billwashere
@billwashere@lemmy.world
- Comment on Perfect revenge 3 days ago:
AI slop or not, if someone really did this it would be so metal. Fuck the HOA
- Comment on Google search boss says AI isn’t killing search clicks 3 days ago:
It might be the most popular but it is utter crap and has been for a while. It has reached peak enshittification. You used to be able to say you absolutely wanted a term in the search or you didn’t want other terms. It ignores all of that now. Google stopped being about able to search years ago and is more about showing you the most relevant ad. I’m either DuckDuckGo or I self-host my own searxng. I’ve also tried using a locally hosted perplexica (running on my own local LLM) which uses searxng underneath the hood I think.
Btw: I’m a yank so I had to look up naff so I learned some cool new slang! Now I’ll admit I was being slightly flippant but serious in the fact that Google really sucks as a search engine now.
- Comment on Google search boss says AI isn’t killing search clicks 3 days ago:
People still use Google for search?
- Comment on ICE agents pointed guns at a US citizen when she walked out on to her yard to ask why they were arresting her (legal immigrant) partner. 4 days ago:
How much longer before one of these becomes an outright gun battle? Or some dude screaming “show me a warrant!!” while holding an AR15. I want someone to make these ICE fuckers scared to do this.
- Comment on Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK 6 days ago:
I’m confused. Is every app in the UK requiring face scanning? I thought it was just adult content.
- Comment on Recommendations for games to play on a treadmill (i.e. not too intense) 1 week ago:
Death Stranding 1 & 2. I mean they are walking simulators anyway. I’m not dissing the game at all. Probably have 500 hours plus in both of them combined.
- Comment on SignalRGB takes a swipe at Razer, makes functioning RGB toaster PC — quad-slice toaster case incorporates a Stream Deck, Mini-ITX components 1 week ago:
How To Build A Better Toaster:
Day 1: My boss, an engineer from the pre-CAD days, has successfully brought a generation of products from Acme Toaster Corp’s engineering labs to market. Bob is a wonder of mechanical ingenuity. All of us in the design department have the utmost respect for him, so I was honored when he appointed me the lead designer on the new Acme 2000 Toaster.
Day 6: We met with the president, head of sales, and the marketing vice president today to hammer out the project’s requirements and specifications. Here at Acme, our market share is eroding to low-cost imports. We agreed to meet a cost of goods of $9.50 (100,000). I’ve identified the critical issue in the new design: a replacement for the timing spring we’ve used since the original 1922 model. Research with the focus groups shows that consumers set high expectations for their breakfast foods. Cafe latte from Starbucks goes best with a precise level of toast browning. The Acme 2000 will give our customers the breakfast experience they desire. I estimated a design budget of $21,590 for this project and final delivery in seven weeks. I’ll need one assistant designer to help with the drawing packages. This is my first chance to supervise!
Day 23: We’ve found the ideal spring material. Best of all, it’s a well-proven technology. Our projected cost of goods is almost $1.50 lower than our goal. Our rough prototype, which was completed just 12 days after we started, has been servicing the employee cafeteria for a week without a single hiccup. Toast quality exceeds projections.
Day 24: A major aerospace company that had run out of defense contractors to acquire has just snapped up that block of Acme stock sold to the Mackenzie family in the ’50s. At a company wide meeting, corporate assured us that this sale was only an investment and that nothing will change.
Day 30: I showed the Acme 2000’s exquisitely crafted toast-timing mechanism to Ms. Primrose, the new engineering auditor. The single spring and four interlocking lever arms are things of beauty to me.
Day 36: The design is complete. We’re starting a prototype run of 500 toasters tomorrow. I’m starting to wrap up the engineering effort. My new assistant did a wonderful job.
Day 38: Suddenly, a major snag happened. Bob called me into his office. He seemed very uneasy as he informed me that those on high feel that the Acme 2000 is obsolete—something about using springs in the silicon age. I reminded Bob that the consultants had looked at using a microprocessor but figured that an electronic design would exceed our cost target by almost 50% with no real benefit in terms of toast quality. “With a computer, our customers can load the bread the night before, program a finish time, and get a perfect slice of toast when they awaken,” Bob intoned, as if reading from a script.
Day 48: Bill Compguy, the new microprocessor whiz, scrapped my idea of using a dedicated 4-bit CPU. “We need some horsepower if we’re gonna program this puppy in C,” he said, while I stared fascinated at the old crumbs stuck in his wild beard. “Time-to-market, you know. Delivery is due in three months. We’ll just pop this cool new 8-bitter I found into it, whip up some code, and ship to the end user.”
Day 120: The good news is that I’m getting to stretch my mechanical-design abilities. Bill convinced management that the old spring-loaded, press-down lever control is obsolete. I’ve designed a “motorized insertion port,” stealing ideas from a CD-ROM drive. Three cross-coupled, safety-interlock micro switches ensure that the heaters won’t come on unless users properly insert the toast. We’re seeing some reliability problems due to the temperature extremes, but I’m sure we can work those out.
Day 132: New schedule: We now expect delivery in three months. We’ve replaced the 8-bitter with a Harvard-architecture, 16-bit, 3-MIPS CPU. Day 172: New schedule: We now expect delivery in three months. Day 194: The auditors convinced management we really need a graphical user interface with a full-screen LCD. “You’re gonna need some horsepower to drive that,” Bill warned us. “I recommend a 386 with a half-meg of RAM.” He went back to design Revision J of the PC board.
Day 268: New schedule: We now expect delivery in three months. We’ve cured most of the electronics’ temperature problems with a pair of fans, though management is complaining about the noise. Bob sits in his office all day, door locked, drinking Jack Daniels. Like clockwork, his wife calls every night around midnight, sobbing. I’m worried about him and mentioned my concern to Chuck. “Wife?” he asked. “Wife? Yeah, I think I’ve got one of those, and two or three kids, too. Now, let’s just stick another meg of RAM in here, OK?”
Day 290: We gave up on the custom GUI and are now installing Windows CE. The auditors applauded Bill’s plan to upgrade to a Pentium with 32 Mbytes of RAM. There’s still no functioning code, but the toaster is genuinely impressive. Four circuit boards, bundles of cables, and a gigabit of hard-disk space. “This sucker has more computer power than the entire world did 20 years ago,” Bill boasted proudly.
Day 384: Toast quality is sub-par. The addition of two more cooling fans keeps the electronics to a reasonable temperature but removes too much heat from the toast. I’m struggling with baffles to vector the air, but the thrust of all these fans spins the toaster around.
Day 410: New schedule: We now expect delivery in three months. We switched from C++ to Java. “That’ll get them pesky memory-allocation bugs, for sure,” Bill told his team of 15 programmers. This approach seems like a good idea to me, because Java is platform-independent, and there are rumors circulating that we’re porting to a SPARC station.
Day 530: New schedule: We now expect delivery in three months. I mastered the temperature problems by removing all of the fans and the heating elements. The Pentium is now thermally bonded to the toast. We found a thermal grease that isn’t too poisonous. Our marketing people feel that the slight degradation in taste from the grease will be more than compensated for by the “toasting experience that can only come from a CISC-based, 32-bit multitasking machine running the latest multi-platform software.”
Day 610: The product ships. It weighs 72 lb and costs $325
- Comment on Amazon is considering shoving ads into Alexa+ conversations 1 week ago:
Yeah I understand the health issues for sure. First prostate cancer with a radical prostatectomy and then a year later Guillain-Barré Syndrome. I had lots of projects on hold for several years. This was like 5 years ago and I’m good now.
- Comment on Soup of Theseus 1 week ago:
In this case I believe there is a difference between “contain no original molecule of soup” and “so fucking close to water you might as well be having sex in a canoe”
- Comment on Y'ALL GOT ANY OF THEM HALLOPINERS 1 week ago:
Oh there are words. Most of them are incorrect though.
- Comment on The woman in the center of this pic is Dead 2 weeks ago:
You’ll notice these people are usually less fuzzy in the death pics because the shutter speed was pretty long and they aren’t moving.
- Comment on datacenter liquid cooling solution 2 weeks ago:
And air doesn’t leak all over your electronics. Well it does but it doesn’t short anything out.
- Comment on Age verification and the enshitification of streaming will help reduce the decline in computer literacy in under 18s 2 weeks ago:
I remember typing in BASIC programs for my commodore from a magazine. It actually did teach me quite a bit about coding.
- Comment on Noob Tailscale questions 2 weeks ago:
Best thing I ever did with Tailscale was install pfsense and then Tailscale on that. I use it at work that way. I have three separate data centers (with three pfsense VMs) with advertised routes for the three separate subnets. When I install the client on one machine, I can access all three networks automatically. I did the same thing at home so I can also access that easily as well.
I think what you’re ultimately looking for is the exit node capability. Not sure if the phone can act as an exit node but pfsense definitely can. I have a VPS hosted in NY that I use to get around certain geographical restrictions. I set it as my exit node and it looks like I’m coming from there. The desktop clients can as well.
Here’s what I’d do if I were you. Install Tailscale on a machine in your house. Set it up to advertise routes based on whatever IPs you’re using in your home. In my case it’s 10.0.0.0/24. Now any device you install Tailscale on will be able to connect to that network. Another thing you can do is any machine that is connected to your Tailscale will have a 100.x.x.x address that you can connect to directly.
Hope this helps.
- Comment on Hotels have developed a new revenue stream: "algorithmic" smoke detectors 3 weeks ago:
Customers using 3D Sense can generate over 400% more revenue from fees by detecting more smoking incidents and winning more credit card charge backs than before with our powerful sensors and reports.
Primarily just to generate more revenue. Not actually alert infractions. It’s on their fucking website. Fuck this noise. I’d wrap the damn thing in aluminum foil and watch it try to communicate then.
- Comment on Blunthead Slug 3 weeks ago:
Meth-head snake.
- Comment on Say Hello to the World's Largest Hard Drive, a Massive 36TB Seagate 3 weeks ago:
How did you know about my giraffe porn?
- Comment on Scientists make game-changing breakthrough that could slash costs of solar panels: 'Has the potential to contribute to the energy transition' 3 weeks ago:
I think the idea is that it’s the same amount of light is being used but the actual expensive part of the solar cell is cheaper and designed to take the increased heat. So the same size “solar unit” on the roof collecting the same amount of light and generating the same amount of energy but cheaper overall. At least that was my take. Correct me if I’m wrong.
- Comment on Feds in Catalonia, Spain think everyone using a Google Pixel must be a drug dealer 3 weeks ago:
I have an iPhone since the first one and I wanna try it to.
- Comment on AI slows down some experienced software developers, study finds 4 weeks ago:
Not a developer per se (mostly virtualization, architecture, and hardware) but AI can get me to 80-90% of a script in no time. The last 10% takes a while but that was going to take a while regardless. So the time savings on that first 90% is awesome. Although it does send me down a really bad path at times. Being experienced enough to know that is very helpful in that I just start over.
In my opinion AI shouldn’t replace coders but it can definitely enhance them if used properly. It’s a tool like everything. I can put a screw in with a hammer but I probably shouldn’t.
- Comment on Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Guarantee Military Right to Repair Its Equipment 4 weeks ago:
It might have some side effects of affecting more than just the military, but codified right to repair into law is never going to be a bad thing IMO.
- Comment on Senators Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Guarantee Military Right to Repair Its Equipment 4 weeks ago:
This is really going to confuse MAGA. Pro-military but anti-corporate profits…
<grabs popcorn>…
- Comment on Just.....why? 4 weeks ago:
I am what you would call a technology enthusiast, or what some people have dubbed as a gadget whore. I love little electronic devices that make my life easier. However, at no time in my life, will I ever need or desire a toothbrush that needs WiFi access or a subscription to some service. It really isn’t necessary or even useful. It’s like the old comic about the toilet that needs a phone app.
- Comment on Babe can you refill my drink from the cloaca dispenser please? 4 weeks ago:
I have worked in fast food before and cleaned out the normal ones and I know how infrequently they get cleaned.
- Comment on ‘You can’t pause the internet’: social media creators hit by burnout 4 weeks ago:
If someone calls themselves an “influencer“ I immediately want to punch them in the face.
- Comment on ‘You can’t pause the internet’: social media creators hit by burnout 4 weeks ago:
Yeah most of the content I watch is still useful years later. Now it may not be super current since tech changes so fast, but still useful. If you have to stay in someone’s face all the time to stay memorable, you’re not memorable or relevant.
- Comment on Is anyone else not feeling that patriotic for July 4? 5 weeks ago:
Yeah I’m just sick of all the greed and racism. I just want some MANSA (Make America not suck anymore)
- Comment on Microsoft layoffs are reportedly underway, with ZeniMax and King employees losing their jobs 5 weeks ago:
I am so ready to just cancel my game pass. This shit just pisses me off.
- Comment on Biotech uses fermentation to produce milk proteins without cows 5 weeks ago:
My wife is a pretty talented vegan baker and cook. Some things I can’t even tell. I’m not vegan but one of our adult sons is so I’m able to taste the difference when she makes something for him. She tried to make a vegan cheesecake once. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. She thought so too so I’m not being cruel. The taste was ok I guess but the texture was a complete disaster. He seemed to like it though. And the vegan cheese we buy to put on things like lasagna, is passable at best. Most of it tastes like yellow soft plastic.
So yeah I agree.
- Comment on EV tax credits might end even sooner than House bill proposed 5 weeks ago:
I’m all for government incentives to buy vehicles that are better for the climate but here’s the thing, companies are greedy. If a company can sell a car for $20k and make a profit, but the government suddenly is going to give me $5k to buy that car, that car will somehow mysteriously become $25k and that same company will advertise that car for $20k with a tiny little asterisk next to the price.
It will be interesting to see what companies like Rivian, Tesla, BYD, Volkswagen, etc. do with pricing once these incentives go away, and they will go away unfortunately.
There needs to be a better way to incentivize this so that the “savings” doesn’t immediately get funneled into billionaires pockets. I know that any incentive needs to be a slow burn and require some work so that the owner is motivated to go through the trouble because they have something to gain. I have no idea how to do this. Maybe remove property tax on the vehicles over 5 years? Yearly income tax credit? Government subsidized car loans? Extended warranties? Reverse road tax (you get more money the more you drive it)? Free oil changes for the life of the car (/s)?
I mean what you really want to do is get people to drive these vehicles, not just purchase them. One generally follows the other since nobody buys something that expensive and lets it sit. But the idea is to get people away from fossil fuel ICE engines, not really get people to buy EVs.
