this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this.)

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Days since last open source issue tracker pollution by annoying nerds: zero

My investigation tracked to you [Outlier.ai] as the source of problems - where your instructional videos are tricking people into creating those issues to - apparently train your AI.

I couldn't locate these particular instructional videos, but from what I can gather outlier.ai farms out various "tasks" to internet gig workers as part of some sort of AI training scheme.

Bonus terribleness: one of the tasks a few months back was apparently to wear a head mounted camera "device" to record ones every waking moment.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

this post from the guy who writes explainers about consumer financial structures hits different if you know he met and is exchanging tweets with noted race scientist Jordan Lasker (cremieux)

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/chicago-casino-investment-offering/

maybe it's me but i'm hearing ultrasonic frequencies

probably nothing, right?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Oof yeah, that's rough. The AI generated header image isn't helping his credibility, either. Didn't he happily trot along to one of the rat conventions in Berkeley, and everyone was wondering why?

The Bally's story is its own source of hilarity - not only are they scrambling to fund this Chicago thing, they're also making promises about a Las Vegas resort that will host the ex-Oakland A's in what would be the smallest major league baseball stadium; with equally ??? funding gaps that their client press is all too happy to ignore.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Every pasty-white blogger is inching towards becoming a March violet.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

AGI is coming, we're already at the "dumb guy who doesn't understand math but thinks he's smart" level

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Jim Propp once wrote,

I asked ChatGPT, the modern apotheosis of unjustified self-confidence, to prove that .999… is less than 1. Its reply began “Here is a proof that .999… is less than 1.” It then proceeded to show (using familiar arguments) that .999… is equal to 1, before majestically concluding “But our goal was to show that .999… is less than 1. Hence the proof is complete.” This reply, as an example of brazen mathematical non sequitur, can scarcely be improved upon.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

That one hurts :(

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I’ve said it before a few times: this shit is a tunguska-level event on society today

that there’s now even retroactive contamination fallout is sickening :|

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

tunguska incident only wiped out local squirrel population and its fallout was inert. this is more like leaded gasoline: introduced for profit, polluting for decades, makes people dumber during entire duration of it, entrenches techbros and makes them responsible for development of infrastructure going forward

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Sooner or later the only remaining source of reliable digital information will be 1990s multimedia CD-ROM encyclopedias.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

brb, saving copies of physics and math books before they go offline

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don’t even have an optical drive anymore jesus.

Encarta 96 btw

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

As a fan of physical media, I recently bought another drive as a spare, currently is IMO a good time for that. They still make really good drives in large enough quantities so they're cheap, but that could end any time. Once production stops, they will vanish silently. Learned that lesson back then when floppy drives were suddendly gone... kinda wish I had stocked up a few new ones (for retro computing purposes) when they were still available.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Yeah production of consumer writeable CDs / DVDs / BDs has basically stopped already. The end is in sight.

Also I'm not sure how much of a problem this is for newer CD drives, but older ones tend to give out sooner or later.

My Sega Saturn*'s drive still works, but I also installed a Satiator** drive emulator in case that changes.

* ^My^ ^username^ ^is^ ^serious^ ^business^ ^after^ ^all^

** ^Had^ ^to^ ^go^ ^with^ ^this^ ^option^ ^since^ ^it's^ ^the^ ^only^ ^non-destructive^ ^one^

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Whats your fav saturn game?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Nights into Dreams. I'd have dreams about that game as a kid.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

expensive archival write-once BDs

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

There's always overpriced audiophile gear...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I knew there was a reason I couldnt part with my CD tower.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I'm the weirdo who installs blu-ray drives in all my computers. I'm also the weirdo who has multiple computers. There are currently three or four (I've lost count) blu-ray drives in my house.

It's great being able to buy and own movies without dealing with the horrors of streaming. Unfortunately discs are becoming less and less popular commercially, so a lot of stuff nowadays is streaming only.

Also my car can play MP3 CDs so of course I need to be able to create those from a computer ^disregard^ ^the^ ^fact^ ^that^ ^my^ ^car^ ^also^ ^supports^ ^USB^ ^which^ ^I^ ^neglect^ ^since^ ^it's^ ^less^ ^retro^^.^

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Yeah, wanted to get the new seasons of Futurama on bluray as a gift, turns out that they only are on streaming. Of course.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

My father-in-law is a hoarder of both physical and digital things. His house is filled with hard drives where he has like stored copies of every movie ever made as mp4s and then he sends the drives to us because he has no physical space for them since he has junk from like 30 years ago piling up in the living room. So now my house is filled with random ass hard drives of (definitely not pirated) movies.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

It took me a year of hell to hire a new teammate. But it took a few weeks to implement AI all over the company.

Employers Would Rather Hire AI Than Gen Z Graduates: Report

We have gaps of needs all over the department and a massive pool of applicants. Sorry unemployed folks.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

lol that's really cool, congrats! :D

what's the name of the company?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

did the stubsack end up in all somehow

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

Terminal puddin brain

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

we have this year's greatest pride anthem already and it's only january

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SIEOYOuX4s

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

I am extremely enamoured with how much effort was spent on the writing, ito cadence and placement. it's glorious :D

(also, I wonder if the virtual riot video is why I've heard that riser pattern in so much stuff lately)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

my habits lead to such curious discoveries:

a screenshot of the youtube sidebar showing a rather unhinged collection of "recommended"

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