Weldawadyathink's recent activity
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Comment on Not so empty nesters: record-high number of US adults under 35 live at home, new data says in ~life
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Comment on What do you think the top three most used apps on your phone for the past week are? in ~tech
Weldawadyathink LinkMy guess: Three Cheers for Tildes, Reddit, Safari Actual: YouTube, ChatGPT, Reddit Apple combined my iPad and phone usage. Basically all of that YouTube is from my iPad. I don't really consider...My guess: Three Cheers for Tildes, Reddit, Safari
Actual: YouTube, ChatGPT, Reddit
Apple combined my iPad and phone usage. Basically all of that YouTube is from my iPad. I don't really consider iPad usage against my "phone app" usage.
Actual phone only: chatGPT, Reddit, Harmony (Three cheers in a close 4th place)
I am moderately surprised by ChatGPT. I have been using it a lot on 5.5 high, especially for advice on my TV calibration project. On high, it sometimes takes a long time to answer. I think a bunch of this time is me shooting a query off and doing something else while my phone screen is on.
The real surprise is Harmony. In my new TV project, I had to reprogram my harmony hub remote for the new TV. The harmony app is extremely slow and janky, so a bunch of screen time isn't too surprising. Also can I throw out a mini rant? Why on earth did Logitech discontinue the harmony device line? It is still absolutely fantastic. And for some absurd reason nobody has made a replacement for the harmony hub specifically. If you aren't aware, the harmony hub is a small device that you install in your TV cabinet. It sends the ir signals, so it can work when the cabinet is closed. You control the hub through your phone or through a specific hub remote that communicates to the hub with bluetooth, not IR. That way your remote works from anywhere, including under blankets or around corners. Absolutely fantastic design. And the only device I have been able to find that does something similar is the sofabaton, which has a remote that is gigantic (no thanks, the harmony one is about as big as I want) and costs three hundred dollars (the harmony hub and remote was around $80 if I remember right. Ugh. The app still works on iOS 27, and Logitech hasn't shutdown the servers (required for any config changes), so I will be holding on to mine as long as possible.
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Comment on My father died suddenly in ~life.men
Weldawadyathink LinkI had almost the exact same thing happen half a year ago. My dad was in his early 60's and quite healthy overall. Over thanksgiving, he was super sick with a cough that wouldn't get better. After...I had almost the exact same thing happen half a year ago. My dad was in his early 60's and quite healthy overall. Over thanksgiving, he was super sick with a cough that wouldn't get better. After a lot of bullshit fighting Kaiser (seriously fuck kaiser in every way possible; dealing with them is a miserable experience), he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer on December 8. He died at home on Christmas.
It was such a quick whirlwind of emotions through those two months. And it has been difficult to recover after that. I think I was closer with my dad than it sounds like you were, and I am still very close to my mom. Supporting my mom has been very trying. Like your father, she lost her lifelong partner.
On top of that, dealing with the finances has been insane. Despite being a teacher, my dad made more than my mom. They really needed both incomes to survive financially. And since my mom is younger than my dad, she can't collect his social security until she retires, even though he could have retired and started collecting it if he were alive.
I don't really have anything to say that could help, except that I know exactly what you are going through now.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Weldawadyathink LinkI found a free TV on Facebook marketplace that needed a new backlight. The new set of backlight strips were $75, so it was a cheap way to upgrade from a very old 1080p TV to a relatively okay 4k...I found a free TV on Facebook marketplace that needed a new backlight. The new set of backlight strips were $75, so it was a cheap way to upgrade from a very old 1080p TV to a relatively okay 4k TV. It took me a few hours, but the replacement went off without a hitch.
The only problem is the colors were way off, even on the "calibrated" mode. My guess is the output color of the new backlight LEDs is slightly different from stock, so the factory calibration just makes it less accurate. I've never properly calibrated a TV before, so I jumped into the deep end of learning. Turns out display calibration is crazy complicated. I managed to get it reasonably close to accurate (with the help of ChatGPT) once I figured out out to disable the local dimming zones. This TV only has 12 anyway, so it's nearly useless and makes the calibration inconsistent.
Now that I have it dialed in, I think it's more accurate than our previous TV. All around a fun project, and now I have a very useful little tool in my tool belt.
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Comment on What is your eleventh favorite video game? in ~games
Weldawadyathink LinkI'll go with Super Hexagon. I do t really rate my top games like this, but this one feels really good, but without enough staying power to not be edged out by other games. I have been playing it...I'll go with Super Hexagon. I do t really rate my top games like this, but this one feels really good, but without enough staying power to not be edged out by other games. I have been playing it for years. I just now doubled my high score in Hexagoner. Hexagons are the bestagons!
Edit: also has a killer soundtrack!
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentFor what it's worth, I think a lot of people do what protection from themselves. You may just not be the target audience.For what it's worth, I think a lot of people do what protection from themselves. You may just not be the target audience.
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Comment on Fox is buying Roku in $22 billion deal in ~tv
Weldawadyathink Link ParentAs far as I can tell, Apple and Nvidia are the only companies that have realized that putting a fast, performant processor in a TV streaming box might be a good idea. And Nvidia hasn't released a...As far as I can tell, Apple and Nvidia are the only companies that have realized that putting a fast, performant processor in a TV streaming box might be a good idea. And Nvidia hasn't released a streaming box since 2019. I have the Apple TV 4K gen 1. It's starting to feel a touch sluggish now that I actually have a 4k TV, but it has been worth every penny. And if anyone is worried about software support, the old Apple TV from 2015 still runs the latest software.
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Comment on Does generative AI have a natural limit without a major innovation? in ~comp
Weldawadyathink LinkOne thing that works very well is synthetic training data. I believe this is much of what has powered the recent (1-2 years) of LLM innovation. It's actually a pretty simple concept. For a coding...One thing that works very well is synthetic training data. I believe this is much of what has powered the recent (1-2 years) of LLM innovation. It's actually a pretty simple concept. For a coding type example, take an existing codebase that is not AI generated. Take your "dumb" AI and have it remove a feature. Even the AIs that were not good at coding could do that pretty well. Also have it generate a user query requesting that feature be implemented. Again, small models that are bad at coding can do this easily. Now you have a training problem that includes a codebase without a feature, a user request to implement it, and a codebase with the feature. Everything except the final state was AI generated, and can be done easily with very old model technology (haiku, GPT 3.5 turbo, etc). And this process can be easily automated to generate a ton of training data.
I kinda assumed the same back in the GPT 3.5 turbo era. But techniques like this seem to have worked to get us past that.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
Weldawadyathink LinkOn audiobook, the expanse series. I bounced off the first time, but that was right after watching the show, and comparison is the thief of joy. For years I didn't read anything physical. I got...On audiobook, the expanse series. I bounced off the first time, but that was right after watching the show, and comparison is the thief of joy.
For years I didn't read anything physical. I got myself a kobo a few months ago. I have been trying to read more consistently. Right now it's Uprooted, with The Paradox Paradox on back burner.
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Comment on Google Chrome to fully remove legacy support for manifest v2 in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI really like Vivaldi. It includes a ton of shit I don't need, but the UI is quite customizable. So I got my essential vertical tabs (and on the right side too!) and almost no other UI. Unlike...I really like Vivaldi. It includes a ton of shit I don't need, but the UI is quite customizable. So I got my essential vertical tabs (and on the right side too!) and almost no other UI. Unlike Orion, which I used previously (and isn't chromium), it's actually stable enough for daily use.
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Comment on USB power delivery: Plugging into the benefits in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentThe Wikipedia article on power delivery is pretty informative, and no subtle ads.The Wikipedia article on power delivery is pretty informative, and no subtle ads.
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Comment on Proton sponsors far-right French YouTuber, claims lack of awareness in response to backlash in ~society
Weldawadyathink Link ParentDepending on your priorities, Fastmail. If you need proper encryption from state actors, it's not going to fly. But if you want a good email replacement for Gmail, Fastmail is fantastic. If you...Depending on your priorities, Fastmail. If you need proper encryption from state actors, it's not going to fly. But if you want a good email replacement for Gmail, Fastmail is fantastic. If you want proper access to your own data, high quality first party apps, and the ability to use third party apps without janky bridge apps, Fastmail is fantastic. If you want to support a company that actually pushes email as a standard forward, Fastmail is fantastic.
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Comment on Apple unveils their new operating systems for 2027: iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, and more in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentThere was absolutely zero chance of Apple rolling back Liquid Glass. Like it or not, if you want Apple devices, you are stuck with it until the next big redesign. But in the 27 OSs, you can set...There was absolutely zero chance of Apple rolling back Liquid Glass. Like it or not, if you want Apple devices, you are stuck with it until the next big redesign.
But in the 27 OSs, you can set the transparency slider to fully tinted, which improves a lot of the usability problems with Liquid Glass.
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Comment on Apple unveils their new operating systems for 2027: iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, and more in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI could see it going either way based on what Apple has said. I am more basing it on the fact that Apple has been trying for years to train their own models and has seemingly failed. I'm not sure...I could see it going either way based on what Apple has said. I am more basing it on the fact that Apple has been trying for years to train their own models and has seemingly failed. I'm not sure they have anything to add to the Google special sauce on the training step that Google can't already do better. Given Apple's stance on privacy, their raw training data is almost certainly much worse and much smaller than Google.
What Apple has been good at is optimising for local models. They have a public "mobileclip" series of models. (Fun fact, mobileclip powered the search on audiobookcovers.com for a while; the model I use now is worse for search, but it has better infrastructure for running it cheaply) These are for image embeddings, and are somewhat unrelated to LLMs, but, as far as I am aware, they are the only CLIP style model that anyone even attempted to optimise for mobile devices. And even right now, Apple photos is the only photo service that does the AI features on device.
I can also see Apple being interested in post training to tune the Gemini models to how they want to act. This is also where small sample data from Apple employees could work well. It's not enough data for a full training run, but it is likely high quality enough for post training.
Either way, it's going to be interesting. There are some interesting quirks of Gemini models, and I wonder if they will make it into these models. For example, Gemini models are incredibly bad at tool calling. In my own testing, giving a Gemini model only a single tool, it still hallucinated and tried to call other tools around 60% of the time. That doesn't strike me as something apple would be okay with using, but can possibly be fixed with post training. At the same time, Gemini is also the only western lab doing audio input tokens. Anthropic and OpenAI use a speech to text model and input text into the model. We are not sure yet how the new Siri works, but it's possible it's sending audio directly to the model instead of through a transcription layer first. If so, that could be a very powerful advantage for Apple.
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Comment on Apple unveils their new operating systems for 2027: iOS 27, macOS 27 Golden Gate, and more in ~tech
Weldawadyathink Link ParentMy understanding was that they are using the Gemini models as is, and doing some additional reinforcement learning and runtime optimisation on top, not retraining from scratch. I do hope we get...This doesn't mean that Apple are simply using Google's models but are building their own models while learning from what Google did for theirs (I could be wrong on this but this is how I understood it).
My understanding was that they are using the Gemini models as is, and doing some additional reinforcement learning and runtime optimisation on top, not retraining from scratch. I do hope we get some more details, but my guess is we won't.
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Comment on Tildes Survey #8: What is your favorite video game? (Results) in ~talk
Weldawadyathink LinkSpec Ops: The Line If you know of it, you know why I love it. If you don't, and if you have even a passing interest in shooter games, play it sight unseen. I know people often say to avoid...Spec Ops: The Line
If you know of it, you know why I love it.
If you don't, and if you have even a passing interest in shooter games, play it sight unseen. I know people often say to avoid spoilers when it isn't really that necessary, but for this game it is. Just play it. Trust me.
Also you might have to pirate it unless you already own it. It was delisted digitally because of licensing issues. I just had to buy the Xbox 360 disk on eBay for a friend to play.
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Comment on Looking for headphone recommendations in ~music
Weldawadyathink LinkFYI Active noise cancellation and no mic are strictly impossible. ANC works by using a microphone and playing the inverted waveform through the headphones. ANC without a mic is impossible. I guess...FYI Active noise cancellation and no mic are strictly impossible. ANC works by using a microphone and playing the inverted waveform through the headphones. ANC without a mic is impossible.
I guess it is possible to make headphones where the ANC mics aren't sent through Bluetooth or the audio jack. But I don't see why a manufacturer would bother. For $0 extra, they can enable the mic that some people will use.
Edit: Cat resistant cables do kinda exist. Just buy headphones where the cable can be replaced and get a new one whenever it gets destroyed.
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Comment on I'm ever more annoyed with Steam in ~games
Weldawadyathink Link ParentTrue, unless the system already knows about an update. You can't just flip to offline mode to avoid installing an update that just showed up.True, unless the system already knows about an update. You can't just flip to offline mode to avoid installing an update that just showed up.
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Comment on I'm ever more annoyed with Steam in ~games
Weldawadyathink Link ParentI believe they still update. Steam will refuse to launch anything that isn't updated. The only workaround is if the game doesn't use steam drm, and you can launch the executable directly with...I believe they still update. Steam will refuse to launch anything that isn't updated. The only workaround is if the game doesn't use steam drm, and you can launch the executable directly with steam not running. If it does use steam drm, launching the game will launch steam to confirm ownership and update it.
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Comment on I'm ever more annoyed with Steam in ~games
Weldawadyathink Link ParentSame! I can't help but feel that proton built for macOS and Metal would absolutely kick ass. Base model Apple silicon processors pack quite a punch, and the pro/max processors are so crazy good.As someone playing on Apple Silicon, I’d like Valve to... have pity on us and improve our side of things? Please?
Same! I can't help but feel that proton built for macOS and Metal would absolutely kick ass. Base model Apple silicon processors pack quite a punch, and the pro/max processors are so crazy good.
29, college degree, employed, and live with my mom. I actually had moved out and moved back in at 26 ish to save money for college. Where I live, if I had to pay rent, I would not be able to pay back any of my debt. And I probably would have to take loans out for living expenses. Shits expensive.