thesmokingman

@thesmokingman@programming.dev

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨BBC Greenlights “Real Life ‘Black Mirror'” Doc About Artificial Intelligence⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Giving today’s AI slop coverage at all provides some bias for AI slop, especially if the coverage ends on any kind of positive note or doesn’t also highlight the extreme damages AI data centers cause. AI theory is all maths; AI practice (at least currently) is the widespread destruction of natural resources to increase the value of a handful of individuals solely on paper. Not explaining that makes it look good because why wouldn’t we improve AI relationships because the math looks solid! (Or whatever other example AI slop would provide if relationships doesn’t reasonate) There are recent videos of Hannah Fry explaining how to get value out of LLMs which doesn’t bode well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wario64: Borderlands 4 is moving its release date up to September 12th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, respec for a fee.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wario64: Borderlands 4 is moving its release date up to September 12th⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If the BL3 “balancing” shenanigans happen again, it would be best to wait a year or two to play BL4 so you know how Randy wants you to play the game and you won’t get frustrated when your single player build gets nerfed into oblivion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨BBC Greenlights “Real Life ‘Black Mirror'” Doc About Artificial Intelligence⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I will be incredibly disappointed if Hannah Fry turns into an AI apologist. Just as long as this stays focused on how fucking dumb it is, she’s on the right path. She is brilliant; hopefully she doesn’t fall prey to the propaganda.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"The Accountant 2" is Certified Fresh with 75% on Rotten Tomatoes⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m glad you did! Savantism tends to be looked down on by the rest of ASD folx who aren’t savants, which is unfortunately a majority. It’s also important to note you don’t have to beat the shit out of your shins, subject yourself to loud noises and flashing lights, and do other unpleasant, torture-adjacent things just to mask. You can find communities out there that will accept you for you with or without a mask.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"The Accountant 2" is Certified Fresh with 75% on Rotten Tomatoes⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The first was one of the most hilariously bad and poor taste depictions of autism since Rain Man. There’s no way the second is any better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Naked Gun | Official Teaser Trailer (2025 Movie) - Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  None of your examples are parody movies from companies with a long history of tons of sequels and dumb jokes. This is the fourth movie in a series. It’s basically been in development hell since the early 2000s. I’m not going to say this is quality; it’s not dead IP and it’s not a Kubrick. This is more like beating a dead horse (possibly) that resurrecting something.

  If you wanted to make your point, something like Airplane 3 or Men in Tights 2 would have been more apt. AFAIK neither of those have been in development and they’re both from the same vein of late 20th century parody movies. The movies you mentioned would be good responses if a studio rebooted, say, Platoon as a 2000s war movie. Some movie collections like Naked Gun, Scary Movie, Police Academy, and National Lampoon are intended to stick around for a long time (even if they’re just getting progressively fucking worse).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Real⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The first and third apply to TV, radio, podcasts, or possibly even reading. The second isn’t a guarantee (not conclusive for everyone) and can be solved with technology.

  The real science here is practicing good sleep hygiene. Your phone is one of many things that can fuck with that; it’s only a small part of it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Developers: "Yes, the users love cluttered homes, just put everything there and ignore guidelines"⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you’re on a Windows box, the apps you’re calling out are assuming some level of FHS or XDG compatibility, neither of which are Windows things.

  If you’re on a mac, macOS uses its own thing but can play well with dotdirs. However, you’ll find a mix of assuming XDG and weird macOS storage locations depending on how the tool determines storage location priority.

  If you’re on Linux, there are too many standards.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Costs to thee, but none for me!⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Adding extrinsic rewards for tasks like this can often introduce dark patterns eg maxing reviews to max rewards. It’s not as simple as “just pay someone to read papers.” As much as I detest academic publishers, it’s also not as simple as just throwing everything into open access (which we should do no matter what) and then having folks do it for the good of the community. There will have to be some experimentation with a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

  In the US I directly pay for the funding for papers through tuition and taxes. I shouldn’t have to fucking pay a parasitic publisher on top of that just to access that shit. In math at least I don’t mind paying a little here and there for an MAA or AMS journal though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I don't think they understand. We're interviewing them too.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My experience in engineering on both sides of the table is similar. As a hiring manager, my goal is to move as fast as possible because talented folks are going to be looking at lots of places and I need present the best option to them very quickly so I don’t lose them. I don’t fuck around with haggling or candidate pools; two, maybe three max interviews depending on the role and we’re rejecting or making the best possible offer we can. I picked this up from companies I have preferred to work at. I think massive enterprises get bogged down in their internal processes and procedures and red tape while forgetting the employee experience begins during the candidate experience. If I have to go through many rounds of interviews I can only assume working there will be miles of bureaucracy before I can do anything more than sneeze.

  I am personally fine with the old onsite process where you’d go to the company and have a day or half a day of interviews with not only the team but the stakeholders as well. Post-COVID that turned into a remote onsite and slowly turned into weeks of interviews which I don’t like but is more flexible for serious candidates. When I was running those, each group had specific areas to cover so we got a good sense of the boundaries of your skills. You got to meet many people you’d work with and get a sense of how things run. Always practical, though, never any of that leetcode bullshit. Also always two way. You don’t just stare at a candidate; they need to understand you to make a good decision. And, most importantly, the scale is based on seniority/pay. I’m not going to spend more than an hour or two with a junior interview because it’s a fucking junior interview.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubuntu security advisory (AV24-685) - Canadian Centre for Cyber Security⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There are an unsurprisingly large number of Ubuntu 16 boxes in the clouds. A quick google even shows a Spring 2024 course from a major US university recommending 32-bit Ubuntu 16.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨flouride⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think you understand what “outside my realm of expertise” means. I’m not trolling, so I must be a simpleton. As a simpleton, my general perspective has always been that it should be safe to ask questions about things you don’t understand so you can better understand. In this case, it’s very simple to say “from my uneducated eye, this appears to be a strong source that contradicts; that doesn’t seem to jive with the narrative so can someone help me understand why it doesn’t?” You seem to feel simpletons aren’t allowed to ask questions or grow, so we’re done here. I will take my specialized, domain-specific knowledge (which I’ve forgotten more about than you will probably ever learn) and sit in my simpleton castle knowing that’s all I ever get to know because it’s not okay to ask questions on the internet in a community based on discourse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨flouride⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m was just hoping for a solid rebuttal, not necessarily a fancy one! If you’re able to explain why the criticisms you mention mean that specific study is bad, that would be great! I’m assuming you’re not from China and mistakenly think wherever you’re from doesn’t suffer from similar issues, meaning we can only trust you as much as the article.

  It would be great to have some citations for that so I can point to things when I get into these discussions! That was part of what I asked for. You seem really passionate about this so you must have that available to help me out. Thanks!

  I’m not sure you read my post if you think I trust any of the studies I linked more than anything else. It might be good to reread it!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨flouride⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It looks like someone else linked one of these studies in a different comment while I was writing my own. I don’t feel as crazy now. I don’t care one way or another; I just want to make sure I can respond correctly! I wonder if the emphasis on fluoridated water is itself linked to industry capture?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨flouride⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I want someone who knows about these things to respond to this 2012 metastudy that ties naturally fluoridated groundwater to neurological problems. I have used this the past decade to say “well the science is unclear;” I found it back then (2013 at the latest) when I was trying to disprove a crank and really questioned my shit. There was a(n unrelated?) follow up later that questioned the benefits. Since this is very far from my area of expertise, I’m not championing these; I just want to understand why they’re wrong or at least don’t matter in the discourse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boeing factory workers vote to accept contract and end more than 7-week strike⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well fuck, since that’s so much larger that what Pope said they could do I guess Boeing is filing for bankruptcy now and folding? They were holding nothing back then so clearly the company is going under now due to those greedy workers’

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨have you ever been given a warning or suspension for using profane language at work?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If someone doesn’t understand the difference between swearing at and swearing around, that’s a shitty environment. If I say, “that was a shitty fucking outage” I am using some filler for emphasis so my mouth can catch up to my brain. If I say “you’re a fucking asshole” or “don’t be such a bitch” or “that’s fucking sexy” I am not being professional and I deserve some training on how to not be an ignorant walnut. Even with swearing around, I do think it’s smart to limit yourself to damnation, defecation, and simple fornication rather than gendered swears. There are also some places it’s not wise to swear around, such as client-facing roles because many of the people you will see don’t understand that swearing around is not swearing at.

  I once lost a job after the onsite interview. I wait to swear until I I hear them swear. Apparently my use of “fuck” meant I was going to blow up and be a terrible person to my peers. Two years later I started running a department doing the thing I was interviewing for and my staff tends to be fiercely loyal. I’d argue my swearing speaks for itself and have shaped my professional attitude toward swearing around around this experience.

  I work in tech and I’m quick to police my language if necessary. I’m also concerned about relative comfort (eg I try really hard not to blaspheme around some Christian peers). I do not swear at people. I do not work in a super corporate environment. YMMV.

  I like study (you can find the full article online) and I think there’s been more research down this path in the years since.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨World of Warcraft adds $90 mount to in game store⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s a terrible decision because of this. The whole point of hubs is to get players together and interacting. Putting AH and mail around hubs requires many players together. Giving folks a mount means the hubs stop being hubs and contributes to the continued decay of the multiplayer aspect.

  Take this with a grain of salt. When I last played hubs still mattered. If that isn’t currently the case this is just old fart complaints.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Proton is the Future of PC gaming. But how does it work? [Gardiner Bryant, YouTube]⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s really nothing preventing that now. Used to be you just forwarded X (mobaXterm is great); looks like there’s an MS offering now.

  As for Linux-exclusive games, there are some (eg this publisher) but really only because no one has bothered to make a Windows port. tbh you could probably get them running on macOS without much trouble because the toolchain’s all the same.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Blame da gubberment⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is actually true. Essentially a big drug manufacturer took down a scientist through a serious harassment campaign and blew him the fuck up when he finally snapped. In no large part to this coordinated glowup, published literature in the US agrees with the chemical manufacturer while it’s been banned in the EU for 20 years. The EPA might disagree with me that it’s true; the EPA and others funded in no small part by Syngenta refuse to look at things by Dr Hayes because he lost his cool a few times. Unfortunately Alex Jones further eroded the credibility of Dr Hayes but, imo, only because Syngenta actively deplatformed his research. Also Jones said some crazy shit about it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boeing proposes 30% wage hike to striking workers in its 'final' offer.⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Stephanie Pope said workers wouldn’t get anything better than the previous, rejected offer. I get what you’re trying to explain; that’s not the situation here and either way that’s the joke. Boeing corporate is being very disingenuous and clearly not negotiating in good faith. I’ve got another comment a bit ago on the article I linked calling out this exact situation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boeing proposes 30% wage hike to striking workers in its 'final' offer.⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Last time Boeing execs said they “held nothing back.” Where the fuck did the extra 5% come from?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DarkPattern.games - a website that rates mobile games for their "dark patterns"⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It could also be manipulated by someone who reports the dark patterns are inaccurate. If it were run by a single org or person, it could get sold to a company interested in gaming the ratings or used to bash things the owner doesn’t like. I’m not entirely sure what your point is. Every way to set this up is subject to bad actors. There are some checks and balances present in the website. Why are they inadequate and why should we not trust this site? Are you, perhaps, an industry dark pattern plant trying to get us to avoid something that could deter dark pattern usage?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kotaku being Kotaku⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The most frustrating thing about this article is that it completely ignores that good movies targeted at kids still have to be good. Personal complaints aside, the new Mario movie was reasonably good for adults and great for kids. Pixar keeps churning out things that are fantastic on many levels. Bluey is an amazing show that can resonate with kids and parents. I don’t for a minute buy the elitist bullshit of “well you’re not a kid so you can’t comment.” Muppet Treasure Island holds the fuck up as an adult so this writer can fuck right off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Randy Pitchford releases the most valuable shift code ever at PAX.⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s okay for background noise. It is infuriating to watch. It’s not even slightly funny at a bad movie level of funny. It’s just bad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨U.K. might follow Europe in fining employers who message staff after-hours⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah! At scale that really falls apart. I have lots of conversations with lots of people across timezones so waiting for the intersection of everyone actively blocks work.

  Asynchronous communication is exactly that. If you are not listening when your manager says “don’t Slack after work” that’s on you. I sure fucking don’t and I make that very clear.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨U.K. might follow Europe in fining employers who message staff after-hours⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I manage a workforce across time zones and, as someone with ADHD, it’s usually best for me to fire off messages as things arise. If I read the summary, I’m not allowed to Slack/email after hours, which creates a huge burden for a remote workforce. I think that summary is incorrect and it’s more that I can’t force people to respond or even read those messages outside their work hours. I completely support this and I regularly bother my team when they respond to stuff after their day has ended. I call this out every quarter as we update our team working agreement. I don’t have any notifications set up for work comms period and have made it very clear the only way to get in touch with me is a phone call.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Every Difference Between Rebel Moon’s Director Cuts & The Original Versions⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well fuck now I have to waste another entire work day to watch the updated version and hate it even more

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Just a complete mess’: Initial impressions of the Borderlands movie are mostly negative [VGC]⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The only thing you need to know is that Randy Pitchford was involved. This guarantees it’s going to be a shitshow.