ali's recent activity

  1. Comment on Uppercase - A daily word puzzle in ~games

    ali
    Link Parent
    I didn't realize that spaces are just normal squares when I tried it

    I didn't realize that spaces are just normal squares when I tried it

    1 vote

  2. Comment on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Switch 2) | Zelda 40th anniversary Direct trailer in ~games

    ali
    Link
    I am going to buy this instantly, and possibly also the Ocarina. I loved OOT as a kid. It's the game I replayed the most. I am cautiously hopeful for a master quest and I might try to 100% it

    I am going to buy this instantly, and possibly also the Ocarina. I loved OOT as a kid. It's the game I replayed the most. I am cautiously hopeful for a master quest and I might try to 100% it

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Weekly thread for casual chat and photos of pets in ~life.pets

    ali
    Link
    Well, we’ve arrived in Germany after adopting a stray cat in Thailand. And she’s amazing, adventurous. We’ve gone to the hardware store today, where she’s been basically running around exploring...

    Well, we’ve arrived in Germany after adopting a stray cat in Thailand. And she’s amazing, adventurous. We’ve gone to the hardware store today, where she’s been basically running around exploring for an hour :D

    And before that, earlier today she got up from her nap, came next to me and laid in my arm.
    https://postimg.cc/gallery/QByfMPj

    I’m gonna have to look where I can easily post the video of her walking around in the store (which is not YouTube)

    My girlfriend also edited a small intro about how we met our cat as a short (and some longer videos)

    https://youtu.be/lAKGe0JSjsQ

    8 votes

  4. Comment on Has anyone tried making their own font? in ~design

    ali
    Link Parent
    Glad you enjoy it! I also want to make it possible to have alternative glyphs so it looks more realistic. I just didn’t get around to it. I literally have an all build ready too that I never...

    Glad you enjoy it! I also want to make it possible to have alternative glyphs so it looks more realistic. I just didn’t get around to it. I literally have an all build ready too that I never published. I really should get around to it

    3 votes

  5. Comment on Has anyone tried making their own font? in ~design

    ali
    Link
    I never built a proper font, but I did turn my handwriting into a font. It was something my girlfriend wanted too so I built her a tool (it’s free) just in case you want to play around with it:...

    I never built a proper font, but I did turn my handwriting into a font. It was something my girlfriend wanted too so I built her a tool (it’s free) just in case you want to play around with it:

    https://font.watermelonson.com

    20 votes

  6. Comment on Why Germany's favorite soda comes in a beer bottle in ~food

    ali
    Link
    Warning: you should have some sparkling water and juice or Fanta and cola ready when watching this lol This is a fascinating deep dive as someone who actually occasionally drinks this. I kinda...

    Warning: you should have some sparkling water and juice or Fanta and cola ready when watching this lol

    This is a fascinating deep dive as someone who actually occasionally drinks this. I kinda also thought Paulaner was kind of the “default”

    I’ve also noticed that Spezi has been appearing more and more in different versions in the supermarkets.

    8 votes

  8. Anyone using a DGX Spark?

    ~comp Ask (survey)
    The prices have increased, and even before people called it too expensive. I am just wondering - do you have one? What do you use it for? I've been thinking of getting one (as a business expense,...

    The prices have increased, and even before people called it too expensive.

    I am just wondering - do you have one? What do you use it for? I've been thinking of getting one (as a business expense, I guess the price is high, but then again - what other option do you have for compute? renting GPUs is quite expensive, any comparable amount of VRAM is very expensive - ok if you have space and mostly want to do inference, I guess you have better options (3090 or 5090)

    For me, I have just been considering having some more compute available for robotics, finetuning, trying out selfhosted and fine tuned LLMs, among other things. My other setup (M1Pro 32GB and a 1070 Mini) could work for some stuff, but especially for the robotics part it's mostly about NVIDIA...

    Curious about any experiences.

    5 votes

  9. Comment on How often are you eating plant based meals? in ~food

    ali
    Link
    Grew up eating tons of meat. My girlfriend was a pescatarian so we rarely had meat together. But we’ve both been vegan now for almost 3 years. Happier (definitely about my food choices) and...

    Grew up eating tons of meat. My girlfriend was a pescatarian so we rarely had meat together. But we’ve both been vegan now for almost 3 years.

    Happier (definitely about my food choices) and healthier than ever.

    Also, the flavors you start to taste once you’re not overwhelmed by animal ingredients is mind boggling. You smell milk or meat from a mile away, and by cooking something other than “meat + X” you unlock a whole new world of flavor.

    Don’t get me started on tofu - considered bland, but imo one of the greatest ingredients ever. It’s so versatile, can mimic so much, add a ton of protein to any dish. Turn it into a sauce, turn it into nuggets, turn it into kebab.

    This was mostly about the food, but the ethical side starts weighing much more once you’re confronted with these topics without becoming defensive.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on Why normal people aren’t using AI agents in ~tech

    ali
    Link Parent
    Did the people trying have a background in Software engineering and used Claude before?

    Did the people trying have a background in Software engineering and used Claude before?

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Why normal people aren’t using AI agents in ~tech

    ali
    Link Parent
    I fully agree. For context, I work in this area and did a masters in it. I have been building tools, and looking into integration of these AI agents, and in the end, defining a MCP for your tool,...

    I fully agree. For context, I work in this area and did a masters in it.

    I have been building tools, and looking into integration of these AI agents, and in the end, defining a MCP for your tool, letting claude do the tedious work of reading the manual and answering your questions in simple terms is just great.

    And yes some people let it replace their own thinking - that's a problem. But once you see it as a tool, and it's been getting quite capable - it's not 100% perfect - and I think it sucks at creative work. But that's also because I recognize AI texts and designs so quickly.

    But just using AI as an extra "smart" layer above a userface can be quite nice. Don't try to make it replace staff, make it help your users, and it can be great.

    Some usecases I have built myself are: quick automation of repetetive tasks in an UI, or "turn my verbal description into a JSON" (in my space sim luna). I have tons of users under 15, none of them will write JSON to customize their system. But they can say: I want a black hole and 2 stars around it - and then the AI writes the JSON

    14 votes

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

    ali
    Link
    Working on my Robot arms, and getting them to run in a simulation in the browser. Of course Luna has been consuming a lot of time. And yesterday I have been looking for these “comment to DM”...

    Working on my Robot arms, and getting them to run in a simulation in the browser.

    Of course Luna has been consuming a lot of time.

    And yesterday I have been looking for these “comment to DM” instagram tools. And all these SaaS want you to pay like 15-40 euro a month for the functionality. But I just built my own, so I can host it for free on cloudflare. The setup was a bit more, but at least I don’t have to pay that much for a simple webhook and API call + setup website.

    The automation would’ve been easy already a while ago, now the UI to configure it was also very easy with Claude

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Humble Choice - August 2026 in ~games

    ali
    Link Parent
    Oh that would be so nice. It’s actually the only game I wanted to get from the bundle. Thank you so much

    Oh that would be so nice. It’s actually the only game I wanted to get from the bundle.

    Thank you so much

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Humble Choice - August 2026 in ~games

    ali
    Link
    Heard very good things about dead cells

    Heard very good things about dead cells

    1 vote

  15. Comment on What just happened to TheNumbers.com should worry us all in ~tech

    ali
    Link Parent
    I’ve been saying that ChatGPTs Release without many many more disclaimers was incredibly reckless. The amount of people not realizing that just because it’s written well, it doesn’t mean that it’s...

    Flip side, though: this really highlights how irresponsible the ai companies comes across to me, releasing such powerful tools into the wild and only then playing whackamole to put up guardrails and fix problems that could reasonably have been anticipated (though I'll grant, devious people can be clever as hell).

    I’ve been saying that ChatGPTs Release without many many more disclaimers was incredibly reckless. The amount of people not realizing that just because it’s written well, it doesn’t mean that it’s correct. Is astounding.

    Especially early models. Like I’ve had a friend who’s ChatGPT confirmed his conspiracy theories like the moon landing being fake and others

    4 votes

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

    ali
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the advice! The arms are great, I printed them, but huggingface designed them, I just realized that I’ve done a masters in robotics and I don’t have any on my own. So instead of just...

    Thanks for the advice!

    The arms are great, I printed them, but huggingface designed them, I just realized that I’ve done a masters in robotics and I don’t have any on my own. So instead of just doing all the AI in software, I wanted something to interact with in the real world.

    And by building this and learning with it I’m already learning so much about what I want to look for when I build my own.

    2 votes

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

    ali
    Link Parent
    Yeah I might have to go that way. I really liked the 0 friction approach, but if no one finds the tool - what’s the use

    Yeah I might have to go that way. I really liked the 0 friction approach, but if no one finds the tool - what’s the use

    1 vote

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

    ali
    Link Parent
    that's good to know, thanks. I think it was just the fact that it's a pure javascript app without much text for the search engine that causes these problems. But it's really frustrating since most...

    that's good to know, thanks. I think it was just the fact that it's a pure javascript app without much text for the search engine that causes these problems. But it's really frustrating since most users visit via google

    1 vote

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

    ali
    Link
    Many things, especially my SO ARM 101 - I am super excited to work through some advancements in Robot learning with those arms. I am really close to building a second pair to be able to do 2...

    Many things, especially my SO ARM 101 - I am super excited to work through some advancements in Robot learning with those arms. I am really close to building a second pair to be able to do 2 handed manipulation.

    And I am still working on Luna - My space simulator https://luna.watermelonson.com/

    where I am hitting the weirdest issue. It's been removed from the google index. And I just don't understand why. Even users literally typing into google luna watermelonson don't get this website shown. It's so infuriating because I know that thousands are using it and looking for it

    3 votes

  20. Comment on You can vote on the design of the next Euro banknotes! in ~design

    ali
    Link
    I think there’s some really cool designs in there. Depending on whether we’ll have the birds or the people, I’ll probably hang one king fisher bill on my wall or one of da Vinci.

    I think there’s some really cool designs in there. Depending on whether we’ll have the birds or the people, I’ll probably hang one king fisher bill on my wall or one of da Vinci.

    4 votes