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StevenWaterman commented on Nano Banana can be prompt engineered for nuanced AI image generation   minimaxir.com/2025/11/nan... · Posted by u/minimaxir
miladyincontrol · a month ago
Theres lots these models can do but I despise when people suggest they can do edits with "with only the necessary aspects changed".

No, that simply is not true. If you actually compare the before and after you can see it still regenerates all the details on the "unchanged" aspects. Texture, lighting, sharpness, even scale its all different even if varyingly similar to the original.

Sure they're cute for casual edits but it really pains me people suggesting these things are suitable replacements for actual photo editing. Especially when it comes to people, or details outside their training data theres a lot of nuance that can be lost as it regenerates them no matter how you prompt things.

Even if you

StevenWaterman · a month ago
That is true for gpt-image-1 but not nano-banana. They can do masked image changes
StevenWaterman commented on I Work Best Under Stress (and My Family Pays for It)   codecabin.dev/post/i-work... · Posted by u/rebelchrisycom
theideaofcoffee · a month ago
Sounds like ADHD. Perhaps talk to a therapist before you tear your family apart from this disordered thinking. No job is worth it. None. Zero.
StevenWaterman · a month ago
Yep. Insufficiently stimulated by normal life, a crisis brings your dopamine levels back up to normal and you hyperfocus. Get tested and medicated, for you and your family
StevenWaterman commented on Kevo app shutdown   kwikset.com/support/answe... · Posted by u/asperous
vrighter · 3 months ago
but why???? If i have already gotten off my ass to go throw the clothes in it and so I'm literally standing right next to it, in what universe won't I just press "start" and instead press a bunch of buttons to set up a timer?
StevenWaterman · 3 months ago
If you want to run it overnight, or while you're at work, so it finishes as you arrive and doesn't leave the clean clothes in a clump for hours (or so it runs during cheaper power hours)
StevenWaterman commented on Serverless Horrors   serverlesshorrors.com/... · Posted by u/operator-name
Spivak · 3 months ago
But your so called "no-code" system runs on code. Checkmate atheists.

There becomes a point where being mad that the specific flavor of PaaS termed serverless achtually has severs is just finding a thing to be mad at.

StevenWaterman · 3 months ago
and your wireless modem has wires

Deleted Comment

StevenWaterman commented on Bank forced to rehire workers after lying about chatbot productivity, union says   arstechnica.com/tech-poli... · Posted by u/ndsipa_pomu
taylodl · 4 months ago
How many times has a chatbot successfully taken care of a customer support problem you had? I have had success, but the success rate is less than 5%. Maybe even way less than 5%.

Companies need to stop looking at customer support as an expense, but rather as an opportunity to build trust and strengthen your business relationship. They warn against assessing someone when everything is going well for them - the true measure of the person is what they do when things are not going well. It's the same for companies. When your customers are experiencing problems, that's the time to shine! It's not a problem, it's an opportunity.

StevenWaterman · 4 months ago
I'm currently working on adding a bot to our support chat at TalkJS. And it's great, it has probably a 90% success rate at handling complex queries. But that's because we're throwing money at it. That chat is normally staffed by senior devs, meaning it's not unusual for a single response to cost $10 of labour.

If you approach it as a cost cutting exercise, you end up with crap. If you approach it as a way to make a better experience while you sleep, it's achievable.

StevenWaterman commented on Good system design   seangoedecke.com/good-sys... · Posted by u/dondraper36
firesteelrain · 4 months ago
As a system architect, software engineer and systems engineer, I see these posts and what is called system design seems to intermix systems design with software design (being that software described herein is a lower level component of the overall system)
StevenWaterman · 4 months ago
I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking that. These are such minutiae. Where's the discussion about humans? They're probably the most important part of your system, and the most chaotic, and the part that needs the most careful design.

It's hinted at a little bit in the OP, with:

> What does good system design look like? I’ve written before that it looks underwhelming

This is because there are humans in your system! Other developers! You in the future! You have to resort to heuristics like "simple == good" because you're only looking at a small part of the whole system.

And zoom out even more, you get to the actual users. How do they interact with the system? If you implement a rate limiter, how do the users respond when they hit it? Do they just spam-refresh the page? Open more tabs? Use their phone? Do they develop weird superstitions about it? Do they spam-call your phone support lines? Does your response to a thundering herd anticipate the second-order impact of your phone support lines being DDOSed?

StevenWaterman commented on ADHD drug treatment and risk of negative events and outcomes   bmj.com/content/390/bmj-2... · Posted by u/bookofjoe
agency · 4 months ago
I find the claim (repeated verbatim in some of the comments here) that people with ADHD process stimulants differently particularly specious. Are there any medical studies/not-reddit threads that suggest anything like this?
StevenWaterman · 4 months ago
Essentially the idea is that there is an "optimal" amount of alertness (inverted U curve). People with ADHD start below the optimal point, and stimulants move them up towards the optimal point. People without ADHD are typically closer to the optimal point, and stimulants move them past it.

Someone with ADHD taking a large dose will therefore feel the same as someone without ADHD taking a small(er) dose.

Methylphenidate improves sleep in people with ADHD: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2276739/

> Compared to [non-adhd] controls untreated [adhd] patients showed increased nocturnal activity, reduced sleep efficiency, more nocturnal awakenings and reduced percentage of REM sleep. Treatment [of those with adhd] with methylphenidate resulted in increased sleep efficiency as well as a subjective feeling of improved restorative value of sleep.

I can't find a corresponding paper studying the effect of stimulants on sleep in healthy adults. I would assume it hasn't been studied because it's common knowledge and it's not worth the risk of making healthy people take stimulants. I also don't think that's the part you were disputing.

StevenWaterman commented on Books will soon be obsolete in school   shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/... · Posted by u/edent
Bender · 4 months ago
because that's not how it's used in schools currently.

That's school districts being lazy. That is clearly the first thing that need to be prioritized and resolved nation wide in all first world countries. The instigators must be removed from the picture without debate.

StevenWaterman · 4 months ago
We already have a phrase for "if you start a fight you get punished"

The phrase is "normal, non-zero-tolerance policy"

StevenWaterman commented on Books will soon be obsolete in school   shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/... · Posted by u/edent
Bender · 4 months ago
That's the point though; zero-tolerance means that the cause doesn't matter.

Your definition of zero tolerance does not align with mine. Mine is that there is the instigators are removed from the picture without question or debate and everyone else continues on with their education in a safer space. When a school also punishes those defending themselves they and their board members must be sued.

Allowing violent instigators is one of the many ways we end up with mass shooters. That and bad diets, off label prescription drugs.

I might even push for creating curriculum for teaching how to deal with violent and/or unstable people both online and in person and grade people on how well they defend themselves online and in person.

StevenWaterman · 4 months ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_tolerance

> A zero-tolerance policy is one which imposes a punishment for every infraction of a stated rule. Zero-tolerance policies forbid people in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments to fit the circumstances subjectively; they are required to impose a predetermined punishment regardless of individual culpability, extenuating circumstances, or history.

If you use "zero tolerance" to mean "zero tolerance for starting a fight" you need to make that very clear, because that's not how it's used in schools currently.

u/StevenWaterman

KarmaCake day1349December 27, 2019
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