tauon's recent activity
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Comment on Face to face with the scale of the cosmos in ~space
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Comment on Face to face with the scale of the cosmos in ~space
tauon LinkThis is definitely something I can resonate with a lot. I’ve recently spent some time in “rural coastal” Greece, so not in a big city and not a too touristy area either, and going there (from my...This is definitely something I can resonate with a lot. I’ve recently spent some time in “rural coastal” Greece, so not in a big city and not a too touristy area either, and going there (from my usual just-outside-major-metropolitan town) already blew me away. Keep in mind, you could still very obviously and brightly see the light contrast of the next bigger city against a much darker backdrop, but it was a) still ≈25km away from where we were staying and b) smaller by a factor of maybe 15 (by inhabitants) than my home area’s city.
And back home again, like the article says, you’d never even now what you’re missing out on, it’s just “normal” to be that bright there.
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Comment on Is Tildes protected from malicious actors, aka paid trolls, aka bots? in ~tildes
tauon (edited )Link ParentNo wonder---the “equivalent” to an em dash in hyphens (what you might call “short” or “single” dashes) is three of them, not two. :P (Two stand for the en dash.) Somewhat frustratingly, the rules...I have thought of doing a -- instead, but it just doesn't feel the same!
No wonder---the “equivalent” to an em dash in hyphens (what you might call “short” or “single” dashes) is three of them, not two. :P
(Two stand for the en dash.)
Somewhat frustratingly, the rules around using them (e.g. whether to place a space before and after, or which of the two “lengths” to use when) differ in my native German, which is why you’ll probably almost never see me use either truly correctly. Maybe singular hyphens, though.
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Comment on iOS 26 is here in ~tech
tauon Link ParentIf you’ve been using it for some time, I’m curious to hear whether the new design has had any battery implications for you?If you’ve been using it for some time, I’m curious to hear whether the new design has had any battery implications for you?
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Comment on What follows GitHub? in ~tech
tauon Link ParentClicking “thumbs up” is probably more convenient than “Hi, thank you for the info, got it. Best regards” – but I agree that anything other than the ok/not ok thumbs can become a bit silly quickly.Clicking “thumbs up” is probably more convenient than “Hi, thank you for the info, got it. Best regards” – but I agree that anything other than the ok/not ok thumbs can become a bit silly quickly.
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Comment on Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah college event in ~society
tauon Link ParentI’m not saying I believe the OP tinfoil hat “direction” – Occam’s razor and all that – buuuuut that said, I also don’t think cooperation all the way from, say, the head of the FBI to campus police...I’m not saying I believe the OP tinfoil hat “direction” – Occam’s razor and all that – buuuuut that said, I also don’t think cooperation all the way from, say, the head of the FBI to campus police would have been strictly necessary for this scenario. If they really did send some kind of super duper well-trained mercenary type person to a rather poorly safeguarded event, who’s to say they couldn’t have gotten away “naturally” after a single, well-aimed longer distance shot? Maybe even with one or two helpers from the same entity made to look like college-aged students?
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Comment on Modos debuts an open-source e-paper with a 75-Hz refresh rate in ~tech
tauon LinkAwesome! I've been following them for quite some time now, and have noticed the increase in newsletter postings recently. I'm glad it seems to be working out for the project and them, and hope it...Awesome! I've been following them for quite some time now, and have noticed the increase in newsletter postings recently. I'm glad it seems to be working out for the project and them, and hope it will continue to do so. Open-source hardware rocks!
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
tauon (edited )Link(I already had done what I’m writing about here before last week’s recurring post went up, but didn’t have the energy at the time to write about it.) One of my favorite command line tools that...(I already had done what I’m writing about here before last week’s recurring post went up, but didn’t have the energy at the time to write about it.)
One of my favorite command line tools that sees near-daily use is also pretty much the only one I’ve written myself:
trl. You can translate stuff with it. It can be piped into (for example from within editors!!) and otherwise follows shell mannerisms you’d expect to see. About two years ago, I wrote it so I wouldn’t have to go and open up a browser plus website or desktop app/widget every time I wanted to briefly get a translation for a single word. (And because, by chance, I had found out about the DeepL API’s generous 500k characters per month free tier limit.) Back then, on a measly 2015 Intel laptop chip, that context-switching meant real (felt) downtime, lol.Up until last week, the script was also not much more than a dead simple wrapper around that API. I’ve now rewritten it so I’ll be able to fairly easily add more translating services to it, in expectance of a future public Kagi Translate API. As a proof-of-concept (and sanity check) for the feature, I’ve added basic support for locally self-hosted LibreTranslate to it, which did work nicely.
But what I’m really looking forward to is just piping a paragraph or even entire pages/the whole document into it (from within my beloved Helix editor of course) for a future “proofread API” – that is, language in equaling language out, possibly with annotations too. Earlier this year, I wrote my first longer paper/thesis in my second language (English) and already used
trlthere to self-check on vocabulary questions by going EN (my phrasing) → first language → EN (machine translation), which albeit being nice because I could do it with the surrounding context in sight, felt a bit clunky still.I furthermore had this idea I’m not sure about yet: I could also use a classic LLM CLI tool/API wrapper like
aichatwith a corresponding system prompt/“role” to simulate yet another translating service, which could trivially be expanded to include the proofreading mode. So far I haven’t done that mostly because it feels like a cop-out and a bit removed from the original intention of having a small, translation-focused tool with few to none dependencies, and because I just set it up in the rewrite to always expect a (remote or local) base URL. I thinkaichatdoes come with the ability to spin up its own web server locally, but it’d be neater if I could avoid needing one there. :PAnother use case this rewrite has enabled (theoretically) is easy comparison of different translation providers. In practice, you’d have to write a short automation wrapping around the script to make it not suck for more complex comparisons. Maybe with another LLM to grade the different providers’ results?
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Comment on What follows GitHub? in ~tech
tauon Link ParentThis is a point I think about from time to time, but one more step removed: What about git/the VCS itself? Git was obviously a major step up from what was there before with CVS/SVN, but it can...Who's to say whether there will be a better tool or interface?
This is a point I think about from time to time, but one more step removed: What about git/the VCS itself?
Git was obviously a major step up from what was there before with CVS/SVN, but it can sometimes feel like it was primarily written for use with code in the Linux kernel, that is to say, a project with a very different style of shipping software than a modern team may require.
With jj, which I haven’t personally used yet but everyone who has gotten into it seems to love, we see what that alternative might look like—although even this still is backward-compatible to “standard” git. But probably not by choice, rather to facilitate growth and ease adoption.And as for GitHub competitors cropping up, it’s definitely already happening. Here’s another example based on improving code review in addition to the more FOSS-based full GitHub alternatives already mentioned in the thread. They currently layer on top of GitHub IIRC, but their eventual endgame would probably be building a full (compatible-swappable?) platform underneath.
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Comment on Where's the Shovelware? in ~comp
tauon Link ParentWhile that’s very true in a basic sense, I’d wager the hype-like promise of “10x productivity must mean 10x revenue soon!!” would sell better, since it doesn’t imply stagnant revenues, so that is...While that’s very true in a basic sense, I’d wager the hype-like promise of “10x productivity must mean 10x revenue soon!!” would sell better, since it doesn’t imply stagnant revenues, so that is probably what firms prefer for outward communication.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
tauon Link ParentWhile there was a dire need for “emoji standardization” back around ≈10 or so years ago, today, I’m not sure if throwing them all into the Unicode body forever was a good idea. Maybe as a sort of...While there was a dire need for “emoji standardization” back around ≈10 or so years ago, today, I’m not sure if throwing them all into the Unicode body forever was a good idea. Maybe as a sort of mutable “appendix”, perhaps? I could see that. In principle though, Unicode should standardize the base “scripts” of the world, and I’m not sure if emojis should count for that.*
But now, we’re stuck with a bajillion different ones, and their number will only ever go up, never down. What happens if we decide the star trek greeting isn’t culturally relevant anymore in a couple hundred years? What about the skin tone variants? The one with dollar signs in its eyes if the dollar were to disappear? And so on – guess what, computers and applications and programmers everywhere will have to take the hit and support those fun quirks, except for the unlikely event of abandoning Unicode support/standard conformance altogether.
*And that’s me arguing from the standpoint of someone who isn’t even necessarily against the emoji “premise” which, if you look at it realistically, is a regression for human communication (back to pictograms over consonants and vowels)…
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
tauon Link ParentHey, that’s cool! It’s almost like a more universal version of Apple Shortcuts, which (among other things) also let you do fun web and/or ssh things.Hey, that’s cool! It’s almost like a more universal version of Apple Shortcuts, which (among other things) also let you do fun web and/or ssh things.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
tauon (edited )Link ParentNot a fish user, but avid zsh customizer… what’s “web config” about? Edit: I’ve taken a look at egui, and while it does look very neat, usually means accessibility has been killed by favoring...Not a fish user, but avid zsh customizer… what’s “web config” about?
Edit: I’ve taken a look at egui, and while it does look very neat,
Everything you see is rendered as textured triangles. There is no DOM, HTML, JS, or CSS.
usually means accessibility has been killed by favoring portability, so keep that in mind depending on the use case/intended user base for your projects.
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Comment on Google will require developer verification for Android apps outside the Play Store in ~tech
tauon Link ParentCase in point; even after the DMA, Apple is still allowed and in fact seemingly encouraged to continue this behavior. The EU did not force them to allow arbitrary/unsigned binaries in any way...Case in point; even after the DMA, Apple is still allowed and in fact seemingly encouraged to continue this behavior. The EU did not force them to allow arbitrary/unsigned binaries in any way whatsoever.
I love the EU as much as the next European, but when it comes to digital matters especially around chat control like you’ve mentioned, they tend to screw it up a bit too often.
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Comment on Ed Zitron: How to argue with an AI booster in ~tech
tauon (edited )Link ParentNot if everyone reminded themselves to be open towards new thoughts. :-) I’m not even saying that in jest, I genuinely believe if we all just gave it 5 minutes on every (important)...[Arguments] are terrible - arguably counterproductive - at convincing people of things. The modal outcome of an argument is that both parties become further entrenched in their beliefs.
Not if everyone reminded themselves to be open towards new thoughts. :-)
I’m not even saying that in jest, I genuinely believe if we all just gave it 5 minutes on every (important) disagreement/discussion, the world’d be a better place for it. (The linked article is an excellent read, BTW.)
The problem is that it’s extremely difficult. It’s so hard to accept new viewpoints and argumentative positions as “potentially not wrong” in your head, even when you have in the back of your mind “be open-minded be open-minded be open-minded” running in a loop (which, let’s face it, unfortunately isn’t even the case for a lot of people). Especially so for topics you’re passionate about.
And thus people default to disagreement. -
Comment on How Tea’s founder convinced millions of women to spill their secrets, then exposed them to the world in ~tech
tauon Link ParentWhile individual Google products or even entire product groups can be ran at a loss essentially forever due to the company’s tremendous wealth, the core value gained has historically been, and as...While individual Google products or even entire product groups can be ran at a loss essentially forever due to the company’s tremendous wealth, the core value gained has historically been, and as far as I understand, still is coming from advertising as a business model.
Which is something I and many other people strongly dislike as a concept (for various reasons). So the specifics regarding a single offering or the “scope” needn’t really matter, to me at least, TBH: The whole tree is poisonous.
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Comment on xAI has open sourced Grok 2.5 in ~tech
tauon Link ParentTo me, talking about open-source (rather than, say, open-weights for example) also feels disingenuous because while it’s there now, it’s not exactly reproducible. But since sooo much more goes...To me, talking about open-source (rather than, say, open-weights for example) also feels disingenuous because while it’s there now, it’s not exactly reproducible.
But since sooo much more goes into that, it’d be much harder for anyone to publish. Probably impossible if they want to avoid getting sued into oblivion for publishing exactly which data went into the model’s training, too.
This doesn’t mean I think open-source means “free” or reproducible either, just saying… it’d be nice to have a not-big-player entity be able to come up with a good model on their own, and not just rely on competitors leaking/publishing training strategies sometimes here and there.
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Comment on AI is creeping into the Linux kernel - and official policy is needed ASAP in ~comp
tauon (edited )Link ParentBoth of these things are possible with LLMs too (download any open-weights model from huggingface to see for yourself); and while I’m rather skeptical of the “AGI by 2027” types to say the very...Both of these things are possible with LLMs too (download any open-weights model from huggingface to see for yourself); and while I’m rather skeptical of the “AGI by 2027” types to say the very least, it’s pretty undeniable the same compute (output quality) has gotten cheaper (more efficient/less power needed) over the recent years.
I don’t think it’s completely unreasonable to assume we’ll have an almost-state of the art model in a phone-sized, local version in the future – especially if you also start factoring in consumer hardware (chip and spec) improvements.
In fact, the Office comparison seems pretty apt now that I’m thinking about it: There’s the “polished business” version, and the “free/libre” version of an otherwise fairly identical product. And if the bubble does not burst entirely, for some reason, it seems like closed-source is winning again in terms of popularity, at least currently.
Edit: Yes, running locally on most consumer-grade hardware will be slower and/or worse quality-wise at the moment. The point is that it’s not impossible in principle, and I have no reason not to have faith in the OSS/open-weights community to improve things for “local model usage” enthusiasts, as has been the case for every piece of open computing/software ever up until the present.
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Comment on What heritability actually means in ~science
tauon Link ParentThe kids today would call dropping that in a conversation/speech “aura”, I believe. (/noise)"Some people will disagree with this, but I'm right."
The kids today would call dropping that in a conversation/speech “aura”, I believe.
(/noise)
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Comment on McDonald’s is cutting prices of its combo meals to convince customers it’s affordable again in ~food
tauon Link ParentThis feels all a bit too hand-wavey. Where do these businesses “get in” from? Who pays for a vertical farming-style operation and (possibly newly constructed) buildings in a poor, rural area...This feels all a bit too hand-wavey. Where do these businesses “get in” from? Who pays for a vertical farming-style operation and (possibly newly constructed) buildings in a poor, rural area until, if ever, it becomes profitable? Is it guaranteed that their prices can ever match or outdo the massively-scaled existing industries?
Unfortunately, nearly everything in this topic revolves around cost (which in turn is due to American workers’ poor position), not food quality or (one may dream) even environmental impact.Agreed on your tangent, though :-)
Very cool link, thanks!
Seems to have been about a 4.3… I’d have guessed it to be a bit lower, maybe somewhere from 3 to 4.
That’s probably due to my already-screwed up perception: My home location is at a 5.9, and around the center of the adjacent large city it’s even up to 7.8!
Compared to at home, there was a much more visible milky way visible in the skies, but still nothing compared to those awe-striking images from a region with a 1 or 2 value.