overbyte's recent activity
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Comment on Starsector 0.98a released in ~games
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Comment on Starsector 0.98a released in ~games
overbyte Link ParentThere's jump points but FTL is not portrayed like Escape Velocity or Stellaris where systems are linked to another with hyperspace lanes. Starsector is more like an open world game where you're...There's jump points but FTL is not portrayed like Escape Velocity or Stellaris where systems are linked to another with hyperspace lanes. Starsector is more like an open world game where you're dropped into the eponymous sector and you're free to move your fleet between systems from the get go.
Navigating through hyperspace and the moment to moment traversal forms a huge part of Starsector's gameplay whenever you're not in combat.
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Comment on Ask Tildes: Job security - does it exist, how to deal with lack of, how to process being fired / unemployment in ~life
overbyte LinkDefensively. After learning the concept of FIRE (financial independence/retire early) a decade ago, I've stopped assuming any guarantees to anything and I've taken it upon myself to proactively...Defensively. After learning the concept of FIRE (financial independence/retire early) a decade ago, I've stopped assuming any guarantees to anything and I've taken it upon myself to proactively mitigate risk to my own finances like building up an emergency fund while I can instead of waiting for social safety nets to catch me. Personally I'd rather be self-sufficient and leave that system to people who desperately need it. Similar to fitness in that a hospital is the very last place I want to be at any point in time.
I've been on multiple sides of IT offshoring as the one who ended up with the job, being a part of an industrial scale transition to take the jobs from somebody else, and the one that lost jobs to the same process. So there's an element of spending some time for personal development to stay ahead. I learn tech on my own time and I wouldn't have my current job right now if I didn't know the things I learned on my off time. A few hours a month in the homelab translated into a very liveable income that gives me a lot of options with regards to personal finance. Money makes money, so it speeds up the whole process even more.
If I slack off in my career right now or stay for the "cozy" jobs I know it will eventually be offshored, so I have to be always ahead doing something or have a skill that a team of overseas labor can't do yet. Soft skills and on the spot decision making I've found are big ones in my experience. My personal bet is by the time both sides of labor has equalized, I'm hopefully already retired and off the rat race. I don't find it stressful or anything, just a fact of life that companies now have a global pool of labor to choose from in my industry. On the aspect of things I can control, I could either complain against it (never moving my own personal state forward), or I can do something about it.
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Comment on As Internet enshittification marches on, here are some of the worst offenders in ~tech
overbyte Link ParentThe modern trend of governments having dedicated digital teams and consolidating government websites into a cohesive, consistent whole. Essentially kickstarted by the UK GDS with the Gov.uk...The modern trend of governments having dedicated digital teams and consolidating government websites into a cohesive, consistent whole. Essentially kickstarted by the UK GDS with the Gov.uk website. Fantastic examples in how to lay out a lot of information into an accessible form. Their design system is open on Github and used as a basis by other governments.
If you've seen US websites that have that "An official website of the United States government" banner, that site was built on the USWDS. Singapore has something similar with the SGDS.
And for all the complaints around them, the Australian taxation and banking systems are still steadily improving as a whole. The New Payments Platform is a set of tech built by SWIFT with the Reserve Bank that enables a nationwide real-time 24/7 payments clearinghouse and widely supported by local banks. So concepts like T+2 settlement or NET 30 or "we can't pay you on a weekend" are entirely a bottleneck of company processes now, not due to the underlying platform.
Want instant payments on a weekend, with emojis in the description? Sure why not, just use your regular bank app. No Venmo, no Apple Cash. That's on top of the already existing tech like contactless payments, merchant identification, customizable notifications like when you get paid, a system that lets account owners securely give time-limited read-only access to data to say budget apps (and revoke them at any time), REST APIs and being able to sign up for a new bank account or credit card completely online in a few minutes (and cancel the previous one) without ever talking to a human.
On the tax side, Single Touch Payroll streamlines backend systems by linking company payroll directly to government taxation systems and retirement funds, and invoked during payroll runs. Reporting and payment happens in the same run when people get paid, no more waiting for end of fiscal year and such for the company to crunch the numbers so you can file your own returns. Come tax time, the tax return form (also completely online, not a PDF form) is already heavily prefilled and for simple setups you just have to confirm the numbers shown before filing it. You can actually see your income and withheld tax being reported incrementally throughout the year if you check it every month or so.
And speaking of Australian tax, the government portal to access federal services like taxation and universal healthcare (myGov) supports passkeys and lets you completely disable password logins.
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Comment on What things do you have are surprisingly good / handy? in ~life
overbyte Link ParentNone that I have experienced yet given they're both acids, and the main risk with acid in the washing machine is degrading the rubber. I don't think I've ever used it to soften laundry, so it's...None that I have experienced yet given they're both acids, and the main risk with acid in the washing machine is degrading the rubber. I don't think I've ever used it to soften laundry, so it's purely more for descaling.
Most cleaners and descalers I can buy contain citric acid and come in small 250ml bottles. So I personally don't go above 200g or so and run the descale monthly with a cycle that pumps and holds a lot of water in to ensure it's completely diluted (like the bedding cycle). Haven't seen degradation in the rubber seals so far, but they're cleaned and dried completely as well.
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Comment on China's new stealth aircraft - "J-36" and the challenge to US air power (with Justin Bronk) in ~misc
overbyte Link ParentHis playthrough of X4: Foundations is what convinced me to revisit that game in a new light. It's a complex sandbox game with a lot of underlying mechanics presented with an unintuitive and janky...His playthrough of X4: Foundations is what convinced me to revisit that game in a new light. It's a complex sandbox game with a lot of underlying mechanics presented with an unintuitive and janky UI.
He is very clear in easing a complete newcomer into the series with explaining the game's many obtuse or unintuitive mechanics while keeping use of game's terminology to a minimum. Like a breakdown of the game's simulated economy, why a faction behaves in a particular way, or why a particular ship or weapon loadout is chosen. Other videos would rattle off in-universe terms on the first few videos of a series that would leave a newcomer likely more confused than if they'd played the game without looking anything up.
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Comment on Move over toasters: Doom is now playable inside a PDF in ~games
overbyte Link ParentI don't want or need PDFs to be phased out, just stripped down of its bloat down to basics with the original goal of being good at preserving document layout and presentation across systems. I...I don't want or need PDFs to be phased out, just stripped down of its bloat down to basics with the original goal of being good at preserving document layout and presentation across systems. I wouldn't mind a combination of PDF/A and form support becoming the standard instead of Adobe's arbitrary code execution as a feature.
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Comment on What it's like to create a simple, free website in 2025 in ~comp
overbyte Link ParentOther than HTTPS (how do you know you're looking at the actual site the owner intended it to be?), Cloudflare operates a massive global content delivery network that can push that content closer...Other than HTTPS (how do you know you're looking at the actual site the owner intended it to be?), Cloudflare operates a massive global content delivery network that can push that content closer to your users. A battle-tested front door that you can use for free and relatively easy to setup.
Fast websites are a joy to browse. Your random pile of HTML pages hosted in a server in the US is still subject of the laws of physics when a user from NZ decides to browse it for the first time. Now replace that blog with say, a static site for a small business. Now the stakes are much higher when you want that site to grow your business. Walmart has a whole slide deck on why page performance matters. Even if that small business website isn't operating on the scale of Amazon, you don't want a slow site to be a factor that stalls a business given the relative ease of setting it up.
Even if you've never contributed to something like the Runescape Wiki, readers can still perceive how fast that wiki loads even for the occasional search of information.
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Comment on Starting a community-maintained Tildes source code fork in ~tildes
overbyte LinkAs someone currently in the middle of migrating our internal company Python codebase to the Future™ with the Astral toolset (ruff, rye, and uv) on top of containerizing everything for GKE, all I...As someone currently in the middle of migrating our internal company Python codebase to the Future™ with the Astral toolset (
ruff,rye, anduv) on top of containerizing everything for GKE, all I can say is best of luck with the fork. I'm more suited to YAML engineering Kubernetes than digging in with Pyramid.I'll pop in with some PRs when free.
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Comment on Server admins, PHP/Symfony experts: I need your guidance in ~comp
overbyte (edited )LinkFirst off, check if you have a recent snapshot and database backup. That will help you safely try out things so you can go back to the current state. If the database is on the same VM hosting the...First off, check if you have a recent snapshot and database backup. That will help you safely try out things so you can go back to the current state. If the database is on the same VM hosting the web server, I'd split that off first.
For something in between a traditional VM and Kubernetes, don't bother with installing an OS then Docker on the VM, just provide a container image directly to Compute Engine and it will handle all the setup for you with it running COS instead of a regular Linux distro. Once you get that working you can move on to a managed instance group to give some autoscaling.
Personally I'd run a setup like this on GKE and the DB in CloudSQL (if you haven't moved it there already), but we host a heap of things more than a site and I'm familiar with GKE already.
As a reference, we're fully containerized and have Github Actions workflows build and push an image into Artifact Registry, our manifests are configured to pull images from GAR and the applications on the cluster use a CloudSQL Proxy sidecar to connect to their designated databases so we don't have to stick TLS certificates to pods or anything.
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Comment on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is reaching end of standard support soon: April 2025. Plan to upgrade soon! in ~tech
overbyte Link ParentWe use them in the sense that upstream/public container images use them. Most of our base images are built on Noble now. We could spend the manpower and time rolling our own base images, shave...We use them in the sense that upstream/public container images use them. Most of our base images are built on Noble now.
We could spend the manpower and time rolling our own base images, shave every MB off with a switch to Alpine and hit some
muslweirdness, or we can just pull the public Debian/Ubuntu images, slapdumb-initon them and call it a day. -
Comment on How do you generate and record your goals for the year? in ~talk
overbyte LinkMy life currently revolves around an Obsidian vault for personal notes and whatever free cross-platform to-do list application I can use (previously Trello, currently MS To-Do, don't have a Mac so...My life currently revolves around an Obsidian vault for personal notes and whatever free cross-platform to-do list application I can use (previously Trello, currently MS To-Do, don't have a Mac so Reminders is out). I do all my goal planning in Obsidian where I have a list of goals for this year and things I've carried over from last year in an ever-growing list. Once I'm ready to commit to something they get planned out in the to-do list.
On methodology, I use an adapted form of Scrum's ceremonies like sprint planning and backlog refinement applied to a personal to-do list. It's essentially a lightweight version of what I've seen and used daily across my career, so why not use it for myself.
I use the concepts of the Definition of Ready and Definition of Done when planning out bigger endeavours. Ready: can I actually do this thing now? Done: how do I know I've achieved the thing I want to achieve with this task? Just a lightweight version, nothing too hardcore and it would be utterly ironic to stick to dogmatic ceremonies with regards to agile methodologies. They're essentially checklists or bullet points when you plan out your tasks.
For high-level goals, I hash them out into the objectives and key results (OKR) format so they're somewhat measurable as a nice middle ground between random personal goals with no metrics and going all out with SMART. You have an objective with let's say 2-3 supporting key results which would be how you measure that objective. If my goal for the year is to "learn something new with the homelab", the key result would be something like "deployed a high-availability application in a multi-node Kubernetes cluster"
In line with the goals, I also set up scheduled tasks and fixed routines first that have to be done either way. As espoused by Getting Things Done (the original system I've used to track tasks before this one), this includes even the most mundane chores like cooking or cleaning the house so you never keep anything in your head. This includes fun and entertainment like watching movies or playing games. Other people have a different approach with blocking out their calendars. From there I can see my free time, then comes the work of breaking down tasks into actionable units.
Tasks are generally planned in weekly blocks up to 3-6 months out, with fewer tasks scheduled further out in time. In terms of capacity planning my weekly are planned out about 70-80%. This lets me adapt and slot in things like last-minute errands or rearrange tasks meant for this week into next week.
Then every month at most I run a review for the whole year to see if I'm still on track and readjust as necessary. One personal benefit I've seen with this setup is I like the certainty of an entire week's worth of tasks already planned out in advance, so I just have to dig in and start doing things off the list. I've used GTD previously and struggled with a massive next actions list, looking back I should've separated the backlog and the actionable list sooner with more deliberate planning periods, which this current system does.
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Comment on You should have a website in ~tech
overbyte LinkIf the point was about control, you're still subject to the terms and conditions of the host running your website, your ISP if you decide to completely self-host it from your own network, and the...If the point was about control, you're still subject to the terms and conditions of the host running your website, your ISP if you decide to completely self-host it from your own network, and the registrar that holds the DNS records for you. Each of these getting disrupted is enough to take your site offline from the perspective of your readers, not much different than getting your social media account banned.
And the suggestion is a website full of outbound links to walled gardens where the bulk of the value of your online presence is? Even back in the 2000s Google didn't like those kinds of sites one bit and you'll get tanked SEO wise, which is the complete opposite of building up your "reputation" if that site is not discoverable in search results. I don't think people with social media networks are looking specifically to exit the network and bookmark's someone's equivalent of a self-hosted Linktree.
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Comment on What are some common terminal aka CLI workflows? in ~comp
overbyte LinkIf your main text editor is vim or emacs then I'd say you're practically living in the terminal already. I'm pretty much in "mouse-optional" mode unless I have to use a GUI for the task. I find it...If your main text editor is
vimoremacsthen I'd say you're practically living in the terminal already. I'm pretty much in "mouse-optional" mode unless I have to use a GUI for the task. I find it just outright faster and more consistent copy/pasting a single line of text instead of following screenshots to click things.Before I found Todoist I managed a to-do list on a command line. Was nice and simple, but Todoist's features like parsing dates and times is just too convenient to pass up.
And if you code regardless of hobby or work, source code management is practically a CLI workflow with endless attempts to put a GUI on top of it. With GitHub, you can monitor workflow runs and review/approve pull requests completely from the CLI.
Another is mass renaming files and moving around my home directory in general. I have full PDF copies of payslips, receipts and heaps of travel photos that get downloaded with nonsensical filenames, this helps keep everything nice and tidy. Then setup recurring encrypted backups for all of these with
rsyncandborg.Working with that many small files around necessitated learning to move more efficiently around the filesystem with commands like
pushd,popdandcd -. They're a big level up in how it sped up my workflow in return for just a few minutes of effort reading how to use those commands beyond the standardcd.My more occasional CLI uses:
- transcoding batches of video by piping
youtube-dltoffmpeg - compiling that one program a hobbyist put the source code on Github that solves my exact problem at that particular time
curlandjqfor talking in API. If you have a Slack webhook for example, you can get notifications from whatever thing you want that can reach that webhook. Transcoding a big batch of video, your daily backup jobs, you name it.- using
ansibleto get a repeatable install of my Linux machines or as close I can get to. Those little tweaks you do to your computer over time from random searches to fix some specific thing? Yeah put that in a playbook as well. Back when Windows still needed them I had a folder full of registry tweaks to apply on a fresh install which provided the same thing.
- transcoding batches of video by piping
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
overbyte Link ParentArgh I was confusing mod authors. kuertee's mod is KUDA AI tweaks. Has fixes like making capital ships inch forward until they're in optimal range so they don't melee the Xenon K that just popped...Argh I was confusing mod authors. kuertee's mod is KUDA AI tweaks. Has fixes like making capital ships inch forward until they're in optimal range so they don't melee the Xenon K that just popped up at the jump gate with a raiding party, ready to delete my miners while I scramble because I forgot to set all my frigate's flak turrets to "fire at fighters first"
Agree on fronts and I haven't delved deep into stations and full supply lines yet.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
overbyte Link ParentTaking me a few tries and restarts to comprehend X4's impenetrable UI. I've played Microprose classics in my time with utterly dense and information-rich UIs, but man this is something else. But I...Taking me a few tries and restarts to comprehend X4's impenetrable UI. I've played Microprose classics in my time with utterly dense and information-rich UIs, but man this is something else. But I can definitely see there's a game in there.
I think I finally figured out how the trade overlay works as well as setting ship RoE. And don't tell me I have new messages while burying the actual mailbox at least 3 screens deep.
kuertee's whole set of AI mods is an oasis of sanity especially the Sector Explorer one as the default AI is so bad at uncovering the fog of war. Now I can have a proper scout that I don't have to micromanage.
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Comment on How has your industry changed in the past decade? in ~life
overbyte LinkBack then for company infrastructure you'd rent a colo and rack a couple of servers for your business to get a file share, email or install a business app. Your side of the business was...Back then for company infrastructure you'd rent a colo and rack a couple of servers for your business to get a file share, email or install a business app. Your side of the business was essentially scoped to a particular country. Now I can explore public API documentation, get an API key, write some code and get something provisioned in minutes that teams or entire departments in other countries can start using tomorrow or in a few hours.
Want a marketing system, let's see what Hubspot can do. Need monitoring for our SaaS app? Sentry and Elastic looks good over there. Hiring a bit of a mess? Let's try out Greenhouse.
We run the company completely online connecting a bunch of disparate services together with a level of automation that can be done between them thanks to the ubiquity of APIs and excellent open source software. We're in a position where we are not totally beholden to Windows and Office (except maybe the salespeople), so we run a lot of Mac and Linux workstations, Slack/Zoom/Google Workspace for collaboration and a lot of open source software to support the rest of the infrastructure on Google Cloud for cheap. Our production Kubernetes clusters auto-upgrade, which would give fits in a more traditional setup which I'd argue forces us and the dev teams to build resiliency and scaling properly from the start.
Our offices across multiple countries are essentially closets with a few desks and an access point on the rare occasion someone wants to come in.
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Comment on What's worse than ads and AI? Ads in your AI, so Google is testing it. in ~tech
overbyte Link ParentThis is the same Google that gave us life stories in recipe blogs and the stereotypical Youtuber video format. I'd hate to see what their version of this for AI will be. Based on what their SEO...This is the same Google that gave us life stories in recipe blogs and the stereotypical Youtuber video format. I'd hate to see what their version of this for AI will be.
Based on what their SEO favors now I can only a guess a goal where they want to maximize your engagement to Gemini as long as possible so you don't bounce. Dole out the actual results so you're forced to enter more prompts to find the specific information you're looking for. Then sprinkle links to sponsored prompts that return a fast canned answer crafted and vetted by the sponsor.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
overbyte Link ParentAs I get older I'm starting to appreciate the streamlining of ARPG mechanics in D3. I don't have to restart a run because I misclicked adding a skill, fumbled a socket, can quickly rearrange my...As I get older I'm starting to appreciate the streamlining of ARPG mechanics in D3. I don't have to restart a run because I misclicked adding a skill, fumbled a socket, can quickly rearrange my skills to try out a new legendary that dropped, and the Paragon levels help in jump starting new characters. Also barely finishing a Greater Rift in time with your skills pushed to the limit is an amazing experience.
Except for rune grinding, I still personally find D2 a bit better on the itemization front as you don't need to lean hard on very specific items to center a build around. A lot of builds in D2 are practically stacking +skill items so the power increase feels more natural and constant compared to hitting a wall then getting massive power jumps in D3 when say, your pet build finally gets a Tasker and Theo (one of the rarest legendaries in the game)
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Comment on Undersea telecom cable between Lithuania and Sweden damaged in ~tech
overbyte Link ParentWorking in an adjacent space to this (company funds and helps run a few submarine cables and their landing points), it's fulfilling to be in that side of tech where you can see the tangible impact...Working in an adjacent space to this (company funds and helps run a few submarine cables and their landing points), it's fulfilling to be in that side of tech where you can see the tangible impact your miniscule contributions are impacting when it sometimes feels like you're just staring at code and logs all day. It helps put things in perspective.
Also the pressure that if our networking guys mess up a change it could cut off internet traffic to entire countries, I think I'll prefer messing up a production database for a single app as my greatest "achievement".
A lot of Starsector's mechanics feels heavily inspired by Star Control 2.
From the starmap that shows your FTL range, how ships move and rotate in combat (entire fleets in Starsector instead of just 1v1), how you physically move between systems by going through hyperspace (red in Star Control, blue in Starsector) and how you fall into a star's gravity well to approach your destination.