ali's recent activity

  1. Comment on Announcing the eighth annual Tildes' Make Something Month (Timasomo)! in ~tildes

  2. Comment on I don’t feel like I’m a creative person. How could I fix that and get ideas? in ~creative

    ali
    Link
    I might be able to elaborate more later, but I've felt stuck on occasion too. There's some books that helped me. Austin Kleons books -- especially the Steal like an artist trilogy, the Practice by...

    I might be able to elaborate more later, but I've felt stuck on occasion too. There's some books that helped me.

    Austin Kleons books -- especially the Steal like an artist trilogy, the Practice by seth godin and then there's this guy on instagram who I think creates very good content on creative work - https://www.instagram.com/fakeplasticbrands

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

    ali
    Link Parent
    Haha flip board is just visual! The move didn’t break anything! I am just still fine tuning the moves so it’s fun to have people join in. Funny enough when the arm noticed the placement slightly...

    Haha flip board is just visual! The move didn’t break anything! I am just still fine tuning the moves so it’s fun to have people join in. Funny enough when the arm noticed the placement slightly off center it tried to adjust it.

    But then it picked up the knight and placed it on that square :D

    1 vote

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

    ali
    Link
    I have some SO ARM101, and I decided to make one of them play chess. It’s still early, but I think I’m almost ready to play fully. There’s still some oddities in calibration. If someone here wants...

    I have some SO ARM101, and I decided to make one of them play chess. It’s still early, but I think I’m almost ready to play fully. There’s still some oddities in calibration.

    If someone here wants to play against me, I’ll do my move once I manage to fix the current move for black, and then it’s basically open to anyone to basically be my opponent for my moves.
    The site is chess.watermelonson.com

    I’ll make a post about it once I’ve finished it, but I am posting short videos about it daily. I think by the end of this week it will be ready, the write up will take a bit more tho

    1 vote

  5. Comment on A directory of websites in ~tech

    ali
    Link
    Really funny to see this site here. It was one of the first websites that sent a lot of traffic to my own website :D

    Really funny to see this site here. It was one of the first websites that sent a lot of traffic to my own website :D

    5 votes

  6. Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games

    ali
    Link Parent
    do you need to go to Maccas or can you just get a code somehow? The only guy I know in Australia is vegan lol

    do you need to go to Maccas or can you just get a code somehow? The only guy I know in Australia is vegan lol

  7. Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games

    ali
    Link Parent
    That’s the thing I missed. I loved early classic, exploring, chatting. Now I feel like this could be that, but you also have new things to explore

    That’s the thing I missed. I loved early classic, exploring, chatting.

    Now I feel like this could be that, but you also have new things to explore

    1 vote

  8. Comment on World of Warcraft: Forever | Cinematic trailer in ~games

    ali
    Link
    Any WoW players here? Classic WoW has sucked me in a few times, so with my current self-employment endeavours I have to be very careful about starting it. But I think I'll try it with strict game...

    Any WoW players here? Classic WoW has sucked me in a few times, so with my current self-employment endeavours I have to be very careful about starting it. But I think I'll try it with strict game time limitations.

    6 votes

  10. 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

  11. 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

  12. 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

  13. 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

  14. 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

  15. 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

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. 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

  20. 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