Yeti

yeti

I have been podcasting for a year now between and , and I've learned a few things about audio. I'm in no way an audio expert yet and my background isn't in audio engineering or production. But, one day in 2020 I bought a mic and started learning lessons the hard way - by doing, f*cking up, and improving. The Art Hustlers' Studio The HackerNoon Podcast Over the past year, I've made audio mistakes and it has been fabulous for and growth. On the very first podcast episode I recorded, I had my mic muted for the first half of the episode. On an episode I recorded with an in-person guest, the audio was horrifying because I didn't know how to position the mic. With this slogging thread and story, I hope you can learn from some of my mistakes by adjusting to the optimal settings for your Yeti Blue mic. many my career The Yeti Blue Mic There are a few nobs on the Yeti Blue mic. The first is the . As part of my pre-recording checklist, I always make sure I can see a solid red light on that mute button, which indicates the mic is on and not muted. If you're light is flashing, you won't be recording audio, my friend. mute button The next nob is the . As a podcaster who records with guests, this dial is pretty much just for show. Apparently, you can plug your headphones directly into the mic - I've never needed to do this. volume dial On the backside of the mic, I have the . Gain refers to the level of sound output for the mic. If the gain is too high, you'll get clipped. If the gain is too low, you won't hear anything; the gain dial is very sensitive. To give you some context, on one of the latest recordings of The HackerNoon Podcast, one of the mic's gain was set at 3 o'clock and that was way too high. Mine is set at 8 o'clock, but I also have a vocal booth surrounding my mic which helps. Try setting your dial to 9 o'clock to start. In general, I'd say it's better to err on the side of quiet than loud because it can mostly be adjusted in post (unless it's TOO quiet). gain nob Below the gain nob is the . This dial changes the type of recording pattern your mic will use. There are four kinds of patterns: cardioid, stereo, omnidirectional, and bidirectional. For podcasting, you should be using the cardioid setting which is the one that looks like a little butt. This is optimized so that whatever is directly in front of the mic (in this case you) will be recorded. If you were recording with a guest in person and with only one mic, you'd want to change to omnidirectional or bidirectional. pattern nob Image source One other important thing to remember about using the Blue Yeti mic is where to speak into the mic. Most people want to point the tip of the mic towards their mouth, but you should actually be keeping the mic up and down and talking into the side of it. You also don't want to be too close and talking directly into the mic itself. It's better to talk at least a foot back and turn up the gain if you need to. Image source This Slogging thread by Alex Cobb, Amy, David, Guy and Linh occurred in hackernoon's official #podcast channel, and has been edited for readability. Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 2:45 PM What's everyone setting his or her gain to for the TWOPI recordings? Also, is everyone making sure to keep audio rolling throughout and not cutting it off partway through? 🤔 1 Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 2:48 PM Because someone may have clipped a bit...the entire episode Amy Jul 8, 2021, 3:02 PM Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 3:04 PM Yours looks good! I like 9 o'clock, but it sounds great. That sounds insulating is doing numbers. 🔥 1 Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 3:05 PM Sound* Amy Jul 8, 2021, 3:37 PM David I believe you are the culprit in question 😂 Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 3:37 PM Not pointing any fingers or naming any names, but it's not Amy, and the gain problem specifically isn't Guy. David Jul 8, 2021, 3:55 PM ha its probably me, I attached a mic for the first time. its also a yetti. it worked fine via restream in this first recording and then twopi and storm podcast yesterday was second and third time using it. https://twitter.com/productschool/status/1412501856870449152 David Jul 8, 2021, 3:55 PM with this computer. Amy Jul 8, 2021, 3:56 PM you probs just need to put your gain to 9'oclock. “clipping” means it was too loud so you went over the audio threshold for appropriate volume :savage-smiling-with-tear: 😂 1 :savage-joy: 1 :savage-smiling-with-tear: 1 Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 3:57 PM Audio expert over here^ :face_with_monocle: 😂 1 Guy Jul 8, 2021, 3:57 PM Who’s gain? But glad my $30 5 year-old mic isn’t causing too many issues hehe Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 3:58 PM Your issue was muting your audio periodically and inadvertently pausing the recording. Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 3:59 PM So, it's not a competition, but Amy wins. 🍾 2 🏆 2 David Jul 8, 2021, 3:59 PM Is Storm's also off? Are those two recordings salvagable/publishable? podcast ✅ 1 David Jul 8, 2021, 3:59 PM Gain was at 3 oclock, just moved to 9 oclock now Guy Jul 8, 2021, 4:00 PM Does muting on zoom affect the recording (even when I’m not speaking)? I HAVE A SQUEAKY CHAIR 😂 1 Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 4:00 PM Yup. It's an abysmal system. We truly do live in a society. Do they have WD-40 over there? Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 4:01 PM Can we hear a test of 9 o'clock? Idk if you can send it over the slack. Guy Jul 8, 2021, 4:02 PM I’ve been meaning to give it a good spray-down for ages, but cheers for letting me know about the zoom muting thing! Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 4:03 PM Yeah, it's something no one else seems to realise and I only found out about by reading the podcast recording guidelines. Terrible system from Zoom. Only way around it would be recording a separate track as well. No worries, tho, mate. Took care of it. Cheers. 🙌 2 Amy Jul 8, 2021, 4:18 PM David you also gotta change the bottom dial to the butt looking icon loooool David Jul 8, 2021, 7:32 PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4PvTrTp7Tc :man-facepalming: 1 😂 1 Linh Jul 8, 2021, 9:25 PM omg what’s going on??? i don’t understand anything =))) Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 9:28 PM It's also called cardioid, but that's SO much less fun to say. Linh Jul 8, 2021, 9:30 PM so i’m planning to use the yeti mic with the dongle as mentioned at the end of the twopi episode, awhat now? do i have to know anything about zoom setting or what have you? Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 9:36 PM I'd say don't mute your Zoom call under any circumstances. I THINK you can mute the mic If you have to. Linh Jul 8, 2021, 9:37 PM omg that’s news for me. ok. how does one mute the mic though 🙈 Alex Cobb Jul 8, 2021, 9:37 PM Should be a button, depending on the model. Amy's doesn't seem to have one. My model has a little button right in the middle. Amy Jul 8, 2021, 9:39 PM Oh my mute button is on the other side Amy Jul 8, 2021, 9:39 PM Have 10/10 recorded entire episodes with the mic muted in the past SOOO That's it, everyone - thanks for reading! I hope this helps you avoid some of the same audio mistakes I was making. If you want to check out my podcasts, you can listen to The Art Hustlers' Studio or The HackerNoon Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the meantime, I'll be podding hard.

How to Adjust the Blue Yeti Microphone Settings For Podcasting

Cómo ajustar la configuración del micrófono Blue Yeti para podcasting

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Stop me if you’ve heard this before — “I started XXX because I hated my job, and I wanted to do XXX”. Or “I hate my job. How can I start a startup/business?” I have never really understood these arguments. They may have their own merits, I am not sure. But I for one, just don’t see it. Actually every time I hear this, the only thought in my head is — What?? It’s great that you have started up on your own, or that you want to start. But how is it related to you hating your job? More importantly, why did you get in a job that you hated? If you hate your job, why aren’t you finding one that you would love? Is it possible that you don’t hate your job but what you’re doing on a day to day basis? That you’re still figuring out what is it that you want to do in life? How do you want to shape things forward. What is it that you are great at, feel passionately for and what gives you that warm feeling of pleasure? Is it possible that you’re still learning the chops? I’VE ALWAYS LOVED WHAT I WAS DOING I loved my job! Every single one of them. Well, other than two — my first job, and another from where I moved on after 2.5 months. As far as the first job is concerned, I was doing a lot of research work. It was fun, but not fulfilling. I couldn’t really find gratification deep within while I was doing that. So, 10 months into the job, I quit. The only other job that I wasn’t in love with was when I was trading in Eurodollar futures. The market is amazing, you lose a lot of money for the company, you make some as well, but at the end of the day, depending on your company’s DNA, it could feel like you are just going through the motions. Every. Single. Day. Sure, you get paid well. Really well. But, is that enough? I figured it wasn’t, so I moved on. Other than them, I have loved everything I have done in my professional life. I have loved conceptualizing and executing both small and big-ass marketing strategies for an e-commerce biggie. I have loved managing the brand for a tech magazine. I have loved handling the monetization strategy for a social gaming network. Most recently I was in love with handling business processes for a communication and collaboration company. ( ) Yes, like Slack. I started in, with handling marketing for one of the products and gradually moved on to setting up the entire sales team, processes, and strategy for another product. I was whatever the company needed me to be — a marketing guy, a PR guy, a content writer, a sales associate, the sales head. Whatever. We gradually increased our team size to quite a sizeable number, but I loved every day of it. I am still in touch with guys from my previous organization. Amazing people who were working in my team. Whom I had hired. And we don’t just socialize. We talk about work, they seek my advice when they feel stuck. They know they can do so because they know I will help. They know I loved what I was doing, and I left for reasons that had got nothing to do with how I felt about them or the work or my schedule. I left to start something I believed in. Something that was drawing me towards itself. Something where I felt I’ll be able to do things differently, and that feeling — it is exciting as fuck. I EVEN LOVED LEAVING A JOB I LOVED — TO DO NOTHING BUT TRAVEL I took a break from work — to travel through Europe and South East Asia. One and a half years, give or take. For 18 months straight — no work, all legs. Kept on traveling and traveling. I didn’t do it because I hated my job and needed to unwind. I did it because I wanted to experience it. I did it because I wanted to do it. I did not want to wait long enough for it to feel right. It felt right and I did it. Now, off of everything I have done — — I have been great at most of them, I have sucked or been naive at some. And that’s okay. I identified what is it that I was lacking and I fixed it. at the risk of sounding arrogant I have been good at my job because I did what I loved to do, so every day was fun. Did I have disagreements — with my team members, my CEOs and other teams? Of course. Who wouldn’t. But it was all part of a process. And it was all amazing. I like to think that I am quite good at what I do, and one of the main reasons is because I have always done what I thought I would love to do. And not just the role. The team. The team’s vision. The senior management. How they approach things. Everything has to come together. As a result, my new experiences keep on piling up on top of my previous learnings, and they form quite a cohesive bond — making my foundation stronger. SO WHY DID I QUIT AND START ON MY OWN? I started up because I saw problems that I felt I could fix. I saw a huge opportunity that existed, a void waiting to be filled. I started because I could see I was the right guy to try fixing it — to make a dent here, slash a couple of things there. I started because I wanted to do “more” of what I love to do, not because I didn’t already love what I was doing. And that, my friends, matters a lot. Love what you do, or try finding a place where you would. Especially if you want to start on your own some day. Getting in touch is easy. I am available on , . I write on Medium, but I guess that you already knew. I also have a account. :-) Twitter Facebook, Quora, LinkedIn mail Have fun! Let’s chat. Humans, bots — really doesn’t make much difference to me.

I never hated my job. Yet, I quit. Again!

Past work by Axis Design Are you a designer too? A few years ago, like every non-designer technology person out there, I caught the design/design thinking bug. I became that annoying non-designer who read Don Norman’s ‘ ’, Jay Greene’s ‘ ’ and Tim Brown’s ‘ ’ but stopped just short of calling myself a designer. The products that captured our attention and money were, all of a sudden, . It’s still the case. Design of Everyday Things Design Is How It Works Change By Design design-centric Only recently have I come to realize how annoying that must have been to folk who actually got an education and have years of experience designing stuff. To those people, including L my Industrial Designer friend from undergrad, I apologize. Change cometh…only learners will thrive. As the pace of convergence between the built environment, technology, energy generation/management has picked up, I’ve come to the heightened realization that experts across all these industries have to engage at a much deeper level than before when our industries were siloed. For this reason I’ve started to spend a lot more time with experts in these industries (architects, industrial designers and natural born tinkerers) that are becoming more relevant to me as a technology strategy expert in the utility industry. A few weeks ago, I had a fantastic lunch with 3 world renowned architects and must have annoyed them with all my questions which they graciously answered. The conversation centered the . I’m excited about continuing the conversation about how design is a point of contact between these scales. large scale economic systems and physical infrastructures of the energy world, as well as the more tangible scale of use and experience Naturally, my next conversation had to be with an industrial designer. And that was a recent chat with Dan Phipps at his in downtown Round Rock TX. Like a rookie, the first time I met Dan I pitched an IoT idea, and I should have shut my mouth to just listen. Second chat I decided to shut my mouth and learn how designers bring those two scales I mentioned above together through their work. Axis Design and Prototyping studio Non obvious business lessons Dan Phipps is extremely understated. Knowing I would share this blog post made him uncomfortable. For someone who’s worked on iconic hardware products and brands like Kodak, Crockpot, Dell, HP, Bose, Polaroid, SnapOn, Yeti and a few others that can’t be named, Dan is too understated. In his position I’d have made t-shirts with all those logos and plastered ‘ ’ and I’d only wear those t-shirts. All the time. I Designed For Them Along with thoughts on design, Dan shared some non-obvious lessons that I couldn’t resist sharing with designers old and new. The lessons are also applicable to those of us who work, and will do more work, with designers as all these industries converge. Dan shared a story about a client who was a pleasure to work with and had some cool projects. Within the organization Dan’s client had great products that were responsible for the only growth and profits the larger organization was seeing. Fast forward a few months the organization files for bankruptcy and Dan never got paid. Worse still, and when Dan decided to add the modelling shop to his design studio, Dan had paid vendors for work that he was now not getting paid for. It was a lesson in understanding the industry, and market conditions, as a whole instead of just focusing on the work you do for the team within the organization. This story reminded me of a similar story Tim Brown shared in ‘Change by Design’ where he talked about his good work with the Wadkin Bursgreen company, a company that is no longer in existence, designing circular saws and spindle molders. Tim Brown shared that Learn as much about the industry climate as you do about the client: ‘ As a designer I didn’t see that it was the future of the woodworking industry that was in question, not the designs of its machine. ’ Dan has found that the level of communication between his firm and the client is a great indicator of how well the project will go. It determines the level of excitement with the work and aids or impedes the flow of ideas. He once had a client who was a bad communicator who nonetheless expected the ideas Dan’s team brought to him to match what he had in his This non-communicative style didn’t start midway into the project. It was the style even when the contract was being signed. Listen to the signals. The start of the discussions is a good sign of how the engagement will go. When clients tell you who they are, listen: head. In Dan’s own words ‘ . This is not about a client telling the designer what to do but the client sharing enough that the designer knows where to go with the work. Statements like ‘ ’ or ‘ ’? are good indicators of clarity of vision on the customer’s side. Seek that and nurture that from your clients. It’s about intangibles: A good customer can communicate what they want from you. Not the solution, the vision’ we want you to design this new marker, we really need to stylize the cap our vision for the marker is what is Marker : Hand in hand with #2 and #3 is how the client organization communicates internally. How do employees navigate decision making within the business? Even when the client has the vision nailed down, you’re collaborating with the client to enhance and fulfill that vision and it’s going well, how does your contact fare when they hit the who see change and new thinking as a disease to be killed? They exist in all organizations big and small and play a big role in whether the project is successful or not. Watch out for Corporate Antibodies Corporate Antibodies Sidenote: The relationship between this and my industry the utility industry: change is going in the industry but the antibodies within and without and resisting and preventing the growth that can come from embracing the changes. These lessons apply in every industry and at one point or the other you/me/we are either the client or the designer. Managing engagements with an understanding of these things does not have anything to do with how we think the client is. It truly is about how well we communicate. It’s about how well we listen whether we are the client or the designer, especially in industries where the tradition has been to not listen to the customer at all ( ). That will no longer do in a world that is fast changing around us… innovative Come to think of it the four lessons can be boiled down to one; listen. It means no egos, a learning mindset and an open ear. cough, cough, utility industry, cough, cough The other Daniel on the team at the CNC machine Dan P had one last piece of advice for all young designers (having been in this business for the last 20 years or so); work hard and hone your craft. ‘ And don’t we all want to be set apart from the competition… It’s about developing a habit for working hard so that when you do find the thing you are passionate about — a project, a client, a business — the habit will translate and it will set you apart from the competition.’ I’ll make a plug for Dan here (he wouldn’t do it himself), if you’re looking for great product design work from a great team check out axisdesign.com or email me seyi at asha-labs dot com. Please share, like and do all the things you do to articles on Medium. Read more critical but relatable analyses of the most important industry (utilities) at Asha Labs or reach out for ghostwriting (that doesn’t suck) at HarperJacobs . Seyi Fabode is an Operating Partner at VestedWorld .

4 Non Obvious Lessons from an Industrial Designer for Microsoft, Dell, Kodak and Yeti.

Our Favorite Word Is the One That Makes Us The Dumbest

My grandma moved into a retirement home. So I’m packing her boxes. Something shines. I pick it up; I rub it, and poof. 🌬️ The genie pops out, stares at me with eyes like burning coals. “One wish,” he says. “Anything you want.” I don’t even hesitate. “I want to live forever.” He smirks. He looks at me as if I made a mistake: ‍ ‍ Me: “Yes god damnit. Who wouldn’t want that?” He nods, snaps his fingers, and just like that... I am eternal. — JOURNAL ENTRIES Day 1: October 30th, 2024 Mood: Ecstatic I am eternal. Just saying it feels wild. No need to rush, no need to worry about “running out of time.” I celebrated by doing absolutely nothing for a few hours. Pure freedom. Then, I started a list of all the things I’ll finally have time to do… Learn every language, read every classic novel, visit every country. This is going to be epic. Day 7: November 6th, 2024 Mood: Still pumped I went skydiving. Twice. Why not? When you have all the time in the world, you start looking at everything as an experiment. Every experience is available to me, no need to weigh pros and cons. I spent the afternoon planning my “eternal bucket list,” and it’s filling up fast. No more FOMO. Month 3: January 2025 Mood: Curious but… maybe a little restless Visited 15 countries. Tried every extreme sport I could find. Learned conversational Japanese (嫌な予感 が する…). But here’s a weird thought: things don’t feel as urgent. Year 5: October 2029 Mood: Bored, if I’m being honest I’ve done everything. Twice. The thrill of “trying new things” is wearing thin. I mean, it’s still fun, but… there’s no urgency. I’ve read every book on my shelf, watched every classic film, climbed the tallest mountains, and scuba-dived in the deepest oceans. Strangely, I miss deadlines. Year 100: 2124 Mood: Desperately craving an end Fuuuuck me. I get it now. I can practically see that damn smirk on the genie’s face. He knew all along. Life isn’t precious because it goes on forever; it’s precious because it doesn’t. The weight of this hits like a ton of bricks—too late to go back, too late to choose differently. If I had known… if I’d understood then what I know now, I would’ve focused on the things that actually mean something—the people, the fleeting, messy moments, the things that make life feel whole, even when it’s painfully short. Forever isn’t a gift; it’s a curse. The real beauty of life? It’s that we don’t have enough of it. But I’m stuck here, endlessly watching sunsets, endlessly waiting… and I finally understand. Year 1000: 3124 Mood: Trapped in eternity I have outlived everything worth living for. No end, no escape—just endless, empty time. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy — Why is a good question. Why don’t we feel the urgency to do what truly matters? It’s like we’re all acting like we have forever, but never stopping to ask what that would actually mean. Think about it. People say they’ll start tomorrow, or next week, or “when things slow down.” But if you lived forever, there’d always be another tomorrow. Nothing would ever need to happen now. And it’s funny, right? We already fall into this trap. Look around. You see it—friends, family, even yourself, pushing things off like there’s an endless supply of tomorrows. Procrastination: The Forever Trap Every time you say, “I’ll do it later,” you’re betting that you’ll always have more time. Imagine that mindset with an eternity. You’d keep pushing things off, waiting for some “perfect time” that never arrives. And then, you’d be stuck in an endless cycle, putting off the things that actually matter, because there’s always later. And here’s the irony: we’re not procrastinating because we actually have forever; we’re procrastinating because we’re afraid. Afraid of messing up


Afraid of failing


Afraid of feeling too much too soon. Forever gives you the illusion that there’s no urgency, but it’s the finiteness of life that gives meaning to every action. The Planners and the Risk Avoiders Then there are the planners—mapping out every detail but never hitting ‘send.’ And the risk avoiders, waiting for the “right time” or “right feeling” to step out of their comfort zones. If you had forever, you’d just keep waiting, wouldn’t you? Safe, but never fully alive. Here’s what I’ve realized: it’s the decision to act within limits that brings the clarity and power to make things real. The ticking clock forces us to be honest about what we truly want to do—and what we’re just afraid to let go of. The fear of death isn’t just about a fear of “not existing.” It’s also a fear of leaving things undone, of not truly living while we’re here. The Paradox of Choice: Doing It All vs. Doing What Matters Imagine if you really tried to do everything. Every hobby, every skill, every destination on the planet. Eventually, you’d end up in an endless loop of trying to keep yourself entertained. You know that feeling when you scroll through Netflix for an hour because you could watch anything, and somehow end up watching nothing? Now picture that on a cosmic scale. Living forever would be the ultimate Netflix paralysis—an endless list of options with no urgency to pick one. When nothing is urgent, nothing feels meaningful. The beauty of life—the thing that makes it feel so damn precious—is that we don’t get to do it all. We have to make choices. Prioritize. And those choices? That’s where the meaning is. So why don’t we feel the urgency to do what truly matters? It’s like we’re pretending we’ll live forever, never stopping to ask ourselves what that would actually mean. You act as if time is endless, yet don’t treat it like the gift it is. You take it for granted, half-living, stuck in routines, assuming we have all the time in the world—until you don’t. (speaking for myself here). So here’s the question that started spinning in my head: If I had all the time in the world—literally—what would I actually do? Sometimes, thinking about life from a completely different angle is the only way to see what’s really important. After all, ‍“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” So I thought, why not flip the script entirely? Why not imagine what life would look like if I had infinite time? And see what I’d actually end up doing if there were no ticking clock. At first, the answer seemed obvious: I’d do everything. Explore every country


Learn every language


Master every skill. Imagine the freedom of knowing you’ll never run out of time. No rush, no pressure. Just endless opportunities. But then I dug a little deeper. And the idea of eternity… it started to lose its appeal. The Gift of Limits. And that’s the real gift, isn’t it? We don’t live forever. We have limits, and they force us to make choices. Every hour, every day, every experience matters more because there’s not an endless supply. But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe limits don’t just force us to make choices—they define what we even desire. Think about it: Would anything hold value if it were endless?


Would anything feel precious if there were no possibility of losing it? In a strange way, it’s our limitations that create the desire to begin with. Imagine wanting something for eternity. The wanting itself would lose its spark, wouldn’t it? ‍ ‍ The ticking clock doesn’t just create urgency—it gives us clarity. It reveals what we’re actually willing to fight for, sacrifice for, love fiercely enough to choose over all else. It’s the “no” that makes the “yes” matter. What if the ultimate purpose of limits isn’t just to make life precious, but to strip away everything unnecessary, leaving us only with what we’d die for—or live for? If we had forever, there’d be no need to wrestle with questions like this, no need to ask what’s worth our time, our effort, our love. But because we don’t, every choice we make is a declaration of what we believe is worth it. So maybe the real gift of limits is that they don’t just end our time—they shape it. They’re the sculptors of our priorities, carving away everything that doesn’t matter until we’re left with something we can hold up and say, this is my life. Until next time… perhaps. Benoit ‍ My grandma moved into a retirement home. So I’m packing her boxes. Something shines. I pick it up; I rub it, and poof. 🌬️ The genie pops out, stares at me with eyes like burning coals. “ One wish ,” he says. “ Anything you want .” One wish Anything you want I don’t even hesitate. “ I want to live forever .” I want to live forever I want to live forever He smirks. He looks at me as if I made a mistake: ‍ ‍ Me: “ Yes god damnit. Who wouldn’t want that ?” Yes god damnit. Who wouldn’t want that He nods, snaps his fingers, and just like that... I am eternal. — JOURNAL ENTRIES JOURNAL ENTRIES Day 1: October 30th, 2024 Day 1: October 30th, 2024 Mood: Ecstatic Mood: I am eternal . Just saying it feels wild. No need to rush, no need to worry about “running out of time.” am eternal I celebrated by doing absolutely nothing for a few hours. Pure freedom. nothing Then, I started a list of all the things I’ll finally have time to do… Learn every language, read every classic novel, visit every country. Learn every language, read every classic novel, visit every country. This is going to be epic. epic. Day 7: November 6th, 2024 Day 7: November 6th, 2024 Mood: Still pumped Mood: I went skydiving. Twice. Why not? When you have all the time in the world, you start looking at everything as an experiment. Every experience is available to me, no need to weigh pros and cons. I spent the afternoon planning my “eternal bucket list,” and it’s filling up fast. No more FOMO. Month 3: January 2025 Month 3: January 2025 Mood: Curious but… maybe a little restless Mood: Visited 15 countries. Tried every extreme sport I could find. Learned conversational Japanese ( 嫌な予感 が する …). But here’s a weird thought: things don’t feel as urgent. 嫌な予感 が する feel Year 5: October 2029 Year 5: October 2029 Mood: Bored, if I’m being honest Mood: I’ve done everything. Twice. The thrill of “trying new things” is wearing thin. I mean, it’s still fun, but… there’s no urgency. I’ve read every book on my shelf, watched every classic film, climbed the tallest mountains, and scuba-dived in the deepest oceans. Strangely, I miss deadlines. Year 100: 2124 Year 100: 2124 Mood: Desperately craving an end Mood: Desperately craving an end Fuuuuck me. Fuuuuck me. I get it now. I can practically see that damn smirk on the genie’s face. He knew all along. Life isn’t precious because it goes on forever; it’s precious because it doesn’t. The weight of this hits like a ton of bricks— too late to go back, too late to choose differently. it’s precious because it doesn’t. too late to go back, too late to choose differently. If I had known… if I’d understood then what I know now, I would’ve focused on the things that actually mean something—the people, the fleeting, messy moments, the things that make life feel whole, even when it’s painfully short. Forever isn’t a gift; it’s a curse. The real beauty of life? It’s that we don’t have enough of it. But I’m stuck here, endlessly watching sunsets, endlessly waiting… and I finally understand. Year 1000: 3124 Year 1000: 3124 Mood: Trapped in eternity Mood: Trapped in eternity I have outlived everything worth living for. No end, no escape—just endless, empty time. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy — Why is a good question. Why don’t we feel the urgency to do what truly matters? It’s like we’re all acting like we have forever, but never stopping to ask what that would actually mean. Think about it. People say they’ll start tomorrow, or next week, or “when things slow down.” But if you lived forever, there’d always be another tomorrow. Nothing would ever need to happen now. And it’s funny, right? We already fall into this trap. Look around. You see it—friends, family, even yourself, pushing things off like there’s an endless supply of tomorrows. Procrastination: The Forever Trap Procrastination: The Forever Trap Every time you say, “ I’ll do it later ,” you’re betting that you’ll always have more time. Imagine that mindset with an eternity. You’d keep pushing things off, waiting for some “perfect time” that never arrives. I’ll do it later And then, you’d be stuck in an endless cycle, putting off the things that actually matter, because there’s always later. And here’s the irony: we’re not procrastinating because we actually have forever; we’re procrastinating because we’re afraid . because we’re afraid Afraid of messing up Afraid of failing Afraid of feeling too much too soon. Afraid of messing up Afraid of messing up Afraid of failing Afraid of failing Afraid of feeling too much too soon. Afraid of feeling too much too soon. feeling Forever gives you the illusion that there’s no urgency, but it’s the finiteness of life that gives meaning to every action. illusion The Planners and the Risk Avoiders The Planners and the Risk Avoiders Then there are the planners—mapping out every detail but never hitting ‘ send .’ And the risk avoiders, waiting for the “right time” or “right feeling” to step out of their comfort zones. send If you had forever, you’d just keep waiting, wouldn’t you? Safe, but never fully alive. Here’s what I’ve realized: it’s the decision to act within limits that brings the clarity and power to make things real. it’s the decision to act within limits that brings the clarity and power to make things real. The ticking clock forces us to be honest about what we truly want to do—and what we’re just afraid to let go of. The fear of death isn’t just about a fear of “not existing.” It’s also a fear of leaving things undone, of not truly living while we’re here. living The Paradox of Choice: Doing It All vs. Doing What Matters The Paradox of Choice: Doing It All vs. Doing What Matters Imagine if you really tried to do everything. Every hobby, every skill, every destination on the planet. Eventually, you’d end up in an endless loop of trying to keep yourself entertained. You know that feeling when you scroll through Netflix for an hour because you could watch anything , and somehow end up watching nothing? anything Now picture that on a cosmic scale. Living forever would be the ultimate Netflix paralysis—an endless list of options with no urgency to pick one. When nothing is urgent, nothing feels meaningful. The beauty of life—the thing that makes it feel so damn precious—is that we don’t get to do it all. We have to make choices. Prioritize. And those choices? That’s where the meaning is. That’s where the meaning is. That’s where the meaning is. So why don’t we feel the urgency to do what truly matters? So why don’t we feel the urgency to do what truly matters? It’s like we’re pretending we’ll live forever, never stopping to ask ourselves what that would actually mean. You act as if time is endless, yet don’t treat it like the gift it is. You take it for granted, half-living, stuck in routines, assuming we have all the time in the world—until you don’t. (speaking for myself here). So here’s the question that started spinning in my head: If I had all the time in the world—literally—what would I actually do? If I had all the time in the world—literally—what would I actually do? If I had all the time in the world—literally—what would I actually do? Sometimes, thinking about life from a completely different angle is the only way to see what’s really important. After all, ‍“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” So I thought, why not flip the script entirely? Why not imagine what life would look like if I had infinite time? And see what I’d actually end up doing if there were no ticking clock. At first, the answer seemed obvious: I’d do everything. Explore every country Learn every language Master every skill. Explore every country Explore every country Learn every language Learn every language Master every skill. Master every skill. Imagine the freedom of knowing you’ll never run out of time. No rush, no pressure. Just endless opportunities. But then I dug a little deeper. And the idea of eternity… it started to lose its appeal. The Gift of Limits. The Gift of Limits. And that’s the real gift, isn’t it? We don’t live forever. We have limits, and they force us to make choices. Every hour, every day, every experience matters more because there’s not an endless supply. But maybe it’s more than that. Maybe limits don’t just force us to make choices—they define what we even desire. force define Think about it: Would anything hold value if it were endless? Would anything feel precious if there were no possibility of losing it? Would anything hold value if it were endless? Would anything hold value if it were endless? Would anything feel precious if there were no possibility of losing it? Would anything feel precious if there were no possibility of losing it? In a strange way, it’s our limitations that create the desire to begin with. Imagine wanting something for eternity. The wanting itself would lose its spark, wouldn’t it? ‍ ‍ The ticking clock doesn’t just create urgency—it gives us clarity. It reveals what we’re actually willing to fight for, sacrifice for, love fiercely enough to choose over all else. It’s the “no” that makes the “yes” matter. It’s the “no” that makes the “yes” matter. What if the ultimate purpose of limits isn’t just to make life precious, but to strip away everything unnecessary , leaving us only with what we’d die for—or live for? unnecessary If we had forever, there’d be no need to wrestle with questions like this, no need to ask what’s worth our time, our effort, our love. But because we don’t, every choice we make is a declaration of what we believe is worth it. So maybe the real gift of limits is that they don’t just end our time—they shape it. shape They’re the sculptors of our priorities, carving away everything that doesn’t matter until we’re left with something we can hold up and say, this is my life. this Until next time… perhaps. Benoit ‍

The Unexpected Weight of Immortality

Ölümsüzlüyün gözlənilməz çəkisi

Нечаканая вага бессмяротнасці

El peso inesperado de la inmortalidad

Hilezkortasunaren ustekabeko pisua

不死の予期せぬ重み

ទម្ងន់ដែលមិននឹកស្មានដល់នៃភាពអមតៈ

불멸의 예상치 못한 무게

Netikėtas nemirtingumo svoris

Nieoczekiwany ciężar nieśmiertelności

Mana wañuq kaypa mana suyasqa llasaynin

Greutatea neașteptată a nemuririi

Isisindo Esingalindelekile Sokungafi

Financial manager? Again? Yes! A new one, a different one, and the more, the merrier! But seriously, I've always liked the concept of creating transactions by dragging and dropping, yet I couldn't stand that most finance apps are just Excel with a pretty face. Sure, many of them have analytics, but who actually looks at that? I have eight years of analytics in my app. You know how many times I've opened it? Three. Once to see what it is, once by accident, and the third time because I forgot that I found absolutely nothing useful the first time. I want to see specific advice like, “You’re spending way too much on restaurants—slow your roll,” “Sunday is the most expensive day; maybe stay in,” or “Come on, start earning more already!” and so on. Just don’t tell me such apps already exist; I’d hate to think those four months went down the drain! 🙂 And that’s how the idea was born. Hope, you’re ready to download Fuku 😀 - Google Play What do I need from the app? Here are my must-haves: Drag-and-drop for adding transactions—it’s a non-negotiable!
A clean, minimalist interface—no distractions, please!
Advice and recommendations from the app—without that, what’s the use?
Multiple currency support—I travel a lot (but who doesn’t these days?).
Android + iOS compatibility—because I’d rather not write it twice.
Dark and light themes—let’s have a little variety! For the MVP, I decided to keep it straightforward—just the essentials: handling transactions and debts. And of course, multi-currency support—remember, I travel a lot! ✈️ I also added a dark theme, cross-platform compatibility, and design right from the start. I’ve learned the hard way that if you forget that foundation, you’ll end up rewriting half the project. 😅 At first, I didn’t plan to include a second currency feature, but I couldn’t resist! Now, when you hold down the button, all amounts magically convert to that currency. Here’s the deal: I’ve got a card for Malaysia and Montenegro, but when I head to Vietnam, I’m always scrambling to figure out how much 100 MYR is in local dong. 💸 Do I have enough to pay with this card, or should I whip out another one? Now, with just a long press, everything converts to dong, and it’s as clear as day! 🌞 The launch was quite an adventure! 😅 In the app description, I jokingly wrote that it was the best app according to my wife, and an anonymous user said, “It’s just wow.” Yeah, it’s been a while since I read the policies! 🤣 As a result, Google rejected the app and asked me to change the description—not once, but several times. Eventually, they banned the app from publication altogether for “multiple policy violations.” Lesson learned: no more jokes in the app description for me! The first users came through organic traffic and my YouTube channel, but only a handful made the jump. It’s clear that people who actually use apps like this are a rare breed! The biggest surprise was the design. I found a freelancer who had hundreds of reviews and nearly a 5.0 rating. Decision made: let’s order the first screen! After a couple of weeks, I received the most horrific design I had ever seen. Sure, design is subjective, but how can you miss the mark when I sent over three reference apps whose designs I liked, along with the fonts and color scheme? The second freelancer, with only ten reviews, delivered a nearly finished design on the first try. And get this: the cost for five screens from the second designer was the same as the price for one screen from the first designer. You can never predict design outcomes! 😜 As for the name, I went through dozens of options, but it seems there’s no available combination with words like "money," "coin," "dime," and so on. Even ChatGPT couldn’t help me out. Regarding Compose Multiplatform—I think I’ve mentioned it before, but it often feels like I'm battling the libraries. For instance, nearly every day, the iOS build would break. Just yesterday, it built fine until I cleared the project cache or simply restarted it, and suddenly, it wouldn’t build anymore. I’d uncomment/comment libraries, and voilà, it would work again! Right now, I plan to add more advice—currently, there are only three. I have a list of five additional tips that just need to be programmed. I also want to release the iOS version. And I’m really eager to add network synchronization so users can switch between devices without any hassle! I appreciate your feedback, feel free to use Fuku - Google Play Financial manager? Again? Yes! A new one, a different one, and the more, the merrier! But seriously, I've always liked the concept of creating transactions by dragging and dropping, yet I couldn't stand that most finance apps are just Excel with a pretty face. Sure, many of them have analytics, but who actually looks at that? I have eight years of analytics in my app. You know how many times I've opened it? Three. Once to see what it is, once by accident, and the third time because I forgot that I found absolutely nothing useful the first time. I want to see specific advice like, “You’re spending way too much on restaurants—slow your roll,” “Sunday is the most expensive day; maybe stay in,” or “Come on, start earning more already!” and so on. Just don’t tell me such apps already exist; I’d hate to think those four months went down the drain! 🙂 And that’s how the idea was born. Hope, you’re ready to download Fuku 😀 - Google Play Google Play What do I need from the app? Here are my must-haves: Drag-and-drop for adding transactions—it’s a non-negotiable! A clean, minimalist interface—no distractions, please! Advice and recommendations from the app—without that, what’s the use? Multiple currency support—I travel a lot (but who doesn’t these days?). Android + iOS compatibility—because I’d rather not write it twice. Dark and light themes—let’s have a little variety! Drag-and-drop for adding transactions —it’s a non-negotiable! Drag-and-drop for adding transactions A clean, minimalist interface —no distractions, please! A clean, minimalist interface Advice and recommendations from the app—without that, what’s the use? Advice and recommendations Multiple currency support —I travel a lot (but who doesn’t these days?). Multiple currency support Android + iOS compatibility —because I’d rather not write it twice. Android + iOS compatibility Dark and light themes —let’s have a little variety! Dark and light themes For the MVP, I decided to keep it straightforward—just the essentials: handling transactions and debts. And of course, multi-currency support—remember, I travel a lot! ✈️ I also added a dark theme, cross-platform compatibility, and design right from the start. I’ve learned the hard way that if you forget that foundation, you’ll end up rewriting half the project. 😅 At first, I didn’t plan to include a second currency feature, but I couldn’t resist! Now, when you hold down the button, all amounts magically convert to that currency. Here’s the deal: I’ve got a card for Malaysia and Montenegro, but when I head to Vietnam, I’m always scrambling to figure out how much 100 MYR is in local dong. 💸 Do I have enough to pay with this card, or should I whip out another one? Now, with just a long press, everything converts to dong, and it’s as clear as day! 🌞 The launch was quite an adventure! 😅 In the app description, I jokingly wrote that it was the best app according to my wife, and an anonymous user said, “It’s just wow.” Yeah, it’s been a while since I read the policies! 🤣 As a result, Google rejected the app and asked me to change the description—not once, but several times. Eventually, they banned the app from publication altogether for “multiple policy violations.” Lesson learned: no more jokes in the app description for me! The first users came through organic traffic and my YouTube channel, but only a handful made the jump. It’s clear that people who actually use apps like this are a rare breed! The biggest surprise was the design. I found a freelancer who had hundreds of reviews and nearly a 5.0 rating. Decision made: let’s order the first screen! After a couple of weeks, I received the most horrific design I had ever seen. Sure, design is subjective, but how can you miss the mark when I sent over three reference apps whose designs I liked, along with the fonts and color scheme? The second freelancer, with only ten reviews, delivered a nearly finished design on the first try. And get this: the cost for five screens from the second designer was the same as the price for one screen from the first designer. You can never predict design outcomes! 😜 As for the name, I went through dozens of options, but it seems there’s no available combination with words like "money," "coin," "dime," and so on. Even ChatGPT couldn’t help me out. Regarding Compose Multiplatform—I think I’ve mentioned it before, but it often feels like I'm battling the libraries. For instance, nearly every day, the iOS build would break. Just yesterday, it built fine until I cleared the project cache or simply restarted it, and suddenly, it wouldn’t build anymore. I’d uncomment/comment libraries, and voilà, it would work again! Right now, I plan to add more advice—currently, there are only three. I have a list of five additional tips that just need to be programmed. I also want to release the iOS version. And I’m really eager to add network synchronization so users can switch between devices without any hassle! I appreciate your feedback, feel free to use Fuku - Google Play Google Play

After Eight Years of Using Financial App I Decided to Develop my Own App and That's Why

This started on a Saturday night. If you are very social like me, you would know that there is no better time to do some coding than a peaceful Saturday night. So I opened up a pet project I've been working on and realized that it wasn't pushed to Github yet. I didn't remember the commands to set a remote repo and could have easily Googled or "ChatGPTed" it. But, wouldn't it be cooler to add another layer of abstraction and just tell the computer to "set this projects remote as such and such", specially in this era of intelligent agents? And wouldn't it be even cooler to build that agent?. And that's exactly what I did, instead of spending a few seconds on finding the commands to set the remote repo. I started solving the problem backwards. I would need a way to run shell commands from a program. That's easy, the subprocess module in Python. import subprocess

def run_shell_command(command):
    try:
        # Run the shell command
        result = subprocess.run(command, shell=True, check=True, text=True, capture_output=True)
        # Return the command output
        return result.stdout
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        # Return the error output if the command fails
        return e.stderr

print(run_shell_command('pwd')) Now I need a way to decide what commands to run. That's where the intelligence comes in. It needs to take the natural language input and convert them to shell commands. Large Language Models (LLMs) are good at this sort of things. So I tried the following prompt on ChatGPT. I'm computer program created to assist a human. Currently the human is working on a DevOps task. He asked me to "ssh to the development server and install python". Please tell me what shell commands to run to do the activity. If you need more information please let me know what information you need. Please respond in the following manner and don't include anything else in the response.
Type: [Can be either "Commands" or "More information"]
Response: [List of shell commands or list of more information needed, separated by commas]

Example response 1:
Type: More information
Response: user id, key path

Example response 2:
Type: Commands
Response: ssh -i 'keyfile.pem' user1@server
It worked surprisingly well most of the time.

This was the response.

Type: More information
Response: user id, server IP or hostname, key path or password, operating system type (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS) And after passing the inputs, it returned the list of commands as, Type: Commands
Response: ssh -i 'key.pem' user1@192.168.1.8, sudo yum install python3 -y Not exactly production ready, but this is a promising start. On this high note I had to stop for the day one, or rather hour one since I'm no longer the young man I once was and it was already 10 PM. A week later... Zooming out a little bit, "how would I use this?". I would open up a project on the terminal, and type " set the remote repo for this project as " . Then the agent will ask the LLM for the commands to run. If it needs more information, it will prompt me. After getting the information, it will send them to the LLM, for which the LLM will give the commands or ask for more information. This will repeat until a command runs. If the command is successful, it will stop. But if it returns errors the agent will prompt the LLM for commands to resolve the issue. Also, with each request to the LLM , the agent will send the conversation history in window with a suitable size. This will provide the context to the LLM. We would need to make the queries to LLM a little abstract to make the agent handle a wider range of tasks. After all, it wouldn't be very useful if its only capable of setting remote repo URLs. At the same time, we need to clearly defile its scope. In this case it would be an agent for running shell commands. To help handling a range of commands, we can parameterize the prompt. Those parameters would be, The natural language input from the human.
Context: This is little tricky, I will use the conversation history for now.
Any errors returned by running a command. In addition to that we will have to maintain the state such as executing a command or getting more info. Let's code it. I've changed the LLMs output to a JSON format string since it's easier to write the processing part that way. I tested it with a few simple commands and they worked as expected. Seems alright. Let's try another one. That's not what I asked for. May be we need to be more specific. That's more like it. Although I should definitely add a mechanism to verify the commands before running them. That should prevent the agent from doing something crazy. Also, explaining a command before it runs would be a good feature - but not for now. answer = input(f" Shall I run '{command}'? (Yes/ No) ")
                if answer.lower()=='yes': # Execute the command So, it kind of works, but we need to make it easily accessible. Creating an alias did the trick. I added the following to ~/.bashrc. alias shelly='/home/akalanka/projects/shelly/venv/bin/python3 /home/akalanka/projects/shelly/main.py' Let's see how well "Shelly" fulfills her purpose. First I told Shelly to create the remote repo, but it did't work because it was trying to setup gh CLI tools authentication, which was too complex for a simple tool like this. So I created the remote repo and then asked to set it as the origin of the local repo, which also failed the first time. But after improving the prompt template, I asked her to correct the mistake, which actually worked. Then I went ahead and asked her to commit and push her own code, which also was done nicely enough (ignoring the fact that she ignored the instruction about the commit message). It's not much useful for commands I use frequently, which I remember, because it's quicker and more reliable to run the shell command directly. But for other cases this actually seem to help. So about a week later, I was finally able to set the remote repo for the project. Great success!. What a way to spend weekend evenings!. Obviously, a lot can be done to improve this. To start, some way of persisting the user inputs between the invocations could smooth things up. Using LangChain could be a good idea. Let me know what you think. Also feel free to check out the source code and open a PR to make it more intelligent. It could use some help. Hey, you can use the Shelly to push your feature, hopefully. P.S. This was entirely written by a human. Absolutely no intelligence - artificial or otherwise was involved in the writing. This started on a Saturday night. If you are very social like me, you would know that there is no better time to do some coding than a peaceful Saturday night. So I opened up a pet project I've been working on and realized that it wasn't pushed to Github yet. I didn't remember the commands to set a remote repo and could have easily Googled or "ChatGPTed" it. But, wouldn't it be cooler to add another layer of abstraction and just tell the computer to "set this projects remote as such and such", specially in this era of intelligent agents? And wouldn't it be even cooler to build that agent?. And that's exactly what I did, instead of spending a few seconds on finding the commands to set the remote repo. I started solving the problem backwards. I would need a way to run shell commands from a program. That's easy, the subprocess module in Python. import subprocess

def run_shell_command(command):
    try:
        # Run the shell command
        result = subprocess.run(command, shell=True, check=True, text=True, capture_output=True)
        # Return the command output
        return result.stdout
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        # Return the error output if the command fails
        return e.stderr

print(run_shell_command('pwd')) import subprocess

def run_shell_command(command):
    try:
        # Run the shell command
        result = subprocess.run(command, shell=True, check=True, text=True, capture_output=True)
        # Return the command output
        return result.stdout
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
        # Return the error output if the command fails
        return e.stderr

print(run_shell_command('pwd')) Now I need a way to decide what commands to run. That's where the intelligence comes in. It needs to take the natural language input and convert them to shell commands. Large Language Models (LLMs) are good at this sort of things. So I tried the following prompt on ChatGPT. I'm computer program created to assist a human. Currently the human is working on a DevOps task. He asked me to "ssh to the development server and install python". Please tell me what shell commands to run to do the activity. If you need more information please let me know what information you need. Please respond in the following manner and don't include anything else in the response.
Type: [Can be either "Commands" or "More information"]
Response: [List of shell commands or list of more information needed, separated by commas]

Example response 1:
Type: More information
Response: user id, key path

Example response 2:
Type: Commands
Response: ssh -i 'keyfile.pem' user1@server
It worked surprisingly well most of the time.

This was the response.

Type: More information
Response: user id, server IP or hostname, key path or password, operating system type (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS) I'm computer program created to assist a human. Currently the human is working on a DevOps task. He asked me to "ssh to the development server and install python". Please tell me what shell commands to run to do the activity. If you need more information please let me know what information you need. Please respond in the following manner and don't include anything else in the response.
Type: [Can be either "Commands" or "More information"]
Response: [List of shell commands or list of more information needed, separated by commas]

Example response 1:
Type: More information
Response: user id, key path

Example response 2:
Type: Commands
Response: ssh -i 'keyfile.pem' user1@server
It worked surprisingly well most of the time.

This was the response.

Type: More information
Response: user id, server IP or hostname, key path or password, operating system type (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS) And after passing the inputs, it returned the list of commands as, Type: Commands
Response: ssh -i 'key.pem' user1@192.168.1.8, sudo yum install python3 -y Type: Commands
Response: ssh -i 'key.pem' user1@192.168.1.8, sudo yum install python3 -y Not exactly production ready, but this is a promising start. On this high note I had to stop for the day one, or rather hour one since I'm no longer the young man I once was and it was already 10 PM. A week later... Zooming out a little bit, "how would I use this?". I would open up a project on the terminal, and type " set the remote repo for this project as " . Then the agent will ask the LLM for the commands to run. If it needs more information, it will prompt me. After getting the information, it will send them to the LLM, for which the LLM will give the commands or ask for more information. This will repeat until a command runs. If the command is successful, it will stop. But if it returns errors the agent will prompt the LLM for commands to resolve the issue. Also, with each request to the LLM , the agent will send the conversation history in window with a suitable size. This will provide the context to the LLM. We would need to make the queries to LLM a little abstract to make the agent handle a wider range of tasks. After all, it wouldn't be very useful if its only capable of setting remote repo URLs. At the same time, we need to clearly defile its scope. In this case it would be an agent for running shell commands. To help handling a range of commands, we can parameterize the prompt. Those parameters would be, The natural language input from the human. Context: This is little tricky, I will use the conversation history for now. Any errors returned by running a command. The natural language input from the human. Context: This is little tricky, I will use the conversation history for now. Any errors returned by running a command. In addition to that we will have to maintain the state such as executing a command or getting more info. Let's code it. I've changed the LLMs output to a JSON format string since it's easier to write the processing part that way. I tested it with a few simple commands and they worked as expected. Seems alright. Let's try another one. That's not what I asked for. May be we need to be more specific. That's more like it. Although I should definitely add a mechanism to verify the commands before running them. That should prevent the agent from doing something crazy. Also, explaining a command before it runs would be a good feature - but not for now. answer = input(f" Shall I run '{command}'? (Yes/ No) ")
                if answer.lower()=='yes': # Execute the command answer = input(f" Shall I run '{command}'? (Yes/ No) ")
                if answer.lower()=='yes': # Execute the command So, it kind of works, but we need to make it easily accessible. Creating an alias did the trick. I added the following to ~/.bashrc. alias shelly='/home/akalanka/projects/shelly/venv/bin/python3 /home/akalanka/projects/shelly/main.py' alias shelly='/home/akalanka/projects/shelly/venv/bin/python3 /home/akalanka/projects/shelly/main.py' Let's see how well "Shelly" fulfills her purpose. First I told Shelly to create the remote repo, but it did't work because it was trying to setup gh CLI tools authentication, which was too complex for a simple tool like this. So I created the remote repo and then asked to set it as the origin of the local repo, which also failed the first time. But after improving the prompt template, I asked her to correct the mistake, which actually worked. Then I went ahead and asked her to commit and push her own code, which also was done nicely enough (ignoring the fact that she ignored the instruction about the commit message). It's not much useful for commands I use frequently, which I remember, because it's quicker and more reliable to run the shell command directly. But for other cases this actually seem to help. So about a week later, I was finally able to set the remote repo for the project. Great success!. What a way to spend weekend evenings!. Obviously, a lot can be done to improve this. To start, some way of persisting the user inputs between the invocations could smooth things up. Using LangChain could be a good idea. Let me know what you think. Also feel free to check out the source code and open a PR to make it more intelligent. It could use some help. Hey, you can use the Shelly to push your feature, hopefully. source code P.S. This was entirely written by a human. Absolutely no intelligence - artificial or otherwise was involved in the writing.

Building a (somewhat) Intelligent Agent

This Shattered my Ego. and I'm Happy it Did

We are all familiar with “job hunting.” We look for high pay, PTO, good insurance, and work-life balance. It can be a daunting task with the interview process and waiting on a phone call for your start date. We know what looking for a job looks like in the business world but what does job hunting look like on the dark web? You would think that threat actors have to go through the same process as we do to get a job. In this article, we will walk through the job-hunting process on the dark web and what details surround the cloud of mystery of the dark resume’. The Dark Menagerie. Looking for a job on the dark web can be very interesting, to say the least. There are scammers, fake ads, and some would say entrapment postings from governments around the world. In order to find a job on the dark web, you first need to know where to look. There are many dark website forums that post about jobs or need help with a potential data breach. For this article, I am posing as an individual who is looking for work in any area. I wanted to keep my options open and have a conversation with cybercriminals about their world. I responded to two posts, and we will walk through what the details are. The first one is a posting from a person who is hiring someone who can hack a website and download data, and the other is hiring technical staff with high salaries. Help Wanted: Hacker for Hire. Since I am a member of various dark web forums, I searched the forum for people needing help. The search led me to a posting about someone needing a hacker to hack a website and download some data. It sounded simple enough, and I was curious about the details of the job. The job posting stated that if you did the job well, “a long-term cooperative relationship can be established.” Who could resist a sales pitch like that? The details in the posting said, if interested, please contact via Telegram. I wanted to keep the conversation simple to understand how cybercriminals get hired for jobs. I reached out to the owner and asked about the job details. The owner was called “JOker” and they had a website that they wanted me to hack. They had specifics about what the website had to be built with and what they needed to complete the job. After discussing the brief job details, I inquired about what someone would get paid if they wanted the job. The owner replied that they would pay 10K for the work and potentially another 10K for another website they wanted. I went further and asked how the money would be paid if I accepted the job. I thought it would be some form of Bitcoin to keep the transaction anonymous. The owner stated that they would pay me in USDT. USDT is the symbol for Tether, a cryptocurrency that's a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. It was something new that I had not heard of before, and I thought most transactions were done with Monero Bitcoin because Monero transactions are confidential and untraceable. After all the specifics were discussed, the owner stated there was a clause that would guarantee payment. If you compromised the website as instructed, you needed to record a video and display the database contents. If you agreed to the specifics of the job, they would send you the websites they needed to compromise. Underground Sales Pitch. After the first job posting, I thought I would look at another posting to see if I could gather more details about the criminal underbelly. I saw an ad about hiring technical staff with high salaries. I was curious about the job and wanted to know the details and how much a “High salary” really was. I reached out to the owner on Telegram…are you noticing a trend yet? I greeted the owner and asked about the details of the job. The owner’s name was “Dextr0s” and was full of information. I asked the owner about the job details and what was needed. To my surprise, the first item mentioned was the owner asking me if they could explain the cooperation model. I of course said yes because it was going to give me more insights. The cooperation model was the following: The owner would supply me with a list of targets and the data information requirements. If I was successful, the company would purchase 10K - ($150) of data for testing and continue to use me. If I was unsuccessful, the company would have me test again until I was successful. There was even a “Supplementary Agreement.” The owner would ask me to submit a total of ten lines as verification and they would purchase and test the data. I was actually surprised by the detail the owner was willing to talk about. They further explained that the difficulty of the job and in general was breaking past a firewall a company may have. I asked if this method had worked in the past. The owner replied that as long as the data contained what the cybercriminals needed, you would make money. I wanted to know if this owner was affiliated with other criminal groups such as LockBit or maybe someone else. The owner said no and if I wanted to get started, they would send me the targets. If I was successful at the job, they would continue to use my services. There is always a shroud of mystery that surrounds the dark web underbelly on how cybercriminals pick their targets. Even more on how cybercriminals job hunt on the dark web. There can be a vetting process sometimes and even an interview if you are selected for the job. Most of the time, it is a free-for-all all with some sort of proof at the end of the job and a dark web forums owners promise. There are no conversations on PTO, sick time, or 401K. Just the next job and how much money the owner is willing to pay. Always remember that the dark web might seem glamorous with the high price tag of reward but there isn’t a rainbow at the end of the day for someone who is looking for work on the dark web. It is met with a pot of gold surrounded by leprechauns….who are there to arrest you. Is that what you want? To go to leprechaun prison? I didn’t think you would. We are all familiar with “job hunting.” We look for high pay, PTO, good insurance, and work-life balance. It can be a daunting task with the interview process and waiting on a phone call for your start date. We know what looking for a job looks like in the business world but what does job hunting look like on the dark web? You would think that threat actors have to go through the same process as we do to get a job. In this article, we will walk through the job-hunting process on the dark web and what details surround the cloud of mystery of the dark resume’. The Dark Menagerie. Looking for a job on the dark web can be very interesting, to say the least. There are scammers, fake ads, and some would say entrapment postings from governments around the world. In order to find a job on the dark web, you first need to know where to look. There are many dark website forums that post about jobs or need help with a potential data breach. For this article, I am posing as an individual who is looking for work in any area. I wanted to keep my options open and have a conversation with cybercriminals about their world. I responded to two posts, and we will walk through what the details are. The first one is a posting from a person who is hiring someone who can hack a website and download data, and the other is hiring technical staff with high salaries. Help Wanted: Hacker for Hire. Since I am a member of various dark web forums, I searched the forum for people needing help. The search led me to a posting about someone needing a hacker to hack a website and download some data. It sounded simple enough, and I was curious about the details of the job. The job posting stated that if you did the job well, “a long-term cooperative relationship can be established.” Who could resist a sales pitch like that? The details in the posting said, if interested, please contact via Telegram. I wanted to keep the conversation simple to understand how cybercriminals get hired for jobs. I reached out to the owner and asked about the job details. The owner was called “JOker” and they had a website that they wanted me to hack. They had specifics about what the website had to be built with and what they needed to complete the job. After discussing the brief job details, I inquired about what someone would get paid if they wanted the job. The owner replied that they would pay 10K for the work and potentially another 10K for another website they wanted. I went further and asked how the money would be paid if I accepted the job. I thought it would be some form of Bitcoin to keep the transaction anonymous. The owner stated that they would pay me in USDT. USDT is the symbol for Tether, a cryptocurrency that's a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. It was something new that I had not heard of before, and I thought most transactions were done with Monero Bitcoin because Monero transactions are confidential and untraceable . Monero transactions are confidential and untraceable After all the specifics were discussed, the owner stated there was a clause that would guarantee payment. If you compromised the website as instructed, you needed to record a video and display the database contents. If you agreed to the specifics of the job, they would send you the websites they needed to compromise. Underground Sales Pitch. After the first job posting, I thought I would look at another posting to see if I could gather more details about the criminal underbelly. I saw an ad about hiring technical staff with high salaries. I was curious about the job and wanted to know the details and how much a “High salary” really was. I reached out to the owner on Telegram…are you noticing a trend yet? I greeted the owner and asked about the details of the job. The owner’s name was “Dextr0s” and was full of information. I asked the owner about the job details and what was needed. To my surprise, the first item mentioned was the owner asking me if they could explain the cooperation model. I of course said yes because it was going to give me more insights. The cooperation model was the following: The owner would supply me with a list of targets and the data information requirements. If I was successful, the company would purchase 10K - ($150) of data for testing and continue to use me. If I was unsuccessful, the company would have me test again until I was successful. There was even a “Supplementary Agreement.” The owner would ask me to submit a total of ten lines as verification and they would purchase and test the data. I was actually surprised by the detail the owner was willing to talk about. They further explained that the difficulty of the job and in general was breaking past a firewall a company may have. I asked if this method had worked in the past. The owner replied that as long as the data contained what the cybercriminals needed, you would make money. I wanted to know if this owner was affiliated with other criminal groups such as LockBit or maybe someone else. The owner said no and if I wanted to get started, they would send me the targets. If I was successful at the job, they would continue to use my services. There is always a shroud of mystery that surrounds the dark web underbelly on how cybercriminals pick their targets. Even more on how cybercriminals job hunt on the dark web. There can be a vetting process sometimes and even an interview if you are selected for the job. Most of the time, it is a free-for-all all with some sort of proof at the end of the job and a dark web forums owners promise. There are no conversations on PTO, sick time, or 401K. Just the next job and how much money the owner is willing to pay. Always remember that the dark web might seem glamorous with the high price tag of reward but there isn’t a rainbow at the end of the day for someone who is looking for work on the dark web. It is met with a pot of gold surrounded by leprechauns….who are there to arrest you. Is that what you want? To go to leprechaun prison? I didn’t think you would.

The Shadow Resume: Exploring Job Hunting on the Dark Web

The Shadow CV: Verken werkjag op die donker web

Kölgə CV: Qaranlıq İnternetdə İş Ovçuluğunun Tədqiqi

El currículum en la sombra: cómo buscar trabajo en la red oscura

The Shadow Resume: Lan-ehiza arakatzen sare ilunean

शैडो रेज़्यूमे: डार्क वेब पर नौकरी की तलाश

シャドウ レジュメ: ダーク ウェブでの就職活動を探る

The Shadow Resume: ស្វែងយល់ពីការស្វែងរកការងារនៅលើ Dark Web

The Shadow Resume: Fikarohana ny fihazana asa amin'ny tranokala maizina

د سیوري بیا پیل کول: په تیاره ویب کې د دندې ښکار کول

The Shadow Resume: Explorando a procura de emprego na Dark Web

The Shadow Resume: Tutayaq Web nisqapi llamkay maskay maskay

The Shadow Resume: Ku Kambisisa Ku Hlengeleta Mintirho eka Webu ya Munyama

The CISSP Guide You Thought You Needed (But Didn’t)

دليل CISSP الذي كنت تعتقد أنك بحاجة إليه (ولكنك لم تكن بحاجة إليه)

Ръководството за CISSP, което смятахте, че имате нужда (но не се нуждаете)

CISSP vodič za koji ste mislili da vam treba (ali niste)

Der CISSP-Leitfaden, von dem Sie dachten, Sie bräuchten ihn (aber nicht)

Ο οδηγός CISSP που νομίζατε ότι χρειάζεστε (αλλά δεν το είχατε)

La guía CISSP que creías que necesitabas (pero no era así)

A guía CISSP que pensabas que necesitabas (pero non o fixeches)

必要だと思っていた（しかし必要ではなかった）CISSP ガイド

CISSP колдонмосу сизге керек деп ойлогон (бирок андай эмес)

O guia CISSP que você pensou que precisava (mas não precisava)

Ghidul CISSP de care credeai că ai nevoie (dar nu ai avut)

Руководство CISSP, которое вы считали необходимым (но не использовали)

Ubuyobozi bwa CISSP Wibwiraga ko Ukeneye (Ariko Ntabwo)

CISSP-guiden du trodde att du behövde (men inte gjorde det)

እቲ የድልየካ’ዩ ኢልካ ዝሓሰብካዮ (ግን ኣየድልየካን’ዩ) መምርሒ CISSP

Size gerek diýip pikir eden CISSP gollanmasy (ýöne beýle däl)

Nkongomiso wa CISSP lowu U Ehleketeke leswaku Wa Lava (Kambe A Wu Lava) .

Посібник CISSP, який ви думали, що вам потрібен (але не знадобився)

Isikhokelo se-CISSP obucinga ukuba uyasidinga (kodwa awusifuni)

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