WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
No bio...
User ID: 269
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
I'm perfectly happy with Civil Right's legislation being thrown at these "protesters". It's as legitimate a use of it as others I've seen. And it almost makes me believe I still have rights.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
I've been holding my nose, and my MSFT stock, for years despite all this. As much as I hate what they are doing, line keeps going up.
Until two days ago. I'm not sure if it's a sea change yet, or a mere blip. I just have no idea how much enshittification Microsoft can get away with due to lock in effect, and I don't think anyone does. But I do know, I will be advocating to migrate away from MS at every opportunity I get. Or at least have the concepts of a plan in place should the enshittification truly become so bad we are left with no choice.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
Since LLMs are all anyone can talk about...
I've been messing around in some experimental projects ahead of my new job starting. A thing I may have to do is upgrade some .Net Framework projects to .Net 10. It turns out Microsoft has actively broken every means of doing this except to use Copilot. There used to be a .Net Upgrade Assistant but it's been deliberately broken in new versions of Visual Studio. So copilot it is I guess.
It generated some very nice looking assessment.md and plan.md files, and generally walked you along, giving you the exact prompts that were valid at each step of the process. And that's about the last nice thing I can say about it.
The first thing that went wrong was after generating the plan.md file, I guess it forgot what it was doing, and prompted me to start a new @modernize prompt, even though I was already in one. Well, whatever. That new prompt found the old plan.md file and just picked up where the other got confused and forgot what it was doing. It very quickly said it was finished, and the project built and passed all the unit test.
It had actually done nothing.
When I point this out, it cheerily began actually updating projects. After probably an hour of it thinking very hard on each one, and needing constant reassurances to continue, it claimed it had finished, all projects build, and they pass all test.
This was another lie.
But it had gotten far enough along that I could manually fix the remaining issues (mostly package versioning issues it claimed it had already fixed), and viola, my simple solution with about 8 small projects was upgraded from .Net Framework 4.8.1 to .Net 10.0. Hurray! Only took me all afternoon babysitting an LLM that lied consistently, followed by manual touch ups.
This morning I discovered there is actually a CLI tool. It's no longer supported, but using that took me about 20 minutes. It still flubbed some thing, and bafflingly upgraded several projects to .Net Standard 2.0 instead of .Net 10 despite my specifically telling it not to. But that's just editing a value in the csproj file after the fact. Oh, also telling it to analyze any of the projects consistently crashed. But all in all I think it did a better job than Copilot.
I sure am glad RAM prices have gone up 3-4x for this!
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
Maybe.
But I still think anyone claiming saying those things justifies your murder is not a centrist.
And if they are a centrist, as in that is actually point of fact the centrist position, I return to my "We are in a civil war" claims.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
Your honor, it was self defense. She called me a faggot.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
I wish I had a country I could consider going back to. Alas.
Does Poland allow any sort of returning expatriate citizenship/visa programs? Every now and again you see countries with that. Like if you can prove some sort of ancestry they'll grant you citizenship.
He can advocate for what ever he wants. If his beliefs are around restricting the negative rights of others then he can also face the consequences of what happens when people don't want their rights restricted.
Says the "radical centrist" who doesn't think we are in a civil war. Yeah man, sometimes if your speech in an abstract sense might harm others in some abstract way, you just get assassinated in cold blood. Whatever. I'm a centrist.
And this is how they lie. Launder their radicalism in under the radar as "just being normal".
No.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
I might prove to be wrong (it happens, but rarely). I am not lying. I sincerely believe that from the very depths of my being. But radical truths often sound like inflammatory rhetoric, so I don't blame you.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
Yes, we are currently in a civil war. Both sides have internally consistent moral claims for exterminating the other. The sooner you realize that, the sooner you can make more productive choices.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
That there should be no negative consequences for the ICE officers who killed him?
Correct. Also, everyone involved in that riot should be charged as accessories to murder for creating the chaotic conditions where such law enforcement accidents happen. When criminals commit a robbery, and police accidentally shoot and kill civilians, the robbers get charged with those murders too for creating the conditions in which they happened.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
Yesssss, one of us, one of us.
Pretti was the obnoxious child running up to much bigger kids, putting his finger 0.0000001mm away from their faces, and chanting "I'm not touching you" until the bigger kid punched him in the face. After which point, having accomplished precisely what he set out to do, Pretti cried that he was hit and demanded that the bigger kid be punished because technically he didn't deserve to be punched by the rules as he understands them1. And yes, technically we don't want to encourage children to punch other, smaller, more obnoxious children. But sometimes, as a parent, you have to play dumb. "I didn't see anything, just learn to get along."
We, as a nation, need to play dumb. Let however many of these adult children face consequences (even unfair ones) for the first time in their entire lives. I wasn't there, and neither were you. I didn't see anything. Now go learn to get along with ICE.
- Well, not literally. Pretti was dead, a far superior outcome for an adult engaged in such behavior.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2mo ago
New Jersey Democrats flirtations with precious metals might be a special case. Because its a major component of their corruption racket.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
Hot Tottie. I like to brew a strong black tea, probably two bags. Then in goes fresh squeezed lemon juice, honey, and as much damned Applejack or Apple Brandy or Whiskey as I please.
Another good one is a Godfather. 1 part Amaretto and 4 to 8 parts Bourbon or Whiskey. I went through a lot of those once upon a time.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
Dollars to donuts you both look like her father.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
Chris Rock has this old bit about how men might see their best friend meet a nice girl and think "Man, I'd love to marry a girl like that". Women see their best friend meet a nice man and think "Man, I'd love to marry that specific man".
Now, I can't exactly speak to the truth of this. But if some sort of inverse typical mind fallacy is any indicator, way more women are worried about leaving their husband alone with their friends than men are of the same.
The singular exception seems to be the armed forces. I've known numerous men who won't let their wives on base without them. It's like dragged raw meat through a lion's den.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
You're right. WMATA jobs are actually reparations for the permanent underclass of Washington DC.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
That's their side of it.
What actually happened was a railroad tie was ignored until it was completely rotted out, and then a train derailed and people died.
"Within 1/8 inch" my ass. Just because that's the preposterous excuse they offer doesn't mean you have to believe it. Too much charity.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
I think a fake job that you never work and are entitled to no matter what and UBI are the same thing. What possible difference can you point to? They are both entitled to your money, do no work, and the right can seemingly never be revoked. The only difference is that one is a fiction to trick you into it, and the other is just straight forward. But since nobody can agree to UBI, the liars version gets rolled out instead.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
The thing you have to understand is the WMATA jobs aren't real jobs. They are UBI. Nobody there actually works. There was a major accident maybe 10 years ago. When they went over the inspection logs, they discovered that the same log had been photocopied for decades. I don't think they even updated the dates on the forms. It was shameless, haphazard, and nobody caught it, nobody cared, even after there was an accident and people died, nothing changed. A few people immediately responsible got fired. But then, bafflingly, they sued and got their jobs back.
If The System Is What It Does, WMATA is UBI with a rotting piece of infrastructure from the 70's attached as a hostage.
Well, I suppose it also lets criminals from DC spread throughout the countryside and victimize more people.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
Well, I signed on the line that was dotted. I received a life changing offer I couldn't refuse, and I couldn't be happier about the total compensation, or the work I'll be doing.
Reflections on the process:
- The interviewers were just happy I actually prepared. Read all the prep material they sent, did the leetcode problems they suggested, etc. Apparently most people just come in off the street expecting to YOLO into a job. I suspect this is downwind of my area being awash in people used to being a butt in seat that can be billed to the government, whether work gets done or not.
- Having the proper qualifications to be a butt in seat still gets you a pretty good offer. The moment my resume went up on the board people advertise such availability, I had one of the regional megacorps cold calling me with an offer that was already generous beyond my previous employer. Was about 72 hours between the cold call, quick technical screening, offer, counter offer, and approval. They could have probably scooped most people with that approach. I had to stretch it out way longer to make sure I gave other opportunities a chance.
- My wife is a former recruiter, and I think I did absolutely every single thing she told me not to do. I said almost everything she told me not to say. It all worked out in the end, far better than I could have ever dreamed. I donno, maybe all that "Just be yourself" advice isn't complete bullshit after all.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
Chronicles of Prydain
You know, I was just talking about this series with a friend of mine. She's read it about a dozen times apparently, and is chomping at the bit to read it to her son. Assured me it's very appropriate for children, and it was written by a friend of Tolkien's specifically to be a more kid accessible fantasy series than LotR proper.
I don't know if that last part is true, but that's what she told me.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
It turns out that he simply got 53% of the votes.
Yes, you gloss over the most distressing part like that somehow makes it better. That makes it worse. Far, far worse. Virginia Democrats saw a candidate espouse that you should murder you political opponents children to make an example of them, and they went, enthusiastically, "That's our guy!" I live among them. Trust me. They are telling you exactly who they are. They want you (well probably not you, but definitely me) dead. The only thing they can't agree on is the order in which my family should be murdered to cause the most anguish to the survivors in their last moments.
If it were one bad guy, maybe the next guy won't be so bad. Maybe there will be electoral backlash. But when voters go "No, we actually want the guy that wants to murder you", that's civil war territory.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
I doubt kids that have his genes will turn into uncontrollable feral monsters.
As someone who has to constantly push back on my wife's inability to have boundaries with our 6 year old, and all the attendant issues it causes, no amount of "genes" makes up for allowing your child to never be forced to respect boundaries. These are choices, and the wrong ones make your life infinitely worse.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3mo ago
The brainrot is real. I don't know how much of it is phones, short form content, people not reading anymore, microplastics clogging up our brains, metabolic dysfunction from shitty diets, or what.
I will say, reading more, eating better, exercising regularly and fasting has helped my mental clarity enormously.
His livestream?!
What are we even doing man...
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