Robert Pluim 🇪🇺

@cstross@wandering.shop @georgetakei@universeodon.com And yet Grindr crashes every time there's a Republican National Convention. Sounds like externalised self-hatred to me.

@cstross I'm looking forward to all the companies and governments mandating work from home again in order to save fuel. /s

@jpmens@mastodon.social That's because that prefix is Latin, and the RFCs for email mandate it. Translating it is a bogosity that Microsoft came up with because they care about standards the way the sun cares about the Dow Jones index

@mattblaze@federate.social As long as nobody asks to have their printer fixed, we'll all get along fine

@ChrisMayLA6 The UK public sector is underfunded because the government chooses to do so. It has nothing to do with "missing" tax receipts, as tax does not fund spending, it is gathered *after* spending. Repeat after me: a government is not a household, it does not need to balance income and expenditure

@WTL@mastodon.social @sundogplanets@mastodon.social Either that or they'll say "why did nobody warn us?"

@digitalraven@retro.pizza Most sensible places you can't be charged with anything for attempting to save someone's life in any case. In fact, in some places, *not* helping can get you charged

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st @baoigheallain@mastodon.ie @cstross@wandering.shop "Solving homelessness is impossible" "But during Covid we housed all the homeless" "Yes we did, but solving homelessness is impossible"

@zyd@yap.zyd.lol I'm opposed to current LLMs on the ground that they've scraped vast quantities of stuff without permission nor compensation, not the status of the results.

@cstross@wandering.shop 'obnubliated' or 'obnubilated'?

@cstross@wandering.shop Don't we all, but the online OED only has an entry for 'obnubilate' 😁

@ChrisMayLA6 I think we're in violent agreement on the functioning of money and bonds. I see no hope of the current UK government ever acknowledging those realities, let alone acting based on them. (Isn't the whole "we must borrow exactly what we spend" fairly recent? I'll have to check on Mr Murphy's site)

@etchedpixels @cstross The worst case I've seen suggested is Iran setting off a dirty bomb in an important population centre (do they have any plutonium?), thus rendering it uninhabitable for centuries. Somewhere like Manhattan or the City would be awful

@ChrisMayLA6 If we're going to discuss MMT, then I'm going to point out that gilt yields are irrelevant, as the government does not need to borrow to fund spending 😁 (and before someone shouts "inflation", that only happens if you overcreate money)

@zyd Given that in the US LLM generated code cannot be copyrighted, how do you legally integrate such code in a GPL-licensed project?

@ScotInTraining Let's not forget "Government spending capability is a function of political will, not available funds"

@cstross@wandering.shop @PilotMoonDog@social.linux.pizza I'm picturing baby farms producing kids merely for the purposes of being uploaded to, sounds horrific.

@cstross@wandering.shop @PilotMoonDog@social.linux.pizza So just like modern capitalism, except the billionaires haven't figured out the immortality bit yet

@mattblaze@federate.social The DM behaviour is surprising, and I for one appreciate being told about it. But some people seem to like arguing with reality

@lproven @david_chisnall @theregister $5 billion a quarter, a lot of it from advertising

@etchedpixels @cstross Is a bunch of enriched uranium combined with conventional explosives a "nuclear weapon"? I suspect radioactive uranium dust is pretty nasty, especially in large quantities.

@mattblaze@federate.social Surely some member of the USSS would take their oath to protect the constitution seriously in such a situation? Or am I a hopeless dreamer?