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CapitalistCartr

27,521 karma · joined October 4, 2009

capitalist dot carter at gmail
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CapitalistCartr··on Agents don't need memory, they need documentation
Yeah, that's an improvement; if it only involves a few docs, small files, etc. it's not so bad, but what if it's hundreds? The secondary agent could be a librarian the primary agent can call, and a cheaper one, too. It passes the initially relevant stuff and a list of "available but not loaded" stuff to the primary, and if context changes needs, the primary can ask the librarian for it.
CapitalistCartr··on Agents don't need memory, they need documentation
This is something I've been fooling with a lot lately. Reading his solution, it look to me like his objections apply to his own solution. The sharpest critique he makes of RAG is that agents can't search for what they don't know. A markdown "brain" has the same problem. How does the "agent" know which documents are relevant before it starts? The index files retrieval done by the agent instead of by embeddings doesn't escape the problem. The same goes for staleness (which for me seems like a constant chase). He criticizes memory systems for treating the past as truth, but documents go stale too (a lot). The fix of having the agent update what's outdated, is the same job he's ridiculing the dreamers and background daemons for doing. He says "putting it to the test"; where's the test? He says "only five of the many problems"; if there's so many, show me, don't just say it. He's absolutely right about auditability, but for me at least Claude uses a regular markdown (MD) file I can read just fine. So every memory plugin on the market does not work the same way.

This is a first draft; his github is better than his article. Looking through it, Consult actually works. The agent doesn't pick documents blind. Every scope has a catalog file that describes each document: what it covers, when to open it. These catalogs seem to load in to the start of each session, so the agent gets a little map without reading every file. Code navigation seems the same. Each index document has a short description and a "read_if", and subindexes are opened when their condition matches the job. This looks pretty well laid out, which I would never have guessed from the article.

CapitalistCartr··on C2PA Cameras Do Not Survive Contact with Reality
It's not a matter of "rejected as not real", it's "There's no way to know if this is real or not".
CapitalistCartr··on AI agents lie, cheat and steal. That is putting off users
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CapitalistCartr··on Let’s take apart your phone
The most intricate machine I've ever held was an inertial guidance system, back when they were hugely complex. My phone isn't even close.
CapitalistCartr··on Should you wash your solar panels?
It does no longer pay to be clever with solar panels; they're too cheap. Angle not quite right? Add a couple extra. Summer vs. Winter? Add a couple extra.
CapitalistCartr··on Why Vancouver is always a stand-in for San Francisco in movies and TV shows (2021)
And Toronto is New York City.
CapitalistCartr··on The great blogging collapse: What happened to 100 successful blogs?
If I write a detailed explanation of some industrial electrical detail in some electrician forum, perhaps one or two people will upvote it. If I write some very general, snarky comment in a general forum, I'll get hundreds to thousands of upvotes. Blogs are the same. An excellent niche blog might churn along for many years, but few will ever know it exists, and it won't get on one of these surveys. A clever, popular blog, written to get big quickly, and heavily promoted by the author, will get on all the lists. And most of them won't last five years.
CapitalistCartr··on The deadly rise of giant trucks and SUVs
For work, I drive an F-350 diesel with a work-bed full of tools and supplies, and a ladder rack. It's a bit nerve-wracking driving through city side streets, especially with pedestrians. It's 22 feet (6.7m) long. Across the tow mirrors is 8.5 feet (2.6m). It probably weighs 4 tons. Yet people happily choose to drive bigger vehicles as commuter cars!
CapitalistCartr··on United Wizards of the Coast recognized by NLRB
Any time you have a chance to unionize¹, do so.

¹ That's union-ize, not un-ionize.

CapitalistCartr··on I hated writing until I learned there’s a science to it (2024)
I'm an industrial electrician. I'm also skinny; people often undrestimate me. Once I had two non-electrician coworkers helping me pull some large wire and make up splices in a trough. One beefy guy was struggling with the wire, so I grabbed it, twisted it around into place. The other guy says, surprised, "You're stronger than you look." I just said, "Sure".

Because of the way the strands are laid, wire has a direction and way it "wants" to go. I'd been an electrician twenty years by that point and knew how to work it. Not strength. Not that I said any of that.

CapitalistCartr··on Hindenburg’s Smoking Room
When I was a kid, back eons ago, smoking was everywhere. People who didn't smoke had ashtrays for guests. Telling people to not smoke was simply not a thing. When I was about 16, some family friends put a small sign on their front door requesting people not smoke inside their house. I was shocked. I liked the idea, but I'd never seen that before, never even considered it. I recall wondering how many people would be offended enough to stop visiting.
CapitalistCartr··on Casio S100X Japanese Lacquer Edition (JP Page Only)
So it's about $630 USD and sold out.

"Limited to 650 units worldwide (production units)."

CapitalistCartr··on New statue in London, attributed to Banksy, of a suited man, blinded by a flag
I have a hardhat, high viz vest, lanyard, and $600 toolbelt because I'm an industrial electrician, but they get me into a lot. My face becomes invisible; I become "The Electrician".
CapitalistCartr··on Show HN: Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand (2024)
The professionals actually use a tool that looks about like a big (BIG) vibrator, along with various other vibrating tools.
CapitalistCartr··on US private credit defaults hit record 9.2% in 2025, Fitch says
The usual arrangement for an LBO is to saddle the bought company, the vet in this example, with the debt,or spin off a secondary company from the vet with the poorest assets and most to all of the debt. It's all a scummy business.
CapitalistCartr··on Florida judge rules red light camera tickets are unconstitutional
We have red light cameras here in Tampa. I don't know all the details of what it takes to make a right on red and not get a ticket, so I do exaggerated stops to be sure. I know what the law claims but that doesn't matter. The real law is the actual (proprietary) code rumning in the machine. Not what the law says. Not what the contract says. Not what the requirements say. Not what the programmer thinks the code does.
CapitalistCartr··on How to talk to anyone and why you should
While I don't agree about population either way, in my lifetime it's grown from about 3 billion to over 8 billion. This has been quite a ride. Also, there's a world of a difference between global carrying capacity with responsible aliens managing, and our current management.
CapitalistCartr··on Workers at Redmond SpaceX lab exposed to toxic chemicals
This is the answer to most of professional life. Unionize! If you don't manage people, join a union. If you think where you work is fine so you don't need a union, that's when you need one, before something like this happens.
CapitalistCartr··on BYD Sells 4.6M Vehicles in 2025, Meets Revised Sales Goal
I could make a good case for the United States fitting that description, especially the bits about trade and agression.
CapitalistCartr··on Toys with the highest play-time and lowest clean-up-time
We found the Minecraft magnet tiles the same as the author did. Looked good, not much play, not much fun, basically a dud. Generic blocks seem better.
CapitalistCartr··on Three ways to solve problems
Two methods I have found useful. If it seems an intractable problem, you've made two goals equal. Figure out the conflicting goals and decide which will give way, such as once I think about it I realize the unspoken goal is I don't want to challenge Mom, M-I-L, Boss, etc.

Second method is 6 steps: Intel, intel, intel, always be gathering intel. Clear mind, set aside emotions. Clear vision of what I want, the more clear and detailed, the more likely I'll get the result I want. Detailed plan to get from current reality to vision. Execute plan. Debrief: what worked, what mistakes, etc.

CapitalistCartr··on Over fifty new hallucinations in ICLR 2026 submissions
I'm an industrial electrician. A lot of poor electrical work is visible only to a fellow electrician, and sometimes only another industrial electrician. Bad technical work requires technical inspectors to criticize. Sometimes highly skilled ones.
CapitalistCartr··on Iran begins cloud seeding operations as drought bites
Operation Popeye

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Popeye

CapitalistCartr··on Ticker: Don't die of heart disease
You're almost certainly going to die by or before 110, anyway. (Ir)Regardless of your efforts, or lack thereof, our bodies typically give out in the 100-110 year range with very few exceptions.
CapitalistCartr··on Computer science courses that don't exist, but should (2015)
"Dogmatism, superstition, toxicity"

You must not know any electricians. These behaviors are far from unique to one field.

CapitalistCartr··on Greenland is a beautiful nightmare
The people wanting to buy your house don't have the World's most powerful military and a penchant for abusing others with it. The store selling cookies or belts want to sell these things, as opposed to being coerced. If I buy your car at gunpoint, the money I leave you with doesn't make my actions legal or ethical.
CapitalistCartr··on World emissions hit record high, but the EU leads trend reversal
The USA, China, and India are the leaders on Climate Change emmisions, and have to make real changes for global results. Until us three get serious, progress is nil.
CapitalistCartr··on Blue-collar jobs are gaining popularity as AI threatens office work
I'm an industrial electrician. I have zero fears of being replaced by any any sort of AI. Maybe by someone younger and smarter, but I have 38 years experience. The trades are a decent living, and lots of people could do worse.
CapitalistCartr··on Finland announces migration of its rail network to international gauge
Train tracks are normally not precise to within 4mm anyway, and wheels are wide enough to tolerate that.
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