bme's recent activity
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Comment on Lifetime Windows user seeking feedback for improvements on my Linux setup in ~tech
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Comment on Lawsuit alleges that WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption in ~tech
bme (edited )Link ParentI dunno, it would be a pointless own-goal because you are already giving practically anything interesting away already in the form of your social graph and who you are talking to. I mean I...I dunno, it would be a pointless own-goal because you are already giving practically anything interesting away already in the form of your social graph and who you are talking to.
I mean I wouldn't be shocked either way but the juice doesn't seem worth the squeeze (unless the squeeze was regulatory, which I guess it might well have been initially).
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Comment on Lawsuit alleges that WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption in ~tech
bme Link ParentI see, well I can tell you if you don't want to transfer accounts / retain messages it's really easy. Just don't set it up. There is no automatic restore without the user taking some action. Ofc...I see, well I can tell you if you don't want to transfer accounts / retain messages it's really easy. Just don't set it up. There is no automatic restore without the user taking some action. Ofc that doesn't block meta from harvesting all the social graph / messaging meta data and the rest of it, but your keys / messages aren't leaving the device without user action, afaik.
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Comment on Lawsuit alleges that WhatsApp has no end-to-end encryption in ~tech
bme Link ParentDo you have a cloud backup for your messages? I don't, when I switch phones I have nothing.Do you have a cloud backup for your messages? I don't, when I switch phones I have nothing.
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Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp
bme Link ParentThe problem you then have is the Sybil problem. It has to cost enough to create an account that you can't just spin up a sub community to all self validate. It's genuinely very difficult to not...The problem you then have is the Sybil problem. It has to cost enough to create an account that you can't just spin up a sub community to all self validate.
It's genuinely very difficult to not have to really slam the doors and punish people that just want to participate in good faith.
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Comment on TikTok monitored Grindr activity through third-party tracker, privacy group alleges in ~tech
bme Link ParentThe same EU that wants to implement chat control? They love monitoring.The same EU that wants to implement chat control? They love monitoring.
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Comment on What code editor / IDE do you use (2025)? in ~comp
bme Link ParentBut you can fool yourself into believing that by running it as a service and buying enough ram that you don't need to check its resource consumption!But you can fool yourself into believing that by running it as a service and buying enough ram that you don't need to check its resource consumption!
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Comment on What code editor / IDE do you use (2025)? in ~comp
bme Link ParentThe last bit is fair. You can treat it like fancy notepad. Especially if you get some casual mode bindings going. I came into it from vim/kakoune, I wanted to make it do modal things, which...The last bit is fair. You can treat it like fancy notepad. Especially if you get some casual mode bindings going. I came into it from vim/kakoune, I wanted to make it do modal things, which immediately makes everything 10x more complicated than it has to be, but that was self-inflicted.
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Comment on What code editor / IDE do you use (2025)? in ~comp
bme LinkEmacs for all the things (scala/rust/nix, mostly)! This doesn't fit your needs at all, I just wanted to rep.Emacs for all the things (scala/rust/nix, mostly)! This doesn't fit your needs at all, I just wanted to rep.
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Comment on Help choosing a new linux computer? in ~tech
bme Link ParentMaximal reuse is best! Upgrading when your current system no longer meets your needs. Good luck with extricating your parts.Maximal reuse is best! Upgrading when your current system no longer meets your needs. Good luck with extricating your parts.
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Comment on Help choosing a new linux computer? in ~tech
bme LinkWhat kind of gaming, what kind of work? What budget? If you do decide to build your own, feel free to post the parts list here, I or many others I am sure would be happy to review it. I ask about...What kind of gaming, what kind of work? What budget? If you do decide to build your own, feel free to post the parts list here, I or many others I am sure would be happy to review it.
I ask about work / gaming because depending on the answer depends on where you want to direct your money (CPU Vs GPU).
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Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech
bme LinkNiche: but by default on Linux systemd-oomd does exactly nothing (verify with oomctl). The most casual setting is setting [Slice] ManagedOOMSwap=kill on the root slice -.slice. man...Niche: but by default on Linux systemd-oomd does exactly nothing (verify with oomctl). The most casual setting is setting
[Slice] ManagedOOMSwap=killon the root slice
-.slice.man systemd.resource-controlfor details. Maybe your distro does this out of the box but mine (NixOS) does not. -
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
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Comment on Should I take a job to work on something I don’t believe in? in ~life
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Comment on Should I take a job to work on something I don’t believe in? in ~life
bme Link ParentI recently had a candidate do this to me. We had stopped the search, he had a long notice period, and we were somewhat desperate for the hire. He pulled out 2 months after we made the offer and 2...I recently had a candidate do this to me. We had stopped the search, he had a long notice period, and we were somewhat desperate for the hire. He pulled out 2 months after we made the offer and 2 weeks before he was due to start. I was really annoyed by this and it has cost me materially in terms of time, and made some deliverables much harder to manage for the time being.
That said, the relationship is still asymmetric in favour of the hiring company, they can withdraw the offer for reasons, they can change the nature job before you join and long after, they can and often do lie about aspects of the work. Some of these behaviours may be strictly illegal but honestly what are you going to do about it? That's the game. You didn't make the rules and you have to look out for yourself. I don't hold anything against the candidate for screwing me over temporarily, because I reserve rights in my favour (mostly termination during probation), and I'd do the same thing in a heartbeat if I were being hired and a better role came up.
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Comment on The family computer in ~tech
bme (edited )Link ParentAll of this is true: I feel like we are watching the last death throes of the enthusiast pc space and with it probably most modularity repairability etc. The sector will continue to shrink, the...All of this is true: I feel like we are watching the last death throes of the enthusiast pc space and with it probably most modularity repairability etc. The sector will continue to shrink, the voting by wallet for appliances will continue, real computers in homes will disappear and unlocked hardware will probably only be for professionals paying a small fortune for eval boards.
I hope I am wrong. For instance, https://frame.work has been going for years and I still can't bring myself to make them the preferred supplier for my small eng team because there is absolutely no way I can afford to participate in pre order batches if I need a computer. So instead I am buying non-upgradeable crap from Lenovo (think pads). I'm not convinced they will hit scale. If they can't do it with a very compelling product, who will? I work on a charger (for EV) with a locked down proprietary protocol and no availability of schematics for third party repair. Does anyone care? No. The power supplies aren't socketed and when they fail that's it for the boards as far as the customer is concerned. We could change this but it would add significantly to the BOM of the product and no one wants to pay for it. I realised I am now massively off topic but this shit depresses me so much.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
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Comment on MIT report: 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing in ~tech
bme (edited )Link ParentIt might be common but it's crazy. I guess if you are publicly traded to a degree you are at the whims of investors who care more about top line growth than bottom line efficiency. For privately...It might be common but it's crazy. I guess if you are publicly traded to a degree you are at the whims of investors who care more about top line growth than bottom line efficiency. For privately held businesses where it makes no difference where the money comes from, bottom line improvements are massive. Any effort spent here means that when rough times arrive you are prepared to weather them because you are lean and mean. You control how you deliver services, you can't control the addressable market for them or the broader economic context in which the market exists. Drives me crazy. It has been my first hand experience that being able to stay in the game longer because you are the leanest is far more valuable than how analysts and professional management seem to price it.
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Comment on Most people, even highly technical people, don't understand anything about AI in ~tech
bme Link ParentOne way to make the problem smaller will be to have better documentation for internal APIs. Basically the things we should have been spending time on to be kind to ourselves also in my limited...One way to make the problem smaller will be to have better documentation for internal APIs. Basically the things we should have been spending time on to be kind to ourselves also in my limited experience seems to yield a bit of improvement, but I haven't done enough experimentation to have a firm conviction. I've had a really good time with rust + aider when I can point at some docs and say: use the library documented by this page to do xyz. Our own internal code doesn't have great published docs. We skirt around this through code review and shared theory crafting in meetings. Which doesn't need to scale because we are still a very small team. AI isn't privy to this folklore, it has to hold the code to know what it does, blowing out the context.
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Comment on Most people, even highly technical people, don't understand anything about AI in ~tech
bme Link ParentI think that's fair, I also think this a perfect example of why I think AI impact is also enormously exaggerated across the board. As far as I have been able to ascertain AI does not give you all...I think that's fair, I also think this a perfect example of why I think AI impact is also enormously exaggerated across the board. As far as I have been able to ascertain AI does not give you all that much past a certain project size (let's say 10kloc).
We have a few codebases at work, at different sizes. On the smaller projects AI is magic. On the larger projects the general consensus is that prompting takes longer than typing the code. You let Claude rip and it doesn't know about your utils library, it doesn't know about existing dependencies, it will just pull in whatever, it will send itself into loops trying to solve diamond dependencies it created, it will just stub a function and forget about it.
Unironically I run a team of 10x devs (our footprint is less than a 10th of our peers in the industry) and we wanted AI to be a multiplier, and so far it's basically reduced to writing unit test skeletons and doing boring data transformations, and occasionally a bit of code gen (make me bitflags for the enum described on this page, etc). I have seen zero evidence in my own immediate peers or any industry peers working on 100kloc+ code bases (which is not even that big!!!!) of any fantastical real velocity improvements (i.e. features delivered per unit time, not lines of code produced). The whole game is context window management, and it's exhausting.
Typically on an SSD Linux boots in seconds, the majority of time is waiting for firmware, which might feel a bit "actually" energy, but when you have reasonable firmware you can be fully booted in ~5 seconds (even on my crappy Lenovo yoga which has barely functioning suspend). As opposed to my desktop which runs an identical setup and takes ~ 30 seconds of which ~ 23 is spent waiting for firmware.