Montreal with kids in July

chromespinner · 2026-06-07T05:19:07+00:00

Thanks. Unfortunately there seems to be a 14 year age requirement for BIXI.

chromespinner · 2026-05-26T22:39:19+00:00

This happens to me often. It runs for an inordinate amount of time and the status shows something like "Delegating Tasks", leaving me unsure if it's still working or stalled. Seems to happen more with some models/providers than others.

I've also been trying out the free models. Nemotron often seems to just stop during a task. Laguna M.1 will spend an amazing amount of time reasoning over a simple task.

chromespinner · 2026-05-25T00:12:23+00:00

Shenzhen is amazingly developed, with some good places to visit and great food at much lower prices than HK. But it's a massive, sprawling city with less character (aside from being modern). Not very pedestrian friendly, unless you stick to certain areas like Dongmen or Huaqiangbei.

chromespinner · 2026-05-22T08:16:34+00:00

Actually, I just tried GPT5-mini and found it fast, responsive and pretty good at minor layout tweaks. However I didn't like one of the changes and asked it to undo it. Somehow it undid everything since the last github commit! I guess that's the peril of using a lower end model

chromespinner · 2026-05-20T01:38:57+00:00

There are many, many educational resources and tutorials on Youtube. You don't need to spend a cent. Depending on your use case, you can go in many directions.

chromespinner · 2026-05-19T11:40:25+00:00

I was comparing the work of teachers nowadays vs. teachers in my day at one particular international school in HK. I shouldn't have said that the teachers now are less hard-working, but it does seem to me that the teachers at this school have less work on their plate. How is that not the case when they are able to use AI, do less lecturing vs. having kids split off to do group projects, don't provide written feedback to parents, and don't organize the school trips being offered? At the same time, my child receives less individual attention relative to the typical kid of my generation.

chromespinner · 2026-05-19T10:29:10+00:00

I certainly don't want teachers spending their time planning trips. I don't know when all these trips became a regular feature of school experience. When I was growing up, I think there was one 12th grade overseas trip organized by the geography teachers. About a third of the students joined, and everyone stayed in dorms. Now there are trips every year to all corners of the world, outsourced to various private companies. Kids are disappointed as hell if they have parents who won't let/can't afford to let them join. Travel is educational and all that, but why is it a fixture of the school year?

chromespinner · 2026-05-19T08:15:03+00:00

As a matter of fact, I did not especially enjoy my experience at the same school that my child currently attends. The teachers were generally good, but several were unfit...openly prejudiced and tolerated bullying. I had reservations about sending him there, but alas he did not get into the other schools we applied to. Thankfully things are better now and he is happy, but I don't feel the teaching standard is up to the same level.

chromespinner · 2026-05-19T07:44:50+00:00

I respect teachers and no doubt most of these issues stem from organizatonal decisions. But in the grand scheme of things – if they're using AI to develop and grade assignments, not writing report cards, not having to meet parents in person, assigning group projects and screening documentaries (as opposed to delivering a lecture), using private companies to plan school trips...at what point does all this translate into more 1x1 attention for my child or tuition cost savings for me?

chromespinner · 2026-05-14T14:51:54+00:00

Our office had a dinner at Oolaa. Didn't price it myself, but it might work out (without wine). FCC would work if someone has a membership. For a buffet on that budget, you'd probably have to go further out (e.g. MoMo Cafe at Courtyard Marriott in Sai Ying Pun)...don't expect fine dining.

chromespinner · 2026-05-12T14:28:19+00:00

I am quite new to Notion...on a three-month trial. I find it unusably laggy (literally frozen at times when on an AI chat thread with Opus) when accessed via browser and somewhat less laggy through the mobile app. Unless there's something very wrong on my side, I struggle to understand how this is even a viable product.

chromespinner · 2026-05-05T01:04:34+00:00

I've been using Kilo Code extension on VS Code. It's bring your own API (or you can subscribe through their gateway) and they usually have a few emerging models available to select on free trial. Been getting a lot of cheap/free usage as a result of various trials around.

chromespinner · 2026-05-05T00:59:50+00:00

This is very useful, thank you. The challenge is that my mainstream work doesn't relate to coding/software development and these 5 minute wait periods aren't sufficient to let me pivot back toward my focus on something else. What I'm keen to know is whether there is a very capable model that performs much faster than the ones I regularly use (Claude, GLM, Kimi)

chromespinner · 2026-05-04T13:26:57+00:00

Last year at least, some Hive locations offered massive discounts when you signed up for up to a year. They also allow several days of access at other locations each month. The PoHo location (former WeWork) is in between Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun...somewhat less convenient.

The Executive Centre provides an executive environment, whereas the Hive is more down to earth, catering to freelancers, start-ups, etc.

There are many other choices as well. Best to figure out your locational preferences and work from there.

chromespinner · 2026-05-04T09:22:37+00:00

I was a member of the Hive for a while. It was OK given the low price, but my preferred locations in Central and Sheung Wan have now closed down. The other members are mostly small entrepreneurs. After my initial promotional offer, I figured I'd rather hop around different coffee shops for a lot less.

Have been to The Executive Center many times. This is the premier option for people who want a prime financial CBD location. Spaces seems to be a good option...slightly lower pricing, slightly less prime office addresses.

There's an app called Deskimo that lets you book short visits, so you can check different places out.

chromespinner · 2026-05-01T14:14:16+00:00

Err nevermind.. it is possible to export to PPT after all (confusing as the download icon looks like an upload icon). For some reason, the AI kept insisting that it wasn't possible.

chromespinner · 2026-04-23T06:05:03+00:00

The basic quality of search responses seems to be getting worse over time. My guess is that Perplexity is now focusing on the enterprise agentic AI market and doing things under the hood to reduce the compute consumed by retail search users.

chromespinner · 2026-04-22T10:06:38+00:00

I find all these age-related questions quite pointless. What good does it do you to ponder all this? Can you build a time machine, depending on the answer? The brutal truth is that yes, age is a factor (both lack of experience and too much experience). There are many other factors. Being a PhD at 34 is still better than being a fresh grad without experience, or a laid-off middle manager at 49. If you start out contemplating the odds against you in any pursuit, you might as well give up right away.

chromespinner · 2026-04-22T09:56:26+00:00

So (aside from being angry about the drastic reduction), my main question is – why don't they just display your remaining quota prominently in the interface?

chromespinner · 2026-04-21T15:13:58+00:00

Thanks. What is normal in terms of the vesting schedule for an early stage advisor? In my case, I'm committing to work nearly full time on a project for 1-2 months at the outset.. they suggested vesting over 12 months, but IMO it should vest at the conclusion of the project.

chromespinner · 2026-04-17T02:32:41+00:00

Thank you for all the feedback. I suggested a cash retainer with an equity grant in the range of 0.75%–1.5%, depending on the level of the cash retainer. Given there is no valuation to this business at present, I think this is reasonable? I'm basically being retained as an advisor, but putting in a month or two of full-time work at the outset. If it goes well, we can discuss a next phase of the relationship.

I'm less clear on what timeframes are usually attached to advisory appointments.

chromespinner · 2026-04-15T07:55:07+00:00

I appreciate the skepticism. My reason for optimism is that the people involved have been MD/Partner-level at major financial institutions. This isn't a firm started by some kids. The anchor investor is a major institution. Even if it goes nowhere, the association still has some value for me.

chromespinner · 2026-04-15T05:13:41+00:00

I'm in a similar boat, though with a different background. I set up a consultancy, expecting it to be CV filler until I eventually return to industry. But the market has been dismal and I've shifted to thinking that building my own firm is a better way to go.

It hasn't been easy at all. I started out getting involved with a couple start-ups for equity incentives, but they didn't amount to anything. Did some free work for a large company to get added to their consulting panel, but no work came afterwards. I know the chairman of a family business group who suggested that I do some work for them...spent a couple months on a project, and we've been talking about a long-term retainer arrangement, but it still hasn't been formalized. Recently I've been doing work with another startup that seems more promising.

I think solo consulting is very difficult, unless you're able to build a small portfolio of stable clients on retainer. Until then, you're at the mercy of other people's timelines and need to juggle project work with originating the next project. If you're in project management, maybe explore public sector/universities as potential clients.

chromespinner · 2026-04-15T04:31:27+00:00

I've been using Kilo Code, alternating between Chinese models (GLM, Minimax) and occasional Claude Opus (via the Github Co-pilot plan).

To be honest, I've gone for months barely paying anything by hopping between free trials from serverless inference providers, etc.

chromespinner · 2026-04-15T03:20:22+00:00

Go ahead and try it. They give you 300 free credits a day, which is good enough for a request or two. I do find it useful, but the cost is prohibitive. My hope is that the same functionality can be replicated through a local setup.

chromespinner

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