Replying to
@tj@howse.social @peter@thepit.social
I have occasionally had the impulse to fall out of my chair clutching my throat during a staff meeting. Does that count?
Remote
Steve Hersey
@n1xnx@tilde.zone
mastodon 4.8.0-alpha.3+glitchTech wizard. Once a rocket scientist, always a rocket scientist. No f**ks to give for fascists or AI cultists.
Engineer: Fathoming the unfathomable, scruting the inscrutable, and effing the ineffable.
NOTE: If you have no profile picture, no bio, and no account history, your follow request will be blocked. (Of course, only those who aren't bots, and thus don't fall into that category, will actually read this.)
291 Followers
203 Following
50 Posts
Joined November 09, 2022
Replying to
@Em0nM4stodon@infosec.exchange
Which is another reason why "Fuck right off!" is the only input prompt AI tools get from me.
Replying to
@technomancy@hey.hagelb.org @mattly@hachyderm.io
This sort of s#!t is why I don't allow appliances to access my network. Won't buy anything that has to phone home to work.
I don't think I'm missing out on anything, either.
Replying to
@Nonilex@masto.ai
Thanks for that clarification.
So this is all just more theater-of-idiots.
Even if it were to make it to a grand jury, I doubt they'd secure an indictment.
Replying to
@MicroSFF@mastodon.art
And thus was born the most popular and subversive girls' school in the known world.
It was widely hated by kings, princes, and many knights, but was also protected by queens and a fair number of other, wiser knights who could see past the business end of a lance and who recognized a good idea when it nipped them on the nose. And the game nights were legendary.
Replying to
@DM_Ronin@mstdn.social
Firmware developer here. And I cook.
Knives. Don't. Need. Firmware.
If, for some reason you feel the need to have the knife vibrate while cutting up food, you only really need a little motor, a battery, and a switch - maybe a slide switch with several settings and some resistors. Nothing that couldn't have been made in the 1950's.
Anything more is a result of failure to ask the "Should we do this?" question.
I bet my $60 santoku handily outperforms that shiny toy, and won't be obsolete in half a century.
Replying to
@mattblaze@federate.social @GhostOnTheHalfShell@masto.ai
Speaking as a real hardware engineer, we don't NEED oscilloscopes. We divine the waveforms by holding our hands over the circuit and listing to the vibrations pf out hemoglobin. Bandwidth is adjusted by calibrating our coffee intake.
(OK, yeah, we DO need oscilloscopes, but there's still that reputation for mystery to be maintained, or everyone else will get in on the fun.)
Replying to
@MicroSFF@mastodon.art
On arriving back at the office, the attendant emailed a note to their supervisor:
"We should either make sure that our ticket machines accept gold coins, or install a change machine that will take them."
Replying to
@janeishly
To quote from Bloom County, I'm weirdly at peace with this. Companies using AI chatbots instead of actual customer service SHOULD be ruthlessly pillaged.
Replying to
@timo21@mastodon.sdf.org @Nonilex@masto.ai
ISTR that being stuck in the past is a common feature of some forms of dementia.
Replying to on mastodon.social
@randahl@mastodon.social
The Mad King just keeps sinking deeper into madness.
Replying to
@susankayequinn
I get regular newsletters from DriveThruFiction. I have a preference for physical books, so print-on-demand would be a winner there for me when I see an author's name I recognize.
Not a total solution, I know, but one arrow among many in the quiver.
Replying to
@cstross@wandering.shop
Fair enough.
As readers, I see it as our job to make sure the publisher DOES want another, and another...
Replying to
@Nonilex@masto.ai
That won't end well.
It's amazing how textual originalists can manage to completely not-see the words "A well-regulated militia" when they're reading the original text.
Replying to
Replying to
@OohOkayKay @chestas
I see kindnesses like this fairly regularly, and I do my best to add to the total.
My go-to response when someone wants to give me money is "Thanks; your heart is in the right place, but I'm only passing on the kindness others have done for me. The next time you see someone who needs a little help, please give this to them with my blessings."
Replying to
@_thegeoff @clusterfcku
Agreed.
One more reason to accept a slower, more expensive program that doesn't kill astronauts along the way. (It's not *all* inefficiency and exploitation by contractors.)
Replying to
@Teri_Kanefield@mastodon.social @Sablebadger@dice.camp
I see that in domestic political terms, yes.
But in foreign policy terms, the Iran war is a massive, avoidable footgun. And that may well be far more consequential.
Replying to
@vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net
I keep looking for games as good as the Myst series, and they're not all that common.
Replying to
@lerg
You forgot to add, "and get out fast with a bundle of cash before the whole mismanaged shambles inevitably collapses."
Replying to
@Rainmaker1973
I love it. "You got a used dog, Charlie Brown!"
File that one under "technically true but meaningless."
Replying to
@cstross
I can certainly identify with feeling unsure of oneself.
New is always a risk, which is why Hollywood studios insist on inflicting sequels, series, rehashes, remakes, and reboots on us. (Seriously, what sane person really wants a remake of Casablanca?) This in itself is a conclusive argument that new is worth the risk.
(Though I agree, a reimagining of the Stainless Steel Rat from a different author is very appealing!)
From a different perspective, I doubt that I'm the only reader who likes your work enough to read everything you've published. (I do that with authors whose works I like a lot.)
Replying to
@randahl@mastodon.social
Don't forget to have him visit the White House along the way...
Replying to
@baldur
If I were any more skeptical about this AI bullshit and its wealthy carnival barkers, we'd have to invent a whole new theory of relativistic skepticism to fit it in.
Replying to
@_thegeoff @clusterfcku
I feel the need to make a snarky reference to "the wisdom of the ancients" here, where "the ancients" means "the original Apollo project organization."
What a sorry lot we are if we cannot manage a repeat performance, with all the improved tech we've managed in the meantime.
Replying to
@paul@tapbots.social
Perhaps Apple is planning to be the last one standing when the collapsing AI bubble drags the competition under.
Boosted by @MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
Replying to
@MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
Next up for dismissal? "Patel recently filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic for reporting on his excessive drinking at work."
Replying to
@amydiehl@mstdn.social
Hmmm, "a lot of more junior people."
Sounds like this was a way to get a less costly workforce that is more likely to tolerate being exploited and abused.
Replying to
@BRicker
Finally, a good use for those pest-begotten Starlink sats.
Jokes aside, yes, we definitely need such a network.
Replying to
@grumpybozo@toad.social @OliverNoble@mastodon.world @DM_Ronin@mstdn.social
I'm aware of electric carving knives (two serrated, counter-oscillating blades), but not a single-blade vibrating knife.
Replying to
@cstross@wandering.shop
Oh, my. That's a humdinger of a quote. I look forward to reading the work when it's finished.
Replying to
@Nonilex@masto.ai
I'd feel sorry for the fools who were deceived by this blatant and obvious scam by the president, if not for the fact that it was a blatant and obvious scam from the very first moment.
Of course, defrauding your gullible cult followers is still fraud, and still merits a trip to the slammer.
Replying to
@mattblaze@federate.social
If you're talking to an appliance, you'll probably need to be holding a hammer in order to convince it you're serious.
Replying to
@edavies @_thegeoff
Yeah, I was inadvertently counting the first orbital lander test in my quick tally. That one was Earth orbit...
Replying to
@venitamathias@masto.ai
It's dismaying how many people are just fine with this addled nutjob having governmental authority,