aethertap (u/aethertap)

aethertap commented on AI is destroying open source, and it's not even good yet jeffgeerling.com/blog/202... · Posted by u/VorpalWay

dtnewman · a month ago

Open Source isn't going anywhere. Open Contribution might be on the way out. I built an open source command line tool (https://github.com/dtnewman/zev) that went very minorly viral for a few days last year.

What I found in the following week is a pattern of:

1) People reaching out with feature requests (useful) 2) People submitting minor patches that take up a few lines of code (useful) 3) People submitting larger PRs, that were mostly garbage

#1 above isn't going anywhere. #2 is helpful, especially since these are easy to check over. For #3, MOST of what people submitted wasn't AI slop per se, but just wasn't well thought out, or of poor quality. Or a feature that I just didn't want in the product. In most cases, I'd rather have a #1 and just implement it myself in the way that I want to code organized, rather than someone submitting a PR with poorly written code. What I found is that when I engaged with people in this group, I'd see them post on LinkedIn or X the next day bragging about how they contributed to a cool new open-source project. For me, the maintainer, it was just annoying, and I wasn't putting this project out there to gain the opportunity to mentor junior devs.

In general, I like the SQLite philosophy of we are open source, not open contribution. They are very explicit about this, but it's important for anyone putting out an open source project that you have ZERO obligation to accept any code or feature requests. None.

aethertap · a month ago

This comment really hit me - I have a few things I've worked on but never released, and I didn't even realize it was basically because I don't want to deal with all of that extra stuff. Maybe I'll release them with this philosophy.

aethertap commented on Ask HN: How would you design a business model that supports plugin-writers? · Posted by u/aethertap

dtkav · 6 months ago

I have been building a plugin for Obsidian commercially.

I messaged @kepano about being able to support paid plugins. Apparently they can't because of Apple App store rules that forbid third party "stores" (and/or require a cut of the payment). IIRC there was a ruling that walked this back a little bit, but only in the US?

One thing I've appreciated about Obsidian is that they have donated to the top plugins as voted on by users each year. It's a small amount (eg. $25), but it is a nice gesture.

Micropayments could also be a nice gesture, but I don't think they could add up to meaningful income for a developer. There are enough developers that are willing to build great open-source plugins for free. IMO the missing tier is having quality (and vetted) plugins that people can work on full-time.

aethertap · 6 months ago

Yeah, the idea of getting to a viable income source for plugin writers is what I'm hoping for. I didn't know about the issue with Apple App store, that complicates things quite a bit.

Congratulations on your success with relay.md! It looks like a great tool.

aethertap commented on Death by AI davebarry.substack.com/p/... · Posted by u/ano-ther

NekkoDroid · 8 months ago

https://udm14.com/ (google search with ?udm=14)

aethertap · 8 months ago

I just wanted to drop in and thank you for posting this. I'd never heard of it, and seeing a plain page of actual web results was almost a visceral relief from irritation I wasn't even aware of.

aethertap commented on Ask HN: How are parents who program teaching their kids today? · Posted by u/laze00

SoftTalker · 10 months ago

Who guided you? If you're like me, nobody. I was exposed to BASIC as my first programming language, and I just started doing stuff that seemed interesting. My school offered a few "computer math" classes as they were called at the time, which I elected to take, but nobody pushed me into it.

Give the kid some programming tools and leave him alone. Be there for questions, and brainstorming if he wants it. Otherwise let him figure it out. He'll shoot himself in the foot, and maybe get discouraged but if his interest is deep enough he'll persist.

aethertap · 10 months ago

This is how it was for me too, but I actually think the world has moved out from under us. The environment today is way more complex, and it's a lot harder to be proud of little things when you see people crowing about how they "wrote this little app over the weekend" and it's already polished and full of features. I remember being proud of my little unit converter that ran on the command line, and even more proud when I got an actual window to show up on a screen (GUI programming took a long time to get into). These days, those things just aren't special enough to keep them engaged. I don't know if it's just too commonplace now, or too complicated to get started, but it doesn't feel the same as it once did.

My kids have finally gotten hooked by godot, after a few years of building up a foundation with simple programming assignments. It's fun to see them digging in for hours to make something, but man, it was a long road to get here.

aethertap commented on Valve now allows the "vast majority" of AI-powered games on Steam arstechnica.com/gaming/20... · Posted by u/isaacfrond

guitarlimeo · 2 years ago

How do you justify using AI for your game art? I have thought about this, and couldn't justify it. I also know that I hold on to morals almost to a stubborn degree.

So instead I recently started learning Blender, texturing, drawing and while it takes time to get to where I want, I'm passionate enough to learn the craft instead of "cheating", as I unfortunately see it.

EDIT: To add, I don't put games which revolve around AI as a mechanic to this same category. They're a new thing and they're cool for exploring the frontiers.

aethertap · 2 years ago

I think that any new tool just changes what's possible. At the start, we're all just rehashing the things we used to make, but faster (and possibly lower quality). This is the part that's scary for current practitioners, because the tools now do something basically for free that used to require a lot of human skill and it devalues our current skill set.

However, at some point there are people who really master the new tool and open up an entirely new range of possibilities because of what it can do. The value of craftsmanship just changes as the tools develop, it doesn't end. I don't know what new things will become possible with AI, but I'm confident that there are people with vision out there who will raise the bar on what can be created now that it's a thing.

aethertap commented on EPA fast-tracking of gene-altering pesticide sparks concerns thenewlede.org/2023/10/ep... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

TheBigSalad · 2 years ago

Why would they spray it on crops?

aethertap · 2 years ago

Apparently it's done to dry out tough perennial weeds so that harvest can run more smoothly, and also for crop desiccation (getting the harvest to dry uniformly by killing all of the plants simultaneously).

https://cropwatch.unl.edu/2020/harvest-aid-herbicide-options...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_desiccation

aethertap commented on Mini – The Minimal Language minilanguage.com/... · Posted by u/aethertap

Conlectus · 3 years ago

I note that with a vocabulary of 1,000 words it is roughly 10x the size of Toki Pona, a conlang which also aims for minimalism.

That said, Toki Pona's goal is to help clarify thought, whereas this seems to intend to prioritize communication more highly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toki_Pona

aethertap · 3 years ago

I've been making a game system in which the core mechanic is using a limited language to describe magical effects, so it's a long way away from the intended purpose for both Toki Pona and Mini. However, I've found that Mini is far easier to work with and more expressive for my purposes because it's easier to put structure into the statements using the particles to indicate what part of speech is intended for each word. The selection of words also seems to be surprisingly well-chosen, because most of my use cases have been pretty straightforward to express.

I haven't really tried to limit the system to just Mini Kore (which is also 120 words, like Toki Pona, and would be a more direct comparison), mostly because Mini's current size actually seems to have the right feel. It might be an interesting experiment though.