val @val@oc.todon.fr

The comment “it’s rude to ask someone to do your research for you” is common on the internet. I just saw it (in another place) after someone asked if I could link to papers I’d mentioned. So I thought I’d clear this up. Asking an academic (or anyone at all) to cite their sources is not rude. It’s good practice. It ensures arguments are based on evidence. It makes sure people like me don’t take advantage of our PhDs etc to sound authoritative, without that evidence. Ask away for my sources!

@mcc @randomcat Windows has detected the scent of Linux on it and no longer recognizes it as its own

About ten years ago, the IT building for a local highschool burned to the ground.

My company donated a spare Juniper EX3200 switch to help get them back online. They had erected a small structure without any insulation, and left the switch inside unpowered for a day while the fiber splicers got them hooked back up.

They started the switch, and it immediately shutdown. They looked a gift horse in the mouth and bitched to us that our donation was garbage.

I was dispatched to assist. I connected to the serial console and powered the device up. It immediately indicated that the CPU temperature was 252 C, and shut itself down.

It was January, the outside temperature was -3 C. The Juniper device was storing temperature as an 8-bit unsigned integer value. It got so cold, it thought it was on fire.

Can't say I ever expected to use a heat gun to get a switch to start before that day. Got it warm enough to power on, and then it kept itself plenty warm to continue operating.

Data types matter, yo.

@fanf No, what we should do is dig up Greenwich and put it on rails so it can be shifted easy or west as needed, and then simply move all other longitudes to follow. No need to change time when space is right there.

I’m not concerned about AI outcompeting competent writers or impacting my career directly. I am deeply concerned about AI swamping submission systems and destroying the ability of editors and readers to find the next generation of writers.

AI is very much a danger to the long term health of the field not because of competition for quality readable fiction but because of its ability to create dreck in previously unimaginable quantities and drown submission systems and indie publishing in shit.

We are in the New York Times 😂
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/world/europe/france-pension-protest-saucepans.html

"A website created by a union of tech workers now ranks French regions for casserolades based on the level of cacophony and the importance of the affected government official."

We're making ourselves fully available to all comrades across the Atlantic who'd like to have some fun too!

me when gargron asks me for design ideas for mastodon

AN ALGAE BRA

too long has boring, security and safety minded thinking ruled the world of online services, and look where that got us. With my new “Rewrite it in C” initiative,