Semi-Hemi-Demigod

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

This graph needs to be put on a poster with the caption "This is what you pay IT for"

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Commercial spaceflight for NASA reminds me of when the Postal Service contracted out airmail. From 1918 to 1926, all air mail service was flown by US government pilots, in US government planes. Then they contracted it out to a little airplane company named Boeing.

I think NASA should absolutely be focused on deep space exploration, and LEO operations. But even if all they do is contract out their launches it would encourage people to reduce launch costs, which I think should be our number two goal after fighting climate change.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Those users don't send usage data back to Haier that they can then sell to other companies

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

I bet they're using data sales to subsidize the cost of the devices.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

If they have a good support team they already have a form letter for "you are using this product in an unsupported way" and it takes about 30 seconds to process them.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

Even knowing the crazy shit that happens when your body is "donated for science" I still want it. It would be neat for some weirdo to have my skull on their shelf, or get dissected in front of an audience.

Now that I think about it, I should sell off my body parts like a Ferengi.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

That would also be good, but Last Week Tonight did a story that showed the reality is more like I described

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Reality collapses every Thursday and is replaced with something even more inexplicable.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Keeps doing things no user/customer asked for

I'm pretty sure the advertisers - their real customers - asked them to show more ads.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

The fediverse has better memes anyway

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

If you want to talk about shitty robots, grocery stores have shitty robots. The thing can only wander around and look for spills and stuff, and then it just beeps and an employee has to come clean it up.

Basically they automated the assistant manager position.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

All they did was eliminate jobs

That's awesome. Jobs suck. Nobody likes jobs. We should automate even more things so people don't have to do work.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Humans survived for millions of years without jobs. I am doubtful that we actually need them.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

It's not just coffee shops. It's hotel rooms and restaurants and homes. Hell, even our cars only come in two shapes now: Egg and Box. And three colors: White, gray, or black

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Volvo's EVs seem pretty nice

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

I tried to read the article but it was paywalled. Or it wanted me to turn off my ad blocker before I could read the article. Or it was a video. Or the source was something like www.patriotusaeaglenews.ru.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Standing near someone is too much social interaction for me and I can do the self checkout blindfolded.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

There's some product manager at Bing who probably got a promotion for that

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

I mean, the Scots invented paved roads, tires, bicycles, steam engines, penicillin, postage stamps, television, radar, and universal standard time so they must have been doing something right.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Even better: Leaving that land undeveloped and natural, instead of cramming humans or cars on it

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

This is why a text-based IDE will always be necessary

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

You know what would eliminate a ton of drunk driving?

Functional Public Transit

But that isn't something we can pass off onto the consumer and break their cars, so we're not gonna do it.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

This is why marketing is a bullshit job.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

She's so much of a Trekkie she did the LL&P sign backwards

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 5 months ago

Best White House Correspondents Dinner ever.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 6 months ago

This truck screams "I just blew my enlistment bonus"

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 6 months ago

It really is a great plant: Easy to grow even in bad soil, simple to harvest, full of starch, and easy to store without refrigeration. If you've got a sunny balcony and a big pot you can grow a fifty pounds a season, and you can start with potatoes you buy from the store.

While the Eastern hemisphere was breeding livestock the Western Hemisphere was breeding plants. (There's only one domesticatable animal in the Americas so they had some free time.) With that time they created potatoes, hot peppers, tomatoes, maize, squash, pineapples, peanuts, and many more.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 6 months ago

Unless they're service dogs. Then you just get a little choked up at how great dogs are because you shouldn't pet them when they're working.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 7 months ago

One of my favorites is Whoogle, a simple Google search proxy. It accepts search requests and forwards them to Google anonymously, then strips out the AMP links and tracking. There's even an option for it to use Tor so your IP address changes frequently.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 7 months ago

I discovered yesterday that they no longer sell 16 ounce containers of ricotta cheese. They're all now 15oz or 30oz. So if you have a recipe that needs four cups of cheese you have to either adjust the rest of the recipe down or deal with having a 1/4 cup less cheese than you really need.

Fuck capitalism.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 8 months ago

Wikipedia should run a fund raiser: "Give us a billion dollars or we'll change the name."

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 8 months ago

Gordon doesn't seem to have a problem with the workers as long as they're doing their jobs. It's usually the managers he gets the most angry with.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 9 months ago

Plus they use lava lamps to help generate random numbers which is pretty cool

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 9 months ago

It's the eternal IT conundrum. Something goes wrong: "What are we paying you for?!" Everything goes right: "What are we paying you for?!"

It's best to ignore the users as much as possible and just keep working.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 9 months ago

Chokepoint capitalism tends not to work when two chokepoints fight each other.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 9 months ago

I wonder if we could mathematically model this as merging black holes.

Because they both suck.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 9 months ago

The soil under my house is about two inches nitrogen-free gravel with a solid hunk of clay underneath, so I'm thinking I'll make roof tiles and trade those for food. Especially because I kill every green thing I touch.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 11 months ago

It's also a lot easier to multiply and divide recipes if you switch it over to metric. This is particularly useful if you don't have enough of one ingredient and need to reduce the others by that ratio.

Then there's the ability to measure the ingredient directly out of the container, using any scoop you can find, rather than needing multiple sets of measuring spoons.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 11 months ago

I don't think Biden will intervene in this case. It's one company that's going on strike, not a whole system of transportation. The economic impact will be significant but limited, as there are others that will pick up what slack they can.

Of course, this means that to preserve the right to strike we need to break companies up so they're not too big to fail.

Semi-Hemi-Demigod , 11 months ago

I was talking to a guy at my neighbor's party and he asked how I keep my lawn looking so good. I said "I mow it infrequently, keep it long, and don't try to get rid of weeds." In the hottest part of the summer mine still looks good, and it's full of clover and dandelions for the bees.