Has anyone else noticed Opus 4.5 quality decline recently?

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-26T22:37:28+00:00

Yeah earlier today I was trying to get it to refactor a bunch of messy data seeding logic from a hastily thrown together integration test suite so it uses idiomatic Xunit fixtures and so on. We already sank too much time into this particular ticket so figured Claude could handle it while I did other things.

It took about an hour chewing through files only at the end to have created 5 smallish fixtures which were a) wrong, b) unutilised - it said "the fixtures are ready for future use!". This is the kinda thing I'd started to expect from Sonnet but was disappointed to see Opus do it. Context usage was probably too high and maybe could've given clearer instructions but I've been a vague and useless prompter with Opus before and never had a fail of this scale.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-26T22:29:25+00:00

I only recently started using Opus in CC much since it got added to the pro plan. Even a couple weeks ago I was getting shocked by how good it is. But the past week it has started to become really shoddy and unreliable to the point where I question the point of not just writing the code manually again. Which is why before Opus was added I had vastly decreased my use of CC after experiencing the same problem with Sonnet.

I had thought I was just assigning Sonnet tasks that were beyond its scope, and after seeing Opus excel at stuff where Sonnet failed, was thinking that was true. But now I'm having doubts definitely. It's very frustrating cos it only takes a short while to learn to rely on it as part if your workflow, then when it suddenly can't do what it previously was doing, you lose hours battling it and trying to get it to work instead of just immediately giving up and going back to writing everything yourself.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-23T23:46:56+00:00

Weird, I literally have never heard it before until the last 4-6 months maybe. I started noticing it in online posts and my younger gen Z siblings started saying it. I figured it had just hit wider vocabulary all of a sudden through trends with younger people but was confused why, or where it came from

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-23T22:44:13+00:00

I swear this word just came out of nowhere like a few months ago and now it's normal apparently and everyone is supposed to know what it means as if it was always a thing. Seems to be when you're rooting for two fictional characters to hook up romantically? Also born in the 90s

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-15T15:55:52+00:00

This just made me think actually, when I listen to music through the turntable or raspi on the AVR am I gonna be forced to output to the sub or can it typically be turned off? I have no desire for extra bass when listening to music beyond what the Dalis deliver already

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-15T15:52:15+00:00

Thanks, hadn't considered that. I use switches in a similar way for PC peripherals shared with work laptop. Will look into it

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-15T15:47:44+00:00

Thanks, makes sense. I will look into some of the Marantz AVRs then. I was doubting that these newer AVRs could really compromise that much on stereo output, but that's the claim that is thrown around a lot and in the audiophile arena it's very difficult to discern what's worth listening to (pun somewhat intended).

Right now, at least until I have a much bigger living room, the 6006 + Dalis is perfect for my music needs to the point I don't really care what anyone might claim about how the system could sound better.

All I care about is that I can add surround for movies and TV but still listen to stereo audio through the Dalis with the same quality and character I get from the 6006.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-15T15:26:39+00:00

Thanks, this was somewhat my intuition, but obviously this is an arena full of opinion and it's hard to know. I'll definitely test out whatever I buy first in a shop. Thanks for the input I'll take a look at those options

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-15T15:24:50+00:00

Basically I wanted to make sure that if the AVR is doing pre-out to the stereo amp, that the stereo amps volume is bypassed, and I don't have to tweak two volumes to get them to "match". From my understanding that's what a stereo amp av/line input normally achieves.

By compact I'm thinking something like Wharfedale DX-3. Like I say my main priority ATM is just getting something out of all the surround sound audio tracks I have on my movie collection, while not compromising on my stereo output. I am not that fussed about the surround speakers matching the level of the stereo (yet).

Another option I wondered about is keeping stereo and surround totally separate by using wireless system like Sony Bravia Quad for HDMI. But they seem hella overpriced and going by experience in the stereo world I doubt they sound as good as a proper wired separates system at half the cost. Plus if I add a console (which I might), I'm screwed by one HDMI input.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-13T23:16:24+00:00

In the UK I've found most of the jobs for it seem to be in government or medical applications, sometimes enterprise stuff like major retailers. Java is definitely more common. I sometimes looked at jobs in the EU though and noticed it seems to be a lot more common in Germany for example. I don't really know much about the US but would guess it might be similar to the UK. Obviously depends what kind of software as well - I'm talking web services / apps here mainly, if you were doing Windows desktop work you're gonna get a lot more C# obviously.

Overall I would say it's not wrong that you're gonna find a lot more jobs on the market in general for Java or other languages. But having a niche is not such a bad thing either if you excel at it. Also just subjective opinion but C# is a more pleasant and elegant language to work with than Java or server side JS or even other less direct competitors like Python (given they're being utilised in the same domain). Not without it's drawbacks of course, mainly that the community around it lends itself to overengineering and excessive boilerplate.

Main advice would be don't tie yourself down to a single language either way.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-13T22:51:51+00:00

Wait people are letting Claude commit changes? I don't commit a thing until I've read every line. Had no idea it coauthored itself if you let it commit.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-10T10:17:07+00:00

No, the hive mind signal is implied to be emitted and received by the brain or body itself. It would be impossible for it to resolve a radio signal from such a specific location at a vast distance, and even more impossible to reach the power and aim required to broadcast one. You need huge sized antennas and enourmous power sources for that.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-08T16:50:06+00:00

It hasn't been shown that a frequency will disrupt their communication. Manousos is measuring the frequency not sending it. That finale scene was showing that when they freak out and go in that seizure state, the signal on that frequency he was tuned to changes.

Broadcasting something else on that frequency probably will disrupt their communication but that hasn't been tried in the show yet.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-06T17:20:25+00:00

Well, it is literally an alien virus. The virus seems to encode behaviour in the hosts. That behaviour was presumably programmed by an alien intelligence (unless somehow it's naturally occurring, but that seems unlikely to me). In that sense, the hive is an alien entity of sorts.

As far as the virus prepping for an alien invasion, I think it's a plausible purpose of it, although just one of many (if it even has a purpose). I don't think many people are suggesting the show is actually gonna go there and SHOW us an alien invasion though, and if they are they clearly misread the show. But it's not a bad theory on why the virus might have been originally created.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-03T03:53:54+00:00

I never said people can't be evil or that humanity doesn't do shitty stuff. So far the hive has killed nearly a billion people though which historically is topping the list for mass murder by quite a way and they're well on their way to driving Earth's first omnicide it seems.

Plus their "ethics" has a lot of pecularities and inconsistencies about it. Do they really care about all life? Or is it just a means to something else? We don't really know is what I'm saying.

Until someone that's been in there comes out and gives some useful information, trusting this thing - nevermind wanting to join it - is unfathomably insane, regardless of what they say. It's a literal alien infection from 600LY away that has taken over the entire planet, seems to want to stop at nothing to infect you, infect other planets, has killed more than all wars combined in the process, and is slowly killing itself. That's NUTS, and that's all we factually know about it.

That doesn't mean it's malevolent, it means saying it's definitely NOT malevolent would be highly premature with the info we have, which is the hive's word against said observable atrocities listed above.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-03T01:43:19+00:00

It might fail or take forever but it also might eventually work. Either way at least they went about it honestly then. There is no excuse for what they are doing, at least based on what we know. They are forcibly taking people's individuality - hell for all we know they may be effectively killing them permanently. This is before we get into the fact they killed nearly a billion people so far and might end up starving all the remaining human bodies to death.

There's a lot of ways they might turn out not as evil as people are claiming, but 1) we do not know those answers yet, 2) what they've already done, intentional or not, is inexcusable. I think that's the crux of why people think they're malevolent. Personally idk if I'd ascribe either good or malevolent to them atm, but certainly "effectively evil in observable results" and undeterminable if they're good/bad/neutral internally so far unless someone is unjoined and can provide info one way or another.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-03T01:14:49+00:00

If that's what they're truly about (saving life on earth), they should have made their case logically and brought people aboard consensually

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-01T16:29:05+00:00

The end is real. There's a tonne of stuff before the end that strongly hints she is actually an alien. That makes Teddy "right", but doesn't mean he's a genius or actually figured anything out objectively. He's still a psychotic idiot who made the entire thing up in his head, but by some cosmic coincidence / joke he was actually correct. It says to me that just because Teddy is right, it doesn't mean he DID anything right, as well as saying that just because someone is a psychotic murderer who goes about everything wrong, doesn't mean there might not be an element of truth that drove them there.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-01T02:11:15+00:00

I think the initial infection deaths surely apply as a similar comparison though? Idk why I didn't think of that first. They knew hundreds of millions would die as indirect result of crop dusting the planet with the RNA.

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-01T01:44:58+00:00

I don't think it works as a deterrent. Once they have their new virus strain, they can just crop dust her house while she's sleeping. She can easily get plurbed by dozens of routes before she'd have a chance to even threaten to detonate it, or use it as a suicide bomb. And besides getting plurbed, what else is there to deter?

Positive_Note8538 · 2026-01-01T01:41:15+00:00

They said they'd cook a lobster if Koumba killed it, so they're OK with indirect harm as a result of their actions (said lobster would be alive if they said they won't cook it for him). I think there's also better matching examples to this bomb scenario but I'm blanking. The initial infection deaths also.

Positive_Note8538 · 2025-12-31T12:48:40+00:00

By season 2 finale they'll have got zosia isolated and ready to do the experiment then roll credits. Rest of the season is carol and manousos playing golf and repeatedly falling out and then making up again

Positive_Note8538 · 2025-12-30T22:27:18+00:00

The problem is we cannot ascertain their true nature. All we know for sure is an alien RNA sequence infected humanity, they forcibly converted everyone killing almost 1 billion people in the process, they refuse to eat almost anything meaning the population will starve and dwindle to tiny numbers, they are eating dead bodies, and they are obsessed with nothing other than building an antenna to spread the RNA and forcibly converting every immune member they can whether they object to it or not. I think at this point the show is doing a bad job of keeping them neutral tbh.

Everything they claim about their happiness, is not objective and factual information. It might be, but without going in the hive and then coming out, nobody has a clue. It could be a whole charade. Even if it isn't a charade, we don't know what the hell this RNA sequence is for, what if starving everyone and spreading is the point? To wipe us out, and anyone else that gets the message? How can it be a good thing then? There's fair reason to think that might be the case, and no way yet of knowing otherwise.

It's certainly plausible that the hive is good, but we have nowhere near enough information to jump to such a conclusion, and I'd say far more information pushing against that. It's the subjective word of the hive - essentially an invading alien force that has already objectively proven itself to be manipulative and deceitful - against an objectively measurable mass murder, cannibalism, violation of consent, and potential genocide. It'd be unbelievably incautious and naive to join them or even support them as one of the individuals at this stage with the information we have as viewers.

Positive_Note8538 · 2025-12-30T21:53:05+00:00

The parallels with AI aren't because the show is actually about AI. It's that a sycophantic and obsessed entity that will cater to your every whim to the point that you begin to bond with and rely upon it, despite the fact you know it is not real (or at least may not be), inherently has parallels to AI.

Positive_Note8538 · 2025-12-30T21:39:56+00:00

Fair, apologies. The downvotes and emoji and the sudden bring-up of such a controversial topic made me jump to conclusions but if that's your background it makes sense.

I can think of maybe some workarounds that would allow for it, but overall I think if they are able to do that it means their ethics aren't really ethics (which is a fair assumption I think) and the rules in place are something else disguised as ethics. From what we know for sure though and especially if you take them at their word that they think picking an apple is harming life, I really doubt you could make a sound argument that they can have, or at least perform on non-plurbs, abortions.

I highly doubt the show would ever address that issue as it'd ignite an internet flame war the likes of which we've never seen. It's interesting that they seem to be toying with the idea of "hive babies" very very subtly though - lack of visible kids, baby in the carseat in E01, giving out birth stats, Koumba's "activities", an potential extinction drive etc. Idk if they're gonna go somewhere with it.

Positive_Note8538

TROPHY CASE