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I was born at the perfect time to pursue a career in full-stack software development. I grew up programming 8-bit computers, then learned Unix in college. I entered the workforce at the emergence of Windows for Workgroups and Linux, and I'll be retiring right about the time the AI's make me redundant. Also, the year Social Security goes broke.
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Quotes
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Months and months of planning by lots and lots of middle management can save literally hours of programming.
Me -
Give a man a program, and you'll frustrate him for a day. Teach a man to program, and you'll frustrate him for a lifetime.
Unknown -
I've put all of my skill points into arguing with blinking lights.
Me -
But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a new piece of Apple gear, to lust after it, hath committed purchase of it already in his heart.
Me -
Don't say you're easy on me; you're about as easy as a nuclear war.
Duran Duran, Is There Something I Should Know -
I sold the Renoir and the TV set; don't wanna be around when this gets out.
Duran Duran, The Reflex
Behind the Investigation: Patient Dumping
WAVE News troubleshooter John Boel investigates after multiple reports of patients being dumped out of Louisville hospitals.
Source: Behind the Investigation: Patient Dumping
Not one, but two! hospitals in Louisville have been caught literally dumping people just off their property to get rid of them. Apparently, this is not isolated! Sure, blame the hospitals for their part, but I really blame the insurance companies, for taking all the profits from the hospitals and doctors. The reporter here claims the hospitals have been sued for a couple million when caught, but that’s probably cheaper than providing the care at their own expense as legally required for the uninsured, given the prices that the insurance companies have driven up astronomically.
White House urges reauthorization of Section 702 spy powers
While there may be only three cases of intentional misconduct reported, the briefing does seem to gloss over the hundreds of thousands of instances of FBI misuse between 2020 and early 2021 alone — as well as the time and effort it takes to declassify these top-secret disclosures to give the public any insight into how these surveillance powers are being abused.
Source: White House urges reauthorization of Section 702 spy powers
Once and yet again, the UK press is doing the job the American press won’t or can’t do.
No Matter What Trump Does, Evangelicals Still Love Him
White evangelicals’ fascination with Trump won’t be the last time a large subset of the American public becomes enthralled by an authoritarian and incompetent politician.
Source: No Matter What Trump Does, Evangelicals Still Love Him
The better question is: What does this say about the state of American politics, that Trump is still somehow favorable in the minds of, say, a third of the country, compared to the rest of the field?
X marks the motivated reasoning
So forgive me if I can’t even get marginally excited for this latest kerfuffle over the new X branding. Primarily because of just how utterly removed the discourse around it is from a good-faith assessment of the merits of the particulars. It’s all turned into an endless proxy war, and every argument is wielded only in service of yet another petty ideological skirmish.
Source: X marks the motivated reasoning
The State of Javascript Development
Mocked in this article:
The pain is barely tolerable when you reach
dependencies. So, so many of them. There’sleft-pad, the legendary tiny package that broke all internet, collectively causing the amount of pain and drama comparable to the destruction of Alderaan.
Discussed here:
The Javascript Front End Developer Experience
I know just enough about the Javascript frontend world to understand that this is a good description of what it entails. When people try to gaslight me about how great Javascript is, pointing to Stack Overflow’s consistent top-tier ranking of the language, I know this is the part that isn’t being said out loud.
I’m just sitting over here enjoying the fact that my app isn’t big enough to warrant separating the front end from the back, and I can blissfully get away with server side rendering built into Rails, with bits of Javascript in the page, only for convenience.
Reddit’s average daily traffic fell during blackout, according to third-party data | Engadget
Compared to the website’s average daily volume over the past month, the 52,121,649 visits Reddit saw on June 13th represented a 6.6 percent drop.
A day later, that metric fell to seven minutes and 17 seconds, or the lowest that stat has been in the past three years.
Source: Reddit’s average daily traffic fell during blackout, according to third-party data | Engadget
Well, so much for a “blackout.” I suppose it depends on how sensitive Reddit’s revenue is on these numbers, but given that they haven’t backed down from any of the behavior that led to this, my guess is “not much.”
Me and My Impertinent Questions
That’s apparently what I get for calling him on conflating two very controversial, yet very different issues, and asking why he would do that. It’s too bad. I mean, I know we have different politics, but he’s a great writer with a lot to say, and he’s smack-dab on the money about the corporate “enshittification” of every online service, and, indeed, every business in America these days. On the other hand, he’s one of the charter members of the he-man Musk haters club, and says he’ll be “leaving” Twitter soon, so I guess I’ll have a chance to get blocked on Mastodon or something in the future.
Amazon Locks Man Out of His Smart Home After Baseless Racism Accusation
This issue has raised questions about the risks of smart home technology.
Source: Amazon Locks Man Out of His Smart Home After Baseless Racism Accusation
However, despite clearing the air with Amazon, Jackson’s account was still locked for an entire week.
I mean… what?! The craziest part of Orwell’s dire warnings about total surveillance and control by the State is that the whole thing was subcontracted to corporations for tax benefits to avoid the Constitutional ramifications. Not only that, but “we” are lining up in droves to pay for the equipment to enable this in order to, say, save 10% on things bought through the poster child of an “enshittified” corporation.
Following the messy ordeal, Jackson said he is “seriously considering discontinuing” his Amazon Echo devices.
On what planet would someone who went through this not immediately rip out any and all Amazon-connected devices from their home? Why would anyone continue to install it with just this one story as an example of what can happen when you give a faceless corporation control over your home? Not only have the “lizard people” been revealed by this situation, this guy — and we, collectively — are saying, “Well, maybe they’re not so bad.” I literally can’t even.