Notices by Bill Plein🌶 (bplein@bvp.me)

@evan @tim_lavoie @timbray 100% of todays popular search engines return links to the source material.

ChatGPT returns text of its own creation, which can be true of false or a combination of both. Hence the very publicized issue with ChatGPT insisting that there were no countries in Africa that started with “K”. It saw an old meme that was making the rounds, and since it was so widely published, it became the “truth”.

Very different from a search engine.

@evan @timbray Until it doesn’t.

I have never been unable to exit vim.

I mean I get the joke, but I figured this crap out over 25 years ago, and even today I have a novice ability and approach to vim. I am adequate for basic editing tasks.

Y’all sound like windows fans.

@mmasnick @ygalanter @krans @vincent “they're building so that they *can't* be controlled by a billionaire.”

What does that even mean?

They are a for profit corporation. Funded by VC investors. Despite the “Public Benefit” tagline, there is no implied requirement to do no harm.

@evan I voted wheat. Under duress. 🤣

@evan There go your biases again.

We don’t buy, store and consume a single staple carb as our main source of carb energy. We have bread and tortillas on hand, but not always. We have rice in the pantry (normally) but go weeks without cooking any. We enjoy potatoes. But not weekly. We eat more riced cauliflower than rice.

We aren’t married to any single staple carb.

@evan Opining that someone should have a single staple carb is … opinionated.

@evan But you said related. Related (to me) implies some sort of correlation. 🤷♂️

@evan I still have no idea what you were querying.

@jimcarroll @sfoskett Haha! And I, a container-first practitioner, installed a VM on an old iMac in order to run the complete HomeAssistant OS … because the container is missing some things.

As you said, we all have our own paths. Thank goodness we have choices and some freedom!

@jimcarroll @sfoskett I’m not trying to evangelize it. I crossed the knowledge chasm of containers back in 2017, so it’s a natural thing for me to utilize. I have a friend who I convinced to use Docker for Mastodon and the learning curve for the ins and outs was steep.

@jimcarroll All of what you describe makes me so happy that I can satisfy my mastodon needs (single user instance) with a dockerized deployment. Usually no more than 3 or 4 commands to run, all outlined in the release notes.

@loke @clacke @tindall I agree with “The tech industry is full of drug dealers only interested in peddling their dangerous wares rather than engineers that design safe products for the public's use.”

Using the automotive analogy: Cars didn’t get safety systems because engineers had safety in mind. They got safety systems thanks to government intervention and regulation.

@loke @clacke @tindall If the automotive industry is a relevant example, then the solution for social media, software, and other complex modern technology that imposes dangers on individuals and society, is regulation.

But tech bros say “this will slow growth”. Just as the automotive did when faced with regulation.

@evan It’s better on your neck than using a laptop on your sofa. Ergonomics are important.

About 10 years ago I gave up using my laptop as my primary personal computer (although I still have one for work but it’s attached to two LCDs) and switched to a desktop.

I can do a lot on my phone. But I no longer have a laptop sitting on the ottoman. I have an excuse to keep work limited mostly to work hours. And I can read PDFs ?

@evan

What is uncomfortable about using a proper screen?

@evan well shit. Finger fumble and I voted strong no. I’m definitely in the strong yes answer group.

@evan Our electrical utility is a co-op.

Anyone remember Co-op stores in the SF Bay in the late 60s/early 70s? My mom would drop me off at the kids play/care center while shopping.

@evan It certainly means I skip seeing good food that I do like looking at, because it’s hidden and I have to decide “is it worth it to I hide it” and often it is not.

I understand your point, but it makes me wonder if we are headed to a point where half of social media would be behind a CW.

Will you hide your running posts behind an “ableism” warning?

I am not saying you are wrong to use the CW. I’m saying it’s making me think about how this is all going to turn out.

@evan

Why is food a content warning?