lelio's recent activity
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Comment on What radicalized you? in ~talk
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Comment on A game involving California’s working payphones in ~games
lelio LinkI love this idea, an excuse to go on a bike ride. Also, there is one in a nearby sheriff's office. I bet I just have to do some crime, then they'll let me use it at least once, right?I love this idea, an excuse to go on a bike ride.
Also, there is one in a nearby sheriff's office. I bet I just have to do some crime, then they'll let me use it at least once, right? -
Comment on I don’t know if my software engineering job will still exist in ten years in ~comp
lelio Link ParentIn terms of pure software engineering that's probably true. If AI development stalled we would still need coders. But, I think there is a big lag right now between the ability of these agents and...In terms of pure software engineering that's probably true. If AI development stalled we would still need coders.
But, I think there is a big lag right now between the ability of these agents and the tools they have available to them. So even if the agents themselves stalled we have a lot of work to do just figuring out how to use them properly.
I've been pretty disappointed with how AI gets integrated into software. It's usually just a dumb chatbot that has access to some help docs. Just recently I tried to use Gemini in Google sheets and it just doesn't seem to have access to the software as much as it needs to. It still tries to give me formulas and have me paste them in the cells.
Switching from browser based LLMs to Claude code this year was a revelation. Anything that can be done from a command prompt can now be done way easier. Just because of the infrastructure around the agent
I think even if the agents themselves stayed the same, we have a lot of room for improvement for building infrastructure around them.
I know everyone is dreading AI making its way into everything. But that's because it's being shoehorned in as quickly as possible by every company that wants to please shareholders by having an "AI strategy". So not only are they ineffective but they are loud and intrusive. Trying to force their useless suggestions on us.
Imagine if a piece of software had an AI properly built into it from the ground up with usability as the goal. With access to the source code and every tool and input. In a lot of cases The UI could become superfluous. Just tell the software what you want to do.
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Comment on What are you no longer a fan of? in ~talk
lelio Link ParentSometimes I feel like I am the animal in the zoo. It seems ridiculous for a monkey in a cage to spend its time stressed out about all the millions of suffering creatures out there in the world....Sometimes I feel like I am the animal in the zoo. It seems ridiculous for a monkey in a cage to spend its time stressed out about all the millions of suffering creatures out there in the world. Maybe I could just focus on the things that are in and around my cage. That's all I can really have an effect on.
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Comment on What are you no longer a fan of? in ~talk
lelio Link ParentYou're probably not wrong. But also, I'm kind of oblivious to most of what you're talking about. I like the matrix movies. I have torrented copies of them on my hard drive and enjoy watching them...You're probably not wrong. But also, I'm kind of oblivious to most of what you're talking about.
I like the matrix movies. I have torrented copies of them on my hard drive and enjoy watching them often. That's all I need to still be a fan of them.I feel the same about a few other things you listed.
I downloaded the lord of the rings trilogy recently and I'm looking forward to watching it with my kids for their first time. I have no idea what else is going on with that IP right now. I don't really care. They can do whatever they want. I'm good here.
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Comment on What are you no longer a fan of? in ~talk
lelio Link Parent"Money" has always been annoying to me. It was played on the radio so much when I was a kid in the 90s. It makes me think of smug boomers. So I think I understand. On the other hand I just got..."Money" has always been annoying to me. It was played on the radio so much when I was a kid in the 90s. It makes me think of smug boomers. So I think I understand.
On the other hand I just got into Pink Floyd in the past 5-6 years. My favorites are the great gig in the sky. And the Wish you were here album.I also got into KGLW at the same time.
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Comment on Good News Everyone! - your semi regular good news thread in ~talk
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Comment on How do you remember? in ~tech
lelio LinkI use Google Keep in a pretty haphazard way. I have a few pinned notes right now: "Felix commands" (Felix is a work project) "To Do" "Felix To Do" "Books read, 2025 - " (this one is fun, I started...I use Google Keep in a pretty haphazard way. I have a few pinned notes right now:
"Felix commands" (Felix is a work project)
"To Do"
"Felix To Do"
"Books read, 2025 - " (this one is fun, I started a journal listing the books I read and any thoughts about them.)
"Projects" (What is the difference between projects and to-do? Who knows?but I look at projects less often)
"Music"
"Movies/TV"
"Books"
"Games" (last four are recommendations/things I might want to check out)I throw stuff in all these and occasionally clean it out with no plan/schedule. Some of them have years-old stuff. Anything important goes in To Do, and I check that at least every couple of days. Or it goes in Google Calendar with a notification.
If I want to remember a thing but don't know where to put it, I just make a normal note and don't pin it. I try to use enough keywords that I can find it if I search later. But if I never think to search for it, it is essentially gone. I rarely look at unpinned notes. This helps when I have a thing taking up space in my brain, causing mild stress. I just fart out some notes in Keep and probably never see them or worry about them again. But if it comes up, I can search and remember where I was before. grocery lists etc. are also unpinned and float in the abyss.
I use it on my desktop and my phone, both are necessary. I typically add things on my phone and look them up on my desktop.I'm also looking to improve and try Notion or something else. So thanks for the thread!
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Comment on I hacked ChatGPT and Google's AI – and it only took twenty minutes in ~tech
lelio LinkDid you know that anyone can buy a printer that will print whatever dangerous nonsense they want to write? They can even put a fake letterhead on top that says "super legit trustworthy source."...Did you know that anyone can buy a printer that will print whatever dangerous nonsense they want to write? They can even put a fake letterhead on top that says "super legit trustworthy source." They can then give that, real, actual, paper to anyone and act as if it's the truth! Damn your hubris, Gutenberg!
We should all know by now that you can't trust anything an AI says. You can't trust anything. That should be our default at this point, right? Truth is hard.
AI is useful, flawed, and complicated. But at this point, "you can't trust it" isn't that interesting beyond educating people who are just starting to use it, I guess. -
Comment on James Van Der Beek, the ‘Dawson’s Creek’ star who later mocked his own hunky persona, has died at 48 in ~tv
lelio Link Parenthttps://www.tmz.com/2026/02/13/james-van-der-beek-purchased-texas-ranch-before-dying/ My take away was van-der-beek himself bought the ranch while he was still alive. He had been living on this...https://www.tmz.com/2026/02/13/james-van-der-beek-purchased-texas-ranch-before-dying/
My take away was van-der-beek himself bought the ranch while he was still alive. He had been living on this ranch since 2020, renting. He was dying so he wanted to buy this ranch so his wife and 6 kids would be at least paying a mortgage rather than renting. To be better set up after he was gone. The friends setup a gofundme then him gave him the money to do that. And he got to do it a few weeks before he died, not after.
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Comment on The hidden cost of AI art: Brandon Sanderson's keynote in ~tech
lelio LinkSanderson talks about the journey. The growth that the artist achieves during creation. Our AI models are experiencing growth. The creation of one piece of content might not have a direct impact...Sanderson talks about the journey. The growth that the artist achieves during creation.
Our AI models are experiencing growth. The creation of one piece of content might not have a direct impact on the model that made it. I don't think it works like that. But people are experiencing AI art and responding to it. Other people are developing different AI models, experimenting with different ways to interpret and manipulate data. The growth of AI is humanity's collective growth as well. It has to be, there doesn't appear to any sentience involved in the models themselves yet.
We are trying to recreate our brains. That was the whole idea of neural networks right? We don't understand how our brains work yet. But trying to design your own version of something is a great way to learn about it. Ideally, the fields of neurology and machine learning should be developing in parallel and informing each other.
I don't believe in God. I think all the amazing things that come from the human brain could be expressed with physics and math.
When AI spits out a soulful blues cover of Warren Gs "Regulate" and it actually sparks an emotional response in me. Its kind of a parlour trick. Without really understanding it, we've figured out how to hit all the right buttons in our brains to trigger those emotional responses. I don't believe the current AI models have any significant intelligence or understanding of what they are doing. But, in addition to the mathematically induced emotional response, I feel awe and excitement that human civilization is progressing down this road to understanding how our brains work! What are emotions? Where do they come from? AI art is an artifact of us taking baby steps toward answering those questions.
Being able to understand our brains would allow us to better treat them and improve them. Being able to understand brains in general and intelligence and emotion could allow us to design new and diverse types of brains. It could help our society become something amazing.
I think he hits on the real problem here: These are made to be products. The main incentive to create them is to attract investors and ultimately extract profit.
Because it seems the only way we can do anything in our current civilization is to find a way to make it profitable. Even if a project is started for the betterment of society. We have to find a way to make it profitable or it won't have any resources dedicated to it. Almost immediately profit is the only goal. The whole project is twisted towards profit regardless of whether it's harmful or helpful.
Like Openai starting out open source and non-profit and all that getting chucked out the window a few years later.
So we get stuck in this loop where we see tech being used in harmful ways and resent the tools rather than the system that abuses it.
I find AI art really compelling. Even the bad, weird stuff. It makes me think about what art is, where it comes from, how humans make it and experience it. It's a type of art we've never seen before! I don't really care whether it's "bad" or "authentic" or whatever.
It seems clear to me all the negative feeling and resentment that people have about AI stems from the inequality and fear that is so prevelant in the world today. People are right to be angry about those things. I just wish we could direct the anger at the system that creates them instead of the tools it uses.
Tax these giant tech companies out existence and use that money to fund R&D on AI and a million other things that can help everyone and be owned by all of us collectively. Free markets are great for effiency and commodities. Just let them run in their own walled off sandboxes. Important, long term projects need to be done on purpose and mindfully.
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Comment on What small thing made a big impact on you? in ~talk
lelio Link ParentI had that same realization. For me the only thing that worked was counting calories. And eventually I realized I didn't have to restrict my calories just to lose weight and then stop. I had to...I had that same realization.
For me the only thing that worked was counting calories. And eventually I realized I didn't have to restrict my calories just to lose weight and then stop.
I had to find what weight I wanted to be, then figure out how many calories a day to maintain that weight. In theory, if I knew that number, I could just start eating that amount, at any weight. Since heavier people burn more calories. Eventually my weight would automatically adjust to the goal weight.In reality it took a few years of counting and weighing for me to actually find those numbers. Precision calorie counting doesn't seem possible. But the realization that there is no point at all to a temporary diet was key. Instead I only try to find healthy eating habits that I can maintain forever and start doing them right away as if I'm already at my goal weight.
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Comment on Hunger signals messed up in ~health.mental
lelio LinkWhen I got into my 30s I started gaining weight and had to get more mindful about what I ate. I started counting calories and macros (carbs,fat, protein). I eventually decided my stomach was...When I got into my 30s I started gaining weight and had to get more mindful about what I ate.
I started counting calories and macros (carbs,fat, protein).I eventually decided my stomach was pretty useless at telling me when to eat. My stomach sends pangs mostly when it expected food and didn't get it. Like if I changed a routine. But also if I ate something it's not used to or if I'm just feeling stressed, or just randomly, even when I had 3000+ calories that day.
You should still listen to your body, but you can't always trust it. If I'm feeling kind of tired, irritable, and pessimistic that's a stronger signal to me that I should consider if I've eaten enough recently.
Counting calories is a pain, but even if you just keep a journal of what you eat for a few days/weeks. Or just try to remember and plan. It might help.
For me, getting older has meant finding things that my body used to handle automatically are now things I have to consciously manage. It's exhausting, but rewarding.
This is just my weird body. Everyone is different. You might consider bringing it up with your doctor next time you have a physical. In case it's a symptom of something else.
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Comment on Recommendations needed: Favorite “comfort” movies in ~movies
lelio LinkThe only ones I can think of that aren't already here: Joe vs the Volcano Grosse pointe blank Oceans 12 (someone mentioned 11, but 12 is my fav :) Some of my most common comfort movies are just...The only ones I can think of that aren't already here:
Joe vs the Volcano
Grosse pointe blank
Oceans 12 (someone mentioned 11, but 12 is my fav :)Some of my most common comfort movies are just things I've watched so many times that the repetition becomes a comfort regardless of the vibe, like "Heat".
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
lelio LinkI'm on the 7th dungeon crawler carl book. I find the series really fun. I'm disappointed that I'm about to catch up (8th book comes out next summer) right before I go on vacation this weekend. If...I'm on the 7th dungeon crawler carl book. I find the series really fun. I'm disappointed that I'm about to catch up (8th book comes out next summer) right before I go on vacation this weekend. If anyone has similar fun beach reads let me know.
I've also been slowly reading "Journal of a novel" Steinbeck's East of Eden dairy. For when Im feeling more patient and contemplative.
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Comment on Reading my first Stephen King novel - What are your favorites? in ~books
lelio (edited )LinkI want to mention " the talisman". Because I skimmed the thread and didn't see it. Its one of my favorites. I kept thinking of it when I read Fairy Tale. It's a very similar story and vibe. I...I want to mention " the talisman". Because I skimmed the thread and didn't see it. Its one of my favorites. I kept thinking of it when I read Fairy Tale. It's a very similar story and vibe. I liked talisman better but that might just be because I read it when I was young.
Insomnia is another favorite of mine.
The Dark Tower series is the axle upon which the world of Stephen king spins. You should eventually get around to that if you want to explore his books.
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Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life
lelio LinkI like the article, for reporting on a weird subculture and doing a lot of research. But I started feeling like the tone was kind of moral panic. I wouldn't grant that, unless "gooner porn" is...I like the article, for reporting on a weird subculture and doing a lot of research. But I started feeling like the tone was kind of moral panic.
Granted, day-in-the-life TikToks or unboxing videos won’t poison your soul to precisely the same degree as gooner porn.
I wouldn't grant that, unless "gooner porn" is specifically snuff films or something, I took it as just weird porn edited to be more intense. I don't see how that's soul poisoning at all.
If people want to average 2-3 hours a day masturbating to porn, I don't see that as any less healthy than sports, video games, baking, crocheting, or whatever humans choose to do with their lives. We're a bunch of brilliant, abusive, weirdos. It takes all kinds.
A few of the most intense fans of gooning are going down a weird, untrodden path into the wilderness. In the best-case scenario, society at large can respond like WristbandGuy. Offer support and guidance as best we can, so they can travel as safely as possible. It's probably a pointless waste of resources, but maybe they'll find something interesting.
A huge population and communication technology mean way more weird paths to go down, and more interesting things to find. We just have to worry about keeping people safe while they do their weird shit.
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Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk
lelio Link ParentNaw, that's like a used city. Gross. I need a fesh one, and to my specifications. Edit: Whoops, I think I missed you were replying about bike cities and not telling me to use an abandoned city....Naw, that's like a used city. Gross.
I need a fesh one, and to my specifications.Edit:
Whoops, I think I missed you were replying about bike cities and not telling me to use an abandoned city. But I'm gonna leave it because the point stands. -
Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk
lelio LinkId buy a huge swath of land and build a city. Depending on how many billions I have it might be a scaled down city like a GTA map. But it'll have everything: suburbs, skyscrapers, a mall, a train,...Id buy a huge swath of land and build a city. Depending on how many billions I have it might be a scaled down city like a GTA map. But it'll have everything: suburbs, skyscrapers, a mall, a train, water and power, etc. I could invite people in and it would be our playground. We could race cars around the streets, play paintball, just walk around and hang out and camp wherever we want like we were apocalypse survivors.
it would be sealed off to keep the riff raff out and insure all the housing and resources are only for our amusement.
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Comment on Commentary: prepare to say a frond farewell to Los Angeles’ palm trees in ~enviro
lelio LinkI'm in Los Angeles. About 15 years ago I put laundry machines in the garage where there is no drain nearby. I researched a bit and dug out a hole in the yard nearby, put in a trash can with holes...I'm in Los Angeles. About 15 years ago I put laundry machines in the garage where there is no drain nearby.
I researched a bit and dug out a hole in the yard nearby, put in a trash can with holes drilled in it. Put a wood platform over it.Within a few years a palm bush thing started growing right next to the drain. It seemed to reach a full size poofy thing, right on the ground. Then it just levitated straight up over for the last few years. Fueled by our laundry water no doubt.
No one thing really.
But a true and fun story is: At nine or ten years old, I heard a guy talking on CNN about how education is a long-term investment, and should be considered a higher priority, budget-wise, because of that. I was on board, and then they said: "Thank you for your time, Mr. Dukakis". And I was blown away because this was a name I associated with Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi, these evil men my parents talked about that wanted to kill Americans. I technically knew he had run for president the year before. But I was so oblivious, I never thought about what that meant beyond why would anyone vote for an evil guy? That was a formative moment in learning skepticism.
The more fun question is, what radicalized AugustusFerdinand?
This post was made on March 12th, right?
So maybe Covid?
Or the invention of the World Wide Web?
Fukushima?
Madoff?
I guess for every day, there is a list of like 20 things that could potentially radicalize a person. And it could be something completely personal, too.