samir, angry and bitter

Trying very hard to avoid computers, and failing miserably.

Public Key

npub1m34ck6xef6s0tyuxplrvzhch4w723k99zdatfqaq8jnd2zu7p83qjra9uw

NIP-05 Address

samir_at_mastodon.functional.computer@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdc6utdrv5ag84jwrql3kptut6h09gmzj3x745swsrefk4pw0qncspz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q4jjsuy

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub1m34ck6xef6s0tyuxplrvzhch4w723k99zdatfqaq8jnd2zu7p83qjra9uw

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Last Notes

2024-10-09 12:53:38

I’d really like to try out BSD for a home server at some point. Jails, in particular, seem really interesting. I’d love to try it in anger. (The last time was running FreeBSD on my desktop in, I dunno, 2004? I distinctly remember a CRT monitor but little else.)
I haven’t bothered not because it doesn’t seem great, but because all my working knowledge is around Linux nowadays and I don’t want to spend the time. I won’t see a return on the investment at work.
https://mastodon.neilzone.co.uk/@neil/113277359417594274

2024-09-18 14:18:07

Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the watchmaker's book and start calling them "complications" instead of "features”.

2024-09-12 07:05:06

Ah yes, a link to Twitter to tell me more information about your downtime.
There's just one problem with that.
Twitter is no longer a way to disseminate news. You cannot view posts without signing in.
Stop it.
https://cats.functional.computer/media_attachments/files/113/123/308/251/703/354/original/dea3cc525eca84a5.png
https://cats.functional.computer/media_attachments/files/113/123/308/529/416/578/original/33e49d9fd25a8b53.png

2024-09-08 12:26:34

Mozilla: What do you want?
Us: Tabs in the sidebar!
Moz: Got it, chatbots in the sidebar!
Us: OH FOR F—

2024-08-17 19:35:59

Remember, friends, never refer to a Large Language Model as “AI”.
An LLM is not intelligent, any more than a cash register is.
LLMs can be a useful tool, but that does not make them more important than any other useful tool.
Just because someone is pummelling you with bullshit does not mean you have to turn around and pass it on.

2024-08-12 22:51:02

I am once again calling for a Fedi alternative to Patreon.
In other words, a server where you pay to subscribe, which takes the money on the 1st of the month and amortises the fees across everyone you’re subscribing too.
And then you get a private feed full of goodies. Bonus, you can use your RSS reader!
I would gladly work on such a project, but I am a techie, and tech is a small part of the challenge. If anyone else is planning something and understands the problem space well, let me know.

2024-08-10 19:37:15

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@npub1gnx…d5kh Rustup is a program that automatically downloads the correct version of Rust for a given project.

2024-06-21 14:26:46

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 I did, and I think it makes sense, but I wanted a vibe check too.

2024-06-21 14:14:57

I got my postal vote.
Does anyone know how reliable https://tacticalvote.co.uk/ is?

2024-06-18 11:22:12

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@npub1psd…9sr7 I think one could argue that it was a combination of COVID and disastrous health policy (and the blatant corruption), but it’s hard to find control values.

2024-06-18 11:11:09

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@npub1psd…9sr7 Perhaps, if the Tories had not driven down life expectancy so much, they’d be coping pretty well right now…

2024-06-07 10:19:41

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@npub1trd…ussx I think we struggle when we can’t label people because they’re so far out of our frame of reference!

2024-06-07 06:40:21

I consider myself left-wing.
I didn’t always. I used to think of myself as “slightly left of centre”.
I don’t think I’ve changed much. The world has. What we defined as “centrist” 20 years ago is now pretty left-wing. The window has moved right.
Vote left. It’s not even that left any more, it’s what we would have called “not totally insane” even when Reagan and Thatcher were in power.

2024-04-17 10:04:42

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@npub16u7…uend It took me a few seconds to realise that “chocolate and vodka” was not the answer to the question.

2024-04-10 12:15:49

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@npub1vs8…54zy Do I want to know?
(I’m not leaving either. I like it here.)

2024-04-06 10:55:46

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@npub129g…4kwg Agreed, I thought we’d learned this lesson with proprietary JavaScript “transpilers” that make your stack traces completely unusable.

2024-03-15 13:29:06

A couple years ago, all the blockchain dudes were yelling from the rooftops about provenance and a single source of verifiable truth.
Now they're all AI dudes and SHOCKINGLY, they don't care about provenance at all!
Who would have guessed?

2024-03-06 16:00:08

Hot take: it is normal and rational to accept a job at a company you dislike, or in a field you are morally against, when the alternative is not having a job.
At the end of the day, you have to eat, and the society most of us live in says that you only get to eat if you have a job.

2024-02-21 09:50:21

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@npub16u7…uend I am very interested in whether the data dives into differences where one of the couple is working and the other is taking care of the home and family.
I’ve seen previous studies that show that even when the woman in a heterosexual couple is working *more* than the man, they still do more housework. I would like to know if this is also shown here.
But the article doesn’t link to the underlying research, or even name the paper, so I have no way of finding out!

2024-02-18 15:48:59

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@npub1vs8…54zy Honestly, I thought it would have happened faster. I was predicting that we’d start to see consultants raking it in for fixing AI-generated messed even this year.
Granted, it’s early, but I think we might have to wait another year or two before the real chaos starts.

2024-02-18 11:26:08

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It’s a trap. More code is not your friend, it’s your enemy.
Don’t add the dependency. Don’t generate 8000 lines of JavaScript. Write more CSS. Don’t accept the digital grey goo spewed out of tools such as Copilot.
Code is a liability. Anything that helps you make more, quickly, with no effort, is leading you down a very dark path.

2024-02-18 11:23:42

It took me a long time but I finally figured out that Copilot and friends are not meant for me, they’re meant for JavaScript programmers.
One of the reasons I’m enjoying Rust is because there’s a culture of being very thoughtful about every line of code you write, and every dependency you add.
Conversely, in JS land, “just add this dependency” is now a meme.
In a land where you’re encouraged to “just” add more boilerplate (thanks, create-react-app), why wouldn’t you outsource that?

2024-02-08 22:06:33

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@npub13uu…pvgs I think you’d be replacing large chunks with \xAB, so you might find the opposite. 😄
I kind of wanted to write a HTTP extension for sending key-value pairs… then realised I’d just invented multipart/mixed.

2024-02-08 13:10:41

You know it's web scale when your tarball is base64-encoded and embedded in a JSON string.

2024-01-04 13:13:25

No, I will not subscribe to your mailing list. Get an RSS/Atom feed.

2023-12-27 11:31:39

Software isn’t going to improve until we, the people who care about it, stop taking large salaries for a little while.
I like my big salary. It pays my rent. It means my family and I can eat, travel, and be extremely comfortable.
But I’m never going to create something fundamentally groundbreaking if I keep taking it.
Silicon Valley doesn’t make groundbreaking things any more.

2023-12-11 08:30:40

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@npub18p3…03wh As far as I can tell, it’s a very British thing. Having a hard life is some kind of moral high ground.
I guess it probably goes hand-in-hand with the extreme self-deprecation.
I never realised it until I left. I do not miss it.
(I’m guessing the responder you saw was British. Just a hunch.)

2023-11-18 15:27:48

I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS, MICROSOFT.
https://cats.functional.computer/media_attachments/files/111/432/252/833/620/316/original/2b3994753ffbe18f.png

2023-11-17 12:19:23

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@npub1lwu…6w4j @npub1ngr…rc8q I realise you’re not asking for advice, but if you would like some on shrinking this down, let me know.

2023-10-30 14:43:50

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@npub1mdk…aptk There’s a film? A TV show!?
I loved the book very much.

2023-09-25 21:26:19

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@npub1sat…8vnx I'm impressed with anyone who can do this kind of work. My kid keeps asking me to draw things and I think they're getting bored of the same penguin over and over…

2023-09-25 21:13:28

Does anyone on this here sleepyweb do calligraphy + drawing/painting on commission?
I've got one or two short sentences I would like calligraphified, paired with a cute picture, and framed, and before I reach for Etsy, I thought I'd check here.

2023-08-13 11:10:05

Thanks to modern medicine and diets, some animals, such as humans, live far longer in captivity.

2023-07-17 12:09:01

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 So long, though. “AfD” and “SVP” are much easier to pronounce.

2023-07-02 06:14:03

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 Also, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the replies to your post. Thank you for making it. 😄

2023-07-02 06:10:40

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@npub1hpc…hjn3 I remember visiting relatives in India when I was a teenager and they inevitably commented to my mum, “lamba hai!” (“Gosh, he’s tall!”)
Samir Lamba works for me. 🙃
I’m not even that tall, by European standards. Indians, unfortunately, just have crap diets, even the ones that can afford good food. (I expect that’s changed a lot now.)

2023-05-17 19:58:02

*opens an email*
"Hi, nice to e-meet you"
*hurls the computer through the window immediately*

2023-04-25 21:46:51

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#[0] What do you mean? You’ve clocked zero hours for most of the week!