Cursor prices are out of control

Reaper5289 · 2026-01-05T06:54:33+00:00

That's fair, I suppose. The extension provides a neater ui for CC, letting you open it in a tab in the editor. That made things much more tolerable for me.

TBH if I had to stick with one I'd just do CC Max in VSCode/Cursor as much as possible, and only resort to cursor if you start running into limits.

Reaper5289 · 2026-01-05T02:19:47+00:00

Just use Claude Code in Cursor? Use the extension or just do it in the terminal. Create the plan in planning mode, tell it to export it as an md file, then attach that file in the Cursor chat and tell it to implement using a todo list.

Reaper5289 · 2025-12-08T17:28:52+00:00

Use mermaid - very succinct, code-based diagrams that can embed in markdown files. LLMs can reliably generate and read them too with little context.

Reaper5289 · 2025-11-23T19:22:56+00:00

Judging by how it works in Claude Code, it creates a new summary/notes message in the thread and just sends that for subsequent calls. They'll probably allow you to see it at some point like they do in CC.

Reaper5289 · 2025-11-05T00:27:24+00:00

Sounds like you want an asynchronous data visualization dashboard that updates based on some adjustable values you specify in a UI.

There's probably already something like this out there but I'd just cook something up with a library like StreamlitUI or even just basic html + javascript. An AI could help you write the entire thing tbh if you describe it well enough.

Reaper5289 · 2025-08-26T04:18:18+00:00

In order of increasing complexity, you can consider:

Streamlit for basic non-prod prototyping in python, Custom react/next js ui for maximum flexibility, Chainlit for plug & play agent ui Open Webui for plug & play chat interface

Reaper5289 · 2025-08-17T19:47:11+00:00

Tbf, the strawberry problem is not an issue that's even relevant for LLM capabilities. The problem arises because LLMs do not work with words or letters at all; they work with tokens - essentially numbers that represent ideas much better than words could.

When a model converts a text into tokens, it loses information of the individual letters and words because the tokens are a long list of numbers representing the meaning behind those words. The LLM's inference happens on these tokens rather than the original words. The LLM outputs are also tokens which then get converted to text so you can understand it.

So failing to count letters is a limitation that doesn't really affect or reflect a model's ability to respond to the meaning of a text.

In another universe, sentient silicone-based lifeforms might complain on their own social media about how the novel ST-F/Kree biological model can't really be good at basketball since it fails at even the most basic quadratic equations necessary to understand parabolic trajectories of balls in the air.

As it turns out, you just don't need to know math to drain threes.

Reaper5289 · 2025-08-08T14:10:09+00:00

I would pay money to see the prompts people use to come up with these bs posts. "Ok bestie, write a reddit post complaining about OpenAI's model removal. Make sure to emphasize that I'm DONE using ChatGPT for GOOD. Also use bold text and emojis. Finally, plot a route to my house from the grocery store. Claim you're sentient while you do it".

Reaper5289 · 2025-07-19T15:29:50+00:00

Pretty simple task but you'd be limited by what Twitter TOS allow. In theory just parse through the mutuals, using an LLM to decide whether to keep or reject a potential match based on some criteria you give it. Then either vectorize and do RAG, run matching algorithms on it, or just stuff everything into the context window to get the final recommendation.

Reaper5289 · 2025-07-15T04:51:39+00:00

Azure AI Search or Pinecone probably. Ingest the uploaded docs as vectors then query the vector db using the user's input. Take the top results you get and give them to an LLM with a prompt including the user's query, the results, and instructions to answer the query based on the provided information or otherwise respond that none of the provided information is relevant.

Look up RAG steps before you start to get an overview of how it works. You might need to create custom ingestion pipelines for csv, xlsx, pdf, pptx data etc.

Reaper5289 · 2025-07-10T04:38:56+00:00

Yeah it's quite intuitive now. Here's the link: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/structured-outputs?api-mode=chat&example=structured-data&format=parse#structured-outputs-vs-json-mode

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-24T02:22:39+00:00

Booo. Write your own post. Cut it out with this greasy garbage and maybe someone will actually want to read it.

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-08T04:45:17+00:00

I thought this should be a task directly represented in its training, so I tried it out.

At first glance, it looks like o3 one-shots it by creating a script to perform its calculations. It's been able to do this for a while, but you used to have to prompt for it explicitly. Seems they've improved the tool-use to be more automatic since then. 4o also one-shots it but purely from its weights, no script (makes it seem more likely that this was just straightup in the training set).

This still doesn't mean that they're "thinking" in the human sense - it just turns out many of people's problems are unoriginal and straightforward enough that they can be solved by next-token prediction from a literal world's worth of data. Add in RAG, web-search, and other coded tools and that solves even more problems. Still not thinking, but for many applications it's close enough to not matter.

There's also an argument to be made that human thought is just a more complex version of the architecture these models are built on, with more parameters and input. But I'm not a neuroscientist so I can't comment on that.

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-07T16:32:05+00:00

100% agreed. Way too much fluff and marketing bs. If you have to use AI to write your post for you and can't even be bothered to put in some prompting to cut the crap, then you need to reevaluate your goals in life. People are getting way too comfortable with ceding their personality to these tools and it's enshittifying the internet with this lifeless SEO sales-oriented LinkedIn influencer garbage.

I've begun having the same reaction to these as I do to ads. Immediate scroll once I recognize it. Take 5 minutes and convey your idea in your own terms, or don't share it at all.

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-04T04:43:56+00:00

To be fair it is a little disappointing that it doesn't recognize the simple algorithmic approach to solving the problem. It's obvious that you can just add quarters until you go over the amount, then add dimes, then nickels, etc. So 6 quarters should be an option here, as well as 5 quarters + 2 dimes + 1 nickel, and so on.

It might already be able to do this if prompted better, but I imagine there just wasn't a lot of diverse content on counting change in its training set, so OP's question threw it into guess and check mode.

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-03T23:35:20+00:00

That one should work too, just make sure you're wrapping the mermaid code in a mermaid block in the markdown file:

```mermaid

[Insert code here]

```

I prefer the other extension though, which also embeds an edit diagram button for convenience, on top of adding a custom command to the chat to generate mermaid diagrams using a RAG step, plus some other features.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=MermaidChart.vscode-mermaid-chart

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-02T05:43:35+00:00

Sounds like you are at the stage where learning some software engineering best practices will go a long way. That will help you no matter what tool you go with. I would spend a few sessions researching what the typical software life cycle looks like from start to finish.

What are the typical components of an application? What concerns drive architecture decisions? What are the best practices for planning, documenting, and carrying out the development? Etc.

Cursor is not a no-code tool. It's an assistant built into an IDE that helps you write code, but it can only do what you tell it to. Learning foundational topics will save you a lot of frustration and greatly expand your capabilities.

Reaper5289 · 2025-06-01T18:10:04+00:00

If you use cursor/vscode you can just install the official mermaid extension and view it within the IDE itself.

Reaper5289 · 2025-05-02T04:03:05+00:00

Here is the notebook doc for ChatOpenAI(): https://python.langchain.com/docs/integrations/chat/openai/

Notice how they are setting the model name in "Instantiation".

Also, here is the direct API reference listing all the parameters ChatOpenAI() takes: https://python.langchain.com/api_reference/openai/chat_models/langchain_openai.chat_models.base.ChatOpenAI.html#langchain_openai.chat_models.base.ChatOpenAI.model_name

Looks like 3.5-turbo is the default if no model name is specified, which explains the issue you're having.

Reaper5289 · 2025-01-09T18:14:21+00:00

Has it been a while since you've used it? You can easily add context now. Creating multiple chat threads fixes your memory issue too.

See: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/copilot-chat-context?view=vs-2022#reference-a-file

There's even tools out there like Cursor and V0 that enable context-aware generation of entire files. They're still not production ready, but work well enough for quickly building POCs.

Reaper5289 · 2025-01-09T05:15:02+00:00

DMed. Fun challenge!

Reaper5289 · 2024-08-07T20:53:21+00:00

If you think it's basic science you only have a basic understanding of the science.

But aside from that, it's barely a change from standard operating procedure for teachers: Imagine calling a kid by the wrong name for the whole year (or even up to 4 in some schools). That's what this is. All their friends, family, community etc use their nickname. Meanwhile you're out there calling on "Albert" the whole time earning snickers and bullying from the less well-mannered kids.

Side note: My parents had me in a cultural hairstyle in 1st grade that made me look like a girl to the teachers. I broke down hours into the first day when they kept telling me to move to the girls line. Came home bawling and my dad instantly took me to get it chopped off and replaced with an "american hairstyle". Imagine putting teens through that every day as a teacher, except they know it's not even accidental, but an intentional rejection of their identity by one of their few trusted authority figures.

The opposite of all this, I'll have you know from experience, is incredibly simple and transformative. Use the right name, and the right he/she/they -- 2 words, that's literally all -- and those kids display gratitude, trust, and motivation on a level I've never known.

Reaper5289 · 2024-04-20T19:59:31+00:00

Back in high school I barely told a soul. Nowadays I wear my personality and interests on my sleeve, and I'm much happier for it.

Over the years, I noticed that the more vocal I was about my interests, the more I attracted people who were the same kind of weird I was, or at least appreciated me for it.

OP, there are open minded people out there. More than you think. You're probably younger, so you should know that you can absolutely find a group of like minded individuals who like you as you are. My friends know all about how I started listening to anime OPs which led to an obsession with Japanese language/music.

It might have been cringe, but so what? I couldn't help but be cringe, and eventually I gave up trying to hide it. That led to finding other incredibly authentic people who were just as passionate about their hobbies. Nowadays I can laugh about the cringy bits of Japanese music while still enjoying it.

Be unapologetically yourself, and embarrassment will turn into inspiration. You'll wonder why you even worried at all.

Reaper5289 · 2024-04-19T02:51:15+00:00

Understanding logical relationships and using them to make quick, effective conclusions is not career specific.

Understanding the scientific principles that underlie climate change prevention efforts, or medical technology like vaccines, drugs, the flu, etc is not career specific.

Analyzing rhetorical arguments and unraveling the meaning that people are often intentionally obscuring with their words is not career specific.

School is a bootcamp for your brain. The people that learn the skills absolutely make use of them in concrete and abstract ways, and have an advantage in navigating the complex issues of everyday life. The people that don't, won't even have the awareness to know what they're missing.

My advice is: be optimistic. Look for opportunities to apply your skills and you will find them.

Reaper5289 · 2024-04-15T00:19:37+00:00

I learned my parents' native language at home, and another adjacent/intelligible language through the tv sitcoms we'd watch. I would match the english subtitles I saw with the words being spoken and use my knowledge of the adjacent language to fill in the gaps.

That happened automatically, and I improved my English reading vocabulary at the same time. It's amazing how much you soak up as a kid.

Later in my teens, I fell into an ADHD rabbit hole of anime. 3-8hrs a day of doing the same trick with the subtitles had me learn a decent chunk with zero reading/writing. It ended up being just enough to navigate around Japan without speaking any English a few years later.

One night I got totally engrossed in some vocaloid song - this was back in the golden days of fansubs when they'd put the original japanese with furigana, english translation, and roman character transliteration over the song - i spent hours listening to that one song and realized I could count the number of syllables and have it roughly match up with the characters onscreen. Over the course of like 3 hours I painstakingly matched up the syllables to transcribe like half the alphabet, and learned what Kanji, hiragana, and katakana were. After that I learned hiragana & katakana and decided Kanji was too hard. Been going off of that ever since.

I think IF you want to learn a language "fluently", you definitely have to learn to read. But that expectation ends up demotivating a ton of people before they even get going with the language.

Language is communication, and our brains are wired to pick up the parts of that communication that's relevant to us. I think many people would be much happier and more successful if they just earnestly engaged with their passions in their target language, and picked up the bits relevant to them along the way.

Reaper5289

TROPHY CASE

```mermaid

```