apolz's recent activity
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Comment on MiniPCs, portable monitors? in ~tech
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
apolz LinkTorment: Tides of Numenera - this game was the spiritual successor to the old-school CRPG Planescape: Torment. Numenera was made by some of the same devs as a kick-starter project. So if anyone is...Torment: Tides of Numenera - this game was the spiritual successor to the old-school CRPG Planescape: Torment. Numenera was made by some of the same devs as a kick-starter project. So if anyone is itching for some text-heavy CRPGs with an extremely rich setting then give it a shot!
The setting is Science-Fantasy Earth 9 billion years into the future (I think the sun aught to have went poof by then). It really takes the Clarckian adage about "any sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic" to heart. Full of nano/bio/xeno-engineering and true to the Torment line musings on philosophy of self-worth.
Combat sucks ass, there's no voiced dialogue so it's probably not for everyone. But I really enjoyed talking my way out of tricky situations rather than struggling with the boring combat system. Think of it more as a Role-Playing reading game.
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Comment on A message to our community: Unity is canceling the Runtime Fee in ~games
apolz Link ParentWhat do you mean no consequences? He got fired. What else did you expect?What do you mean no consequences? He got fired. What else did you expect?
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Comment on Grokking KOReader in ~books
apolz LinkAgreed with everyone else here that the author's font is hilariously unreadable. But like the author mentioned KOreader does allow any and all font and view customizations. KOreader is an amazing...Agreed with everyone else here that the author's font is hilariously unreadable. But like the author mentioned KOreader does allow any and all font and view customizations.
KOreader is an amazing tool. After getting used to it a few years ago I can't go back to any other reading UI. I like the swipe shortcuts to adjust day/night modes, warmth and backlight intensity. It has a lot of neat features like: pulling down RSS news feeds, word dictionaries (to keep up my Spanish), Calibre integrations, reading history and statistics, etc.
Recommend it to anyone that loves their e-reader and doesn't mind tinkering with power user tools.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~games
apolz Link ParentI am somewhat disappointed clicking into the link though. Was really looking forward to reading about some crazy Marxist, command-economy experiment in Eve Online ran by the Chinese Communist Party.I am somewhat disappointed clicking into the link though. Was really looking forward to reading about some crazy Marxist, command-economy experiment in Eve Online ran by the Chinese Communist Party.
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Comment on What are some great time savers on CLI that you would recommend? in ~comp
apolz Linkzsh with oh-my-zsh is great. Lot's small improvements over your basic bash. zellij is a neat replacement for screen/tmux with saner default settings than tmux. fd (sometimes called fd-find) is a...zsh with oh-my-zsh is great. Lot's small improvements over your basic bash.
zellij is a neat replacement for screen/tmux with saner default settings than tmux.
fd (sometimes called fd-find) is a great replacement for find with more powerful and easier to remember options.
sl - "steam locomotive" draws a silly train driving across your terminal anytime you misspelled an ls command. Never fails to bring a smile to my face.
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Comment on Spotify raises US prices of premium streaming plans for second time in one year in ~music
apolz Link ParentHere's a copy of the script: https://github.com/andpol5/spotify2ytmHere's a copy of the script: https://github.com/andpol5/spotify2ytm
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Comment on Spotify raises US prices of premium streaming plans for second time in one year in ~music
apolz Link ParentI uploaded the script here: https://github.com/andpol5/spotify2ytmI uploaded the script here:
https://github.com/andpol5/spotify2ytm -
Comment on US-made M270 and HIMARS hammer targets inside Russia, first cross-border strikes since Joe Biden green light in ~news
apolz Link ParentI wish that were true. Unfortunately Russia is still advancing. And there's of course the risk of "Trump ending the war in 24 hours" - meaning stopping US military aid to Ukraine. Russia's...I wish that were true. Unfortunately Russia is still advancing. And there's of course the risk of "Trump ending the war in 24 hours" - meaning stopping US military aid to Ukraine.
Russia's military performance has been pathetic at the individual infantryman and the small unit level, but that's always been true. This is how they won on the Eastern Front of WW2.
The war in Ukraine is fundamentally down to Western support. If we drop it, they will lose. Saying that Russia already lost isn't helpful, it breeds complacency.
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Comment on Spotify raises US prices of premium streaming plans for second time in one year in ~music
apolz Link ParentThe YTM recommendation engine is better than Spotify in my opinion! It gets the genre right and actually recommends other songs I haven't heard in that genre. Spotify was always far too repetitive...The YTM recommendation engine is better than Spotify in my opinion! It gets the genre right and actually recommends other songs I haven't heard in that genre. Spotify was always far too repetitive for my taste.
I wrote a Python script for myself and my wife to export playlists and songs to YTM. I can share that if you're knowledgeable about Python, otherwise you can try some online tools that do this for you.
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Comment on Spotify raises US prices of premium streaming plans for second time in one year in ~music
apolz LinkThe price increases from Spotify made me take a look at YouTube Premium which is going for $22.00 USD for a family plan. It happens to include both YouTube Music which is as good as Spotify and...The price increases from Spotify made me take a look at YouTube Premium which is going for $22.00 USD for a family plan.
It happens to include both YouTube Music which is as good as Spotify and ad-free videos. As much as I am loath to give money to Google, this is a much better deal IMO.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
apolz LinkI picked up The Invincible on Steam. It is a linear, first-person, story-driven, retro-futuristic exploration game set on a desolate, distant planet. It is based on a hard sci-fi novel by Polish...I picked up The Invincible on Steam. It is a linear, first-person, story-driven, retro-futuristic exploration game set on a desolate, distant planet. It is based on a hard sci-fi novel by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem. I've long been meaning to read some of his work and it's been a real treat to read a few chapters of The Invincible book and to follow it up with playing the game.
The game is slower paced and more focused on exploration of the mystery of the desert planet (which I will not spoil). Suffice to say the alien environment looks absolutely beautiful and Stanislaw Lem's philosophical musings on man's place in the cosmos fit perfectly well into the narrative. It really scratches that sci-fi itch of wonder I've had ever since being a kid. The only other game that sort of compares is Outer Wilds. And I'm happy to say this game inspired me to read more Lem books!
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Comment on Are any of you AI gurus? in ~comp
apolz LinkThe simplest approach would be to treat these as object detection tasks on individual frames from the videos. Sample a frame from each video at 1 second or 2 second intervals and then run an...What I'd like AI to do is scan for faces and identify names of celebs (if possible), sections of video at 5 seconds in length containing railway, trees, cars, etc logged to build out a database of video that we have. It would also need to log time codes of where these clips are and for how long.
The simplest approach would be to treat these as object detection tasks on individual frames from the videos. Sample a frame from each video at 1 second or 2 second intervals and then run an object detection model on it. DETR from Facebook AI labs is a good choice, you can grab it from HuggingFace.co.
The outputs of these model inferences will be bounding boxes with a class label and confidence value. Ex: this box is a person with 80% confidence or this box is a tree with 92% confidence. Afterwards you can create timestamps and clips of videos based on the objects and bounding boxes that you detected.
Identities of celebrities might be trickier to detect. AFAIK there aren't any publicly available celebrity ID models, but you can data-mine your own data from Wikipedia, IMDB, and other places and train a model to detect the people that you want.
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Comment on Denis Villeneuve refuses to let Hollywood shrink him down to size in ~movies
apolz LinkGreat read. Every one of his movies so far have been incredible. I'm hoping he has the creative freedom to take huge risks in the future too. There are far too few directors like Villeneuve these...Great read. Every one of his movies so far have been incredible. I'm hoping he has the creative freedom to take huge risks in the future too. There are far too few directors like Villeneuve these days.
I didn't love every single Christopher Nolan film, but I even went to go watch Tenet just to support the director's creative freedom to take big risks. Will definitely be doing the same for any Villeneuve film!
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Comment on What books would you recommend for me? in ~books
apolz Link ParentSeveneves is a tough one for me. I love Neal Stephenson's writing and wit. The first two thirds of the book really were a page turner, that I couldn't put down. The last third of the book...Seveneves is a tough one for me. I love Neal Stephenson's writing and wit. The first two thirds of the book really were a page turner, that I couldn't put down. The last third of the book though... Set in a future thousands of years from now. Without giving away any spoilers, it felt jarring, the premise was ridiculous, the tone was boring, the characters were so flat to be cardboard cutouts and that was purposefully so!
Unfortunately, it was one of those Game of Thrones cases when the bad ending ruined the rest of the work for me.
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Comment on Robot that uses AI to pull weeds may reduce poisonous herbicide use by 70% in ~food
apolz Link ParentThis robot won't be using any servers. It will have on-board graphics cards that can do the computer vision on the fly.This robot won't be using any servers. It will have on-board graphics cards that can do the computer vision on the fly.
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Comment on How China’s EV boom caught Western car companies asleep at the wheel in ~transport
apolz Link ParentI read the same article and I disagree that the tone was anti-China. If anything the tone is one of disappointment for American and Western countries inability to adapt fast enough. It's a shame...I read the same article and I disagree that the tone was anti-China. If anything the tone is one of disappointment for American and Western countries inability to adapt fast enough.
It's a shame that it took massive government subsidies from the Biden administration. It's very likely that these subsidies will put pressure to raise tariffs on Chinese EVs in the future to protect American subsidized giant EV SUV companies.
American, German and Japanese manufacturers really were asleep at the wheel. They should have seen this happening from miles away. They should have prepared for it themselves, instead of waiting for hand-outs to save them from "the big bad Chinese".
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Comment on Israel-Gaza Conflict Discussion Thread in ~news
apolz Link ParentSomething like 6 million people have fled Ukraine, mostly concentrated from the Russian speaking East. More recently about 120,000 Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh. Unfortunately, recent...Something like 6 million people have fled Ukraine, mostly concentrated from the Russian speaking East. More recently about 120,000 Armenians have fled Nagorno-Karabakh.
Unfortunately, recent history tells us that forcing hundreds of thousands of people out of their homes is all too possible.
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Comment on Daði Freyr – Bitte (2023) in ~music
apolz LinkGreat to see the Daði love on here! My wife and I learned the whole 10 years dance after seeing him at Eurovision. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EwJ-p4tn_wGreat to see the Daði love on here! My wife and I learned the whole 10 years dance after seeing him at Eurovision.
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Comment on Tips for buying + reading ebooks that are synced without using kindle/play books? in ~comp
apolz LinkI use the Kobo Libra 2 reader with KOreader. The Kobo bookstore is very easy to strip DRM with tools like kobo-dl, but I mostly use it just so I can avoid paying money to Amazon. Sometimes I would...I use the Kobo Libra 2 reader with KOreader. The Kobo bookstore is very easy to strip DRM with tools like kobo-dl, but I mostly use it just so I can avoid paying money to Amazon.
Sometimes I would buy a book there and just download a pirated epub on LibGen or Anna's Archive at the same time.
External GPUs aren't worth the headache. ML engineers usually use their laptop to ssh into a real Linux server with GPUs and CUDA and all that.