Notices by Al Sweigart (alsweigart@mastodon.social)

This is kind of a weird question, but when you're doing a test for some little program and you set the random seed at the start, is there a number you typically use?

No? If yes, what number is it? (Please don't look at the replies first to see other people's numbers.)

I'm endorsing @elthenerd for the Python Software Foundation board election. Voting begins Sept 2. https://inventwithpython.com/blog/psf-candidate-endorsements-2026.html

Things that are classy when rich people do them:

* Get money from the government.
* Be bilingual.
* Drop out of college.
* Avoid taxes.
* Own luxury items.
* Take crazy risks or gamble large amounts of money.
* Take out large loans.
* Marry rich people.
* Have lots of kids and give them unusual names.
* Drugs and day drinking.
* Preside over failing businesses.
* Not have a job or take months off at a time.
* Have a lot of cars on your lawn.
* Be recognized by judges.
* Never cook or clean.

@jeffjarvis Ratchet theory

Let's start saying this now and keep saying it:

NO BAILOUTS FOR AI COMPANIES

@thomasfuchs The election flyers I would receive from Republicans in Houston would always make me think, "Wow, they are not healthy people..."

@cstross

Someone left the comment "They don't know how to do anything if someone isn't actively bribing them and telling them what to do" and I'm going to remember that for the rest of my life.

Sweigart's Law of Vibe Coding: The portion of software engineers reading the code that AI generates and the portion of people who read Terms of Service agreements is the same.

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.