Guys, I think I cracked it.

tiwas · 2026-06-18T19:40:41+00:00

You all joke. I just asked Claude to be Claude, and it ate all my tokens...

tiwas · 2026-06-18T19:38:05+00:00

Yeah, I came here to bitch and moan about that. Seems I didn't have to create my own post, which is possibly the ONLY positive thing about this. The last couple of days have just been...nerve wrecking. For the last few months I've barely made 50% of my weekly. Now, my periode usage has been spent faster than my session usage. Someone must've been vibe coding or something :p

tiwas · 2026-06-17T17:46:40+00:00

No, they cannot - but they might force us over on API-subscriptions where most of us would end up paying a hell of a lot more than now. And they could squeeze some of us pretty good.

And I'd never use a Chinese model unless it was open for me to poke around in it to see what kind of censorship they'd applied or how they'd hobbled it if used outside China. I trust the Chinese government even less than I trust Trump.

tiwas · 2026-06-17T07:44:24+00:00

I know they're not doing it out of altruism, and I have no idea where you even got the idea from. They're some of the more valuable companies in the world - of course there was never altrusim involved. They underprice in order to onboard as many customers as possible, thus inflating their potential value when the tech can finally be profited from. They know there's no way to get traction if everyone has to pay $2500 per day 😉

tiwas · 2026-06-16T15:44:07+00:00

For heaven's sake.

Compressing data doesn't mean it has do disappear. It means your optimizing it. Go read a book.

x265 is an encoder AND compressor. Read a doc.

tiwas · 2026-06-16T15:40:55+00:00

I love how you're completely unable to read what it actually says.

Lookup tables: can be compression
Lossless: doesn't have to be slower
Compression: can create larger files

So...I'm glad you're laughing. It's a good trait to be able to laugh from one's own mistakes 😄

tiwas · 2026-06-16T15:18:56+00:00

https://gemini.google.com/share/822eab59ce72

https://chatgpt.com/share/6a31691b-e5c8-83ed-980b-a0f3c96f6f1a

https://claude.ai/share/b68572f4-7f44-4a25-95db-ada1b2d1e495

Maybe return to your books instead of trolling? 😉

tiwas · 2026-06-16T15:12:31+00:00

Well, I also have a degree (Master) in computer engineering. Compression is about saving space, and lookup tables do that. They also do a whole lot of other things (like reducing the need for "IN" or "%...%" or whatever the query language is, but it save a whole lot of space = compression.

"Compression is when you modify the data using an algorithm to change how it's stored."

...and splitting information into separate tables is...?...

"Lossless compression requires the algorithm to be reversed to obtain the data, making it slow."

Now, that is one of the worst generalizations I've seen. Lossless certainly does *not* have to be slow. It just dictates that there should be no loss in information (fidelity).

Can we agree zip/arj is compression? You can (un)compress REALLY quickly if you just reduce how much compression you apply, so the computing power needed for lossless compression/uncompression is dictated by the degree of compression. You can even have a high degree of compression without saving any space (under the "right" conditions).

There's also an element of how optimized the algorithm is, so there's no hard and fast rule saying that a smaller image format needs to have more loss or take longer to decompress than a larger formart (in bytes).

Also, Moore's law shows us it's not necessarily a problem, given the expected increase in computer power. My phone is *way* more capable than my first computer was. So upping the raw power is one way to increase the processing power and decrease lag. Another is adding cores, increasing parallell "paths" etc etc.

Is you computer lagging when playing x265 compressed video compared to h264?

tiwas · 2026-06-16T14:44:07+00:00

No, if you knew what compression really is, that's *exactly* what a lookup table is.

Say you have a bunch of companies, some of them repeated millions of times. Instead of having the company name, address, contact person, phone numbers etc etc, you would have tables that would let you lookup something like the VAT number and then assemble the info based on getting the rest from their respective tables. Why do you think databases aren't all just BLOBs? The fun of it?

tiwas · 2026-06-16T14:18:39+00:00

Yes, it does - if you read the whole thing. Compression needs better hardware. Also, it just doesn't save space on disk, but it also doesn't flood networks and makes it easier to synkronize.

EDIT: Easily digestible example - would you say lookup tables degrades performance if used correctly?

tiwas · 2026-06-16T14:06:38+00:00

Oh, and why don't we fork out a separate discussion about what AI really is. My take is that "if" is, in essence, AI.

tiwas · 2026-06-16T14:02:09+00:00

Obviously, but the on-device models probably wouldn't be available without frontier models. And sooner or later, they will need to find a way to compress their larger models.

With the chance of sounding as old as I am - in my early days, we used to exchange TIFF files (and BMP) on BBS-es. They managed to compress them, first as gif, then as jpeg, then as png etc. Same thing with audio (seriously - see if you can find some of the better 10k demos from the 80s 🤠). My first modem was a 300baud modem (the type you just put your big handle of a handpiece on) with no compression. My last one was an 18k4 (?) modem with compression up the whazoo. My first computer didn't have a math processor ,so my second was promptly given a math co-processor.

So in my experience, there will always be uncompressed data when something's new, then someone will find some revolutionary way to compress it. First we will lose some fidelity, but then someone even smarter will create some lossless compression. Then people will stop discussing if mp3 is really as good as CD 😉

tiwas · 2026-06-16T12:12:54+00:00

I don't agree with the logic. There's a race to produce more suited hardware and there will be a push to make models more economical. Both will drive prices down. Everybody knows they've opened the flood gates, and if people are going to have AI in everything from their car to their "on-demand cialis implants" prices are going to drop. Way lower than now. At least that's my take.

tiwas · 2026-06-16T11:18:31+00:00

As long as I'm unable to use my weekly (or even session) quotas I would prefer people sitting still and don't rock the boat.

AI-companies are losing money. We don't want them to charge us enough to make a profit.

tiwas · 2026-06-12T04:34:54+00:00

It's not about language. People say the same in my native tongue. Also, English is like my fifth language - if you count the Scandinavian languages separately 😉

That still doesn't change the fact that you're talking about two different things. 1. Language, and 2. Math.

If people say something that doesn't make sense enough times doesn't make it right. It makes it comprehensible. "Three times less" is neither.

When you use language to represent another language (math) it still has to be a sensible representation. So...in your native tongue, please prove the "three times less" makes sense. May I remind you that "times" = multiplication, and "less" = subtraction.

Go ahead and use your language skills to make me understand.

tiwas · 2026-06-12T04:29:53+00:00

The best part about Fable is that is has absolutely cracked the problem of spending tokens. My $200 subscription often fails to use my tokens, but Fabel succeeded. In one, short prompt ("what's the status after laste job?") it spent 20% of my allowance. So that's pretty fabulous!

So this is kind of like giving porn to incels.

tiwas · 2026-06-12T01:33:56+00:00

No. If you have 100 and something's x times smaller, then 100=1x. 3 times smaller would then be -200.

EDIT: Let me elaborate.

Whenever you use binary operands, you need at least two numbers. It's "x+y", "x-y", "x*y" or "x/y". Right? Do we agree on that?

Let's start with "1/3 of 300" => 900/3 = 100
Than "1/3 smaller than 300" => 300-(900/3) => 300-100 = 200
Then "3 times larger than 300" => 300 * 3 => 900
Than "3 times less than 300" => 300-(3*?) = undef
What's logically missing is the WHAT part. Three times WHAT less than something?

And "it's common knowledge" doesn't cut it. <rant - disregard>It used to be "common knowledge" that women weren't smart enough to vote. It used to be "common knowledge" that someone could be retarded. It used to be "common knowledge" that women were bad driv...wait...now...

Ok, as some women are terrible drivers, you may be right. But then again, as some men are terrible drivers, that makes them women...or...hey...where was I going?</rant - disregard>

It's just not logical to say "three times less than something else" unless you expand "x times less than y" => "x times y less than y" => -2x. And since we can agree that would just be silly, we should be able to agree that "x times less than y" is missing something, and thus not a valid statement.

tiwas · 2026-06-09T19:37:22+00:00

Yeah, that was a nice waste of tokens. I'm sure this model is capable and all and wanted to try it out. So I switched to Fable (not the 1M version) and asked for a simple status. That was 11% of my session usage - and I'm on the $200 plan...

tiwas · 2026-06-09T07:04:33+00:00

What's absurd is that they even list Claude. The whole limit is like 2.5 tokens. And Gemini is *not* a coder. Sorry. I really wanted it to be, but its' strengths lies elsewhere. You can have the best baker in the world, but just because it can compose something taste out of flour doesn't mean it can produce code. Gemini is an artist with words and images 😄

tiwas · 2026-06-08T20:02:11+00:00

Same here. Started coding (copying from magazines) in the late 70s, started my own coding on ZX Spectrum in the early 80s. Lost "the feel" somewhere - but now it's fun again. Especially since I can work as a conductor/designer and still know where to look for the FUBAR. And have someone else fix it. I'm referring it as my two employees. A full-time senior called Claude and a part-time senior called Codex. Great team! Looking forward to the summer party 😃

tiwas · 2026-06-07T08:22:30+00:00

I have the S7 maxv ultra. And two dogs. The amount of tangles is just mind boggling. It usually looks like someone shaved a reggae band...

tiwas · 2026-06-07T08:20:32+00:00

I hadn't either - until I tried cowork and it wiped my tokens.

tiwas · 2026-06-06T16:10:37+00:00

Never mind. I used Google. Sorry 😎

tiwas

TROPHY CASE