Owen (retro web aspect)

Turnaround time on interesting suggestions/questions: between 2d and 2y.

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Last Notes

2024-08-19 21:42:23

People who use JIRA: do you use the project key (the one that shows up in the issue IDs) to identify the team responsible?
I ask because I've run into this in, I think, at least five separate JIRA-using organizations in the last two decades, and I'm wondering how idiosyncratic that experience is.

2024-08-01 19:11:58

Pressing play in Music.app frequently just … doesn't play any music. It gets stuck on 0:00. My intuition is that it's trying to renegotiate some variety of HDCP nonsense - that is, that the owners would rather nobody hear their music than that someone, _even potentially_, hear it without paying for it.

2024-07-30 18:25:36

PhantomData and MaybeUninit are like catnip to a certain kind of programmer who values showing off how clever they are far more than they value going in a straight line to solve a problem.

2024-07-27 21:12:02

Catholic/Episcopalian priests must never be allowed in the same room as both a conscious and aware savior and any amount of water (possibly including the water in their own respective bodies), as a safety measure against a grey goo scenario

2024-07-24 02:46:36

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In a lot of ways the move to Standard Open Licenses has been a windfall for corporate interests, who benefit from having legally-legible permission and thus easier risk management decisions.

2024-07-24 02:46:01

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This characteristic is self-reinforcing: if someone takes your code on faith, makes some changes, and then distributes it onwards, anyone downstream of that needs to take on faith that _neither of you_ will or can sue.
You also need to have that faith in each other, or share permission.

2024-07-24 02:45:12

If you release software without a license at all, then the only people who can reproduce it are:
* people with your permission, obviously;
* people who are willing to take on faith that you won't sue them; and
* people who are willing to take on faith that you _can't_ sue them.
You lock out a lot of wealthy but very risk-averse users this way.
Something to think on.
(Signed: someone who no longer uses any open source or free software licenses.)

2024-07-13 01:22:37

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@npub1hal…2hr5 I haven't done the math but I would bet that the concorde would be lower throughput due to its much, much smaller cargo capacity, even allowing for the fact that the block times are shorter.

2024-07-13 00:58:58

Some back-of-the-shitpost math suggests that it was entirely possible to transmit data across the atlantic at 2.5 gigabytes/sec in 1972.
This is probably not that surprising, but it's neat.

2024-07-12 18:58:47

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I'm still gonna call it forum drama even when one side of it is people who would happily round the other side up and put them in real, non-figurative camps

2024-07-12 18:57:24

watching the forum drama of the moment and idly thinking that a lot of people who feel real strongly about Free Speech get very quiet when the Speech is "what if I had a snoot and a cute tail"

2024-07-10 21:23:22

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It shares a lot of these properties with other co-op games! Phasmo, for example, messes with your communication ability and withholds information from the player as a means of controlling difficulty.

2024-07-10 21:22:42

Low-key but Sea of Thieves might be the video game to get closest to representing the realities of person-to-person warfare before the industrial age.
You don't always know where your opponents are, what their intentions are, their state of readiness, or even whether they _are_ your enemies in the first place. Communication is hard, and frequently chaotic. An ability to plan and adapt on the fly is way more powerful than your guns and swords are.

2024-07-10 20:33:19

The foundational metaphor of Terraform is the idea that operating a complex network of services and systems can be reduced to the operation of editing a text file. That metaphor is very powerful and has some really useful results - Terraform is successful for a reason - but it is, like any metaphor, imperfect.

2024-06-30 18:10:21

Shadowbringers role quests: what does someone sacrifice to become a hero?
Endwalker: what monsters does grief make?
Dawntrail: what do bottoms get up to if you leave them unsupervised?

2024-06-28 19:19:50

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Dawntrail launch is going great https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1dqlykk/xbox_crashes/

2024-06-28 19:19:23

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Dawntrail launch is going great https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/1dqh0te/psa_syrcus_tower_alliance_is_bugged_and_its/

2024-06-28 19:19:02

Dawntrail launch is going great https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2si1kqr3za9d1.png

2024-06-26 18:14:57

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@npub1xwe…p3ls No words. I have no words. Where _were_ these people for the last (checks) eight years?

2024-06-25 21:02:23

There's nothing quite like a toenail that has clearly been injured enough to fall off, but which hasn't quite been injured badly enough to do it all at once.
It's hanging on by about a square millimetre of nailbed, and it's loose enough that I keep snagging it on things when I move my toes. Going to have to go at it with clippers when I get a chance, and hope that it grows back afterwards.

2024-06-25 16:27:05

Welp, @npub13d2…lvlm just laid off a bunch of union organizers without warning in the middle of contract negotiation, so I'm looking at alternatives.
One of the alternatives I'm looking at is "start/join an email co-op." Anyone have any recommendations on that front?

2024-06-24 21:34:22

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@npub1rv4…ft5j Audio Accessory Mode has to be involved here somewhere.

2024-06-24 17:39:01

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@npub14p9…5a9z you got your usize in my i32!

2024-06-21 01:02:56

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@npub1x43…59ed Allowing citizens' arrests for infractions, bylaw violations, and other bits of sub-criminal regulation would be revolutionary

2024-06-20 21:33:24

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The classic changelog serves, among other purposes, to persuade users of the importance of installing an update. The vestigial changelog - "Bug fixes and feature improvements" - is a frank admission that we no longer feel like there's any point in doing the suasion when users don't get to say no in the first place.

2024-06-20 21:31:54

I dunno, but I have a feeling that the normalization of automatic updates has relieved developers and their clients of having to consider a user's needs to a large degree. Software change is now something you do to your users, not something you persuade your users to accept.

2024-06-20 19:12:06

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@npub12l3…qgjv I've found the converse to be a good way to explain radiation injuries to the public, too: it's like getting a nasty, peeling sunburn ... all the way through you.

2024-06-19 19:19:31

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@npub1776…0jsu You've never ripped one so foul, someone smelt it _before_ you dealt it?
Lucky!

2024-06-17 19:36:21

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@npub14ux…jx88 Overwatch continues to be a property where the fan community is capable of so much better work than the original authors could even conceive of

2024-06-17 19:35:47

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@npub14ux…jx88 heeeeeeeeeere's TORBJORN!

2024-06-16 22:57:14

wired: kiki tea

2024-06-15 23:23:19

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@npub1jr7…7xwv a lot of LLM research came out of mechanical translation teams, even. I'm aware.

2024-06-15 23:18:53

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I mean this very sincerely: if you're so early on that you can't afford to pay localizers, just don't localize.
suck it up for a bit, make some money in your domestic markets, and _then_ look at localization for other regions. it's fine!

2024-06-15 23:17:52

yay: finding a new game that looks like it'll probably hit the good brain juice buttons
boo: their steam page proudly announces their use of AI to handle translation and localization

2024-06-15 23:09:09

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@npub159y…uf43 aeva no

2024-06-13 01:38:55

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@npub1rq4…dg5z that is SUCH a cute photo omg

2024-06-13 01:17:18

Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, or, if you prefer, the Chobits Cinematic Universe

2024-06-11 06:14:19

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Every tile in Okta represents a relationship between two businesses. Three, if you count Okta itself.

2024-06-11 06:12:48

We outsourced keeping a list.
I keep rolling that observation around in my head, looking at it from various angles, trying to find a way to square it with my understanding of reasonable business risks and expenses. I am, as you might guess, having trouble doing so.
It's an important list, in some senses. The items on it represent internal consensus about certain business priorities. It is a list that has the attention of C-suite staff.

2024-06-10 21:46:30

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@npub14p9…5a9z business failures georg, who eats ten ketamines a day, is and outlier

2024-06-10 21:45:29

The only thing these fuckers will understand is if you take their money away from them.

2024-06-10 19:52:07

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@npub1rzm…zccu do you want pink-eye?
because that's how you get pink-eye.

2024-06-07 20:56:21

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@npub1xwe…p3ls That smoking pipe is an incredible work of art.

2024-06-06 20:14:50

The pervasive belief that, if we just computer _hard enough_, then nothing will ever need individual expertise or skill ever again, is _exhausting_.
(I am painfully aware that it's a resurgence of Taylorist beliefs about if we just _manage_ hard enough, etc.)

2024-06-04 20:56:48

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@npub1xwe…p3ls finally, Linux is on parity with desktop OSes

2024-06-01 18:48:58

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@npub1pjx…cw4w orphaned type checker process spinning madly?

2024-05-31 22:11:43

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This isn't particularly radical thinking. Socialist and leftist writers of many stripes have been saying this for well over a century. Experiment after experiment bears it out.
We just need to do it.

2024-05-31 22:10:58

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I say "kinder" and not "kind" because these basics aren't magic. Domestic violence will still exist. Theft and fraud will still exist. The list goes on. But fewer people would be forced into those situations by their circumstances if we let them have better circumstances.

2024-05-31 22:10:04

If you want a kinder world - one with fewer scams, less violence, and so on - then put your energy into making sure that everyone has food to eat, a table to eat it on, and a safe way out of relationships that turn bad.
Everyone. Really.

2024-05-31 02:48:23

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With apologies to my friends (youse knows who you is)

2024-05-31 02:47:59

Wired: ahegao amigo

2024-05-31 00:27:30

What's the over-under on US conservatives suddenly coming out against felony disenfranchisement?
NY's disenfranchisement rules are modest by US standards and I think they're unlikely to be relevant, but that's never stopped anyone.

2024-05-29 22:07:52

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@npub14ux…jx88 The fluid dynamics problems are written on the subway walls

2024-05-29 08:30:14

If the President of the US goes skydiving, does the plane lose its call sign

2024-05-27 06:03:11

@npub1sjk…s3vy Saw this glam, thought of you
https://cdn.masto.host/transneptune/media_attachments/files/112/510/991/866/481/885/original/036aae42da4c30b9.png

2024-05-27 03:13:03

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@npub12x7…s35y I wonder if they make hoodies

2024-05-26 01:57:07

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@npub1sjk…s3vy "read another book, any other book, come on" also good

2024-05-22 19:27:58

Last weekend - ten days ago, now - my nephew started to cough while I was caring for him.
Today, the same bug is still doing laps through my body.
What did you even find, Jake. What even.

2024-05-22 01:39:30

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@npub1m20…mtxz first bit of good news i've seen today thanks

2024-05-22 01:38:16

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Chloride ions are also tasty but they don't taste like salt so fuck 'em

2024-05-22 01:36:50

In case you needed to know - sodium ions are the tasty ones, mostly.

2024-05-22 01:32:47

You can shorten the iTerm guy's response to this critique as "I disagree" and not lose any of the nuance. If you care _why_ he disagrees, by all means read into it, but if you primarily care about not having network-based ML tooling in your terminal, his disagreement is a sufficient response on its own to your concerns. Decide accordingly.

2024-05-21 21:41:42

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I have found it useful to treat function calls like this as if they have a CC of one, but they actually embed complex conditional logic and could produce a large number of outward edges in the final program, which makes me wonder if I'm looking at it wrong.

2024-05-21 21:40:50

code metrics thinkers: what is the cyclomatic complexity of a virtual function call (one where the actual function dispatched depends on the value of one of the arguments; traditionally, the first one)?
for example, what is the cyclomatic complexity of `this.some_method()`, where some_method may be overridden in subclasses?

2024-05-21 18:36:37

Adding ML-powered features to your program is a fast-track path to getting it banned for office use, at least at companies that care about incidental data exfiltration.

2024-05-17 22:19:45

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Slack is not alone in tacitly acknowledging that what you're writing doesn't matter as much as the performance of writing it does, incidentally. I recently discovered, very much the hard way, that Github will hide any code review longer than a certain threshold, punishing you for offering an in-depth review in the process. The performance of reviewing a submission matters more to the interface than the substance of the review.

2024-05-17 22:01:02

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Most coordinative communication in a workplace context _is_ pretty marginal, and I can't fault Slack for capitalizing on that observation, but statistical engines (in either capacity) can't fix that. Effective communication is a skill that requires empathy and trust with the other half, which machines - comprehensively - lack.

2024-05-17 21:59:15

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To simplify - if your Slack conversations mattered to your boss or your peer teams, they wouldn't use an AI to summarize them. They'd read what you wrote and talk to you if she had any followup questions.
And, conversely, if sending those messages had value, you wouldn't use a statistical randomness generator to write them. Even if you're an indifferent writer at best, it'd communicate importance that you used your own words.

2024-05-17 21:57:47

I think what troubles me the most about Slack's decision to start training AI on conversational data is that Slack positions their product to handle workplace coordinative communication - to "replace email" (and by extension, the interoffice memos that email ate).
AI in that context, whether to generate text or to substitute for reading it, amounts to a tacit admission that the coordinative communication Slack is supposed to enable has minimal value.

2024-05-14 19:33:38

By the power of hot soup, I am reborn

2024-05-14 17:55:33

getting in trouble for calling Ilya Repin's painting "The Reply Guys"

2024-05-13 18:49:59

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@npub1urf…jtvm Thanks for the synopsis!

2024-05-13 18:24:44

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@npub1urf…jtvm oh no who now

2024-05-13 02:19:53

The President flying around on United States Public Health Commisioned Corps One

2024-05-12 23:58:30

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This intrusive thought brought to you by my niece asking me to peel her nuggets for her

2024-05-12 23:46:04

So do you eat your nuggies with the skin on or the skin off?

2024-05-12 18:11:25

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@npub1qu5…qel2 my niblings have been looking at photos of Odin all morning and I quote here: “more dog!”
Eloise asked how he got out

2024-05-12 14:06:29

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@npub12x7…s35y wouldst thou like to live deliciously

2024-05-12 03:13:51

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@npub1xj6…t7jc the only doctrinally correct answer _has_ to be that you should cut the prayer mat so as to not disturb the cat

2024-05-11 22:01:31

In hindsight, the name "Petro-Canada" should have been seen for the warning it was.

2024-05-10 20:07:27

I love having 1:1s with people after they give notice. They are almost universally the most productive meetings I have. The career-maintenance bullshit stops mattering and the level of candour goes way up.
Truly, I wish for a way to have that, all the time, even though I understand why it's not likely.

2024-05-09 20:33:02

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I own property. I make enough in a year to put me firmly in Canada's top percentile. My peers are people who run businesses or work in law firms and banks. I am face-to-face with this, and I experience it myself. My hands are bloody too.

2024-05-09 20:32:10

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Individual capitalists, business owners, managers, and others in the capital class will tell you, with all honesty, that they do not want this, and that there should be a safety net, so long as they don't have to pay _too_ much for it. They'll even donate, if they get a tax break for doing so.
It doesn't matter. This position is a conspiracy to kill, even if those deaths are carried out through The System rather than by individuals' own hands.

2024-05-09 20:30:38

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The _inevitable_ result of these two positions is that capital wants unused labour to disappear entirely from the equation. To die, in other words.

2024-05-09 20:29:38

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Capital, on the other hand, also wants to minimize the number of people they have to pay, and to avoid responsibility to people they don't employ.

2024-05-09 20:28:56

To me, it's fairly simple.
Capital, on the one hand, wants a captive labour market. If people can reject work and continue to live their lives, then they can afford to negotiate the price of that labour, which means their clients may pay a higher rate than they would if labourers were not able to negotiate.

2024-05-09 05:18:32

Humans landing on a new world and immediately breaking into a fight about which bit of fauna is the most like a bear, for navigational reasons

2024-05-08 22:13:10

Free as in "when it breaks, you get to keep both pieces."

2024-05-08 22:05:52

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 Hard agree. My personal lost love here is the ability to get a normal-sized bowl of soup and a sandwich the size of a sandwich for lunch, literally at all.

2024-05-08 22:05:31

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Hard agree. My personal lost love here is the ability to get a normal-sized bowl of soup and a sandwich the size of a sandwich for lunch, literally at all.

2024-05-08 18:49:25

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The practical consequences of this decision range from "you can't have syntax highlighting in your editor" (annoying human factors problem) to "we are maintaining complex remote environments to support development, with a substantial daily operational cost" (financially reportable, and therefore "substantial" in some ways that the human factors sometimes aren't).

2024-05-08 18:47:43

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It would have been fantastically expensive to buy support - the language was never the vendor's primary product, or even close to it. That cost should have been a warning sign about the magnitude of the risk exposure we were taking on.
Unfortunately, there's no easy path back off of that language now. We have megalines' worth of investment into using it, and that can't be backed out faster than it was written, really.

2024-05-08 18:46:44

My day job, many years ago now, adopted a language developed by a Fortune 50 company as an open-source project. We did not negotiate any kind of long-term support agreements with the vendor, and they have since shuttered the team that was working on the language.
This sucks, frankly. My org made the decisions it made for reasons I recognize, but they also adopted some very foreseeable risks, which are now coming home to roost.

2024-05-08 17:19:38

Citizenship should be automatic if you have lived here for more than a small number of years. No oaths, no tests or exams, no background check, no process for proving that you "deserve" the right to vote and the right to return to your home.
This isn't all that radical - that's how citizenship _used to work_.

2024-05-06 22:42:01

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@npub14ux…jx88 lehrer

2024-05-06 20:42:55

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I might also argue that now, three quarters of a century on from its invention, the kinds of software that category of dipshit cares about should no longer be treated like a novelty. Business enablement through software is old hat and it's long past time to stop looking _at_ it and to start looking at what it enables.

2024-05-06 20:41:21

Some dipshit showing up in the federated feed talking about how technology "produces value" by "integrating" and "providing insights," and it's like
no, man, it produces value for its users by helping them accomplish shit they care about, and for shareholders by being a huge scam, which are obviously things that are in tension with one another, so you gotta pick.
but thankfully, blocks are free.

2024-05-06 18:47:01

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@npub14ux…jx88 I'm sure I could get lighter, but if I start buying titanium or carbon-fiber bikes, shoot me before I become even more insufferable.

2024-05-05 20:44:34

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@npub14p9…5a9z I mean, I’d always understood that as “entitled if they think they get a say,” to be honest with you.

2024-05-03 08:36:15

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People commit full years of their lives to single capabilities. Those capabilities end up steel-hard and extremely reliable. Then they do it again.
Both from a labour-value perspective and a utility-value perspective, that work has worth.