Everything may be shite but this will make you happy, albeit briefly.
Promise.
I’ve managed to lose an AirTag. I can say for certain it’s somewhere in my bag telling me the battery is low, but I’ve checked all the pockets and I can’t find the thing to change its battery.
I’ve been setting up a curiously large amount of software for acquiring Linux ISOs the last couple of evenings. Think I’ve got it down now, it can automatically find ISOs of interest and then make them available via the ISO viewing software on my TV for ease of browsing.
I see OpenAI have invented Alexa Skills. Lots of copy in this documentation saying how they shouldn’t be used for ads, or promoting users to come back to your company’s app, while these will absolutely be used for ads and feature prompts to come back. https://developers.openai.com/apps-sdk/concepts/design-guidelines/
I introduced the boy to git today (with a UI in VS Code, I’m not a monster), leading to the wonderful question “shall I make a commitment” when a change seemed like it was done. Took me a minute to work out what he meant.
The boy dropped “I want to make a Peak mod” on me this morning. Our history with “I want you to make an X mod” is that we attempt it, everything is terribly documented, and after several hours of getting gradually more annoyed we both lose interest (generally I lose interest a bit after he does).
Shout out to the Peak/Unity games modding community for making it not hateful. He’s added actual code that does something already, even said he enjoyed the process!
I think I need to switch software I’m using for my Fedi instance. Does anyone have a reasonable reference on what needs to happen for followers to stay following me?
I’ve been reminded again of Swatch Internet Time, which has a (still online!) powerfully 90s web page including the mention of someone meeting their cyberfriend.
I think I’ll adopt cyberfriend, it’s better than “the people who live in my phone”, so hello cyberfriends!
@alice @alice_watson I think you owe the dog an apology for all those times they got the blame when it was Trump all along.
@floehopper @issyl0 I increasingly believe most people are cargo culting their git usage and don’t really understand what it’s for and how to use it. See also: commit histories riddled with “changed file.py”… yeah, I know, it’s right there in the diff. Why did you change it?
Let's talk about mediocre hobbies. When we're very young it's easy to try anything and have fun doing so. Making funny sounds on a xylophone or drawing pictures with charcoal don't rely on the output for enjoyment.
Then we get older and the people who really excel at those skills make us feel like we're not good at things. Why draw as an adult if you're not able to get a face proportions correct?
Because it's still fun! I have a million hobbies. And my skill level is middling at most of them. Still fun! Still feels good to draw a dinosaur.
Today in needy companies: South Western Railway would like me to spend *10 minutes* answering a survey about a recent train journey. That would mean I’d spent longer answering a survey than I did on the journey itself, so I think I’ll decline.
Salesperson: This car will seat six people without any issues.
Me: I don’t think I know six people without any issues.
“We and our 937 partners”. Polyamory is really starting to get out of hand, even websites are at it.
In a recent episode of Star Trek: “Computer, discontinue radiation warnings until further notice”.
If they weren’t cowards the script writers would have unceremoniously ended the crew of the Enterprise three seasons later with everyone dying of surprise radiation poisoning because no one remembered to turn them back on.
New from 404 Media: landlords are demanding potential tenants hand over employer login credentials so a tool can verify their income. I was sent screenshot of the tool, Argyle, downloading much more data than necessary to approve the renter. Opt-out means no housing
https://www.404media.co/landlords-demand-tenants-workplace-logins-to-scrape-their-paystubs/
Found my grandad’s tape measure while at my parent’s place today. It’s a lot more work but an embossed bit of metal certainly looks more elegant than a printed label.
Back on my Flight Simulator bullshit. Turns out if you fail to remove one of the things labelled REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT your airspeed indicator doesn’t work. Also turns out if I don’t have the airspeed indicator to fixate on during landing and just have to look out the window and hope for the best I can pull off a silky smooth landing better than anything I’d usually do.
I discovered today my increasingly senile Mum has an ongoing grudge against one specific tree. While walking by the end of a road she pointed down it at a big oak and just said “I don’t like that tree”. No further information was forthcoming.
Talking to my brother he tells me she always points out how she doesn’t like that tree when passing. He has no idea either. I guess just fuck that one tree in particular.
Google: “Check the output of anything Gemini does carefully as it can make mistakes”
Also Google:
My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.”
Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner
Kiddo: that’s AI
“Watch my pod on YouTube”: Sad endorsement of a company that wants to sell adverts.
“Get my cast in your feed”: Cool, cyberpunk as hell.
Thus ends my argument that if we’re going to shorten podcast it should be the “cast” bit we keep.
Today in companies being needy: Vision Express called me, than later sent me a text message, then sent me a message asking for my feedback on the experience. This was all to inform me that my order isn’t ready yet, they’ve got half the glasses I bought and I was told not to expect them before Friday.
I’ve got a day to myself tomorrow and haven’t done nearly enough exercise this weekend so a 16 mile walk up the Itchen Way to Winchester it is.