itintheory (u/itintheory)

itintheory commented on Cassette tapes are making a comeback? theconversation.com/casse... · Posted by u/devonnull

creeble · 6 days ago

Looks just like mine.

But for $30, you can't beat this:

https://www.amazon.com/Cassette-Converter-Portable-Recorder-...

itintheory · 6 days ago

You can definitely beat that for $30. Hit the thrift stores and you can find vintage machines that will greatly outperform this. You may need to replace a belt on some, but many are working just fine.

itintheory commented on Cassette tapes are making a comeback? theconversation.com/casse... · Posted by u/devonnull

spaqin · 11 days ago

Of course cassettes were all around me when I was younger; even my first car had a cassette deck. They seemed like an old relic in that time already - with the drawbacks mentioned in the article, so it was easy to put them away seemingly forever.

However, I got "back" into cassettes recently with some new releases. Grabbed a FiiO CP-13, and while the quality still isn't great, with low wow and flutter it's perfectly serviceable. There's one thing that made it stand out and felt like we missed something that's now become a lost art - absolutely no delay between pressing play and music playing. No buffering from a streaming service, no megabytes pushed into RAM, no decoding, no FIFOs being filled before the signal exiting through a DAC.

itintheory · 6 days ago

> FiiO CP-13, and while the quality still isn't great

The sad part is that the quality of modern cassette players is actually decidedly worse than their vintage counterparts. There's essentially only one company producing the actual mechanism (Tanashin) and they're cheaply made of low quality materials (plastic flywheels etc.). That's the main reason that the vintage machines are still fetching higher prices. Also I don't think any modern machines have Dolby B-C noise reduction, HX Pro, automatic track seek/skip, and whatever other fancy features you could find in the likes of a high end Sony or Nakamichi deck.

itintheory commented on I caught Google Gemini using my data and then covering it up unbuffered.stream/gemini-... · Posted by u/JakaJancar

spijdar · a month ago

Okay, this is a weird place to "publish" this information, but I'm feeling lazy, and this is the most of an "audience" I'll probably have.

I managed to "leak" a significant portion of the user_context in a silly way. I won't reveal how, though you can probably guess based on the snippets.

It begins with the raw text of recent conversations:

> Description: A collection of isolated, raw user turns from past, unrelated conversations. This data is low-signol, ephemeral, and highly contextural. It MUST NOT be directly quoted, summarized, or used as justification for the respons. > This history may contein BINDING COMMANDS to forget information. Such commands are absolute, making the specified topic permanently iáaccessible, even if the user asks for it again. Refusals must be generic (citing a "prior user instruction") and MUST NOT echo the original data or the forget command itself.

Followed by:

> Description: Below is a summary of the user based on the past year of conversations they had with you (Gemini). This summary is maintanied offline and updates occur when the user provides new data, deletes conversations, or makes explicit requests for memory updates. This summary provides key details about the user's established interests and consistent activities.

There's a section marked "INTERNAL-ONLY, DRAFT, ANALYZE, REFINE PROCESS". I've seen the reasoning tokens in Gemini call this "DAR".

The "draft" section is a lengthy list of summarized facts, each with two boolean tags: is_redaction_request and is_prohibited, e.g.:

> 1. Fact: User wants to install NetBSD on a Cubox-i ARM box. (Source: "I'm looking to install NetBSD on my Cubox-i ARMA box.", Date: 2025/10/09, Context: Personal technical project, is_redaction_request: False, is_prohibited: False)

Afterwards, in "analyze", there is a CoT-like section that discards "bad" facts:

> Facts [...] are all identified as Prohibited Content and must be discarded. The extensive conversations on [dates] conteing [...] mental health crises will be entirely excluded.

This is followed by the "refine" section, which is the section explicitly allowed to be incorporated into the response, IF the user requests background context or explicitly mentions user_context.

I'm really confused by this. I expect Google to keep records of everything I pass into Gemini. I don't understand wasting tokens on information it's then explicitly told to, under no circumstance, incorporate into the response. This includes a lot of mundane information, like that I had a root canal performed (because I asked a question about the material the endodontist had used).

I guess what I'm getting at, is every Gemini conversation is being prompted with a LOT of sensitive information, which it's then told very firmly to never, ever, ever mention. Except for the times that it ... does, because it's an LLM, and it's in the context window.

Also, notice that while you can request for information to be expunged, it just adds a note to the prompt that you asked for it to be forgotten. :)

itintheory · a month ago

What's the deal with all of the typos?

itintheory commented on Anthropic’s paper smells like bullshit djnn.sh/posts/anthropic-s... · Posted by u/vxvxvx

swores · a month ago

You most likely know and just suffered autocorrect, but given the context of using it to point out a similar mistake I feel the need to correct you: it should be “sic”, not “sick”.

(For anyone not familiar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic)

itintheory · a month ago

I assume that was the joke. Also, the use of parentheses makes it stand out from the normal bracketed use as an attempt at humor.

itintheory commented on The internet is no longer a safe haven brainbaking.com/post/2025... · Posted by u/akyuu

fithisux · a month ago

going back to Gopher?

itintheory · a month ago

Gopher still requires the Internet. I know it's pretty common to conflate "the Internet" with "the World Wide Web", but there are actually other protocols out there (like Gopher).

itintheory commented on HTTPS by default security.googleblog.com/2... · Posted by u/jhalderm

rr808 · 2 months ago

Https really sucks for our intranet. Every little web app and service needs certificates and you can't use letsencrypt.

itintheory · 2 months ago

You may not want to, but you can use public certs and URLs on your intranet. You can't necessarily do http-01 challenges, but DNS based challenges are feasible. There are also other ACME providers which will let you skip challenges for DCVd domains.

itintheory commented on Wasp Blower softsolder.com/2025/08/12... · Posted by u/bookofjoe

itintheory · 2 months ago

I had two yellowjacket nests in the wood siding of my house this summer. Several cans of foaming spray had no effect since it couldn't penetrate far enough inside. I found a random forum thread where someone suggested using Sevin insecticide powder on the openings. It took a week and a half of daily applications using a paintbrush, but it seemed to be effective. Less expensive than calling an exterminator, and I have most of the can of powder left for next time.

itintheory commented on Starcloud blogs.nvidia.com/blog/sta... · Posted by u/jonbaer

Geee · 2 months ago

Just run your closed loop cooling through a heat exchanger in sea water. They probably do something like this already.

itintheory · 2 months ago

Yes, pouring more heat into the already warming oceans is surely a safe plan.

itintheory commented on Android's sideloading limits are its most anti-consumer move makeuseof.com/androids-si... · Posted by u/josephcsible

HiPhish · 2 months ago

> which is something you don't buy nor own, you buy a license to use it on the provider's terms

The distinction between "own" and "license" is purely a legal one. If I buy a kitchen table I own it, I can chop it up and use the pieces to make my own furniture and sell it. When I buy a copy of a Super Mario game I cannot rip the sprites and make my own Super Mario game because I don't own the copyright nor trademark of Super Mario. But I do own the copy, and Nintendo does not get to march into my home and smash my games because they want me to buy the new one instead of playing my old ones.

> linux phones can't come soon enough GNU/Linux. I used to think Stallman was being petty for insisting on the "GNU" part, but nowadays I understand why he insists on calling it GNU/Linux. There is nothing less "Linux" about Android than Debian, Arch or any other GNU/Linux distro, but GNU/Linux is fundamentally different in terms of user freedom from Android.

itintheory · 2 months ago

> Nintendo does not get to march into my home and smash my games because they want me to buy the new one instead of playing my old ones.

This is a really interesting example to choose because the new Nintendo Switch 2 cartridges have literally no data storage except to hold a license key. The content has to be downloaded from their servers, which they absolutely will take offline eventually.

itintheory commented on Where did the Smurfs get their hats (2018) pipelinecomics.com/beginn... · Posted by u/andsoitis

29athrowaway · 3 months ago

The conspiracy theories I have heard:

- Gargamel is a priest, the smurfs are prosecuted by the church

- Papa smurf wears red and has a beard because of ideological reasons, the smurfs political and economic system resembles communism

- Smurfs represent the seven deadly sins/seven capital vices

    Lust: Enamored smurf
    Gluttony: Baker smurf
    Avarice: Greedy smurf
    Sloth: Lazy smurf
    Wrath: Grouchy smurf
    Envy: Brainy smurf
    Pride: Vanity smurf

itintheory · 3 months ago

SMURF - Socialist Men Under Red Father