salith @salith@computerfairi.es

just called ai "the mediocrity machine" in a meeting and a tech bro is twitching so hard he can't even plug this into the mediocrity machine so it can tell him how to respond

State of the art anti-cheat techniques: Roblox detects if you have the string "x86dbg" in a window title (or window?), so kids are changing their display names and discord server names to x86dbg to get people kicked from Roblox.

If you do a search for this, links to big discussions on Roblox forums return "Sorry that page is private", so I guess that's their solution to the problem?

@suricrasia do the zoomers know the whole show is basically like this

I am allowed to change my mind monthly, claims man who insists the country can’t change its mind from eight years ago https://newsthump.com/2024/06/04/i-am-allowed-to-change-my-mind-monthly-claims-man-who-insists-the-country-cant-change-its-mind-from-eight-years-ago/

Adding helicopters near the start of game dev:
"A Helicopter is a Vehicle."

Adding helicopters late in game dev:
"When you think about it, a Helicopter is really just a very advanced type of Door."

Many, many years ago, a new specification called "XML" emerged. After a bit, people realized it was kinda useful for some stuff.

Then, something happened.

MANAGERS!

I imagine many conversations between managers / developers somewhat like this:

M: "So, what is the nice thing with #XML

D: "oh, it is a specification that simplifies stuff, since tools have a clean format to work with."

M: "So, what kinda specifications?"

D: "Oh, it can be more or less anything."

M: *starry eyed!* "an.. an... anything?"

I was teaching computer courses for companies at that point. Suddenly, my calendar was just packed with XML courses.

It is like very limited what you can teach, it is not really complex, so you talk surrounding technologies. But not...

"Our boss wants us to replace the SQL db with XML?"

"what?"

"We gonna use XML instead of MS SQL"

"... what?"

"He said XML can be used for anything..."

If you think companies with #AI plans have actual plans, with a strategy make sense, please think of this story.

Reminder:

If you see someone shoplifting food; no you didn't.

Just an FYI, if you get a message like this from someone on discord then it’s a scam.

I just got this and it set off alarm bells; why would discord ask someone to message me instead of messaging me directly?

A few minutes of googling and I confirmed that 1) discord does not deal with violations in this way and 2) that it’s a scam to steal your account and likely some money too.

This is how discord deals with violations: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/18210965981847-Discord-Warning-System

Google search thinks you should use glue to stick together a pizza as its AI is trained on Reddit, where 11 years ago a user called “fucksmith” posted suggesting it was a good idea.

Horrible when those in charge make decisions that make your life much harder for purely selfish reasons without giving a crap about your situation, isn't it. Just awful.

FUN FACT:
if you build electronic devices which contain a raspberry pi in them, consider what will happen if one of them gets thrown out.
someone might open them up, stick the microSD card in them into a reader, and open up that tantalizing "apps.json" file which has YOUR GOD DAMN AWS KEYS? IN UNENCRYPTED PLAIN TEXT?

"Just use Linux" is much like "just ride a bike" or "just shop at a refill store" - accessing the non default option can be time consuming, expensive or unavailable locally. We need to recognise you need a certain degree of privilege to have the capacity to complicate your life voluntarily. We need to be trying to make the better, harder thing more accessible, not blaming people for not using it.

Happy agender day to those who participate.. or rather.. those who aren't participating in this gender nonsense. Well done.

On a more serious note;
Agender people are out there, and they're valid. No one owes anyone else an answer to "what's your gender?", it's no one's business *and* sometimes there just isn't one. And that's a good thing.

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Saw this in the bathroom of the Queer Friendly Coffee House:

In May 1988, legislation passed in the UK "prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities. It was in effect for a decade and a half, with massive impact on the LGBT+ community. This is a brief history of Section 28.