Handshape's recent activity
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
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Comment on Do you have games that you play (almost) exclusively? in ~games
Handshape Link ParentI was gifted the roomscale VR remake of Riven, and the folks at Cyan did an excellent job of adapting the core ideas to the medium. Visiting some of the places was almost sublime - the temple near...I was gifted the roomscale VR remake of Riven, and the folks at Cyan did an excellent job of adapting the core ideas to the medium.
Visiting some of the places was almost sublime - the temple near the beginning was the moment where I had to stop playing and swim in a little pool of nostalgia. I'm certain that the designers anticipated that some of those "set pieces" were what would attract original players to that world.
The solutions to some of the puzzles were also revised, with almost a wink and a wag of the finger.
There is a spot where you anticipate one of the biggest such set pieces, and they judo-flip your expectations... and it was there that I actually started grinning under the hat.
It was that same sense of initial "WTF?" turning into "Oh! I understand!" that made the original game so good... and the folks at Cyan delivered.
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Comment on Do you have games that you play (almost) exclusively? in ~games
Handshape LinkPretty much every game I play, I play solo, and to the exclusion of all other games. The ones that drive me are those that involve exploration, and in which I gain capacity in-game from what I...Pretty much every game I play, I play solo, and to the exclusion of all other games.
The ones that drive me are those that involve exploration, and in which I gain capacity in-game from what I learn as a player, not just as a character. The Outer Wilds and The Witness have been mentioned elsewhere in this thread - they're masterworks, but the first one to really scratch this itch for me was Riven back in '97.
I'm currently enjoying Pacific Drive. My first four hours were essentially me shouting "Aah! What? No! Gitoffmycaryouwierdfuckingthing!" at the screen, and my wife and son laughing at me in the background.
I'm approaching the endgame now, and all the strange experiences have accumulated to make navigating the anomalous realities feel like being a cross between Steve McQueen and Hunter S. Thompson. Good times.
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Comment on Anyone using Meshtastic/LoRA radio? in ~hobbies
Handshape LinkThere are only two active nodes in my community, and I've been thinking about investing in a few to see if I can get a few local businesses to agree to host them. I'm interested in word from folks...There are only two active nodes in my community, and I've been thinking about investing in a few to see if I can get a few local businesses to agree to host them.
I'm interested in word from folks deploying them about which devices offer the best value for money.
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Comment on Building a personal, private AI computer on a budget in ~comp
Handshape LinkBeen working hard on getting this right for use cases with financial, ethical, and security constraints. In my professional life, I've been working carefully on getting inference for as many users...Been working hard on getting this right for use cases with financial, ethical, and security constraints.
In my professional life, I've been working carefully on getting inference for as many users on as many models as possible squeezed down onto as little hardware as I can.
There are potent optimizations that can be done by keeping the models (and logits) "as hot as possible" on VRAM, and using smaller models for many requests.
The sweet spot is somewhere around 9b parameters, with the ends of the model at full precision, and the middles quantized down to about 4 bits. Each user gets something like 8GB of VRAM for just the tiny slices of time when inference is actually happening, and then the rest gets interleaved for other users.
I have no doubt that many large vendors have done this work as well, and are reaping profits by "selling lamb, and then serving mutton".
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Comment on Building a personal, private AI computer on a budget in ~comp
Handshape Link ParentMy favourite foible with the DS R1 model and distils is that you can detect when you've tripped an ideological guardrail by looking for the empty <think> block. No think. Only repeat. Good bot. 🙈🙉🙊My favourite foible with the DS R1 model and distils is that you can detect when you've tripped an ideological guardrail by looking for the empty
<think>block.No think. Only repeat. Good bot. 🙈🙉🙊
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Comment on What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time? in ~talk
Handshape LinkThe one I miss the most is my Pebble 2 watch. It hit the perfect sweet spot for ergonomics and features. Sadly, a -40°C day did it in. The one I still use daily is my FingerWorks iGesture pad. 25...The one I miss the most is my Pebble 2 watch. It hit the perfect sweet spot for ergonomics and features. Sadly, a -40°C day did it in.
The one I still use daily is my FingerWorks iGesture pad. 25 year-old pointing device, and there's still nothing that comes close to the functionality packed into that little beast.
For non-tech stuff, as dumb and as cringe as it sounds, a wooden Japanese practice sword (bokken). When my university martial arts club bought a cheap set in bulk in the 90s, I got the last one. It's straight, but the wood it blotchy
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Comment on What video games have had you taking real-life notes? in ~games
Handshape Link ParentMy father was a commercial artist. The scribblings he made while we played Riven as a family are an anchor to a treasured memory. There's a little part of me that likes to imagine that he's out...My father was a commercial artist. The scribblings he made while we played Riven as a family are an anchor to a treasured memory.
There's a little part of me that likes to imagine that he's out there among the Ages, scribbling drawings of impossible places in a little book.
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Comment on Any Kult players? in ~games.tabletop
Handshape LinkKult... That's a system I'd not thought about in a long time. I played the 1st Ed in the early 90s. Made good use of the vibe around Tool's Undertow album. Ran a campaign that felt like a...Kult... That's a system I'd not thought about in a long time. I played the 1st Ed in the early 90s. Made good use of the vibe around Tool's Undertow album.
Ran a campaign that felt like a police-investigation detective rpg to begin with, and let the players peel back the layers of the world.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Handshape Link Parentllama.cpp for inference, plain old python for orchestration, nginx for TLS termination and traffic balancing, redis for distributed session caching. With some careful decisions about what to cache...llama.cpp for inference, plain old python for orchestration, nginx for TLS termination and traffic balancing, redis for distributed session caching.
With some careful decisions about what to cache and when, you can minimize the contention quite a bit.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Handshape LinkA scalable hosting service for secure LLM inference. Lots of fun trying to serve the greatest number of concurrent sessions for the greatest number of LLMs with no lost conversations, and the...A scalable hosting service for secure LLM inference. Lots of fun trying to serve the greatest number of concurrent sessions for the greatest number of LLMs with no lost conversations, and the fewest trips to cold storage possible, with session multiplexing among lots and lots of users.
I've got density way, way higher than what I'd ever have guessed possible. Enough that my whole org can run on two consumer GPUs in separate enclosures, each at about 50% average load during peak hours, and acting as hot failovers for one another. There's still room for optimization, but we're right at the limit of whether the proverbial juice is worth the squeeze.
Some of the most fun optimization work of my career.
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Comment on I can't cry for some reason in ~health.mental
Handshape LinkVery much so. Really wish I could find a context in which any such outlet would be socially acceptable. I know exactly where my issue comes from: I'm not young by any reasonable definition, but I...Very much so. Really wish I could find a context in which any such outlet would be socially acceptable.
I know exactly where my issue comes from: I'm not young by any reasonable definition, but I became the oldest living man in my extended family pretty suddenly, about 7 years ago.
Between a heavy grief load, a brutal dispute with my employer, and suddenly having just about everyone in the family looking to me for support and stability, I had to lock shit down hard, and keep it there.
The moments when I cry only happen in private, and only when I'm blindsided. There have been exactly two in those seven years.
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Comment on What are your cooking experiments that haven't turned out well? in ~food
Handshape LinkI've been exploring various permutations of bread making - leavened/unleavened/soda/sourdough, loaves/miches/flatbread/tack, and the wild and wooly universe of flours. I've made undercooked blobs,...I've been exploring various permutations of bread making - leavened/unleavened/soda/sourdough, loaves/miches/flatbread/tack, and the wild and wooly universe of flours. I've made undercooked blobs, and overcooked curling stones. Inadvisable rosemary loaves that taste of medicine.
Of all the disappointments, the worst was the time I made parmesan-flavoured corn tortillas. The colour was good, the smell was heavenly... but as I went to lift it out of the pan, it looked at me and said "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good."
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Comment on Movie of the Week #15 - Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse in ~movies
Handshape LinkThis film suffers badly from the "Matrix Effect" - when it hit theatres, it's visual style had truly innovative elements - deep-saturation colours on black and variable-framerate characters being...This film suffers badly from the "Matrix Effect" - when it hit theatres, it's visual style had truly innovative elements - deep-saturation colours on black and variable-framerate characters being key among them. Now these elements seem to be everywhere, to the point that they've become tired. NGL, the inclusion of low-framerate Miles in the latest spidey game was a nice touch.
Thinking back, the place I first saw extended limbs and acrobatic low framerate was in 2012, on Disney's TRON:Uprising... albeit with less mature character rigging and animation.
The "Kirby crackle" effect in Into the Spider-Verse is an interesting nod to the ink-heavy style of early Marvel artist Jack Kirby. That, and the use of heavy halftones, was a show of respect to the golden age that made me smile hard in the theatre.
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Comment on Career advice (or success stories) thread in ~life
Handshape LinkI'm in what I hope will be the last leg of my career, and the path has been twisty, sometimes to the point of incredulity. I've toggled back and forth between the public and private sectors a...- Exemplary
I'm in what I hope will be the last leg of my career, and the path has been twisty, sometimes to the point of incredulity. I've toggled back and forth between the public and private sectors a total of six times, with stints in academia, law enforcement, and the "C-suite".
Patterns I've observed looking back:
- The person paying you is never your friend. Even the most welcoming, caring manager still works for an organization that sees you as a cost to be cut as soon as possible.
- Boiled-frog syndrome is real, but folks seldom discuss the euphoria that comes when that frog finally jumps from the intolerable pot. Moving from a hellhole to anything else feels good in the moment, but it's important to objectively assess the reality of the new state.
- Relationships are everything in career progression. If you're not visible to people that can potentially offer a step forward, you're trapped. Make yourself visible.
- Organic career progression within an organization is a myth. It's not realistically been a thing since the early 70s. Org charts are like an inverted hourglass - every person is a grain of sand is trying to get to that same focal point.
Mistakes I've made worth sharing:
- Sales is the art of lying for a living to induce someone else to take a particular course of action. Execs that come from the sales stream don't stop "selling". I failed to allocate my trust accordingly.
- I assumed too often that work friends were friends. No matter how good your relationship is day-to-day, about 90% of that goodwill disappears as soon as people aren't compelled to interact with each other.
- I failed to follow my instincts a couple of times when I suspected that a job was becoming unstable. There's very little advantage to being the one that "sticks it out" when a company or business unit starts shrinking - at best you end up shouldering the workload of the colleagues that leave.
Straight up advice:
- Learn voraciously. You know that stuff that's "not your job"? Understanding it could lead to your next job.
- Don't defer life. Births, weddings, funerals, friends and family trump career every time.
- Exuding confidence, openness, and approachability is a workplace skill worth every bit as much as expertise, and bears equal attention when choosing what to develop.
This was actually a neat reflection exercise. I enjoyed writing it.
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Comment on Movie of the Week #14 - The Iron Giant in ~movies
Handshape LinkI had to count on my fingers and toes to reconcile the fact that this film is nearly a quarter-century old with reality. When it was first released, the characters were all culturally-anchored...I had to count on my fingers and toes to reconcile the fact that this film is nearly a quarter-century old with reality.
When it was first released, the characters were all culturally-anchored cardboard cutouts of 50s stereotypes. With that many more miles on the odometer, I wonder to what extent kids today (ostensibly still the target audience) have those same cultural anchors.
Also, the gag about this film in Ted Lasso was on the nose.
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Comment on How would you teach math differently to young kids if budget was not a concern? in ~talk
Handshape LinkI had a number of great math experiences growing up that I wish had made it to core curriculum. They were enabled by limiting class size, and streaming away the kids that didn't want to be there....I had a number of great math experiences growing up that I wish had made it to core curriculum. They were enabled by limiting class size, and streaming away the kids that didn't want to be there. There's a ton of ethical questions about equity there, but setting those aside:
- Simulations - we spent a month in class running a simulated economy. It ended when four kids reinvented collusion and predatory price-fixing.
- Appropriate tooling - Early access to computers that had what we needed and nothing more, for as long as we wanted.
- Cultivated intuition - play develops intuitive understanding, and then instruction provides the models to frame and develop that understanding, but you can't do the reverse as easily.
- Enlist granny power - few things motivate little kids more than the attention of a grandparent-figure. "Show me what you were just doing, there." is a motivational superpower when said by an old lady that brings you cookies.
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Comment on How would you teach math differently to young kids if budget was not a concern? in ~talk
Handshape Link ParentOne of the "aha" moments that stuck with me from my early formal education was when a teacher had us calculate and plot about a dozen points along y = -(x^2), eliciting lots of sighs and...One of the "aha" moments that stuck with me from my early formal education was when a teacher had us calculate and plot about a dozen points along
y = -(x^2), eliciting lots of sighs and eye-rolling as we did it.Once all the points were plotted, he said "watch this", and threw the chalk he'd used to plot the curve on the blackboard... and the chalk followed the curve.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Handshape LinkJust finished Sable. A pleasant change of pace from what I was playing before to a super-chill exploration experience. The art style is a love letter to Gaston Giraud (aka Mobius) - I grew up on...Just finished Sable. A pleasant change of pace from what I was playing before to a super-chill exploration experience. The art style is a love letter to Gaston Giraud (aka Mobius) - I grew up on his stuff as a kid, so the set pieces in the game that reference his work made me smile.
Gameplay is easy, but slow. The hoverbike piloting mechanics in particular are positively janky. Nonetheless, I feel that the game achieves what it was intended to do: establish a parallel between exploration of the world and the exploration of oneself.
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Comment on Movie of the Week #13 - Marcel The Shell With Shoes On in ~movies
Handshape LinkTangential, but funny: I semi-frequently host online Open Mic events. In November 2023, a first-timer showed up - a cute-as-a-button teenage girl with a ukulele who sounded exactly like Marcel....Tangential, but funny: I semi-frequently host online Open Mic events. In November 2023, a first-timer showed up - a cute-as-a-button teenage girl with a ukulele who sounded exactly like Marcel.
She'd never heard of the character, and when I showed her the trailer for the A24 treatment, I was rewarded with the sweetest little squeaky "What the actual fuck is this?"
Celebrated a milestone birthday with friends and family. Ate too much, drank more than I ought to, and enjoyed having my home filled with happy people.