orr94

My most effective strategy is to ask: is there any reason for a human to take this picture?

One AI-generated image was a bedside night stand, with no clutter other than a set of keys on top of a receipt. It looked perfectly real, no glitches or weirdness... other than the idea of someone taking a picture of it.

Not a perfect strategy, though; I thought this one was AI for just that reason: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Potted_plant_1_2018-...

> Students were required to cite AI as a collaborator, just as they would credit input from a fellow student.

That's... weird.

"AIs want the future to be like the past, and AIs make the future like the past. If the training data is full of human bias, then the predictions will also be full of human bias, and then the outcomes will be full of human bias, and when those outcomes are copraphagically fed back into the training data, you get new, highly concentrated human/machine bias.”

https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/18/asbestos-in-the-walls/#go...

> delve

Nice try, ChatGPT!

That TODO was committed on 2022-02-16 and wasn't fixed until 2024-09-2. That is... a long time for something that critical.

> However, blindly adhering to a zero-bug policy can lead to wasted effort on issues that don’t matter to your customers or your product’s success.

This is kind of like insisting on 100% test coverage. Sure, you _can_ hit that mark if you really put in the effort, but there's a point at which the value you're adding isn't worth the opportunity cost.

Using text fragments is particularly useful when you don't control the page you're linking to and it doesn't have a good anchor to link to.

Not the NSA, but I know of at least one time the FBI did: https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/01/chinese-malware-rem...

I was ready for complaints about large collections of Java monoliths, now being called "megaliths". But this is cool, too.

Spider Strategies | Senior Java/Web Developer | REMOTE (USA) | Full-time, 4-day work week (8-hour days) | https://www.spiderstrategies.com/overview

Spider Strategies is seeking passionate full stack engineers to join our rapidly growing team. We’re the creators of Spider Impact, the leading Balanced Scorecard software in the market. As we expand into the broader business intelligence market and AI, we're looking for talented individuals to help take our company to the next level.

We believe in the importance of work-life balance, which is why we offer a 4-day work week with 8-hour days and flexible hours. This allows our developers to enjoy fulfilling, low-stress lives, and manage any social or family obligations they may have outside of work. When on the clock, they can focus on tackling interesting problems with clear minds. Our team loves working here, as demonstrated by an average tenure of more than 8 years on the software development team.

Requirements: Java and/or Kotlin (7+ years), JavaScript (7+ years), unit testing, SQL, DOM manipulation (VanillaJS, jQuery, D3, or similar)

Our Tech Stack: Our application uses Java and Kotlin to connect a relational database backend to a modern web frontend. We're looking for a full stack developer who can code a complete feature spanning the entire application stack. Don't worry if CSS isn't your strong suit - we have some CSS experts in-house who've got you covered.

Code Quality and Developer Productivity: With 20 years of experience developing our flagship software, we understand the importance of writing code that stands the test of time. We place a big emphasis on code quality, developer productivity, and test-driven development. This includes writing simple software that is easy to understand and maintain. By focusing on simplicity, we ensure that our codebase is more reliable, easier to debug, and can be efficiently extended and adapted as our business grows. You'll be expected to be familiar with industry best practices and to participate in code reviews to maintain our high standards of code quality.

To support your productivity, we provide top-of-the-line equipment, minimize unnecessary meetings and ceremonies, and allow you to work without interruption from the comfort of your home.

You can find more details and apply for the job at https://www.spiderstrategies.com/careers/remote-senior-java-...

Spider Strategies | Senior Java/Web Developer | REMOTE (USA) | Full-time, 4-day work week (8-hour days) | https://www.spiderstrategies.com/overview

Spider Strategies is seeking passionate full stack engineers to join our rapidly growing team. We’re the creators of Spider Impact, the leading Balanced Scorecard software in the market. As we expand into the broader business intelligence market and AI, we're looking for talented individuals to help take our company to the next level.

We believe in the importance of work-life balance, which is why we offer a 4-day work week with 8-hour days. This encourages our developers to enjoy full lives outside of work, and allows them to tackle challenging problems with clear heads when they’re on the clock.

Requirements: Java and/or Kotlin (7+ years), JavaScript (7+ years), unit testing, SQL, DOM manipulation (VanillaJS, jQuery, D3, or similar)

Our Tech Stack: Our application uses Java and Kotlin to connect a relational database backend to a modern web frontend. We're looking for a full stack developer who can code a complete feature spanning the entire application stack. Don't worry if CSS isn't your strong suit - we have some CSS experts in-house who've got you covered.

Code Quality and Developer Productivity: With 20 years of experience developing our flagship software, we understand the importance of writing code that stands the test of time. We place a big emphasis on code quality, developer productivity, and test-driven development. This includes writing simple software that is easy to understand and maintain. By focusing on simplicity, we ensure that our codebase is more reliable, easier to debug, and can be efficiently extended and adapted as our business grows. You'll be expected to be familiar with industry best practices and participate in code reviews to maintain our high standards of code quality.

To help you stay productive, we provide top-of-the-line equipment, minimize unnecessary meetings and ceremonies, and allow you to work without interruption from the comfort of your home.

You can find more details and apply for the job at https://www.spiderstrategies.com/careers/remote-senior-java-...

Spider Strategies | Senior Java/Web Developer | REMOTE (USA) | Full-time, 4-day work week (8-hour days) | https://www.spiderstrategies.com/overview

Spider Strategies is seeking passionate full stack engineers to join our rapidly growing team. We’re the creators of Spider Impact, the leading Balanced Scorecard software in the market. As we expand into the broader business intelligence market and AI, we're looking for talented individuals to help take our company to the next level.

We believe in the importance of work-life balance, which is why we offer a 4-day work week with 8-hour days. This encourages our developers to enjoy full lives outside of work, and allows them to tackle challenging problems with clear heads when they’re on the clock.

Requirements: Java and/or Kotlin (3+ years), JavaScript (3+ years), Test-driven development, SQL, HTML

Our Tech Stack: Our application uses Java and Kotlin to connect a relational database backend to a modern web frontend. We're looking for a full stack developer who can code a complete feature spanning the entire application stack. Don't worry if CSS isn't your strong suit - we have some CSS experts in-house who've got you covered.

Code Quality and Developer Productivity: With 20 years of experience developing our flagship software, we understand the importance of writing code that stands the test of time. We place a big emphasis on code quality, developer productivity, and test-driven development. This includes writing simple software that is easy to understand and maintain. By focusing on simplicity, we ensure that our codebase is more reliable, easier to debug, and can be efficiently extended and adapted as our business grows. You'll be expected to be familiar with industry best practices and participate in code reviews to maintain our high standards of code quality.

To help you stay productive, we provide top-of-the-line equipment, minimize unnecessary meetings and ceremonies, and allow you to work without interruption from the comfort of your home.

You can find more details and apply for the job at https://www.spiderstrategies.com/careers/remote-senior-java-...

Joel Spolsky’s classic on why you shouldn’t rewrite software pops up in my memory on a regular basis: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...

I make frequent use of the “rule of 3”. Jeff Atwood had a good post about it: https://blog.codinghorror.com/rule-of-three/

And whenever I think of my old job, I always remember Erik Dietrich’s classic on the Expert Beginner https://daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-th...

As someone who is both a “bad writer” and a “petty critic”, I think this is pretty solid advice.

> I personally think, in practice technology like this will only delay getting to net zero, because the existence of this will disincentivize investments in electrification. I recall Sun Tzu's claim that a force completely surrounded will fight fiercely, but if you give a way out, it will look to escape or retreat.

I think you’re misapplying Sun Tzu’s lesson. An attempt to completely and immediately replace the fossil fuel industry will be met with fierce resistance, and thus be more likely to fail. Whereas a more gradual approach (like carbon neutral-ish green hydrogen) gives much of the industry around fossil fuels an opportunity to survive longer, and perhaps gives you a better chance of success.

Is this actually true? Maybe, maybe not. But that would seem to be the implication of Sun Tzu’s strategy.

It’s benefiting the residents who use the improved public transit.

I love scifi art from this era. La Vie Électrique (1890) had some killer illustrations. I highlighted some of my favorites here:

https://sundry.jerryorr.com/2023/10/28/la-vie-electrique

> If you find yourself having trouble focusing on a task or you’re procrastinating about something, stop working on it immediately. This is your subconscious telling you something is wrong.

Absolutely, and it's one of the benefits of having years of experience writing software. Sometimes my instincts tell me something is off, even if I can't yet identify exactly what it is. Coming back to the problem later with a fresh perspective can do wonders.

> “The legislature is doing a bill, they are trying to protect our meat,” DeSantis said, alluding to the effort. “And we’re gonna have meat in Florida; we’re not gonna do that fake meat — that doesn’t work.”

How does someone like this get to be governor?

I'm probably stating the obvious, but eBay is a good bet for a lot of this stuff. Maybe just list a bunch of it, and if it doesn't sell in the limited timeframe you have, then you get rid of it through some other means.

That is a fascinating collection of stuff! I hope you're able to find a home for it.

Edit: there are also lots of retro arcade enthusiast groups out there. I don't know where you live, but I'd search for groups like that near you. This seems like something that would be a treasure trove for them.

> the more complex and unique your problems are, the more it makes sense to roll your own.

Of course, everyone thinks their problems are complex and unique.

If you need an interesting project to motivate you, you could try to build something with Arduino. It requires purchasing some hardware, of course, but it's cheap enough to play around with.

> Comcast Is Threatening To Cut Off Customers Who Use Tor, The Web Browser For Criminals

Uh, it's not "The Web Browser For Criminals". It's for people who want anonymity. And being slightly pedantic, Tor is also not a web browser. Tor Browser is.

Hmm, then I didn't really get that from the screenshot.

Is that screenshot the site itself? At first I thought I was seeing some chat app, so Staply must be some sort of browser plugin to connect it all together.

Basically, it looks like Staply is kind of a chat room app with file sharing as part of it. Or not? I was kind of confused.

Good point. All the more reason to actually measure and find the bottleneck.

Frankly, even using your own workstations could help. Especially if you run it overnight.

FWIW, some benchmarks say GraphicsMagick is faster than ImageMagick. http://www.compsci.wm.edu/SciClone/documentation/software/gr...

I suggest actually timing some of this stuff before writing off the idea. If an image can be processed in 1 second, and you can parallelize it to 4 cores, some quick and dirty (and probably useless) math says 2 million images could be done in just under 6 days. I don't think that's too shabby for 2 million images.

    At 5 seconds an image using a tool like ImageMagick (which might be optimistic)

Are you sure ImageMagick would take that long? I haven't timed it, but I don't recall thumbnail creation with ImageMagick taking that long.

Also, if you can parallelize it, it won't take 115 days.

I know many fine sysadmins and network engineers that couldn't code anything to save their lives. Coding is one of many ways to contribute in IT, and a lack of coding knowledge doesn't preclude one from understanding how technology works. Conversely, I have met several programmers that have a surprising lack of understanding of anything that goes on outside their code. Teaching everyone to code will not magically prepare them for the future, nor will a lack of coding knowledge prevent them from functioning in a high tech society.

Now, making technology a bigger part of the curriculum? I think that is a good idea.