kescusay

kescusay , 3 months ago

This particular homeowner is baffled that anyone would buy a washing machine that needs an internet connection. I’m all for smart appliances, but a smart washing machine is a solution in search of a problem.

kescusay , 3 months ago

Mine plays a loud jingle when it’s done, which seems to be enough for me.

kescusay , 3 months ago

I simply will not buy a washing machine where some of the options for its regular use require an internet connection. I can see adding Bluetooth to it for things like remote control and phone notifications, or even WLAN support for connecting to some kind of smarthome hub that is internet-connected so you can get those notifications remotely. But the idea that smart == device-level internet connection is terrible. Appliances for basic living requirements, like laundry, should not require an internet connection of their own to function.

kescusay , 3 months ago

I am so fucking sick of these bigots pretending the science of “biological sex” is on their side.

In recent years, multiple studies of the brains of trans people have revealed areas of differentiation from those of cisgender people. And unless these bigots are prepared to argue that brains are not part of biology, they only have two choices: Deny the science somehow or accept that they’re just bigots who want to hate, regardless of the science.

And because unlike bigots, I like to back my shit up:

• www.nature.com/articles/s41386-020-0666-3
• jamanetwork.com/journals/…/2804855
• www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8955456/

On top of that, there’s some indications of oligogenic causes resulting in various allele differences that wouldn’t necessarily show up on a brain scan.

In conclusion: Fuck bigots and their attempts to co-opt science in order to support their bigotry.

kescusay , 3 months ago

Absolutely agreed. I only bring it up because the bigots like to claim science is on their side (while usually rejecting science to back up some kind of religious nonsense). So it’s nice to be able to throw actual science in their faces.

kescusay , 3 months ago

I’ve been using Duolingo for the last nine months, and, well… The accent is French, isn’t it. I hear it in French in my head, at least.

kescusay , 3 months ago

Thank you for posting this. My son is trans and seeing other trans men living their best lives brings a smile to my face.

kescusay , 3 months ago

…paying unnamed European politicians…

Fucking name and shame them. I mean, we all know Marine le Pen is on their payroll, but I want to know who else.

kescusay , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

I remember first hearing about Braxton a couple years ago, when he still hadn’t actually managed to take office. (And the racist fuckers down there are still fighting him on it). The amazing thing was that until Braxton, the office of the mayor was inherited. The town leadership was quite literally landed gentry, operating a miniature feudalistic society.

kescusay , 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago)

Clearly, things have gotten worse since the halcyon days of the 1990’s, when we had such hits as “Rico Suave,” “Macarena,” and “I’m Too Sexy.”

Why, I remember singing along to that last one. Sing it with me! “I’m too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts…”

kescusay , 4 months ago

This is from February 24th. Not really “news” now.

kescusay OP , 4 months ago

From the article:

According to language in the Senate bill, there is “documentation” that “the federal government or other entities acting on the federal government’s behalf or at the federal government’s request may conduct geoengineering experiments by intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere, and those activities may occur within the State of Tennessee.”

While the word “chemtrail” isn’t there, the idea that the federal government is doing “geoengineering experiments” is basically the core belief of the conspiracy theory.

kescusay , 4 months ago

“Yeah, an’ that makes it a stump! I ain’t wrong.”

kescusay , 4 months ago

Imagine his view of the Republican caucus shit-show. I’ll bet he’s downright desperate to get out at this point.

kescusay , 4 months ago

In your defense, the Jewish space lasers is still an astoundingly stupid idea. It’s just that Israel’s current right-wing government seems to have been smoking whatever it is that made Marge the way she is.

kescusay , 4 months ago

The U.S. watching Canadian news is just a sleeping dude.

kescusay , 4 months ago

I’m… I’m jealous.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Please use the correct spelling: Graebener.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Please use the correct spelling: Graebener.

kescusay , 4 months ago

2009 was the first year of the Obama presidency, and changes at the DOJ and FBI are slow. So my first question is: Who signed off on his mistreatment? Whose name is on the order, and did that person start at the FBI with Obama, or in an earlier administration?

kescusay , 4 months ago

Interesting. It may not have been a director-level signoff, but he certainly would have hired whoever did.

kescusay , 4 months ago

That’s… That’s really the headline. I had to check.

kescusay , 4 months ago

My money’s on Bolsonaro. Lula isn’t fucking around, and Brazil isn’t afraid to imprison a former president if he’s a crook.

kescusay , 4 months ago

That’s… actually pretty cool. It tells me the water itself is actually not the product, it’s the can design. They’re essentially selling a way of overcoming the very real social anxiety alcoholics can go through when they give up booze, but don’t want to give up the social lives they’ve built around drinking.

I was all ready to hate on this, but if it’s actually legitimately helping people stay off alcohol while maintaining a social life, then I can’t really fault it.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Bingo. I never, ever let credit card debt carry over. I’d genuinely rather miss a house payment.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Even if you want streaming, don’t use the TV’s apps. Use a Chromecast or attach an entertainment PC to it. Chromecasts can be replaced for cheap, PCs can be upgraded. Neither is true of a “smart” TV.

kescusay , 4 months ago

If anything will finally result in the “year of the Linux desktop,” it’s shit like this. No one wants their operating system actively working to make it harder and more annoying to use their choice of applications.

The OS isn’t the reason anyone uses a computer, it’s the applications it can run.

kescusay , 4 months ago

My experience was 100% different. I bought a new laptop, plugged in my Linux USB drive, wiped Windows, installed Linux, and did exactly none of the things you went through.

And that’s largely down to two things:

• The fact that I bought a laptop specifically known to have excellent Linux support.
• The fact that I’m a software developer.

So everything I want to do on a computer tends to work better in Linux than in Windows, rather than the other way around. My compile times are faster, my IDEs are more stable, and my OS just… gets out of the way, which is exactly what it should do.

Mind if I ask what programs and services you were trying and failing to run on Linux? You’ve got me curious, because our experiences are so different.

kescusay , 4 months ago

How is it with Windows applications?

kescusay , 4 months ago

Can confirm, have an old entertainment PC with an NVidia card. I converted it to Linux, and it’s fine.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Slack still exists, but it’s not particularly popular. Arch is one of the big ones now.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Is this that reality/Fallout crossover I’ve been reading about in my nightmares?

kescusay , 4 months ago

“Him” at the end should be “her.” (“Lui” can mean either.)

kescusay , 4 months ago

Story time:

I’m a software developer for a large, multinational company. Yesterday, I needed to update the Knex migrations for the project I’m assigned to. We needed three new PostgreSQL tables, with several foreign key constraints. I added the migration to our existing migrations in a backend plugin we’re building out.

I use Copilot for developers regularly. It was helpful in this case, generating the table migrations automatically. Of course, it hallucinated a few methods Knex doesn’t have, but I’m used to things like that, and easily corrected them. Once I was done testing, I created a pull request to merge the commit in my working branch with the main branch in git.

Now, look at what I just wrote. If you’re not a developer, you probably have no idea what “Knex” or “PostgreSQL” mean. You probably recognize the words “foreign,” “key,” and “constraints,” but you haven’t got a clue why I’m using them in that order or what I’m referring to. It likely looks like I’m using the word “migrations” completely incorrectly. You don’t know what it means for “Knex” to have “methods.” Words like “git,” “pull request,” and “commit” just read like gibberish to you.

You wouldn’t know how to ask Copilot to do anything. You wouldn’t know where to place any results you manage to get from it. If your boss came to you and said, “here’s this feature requirement, make it happen,” you would fail. You wouldn’t know why, either. Hell, you wouldn’t even know what it is your boss is trying to accomplish. You could spend the next six months trying to figure it all out, and maybe you’d succeed, but probably not. Because you aren’t a developer.

I’m a developer. All of what I wrote above makes perfect sense to me, and it’s one of the simplest tasks I could tackle. Took about fifteen minutes to accomplish, from creating the migration file to getting the PR ready to merge.

---

I’ve been lambasted for insisting that large language models aren’t going to replace actual professionals because they’re not capable of joined-up thinking, meta-cognition, or creativity. I get told they’ll be able to do all of that any day now, and my boss will be able to fire all of his employees and replace them with an MBA - or worse, do the work himself. Depending on the attitudes of who I’m talking to, this is either a catastrophe or the greatest thing since sliced bread.

It’s neither, because that’s not going to happen. Look at the story above, and tell me you could do the same thing with no training or understanding, because ChatGPT could do it all. You know that’s bullshit. It can’t. LLMs are useful tools for people like me, and that’s it. It’s another tool in the toolbox, like IntelliSense and linters - two more terms you don’t know if you’re not a developer.

The bloom is beginning to come off the rose. Businesses are gradually realizing the pie-in-the-sky promises of LLM boosters are bogus.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Amen to that! I also spend a fair amount of time thinking about new features and how they would plug into our vast ecosystem, no part of which could Copilot possibly know anything about.

kescusay , 4 months ago

It’s the constant, incessant, and deranged attacks on trans people and drag queens. The sociopaths in charge of the Republican party have figured out that attacking them is a good way to keep their supporters frothing - and keep the money coming in.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Most of those guys are right-wingers trolling in an attempt to sow division.

kescusay , 4 months ago

I remember the last time I was physically in the office before the pandemic hit locally. We were all only half doing our jobs, and glued to news sites, wondering when it would get here. One of my coworkers found an article about the first case detected in a city two hours north of us, and at that moment I kind of knew I’d never see most of them in person again.

Since then, one has moved away, one has retired, one has been laid off (sadly), and one will never go to the office again because his wife is immune compromised. My team has expanded to include folks from all over the world, but none of them are local to me.

Of the people I used to work with, precisely one goes to the office now. He goes once or twice a month, timing it so there are very few other people there.

I go maybe once every four months, starting eight months ago. So, twice so far. I didn’t see him there either time.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Yep. And it should go to Ukraine.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Alternate headline: “Huntington Beach declares it doesn’t want tourist dollars anymore”

kescusay , 4 months ago

This is a huge business opportunity for someone with the know-how. They should offer a consulting service that does the following:

1. Catalogs the software your company is using.
2. Identifies which ones have native Linux versions, which ones work well under WINE, and which ones will need to be replaced with either a different native application or an online equivalent.
3. Installs and configures Linux with a Windows-like UI on your old systems, and gets them set up with the replacement software.

Offer a support contract that severely undercuts anything Microsoft is gouging selling. Offer basic training, too.

Anyone who does that can make bank.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Your right.

kescusay , 4 months ago

The thing about that kind of attitude is that it’s inherently self-defeating, because if you insist your employees come to work sick, they’re going to get everyone else sick too, and productivity will plummet even if everyone keeps showing up. Sick employees don’t perform well.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Because it means Linux is gaining enough credibility as a desktop operating system for PC and parts manufacturers to work harder to ensure compatibility.

Everyone seems to want off the Microsoft upgrade train. Consumers don’t want to constantly fear that the OS will stop getting security updates because Microsoft doesn’t want to make them anymore. Manufacturers of PCs don’t want to pay the Microsoft tax. Parts manufacturers know it’s actually easier to write drivers for Linux than it is for Windows.

But until Linux shows signs of being a credible and attractive alternative, it’s not going to break Microsoft’s stranglehold on all three.

kescusay , 4 months ago

Yep, it’s Cognizant, and they don’t have a particularly good reputation.

Still sucks for those workers, though.

kescusay , 4 months ago

No, no, it’s French. Macro ce phallique. It means “macro this phallic.” Obviously.