I did a GDPR request for all my data, and then aimed the reddit-user-to-sqlite script at it – https://github.com/xavdid/reddit-user-to-sqlite

The metadata.json & recommendation to use datasette to interact with it makes finding old comments super easy. I’ve been going through all my comments sorted by date, clicking each permalink manually and editing-and-deleting them while bored during the workday (meetings, etc.). It has the added benefit of being incredibly difficult to figure out of I’m a bot or not.

I’m thinking of, instead, just pasting the content into chatgpt and editing the responses to leave it in place.

It’s a skill those of us from the IRC days cultivated.

I’m glad I’m not good at it anymore.

We tried separating the food and water.

The cat just went to where the water was and howled. We’d show her the new spot, shed drink, and do the same thing in 20 minutes.

Just moved it back, less howling and she still drinks.

Cool, I’ll continue to get my life-saving medications shipped overnight and eat primarily a vegetarian-based diet and not feel bad about it.

I’m hoping that as the platform matures and we start seeing various apps and even more web-based interfaces like _wefwef Voyager, the signup process will be handled by those apps themselves. Like, a bunch of instances agree to be listed or something, and the app randomly selects one to present the new user on signup as a default, which both distributes the “load” across instances, but also provides a simple default.

I know the above proposal has problems; it’s a 30-second spitball idea, not anything I’m spending more time thinking about seriously.

The first one I played was Zelda, on a gold cartridge, on the original NES.

The oldest system I played on was an Atari.

The oldest system I played games on was an Appie IIe, and it was Sticky Bear Basket Bounce. That game is like, my youth.

I’ll pile on with a “Yup!”

While I fell into a pattern where I intend to upgrade every 2 years maybe 5 or 6 years ago, I’ve noticed in that same time frame that both the cost of new devices has gone up significantly and the durability of those devices has dropped.

I’m very easy on my phones. They spend a vast majority of their time on my desk, or plugged into my car. I’m old and boring enough that “going out” involves sitting down at a table at a nice dinner with friends and then going home. That said, the battery life on my phones starts to degrade after about a year. Various flaws start to creep up in the device. I’ve already had to replace the screen on my Pixel 7 Pro once – though, to be fair, it took a tumble from the couch onto a hardwood floor, but even that, really, shouldn’t turn the screen non-functional.

It’s disappointing to see that planned obsolescence rearing its head.

I don’t either. But I tend to use (La)TeX to typeset documents.

By most accounts, he makes his “shitty” movies because he’s bored or one of his friends needs a job. Any major actor in Hollywood is, barring insane lifestyle stuff, rich enough to never work again.

I would legitimately like to work on one of his films. I feel like it’d be a blast.

Fair warning: This only works if the other party, or the people watching the argument care. If the other party is just arguing in bad faith, don’t expect to have a productive conversation. If the people watching the argument don’t care and just want to see a spectacle, logic ain’t gonna work.

No, it’s not.

https://www.marcumllp.com/insights/no-social-security-is-not-going-bankrupt

While the current expenditures predict, without any action, one of the funding sources for social security, the trust fund, will deplete in 2032, payroll taxes still exist.

Although the Trust Fund is projected to be depleted in 2033, Social Security will not be insolvent or bankrupt. Although it may not be able to pay 100% of the program’s cost, as it stands now, Social Security estimates it will be able to cover approximately 76% of the program’s cost due to employee and employer payroll taxes.

A simple fix – remove the cap on the ssa taxable cap. Currently, only income under $160,200 (2023) is taxed for social security. Removing, or simply raising that cap opens up solvency for decades.

NCAs are already largely unenforceable anyway. Federal and state laws prohibit them except in cases of direct competition and the employee having specialized knowledge or skills. And even then, they can’t be for long periods of time, and if they would prevent the employee from a livelihood they can’t be enforced.

Usually what happens is someone who has a NCA will be hired by a new employer. That employer will see how long the NCA is in force and just have the employee on the payroll but not working until it expires. That, or they will pay the penalty in the NCA, whichever is cheaper.

Even then, your rights are limited. You can’t show it publicly, or make a copy except for personal backup, for instance.

Negative. Zuckerberg is an actual human, not a quasi sentient conglomerate composed of experimental AI platforms developed by the US Air Force to explore alien worlds via the Stargate program.

But Senator Imhofe took a snowball into the Senate chambers, thus disproving global WARMING forever!! /s

Oh shit.

In the short term, a series of collapses as we reach ever closer toward that singularity. There’s a great many constraints on our ability to grow while on Earth, and it’s proving difficult to get off the planet in any reasonable method with our current technology. I suspect we’ll need to fall down and rebuild a couple times before we can reliably spread to other planets, or even simply exist in orbit.

Once we get up there, though, and we’re no longer constrained by Earth’s resource limits, we’ll grow signficantly. I suspect we’ll move toward a machine-based society, both in automation and robotics, but also integrating technology into our bodies.

At some point, someone is going to figure out how to do that mind to machine transfer, and we’ll diverge as a species. The organic humans and the composite AI / machine-based humanity.

Knowing how stupid we are, though, we’ll probably end up becoming the Borg.

From the article, emphasis mine:

“Will this undermine most of what makes IAmA special? Probably,” the moderators wrote. “But Reddit leadership has all the funds they need to hire people to perform those extra tasks we formerly undertook as volunteer moderators, and we’d be happy to collaborate with them if they choose to do so.”

I think they’re wrong. I don’t think Reddit has the funds.

Thank you! Your hard work is truly appreciated.

This whole upgrade process reminded me to check the patreon donation stuff for y’all.

What are companies thinking when they implement policies that hamper volunteers?

“Money!”