slightwinder (u/slightwinder)

slightwinder commented on The MiniPC Revolution jadarma.github.io/blog/po... · Posted by u/ingve

dgfitz · 2 days ago

> I want plug and play, but consoles have their own problems and limitations.

How so? A console is literally a gaming PC.

I can see the point of “need multiple consoles because game X isn’t on console Y” or “I’d like to play an RTS/MMO that isn’t on a console” but since you mentioned gamepads that point mostly dies.

I also haven’t ever had a PS5 or Switch controller lose link from a console because someone walks or stands between myself and the console.

slightwinder · 2 days ago

> How so? A console is literally a gaming PC.

Consoles are walled gardens, while PC is an open park. On a proper PC, you can choose anything from everything, while consoles are very restricted in terms of software and ability. I mean, think about modding, running other software besides the game (browser, (voice-)chat, etc.), having special hardware like a mouse, keyboard, capture-card, a second screen... Consoles are again slowly those things, but it's still not the same as a proper Gaming-PC.

slightwinder commented on The MiniPC Revolution jadarma.github.io/blog/po... · Posted by u/ingve

pjmlp · 2 days ago

First of all they can make it easier option for OEMs go for Windows/XBox handhelds and thus push SteamDeck out of market, by making it a niche device only a minority cares about, netbooks attack plan style, which they are starting now.

They can also introduce Windows/DirectX APIs that Proton will have a hard time copying, by requiring additional hardware or subsystem features not easily copyable.

They can let their legal team have some fun.

Finally, companies don't last forever, and I am betting as the 2nd most valuable company in the planet, Microsoft will outlive Steam's current management and eventually deal with the problem in another way.

slightwinder · 2 days ago

> First of all they can make it easier option for OEMs go for Windows/XBox handhelds and thus push SteamDeck out of market, by making it a niche device only a minority cares about, netbooks attack plan style, which they are starting now.

Steamdeck is already a niche device, and they have direct competition since years now. Optimizing the software and interface won't probably make it much worse for Valve.

> They can also introduce Windows/DirectX APIs that Proton will have a hard time copying, by requiring additional hardware or subsystem features not easily copyable.

Seems unrealistic that games will adapt a new restricted API, which at the same will be a longterm hazzle for Wine/Proton, and will survive that court-battles. At best, it's just some annoying money-sink, with Microsoft playing on time to make it worse for everyone without gaining any real advantage.

> Finally, companies don't last forever, and I am betting as the 2nd most valuable company in the planet, Microsoft will outlive Steam's current management and eventually deal with the problem in another way.

That's actually realistic, but there is also the chance that valve will be outliving Windows and has to battle with whatever will follow.

slightwinder commented on Code formatting comes to uv experimentally pydevtools.com/blog/uv-fo... · Posted by u/tanelpoder

charliermarsh · 6 days ago

To clarify, `ruff` and `uv` aren't being merged. They remain separate tools. This is more about providing a simpler experience for users that don't want to think about their formatter as a separate tool.

The analogy would be to Cargo: `cargo fmt` just runs `rustfmt`, but you can also run `rustfmt` separately if you want.

slightwinder · 6 days ago

> To clarify, `ruff` and `uv` aren't being merged.

ruff at least seems to be compiled into uv, as the format worked here without a local ruff. This is significant more than just an interface. Whether they are managed and developed as separate tools doesn't matter.

> This is more about providing a simpler experience for users that don't want to think about their formatter as a separate tool.

Then build a separate interface, some script/binary acting as a unified interface, maybe with its separate distribution of all tools. Pushing it into uv is just adding a burden to those who don't want this.

uv and ruff are poor names anyway, this could be used to at least introduce a good name for this everything-python-tool they seem to aim for.

slightwinder commented on Crimes with Python's Pattern Matching (2022) hillelwayne.com/post/pyth... · Posted by u/agluszak

augusto-moura · 6 days ago

Problem is, we already have a syntax for empty lists [], empty tuples (), and {} is taken for an empty dict. So having a syntax for an empty set actually makes sense to me

slightwinder · 6 days ago

Making sense, and being good, is not necessary the same.

Yes, having a solution for this makes sense, but the proposed solutions are just not good. Sometimes one has to admit that not everything can be solved gracefully and just stop, hunting the whale.

slightwinder commented on Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology (1986) rudyrucker.com/mirrorshad... · Posted by u/keepamovin

Michelangelo11 · 8 days ago

How is this "free online edition" distinct from piracy, in that case?

slightwinder · 8 days ago

It's free to read, not free to use. As it's from one of the involved authors, they probably got permission for this release. The problem with piracy is lack of permission/consent, not the act itself.

People are making books freely available all the time, even those they sell on other platforms. Nothing wrong with this.

slightwinder commented on Obsidian Bases help.obsidian.md/bases... · Posted by u/twapi

isege · 9 days ago

It’s a markdown editor, but they can’t modify the markdown standard, so their scope is limited. All they can do is build features around it.

Having a database isn’t mutually exclusive with the core functionality. You can simply not use it.

slightwinder · 9 days ago

> It’s a markdown editor, but they can’t modify the markdown standard,

They have several modifications of Markdown, everyone has. But not everything makes sense to implement in a flavour of Markdown. YAML is for structured data significant better than a freeform-format, especially when you're in the phase of building the foundation of a new feature-family.

The complain is valid, Markdown is for documents, free form, free flow, structured data are a very different use case, and while YAML is better for the job, it's still a different language with different smell.

But Obsidian is a tool for managing knowledge, always has been; it's not just a plain Markdown-editor. All those features which are going beyond simple flavoured text, have always been part of it's Core-Mission, just not materialized yet.

slightwinder commented on Obsidian Bases help.obsidian.md/bases... · Posted by u/twapi

appplemac · 9 days ago

Hm I was hoping this would be about Obsidian-based Wikis.

slightwinder · 9 days ago

Obsidian is already a wiki in itself.

slightwinder commented on Obsidian Bases help.obsidian.md/bases... · Posted by u/twapi

torium · 9 days ago

> The first sentence of the documentation already says it: "turn any set of notes into a powerful database

No, horrible job at explaining. What does it mean to turn any set of notes into a powerful database? What does it mean to "turn"? Does it mean that a file will become a database? Or does it mean that a file can be interpreted as a database? And why set of notes? If I have a single note, can I turn that into a database too? Are the records of the database files, or items in a file? What is happening when I type ![[Untitled.base]]? Is the file where I typed that a database now? Or does that text assume that the file named Untitled must be a database?

They do a horrible job at explaining it.

slightwinder · 9 days ago

> What does it mean to turn any set of notes into a powerful database?

You must be fun at parties. Complaining about everything, but not even bother to read the damn manual... It's explained on the third sentence on that site. Ok, to be fair, there is a big picture between those parts, and you have to follow some links for more details.

> And why set of notes?

Just curious, do you even know Obsidian? Have you ever used it? You read like someone who has no clue about this software, jump right in the middle of the manual, and then complain that you missed the tutorial.

Obsidian is a markdown-editor with knowledge base. Notes are its lifeline, and they have since nearly the beginning the option to put metadata into each note in a special section (in yaml), basically the header of the note. This metadata are now called properties. Bases is a feature building up on this metadata, offering a database-like experience for viewing and editing them in a specialized UI. The database, is the vault, the folder+subfolder containing the notes. Each note is a row in that database.

This is all explained in the documentation, if you just would read it...

slightwinder commented on Obsidian Bases help.obsidian.md/bases... · Posted by u/twapi

atoav · 9 days ago

Yes, but the average Obsidian user may or may not know what a database is an why they should care. As an engineer I like precise language, but we should not forget that multiple audiences require multiple levels of explainations.

Otherwise it is a bit like saying "all monads are functors" when trying to make your reader care for investing time and energy into understanding the concept of monads. The problem there of course is that explaination is circular: without the reader knowing what a monad or a functor is they can't understand the explaination.

A good explaination gives you the technically correct slogan in the beginning (for the advanced readers) and then explains the words and what you can do with such a database and why you should care. Many explainations skip the last step and leave that part as an exercise to the reader.

slightwinder · 9 days ago

> Yes, but the average Obsidian user may or may not know what a database

You can't constantly optimize your communication for the least educated recipient. Obsidian is full of technical, specialized terms. If you don't know a word, research it.

And database as a concept is common knowledge today. Everyone will have the word heard in news at least, most will have a rough understanding of its purpose. And people using obsidian are usually not the most uneducated, there have a certain level of technical expertise. Most will also know and understand the dataview-plugin.

slightwinder commented on Obsidian Bases help.obsidian.md/bases... · Posted by u/twapi

abrookewood · 9 days ago

I don't think they do that good a job of explaining what it is, but the Reddit post linked below included this comment which is helptful: "You know how when you search your notes for something, say a phrase? Well, Bases can basically hold a static search that automatically updates. And, instead of searching all over again, you just click into the Bases file and new notes are just there in the default table format.

On top of that, you can add other properties to the view, especially one like modified date, which updates every time you modify the file. This is useful for seeing which files you haven't looked at in a while. Old concepts often apply to new ones, but we sometimes forget to check back to make that connection explicit."

slightwinder · 9 days ago

The first sentence of the documentation already says it: "turn any set of notes into a powerful database". It's really just that, basically. It's a database-view, where the vault is the database and the rows are your files. There is a fancy GUI for creating views, and it seems there is the ability for live-editing data from within the view. Basically a more user-friendly replacement for the very popular dataview-plugin.

Maybe it's a bit harder to understand, as it's a more mushy than the usual relational database.