arqalite's recent activity
-
Comment on Apple announces iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone in ~tech
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
arqalite LinkI've 100%'d Tomb Raider (2013). I realized I love these kinds of action-adventure games where I can blend both combat with exploration and collectibles (Control and Alan Wake 1&2 also scratch this...I've 100%'d Tomb Raider (2013).
I realized I love these kinds of action-adventure games where I can blend both combat with exploration and collectibles (Control and Alan Wake 1&2 also scratch this itch), and Tomb Raider didn't disappoint. I do think the story and characters could have been a bit more fleshed out, and I do see where the general "torture porn" criticism comes from, they really did find plenty of creative ways to kill Lara when you make a mistake, but I don't really mind it that much. In short, TR is immensely fun and it's kept me immersed from start to finish so it's definitely worth playing, and definitely worth 100%-ing.
Moved on to [Rise of the Tomb Raider] and this already feels like a much more vast world, but it's not unreasonable about it so it's still quite enjoyable. Currently at 10% so I can't give a good evaluation yet.
(I also have to mention I did play Rise a few years back, and got softlocked during a puzzle with only a single save slot because I was a dummy and didn't save in multiple slots; I've since forgotten everything about this game so I'm rediscovering it as we go - a rare ADHD win if I can call it that.)
-
Comment on How rigid/fluid is your LGBT identity? in ~lgbt
arqalite (edited )Link Parentoof, me too I realized recently I split my social life into three circles - family, friends made before I turned 20-ish, friends made after I turned 20-ish, and I am very much a different person...I’m different people with different people.
oof, me too
I realized recently I split my social life into three circles - family, friends made before I turned 20-ish, friends made after I turned 20-ish, and I am very much a different person with all three. Oh, and when alone I am a fourth different person! Is that the real me? God knows!
EDIT: Forgot my partner! I'm probably a fifth different person with him, but that kinda overlaps with the friends after 20-ish group, but not quite because there are recognizable differences. Also if I have to spend time with a mixed assortment of people from the groups above, my brain breaks so that's lovely to deal with.
I'm still unpacking how much of it is masking that just stuck around and is now my apparent personality with that specific group, and how much is the real me. Actually, do I even know who the real me is? See the previous paragraphs.
Being neurodivergent is so fun. /s
-
Comment on Software engineers / programmers: how’s it going? in ~comp
arqalite Link ParentAFAIK the labs are heavily curating input data to avoid this. I'm not sure what processes they use and what's the proportion of synthetic/real data, would be interesting to find out.AFAIK the labs are heavily curating input data to avoid this. I'm not sure what processes they use and what's the proportion of synthetic/real data, would be interesting to find out.
-
Comment on Software engineers / programmers: how’s it going? in ~comp
arqalite Link ParentClaude Fable 5 is speculated to be around 6 trillion parameters, and other frontier models aren't far. We've seen more and more increases in model size and while for now the improvements in...Claude Fable 5 is speculated to be around 6 trillion parameters, and other frontier models aren't far.
We've seen more and more increases in model size and while for now the improvements in intelligence have been worth the size, at some point bigger stops being better. We're currently just throwing more training at them and more refining of the current transformer architecture labs have been using since 2017. There have been innovations on it, like the Mixture of Experts design, but at its core it's still a transformer.
AFAIK we ran out of new training data a long time ago as well, so there's very little new knowledge for models to distill and obtain, and being next word predictors at their core, they'll forever be bound to external factors to give them more material to learn on (as LLM-generated training data leads to model collapse).
Reasoning has helped this problem quite a bit but it's far from perfect and doesn't solve every issue. Here I'm going into anecdote territory but often times when I point GPT 5.6 Sol on High to some obscure proprietary project at my job, it often messes up in really significant ways because it has never seen any of that before, and no amount of reasoning can fix that. (when that happens it also iterates endlessly because it can't pull itself out of the errors it gets at compile-time, burning tokens to infinity and beyond). Skills and agent documentation help, but that's again the models depending on us to lead them down the right path.
I believe the transformer architecture will not lead us to AGI and we need a significant breakthrough to do that. I'm not sure what that will be though.
-
Comment on How rigid/fluid is your LGBT identity? in ~lgbt
arqalite Link ParentYeah, at some point the self-analysis stops being helpful. I had a brief moment of wondering how much of what I was questioning about myself were genuine questions my soul was asking, or just the...Yeah, at some point the self-analysis stops being helpful. I had a brief moment of wondering how much of what I was questioning about myself were genuine questions my soul was asking, or just the heteronormative upbringing I had. Now it's clear it was the latter, but it did have me wondering for a bit.
-
Comment on How rigid/fluid is your LGBT identity? in ~lgbt
arqalite LinkI feel pretty confident in my cis gay male identity. I've had moments where I considered "what if I'm bi and just repressing the straight side" and I think I could spend the night with a lady and...I feel pretty confident in my cis gay male identity.
I've had moments where I considered "what if I'm bi and just repressing the straight side" and I think I could spend the night with a lady and have a fun time, but there's no active desire there. I want to date and love and enjoy my life alongside a male partner.
Regarding gender expression, I do lightly dabble in femininity as an extension of my masculinity, not as a replacement. For the vast majority of time I do and actively want to present masculine, though.
I follow some non-binary creators and I love how some of them play with gender and seem to flow between both presentations so effortlessly, it's fun to watch their expertise play out.
-
Comment on Software engineers / programmers: how’s it going? in ~comp
arqalite LinkSWE at a corporation here, 5 years and counting. We're developing plenty of AI integrations so if I'm not prompting an AI, I'm building tools that let other people use AI. That said less than half...SWE at a corporation here, 5 years and counting.
We're developing plenty of AI integrations so if I'm not prompting an AI, I'm building tools that let other people use AI. That said less than half of my daily work is AI-assisted and I actively try to not increase that figure.
I think work has gotten equally more enjoyable and more frustrating. Sending GPT-5.6 Luna on a quest to figure out some niche API or dive into an obscure and unmaintained codebase reduces the amount of hair-pulling I have to do on a monthly basis, but on the other hand debugging both my own and my coworkers' AI slop is not fun at all. It's so easy to let AI write code that is seemingly unreadable for both humans and future LLMs. That said, it's definitely quite easier to go from idea to shipped feature while still ensuring a reasonable level of quality.
My relationship with work is the same, log in at 9, log out at 6, no more, no less. The workload is a bit lighter mostly because I can automate the tedious parts so much easily, but I figure this respite won't be long, workloads will increase once everyone catches on.
I don't think human software engineering is going anywhere. AI is just not good enough and I'm confident we're approaching a bottleneck with current LLM architecture that will probably take a long time to solve.
Regarding tips, I would recommend making sure you keep your mind sharp. I had a brief phase where I let AI do most of the work and I'd just review it and I could feel my skills decline. Now I've switched my prompting around by dictating the architecture and design myself and just telling to AI to translate that to code. I then review relentlessly to make sure I both understand what was written and that the LLM implemented what I asked it to, and nothing more or less.
I plan on staying in my current position for the foreseeable future and don't see any threats to that at the moment. The biggest change is that I have more energy for my personal projects because I don't tire myself out as much with tedium at my job, meaning work on those is a bit faster and more consistent than before.
-
Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
arqalite (edited )LinkI absolutely devoured Rachel Reid's "Time to Shine" in the last 2 days. She's almost mastered MLM romance and it shows, the book was enjoyably written from start to finish with very few nitpicks...I absolutely devoured Rachel Reid's "Time to Shine" in the last 2 days.
She's almost mastered MLM romance and it shows, the book was enjoyably written from start to finish with very few nitpicks from my end.
Minor spoilers inside
I love how both Landon and Casey are written, both having a "flaw" that the other's presence improves, makes them feel more fleshed out as humans than Reid's previous characters.I also love the identity pairing, a sex-positive bisexual with an implied demi-homoromantic that hasn't had sexual experiences before - Landon gets to safely explore that side of himself with a person that couldn't be better suited for the job.
One thing that I tripped over was when both Landon and Casey's parents were present in the same scene; Rachel Reid likes playing with POVs and referring to the parents as Mom and Dad depending on whose perspective the narrator is talking from, and at some point I lost track which Mom and Dad we were talking about. However that's basically a single page of the entire book so once I figured it out, it didn't matter for the rest of the story.
Reid's formula of "they get to know each other, they fall in love, one of them messes up, they fix it, happy ending finale" works well here, but I do kinda wish we spent more time on the "they fix it" stage. I do think one more chapter of them figuring out long-distance would have made the relationship feel even stronger going into the finale.
That said, this remains one of the coziest and yet detailed relationships Reid's written so far; while the conflicts aren't as huge as in previous books, this is a very strong story IMO.
For any MLM romance fans, this is a solid recommendation (as is the rest of Reid's bibliography).
-
Comment on Control Resonant has gone gold. Physical release date for the game has been moved to October 15th. in ~games
arqalite LinkWoop woop! Can't wait. Unfortunately I pre-ordered the steelbook edition, so I guess I'll pirate the digital edition after the post-release patches come out so I don't miss out on the discussion....Woop woop! Can't wait.
Unfortunately I pre-ordered the steelbook edition, so I guess I'll pirate the digital edition after the post-release patches come out so I don't miss out on the discussion. Thank god they don't use Denuvo.
-
Comment on Control Resonant has gone gold. Physical release date for the game has been moved to October 15th. in ~games
arqalite Link ParentI did a playthrough when it came out with mouse and keyboard, and one this year with an Xbox Controller. I found both control schemes fairly easy to learn, and I'd assume they improved on them...I did a playthrough when it came out with mouse and keyboard, and one this year with an Xbox Controller. I found both control schemes fairly easy to learn, and I'd assume they improved on them since.
Alan Wake 2 also had pretty good controls.
-
Comment on McDonald’s built a 515-page dossier on me in ~tech
arqalite Link ParentYeah, I know the process and plan on following it through if McDs doesn't respond. The Romanian branch is somewhat mismanaged and there's a non-zero chance of them fucking it up, so let's see what...Yeah, I know the process and plan on following it through if McDs doesn't respond. The Romanian branch is somewhat mismanaged and there's a non-zero chance of them fucking it up, so let's see what happens.
Semi-related, I was looking online to see how GDPR enforcement has went since it went into effect, and apparently none of the larger fines have been collected yet, with all of them still in appeals or annulled entirely. I'm curious in 4-5 years how things lay out.
-
Comment on McDonald’s built a 515-page dossier on me in ~tech
arqalite Link ParentThe seventh world joke was because McDonalds has an online portal for most of its markets in the EU - but Romania isn't included there, and McDonalds Romania says in their Privacy Policy to send...The seventh world joke was because McDonalds has an online portal for most of its markets in the EU - but Romania isn't included there, and McDonalds Romania says in their Privacy Policy to send an email to gdpr@ro.mcd.com.
Not all EU countries are treated equally by corporations unfortunately, but yeah, they should still abide by GDPR rules.
-
Comment on McDonald’s built a 515-page dossier on me in ~tech
arqalite LinkI'm gonna do a GDPR request to see how the EU branches of McDonalds are doing. From what I see, while the data collected is vast, it seems at the very least focused on selling you more burgers and...I'm gonna do a GDPR request to see how the EU branches of McDonalds are doing.
From what I see, while the data collected is vast, it seems at the very least focused on selling you more burgers and fries.
Usually when mass data collection happens, I'm more scared of them correllating it and trying to figure out things that don't relate to their business so they can sell it to advertisers or third-parties. They still could do that and simply not share it, though.
EDIT: Since I live in a seventh-world country (Romania), I have to email them and wait for a person to reply. I expect for that to not happen.
-
Comment on What game are you terrible at? in ~games
arqalite Link ParentOh my god, I hate that game with a passion. I just don't feel like the parts you can control in the game are powerful enough to affect your odds of exploding, and just like you, I had a horrendous...Oh my god, I hate that game with a passion. I just don't feel like the parts you can control in the game are powerful enough to affect your odds of exploding, and just like you, I had a horrendous streak of exploding over and over again.
It was the only board game I genuinely considered cheating at, and by that point I knew I should just stop playing it entirely and ask my group to try other games. We're now onto Terraforming Mars and I'm having an absolute blast.
-
Comment on What is your Mandela effect moment? in ~movies
arqalite Link ParentWe should get ready for Avengers: Endgame's re-release to do the same thing for a new generation. Apparently the re-release will have extra scenes to tie it better to Doomsday.We should get ready for Avengers: Endgame's re-release to do the same thing for a new generation. Apparently the re-release will have extra scenes to tie it better to Doomsday.
-
Comment on What is your Mandela effect moment? in ~movies
arqalite Link ParentYeah, basically a slightly inferior version of that. I did switch to butter and jam as an adult too, to fill that void :)Yeah, basically a slightly inferior version of that. I did switch to butter and jam as an adult too, to fill that void :)
-
Comment on What is your Mandela effect moment? in ~movies
arqalite LinkNot quite the Mandela effect, but it's probably the only time I can tell this story here, so here goes. When I was a very little kid, one of my favorite snacks was a strawberry-flavoured margarine...Not quite the Mandela effect, but it's probably the only time I can tell this story here, so here goes.
When I was a very little kid, one of my favorite snacks was a strawberry-flavoured margarine from a local brand, named Delma. This specific variety was called "Delma Căpșunica" ("căpșunică" in Romanian means "little strawberry") and I absolutely adored it. In retrospect it was probably carcinogens on toast, but that's not the point.
It got discontinued pretty quickly, so it didn't have much of a lasting cultural impact, but it did on me. As I grew up, I had random moments when I remembered it existed, so I decided to look it up online.
For almost a decade, I wasn't able to find any traces of it existing on the internet, to the point of convincing myself I just hallucinated it or didn't remember it properly. When telling others about it, they had no recollection of such a thing existing, and my mom didn't remember either but wouldn't be surprised if we did have it in the pantry at some point.
Until a few years back, when I saw someone uploaded an ad from 2003, finally proving its existence! However the packaging is not the same one I remembered.
And then this reel appeared (it's from a YouTube reaction video from ZappyTV) and that's the packaging I remember!
And also a bunch of people confirming they used to eat it as kids. I'm not alone!
Anyway, there's probably so many examples of early-2000s products that didn't manage to be relevant enough for the internet to properly preserve them, especially in areas like Eastern Europe. I wonder what other things from my childhood got forgotten by everyone, including myself.
-
Comment on Control Resonant | Exclusive Metro Fault mission gameplay in ~games
arqalite Linkaaaa I wanna watch it but I also kinda want to avoid getting any more spoilers than what we already know 😭aaaa I wanna watch it but I also kinda want to avoid getting any more spoilers than what we already know 😭
-
Comment on Apple sues OpenAI for stealing trade secrets to build AI hardware in ~tech
arqalite (edited )Link ParentSame here, 5.6 Luna has been more than adequate for what I need it to do. For now it's also been kind on my $10 Copilot Pro subscription + the $10 extra budget I gave it.Same here, 5.6 Luna has been more than adequate for what I need it to do. For now it's also been kind on my $10 Copilot Pro subscription + the $10 extra budget I gave it.
Same here, owned a Z Fold4, now on a Z Fold7, opened both all the time and make extensive use of split-screen or just watching media on the big screen.
The only time I use the outer screen is for doomscrolling or texting, everything else on the folding screen.