Akir's recent activity
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Comment on The web is more than enough in ~tech
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Comment on Amazon Grocery introduces a Thanksgiving meal for $25 in ~food
Akir Link ParentNone of them are particularly standout. The thing that makes thanksgiving special is having a big spread of them, and that they probably have a lot more oil and salt added to it. My plate should...None of them are particularly standout. The thing that makes thanksgiving special is having a big spread of them, and that they probably have a lot more oil and salt added to it. My plate should look like a tiny version of an ethiopian restaurant's veggie platter.
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Comment on Amazon Grocery introduces a Thanksgiving meal for $25 in ~food
Akir Link ParentI really don't get why people are in on deep frying turkeys. It's both incredibly dangerous and wasteful, and the end result has always been both considerably more dry and less flavorful than a...I really don't get why people are in on deep frying turkeys. It's both incredibly dangerous and wasteful, and the end result has always been both considerably more dry and less flavorful than a traditional roast turkey. Perhaps most people just don't know how to properly roast a bird? To be fair, it's not a thing that people regularly do anymore.
I'm not one to throw stones though, since going veg I have found my thanksgiving dinners have actually been way more enjoyable without a turkey as a centerpiece because it means you can spend way more effort on making great "side" dishes no longer be sides.
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Comment on ScanRuler: reverse engineering tool for real world objects in ~tech
Akir LinkOf course literally the second after I post this I remember there's an ~engineering. 🤦Of course literally the second after I post this I remember there's an ~engineering. 🤦
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Comment on ScanRuler: reverse engineering tool for real world objects in ~tech
Akir LinkThe tool in question is at scanruler.com, but I've linked the youtube video instead because I didn't think it would be clear why this was so cool. There's been a lot a hubbub lately about AI...The tool in question is at scanruler.com, but I've linked the youtube video instead because I didn't think it would be clear why this was so cool.
There's been a lot a hubbub lately about AI assisted reverse engineering of software, but Stephan from CNC Kitchen has made a rather novel vibe coded tool that allows him to reverse engineer real world objects with the use of a 3D scanner. The tool started as a simple way to verify measurements of scanned objects, and the current iteration essentially adds an entire CAD suite with a surprising amount of automated tools that allow you to convert those rough models into STEP files with measurements you've verified yourself.
The thing that makes this a little bit more magic, though, is that he's implemented an MCP server setup so you can hook up an AI to do the reverse engineering for you. You can also apply notes to attach at points on your model so your agent can correct for errors or even try to fix broken parts.
The website has a lot of other tools that make it useful, but I don't own a 3D scanner myself so I haven't really had a chance to use it. I'm kind of curious to see if it would work with a cell phone app scanner, but I know those aren't terribly accurate.
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ScanRuler: reverse engineering tool for real world objects
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Comment on 2026 United States midterm elections megathread in ~society
Akir LinkI'd like to say I'm disappointed in the results for my pet issue this election, but I'd been following the polling. We won't have final results for a while because of our mail-in voting, but early...I'd like to say I'm disappointed in the results for my pet issue this election, but I'd been following the polling. We won't have final results for a while because of our mail-in voting, but early vote counting seems to indicate what I've
This election I've been following California's voter proposition 40, the one-time billionaire wealth tax. It's something that has really pissed me off because the state has a lot of billionaires and they have spent a considerable amount of money misleading voters into thinking that voting yes for it would also tax their retirement - a completely bullshit argument because most retirees aren't billionaires. Of course that's not the only thing they've been doing - they also got two other propositions on the ballot, both of which will invalidate prop 40, and prop 42 in particular is going to make things more difficult for legislators because it literally bans the creation of new taxes on property and business assets. It's not just a law, it's a goddamn constitutional amendment.
The main organization funding these campaigns against 40 and for 41 and 42 has been a new PAC called Building a Better California, who has spent over $333,000,000 on these campaigns. The PAC is almost entirely funded by billionaires. Just for fun I looked up their contributions and it turns out that there's only 4 that are under $25,000, and even then one of them was still a recognizable billionaire (Jack Altman of Benchmark Capital, donating $24,819.76). The top donators? Surgey Brin and Eric Schmidt of Google, who donated about $142 million between them with Brin giving the vast majority of it - about a third of the entire PAC's budget, actually. If you weren't convinced that Google is evil yet, this might be your wake-up call.
This is incredibly sad because I know that Trump's stupid budget bill has things timed to cut off funding after midterms for health programs (among many other things), so the state will have to either do some crazy budget balancing to make up for it or a lot of people are going to be facing some very hard times in the coming years. This tax was just a one-time thing. It was a relatively tiny figure for the vast sums of wealth these people have. This money could have literally saved people's lives. But why would a billionaire give 5% of their wealth when they could get away with spending the equivalent of the change stuck in their sofa to prevent the state from ever taxing them again? And still they manage to outspend their opposition nearly five times over.
But then again, they've only really counted about half of the ballots, so things could still turn out well! I'm just not holding my breath. I'll just have to look at the victories in other states for good news.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Akir LinkJust started and finished Neon White. I think I got it as a humble choice game from a while back and it caught my eye for its originality and style - it basically looked like if Persona if it were...Just started and finished Neon White. I think I got it as a humble choice game from a while back and it caught my eye for its originality and style - it basically looked like if Persona if it were an FPS. I managed to finish it with the good ending because I played obsessively to get all the gifts and nearly all ace rankings. I was surprised at how well it managed to grab me. Being able to quickly go back and try for the perfect run really made it easy to get into that flow state.
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Comment on Humble Choice - November 2026 in ~games
Akir LinkI've wanted to play Outer Worlds 2 for a long time but they're killing me by making this a battle.net thing. I really desperately don't want to make yet another account with a hundred page legal...I've wanted to play Outer Worlds 2 for a long time but they're killing me by making this a battle.net thing. I really desperately don't want to make yet another account with a hundred page legal agreement with a giant corporation. 😔
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Comment on A lukewarm defense of LLMs in ~tech
Akir Link ParentI find that it’s really situation dependent if such sites will work. People tend to just invent acronyms as they write when they’re on the internet, so it’s a crapshoot weather or not it’s a well...I find that it’s really situation dependent if such sites will work. People tend to just invent acronyms as they write when they’re on the internet, so it’s a crapshoot weather or not it’s a well established one. Though I wouldn’t expect that kind of thing to be common on Tildes, to be fair.
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Comment on A lukewarm defense of LLMs in ~tech
Akir Link ParentIronically I had to use AI to understand what you were talking about. You used the acronym SME which is not common outside of your trade, and acronyms are famously difficult to figure out because...Ironically I had to use AI to understand what you were talking about. You used the acronym SME which is not common outside of your trade, and acronyms are famously difficult to figure out because anyone can use the same letters to represent anything. When I searched the most common meaning was Small to Medium Enterprise. Siri AI told me it was Subject Matter Experts. Is it right? Maybe not, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense.
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Comment on The American suburbs are better than you think in ~life
Akir (edited )Link ParentI really hate the need to drive everywhere. The fact that I can’t walk to get groceries that I need just to live feels like it could be some kind of humanitarian crisis waiting to happen. The cost...I really hate the need to drive everywhere. The fact that I can’t walk to get groceries that I need just to live feels like it could be some kind of humanitarian crisis waiting to happen. The cost just to insure our two cars last year was about $3000. My EV is paid off so my costs aren’t that much more than our states relatively high registration fee ($137, I think?) and a relatively portion of our electric bill, but my husband owns a gas car, for which he is still paying the loan, in a state with very high gas prices.
When I criticized the essay earlier I wanted to stick to the main point, urbanism vs. suburbanism, but the points he made about cars really bothered me. He made a point about how cars are a sign of wealth but the obvious problem with that is that it requires you to have and expend that wealth to own and operate them! The average price of a new vehicle sold this September was well over $50,000. We still have a federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and while many states have higher minimums, there are still 20 states that still have that very low floor. Working full time, that comes to about $15,000 before tax. And for the record, the cheapest new car I could find was over $20,000.
One could say that auto loans and buying used are solutions, and functionally they are right. But for the former solution, why are we inserting middlemen who are making the cars more expensive and extracting additional wealth from the people who have the least and need it the most? Where is the sense of freedom? And for the latter, there will eventually be a supply and demand problem. When I graduated high school we didn’t have any money for a car and the “cash for clunkers” program meant the government bought up a most of the fixer-uppers to destroy them. The cost of cars has shot up dramatically since then so I doubt that the market for used cars has really improved all that much, especially considering how much less repairable they are today outside of sanctioned repair shops.
Edit: just got my renewal notice and registration this year is $417! Yeesh.
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Comment on The American suburbs are better than you think in ~life
Akir LinkThis essay is very convincing overall but it really failed for me for two reasons. Number one, the paragraph about owning a large house for entertaining guests seems to be the author putting their...This essay is very convincing overall but it really failed for me for two reasons.
Number one, the paragraph about owning a large house for entertaining guests seems to be the author putting their foot in their mouth. You can entertain guests in a tiny apartment - just not as many as you can in a large house. People can be happy and avoid loneliness without having to host banquets at their own houses, and if one must host such things venues specializing in them are available that will cost you less than what it would cost you to live in a home big enough for it year-round. And as someone who has lived with two pack rats for years, I can tell you that having a big house does not guarantee you that you have a space fit for hosting any number of people.
The second one is that it seems his central thesis relies on a steelman argument that urbanists think that we should demolish all suburban neighborhoods and turn them into super dense mixed use zones. That argument is ridiculous on its face. Every urbanist I have ever spoken to wants to build more of them, yes, but nobody I have talked to is saying that they want suburbs to disappear. The closest I have seen to that is how I have seen them wish that suburbs have better access to public transit, less dangerous pedestrian infrastructure, etc. Those are vastly different desires!
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Comment on Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (November 2026) in ~health.mental
Akir LinkFollowing up on my last post, tapering off on my medications has caused my depression to back off. As of tonight I will be taking one pill per night as opposed to the four I was taking before, so...Following up on my last post, tapering off on my medications has caused my depression to back off. As of tonight I will be taking one pill per night as opposed to the four I was taking before, so I’m on the last leg before completely discontinuing it.
I kind of doubt that I will be completely depression-free after it’s over. I kind of feel that people who have had depression never really get 100% away from it even if they aren’t suffering from it anymore, given my history of non-drug-induced depression. So I’m trying to view this period as a sort of mental housekeeping opportunity; it’s here to let me feel a lot of the negative emotions I would have otherwise been better at repressing and forcing me to address them.
One thing I am looking forward to is having energy again. I have not been to the gym since I started taking this medication. My body is kind of killing me and although I was taking it for my health I can now see it was doing much more harm than good.
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Comment on CGA-2026-10 🕹️🏚️ 🦇👻 REMOVE CARTRIDGE ⏏️ Spooky Mansion Adventures in ~games
Akir LinkIm really disappointed I didn’t get to participate this month because I did want to play the games and give my commentary, but I got a bad episode of depression caused as a side effect of a...Im really disappointed I didn’t get to participate this month because I did want to play the games and give my commentary, but I got a bad episode of depression caused as a side effect of a medication I am still tapering off of, so I was never in a place to play them. The irony is that I actually did spend a lot of my time playing games but it was mostly minesweeper because it was the best way to make me stop thinking about things. Just hours and hours of it like a zombie.
Actually I’m a bit better now so I have graduated from minesweeper and have moved onto metroidvanias. I played and beat Castlevania Belmont’s Curse and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. I’m not sure if they’re both short games or if I’m just still more depressed than I realize.
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Comment on Red light: Modern life has deprived us of it, which may be linked to diabetes, cancer, dementia in ~health
Akir Link ParentYou are right, I am being a bit harsh, but when looking at the big picture I’m generally correct. There are some specific claims that have had studies repeated and have moderate certainty as you...You are right, I am being a bit harsh, but when looking at the big picture I’m generally correct. There are some specific claims that have had studies repeated and have moderate certainty as you mentioned. But the problem when it comes to red light is that it’s being sold as the solution to literally everything when it may bring a little bit of small scale temporary relief to a few problems, which can generally all be duplicated by just going outside in the sun which we already know we need to do more of.
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Comment on Manifestos, fear, and ‘loser thinking’: inside Proton’s AI reckoning in ~tech
Akir Link ParentI wonder if @Protected may have meant Google’s founders, who are currently spending millions of dollars in California on a campaign to mislead its people into not taxing them and the other...I wonder if @Protected may have meant Google’s founders, who are currently spending millions of dollars in California on a campaign to mislead its people into not taxing them and the other billionaires in the state.
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Comment on Red light: Modern life has deprived us of it, which may be linked to diabetes, cancer, dementia in ~health
Akir Link ParentMost of the studies I have come across have pretty poor quality and very small sample sizes. But even if these studies were the best quality, they are all very preliminary. They aren’t established...Most of the studies I have come across have pretty poor quality and very small sample sizes. But even if these studies were the best quality, they are all very preliminary. They aren’t established science until they have been independently replicated at the very least.
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Comment on Red light: Modern life has deprived us of it, which may be linked to diabetes, cancer, dementia in ~health
Akir LinkHoo boy, this is some bad science reporting. Astonishingly bad science writing, actually. It seems like the author doesn't understand the electromagnetic spectrum at all because they seem to...Hoo boy, this is some bad science reporting. Astonishingly bad science writing, actually. It seems like the author doesn't understand the electromagnetic spectrum at all because they seem to constantly conflate red, infrared, and ultraviolet, and that's when they're not playing fast and loose with studies that are actually talking about daylight - full spectrum light, in other words.
The fact of the matter is that we don't understand the health benefits of red light therapy all that well yet, the studies are pretty low quality, and we pretty much have no clue how or why it actually works. There's so little research that we're barely certain that it works at all, and things are really confused because there's tons of people selling you on health products with dubious claims.
No matter what you do, don't install incandescent light bulbs in your house. That's just idiotic. They use up to ten times the energy of LED, and the majority of that just gets converted to heat. The state of California has outlawed the sale of most incandescent bulbs years ago and the federal government followed suite as of 2023. Apparently NewScientist is a British publication, but they've phased out incandescent bulbs in 2021, seemingly, so this advice seems even more baffling.
Argh, this is reminding me of the local radio station doing a funding drive by having a chiropractor selling red light therapy sessions to cure the floaters by keeping your eyes open during them. 😮💨
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Comment on I can kinda see why social media sites use divisive topics to solicit engagement in ~tech
Akir Link ParentThere is a really beautiful scene in Digger where the titular character is testifying in front of the EU (which in this case is really representative of all of the planet who isn’t the US) after a...There is a really beautiful scene in Digger where the titular character is testifying in front of the EU (which in this case is really representative of all of the planet who isn’t the US) after a massive life-extinguishing accident caused by his company. He gives a speech that, paraphrased goes like this:
“Well guys, I’d love to shut off my oil wells. Problem is, though, that YOU GUYS DON’T FUCKING WANT ME TO!”
He goes on for quite a while, jumping on tables and kicking people.
God if I haven’t loved and hated a scene so much in my life. Never have I seen something that called out so many people. Onviously it’s not just the leaders that it called out, but everyone in the world who wants everything that oil promises; the great riches and materials that only can come at the expense of our planet.
But damn, it’s pretty obvious that things like gambling and social media are hurting us more than they are helping us.
I’m sick right now so I might be having a fever spell but I think one of us is confused. The web has long been made into a user tracking tool in a way that apps largely can’t without requesting some really broad permissions being explicitly granted, and some of those things - like full screen recording - would alert the user to when they are on. While browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Brave all block third party cookies by default, Chrome does not and while many chromium based browsers do block a list of major tracking cookies, they are permissive enough that they can’t possibly block all of them. And this is without even talking about the reliability of browser fingerprinting, which doesn’t require any cookies!
Though to be fair apps can get deeper information about a user. There are definitely apps that have done some scary things, and Meta alone has done quite a lot of them! But critically you have to give them permission for them to be able to get most of that data.
The thing that I find most strange about your comment though is that you consider web apps to be an element of user freedom. But generally speaking, the web is a tool of user lock-in. It usually means that users can only access the tool by going to the website, and that they can’t stick with a certain version, that they are forced to accept any change as it happens even if it is detrimental to their use case. The web is built upon a server-client architecture and that presents some inherent limitations to how apps need to be built. While you can get out of some of those things, you can’t get out of all of them. I was working with a student to make a final project on an AI vibe coding class where the only parameters were that he had to deliver a web app that doesn’t rely on external servers; he wanted to make a reminders app that would give a notification at specific times through the day but the problem we had was that it would require having the page loaded and running at all times because service workers cannot run independently of the page, so he had to abandon that idea completely.
Finally, Google has always given PWAs first class considerations. It’s part of how they exert control over the web. They are largely the people who are planning, building, and implementing these APIs that the author is lauding. Apple is the only company who has been resisting and that is largely because they are trying to preserve the income of their App Store.