zem

5 ms·

61.
by zem 2mo ago
yep, i think the real LLM superpower is knowing that something has been done before and having access to the code that did it. so much of even novel software includes bits and pieces that have well-optimised existing solutions, and the bot
62.
by zem 2mo ago
the point is if you ask "hey qwen, are your dataset or training manipulated in deference to the Chinese government?" there is no guarantee you will get the right answer. but ask about something you can prove that the LLM response
63.
by zem 2mo ago
I wasn't a huge fan, to be honest. some good ideas, but overall the book felt self-indulgent. "metamagical themas" is a far better book if you want to read one thing by hofstadter, and "le ton beau de marot" if you
64.
by zem 2mo ago
honestly, no opinions on bun either way, I was just pointing out that the pushback against the big bang AI rewrite is far from quieted down.
65.
by zem 2mo ago
this is currently on the front page of lobsters, I saw it even before I saw the bun 1.4 release announcement https://tipiirai.com/writing/bun-rust-rewrite-worries
66.
by zem 2mo ago
https://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1851.html
67.
by zem 2mo ago
it's the difference between "hacking" and "hacking on"
68.
by zem 2mo ago
100% agree. I'm the exact opposite of the grandparent - I get much better work done on my wfh days because I'm not drained by the commute.
69.
by zem 2mo ago
I like the idea behind stored procedures, but the ergonomics of developing and maintaining them are not great. if they could be made to look like a library of code sitting in a directory somewhere, and transparently compiled and imported by
70.
by zem 2mo ago
agreed! I feel like basic ocaml syntax would map very well to a higher level SQL - `let` to define reusable subexpressions, `let ... in` to define inline pieces of a large query, partial application to fill in variable values, and a final f
71.
by zem 2mo ago
that is a genuine concern, yeah :( but at least for me it's unrelated to the mystique of mathematics itself.
72.
by zem 2mo ago
I lean more towards the "proofs from the book" mindset - if there's a really beautiful proof of some theorem out there I would be happy to see it no matter whether it was discovered by a human or a computer, and conversely if
73.
by zem 2mo ago
it does not in any way break the mystique of mathematics for me, though that mystique continues to attach to proofs that are in some way beautiful or elegant, whether produced by humans or machines. as for software engineering, I've de
74.
by zem 2mo ago
"elementary" does not mean simple or easy, it refers to the domain of mathematics involved in the proof. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_proof
75.
by zem 2mo ago
asimov had a great story, "sucker bait", about this form of intelligence. (the story's premise was that we would always need some form of "human computer" because machines would never make intuitive leaps by joining
76.
by zem 2mo ago
I would read (and work though the exercises in) "how to design programs", then follow it up with "the pragmatic programmer". that should catch you up with a lot of best practices.
77.
by zem 2mo ago
there was cheap shareware earlier, it just didn't have as much reach
78.
by zem 2mo ago
honestly he should have won on his main if unstated plank, "not be nigel farage"
79.
by zem 2mo ago
that's a good comment for sure, but it doesn't address what I was talking about - specifically, in the "old internet" it was a lot commoner for a community to own its online spaces, usually by virtue of having one or two
80.
by zem 2mo ago
right, i agree with you - there's no one size fits all. that's why the best thing would be to let the reader toggle views on any given post/thread. one could even experiment with fancier views like a flat layout but with a gi
81.
by zem 2mo ago
it's not "another thing", it means that your community forum lives on reddit (or whoever's) sufferance, and is subject to some corporation's capricious and arbitrary whims. this comment brings up a good concrete exa
82.
by zem 2mo ago
what would be amazing would be a resurgence of the old style forums, but where users could choose to see a flat or tree view of a discussion (and even customize those views, e.g. the tree could be reddit style without subject lines, or slas
83.
by zem 2mo ago
the article already lists one positive - the LLM assistance made the engineering effort to keep their site up and running feasible again. insofar as spam killed the remnants of old web, that is a promising sign.
84.
by zem 2mo ago
been waiting for this feature to come back forever. hope it's still around the next time I get a new phone.
85.
by zem 2mo ago
I've been an active user for ages now and I didn't even know they had an app! the mobile website works very well.
86.
by zem 2mo ago
you are indeed correct
87.
by zem 2mo ago
I wonder why there was a time window at all! that sounds like a horrible user experience - at the least they could have told the other person that you didn't respond but left their profile sitting in your inbox somewhere so you could c
88.
by zem 2mo ago
I think in this case it was more a plea to have his judgement valued when he said "dude, if the qa team has found this many bugs this is only going to harm our reputation with the client, and we are going to be the ones doing emergency
89.
by zem 2mo ago
reminds me of a startup I was in, where one of the devs accepted a promotion to head of engineering on the condition that the CEO would not override him when he said a release was too buggy to go out to customers. the CEO agreed because (I
90.
by zem 2mo ago
having claude to work with has actually been pushing me from ocaml to rust for some of my personal projects. the LLM makes up for the fact that rust is less ergonomic, and being able to pull parts of my project out into libraries that can b

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