pinball_wizard
@pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip
- Comment on Amazon's strict RTO policy is costing it top tech talent, according to internal document and insiders 1 day ago:
Plus, they can get the top talent back through illegal aquisitions of competitors every few years.
- Comment on Who could have predicted this? 4 days ago:
Oof. I only upgraded my last Windows 10 install to Linux Mint a week ago. It feels like I may have dodged a bullet, this time.
As you said, I just don’t have the time or energy for this particular but of computing excitement.
- Comment on what does it mean being nice to your coworkers to you? 6 days ago:
During the middle of the work day: it’s one of the nicer parts of my job, as long as nothing urgent (to me, personally) is waiting.
At the end of the day, when I’m on my way home: “My kids are waiting for me to pick them up.” Doesn’t matter where my kids are, they’re always waiting for me, in the same way that it is five o’clock somewhere. Also, the dog needs let out.
- Comment on Frick 6 days ago:
Thank you! I have been “volunteering” there - two days each week - since the City Council thoughtfully invited me to.
- Comment on Frick 1 week ago:
they lack the ability to manufacture and have little to no engineering education.
…so far.
- Comment on Frick 1 week ago:
Yes! I want bigger spiders, too. How can I help?
Wait…I might have lost the logic thread, on this one…
- Comment on I Tried Every Todo App and Ended Up With a .txt File 3 weeks ago:
I’m not sure I want company in the “amazingly productive professional” club.
Let’s not share this insight too far, okay?
I’ll be quite content if everyone competing with me for money keeps investing their energy in AI tools.
- Comment on Does anyone say "What ho!" anymore? 4 weeks ago:
Well…I do now.
- Comment on Steam Survey for July 2025 shows Linux approaching 3% 4 weeks ago:
The Windows team has been looking for ways to remove the deeper hooks ever since the CrowdStrike outage last year.
- Comment on Steam Survey for July 2025 shows Linux approaching 3% 4 weeks ago:
- Comment on Should I unplug my smart tv from the internet? 4 weeks ago:
What if being offline for a very long duration of time - means that when connecting it again - the firmware update bricks my TV?
We don’t see many updates that outright brick your product (yet). What we do see is updates that just happen to make your product run much slower than it used to. There’s always excuses why it is necessary, but in the end those updates tend to lead to sales of new devices.
Keeping the device fully offline is a defense against such an update.
Myself, I don’t see any reason for my TV to ever be online, so I take some comfort that it will not receive such an update.
- Comment on Would you rather stop playing a game than lower the difficulty? The First Berserker: Khazan devs reckon you would | Eurogamer 4 weeks ago:
I set every game to the bare minimum floor difficultly. If I find success at that difficulty for a full playthrough, I’ll up the difficultly on my second playthrough, if the game merits one.
My life is hard. I have bery little free time. My games should be fun.
- Comment on Socially inept, introverted employees. How do you survive the workplace? Because I’m in dire need of some serious advice. 4 weeks ago:
Haha. Thanks!
I try to apply Wil Weaton’s law as consistently as I can.
Also I forget who said it but I ask myself “would am asshole say that?” and if so, I try to say something else.
The faking it part is weird, since it applies to everyone I interact with, for different reasons:
- Coworkers - I just need to earn money to buy stuff. Plus, they’re just in the same boat.
- Staff at places I shop - they’re just trying to get by, and don’t need my crap to make their day worse.
- Actual friends - they probably don’t realize how much I appreciate them, so every little bit helps.
I guess my philosophy is we’re all going through some shit, so I hope I’m making it a little easier where I can.
- Comment on Socially inept, introverted employees. How do you survive the workplace? Because I’m in dire need of some serious advice. 4 weeks ago:
Here’s some ways I can relate:
- I would rather not talk unnecessarily at work.
- But I am aware that I occasionally come across as rude, abrasive or disdainful.
I found that people began to forgive my occasional accidental rudeness after I built up habits for myself to proactively communicate to others that I like them.
Now I have a whole set of habits that don’t take me much energy to apply, and make others feel likes by me. It helps tremendously when I later put my foot in my mouth, which I still sometimes do.
I don’t mean to imply that is your situation. It was my situation, at a time when I felt as you do now.
- Comment on Apart, low in cholesterine 4 weeks ago:
Imagine living in a world wherein all food products might have at least a little bit of rat poison in it.
Right. Imagine. Wild.
- Comment on It would get old fast 5 weeks ago:
presumably having to drive 20 minutes to get anything.
I’ve visited friends in such areas. It is hell.
They say “it’s so nice that nothing is more than 20 minutes away”, while ignoring the fact that nothing is less than 20 minutes away.
They can’t even have a corner grocer (due to shitty zoning laws) and they don’t realize how much of their daily life their car eats.
- Comment on It would get old fast 5 weeks ago:
sports from true rural areas, which I can only assume is rednecks drink driving
We also hunt deer, go fishing, and throw brean bags into a wooden box called a “corn hole”.
- Comment on Puppets Explained, Sybok Teased, TAS Episode Scrapped, And More ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ SDCC Reveals 5 weeks ago:
I’m sad about the puppets being muppets instead of practical creatures,
I agree. It feels to me that Start Trek has not leveraged creature shop puppet special effects much, over the years. More frequent practical puppet effects would be a welcome addition.
- Comment on If you had 1 dollar and 24 hours what would you do? 5 weeks ago:
Nice try, FBI.
- Comment on DOGE staffer with access to Americans' personal data leaked private xAI API key | TechCrunch 1 month ago:
“…checked [an API key] into GitHub…”
Ouch. But who hasn’t?
“Elez removed the key from his GitHub but the key itself was not revoked, allowing continued access to the AI models.”
Okay, that’s deeply bad…Maybe has no idea how API keys, or the Internet works…? Definitely lacks security advisors (or has them and ignored them).
- Comment on Does vibe coding sort of work at all? 2 months ago:
Is all vibe coding actually like that too or does some of it actually work?
It’s all like that.
How bad that is - for you - depends on your patience and your learning style.
When I use it, my experience usually lets me recognize the mistakes and correct them quickly. So it’s just a lazy convenience. Most of the time.
I’ve had it make subtle mistakes that cost me significant amounts of time to cleanup after letting the vibe code run for a few minutes.
I’m aware that particular mistake cost me more time that vibe coding has ever saved me.
I don’t mind, because my employer is excited about AI right now, and I get paid for my time, and I don’t work unpaid overtime.
So - to your implied questions:
Is AI bad at coding?
Yes. It will get better. But today, it is worse than most people think. Obvious problems are easily fixed. Subtle problems are being released daily all over the Internet to combine to cause headaches later.
Should you try it, anyway?
Of course! You’ll learn something and it might do a good enough job for what you need. If you stick with it, you’ll learn enough to do what you need.
Is vibe coding a better oath forward than learning a programming language?
Absolutely not. If you need to succeed, and had to pick one, learn to code.
But they’re not mutually exclusive. It’s probably impossible to vibe code for long without learning to actually code.
So I say, Dive in! You’ll be complaining with the rest of us, soon! Maybe together we will make it a bit better.
- Comment on Let’s Encrypt ends certificate expiry emails to cut costs, boost privacy 2 months ago:
Time to go out and buy a “The Far Side” desk calendar, and mark the correct page, I guess.
- Comment on What are your favourite single-player games without much fluff, grinding or difficulty spikes? 2 months ago:
I haven’t seen the Lego games mentioned here. (Lego Indian Jones, Lego Batman, etc.)
They tend to be story driven, and have excellent amounts of play-testing, resulting in an enjoyable playthrough that I’ve always been able to finish.
(Except Lego Dimensions, which was developed separately, and not to the same play-testing standards.)
- Comment on What are your favourite single-player games without much fluff, grinding or difficulty spikes? 2 months ago:
I may have missed it, but Dave the Diver deserves a mention here.
Boss battles are very rare, and slow paced enough that I have not run into the dreaded “I understand the pattern but I lack the dexterity”. (I often have this problem with other games.)
- Comment on What is the canonical version of STVI? 2 months ago:
I saw Star Trek VI in the theater, and of course I own the VHS home video version, (as I assume everyone who saw it in the theater has…)
I honestly thought that I had spaced out and forgotten Rene’s scenes.
I remember slapping my knee and getting up to start cleaning up the snacks, before being surprised that the VHS version kept on going.
- Comment on Stung by customer losses, Comcast says all its new plans have unlimited data 2 months ago:
Ðat is delightful!
- Comment on No criminal charges over British woman shot in US 2 months ago:
For Brits, while there’s many possible worse interpretations, the usual reason for US law to function this way is if the weapon was fired by a very young child.
And yes, we have a “usual” regarding children getting their hands on firearms. That sucks in it’s own special way.
US law seals many records in cases for child offenders.
If the weapon was fired by a child too young to understand firearms, that could result in no charges - although it’s more usual to see a charge against the caretakers in such cases.
Disclaimer: Since tone doesn’t convey in text - I want to clarify I’m not trying to advocate for the US system. I just want to share that there are explanations - in addition - to our usual ones.
None of what I’ve shared is meant to attempt to address the concerns that must come with having a gun culture.
Everything still sucks in this situation, and everyone has a right to how they feel about it.
Whatever else we feel, we can all agree we need to find ways to do better than this. Nothing is okay about this.
(And yes, I know I’m saying that in one country where this kind of thing still routinely happens.)
- Comment on Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models 2 months ago:
That was my first thought as well - it’s straight out of “Rainbow’s End”.
And once again, reality feels like too few people took the lessons from the book to heart.
- Comment on how do I stop itching? 2 months ago:
I find a nice large bandage helps. The difference in how it feels under my fingers gives me just enough pause that I get a chance to notice and stop myself.
- Comment on Bernie Sanders says that if AI makes us so productive, we should get a 4-day work week 2 months ago:
?
Oh. I missed the sarcasm. But yes, that is how conclusions work in my country, as well.