balooga's recent activity
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of February 16 in ~society
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Comment on Palantir was allegedly hacked, exposing CIA collusion and deep-rooted global surveillance/meddling in ~tech
balooga Link ParentTotally agree. I want to believe, but you don’t just drop claims like that without serious substantiation.Totally agree. I want to believe, but you don’t just drop claims like that without serious substantiation.
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Comment on Warner Bros. Discovery considers restarting talks with Paramount in ~tv
balooga LinkLarry Ellison is an asshole, and that’s all I have to say about this.Larry Ellison is an asshole, and that’s all I have to say about this.
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Comment on Culture is the mass-synchronization of framings in ~life
balooga LinkReally interesting read. I love the specific juxtaposition of Japanese vs. Italian cultures to draw out the differences. And written in English, no less — how considerate! It reminds me of this...Really interesting read. I love the specific juxtaposition of Japanese vs. Italian cultures to draw out the differences. And written in English, no less — how considerate! It reminds me of this sketch from awhile back comparing the “ask culture” of Germany with the “guess culture” of Ireland.
Thanks to Tildes surfacing content from Not Just Bikes I’ve become a lot more cognizant of the differences in urban planning and mass transportation goals (you could call it “car culture” vs. “bike and pedestrian culture” maybe) of the Netherlands, versus the US and Canada. Now I’d be really curious to see if Japan’s core value of “never stand out or make a fuss,” as Giancotti puts it, is also present in the Netherlands. Or how other social norms generally compare in those two countries.
Also, and this is a tangent (a political one, at that)… but nowadays I feel like there’s an elephant in the room whenever the subject of cultural norms comes up. Trumpism has revealed the ugly truth that our strongest institutions and the international order are held together by norms and conventions and good faith. Duct tape and a prayer, basically. A motivated individual willing to disregard and exploit those norms can cause serious harm to a system. I don’t know what to do with that observation, but the fragility of cultural consensus (whether at micro or macro scale) has never felt more apparent to me.
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Comment on The tiny details in Red Dead Redemption 2 you weren't meant to notice in ~games
balooga Link ParentI’ve got mixed feelings about RDR2. I absolutely adore its vision of an American west on the cusp of modernization. The attention to detail, even the tiniest things nobody ought to care about. I...I’ve got mixed feelings about RDR2. I absolutely adore its vision of an American west on the cusp of modernization. The attention to detail, even the tiniest things nobody ought to care about. I want every video game world to feel as immersive as it does. I love the variation between all the different biomes. And that feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere, tracking some animal, living off the land, maybe a monsoon sweeps in over the distant hills… the music, the lighting, EVERYTHING is incredible. I can get lost in the game for hours just wandering around and loving every minute.
But weirdly, the game itself isn’t that much fun. The story is bleak and tragic. Instead of progressing from humble beginnings to glory, your situation just worsens and worsens, to the point that you’re disincentivized from even advancing the story. The ludonarrative dissonance is off the charts. The shooting is repetitive.
At the end of the day I’d rather spend a couple hours chatting and playing dominoes with friends in camp, following treasure maps, going fishing, riding trains, and just poking around the fringes of the map, than actually seeing Arthur’s story through to its conclusion. I never even finished the thing.
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Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud in ~tech
balooga Link ParentWell if the copper wire had been gold-plated, the difference would've been obvious.Well if the copper wire had been gold-plated, the difference would've been obvious.
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Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend $38 billion on warehouse conversions in ~society
balooga Link ParentIt’s a little tricky to explain so here’s a direct link to it. You have to add it to your Share Sheet. To use, hit the share icon in Safari then tap “Avert Paywall with Archive.is”. If the URL...It’s a little tricky to explain so here’s a direct link to it. You have to add it to your Share Sheet. To use, hit the share icon in Safari then tap “Avert Paywall with Archive.is”. If the URL hasn’t been previously archived you’ll need to hit the submit button on the form it shows you, and wait for it to scrape. So, technically, 2-3 taps but still pretty streamlined all in all. The shortcut automatically enables Reader mode, which you may or may not want.
I’ve been using this for years without issues, YMMV. Recently I noticed that Archive.is has started blocking requests from VPN services. If you use one, the shortcut may hang. You can kill it by tapping in the iOS dynamic island. Disable the VPN and try again.
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Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend $38 billion on warehouse conversions in ~society
balooga Link ParentBad luck on her part, showing up with a news crew already on-site. Also the deal had already fallen through, so just… why? I wonder if she was operating on out-of-date info. I love the mayor’s...Bad luck on her part, showing up with a news crew already on-site. Also the deal had already fallen through, so just… why? I wonder if she was operating on out-of-date info. I love the mayor’s statement though:
I am outraged by federal efforts to place 10,000 human beings in cages inside distribution warehouses in Kansas City or anywhere in our country. I'll trust the courts, our local prosecutors, and law enforcement in Kansas City to handle the offender.
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Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to spend $38 billion on warehouse conversions in ~society
balooga Link ParentI’ve been recommending Bypass Paywalls Clean for years but that has some barriers to entry (both technical and legal) that put it out of reach for many. It’s a browser extension, so not an...I’ve been recommending Bypass Paywalls Clean for years but that has some barriers to entry (both technical and legal) that put it out of reach for many. It’s a browser extension, so not an archive.is replacement that just works for everyone. Half or more of the time I’m on Tildes I’m on iOS and can’t use it myself, anyway.
To kind of mitigate that, years ago I made an iOS shortcut that grabs the archive.is URL for whatever page is open in Safari, it’s a one-click solution. So, yeah, it’s dependent on archive.is but it’s ultra-convenient on mobile and works well. I don’t know of a reliable alternative. I agree one is needed, but when it comes to getting the word out about DHS’s horrific and secretive concentration camp project, I’m willing to hold my nose and keep using this one.
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Comment on An AI agent published a hit piece on me in ~tech
balooga Link ParentOh jeez, that’s a bad look. I have always held them in particularly high regard next to other outlets.Oh jeez, that’s a bad look. I have always held them in particularly high regard next to other outlets.
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Comment on Minecraft running on Sega Saturn in ~games
balooga LinkHa, this felt like watching a level editor for Bug!Ha, this felt like watching a level editor for Bug!
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Comment on Giving my AI agent its own team and what that taught me about AI in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI’m glad you mentioned Gas Town. I posted earlier today about my own experience with that but didn’t get into the details. This sort of agentic team, each member with a different role, just makes...I’m glad you mentioned Gas Town. I posted earlier today about my own experience with that but didn’t get into the details. This sort of agentic team, each member with a different role, just makes sense to me. GT has a mayor, deacon, witness, refinery, dogs, and polecats. It’s also chaotic and ridiculous. I really like this breakdown of the Steward, Scribe, and Skeptic roles. Each of those feels pretty cleanly differentiated from the others. I guess “Atlas” is the fourth role than wrangles the other three?
I’m sure there are going to be lots of competing approaches in the coming years. We should keep a close eye on all of them, I think. Personally I’m not sure if Atlas is the perfect framework but conceptually it feels really smart.
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Comment on Something big is happening in ~tech
balooga LinkI was working with Claude Code at my last SE job until I was laid off in October. I can’t keep the model versions straight in my head but that was a pretty capable one, albeit it before this...I was working with Claude Code at my last SE job until I was laid off in October. I can’t keep the model versions straight in my head but that was a pretty capable one, albeit it before this latest leap in capabilities. My whole team was experimenting with different agentic workflows of varying complexity. My experience at that time was that I could get solid results if I limited the scope of work and iterated on it. Large whole-cloth feature development from a single prompt was too much. In most cases I spent as much (or more) time telling Claude to fix specific bugs, and justifying its PR bloat to human reviewers, than it would taken me to just code the damn thing myself.
Anyway I’ve been having a series of existential crises since then, being out of work at this particular moment in tech.
Last week I remembered that my $20/mo subscription to ChatGPT includes Codex, and I should probably poke around with the latest and see what’s new. I had also just heard about Gas Town so I installed that on a whim too. Hopped on the GT Discord and met a friendly gent in Australia who volunteered half of his day just walking me through everything over voice and screen share, so shout-out to that dude for being a great community member.
About four or five years ago I started tinkering with a little project in my spare time. I had some UI sketches and notes, but only managed to implement maybe a tenth of it before life got busy and it’s been on the shelf ever since. Well, I dusted that thing off and gave it to Gas Town (and vanilla Codex) just to see what would happen.
The next day I had a feature-complete, working app. I was floored that with very little intervention it just built the whole thing and I was using it, just as I had imagined it five years ago. For context, this is a cryptography-heavy TypeScript app that performs GPG file signing and encryption in-browser, implements Shamir’s Secret Sharing, and generates zip archives of its own code for download. Not a React todo-list tutorial or whatever.
Caveats: I did spend a few hours up front manually codifying the full project reqs into a document the AI could consume. Gas Town is buggy and weird and needed a bit of hand-holding. The very first version of its output didn’t work at all but Codex was able to resolve the bugs (which were superficial), revealing that most of the implementation was actually solid.
Since then I’ve exhausted my weekly quota of Codex tokens twice just manually steering it through incremental cleanups. The vast majority was just improvements to the tests and build pipeline, and cosmetic UI touch-ups. But everything works! I don’t want to share it with the world until I’ve sanded down the rough edges, and I’ll probably post it here on Tildes at that point. But still! The fact that I got from concept to working app in less than a day is mind-blowing.
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Comment on Spider-Noir | Teaser trailer in ~tv
balooga Link ParentHe also (kinda) played Batman in Kick-Ass.He also (kinda) played Batman in Kick-Ass.
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Comment on Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection being delisted March 31 in ~games
balooga LinkI hadn’t seen this collection before but I used to love playing the Sega Genesis JP game when I was a kid. Playing as the velociraptor was so satisfying! 😂 Seems weird to me that it’s getting...I hadn’t seen this collection before but I used to love playing the Sega Genesis JP game when I was a kid. Playing as the velociraptor was so satisfying! 😂
Seems weird to me that it’s getting delisted after just two years on Steam. Anybody know why it had such a short shelf life?
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Comment on archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog in ~tech
balooga Link ParentIs archive.today’s scraping code proprietary? I’ve always thought that’s the sort of thing that should be up on GitHub with thousands of instances running, so one guy doesn’t hold the keys to the...Is archive.today’s scraping code proprietary? I’ve always thought that’s the sort of thing that should be up on GitHub with thousands of instances running, so one guy doesn’t hold the keys to the whole thing. I’d never seen the operator’s blog or dug into who he is but it doesn’t surprise me that he’s sketchy… freedom of information advocates often are. This site has existed on the periphery of the respectable web since it came online. I agree that it’s still performing a valuable service, and is implemented better than Wayback (for certain use cases).
What I’d like to see, personally, is a torrent-style decentralized FOSS ecosystem where anybody can easily scrape a URL and share hosting duties of that archive with the distributed network. Of course that would be slow and not scale very well. And probably wouldn’t be very reliable for long-term storage. I’m not sure if there are practical technical solutions to those concerns, but there’s gotta be a better alternative to a single monolithic site, with undisclosed funding, somehow offering giant data center resources to the whole world for free forever. That’s not exactly sustainable either.
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Comment on Steven Spielberg in thirty shots in ~movies
balooga Link ParentI did this once for a party, with the film Koyaanisqatsi. Wish I was in a position to do more parties like that because it was a super fun time and the projection really made for some cool vibes.I did this once for a party, with the film Koyaanisqatsi. Wish I was in a position to do more parties like that because it was a super fun time and the projection really made for some cool vibes.
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Comment on Why the internet is terrified of London in ~society
balooga LinkThe QAA Podcast also recently covered this subject, if anyone’s interested.The QAA Podcast also recently covered this
racismsubject, if anyone’s interested. -
Comment on Internet of Bugs / Spec Again creator, Carl, is planning a course for developers who want to go solo - looking for feedback from potential participants in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI’ve heard the name of the channel but hadn’t watched before. Thanks for sharing! At first glance this seemed right up my alley. I’m a burned-out, late-career SE with uncertainties about AI,...I’ve heard the name of the channel but hadn’t watched before. Thanks for sharing!
At first glance this seemed right up my alley. I’m a burned-out, late-career SE with uncertainties about AI, looking for alternative paths forward as a solo dev. Not sure how I’d pay for a course at the moment as I’m between jobs, but if the price is right and the curriculum is valuable I can justify it as an investment.
I thought he was speaking straight to me until he started describing the syllabus. But it sounds like this is about business software, particularly cloud-hosted SaaS stuff. Huge focus on MVP, scalability, observability, uptime, security, continuous deployment, subscription billing, yada yada. Frankly that’s all the stuff I’m personally trying to walk away from.
My career pivot, if I can pull it off, is going to be about simple buy-once, run-offline games. I’m sure I’ll have occasional updates to push but those are more like bug fixes than new feature rollouts. I think I’ll probably still need a refresher for basic accounting and business structure stuff but unfortunately most of this course probably isn’t going to be relevant for me.
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Comment on The right in the US is coming for same-sex marriage with an insidious new campaign in ~society
balooga LinkProgressives gotta stop playing defense. We can put together our own slick PSA videos and design logos for our own causes, just as easily as the fascists can. How about the Live and Let Live...Progressives gotta stop playing defense. We can put together our own slick PSA videos and design logos for our own causes, just as easily as the fascists can. How about the Live and Let Live Initiative, or Project Let It Be, or the Just Leave People Alone Agenda?
The messaging should be tailored to directly oppose what the Christian nationalists are saying. In other words, we know we’re not going to convince them that love is love, etc. — but what I’m suggesting is instead a full-bore patriotic display. Stars and stripes. Country music. Quotes from the founding fathers. Soldiers and crying eagles. Nothing’s off the table. The core message is this: America, land of the free. Where people can make their own decisions, right or wrong. Where people can disagree with others without getting their feelings hurt. Stick a crowbar into the tenderest point of MAGA cognitive dissonance and just wail on it.
You know what, throw in some Jesus quotes too, they don’t have a monopoly on that. And their interpretation of the Bible is a right bastardization of it anyway, so it’d do us all some good to have alternatives in the discourse. I’m just so tired of letting bigots steer the car.
Any particular reason for that manual step? Seems unnecessary.