delphi's recent activity
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Comment on Esoteric Ebb | Fully Ramblomatic in ~games
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
delphi Link ParentI don't really wanna get into it, but I did mean "thin the population by removing those with undesirable traits so they won't reproduce" which unless I'm completely mistaken is eugenicsI don't really wanna get into it, but I did mean "thin the population by removing those with undesirable traits so they won't reproduce" which unless I'm completely mistaken is eugenics
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
delphi Link ParentNot to invoke the ol' whataboutism, but there are plenty of technologies that are much more grey and do not in the slightest gather that much ire from the general public, so I have a hard time...Not to invoke the ol' whataboutism, but there are plenty of technologies that are much more grey and do not in the slightest gather that much ire from the general public, so I have a hard time taking this point seriously. What about AI makes it so much worse than, say, cryptocurrency? Or the global stock market? Or nuclear power?
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
delphi (edited )Link ParentThe conversation at hand is "is AI good or bad?", so answering or at least discussion of that question requires that you examine AI first. If your position - like the negative side of the argument...The conversation at hand is "is AI good or bad?", so answering or at least discussion of that question requires that you examine AI first. If your position - like the negative side of the argument here - is that AI is so inherently bad we shouldn't even give it that time of day, then you're not interested in having the conversation in a nuanced way to begin with, and therefore we can discard that position in favour of the ones that are actually interested in a discussion about the topic.
To put it simply, if your goal is to have a conversation (is AI good?), then the available options are "Yes", "Maybe", and "No" and variations thereof. "I'm not even going to discuss the question because I believe it's not worth it" is not a valid answer to that question.
Yes, Maybe, No, Potentially, It Depends, Signs point to yes, these are all answers, and getting to whichever one of them will mean having reached a new quantum of understanding. "We will never know because I'm not going to discuss it" does not add any new insight.
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Comment on The center has a bias in ~tech
delphi LinkThis is conceptually very related to another thing I learned recently: Discussing a topic in good faith and with the goal of arriving at a new, better understanding does not mean giving all sides...This is conceptually very related to another thing I learned recently: Discussing a topic in good faith and with the goal of arriving at a new, better understanding does not mean giving all sides the same time and consideration. Sounds counter-intuitive, but is entirely true; say you're discussing eugenics. One side says "we shouldn't kill people to optimise for a defined 'ideal' in society", the other one says "we should kill people to optimise for a defined 'ideal' in society". Both of these points are valid points logically, and correct english grammar, yet we do not need to consider one side because it's patently absurd and incorrect by most systems of value. This is the same way. To discuss AI, you need to grok AI, and that means to be capable of loving it just as much as being capable of hating it. I don't see the loud anti-AI camp being charitable on that side.
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Comment on I miss technology that was meant to be used as a tool in ~tech
delphi LinkYeah, you're right. Totally. But now it falls upon us, the people who are annoyed by the status quo, to build something new and better. Like https://delphi.tools/, which I built because I echo...Yeah, you're right. Totally. But now it falls upon us, the people who are annoyed by the status quo, to build something new and better.
Like https://delphi.tools/, which I built because I echo this exact sentiment
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Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
delphi Link Parenthttps://imgbox.com/vBOMkHgO - bottom of the x402.org page.https://imgbox.com/vBOMkHgO - bottom of the x402.org page.
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Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
delphi Link ParentDay One Wordpress Hater here. You echo my sentiments perfectly. And having worked on many of these plugin-hell-sites, I can promise you that it's not easy to maintain, nor is it pleasant for...Day One Wordpress Hater here. You echo my sentiments perfectly. And having worked on many of these plugin-hell-sites, I can promise you that it's not easy to maintain, nor is it pleasant for anyone who's not got the computer toucher brain damage to use. It's most often slow and unpleasant, and the Block editor is the stuff of nightmares. I've switched to Kirby CMS
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Comment on Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security in ~tech
delphi Link ParentX402 isn't about blockchain, it's about payment. All it does is provide a HTTP-first way to communicate to a user (and a browser/agent/whatever) that the page is paywalled. Yes, their current...X402 isn't about blockchain, it's about payment. All it does is provide a HTTP-first way to communicate to a user (and a browser/agent/whatever) that the page is paywalled.
Yes, their current implementation uses crypto payments, but that's because they're unregulated and trivial to implement. It's also extensible with classic payment methods, in fact explicitly supports this, but for a proof of concept not dealing with MasterCard and Visa is probably easier.
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Comment on What is something you're holding together? in ~talk
delphi Link ParentI still regularly ask myself how any programmer worth their weight in salt would ever consider that to be an acceptable solution. The mind doth boggle.I still regularly ask myself how any programmer worth their weight in salt would ever consider that to be an acceptable solution. The mind doth boggle.
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Comment on The bot situation on the internet is actually worse than you could imagine. Here's why. in ~tech
delphi (edited )Link ParentI have to just point out that you're by definition wrong. The difference between taking an apple and taking someone's music or videos for example is that in the former, the apple is now no longer...I have to just point out that you're by definition wrong. The difference between taking an apple and taking someone's music or videos for example is that in the former, the apple is now no longer where it used to be. Theft is depriving someone of a physical item. What's happening with bots - and even that's contentious, since we don't really know what's happening to that scraped data - could at worst be copyright infringement, but often little more than breach of contract, which isn't even illegal in the sense of being a crime, just a civil wrong.
And, not to leave the obvious implied, simply receiving data from a server and storing it, however long, is the principle of how web browsers work. You can't litigate that away, you'd break the fundamental operating principle, even if it's also how bots work.
This is not just important for a potential legal discussion but also because it's just kind of disingenuous (not to say you're disingenuous). Of course you're saying "I think this is as bad as theft", but saying it is theft creates a disconnect, and people might retort with "It's not that thing, and if you think it's so bad, why are you lying and saying it's something else?"
Again, I don't want to litigate whether it's legal (not a lawyer) and I really also don't want to litigate whether it's ethical, since I'm not in the market of making ethical prescriptions, especially when I personally don't believe in copyright as it currently exists. But I've talked about this numerous times before on this site, so I'll spare you the details.
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Comment on The bot situation on the internet is actually worse than you could imagine. Here's why. in ~tech
delphi (edited )Link ParentMy website doesn't slow to a crawl though, I optimise my software and deliver through Cloudflare, which abstracts this away for free (and, in fact, does offer more robust bot protection should I...My website doesn't slow to a crawl though, I optimise my software and deliver through Cloudflare, which abstracts this away for free (and, in fact, does offer more robust bot protection should I ever need or want it).
I don't really care to concede my point about putting things on the open web and then being surprised that people steal it. That's just the game, and it's something you have to contend with. This is not an argument, I'm just saying, this happens. If you have a problem with that, that's entirely valid and I can't blame you, but it doesn't change the fact that this happens. Yes, I also wish there was public transport everwhere, but there isn't, so until that changes we're all gonna have to learn how to drive. It's not a prescription about whether or not that is good, it's just "the way it is".[1]
And to your last point, I agree. Ethics is disconnected from law. I didn't say it's legal, I make no prescriptions about that because I am not a lawyer, and a flimsy RFC doesn't decide whether ignoring robots.txt is illegal or not, and more notably it also doesn't determine whether that's ethical. I could make a point here. What if an artist dies who has armed their portfolio page to the teeth with turrets that only shoot bots, but I decide that it's worth preserving? Do I get to ignore robots.txt then, for the benefit of the fan community that would otherwise lose access to that work in a matter of months if not weeks?
[1] Although, admittedly, the status quo also happens to align with my position. You brought the stuff onto the web, you have to know that it'll not be yours for long, and I think that's one of the great strengths of the web. Again, to me, non-issue.
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Comment on The bot situation on the internet is actually worse than you could imagine. Here's why. in ~tech
delphi Link ParentClarity: How exactly is excluding bots helping in your goal of getting more eyes on your work? Seems like that wouldn't make a difference.Clarity: How exactly is excluding bots helping in your goal of getting more eyes on your work? Seems like that wouldn't make a difference.
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Comment on What is something you're holding together? in ~talk
delphi Link ParentIt is, that was one of my core requirements for a rewrite. The stack is modular and all of them can be found at github.com/leih-lokalIt is, that was one of my core requirements for a rewrite. The stack is modular and all of them can be found at github.com/leih-lokal
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Comment on The bot situation on the internet is actually worse than you could imagine. Here's why. in ~tech
delphi Link ParentNot to be a joyless cynic, but I always thought it was deeply naive to expect potential bad actors to respect the honour system. I can't say I'm surprised. It's not good form, certainly, but I'm...Not to be a joyless cynic, but I always thought it was deeply naive to expect potential bad actors to respect the honour system. I can't say I'm surprised. It's not good form, certainly, but I'm not going to say that it's unethical. If ethics was a consideration, the standard would have made provisions for direct enforcement of these rules instead of asking nicely.
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Comment on The bot situation on the internet is actually worse than you could imagine. Here's why. in ~tech
delphi LinkMaybe a hot take, but I really couldn't care less. My own websites and apps (like delphi.tools) all compile to static HTML and have no server component, so this isn't really impacting my...Maybe a hot take, but I really couldn't care less. My own websites and apps (like delphi.tools) all compile to static HTML and have no server component, so this isn't really impacting my resources, and all the stuff that's on there is stuff I willingly put on the internet, so it would feel weird to me if I said "oh well bots don't get to read my blog!", as if I didn't know this could happen when I uploaded to the damn web. I get that if you're running a web app you have to protect yourself from bots putting a strain on your infra, but this problem is trivial to undetectable for anyone who just puts their stuff on the web and doesn't bloat their page with analytics and tracking that can phone home.
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Comment on What is something you're holding together? in ~talk
delphi LinkI volunteer at a library of things, a place where you can - for free - sign out any of the items we have in stock, which is mostly power tools and kitchen appliances. If you need to drill a shelf...I volunteer at a library of things, a place where you can - for free - sign out any of the items we have in stock, which is mostly power tools and kitchen appliances. If you need to drill a shelf into the wall, you don't have to own a power drill, because we have like 12. You get the idea. It's a good project, and the biggest of its kind in the world, as far as my research goes[1]. We've been around since 2016, and as you may be able to tell, this is not a business model, so there wasn't really any commercial or even open source software to manage this. We had a big Excel spreadsheet, and that was about it.
Clearly, we needed something that was a lot more flexible. We just entered data like "Person X signed out item N on this date, expected back on that date, deposit amount E" in plain text. It wasn't usable. So a volunteer (this was before I joined) built a system. It worked fine, but couldn't scale. I'll spare you the details, but the juiciest bits were that we used a system called CouchDB, which is less of a database and more of an S3 bucket full of JSON files, and we didn't even store the items there, that was stored in a WordPress installation using the WooCommerce online shop builder with all the prices set to zero. The access times soon ballooned to tens of seconds, which is unusable if there are four people waiting in line, and you need at least three calls for every full sign in/sign out interaction. Weapons-grade bad times.
So after that developer left a couple of years back, a friend and I set out to build a new system, a real system, one that wasn't cobbled together but one that used modern infra, modern tech, and was so robust other libraries could build it too. He was the main developer, I was the main designer, although I did take on many of the development duties as well. When my friend left the project to focus on his business a few months back, all of that fell on me.
And despite all the work I put in to make this self-documenting, the actual documentation I write, the tons of agent directions to make it easy for even the layman to not make horrible contributions thru tools like Codex or Claude, I'm pretty sure it would all fall apart within months of me leaving. Not because there's actual tech debt, at least there's not much, but because I do a lot of behind the scenes work to improve the UX and add new features.
I do however think my colleagues know this. And even though I really am begging for another developer on the team, I mean, god knows what our server is doing half the time, the CI pipeline is still the stuff of nightmares, I also know that I'd be foolish to leave these guys alone if they ever pissed me off a little too much. I can't. I love that project.
[1]: The criteria being non-tax-funded independent free to use tool libraries
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Comment on Does anyone want to buy an unused Pixel 10? in ~tech
delphi Link ParentThis specifically refers to carrier locking, not the bootloader. I wouldn't be surprised that nobody at the Verizon store knows what you're talking about if you went there and asked about if their...This specifically refers to carrier locking, not the bootloader. I wouldn't be surprised that nobody at the Verizon store knows what you're talking about if you went there and asked about if their phones could be bootloader-unlocked.
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Comment on I hope you don't use generative AI - an essay about my experience offering an open-source tool in ~tech
delphi Link ParentIn offence of these terrible tools: So does mine, and it's better at it. There has been good free software and the sun hasn't collapsedIn offence of these terrible tools: So does mine, and it's better at it. There has been good free software and the sun hasn't collapsed
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Comment on I hope you don't use generative AI - an essay about my experience offering an open-source tool in ~tech
delphi Link Parent(I have nothing to add, you're spot on, just wanted to confirm that I do in fact use they/them pronouns exclusively)(I have nothing to add, you're spot on, just wanted to confirm that I do in fact use they/them pronouns exclusively)
I haven't played the game and I doubt I will, but I did massively enjoy Disco Elysium and it's probably my second favourite game of all time. To those who have played it: Does it bring something new to the table other than "D&D Disco Elysium"? Because I struggle to contain my cynicism when looking at such a vulnerable, raw, angry, caring and earnest piece of art like Disco Elysium and seeing it filtered through the aesthetic and mechanics of Critical Role.