text_garden's recent activity
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
text_garden Link ParentI imagine that the industry now also has much better means of achieving that than ever before. The shift to streaming means much more granular data on what does and doesn't appeal to people, and...I imagine that the industry now also has much better means of achieving that than ever before. The shift to streaming means much more granular data on what does and doesn't appeal to people, and social meda provides an insanely quick way to both register and disseminate sentiment. You can manufacture hype, you can react quickly to lackluster response and after the fact you can evaluate whether mass appeal was achieved at an unprecedentedly granular level, taking that info with you to the next production.
One of my favorite examples of how the movie industry is reactive to social media is that there was a Sonic the Hedgehog movie where at some point late in production his eyes had been made relatively tiny compared to those of the original video game character. Fans of the franchise, not exactly known for their lack of attention to details regarding the character, were angered and made that known within minutes of the release of the first trailer or so. The studio eventually responded by redoing the character which IIRC pushed the release back much further.
Of course, this was more appealing to the fans. But I still want to see the beady-eyes cut of the Sonic movie. And Super Mario Bros (1993) is a much more fun movie than the new one.
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Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentSibilance is something you should hear whenever an s is pronounced for that sound to be legible at all. The problem is rather that it places a lot of energy around 6-9 kHz and comes across as...Sibilance is not something you should be hearing in a professionally mixed song...
Sibilance is something you should hear whenever an s is pronounced for that sound to be legible at all. The problem is rather that it places a lot of energy around 6-9 kHz and comes across as louder than lower frequency sounds when you sing directly into a microphone. But it's not something you shouldn't be hearing, at least if you want sibilant consonants to be audible, just something that should be relatively lower in the mix than it is on the original microphone recording, if you want a pleasant sound.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
text_garden LinkI've spent a shameful amount of time playing Fuel. It's an open world racing game from 2009, known for it's very large map. Apparently it's 14,400km² in size, though largely empty except for an...I've spent a shameful amount of time playing Fuel. It's an open world racing game from 2009, known for it's very large map. Apparently it's 14,400km² in size, though largely empty except for an absolutely absurd road network tens of thousands of kilometers of winding roads going nowhere. You can ignore most of the map and open world if you like, and directly accept races and challenges from a menu system. Winning races unlocks new camps around the world, which function as hubs for more races.
The novelty of just driving around the map was enough to keep me interested until the racing mechanics started to grow on me. It's not realistic in any way, but you need a certain finesse when it comes to exploiting shortcuts and executing sharp turns, which is necessary to win some races at the highest difficulty.
At its best, its races make really good use of its map: a lot of freedom in picking a route and long distances covered. At worst it's extremely frustrating, though I don't think I've played a racing game that isn't at times. Usually this is in circuit races.
One point of criticism with a world this large is of course that the surroundings can get quite repetitive. There are a lot of different, clearly distinct areas of the map, but they're all so, so large. At the same time, the maps are littered with instances of models of a few handfuls of buildings, abandoned cars, broken wind turbines and so on which I don't think offer enough variety to fully support the illusion of a large world.
Another is that it's very unpolished in some senses. One thing that comes to mind is hitboxes around things which will stop your car dead if you hit them. They're often bigger than they look. Good news is that with not that many objects and after a few hours you get a good sense of how big the hitboxes are.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden LinkI extracted the audio of all episodes of Star Trek: TNG. I'd realized two things: TNG is very audio-only friendly and I know it well enough that I can usually fill in the blanks where it isn't....I extracted the audio of all episodes of Star Trek: TNG. I'd realized two things: TNG is very audio-only friendly and I know it well enough that I can usually fill in the blanks where it isn't.
From my source video files, this turned out to be ~11 GB of ~150-200 kbit/s AAC. Sadly, this would not fit on my phone along with the music I have there. I ended up reading about Opus which seemed ideal for this use case. I did an initial test at 48 kbit/s VBR and was impressed with the performance. I re-encoded all of it overnight, getting 2.7G of Opus files. All the dialog is clear and legible, there are no overt artifacts in the background sounds and sound effects. The only place I really noticed a slight degradation was in the theme song, though I imagine the problem is similar for other full arrangements of music.
I also experimented a bit with WebAssembly and browser Worklets. It was very easy to build a WebAssembly module using Zig. It can then be built in the main Javascript thread in the browser, but the worklet has to instantiate it. In my case, I created an AudioWorklet that calls into the WebAssembly module to fill the buffer. I started with a basic sine wave tone generator but then combined a few libraries I've made to play back a piano MIDI file using a simple synth. I'd like to experiment with passing messages between the main thread and the worklet thread next, to possibly control the synthesis parameters.
Finally I added support for multiple projects in Pocket Acid, my software groovebox. Previously, everything about it was contained in one file which was limited to 256 pattern arrangement steps. I though this would be enough for a while but a friend who has been using it a lot let me know that he was running out. Now I've added a screen where you can select one out of 256 such projects arranged in a 16x16 grid. I mostly use this spatial grid representation to avoid text input, which I personally think is rarely fun with a gamepad.
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentYes, I'm so sure of that. You yourself used one of the articles as an example, quoting a part that explicitly and beyond uncertainty reflects a position that is contrary to the position she...You're so sure that your interpretation of those articles is the only valid one that anyone with a different interpretation is "misleading and dishonest." I think that's uncharitable.
Yes, I'm so sure of that. You yourself used one of the articles as an example, quoting a part that explicitly and beyond uncertainty reflects a position that is contrary to the position she attributes to it.
Can't we just agree that the articles can be interpreted in different ways?
Please don't try to generalize the problem to the point of meaninglessness. Yes, the articles can be interpreted in different ways. Some of those interpretations have a reasonable basis in their content, some don't. The problem here is that she attributes a point to them that they aren't making by any stretch. One of the articles even explicitly refutes the point she attributes to them, which you know because you quoted that part yourself.
I don't disagree that someone can make that interpretation. Just as enough of a fool might interpret your article about manatees as being about golden retrievers. I just disagree that it's a reasonable interpretation that a literate and honest person would make after actually reading the articles, and I think that her interpretation reflects poorly on her, not somehow on the authors who are not making the idiotic point she attributes to them.
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentIn that context, her presenting them as describing "AI as exclusively foisted upon us by corporate overlords" is misleading and dishonest, and her bringing them up at all as though they're...Jasmine Sun's article is about chatbots. Her criticism of other articles has to be understood in that context.
In that context, her presenting them as describing "AI as exclusively foisted upon us by corporate overlords" is misleading and dishonest, and her bringing them up at all as though they're relevant to her point about chatbots is misguided and irrelevant.
Maybe those other articles aren't so bad in some other context.
While it's true that they probably don't seem so bad in the context of the points they're actually making and how they actually argue for those points as they do in the context of what Jasmine Sun incorrectly and dishonestly presents them as being about, that's irrelevant to the quality of the articles.
If you write an article about manatees and clearly present it as such, and I foolishly criticize it on the basis that it's an article about golden retrievers, it doesn't reflect on the article itself at all. It just means that I made an error that utterly invalidates my criticism.
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentThat might have been a relevant, critical observation if the author had also claimed that, but they didn't.That might have been a relevant, critical observation if the author had also claimed that, but they didn't.
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentHow is "How big tech is force-feeding us AI" not a fair title for an article about how big tech is force-feeding us AI? I don't understand your criticism at all. Even if you stopped reading after...How is "How big tech is force-feeding us AI" not a fair title for an article about how big tech is force-feeding us AI? I don't understand your criticism at all. Even if you stopped reading after the lead paragraph it would be very clear, if the title somehow wasn't enough.
The rest of the body of the article then gives very clear examples of how, indeed, "big tech is force-feeding us AI".
I could understand your criticism if you'd only read the title, and through a mistake on your part misread it as to imply that all applications of AI are force-fed to us. But that's not what the title says, and if you misread the title the article would very much clear that up. So given that you've made your way to the paragraph you're quoting I think your criticism is invalid on more than the basis of a simple mistake.
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Comment on What video games would you say have the best stories? Feel free to suggest more than one. in ~games
text_garden LinkI've played games that people around me say have great stories, but I rarely find myself agreeing, so I tend to avoid story-driven games. Maybe the most controversial example of this is Red Dead...I've played games that people around me say have great stories, but I rarely find myself agreeing, so I tend to avoid story-driven games.
Maybe the most controversial example of this is Red Dead Redemption 2. The game was so obviously divided into either barely (or non-) interactive "characters talking and advancing the narrative" sections or action sections where there's this constant, meandering, trivial and absolutely boring expositional background dialog. All connected by an open world where none of that seemed to practically matter much. This made it feel like the pacing was always off, and like nothing was actually at stake even when the cutscenes or dialogue would imply otherwise.
Then there's the natural difference between how the game portrays player characters and how I actually play them. I can go on an absolute rampage, lassoing people in and throwing them of cliffs or offering them to the alligators, and then in the next cutscene my character will be a kind of gentleman robber with moral standards again. I can't take that seriously. Going on a rampage and fleeing is some of the most fun I had with this game, but neither the writers nor the mission designers seem to have agreed, or don't seem to care about the incongruity. It's like the game couldn't decide whether it's an awesome open world cowboy asshole sim or four seasons of an HBO show that should only have lasted for one.
I was also extremely put off by the voice acting at times. In particular, Jack Marston as a kid is very obviously played by an adult woman talking in a squeaky voice. If the game ever immersed me in its story that would have taken it away immediately.
I think RPGs are better suited for me, at least in theory, since they make player choice meaningful in the narrative sense and can adapt the narrative to your play style, but RPGs also tend to be filled with cliches that bore or annoy me. They seem especially obsessed with creating archetypal characters that all have a very overt, obvious dispositions or attitudes towards everything, which makes them not seem like people, and they employ saturday morning cartoon tropes to make sure you know what it is within a minute of hearing them.
That said, I started playing Disco Elysium this year and the first impressions were very promising. I haven't gotten very far yet, though, but I particularly like that it seems to accommodate a lot of styles of approach while rewarding you for leaning into your character
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentGoogle Search suddenly placing an "AI mode" item to the left of the "All" item which has always been the leftmost item for the obvious reason that it's the default mode...Google Search suddenly placing an "AI mode" item to the left of the "All" item which has always been the leftmost item for the obvious reason that it's the default mode...
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentI thought I already addressed that sufficiently in my comment, but I'll elaborate. If that alone is the subset of uses of AI she's concerned with, it's either disingenuous or ignorant of her to...I think she’s more right than wrong. While it’s true that Google’s AI search summaries are foisted on us, along with other AI integrations, when we talk about the people with AI companions, that’s largely ChatGPT or Character.AI. These are websites you have to visit.
I thought I already addressed that sufficiently in my comment, but I'll elaborate.
If that alone is the subset of uses of AI she's concerned with, it's either disingenuous or ignorant of her to refer to Brian Merchant, Ted Gioia and Cory Doctorow as though they're opposed to entirely voluntary and explicit use of non-intrusive AI chat bots rather those applications of AI which we're given less choice to engage with.
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Comment on AI friends too cheap to meter in ~tech
text_garden LinkNotions like that of AI is being "crammed down our throats" don't hinge on the illusion that there are no happy users of ChatGPT. It can simultaneously be true that there are 700 million happy...Arguments like this are empirically false: they fail to consider the existence of “organic user demand.”
Notions like that of AI is being "crammed down our throats" don't hinge on the illusion that there are no happy users of ChatGPT. It can simultaneously be true that there are 700 million happy users of ChatGPT, a very non-intrusive application of a LLM (for the end user) and that AI is being "shoved down our throats".
Most people use AI because they like it.
Ignoring the dubious content of the statement itself, this is an answer to entirely the wrong question IMO. The question should be how much of our AI use is both voluntary and helpful, and how much is either or both involuntary and detrimental to our experience, health and so on. That is, if we want to know whether the idea that "AI is being crammed down our throats" is valid in some sense or "empirically false".
It's no surprise that some subset of use of AI that's entirely voluntary and explicit can be a pleasant and useful experience to us, but I'm spending more time interacting with AI through platforms where its introduction represents a general degradation of quality. Worse quality discourse, worse quality entertainment, worse quality support, worse quality reading.
I would give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume that maybe they're just discussing AI chat bots, but in that case they are making a very dishonest argument by referring to criticism that very obviously concerns AI in general, not just its use in chat bots.
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Comment on Half way through the 2020's. What's your favorite games so far? in ~games
text_garden Link ParentI had a similar realization after binging Factorio for like 12 hours straight and haven't played it since :D Shapez was more manageable to me; an idea can be realized much more quickly so it's...I had a similar realization after binging Factorio for like 12 hours straight and haven't played it since :D
Shapez was more manageable to me; an idea can be realized much more quickly so it's more immediately satisfying. But of course, there's seemingly no end to it.
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Comment on Half way through the 2020's. What's your favorite games so far? in ~games
text_garden LinkA few from this decade that left good impressions: Shapez: think Factorio but boiled down to its essence. I feel like it's more respectful of my time. A Hand With Many Fingers: a first-person...A few from this decade that left good impressions:
- Shapez: think Factorio but boiled down to its essence. I feel like it's more respectful of my time.
- A Hand With Many Fingers: a first-person "journalistic research simulator" spent in an archive where you are tasked with unraveling a conspiracy. I was skeptical of the concept but ended up loving it.
- The Battle of Polytopia: streamlined, simple 4X game with PBEM-style cross-platform multiplayer. Great for playing a few minutes at a time.
- Ultrakill: challenging and addictive movement shooter that rewards close range combat by making the blood of your enemies replenish your health.
- Sailwind: a relaxing sailing sim wrapped in a trade/upgrade/maintenance game loop. It's committed to not having any features like automaps or HUD tools for navigation. Instead, you have to navigate using sight, chronometer, stars and compass.
- Animal Well: weird, animal-themed, puzzle-focused metroidvania. Very atmospheric and relaxing.
- Echo Point Nova: very fast-paced, open world movement shooter. The movement mechanics are extremely satisfying.
- Desecrators: Descent- and Forsaken-like with procedurally generated levels and an upgrade system. The combat in this is so very frantic and well-designed, and it's kind of hard to go back to playing "normal" first person shooters after it.
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2026? in ~talk
text_garden Link ParentDrunk in the back of my carillion, coming home from the barillion. -
Comment on Statement from Mozilla's new CEO in ~tech
text_garden Linkvs. So will it evolve into an "AI browser" or will it in fact remain a web browser where AI features are inconsequential to its primary function and can easily be turned off? Sounds like another...AI should always be a choice — something people can easily turn off.
vs.
It will evolve into a modern AI browser and support a portfolio of new and trusted software additions.
So will it evolve into an "AI browser" or will it in fact remain a web browser where AI features are inconsequential to its primary function and can easily be turned off?
Sounds like another set of additions to the growing multitude of settings I have to adjust when I choose to install Firefox on a new system. Will be looking at Waterfox or Librewolf henceforth.
My tip for anyone else too curious not to read the article is to mentally replace "AI" with "smurf".
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentI'm replying to you, as you can already tell. You said that you 'don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a...Who are you writing this for?
I'm replying to you, as you can already tell. You said that you 'don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a reasonable alternative to the question'. I responded to you both to argue that
- it is fair regardless of whether I can present reasonable alternatives
- that there are reasonable alternatives
- that the author if anyone should have known better than to trust Apple with their data
Each of these points stand on their own.
You’re not writing it for me or people like me
No, I'm not responding to "people like you", but to you specifically. I struggle to interpret this as anything but a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters and further misrepresent the argument that I've already stated clearly. Please stay on track: "who I am writing this for" is irrelevant to the content and validity of my argument.
I’m trying to put a modicum of reality checks in this conversation.
Reality check: you shouldn't put your data in the trust of Apple, because stuff like this can happen. This is fair, because it's evidently true. It's true regardless of whether I can present alternatives, and regardless of whether you agree that the alternatives I present are available or immediately obvious to "MOST PEOPLE". It doesn't somehow become less true because some users may not have considered the implications of trusting Apple with all their data. Consequently, it doesn't become less fair to say it.
Nevertheless, I have presented simple alternatives (i.e. maintaining local copies of your important documents and not using Apple for all of a bunch of services they provide for which there is no shortage of alternatives), none of which require you to become a "digital prepper" in any sense I can reasonably interpret that term. I further argue that the author's ignorance can't be excused by general incompetence.
What's difficult for a novice user, if anything, is to consider the possibility of being locked out at all. WIthout having considered that, there are few incentives to use alternatives to Apple's walled garden. With that in mind, it's not only fair to say that you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of Apple, but helpful and constructive.
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentNo, this misrepresentation of my argument, which doesn't mention photos at all. It's immaterial to my argument whether the data is photos or anything else. 6 TB of data is 6 TB of data, whatever...You and everyone else is responding to me like the guy actually just lost some photos. This is clearly not the case.
No, this misrepresentation of my argument, which doesn't mention photos at all. It's immaterial to my argument whether the data is photos or anything else. 6 TB of data is 6 TB of data, whatever its content and wherever you keep it. A 6 TB platter disk costs < $300.
Yeah it’s easy to back up photos and email once. It’s not TERRIBLY difficult to set up a cronjob to do it regularly (though you won’t know if that one stops working because some access token expired and you didn’t set up lifecycle alerts … oops my backups stopped three years ago guess I’m fucked).
You're overthinking it. Copying files is basic computer literacy. Doing it automatically is a minor convenience on top of that. Doing it using a globally accessible network service is another inconvenience on top of that. If for a lack of technical know-how you have to pick either access to "20 years of digital life" or slighly more convenient means of copying files, what is the wise choice?
But then you still don’t have access to your damn email address anymore do you?
Why not? I don't see how trying to redeem a gift card for buying music and software should render my email account inaccessible. Then again, my email provider is an email provider, not a massively integrated everything-service.
What about apple’s password manager?
Don't use it? Why should your phone manufacturer be your OS developer, your cloud backup provider, your email provider, your software store, your music store, your file sharing application, your software publisher, your authentication provider and the arbiter of whether you have access to your passwords?
It's an idiotic concept. Even children intuitively understand the wisdom of not putting all eggs in one basket, but otherwise sensible adults just sort of forget this when it comes to online services. I don't expect everyone to be wise, but I vehemently disagree that it's "unfair" to point out that it is unwise.
It’s not enough to set up a NAS, you generally want something you want to share. If you used iCloud for this, congrats all your share links are gone forever and it’s not like there’s any backup of those.
Seems like a minor inconvenience on top of having lost access to your data yourself. They key difference here is that if you still had access to your own data, you could find some other way to share it, with no shortage of alternatives. With all eggs in Apple's basket it is of course only Apple that can provide that service, leaving you at their mercy.
Doesn’t sound like you eh?
No, it doesn't sound like me. It doesn't sound like my 80 year old uncle either. Understanding that your cloud backup server is not an alternative to having local copies of your files, but a safety measure in addition to that, is not rocket science. It's not beyond the grasp of an average person.
Your idea that in order to have redundant copy of 20 years of your digital life, you need to be a "systems engineer", set up and maintain a NAS, cronjobs, self-host keepass etc. sounds more like a inclination on your end to tinker with stuff like that for the sake of long-term convenience. I give you that it's less convenient to mind your own business than to let someone else do it for you unless you are technically inclined. That's how Google and Apple get people to make such bad decisions. But if you value "20 years of digital life" and 6 TB of data, maybe that slight inconvenience is worth it.
Regardless, the author isn't some computer illiterate schmuck, but a computer scientist, software developer and technical writer. Their problem is clearly an unhealthy level of trust in an amoral megacorporation, not a lack of a technical proficiency. He calls himself "effectively an evangelist", and it boggles the mind that it would not occur to him after putting it in those words that this isn't a normal relationship to have with an entity which is realistically incapable of caring about his existence.
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentThe domain name is just a name. What you're describing is of course still fully centralized. So I don't see how it strikes a balance at all. Evidently, liability is also a problem whether you...I think the best solution is to pay for a Google Workspace account to use with your own domain, which is what i do. It gives a good balance between centralization and liability.
The domain name is just a name. What you're describing is of course still fully centralized. So I don't see how it strikes a balance at all. Evidently, liability is also a problem whether you manage your own data or let some corporation do it for you.
I don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a reasonable alternative to the question: "I have terabytes of life data to manage. This is impossible to handle it all by myself. What service will help me with this without turning this in a whole Project?"
How is it not fair? It is what it is; you either do the "whole Project" of buying e.g. a big mechanical disk and simply storing copies of your most important documents there (i.e. stuff that only requires very basic computer literacy), or you give yourself conditional access to "20 years of digital life" at the whims of the cloud ecosystem of some amoral megacorporation you have naively trusted with your life.
I made a web-based fractal playground based on chaos games. It's the latest of a few experiments with WebAssembly and Zig.
The code could be a nice read for someone who want to get started with WebAssembly from first principles. There are a lot of tutorials and examples online that target rather heavy libraries and frameworks, but you can achieve a lot with simple parameter passing and sharing buffers. In addition to what you can see if you view the source of the page, there's the wasm module source code and build script.
The module exports two statically allocated buffers for coordinates. It also exports the
updatefunction which fills these buffers with coordinates and returns the number of coordinates it added. On the JavaScript side I then loop over them and plot a point on an output canvas for each.I also save and load the parameters from the URL fragment, so if you find something nice you can link to it!