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Comment Optomistic for Some Use (Score 1) 174

Call me a luddite but I'm a bit against the current 'AI' that basically scraped the internet to build up its engine, but this is something that I always hoped for when it came to code generation.

I had these ideas of somehow feeding it all the source material for a given language, compiler docs, the language docs, and rules, etc, and then being able to describe functions and have it generate the base code for it. Why? because coding for me was a path not taken. i did all the schooling, got a degree, and promptly started working for a hardware company selling its products and making piles of money. Now, 30 years later I dont' know anything about coding and can stillr emember 15 generations ago's codename for the Intel CPU at the time which is frustrating. I've always wanted to build a few different things but in what little spare time I had grasping the idea of event based programming and ObjectiveC/Swift/F#/C# whatever was too much for someone who graduated back when you still put void main(); in the start of your C code and C++ was this new thing that was a funny joke on incrementing a variable.

Now I'd just like to debug a broken Foundry VTT module or a Servarr module that isn't working or broken (RADARR NEEDS TO RENAME FILES AND DIRECTORIES DAMMIT) but i basically ahve to relearn and honestly have not enough time to do it.

Comment *DEFINITELY* Blame Google (Score 1) 79

Google authenticator worked as intended [ ... ]

"NOTABUG: Working as designed."

Yeah, we know, Sparky... The design is fucking idiotic!

It seems clear that one of the OTP codes got them into the rube's account -- the second OTP code allowed them to copy out his Google Authenticator database. If that copy hadn't existed -- and indeed did not exist until Google decided to make copies for itself -- then they would have had to keep pumping him for OTP codes, and the damage would likely have been more limited.

The first compromise can be laid at the feet of the dopey employee. Google bears partial responsibility for all subsequent compromises -- for making and keeping a copy of a sensitive database that the entire security community told them at the time was a STUPID FUCKING IDEA!

Comment Re:What's Your Favorite Tech Innovation? (Score 1) 200

To be fair, AirBNB isn't a hotel chain, they're a booking facilitator [ ... ]

"Well, actually..." Let me summarize their so-called argument:

"We are Craigslist. We only list one kind of thing: Rooms for short-term rental. Like items listed on Craigslist, any transaction between rentee and renter is completely private, and any difficulties that may arise are exclusively between them -- we are nothing more than a listing agent and payment processor, and take a small cut of the transaction as our listing fee."

Same "reasoning" with Oober and Lypht, except they only list ride shares.

Comment Re:All Employees have Stock-Photos (Score 1) 25

Looks like all the employees on LI use stock photos:

Gee, it's a real shame that LinkedIn doesn't have the resources of a true software giant, who could dispatch a couple of interns to kluge together a few functions that would compare uploaded profile photos to images available on stock photo sites, and flag them if they find a match...

Yes... Truly a shame that is, evidently, far beyond their capabilities...

Comment Re:Needs desktop app (Score -1) 64

...Twitter is the hot and popular bar that everyone goes to [ ... ]

"Nobody goes there anymore; it's too crowded. (Also: It's full of Nazis.)"

...who wants to hang out at some smaller bar with no crowd?

Um... Maybe because the drinks are better, made by actual bartenders who know what they're doing (instead of a computer pumping pre-measured servings out of a spigot), and made using decent, fresh ingredients instead of bathtub gin and lime-flavored high-fructose corn syrup? (And because the place isn't overrun by Nazis?)

I mean, if all you want is a Long Island Iced Tea, fine, I'll empty a bar mat into a pint glass for you, but don't try to pretend you're engaged in some higher appreciation of mixology -- you're just getting wasted.

Comment Re:Say What You Will About Tesla (Score 5, Interesting) 76

Having a common standard for the EV charging plug should help to facilitate deployment of charging stations.

There was a standard connector! SAE J1772. Every electric vehicle in North America used it... Except Tesla.

I can't understand why everyone's suddenly falling all over themselves to switch over.

Comment WHO ASKED FOR THIS!??!? (Score -1, Offtopic) 25

Whatever ideals and goals they may have started life with, NFTs and cryptocurrencies are now scams. All of them. No exceptions.

Don't agree? Three points:

  1. You're wrong,
  2. Watch this YooToob video -- it will be one of the most informative two-plus hours you will spend this week,
  3. Go visit the site Web3 is Going Just Great, which has a new post every day -- every damned day -- about the latest cryptocurrency and NFT regulatory actions, arrests, scams, and fsck-ups.

Comment Selecting a Coding Typeface (Score 1) 96

Here's a lovely little resource to help you select a programming font, with IntelOne preselected. It does not appear to have ligatures (which is the new hotness in some fonts).

Fonts that you have to stare at all day, every day, are a very personal thing, like a favorite keyboard, or favorite chair. For roughly 20 years, I was using ProFont (a/k/a ProFontWindows), but last year I switched to Iosevka.

Comment Re:If it's really only $3.4 million (Score 2) 121

This jumped out at me as well. I'd be interested to know who chundered up this number (and whose payroll they're on). Simple arithmetic will show that $3.4E+06 will get you maybe 20-30 full-time people in the SF Bay area. There's no way Reddit can replace thousands of moderators, each with domain-specific knowledge, with a mere 30 people.

It seems like, every time Huffman opens his mouth, he insults his userbase, his for-gratis workforce, and digs his commercial grave even deeper.

Comment /Me Deletes Google Authenticator (Score 1) 83

...There are no nice, genteel words for the "decision process" that spurred this change. This is straight-up congenital brain damage. I guaran-fscking-tee you that all bugs filed against this change were closed with the sniffy, "NOTABUG: Working as designed."

Google Authenticator was correctly designed from the outset. You do not create a single target for adversaries to attack. You distribute the secrets and ideally isolate them so that adversaries have to compromise thousands of systems instead of just one.

As for, "What if you lose your phone?" Well, what if you lose the keys to your car, or your house? You don't expect the home builder or car dealership to chunder up a duplicate, do you? The ability to export your GA credentials has been there for years. Save them to a USB key and put it in a safe place.

Meanwhile, I'll be transitioning completely over to andOTP.

"Don't be evil," has been dead for a while, but I had hoped they would have at least held on to, "Don't be stupid..."

Comment Because of Facebook (Score 4, Interesting) 127

I have an older Quest of and a mobile one that I just gave away. The Quest was used for a few days and put on a shelf, something I keep meaning to go back and play with. Then I got an email from Facebook saying I needed to make a Facebook account to keep using my hardware that I (didn't actually) pay for (long story, test sample) but did own. FSCK that. There are a few things that are dealbreakers for me in the tech world and a forced Facebook/Meta spyware account is near the top of the list.

At CES this year, VR/AR stuff was in pretty high numbers in high profile areas but the interest seemed a bit tepid. At MWC last week, there was precious little VR/AR and it was mostly ignored. I think we have reached the 3D TV phase of VR and it is all downhill from here. Discounts are telling, not much to save the sector now, it will become an admittedly useful niche device but mainstream is dead. AR is a different story but we are years away from basic usefulness there.

Yawn. It deserves a quick flaming death but VR will drag on for a while yet. The sooner it drops out of the media hype cycle, the better for us all.

              -Charlie

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