cesarandreu's recent activity
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Comment on The death of punctuation in ~humanities.languages
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
cesarandreu LinkYesterday I binge-read the first half of There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm. It's an older story which just received a newly edited release along with an audiobook recording. The setting...Yesterday I binge-read the first half of There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm. It's an older story which just received a newly edited release along with an audiobook recording.
The setting is based on the SCP Foundation and it explores the concept of an antimeme. An antimeme is any entity or object that suppresses all information about themselves.
It's interesting to explore how one would document and battle against entities that have antimemetic properties. If you're interested in unconventional or non-standard magic systems I think this fits.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
cesarandreu LinkLately I'm boosting my spinach consumption. Stir-fry some garlic in oil, add in some mushrooms and once they're ready I add a mountain of spinach. If you do a quick search you'll find that some...Lately I'm boosting my spinach consumption. Stir-fry some garlic in oil, add in some mushrooms and once they're ready I add a mountain of spinach.
If you do a quick search you'll find that some huge number of Americans are deficient in magnesium, and spinach is a great source of magnesium.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
cesarandreu Link ParentWell, I think an experienced human would be able to give me far better feedback, but I don't have access to anyone who's signaled interested in doing that, so the LLMs feedback feels like it's...Well, I think an experienced human would be able to give me far better feedback, but I don't have access to anyone who's signaled interested in doing that, so the LLMs feedback feels like it's better than nothing. It has occasionally given me actionable feedback which I've tried to incorporate, which has lead to me making better art. Sometimes I'll give it color inputs and ask it for a list of combinations, and if any of the suggestions seem interesting I try them out.
Recently I also started experimenting with having an image model modify my art, and although I don't particularly care for the exact changes it usually makes, it sometimes gives me ideas for techniques or approaches which I've adopted. So it opens up new perspectives which I hadn't considered.
Worth noting that I'm just an amateur painting for fun and to relax.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
cesarandreu LinkNot playing as much lately, but I really enjoy Heroes of the Storm. A few months back I took a break because it felt like the meta had gotten a bit stale, after years of no new content patches and...Not playing as much lately, but I really enjoy Heroes of the Storm. A few months back I took a break because it felt like the meta had gotten a bit stale, after years of no new content patches and very few balance changes. Recently there was a major PTR change which is looking to shake things up so I'm looking forward to start playing again once that's live. It's still the most fun MOBA. Enjoyment is a bit capped by your proximity to Blizzard servers though; when you can play with low ping it's possible to actually execute clutch plays, but if your ping is too high then you're kinda forced to play without taking as many risks.
Recently I found out there's a private server project that allows you to play a really old League of Legends version. Since I never played it back then, I'd love to try that out sometime just to see what the game was like during the first few years. I only got around to trying League of Legends between 2023 and 2024, but by that point it felt a bit too polished for balance and pro play. I only managed to climb to emerald in ranked mode before burning out; the playerbase is a bit toxic because they've all been playing for nearly two decades, so they expect you to know how to do a million tiny micro-optimizations. Overall, I think that game is dying because it's very unwelcoming to new players. But I'm still really curious to see what the original game was like, before they optimized all the fun crazy and creative elements out of the game.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
cesarandreu LinkRecently, I've had a lot of great experiences using LLMs to learn nix / nixOS. It can help you figure out how to configure nixOS for whatever problem you're trying to solve, and it makes debugging...Recently, I've had a lot of great experiences using LLMs to learn nix / nixOS. It can help you figure out how to configure nixOS for whatever problem you're trying to solve, and it makes debugging issues so much easier.
LLMs have made me more comfortable with experimenting using new tools and programming languages as well. Aside from the magical experience of the turbo-charged auto-complete, you can debug most simple issues by copying the code and any errors. It used to feel impossible to figure out how to fix certain CUDA-related issues, but now you can one-shot them only to discover that your hardware sucks anyway.
I've also had a lot of great experiences using LLMs to look up technical non-fiction books to read. If I want to learn a bit about a topic, it can feel a bit overwhelming to sort through all the available options, such that I end up with decision paralysis. Now you can have the LLM look through a bunch of college curriculum for what books are used to teach certain topics, and then filter that down to a single book. Even just having the LLM to categorize each book in a topic can provide a bit of guidance.
LLMs can also be used to critique or get feedback on your art. The feedback is usually a bit shallow, but it helps you explore the domain a bit, serving as a first pass. If you're just making casual paintings, it's hard to get anyone to engage with you and provide constructive feedback.
Even just playing around with the LLMs is a bit of new fun that wasn't previously possible. If you can come up with crazy scenarios or inputs to see how it responds. Although for any given idea-space the amount of creativity that you can expect is fairly low at the moment. You can keep prompting any idea-space and the outputs will generally be very same-y, regardless of temperature.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
cesarandreu Link ParentI read Babel after seeing it mentioned in so many places and absolutely hated it. There was potential for a good and interesting story, but the author couldn't resist bashing the reader's head...I read Babel after seeing it mentioned in so many places and absolutely hated it. There was potential for a good and interesting story, but the author couldn't resist bashing the reader's head while yelling "COLONIALISM BAD". Which, y'know, sure, it's true and I agree, but you don't need to bash my head with this message and anyone that doesn't already agree is unlikely to be convinced. The villains along with nearly every character in the story are 1-dimensional caricatures or incredibly shallow. If this book was any more heavy-handed they would be selling it inside of a medieval gauntlet.
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Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food
cesarandreu LinkI've been experimenting with this idea of "microdosing spicy" a bit and I'd love it if others would try it out and tell me about their experience; I think it has a minor but noticeable impact so...I've been experimenting with this idea of "microdosing spicy" a bit and I'd love it if others would try it out and tell me about their experience; I think it has a minor but noticeable impact so I'm interested in discussing it.
The core idea is simple: mixing in a very small amount of spicy (in my case I'm using cayenne pepper) to certain dishes when plating. The key is to find a quantity where it doesn't register as overtly spicy while still engaging your senses. I feel like if you can find the right amount, it boosts the depth of the dish without registering as an explicitly spicy experience.
The dish I've mostly been trying this out with has been spaghetti with pesto. I just give the spice bottle 1.5 taps, but I think the ideal amount will vary per person. It's not a particularly revolutionary idea and I don't want to oversell it, but it feels like a nice little culinary hack.
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Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative
cesarandreu LinkI finished this acrylic painting last week. I've been painting very casually for about a year now, just finding my style and whatever feels good to me. If anyone has constructive feedback for how...I finished this acrylic painting last week. I've been painting very casually for about a year now, just finding my style and whatever feels good to me. If anyone has constructive feedback for how I might improve I'm very receptive.
I'd like to get better at blending colors and adding gradients within segments, but there's always a bit of worry about messing up the painting. I've only started playing around with line work very recently, so I know that's another area where I have a lot of room to grow.
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Comment on Tildes Book Club - Nominations thread in ~books
cesarandreu LinkHere are two books with interesting and non-standard magic systems: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (272 pages) Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko (408 pages) I think reading what...Here are two books with interesting and non-standard magic systems:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (272 pages)
Vita Nostra by Marina Dyachenko and Sergey Dyachenko (408 pages)
I think reading what these stories are about detracts from them, so it's better to just go in blind. If I had to pick one, I think Piranesi is a must-read just for how delightfully weird it is, and it has the benefit of being very short which makes it accessible to more readers.
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Comment on What are your AI-generated guilty pleasures? in ~tech
cesarandreu LinkI've had a lot of fun generating songs with Suno, so far this song about the Mandate of Heaven has been my favorite. I would actually love it if a real band made an improved fully human version....I've had a lot of fun generating songs with Suno, so far this song about the Mandate of Heaven has been my favorite. I would actually love it if a real band made an improved fully human version. In general, it feels like there's a lot of topical niches that are underexplored by current musical artists, so I enjoy getting to scratch my own itch.
I think most Suno generate songs still fall short in various ways, but I'm hopeful that in the long term these tools will keep getting better and it'll be easier for people to make songs that are closer to what they have in their head. I've been trying to relearn music composition with a traditional textbook approach as well, but I don't think I'd be able to afford a bunch of artists to bring my ideas to life so AI gives me an avenue to make it real, even if it's imperfect.
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Comment on Which challenging book was worth the effort for you? in ~books
cesarandreu LinkTigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's not a particularly challenging read, but it takes a while for the key themes to really hit. This is my default example of a book that initially felt like a bit of...Tigana, by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's not a particularly challenging read, but it takes a while for the key themes to really hit. This is my default example of a book that initially felt like a bit of a chore to get through, but which I'm really glad to have read.
I mix it up depending on the message, the medium, and the context. If I'm sending a standalone sentence to a friend, I probably won't capitalize it nor use any punctuation. If I'm trying to explain a more complex or nuanced idea that requires multiple sentences or paragraphs then I'm more likely to use proper punctuation, although I don't fret about the details.