genmon (u/genmon) - Readit News

genmon commented on Live Stream from the Namib Desert bookofjoe2.blogspot.com/2... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

awesome, would be nice to stream this to a screen on the wall in my home office ... even with low volume sound. project for the weekend :)

genmon · 5 months ago

I have regularly done just that! a projector on a big wall, and a portal to the namib desert... 100% recommend

see my other post with the full-viewport waterhole, that was what I used to get rid of YouTube chrome.

genmon commented on Live Stream from the Namib Desert bookofjoe2.blogspot.com/2... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

genmon · 5 months ago

Fellow fan of the Namid Desert waterhole here!

As it happens, I made this wrapper for it

https://waterhole.genmon.partykit.dev

This single-serving waterhole:

- makes the YouTube stream fill the browser for an Immersive Experience(TM)

- shows how many people are watching in real-time

- provides ephemeral chat with other people present

I know at least one team at an unnamed big tech co who would all have it open on their second screens for shared ambience + chat...

(If anybody from YouTube is reading, I have a ton of idea about how ambient live steams are the Next Big Thing and how to lean into that.)

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

crazygringo · 6 months ago

It's very cool, but the motion is also incredibly distracting while reading. It literally makes it physically difficult to read.

Might I suggest quickly fading the cursors out entirely as soon as the user starts to scroll, maybe? Then you could have the effect at the start, but be less distracting while reading.

Or just a floating counter in the corner to say how many people are currently viewing it, maybe with the two most popular flags and your own flag and a fourth "other". Because it's one thing to know it's busy (cool, it's popular, I'm participating in something!), but it's another thing to feel busy, distracted, claustrophobic.

I assume you want to prioritize people reading your actual content over the feeling of busyness.

genmon · 6 months ago

there's a Quiet Mode toggle in the corner of the screen for that purpose

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

big_toast · 6 months ago

This is such a cool effect but I'm afraid its novelty is conflicting with its affordances.

Have you seen cases where people are using it in a more familiar manner? Like, they've moved on from the newness but there's still a bunch of people? Feels like being in a subway station where everyone is bumping into each other right now instead of just sharing the space as needed.

genmon · 6 months ago

yeah this is definitely over the edge -- signal is lost in the noise

my main enjoyment has been to hang out on my own blog (which it generally pretty quiet) and say hi to people as they drop by. I've had a few pleasant interactions that way, and a couple people said hi in Unoffice Hours (link in the left column) or on the socials after

but generally I feel like "ambient togetherness" is just the beginning of something, and it needs to be paired with something more persistent to be useful (like a discord only open to subscribers, that kind of thing), and I haven't gotten around to building that side of it yet.

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

genmon · 6 months ago

(blog author here)

If you're interested in the multiplayer cursors + cursor chat, my philosophy is that every web page deserves to be a place, and pages should feel busy if lots of people are there

plus you can grab the code. here's the write-up:

https://interconnected.org/home/2024/09/05/cursor-party

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

JohnFen · 6 months ago

It seems to be a side effect. It doesn't help me in any obvious way. However, when it's happening then I've also ceased to be conscious of writing code. It just flows of its own volition.

I mean, I know I'm writing code, but I'm not consciously seeing, analyzing, formulating, or typing in code.

Edited to add: On reflection, the geometric vision does actually help me sometimes. When there's something wrong with the code I've written (be it a syntax or logical error), then the shapes react in a way that I'll call "dissonant". I pay attention to that signal and more consciously analyze what I've just done, to find the error.

genmon · 6 months ago

The reason I ask: there's a story about a physicist who was so kinaesthetic in his thinking that somebody walked into his office to find him rolling around on the floor, trying to embody rotations from the point of view of a particular system or something...

I can't say that my own subjective feelings while coding are so useful! But I like to imagine that they're a meaningful contributor to my "taste" of what good/bad looks like

(Wish I could track down the reference)

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

jebarker · 6 months ago

For others that found the website design made it difficult to read the post: there's a "quiet mode" button at the top right.

genmon · 6 months ago

(blog post author here) I added Quiet Mode because of the feedback last time one of my posts hit HN, it was chaos haha

(btw you can hit / to enter cursor chat, it's fun if a bit distracting)

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

JohnFen · 6 months ago

> But the overall synesthesia? I have no idea. I assume that most people have some form of it? As unfounded as that is.

I don't get the physical reactions that the author describes, but when I'm in the zone, I literally stop seeing or being aware of the screen, keyboard, etc. and start "seeing" groups of geometric shapes that interact with each other in my mind.

The nature of that doesn't change according to the language I happen to be using, but the language choice can absolutely affect how easy it is to get in the zone. Some languages are better suited to certain kinds of tasks than others, and if I'm using one that isn't well-suited then entering the zone is simply impossible. Instead, I just feel like I'm fighting the language.

genmon · 6 months ago

Fascinating! Is the mental picture a side effect, or do you feel like it helps you reason about/manipulate the shape of the code?

genmon commented on The subjective experience of coding in different programming languages (2023) interconnected.org/home/2... · Posted by u/solarwindy

danielvaughn · 6 months ago

I'd have to think more about the synesthetic experience, but I'll never forget that my fingers hurt when I wrote Objective-C. I could never locate what the source was; I could have been pressing harder on the keyboard, or I could have been holding tension in my hands. But the language quite literally felt different in a very real, physical way.

edit: it could also have just been me typing with more frustration due to XCode :p

genmon · 6 months ago

Great observation. Definitely something about those square brackets which puts my right hand in tension

genmon commented on Melvyn Bragg steps down from presenting In Our Time bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/202... · Posted by u/aways

genmon · 6 months ago

Here's a t-SNE map of all 1,000+ episodes:

https://www.braggoscope.com/explore

(Outside the UK, the "Listen" link doesn't work except for the most recent ~350 episodes. You'll need to get the program page link instead which is in the footer.)