Notices by Your friendly 'net denizen (cstanhope@social.coop)

Aw, bummer. It looks like makers and hobbyists are not buying enough Lattice FPGAs. Lattice is announcing layoffs:

https://www.hillsboronewstimes.com/business/hillsboro-semiconductor-industry-takes-another-hit-as-lattice-announces-14-workforce-reduction/article_5bc138c6-a089-11ef-b6ed-c36ab7740877.html

#FPGA

Some DIY inspiration and aspiration:

"It's a digital book called Make it Yourself: 1000 Useful Things to Make...

Think of it like those old mail order catalogs that contained everything the average person might use in every day life. The difference here is that instead of products to buy, every item listed represents a DIY project that you can make yourself."

https://n-o-d-e.net/makeityourself.html

https://makeityourself.org/

@theruran Sometimes we write in ancient dialects because we're supporting hardware with ancient compilers. Not that you should see much of that sort of code in the open, but I don't know anything about the cultish types.

I like how Apple's "Gatekeeper" name says exactly what it is. It's cool how we sleep walk into a computing world where you are only allowed to trust somebody as long as Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. also trust them.

https://hackaday.com/2024/11/01/apple-forces-the-signing-of-applications-in-macos-sequoia-15-1/

(Note I had dalliance with Apple products a long time ago. I don't currently use Android. And I only use Windows at work because its a requirement there. But dealing with one or more of these corps are largely unavoidable to most of us.)

Step by step they're enclosing computing. Pick your preferred monopolist gatekeeper.

Between individuals like myself and whole communities of people helping each other out there in various ways, I suspect that's a large part of what allows the modern complex tech stack to actually continue to exist. If corps actually had to bear the entire burden of technical support for their products, could they continue to exist in their current form?

I used to think of it as technical support for family and friends, and now I realize it's really more like I'm volunteer technical support team for big corp. I wonder how many anonymous technical support dopes like me there are. 🤔

@derek I lucked out and avoid cueing as a child, and my kids avoided it too. But I have to admit, English is a terrible language for phonics. So many words that are exceptions to the rules that kids encounter right away as they try to learn to read. But even so, phonics is still useful.

Movin' slow and fixin' things.

Reading about the situation with PFAS and how 3M knew it was being found in people's bodies as early as 1970s and knew it was toxic but buried the information.

How many more examples do we need of corporations doing things that are antithetical to life itself? It seems clear that no set of laws, regulatory pressure, or good people on the inside will ever stop it. The problem is in the very structure of these companies. They can't do the right thing. They're not designed to.

I landed on a web page for an oscope vendor about half an an hour ago, and they had their product images sloooowly creeping for some reason. After a couple of minutes, I felt nauseous and have continued to feel that way. What the heck? 🤢

TFW you try to fake it 'til you make it only to realize you were already unknowingly faking it, so now you're faking squared and very confused.

@djsundog Happy fediversary! 🎉

A new Ani DiFranco album on May 17th!

https://anidifranco.bandcamp.com/album/unprecedented-sh-t

@craigmaloney I've been wondering how you're doing. Thank you for the update, and I am also sending good vibes and good wishes.

Throwback Wednesday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oct2xKMGOno

Wow! I accidentally timed this one right.

https://worldfrogday.org/

FTC reminding people that price fixing with a computer is still price fixing:

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2024/03/price-fixing-algorithm-still-price-fixing

Some VC backed techbros somewhere: "But my price fixing as a service business!"

@craigmaloney It's good to hear you're able to get discharged today.

@craigmaloney I don't want to hate on that person because that's just not good for me and not worth the energy, but geezus why go to the world to discuss how maybe you'll have to come out of retirement at *46* to work because you can't generate enough passive income to cover your lavish choices of expenses... Oh. Wait... He's advertising for the consulting business he's about to start, isn't he? Never mind... smh