porten's recent activity

  1. Comment on I just switched to an iPhone, what should I do to make the most of this change? in ~tech

    porten
    Link
    In the small-but-neat category: The Shortcut app really breathes life into an otherwise underwhelming Alarm (Clock) app. The Clock app itself has almost no options for Alarm customization, but...

    In the small-but-neat category: The Shortcut app really breathes life into an otherwise underwhelming Alarm (Clock) app. The Clock app itself has almost no options for Alarm customization, but Shortcuts that trigger via Automations for Alarm/Snooze/Stop lets you do pretty much whatever.

    Shortcuts are one of my favorite tools to customize iPhone behavior. Stock settings are often very limited.

    21 votes

  2. Comment on I have an issue with the 3 Body Problem in ~tv

    porten
    Link Parent
    It’s in the show yes. Funnily I didn’t remember it from the books at all so I can’t comment on how well it matches the book events :)

    It’s in the show yes. Funnily I didn’t remember it from the books at all so I can’t comment on how well it matches the book events :)

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Nvidia CEO says kids shouldn't learn to code in ~comp

    porten
    Link Parent
    It was niche stuff I suppose, so not really surprising all I got was hallucinations. A concrete example is when I looking for ways to calculate azimuth between 2 points on a geodesic sphere using...

    It was niche stuff I suppose, so not really surprising all I got was hallucinations. A concrete example is when I looking for ways to calculate azimuth between 2 points on a geodesic sphere using a specific library. ChatGPT gave me this helpful snippet (nestled among boilerplate):

    // Calculate the azimuth from point1 to point2
double azimuth = spatialContext.getAzimuthCalculator().azimuth(point1, point2);

    Trouble is, the "getAzimuthCalculator()" function and the class it supposedly returns doesn't exist and never has :-/. A similar case where I don't have the original snippet any longer was for converting between UTF-8 and the ancient HP Roman 8 charset. Helpfully I was told to just call the "toCharSet("HP Roman 8") function or something along those lines.

    Both examples are just using public ChatGPT (3.5 I guess), so maybe more specialized LLMs would have given better results.

    Edit: All old-as-rocks Java btw.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Nvidia CEO says kids shouldn't learn to code in ~comp

    porten
    Link Parent
    Hit and miss in my experience. I’ve had them hallucinate the perfect-sounding API operation for a problem I was working on more than once. Sounds and looks right, but had no basis in reality.

    Hit and miss in my experience. I’ve had them hallucinate the perfect-sounding API operation for a problem I was working on more than once. Sounds and looks right, but had no basis in reality.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on What does it say about the mindset of a forum or subreddit if mere opinion about a programming language starts inviting massive horde of downvotes? in ~tech

    porten
    Link
    I kind of doubt Big Java is out astroturfing if that’s what you mean. People have always gotten unreasonably defensive over whatever language they happen to code in the most. Maybe you just worded...

    I kind of doubt Big Java is out astroturfing if that’s what you mean. People have always gotten unreasonably defensive over whatever language they happen to code in the most. Maybe you just worded something in a way that sounded more antagonistic than you intended, and people took offense?

    8 votes

  6. Comment on Books with WTF premises in ~books

    porten
    Link
    I suppose “Dead Astronauts” by Jeff VanderMeer qualifies. Although I’d be hard pressed to say what it is actually about. It’s kinda like a series of acid trips disguised as a sort-of-prequel to a...

    I suppose “Dead Astronauts” by Jeff VanderMeer qualifies. Although I’d be hard pressed to say what it is actually about. It’s kinda like a series of acid trips disguised as a sort-of-prequel to a book about a giant flying bear and a murderous plant.

    1 vote