When I make things in rust, the earlier modules just work. Later modules don't turn into accidental integration tests for the first modules. Obviously, I could screw up some business logic, but even that seems to be rare with rust, as I am spending way less time wondering why this or that threading bug can't be replicated, and can focus on the business logic, not the tool.

The only things they will do is: Clear some land, put up some signs, have some architects (or just AI) do up some plans, do a ribbon cutting/first shovel ceremony, and then wait out the trump admin.

Simply eliminate recommendation systems. All of them; social media, news, shopping, the lot.

This kills doom scrolling, this kills these weird echo chambers where people look up a topic, and end up in a doom feedback loop most cults would be proud of.

If you don't search for it, you don't see it. Full stop.

This would pretty much break the back of the US tech firms in many areas.

I read an article from long ago in the very earliest days of youtube where they came up with a simple new recommendation system and it increased the chances of someone watching another video by something like 17,000%.

That was a simple one to drive traffic. But now, it is getting far more insidious. If you are a man looking at comments on a he said she said relationship video, you will generally see comments supporting the man's side. If you are a woman, you will see comments supporting the woman's side.

Just kill this sort of algorithmic behavior.

These dark patterns are nasty. If you go to that big shopping site, and look up something like, "replacement battery for pixel 7 pro", you will get a screen mostly of the correct item. If you sort by price (the last thing they want you to do) you will get a screen full of spatulas, insoles, and things which they very much know you are not looking for. They want to train you to not sort by price.

These algorithms are toxic to human society. They are a huge reason we are seeing such insane polarization in things like politics, but also why you have people feeling marginalized and attacked, when it is just influencers telling them that this is the case. I live in a place where certain very tiny group rights are not very well respected. I had a member of this group telling me they are going to leave before the government kills them. WTF? While my local government doesn't particularly like them, it isn't sending out death squads. Not only is their mental health more threatened by this sort of social media crap, than by the behavior of the government, the government itself is responding to people who are doom looped into hating this particular group.

This sort of crap is poison all over the world. Under 16 bans and other crap is a tiny step, but the reality is that if the poison is there, it is still bad, and teens will still end up accessing it in droves. If the poison is removed, the age ban largely becomes moot.

Some of what I do involves industrial design. I often describe what I want to various AI tools, and it draws me pictures of those things.

But, what I then do, is rebuild those things using CAD software. I take inspiration from the AI, but, what the AI generates is unusable as it is. I need parametric designs. Often, it will somewhat go off the rails, but is well close enough, that I can say, "Cool" and run with it.

The same with my AI generated software. Other than the autocomplete of lines, maybe 10% of my software is AI generated. The rest is created, either on my own, or with the help of AI making suggestions, etc.

I also will do things like ask the AI, "Hey, could this be made, cleaner and are there any issues?" I don't let it wholesale make any changes, but implement them myself.

As for some images, absolutely AI, maybe with my doing a tiny bit of Photoshop cleanup, but AI; as I am not a graphic artist at all. But, at the same time, things like button icons are highly likely to come from some button icon library. The sounds from some sounds library, etc.

One thing I have noticed is that 3D generated assets are still in the category of AI Slop. They are close, but something is wrong. They still suffer from the "fingers are wrong" problem; where something is disturbingly wrong.

The key though, is that I work with AI, I don't have it do all my work.

" And AI whipped it up in a few hours of me going back and forth with it."

This is the key. You are no doubt, a capable programmer, and you used this tool to do more work. Which is what most good tools do. Woodworkers don't buy chair making machines, etc. So many are touting that you can just say, "I want an app that does..." and get that app. Or that a junior programmer can suddenly be far better.

I see a weird future where junior programmers are going to be lured into a very bad place, some senior reject the new tech and become comparatively useless, and some seniors become fantastically productive.

I use various AI tools to not only identify bugs I am presently hunting, but to just give my code a code review for performance issues, and bugs in general.

The tools I use are fantastic at this. But, there is a massive caveat. I can look at the bug identified, and I can then proceed to fix it. Great. But, if I use the AI tool to provide me the "fixed" code, it is often very broken. To the point of not compiling, or leaving out major functionality. Along with it may very well introduce major bugs of its own.

One of my favourite examples was where I was using threading very correctly. It then yanked out everything which was there to prevent obvious race conditions and other critical aspects of threading. It was hot garbage. But, the original bug I had been hunting was correctly identified.

AI is a very useful too, but it is not a programmer. I'm sick of seeing people think it is a programmer by "proving" this with apps with about the complexity of a TODO app.

PMI and agile are sure signs you have a serious micromanagement problem. With any luck this reversion to flatter hierarchies will also see the death of Jira, the micromanager's preferred nuclear weapon.

I love the bleating sound these micromangers are making now that they are being fired from their "cat herding" BS jobs. If they had the slightest clue, they would have long ago realized you don't manage programmers, you lead them. This means you don't "herd cats" you get a treat, and lead them to where they want to go anyway.

One good leader can "manage" the same number of people as a dozen or more PMI trained micromanagers.

A friend of mine who fired 100% of his managers and replaced them with a few leaders, said, "I could tell who was a manager, and who was a leader, simply because the managers were always complaining about stress and overwork; whereas the leaders were comfortable with how things were going, even when bad outside things impacted their projects. They had no problem with having their teams deal with any problems."

Quite simply we have a massive replication crisis, and a huge crisis in academia where the number of PhDs being produced have no place to go.

Without a doubt various top executives got "retention bonuses", the liquidation company probably got a bunch of money, with the employees and creditors probably seeing nothing, or very close to nothing.

When a company goes TU like this, and leaves customers in the lurch, they should be forced to go full open-source. With, the patents licensed to all owners where they are immune from patent issues as are any organizations which build things on their behalf. But, every engineering document, every software document, etc should all be wide open.

I was in Canary Wharf the other day showing someone the concept of fit and finish. They have the perfect pairing. A BYD dealership right across from a Range Rover one. I showed how the gap in the various external panels just doesn't change on a BYD. That the plastic fittings line up, etc.

Then we went to the RR dealership and my companion was OMFG, these are trash. Then she pointed out that one of the panels had a clearly sweeping design which was supposed to line up with another panels design, but didn't. It just was made wrong.

So, I'm not sure how RR even noticed their systems were hacked. Did they suddenly start making good vehicles and were forced to investigate?

Batteries, even LiFePo ones have a limited number of charge discharges. Why would anyone let the power company wear that down? This is a classic case of a crap power company not building or maintaining a proper grid, so they fool their customers into building it for them.

That would be a great form factor fora powerful GPUs and a solid keyboard.

A couple of 15" portable screens would be just fine. I can see a long skinny machine like that with that pair of monitors fitting into my carry-on and not displacing too much other stuff.

I want one.

While many of the worst terrorist plots are somewhat domestic, I would assume that there are less flashy, but otherwise very hard to solve crimes like assassinating political defectors, (cough, russia, cough russia) and that combined with a a good CCTV system, that this would be pretty much the only chance to identify the culprits before they were able to get out of the country.

This, along with the more routine serious crimes where the window between offence and escape can be hours.

I've been waiting for a long time for when someone comes up with an "ah ha" moment with physics. I don't say quantum physics, but physics.

I have long read about people stumped as they pursue a GUT, but my feeling is that we have long just asked the wrong questions.

Something like going back in time and, after proving we are a legitimate time traveller. Giving Newton one question. He would ask the same question we are still asking: "What truly causes gravity?"

That suggests to me that something is wrong with the question.

If I can have a bike with a motor and battery so small that it fools judges and competitors, then I want one in my bike.

Not because I want to cheat in bike races, or even fool people, but I don't like the aesthetics of most e-bikes.