karsaroth's recent activity

  1. Comment on When did you realize you were different? in ~talk

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    Well if it helps at all, I don't think you're mad. Brains just work differently for different people. You and I have a rarer brain but that doesn't mean it's broken, just that the world was built...

    Well if it helps at all, I don't think you're mad. Brains just work differently for different people. You and I have a rarer brain but that doesn't mean it's broken, just that the world was built for the most common type, not us. Like living in Japan as a tall person, or trying to reach the top shelf as a short person.

    At least, that's how I see it. But regardless, thanks for sharing, it's hard to find people like me.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on When did you realize you were different? in ~talk

    karsaroth
    Link
    It started with being from a different country, I thought I didn't fit in because I was an immigrant. People were curious, but not super welcoming when I was a little kid (with some exceptions)....

    It started with being from a different country, I thought I didn't fit in because I was an immigrant. People were curious, but not super welcoming when I was a little kid (with some exceptions).

    Then I thought it was just not fitting in with most of the people at school. Perhaps I was just unlucky?

    For a while I was sure it was to do with my religious beliefs, and perhaps to a degree it was, but that wasn't really it either, not fully. Plus the schools I attended were supposed to match my beliefs anyway.

    Once I started working, I thought it was a skill I was missing, so I tried to pick it up. I practiced with clients, colleagues and bosses, with everyone I met, but somehow I never quite got fully accepted by most people.

    It was only once my kids had started to grow up, and with a little gentle prodding from my wife, I finally got a diagnosis for Autism, and everything suddenly made so much more sense.

    To answer some of the remaining questions: For so long I kind of felt like an alien in a human body, playing the part only at a surface level. I don't think that's gone away, but I understand why, and can navigate the consequences better.

    13 votes

  3. Comment on A random sci-fi question for you in ~talk

    karsaroth
    Link
    Thanks for the responses all, as some people clearly saw, I mixed together Australia's first fleet experience with thoughts of The Expanse, since I was recently re-watching it, and came up with...

    Thanks for the responses all, as some people clearly saw, I mixed together Australia's first fleet experience with thoughts of The Expanse, since I was recently re-watching it, and came up with this question in my head.

    Personally, if my currently life was still in play, I'd probably choose Mars, so I'd have a chance of seeing my family again - but if not, New Mongolia all the way, because I doubt I could actually handle the claustrophobia without loosing it, and the idea of a new world is enticing, even if it'll be hard to survive.

    But when I asked my wife this question, she reminded me that some women were given the option of traveling on the first fleet to Australia, or be hanged...and some chose the hanging. Perhaps sitting in a reasonably comfortable first world life and pondering the question is quite different to what reality might be.

    1 vote

  4. A random sci-fi question for you

    ~talk Ask (survey)
    You've just been convicted by the UN security council for being a Tildes user, and have been sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony, but you get a choice. Do you choose either: 1: Mars - 7 years...

    You've just been convicted by the UN security council for being a Tildes user, and have been sentenced to 7 years in a penal colony, but you get a choice. Do you choose either:

    1: Mars - 7 years without ever being able to go outside without a suit on, but afterwards you could travel back to Earth, if you desired.

    2: New Mongolia: An Earth-like planet, almost as if Earth was new again. But it's a one way trip.

    (Asking for a friend)

    29 votes

  5. Comment on Updates to store tags: additions, removals, and edits in ~games

    karsaroth
    Link
    A way to easily find the max supported players in multiplayer games (also PvP vs Coop players) would be nice. I always thought the tag system would be the best place.

    A way to easily find the max supported players in multiplayer games (also PvP vs Coop players) would be nice. I always thought the tag system would be the best place.

    9 votes

  6. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    I think the first complaint was loudest, but the second has been there from the beginning too, and is becoming more obvious now that the tools are getting better, producing less slop. Its not...

    I think the first complaint was loudest, but the second has been there from the beginning too, and is becoming more obvious now that the tools are getting better, producing less slop.

    Its not surprising to me though that people complain about their job expectations shifting. How many F1 drivers would enjoy switching to an overview position for an AI driver? How many airline pilots want to sit in a 99-100% automated cockpit? How many chefs want to manage an assembly line of robot cooks?

    And that's just how technological progress works of course, but it shouldn't surprise you that people will dislike their key skills being automated away.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    My suspicion is that what I'm looking for might be possible with local models that are much smaller than the general ones - but perhaps there isn't much money in building them. Perhaps what I need...

    My suspicion is that what I'm looking for might be possible with local models that are much smaller than the general ones - but perhaps there isn't much money in building them.

    Perhaps what I need to do is work on some prompts that fit what I'm looking for, similar to what you mention, and automate frequent calls to them - but that likely will quickly run into token limits, at least that's my guess.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    I do yeah, I can give you some advice, but mind you the LLM surge is definitely shaking the whole industry up at the moment, so this advice might age like milk. I think my last point is probably...

    I do yeah, I can give you some advice, but mind you the LLM surge is definitely shaking the whole industry up at the moment, so this advice might age like milk. I think my last point is probably the most important.

    I've worked as a technical consultant for close to 20 years now, that means I've spent between a few months to a few years working on projects for various companies in various industries. A lot of my friends have worked for in-house dev teams instead, and although that does come with certain advantages (being able to iterate an improve on the software you build over time), it's likely to be quite mundane most of the time. Although consulting is much higher pressure, it also allows you to step into new interesting challenges much more frequently; with very clear goals. You frequently have to learn new technologies or languages, be quick at understanding the problems found in other industries, and then learn how to translate that into software that will do what the customer actually needs.

    But even within that context, most customers (companies) will just need you to help upgrade a price tracking system, or move an old HR system into a new cloud provider. Sometimes you do get to work on a project that feels like it will really change the lives of the people who use it, but that's rare.

    I guess I'd say, I don't think its reasonable to expect to enjoy every moment of software development in a professional context. Specifically because its professional there's a lot of extra non-technical work that's necessary, much like any job. Still, with the right company (e.g. one that works on embedded software), or in the right industry (e.g. aerospace, healthcare or specific technologies) you could find a place that gives you opportunities to write meaningful code.

    But above all, if all you're really looking for is the sparks of joy from building software that does something useful, then I'd actually recommend making it a hobby. Help with, or create an open source project, build a video game, or simply implement something at a low level to understand it better.

    7 votes

  9. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I get a lot more joy out of building things as a hobby in whatever area I'm currently interested in. Especially in those cases though, I'm usually trying to do something that has only rarely...

    Yeah, I get a lot more joy out of building things as a hobby in whatever area I'm currently interested in. Especially in those cases though, I'm usually trying to do something that has only rarely been done before, in which case the LLMs struggle and hallucinate a lot, so they feel even less useful in their current form.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    Within the context of my job I've only been given access to Github Copilot so far, and I'm only aware of its chat capability built into tools like VS Code. I'd like to try others, and if you've...

    Within the context of my job I've only been given access to Github Copilot so far, and I'm only aware of its chat capability built into tools like VS Code. I'd like to try others, and if you've got suggestions that match what I'm looking for, I'd be keen to know!

  11. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    No, I've primarily been interacting with Github copilot either directly or using VS Code. In both cases though I'm expected to prompt the LLM and chat with it, which helps in some limited...

    No, I've primarily been interacting with Github copilot either directly or using VS Code. In both cases though I'm expected to prompt the LLM and chat with it, which helps in some limited circumstances, but doesn't fit very well into a "traditional" developers workflow.

    The chat interface makes plenty of sense if you're aiming to get the LLM to go away and do something specific, like build a series of files - but that comes back to my original point, I want it to analyse as I type, essentially the opposite interaction; it should prompt me. Make sense?

    1 vote

  12. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    I appreciate that you and I might just find different things enjoyable in the dev space. I used to consider certain things "boilerplate", but that problem was already solved by auto-completions in...

    I appreciate that you and I might just find different things enjoyable in the dev space. I used to consider certain things "boilerplate", but that problem was already solved by auto-completions in IDEs or syntactic sugar in other languages. And I've also realised how important it can be to consider certain choices when writing a class or function, because it can be the difference between a streamlined piece of code, and a future piece of technical debt.

    But all that said, I'm not disagreeing with you outright, I may simply not have found the right tool yet. In my mind the tool would be similar to a language server in an IDE, that would add context, indicators and other data to an open project and/or source file as I type - having to prompt takes you out of the workflow, in my experience. Is there anything like that? Sounds like you're using Java, so even just specifically for that language would be a good start.

    8 votes

  13. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    Cheers - it took me a while to realise that a lot of people seem to get into software development in spite of coding, rather than because of it. Its good to find people who see it the same way as...

    Cheers - it took me a while to realise that a lot of people seem to get into software development in spite of coding, rather than because of it. Its good to find people who see it the same way as me, they do seem to be pretty rare.

    14 votes

  14. Comment on AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want in ~comp

    karsaroth
    Link
    A little bit of a rant, but I thought it worth writing out this thought and seeing what other people think.

    A little bit of a rant, but I thought it worth writing out this thought and seeing what other people think.

    13 votes

  15. AI Coding agents are the opposite of what I want

    ~comp Ask
    I've been thinking a lot about LLM assisted development, and in particular why I keep dropping the available tools after a few attempts at using them. I realized recently that it's taking away the...

    I've been thinking a lot about LLM assisted development, and in particular why I keep dropping the available tools after a few attempts at using them.

    I realized recently that it's taking away the part of software development I enjoy: the creative problem solving that comes with writing code. What's left is code review tasks, testing, security checks, etc. Important tasks, but they all primarily involve heavy concentration, and much less creativity.

    Why aren't agents focused on handling the mundane tasks instead? Tell me if I've just introduced a security vulnerability or a runtime bug. Generate realistic test data and give me info on what the likely output would be. Tell me that the algorithm I just wrote is O(n^2).

    Those tasks are so much more applicable to matching against existing data, something LLMs should be extremely good at, rather than trying to get them to write something novel, which so far they've been mostly bad at, at least in my experience.

    46 votes

  16. Comment on The ethics of buying, playing military, war or games inspired by them? in ~games

    karsaroth
    Link
    I play DCS where the licensing of military hardware names/designs is pretty extensive. I hadn't actually considered this before, but not because I wouldn't boycott a company if I disliked their...

    I play DCS where the licensing of military hardware names/designs is pretty extensive. I hadn't actually considered this before, but not because I wouldn't boycott a company if I disliked their ethics. There's two things that come to mind:

    First, the only thing you can do to a primary government contractor to hurt their bottom line is to vote for someone who wants to lower their involvement. If everyone stopped playing games with licensed weaponry, they'd shrug and make more actual weapons.

    Second, if you start looking at a company's supply chain not just their own choices, everything gets murkier the further you go down the rabbit hole. It's going to be impossible to know exactly which companies are getting your money, and to what extent, so I personally think any ethics based boycott should focus on the actions of the company you're interacting with directly.

    6 votes

  17. Comment on Lifetime Windows user seeking feedback for improvements on my Linux setup in ~tech

    karsaroth
    Link
    You're having to do a lot of tinkering with the VM already it sounds like. I've jumped in and out of daily driving Linux, mostly out, up until recently. First I ran Ubuntu for several years on a...

    You're having to do a lot of tinkering with the VM already it sounds like.

    I've jumped in and out of daily driving Linux, mostly out, up until recently. First I ran Ubuntu for several years on a work laptop and had very few issues, though occasionally something would break. I find that a key issue is the way that applications share libraries, and when you update a key library for one application it can sometimes break another application.

    I said a hard "No" to windows 11 on my newest machine and installed Bazzite instead. It's honestly been a dream for almost everything, gaming included. Here's a few of the worst things I had to do so far:

    • Tinker with Lutris configuration to get DCS working
    • Install Opentrack alongside DCS in the same wine prefix
    • Try different wine versions to get SRS running (and disabled some config options due to blank overlay windows).

    Other than this, I didn't think I've found a game yet that didn't just work out of the box, and mind you, DCS is notoriously flakey, not to mention Opentrack and SRS being mods/plugins for it.

    The one thing I lost was my Reverb G2 VR headset, but I had also lost that on Windows, so in my mind that doesn't count.

    And anything else I use on Bazzite is either a flatpak, appimage, or runs just fine in a distrobox or a windows container...no random library updates are likely to stop them from working suddenly.

    I appreciate being hesitant to switch, but I think you're probably at a point now where you'll not regret at least dual booting. I suspect you'll eventually stop needing the windows install, at least I'd hope so.

    4 votes

  18. Comment on Tildes Minecraft - Get hyped countdown thread in ~games

    karsaroth
    Link Parent
    Just wanted to say, thanks for keeping me in the loop, although I'm not going to have time to join in for now, I do hope I will have some time in the future.

    Just wanted to say, thanks for keeping me in the loop, although I'm not going to have time to join in for now, I do hope I will have some time in the future.

    8 votes

  19. Comment on Pebble/Core Devices (hardware and software open source update) in ~tech