OpenRouter let’s you buy ‘ai access’ - different models (agents like Claude or GPT is specific forms like Fable or Sol) from different routers (providers aka data centers).

So you get an API key and save it in your setup (IDE, coding app, CLI env whatever) and then you have a library of all the models available pay as you go. Prices per model are competitive if they’re available from multiple providers or at the market rate from folks like Anthropic and OpenAI.

For AI service at home I switched from Copilot, a MS subscription with opaque usage pricing to OpenRouter so I can pick / route work to cheap or free models available on OR while still using my preferred models and having access to everything under the sun including the latest versions. It’s pretty great honestly.

OR is also a good place to look if you just want some info about AI models and providers. Their benchmark, popularity and domain information makes the models make sense and highlights real world usage patterns, i.e. DeepSeek v4 and GLM 5 are serious competition to the proprietary models like Claude with pricing 10-100x less. Presumably OR is just taking a cut as the middleman to pay for the service.

And in case you read this far and you’re wondering, I’m using it with Zed and working on a custom fork to improve the agent handling and routing to optimize use of such services. Enjoy the AI, spare me any generic ai outrage.

Here here. This place doesn’t have much rational thoughts on AI.

I’m (a little) surprised how group think this place is on the topic - y’all are a serious echo chamber. This place is like rainbow flags and kill the bots central. Any pro AI counterpoint mentions bring pitch forks and hate. That’s not a good look.

Maybe I’m an AI bro myself, but I’m also an experienced professional using it to do real work (and no, not taking any jobs, building new tools for a team that needs them). Linus is a real expert. But why listen to experience and expertise when you have an opinion and feel justified. It’s ok to be afraid, but when scary change comes wise folks listen and learn.

Here we don’t worry about facts and reality, just get your outrage revved up. Social media is social media - and that’s scarier than AI, because it uses people to make the garbage.

Fair - it’s marketing.
But it’s good marketing - lambasts a stupid thing that people dislike to promote a product that is selling the opposite (privacy).
Good goal, and the marketing is clearly working here we are talking about it.

Also DDG browser is awesome on mobile and Windows. Blocks many ads and trackers, even on YT. Lightweight, wicked fast, offers not only private search but private AI chat.

Use DDG Because Gemini is SUPER creepy when it inserts personal info in unrelated questions. It keeps inserting my family details in answering unrelated questions now… Like a perv.

So you teach something different from the mainstream - cool. But don’t be surprised when students or AI cite others or take an alternative position.

I’m no economist but I had plenty of professors who wanted their particular theories reflected back at them.

While students should do their own reading and writing, using ‘they write mainstream ideas’ as a litmus test for writing and AI seems parochial. And I’d go so far as to say AI is becoming a standard research and writing aid like the web word processors, and you sound like teachers who ranted against those too.

Have you engaged either group in open discussion about comparing the perspectives you’re challenging? I bet several modern models could debate your philosophy on merit, I wonder if you ever gave students the chance.

See also, laws that are intended to limit 3d printing in the name of gun control. We don’t have gun use control in the US, but boy do we have lobbyists with reasons to restrict what we can print. Maybe even some gun manufacturers!

Y’all aren’t following gear head news, huh? https://www.slashgear.com/2092803/doj-no-charges-diesel-engine-delete-tune/ Yes, I hate coal rolling.
And I also LOVE using Forscan on the family truckster. Thing is, some big companies think it’s a good idea to make rules about what you’re allowed to access (open software, repair ability) instead of what you can do (emissions, road rules), and that’s the wrong way to have a free and organized civilization, but it’s great for profit.

Tl;Dr right to repair is right to hack, don’t ban that but do enforce limits on how things are actually used.

I thought like you once.

I agree this war, and many, are unjust.

Somewhere around 9/11 and Iraq I had to learn that the military is a necessity, and they can also be abused. I suppose my grand dad learned that when he was drafted for the big one, and we talked about it - in our way, after 9/11 when it all seemed to go sideways.

It’s a shame we send our volunteers on missions like this. It’s a shame we have to draft people to protect ourselves. It’s a shame we lay shame on our service members when they are misused and abused by our politicians.

The military is a tool. Soldiers are people.

I hope you can learn that too, some day.

You’re right AND The big deal about drones is they are even cheaper and easier to make than missiles.

That is basically the zero sum economy theory and it is exactly wrong.

Because we add value to the world when we build and grow, it’s wrong to think one gain is always another’s loss.

Many moves are net positive, even if one group loses. Some moves are neutral. And many moves are net negative, we can both destroy and build. This is the key to realistic assessment of what moves to make and support.

Zero sum economy BS leads to terrible selfish behavior or nihilism. Fight it. We can build it better.

So birds can get their wings broken by sudden gusts while aloft. Without accounting for size (reynolds number) and reaction speed - a fly would suffer a similar fate.

But I’ve seen videos of insects and/or flies hit with directed blasts of air. They react very, very quickly by adjusting orientation and shape. If a fly tucks fast enough it might survive the aerodynamic forces due to its reaction speed, and be left to the fate of where it’s path goes while it slows to a flyable speed.

And size matters. What seems to us a thin and uniform body of air gas for them is thicker and rippling with waves of density and speed. The wrong placement might kill them with pure shear or high pressure, but I suspect they have the ability to surf those waves as well, and maybe even use them to steer through extreme conditions.

Thanks for sharing, interesting read and questions. Surely you’ll be down voted here for anything with AI… But c’est la vie.

Ive been doing coding projects in VS code which uses GPT, Claude and Gemini. Woe are the days when my credits are used and only GPT 4.1 is available. Claudes ability to research and architect multi step software solutions is very, very good and it rarely makes messes or spins tires compared to older models from just a few months ago. This is precisely what converted me to ‘whoa - ai’ which is adjacent to ‘pro ai’.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with customizing Gemini via instructions which include a link to a drive folder of md files with specific instructions for different agent tasks, such as performing specific market analysis, doing a news roundup with a specific list of topics and omitting prior reviewed items, etc. The files allow for both complex instructions or lists, as well as some chance to construct memory via logging. Results are a mixed bag, lots of additional function created, lots of mixed results.

Have you considered any tests of more complexity? Something like ‘write a program that…’ I think what will differentiate these models going forward is some have architect capabilities, strategy, insight, decision making, where others are agents - they do specific tasks well but have limits. With that model, the ai architect and it’s ai agents need to work as a team to complete a multi step task.

I have been paid for and paid for CAD and other impacted engineering products including software. AI is unfair… How?

I can see some issues with copyright, and I acknowledge it will upset economies. But being able to ‘automate’ photo to 3d, and so many other tools that enable me so much to do things that wouldn’t have happened before, it’s unimaginable to many around me. Change is scary, strap in.

I tried Meshy and Trellis and Hitem. Next I’ll try printmon.

Hitem has the best free option and portrait mode. Made some great busts.

Meshy looked great if cartoony with its model 6, but only let me download from model 4, which was a surprise and made monsters.

Trellis was in between and I ran out of huggingface tokens quickly.

I’d use hitem all day but not interested in paid subscriptions for my passing hobby. Hoping Bambu is handy with printmon again, though I expect it may be proprietary.

Also, all needed some cleanup, Bambu could fix slice and print but not adjust details and cuts. Started with Blender but the interface is hard for a CAD person. Switched to using Meshmixer, which works great, and just using Bambu to do a final fix of the stl before slice. Make solid is a helpful tool in Meshmixer if you get a good looking but imperfect stl, but you have to be careful to avoid losing detail.

Thanks, I’ll try printmon next. Any hidden limits or fees?

You’re right. I think the advice stands, but it’s a rougher position.

You’re getting good advice here, especially @[email protected]

2 months isn’t that long and you should keep your head up and keep trying. Discouragement and lack of effort are the enemy.

I would add, consider your target industries. Different industries have different cycles and levels of available positions. If you’re mostly looking in retail, this might not be the right economy or time of year, etc. One industry that usually has high demand and might overlap with psychology is health care. Assisted living, home health care, and many related non-medical care environments have consistent staffing challenges and don’t require specific degrees in nursing or medical, etc. I paid my way through college that way and learned a lot of life lessons, including the reasons that work isn’t for everyone. YMMV

There are probably some other under employed unglamorous jobs in your area if you look with fresh eyes. And as others said, volunteering some free time could be a win win, doing stuff keeps the spirit up and being involved creates opportunities.

End of life is not a plan, and not a plan to suggest to others. Get some help, and stop offering such advice.

Do you think it’s poor branding in Maduro’s part, or branding that got applied to him for other purposes?

How do you see the impact of the oil resources impacting this as compared to Peru or El Salvador?

You should know the origin, and surprise - it’s Latin!

Per wikipedia: "The actual origin is unknown, but one of the first appearances of the word was in a second-century work by Roman physician Serenus Sammonicus… who in chapter 52 prescribed that malaria sufferers wear an amulet containing Abracadabra written in the form of a triangle.[12][13]

The power of the amulet, he claimed, makes lethal diseases go away."