shrike's recent activity

  1. Comment on What are your thoughts on audiobooks? in ~books

    shrike
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    I listen to non-fiction only if read by the actual writer. Anything by Stephen Fry or Miriam Margolies for example. When the author reads their own material, they know how it has to be read. As...

    I listen to non-fiction only if read by the actual writer. Anything by Stephen Fry or Miriam Margolies for example. When the author reads their own material, they know how it has to be read.

    As for audiobooks, it needs the correct combination of book and reader/performer:

    Some books are just written in a way where reading it sound super janky even if the reader is top tier (He Who Fights Monsters).

    Some books are elevated by the audio production (Project Hail Mary, DCC) so that I actually prefer the audio version.

    And some work because the creators cared, like the new set of Discworlds books from Audible. Footnotes has its own voice (Charles Dance) and Death has the same voice in all books (Peter Serafinosomething). Also each sub-series has its own dedicated reader, Indira Varma for the Witch books etc.

    2 votes
  2. Comment on What are your thoughts on audiobooks? in ~books

    shrike
    Link Parent
    The first mistake of listening to audiobooks is doing it like you'd listen to a record. Don't sit in your comfiest chair in a quiet room and start Listening To An Audiobook. Audiobooks are for...

    The first mistake of listening to audiobooks is doing it like you'd listen to a record. Don't sit in your comfiest chair in a quiet room and start Listening To An Audiobook.

    Audiobooks are for distracting your conscious brain while the rest does something mindless like chores, stupid mental health walk, driving, etc.

    2 votes
  3. Comment on Is it time to include pronouns? in ~tildes

    shrike
    Link Parent
    Yea, Avatars give me a quick visual reference of who I'm conversing with. I very rarely bother to read or remember usernames.

    Yea, Avatars give me a quick visual reference of who I'm conversing with. I very rarely bother to read or remember usernames.

    2 votes
  4. Comment on Is it time to include pronouns? in ~tildes

    shrike
    Link Parent
    I specifically and consistently say "partner" about my partner and my kids are always "they". A random internet person doesn't really need to know the gender of my partner, my possible...

    I specifically and consistently say "partner" about my partner and my kids are always "they".

    A random internet person doesn't really need to know the gender of my partner, my possible relationship status or the gender(s) of my kids. It's not relevant at all.

    11 votes
  5. Comment on Is it time to include pronouns? in ~tildes

    shrike
    Link Parent
    Finnish. We actually regularly call other people "it", because saying "hän" (gender neutral he/she) sounds too intimate or official =)

    Finnish.

    We actually regularly call other people "it", because saying "hän" (gender neutral he/she) sounds too intimate or official =)

    12 votes
  6. Comment on Choosing a printer in ~tech

    shrike
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    The Verge releases this same article every year with the same suggestion: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework And unless you...

    The Verge releases this same article every year with the same suggestion: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/2/24117976/best-printer-2024-home-use-office-use-labels-school-homework

    After a full year of not thinking about printers, the best printer is still whatever random Brother laser printer that’s on sale.

    And unless you know you want something very specific, it’s true every year.

    4 votes
  7. Comment on What is your Mandela effect moment? in ~movies

    shrike
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    Jaws’ girlfriend in the end of the one Bond movie had braces, matching is metal teeth. Turns out she didn’t have braces.

    Jaws’ girlfriend in the end of the one Bond movie had braces, matching is metal teeth.

    Turns out she didn’t have braces.

    4 votes
  8. Comment on Is it time to include pronouns? in ~tildes

    shrike
    (edited )
    Link
    As a native speaker of a language with no gendered pronouns for humans or objects: meh. I just use “they” when the gender might be relevant in some way and I can’t figure out another way of...

    As a native speaker of a language with no gendered pronouns for humans or objects: meh.

    I just use “they” when the gender might be relevant in some way and I can’t figure out another way of referring to someone.

    Keeping track of people’s pronouns when communicating doesn’t come naturally to me at all. It’s like trying to understand a tonal language, my brain just isn’t wired for it and it all sounds the same 😀

    37 votes
  9. Comment on Why does Opera GX rarely come up in browser discussions? in ~tech

    shrike
    Link Parent
    OG Opera had its own rendering engine (or a big fork of an existing one?) and its thing was that it was SUPER FAST at rendering pages on slower connections. Basically it could render the page...

    OG Opera had its own rendering engine (or a big fork of an existing one?) and its thing was that it was SUPER FAST at rendering pages on slower connections.

    Basically it could render the page while it was still loading or something.

    4 votes
  10. Comment on Avengers: Doomsday | Official trailer in ~movies

    shrike
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    I'm writing this down here before the movie comes out, just in case I'm right: Doom stole Franklin Richards in the end of the FF4 movie. Onslaught is a psionic entity (only voice actor needed)...

    I'm writing this down here before the movie comes out, just in case I'm right:

    • Doom stole Franklin Richards in the end of the FF4 movie.
    • Onslaught is a psionic entity (only voice actor needed) created from Xavier and Magneto's powers
    • In the comics Franklin Richards was instrumental in defeating Onslaught
    • Franklin created a pocket universe where Marvel could dump their heroes -> easy way to "reset" the MCU

    Ergo: The true bad guy of the Doomsday movie is Onslaught, which actually might work.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on Felicia Day will crowdfund a movie spinoff of The Guild this summer in ~movies

    shrike
    Link Parent
    Perfect storm of people who were young-ish when the original came out and now are well off + want some nostalgia =)

    Perfect storm of people who were young-ish when the original came out and now are well off + want some nostalgia =)

    2 votes
  12. Comment on Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party? in ~tech

    shrike
    Link Parent
    We've noticed the exact same cost thing in my company too. Specifically the "we pay 10k/month and use like three features" bit. Creating a bespoke tool for those exact three features ourselves...

    We've noticed the exact same cost thing in my company too. Specifically the "we pay 10k/month and use like three features" bit.

    Creating a bespoke tool for those exact three features ourselves costs less than the monthly fee AND we own the code so we can integrate it deeper into our processes and tools.

    10 votes
  13. Comment on Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party? in ~tech

    shrike
    Link Parent
    I've given presentations about this at work, just to inform people how stupid it is to make a 3rd party rented agent the engine of any product, tool or application. Some people get it, some don't....

    I've given presentations about this at work, just to inform people how stupid it is to make a 3rd party rented agent the engine of any product, tool or application.

    Some people get it, some don't. But that's what API budgets are for, just tighten the cost screw until some AI-centric process starts failing and fix them one by one. (Or rather have the creator fix it)

    3 votes
  14. Comment on Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party? in ~tech

    shrike
    Link Parent
    We have a dedicated AI team specifically to curb this. The main thing the AI team does is provide a baseline of agent skills, subagents, etc that keep the AI itself on a sane path, forcing it to...

    We have a dedicated AI team specifically to curb this.

    The main thing the AI team does is provide a baseline of agent skills, subagents, etc that keep the AI itself on a sane path, forcing it to run deterministic code quality checks on everything as much as possible.

    Not a perfect solution, but it did cut down on the complete bullshit slopfests quite a bit. Cleanup isn't easy but it's easier now that the vibed stuff is at least of average quality from the start.

    5 votes
  15. Comment on Agentic test processes, LLM benchmarks, and other notes on agentic coding in ~comp

    shrike
    Link Parent
    My current stack is Claude (Opus + Fable for a few more hours) for the hard stuff. pi.dev + Codex for clear tasks and Opencode + GLM-5.2 via z.ai, which seems to be somewhere between Sonnet 4.6...

    My current stack is Claude (Opus + Fable for a few more hours) for the hard stuff. pi.dev + Codex for clear tasks and Opencode + GLM-5.2 via z.ai, which seems to be somewhere between Sonnet 4.6 and Opus in "intelligence"

  16. Comment on Any fellow software engineers using paid GitHub copilot? in ~comp

    shrike
    Link Parent
    Team plan also caps out at 150 seats.

    Team plan also caps out at 150 seats.

    1 vote
  17. Comment on What's a game you're dying to play that doesn't exist? in ~games

    shrike
    Link Parent
    Freelancer let me host my own server, something that very few games allow today.

    Freelancer let me host my own server, something that very few games allow today.

    5 votes
  18. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    shrike
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    Kagi and Youtube Premium Family are in the list of "subscriptions I'll stop last if money is tight", both are so essential to my personal quality of life that I'd rather unsub from many many other...

    Kagi and Youtube Premium Family are in the list of "subscriptions I'll stop last if money is tight", both are so essential to my personal quality of life that I'd rather unsub from many many other things before those.

  19. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech

    shrike
    Link Parent
    I use like 12 browsers over 4 different devices regularly. I used to "just" set up stuff like that too, but bangs are just ... there. All I need to do is set Kagi (or DDG, which supports about the...

    I use like 12 browsers over 4 different devices regularly.

    I used to "just" set up stuff like that too, but bangs are just ... there. All I need to do is set Kagi (or DDG, which supports about the same bangs) as default and they'll Just Work.

  20. Comment on Ars Asks: Share your shell and show us your tricked-out terminals in ~comp

    shrike
    Link Parent
    Fish + Starship is pretty a pretty doable baseline as-is.

    Fish + Starship is pretty a pretty doable baseline as-is.

    4 votes