totm nov 2023 Thread to discuss negative things in a very general way, just see where it goes y'know?

[DDE]

1 hour ago, AstroWolfie said:

Why?

OK, a good start would be to explain the "methodology" of the responses above. Was it Google and it GPT-esque search agent?

1 hour ago, AstroWolfie said:

Instead of reading, learning, debating, and improving it, people will search for an opinion based answer that they think is right instead of the real facts.

What's new, then? That the Internet would somehow lead to qualitative improvements in public discourse was a naive dream back from its early days. Access to information was never the problem.

[Lisias]

3 hours ago, DDE said:

Access to information was never the problem.

Uh.. it was. Been there, done that 

In the 80s and 90s I had to spend considerable amounts of money to acquire books and periodicals to have access to information that nowadays I can reach using Altavis... I mean, Google.

I'm not kidding, it costed me a lot. Sometimes I had to spend 70USD (in 80s and 90s dollars, not to mentioning shipping and exchange, I'm on LATAM) to buy a book just to read a freaking chapter that told me I need to buy another one. And yeah, shipping books by snail mail also took lots of time too, not rarely a month.

So, yeah. Access to information was always a problem even if you had the money, what to say about shallow pockets professionals that couldn't afford doing what I did?

Edited June 21 by Lisias
Book, damned autocomplete, BOOK. I'm not talking about booms! CRAP

[Kerbart]

42 minutes ago, Lisias said:

Uh.. it was. Been there, done that

And the books were worse, back then. As book store shelves were the #1 way of advertising a book, most IT related books tended to have 3" (7.5 cm) wide spines to make them better visible. Filling those 800 pages takes more time than the 300-400 pages you see nowadays, so that drives up the price (then there's printing, shipping...) Glad those days are over.

[Lisias]

7 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

And the books were worse, back then. As book store shelves were the #1 way of advertising a book, most IT related books tended to have 3" (7.5 cm) wide spines to make them better visible. Filling those 800 pages takes more time than the 300-400 pages you see nowadays, so that drives up the price (then there's printing, shipping...) Glad those days are over.

It's not the experience I had - but I was consuming very niche books like Tannenbaum, Richard Stevens and Donald Knuth. Essentially, that books used to cost me the same, no matter how much pages they had.

Some more technical specific ones, like EGA&VGA programming were slightly cheaper.

Things got "better" when O’Reilly came, I still have a bunch of that hard copy books. I may agree with you on some of these books, but still they were the best I could afford at that time, so I can't say that times were worst than nowadays when I just don't have enough free time to find the resources I want with the quality I need on the ocean of crap content. As a matter of fact, I bought some O’Reilly books about Perl 2 months ago, as I got fed up with the current zeitgeist of the language and decided to bite the bullet and get the job done instead of double guessing everything I find online.

[Nuke]

im in one of those weird moods today where i want to do something, but dont know what. games, projects, feeding the gnats, ive started six different things and didnt get beyond looking at it and saying meh. i even took a walk around the block before coming to the conclusion that it was too much excitement for me.

Edited June 21 by Nuke

[AstroWolfie]

9 hours ago, DDE said:

Was it Google and it GPT-esque search agent?

Real google. I don’t trust AI (it stands for Abominable Intelligence anyway)

[DDE]

3 hours ago, AstroWolfie said:

Real google. I don’t trust AI (it stands for Abominable Intelligence anyway)

AFAIK Google is beginning to integrate GPTish algorithms into its search and summarization, without a choice to be disregarded.

[Zozaf Kerman]

5 hours ago, AstroWolfie said:

Real google. I don’t trust AI (it stands for Abominable Intelligence anyway)

You can pay google to push your search results up the algorithm, so idk if “real” is a good adjective to describe Google

(I recommend presearch)

Edited June 22 by Zozaf Kerman
Typos

[kerbiloid]

 

On 6/20/2024 at 6:48 PM, DDE said:

The wind flipped the portajohn over, door-first, trapping him inside - fortunately with a mobile phone, so he was freed in under 15 minutes.

Now he had his own inside.

The cars should have a backup hatch in the bottom, like tanks.

18 hours ago, AstroWolfie said:

Why?

Cuz the dawggies are clever, and they attack only bad people while protecting good people.

It's a problem that you have no idea are you good or bad for this exact dawg.

15 hours ago, Kerbart said:

most IT related books tended to have 3" (7.5 cm) wide spines to make them better visible. Filling those 800 pages takes more time than the 300-400 pages you see nowadays, so that drives up the price

The IT books got thinner because they have realized that the IT staff is smarter than it seems, and is able to read books without pictures.

[ColdJ]

Attempted to download and use the last version of unity known to work with part tools, Once installed it wouldn' work unless I downloaded and installed Unity Hub, then it wouldn't work unless I created an account and signed in. And it wouldn't work unless I was online. Then it kept making me use Captcha over and over. Who designs a system when it asks for how many squares contain fire hydrants and then has 1 hydrant spread accross many squares, with mere slivers in some? Then it gives you super grainy pics and asks you to find squares that contain something  over and over for 5 minutes.

Needless to say I have uninstalled and deleted the account.

[Nuke]

8 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Attempted to download and use the last version of unity known to work with part tools, Once installed it wouldn' work unless I downloaded and installed Unity Hub, then it wouldn't work unless I created an account and signed in. And it wouldn't work unless I was online. Then it kept making me use Captcha over and over. Who designs a system when it asks for how many squares contain fire hydrants and then has 1 hydrant spread accross many squares, with mere slivers in some? Then it gives you super grainy pics and asks you to find squares that contain something  over and over for 5 minutes.

Needless to say I have uninstalled and deleted the account.

they want you to train their ai for them. i feel like i should get paid for that kind of thing.

this is why i shy away from game engines. sure it saves you 99% of the effort to lay down the low level stuff, but then you dont understand the low level stuff. its amazing what you can do with a very small number of libraries. gcc, gimp, and blender. though my most developed project is written almost entirely in lua.

[Nuke]

today, was hell. mom decides out of the blue that she wants to go out to eat for the first time in 3 years. so we pick a restaurant but they dont open till 4, but mom wants to eat now. so we go to a different restaurant. kind of an outdoor arrangement that's open in summer time. now when we were getting ready the sky is blue the weather is hot. but by the time we get there we got the kind of random torrential down poor that sometimes happen when you live in a rain forest. it was short and didn't last much longer than the meal. fortunately they have a nice leaky tent to sit under. mom is complaining the whole time. her buggy which was donated by an elderly man getting an upgrade is none too easy to control and her burger is too huge and a myriad of other complaints. its wet. she cant move. 3 times she almost ran over a dog (and not the same one). to make matters worse the other guests were very rude with the kind of language that is more suited to a brothel than a family establishment. meanwhile mom is complaining that her burger is under cooked. i'm not even sure the patties they used were 100% beef (i make a superior burger to any restaurant in this town). i rush through my dinner because im not far from having a panic attack and i want to get out of there. so as we are wheeling out, she decides she wants cake. so we go down to the grocery store and after spending a good 10 minutes just squeezing through the door.  we spend another 10 minutes shopping ending up with cake and peanut butter cups. she complains some more. on the way home we pass by the dispensary and she keeps encouraging my bad habits, id already stopped by twice this month. stopping every six feet to reiterate the inquiry. finally we get far enough away where she stops asking, we finally get home, and what does she do, she invites the neighbor over for coffee on the deck. so now i got to play musical chairs, and dry them off. almost immediately the downpour starts again. just getting mom back in the house took more effort than id like all while im standing in the rain. she finally took a nap. i deserve a paycheck and a sainthood.

[ColdJ]

8 hours ago, Nuke said:

i deserve a paycheck and a sainthood.

Some good vibes being sent through the ether to you.

[Nuke]

dear logitech. why do you design over priced, over complicated mice and then put shoddy microswitches in them? when i buy a premium mouse product, maybe spend the money on top notch parts rather than over complicated and mostly unnecessary engineering.

Edited Monday at 11:51 PM by Nuke

[Superfluous J]

On 6/21/2024 at 11:19 AM, AstroWolfie said:

I just realized: with the internet, humanity has access to almost ALL the world’s knowledge. So, what do people do with it? Instead of reading, learning, debating, and improving it, people will search for an opinion based answer that they think is right instead of the real facts.
Here’s an example:

  Hide contents

Search Query: Are pit bulls safe around kids? Answer: “Pit bulls have gained a reputation for being devoted family pets, and it's well-deserved. Their gentle nature, combined with their natural protectiveness, makes them excellent companions for children of all ages”

Search Query: Are pit bulls dangerous around kids? Answer: “The American Pit Bull Terrier is considered one of the most dangerous dog breeds – both in the U.S. and internationally. They are a very aggressive breed and have been known to attack and kill people. They are also very strong dogs and can easily overpower anyone that stands in their way.”

Why?

For me, both return the first result.

Also IMO both are valid points here. Your question is a bit vague.

"Is it okay for my kids to walk into a yard with pit bulls chained up in it?" is a very different question than "Can I buy my kids a pit bull puppy or will it eat them first chance it gets?"

Edited Tuesday at 12:23 AM by Superfluous J

[StrandedonEarth]

18 minutes ago, Superfluous J said:

"Can I buy my kids a pit bull puppy or will it eat them first chance it gets?"

Such a hit-and-miss question. Answer: "It depends." Smart answer: "Never leave your kid alone with any dog."

 

Any dog can have an instinct triggered that makes them snap; it's just that pit bulls are so powerful they can do more damage quite quickly.

[Nuke]

pit bulls are actually extremely loyal dogs. they only attack people who they think are threatening their family. that can be a mailman, or your kids friends, or my personal favorite religious missionaries.

note that i do not condone dog ownership and prefer living with a bunch of cats.

[TheSaint]

2 hours ago, StrandedonEarth said:

Such a hit-and-miss question. Answer: "It depends." Smart answer: "Never leave your kid alone with any dog."

 

Any dog can have an instinct triggered that makes them snap; it's just that pit bulls are so powerful they can do more damage quite quickly.

This.

When I was in grade school my mother decided that we should purchase an AKC-registered Pekingese dog. It was the stupidest dog I've ever met. It bit every single family member in the house, except for my brother, which was especially stupid, because my brother never fed that dog once. When that dog died at the age of 6 of gastric torsion he was completely unmourned. 

One of my buddies had a Chihuahua. Meanest, nastiest dog he's ever seen. Bit everyone in his family except for him. Including his wife, who was the one who insisted that they get the dog when it was a puppy.  He lived to be 15 years old, ornery until the day he died. When he was gone they swore off dogs completely.

Here is what those two dogs have in common: They're dinky little turds. If they're acting up, you can literally just pick them up and hold them over your head. Both of those breeds are, IMHO, far more aggressive than American Staffordshire Terriers (i.e. Pit Bulls). But nobody cares. If they start attacking you, you just pick them up and laugh at them. It isn't that they're less aggressive, it's that they're less capable of doing damage.

We had an AmStaff for thirteen years, all through our kids' childhoods. She was the sweetest dog you've ever met. Never bit anyone or anything. Our kids used to ride her like a horse.

The dog we have now, who is a total mutt, but appears to be mostly golden retriever and German shepherd, is great as well. We just had her in to the vet for a dental procedure and tumor removal, and even the vet said, "If we were just doing a dental cleaning, I would say we could do it under mild sedation, because she's so compliant. But, since we're doing the tumor removal anyway, we'll just do it all under anesthesia." (She's doing fine, BTW. But she hates the Cone of Shame, which she has to wear for another week.)

So, I don't know. I guess it's just luck of the draw? The dogs we've had the best luck with have been female, so pick the girl puppies would be my best advice, but I can't say that's a silver bullet.

[Nuke]

i remember when i got sadie, she attacked a pit bull. seeing a 2 pound kitten dominate a pit bull was both adorable and very amusing.

Edited Tuesday at 04:18 PM by Nuke

[Nuke]

i find it somewhat depressing that im always the last to post when i come to complain about the thing of the day. what can i say its been an evenfull last couple of weeks.

ever feel bad about doing the right thing? tuesday mail run. i get a letter from the state of utah. turns out it was a check for $500. a state tax return check. i have nevr paid taxes nor set foot in the state of utah. i went down to the police department and asked if it was a scam check. they couldnt tell me one way or the other. suggested i take it to my bank and not call any of the numbers on the check. so i go over to my bank. they couldnt tell me anything either. gave me the number for right government office in utah. so i get home, some time later i call the number. turns out the check in question was sent to the wrong address because the ssn was off by one digit. he suggested i write rts on it and send it back (we paid the postage). had they sent this check to my brother he would be $500 richer and the weasel probably would have gotten away with it. curse you for getting my hopes up, making me paranoid, and then disappointing me.

[TheSaint]

14 hours ago, Nuke said:

had they sent this check to my brother he would be $500 richer and the weasel probably would have gotten away with it.

Oh, you have one of those as well? You have my condolences.

This has been a crappy month. I would put it down as one of my top 5 crappiest months ever.

• My mother-in-law passed away, suddenly and completely unexpectedly, the first week.
• Literally the next day my father-in-law collapsed at home. They brought him to the hospital and they discovered that the liposarcoma in his thigh, which they thought they had been successfully treating, has metastasized to his lungs.
• We had a water main leak at our house. The good news is that it wasn't under the slab. The bad news is that it was four feet underground in the front yard. In a better month I probably could have fixed it myself, but with everything else that was going on I decided to pay a plumber. 
• I took my wife's car into the shop to fix a slow leak that had developed on one tire. Turns out that while we were on our road trip back in May somehow the alignment went off and now the tread was completely gone on the inside of two tires. So a new set of tires two years early.
• Our dog needed surgery. We found a lump behind her right ear back in January, took her to the vet and we decided it should be removed. And she had a cracked tooth that needed to be removed. Between the vet's schedule and our schedule, this was the earliest we could schedule it. (She's doing fine, but she is not enjoying the Cone of Shame, which she has to wear for another week.)

So, now my wife and kids are driving out to California this weekend to help her family start cleaning out her parent's house and help her sister make arrangements for her mother's funeral. Her dad is probably going to go into hospice, so this may very well be the last time they ever see him. I'm staying here until next week so I can take the dog in to get her stitches out, then I'm going to fly out and join them for a couple of days. All this after our emergency fund is already severely depleted.

So, it's been a really rough month. For those of you inclined to pray, it would be appreciated.

[Fizzlebop Smith]

33 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

[Omitted]

I am sorry to hear that so much befall you at once. In any singular situation, there would be enough emotional strain to require subsequent time to process.

I am currently struggling deeply with my own personal views on existence. My rational mind seems overwhelm my heart / soul & seeks to keep me firmly rooted in a prison of logic.

I will still pour forth positivity while thinking of you & will ask that the spirit of the universe (god) helps guide you through the ordeal.

 

[AstroWolfie]

Life’s been kinda rough for me too. But it always is. You just have to carry on. Focus on the good, and accept the bad. 

[Fizzlebop Smith]

Yes. Life has a tendency to suck at times. The singular facet that every being  shares with one another.. is pain. 

Knowing that every single person  has experienced misery... keeps me grounded in those moments of my own pain.

I used to write.. a very very long time ago. As I currently combat the most recent round of mental malaise I find myself furious with my inability to truly engage with the written word.

Poetry no longer pours from my fingers like curse words flowing from the great Samuel L. Jackson's lips.

It is likely the one thing that is most likely to contribute to a relapse. God how I wish the words would flow once again.

As I struggle with the ability to find elegant wordplay and powerful prose.. I attempt to put pen to paper 

 

Indubitably deeper,

Backward down.

I spiral slowly, without a sound

Wholly delivered,

Into silence profound

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:26 PM by Fizzlebop Smith

[AlamoVampire]

I am upset. I was a member in good standing with a model radio control aircraft club for nearly 30 years. I joined in high school as a freshman and that was 97/98 school year. We as a club would have our dues come up in July at the meeting. Well as we know July is just days away. I was getting concerned that I had not yet seen the newsletter for June which would have the notice for the July meeting and when/ where it would be. I contacted at first the officer in charge of membership over a week ago and then a few days later having gotten 0 reply. Then yesterday I reached out to the vice president of the club seeking information. I finally got a reply back informing me the club dissolved. No word was sent out to members not on social media or not receiving the electronic newsletter or at the final meeting the dissolution occurred at. Im frustrated that this happened. Nearly 30 years dedicated in dues and loyalty to not be given the courtesy of being told the clubs gone before nearly spamming the entire leadership wanting to just be a good upstanding member.

235606272024