Then maybe the buried fertilizer will become so valuable that it can be dug out and sold as fertilizer again.

Between the methane that generates and easily obtained phosphorous trapped down there, that’s strictly a matter of time, unfortunately.

it talks like a human so it must be smart like a human.

Yikes. Have those people… talked to other people before?

I explicitly told it eleven times in ALL CAPS not to do this. I am a little worried about safety now.

This baffles me. How can anyone see AI function in the wild and not conclude 1) it has no conscience, 2) it’s free to do whatever it’s empowered to do if it wants and 3) at some level its behavior is pseudorandom and/or probabilistic? We’re figuratively rolling dice with this stuff.

PSA: Home use? That’s probably okay. Work use? If you’re in-office, this is a ticking time-bomb that can get you fired, one way or another. Use the company 1password or whatever you have access to, please. Thank you.

I’m going to say that every layoff has a cover story. The goal, reduce the workforce make/save money, is really the only justification needed. Everything else is PR, and an attempt to stay out of legal hot water.

That’s always worth considering. A phone app doesn’t take a big operating budget to launch and maintain. Especially for state-actors.

That’s easy. It’s more dull here, and there’s less lock-in.

No, really. Social media without the dopamine-pump-style algorithm behind it is far less stimulating. Meanwhile, the Federation model itself allows us to abandon nodes that are co-opted by bad actors. So there’s always somewhere else to go with all your favorite stuff when things go sour.

I know everyone points out the problems with Nest, Ring, and various talking/listening/spying agents. For me, one of the worst offenders was a garage door motor that came with WiFi capability. Damn thing has the ability to just open up a door on my house on command. There’s no way am I putting that online.

Workers risk a few things, depending on the job:

• Health
• Time
• Opportunity (could be working someplace else that’s better)

These have a lot of dimension to them, including how one quantifies what “pay” actually is/for, what legal restrictions there are around taking the job (e.g. non-compete, non-arbitration), work/life balance, and so on.

Risk comes into play where the employee takes a bet that the job won’t destroy their health, work only as much as is absolutely necessary, and have taken a position at the optimal balance of responsibility, personal growth, retirement prospects, and income. It’s a risk since there are substantial barriers to changing to a new job, so you can wind up “stuck” in a bad position, but can’t know until after you start.

I don’t trust anyone when I’m on the road.

And you shouldn’t. Everyone is equipped with a lethal weapon masquerading as personal transportation, where safety is predicated on mutually-assured-destruction and the presumption that everyone is a sane actor. Keep your head on a swivel and stay safe out there!

You’re right about turn signals.

A lot of people have “target fixation” and telegraph their moves somewhat. I look at where the car is tracking in the lane and what their head is doing (if I can see it). Most people drift left or right on the highway before they change lanes, exit, or turn. It’s no excuse for bad manners, but it helps.

IMO, the big problem is just a matter of standards and practicality. The bar for a DL is “can operate a vehicle” and not “can safely drive a vehicle in public for extended periods of time.” I agree with periodic re-licensing though; everything else called a “license” seems to need that for a host of reasons.

it’s like an engine being allowed to slow down after over-revving it incessantly.

That’s exactly what it feels like. I installed Social Fixer on my browser(s) to make FB at least usable for the few times I have to touch it for event coordination. People ask me what that’s like and I simply say: “Oh, it’s boring now. I only look at status updates for a few minutes and go do something else.” The pull to go back is just… gone. It’s as dull as LiveJournal ever was, and frankly, it’s better this way.

What did I strip out of the feed? Everything that wasn’t generated directly by someone on my friends list. That’s all it took. All the “engagement” is either artificially injected into your feed, or clickbait people pass along because their feed isn’t filtered.

It’s already kind of happening. The Curl project is having a really bad time. No idea if the “bug” submissions are themselves automated, but the content of the filings are pure AI nonsense.

This is the way. The key is to ignore the clickbait, politics, low-effort content, and sensational bullshit, and just go after stuff you really like.

There’s even videos for every schedule. We seem to be back to 30-50 minute videos these days, but there are still some micro channels around. Like “Sandwiches of History”, where every video is at most two minutes.

Rebuilding with period-correct tools and techniques. At least, as best as can be pulled together based on archaeology and the scant documentation we have from the time. The videos make it very clear where he’s taking license and where he’s not, which makes his already top-shelf presentation style that much more entertaining.

This project has also taken forever due to our host taking breaks to work with people on actual peer-reviewed publications about all this. It’s really an enormous project that is contributing to the intersection of engineering and archaeology in profound ways.

Do we have the whole thing on the internet archive?

Maybe?

Another consideration is that it’s probably a part of many LLM training datasets by now. In fact, I’d say the combination of bad moderation and AI have made Stack Overflow less attractive lately.

Copilot: What is my purpose?

User: You download and install Linux.

These monsters crave power. They see oppressive regimes all over the world, stepping on people in a variety of ways, and think: “yeah, that’s the stuff.”

Story time.

It honestly feels like about 264,000 gallons of that were spilled at a placed I used to work. I still have no idea who the culprit(s) was.

No kidding, the problem was so bad that building management stepped in and… added chamomile scented floor mats beneath the urinals to catch and deodorize the… ugh (gross)… drippings. It was such a strong smell that it wafted out into the hallway with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. This prompted some of the women in the office to remark at how unfair it was that the men’s room was obviously getting all this extra attention. I almost can’t describe the mixture of disappointment and disgust on their faces once I explained why this was happening.

I also once had to explain to my wife that the above situation, along with the smell of urinal cakes and most gas-station-restroom deodorizers, are the reason why chamomile tea is a hard pass for me.