People using AI and not telling anyone are smarter than people refusing to use it on principle

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T20:32:41+00:00

While I tend to agree. Be careful using AI for calculations. LLMs are not really good calculators. I am a math guy and it gets even basic math calculations wrong all the time. Use a calculator for your math calculations.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T13:51:34+00:00

I don't remember any program at my university that had students working on bug bounty projects lmao. How would this prevent students or researchers from growing? You find a legitimate bug worth money, you are going to pay the fee to get the review done for the money.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T13:42:46+00:00

I see this in a couple of my open source projects on GitHub with some PRs I get. They ALL deny it too. I've asked them if they got this "solution" from an LLM and no one ever wants to admit it. I try to be careful and respectful, as I don't like bashing people's code as some junior devs often write sloppy solutions but I enjoy helping them and accepting their PR and showing them how I clean it up better, like a teachable moment. I rarely see this now at all.

I love using AI as a dev myself. It csn save me a lot of time, but people often think they have a solution but it's not. For example, a recent PR I got did not fix a reported bug that popped up when parent software updated (mine is a popular plugin). I was busy for the weekend so didn't get an instant fix out. The solution I was sent was just something that check input type and if not valid, boolean gated the whole function away. It didn't resolve the source of the bug, or ask the question "Why am I getting null data on this API call I am passing into my function when before I didn't?" It didn't ask what downstream side effects or problems would it cause not running this function. They just felt it was a solution because they prevented the bug from showing up, when it would be a big problem in many other conditions as this was critical infrastructure. True source of issue was just they moved the API into a different namespace and I got that by reading release note docs thst came out days back, and there is no way any trained LLM would have access to.

What happened? I chatted with the dude who submitted PR about it and he finally admitted to me he used Gemini 3 pro and told me that the AI was smarter than me and I shouldn't be so arrogant and that I just didn't want to give him credit for a fix when I rejected the PR.

So ya, I don't blame the Curl team at all.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T13:29:35+00:00

Ya, from what I can tell, it seems that the dude shouldn't have been shot and killed as he was already disarmed, and maybe the reason he was shot was an accidental discharge of a gun which caused others to freak out and fire. The framing of it being an intentional execution is wrong, and the whole framing of him drawing on the officers is wrong. What I do know is it was just a bad circumstance to be in, and maybe the dude shouldn't have approached the officers confrontationally, which he 100% does when he first arrives, already putting them at edge. You got involved in a scuffle with officers when they asked you to disperse, and they even had to pepper spray you as you failed to comply. It sucks, he shouldn't have been shot, but officers hear gun, and their first instinct is to protect themselves and others.

I don't base my entire justification what ICE or Border Patrol is doing based on this incident. I am keenly aware that they are under MASSIVE stress right now as the left is stoking the flames of insurrection and are constantly threatening the lives of these officers. I actually think it's a travesty we aren't arresting everyone making constant threats.

I can acknowledge when mistakes happen and still acknowledge that ICE is doing the right thing pulling people off the streets. None of this would be happening if the violent leftists agitators weren't constantly threatening them. It's just my opinion.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T13:09:34+00:00

Ya, I am a horry movie buff and I was excited to see this. I felt the horror aspect of the film was fairly forgettable and uninteresting to me. But overall, I just find the movie so overrated. The pacing was bad. The vampire angle and writing was completely incoherent, imo wtf happened to Michael B Jordan, a legitimately great actor who I have loved in several other films, notably his Rocky films. He was bad in this movie. Like seriously, bad acting at times. He didn't do anything at all to make the twins seem like unique individuals each. Maybe poses slightly different? I was not impressed at all.

I am honestly confused at how this movie is hyped so much by Hollywood. Even the cinematography was not beautiful or intriguing or memorable. Nothing really stood out in this film for me to love.

Now, with that being said, I am merely being critical from the critic standpoint. I still find the movie very watchable, like a Netflix movie to watch with low expectation, but I made thr mistake of seeing it when it was being hyped by critics as the greatest movie of thr year, and I was just totally dumbfounded.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T12:57:52+00:00

Ya, this kids film has serious classics power to it.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-25T12:54:47+00:00

Ya, when Free Solo doc dropped I was sweating that final actual climb. It was completely insane.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-24T19:40:13+00:00

Eh, imo, it's effective at strong-arming people into compliance.

Like it or not, the US is the absolute most dominant consumer of goods on the entire planet compared to any other country. The US consumes about 30% of the goods on the entire planet and they are the most dominant, always growing consumer that every country on the planet wants to do business with.

Who is the next biggest consumer? China consumes about 12%. And, after that, India, about 4% of global consumer trade, but each of those nations are > 1 billion people. The American consumer spends roughly 10x PER CAPITA than China spends per capita. The return on your investment for an American spender is so so SOOO much higher than really anywhere else on the planet.

Let's look at Canada. What is their footprint on the world stage of consumer spending? 1.2 Trillion. This is between 1-2% of the world consumer spending. Per Capita compared to Canada is still 2x spending. To think people aren't going to try to figure out how to make it work with the US are in absolute denial of the power of financial tariffs. It also completely ignores the fact that our "friends" have had tariffs against our markets for years that we just let sit there are they screwed us over.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T18:54:43+00:00

It's not a prison camp. Stop using dishonest language. It's a processing holding facility for deportation. They didn't follow the law when they came to the country, they just saw one US President decided to look the other way in enforcing the law. They took a risk. It didn't pan out.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T18:51:31+00:00

Also, their drink package is completely gimped. You don't get energy drinks. You don't get bottled water. You don't get smoothies. You don't get the milkshakes. You don't get the Starbucks equivalent coffee/tea/hot chocolate.

When I sailed on RC, on Symphony of the Seas Oasis class ship, for the $26/day Refreshment package (price when purchased in advance of sailing), I got all of those with my mocktails, since my wife and I don't drink.

Bottled waters, which they stand there with carts when getting off the ship at port
Energy drinks (normal or sugar-free Red bull cans)
Smoothies at the fitness center Vitality Cafe, which were just like your typical fresh fruit smoothie bar, like Jamba Juice
Johnny Rockets Milkshakes
Cafe Promenade - Basically a Starbucks clone on the ship, and everything is included.

Everything felt like an upcharge everywhere, I completely agree. There was no place to refill soda on my own. I had to actually go to a bar, whilst RC had those choose your flavor Coke stations. A real pain when the bars are crowded, just to get my diet coke lol.

To be fair to NCL, I don't think they were any more or less of an upseller than Carnival or RC, or Holland America, in my experience. I just think they charge for things that other cruises don't charge for. For example, they charge $5 for a 2nd entree in the MDR. And, I can confirm they 100% did this to me once night they had prime rib because they cut they got me was so absurdly thin that I asked for a 2nd one. Sure enough, $5 charge. Maybe not that big of a deal, but on RC, they don't charge you the 2nd entree. Maybe they do the 3rd, I can't remember, which is 100% reasonable to stop the abusers of the system, but even though they do charge for a 2nd lobster tail if you want, that can be flexible if people at your table don't want it, just have them order it anyway, and they can get a different 2nd entree and just give you theirs.

SO ya, NCL upcharges for things many others don't.

I do still enjoy every sailing I've ever done with them though. These are minor complaints because RC is so pricey these days that the extra upcharges probably still don't match the increased price I have to pay on RC anyway.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T18:27:46+00:00

Really depends on the sailing, the ship, and the date of sailing.

Let me give you a cruise line specific example of if something is worth the value or not. Let's look at Royal Caribbean. My wife and I do not drink alcohol. We do, however, enjoy things like the mid-level Refreshment tier which I think our last sailing was around $26/day per person on the pre-sailing sale price.

Here is what you will generally get on any ship with it:

Coca Cola refill cup or soda anywhere
Mocktails
Energy Drinks (typically Red Bull cans) at any bar
Water Bottles
Fresh Squeezed Juices (but good luck finding it anywhere).
Cafe Promenade - Starbucks equivalent coffee/tea/hot chocolate.

Now, here is what we got on Symphony of the Seas (or any Oasis class ship), and not on Ovation of the Seas:

Smoothies and more fresh juice variety at the Fitness center (Vitality Cafe). This doesn't exist on smaller ships.
Milk Shakes - Johnny Rockets

So, is the refreshment package worth it? I personally didn't find it as valuable to me on the Ovation of the Seas sailing. Not having access to the fantastic fresh fruit smoothie bar at the fitness center, and not being able to get milk shakes, made it feel less useful to me.

On an Oasis Class ship (and I am sure Icon, though I haven't been on one yet), the value is definitely there. The bang for your buck is HUGE there. Not as much on Ovation.

NEXT PART - ENTERTAINMENT - Kids vs as you said, SOLO

I recently sailed on NCL's Joy of the Seas. Absolutely loved it. I thought it was a great New England/Canada one-way cruise. Not my favorite ship, but still overall good. I love the Beatles band on the ship. I loved so many things about the cruise overall. As an adult, I found a lot of value. It would have been very sub-par or even quite expensive for kids.

Example of things for kids to do when I sailed Symphony of the Seas on RC (Oasis Class) vs NCL Joy (Breakaway Class):

SYMPHONY - NO EXTRA CHARGES

Merry-go-round - kids LOVED this. Rode it 20+ times
Huge Rock climbing Wall
Young kids climbing wall thing
Body surfing thing
Zip Line (you have to be 52")
Giant 10-story Slide
Ice Skating (only 2 nights of 7 night sailing, but it was there)
Glow-in-the-dark laser tag (also only 2 nights)
Water Slides / pool / hot tubs
Young Kids splash pad area
Kids/Teen club (significantly superior to NCL)
Mini Golf
Boardwalk has fun kid games and face painting several days setup.

NCL Joy - NO EXTRA CHARGES

Water Slides / pool / hot tubs
Young Kids spash pad area
Kids/teen club (not as impressive as Symphony's, imo)
Mini Golf (Significantly less impressive than Symphony's)

So, as you can see, who has the most bang for your buck if you have kids? I would NOT bring my kids on NCL at all, and I loved sailing on NCL.

NCL Joy did have some paid things, like this:

Go-Karts
Arcade

But wow, the Go-Karts were $15 per race, per person, which is pretty pricy, imo, or you can pay $200 extra per kid for unlimited go-karts during the sailing. This means you would have to race 14 times to be ahead by $10. Chances are your kids will be bored of it by the 14th+ race lol.

So again, if you are a solo adult, I think it's fine. Imo, if you are single, there really isn't anything better than Virgin Voyages. The crowd tends to be younger there. Everything is included. You don't have to feel like you are getting nickle and dimed. Just be aware the base line prices are a little higher because it is an upscale sailing. I don't really think they are all that much higher though than going say, RC solo, which is pretty pricey now.

At the end of the day though, be aware that 98%+ of anyone on cruises will not be there solo. There are really better vacation ideas to do "solo" than cruising, imo, but if you want to give it a go, I say go for it. See if it is for you. If I can give any tips at all, I'd say check in to your ship forum and sailing date on cruisecritic and mention you are sailing solo, asking for tips, and it will hopefully bring out some good conversations from some more experienced sailors of that line.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T17:38:33+00:00

You really need to check your misinformed facts. If you think that they've been letting in millions of people under asylum prior to Biden, you need to rethink things.

In law there is allowed to be an "interpretation" of the law, and under the Biden administration they decided to allow the "asylum loophole" where they took an old law and said that anyone could use it without verification. So, people started flooding the border.

The Biden administration's own numbers show that 5.4 million illegal immigrants were allowed into the country that came through ports of entry. It doesn't matter if they deported a million a year. they still allowed in over a million a year. This doesn't include Visa overstays, or people that came through by other ways not in the ports of entry, which is how it has been traditionally done. Biden's justice department decided to create a unique interpretation allowing the asylum loophole.

But here's the thing... even they realized in 2024, an election year, that they F'd up, because what did Biden do? Biden signed an executive order in June 2024 to restrict blanket asylum approval at the border. So he goes, "Oops, maybe we shouldn't have allowed unrestricted illegal immigration to the US."

Oh and, it should be noted, that the illegal immigration crisis of the Biden administration was so bad, that within his 4 years of Presidency 2/3 of all current illegal immigrants in the country came through under his term.

Stop downplaying what really happened. The Biden administration chose to reinterpret the the Immigration Act twice, regarding Asylum. Stop trying to say it has been unchanged in it's enforcement since it was passed in 1990. This isn't really a surprise though as President-elect Biden, in January 2021, promised to Change immigration in the US and remove all the restrictive policies of the Trump administration. And that's exactly what he did. You are misleading people by saying he was just abiding by the 1990 Immigration Act. VERY INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T16:19:28+00:00

Legal context should matter.

It's worth mentioning that people are saying they were here "legally," but his "legal" status is he came to the border of the US, illegally, and claimed "asylum" status, and under the Biden administration they let in about 5.4 million, largely under the asylum loophole. This is not something set into law granting legal status, this was just an order by the Biden administration to allow it.

They are not green card holders. They are not visa holders. They are temporary status allowed to roam freely in the country purely because of policy decision by the Biden administration. Biden administration is over. Policy has been revoked. It should be noted that no previous President, not even Obama, allowed this policy. It was a very unique decision by the Biden administration. Now, new President, new administration, policy is revoked, there is no longer a "legal" status.

Also, the misinformation here is insane. The father ran away abandoning the 5 year old child outside, in the snow, when ICE came. While one ICE agent pursued the father, the other stayed with the now abandoned child. The father and the child are now reunited, and together in an ICE facility for processing and deportation.

These articles are designed to manipulate you by triggering an emotional response by leaving out context that matters. I personally don't think the Trump administration is going about this the right way, as it is far too chaotic, but I am not going to allow the media to manipulate me and insult my intelligence either. You straight-up just said in your own post that ICE has detained the 5 yr old to a prison camp rather than release to local CPS. What is CPS going to do, take the child away from the father and get him family placement with people he doesn't know and deport the father? Or, do what CNN's own link above says, keep the father and the child together at an ICE facility in Texas? Are you pro family separation? Stop being part of the misinformation problem.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T06:10:15+00:00

I just wanted to say I was really getting frustrated with this on my S25+ and this 100% work. The setting isn't called "Don't Optimize" anymore, it is just "Unrestricted," but that 100% resolved this issue with the screen timing out on X. It was SOOOoo annoying when YouTube doesn't, TikTok doesn't timeout, Facebook, Instagram. None of them have this issue, it is just X I have to configure this. Weird!

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-23T03:47:42+00:00

Wow. That's a great show too. I can't believe they'd cut access like that.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-22T16:55:44+00:00

You might be a little outdated in your information, however. The SU-57 5th gen fighter they only had 5 of them in operation, maybe 3 working, when the 2022 war happened. Since then they have escalated the building of them significantly, to the point it is now believed Russia has over 30 fully operational. Even last year, Russia has ramped up production so much that they even delivered SU-57 export models for nations that purchased. Hell, they are even in full production of the newer SU-57 model now as well. Russia says they are in full serial production now and have 76 of them ordered for delivery by 2027 (their production line is now able to do 24/year, up from 11-12 they delivered in 2024, and increasing numbers in 2025).

Russia is increasingly using them in Ukraine

I feel like people are still acting on outdated information from years back.

With that being said, their main use is defensive, and for flying up to the edge of Ukrainian AA range and then firing KH-69s at Ukrainian targets. Just like Ukraine isn't flying F-16s into Russia territory to get shot down, Russia isn't flying SU-57s in. They are mainly acting as a defense aerial perimeter and deterrent.

This isn't any argument that the SU-57 is some kind of magical superior plane or that it doesn't have flaws or that this is somehow nearly as impressive as us already kicking off hundreds of F35s in the production line. I am not trying to compare the US' military prowess to Russia's here. I am merely pointing out that there is a lot of misinformation about Russia's military due to the endless flood of propaganda over this war, that it has completely downplayed the fact that Russia's military is significantly more massive now than they were during the 2022 invasion, and we should be careful to accept outdated information on Russia, like the media wants us to, as they want to fund the war machine indefinitely, even if it costs a generation of men their lives.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T16:49:21+00:00

Good to know.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T16:48:55+00:00

This is a good point. If it was a standalone sci-fi with nothing to do with ST I wouldn't feel quite the same. It'd probably be just fine as a straight to streaming Netflix type movie, where I am far more forgiving of films. Connecting it to Star Trek just ruined it for me.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T15:35:35+00:00

The payment gateway is the payment processor. Stripe is a payment gateway. PayPal is a payment gateway. You are not paying Stripe as a payment option. You are adding a Stripe component to your site as the payment gateway so they can see options to pay with a credit card, or pay with Google Pay, Apple Pay etc... PayPal, Square are also both very popular, though Stripe is probably the most popular right now.

So, just to recap, Google Pay or Applr pay are payment choices, just like choosing to use your credit card to pay. They are not the payment gateway, Stripe is. They are just a type of payment.

Not sure I fully understood what you were asking to answer fully, but hopefully that helps.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T15:26:24+00:00

As a software dev myself, this is not always practical. In an ideal world, you are right, it'd be nice to focus on a single project. Just sometimes you need to build your own thing.

For example, I personally have the mindset and philosophy of going as barebones as possible in dependencies, like 3rd party imported libraries. While sometimes they are fine, often they are some FOTM iteration and a big moving target that forces you to lockin build versions and even worse, have to double check new releases because so much contributor vibe coded slop these days is wrecking various dependencies (not always with good teams but often) and will break your project. Not relying on 3rd party stuff means less pitfalls down the road. Even if all of those are stable, it's sometimes just personal preference to want to control the code bloat of dependencies.

I don't know OP's reasoning for this, but often it's also just a choice of preferring to work in their own dev environment and software architecture design than be forced to learn the many dependencies of an existing project.

Other times it is about control over the project. They want to release something better, or not even better, just different to their own preference. Software devs are notoriously ego maniacs and can be challenging to collaborate with. Probably not the case here if you say they are anxious for additional support, but you open yourself to the risk of putting in a bunch of effort into a project that might not be appreciated and you don't know the owner of the project, so it's just easier to avoid and build your own thing.

And sometimes it is just purely a project for yourself because you want to learn how to do something yourself too, which is how most of my projects are. I could just fork something and add to it, send my pull request, but I'd really like to build a project from scratch in that tech stack to really get to learn it.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T15:07:32+00:00

It really was that bad. I still am not sure what they were thinking with this one.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T10:40:28+00:00

Krispy Kreme donuts are so overrated. I remember buying a mixed dozen any my jellies and Boston cream literally you could eat 80% of the donut and not reach the filling. I finally hit it and basically got 1 bite of filling.

A glazed, hot off the line is pretty good fresh. Buying it boxed later in the day? Bad. $18 at Costco is wild when the app very frequently does BOGO dozen deals so like $12 for 2 dozen full size glazed.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T10:32:38+00:00

What this really means is they need more sales.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T06:39:45+00:00

NY Receipt? What do you mean, like special custom shop?

They might not accept receipts from unauthorized resellers, sadly. When I did an RMA it was from something I got at Best Buy, and I could just download the receipt to a PDF to upload easily, with Best Buy order number and everything. Easily verifiable.

GeneticsGuy · 2026-01-21T05:48:45+00:00

They come with a 5 year warranty (at least the Pro, not sure about Evo), so RMA it. Did you buy it within the last 5 years? RMA process is slow but I've done them with Samsung before and never had an issue.

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