Rotundo

Most memorable to me: https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1966-72-06/S0002-9904-1966...

Short, succinct and no AI in sight.

It happens on all the big platforms.

There is no way to reach useful support. Computer says no, and that's it.

Don't get dependent on these services in the first place. You are not the user, you never were. You are one of the used. You are not important to them.

Find a local community and make real connections. With real people.

The language is perhaps ambiguous.

"Sickness absence" can be read as "absence of sickness (thus being healthy)" or "absence (from work) due to sickness".

A reduction of sickness absence can be interpreted as a reduction of "not being sick", i.e. an increase in sickness.

But the original reply was perhaps just being pedantic in jest.

Export in mbox format. Every mail client, now and in the future, will be able to read that.

Microsoft Word 2024, part of Office 2024.

One-time purchase, or via subscription:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/get-started-wi...

This is, trivially, not intelligent nor conscious:

  function add(x): return x + 1; end.

An LLM has a bit of randomness to its calculations but that does not change the fact that

  function add_random(x): return x + rand(1, 10); end

is also just math. No personality. There's nobody home. After the function ends there is no residue.

An LLM does a lot of calculations but that doesn't change how it works.

Useful robotics are heavy and use a lot of power.

Honestly, I could use a timer that pings me for diverse chores in and around the house.

A fixed schedule is easy, but it could react to events and circumstances. Consolidate everything in one app or device:

- (ding!) It's Thursday evening, do the laundry!

- (ding!) Heavy rain is forecast, check the gutters!

- (ding!) Family coming around tomorrow, better clean up!

- (ding!) You did laundry yesterday, now fold and put away!

That sort of thing. Everything in one place.

Hmm, perhaps I should vibe that up myself...?

Using PWM to dim lights should be banned wholesale. Many people, me included, get crazy headaches from the worst lights and mild discomfort from the best ones. It's also completely unnecessary as non-flickering bulbs do exist and are readily available for the same price.

Over here, joggers are frequently wearing headlamps to illuminate their way. Often combined with a light on their back. They can see and can be seen, which is safe.

Looks like Kennedy Approach from mumble years ago!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgi2fuSL9tk&t=28s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Approach

The point of the article is that the EU should have moved faster to achieve energy independence after 2022 gas crisis. Dependence on foreign oil and gas is a limiting factor for the EU. So, more heat pumps and more electric vehicles.

What the article does not mention is that, renewables notwithstanding, most electricity is generated with coal (base load) and gas turbines (for fast load changes). This solves nothing in itself. Nuclear is taboo in some countries and a hot topic in others. Either way it will take a long time to solve this.

The manuscript starts with:

> All men by nature desire to know.

I'm not sure if I can take this Aristotle guy serious or not. In present day most people are not interested in knowledge at all, some are actively pursuing to stay ignorant. I suspect that wasn't too different in ancient Greece. Just that Aristotle moved in academia where knowledge was appreciated.

Even so many years ago, broad sweeping statements are more often wrong than right.

I've seen pictures of the cockpit of a large plane where the gear lever has an actual wheel on the end of it.

I think that is exceptional good design.

Depends on age of the listener, on average, 30 to 50 year olds hear a maximum frequency of 14 to 16 kHz.

The blog post sums up why users of Windows might want this.

However, this is not what Microsoft wants or needs. Microsoft is doing just fine by providing businesses what they need: a platform that can be tightly controlled and is easy to administer for large user counts.

It's hot. Temperature is at or near an all-time high.

But also, the sun feels a lot stronger! You can feel your skin starting to burn in a couple of minutes. That's new.

Is the air cleaner than it used to be? Is the sun at a maximum in its cycle? I don't know but the difference is startling.

If this is only the beginning of an upwards trend in the coming years, there's going to be big issues...

> how do you stop yourself from hoarding tasks and decide what to work on next?

By realizing most tasks aren't important, if you let them mature for a bit. Things only seem important in the moment.

Three days later the world (or project, or whatever) has moved on and nobody will miss the skipped task.

Amazing. Thank you for giving me a new mental tool.

I got back to writing longer texts by mentally separating writing and editing. When writing, just write. Even when you think the paragraph could be better, keep on writing.

Only start editing when a substantial piece is ready. Clean up some wording, rewrite a paragraph or two.

Even then, don't overdo it. There is always something to improve, you'll never be done that way. Good enough is good enough, hit publish and go on write the next thing.

I'm not sure I agree with the article, or at least not its title. It argues mostly about things the Pope didn't say.

I'm sure he could have said a lot more, but he wasn't wrong.

> I would like an audio device which can play mp3, podcasts, internet radio.

Get a second-hand Apple iPod Touch, remove all apps you don't need.

For just mp3 and podcasts: get an iPod Classic (or Video) and install Rockbox.

Rockbox is amazing.

Looks like a useful project. Wish there was a picture to see how it looks though.

Creating more software does not solve anything if that software is mostly a functional duplicate of other software. Or, in other words, all companies re-invent the wheel many times over. It doesn't matter if you 10x the development of software that brings nothing new besides being written in a shiny new framework.

We should, IMHO, start getting rid of most software. Go back to basics: what do you need, make that better, make it complete. Finish a piece of software for once.

No, absolutely not.

Unless it's to do official government business like taxes, I won't use any website requiring official digital ID.

If that means I can't use most of the internet, so be it.

Yeah, 1993 here. Same.

Not only one thing after another, but often the same things all over again after a decade or so.

For command line you won't go wrong with abcde ("A Better CD Encoder") or cdparanoia if you don't need all the bells and whistles. For GUI take a look at asunder.

Removing the bitterness makes it an orange. We already have those.

I like grapefruit as it is. Let's not do this.

Software will be even more a commodity than it already is. A hundred apps that do the same thing, what's the point? Rebuilding everything in a new framework every three years, why? The money is gone, or will be very soon.

We've been automating people out of a job for decades. And now we've outfoxed ourselves.

I have everything set up as direct debit. I see, maybe, two invoices a year, if that.

To be honest, I don't "do" my finances. I look at my bank statements (on my phone) once every couple of months or so. It never goes wrong.