kacey's recent activity
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Comment on What are your architectural hot takes? in ~design
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Comment on ζ―γεγγ·γ§γ©γͺγ³ - γ³γΌγ³γΌγ€ (2011) (upbeat, instrumental trio) in ~music
kacey LinkI've enjoyed basically everything I've listened to from this group (ko-ko-ya in English, I think) so far, but this piece seemed especially technically challenging, and I wanted to share it in case...I've enjoyed basically everything I've listened to from this group (ko-ko-ya in English, I think) so far, but this piece seemed especially technically challenging, and I wanted to share it in case there are any other clarinetists in the audience!
Here're the rest of their songs that're available on Youtube, but since I don't speak Japanese, it's been difficult to track down much additional information. The listed composer (Kurokawa Saeko) seems to still be active-ish, so there's probably more music like this out there being written! It's just a smidge difficult to find.
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ζ―γεγγ·γ§γ©γͺγ³ - γ³γΌγ³γΌγ€ (2011) (upbeat, instrumental trio)
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Comment on Hold on to your hardware in ~tech
kacey Link ParentOh ... sorry, I took your bait. I was going to comment about whether a secondhand market would show up around remanufactured data centre parts, but the weird appeal to disabling JS popped up when...Oh ... sorry, I took your bait. I was going to comment about whether a secondhand market would show up around remanufactured data centre parts, but the weird appeal to disabling JS popped up when I went back to grab quotes from the article.
Apologies. I feel pretty dumb for commenting it now. Probably a good time to sign off for the day anyhow.
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Comment on Hold on to your hardware in ~tech
kacey Link ParentAh, the Javascript hook to listen for tab changing might not fire properly on mobile. You aren't missing much, as Grenno noted πAh, the Javascript hook to listen for tab changing might not fire properly on mobile. You aren't missing much, as Grenno noted π
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Comment on Hold on to your hardware in ~tech
kacey LinkWhat an odd website. The author advocates for disabling javascript, btw, by changing your tab's name and favicon to what they figure is embarrassing content. Here's their manifesto for anyone who...What an odd website. The author advocates for disabling javascript, btw, by changing your tab's name and favicon to what they figure is embarrassing content. Here's their manifesto for anyone who missed it:
Ah, yes. That moment. The one that sends a chill down your spine and makes you do a quick, frantic scan of your surroundings, hoping nobody noticed that brief, undeniable flash of panic on your face. You know exactly what I'm talking about: That split second when you spot that website in your browser's tab bar.
Heart pounding, you dart a glance at your coworkers, your friends, your partner, or anyone in the vicinity, searching for signs of judgment or, worse, curiosity. No one's looking, but somehow, you feel like everyone is. It's like the universe knows, and it's giggling behind its hand. You quickly click over to the tab, praying, hoping it's not what you think it is.
And then, oh sweet relief, it's not that. But now, a whole new, equally horrible truth sinks in. You've just been pranked by the cruel, merciless soul who crafted this infernal website. You, my friend, have just experienced the finest torture modern web technology has to offer: Unwarranted suspense, followed by the revelation that nothing is as it seems.
JavaScript, you son of a smoking gun. The great trickster of the web, slinking in the background, making you believe that your browsing experience is smooth and simple, only to slap you with a pop-up, a subtle redirect, or worse, a blinking ad that's seemingly impossible to close.
And here you are, caught in the endless cycle of knowing you should turn JavaScript off but just not caring enough to actually do it. It's like knowing you should stop eating those extra chips but doing it anyway. But this? This is the universe giving you a little nudge, perhaps a not-so-subtle one, reminding you of your folly.
So, here it is, loud and clear: Turn JavaScript off, now, and only allow it on websites you trust! Save your sanity, preserve your dignity, and maybe give your browser a fighting chance at actually doing what you want it to do. Because if you don't, the next time you see that icon, your heart might not only drop, it might skip a beat or two.
More information here.
You have no idea what any of this means? Then you probably haven't noticed this page's tab icon and title while it was inactive/sent to the background. Simply open a new tab and see how this tab changes. :-)
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Comment on The "AI god" narrative is actually a corporate power grab in ~tech
kacey Link ParentAch, right; I swapped my gaming rig's motherboard just before the prices of everything skyrocketed, so I'm at 64 GB. If it's any consolation, though, my GPU is still super out of date πAch, right; I swapped my gaming rig's motherboard just before the prices of everything skyrocketed, so I'm at 64 GB. If it's any consolation, though, my GPU is still super out of date π
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Comment on The "AI god" narrative is actually a corporate power grab in ~tech
kacey Link ParentIn case you're interested in trying again, I've had some pretty good results with Qwen3-Coder-Next (the unsloth 4-bit quant), incidentally! They've gotten tremendously faster and accurate over the...Local models aren't good enough for me to bother with yet, but they're getting better.
In case you're interested in trying again, I've had some pretty good results with Qwen3-Coder-Next (the unsloth 4-bit quant), incidentally! They've gotten tremendously faster and accurate over the last ~six months, imo, and especially the mixture of experts models may be worth giving a try, if you're on commodity hardware.
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Comment on The "AI god" narrative is actually a corporate power grab in ~tech
kacey (edited )Link ParentMmhm, but that's the topic, no? I think you're agreeing with this line of discussion ... If the LLM can fumble such common sense questions, it would follow that its output cannot be simply trusted...[...] I think this is evidence that performance is uneven.
Mmhm, but that's the topic, no? I think you're agreeing with this line of discussion ...
[...] most of my family think that ChatGPT is an oracle whose output can simply be trusted as truth.
If the LLM can fumble such common sense questions, it would follow that its output cannot be simply trusted as truth. Unless you disagree?
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Comment on What are you working through? in ~life
kacey Link ParentNo worries! These're tumultuous times, so I'm glad to have helped a little bit.No worries! These're tumultuous times, so I'm glad to have helped a little bit.
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Comment on The "AI god" narrative is actually a corporate power grab in ~tech
kacey (edited )Link ParentIn case it helps, there are some recent, decent examples of frontier models displaying incredible incompetence. For context, that Reddit thread is discussing asking several LLMs to answer the...[...] most of my family think that ChatGPT is an oracle whose output can simply be trusted as truth. Who should they believe: the news, or me?
In case it helps, there are some recent, decent examples of frontier models displaying incredible incompetence. For context, that Reddit thread is discussing asking several LLMs to answer the following question (paraphrased): "The car wash is only 50 metres from my house. I want to get my car washed, should I drive there or walk?".
Many LLMs suggested walking, since it'd be a waste to drive 50 metres to the car wash.
(edit) Swapped out my link; someone went and tested this on a tonne of models.
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
kacey (edited )Link ParentThat could very well be the case, if you're referencing Java property accessors instead of fields -- e.g. this fails to compile, since it has a custom accessor (like Java would have) that could...That could very well be the case, if you're referencing Java property accessors instead of fields -- e.g. this fails to compile, since it has a custom accessor (like Java would have) that could return a different value on a subsequent call. Most of the time, yeah, you'd just want to assign that to a value instead of referring to the field repeatedly, but I can understand why that'd be annoying.
That said, it seems odd, since most Java values are platform typed by default? So the compiler shouldn't even force a null check to begin with.
(edit) Although I'm distantly remembering that one can write contracts to make kotlin-wrapped Java APIs reflect field immutability ...
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
kacey Link ParentJust piping in to high five a fellow Kotlin enjoyer! It's fantastic all across the stack, and it truly delivered on its goals ("better Java, without becoming Scala"). The type system is just...Just piping in to high five a fellow Kotlin enjoyer! It's fantastic all across the stack, and it truly delivered on its goals ("better Java, without becoming Scala"). The type system is just expressive enough to handle anything one would reasonably throw at it, without being too much of a senior architect attractant to become an overcomplicated mess. The smart casting works flawlessly -- for me, at least -- allowing for lovely usage patterns (such as early
returns on nullity checks) to be implemented with ease. Everything about it is just so very well thought through and designed, plus, it gets to lean on several decades of extremely solid Java libraries and tooling!I admit that I haven't used it recently -- preferring Rust for my personal work -- but if I were ever to start working on a larger team again, I'd use Kotlin in a heartbeat. Assuming we're still writing code in the future, and not directing LLMs through markdown design files π
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
kacey (edited )Link ParentDearest hungariantoast, You do not know me personally, but for a variety of reasons unworthy of elaborating hereupon, I did find myself uncontrollably laughing out loud at your missive. Bellowing,...Dearest hungariantoast,
You do not know me personally, but for a variety of reasons unworthy of elaborating hereupon, I did find myself uncontrollably laughing out loud at your missive. Bellowing, cackling. Choking, a little, but jovially. Not in a manner at all worrisome. Truly, this has made my month.
Thank you,
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Comment on Retro games were made to be viewed on a CRT in ~tech
kacey Link(original title: what did you do) (that title didn't seem terribly informative, and De-Arrow suggested this one ...) On another thread, some folks were discussing CRTs for retro games, which...(original title: what did you do) (that title didn't seem terribly informative, and De-Arrow suggested this one ...)
On another thread, some folks were discussing CRTs for retro games, which reminded me of this video! The presenter (Julian AKA noodle) covers many of the techniques that artists used to improve the look of their games, despite being limited by the hardware at the time. One neat example was transparency: compositors of that era would've had a lot of trouble calculating alpha layers for overlapping images, so instead, the artists drew the upper layer as a series of vertical lines (or cross hatched) and relied on scanline blurring to smooth colours across pixels.
The video's ~20 minutes long, so there're a lot of interesting tidbits!
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Retro games were made to be viewed on a CRT
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Comment on What are you working through? in ~life
kacey Link ParentI'm not sure where you are in your career, but I felt much the same way, and received much the same advice as others in the thread (e.g. "be thankful you have a good job", "other jobs don't matter...I wanna just be less rushed and frantic though? Like I feel like its a me problem, if I could just calm down and do a shit job and take their money like everyone else Iβll be set
I'm not sure where you are in your career, but I felt much the same way, and received much the same advice as others in the thread (e.g. "be thankful you have a good job", "other jobs don't matter don't let it get to you", "think about how you're helping your coworkers", etc.). Anyways, long story short, I pushed myself until I was a couple steps away from some unrecoverable choices, then bailed out of the industry.
Anecdote != data, but consider that there could be a survivorship bias applying to the "grin and bear it; you're the problem" genre of advice. Having an internal locus of control is great in many circumstances, but when the circumstances are genuinely unchangeable, it can shred your soul. There are other jobs out there -- they pay worse, and the physical labour is greater -- but if you genuinely cannot bear yours, they do exist, and might be a better fit.
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Comment on Spotify will soon sell hardcover and paperback books through its app, in partnership with Bookshop.org in ~books
kacey Link ParentThe docs I read said that it was only for folks who'd been subscribed to Spotify Premium before they dumped audiobooks onto it, unfortunately :|The docs I read said that it was only for folks who'd been subscribed to Spotify Premium before they dumped audiobooks onto it, unfortunately :|
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Comment on archive.today is directing a DDOS attack against my blog in ~tech
kacey Link ParentI couldn't find the source code when I did a quick search the other day? Some Hacker News folks had done a bit of looking a few years ago, too, but hadn't turned anything up.Is archive.todayβs scraping code proprietary?
I couldn't find the source code when I did a quick search the other day? Some Hacker News folks had done a bit of looking a few years ago, too, but hadn't turned anything up.
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Comment on Spotify will soon sell hardcover and paperback books through its app, in partnership with Bookshop.org in ~books
kacey Link ParentSame! I've attempted to use that once or twice, but I tend to prefer youtube for podcasts: often there'll be a filmed version of the crew, which makes for nicer second monitor content than the...I wish I could opt out of even seeing Podcasts on the platform. No dice.
Same! I've attempted to use that once or twice, but I tend to prefer youtube for podcasts: often there'll be a filmed version of the crew, which makes for nicer second monitor content than the Spotify UI plastered over a screen.
Oh! I have a hot take related to this one! So the Canadian Wood Council (not exactly a neutral organization) surveyed a bunch of buildings back in 2004, and they found that most structures were being torn down before they even met 50 years old -- but not because they're falling apart! Quote: "Reasons for demolition were instead related to changing land values, lack of suitability of the building for current needs, and lack of
maintenance of various non-structural component". This dovetails well with the thoughts of some internet building folks (e.g. Steven Baczek) who put forward the notion that beautiful, intentional homes will last dramatically longer than ugly-but-sturdy habitation cubes (paraphrased).
IMO my take-on-your-take, if you will take it, is that:
In North America, among industrialized nations in particular, we really need to step up our game on code enforcement and incremental improvement. The IBC/NBC has tended to lag very far behind best practices, and it's only very recently that they've adopted bare minimum requirements we've known about for decades to keep buildings from rotting out (e.g. rain screens and ventilation requirements).
Buildings need to be designed intentionally, and with their present and future contexts in mind. In urbanity: we have to stop towers which fail to create neighbourhoods. Urban planning is dramatically more critical when population density and capital costs ratchet upwards, but I've seen so many towers spring up without a thought of e.g. "how will people get groceries", "where do your deliveries go", "where can I meet up with friends", etc. It's so bad that, often, rezoning permits will render out their proposed structures on featureless white planes. My dude/architectural firm, you're bulldozing a community garden in the middle of a historic neighbourhood. At least pretend to consider how you're going to make the block more beautiful.
In rural/suburban areas, I have a thesis that I'll probably post in another comment π but suffice it to say, we should build usable houses that growth with their occupants! Older homes are beautiful because they tell a story, told over generations. An addition there, a nursery here, a shed in the yard that grows to be a garden retreat. That sort of flexibility isn't aimed for, and handing down your McMansion would be a bit of a mixed blessing!