xcf_seetan (u/xcf_seetan)

xcf_seetan commented on Load ZX Spectrum – first Museum dedicated to our first personal computer loadzx.com/en/... · Posted by u/elvis70

pjmlp · 12 days ago

And a double deck tape player, also made into your collection?

That was eventually the next step, for the school trading ground activities.

Not that the Portuguese shops had any original stuff anyway, I bought several games with clear copied covers in black and white, without manuals.

xcf_seetan · 12 days ago

For the ZX81 there was almost none programs! I could get a chess and a flight simulator (1kb Ram), the rest i used to get from printed magazines. But for later with the Spectrum the double deck tape player was a must! We would go to the local shop and buy one game, when home, duplicate it then return it saying that it didn't load well. want another and pick a different one and so on...

xcf_seetan commented on Load ZX Spectrum – first Museum dedicated to our first personal computer loadzx.com/en/... · Posted by u/elvis70

pjmlp · 12 days ago

Indeed, I was part of this generation, the first real computer I got, by opposition to build your own kits from electronic stores, was the Timex 2068 from that same factory.

Only recently I got to understand Timex spotlight in USA was long gone, while in the Iberian Penisula it was still all over the place, alongside ZX Spectrums and some MSX models.

I never knew anyone with a C64 back then.

Then the next computing wave was mostly Amiga, there were some people with Sam Coupe, until Windows 3.1 came to be, which is when I left my dear Timex 2068 into PC land, buying on credit, hardly anyone could afford paying on the spot.

xcf_seetan · 12 days ago

Hi I also was part of this generation. My first was a Sinclair ZX81 with 1 kb ram :)

xcf_seetan commented on Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft? dub.uu.nl/en/news/can-dut... · Posted by u/robtherobber

octaane · 16 days ago

So, I'm going to chip in with a different perspective from that of some other commentators on here. The overwhelming majority of computers in the entire world, used by our entire species, have windows as their OS.

While I applaud the use of alternatives to windows and it's apps, universities teach it because it is what their graduates will use in the real world. Governments use it because while it has it's flaws, it mostly works and is a universal standard. It's the toyota of operating systems. The parts and manpower to repair it and use it are available everywhere, and it's cheap and reliable.

xcf_seetan · 16 days ago

> and manpower to repair it and use it are available everywhere

So why each time i announce myself as working with computers, there is always someone that approaches me saying "great, i have a problem with my computer, can you ..."? I just make them stop and ask "Are you talking about Windows?", and when the answer is affirmative i just say "Sorry, I only work on Linux." and they go "What is that?", lol, i would like you to see their faces when i say "It's a professional system!" and leave. :)

xcf_seetan commented on Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft? dub.uu.nl/en/news/can-dut... · Posted by u/robtherobber

pbreit · 17 days ago

I've gone without Microsoft products for many years now. It's SOOOOO much better.

xcf_seetan · 16 days ago

I ditch Windows in 1996 and went Linux. Really SOOOOO much better. :D

xcf_seetan commented on Show HN: Cynthia – Reliably play MIDI music files – MIT / Portable / Windows blaizenterprises.com/cynt... · Posted by u/blaiz2025

xcf_seetan · 21 days ago

It has a freepascal/lazarus project file, so it can be compiled for a lot of platforms, i don't about midi drivers on those platforms, so midi could not work or need more code.

xcf_seetan commented on The disguised return of EU Chat Control reclaimthenet.org/the-dis... · Posted by u/egorfine

xcf_seetan · a month ago

How about applying this kind of surveillance to the government? After all we are paying for them to rules us, so why not publish all government, politicians, law enforcement, military messages for everyone to read? Why everybody must be treated as a criminal, because they cant do their job of keeping us safe?

xcf_seetan commented on Programming with Less Than Nothing joshmoody.org/blog/progra... · Posted by u/signa11

xcf_seetan · 2 months ago

I'm on Firefox and all i can see is boxes with code... Don't understand what this site is about.

xcf_seetan commented on The security paradox of local LLMs quesma.com/blog/local-llm... · Posted by u/jakozaur

simonw · 2 months ago

Local LLMs may not be exposed to the internet, but if you want them to do something useful you're likely going to hook them up to an internet-accessing harness such as OpenCode or Claude Code or Codex CLI.

xcf_seetan · 2 months ago

Fair enough. Forgive my probably ignorance, but if Claude Code can be attacked like this, doesn’t that means that also foundation LLMs are vulnerable to this, and is not a local LLM thing?

xcf_seetan commented on The security paradox of local LLMs quesma.com/blog/local-llm... · Posted by u/jakozaur

xcf_seetan · 2 months ago

>attackers can exploit local LLMs

I thought that local LLMs means they run on local computers, without being exposed to the internet.

If an attacker can exploit a local LLM, means it already compromised you system and there are better things they can do than trick the LLM to get what they can get directly.

xcf_seetan commented on Show HN: Cadence – A guitar theory app cadenceguitar.com/... · Posted by u/apizon

epiccoleman · 2 months ago

My experience with ear training is that you really need to connect it to your instrument. If you're on the train where you can't play, obviously it can't hurt to train interval recognition and chord quality - but the ultimate point of training your ear is to build that connection between what you hear in your mind and what comes out of your fingers on the instrument.

If there's one "secret trick" exercise for guitar (and other instruments, I assume), it's singing as you play. Put on a loop and try to just sing the notes as you play them. Or scat a little lick and then try to replicate it on the guitar. It's really effective, it feels like it just "gets to the heart of the issue."

It works to boost interval training too - grab a root note somewhere, play, say, a minor third, get that sound into your head, and then sing it as you play it.

Transcription is also really helpful. Print out some blank tab, download Transcribe! so you can slow / loop sections, pick a song you like, grab your instrument, and just start trying to figure it out. It's grueling at first but it gets a lot easier with practice. As a side benefit, you get to steal licks from players you like.

For the most part, the great players are people who did a ton of this - whether it was rock guys listening to the same blues record over and over and learning the licks, or jazz guys doing obsessive transcriptions. Steve Vai famously found his way into Frank Zappa's band because he sent copies of his transcriptions to Zappa himself.

xcf_seetan · 2 months ago

The only "secret trick" to play guitar that I know is practice, practice, practice. Nothing beats everyday practice, even it is for 10 minutes. Not even telling what you can achieve with 4 hours daily practice. The continuous interaction with your instrument, will make you learn that when you hear a sequence of musical notes, your fingers would naturally went to the correct position on the neck to reproduce it, even without thinking.