To clarify, your health insurance "deductible" is the amount you pay, which is different from the "co-pay" which is also the amount you pay, which is also different from the "premium", which is the amount you pay.
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Al Sweigart
@AlSweigart@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Author of "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" and other programming books. Mostly harmless. he/him
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Joined May 18, 2021
automatetheboringstuff.com:
alsweigart.com:
inventwithpython.com:
Boosted by @trending@homestead.social
Someone left the comment "They don't know how to do anything if someone isn't actively bribing them and telling them what to do" and I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life.
OH: "still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them"
Replying to
Btw, all responses to AI criticism are ALWAYS one of the following:
- You didn't write the prompt correctly.
- You're using an old model.
- That will be fixed in the next five years.
- Well, I never see that problem.
Keep an eye out for them in the replies here.
The people who use AI to write for them don't even read the stuff they don't write.
How do you pronounce hexadecimal numbers? For stuff like like 4C I say "four cee", but even numbers like 40 in hex I'll say "four zero" instead of "forty". For me, "forty" always means forty in decimal.
Do other people do this?
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
I have thought up a new side project and I have resisted the temptation to buy a domain name as the first step.
Please clap.
Every computer science degree from 2028 on is going to be worthless.
Hey, there's a lot of bots pretending to be Gazans seeking donations. Be careful before you boost or repost.
A redditor sent NYC Mayor Mamdani a decorated "Good Luck" dollar earlier this year and just got this response.
Replying to
@chx@chx.contact @davidgerard@circumstances.run @pluralistic@mamot.fr I've always said that conservatives love the Founding Fathers, unborn babies, God, and the "silent majority" because they don't speak for themselves so conservatives can shove words into their mouth.
Same for robots and "AI".
Flock Cameras Keep Getting Smashed, So Now They’re Hiding Inside Speed Signs
https://www.gadgetreview.com/flock-cameras-keep-getting-smashed-so-now-theyre-hiding-inside-speed-signs
I never stopped to think about how the name "Fugitive Slave Act" frames the enslaved person as the criminal.
Plus ça change...
Non-software engineers will use AI to create software the way Elon Musk created the Cybertruck.
"My training data has a cutoff of September 2021. Therefore, I have no knowledge of events that occurred after that date."
Lucky bastard LLM.
Replying to
I want to make freeware apps that are like how software used to be before enshittification. I'm trying to come up with a name. Good Old Ware? I don't want it to be just for nostalgic nerds though. I need a name with mainstream appeal.
"A group of musicians call themselves Duvet. They're a cover band." #PyOhio puns
On my to LA and PyCon US 2026! Start your FOMO now. (Or if you're in the LA area, buy a ticket! It's the best conference!)
There's going to be 2,000 Pythonistas there. I'm masking up for the flight and the conference. We keep us safe. If you're feeling unwell, test yourself. https://us.pycon.org/
Replying to
@glyph@mastodon.social Oh, but if you want one more insult:
ChatGPT would have caught this.
They didn't even bother to have AI edit their book.
"There's a great restaurant called Karma. They don't have a menu but you get what you deserve." #PyOhio puns while getting A/V issues resolved.
Updated my whatismyip Python package. It does what it says on the tin. It's been two years since my last update. It's all minor bug fixes. Feels good. https://pypi.org/project/WhatIsMyIP/
Python strftime/strptime Cheat Sheet: An interactive reference https://inventwithpython.com/strftime/
RE: https://mastodon.scot/@kim_harding/116929767967871102
There's no point in hitting the brakes if you refuse to let up on the gas.
There's no point in hitting the brakes if you use that as an excuse to push on the gas even harder.
Thank you to all the committee chairs who make #PyConUS possible.
Someone noted that the people praising AI as an "exciting new technology" in graduation speeches and getting booed are just as clueless as the "plastics" guy in The Graduate.
Last day of sprints at #PyConUS
How Fascists Construct Scientific Ignorance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTh4y2wABrA
This is how they tell you that America is going to invade Bolivia for its lithium deposits, a key ingredient for EV batteries.
I have all the Choose Your Own Adventure Tic Tac Toe zines that I made with a Python script cut and sorted for PyCon US 2026. I'll probably need a hand with the folding and stapling, but once done I'll be handing them out to folks. :)
"Imagine if the police had this diligence to track down your stolen bicycle."
https://www.gadgetreview.com/a-texas-deputy-searched-83000-flock-cameras-to-track-down-a-woman-who-had-an-abortion
Hey, just as a reminder that I am matching donations made to PyOhio up to $1,000. Now is the time to make your donation count twice! https://www.pyohio.org/donate
This is going to be the best PyCon US ever. :)
Replying to
@jannem@fosstodon.org There is: it's not voting. I kind of appreciate the stark response required in the binary options. It's fine (maybe even best) to not answer the poll or even refuse to answer the poll.
PyOhio is a great conference that has been able to keep itself free to attend. Help keep it going, and I'll match any donations you make up to $1,000! https://www.pyohio.org/donate
Could someone who doesn't know how to program vibe code a software library?
Replying to
@0xabad1dea@infosec.exchange I figured it from context, but looked up what a wet signature was to be sure. I saw this cursed image so now I must share it:
RE: @newsguyusa@flipboard.social
Is it weird that my first thought is that journalists should check the "prediction market" bets that this disaster was going to happen?
🗺️ July 16, 2026
1/5 countries in 6/13 guesses
🟢⚪⚪⚪⚪
https://whereabouts.earth/daily/
#Whereabouts
I'm going to start selling homeopathic gambler's fallacy dice to tabletop role players: Dice that have been pre-rolled until they came up 1 three times in a row, meaning they're ripe to have good rolls next.
No Starch Press has all their books sale at 40% off until May 26th. You can get my books and many other great titles at https://nostarch.com Use code LONGWEEKEND
Want to double your donations to PyOhio? I'm matching donations to PyOhio up to $1,000 this year. Make your donation could twice as much by donating to this great conference in Cleveland, OH July 25-26: https://www.pyohio.org/donate
Replying to
@rebeccawatson Stephan Krosecz: "It betrays a fundamental inability to internalize that the machine cannot understand you."
Replying to
@davidgerard@circumstances.run Feel free to take this idea, but I speculate that the tech companies that have leaderboards encouraging their engineers to token-max will switch to an Uber driver model and make their workers pay for their own tokens, and that will be hilarious/horrible.