jstsch

On number 5, the audio layer, it's indeed terrible. So many glitches and errors. I would love to spend a week hacking the audio code and fixing some issues (by implementing proper mixing):

1) Clicking and popping of alerts and navigation speech (sounds should just overlap, i.e. like a sample based synthesizer)

2) Ensure proper ducking of music from this 'alert channel', music will now double duck when alerts are played in quick succession

3) Mix bluetooth audio (i.e. iPhone notifications) as an additional channel, right now these sounds are silently lost, unless you manually switch to Bluetooth playback. Very confusing.

Oh, and add a subtle alert sound for upcoming traffic camera's ;)

In the end it's a quite simple audio tree with a few parameters, that could be implemented with some very straightforward C++ code.

But I have no idea what the media layer looks like, I can imagine there are a few quite smart optimizations to make for example all the streaming cameras work quickly (e.g. virtual mirrors). So perhaps it's a bit less trivial than I think.

Whilst faster decoding is always useful, most audio decoding can easily happen within the typical output buffer size (e.g. 512 samples at 44.1KHz ~ 12ms). As long as your machine can decode within that timeframe, there is no difference in latency.

Are LLaMA's weights generally available/floating around yet?

Indeed! Nice thing is that two Symfonisk's give you great stereo sound on external speakers. And no soldering inside the Symfonisk, just some connectors to unplug and run the cable out of the bass reflex port, so easy to restore in original condition if you'd want to. So thanks to the magic of these tiny transistor digital amplifiers, in total you'll spend ± 500 euros and have better — and super convenient — sound than quite expensively priced systems.

So if you open up the Symfonisk, you'll find that the cables running up to the tiny tweeter and woofer speakers have a nice flat crimp connector on them.

So simply unplug those (carefully, use tweezers to squeeze the connectors and they'll pop off without friction), and connect those on some cables which you'll run to your speakers. The connectors can be found at your local electronics store.

The speakers you'll be connecting need to have a crossover that you can bypass (typically four connectors on the back versus two, with a piece of metal in between to short them). Total upgrade would be to mount all the electronics inside, but I haven't dared to cut mine open yet

I did the same hack, except using two Symfonisk's and just connecting the existing speaker lines to a pair of floorstanding two-way speakers (Kef iQ70 from the 2010's).

The little amp in the Symfonisk is plenty powerful to drive these large speakers. The crossover is completely off by default, but by using Trueplay the crossover gets tuned properly and the sound is pretty damn good (albeit a tad boosted in the highs).

It's a great way to get super convenient (Airplay 2) and high quality sound in a room, just with a power cord for each speaker. And these quality Hi-Fi speakers are readily available for cheap second-hand... some pics here: https://twitter.com/jstsch/status/1529204823912075264/photo/...

A bit off-topic, but SQLite continues to impress me. This year, we've added a simple form builder to our product which allows creators to quickly gather feedback/input from their audiences. Basically each form has it's own small sqlite database as a datastore and a json file for the form definition (field styling/constraints, etc). It's 'low tech', but performs great. Not having an additional service running also means having one less thing to maintain.

Yeah, this is fun. I remember back in 2007 setting up a dinky audio stream for a 3 day jam session. Using php on Dreamhost, which had practically unlimited bandwidth back then. Worked great. The alternatives were either expensive livestream services or required a colocated box.

The Google Play store lets apps get away with lots of user hostile activity.

Yeah, sure, on some theoretical level sideloading should be a user's right. But we all know what will happen. The only way to install essential platform apps like Facebook, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc. will be through the vendors themselves, bypassing all of Apple's privacy protections. In the end this will be a net negative for the user.

Purchased a pre-owned Model 3 last month. It's an amazing ride. So much better than any other car I've ever driven. Autopilot on the highway is very convenient, but even in those relatively situations it messes up every now and then. No way actual FSD is anywhere near.

Yes, tied to the grid. Simply hooked up to a dedicated breaker circuit. This is in The Netherlands, which means you don’t need a permit to install or connect solar. Practically everyone here has a meter which records power usage and return. Currently, what you return is subtracted from your usage (yearly cumulatives) as an incentive to install domestic solar, although that arrangement will probably be phased out step-by-step after 2023.

As an experiment I installed a set of the cheapest panels and inverter on my garage last year. 1500 euros for about 2000 watt peak. The mounting materials were a bit more than a third of that. Also paid about 300 euros for the installation. So 1800 euros all-in. Surprisingly, the system is performing quite well, delivering those 2000 watts reliably in the hours around noon, but also working quite well in more cloudy conditions. Bottom line: for around 1 euro per watt you can easily install solar (without subsidies), so as far as I’m concerned it’s a no brainer if you have the space.

Indeed! I tried it with some French and was impressed. After recording in English and synthesizing a short sentence I tried to record and speak using the same intonation/speed as the generated French audio. It matches almost perfectly. Except of course for the bg music I don’t think anyone could discern which one was real and which one was fake. It didn’t work for all sentences, and there were some obvious glitches, but for the pieces where it did it was quite freaky. Also, hearing the French sentence in my own voice made it quite easy to pronounce it correctly. When I try this using for example the Google Translate TTS it’s much much harder.

Sounds like a leaky door seal, easy to replace.

That figure excludes take off and landing, which adds quite a bit on short haul flights.

Hm. I got my M1 Max on the morning of 30 October...

  % uptime
  23:27  up 9 days, 11:24, 4 users, load averages: 2.19 2.77 2.91

:) so no issues here.

We also got a bunch of M1 Pro’s and are running into this. For the more typical web stuff we’re just using ARM packages and it’s going fine, but for a large SAAS there are too many differences between dev and production this way.

I'd love for providers like DigitalOcean to show me the CO2e of any VM's + networking infrastructure I'm running. Optimally it'd include the entire LCA (so including manufacture).

Not an issue. It's a tiny bit heavier than the previous generation, but that's the equivalent of an additional sandwich in your backpack. Not carrying the charger will have a bigger impact :)

Sorry for the late reply. I find it more comfortable than the previous generation when laying on the couch or actually sitting down using the machine on my lap. The sturdiness actually gives a more balanced feel.

I hardly ever use the laptop on a desk, then I tend to connect to a screen + external keyboard. I did give it a try just now, and it's pretty much fine. My 17" was thicker, which also wasn't an issue. Our bodies are quite adaptable.

Just got my MBP 16" today. I find it a bit too thick. It reminds me of the MacBook Pro 17" (2010). I liked the previous form factor better, don't need HDMI/SD, but I'm probably the exception.

(it is verrry fast) :)

I ordered a 16" M1 Max 64GB and am excited for it, but I'm sad that Apple dropped the touch bar. I do use it all the time, scrubbing through slides in Keynote, audio controls in Logic, hanging up a Facetime call...

You see this pattern in tons of web apps and sites. The browser is slowly turning into some sort of virtual machine. A sensible DOM structure with logical element naming seems to be a thing of the past. I think it makes development more complicated and also increases the barrier of entry for new devs.

Apart from this issue, these machines have been great for me. And the Apple ecosystem is hard to beat (when you get used to the seamless integration between devices…)

I am excited about these. Very curious if they’ll be able to drive my two LG 5K UltraFine displays.

Got those screens right away when the MBP2016 came out. It is a great setup, but unfortunately quite unstable. The MBP2016 had tons of crashes, after 4 logic board replacements it got swapped out for a 2018. More stable, but I still have to follow some ritualistic order plugging/unplugging them…

Climate change is an existential threat to humanity. To deny using an energy source that is nearly carbon neutral, whilst half the population of this planet is still living in energy poverty, is far from being the prudent choice...

For many years I've really wanted to buy (and hold) SpaceX shares. Such a shame it's not on the public market...

This is great news, and again evidence of Apple pushing the privacy envelope forward for their customers. For many users, deleting an account by visiting an obscure flow on a web property is simply a bridge too far (assuming the service even offers an automated way of account deletion, which often is not the case).

We do. But it's so much easier to not pump carbon up, than to use tons of energy to put carbon back in the ground. Even if you'd use carbon free energy, for a long time coming that energy can offset existing fossil energy...