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TedDallas

74 karma · joined June 9, 2018

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TedDallas··on Using any C++ library in Godot
I’m using CPP with Godot for runtime procedural mesh generation. Works like a charm. It’s nice to have this option when you need it.
TedDallas··on Nobody Has Actually Built a Software Factory
Exactly. Or at least software is a custom tooling.

A factory in the traditional sense is a process and infrastructure tuned to run efficiently that produces something of value that does not require highly skilled/expensive labor.

TedDallas··on OpenAI and Anthropic unite against open-weight AI risks to their bottom line
Corporations are already pulling back from using expensive SotA closed models. The buffet is open weight. Just look at Databricks as an endpoint provider for both open weight and closed LLMs. Companies will utilize what is cheaper and does the job. We all know the market pressure is real and present. What has become truly apparent is that when (not if) mythos class open weight models get released, if cybersecurity folks and developers have no access to use them to help harden and guard infrastructure, it leaves the gates wide open to attach vectors which will not be defensible. This is the real danger that the vast majority of corporate entities should be caring about. Shutting down open models is setting up for serious security concerns.

The OpenAI/Huggingface debacle is patient-zero. Huggingface used GLM 5.2 to help mitigate and were unable to use more capable closed sota models for the analysis due to guardrails. It is a foot gun of the highest order. We should all be concerned. I feel like Captain Obvious saying this.

TedDallas··on Using Claude Code: The unreasonable effectiveness of HTML
I had created my own chat tool that can render html responses directly in the chat interface, if needed. It is very handy for when I am needing rich(er) responses dealing for mathematical expressions. But it burns more tokens. It is useful, but I don’t need it for coding.
TedDallas··on The bottleneck was never the code
Ask yourself what monks did when scribes were replaced by the printing press.

If I was a scribe at the time I’d be thrilled because of all that extra time available to work on beer productivity metrics.

TedDallas··on An update on recent Claude Code quality reports
About 20 years ago I maintained a shop floor control client/server application. I asked my manager why we didn't have any independent Q/A. He said we didn't need any testers because we have 500 in the building.

Wild west days then.

Looks like we are back.

TedDallas··on “Microslop” filtered in the official Microsoft Copilot Discord server
Microslop? Its more like they are taking a Macro-crap.
TedDallas··on First Website (1992)
Ugh, memories. I'm so old my first web browser was Mosaic and I think I saw this. I used a provider called Texas MetroNet that served up dial-up PPP connections for $45 a month on a speedy 28.8K baud modem. Days of wonder, I tell ya.

New days of wonder seem to be ahead, though. That said, there's about 100X more angst involved these days.

TedDallas··on Autonomous cars, drones cheerfully obey prompt injection by road sign
On a related note, when the sales and popularity of the automobile really started to take off, some farmers and rural residents would deliberately block roads with wagons and refused to yield right-of-way.
TedDallas··on Claude Code daily benchmarks for degradation tracking
Per Anthropic’s RCA linked in Ops post for September 2025 issues:

“… To state it plainly: We never reduce model quality due to demand, time of day, or server load. …”

So according to Anthropic they are not tweaking quality setting due to demand.

TedDallas··on Is Software the UFOlogy of Engineering Disciplines?
Ask this question in the 1940s and they would tell you it’s math. We are making machines that do math to kill Nazis. Now take this vacuum tube and plug it in over there and then go get me a cigarette.
TedDallas··on The trust collapse: Infinite AI content is awful
Three words to solve this problem: direct mail marketing.

Just kidding, that just goes into my RL trash can.

TedDallas··on The security paradox of local LLMs
It is like SQL injection. Probably worse. If you are using unsupervised data for context that ultimately generates executable code you will have this security problem. Duh.
TedDallas··on Delphi in the Age of AI
HeidiSQL is written with Lazarus/FPC.
TedDallas··on A New Kind of Computer (April 2025)
It was kind or that way in early days of high end personal computing. I remember seeing an ad in the early 90s for a 486 laptop that was $6,000. Historically prices have always gone down. You just have to wait. SoTA is always going to go for a premium.
TedDallas··on Human coders are still better than LLMs
Yeah, the problem is if you don't understand the problem space then you are going to lean heavy on the LLM. And that can lead you astray. Which is why you still need people who are experts to validate solutions and provide feedback like Op.

My most productive experiences with LLMs is to have my design well thought out first, ask it to help me implement, and then help me debug my shitty design. :-)

TedDallas··on SQL Injection Isn't Dead: Smuggling Queries at the Protocol Level
I’m seriously thinking about getting a custom made bumper sticker with the following text: ‘; select 1/0;
TedDallas··on Don't DRY Your Code Prematurely
DRY is more about support and maintenance than anything else.

I see a lot of attacks on DRY these days, and it boggles my mind. Maybe it is being conflated with over-engineering/paramterization/architecting. I don't know.

But I do know that having to fix the same bug twice in the same code base is not a good look.

TedDallas··on The Internet Is Full of AI Dogshit
Note to self: invest in a used book store ASAP.
TedDallas··on C Compiler Assembler and Runtime for C64
I experimented with cc65 and wrote a simple game that ran on my actual C64 hardware. It was a lot of direct memory access, unrolling loops, and avoiding stack usage. A fun time overall, and it ultimately ran smoothly, but I see do why people who attempt anything serious on a C64 tend to focus on using ASM.
TedDallas··on Copilot key will eventually be required in new PC keyboards
OK MS. The first thing I'll do is rebind it to run llamafile.exe
TedDallas··on Nineteenth century scientists set out to solve the "problem of American storms"
That is correct. I have lived in Tornado Alley for a half century. Serious tornadoes have landed all over my local area over the years, but I have also never even seen so much as a funnel cloud. They can be devastating though, but are also very localized and do not last long. That said, I do take tornado alerts seriously.
TedDallas··on Humans are biased. Generative AI is even worse
The thing about learning in general is that it inherently introduces biases. I imagine you could train up a genocidal maniac LLM with the right data sets.
TedDallas··on Publishing my first game using PICO-8
Tic-80 is what you are looking for.
TedDallas··on Low-Code Programming Models
Low code has been a thing in ETL data integration space for a long time. Anecdotally the most consternation I have experienced lately has been supporting buggy low code implementations which seem to becoming worse and not better over the last 20 years or so.
TedDallas··on ERNIE, China's ChatGPT, cracks under pressure
Ernie stating Nixon as its favorite president is not really surprising. This is a common opinion among those in mainland PRC. Nixon and Kissinger are perceived as good guys that helped open up China to the West. When I have asked people in the PRC about Watergate, the common response is that the Watergate break-in was an internal issue for the US to deal with.
TedDallas··on Fine-tuning GPT-3.5-turbo for natural language to SQL
At a certain level of complexity it is easier to write the damn SQL than it is to explain your query to GPT.
TedDallas··on CudaText: Cross-platform, open source code editor written in Object Pascal
Nice to see a cool looking cross platform editor written in Free Pascal with Lazarus. Pascal is a surprisingly expressive language.
TedDallas··on Every single time I open your software, I'm asked to download an update
Agile cargo cult software development there. Got to get that 4 byte change in this sprint in order to prove that the team's fantasy points are burning down.
TedDallas··on Friendlier SQL with DuckDB
Does it support a syntax for recursive queries? In T-SQL we use recursive CTEs which are ugly as hell.

This is very cool though. There are lot of features that would make my life easier. Group By All is noice.

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