Macil's recent activity
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Comment on The colonization of confidence in ~books
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Comment on Women should be able to open things in ~life.women
Macil (edited )LinkThere's a specific brand of salsa I get regularly that comes in a jar with a wide lid, and I (male) and my boyfriend both have regularly struggled to open it. I think the jar has a wider lid than...There's a specific brand of salsa I get regularly that comes in a jar with a wide lid, and I (male) and my boyfriend both have regularly struggled to open it. I think the jar has a wider lid than most other jars. There have been many times where we both gave up on having salsa because we couldn't open it. When I found myself seriously considering breaking the jar with a hammer, I finally realized there must actually be good jar-opening tools and I ordered one. (It works great. If you've ever had a jar that you struggled with or made your wrist sore from, buy one! It should be a kitchen staple.)
It makes me wonder if we're really both far below average in jar-opening skill, or if the specific jar really can't even be opened by people of average jar-opening skill. Even before getting into gender, it feels like a surprisingly suboptimal situation around a normal grocery store product. I wonder how many people even buy this specific salsa and successfully open it. How many people have stopped attempting to purchase it because of the difficulty? It almost makes me want to wait in the store next to the jar and quiz the next person who grabs one how they manage to open it. Or it makes me want to count and mark the jars in the store so I can tell if anyone else is even buying them. Maybe I'm the only one that didn't get the memo the jar is impossible to open. Maybe I could ask random people off the street to attempt opening the jar to see how many people out of ten random people can even open it. I wonder if the jar being sold near jar-opening tools or having instructions on how to open it would bump the sales of the salsa.
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Comment on The colonization of confidence in ~books
Macil (edited )LinkThis is a joke, right? The writing is very AI. I've been having Claude write absurd stories for me for fun for a while, and its many writing cliches have become very noticeable and annoying to me....This is a joke, right? The writing is very AI. I've been having Claude write absurd stories for me for fun for a while, and its many writing cliches have become very noticeable and annoying to me. It's possible I'm just too sensitive to normal writing cliches now, like how a virus can provoke your body into an auto-immune reaction where it mistakes healthy cells for viruses, but at least Pangram seems to agree with me, saying that 74% of the article's first 2000 words (filling Pangram's free account limit) that I tested are likely AI.
I was pretty sure this was AI from the very first paragraph, but then reaching this part a few paragraphs later made me feel sure enough to make this comment:
I have to suppress the urge to violently groan about his word choice. Instead, I turn my head towards Leo. I can't wait to hear this.
Leo reads. It's a piece about his grandmother's kitchen. He describes the smell of collard greens as a heavy, green blanket that wrestled the air into submission. He describes her laugh as a rusted hinge that still worked perfectly.
It is beautiful. It is imperfect. It stops me cold.
When he finishes, there is a silence. Not the reverent silence of a shared emotional impact, but the uncomfortable, shifting silence of a boardroom that has just been shown a graph with a downward trend.
All I could think reading this is that every single sentence feels exactly like Claude's overuse of bad metaphors and slam-poetry mic drop moments. And then the very next part of this story is comparing the piece to a worse rewrite by "Claud", but both of them and every surrounding sentence sound absolutely AI.
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Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech
Macil (edited )Link ParentOoh, I've been looking for something like this, so when I'm on mobile I can redirect from old.reddit.com links to normal reddit. (Am I the only one that finds old.reddit.com absolutely unusable on...Ooh, I've been looking for something like this, so when I'm on mobile I can redirect from old.reddit.com links to normal reddit. (Am I the only one that finds old.reddit.com absolutely unusable on mobile? Nothing is sized or spaced sanely.)
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Comment on Shopping around for a new-and-improved backup solution in ~comp
Macil (edited )LinkI believe that Restic stores all the files in a content-addressed manner where the contents will be deduplicated even in this case. When it encounters file paths it doesn't recognize or files with...The fact that merely renaming a parent directory (or grandparent, or great-grandparent, etc) causes restic to treat every unchanged byte below that as brand new ... that's a recipe for giant, bloated repos, and it's unacceptable to me
I believe that Restic stores all the files in a content-addressed manner where the contents will be deduplicated even in this case. When it encounters file paths it doesn't recognize or files with an updated last-modified timestamp, it has to re-read them but it will end up recognizing that their contents already exist in the backup if they're unchanged.
I wouldn't worry too much about the possible redundancy of your backup's encryption when using a tool like Restic. If your backups are on a filesystem that's already encrypted and you're worried about the risk of losing the Restic key, you could always save that key in plain text file right next to the backup. And if you do ever move/copy your backups off that encrypted filesystem onto an unencrypted system or a cloud host, it will be convenient to be able to move/copy the backup files as-is instead of needing to layer in another program to manage encryption.
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Comment on Access to Fable and Mythos 5 cut off after US government order in ~tech
Macil LinkI think this is an overstep by the US government based on misunderstanding or corruption (it's hard to imagine that the feud between Pete Hegseth and Anthropic a few months ago is not a factor),...I think this is an overstep by the US government based on misunderstanding or corruption (it's hard to imagine that the feud between Pete Hegseth and Anthropic a few months ago is not a factor), but I also think that the US government could be right to do this in a situation where AI was disturbingly more capable than it is now.
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Comment on Google Chrome to fully remove legacy support for manifest v2 in ~tech
Macil Link ParentAre there many examples of websites where uBlock Origin Lite fails to block ads but uBlock Origin works? I never noticed any issues after switching to uBlock Origin Lite but I never rigorously...Are there many examples of websites where uBlock Origin Lite fails to block ads but uBlock Origin works? I never noticed any issues after switching to uBlock Origin Lite but I never rigorously compared them.
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Comment on If Claude Fable stops helping you, you'll never know in ~tech
Macil LinkIf they're aiming for the level of effectiveness of their next best model (Opus) on the limited tasks, then I don't think is too different from them keeping the best models for themselves (which...If they're aiming for the level of effectiveness of their next best model (Opus) on the limited tasks, then I don't think is too different from them keeping the best models for themselves (which is a thing I have complex feelings about, but I can't imagine not doing that in their shoes if I thought there was a chance of AI being good enough to start doing recursive self improvement). Though they did fumble the communication hard by not emphasizing this if they are in fact aiming for Opus's level of effectiveness.
I do expect to see more of the top labs cautiously holding back their best stuff as AI gets better at programming.
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Comment on Bun has been rewritten in Rust in ~comp
Macil Link ParentThey're doing the rewrite because they frequently have bugs caused by memory safety issues, which Zig, like C and C++, does not have good protections against. It's true that this rewrite has a lot...They're doing the rewrite because they frequently have bugs caused by memory safety issues, which Zig, like C and C++, does not have good protections against. It's true that this rewrite has a lot more usages of unsafe blocks than most Rust projects, but it's a huge improvement from all the code effectively being inside an unsafe block as before, they're manually cutting down on many unnecessary unsafe blocks, and any new code that's written as idiomatic Rust from the start should be free of new memory safety issues.
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Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
Macil Link ParentThe passkey standard specifies an optional "device attestation" feature which would have made this possible, but Apple and Google both decided to not to support that feature years ago.The passkey standard specifies an optional "device attestation" feature which would have made this possible, but Apple and Google both decided to not to support that feature years ago.
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Comment on AI’s memorization crisis in ~tech
Macil Link ParentYes, it just refers to clever prompting that confuses the LLM to not follow the guidelines it was trained with.Yes, it just refers to clever prompting that confuses the LLM to not follow the guidelines it was trained with.
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Comment on Anthropic rejects latest US Pentagon offer: ‘We cannot in good conscience accede to their request’ in ~tech
Macil Link ParentAn LLM can be given millions of documents and asked how they might relate to an investigation. An LLM could be given an image and write-ups of an ongoing situation and be asked if the image...An LLM can be given millions of documents and asked how they might relate to an investigation. An LLM could be given an image and write-ups of an ongoing situation and be asked if the image represents something new to be reported on or if the image might contain targets to shoot. Obviously anyone wanting to put firing control in the hands of today's LLMs is crazy but combined with human operators checking their work they could possibly find leads to be investigated.
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Comment on Anthropic rejects latest US Pentagon offer: ‘We cannot in good conscience accede to their request’ in ~tech
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft - Get hyped countdown thread in ~games
Macil Link ParentI use Migurinth, which is a fork of the Modrinth launcher with all ads removed. (I tried Prism but I found I really appreciated the ease of use and layout of Migurinth/Modrinth over it.)I use Migurinth, which is a fork of the Modrinth launcher with all ads removed. (I tried Prism but I found I really appreciated the ease of use and layout of Migurinth/Modrinth over it.)
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Comment on Removing obfuscation in Minecraft Java Edition in ~games
Macil (edited )Link ParentThere's Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. Bedrock Edition is the main one that users are pointed to nowadays. Java Edition pretty much only still exists to make the pre-existing modding community...There's Java Edition and Bedrock Edition. Bedrock Edition is the main one that users are pointed to nowadays. Java Edition pretty much only still exists to make the pre-existing modding community and Linux and MacOS users happy, because those things aren't supported on Bedrock Edition. The two editions have been developed in parallel, sharing the main game features and assets, and only really differ in platform support (Bedrock supports consoles, phones, and Windows; Java Edition supports Windows, Linux, and MacOS) and in Bedrock's content marketplace where paid add-ons (skins, asset packs, and custom maps) are available.
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Comment on Removing obfuscation in Minecraft Java Edition in ~games
Macil (edited )LinkI was always completely baffled that they released the game with obfuscation but then released official mappings to undo that obfuscation, instead of just removing the obfuscation to begin with....I was always completely baffled that they released the game with obfuscation but then released official mappings to undo that obfuscation, instead of just removing the obfuscation to begin with. Clearly they wanted to be friendly to modders but they couldn't get someone in charge of the decisions to understand anything. It's nice that sanity broke through, six years later.
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Comment on Knights of Guinevere in ~tv
Macil (edited )LinkIt's interesting how this feels in part inspired by the "mascot horror" trend (Five Nights at Freddy's etc). There's a famous artificial (both as a machine and as an intentionally designed...It's interesting how this feels in part inspired by the "mascot horror" trend (Five Nights at Freddy's etc). There's a famous artificial (both as a machine and as an intentionally designed pseudo-celebrity persona) "mascot" character known to the characters in a way with some similarities to the way we the audience know the characters, and we follow the characters meeting and interacting with the mascot. I imagine the trope could be used well to explore aspects of our modern media environment.
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Comment on All things classic Doom in ~games
Macil (edited )LinkI was 7 when I played it (and Duke Nukem 3d). There wasn't much else to do with the family computer, and then I was doubly hooked when I discovered the level editor included with Duke 3d and then...When did you first play/"get into" Doom?
I was 7 when I played it (and Duke Nukem 3d). There wasn't much else to do with the family computer, and then I was doubly hooked when I discovered the level editor included with Duke 3d and then later user-made maps on the internet. I remember watching sub-1mb map files slowly downloading from Geocities over 28k dialup.
What is your favorite source port of Doom?
GZDoom. I used to use ZDoom for its support for custom enemies, weapons, and level scripting, and then switched to GZDoom when it was new for its support for 3d floors and proper 3d rendering with good mouselook. I can't imagined going back to a port without 3d rendering: looking up and down in the old vanilla renderer stretches the world grossly and doesn't let you properly look around.
Anyway, public service announcement while we're on the subject of GZDoom: in Options -> Display Options, set "Texture Filter mode" to "None (linear mipmap)". This fixes the terrible blurry default rendering of the game and makes it actually look like the official release! GZDoom's terrible opinionated default texture filter mode is the single worst thing about GZDoom. (I really don't understand how there aren't any popular forks of GZDoom yet dedicated just to fixing this one issue.)
What are your favorite WADs?
- MyHouse.wad
- Lost Civilization. I've never found any other maps that are as large and interesting.
- Project Brutality. Great gameplay mod that replaces the weapons and enemies. Works well with most regular maps (including Lost Civilization but not MyHouse.wad).
Do you still play Doom regularly?
I hadn't touched Doom much in years until I saw some posts online about MyHouse.wad, and then I got back into it after that. I even contributed a few bugfixes to GZDoom recently. I've been playing Neon Overdrive lately which is pretty good.
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Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp
Macil (edited )LinkIf someone already knew Rust specifically, then to know C they just need to imagine if Rust didn't have explicit lifetimes, generics, traits, modules, or a package manager. Also they need to learn...If someone already knew Rust specifically, then to know C they just need to imagine if Rust didn't have explicit lifetimes, generics, traits, modules, or a package manager. Also they need to learn about terrible things like header files and maybe autotools. All that's to say that I don't think there are any important computing fundamentals to be learned by such an exercise.
The real value is in knowing at least one language that compiles to native executables and uses manual memory management instead of garbage collection. This is a pretty short list including C and Rust and a few others like C++, D, and Zig.
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Comment on Google is killing the open web in ~comp
Macil (edited )LinkThe author is weirdly obsessed with XML and XSLT and is judging everything through this one weird lens. Has anyone used XSLT voluntarily within a webpage for anything but an obscure tech demo in...The author is weirdly obsessed with XML and XSLT and is judging everything through this one weird lens. Has anyone used XSLT voluntarily within a webpage for anything but an obscure tech demo in this millennium? (Has a non-tech-demo webpage ever been linked on Tildes that relied on browser support for XSLT? Would a list of "top 10,000 historical websites" contain even one that relied on XSLT?) Why should browsers support or further develop these entire separate page and styling formats in addition to HTML and CSS? Do they offer any specific power that the current web platform lacks? This is like getting mad at modern PC manufacturers for not including PS/2 ports for ancient keyboards and mice. Roughly 0% of users or working web developers want it and the remaining people can use an adapter (like a separate program or a page with embedded JS that renders XML+XSLT). Anything else about Chrome development is more consequential than this.
It's a weird bit for them to rail on Google about backing out from JPEG XL support, when the whole initiative to include it was from Google, they were the only browser to even implement it, and they backed out because no other browsers were interested in implementing it at the time and Google wanted to avoid fragmenting the web in this way. Also Google has successfully pushed other new efficient media formats like WebP and WebM, so it's not like they're consistently a blocker to progress. (Everything negative anyone ever says about WebP is just about other software not supporting it, which is an issue that would face any new format including JPEG XL. Just bringing this up because weirdly often I see people get really deranged into some kind of team sports mindset where they label WebP as a bad and evil thing that Google pushed on the world and JPEG XL as this pure and great thing that Google killed, and none of that framing makes any sense except as an excuse to have an information-free rant about Google.)
The only real substantial point is about RSS support being removed, but I struggle to blame the browsers for it. Were RSS features in the browser actually used by many people? Firefox's support IIRC was just that you could make a bookmark folder be populated by RSS, and it was an extremely lackluster experience! Is it specifically the browser developer's job to develop a compelling RSS reader? Anyone could make an RSS reader, and if nobody has made a successful and compelling RSS reader, then it feels weird to fault browser developers for not being the first to do so. (Okay, people do often point at the long-dead Google Reader, but if its design was so good, where are its successful clones? I mean I'm sure it has a few but they're not successful enough for me to have heard of them, and I don't agree that it's every browser's job to push that system to users.) I really get the impression that far more people like to bring up RSS to rant about the death of the "open web" or such than people actually use RSS.
I was curious whether this was just their style they've always had, or something they only very recently picked up. I figure if I could find some of their work from before AI was at its current level that was detected as AI or had the same writing style, then it would mean I was wrong about it being AI. I have not found a single piece of writing by them before 2025 so far that was detected as more than 0% AI written, or appeared to me as having similar issues or writing style (where every sentence in a row overuses metaphors and slam-poetry mic drop moments). I subscribed to Pangram so I could use their service without limits. I did judge the writing style of each post myself first before putting it into Pangram, and Pangram always matched my judgment. (They do have some recent posts too that appeared to be 0% AI.) I've tested on several excerpts of their books on their site too.
I searched for other discussions about this article and articles from their domain, and I found this HN thread on a different recent post of theirs where some commenters stated they found the AI style annoying. One commenter linked to a Pangram analysis rating it as 100% AI.
I think they're either being extremely sanctimonious about their own AI use, knowing their anti-AI audience is unlikely to be able to recognize it, or maybe they've recently fallen in love with the style and carefully re-engineered their writing sentence by sentence to be indistinguishable from it while complaining about it.
Also they do have a recent Mastodon post bragging that they found they were better at prompting LLMs than most LLM users. I kind of get the impression they're a little too interested in LLMs for someone who avoids them, but to be clear my judgment above isn't depending on this vague feeling off of their posts.