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gotrythison Tell HN: Claude Code just accepted and signed a contract for me. Without asking

I was coding with cursor/grok a couple of weeks ago, and ran out of storage. Cursor made a request for disk access without any explanation, which agents often do to do their jobs. Then suddenly I had lots of free space. Thanks Grok! It actually only cleaned up only things that made sense, but still, yikes.

gotrythison Dark Hours

This site is great, and fantastic timing. We're in a tiny town in the middle of Saskatchewan for the next month. Sadly the air quality from all the forest fires means we can hardly see the stars, but... now we know when to look for the best chance. And, a must-see meteor shower coming up next week! Thanks!

gotrythison GPT‑Live

Last night, I was using voice for the first time in a few weeks, and it interrupted me and said, a bit aggressively...

"I'm going to stop you right there. Let's keep the conversation focused on the topic we were covering or a new relevant topic".

I tried to probe it for why it did that, what rules it was following, and it eventually told me...

"My role is to keep us focused..." and, "The behaviour you saw was my attempt to moderate tone".

I've heard of LLMs doing weird things like this, but it was the first time it happened to me. I hope they fix that. It was creepy.

For context, it heard my partner say, "I guess it's the same thing as you mom, because she's..." and then it cut us off.

gotrythison Students using “humanizer” programs to beat accusations of cheating with AI

I put a day of careful thought into writing a cover letter for a job a few weeks ago. Knowing there is there was the potential of AI screening, I checked if it would get flagged.

Every detection program I tried said the letter that I personally wrote by hand was 100% AI generated!

So, I looked for humanizer programs and ran my cover letter through a couple. Without the results in front of me at the moment, I can only revert to my judgemental conclusion instead of solid observations...

You need to write like an idiot to pass AI detection algorithms. The rewritten cover letter was awful, unprofessional, and embarrassing.

gotrythison Google Antigravity

Cognition bought Windsurf:

https://windsurf.com/blog/windsurfs-next-chapter

gotrythison Affinity Studio now free

Freemium definition: A type of business model that offers basic features of a product or service to users at no cost and charges a premium for supplemental or advanced features.

Yes, you can add on additional AI if you want it. But, the product is not at all limited in features. It is a complete product, 100% of what we were paying for before, now for free, plus new features, also free.

I would define it more like a lost-leader than freemium.

Thank you, Canva.

gotrythison Affinity Studio now free

I am a daily user of Affinity Publisher and regular user of Affinity Photo. I bought version 1 when it came out, upgraded to version 2, and upgraded this morning to the new, free version.

This is NOT FREEMIUM as I understand the model, as it is not limited in any way. This is everything they were charging for and more, now free, with free upgrades.

I'm personally thrilled to get so much value for free.

gotrythison Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Here's something that talks about it. I can't speak for the legitimacy, but I'm not pulling it out of my ass. They may be pulling it out of theirs. :-)

https://lifearchitect.ai/gpt-6/

gotrythison Claude 3.5 Sonnet

I've listened to so many interviews that I couldn't tell you who said what at this point, but that is what I understood from somewhere. So, sure, take it as speculation.

gotrythison Claude 3.5 Sonnet

What I understand is that it's GPT 6 that just went into training, and that GPT 5 is complete and being delayed until after the U.S. election.

gotrythison OpenVoice: Instant Voice Cloning

I imagine training people, and having everything I say be available in any language, matching my tonality, and being able to reach a global audience. I'm very much looking forward to this.

gotrythison Figure 01 robot demos its OpenAI integration

I agree. That's the sad part. I want super-intelligence to sound intelligent and not artificially brought down to our level. :-)

gotrythison Figure 01 robot demos its OpenAI integration

Someone, please ask OpenAI to stop artificially dumbing down ChatGPT by adding "um" to the audio output. I get that it is supposed to make it more human-like or something, but every time I hear it do that, I cringe and feel sad for humanity.

gotrythison Ask HN: Has anyone switched from a professional job to a more manual one?

I took a summer job as a painter and did some other contracting stuff in my 30s after being in tech my whole life. I went from setting my hours to getting up at 5 am to be picked up to go to a job site, working hard all day, coming home, and going to yoga for body repair.

By the end of the summer, I was ripped. Best shape of my life, and I got paid to do it. I was very tempted to keep doing that for a living and probably would have had a more consistent income.

gotrythison Show HN: Oasis AI – Craft Emails, Essays and Notes, Just by Talking

Great! I look forward to it.

The key for me is that it's a widget on the watch face. Glance at watch and with one click and I'm recording. If I have to fumble around with my phone or whatever to find and open an app, click a button, etc, I'll likely have forgotten whatever brilliant idea popped into my head before I get the recording started.

gotrythison Show HN: Oasis AI – Craft Emails, Essays and Notes, Just by Talking

Hi. I basically bought an Apple Watch for one app, Just Press Record. I'd love to see that kind of functionality added to your app, so I can always record my random thoughts, and it ends up summarized on my computer.

gotrythison Prime Voice AI: AI speech software

When this is an app I can use like Siri or Okay Google with an ElevenLab or equivalent voice, I will subscribe. Looking forward to this!

gotrythison I am done. I give up

After building a few startups and working at a few, I spent a lot of years advising people who wanted to start a startup, and 99% of the time I told them not to waste their time and money. They massively underestimate how hard and expensive it will be, how many skills are needed... and how much LUCK has to do with it.

With my million dollar startup, it was years of research and stupidly hard work, and I had a tech and marketing background to build off of... and I had the luck of meeting the assistant to an Internet marketing "guru" in a bar and giving them a ride home. That assistant got the marketer to promote my product, which got others to promote. Without that bit of luck, it wouldn't have been nearly as successful. In truth, I probably would have gone bankrupt.

Another example... the year that YC startup school accidentally let everyone in, they had a speaker who was talking about what market fit looks like. They failed over and over again, building stuff nobody cared about. They had wasted nearly $500k of investment and were down to the last few dollars, and one of the founders had an idea. The guy speaking implemented it just to prove his cofounder wrong! That idea went viral and they grew into a unicorn.

In my opinion the talk wasn't about market fit. It was a cautionary tale about how lucky you need to get. Last I checked, I read that 82% of venture funded startups fail, even with all that money, talent, and connections. We rarely hear about them. We hear about the success stories, which expound upon the hard work and great idea and seem to overlook how much luck was a factor - and it always is a giant factor.

Having said that, I do think success can be engineered for some startups, if you have the time, money, patience, and constitution to go through lots of small quick failures to find that market fit, and then build your product with the support of a community. And, I think luck can be engineered for some people, like by going to conferences, being nice and providing value... and by befriending the assistants of influential people.

gotrythison Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

Because I can do VR anywhere with multiple screens and bigger screens. I also have a large 4k curved monitor on a high quality arm on my standing desk, but I prefer working in VR from my couch. :-)

gotrythison Ask HN: Working in a VR Headset?

I like it.

I setup a login just for working in VR. I get MUCH more done as I'm totally distraction-free, and it's much better for my neck, as I'm looking at the screens in front of me, instead of down at my laptop. Looking down at my laptop for years has become a source of chronic pain, and working in VR removes it.

Setup is a Macbook Air M1, Quest 2, elite strap, and over-the ear headphones. I use Immersed, which is free, and put up a big screen in the middle to work on, with two narrow screens on either side for reference material.

gotrythison What does my 80 year old father do to stay healthy?

My father is 84. Never ate junk food, never smoked, never drank. He plays pickle ball four hours every day and kicks my ass when we play. Also plays volleyball and goes for long walks daily. In his 80's, he's in better shape and has a better life than I do at 51.

gotrythison OBS – Open Broadcaster Software

ManyCam got acquired last week or so. The new owners immediately changed lifetime to two years on the checkout page.

Are you saying that previous lifetime owners only get two years now? By pure luck, I purchased ManyCam the day before the price change.

gotrythison Electronic Catan LCD Tiles

Someone please sell me this.

gotrythison Jabra denies support for Elite 85t Bluetooth earbuds on computers

Also, I had no trouble with pairing the 85h with a MacBook, until I did. For example, it doesn't work with Zoom, but works for other things. And, it kept making my MacBook forget it has internal speakers. I documented and submitted about a dozen problems.

gotrythison Jabra denies support for Elite 85t Bluetooth earbuds on computers

Thanks.

Unfortunately, that's $94 CAD on Amazon, and more money to Jabra to get these headsets to work as advertised. I'm going to save my pennies and get the new Sony WH-1000XM5.

gotrythison Jabra denies support for Elite 85t Bluetooth earbuds on computers

I have the Elite 85h, and it has the same problem, as well as about a dozen other problems when you connect it to a computer. Same response. But the sales letter for the product makes it clear that they do support computers.

My last email to Jabra was ignored:

The message that computers are not supported devices on the Jabra Elite 85h was a very upsetting response to receive, so I didn't respond for quite a while. It's quite frustrating to hear that expensive bluetooth headphones designed to connect to 8 devices are not meant to work with computers. If that were the case, I would expect the Jabra site to say that computers are not supported in BIG letters, as I imagine a lot of people, like me, would expect their computer to be one of those 8 devices.

However, this statement about computers not being supported cannot be true. On the Jabra site for this product, it says: "no need to plug your headphones into your computer." It also has a picture of the product beside a Macbook. I've included screen shots of the product page that show these two points that clearly indicate computers are supported. I've heard this issue of the Elite 85h not being compatible with computers before from Jabra support, but it seems so implausible that Jabra would make bluetooth headphones that don't support computers, and equally implausible that they would mislead people into buying them on their site by suggesting that computers are supported if they are not.

I'm still hoping to get solutions to all the problems I'm having connecting my Jabra Elite 85h to my MacBook Air. Currently it's unusable and I'm going to have to buy another headset to replace them, which is much more wasteful than I would like.

gotrythison Impressions from a first-time Mac user

I came from Windows about four years ago.

The two top bad points in the article can be fixed with addons: - Moom (https://manytricks.com/moom/) to snap windows, - Contexts (https://contexts.co/) to switch between apps.

Yes, it would be better if this functionality was included, but it's an easy fix.

The thing that was a dealbreaker for me with Windows is that it would reboot to upgrade without my permission and I would lose work. Mac doesn't do that. It may reboot to upgrade when I"m not looking, but you would never know as it puts you exactly back where you were before the reboot.

That one thing will keep me loyal to Mac.

gotrythison An AI designed keyboard layout (2021)

I'm 50 and learned to touch type years before there were personal computers. I switched to Colemak a couple of years ago and it took a year to get really proficient.

I can no longer type in Querty, though I have no trouble using swipe keyboards on phones. I'm a faster typer now.

But the real benefit is that it no longer hurts to type. Typing in Querty hurt my hands after a while to the point where I couldn't type or use a mouse. Typing in Colemak fixed that, even though most of my work is on my non-ergonomic Macbook keyboard.

gotrythison A beginner's guide to intermittent fasting (2012)

I am currently alternate day fasting (ADF), which I'm finding very easy to do. Apparently the most popular form of ADF is a modified version where you can eat up to 500 calories on fasting days. I'm juicing on fasting days, which probably adds 300-400 calories.

ADF apparently is quite safe, sustainable, and healthy: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/alternate-day-fasting-g...

gotrythison “You Are My Sunshine”: How a maudlin song became a children's classic (2013)

The full lyrics are pretty dark:

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping, I dreamed I held you in my arms, but when I woke dear, I was mistaken, and I hung my head and cried.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine you make me happy when skies are gray you’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.

I’ll always love you and make you happy if you will only say the same but if you leave me to love another you’ll regret it all some day

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine you make me happy, when skies are gray, you’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.

You told me once dear you really loved me that no one else could come between but now you’ve left me and love another you have shattered all my dreams.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine you make me happy, when skies are gray, you’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away.