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kredd

1,368 karma · joined November 17, 2019

sometimes i get bored and update https://kredd.net for giggles.

hello at kredd.net

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kredd··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
Ah sorry, should’ve clarified, it doesn’t have tracking capability (kinda on purpose, semi-because hard to maintain battery/accuracy balance properly, for now). It syncs your old workouts synced into HealthKit, and displays them. I also added options for “manual check in” and “track through photo locations” as they were requested by my friends.
kredd··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)
It’s not as cool as most of the other projects, but I have a little app (Ato on AppStore - https://apps.apple.com/app/ato/id6757285141) for basically tracking all walks/bike rides I’ve ever been and visualize it on a single map. I’ve had the app for a couple of years, but redid it with “hexes”, instead of just routes. It has a bit of coop, competition and ranking feeling to it nowadays as well.

I started the original project as an excuse to learn SwiftUI, then been using it as an excuse to test all the frontier models and etc. to see how much better we’re getting at AI-coding. Kinda fun to see a couple dozen weekly users semi-competing with each other. Obviously nothing big, but the feeling you get seeing someone else use your app is very nice.

kredd··on How we used GPT-4o for image detection with 350 similar illustrations
We both know I didn't write it down with the hopes that I'll act on the at some point in the near future, and want to avoid my imaginary competitors. Even though, in reality, I will ponder about it for another week or two, give up without actually getting anything done, then regret for never trying :)
kredd··on How we used GPT-4o for image detection with 350 similar illustrations
A bit tangential, but I think we will see a good chunk of small teams building competing products in different software business segments, by just doubling on productivity and offering a cheaper option due to less operational overhead (reads: paying engineers). I can think of at least two businesses that can be competed in costs if the team can automate a good chunk of it.
kredd··on The decline of the working musician
I’ve talked to hundreds of people at bars around the world, and although I don’t remember their names, I can recall general conversations with each of them. I can’t recall anything that I’ve tapped-liked off the top of my head, because it’s very short and one-sided interaction.
kredd··on The decline of the working musician
> But these businesses get it all wrong because they lack the communal kitchen and eating areas.

The problem as I see, given a choice, people rather eat/do/listen/feel things that they want, not the things they’re being forced on. In the past, you didn’t really have a choice and was forced to do what everyone is doing. Now, to live in such communities, you’ll have to get rid of the choice. Which also sucks.

kredd··on Australia proposes ban on social media for those under 16
Doesn’t really matter when the percentage of childless adults is growing every year. I just scoff and move on.
kredd··on The English Paradox: Four decades of life and language in Japan
You’re thinking about power and money, but also should consider culture exports. I’d say it’s a combination of being a friendly nation to the west, being different, actively promoting culture internationally through media and, you know, still 3rd/4th largest economy. An extreme amount of recent travel in Japan also shows people some unique perspectives that people haven’t seen in their home countries (cleanliness, public infrastructure and etc.). I understand you can experience some of it in China as well, but there’s a massive difference between visiting Tokyo and Shanghai/Hong Kong.

Also add millions of people who grew up with anime in 1990s/2000s who are professional adults now. That helps as well.

kredd··on Trump wins presidency for second time
Meh, I personally like it. It's a bit of liberating feeling to never, ever think about health insurance here in Vancouver. Obviously has ups and downs (especially for non elective surgeries), but it's my personal preference.
kredd··on Why Companies Are Ditching the Cloud: The Rise of Cloud Repatriation
I totally agree, but I’ve also worked on a project with 0 customers spending about $2M/year on AWS, and there was absolutely zero incentive from the stakeholders to reduce the cost. There’s a certain disconnect between boots on the ground engineers, and decision makers when it comes to infra management.
kredd··on ChatGPT Search
Why make $1 when you can make $100?
kredd··on Dramatic drop in marijuana use among U.S. youth over a decade
We've had legal marijuana since 2018 up here in Canada, and from the statistics it looks like the market has almost caught up. The closest comparison I can think of is piracy and beginning of streaming wars (like Spotify and Netflix). Sure piracy is free, but a significant chunk of people started subbing for the services because of the convenience. If you'll only save about $5 per purchase, but have to get cash, arrange everything and etc., that might be just enough friction for you to just go to one of the billion stores nearby.
kredd··on Apple iPhone 16 Is Now Illegal in Indonesia, Ban Leaves Tourists in the Lurch
If 5% of population (14M people) can afford an iPhone, it's already bigger than a lot of potential markets around the world. I'm sure they do a much more thorough analysis at Apple though.
kredd··on Smartphone buyers meh on AI, care more about battery life
You can argue that, but there are legitimate "AI" workflows that have already been adapted in workplaces where things function well enough. I'm sure 99% of it is just slop, most companies will fail, but some things will survive, become commoditized and taken for granted in about 5 years.
kredd··on Smartphone buyers meh on AI, care more about battery life
I definitely agree, but again, if you look at the app usage times across every single demographic, those type of use cases are such a minuscule portion that it's just some noise. In my opinion, GPT/AI will cause more changes in workplaces, than in casual consumer spaces.
kredd··on Smartphone buyers meh on AI, care more about battery life
The problem is, vast majority of smartphone usage is done for entertainment and social networking purposes (IG, TikTok, Twitter, HN, gaming, Netflix and etc.). If you’re mostly scrolling and consuming, I can’t imagine how current AI tooling can help you other than some summarization of texts. Sure, for productivity cases it might be legitimate, but that’s not what supermajority of people use a phone for.
kredd··on Notes on Anthropic's Computer Use Ability
Still not a problem for Meta/TikTok/YouTube though, as people go there to consume content on purpose. But I agree, will be fun to see how Google and others will deal with it.
kredd··on What happens when you make a move in lichess.org?
They require completely different levels of viewing patterns and complexity. It’s such a reductionist take.
kredd··on StabilityAI releases Stable Diffusion 3.5
Like again, I get what you’re saying, and I agree with it. But my point was, once everyone can generate Pixar-quality movies, they will simply lose the appeal. Maybe it should be that way, maybe it shouldn’t, but crowded market just desensitizes people and makes them shrug.

There will be winner-takes-it-all productions, and that’ll come mostly from the companies with the highest marketing budgets.

The biggest uphill battle that AI content creation companies will have to fight is kind of societal. They’ll need to change public’s perception that AI=“low effort”.

kredd··on StabilityAI releases Stable Diffusion 3.5
The counter point is, if it makes it so easy to make it, it’s just… meh. We get used to things extremely fast.

Even in traditional art. The Black Square was revolutionary in its specific way, but the copycats aren’t talked about.

I think the AI Seinfeld will be remembered for a while, but random spin offs will be forgotten. Just like how Twitch Plays Pokemon was huge, but follow ups got forgotten. AI art will need to find uniqueness angle at each step, because the complexity aspect will never be there.

kredd··on StabilityAI releases Stable Diffusion 3.5
Eh, different bubbles of people I think. My tech-loving friends (including me), aren't fan of AI art because how low effort everything is. Some funny memes, but even then you get used to them and move on. It was definitely "cool" when it came out, but if it's simple still images, icons, and etc., they're kinda meh, at least for me. What Adobe did with the rotation tool is pretty cool, and if we start seeing effects of such AI art, that would be a bit different. But again, it has to be used in a specific way to inspire anyone.

I'm actually curious what the people around you find cool about AI art. Nothing has "awed" me in the past 16 months, I would say.

kredd··on Overengineering a way to know if people are in my university's CS lab
That's exactly what I thought! "Is that UofT?"
kredd··on AWS CEO tells workers to quit if they don't want to come back to the office
It’s a fairly calculated move, as they know market for engineers isn’t in the best shape, so a significant chunk will keep working with no complaints. They also ramped up hiring heavily, if the number of messages I get from Amazon’s recruiters is an indicator.
kredd··on Ask HN: Founders, what was the major sourcing channel for your first 100 users?
Profitable? None. For fun? Well, I made a stupid app for myself (showing all routes I’ve walked through in my city, that gets data from HealthKit), got pressured by friends to share my walking progress in a local subreddit which went semi viral, and people started asking what app I was using.

I had absolutely zero intentions to market it, but seems like there was a niche need as other apps weren’t making it simple for the feature I was looking for. Gives you dopamine hits when you can see others using the app, especially when you know you’re doing it just for fun and no money is involved.

kredd··on Reports show some Canada euthanasia deaths driven by social reasons
I understand this is a hot-topic, and definitely an extremely nuanced issue, but as a person who knows people who took the MAID (Canadian euthanasia process) way out for a terminal illness, I will be forever grateful for it. It’s not uncommon to meet people whose elder relatives went through it as well, after years of constant pain up here.

It definitely has shortcomings, but I genuinely hope the fixes will not result in rolling back the program completely.

kredd··on NotebookLM launches feature to customize and guide audio overviews
I generally agree, but when AI generated content is actively trying to avoid being labelled as “AI generated” it kinda gets depressing. Because in the end, it will just make the entire industry “seem” worthless, akin to AI generated pictures.

I’d rather let the end user know if it was made by humans or not, and let the marker decide. If people love listening to such content, let it be. But hiding how it was made, feels a bit disingenuous.

kredd··on US antitrust case against Amazon to move forward
If You leave the website, your eyes won't catch a headline that's on the side that you might also click, spending more time on your website. Which translates to more money.
kredd··on Nearly all of the Google images results for "baby peacock" are AI generated
Fair. Exceptions definitely exist, but unless it's location based subreddit, I, personally, wouldn't trust it. There are fun methods that I've been told about. Like marketing companies maintain multiple very real life looking accounts, participating in discussions for months/years with no product affiliations, and very casually throwing in plugs which eventually generate revenues. Or giving a list of 10 items, and inserting their product in between, as a sale is better than no sale. Or marketing a competing product in a very obvious way, then replying from another account telling how it's an ad to eventually lead sales to themselves.

I have no idea how intensive these are, as I most of these over bar drinks when I was traveling. Could've just been someone making stuff up as well. But my marketing friends have confirmed that they use Reddit very heavily, as it's a great sales funnel if you play it right.

kredd··on Nearly all of the Google images results for "baby peacock" are AI generated
If you know anyone who works in marketing/PR, ask them how they use Reddit. That has been gamified as much as SEO since about 2020. I’m assuming, anything except “why is there a fire in this street?” kind of posts are just ads at this point.
kredd··on Meta Movie Gen
What sort of actions do you think we can take where the dangerous side effects (like creating deepfake pornography) won’t be as easily accessible as illegal streaming of TV shows? Only let big private companies to train models? Make open sourcing of weights illegal? Make usage of LLM tools generally illegal? All those are as enforceable as torrenting around the world.
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