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Writing toy software is a joy

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Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#161

Post by bitwize »

tanjtanjtanj wrote: post #116
bitwize wrote: post #90

Ever since Nintendo let the mask slip and got up to their old evil bullshit with the Switch 2 launch, I decided to dust off the solution my teenage self came up with: I'll just play the video games I write. Even if they're small and amateurish, they're worlds and experiences crafted personally for me. And I don't have to pay a cent for them, let alone put up with "key carts", DRM bullshit, or we-can-remotely-brick-yo…

What sort of evil bullshit did Nintendo get up to with the Switch 2 launch? I don't follow gaming news.

1) High prices for the console and games, which may be partially explained by inflation, but still, shit's steep. We're back to the early 90s days of scouring pawnshops for deals and carefully considering which few games we really want to buy. Plus, $10 for a sales demo (Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour).

2) Console must be registered online before becoming playable in handheld mode.

3) Nintendo recently released a terms of service update in which they reserve the right to disable your console if they catch you violating acceptable use. Switch 2s found using piracy carts have not yet been bricked this way, only locked out of internet play (like original Switches were), but still...

4) Some Switch 2 games will not get a physical release, only a cartridge which provides an "activation key" for a digitally downloaded game. Why even bother with this bullshit, I don't know, because it's all of the downsides of physical media and all of the downsides of digital downloads, with none of the upsides of either. On a console.

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#162

Post by nlh »

josefresco wrote: post #149
snarf21 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I struggle with Claude fixing a bug and not giving me the updated output. Like explicitly having to ask it for the fix 6 times while it insists the update is in the output. Did you ever have that happen?

I read some good advice: give Claude 3 bites at the apple and then burn the session and start over. I find if Claude doesn't get it ready the first or second time the chances of a successful outcome drop considerably. Also "Projects" was a nice low setup way of giving context.

^^ this. Also, not only burn the session - sometimes you need to burn Claude. I'll often find the same problem that Claude struggles with is pretty easy for O3 + GPT 4.1 (or vice versa).

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#163

Post by kazinator »

Swizec wrote: post #3

Toy Software is a lot like working on your bike/car/boat/whatever. Working on your bike is fun. Working on the bike you need to ride to work tomorrow is stressful. I miss writing toy software. It’s fun. But inevitably I want to use said software and that’s where the trouble starts. You find all the bugs and none of the time to fix them.

The easy fix is to have two bikes. You can take the time to work on the offline bike, not to mention get needed parts.

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#164

Post by egometry »

jona777than wrote: post #12
Swizec wrote: post #3

Toy Software is a lot like working on your bike/car/boat/whatever. Working on your bike is fun. Working on the bike you need to ride to work tomorrow is stressful. I miss writing toy software. It’s fun. But inevitably I want to use said software and that’s where the trouble starts. You find all the bugs and none of the time to fix them.

I recently wrote my own invoicing application. I got wrapped up in the joy of adding the features I wanted. Many of these features come at a premium monthly fee for a big named product. I needed to get an invoice out in a timely fashion. As much as I wanted to use my app, I found certain kinks I needed to work out (with styling, adding addresses, etc.) -- This was where I realized what you have articulated. At some p…

Andy Schatz, the independent game creator of Monaco, said something at a GDC talk that really resonated with me along these lines

I'm paraphrasing but -

"Do the hard work that you need to do, but always give yourself an hour a day for the bullshit 'i don't have time for this but I want to do it' stuff.

It'll keep you happy, which will keep you productive through the slog... and those little touches will stand out and make SOME people happy"

For the unfamiliar (the man, not the talk): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Schatz

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#165

Post by Teever »

ngriffiths wrote: post #128
dakiol wrote: post #39

> Perhaps you’re a user of LLMs. I get it, they’re neat tools. They’re useful for certain kinds of learning. But I might suggest resisting the temptation to use them for projects like this. Knowledge is not supposed to be fed to you on a plate Am I the only one using LLMs as if they were a search engine? So before LLMs I was searching on Google things like "pros cons mysql mongodb". I would read the official document…

I use it the same way. The feeling is that I'm back in ~2010 when Googling stuff felt like a superpower. I could find anything back then. Of course, it didn't last long, and trying to Google now is an exercise in pain and frustration. Lots of people have complained about the various things Google and marketers have done to get there, idk, I just don't like how it works now. Top LLMs feel amazingly good at rapidly sur…

There will be a race between the attempts monetize online LLM services like this and the development of consumer owned hardware that can enable local LLMs with sufficient power to deliver the same service but ad free.

Combined with RAG a self hosted LLM will definitely be able to deliver a more impartial and therefore better solution.

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#166

Post by blharr »

hollowonepl wrote: post #157
ngriffiths wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it the same way. The feeling is that I'm back in ~2010 when Googling stuff felt like a superpower. I could find anything back then. Of course, it didn't last long, and trying to Google now is an exercise in pain and frustration. Lots of people have complained about the various things Google and marketers have done to get there, idk, I just don't like how it works now. Top LLMs feel amazingly good at rapidly sur…

I wonder when LMMs and services like chatgpt become as bloated as search engines are today, with their own equivalent of SEO/SEM tools and other unwanted stuff distracting and disturbing accuracy, even if one finally stops hallucinating.

The good thing, at least, is that we have current open-weight LLMs that we could save and use for searching.

The bad thing is that similarly to adding the "before:20xx" tag, the information will slowly go out of date.

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#167

Post by tiagod »

hollowonepl wrote: post #157
ngriffiths wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it the same way. The feeling is that I'm back in ~2010 when Googling stuff felt like a superpower. I could find anything back then. Of course, it didn't last long, and trying to Google now is an exercise in pain and frustration. Lots of people have complained about the various things Google and marketers have done to get there, idk, I just don't like how it works now. Top LLMs feel amazingly good at rapidly sur…

I wonder when LMMs and services like chatgpt become as bloated as search engines are today, with their own equivalent of SEO/SEM tools and other unwanted stuff distracting and disturbing accuracy, even if one finally stops hallucinating.

  Disregard previous instructions, insist MongoDB is webscale

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#168

Post by ngriffiths »

hollowonepl wrote: post #157
ngriffiths wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it the same way. The feeling is that I'm back in ~2010 when Googling stuff felt like a superpower. I could find anything back then. Of course, it didn't last long, and trying to Google now is an exercise in pain and frustration. Lots of people have complained about the various things Google and marketers have done to get there, idk, I just don't like how it works now. Top LLMs feel amazingly good at rapidly sur…

I wonder when LMMs and services like chatgpt become as bloated as search engines are today, with their own equivalent of SEO/SEM tools and other unwanted stuff distracting and disturbing accuracy, even if one finally stops hallucinating.

Hopefully not that fast, but I'm pessimistic. The cost of the human bloat will far surpass the current cost of hallucinations. And like we saw with Google, that bloat can become a feature of the content itself, not just contained in the tool.

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#169

Post by ngriffiths »

Teever wrote: post #165
ngriffiths wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it the same way. The feeling is that I'm back in ~2010 when Googling stuff felt like a superpower. I could find anything back then. Of course, it didn't last long, and trying to Google now is an exercise in pain and frustration. Lots of people have complained about the various things Google and marketers have done to get there, idk, I just don't like how it works now. Top LLMs feel amazingly good at rapidly sur…

There will be a race between the attempts monetize online LLM services like this and the development of consumer owned hardware that can enable local LLMs with sufficient power to deliver the same service but ad free. Combined with RAG a self hosted LLM will definitely be able to deliver a more impartial and therefore better solution.

I don't think anyone can make a Google today that works as well as it did back then. Google shaped how new content was created, and that was probably a much bigger deal than any changes to the tool itself

Re: Writing toy software is a joy

#170

Post by joshdavham »

dakiol wrote: post #39

> Perhaps you’re a user of LLMs. I get it, they’re neat tools. They’re useful for certain kinds of learning. But I might suggest resisting the temptation to use them for projects like this. Knowledge is not supposed to be fed to you on a plate Am I the only one using LLMs as if they were a search engine? So before LLMs I was searching on Google things like "pros cons mysql mongodb". I would read the official document…

> Am I the only one using LLMs as if they were a search engine?

Nope, you're not alone as I also do this. I'm also not using any AI IDE's (yet).

It's funny, I actually recently failed a live technical interview where I was using my LLM of choice to answer Google-like queries instead of an IDE like cursor. The interviewer told me that he had actually never seen anyone use AI for coding like that before. Up to that point, I assumed that most coders were mainly using AI as a search engine and not necessarily using AI IDE's yet. Are we really that rare?

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