snozolli (u/snozolli)

snozolli commented on Slop Terrifies Me ezhik.jp/ai-slop-terrifie... · Posted by u/Ezhik

chung8123 · 2 days ago

AI slop is similar to the cheap tools at harbor freight. Before we used to have to buy really expensive tools that were designed to last forever and perform a ton of jobs. Now we can just go to harbor freight and get a tool that is good enough for most people.

80% of good maybe reframed as 100% ok for 80% of the people. It is when you are in the minority that cares about or needs that last 20% where it is a problem because the 80% were subsidizing your needs by buying more than the need.

snozolli · 2 days ago

Before we used to have to buy really expensive tools that were designed to last forever and perform a ton of jobs. Now we can just go to harbor freight and get a tool that is good enough for most people.

This just isn't true. First, cheap tools have always been around. I have a few that I've inherited from my grandfather and great-grandfather. They're junk and I keep them specifically to remind myself that consumer-oriented trash versions of better quality tools have always existed.

Second, Harbor Freight is the only consumer-oriented tool retailer that seems to be consistently improving their product lines. Craftsman, which was the benchmark for quality, consumer-oriented hand tools, dropped off a cliff in terms of quality around the mid- to late-2000s.

If you can afford professional-grade tools (Snap-On, Mac, Wera, Knipex, etc.) great. For the rest of us, Harbor Freight is the only retailer looking out for us. Their American- and Taiwanese-made tools are excellent. Their Chinese-made tools are good. Their Indian-made tools will get the job done, but it won't be pleasant. At least they give the consumer a range of options, unlike Snap-On, which gives you a payment plan.

snozolli commented on 1 kilobyte is precisely 1000 bytes? waspdev.com/articles/2026... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

cedilla · 7 days ago

You've got it exactly the wrong way around. And that with such great confidence!

There was always a confusion about whether a kilobyte was 1000 or 1024 bytes. Early diskettes always used 1000, only when the 8 bit home computer era started was the 1024 convention firmly established.

Before that it made no sense to talk about kilo as 1024. Earlier computers measured space in records and words, and I guess you can see how in 1960, no one would use kilo to mean 1024 for a 13 bit computer with 40 byte records. A kiloword was, naturally, 1000 words, so why would a kilobyte be 1024?

1024 bearing near ubiquitous was only the case in the 90s or so - except for drive manufacturing and signal processing. Binary prefixes didn't invent the confusion, they were a partial solution. As you point out, while it's possible to clearly indicate binary prefixes, we have no unambiguous notation for decimal bytes.

snozolli · 7 days ago

only when the 8 bit home computer era started was the 1024 convention firmly established.

That's the microcomputer era that has defined the vast majority of our relationship with computers.

IMO, having lived through this era, the only people pushing 1,000 byte kilobytes were storage manufacturers, because it allows them to bump their numbers up.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-nov-03-fi-seaga...

snozolli commented on A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks twitter.com/karpathy/stat... · Posted by u/bigwheels

runarberg · 13 days ago

Have you ever learnt a foreign language (say Mongolian, or Danish) and then never spoken it, nor even read anything in it for over 10 years? It is not like riding a bike, it doesn’t just come back like that. You have to actually relearn the language, practice it, and you will suck at it for months. Comprehension comes first (within weeks) but you will be speaking with grammatical errors, mispronunciations, etc. for much longer. You won‘t have to learn the language from scratch, second time around is much easier, but you will have to put in the effort. And if you use google translate instead of your brain, you won‘t relearn the language at all. You will simply forget it.

snozolli · 11 days ago

I studied Spanish for years in school, then never really used it. Ten years later, I started studying Japanese. Whenever I got stuck, Spanish would come out. Spanish that I didn't even consciously remember. AFAIK, foreign languages are all stored in the same part of the brain, and once you warm up those neurons, they all get activated.

Not that it's in any way relevant to programming. I will say that after dropping programming for years, I can still explain a lot of specifics, and when I dive back in, it all floods right back. Personally, I'm convinced that any competent, experienced programmer could take a multi-year break, then come back and be right up to speed with the latest software stack in only slightly longer than the stack transition would have taken without a break.

snozolli commented on Presence in Death rubinmuseum.org/presence-... · Posted by u/tock

fpoling · 18 days ago

There are stories about bodies of Christian monks that did not decompose for a log time after the dearth. Modern take on it attributes it to the climate in caves where the body was put after the dearth. But another important part was diet. Often the well-preserved bodies were of those who had eaten only rough bread and water for months and years before the dearth.

So I suspect both of the factors are at the play here as well.

snozolli · 18 days ago

I read an article about this years ago and came away with the impression that they were effectively mummifying themselves before death. From the Wikipedia page on sokushinbutsu:

In medieval Japan, this tradition developed a process for sokushinbutsu, which a monk completed over about 3,000 days. It involved a strict diet called mokujiki (literally, 'eating a tree'). The monk abstained from any cereals and relied on pine needles, resins, and seeds found in the mountains, which would eliminate all fat in the body. Increasing rates of fasting and meditation would lead to starvation. The monks would slowly reduce then stop liquid intake, thus dehydrating the body and shrinking all organs.

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

snozolli commented on Ask HN: Burned out from tech, what else is there? · Posted by u/bleosh

snozolli · 20 days ago

As someone who has experienced a similar burnout, I would recommend that you seek new experiences, expose yourself to different kinds of people, and reflect deeply on what you find rewarding in life.

Personally, I grew to hate tech, especially in SV and the Bay Area. I never minded the work itself, but what killed me was the sheer douchebaggery. It was a magnet for awful people, drawn in by the earning potential. I'm not speaking, generally, of other developers, but mostly of management, project management, etc. I even worked for a CEO who, I believe, was a literal psychopath, who felt entitled to free labor.

If I were doing it over again, with the savings I had from working on tech, I would immediately pursue whatever struck my interest. I'd get a CDL and drive trucks for a while. I would get a teaching degree and try that for a few years. If I were able-bodied, I would get a nursing degree and see how I felt about that.

I've recently started dating a nurse practitioner, and she's really opened my eyes to what's out there. Nursing is in extreme demand, similar to what I saw in tech back in the late 90s. It's taxing work (physically, mentally, and emotionally), but deeply gratifying if you're the right kind of person. It also allows for a lot of options, like working four tens or three twelves, giving a lot of flexibility for adventure on your days off. Again, if that's your thing. You can pursue a (very difficult) graduate degree and become a nurse practitioner, earning 150k - 180k in areas with far lower housing costs than the Bay Area. As it turns out, I really like being around empathetic people, and I would have been far happier in this kind of role than I ever have been slinging code for projects that will most likely disappear into the void in a few years.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is finding out what matters to you. I don't know how to fast-track that, which is why I say to just pursue whatever strikes your interest. The worst thing you can do is be indecisive and sink into aimless depression.

Speaking of depression, consider therapy. Chances are good that you're depressed. IMO, most people would be after a decade of soulless tech work.

snozolli commented on Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic? · Posted by u/publicdebates

snozolli · 25 days ago

Third places. Become a regular at game night, church (if you're into that), join a bowling league, join organized dinners through meetup.com or whatever the modern version is, take up martial arts, take adult education classes outside your existing interests. There are more options out there than ever before.

Read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feinman" and really absorb the part where he explains how he had so many crazy adventures and encounters.

snozolli commented on Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic? · Posted by u/publicdebates

alecco · 25 days ago

But that's like befriending others through the kids. Those usually are very shallow relationships. If they suddenly stop seeing you they wouldn't even check if you are OK or what happened. I guess it's better than nothing but that's not for me.

snozolli · 25 days ago

You seem extremely judgemental and narrow in your view of the world. This is probably why you have difficulty forming deep friendships without the social proof of family.

As a counter example, I've made some of the best friends of my life through walking my dog at the local dog park over the last decade. Seeing how people are dedicated to and treat their dogs gives me a great insight into their personalities.

snozolli commented on Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic? · Posted by u/publicdebates

wbobeirne · a month ago

Anecdotally, I've had a lot of people in my life recede after getting pets. They're an excellent excuse to say no to things that you might otherwise do, because you need to get home and take care of the pet or you can't find a sitter to go on a trip etc.

Not generalizing to all people, but I think for some a pet can reinforce anti-social tendencies.

snozolli · 25 days ago

Dogs are a bit like having kids, if you embrace it. They make it tougher to do extended trips (e.g. foreign countries), but you can develop an entire social network through them. Doing dog-related trips is a new world of opportunities. I did a three night stay across the state with a bunch of my dog park friends a few years ago. Hikes with the dogs during the day, beer and board games every evening.

snozolli commented on James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies fordauthority.com/2025/12... · Posted by u/NaOH

nutjob2 · a month ago

First time I've heard of that convention.

snozolli · a month ago

Because it's a myth. It used to go around Reddit regularly.

There's even a Snopes entry:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fuel-icon-foolery/

snozolli commented on Stranger Things creator says turn off “garbage” settings screenrant.com/stranger-t... · Posted by u/1970-01-01

Shorel · a month ago

Anyone who mentions: "the soap opera effect" is someone who used to watch soap operas. The reason they dislike it, is their own bad taste.

I like how it looks because it is "high quality videogame effect" for me. 60 hz, 120hz, 144hz, you only get this on a good videogame setup.

snozolli · a month ago

It's called the soap opera effect because soap operas were shot on video tape, instead of film, to save money. It wasn't just soap operas, either. Generally, people focus on frame rate, but there are other factors, too, like how video sensors capture light across the spectrum differently than film.