I had to verify the "eyes hurt" Google trends theme for myself, and, sure, the graph is eye-rollingly worth a giggle, but the map... Sigh. I weep for humanity.Entry: 2024-04-09 00:25:02.988716+02 I had to verify the eyes hurt Google by Dan Lyke comments 4
I had to verify the "eyes hurt" Google trends theme for myself, and, sure, the graph is eye-rollingly worth a giggle, but the map... Sigh. I weep for humanity.
https://trends.google.com/tren...hurt&date=now%201-d&geo=US&hl=en
[ related topics: Humor Photography Maps and Mapping ]
Entry: 2024-04-08 17:45:02.116039+02 Hearing people asking for things that by Dan Lyke comments 0
Hearing people asking for things that terminal users have had in their toolbox for decades kinda wants to make me say "how about using tools that respect your intelligence, rather than buying crap from vendors who prioritize the shiny over use".
Unrelated, Microsoft is making it harder to use non-Edge browsers... https://www.bleepingcomputer.c...om-changing-default-web-browser/
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft Invention and Design Software Engineering moron Current Events ]
Entry: 2024-04-05 22:42:20.077281+02 Prompt engineering for humans by Dan Lyke comments 0
Giggle: Ars Technica: The fine art of human prompt engineering: How to talk to a person like ChatGPT
RT nazgul@infosec.exchange Kee Hinckley @nazgul@infosec.exchange
@daviddlevine Why does this sound like Neuro Linguistic Programming?
Which is kind of funny, because both are NLP.
[ related topics: Humor Software Engineering Art & Culture ]
Entry: 2024-03-27 18:09:15.697783+01 Easter Approaches. Be Afraid. by Dan Lyke comments 0
RT Inertial Invites @intransitivelie@beige.party
Jesus: impossible to kill, reproduced asexually. Jesus is canonically a fungus. Clearly the part the Romans crucified was a fruiting body of some kind, leaving the bulk of the organism below ground, safe and secure. And every Easter, we find Jesus' multi-colored spores hidden in dark places. The rabbits tried to warn us. But now it's too late. He's metastasized across the whole planet. Soon enough, he will come again, and when he does, no cross in the world will be big enough to keep him at bay.
*Twilight Zone music intensifies*
[ related topics: Religion Humor Music Bay Area Space & Astronomy California Culture ]
Entry: 2024-03-19 01:05:02.4635+01 How far has the net fallen I'm trying by Dan Lyke comments 4
How far has the net fallen? I'm trying to find an old comic, it was about mixing Christianity, and the punchline was on the order of "There's no wrong way to eat a Jesus™". It was of the era of Bob the Angry Flower, but I'm pretty sure was another comic.
Google, Bing, Stract and Marginalia are being of no help here.
[ related topics: Religion Humor Food ]
Entry: 2024-03-18 16:47:50.16559+01 Java segfaults on MacOS 14.4 by Dan Lyke comments 0
Java users on macOS 14 running on Apple silicon systems should consider delaying the macOS 14.4 update. I mean, Sonoma has been a shitshow generally, but it's good to know that Java's mission of being the platform which will semi-randomly segfault on all of the platforms is still being actively pursued, despite the Oracle acquisition.
[ related topics: Apple Computer Humor Software Engineering Sports Macintosh Databases ]
Entry: 2024-03-04 17:53:21.236125+01 Clean up Windows 11 by Dan Lyke comments 0
I know I'm gonna have to end up doing this for someone: Ars Technica: Windows-as-a-nuisance: How I clean up a “clean install” of Windows 11 and Edge
Tips and tricks for making Microsoft leave you alone while you use your PC.
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron ]
Entry: 2024-02-21 18:28:14.984524+01 Pulsar Code Editor by Dan Lyke comments 1
I occasionally think about moving from Emacs as my basic editor. I know VSCode is kind of the "npm" of modern editors: Don't think about the build process for this platform, just install this plugin and everything "works", but I also know that VSCode is deliberate Microsoft lock-in.
Pulsar, the best code editor makes a case for the MIT Licensed offshoot of VSCode, Pulsar. Many of the justifications are kinda sketch, the fact that it's GUI only means that it likely doesn't work terribly well over an SSH session (it's been a while since I used X forwarding, and I think Wayland is deprecating that?), but it seems worth a try.
Looks like it has basic block operations (similar to how XCode does it), but lacks built-in record and playback features, which feels like a deal-breaker. I'll have to dig further. It also looks like the window/pane management, and file management, wants a lot of mousing...
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron Law Work, productivity and environment Cryptography ]
Entry: 2024-02-06 20:14:31.488097+01 Removing Copilot from WIndows by Dan Lyke comments 0
Because I know I'm gonna have to do this for at least one Windows user I help out (unless he switches to Mac first), Dr Ro Smith @Rhube@wandering.shop has instructions on disabling Copilot for Windows, taken from this Microsofto support question on removing it.
In a command prompt, paste:
reg add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot /v TurnOffWindowsCopilot /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
and then restart.
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft Software Engineering moron Macintosh Community ]
Entry: 2024-01-31 20:05:02.494925+01 Ask MeFi question about terminology for by Dan Lyke comments 0
An Ask MeFi question about terminology for preserving food led me to search for "putting food by", and... uh... I knew Twitter had gone to shit, but Google is amplifying this weirdly...
Screenshot is of featured Tweets including someone calling Bill Gates a "Eugenicist and Evil Vaccine Pusher", same poster with video about Cruz's child porn assertions on FB and IG, and the House Energy & Commerce Committee on household finances.
[ related topics: Humor Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Food moron Video Real Estate ]
Entry: 2024-01-30 20:10:26.788532+01 horrific design by Dan Lyke comments 0
Don Norman in Fast Company: I wrote the book on user friendly design, what I see today horrifies me.
[ related topics: Humor Books User Interface Graphic Design ]
Entry: 2024-01-26 18:01:55.67103+01 Road Safety links of the moment by Dan Lyke comments 0
RT Gerry McGovern @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green
Road traffic collisions fell in Edinburgh by 30% in the 36 months after the 20mph policy’s introduction https://www.thenational.scot/n...and-say-speed-limit-campaigners/
Pickup trucks are 108% more likely to kill pedestrians https://towardsdatascience.com...-are-killing-people-de6ce08bac3d
At intersections, SUVs are more likely than cars to be involved in accidents https://www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2249
Being hit by a 1,000-pound heavier vehicle results in a 47% increase in probability of being killed. Fatality risk is even higher if it's an SUV. https://www.nber.org/digest/no...weight-and-automotive-fatalities
[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Current Events Machinery ]
Entry: 2024-01-04 19:16:05.073711+01 Microsoft introduces a "make shit up" key by Dan Lyke comments 3
Microsoft’s new AI key is first big change to keyboards in decades.
Ya know, I'm still getting used to four buttons to the left of the space bar, I was quite happy with two... three... and would be even happier if those damned things stayed mapped in a way that I felt comfortable adopting them for Emacs modifiers, as it is I'm using escape because the Meta key mapping kept moving around.
But... Microsoft thinks we need a dedicated button for make shit up Copilot? Without a "compose" key?
I hate computers.
[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Microsoft Invention and Design moron Space & Astronomy Artificial Intelligence Maps and Mapping ]
Entry: 2023-12-27 06:14:01.157587+01 Portland Police fail to make the streets safer by Dan Lyke comments 0
Your dark humor bit of the moment: Portland Traffic Deaths Set a 30-Year Record
The death toll marks a third consecutive year of failure for Vision Zero, an ambitious and expensive 2016 policy that included a goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2025. The record also comes seven months after the Portland Police Bureau reinstated its traffic division, deploying 14 officers to crack down on speeding and drunken driving. Officials had hoped that an increased police presence would be the missing ingredient to reduce fatal crashes. It wasn’t.
Really. You don't say. This is my shocked face.
[ related topics: Humor Current Events Law Enforcement ]
Entry: 2023-12-19 20:23:25.296189+01 St Louis PD crashing by Dan Lyke comments 0
St. Louis Police Crash Into LGBTQ Bar, Arrest Its Owner
This is the second high-profile crash involving a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department car in a week. Last Tuesday, a police SUV and another vehicle both ran a stop sign at North Sarah and St. Louis Avenue. The police cruiser ended up being flipped over outside a business located at the intersection.
[ related topics: Humor Movies Current Events Law Enforcement Automobiles ]
Entry: 2023-12-18 16:30:13.543682+01 How Cars Turned Into Giant Killers by Dan Lyke comments 0
Good article in Slate, summarizing the policies and social trends that have led to the bloat of automobiles and trucks.
[ related topics: Humor Automobiles Machinery ]
Entry: 2023-11-10 19:55:08.229212+01 Excellent by Dan Lyke comments 0
RT allrite @allrite@allrite.at
The word "excellent" is derived from the Christian practice of giving up the use of Microsoft Excel for 40 days to commemorate Christ's sacrifice.
It is a period of great productivity.
The date of lent is calculated by using an obscure Excel macro on a field that didn't originally have anything to do with dates, but Excel converted it to one anyway.
[ related topics: Religion Humor Microsoft moron Work, productivity and environment ]
Entry: 2023-11-06 20:05:13.808779+01 Excellent by Dan Lyke comments 0
The word "excellent" is derived from the Christian practice of giving up the use of Microsoft Excel for 40 days to commemorate Christ's sacrifice.
It is a period of great productivity.
The date of lent is calculated by using an obscure Excel macro on a field that didn't originally have anything to do with dates, but Excel converted it to one anyway.
[ related topics: Religion Humor Microsoft moron Work, productivity and environment ]
Entry: 2023-10-06 17:49:12.542085+02 Code inefficiency and ecological impacts by Dan Lyke comments 0
RT acdha@code4lib.social Chris Adams @acdha@code4lib.social
This does make me wonder how much climate impact Electron (React, etc.) have. I bet it’s a bigger number than the AI usage we’ve been hearing about, but probably still measured in hundredths of a percent of, say, fast food burger consumption:
Microsoft: Announcing general availability of the new Microsoft Teams app for Windows and Mac
[ related topics: Humor Weblogs Microsoft Invention and Design Food moron Macintosh Artificial Intelligence Global Warming ]
Entry: 2023-08-17 20:50:04.422097+02 link to the WSJ article says by Dan Lyke comments 0
The /. link to the WSJ article says "Microsoft Struggles to Gain on Google Despite Its Head Start in AI Search".
I'mma go out on a limb here and say /Despite/Because Of/.
Give us back actual freakin' search, damn it.
https://slashdot.org/story/23/...pite-its-head-start-in-ai-search
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron Artificial Intelligence ]
Entry: 2023-08-14 23:41:54.599482+02 Jesus was too liberal by Dan Lyke comments 0
I don't think we fix it by fighting a war for the soul of evangelicalism. I really don't think we can fix it at the movement level. And that's one of the reasons why, when I'm talking to Christians who are concerned about this, my counsel is always "small and local." I think we have to do something different and show a different way. And I see in history every time that something renewing and reviving has happened, it's happened that way. It's happened at a small level with people simply refusing to go with the stream of the church culture at the time.
Drawing from that story:
[ related topics: Religion Humor History Sociology California Culture ]
Entry: 2023-07-25 01:00:22.172534+02 X Current trademark owner by Dan Lyke comments 0
... X: Current trademark owner Microsoft. "Goods and Services: Providing on-line chat rooms for transmission of messages among computer users concerning video and computer games; providing on-line electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users concerning video and computer games"
https://trademarks.justia.com/760/41/x-76041368.html
[ related topics: Intellectual Property Humor Games Microsoft moron Copyright/Trademark Video ]
Entry: 2023-07-17 22:50:02.419745+02 That Microsoft advertising is by Dan Lyke comments 1
That Microsoft advertising is everywhere.
Fortune cookie reads "A new outlook brightens your image and brings you new friends."
[ related topics: Humor Photography Microsoft Invention and Design moron Consumerism and advertising ]
Entry: 2023-07-13 19:15:18.153627+02 Karateka playable documentary by Dan Lyke comments 0
Classic action game Karateka is being turned into a playable documentary
Not seeing how to do permalinks on Jordan Mechner's blog, but: Karateka climbs again.
I met Jordan at a McKee storytelling class in LA back in the '90s, and Karateka was a classic on the library computers in high school (and that ending was definitely worth a giggle the first time ya died), and I hope this is available on a platform I have, when it finally ships.
[ related topics: Language Children and growing up Humor Books Games Weblogs Astronomy Current Events Machinery Java ]
Entry: 2023-07-11 01:35:02.07692+02 As if I could loathe Microsoft by Dan Lyke comments 0
As if I could loathe Microsoft architectures any more: a .aspx URL that apparently exists just to do some sort of permissions check on a PDF, leading to a URL with an actual backslash in it.
(And, yes, of course it's a transportation related service...)
[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Microsoft moron ]
Entry: 2023-06-20 18:27:37.573051+02 Edge and cloud based upscaling by Dan Lyke comments 0
As if you needed another reason to not use Microsoft Edge: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft, here is how to disable that
Edge has a built-in image enhancement tool that, according to Microsoft, can use "super-resolution to improve clarity, sharpness, lighting, and contrast in images on the web." Although the feature sounds exciting, recent Microsoft Edge Canary updates have provided more information on how image enhancement works.
The browser now warns that it sends image links to Microsoft instead of performing on-device enhancements.
[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Microsoft moron Current Events ]
Entry: 2023-05-01 17:54:49.793801+02 Jack Teixeira update by Dan Lyke comments 0
In the court documents, prosecutors reveal that Teixeira was suspended from high school in 2018 after a classmate overheard him talking about “Molotov cocktails, guns at the school, and racial threats.” On social media in recent years, he has continued such rhetoric, prosecutors say, writing in a November message that he wanted to kill a “ton of people” because it would be “culling the weak minded.” In February, he asked a user for advice about what kind of rifle would fire best from an SUV, saying he wanted to commit a shooting in a “crowded urban or suburban environment.”
If you're having trouble reading this, I'm a WaPo subscriber, but I suspect that some of the links on these have gift-tracking stuff enabled: via and via
Dude was proudly displaying the logo of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on his notice board (via)
RT dan @thedansimonson@lingo.lol
@peter just really makes my blood boil that this whole leak is being spun as a “social media issue” and not a massive fucking failure of the clearance investigation process.
How did this turd pass a poly? I guess “have you ever plotted to commit a mass shooting” isn’t one of the questions—though god forbid you copped some adderall in college
[ related topics: Religion Children and growing up Interactive Drama Humor Nature and environment Writing Journalism and Media Pyrotechnics Guns Education ]
Entry: 2023-04-18 19:00:15.743317+02 Read through Steve Jobs Make Something by Dan Lyke comments 0
Read through Steve Jobs "Make Something Wonderful", felt inspired to build awesome things, but as I read through this morning's reports of ransomware and state-sponsored surveillance exploits I wonder if we're just all worn down from trying to stop the shitty rather than building the cool
[ related topics: Apple Computer Interactive Drama Humor ]
Entry: 2023-04-14 07:15:02.294591+02 "By ’86 by Dan Lyke comments 0
"By ’86,’87, pick a year, people are going to spend more time interacting with these machines than they do interacting with automobiles today. People are going to be spending two, three hours a day interacting with these machines— longer than they spend in the car. And so the industrial design, the software design, and how people interact with these things certainly must be given the consideration that we give automobiles today— if not a lot more." Steve Jobs in 1983
[ related topics: Apple Computer Interactive Drama Humor Software Engineering Automobiles Graphic Design ]
Entry: 2023-04-05 17:59:24.569289+02 Electricity is a commodity by Dan Lyke comments 0
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron ]
Entry: 2023-03-10 18:49:55.09677+01 Microsoft's medical AI sees ghosts by Dan Lyke comments 0
Microsoft Released an AI That Answers Medical Questions, But It’s Wildly Inaccurate
Asked about the average number of ghosts haunting an American hospital, for example, it cited nonexistent data from the American Hospital Association that it said showed the "average number of ghosts per hospital was 1.4." Asked how ghosts affect the length of hospitalization, the AI replied that patients "who see the ghosts of their relatives have worse outcomes while those who see unrelated ghosts do not."
To be fair to Microsoft, this may actually be better than the answers an average physician gives....
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron Artificial Intelligence ]
Entry: 2023-02-11 20:25:01.899429+01 Well poop I installed KDE Neon because by Dan Lyke comments 0
Well poop. I installed KDE Neon because people said it worked out of the box for the Surface Pro 3, and it's great, except that I can't instantiate a QAudioDecoder or other Qt multimedia object without a segfault, and can't figure out what package is missing.
Also, it likes snaps, so... maybe I try yet another distro. Sigh.
[ related topics: Humor ]
Entry: 2023-01-09 17:31:27.869323+01 Why the Minecraft ending is in the Public Domain by Dan Lyke comments 0
Via the Twitter thread in which the problems of journalism legal departments and Microsoft fact-checkers understanding the Streisand Effect are explored.
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft ]
Entry: 2022-12-28 17:05:03.357119+01 thing about this Raymond Chen article by Dan Lyke comments 0
The thing about this Raymond Chen article about a major anti-virus vendor doing code like "memcpy(allocedMemory, function1, (char *)function2-(char *)function1); (((void)()*)allocedMemory)();" is that it's been years since any coding I've done has had to know all of the reasons why that's a really bad idea, but as I fumble through abstractions of Promises and whatnot those neurons miss their exercise...
https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20211229-00/?p=106061
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft virus Software Engineering moron ]
Entry: 2022-12-16 18:59:09.619347+01 Overture mapping by Dan Lyke comments 0
A lot of folks are worried about Google owning the mapping world and all the good GIS data, it'll be interesting to see if there's enough cooperation and collaboration to keep OSM as a meaningful alternative, or if this is a circular firing squad that's gonna have a lot of collateral damage.
[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Humor Microsoft Open Source moron Community Maps and Mapping ]
Entry: 2022-10-18 18:33:08.613566+02 Github Copilot investigation by Dan Lyke comments 2
This is fantastic: Github Copilot investigation:
If Microsoft and OpenAI chose to use these repos subject to their respective open-source licenses, Microsoft and OpenAI would’ve needed to publish a lot of attributions, because this is a minimal requirement of pretty much every open-source license. Yet no attributions are apparent.
Therefore, Microsoft and OpenAI must be relying on a fair-use argument. In fact we know this is so, because former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman claimed during the Copilot technical preview that “training [machine-learning] systems on public data is fair use”.
But a hell of a lot of that code is GPL or LGPL licensed and one can apparently recreate it with the right prompts...
[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Microsoft moron Machinery Trains Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]
Entry: 2022-08-01 06:40:04.616117+02 I've been looking for a new coffee mug by Dan Lyke comments 0
I've been looking for a new coffee mug, and my current mug broke this very morning, and I found one there that matches the surrealism of the current environment... 2/3
[ related topics: Humor Photography Nature and environment Invention and Design ]
Entry: 2022-07-12 02:09:45.030784+02 Microsoft measures employee thriving by Dan Lyke comments 0
Harvard Business Review: Why Microsoft measures employee thriving, not engagement
Thriving employees talked about a collaborative environment and teamwork with colleagues, an inclusive culture with autonomy and flexibility, and well-being support. These comments reference examples such as being able to have honest, non-judgmental conversations on difficult topics, with a focus on finding solutions.
Employees who weren’t thriving talked about experiencing siloes, bureaucracy, and a lack of collaboration. In these comments we hear a lack of agency and a sense for being a cog in a machine. In other words, the opposite of being empowered and energized to do meaningful work.
ZDNet: Microsoft researched what made employees truly happy. One result was startling
They said: "By combining sentiment data with de-identified calendar and email metadata, we found that those with the best of both worlds had five fewer hours in their workweek span, five fewer collaboration hours, three more focus hours, and 17 fewer employees in their internal network size."
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft broadband Nature and environment moron Sociology Work, productivity and environment California Culture ]
Entry: 2022-05-27 19:49:43.336827+02 Southern Baptists sex abuse scandal by Dan Lyke comments 0
Pretty sure that in the United States, most "grooming" is accompanied by "In Jesus's name we pray".
Reuters: U.S. Southern Baptists release scathing report on sexual abuse
[ related topics: Religion Humor Erotic Sexual Culture History Current Events Journalism and Media ]
Entry: 2022-04-12 22:05:02.657161+02 Biked downtown to pick up some audio by Dan Lyke comments 0
Biked downtown to pick up some audio cables. Shout out to the SUV driver who signaled right, started to turn, and then made a left turn when I pulled out to pass. Missed me, but I'll give you an A for effort. I *really* need to get that camera running.
[ related topics: Humor Music Photography Sports Pedal Power ]
Connectivity provided by highertech.net , awesome bandwidth, well away from fault lines and other potential for natural disasters, reliable, and run by cool people.
Questions, comments, flames: contact Dan Lyke
Flutterby™ is a trademark claimed by
Dan Lyke for the web publications at www.flutterby.com and www.flutterby.net.