Notices by Al Sweigart (alsweigart@mastodon.social)

If you have a bunch of unread ebooks, don't click this link to buy even more ebooks on Python programming in a charity benefit for the Python Software Foundation (remember to click Adjust Donation): https://www.humblebundle.com/books/python-good-stuff-no-starch-books

Happy Pride Month

OH: "still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them"

The people who use AI to write for them don't even read the stuff they don't write.

I have created an AI that is 100% accurate and never hallucinates. On the downside, it answers everything with "I don't know" or "Well, it depends."

It's the last day to register for a hotel at PyCon US 2026 in Long Beach, CA (May 13 to 19, though the main conference is the Fri-Sun). The conf needs to fill its block at the Westin to avoid some hefty fees, and it's so nice to be next to the convention center. https://us.pycon.org/2026/accounts/dashboard/

I'm making stickers of the venn diagram I used in my talk about AI vibe coding. What do people think of this design? Any suggestions for changes?

"The dumbest person you know is being told 'you are absolutely right' by an AI right now."

RE: https://mstdn.social/@rysiek/116351985721905134

I'm tempted to make a "pundits saying stupid things" wiki that tracks these kinds of statements, along with any rescinding/doubling down.

Trump will declare it legal for him to seek a third term and then declare he won the election.

There's only one way that Trump is leaving office.

One definition of legacy code is code that you're afraid to change. (And you should be afraid to change any code that doesn't have automated test coverage.)

Aren't LLMs just legacy code generators? You can generate tests, but until you've tested the tests, they're legacy code too.

@thomasfuchs

I wish disabled menu items and buttons would give a reason why they are disabled when you hover over them.

It will never stop being funny to me that the whole "you can't trust Wikipedia because anyone can edit it" scare happened and now Wikipedia is the only trustworthy website because it turns out profit motive is the reason things turn to shit.

@thomasfuchs Nope. They buy giant lots of returned goods which can be in any state, and then pay for fake reviews. I got rubbish from an ebay seller with tens of thousands of reviews, 99.9% positive. They count of people not jumping through the hoops for a refund. And they do it because it works.

I caution people not to confuse LLMs with the AIs in science fiction, but I have to admit this is pretty funny:

One thing I learned in the George Floyd protests is that in Washington state:

Hair stylists are required to have 1,600 hours of training from an approved cosmetology school.

Police officers are required to do Basic Law Enforcement Academy which is about 720 hours of training.

The course that follows along with my Automate the Boring Stuff with Python book is free on Udemy if you sign up in the next four days with the link in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/1q4ymof/2000_free_sign_ups_for_the_automate_the_boring/

Why are we investing in these various treatments, vaccines, and medical instruments when we should be putting all our efforts into a pill that cures everything?

The cures-everything pill would eradicate all disease! It'd grant immortality! It will change everything! (Pls write checks to CASH.)

Conservatives straight up think war = free war loot and that victory = morality. It's always been this way. When I protested the Iraq invasion in college, I saw campus Republicans flying a banner that said "kick their ass and take their gas!" They don't admit it, they BRAG about it.