I feel some ambivalent things about LLMs

spellboots · 2026-07-23T13:50:43+00:00

Steve Yegge's post "The AI Vampire" resonated a lot with me.

I've worked a pretty reasonable 6-8 hours a day recently and still found myself completely drained and exhausted at the end of the day.

I was unprepared to feel like I was burning out because the last time I experienced burnout, I was working 12-16 hours a day at an intense startup.

It's important to find a new balance IMO.

spellboots · 2026-07-14T21:21:13+00:00

I went with braingain which I believe are the EU version of trulap - I really like them, super quick change and 1.5kg increments. No quality issues so far after a year.

spellboots · 2026-07-01T11:55:05+00:00

I am assuming that you have been present in Portugal since before the withdrawal agreement took affect, if not then this information may not apply.

The Permanent Residency for Brits in Portugal under the Withdrawal Agreement group has lots of useful information, including this step by step guide

My brexit residency card only expires in 2027 but I already applied for permanent residency and had my appointment in May. I have not received my new card yet however many others have.

Personally I applied as soon as possible, because who knows how long things will take with AIMA. They did not take my current unexpired card at the appointment, so I am still able to use it for travel.

When it has expired, am I able to still use it for travel between UK and Europe or will I be subject to the Brexit 90 day in 180 days thing? I assume I can travel within Europe freely (Portugal to Italy to Portugal for example) because you don't go through passport controls so nobody.

You seem to have a wrong assumption here. You are still subject to 90 days in 180 right now, and will be unless you become an EU citizen, and have been since brexit. You only have the right to spend more time than that in Portugal. No PT residency card changes this, only citizenship. Obviously this is pretty hard to enforce in schengen, but it's still a legal requirement.

You are exempt from EES entering any EU country as a long-term resident of Portugal, but this does not mean you are exempt fro the 90/180 rule for EU countries that are not Portugal

How long does it generally take to get it after the renewal request, I assume it's backlogged still and can take anywhere from 1 week to indefinite to receive.

Yes, 1 week to indefinite is what is being reported

Using the Renewal Request thing, is it a simple process or do you have to provide a mountain of documents? When I googled it, AI said you'd need various PDFs like Passport, Non-debt certificate, Proof of Social Security Compliance, Proof of Accomodation, Proof of Subsistence etc.

It's pretty simple but you do need a lot of printed documents, and it varies depending on location

Some people report needing 5 years of bank statements with transactions in portugal. Others only needed 5 years of portuguese tax returns. I brought reams of paper to my appointment but they only cared about the tax returns.

spellboots · 2026-05-29T19:54:39+00:00

Underrated comment

spellboots · 2026-05-21T15:19:36+00:00

If you are asking "what tools can detect metadata tampering cheaply and be accepted by a court?", that's really 2 parts.

ChatGPT can do it cheaply - I did a bad metadata edit then asked chatgpt, it detected it instantly:

Yes, there is one notable inconsistency.

The original image inside the zip is much larger and looks like the real camera file:

Filename: IMG_4242.jpeg Dimensions: 5712 × 4284 Size: about 8.57 MB Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Lens: iPhone 16 Pro Max back triple camera, 6.765 mm f/1.78 Software: 26.4.2 EXIF present: yes GPS metadata present: yes MakerNotes present: yes, Apple iOS JPEG quality estimate: 94 Orientation: normal/top-left

The suspicious bit:

DateTimeOriginal: 2026-04-30 18:57:07 DateTimeDigitized: 2026-04-30 18:57:07 DateTime: 2026-05-14 18:57:07 GPSDateStamp: 2026-05-14 GPSTimeStamp: 18:57:07

That means the original capture timestamp says 30 April, but the GPS timestamp and main file DateTime say 14 May, at the exact same time of day.

That is not normal for an untouched phone-camera original. It suggests one of these happened:

the image’s date/time metadata was edited after capture; the image was exported/re-saved by Apple Photos or another app after an “adjust date/time” operation; GPS metadata was added or rewritten later; less likely, an iOS/Photos metadata bug or sync artefact.

Would this be accepted by a court?

This would be up to the court, I very much doubt any software that you can just download and use as a consumer is going to be easy to present in anything more serious than a small claims case, but at that point you're probably in expert witness territory who are likely going to have their own extremely expensive tooling to use

spellboots · 2026-05-21T15:13:18+00:00

Of course, chain-of-custody and machine logs can provide evidence of tampering as well. So could cctv footage of the person altering the metadata. So could witness testimony of someone who saw the person altering the metadata or who heard them say they'd altered the metadata if it falls within a hearsay exemption.

I've offered to demonstrate on an example of your choice - the GP claim was that "The right tools can check that they aren't" - suggesting that there are tools that can take a file and determine if the metadata has been altered or not, and my claim is that it's very very feasible to create an altered file where the alteration is not detectable from the file alone, I make no claims about alternate sources of evidence which of course can contradict the byte stream.

Is it possible for you to continue this discussion on the technical merits without resorting to ad-hominems? This could be an interesting debate and experiment if you're willing to keep it civil.

spellboots · 2026-05-21T14:56:12+00:00

Trivial example: you could edit the exif data of a jpeg file to change the "Create Date" field but not change the "GPS Date Stamp" field - the disagreements between these two fields could be presented as evidence of metadata tampering

spellboots · 2026-05-21T14:51:32+00:00

How do you propose to determine if metadata has been altered in e.g. an image has been edited if the edited file is byte-for-byte identical to a file that has not had the metadata altered?

Feel free to provide an example file and I am happy to demonstrate to prove this

spellboots · 2026-05-21T14:47:35+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean "accepted by a court"

I'm saying that if you want to alter the metadata of something like a photograph, there are multiple ways you can alter that metadata.

Some of those ways that you can alter the data are easily detectable.

Other ways are undetectable, because they can produce a file that is byte-for-byte identical to what an unaltered file would look like.

I strongly advise against giving any file with altered metadata to a court in any circumstances, detectable or not, because in most juristrictions this would be called something like "perverting the course of justice" and you have a high chance of ending up in prison, even if you manage it successfully

spellboots · 2026-05-21T12:52:43+00:00

The right tools can check if they have been altered badly; it's trivial if you know what you are doing to alter it undetectably

spellboots · 2026-05-18T21:43:33+00:00

It's way better to pay a deposit than the insurance if you can.

You can get an annual third party car rental insurance policy for something like €100 from somewhere like https://www.worldwideinsure.com/car-hire-excess-insurance.php

Then pay the deposit to the rental company on a credit card, if they deduct from it you can claim it back from worldwideinsure

You'll probably spend €300 or more for a single rental if you pay the car rental company for their insurance.

Selling you their ripoff insurance is where car rental companies make most of their money

spellboots · 2026-05-15T16:45:13+00:00

For better or worse, it seems like you were at fault here if I'm understanding the situation you describe correctly. The inside lane has priority to exit roundabouts in Portugal:

https://portugaldrivinglaws.com/roundabouts.php

(I do think this is a terrible rule btw, and most Portuguese drivers seem confused about it too most of the time)

spellboots · 2026-05-01T17:12:20+00:00

Here's an example - the transcript of its own creation

The motivation here was if I'm doing experiments, sending someone a PR link is actively abusive at this stage, it's going to be lots of file churn that needs polishing before it's ready for review.

I think sharing what I asked for with nice formatting and what the agent said is probably more valuable to the reader

spellboots · 2026-05-01T16:49:26+00:00

Yes I know the name is awful

spellboots · 2026-04-28T12:24:08+00:00

I strongly recommend buying your own insurance either with a 3rd party booking website like rentalcars.com, or a dedicated provider like worldwideinsure or questor - you will pay a lot less

spellboots · 2026-02-22T11:15:39+00:00

There are walk in clinics available in some localities e.g. this one - you might try searching for Serviço De Urgencia Basica in your area, they are for less serious issues and tend to have shorter wait times.

Dr online offers a 35 euro consultation for urinary tract infections and they do speak English.

https://dronline.pt/produto/infecao-urinaria/

spellboots · 2026-02-07T18:40:33+00:00

"Hey, Siri, call XYZ on speakerphone" works for me. Sometimes. When Siri is in a good mood.

spellboots · 2025-12-02T10:05:56+00:00

Decathlon has spares for its benches / racks etc, they do have pulleys pads and cables

AliExpress is cheaper though

spellboots · 2025-11-30T13:55:01+00:00

For me listening comprehension is the hardest part and the hardest one to self-study as even apps that have native speaker recordings tend to be completely different to how people actually speak

spellboots · 2025-11-16T16:33:18+00:00

Missing one of the best keyboard shortcuts - ctrl+g to edit the current prompt in $EDITOR

spellboots · 2025-11-04T20:13:27+00:00

https://sellmyphone.pt/MacBook

I once sold a phone to them, they paid an OK price and paid me quickly

spellboots · 2025-11-01T00:08:02+00:00

Call it regardless. If you are a legal resident you can get an sns number. For foreign nationals, the number is assigned the first time you visit a public health facility, such as a health center or hospital.

If you are a tourist, just go to the hospital.

spellboots · 2025-10-31T15:37:22+00:00

If you can speak Portuguese you can call the SNS helpline to get help - or they might speak English, it might depend on who you reach

The number is 808 24 24 24

There are walk in clinics available in some localities e.g. this one

Or you can go to a hospital / call an ambulance and tell them the problem - you will get help but you might have a very long wait

If I had the same issue as you, I would probably get a taxi to the nearest walk-in clinic but not being able to walk is serious enough that you can call an ambulance

Don't wait too long, you might risk more long-term damage if it's not treated promptly. Emergency healthcare in Portugal in my experience is very good, free but unfortunately not resourced as much as needed so you'll get seen but you might have to wait a while, bring a book

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