Turtle42's recent activity
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Comment on Woman covertly filmed for 'humiliating' social media content - then told to pay for removal in ~tech
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Comment on Woman covertly filmed for 'humiliating' social media content - then told to pay for removal in ~tech
Turtle42 Link ParentSounds a bit like what Orville Peck wears. At least that’s what I’m picturing.Sounds a bit like what Orville Peck wears. At least that’s what I’m picturing.
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
Turtle42 LinkNow that the weather is nice I started trail running again but then for some reason almost immediately I lost the motivation and I’m so upset with myself. I signed up for a race later this summer...Now that the weather is nice I started trail running again but then for some reason almost immediately I lost the motivation and I’m so upset with myself. I signed up for a race later this summer to try to help motivate me but I’m still being lazy and can’t get off my ass. I keep telling myself ‘I’ll run tomorrow’ but then I just don’t 😭. I was having so much fun after I picked it up last summer, but the winter and snow was brutal enough to set me back and I’m having a tough time getting back into it.
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Comment on I love bioparks in ~travel
Turtle42 LinkLongwood Gardens about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the one I am familiar with. It’s supposedly highly regarded, but I don’t really know any others besides a trip to the New York...Longwood Gardens about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the one I am familiar with. It’s supposedly highly regarded, but I don’t really know any others besides a trip to the New York Botanical Gardens during the holidays once which was not an ideal time to visit and enjoy its splendor. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to LG but from my recollection I loved how all the different climates were replicated, giving each room a different sort of plant vibe. The architecture and landscaping is also quite stunning, making for amazing photographs without much difficulty.
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Comment on Infinite Jest extraction in ~books
Turtle42 (edited )LinkI read this book twice last year, once actually reading the physical book and then immediately after finishing it I started a second listen listening to the “Infinite Cast” podcast in which a...I read this book twice last year, once actually reading the physical book and then immediately after finishing it I started a second listen listening to the “Infinite Cast” podcast in which a couple started reading it during COVID as kind of a joke but then actually finished it over the course of 3 years and thought I gleaned a great deal of meaning and entertainment from both reads. I feel it is the craziest most rewarding book I’ve ever read.
Aaron Swartz’s somewhat famously wrote a blog post on the book as well. Spoilers ahead though!.
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Comment on A hobby of collecting hobbies in ~hobbies
Turtle42 Link ParentI’ve been meaning to respond to your thoughtful comment, I’m just rarely online these days. Thank you!I’ve been meaning to respond to your thoughtful comment, I’m just rarely online these days. Thank you!
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Comment on A hobby of collecting hobbies in ~hobbies
Turtle42 (edited )Link ParentHonestly, consider yourself lucky. To me shaving is a necessary evil. My genetics are heavy European/Mediterranean and shaving thick hair means ingrown hair and irritation is unavoidable. Might as...Honestly, consider yourself lucky. To me shaving is a necessary evil. My genetics are heavy European/Mediterranean and shaving thick hair means ingrown hair and irritation is unavoidable. Might as well minimize and enjoy the process as much as possible. Now that I’m thinking about it, in a way it’s essentially just a skincare routine. You could definitely adopt a similar self care regimen minus the shaving aspect. Sorry - I can make a hobby out of anything, it’s a true problem.
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Comment on A hobby of collecting hobbies in ~hobbies
Turtle42 (edited )Link ParentI blame /r/wickededge… It turns out there’s more options than just whatever Gillette Turbo-Fusion-Ultra-Mach-Glide 7 is being sold at your neighborhood drugstore. I do the old school thing with a...I blame /r/wickededge… It turns out there’s more options than just whatever Gillette Turbo-Fusion-Ultra-Mach-Glide 7 is being sold at your neighborhood drugstore. I do the old school thing with a safety razor, standard razor blades, brush, and scented shave soap. Add in some alum, aftershave/cologne, and balm and the overall experience is much more enjoyable. I get a smoother, less irritating shave than with expensive, 5-blade monstrosity, plastic-ridden cartridges. There’s also a plethora of soap scents to choose from, my favorite lately has been Lavender. Barbasol shaving cream isn’t the only option! Who would have thought that we figured out the proper way to shave in the 1950s. Every “improvement” since, every new blade added to a plastic cartridge, is only a further regression from a decent shave.
And thank you! It’s all very crazy and exciting and doesn’t help my hobby/project spasticity but it’ll all come together.
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Comment on A hobby of collecting hobbies in ~hobbies
Turtle42 LinkI have too many and I feel bad and guilty and overwhelmed with them often. It’s definitely a pattern of seeking dopamine or something for me. That said, my biggest hobby for years, so much so I...I have too many and I feel bad and guilty and overwhelmed with them often. It’s definitely a pattern of seeking dopamine or something for me.
That said, my biggest hobby for years, so much so I spent 120k on student loans for it, was photography. After landing a career working for one of the most iconic image makers in history but then getting burnt-out as a result, I’ve found myself interested in Linux and homelabbing/self-hosting as my latest biggest hobby. Though I can’t find the career to match. This definitely started as a sub-hobby from being “in charge” of the storage server working for the photographer, and of course needing to store my own images locally. Linux has also spawned other sub-hobbies, such as PC building, gaming, web hosting, web design, and trying to learn programming but AI kind of killed that. I would cut my teeth for hours trying to make a rock paper scissors game to learn python but Claude can put mine to shame and make something advanced with levels and a GUI and save states in like 30 seconds. It feels pointless now to even try. But it also feels bad to use AI for stuff like system administration scripts and I have inner conflicts almost daily, wishing I could just know it enough to do it myself instead, but simply can’t spend the hours and days and weeks and months and years it’ll take to learn without using AI if I hit roadblocks the way I often do. Sigh.
Other random hobbies I’ve gotten into include but are not limited to; woodworking, stamp collecting, shaving, interior design, reading, writing poetry, hiking, trail running, backpacking, weightlifting, etc. I really need to tone it down, hone in on the more important hobbies, and get back into photography the most, with my wife due in September I’m hoping having a child and wanting to document their existence might reignite my passion for art and photography.
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Comment on How to make a living as an artist in ~arts
Turtle42 LinkI have my BFA in photography and they spent too much time teaching us how to make art instead of how to run a business. It’s not for everyone, and I wish I knew how business/marketing centric the...I have my BFA in photography and they spent too much time teaching us how to make art instead of how to run a business. It’s not for everyone, and I wish I knew how business/marketing centric the field really was.
The successful artists I know from undergrad are the ones who had an inherent entrepreneurial spirit, they all seem to have this natural gift of marketing and were able to shamelessly self promote in a way that I just couldn’t get over, personally. Art making is quite personal for me and I could only take so much rejection.
I landed in an assistant position for a very famous photographer, which was probably a much better suit for me. I’m very helpful by nature. Unfortunately they turned out to be a terrible person, the fame must have gone to their head. So I quit after 7 years of burn out and from what I understand many creatives leave the field at a young age from similar situations compared to other career fields. Those who make it to the top in the arts are often unpleasant in my experience. They say don’t meet your heroes, but it’s even worse working for them.
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Comment on How AI assistance impacts the formation of coding skills in ~tech
Turtle42 Link ParentIf generative AI and LLMs are here to stay I want Anthropic to be the poster child for how an AI company should do business. I know they’re not perfect but they don’t seem as intent on destroying...If generative AI and LLMs are here to stay I want Anthropic to be the poster child for how an AI company should do business. I know they’re not perfect but they don’t seem as intent on destroying the world as openAI is.
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Comment on Tech Oversight Report: Unsealed court documents show teen addiction was Meta, Google, Snap, and TikTok's top priority in ~tech
Turtle42 LinkI don’t understand why these trials are focusing on kids getting addicted to social media, EVERYONE is susceptible to social media addiction.I don’t understand why these trials are focusing on kids getting addicted to social media, EVERYONE is susceptible to social media addiction.
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Comment on What are your favorite home remedies or comforts when you're sick? in ~health
Turtle42 LinkHot toddy’s are my go to for any sore throat/cold. Even if it doesn’t actually work it gives me enough of a buzz to numb any throat discomfort and plus it’s delicious.Hot toddy’s are my go to for any sore throat/cold.
Even if it doesn’t actually work it gives me enough of a buzz to numb any throat discomfort and plus it’s delicious.
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Comment on Diagram Website (2023) in ~tech
Turtle42 LinkThank you! I just discovered Digital Gardens and it answers all the issues I had with the chronological blog format I was using. I’ve been updating my website all day now.Thank you! I just discovered Digital Gardens and it answers all the issues I had with the chronological blog format I was using. I’ve been updating my website all day now.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
Turtle42 Link ParentIf I can muster the attention to finish The Pale King, Oblivion is next. I love short stories and I bet his are wild.If I can muster the attention to finish The Pale King, Oblivion is next. I love short stories and I bet his are wild.
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Comment on Cataloging your home library in ~books
Turtle42 LinkI literally vibe-coded my own solution and it’s been a pretty fun learning experience! Using Flask, googles book API, and sqlite3 for the database. It’s getting feature bloat at this point as I...I literally vibe-coded my own solution and it’s been a pretty fun learning experience! Using Flask, googles book API, and sqlite3 for the database. It’s getting feature bloat at this point as I keep thinking of features to add but it started off as a simple CLI tool isbn fetch into database and it just snowballed from there as I iterated on it.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
Turtle42 LinkI just finished Infinite Jest, immediately had my mind blown, and restarted it via audiobook/podcast and am making more connections this time around exploring this world he created. I still like...I just finished Infinite Jest, immediately had my mind blown, and restarted it via audiobook/podcast and am making more connections this time around exploring this world he created.
I still like reading a physical book though, I enjoyed most of his essays in Consider the Lobster (was too dumb for 3 of them) and I wanted more fiction so now I’m reading The Pale King which I had on my shelf already. I’m in the middle of chapter 19 where unnamed characters are talking about civics and wealth inequality (sort of) and it’s fascinating how relevant these ideas still are (and how no one’s done anything about it).
I have Oblivion and This is Water in the mail, I can’t seem to get enough of DFWs writing. I wish I had discovered him while I was still in college.
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (October 2025) in ~health.mental
Turtle42 Link ParentI too am suffering from undiagnosed ADHD. It feels so cringe, you’re not alone. Every single bad thing that has ever happened in my life can be traced to it as a very likely cause. The last time I...I too am suffering from undiagnosed ADHD. It feels so cringe, you’re not alone. Every single bad thing that has ever happened in my life can be traced to it as a very likely cause.
The last time I talked to a psychiatrist they would not prescribe me medication and I’m scared to try again. Just thinking about how much more I could have accomplished in life with proper treatment from a young age makes me depressed in ways I have never felt before. As I get farther into my 30s the trench of hopelessness I feel in regards to the possibility of turning my life and career around gets deeper and deeper.
I hope medication helps you, from what I’ve read it’s very responsive to medication.
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Comment on The dangers of vibe coding in ~tech
Turtle42 LinkI’m a janitor (actually a bachelors degree holding photographer turned storage admin who is currently down on his luck but also maybe just shitty at jobs and life) who’s successfully vibe coded...I’m a janitor (actually a bachelors degree holding photographer turned storage admin who is currently down on his luck but also maybe just shitty at jobs and life) who’s successfully vibe coded some projects and even I know you need to watch your API calls. Especially when it’s set to auto replenish from your credit card! How is this Claude’s fault? I’d expect API calls to be one of the few things an actual developer would look over to make sure a AI wasn’t going to cause a scenario like this. I’m not a real developer and I watch my keys like a hawk.
I don’t think I could ever learn to program for real from scratch, but being able to talk in plain language to Claude and create working software to solve some personal need or scratch an itch and then tinker with it to figure out what it’s doing and how to improve it is exhilarating and I’ve learned more than I ever would have from a book or on my own and at little cost.
I even used the new ‘Claude Code’ developer API to fix some JavaScript on a React site that was causing crazy CPU spikes and it fixed it instantly. I would have thought that a developer who knew what they were doing could do things 50x faster and better but maybe not. It’s a tool that’s very good at some things, but it also has limitations just like any other tool.
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Comment on Norwegian man has filed a complaint with the Norwegian Data Protection Authority after ChatGPT falsely told him he had killed two of his sons and been jailed in ~tech
Turtle42 LinkThis is a very weird article and feels like a weak attempt to blame AI for something it wasn't even designed to do in the first place. Aside from the myriad ways it could have hallucinated this...This is a very weird article and feels like a weak attempt to blame AI for something it wasn't even designed to do in the first place.
Aside from the myriad ways it could have hallucinated this info (perhaps there is someone with the same name who did perpetrate these crimes?). Either way we have no way of seeing his initial prompt or the full conversation that might have influenced this undesired output from chatgpt. This guy also seems to think that everyone will always get this same response when prompted with his name, and I doubt that's a thing people are doing. It doesn't disseminate this info the way he thinks it is. And if a potential employer uses chatgpt to look up a potential employee then they're simply just dumb.
I don't like the smug portrait alongside the article is also weird, this could have been an illustration. The most likely outcome I can see if Norway ends up fining openAI is that they simply stop doing business there? I don't see any merit in this article or complaint.
I highly recommend his music. The lonely cowboy vibe hits me deep within my soul.