Curtis "Ovid" Poe

Well-known Perl dev. American living in France. Pronouns: you choose.

I have a poetic license to kill.

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npub15apxhy8w7z45j7k52kj3ujyk56ks50w7uru2j8jgsdqu6jzpunesgyq4e8

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ovid_at_fosstodon.org@mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqs2wsntjrh0p26f0t29tfg7fzt2dtg28h0wp79freygxswdfpq7fucpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q6eq36h

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relay.mostr.pub

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npub15apxhy8w7z45j7k52kj3ujyk56ks50w7uru2j8jgsdqu6jzpunesgyq4e8

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Last Notes

2024-08-10 13:41:55

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@npub1ekr…rgwj I am disturbed by how many people I know are talking about catching COVID again recently. COVID will never be over unless we find a cure or more people are willing to vaccinate.

2024-08-10 08:08:46

It would be kind of funny if Trump wins and uses the Insurrection Act to order the military to promote "law and order," only to have their first act be to arrest him.

2024-08-10 07:43:55

Elizabeth Cochrane, better known by her pen name "Nellie Bly," was one of those famous "childless cat ladies." But to be fair, she didn't actually own a cat, though she worked to protect them.[1]
And while she was herself childless, she did buy a baby for $10 dollars in New York,[2] receiving a note stating she "may dispose of the said child in any manner.”
This helped end the practice of selling babies in New York.
1. https://thegrandarchive.wordpress.com/nellie-bly-and-the-band-of-mercy/
2. https://thegrandarchive.wordpress.com/nellie-bly-buys-a-baby/

2024-08-10 06:53:27

For all of my #linux loving friends, click through, find the big red button (called the "votey", for some reason), and click it.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/gorillas

2024-08-09 08:59:02

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@npub14qt…325d Never heard of it.

2024-08-09 06:23:31

Glass makers rely on one key fact to keep their companies afloat: their products break, so you have to buy more.
This company is resurrecting and old idea of beautiful glasses—yes, made from glass—which are ten times as strong as regular glasses. Dropped from a height of two meters, they don't break.
The obvious challenge: how can they build a sustainable company off of a product you don't need to keep buying?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/aug/06/superfest-unbreakable-drinking-glasses-east-germany

2024-08-08 21:32:33

Republicans love affirmative action, but they call it 'gerrymandering.' You won't find more enthusiastic supporters of electoral quotas anywhere!

2024-08-08 07:52:57

My daughter loves reading. I just found her new reading list.
Utah has not only banned 13 books (12 by women) from public schools and libraries, it's mandated that the books may NOT be sold or redistributed. These books include authors such as Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume.
My home country is becoming less recognizable every day. This is disgusting.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/07/utah-outlaws-books-by-judy-blume-and-sarah-j-maas-in-first-statewide-ban

2024-08-07 07:43:14

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@npub1xxn…qa8v My wife asks the same question. It's creepy.

2024-08-07 07:23:27

Feel free to share this if you've ever said, "who is this person and why am I following them in the Fediverse?"

2024-08-05 13:50:00

If corporations are people and money is now speech, is not paying your corporate taxes pleading the 5th?

2024-08-05 07:44:21

Recently in the US for a conference and the fast food restaurant we visited (don’t recall the name, but it wasn’t the bigoted chicken place) had references of various Bible verses, such as John 3:16, printed on food wrappers.
I don’t mind, particularly, except that I know if those verses referenced them Qur’an, the place would have been burned to the ground.

2024-08-04 14:25:07

Someone tried to roast Olympian Ilona Maher, claiming she was overweight.
Whoever that person is, I'm guessing they're very happy to be anonymous right now.
https://www.tiktok.com/@ilonamaher/video/7390092986396233002

2024-08-01 14:48:31

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@npub19d3…8yg2 Definitely approve of the music choices!

2024-07-30 16:00:11

I am frustrated by an individual who claims he wasn't listened to regarding a particular technical issue. I have logs of conversations, but thanks to TOS and GDPR, I cannot release the logs.
The person WAS listened to, but most disagreed with what they were saying. I have no particular point, other than to realize that I can't tell the difference between "you didn't listen to me" and "we didn't agree with you."
Neither side is particularly wrong. Absolute truth rarely exists.

2024-07-28 11:38:38

Dear GOP, you appear to have forgotten that Democracy is about cooperation, not domination.

2024-07-27 08:19:27

From childless cat ladies, to denying he had sex with a couch, to getting caught searching for dolphin porn.
Trump's VP pick, J.D. Vance, is going from "Hillbilly Elegy" to "Hillbilly Stereotype."

2024-07-27 00:13:48

Loved that the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, broadcast to an estimated 1.5 billion people, showed an incipient interracial threesome with strong bisexual overtones. Then one man smiled and closed the door on the camera.
It was beautifully filmed and will doubtless come across as shocking to many.
Regardless of whether or not you would participate in something like that, telling other adults they have to follow your morality is wrong so long as it's about them and not hurting people.

2024-07-27 00:11:15

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@npub1lj3…2pqt We love you anyway!

2024-07-26 23:56:15

Something that keeps me awake at night:
Many geniuses don't think through issues.
Many "normal" people do.
Being brilliant doesn't always mean "smart."

2024-07-25 08:47:05

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@npub15gh…5arl I envy you! I've only been to Burning Man once and wish I had the opportunity to do that again.

2024-07-24 18:41:07

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Set the headphones down. The music's back. Damn it!

2024-07-24 17:30:43

Are there any web #security experts here who I have previously interacted with? I have some serious concerns about a site a client has directed me to, but:
1. I'm not a front-end dev, but I see red flags in the Javascript.
2. I need to know you well enough to trust you
Help?

2024-07-24 10:38:30

WTF? My headphones are playing extremely bad music. I have no idea what they're connected to. I've tried rebooting everything, no luck.
I finally disconnected my headphones from everything and manually reconnected. Music gone. I'm going mad.

2024-07-23 18:00:51

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@npub1vnj…w8vc Sadly, true, but I use agile regularly, so it directly impacts me.

2024-07-23 17:44:40

Honestly, I'm so burnt out with the shitshow that is US politics that at this point I just want to see what happens if Trump shows up wearing a codpiece.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/837/038/838/227/096/original/5e9cff4ee541d96f.png

2024-07-23 15:03:28

I get very tired of this endless series of "Agile is bad" articles.
The truth is, agile is swamped by the "Agile Industrial Complex" snake-oil salesman and agile is getting slowly strangled by people more interested in making money off of it instead of building better software.
#Agile #Scrum #XP #Kanban #Scrumban #Software #SoftwareDevelopment
https://curtispoe.org/articles/agile-is-not-the-problem.html

2024-07-22 10:18:29

With all of the doom and gloom news, here's a hilarious story to take your mind off of things.
In 1959, the CIA covertly accessed, disassembled, photographed, and reassembled a fully-operational Soviet lunar probe. When they were done, they returned the probe without the Soviets noticing.
https://www.space.com/how-the-cia-kidnapped-a-soviet-moon-probe-during-the-space-race

2024-07-21 11:18:54

This is what family values really looks like.
#trans #lgbtq
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/07/two-lifelong-republicans-leave-the-gop-in-support-of-trans-grandchild/

2024-07-19 16:07:04

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I think many people in this thread didn't realize I was joking. My bad.

2024-07-19 12:08:33

I don't want to hire people who can think outside the box.
I want to hire people who can think outside the cliché.

2024-07-19 11:49:01

Traveling with children pro-tip: you can use a vacuum sealer to make stuffed toys fit in a suitcase.
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/812/992/202/959/231/original/63a44ea798be3b2b.png

2024-07-18 07:37:57

It's time for Biden to step down, but who will step up? My controversial pick? Something that will shock the Republicans: Jane Fonda.
I just want to see the campaign slogan "A Wish Called Fonda."
#politics #Biden

2024-07-17 13:22:58

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Je suis tenté de mettre à jour mon profil LinkedIn pour demander que, même si j'habite en #France et que je parle français, je ne souhaite pas que des entreprises françaises me contactent pour des postes CDI.
J'en ai marre qu'on me propose des salaires de junior pour des postes de direction, mais c'est la vie en France.
(Évidemment, je ne parle pas couramment français)

2024-07-17 13:22:00

I'm half-tempted to update my LinkedIn profile to request that, despite my living in #France and speaking French, I don't want French companies contacting me for full-time positions.
I get tired of being offered junior salaries for senior roles, but that's what you get in France.

2024-07-16 15:09:08

I made my daughter a ham sandwich. For some reason, she's managed to avoid those before now, despite being 13 years old.
She said, "wow! This is really good. I expected it to be food."
I'm still not sure how to take that.

2024-07-16 05:42:47

Politics
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/794/569/423/746/534/original/6d3efa2f57f4b8ef.png

2024-07-15 05:14:22

The staggering amount of misinformation that's already flowing out of the Trump assassination attempt makes me sick to my stomach.
We can't trust anything in today's world.

2024-07-14 12:44:24

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@npub1qa2…kza9 I've already had friends post that, with Alec Baldwin crossover memes ...

2024-07-14 10:59:00

Anyone able to offer my advice in installing #gdb on Apple silicon?
#Software #SoftwareDevelopment

2024-07-14 07:59:44

Ssshhhhh. Kitty’s sleeping.
#CatsOfMastodon
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/783/775/654/451/626/original/2944945e476fd6f2.jpeg

2024-07-13 12:41:10

Some discussion about problems with the :writer attribute for the new #OOP syntax being added to the #Perl language.
Thanks to @npub1yka…a0nl for making my life harder 😜
TL;DR: mutable objects are (usually) bad and encapsulation is more complicated than many think.
#Software #OpenSource
https://curtispoe.org/articles/programming-mutable-objects.html

2024-07-12 09:56:55

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@npub1psd…9sr7 If she pulled our the 25th Amendment, I think tons of people would be livid and the GOP would have a field day with this. Something needs to be done, but I've no idea what :(

2024-07-11 08:00:54

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Trump was a disaster, but one old man is working hard to ensure Trump gets elected again. 4/4

2024-07-11 08:00:54

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He's not just losing independents, he's losing Democrats, too. We don't have much time, but his stubbornness over this matter means we'll have to endure four more years of a man who instigated an insurrection in Washington DC in an illegal attempt to maintain power. European leaders are already meeting to discuss how to proceed in the event that the wrecking-ball that is Trump gets elected. The world is girding itself for four more years of hell. 3/4

2024-07-11 08:00:53

Biden needs to step aside.
Many argue that you're not electing a president, you're electing a team. A team that can't veto bills, or function as commander-in-chief, or issue pardons, or sign executive orders. Instead, we'd have a doddering old man, possibly signing what's put before him without the mental acuity to fully understand. You wouldn't hire someone like that to run your company; why would you want them to run your country? 1/4

2024-07-11 08:00:53

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And frankly, if it's his "team" doing all of the work ... and let's be honest, it's been a great team ... without him having the ability to to make those key decisions, do you *really* trust the US Congress to deal with the issue of the 25th Amendment responsibly? This won't be democracy. This will be a shitshow. Er, more of a shitshow than it already is.
But forget all of that. Forget about what might happen if he won.
He won't win. The polls are clear. 2/4

2024-07-09 18:24:19

At the request of a friend, I spent hours writing up what happened in the last French election. However, he can't see it. Only one person in the last nine hours responded, which is unusual for my posts.
It's public. Can you see it on #Facebook ?
https://www.facebook.com/curtis.poe/posts/pfbid0inS4vHi6gHK2ZZK6RiYbVhki5Ym22EgcvwW3VXpmCb2eTSBL44ZaCoqht67cfqYol

2024-07-08 11:05:37

Today's fun: filling out expenses in three different currencies. I have no idea how much I actually spent on my last business trip.

2024-07-06 13:32:07

Talking about AI is all well and good, but developers want to see code.
I wrote an article showing how to build an AI chatbot using the new Corinna OOP syntax for the Perl language, along with a fun example of a system prompt to create an NPC character for a game.
#AI #ChatGPT #OpenAI #Perl #OOP #Claude #Gemini
https://curtispoe.org/articles/an-openai-chatbot-in-perl.html

2024-07-05 15:00:34

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@npub16r0…z5pl I have been working on a code base that gets hundreds of commits every day. Without rerere, when a rebase goes wrong, I'm in serious trouble. It's not perfect, but I don't want to sit on a rebase with hundreds of commits, all of which I have to edit manually. Often I can fix the mess at the end.

2024-07-05 12:49:47

git has to be one of the most valuable tools in our toolbox, but with the worst interface.
"rerere" and "--force-with-lease" are two things that are a "must have" for anyone using git, but good luck figuring out what they do just by looking at the name.
#git #software

2024-07-04 17:55:12

We have some code with a bug. When it's fixed, a perfectly correct commit message would be "The body is no longer leaking."
This delights me.
#programming #software #git

2024-07-03 07:27:26

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@npub1j50…xe79 Ranulph Fiennes, predicting the Republican National Committee's response to gun violence and climate change.

2024-07-03 07:07:02

When dad jokes go awry.
(my daughter doesn't laugh at them either, so I tell them more for myself)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siphonaptera_(poem)
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/721/226/272/196/426/original/e0ef15a6d48ffe0c.png

2024-07-01 08:26:24

France had a choice between taxes being raised, or blaming foreigners.
They chose blame.
With Biden's abominable debate performance, I think Trump has a good shot at winning.
Putin now knows he just needs to hang in there a another year and Ukraine will be his.
Everything is going to shit because it's so much easier to blame others than to find solutions.

2024-06-29 17:46:44

In chemistry, alcohol is, in fact, a solution.

2024-06-29 16:51:24

From a post of mine in 2015:
I was playing hide-n-seek with my daughter and we've been working on our counting skills (she can count to ten now). As she hid and I counted, I got to five and yelled "what comes after five?"
Moments later, a small voice from the back of her closet: "I don't know."

2024-06-28 04:20:37

I had the great honor of being asked to be the opening keynote speaker at the 25th Annual Perl and Raku Conference in Las Vegas.[1]
Unfortunately, as the first talk, there were some sound quality issues and at one point the camera cut out, so I had to do a voice over, but all in all, I'm pleased with how it came out.
The conference has been wonderful and it was great catching up with many old friends.
And honestly, I think that's my best title ever.
#perl #raku #rakulang

2024-06-28 03:10:14

Years ago I dated a Hungarian woman who grew up behind the iron curtain. In telling me about her life, she said something I’ll never forget.
“Under the USSR, we had money, but the shops were always empty. Under capitalism, the shops were always full, but we had no money.”

2024-06-27 04:29:10

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" or as I like to say "Shakespeare knew squat about marketing."

2024-06-26 05:18:11

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@npub1rlw…5gj4 Thank youj. I was worried that joke was going to lie there and twitch 😃

2024-06-25 18:49:36

The cpan client's -u switch upgrades all of your installed Perl modules.
The -f switch forces the installs, even if tests fail.
Thus, "cpan -fu" is self-documenting.

2024-06-25 18:44:49

Conversions you don't want to have with your child #274:
"Papa, why do we have to die?"
My mind immediately went to "cell senescence", "Hayflick limits" and "Oh god, I really need a drink right now."
None of those responses seemed particularly helpful.

2024-06-21 16:39:29

Claude Sonnet 3.5 beats ChatGPT 4o and I wrote a quick #JavaScript game.
https://curtispoe.org/articles/claude-sonnet-35-beats-chatgpt-40.html

2024-06-21 09:35:47

Republicans ask "is this efficient?"
Democrats ask "is this fair?"
Politicians ask "will I get caught?"

2024-06-18 06:15:16

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@npub1ye6…pwej My god (no irony intended), that's just astonishing.

2024-06-18 05:31:50

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@npub1ye6…pwej Source? Having grown up in the south, that seems at odds with my experience.

2024-06-17 13:46:13

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@npub1g3j…69f8 That bonus panel killed me :)

2024-06-12 05:18:03

If self-driving cars arrive en masse, what's going to happen to all of the small towns in the US who fund themselves via speeding tickets?

2024-06-11 20:45:10

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Well, I just followed the instructions at https://docs.github.com/en/pages/configuring-a-custom-domain-for-your-github-pages-site/about-custom-domains-and-github-pages#using-an-apex-domain-for-your-github-pages-site to prevent my site from being hijacked. Github says I'm good. CloudFlare says I'm not.
Time for more Chardonnay and wait to see if everything catches up.

2024-06-11 20:27:01

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@npub1jzj…d606 This is maddening. Since everything seems to be working properly, I'll sit on it for a bit until CloudFlare sends me another "you did it wrong" email.
DNS is the textbook example of "how not to build an API."

2024-06-11 20:12:35

I just want to say that @theory used to be my boss when he owned a company called Kineticode. Not only was he an awesome boss, he was also a fantastic person.
The fact that he's a brilliant geek is just icing on the cake. If you care about #PostgreSQL, listen to what he has to say. He's solid on all fronts.
https://fosstodon.org/@posetteconf@mastodon.social/112599787197692419

2024-06-11 20:07:14

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In short, everything appears to be working perfectly, I can't find any misbehavior, but CloudFlare is nagging me. Do I need to do anything?
If I'm reading the console correctly, but ovid.github.io and curtispoe.org have their nameservers set to:
ajay.ns.cloudflare.com
saanvi.ns.cloudflare.com
I can barely spell DNS, so maybe I'm missing something obvious?

2024-06-11 20:04:10

Hey, #DNS fans. #CloudFlare sent me an email. "We could not add ovid.github.io to your account because your nameservers (NS) are not yet pointing to Cloudflare."
I'm supposed to log in to my registrar and update the nameserver records. Except Cloudflare IS my registrar and I thought I updated everything. https://curtispoe.org/ shows my ovid.github.io content and the latter redirects to the former.
What did I miss?

2024-06-11 20:01:21

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@npub1t59…swnr Microsoft has really turned themselves around in terms of community relations and security. Their recent lack of faith is ... disturbing.

2024-06-11 15:31:31

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@npub1mc2…yype The irony? This company is heavily a Linux shop and loves open source.

2024-06-11 13:56:28

Bringing the joys of Microsoft to the Mac. Client uses Microsoft Teams. Other than being slow, counterintuitive, and ugly, it's fine.
Had to update to the latest teams and could not log in. Tried repeatedly. Turns out that the trick to logging back into Teams on a Mac after update is ... drumroll, please ... rebooting.
o_O
How does #Microsoft still get this so wrong?

2024-06-11 11:32:25

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@npub1mlt…gwu7 No idea what that is.

2024-06-11 08:15:39

Apple got pregnant. The rabbit is dead.
https://www.rabbit.tech/
Apple's approach with "AI for the rest of us" looks pretty compelling.

2024-06-10 12:05:56

You know it's going to be a long day when you're running a fever, can barely move, carefully use `git add -p` to untangle the changes you made to your code and you STILL followed that with `git commit -a`.
Sigh. `git reset --soft HEAD~1`, scarf another painkiller and continue.
#git #software

2024-06-06 09:37:22

Never change, Oregon, never change.
(To be fair, this image is several years old)
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/568/996/404/490/250/original/7162e3fe88207c19.png

2024-06-06 07:43:47

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@npub1qll…r5q8 Many classmates I grew up with are, sadly, hardcore GOP. They get mad when I say Republicans are trying to turn women into brood mares. Blocking a right to have contraception just proves my point.

2024-06-06 07:36:16

Advertising is one of the primary reasons why people are less informed about the news. I have no idea how to fix the problem.
https://ovid.github.io/blog/why-we-dont-read-the-news.html

2024-06-05 13:56:49

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@npub1x65…2r77 To 2000 would be good, but if the data isn't there, I know that might be a big ask.

2024-06-05 12:01:54

Hey, #rakulang devs. For my upcoming talk at the Perl/Raku conference in Las Vegas, I would love a timeline of major Raku development, but I can't find anything like a "raku history" document (Perl has "perlhist"). Can someone point me to one?

2024-06-04 15:41:20

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@npub1vnj…w8vc Yes

2024-06-04 10:09:05

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You'd have to spend all of you resources in the capitalism stage to fight climate change, ecosystem collapse, AIpocalypse, pandemics, nuclear war, and orange-skinned clowns. I suspect it wouldn't be popular. Maybe I could call it "Atlas Drugged" or something like that. What would be a good name? 2/2

2024-06-04 10:09:04

In my copious free time (*cough*), I've toyed with the idea of creating a browser-based idle game. You'd start as hunter-gatherers, gathering skins, hunting, learning to make fire, etc. You would then evolve to an agricultural society and then to city-states, feudalism, mercantalism, capitalism, post-capitalism, etc. Each stage would have new visuals, new gameplay, new items.
But the twist? You'd probably never get to post-capitalism. 1/2

2024-06-04 07:00:48

If any well-meaning friend doesn't understand why "all lives matter" is offensive, politely ask them if they would visit New York City on 9/11 wearing an "all buildings matter" t-shirt.

2024-06-04 06:32:46

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@npub148w…5fa7 D'oh! Should have thought of that.
That fixed it. Thank you 🤩

2024-06-04 05:05:03

Using #Gimp on a Mac and ... it won't edit photos any more. I tried resetting, reinstalling, searching the web like mad. Can open photos and do almost anything I want, including adjusting levels, but literally nothing using the edit buttons works, so no image editing 😢
(Exception: bucket fill works if I'm not in gradient mode, but it fills with the background color, not the foregound).
Anyone have any ideas?
#OpenSource
https://cdn.fosstodon.org/media_attachments/files/112/556/592/089/970/471/original/2791257f8320cf88.png

2024-06-03 13:20:07

When you go to a nice restaurant with friends and they ask you to wait for a table, they ask your name. Tell 'em it's "Donner."
When your table is ready, have fun when they call out, "Donner, party of four!"

2024-06-03 12:02:45

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@npub17lg…9uux I was about to share a great blog post about this topic, only to realize that you wrote it 😜

2024-06-03 11:57:35

I can't imagine working without GenAI any more. I often write quick bash scripts to automate things, but for some reason, the syntax always falls out of my head and I'm constantly looking things up.
Now I just hit ChatGPT and ask it to write the script for me. With the latest version, is usually works perfectly the first time, so long as I craft a good prompt. This is a huge productivity boost.
#AI #GenAI #LLM #Copilot #ChatGPT

2024-06-02 15:09:52

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@npub1rqe…g8a8 That would just be delicious!

2024-06-02 08:12:40

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It appears the only thing Recall doesn't record is the Microsoft Edge browser in private mode. (It does record Chrome in private mode).
Microsoft has said that hackers will need physical access to your laptop to get your information. Microsoft lied. Read the full details at cybersecurity website DoublePulsar.[4] 3/4

2024-06-02 08:12:39

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The AI component allows you to use natural language to search that database.
To say that this has been hugely controversial would be an understatement and the UK government is already investigating this unreleased feature.[2]
What's even worse? Hackers have already automated the process of exfiltrating all of your personal data.[3] All of your logins, credit card details, porn sites, emails, you name it. 2/4

2024-06-02 08:12:39

If you've not heard of #Microsoft's new "Recall" feature for #AI-powered laptops, you need to know about it.[1] And Microsoft needs to apologize to everyone for building it.
Recall is the new Microsoft AI system that lets you remember everything almost you've ever done on your computer. It periodically takes screenshots of what you're doing and uses OCR to record everything in plain-text in an easily searchable SQLite database. 1/4

2024-05-31 06:01:03

Y'all ever notice how fascist fucks are constantly banging on about the rule of law ... until it applies to them?