mattsayar's recent activity

  1. Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2026 on the internet in ~talk

  2. Comment on Seth MacFarlane teases new life for ‘The Orville’: “Season 4 is written” in ~tv

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    Strange New Worlds is pretty great. Still need to catch up on the latest season but it's a gem

    There certainly are people who like Nu-Trek

    Strange New Worlds is pretty great. Still need to catch up on the latest season but it's a gem

    2 votes

  4. Comment on It's only March, but I'm calling it – Esoteric Ebb is 2026's best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium in ~games

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    Saw a Steam review that said "Terry Pratchett meets Disco Elysium in a D&D game. I honestly cannot sell it harder than that." and wow, that's... OK I'll get it.

    Saw a Steam review that said "Terry Pratchett meets Disco Elysium in a D&D game. I honestly cannot sell it harder than that." and wow, that's... OK I'll get it.

    12 votes

  5. Comment on Apple TV picks up rights to Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books for adaption in ~tv

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    This is pretty exciting for Brandon! He's in an enviable position where he doesn't need to accept any deals he doesn't like, and it's great to see Apple TV work with him to give him the creative...

    This is pretty exciting for Brandon! He's in an enviable position where he doesn't need to accept any deals he doesn't like, and it's great to see Apple TV work with him to give him the creative freedom he wants. I worry that his book writing skills won't easily adapt to the screen, but I assume he must be smart enough to know his limitations as well, and accept feedback where needed.

    5 votes

  7. Comment on What's your favorite RSS reader? in ~comp

    mattsayar
    Link
    Back when Google Reader shut down, I migrated painlessly to Feedly. Been happy ever since. They've pivoted into more of a Threat Intelligence product, but it's still a very enjoyable UX. I...

    Back when Google Reader shut down, I migrated painlessly to Feedly. Been happy ever since. They've pivoted into more of a Threat Intelligence product, but it's still a very enjoyable UX. I technically worked for a competitor until recently and I'd still recommend Feedly anytime

  9. Comment on Paris had a moving sidewalk in 1900, and a Edison film captured it in action in ~transport

    mattsayar
    Link
    I smiled when that one guy raised his hat to the camera. Can you imagine making somebody smile 125 years in the future because of some silly thing you did for five seconds in front of a camera?...

    I smiled when that one guy raised his hat to the camera. Can you imagine making somebody smile 125 years in the future because of some silly thing you did for five seconds in front of a camera? Maybe you already did the thing.

    10 votes

  10. Comment on Thieves steal crown jewels in four minutes from Louvre Museum in Paris in ~arts

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    Plot twist, it was the staff! I'll make this movie.

    Plot twist, it was the staff! I'll make this movie.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Why Signal’s post-quantum makeover is an amazing engineering achievement in ~tech

    mattsayar
    Link
    What a great, well written, understandable explanation. I didn't expect to finish the article when I started it, but I'm glad I did. I heard about SPQR before and it's nice to see the evolution of...

    What a great, well written, understandable explanation. I didn't expect to finish the article when I started it, but I'm glad I did. I heard about SPQR before and it's nice to see the evolution of the process that produced it

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Playing tricks with web browser tabs in ~comp

  13. Comment on Can AI tell if I'm writing AI slop? A machine learning journey. in ~comp

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    Glad you liked it! My site in its current iteration has only really been active this calendar year. I'm sure my writing has changed. If I wanted to be super thorough, I could have grabbed my...

    Glad you liked it! My site in its current iteration has only really been active this calendar year. I'm sure my writing has changed. If I wanted to be super thorough, I could have grabbed my comments from here, HN, reddit, etc. but I didn't want to overcomplicate things.

    I'm willing to bet that having more data, even as my style changes over time, would make the model even more accurate.

  14. Comment on How Honeycrisp apples went from marvel to mediocre in ~food

    mattsayar
    Link
    Has anyone ever found a SweeTango apple? They're #1 on https://applerankings.com/ but I've yet to see them in the wild. I'd still rather have honeycrisp than most other apples, even if they're not...

    Has anyone ever found a SweeTango apple? They're #1 on https://applerankings.com/ but I've yet to see them in the wild.

    I'd still rather have honeycrisp than most other apples, even if they're not as good as when I first encountered them.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Can AI tell if I'm writing AI slop? A machine learning journey. in ~comp

    mattsayar
    Link
    Thought it'd be fun to share what it's like creating an ML model these days

    Thought it'd be fun to share what it's like creating an ML model these days

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Is the concept of debate completely useless? in ~talk

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    I read somewhere that the best way to get someone to change their mind is to make them feel part of the "same tribe." But I don't want to do that every time. It takes a lot of time, commitment,...

    I read somewhere that the best way to get someone to change their mind is to make them feel part of the "same tribe." But I don't want to do that every time. It takes a lot of time, commitment, consistency, etc. and ultimately I feel manipulative. I'd rather listen, learn, and form my own opinions that I use to guide myself, because I'm the only person I can truly affect.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Spotify is adding direct messaging to their music streaming app in ~tech

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    Same, I'm really excited about this too. I have one friend in particular who I'm constantly sharing music with, and it's a pain to send him Spotify links; when I send it via Gchat (or whatever),...

    Same, I'm really excited about this too. I have one friend in particular who I'm constantly sharing music with, and it's a pain to send him Spotify links; when I send it via Gchat (or whatever), the song starts playing when he clicks it which interrupts his current playlist. That means he won't listen to it when I send it, but he'll "get around to it."

    A simple fix would be "OK then don't play the song when the link is tapped/clicked," and honestly I wish that was the default behavior, but I think a proper DM in the app is better. I've lost track of the music we've recommended to each other because it's spread between multiple messaging apps. Keeping this data in Spotify can also help tune the algorithms to our tastes more. That's pretty cool

    3 votes

  20. Comment on Humble Bundle: Martha Wells’ Murderbot and more in ~books

    mattsayar
    Link Parent
    I read the book then immediately watched the show. I think the show did a better job of fleshing out the characters around Murderbot. In the book, each character was just mouthpieces with...

    I read the book then immediately watched the show. I think the show did a better job of fleshing out the characters around Murderbot. In the book, each character was just mouthpieces with different names (Mensah excepted). In the show, they have easily-distinguishable personalities and relationships.

    I missed the nuances of Murderbot's inner dialogue in the show, but that's just a limitation of the medium. I liked both of them a lot, and look forward to reading the rest!

    4 votes