This is just like when Paypal got started and was basically operating their own bank. Good luck doing that without getting in trouble. This is selling pharmaceutical drugs over the internet. You're playing chicken with going to jail they just happened to get lucky.
I just met a guy from Amazon this past weekend who was bragging, "We've got unlimited access to LLMs and our developers have 10 agents going at a time.". I tried telling him it wasn't all unicorns and rainbows but I didn't get the impression he cared and just kept crapping out skittles.
I really enjoy Patrick Boyle's reports. Really high information content with very little fluff. I love how he sneaks in the deadpan snarky comment every once in a while.
I replaced all the light switches in my house with smart dimmers and have the lights dim in the evening. It happens in steps so it's noticeable and it's like a clock ticking down. I don't know if there's anything scientific about it but it's pleasant, like the house is going to sleep so maybe I should too.
What does verifying code by hand even mean? Do we now have artisanal testing, lovingly hand crafted? I get the current debate about LLM assisted coding but this is mudslinging and not constructive discussion.
I suspect that we are going to see managers say, "Hey, this request is BS. I'm just going to get ChatGPT to do it" while employees say, "Hey, this response is BS, I'm just going to get ChatGPT to do it" and then we'll just have ChatGPT talking to itself. Eventually someone will notice and fire them both.
Why have I been seeing people use "enshitification" so much lately? Yes I know where it comes from and what it means. It's like Cory Doctorow is the new Noam Chomsky of IT and enshitification has replaced "manufactured consent".
I'm usually pretty good at explaining new technologies to people but WebAssembly has got to be the most difficult to try and explain. The sheer number of misunderstandings about it is amazing. Luckily the misunderstandings serve my purpose for right now so I'm glad to see all the noise.
No, I meant a General Purpose Language (GPL) or actually this was an application specific language. You don't need to be so pedantic. Yes, the L is for language but the idea of a DSL is not well defined but these remarks reinforce my argument that people are too dogmatic.
I just came across a situation where I had a DSL but it was clear that a language would have been better. What I don't like about this is the dogmatic tone which is pretty common in IT. Don't to it that way, do it my way! Sometimes a DSL is a solid choice, sometimes a language is a better one, sometimes you might want to support both but I guess "Choose the right abstraction for your domain" doesn't make for a clickbait title.
It does't tell you if it's bad, it only tells you how old it is. You get to decide if you want to eat it. It makes the decision process easier and helps to select the older leftovers that are still good but pushing it on the age.
I've found the blue tape and a sharpie to be a game changer. It helps me keep my fridge tidy without having to go through everything and guess if it's still ok. I find I actually waste less food when I throw things out regularly because I know that if it's in there it's good to eat and it doesn't get lost among old leftovers that aren't any good anymore anyway.
It's amazing that anyone that has seen anything in technology in the last 30 years can say, "better be careful. They might stop subsidizing this and then it's gunna get expensive!" is ridiculous. I can buy a 1Tb flash drive for $100. Please, even with every reason to amortize the hardware over the longest horizon possible are only going out 6 years. 64K should be enough for anyone right?
PII redaction is an interesting problem but what always concerns me is what gets lost in the marketing. This is always a best effort redaction and full redaction of PII can't be guaranteed. I wouldn't run HIPPA data through this although I know of one company that is doing exactly that.
I've never understood electric pickup trucks. If those fugly wheel covers make a significant difference to your range on a highly aerodynamic sedan how does a pickup truck make any sense?
Why does it have to be all or nothing? How about a clever name or two for marketing that stands out and doesn't get lost in a sentence "I'm not asking you to search, I'm asking you to use the search command" but not obnoxiously over done where everything is named after some Norse god or some other silliness.
Ever seen the movie OfficeSpace? It's funny as hell partly because there's a lot of truth to it. Here's the interesting part it was released in 1999 and the dot-com bubble didn't burst until March 2000. It didn't do well when it was released, probably because everyone was busy snorting toxic positivity, but it endured longer than Enron.
I wrote this blog post on a similar idea likening LLM's to glue guns. Versatile sure but better for keeping the rest of the pieces together then building the entire thing out of it. https://medium.com/p/d3ef3960dc83