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curiousmindz

560 karma · joined March 23, 2020

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curiousmindz··on Microsoft forced me to switch to Linux
Maybe investigate the background apps that are running on your laptop?

By the way, I just opened a directory that I hadn't accessed in months. It contains 10945 log files, and Windows Explorer displayed them instantly.

curiousmindz··on How Evolu Works (Local-first database with server sync using CRDT in TypeScript)
It is surprisingly easy to use to obtain a type-safe data storage solution.

And everything is Open Source : https://github.com/evoluhq/evolu

Their future business model seems to be selling hardware running the server code with end-to-end encrypted sync and backup.

curiousmindz··on Diablo
The analogy with Chess does not work: I can go on YouTube to watch how a pro player beats a specific boss, then use that to massively shorten how long I need to beat that boss.

Watching a lot of grandmasters play Chess will minimally help me beat a Chess AI that was better than me (excluding the beginner level).

I think that someone could have fun playing a Diablo-like RPG because they enjoy feeling powerful while they mow down a lot of enemies. And someone someone could enjoy a Soulslike game for the precision they need to apply to beat a boss.

Maybe it is somewhat similar to the difference between an arcade/fun racing game and a professional track racing game.

I wouldn't consider one to be "better" than the other. They simply have different objectives.

curiousmindz··on Vicuna: An open-source chatbot impressing GPT-4 with 90% ChatGPT quality
I just tried with Bing AI (in "precise" mode), it ran a search, then answered:

> There are many soccer players whose names contain a Z. Some of them include Zlatan Ibrahimović, Zinedine Zidane, Zico, Zvonimir Boban, and Zé Roberto ¹. Would you like to know more about any specific player?

Source: Conversation with Bing, 3/31/2023 ...

I also tried: "Can you name 14 soccer players whose names contain a Z?" (At 15+, it answers "I’m sorry, but I don’t have 15 names of soccer players whose names contain a Z. However, I can provide you with a few more names")

> Sure! Here are 14 soccer players whose names contain a Z: Zlatan Ibrahimović, Zinedine Zidane, Zico, Zvonimir Boban, Zé Roberto, Zbigniew Boniek, Zakaria Aboukhlal, Zlatko Zahovič, Zubayr Amiri, Zico, Zé Luís, Zećira Mušović, Zsolt Lőw and Zah Rahan Krangar. Is there anything else you would like to know?

curiousmindz··on Unsigned int considered harmful for Java (2014)
I would think that "lossless" implicit conversion are ok. Right?

For example, implicit conversion from a 32bit signed integer into a 64bit signed integer.

curiousmindz··on Microsoft's AI Bing also generated factual errors at launch
Note that this answer is from "old Bing". It has nothing to do with the GPT-enhanced new Bing:

https://oslo.town/@matt/109864320071232564

The main hints to spot new Bing are: The logo and the feedback buttons.

curiousmindz··on Microsoft eyes $10B bet on ChatGPT
I expect this deal to be a must for Microsoft. OpenAI is probably very happy to raise the stakes as much as possible. So we will see how many billions Microsoft ends up paying for this.

Still, is there a world in which we look back 10 years from now and think that we were overvaluing the impact of AI?

(For example, this did happen with tablets, when people thought that the iPad would replace "computers"...)

curiousmindz··on AVX 512 will be the future
In C#, you can write (pseudo-code): if (AVX2) { ... } else if (SSE) { ... } else ...

Then, when you run the program, the JIT will pick the first supported option and eliminate the other ones.

curiousmindz··on Factorio runs on Apple Silicon
The most important "goalpost" is: Every major cross-platform AAA game gets released simultaneously on Windows, Xbox and PlayStation. When macOS gets added to the list in a consistant manner, people will consider it a "major" gaming platform.

Having access to a lot of mobile games doesn't matter for hardcore gamers.

curiousmindz··on Why is this HN discussion a single word with 1112 points?
Yes.

And I see that its id is just before this one. So that's a solution to find its parent.

curiousmindz··on Why is this HN discussion a single word with 1112 points?
Indeed. I didn't think about this.

I wonder how it managed to be N°2 in this Weekly Top 10 list for last week:

https://github.com/headllines/hackernews-weekly/issues/137

curiousmindz··on GitHub Copilot exposes names in TODO comments
I just experimented with the usernames in that video. Most of theme exist (except for "v2v3").

But a lot have barely any repos. There is even a "ferran" who doesn't have anything (public) on GitHub.

So, my guess is that Copilot stored a lot of GitHub accounts, and when we type "@", it autocompletes with any random ones from that list.

There is no relation with the code that it generates.

curiousmindz··on Does Company ‘X’ have an Azure Active Directory Tenant?
This is based on a 2017 script that looks up if their domain names are attached to an Azure Active Directory Tenant.
curiousmindz··on Ask HN: How would you want (indie) software to be sold?
Thank you for your detailed suggestions. I have a couple more months to make a decision, so I will continue to do some research.

I see that you are also working on a desktop app and have the same concern.

Good luck :)

curiousmindz··on Ask HN: How would you want (indie) software to be sold?
One idea that I have is to sell every major version (would be cool if I could give a discount to users of previous versions). Then, I could plan about 1 major version per year, while continuing to give bug fixes to the previous version for 2 more years (a core feature of the app is to connect to 3rd parties APIs online so previous versions will break without updates).

I would also want to give early access to the next major version, so the users don't wait up to a year to try some of the new features. My idea is to start selling the next version as soon as the previous one leaves early access.

curiousmindz··on Sunsetting Atom
I think the writing was on the wall for a long time.

Since it is only happening in 6 months, I wonder if the community will try to transition/fork it.

Do you know if there is still enough interest?

curiousmindz··on Google Tag Manager, the new anti-adblock weapon (2020)
Sadly, most publishers are not interested in developing their own proxy solution just for the sake of data privacy. They vastly prefer a ready-made solution that they can just use.

Much of the power of the advertising space come from people (publishers, consumers and advertisers) generally choosing the path of least resistance. They don't have the technical know-how and they would only acquire it if there were enough benefits. Sadly, privacy is not enough on its own.

I think the solution that can solve all that is when a company acts as a "wall" between consumers and publishers/advertisers. Then, that company can protect the consumer while keeping the user experience as simple as possible.

"Sign in with Apple" is one such solution. But of course, it brings its own (different) downsides.

curiousmindz··on Akamai to Acquire Linode
Linode is a fairly underrated provider. Getting acquired will hopefully bring them more visibility.

For Akamai, I wonder if this acquisition will have a negative impact on their ability to work with other providers who are now competitors. Similar to how AWS has trouble signing clients in the retail industry.

curiousmindz··on TikTok shares your data more than any other app and it’s unclear where it goes
To be clearer, Microsoft has a program allowing most governments to inspect the source code of Windows. This is not specific to one country.
curiousmindz··on Ask HN: What would you change on HN if you could?
1. A home page that is less influenced by votes.

There are often little gems that slip through because they don't get enough votes. Or, some threads can get excessively heated.

The basic idea is to give more weight to the new-ness of a thread, and allow the homepage to be more dynamic across users (a specific logged-in user should get its homepage that doesn't change quite as often to give them time to navigate it).

I was surprised to discover a (popular) social platform that is very good at providing a home page full of interesting threads without being too influenced by the very popular ones. So, I know that it is possible (although, it might be technically harder to implement).

2. Harder idea:

I've noticed that HN users (and social platforms in general) have a tendency to be influenced by the company/product/service/brand being discussed.

As a basic example, a news like "Company X did this good/bad thing" will be commented on differently depending on whether they like/dislike Company X.

So, a feature that would be really cool is the ability to hide that name, and let people discuss purely based on the "facts". Then, after posting, the user can see what that name is... (Of course, there will be more details to iron out)

curiousmindz··on Official Microsoft Surface Laptop SE Repair Video
Description: "Surface Laptop SE has replaceable components, including the keyboard, display, and battery. Watch Branden demonstrate how to take the device apart with minimal tools."

A win for the right to repair movement.

curiousmindz··on WSJ report claims that AWS commands 41%, Microsoft Azure 20% and Google Cloud 6%
I'm surprised that GCP is claimed to have less than the third of Azure's market share. And AWS is still comfortably in first place.

It also depends a lot on how they count these market shares. Once we go past the basic renting of CPU/Disk, it gets tricky: How far is a service still considered as part of the "cloud market". For example, renting a virtual machine to use as a desktop-in-the-cloud would count, but what about 'renting' a machine to play games? (Like with Xbox, Luna or Stadia) Same question with productivity/office services.

curiousmindz··on The Invention of Santa Claus: From Thomas Nast to Coca-Cola
A thought-provoking idea is that all of these "beings" that we can't all see are inventions by people for various reasons, the general goal being to make ourselves feel better about the world we live in.
curiousmindz··on SQLite Release 3.37.0
I think this is a concerning pattern when the core usage of the software gets more complex due to the new features.

If you can take a developer using the old version that was lean and simple, give them the latest version full of extra features, and they can use that version without any need to change anything, then I think it's fine.

And, so far, I think that SQLite has done a good job of keeping their core usage lean and simple.

curiousmindz··on SQLite Release 3.37.0
As long as an app is architectured around having a data layer with "typed" objects, the need for SQLite to support strict column types is not too important.

However, it does make handling more "advanced" types less standard. For example, there isn't a standard way to store a date, especially if we want to preserve high-precision (nanoseconds).

curiousmindz··on You can no longer bypass microsoft-edge:// links using apps like EdgeDeflector
Note that this issue is specifically about microsoft-edge:// links (used in some internal Windows features). Not http/https.

I do wish they used a more generic/portable solution, but this is for Windows-specific features, so it would require them to think through an open, stable & forever-supported API...

curiousmindz··on John Carmack predicts a trend towards integrated graphics, unified memory (2011)
Can you share the timestamp for that? (The whole video is an hour and a half long)

I wonder the context of the prediction, since smartphones, tablets and consoles have always followed this trend. And even Intel with their integrated graphics.

Also, on the highest-end, I don't think that will ever be the case because merging CPU and GPU creates huge thermal constraints...

curiousmindz··on Ask HN: I want to start a startup. Should I stay in San Francisco?
As with most complex questions, the answer is "it depends".

I don't know what your startup will do, so I can only speak in abstracts: - Will you need to network a lot? If so, you should be close to the people you want to network with. If not, you can reduce your expenses & improve your QoL by relocating. - Same question if you need to hire / collaborate with other people. More and more can be done remotely, but it is not always the best choice. - Is your future product influenced by where you are located?

Try to think of all the pros & cons of each option you have.

Edit: Entrepreneurship is a fairly "personal" journey (there are few universal answers), so you should ultimately do what you think is best for you.

curiousmindz··on Ask HN: Feature requests? (Any Microsoft-owned product)
A search "engine" inside PowerShell: You can type anything in the terminal, and it displays all the matching commands (with help snippets) in real-time. Then, if you type a command, it displays its help (snippets around the words after the command).

This would make discovering how to do things in PowerShell more interactive and enjoyable. It would probably require integrating with the PowerShell reference doc on docs.microsoft.com...

curiousmindz··on Ask HN: What do you wish you knew when you were a CS student?
As an entrepreneur, I wish I knew that university is a great place to network and build business relationships. That aspect has vastly more value in the long term than anything you learn in courses.
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