grmpyprogrammer

Perhaps it is a personal weakness, but watching somebody accomplish a moderately difficult task in a video triggers the Clever Boy inside me to think “hey, I could do that too”

Just submitted a refund request for my Gen Con Indy 2025 badge. I will miss seeing my American friends in person but for the foreseeable future your country is not a safe place for foreign visitors.

Canadians would do well to remember that our government would also invoke acts and laws meant to be used during “war time” for their own political ends.

This is a useless analogy because you don’t ask your drill how to drill a hole in a wall and be told to measure and cut along the length of the board
https://mastodon.cloud/@lo_fye/114308153952698304

(Full confession: Derek and I are friends)
I am not avoiding LLM’s. I am evaluating them for their usefulness in helping me do my job. Currently they are not good enough as they give way too many wrong answers.
I cannot stop greedy or delusional management from deciding an LLM is a substitute for an employee with programming knowledge and problem-solving skills.
Asking me to accept that something is inevitable is a way to squash dissent and stop conversations about how whatever I am being asked to accept could be better or more suited to the stated purpose.
https://mastodon.cloud/@lo_fye/114308209003254210

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@nprofile…gw4z Please do not tell me you believe in the Roko’s Basilisk nonsense

So it looks like @nprofile…980k and I are going to do a podcast again. Just need a title. No, we are not bringing back /dev/hell.
If we like your suggestion, we will get you on the new podcast as the first guest.

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@nprofile…gw4z I have used htmx for some stuff on https://www.ibl.org — check out the schedule page and the standings page where I used it for pagination

Current status
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JRRKSSKQX4FGK0WVCZHX4RCG.jpeg

I encourage my American friends to read up on the Dred Scott ruling as an example of something that was legal but morally wrong and understand how that was a tipping point for their country’s history.

I strongly disagree. The US has “not forgotten how to do basic things”. Doing things correctly requires paying for quality materials and quality workers. The US is openly hostile to labour and obsessed with getting the lowest price and lowest quality materials.
No shock at anything these home inspectors find. Fixing all those issues would only cost a little more.
https://mastodon.cloud/@lo_fye/114347802321553301

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@nprofile…gw4z Her only mistake is saying it in public — the list of people who have mailed in performances of material they did not like is long and vast

Guy who is on the verge of losing a winnable election complains people should ignore the things they are worried about https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-campaign-messaging-1.7497965

I am still fighting The Clever Boy inside me when it comes to 3D printers:
CAD$2k for a pre-assembled enclosed CoreXY printer from a solid EU company with good support but it’s own not-very-open ecosystem. Might be upgradeable via kits provided by the company.
(I ordered one and it’s supposed to ship starting April 24 but I can cancel it)
CAD$1.5k for a 90% assembled CoreXY printer with a enclosure kit and replacement bed heater from a Chinese company but completely open ecosystem but requires tinkering and is greatly customizable
(I returned the one I had bought in a rage over poor quality parts for the enclosure)
The old Open Source Guy in me thinks the tinkering way is the most future-proof way.
The Old Guy in me thinks you just want a printer that prints and stop thinking your limited experience can easily be overcome.
Help?

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@nprofile…gw4z I would want at least 2-3 years out of it. It feels like for filament machines, the industry has settled on movement systems (CoreXY) and are arguing over what things to use for extruding the plastic. The trends also appear to be towards using multiple colours

It just occurred to me that we are seeing a big shift developer tooling. We’ve gone from folks shilling for enterprise tools to be applied to smaller projects (React and Kubernetes spring to mind) to folks shilling for hobbiest tools to be applied to enterprise projects (LLM’s being the main culprit)

“Last week, the University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute issued a report, based on five years of public data, that concluded the UCP’s surgical initiative has not increased surgical capacity or reduced wait times.”
Privatization of health care is always about wealth transfer to companies linked with whomever is running the government.

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@nprofile…240e As someone also struggling, here is another way to look at it
it is very early days with these tools and lots can change (read that post I shared from Steve Yegge about possible futures
I agree that the ethics are really bad
if you are going to work FOR SOMEONE ELSE (meaning not as a consultant) it’s likely they will start expecting you to use these tools
setting yourself on fire figuratively speaking is not great
nobody know the future but being prepared for different versions of the future can only be helpful
I share your angst

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@nprofile…240e 🤷‍♂️ Sorry for upsetting you with the article.
My own experiences with these tools have been that knowing how to code makes these tools more useful.

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@nprofile…240e ZiffDavis provides us with CoPilot access at work. I use it with PhpStorm (licensed copy through work).
I dunno if any of them are “least bad ethically”
I would prefer to use something running locally on my laptop rather than cloud-based but I don’t think PhpStorm supports anything like that

Want some more proof of the cognitive dissonance going on concerning COVID? During #baseball spring training there has been a much higher-than-normal number of players coming down with “flu-like symptoms” that keeping them out for long periods of time. Intense sickness, loss of significant weight, respiratory issues — not normal for elite-level athletes (who normally have very strong immune systems) to be struck down like this.
This is what “freedom from responsibility” looks like on a societal scale.

Hello friends — I have migrated away from phpc.social and are now running my own single-user instance. Glad to have you over here now.

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@nprofile…dhpg @nprofile…q54u @nprofile…qz7t
So you think that it’s okay for one of these companies to buy a copy of my books and shove them into their models to train them? When did I ever agree to this?

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@nprofile…dhpg So you do agree that someone in the US who buys one of my books and shoves it into a LLM is covered by current US law?

I checked LibGen today. Three of my books are on there. That means the AI grifters have definitely fed my books to their models.
To my friends who use LLM’s a lot — you don’t give a shit that my stuff has been stolen so I won’t bother pressing the issue.

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@nprofile…gw4z I always thought the Ponyboy reference was from the movie / book “The Outsiders”

The corporate dystopia has finally won in Canada. Rich folks and businesses are going to get everything they want while the rest of us can pound sand
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/carney-cancels-capital-gains-hike-1.7490020

Got my hearing aids today. I am not generally a vain person but I am struggling with knee-jerk ableism feelings about needing them at what I perceive to be a “young age”.
My father got a hearing aid in his early 60’s (doesn’t wear it a lot at the nursing home probably because he can’t remember he actually needs it) and my paternal grandmother wore one too. They would both take them out when they grew tired of listening to people.
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JPWTK44MQFCN2ZTNH61412MS.jpeg

This is a serious question — is there a viable path forward if I wanted to get my family off the Apple ecosystem? Can I get Android phones and tablets that are:
not locked down
spyware free
easy to add apps
group chats as easy as Apple Messages
migrate passwords out of Apple Password
Keep in mind I am in Canada so some purchasing options might not be available.

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@nprofile…utw6 I worry more about my wife and daughter — does /e/OS work on Android tablets?

Today I am 54 years old (540 in internet years).

A relic of North America’s oldest corporation, teetering on the edge of disaster
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JQ6QNKX6AC62563VDFFHPBNX.jpeg

“Efficiency” has always meant “cut stuff the people in charge don’t like”

It’s Friday. Ask me anything

Apologies for the poor quality pictures but a fairly large fox appears to be a resident near the Fortress in Exile
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JPZDCHW00NDR8EKMSEK7QDR6.jpeg
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JPZDCPCM60RVZTVET84YKGKC.jpeg
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JPZDCTNZKHMY8V7SMYS9K4FJ.jpeg
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JPZDCYV3PJVTK864C5HSPZPY.jpeg

Today I feel:
agitated but are unsure why
annoyed that my 3D printer I cancelled the purchase of and then ordered again has no shipping date yet
unsure about how to navigate my upcoming 28th and final season in my simulation baseball league
frustrated about a work problem that my brain says should be solved already

2025-03-13 19:58:42

Still no US politicians publicly demanding the talk of annexing Canada stop. I can only take that to mean they are okay with it.

2025-03-13 19:58:42

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@nprofile…mmpy First I heard of it

2025-03-13 19:58:42

When I read this I translate it to “the books I wrote are going to be legally stolen to train systems that I will not receive any compensation from”
Never mind that I am not an American — my shit will get taken and used to enrich other people.
Makes me wonder why I am bothering to write my latest book.
https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/13/google-calls-for-weakened-copyright-and-export-rules-in-ai-policy-proposal/

Any proposals that try and limit where and when you can protest mean that some protests will be allowed and others banned. The right to protest ANYTHING is a right that should not be decided based on the interests of those in power.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-bubble-zones-1.7477397

Please tell the right wing brainworm-infected that federal elections in Canada are done with hand-counted, paper ballots.
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/mark-carney-canada-dominion-voter-fraud/

@nprofile…dhpg If you are okay with scrambled “eggs”, it’s hard to go wrong with a tofu scramble — tofu, spices, nutritional yeast, some kind of milk beverage. Quite good (I also like eggs). Happy to share a full recipe if you’re interested.

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@nprofile…dhpg https://youtu.be/Vc5pZ-PY-H8?si=GxTSH70HTw2Qs5kO (I like recipe videos as it helps me figure out technique)

2025-03-07 15:05:51

None of our major Canadian newspapers are owned by Canadians. You can thank Stephen Harper for that.
https://yac.grumpy-learning.com/fileserver/01KQ574KSYP8T71B7XJDG8FKT1/attachment/original/01JNSTBVCAPFABVSHJYNV1SHV3.png

2025-03-05 18:08:54

LOL — the US Democrats are useless.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/06/politics/al-green-censure-trump-protest-house/index.html

2025-03-05 18:08:54

I am le tired

To sell copies of my next book am I going to have to go on BlueSky?

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@nprofile…dhpg PHP developers

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@nprofile…dhpg It’s a book about testing design patterns — I use both PHPUnit and Pest but there is nothing Laravel specific

“AI will never replace me” say the people building systems to replace YOU and ME

The last good printer company decided they want to be greedy fucks like the rest of them. RIP Brother
https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Brother_Ink_Lockout_%26_Quality_Sabotage

2025-02-24 18:02:26

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@nprofile…utw6 That sounds like a disaster

2025-02-24 18:02:26

My first regular column for @nprofile…x3r0 was published in the February Edition #php https://www.phparch.com/article/2025-02-yelling-at-clouds/

2025-02-24 18:02:26

There is something sad to me about knowing I am closer and closer to never wearing ear buds again due to my impending usage of hearing aids :(

For the folks on here who hate advertising and think “marketing is evil” — the truth is that it would cost you 2 to 3 times as much to be online without the supershitty advertising-funded online world we currently have.
I grow weary of smug assertions from people that “nobody buys things from ads they didn’t agree to see” because people absolutely do. I encourage these people to not be self-centred assholes and pay attention to the actual behaviour of people who are not them.

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@nprofile…gw4z Both are shitty — but PeePee is a rich career politician who made his money because he is a politician and exempt from rules about conflict of interest and insider trading laws.

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@nprofile…utw6 You and I know that — the voters don’t