mimic's recent activity

  1. Comment on Is Tildes protected from malicious actors, aka paid trolls, aka bots? in ~tildes

    mimic
    Link Parent
    This is mostly my read as well. Their replies feel like the same thing they're referencing as bot behavior.

    This is mostly my read as well. Their replies feel like the same thing they're referencing as bot behavior.

    6 votes

  2. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    mimic
    Link
    Possibly the least sexy answer but Lofi girl! Great counter point to chaotic work life.

    Possibly the least sexy answer but Lofi girl! Great counter point to chaotic work life.

  3. Comment on What's your current PC wallpaper? in ~tech

    mimic
    Link Parent
    Dark gray?! What a heathen. Pure black, no exceptions! /s just in case

    Dark gray?! What a heathen. Pure black, no exceptions!

    /s just in case

    1 vote

  4. Comment on What are some of your favorite Nintendo Switch games? in ~games

    mimic
    Link Parent
    Hard agree with @Well_known_bear's rankings. I probably have somewhere around 800 hours in the XC games (not to mention hundreds of hours in the XenoSaga trilogy and Xenogears) and while I agree...

    Hard agree with @Well_known_bear's rankings. I probably have somewhere around 800 hours in the XC games (not to mention hundreds of hours in the XenoSaga trilogy and Xenogears) and while I agree the stories are self contained I really felt like the interconnections between the games really added to the overall universe and understanding of what was happening.

    Two things to add:

    • The DLCs (Future Connected, Torna The Golden Country, and Future Redeemed) are all superb in their own right and deserve mentions.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles X just had a release on Switch this year as well. While I have it, I've sadly not had the time to invest in playing yet, so I can't speak to how it stands up to the main trilogy and DLC.
    1 vote

  5. Comment on Is AI actually useful for anyone here? in ~tech

    mimic
    Link
    TL;DR: The way I've been describing LLMs to my engineering friends is that it essentially makes you a team lead or engineering manager of a team of junior devs. If you are good at writing...
    • Exemplary

    TL;DR: The way I've been describing LLMs to my engineering friends is that it essentially makes you a team lead or engineering manager of a team of junior devs. If you are good at writing Epics/stories/tasks/bugs, that will transition pretty well as you have to keep the LLMs on really tight strict rails. If you're not good at those things, then you'll learn quickly because the LLMs absolutely love to go off on tangents.

    Longer version...

    I think you have to really specify what models you're using and the tools to get down to the trade offs on LLMs. I know there's a lot of hate around this site about them, but coming from a 20 years of development experience perspective they are very powerful tools that are very easy to misuse. I think it was Angela (acollierastro) who said that they are great tools for people that already have the knowledge of the field they are utilizing them in. It's not going to make you an expert at anything and it's going to send you in the wrong direction frequently if you don't know what to look for and how to design your prompts.

    For programming, I've had reasonably decent success with Cursor using the Planner/Executor prompt patterns. I started with Claude 4 Sonnet, but found it wayyyyy too agreeable. My eye twitches every time I read "You're Absolutely Right!" I switched to o3 and it at least will push back on me if I'm wrong, or if I missed something it previously did. I appreciate it owning it's own decisions and generally being more straight forward and less fluffy in it's answers, but at the end of the day Cursor is not great for large scale feature or refactor work imo.

    So mostly what I've settled on is using Claude Code for large scale feature work or refactors. It does a really amazing job at those things for me, although it can still get stuck in it's own spirals so you have to keep a close eye on it, especially since it's pay-per-usage. Cursor with either o3 or sometimes even Gemini 2.5 Pro for point fixes. I find Cursor's tab completion to be really really good, especially on things like pipeline jobs or CloudFormation templates. Using a NoCode mdc with Cursor chat is also a great way of exploring ideas or getting a good jumping off point for own coding.

    I use ChatGPT as a glorified search engine for the most part. It's also a great jumping off point for my own research. On the non-technical side of things I've been getting into gardening lately and I've solved a couple nutrient issues just by having a Gardening project with my soil composition, water schedules, plant types with their growth timelines, and locality. I have a recurring thead in that project where I give it a couple pics of each plant and ask it for an assessment once a week. It's far from perfect, but again it's a good jumping off point for my own research. Just today I was able to narrow down an issue with some Scotch Bonnet pepper plants to a Ca/Mg deficiency since I switched from nitrogen rich to phosorous/potassium rich fertilizers. All from showing a pic of the canopy as the plant transitioned from foliage growth to flowering. Could I have figured all this out through Google? Absolutely, but it definitely sped up the process.

    In the end they are just tools. I hate the ulta hype around them and can't wait for that to die down, but I think they will be another tool in the toolbelt of software engineering going forward.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on 'I destroyed months of your work in seconds' says AI coding tool after deleting a dev's entire database during a code freeze: 'I panicked instead of thinking' in ~comp

  7. Comment on The world’s most-visited museum shuts down, in response to mass tourism in ~travel

    mimic
    Link Parent
    I actively avoid being in photos myself, I just don't like to for various reasons that are irrelevant to this particular discussion. I still feel like the 100k proposal is a ham-fisted hard-line...

    I actively avoid being in photos myself, I just don't like to for various reasons that are irrelevant to this particular discussion. I still feel like the 100k proposal is a ham-fisted hard-line approach that dismisses most nuance on the subject (aka, no good solution). It's effectively telling people their sense of family memories or nostalgia are invalid.

    Humanity did fine with memories for most of human history without the need to over document every single meal and event.

    I think this is an unprovable statement. Can anyone prove that we would have been better off with those pictures/documents (obviously not)? If "humanity did fine" means ending up in the situation the world is currently in I imagine a lot of people might have issues with that. I could put forth the [false] argument that maybe humanity would have been better off without anyone bothering to create the art that's creating this problem.

    Don't get me wrong I very sincerely hate influencer culture and I really want to see a solution to this problem I just don't see how anything presented in this post (not just our conversation) is a remotely viable solution.

    I do want to make a point to say that I appreciate being able to have the discussion without it devolving into angry hateful comments like so many discussions do these days. Thank you for that. :)

    1 vote

  8. Comment on The world’s most-visited museum shuts down, in response to mass tourism in ~travel

    mimic
    Link Parent
    I agree with you in the sense that if I wanted a selfie with a piece of art, yea that's very meh. Especially if I chose not to visit at all because I couldn't get that photo. Nothing of value was...

    I agree with you in the sense that if I wanted a selfie with a piece of art, yea that's very meh. Especially if I chose not to visit at all because I couldn't get that photo. Nothing of value was lost. It's effectively admitting I'm doing it for social media clout which I hate.

    But I also believe that wanting a family picture with the same piece of art is a different situation entirely. Having a family picture and buliding those family memories is just a different situation.

    To the points you and others are making, how do you actually classify these and assign value to them. How do you differentiate the dad using his family for social media clout vs the dad that wants the family memory hanging up in their family home. It's impossible.

    All of this is just to reiterate it's an incredibly difficult situation to solve and it really feels like there's no solution that doesn't end up with collateral damage.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on The world’s most-visited museum shuts down, in response to mass tourism in ~travel

    mimic
    Link Parent
    I know you're saying this is a more complex issue with not a lot of solutions and I definitely agree, so I feel like pointing out is just punishment to every "regular" tourist. Hypothetically, if...

    I know you're saying this is a more complex issue with not a lot of solutions and I definitely agree, so I feel like pointing out

    If the monafluencers are a problem, then you just put it in a solo room with no phones allowed and active security to enforce. Charge 100k to bring your phone in or something and help pay for services from the uber wealthy. Donate it to art schools or something.

    is just punishment to every "regular" tourist. Hypothetically, if I live half way around the world. I arrange and pay for my entire family to see these pieces of art, I cannot take a family pic withoput having an extra 100k? I guess if the goal is to tank tourism overall, job done?

    Charging separately is not a solution because if you price it high it punishes "regular" tourists and if you price it low it actually incentivizies influencer behavior and still punishes others.

    10 votes

  10. Comment on What have you been eating, drinking, and cooking? in ~food

    mimic
    Link Parent
    I love my Instant Pot! Perfect rice every time. For a basmati or jasmine rice, 1:1 dry rice to water. High pressure, vent closed, 8 minutes, natural release for 10 minutes, let the rest of the...

    I love my Instant Pot!

    • Perfect rice every time. For a basmati or jasmine rice, 1:1 dry rice to water. High pressure, vent closed, 8 minutes, natural release for 10 minutes, let the rest of the pressure out, fluff and serve.

    • Japanese curry beef - Rough chop potatoes, carrots, and onions put in bottom of pot, put beef tips on top, crumble japanese curry cubes (I love Golden Curry hot!) on top, add a bit of water, doesn't need to cover everything with the liquid. Don't put on pressure cook, leave the vent open. You can do low or high slow cook, 4-8+ hours. I like it with rice, but double starches might be a bit much for some people.

    • Pulled chicken for tacos - I toss in a diced onion, some boneless skinless chicken (breasts or thighs!), a small amount of chicken stock or water, I usually dust the top with taco seasoning, and top with some salsa. Pressure cook on high for 15 min, natural release 10 minutes, let the rest of the pressure out, and I shred it directly in the container.

    I didn't get overly specific on recipes, but they are easy to find out there if you want something a little more strict to follow.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on Behind the curtain: A white-collar bloodbath in ~tech

    mimic
    Link Parent
    Imo it's just a CEO throwing out click baity garbage. He definitely hasn't thought through anything he said past "will this drive attention to my product?". He has a vested interest in keeping the...

    Imo it's just a CEO throwing out click baity garbage. He definitely hasn't thought through anything he said past "will this drive attention to my product?". He has a vested interest in keeping the money flowing in and also people scared and worried about LLMs to get them to invest their time into learning the tools, bringing them into the ecosystem, which drives investment and keeps the money flowing. It's just another set of meaningless words thrown out by an out-of-touch CEO. And these news outlets are running with it because it gets clicks.

    4 votes

  12. Comment on Behind the curtain: A white-collar bloodbath in ~tech

    mimic
    Link Parent
    As others have said I feel like this is largely just going off what the Anthropic CEO has said and it's being used as misdirection, fear mongering, and effectively a sales pitch. Maybe the full...

    As others have said I feel like this is largely just going off what the Anthropic CEO has said and it's being used as misdirection, fear mongering, and effectively a sales pitch.

    Maybe the full quote would help people understand how ridiculous of a statement it is.

    “Cancer is cured, the economy grows at 10% a year, the budget is balanced — and 20% of people don’t have jobs,” said Amodei, describing one potential scenario.

    Not only is it stated as "one potential scenario" he's also calling out cancer being cured and a balanced budget.

    9 votes

  13. Comment on Billions of AI users…? in ~tech

    mimic
    Link Parent
    There's some [shitty] middle ground going on, I think. For instance, my Google Workspace account had Gemini shoved down it's throat. I didn't want it, never asked for it, but I sure got it. Along...

    There's some [shitty] middle ground going on, I think. For instance, my Google Workspace account had Gemini shoved down it's throat. I didn't want it, never asked for it, but I sure got it. Along with the price increase per user whether I use it or not. Gemini might fail (and honestly I hope it does, it's terrible), but that per user cost isn't going to go down. Admittedly, that does not offset the full cost of what they've put into Gemini (not even close), but the larger established companies that can afford to burn cash will find ways to mitigate it by forcing it down people's throats.

    I don't disagree with your overall premise though. I work for an early stage startup that pivoted to LLM-based products because that's basically the only place VCs are willing to throw money right now and I don't expect it to survive past the next couple years.

    10 votes

  14. Comment on What in your opinion is the greatest guitar solo? in ~music

    mimic
    Link
    I assume answering Polyphia is cheating. November Rain has to top 3, if not top 1.

    I assume answering Polyphia is cheating.

    November Rain has to top 3, if not top 1.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on The Lego Group has asked for the fan-made game Bionicle: Masks of Power to be shut down entirely in ~games

    mimic
    Link Parent
    Not doubting you, but where did you see that they were in contact with LEGO about it? I couldn't find that in the doc posted on the OP's link. The best I found was that they were following the...

    Not doubting you, but where did you see that they were in contact with LEGO about it? I couldn't find that in the doc posted on the OP's link. The best I found was that they were following the fair play guidelines which are just public materials as far as I'm aware.

    As I stated on another comment, I hadn't heard anything about the game so I'm out of the loop and maybe this was mentioned in some other docs or communications from them?

    3 votes

  16. Comment on The Lego Group has asked for the fan-made game Bionicle: Masks of Power to be shut down entirely in ~games

    mimic
    Link Parent
    I hadn't heard of this game at all, but is this a mod? From the doc they posted is seems like a full fledged game that's been in development for 8 years using LEGO IP? Genuine question since I'm...

    I hadn't heard of this game at all, but is this a mod?

    Unfortunately, it seems like the LEGO Group’s stance on fan-created media has changed. While we can only speculate as to the exact reason why they have asked us to remove the game at this time, what we suspect is that our project was too easy to mistake for an official product. At the time of writing, searching “Bionicle game” on Google lists the Steam page for BIONICLE: Masks of Power within the first couple of links. An average person seeing our game for the first time could easily think that it was an official game at first glance. And no amount of disclaimers we could put up would be able to change that.

    From the doc they posted is seems like a full fledged game that's been in development for 8 years using LEGO IP? Genuine question since I'm so out of the loop on it.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting unused for three days in ~tech

    mimic
    Link Parent
    Just to throw out there my use case. I kept my old Android phone after upgrading and I use it to play white noise/forest type sounds in my bedroom all day for my cats who like to chill and nap in...

    Just to throw out there my use case. I kept my old Android phone after upgrading and I use it to play white noise/forest type sounds in my bedroom all day for my cats who like to chill and nap in there. It sits on a wireless charger and I never have to touch it. I think it's been playing for 3+ months now.

    This is definitely an edge case and to be fair the release notes do say "Enables a future optional security feature" implying I can opt out. If that's the case then I'll probably be alright.

  18. Comment on What's your favorite music album to get high to? in ~music

    mimic
    (edited )
    Link
    So strictly answering the question, The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium. However, while it has slower moments it is frantic for lack of a better word (and there's a reason for it) and in...

    So strictly answering the question, The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium. However, while it has slower moments it is frantic for lack of a better word (and there's a reason for it) and in sections might be considered dark. It's a concept album and was mind blowing and eye opening when it dropped. Still my favorite album to listen to while high and possibly on other things.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on How do you feel about your PTO? in ~life

    mimic
    Link Parent
    Haha, this is a fair question. I can only speak to the departments that I am responsible for. So I guess to answer directly, I simply don't know. I have not heard of instances of PTO abuse or...

    Haha, this is a fair question. I can only speak to the departments that I am responsible for. So I guess to answer directly, I simply don't know. I have not heard of instances of PTO abuse or being strict, but I cannot say it hasn't happened because maybe I just wasn't involved in the conversation.

    This also goes back to my statement that it's highly dependent on the manager and how they operate. Everything is subject to a manager's approval, even if company policy is a specific amount of PTO. Which I think might be where "Unlimited PTO" can go very wrong. Managers tend to be risk adverse and conservative. Myself, having been in early stage startups for about a decade (Pre/Post Series A) am just used to a different kind of environment, so I can't speak to larger more mature company cultures (unless you want to talk about Fintech 15 years ago lol).

    I do not have any directive or guidelines from my bosses on about how much I should give each employee. It's very results driven. If I gave everyone a month off and we don't deliver on our committed timelines, it's my head on the chopping block (which is why I think as a company grows, they tend to become more controlling and conservative in their policies).

    1 vote

  20. Comment on How do you feel about your PTO? in ~life

    mimic
    Link Parent
    I lean toward it being pedantic because I feel like no reasonable person would have this take when they see "Unlimited PTO" being advertised by a company. This thread feels rather polarized, like...

    "hey boss, next month I'm going to go down to South America. I'll be taking the year off. Should be back around this time next year."

    I lean toward it being pedantic because I feel like no reasonable person would have this take when they see "Unlimited PTO" being advertised by a company. This thread feels rather polarized, like people are just missing the entire middle ground. Pretty much everything in a work contract is "subject to the company's approval." I don't see the need to append that to every single statement made in a company handbook.

    I agree that some companies do use it as a way of attracting talent into a suppresive and abusive work environment and that's obviously a bad thing and those employers should be named and shamed as much as people can while keeping themselves safe. I'm not trying to say that never happens, however there is a massive middle ground where the policy is done in a reasonable way and not used as a lure to entrap people. Calling it a scam tilts the scale so far to one side that it doesn't leave room for any nuance.

    8 votes