that is HN comments. If you want an invite send me a DM with an...Should is a big word, but I find it a nice addition sometimes. As troberston says, it certainly beats the complete dumpster fire that is HN comments. If you want an invite send me a DM with an email address.
edit:
They also have an IRC channel (yes, IRC) on libera.chat which sometimes has some neat talk going on. If you happen to join there, there is also a #tildes channel on the same server where we idle for the sake of nostalgia with a bunch of us :P
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Comment on GPT-5 has come a long way in mathematics in ~tech
creesch LinkOne thing I'd say is that I am not entirely sure it is the LLMs themselves that have gotten better at math. Rather, from my understanding, a lot of the commerical models do tool calling in the...One thing I'd say is that I am not entirely sure it is the LLMs themselves that have gotten better at math. Rather, from my understanding, a lot of the commerical models do tool calling in the background for things there are not natively good at. I might be wrong there though, or it might be more complex. But I figured I'd mention it as context anyway.
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Comment on Google must double AI serving capacity every six months to meet demand in ~tech
creesch (edited )LinkOne has to wonder how much of that demand is genuine demand driven by useful applications, etc. And how much is demand from AI being bolted onto every single applications by decree of C-suites...One has to wonder how much of that demand is genuine demand driven by useful applications, etc. And how much is demand from AI being bolted onto every single applications by decree of C-suites with a major case of FOMO.
I'd also be curious to see what all these datacenters will be used for, if the bubble does burst.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (November 2025) in ~health.mental
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Comment on The worlds on fire. So lets just make AI porn. in ~tech
creesch Link ParentI don't have the time now to do a proper reply, but afaik that is mostly a popular urban myth and not actually the case.I don't have the time now to do a proper reply, but afaik that is mostly a popular urban myth and not actually the case.
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Comment on The worlds on fire. So lets just make AI porn. in ~tech
creesch (edited )Link ParentWhat I am saying is that I have no clue what announcement this is about. I don't think it is linked either, so I am left clueless to the context as a reader. Edit: To be clear, I now googled it...What I am saying is that I have no clue what announcement this is about. I don't think it is linked either, so I am left clueless to the context as a reader.
Edit: To be clear, I now googled it and am aware. But I missed the story, so in the article I really didn't have any context to go by other than the sentence "Then I checked back and openAI decided to do porn.". I think that sentence really could use a source for some context.
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Comment on The worlds on fire. So lets just make AI porn. in ~tech
creesch Link ParentI yet have to read the entire thing. The first few paragraphs are solid. But the shift to porn is sudden and the context is missing for me there. I'll leave more feedback once I csn finish the...I yet have to read the entire thing. The first few paragraphs are solid. But the shift to porn is sudden and the context is missing for me there.
I'll leave more feedback once I csn finish the entire article.
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Comment on Finland’s big idea: turning data center heat into power in ~enviro
creesch Link ParentYeah, like I said, I am all for impact reduction. My issues is with the framing of it all. The claim about pricing is something I think warrants further scrutiny as well. I highly doubt it does...Yeah, like I said, I am all for impact reduction. My issues is with the framing of it all.
The claim about pricing is something I think warrants further scrutiny as well. I highly doubt it does even out.
Data centres will be built regardless of if you like it thanks to increased demand,
One has to wonder how much of that demand is real and how much is artificial. A loy of datacenters are being build for AI purposes these days. While I do think LLMs do have some uses, I also firmly believe that most demand is a result of VC money backed marketing and hype driven fomo of companies not wanting to miss out.
So, I don't think it should be a given that all of these data centers will be build. And it is exactly the sort of colored reporting I have an issue with.
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Comment on Finland’s big idea: turning data center heat into power in ~enviro
creesch LinkNot a solution, the power still is produced and consumed. Calling it a solution implies that non of that happens and there is zero impact. Which is not the case, it is an impact reducing approach....As AI and data centers consume more power worldwide, Finland is finding a way to turn the problem
into a solution.Not a solution, the power still is produced and consumed. Calling it a solution implies that non of that happens and there is zero impact. Which is not the case, it is an impact reducing approach. One that I don't think is new either, I seem to remember it popping in the news over the years for various countries specifically for data centers. Using heat produced by industries certainly isn't new, it is one of the core principals in district heating systems.
Don't get me wrong, I think it is good to capture heat and use it where it otherwise would go to waste. I am all for that. I just don't like Bloomberg's greenwashing type of reporting on things like this. Which, to be frank, is a common theme in their reporting.
Which, given Bloomberg's core business and their demographic focus, makes sense. But that's all the more reason to critically look at whatever they report, as it is heavily colored in favor of big tech and business in general.
In dutch we have this saying that fits perfectly on a lot of reporting Bloomberg does.
Wij van Wc-eend adviseren Wc-eend
Wc-eend (literal toilet-duck) is a producer of toilet cleaning products and this was an actual slogan of theirs starting from the 80s. It translates as
We from Wc-eend advice Wc-eend
And it basically has become the standard saying used when experts recommend their own product or interests. Something I feel like is applicable here.
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Comment on The final straw: Why companies replace once-beloved technology brands in ~tech
creesch Link ParentI think that simplifies things too if I am being honest. If it was that simple we wouldn't have Windows as the majority OS from a company that is now 50 years old. Or, sticking to your example,...I think that simplifies things too if I am being honest. If it was that simple we wouldn't have Windows as the majority OS from a company that is now 50 years old. Or, sticking to your example, Apple which is at the same ripe old age. Or even if we count from Steve Jobs coming back to Apple we are still talking about 28 years. Google is also 27 years old at this point.
To be clear, I firmly agree with this part.
The old legacy companies are full of people hired after the product became a mature money printer and are now just there to make incremental improvements, shuffle the deck chairs around, and collect their paychecks and go home.
I am just not so optimistic about them going down eventually. At least not the way the market these days seems to operate.
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Comment on Amtrak steadily continues upgrading Wisconsin stations for level boarding - improving access and travel time in ~transport
creesch (edited )Link ParentWhat's interesting to me is that it is certainly possible and viable. At least from a demand perspective. Slightly more North you have Arnhem being connect with a regional train to Emmerich which...What's interesting to me is that it is certainly possible and viable. At least from a demand perspective. Slightly more North you have Arnhem being connect with a regional train to Emmerich which continues in Germany all the way to Düsseldorf.
It is a fairly recent connection, I think it is only 10 years old at this point? It runs every half an hour and the few times I have used it the train was decently full. The biggest difference is that it could leverage rail infrastructure already there used by the international high speed line. But to me that just shows to confirm what the video already says. It isn't a lack of demand, it is a lack of political willpower to invest in linking up the rail near Nijmegen.
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
creesch Link ParentOh I am well aware there is tooling out there like static code analyzers, more detailed unit test analysis, etc, etc. Most of those only say something about the potential quality of the code, not...Oh I am well aware there is tooling out there like static code analyzers, more detailed unit test analysis, etc, etc.
Most of those only say something about the potential quality of the code, not correctness of the implementation. Unit tests do say something about that but are a bare minimum as far as I am concerned.
So to answer your original question, I do care as it doesn't tell me nearly enough.
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
creesch Link ParentIt matters a lot, depending on the completeness of your tests. Considering I also see people happily letting LLMs generate both tests and code it tends to happen a lot more. Even before the advent...when what it produces passes all possible tests and does what I asked? =)
It matters a lot, depending on the completeness of your tests. Considering I also see people happily letting LLMs generate both tests and code it tends to happen a lot more.
Even before the advent of LLMs this was also such a weird argument to me. Since I have seen companies who started to dictate code coverage percentages and teams that maliciously complied with things likeassert(true.equals(true))in the tests themselves.Even if we assume good well written unit tests, passing those tests is the bare minimum in a good quality process. It doesn't say much about the integration, it doesn't tell you anything about the used dependencies, etc, etc.
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
creesch Link ParentYou place similar caveats in your post as well. I agree with them strongly, but I also think that you are closer to agreeing with the research than you might realize. If I am reading your post...Looking forward it's hard to imagine any future that doesn't involve AI as an integral part of software development. But also there will be carnage along the way. Those subtle bugs we've been talking about are silently building up in codebases everywhere and that will only get worse. Not to mention unnecessary, difficult to maintain code that doesn't technically contain bugs. I chuckle when I hear people talk about how many lines of code they've written in last X days with AI that would have taken them weeks or months otherwise. X lines that should have actually been X/4 lines. Get back to us in 6 months when you're wading through that mess trying to figure out how to maintain it without scrapping it completely.
You place similar caveats in your post as well. I agree with them strongly, but I also think that you are closer to agreeing with the research than you might realize. If I am reading your post correctly, using agentic AI mostly shifted the work you did from writing certain basics to double-checking those basics. There is probably some back and forth happening, prompt refinement, etc.
I firmly believe you are seeing a mental net benefit of not having to do certain tasks from scratch anymore. At the same time, it is entirely possible that you are not seeing a much if any of a time benefit.
I am also not entirely sure if it is the agentic part, not just general model improvements. Then again, agents in this context is a bit of a fuzzy concept. A lot of the IDE tools that were around before the term agentic AI was ever coined are not ret conned to be called agentic.
To be clear, I don't think LLMs are entirely useless. I am a happy user of them myself, with all the same caveats and awareness of limitations you also mention. I personally just classify it as useful but underwhelming compared to the hype and I stand firmly by that.
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Comment on Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit in ~tech
creesch (edited )Link ParentIf that is the case, then you would still be able to find examples of good examples once you start looking for them. If the majority of AI work is supposed to be done by agents, capable of doing...This feels like a CGI case, where all the CGI people remember from movies is bad… because they don’t notice the good examples to begin with, since the intention for most CGI is to be invisible.
If that is the case, then you would still be able to find examples of good examples once you start looking for them. If the majority of AI work is supposed to be done by agents, capable of doing the entire process, including making PRs. And if that process is as revolutionary as the claims. Then, why isn't there an explosion in such PRs on a large amount of open source projects? Specifically, why am I not seeing these PRs on AI related open source projects? If I need to target it even more directly, why am I a not seeing hints of this being applied on code agent repositories?
Call me naïve, but you'd think that these specifically want to demonstrate how well their product works. Making an effort to distinguish PRs that are largely the work of their own agents. Yet, I am not seeing that mostly these "secondary" sources and a lot of "trust me, it is there and it as amazing".
And I am seeing something similar on this post. I think the title of the post is overselling what OP is actually getting out of it.
The usual caveats apply, if you rely on agents to do extensive coding, or handle complex problems, you'll end up regretting it unless you go over every line with a magnifying glass. They will cheerfully introduce subtle bugs that are hard to catch and harder to fix when you finally do stumble across them. And that's assuming they can do the thing you're asking then to do at all. Beyond the basics they still abjectly fail a lot of the time. They'll write humorously bad code, they'll break unrelated code for no apparent reason, they'll freak out and get stuck in loops (that one suprised me in 2025). We're still a long way from agents that can actually write software on their own, despite the hype.
So far this tracks with my experiences as well and seems to hint at what the study also found. Using agentic AI more or less shifts the sort of work you are doing, but it doesn't really speed up the process all that much, if any. Which can still be a net benefit if you are the sort of person who doesn't like doing a lot of the basic tasks. Certainly if you often start with fresh Greenfield projects and not larger established code bases.
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Comment on Zen browser / chrome alternatives in ~tech
creesch LinkI tried it, wasn't really a fan. Some of that might be because I am rusted in my ways. But in many other ways it is clearly still a beta and a skin on top of Firefox. For example I like having...I tried it, wasn't really a fan. Some of that might be because I am rusted in my ways. But in many other ways it is clearly still a beta and a skin on top of Firefox. For example I like having access to my bookmarks bar easily, this didn't work when I tried it initially, but the options were there. Extensions and having the icons available is another issue. It clearly is a very opinionated browser on the UX/UI and I don't really share that same opinion.
In the future I might giving it another go. But for now I am sticking with Vivaldi for now. One of the few Chrome based browsers that I feel like works for me and cares about their users. A comment I wrote about that browser a while ago.
Firefox would be my browser of choice, except for some issues most people like don't care about in relation to extension development.
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Comment on The death of punctuation in ~humanities.languages
creesch Link ParentI used to do that as well. But in a work related context, that is just not time worth spending. I got cured of that over time when I started mailing with managers and receiving mails from people...For email, it sometime takes me an hour to draft a message, because I'm trying to make sure everything sounds and looks good.
I used to do that as well. But in a work related context, that is just not time worth spending. I got cured of that over time when I started mailing with managers and receiving mails from people high up the totem pole. Where I noticed that the higher up people are in an organization, the less punctuated their mails are to the point of being sloppy. Combined with the fact that many people just poorly read mail no matter how much time I spend on writing them, I just stopped worrying about it so much.
Mind you, I'll still do a read over and make sure it is presentable. But I am just not that bothered by "the tone" being perfect. Frankly, I think I spend more time on Tildes comments than I do on work related mails now that I think about it.
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Comment on Any chance we can get a shorthand for the <details> tag? in ~tildes
creesch Link ParentI'm amazed and dazzled by your zeal, but your puzzling logic is frankly a bit hazy and lazy. What have pizzas, zebras, and jazz ever done to you? My enthusiasm for this zany scheme is basically zero.I'm amazed and dazzled by your zeal, but your puzzling logic is frankly a bit hazy and lazy. What have pizzas, zebras, and jazz ever done to you? My enthusiasm for this zany scheme is basically zero.
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Comment on Any chance we can get a shorthand for the <details> tag? in ~tildes
creesch Link Parent| is called a pipe, at least that is what I know it as from terminal stuff. Looking it up, it goes by many names ;)|is called a pipe, at least that is what I know it as from terminal stuff. Looking it up, it goes by many names ;)
Once or twice per month people accidentally start a conversation :P