cyrialize (u/cyrialize)

cyrialize commented on 2002: Last.fm and Audioscrobbler Herald the Social Web cybercultural.com/p/lastf... · Posted by u/cdrnsf

cyrialize · a day ago

I still use Last.fm! I've had it since 2008. It's really cool seeing how my music taste has changed, and seeing what I've come back to over and over again.

When I used to be much more active in online music communities I would post a 9x9 of my most listened to albums of the past week and discuss them.

cyrialize commented on Ultima VII Revisited github.com/ViridianGames/... · Posted by u/erickhill

jakebasile · a month ago

There's a YouTuber that's been going through and making in-depth retrospectives of each Ultima game that some here may find interesting. I've found them a pleasant watch and I don't usually go for this type of content. I never played the Ultima series until Ultima Online so I don't have the nostalgia goggles that I'd need to go back and play games this old (sorry, it's the truth) so these videos are as close as I'll probably get.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL16yfJJxAM6g-4YxKGI-1...

cyrialize · a month ago

I'm a huge fan of Majuular, these videos are amazing. I like that he dives deeply into the history behind each game as well - like the company, Richard Garriott (Lord British), etc.

His other videos on other games are great as well!

cyrialize commented on When stick figures fought animationobsessive.substa... · Posted by u/ani_obsessive

enricozb · a month ago

I used to make animations with https://pivotanimator.net/ a lot as a kid, trying to make fight scenes like these. A sort of related thing is ToriBash, which is kind of a multiplayer 3D animation game where you fight each other by making decisions on which muscles to contract at each time interval.

Loved this stuff so much. I miss my summers off from school, where I would never think of a day gone as time "spent".

cyrialize · a month ago

I was just about to make the same comment! I never remembered the name of this software. Thank you so much for posting it!

cyrialize commented on AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B axios.com/2025/10/29/aol-... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

Thorrez · 2 months ago

Was it really a scam then? Or just extremely overpriced?

cyrialize · 2 months ago

My apologies, I should've been more clear!

The scam was that this service is actually free provided by AOL. The grandparents shouldn't have ever been charged, they just ended up finding scammers that actually knew how to fix the issue.

cyrialize commented on AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B axios.com/2025/10/29/aol-... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

x187463 · 2 months ago

Are you using the word scam to describe AOL overcharging for helpdesk service or was the helpdesk not affiliated with AOL and they just happened to know how to fix the problem (or maybe they caused it?)?

cyrialize · 2 months ago

My apologies, I should've been clear!

AOL doesn't charge for any helpdesk service at all. It explicitly says on their website that all helpdesk services are free and they'll never charge you.

The scam was that the scammers had a fake helpdesk service that showed up that my wife's grandparents ended up paying for.

The scammers did actually fix the issue, but the scam was that the grandparents should have never been charged!

cyrialize commented on AOL to be sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5B axios.com/2025/10/29/aol-... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

cyrialize · 2 months ago

My wife's grandparents use and pay for AOL. I think they pay for a premium package? All I know is that it handles their internet, web browsing, and email.

One day they had issues setting it up, so they call a help line. They ended up being scammed, and paid this person ~$200 to fix their issue. After it happened, they immediately called me up and asked if they were scammed.

I told them that unfortunately, they were. Surprisingly though, the scammer did actually fix their issue.

cyrialize commented on Uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem in a decade emily.space/posts/251023-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

cyrialize · 2 months ago

I haven't tried uv yet, but I did use it's precursor - rye.

I had to update some messy python code and I was looking for a tool that could handle python versions, package updates, etc. with the least amount of documentation needing be read and troubleshooting.

Rye was that for me! Next time I write python I'm definitely going to use uv.

cyrialize commented on Tinkering is a way to acquire good taste seated.ro/blog/tinkering-... · Posted by u/jxmorris12

stavros · 2 months ago

Decades ago, an old friend told me "I became a coffee expert, I learned everything there is to learn about beans, the ways to prepare them, the chemistry that goes into it, and now I can only enjoy a cup of coffee prepared by the most expensive machines from the most expensive beans. The shit part is that I enjoy it just as much as I enjoyed my shitty supermarket coffee back when I didn't know anything about coffee."

That advice has stuck with me, and I try to have the least taste I can. I use $20 headphones and a $200 TV because I can't tell what "good" is, and I enjoy music and movies as much as my friends with $600 headphones and $3k TVs do.

cyrialize · 2 months ago

It sounds to me you're describing the feeling of being content, rather than having the least taste.

I prefer to look at things that way rather than not having taste. Some people really enjoy $600 headphones, while others don't really care.

I think everyone has some "taste" though, you don't really realize it until you compare experiences.

For me personally, having taste doesn't ruin my experience for anything - it just add more to things. And I still like the things I like, even if there is "less".

Using more expensive headphones and hearing instruments I've never heard before makes it fun and using $20 headphones is still fun because I'm still listening to music I like.

cyrialize commented on Tinkering is a way to acquire good taste seated.ro/blog/tinkering-... · Posted by u/jxmorris12

CharlieDigital · 2 months ago

    > I have come to understand that there are two kinds of people, those who do things only if it helps them achieve a goal, and those who do things just because.

I think in this age of vibe coding where anyone can code anything, the discriminating factor between two developers, at a technical level, just comes down to "good taste" (lots of other more important factors, too, like a good human to work with).

And like the author, I agree that taste is acquired through tinkering and trying to be able to discern the qualities of one approach or one design over another. You can't have good taste in anything without having tried lots of variants in that domain -- wine, sushi, furniture, color, style, etc. Having this quality now is more important than ever for senior devs and mid-level devs that want to reach the next level.

When anyone can vibe code, it is the ones with "good taste" in the design of systems that will thrive. Anyone can use an agent and code fast; few will be able to do it fast and well and build systems that do not eventually collapse under the weight of their own tangled mess.

How to acquire it? Have a folder called `sandbox` and just build small projects in there and try new ideas, new techniques, new libraries you come across. Used a particularly interesting package? Go check out the GitHub repo and see how they did it; learn something new. Good taste can be acquired; it just surprises me how few devs actually care to seek it.

cyrialize · 2 months ago

I absolutely agree.

If you look at my github, you might think I don't program all that much.

If you look at my ~/Code folder on my PC, you might think I program too much.

Tinkering with fun little projects has made me a better programmer and understand my language (Ruby) much better.

cyrialize commented on It's insulting to read AI-generated blog posts blog.pabloecortez.com/its... · Posted by u/speckx

cyrialize · 2 months ago

I'm reading a blog because I'm interested in the voice a writer has.

If I'm finding that voice boring, I'll stop reading - whether or not AI was used.

The generic AI voice, and by that I mean very little prompting to add any "flavor", is boring.

Of course I've used AI to summarize things and give me information, like when I'm looking for a specific answer.

In the case of blogs though, I'm not always trying to find an "answer", I'm just interested in what you have to say and I'm reading for pleasure.