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lexandstuffon Show HN: LLMs can generate valid JSON 100% of the time

LLMS allows for building systems that take user requests in text: "book the next flight to Egpyt" and convert them into a system message: `{"action": "book_flight", "destination": "Egypt", ... }`

However, anyone who's tried to build a system like this on GPT or other LLM soon learns that they don't always do as they're told, and it can be hard to get them to return valid JSON or correct instructions translation reliably. Sometimes, they make stuff up that has nothing to do with your system.

OpenAI has a solution to this with their new function calling API, by introducing models fine-tuned to return JSON, but they still can't make guarantees.

Outlines seems to be a neat approach to constrain an LLM to return JSON, or any grammar, reliably.

lexandstuffon Show HN: Bubblic – end loneliness together using the power of your voice

The app is well-executed, and I love the vision. But personally, when I'm feeling lonely or generally unhappy, I'm not sure reading through an endless sea of other people's misery is the best thing for it.

lexandstuffon ‘One step at a time’: entrepreneur buys stairwell in London to help startups

It's a "disused stairwell," so presumably, the building it serviced has a different stairwell now.

More about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/30/step-to-rich...

lexandstuffon SEC asked Coinbase to halt trading in everything except bitcoin, CEO says

Few understand.

lexandstuffon How fast should you accelerate your kid in math?

I disagree with you.

The people that run society are the train drivers, the nurses, the local council staff, the garage handlers, etc. I'm sure some were considered "gifted" in school, but by definition, most likely not. It's those people who I want us to invest the most in.

On the other hand, so what if a kid can solve a few maths problems faster than some other kid?

lexandstuffon How fast should you accelerate your kid in math?

"gifted kids are far more likely to contribute significantly to our future"

Citation needed.

lexandstuffon Threads users down by more than a half

They launched their MVP 3 weeks ago and scaled to 100M users on the first weekend. That is a world first. Maybe give them a bit to get the house in order before demanding features?

All the features you've mentioned are on the roadmap, as they've outlined many times. Software at this scale is non-trivial.

lexandstuffon Airbnbust? Short-term rental prices plummet in Palm Springs

Interesting! This article confirms what you're saying: toilets in the USA generally use higher water pressure, making residual less of an issue. The more you know...

[1] https://newyork.forumdaily.com/en/pochemu-amerikancy-ne-polz...

lexandstuffon Airbnbust? Short-term rental prices plummet in Palm Springs

Wait...in the USA you just leave waste at the base of the toilet bowl? Even if you're sharing a toilet with friends and family?

lexandstuffon Airbnbust? Short-term rental prices plummet in Palm Springs

To clean feces off the base of the toilet post-defecation.

lexandstuffon Airbnbust? Short-term rental prices plummet in Palm Springs

I've seen this rhetoric only in tech circles that people are "moving back to hotels," and I don't understand it. Last time I checked, hotels still don't offer kitchens. Hell, most of them, disgustingly, don't even provide a toilet brush. A hotel is not an alternative to staying in a fully furnished home with complete amenities.

Isn't the reason Airbnb bookings are down because interest rates are sky-high worldwide to combat inflation? Travel, in general, should be down if the reserved banks worldwide are doing their job.

lexandstuffon Loss of smell may be an early sign of brain diseases

My mother went her entire 59-year life without a sense of smell. She heavily leaned on my dad to check if the meat was off, if the house smelt before guests arrived, etc. But overall, I felt it was somewhat of a superpower. Who wouldn't love to say they have never experienced the smell of a poorly maintained public toilet or someone else's fart?

She spent about a decade of her life trying to find solutions before giving up and just living with it.

lexandstuffon Kelly Rowland couldn't have used the =HYPERLINK() function to message Nelly

OP has a point, though. She might be a talented pop star, but surely she has encountered spreadsheets at some point in her life? For example: checking over notes from her accountant, planning tours, purchasing houses, reviewing marketing plans for album launches, etc.

Also, does not knowing about Excel also imply that she's never heard of Microsoft Word? That seems too farfetched.

lexandstuffon Bluesky: Building a Social Internet

I was holding out for an invite code.

I wanted one because everyone I enjoyed following on Twitter was on Bluesky, singing its praise.

Now they're all on Threads, so I'm no longer interested in the invite code.

lexandstuffon Bluesky: Building a Social Internet

Let's be honest: the draw was that it was Twitter minus Elon and the blue-check lunatics.

Now Threads is that.

Everyone I enjoyed following on Twitter is on Threads, so I don't need Twitter, and I certainly don't need Bluesky.

lexandstuffon Bluesky: Building a Social Internet

I cannot believe that Bluesky still hasn't opened its doors. There was a huge window of opportunity for them that now seems firmly shut.

lexandstuffon San Francisco Airbnb bookings plunge as city battles bad press

Airbnb bookings are down worldwide because interest rates are sky-high, and people have less discretionary spending.

Here's an article from Australia talking about how Airbnb bookings are down in our tourist destinations: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-19/airbnb-hosts-revert-b...

lexandstuffon Why Nvidia Keeps Winning

I hate to break it to you, but crypto has been "over" many times, only to come roaring back. It's cyclical, based on the price of Bitcoin.

I expect people will go nuts about it again in a few years before temporarily abandoning it.

At least that was the case in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2020-21.

I don't see any value in crypto projects personally, but if you think it's going away forever, expect disappointment.

lexandstuffon Ask HN: Could you share your personal blog here?

https://notesbylex.com

It's a mixture of blog and a public Zettlekasten.

So far, this has been my most popular post: https://notesbylex.com/disputing-a-parking-fine-with-chatgpt... Though this is my favourite: https://notesbylex.com/making-song-covers-with-my-ai-voice.h...

lexandstuffon Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

Usually, exactly the same price. Though the plain ones are often on special, as I guess they're less popular.

lexandstuffon Twitter now requires an account to view tweets

On a related note: any ideas on why Bluesky seems to be taking so long to open to the public? They had a beta program a few months ago, and everyone seemed to love it, and now nothing?

Surely now is the time to capitalise on the discontent on Twitter, even if it means dealing with a few scaling pains.

lexandstuffon Aspartame sweetener to be declared possible cancer risk by WHO, say reports

Can't you buy plain Doritos where you live? In Australia, you can buy "Original Salted" Doritos, which is just oil, corn and salt: regular old Tortilla chips.

lexandstuffon AI: First New UI Paradigm in 60 Years?

The equivalent of hallucinations in LLMs is false memories [1] in people. They happen all the time.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory

lexandstuffon Subreddit Migration Directory

I miss forums. But every forum I frequented in the early 2000s eventually shut down, and we lost the data forever. I don't see how federated servers will be any different.

At least with Reddit, there's an entity working towards building a sustainable solution to keep it running. That is, until some moderators decided to close the communities and hide our contributions.

Anyway, my point is: vote with your feet and leave Reddit if you want. But don't vandalise the site on your way out, ruining it for everyone else.

lexandstuffon Subreddit Migration Directory

Well, someone has to pay to run the servers that host each federated sub-Lemmy (or whatever they call it). People have to write the core code and fix the bugs, which they presumably are paying for in free labour. Someone has to pay the CI costs for the core project etc.

They might not all be part of the same organisation, but there will be plenty of people in the ecosystem operating at a loss. If they're happy with that arrangement, great! But I want to use Reddit.

lexandstuffon Subreddit Migration Directory

All the best over at Lemmy. I'm sure the community is more than happy to operate at a loss in perpetuity, unlike Reddit.

Please let us know when we can access our contributions again.

lexandstuffon Llama.cpp: Full CUDA GPU Acceleration

Just to balance things out: I still love Python. A lot!

lexandstuffon Google doesn’t want employees working remotely anymore

It's not just the commute. It is so hard to focus in an open-plan office, which most tech companies still insist on.

lexandstuffon The death of self-driving cars is greatly exaggerated

Road deaths are the biggest killer of people aged 9 to 29, taking about 1.35M lives annually. That's roughly on par with USA Coronavirus deaths for the entire pandemic.

If autonomous driving can considerably reduce that road death number, I'd say it's a worthwhile endeavour.

lexandstuffon Ask HN: I have 176 logins/accounts. How many do you have?

I'm confused about what you're fucking off. Would you prefer to schedule haircuts via a call or an anonymous online form?

Being able to schedule appointments online is one of the big wins of modern life imo: it beats waiting around on hold and laboriously explaining to the receptionist how to spell my last name.