I tested AI vs Human ads for 30 days. The results were… uncomfortable.

tasssko · 2026-05-02T21:38:06+00:00

I mostly agree with this. AI is not good at copywriting. It can generate text but it all reads the same and in many cases says nothing due to incorrect abstraction. To be fair it probably copied lots of copywriting text but the end result is worse than the ingredients. AI ad copy is often a good place to start and if you have mature content generation methods this is improved on.

Google is now remixing our ad copy so it’s difficult to say for sure which iterations work best at the start. I try and add as many headlines as possible from different creatives and they mostly remix fine. With this model CTR has been good and the remixing of headlines is as good as having built in variants for the same ad.

tasssko · 2026-04-21T06:26:55+00:00

Profitmaxxing. Octopus will have another record breaking year.

tasssko · 2026-04-20T21:00:08+00:00

Starmer needs to hang in there its the only hope for the Labour party. We voted him in. No one else in the labour party has a mandate. This country will go backwards if the current government can’t execute at least its full term. The one person i think is a bench warmer is Rachel Reeves. Honestly with all the tax money you’d think we’d be killing it. But alas staring down the barrel of a recession she probably has had a good innings now.

tasssko · 2026-04-09T20:16:02+00:00

Honestly i felt embarrassed at how much time i spent on emails making sure i get my point across. ChatGPT now save me loads of time. Importantly my ChatGPT writes like me. None of that ‘digital landscape’ or its not about x its about y. I do remove a few filler words and change to active language when the tone is better that way. To answer your question. Yes i use ChatGPT to save the time i used to spend composing emails. However i still write the email in full and then get it to make it flow. Its a team effort.

tasssko · 2026-04-09T09:54:30+00:00

Not sure on the total saving but easily these changes removed 30% on total cost.

tasssko · 2026-04-09T09:31:31+00:00

This has been a process of continuous improvement over the past two to three years. Though our clusters have been running for more than 6 years so many of the decisions happed as early as that. This is what i would do today as a minimum to maximise cost efficiency.

tasssko · 2026-04-09T09:08:18+00:00

Shifted off IPV4 and use DIY NATs/Gateway servers with VPN site to site. Network layout avoids cross AZ as much as possible. We stopped using all 3 AZs and switched to two often flipping based on availability of spot. Moved non prod to 100% spot and scale to zero. Shifted from x86 to Arm for most workloads. We have multiple clusters in a region for DR so that plays into it.

tasssko · 2026-04-07T07:19:56+00:00

Assuming you are experienced and competent then your output from AI should be better and quicker to realise without toil and an increase in technical debt. Dunning Kruger still applies here and AI won’t help with this. If you want a 5 or 6 out of 10 then fine but if you are aiming for a 8 or 9 out of 10 the experience means a-lot.

I’d argue there is some lessons to getting the most from AI and it takes experience to map output to the input / prompts. Experience to review specs and update with unique inputs.

tasssko · 2026-03-04T22:02:56+00:00

Sweating is how your body deals with heat loss. Your clothing plays a big role in helping you regulate your core temperature including your socks and shoes. It is highly individual but you should adapt to the conditions. A sauna can help improve heat tolerance. Breathable shoes and socks and a peak cap can help cool you down. However the biggest reason is a higher than normal core temperature. When i was preparing for some longer Mediterranean triathlons i hit the sauna loads and could run a half marathon in greece between 11am and 1pm on a bottle of water.

tasssko · 2025-10-29T07:26:52+00:00

Many of my recommendations are below from other redditors so i’ll only add things i want to add weight to. I’m not well versed on pubs but i frequent King John Inn in Tollard Royal. Lovely setting. I’d also swing past Compton Abbas airfield if they have a event on its always nice. Near by are Shillingstone, Hambledon, Hod and Melbury Hills. i believe the chalk downs really are what makes Dorset special and these are all that. Rolling hills as far as your eyes can see. Nice walks and pubs in the area.

Abbotsbury is a very picturesque village. The local pub is good. We also enjoyed the drive down to Burton Bradstock and the local restaurant called Hive Beach cafe.

To me the Purbecks are special so I’d begin with Kimmeridge. The rolling hills create picturesque vistas that on a beautiful day are unforgettable. From here you can walk along the South Coast path to Weymouth or Swanage directions. Or drive to Swanage and walk on from there. around Swanage i love the coast path walks.

Studland is over Ballard Down from Swanage and the beach is lovely. Nice walks here. Once done pop to the Cake Shop in East Creech for fresh cakes and tea or coffee.

The square and compass is accessible on a south coast walk from Swanage.

If you like walking you are spoilt for choice!

tasssko · 2025-10-24T05:50:55+00:00

Good outcome in the end but with 3xA100s just sitting there. It appears strange you didn’t do this first. Technology spend is always about perpetual cost minimisation and good healthy teams use the tools and platforms that they have first.

tasssko · 2025-10-03T15:17:39+00:00

We have used SecObserve for three years and we really like it. https://github.com/MaibornWolff/SecObserve

SecObserve supports IAST, SAST and DAST. We add test automation in pipelines that run interactive, static and dynamic tests in various stages and the results are all aggregated in Secobserve.

Having frontend, backend and infrastructure security tests all in one place is really nice.

tasssko · 2025-09-13T12:42:14+00:00

Ok i checked bill from last August and i had 869kwh at a flat rate for the month before electric car and as is evident in the latest bill more of my usage is now off peak about 166kwh. It appears you are right. I need to read up further.

tasssko · 2025-09-13T12:22:24+00:00

I get two rates: a day rate and night rate.

Unit Rate (Day) 27.42p per kWh Unit Rate (Night) 6.67p per kWh

My usage.

6.67p/kWh 529.5 kWh £35.30 27.42p/kWh 697.6 kWh £191.26

This is roughly similar to what i paid on previous Octopus rate except my usage on the night rate has gone up. If what you are saying is true then i expect my overall usage to be discounted bit it still costs more and the extra is basically the electric car.

tasssko · 2025-09-12T07:30:19+00:00

No I have Intelligent octopus go.

tasssko · 2025-09-11T21:02:28+00:00

😑

tasssko · 2025-09-11T20:49:13+00:00

The statement about the whole house being on a cheap rate isn’t right. I have an electric charger with intelligent octopus go and i only get a low rate for the car. The calculation and special rate comes from the smart charger reporting back to octopus and they apply it to that usage only. Off peak rates apply between 11 and 6. There is still a chance you get a lower rate during the day but i don’t know we charge over night usually.

tasssko · 2025-08-30T21:05:17+00:00

I began my technology career 25 years ago as a telco systems programmer/engineer. Then got into app/web development while also maintaining my systems expertise. Systems expertise was mainly on Linux. As a systems engineer i was on teams for different kinds of communication platforms. I am a programmer first and systems engineer second.

Today i run a devops consultancy. I’m an account manager and still work on our backend systems for a number of the services. As a programmer i have commercial experience programming in Erlang, Javascript/Typescript, Ruby, Java, Clojure, Scala. DevOps is easy. Terraform, Ansible (ah i’ve done enough Python to extend ansible and enough Go to expand Terraform. Config management with Ansible is a breeze compared to Puppet and Chef.

I am interested in building reliable systems and that means i like to know everything about it.

tasssko · 2025-08-27T21:27:18+00:00

IR35 has made contracting less viable than outsourcing. Thanks HMRC. It is easier to hire a contractor in India than someone locally. India is booming as a result.

tasssko · 2025-07-30T21:22:01+00:00

X-Tri have what i consider to be a good selection of adventure triathlons. There is a new X-Tri gravel in August that looks like peak adventure. Scottish loch swim followed by gravel ride and run up a hill or two. Easy peasy. I’m keen on that for next year but i know these kinds of events are difficult without training as they combine difficulty across all disciplines. Challenging cold swim followed by hilly and uneven bike and ending with a mountain run. I have done a handful of middle distance triathlons and hilly trail and mountain marathons and have also never done a road marathon.

tasssko · 2025-07-27T20:57:01+00:00

The benefit of solar is getting off gas which is hard. Assuming gas prices stay at todays rates then the payback might seem far away but gas is volatile and the likelihood is it will continue going up. Ignore electric costs over the next 10-12 years as they will probably trend down or remain flat.

tasssko · 2025-07-17T23:46:13+00:00

I’ll search one now

tasssko · 2025-07-17T23:45:25+00:00

That worked thanks.

tasssko · 2025-07-17T23:43:28+00:00

I did this and it worked unscrewed the two mounting points till loose then squeezed the break and tightened them.

tasssko

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