@vraghuram.bsky.social
Software Engineer. I think about the Roman Empire more often than I ought to. Views my own.
You should turn off your watch history as well. It’s an annoying combination of knobs you have to twiddle before your home page goes completely blank.
May 3, 2025 at 7:36 PM
You should turn off your watch history as well. It’s an annoying combination of knobs you have to twiddle before your home page goes completely blank.
Pro tip: you can turn off recommendations entirely on YouTube, via the settings. It’s made my experience a whole lot healthier, because now I only see the videos I explicitly search for or subscribe to.
May 3, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Pro tip: you can turn off recommendations entirely on YouTube, via the settings. It’s made my experience a whole lot healthier, because now I only see the videos I explicitly search for or subscribe to.
Now that I think of it, it would be really scary if compilers used AI to generate machine code…
April 26, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Now that I think of it, it would be really scary if compilers used AI to generate machine code…
Another thing is that, as LLMs generate code, if they generate a bug, I can pretty easily find and fix it myself. What happens when we start treating AI-generated outputs as black boxes? Does fixing bugs become a matter of arguing with an LLM until you get a thing you’re sort of confident will work?
April 26, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Another thing is that, as LLMs generate code, if they generate a bug, I can pretty easily find and fix it myself. What happens when we start treating AI-generated outputs as black boxes? Does fixing bugs become a matter of arguing with an LLM until you get a thing you’re sort of confident will work?
My own experience is that LLMs are useful for coding only because I already know what I’m doing. They’re no substitute for an expert developer, but they help a lot, especially with repetitive work (including writing unit tests).
April 26, 2025 at 9:02 PM
My own experience is that LLMs are useful for coding only because I already know what I’m doing. They’re no substitute for an expert developer, but they help a lot, especially with repetitive work (including writing unit tests).
This is all a dog-and-pony show by the DoJ. I would love a Lambo, but I have neither the money nor the space in my garage to have one. There is only one company in the world with both the money and the product fit to buy Chrome, and that’s Microsoft.
April 25, 2025 at 3:35 PM
This is all a dog-and-pony show by the DoJ. I would love a Lambo, but I have neither the money nor the space in my garage to have one. There is only one company in the world with both the money and the product fit to buy Chrome, and that’s Microsoft.
Yeah Indo-sushi is definitely new. Did it actually taste Indian, or was it just, like, sushi that happened to be served at an Indian restaurant?
Incidentally, while I’d never heard of Indo-sushi, Japanese curry does originate from Indian spices by way of the British.
Incidentally, while I’d never heard of Indo-sushi, Japanese curry does originate from Indian spices by way of the British.
April 18, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Yeah Indo-sushi is definitely new. Did it actually taste Indian, or was it just, like, sushi that happened to be served at an Indian restaurant?
Incidentally, while I’d never heard of Indo-sushi, Japanese curry does originate from Indian spices by way of the British.
Incidentally, while I’d never heard of Indo-sushi, Japanese curry does originate from Indian spices by way of the British.
To add, Indo-Chinese dishes are still incredibly popular in India today.
April 18, 2025 at 6:31 PM
To add, Indo-Chinese dishes are still incredibly popular in India today.
For anyone who doesn’t know, “Indo-Chinese” is really a thing. Basically it’s a kind of creole cuisine created by Chinese immigrants who settled in Calcutta and Bombay during the 19th century.
April 18, 2025 at 6:26 PM
For anyone who doesn’t know, “Indo-Chinese” is really a thing. Basically it’s a kind of creole cuisine created by Chinese immigrants who settled in Calcutta and Bombay during the 19th century.
As crass as it sounds, maybe someone should make a Netflix adaptation of “The Jungle.”
April 8, 2025 at 1:16 PM
As crass as it sounds, maybe someone should make a Netflix adaptation of “The Jungle.”
Isn’t this backwards? Didn’t the push for self-government come as a result of heavy taxation (which, in turn, came from heavy expenses the British ran up during the Seven Years’ War)?
April 3, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Isn’t this backwards? Didn’t the push for self-government come as a result of heavy taxation (which, in turn, came from heavy expenses the British ran up during the Seven Years’ War)?
UCs and CSU do by ballot measure, but private schools like Stanford and USC aren’t subject to that
March 28, 2025 at 4:32 AM
UCs and CSU do by ballot measure, but private schools like Stanford and USC aren’t subject to that
I’ve never seen the word “leftist” used except polemically. The minute you see that, you know what to make of the rest of the piece.
March 17, 2025 at 10:42 PM
I’ve never seen the word “leftist” used except polemically. The minute you see that, you know what to make of the rest of the piece.
I feel like just being associated with Zuck and FB was a big reason why the metaverse flopped. Yes, there other reasons, but the public would have been less skeptical at the outset had it been any other company that didn’t have the reputation problems that FB does.
February 9, 2025 at 1:16 AM
I feel like just being associated with Zuck and FB was a big reason why the metaverse flopped. Yes, there other reasons, but the public would have been less skeptical at the outset had it been any other company that didn’t have the reputation problems that FB does.
It’s as if they’re like “who can we find who has absolutely no business running a restaurant? Let’s feature them!”
Except for Momma Cherri; we need more episodes like that.
Except for Momma Cherri; we need more episodes like that.
February 8, 2025 at 1:49 AM
It’s as if they’re like “who can we find who has absolutely no business running a restaurant? Let’s feature them!”
Except for Momma Cherri; we need more episodes like that.
Except for Momma Cherri; we need more episodes like that.
I tend to believe this; I happen to be reading now about how the modern synthetics industry was created in a span of a couple of years in the US, while it faced critical resource shortages during WWII. As they say, necessity is the mother of innovation.
January 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM
I tend to believe this; I happen to be reading now about how the modern synthetics industry was created in a span of a couple of years in the US, while it faced critical resource shortages during WWII. As they say, necessity is the mother of innovation.
What about Temu? Their UX is a dumpster fire, so my hypothesis above doesn’t really apply. I think their appeal is more about making tons - even moreso than Amazon - of dirt-cheap shit available to consumers. Maybe all of the wheel-of-fortune popups help gamify the shopping experience? IDK.
January 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
What about Temu? Their UX is a dumpster fire, so my hypothesis above doesn’t really apply. I think their appeal is more about making tons - even moreso than Amazon - of dirt-cheap shit available to consumers. Maybe all of the wheel-of-fortune popups help gamify the shopping experience? IDK.
With TikTok, however, small nibbles of content take up the whole screen, and all the user needs to do is swipe to see the next thing. UX is more passive for the user, and signal is more granular for TikTok - hence feedback loop is more powerful.
January 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
With TikTok, however, small nibbles of content take up the whole screen, and all the user needs to do is swipe to see the next thing. UX is more passive for the user, and signal is more granular for TikTok - hence feedback loop is more powerful.
With YT/FB/Amazon, the user is still expected to do a lot of heavy lifting - either supplying search terms themselves or scrolling through their feed until they find content to engage with. User spends more time finding content, and company gets less signal per second of user interaction.
January 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
With YT/FB/Amazon, the user is still expected to do a lot of heavy lifting - either supplying search terms themselves or scrolling through their feed until they find content to engage with. User spends more time finding content, and company gets less signal per second of user interaction.
I don’t think the service/app distinction applies here; FB, YT, and Amazon all have apps to talk to their services, and TikTok has services that power their app. So apps and services work hand-in-hand here. As you pointed out, the diff btw TikTok and the former 3 is down to a “refinement” in UX.
January 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
I don’t think the service/app distinction applies here; FB, YT, and Amazon all have apps to talk to their services, and TikTok has services that power their app. So apps and services work hand-in-hand here. As you pointed out, the diff btw TikTok and the former 3 is down to a “refinement” in UX.
Wow. This reads like something I might have written back in school if I procrastinated too much on a paper.
January 26, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Wow. This reads like something I might have written back in school if I procrastinated too much on a paper.
Maybe not, but it certainly looks like they SEO-ed the shit out of this article.
January 26, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Maybe not, but it certainly looks like they SEO-ed the shit out of this article.
Every nice-ish place has its tradeoffs. If it isn’t fires in LA, it’s earthquakes in the Bay Area, or constant rain in Seattle, or blizzards in the northeast, or hurricanes in FL.
January 10, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Every nice-ish place has its tradeoffs. If it isn’t fires in LA, it’s earthquakes in the Bay Area, or constant rain in Seattle, or blizzards in the northeast, or hurricanes in FL.
(This was State Farm just tbc)
January 8, 2025 at 9:49 PM
(This was State Farm just tbc)