Handshape's recent activity

  1. Comment on What video games have had you taking real-life notes? in ~games

    Handshape
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    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...

    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.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on Any Kult players? in ~games.tabletop

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    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...

    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.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    Handshape
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    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...

    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.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

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    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...

    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.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on I can't cry for some reason in ~health.mental

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    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...

    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.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on What are your cooking experiments that haven't turned out well? in ~food

    Handshape
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    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,...

    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."

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Movie of the Week #15 - Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse in ~movies

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    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...

    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.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on Career advice (or success stories) thread in ~life

    Handshape
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    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...
    • 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.

    21 votes

  9. Comment on Movie of the Week #14 - The Iron Giant in ~movies

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    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...

    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.

    6 votes

  10. Comment on How would you teach math differently to young kids if budget was not a concern? in ~talk

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    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....

    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.
    4 votes

  11. Comment on How would you teach math differently to young kids if budget was not a concern? in ~talk

    Handshape
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    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...

    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.

    7 votes

  12. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    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...

    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.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Movie of the Week #13 - Marcel The Shell With Shoes On in ~movies

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    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....

    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?"

    10 votes

  14. Comment on What music/instruments have you been making/playing recently? in ~music

    Handshape
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    I'm doing my very best to be the most basic "old white man with a guitar" I can be. 20 years in and 100% self taught has probably slowed my development and imbued me with a universe of bad habits,...

    I'm doing my very best to be the most basic "old white man with a guitar" I can be. 20 years in and 100% self taught has probably slowed my development and imbued me with a universe of bad habits, but it's been so much fun this way. Every technique a discovery that I've worked into my playing style, then learned what the real name for it is from some person or other that's seen me doing it.

    Recently, I've not been developing much new so much as recovering from a bout of illness over the holidays that did a real number on my singing voice. There's a lot to be learned abut how to put the pieces back together carefully and safely; a bit like getting back into a favourite sport after spraining an ankle.

  15. Comment on Is GenAI’s impact on productivity overblown? in ~tech

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    I'm up to my armpits in these things in my professional life. They're at the very top of their hype cycle right now, and it's the biggest such cycle I've seen in my long career. Regardless of...

    I'm up to my armpits in these things in my professional life. They're at the very top of their hype cycle right now, and it's the biggest such cycle I've seen in my long career.

    Regardless of their actual capabilities and utility, there's a very steep run down into the "trough of disillusionment" expected soon.

    4 votes

  16. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    Handshape
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    Yeah; got it for Christmas, finished it before I got back to work. The bits I enjoyed were the fluidity of the combat, and the web-slinging mechanic that rewards timing with speed.

    Yeah; got it for Christmas, finished it before I got back to work. The bits I enjoyed were the fluidity of the combat, and the web-slinging mechanic that rewards timing with speed.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Do you ever "self filter" before making a post or comment and what is it based on? in ~talk

    Handshape
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    Depending on where you work and what you do there, people might reasonably confuse your opinions with those of your employer. (Funnily enough, that one doesn't flow the other way.) As for topics,...

    Depending on where you work and what you do there, people might reasonably confuse your opinions with those of your employer. (Funnily enough, that one doesn't flow the other way.)

    As for topics, I steer clear of politics, religion, most media recommendations, virtually any kind of commercial endorsements, any comments on regulations (or compliance) in my field, or anything excessively "spicy".

    4 votes

  18. Comment on The New York Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft over the use of its stories to train chatbots in ~tech

    Handshape
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    https://not-just-memorization.github.io/extracting-training-data-from-chatgpt.html Almost exactly a month ago, a team of Google researchers published a class of attack that reliably makes LLMs...

    https://not-just-memorization.github.io/extracting-training-data-from-chatgpt.html

    Almost exactly a month ago, a team of Google researchers published a class of attack that reliably makes LLMs poot slabs of training data back out.

    In my professional life, I sounded the horn on what I called "localized overfit" in spring of this year. During my early experiments with some of the big commercial (and open-source) models, I was able to get them to emit chunks of their training sets verbatim, but my technique had a much lower success rate than Google's.

    7 votes

  19. Comment on Do you ever "self filter" before making a post or comment and what is it based on? in ~talk

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    I filter constantly. I work in a domain with fussy legal and policy constraints and very little personal "cover" from my employer or professional contexts. I know without a doubt that my personal...

    I filter constantly. I work in a domain with fussy legal and policy constraints and very little personal "cover" from my employer or professional contexts.

    I know without a doubt that my personal socials are monitored by my employer, so the personal risk of me shooting off my mouth is amplified.

    I probably write and self-censor as often as I write, then post.

    7 votes

  20. Comment on Steam Winter Sale 2023: Hidden gems in ~games

    Handshape
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    Psst. You know that Cyan's doing a remake, yes? Riven was the game I played through with my parents when it was first released. Sunday nights after dinner, my mother and I would take turns...

    Psst. You know that Cyan's doing a remake, yes? Riven was the game I played through with my parents when it was first released. Sunday nights after dinner, my mother and I would take turns "driving", and my father sat beside us with his sketchbook and scribbled maps and illustrations.

    My dad's passed, but I intend to set my mom up with it. In VR if I can.

    8 votes