ImmortalCashew's recent activity

  1. Comment on Lies I was told about collaborative editing, Part 1: Algorithms for offline editing in ~tech

    ImmortalCashew
    Link Parent
    I think your point about conflicts conflates the broader notion of “incompatible changes” with git’s specific definition of “conflict” that’s oriented around source code. Git will happily...

    I think your point about conflicts conflates the broader notion of “incompatible changes” with git’s specific definition of “conflict” that’s oriented around source code.

    Git will happily automatically merge changes to the same file if they are in different areas as defined by line breaks. Tends to work for source code, probably okay for LaTeX presentation slides, almost perfect for a grocery list, not good for an exam where you’re numbering the questions by hand, unusable for audio, video, compressed files, etc.

    Source code is just one kind of text, and it’s not reasonable to extrapolate that an unsolved problem there means it can’t be solved elsewhere.

    6 votes

  2. Comment on Lies I was told about collaborative editing, Part 1: Algorithms for offline editing in ~tech

    ImmortalCashew
    Link
    This focuses specifically on collaborative editing of the same blob of text, but it’s important to note that many CRDT/OT-type data structures support sync of lists, maps, and more. Most of the...

    This focuses specifically on collaborative editing of the same blob of text, but it’s important to note that many CRDT/OT-type data structures support sync of lists, maps, and more. Most of the time there’s natural “concurrency boundaries” where users don’t tend to edit the same entity at the same time. For example, on a kanban board, users will commonly move items around the board, but will rarely edit the description of the same item even if offline for an extended period of time.

    What this means is that the UX problem to resolve conflicts can be broken down into smaller more constrained pieces.

    Two users move the same item to different stages on the kanban? Choose one arbitrarily or have a heuristic like the least-far-along stage wins.

    Two users edit the same item description? Choose some threshold below which you auto-merge, otherwise pick one and give an alert to the user to check the audit history and merge by hand if necessary.

    And so on. It’s too much to expect a general-purpose algorithm to solve all these context-specific problems on its own.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Introducing ChatGPT Pro in ~tech

    ImmortalCashew
    Link Parent
    Also consider that they’ve been selling their existing offerings well below cost to try and capture market share, so who knows, maybe this is their first offering that reflects the real service cost.

    Also consider that they’ve been selling their existing offerings well below cost to try and capture market share, so who knows, maybe this is their first offering that reflects the real service cost.

    22 votes

  4. Comment on Requesting recommendations for a smart doorbell in ~tech

    ImmortalCashew
    Link
    You could also consider a battery-powered camera placed so you can see the front door. Having done this instead of a doorbell camera in the past, the motion alerts work just as well as a doorbell...

    You could also consider a battery-powered camera placed so you can see the front door. Having done this instead of a doorbell camera in the past, the motion alerts work just as well as a doorbell camera.

    Ring functions well, but I have some ethical qualms about their data sharing with police in the US without any warrants. The only alternative I know is something local-only like Ubiquiti’s Unifi Protect, but that requires a lot more maintenance than a cloud-based solution like Ring.

    9 votes