this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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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.

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Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th January 2025 (awful.systems)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

Does anyone else get tired of "read documentation and edit this text file to configure your app" Unix shit? I have no problem with the underlying configuration being a text-file (makes for a straightforward API), but do I really need to navigate to https://mpv.io/manual/master/#configuration-files and go through the rigamarole of figuring out which options I need to edit/include^[0]^ because I misplaced (read: sudo rm -rf /) my config file?

[0]: And there is always so much implicit bullshit. "By default, we summon Cthulhu on Tuesdays and Thursdays if the variable summon_octopus_guy is unset." It's a fucking config file, my friends, can we just be explicit?

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

Personally I think it's fine to have implicit defaults if you can make them sensible. Maybe ideally have a system-wide config like /etc/someapp.conf with all the options included and set to defaults out of the box and then allow overrides in ~/.config/someapp/someapp.conf where you only need to specify whatever you want to differ from the system conf file.

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

I personally disagree. I think in the era of "a megabyte is big," this made sense, but in my opinion after parsing a config file with missing config data, we should print something indicating they are missing then error out. The existence of a reference config file with all options included would definitely help, but I think it's no coincidence that there is no such config for mpv

why bother creating and maintaining one if the program will use the default value anyway?

tl;dr explicit is better than implicit

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

I dunno, MPV has like a million config options and I've set like three of them in my config. I would not prefer to maintain an enormous config file where I need to include a bajillion options I don't care about just to play a video. Would I have to update my config every single time MPV adds, removes or renames an option, too?

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

Oh yeah. I recently wanted to configure something in pipewire... the idea was simple: just creating a boot-persistent audio loopback, i.e. connecting an audio input to an output. I gave up for now after looking at the config examples for that in the documentation. How can such a simple thing need such complex configuration?

As for losing configs, I've started to put all my hand-edited config files in a git repo on my NAS so at least I only have to figure out things once.

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

Surely it's better to specify those defaults in the config file and have the system just fail if the necessary flags aren't present. Having worked in support I can vouch for the amount of suffering that could be avoided if more systems actually failed if some important configuration isn't in place.

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

Surely it’s better to specify those defaults in the config file and have the system just fail if the necessary flags aren’t present.

Completely agree. I think this may just be an extension of the "you gotta know what you're doing to code correctly in C" old school bullshit.

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

This is my biggest gripe with that nonsense. If you make it hard to do something well, you won't end up with an elite series of uber-coders because there aren't enough of those people to do all the programming that people want to be done. Instead you'll see that much more software engineering done really goddamned badly and despite appearances at the time it turns out there is a maximum amount of shitty software the world can endure.

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

What's great is even the very best "just use valgrind lol, lmao" folks make these errors all the time. It's basically impossible to write correct C code generally

the best we can do is verify subsets of code (c.f. Rust's unsafe keyword). The memory-safety CVEs in EXT3/4 are proof of this, IMO, as if there were anyone able to write correct C code today, it would be Ted Ts'o.

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

25475 O Jan 08 Duke University ( 42K) Help Us Evaluate New Personalized AI Learning Tool

groan

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

put an article in mdpi and you'll get 70 of these per month

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (9 children)

Just want to share this great term & definition "hyperkludge" coined by Jonathan Korman (@miniver on bsky and masto)

hyperkludge: a design which is not a good solution for much of anything, but is a tolerably bad solution for so many things that it proliferates until network effects help it beat out better designs

https://miniver.blogspot.com/2023/01/hyperkludge-n.html

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

I'm surprised that alphabetical lists are included. Maybe my brain has completely rotten, but keeping the data sorted is pretty neat for efficient processing

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

yeah that is an interesting example. I immediately applied the term to commercial products. Like Notion for example - funny because I always say Notion takes wikis which are well established in their usefulness and just slaps them into saas product with other things like docs and spreadsheets (also well established in their usefulness) - but he calls wikis themselves a hyperkludge but what superior thing did wikis kill by network effects?

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

Examples off the top of my head:

  • Almost everything about TCP/IP stack
  • NETCONF
  • YAML
  • Most things related to cars and car infrastructure
  • Alcohol
  • Chiclet keyboards
  • Unicode Han unification
  • Layer 2 SDN
  • Kubernetes
  • JavaScript
  • Disk partitioning
  • UEFI
  • Public transit fares

Edit: checked the link and was surprised our lists didn't have any ones in common (though I considered including MS Excel).

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

this rules <3

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

oh that's pretty great

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

For a fun 20 minutes or so, I recommend going through the recent enron “revival”. (It’s all satire)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Zuck wants to get back to his roots

It's time to get back to our roots around free expression and giving people voice on our platforms. Here's what we're going to do: [...] 5/ Move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US content review to Texas. This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content.

Narrator: this announcement did not, in fact, ease concerns about bias.

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

Is that a comedy account? The announcement surely reads as if it was…

To add an insult to the injury meta renames pride themed skins in chat https://labyrinth.zone/objects/e129982d-997e-489b-985a-3ef547b66bf3

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

Fascist virtue signalling aside, candy floss should not exist. That's like the exact opposite of dental care.

Edit: I have been made aware that Candy Floss is another name for cotton candy, which is delicious. Though my point kind of still stands.

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

It's not. Surprise! All of Silicon Valley has gone mask off in preparation for the new administration in Washington!

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

Ah i recall somebody got mad when I mentioned traditionally capitalists will team up with fascists.

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

Maybe I was naive, but I didn't expect all this to go that fast and that blatant...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

No, I'm with you. Bad feeling about where this is going.

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

the worst Nix project has finally been announced: behold crypto NixOS

I’m starting a paradigm shifting, open and new human / computer interface system that is global, multi device and privacy focused.

[…]

DISCLAIMER: You are not my exit liquidity, I have the best performing long term spot crypto portfolio in the world - I’m a early adopter with 100% hit rate on geniuses. So, I don’t have to work, I’m not building this to become rich. I want to build something paradigm changing - truly mind-blowing, because now we have the tech and I’m annoyed how computer work. It is a lot of work, but it will reward us all.

my “this isn’t a grift and I’m not a grifter” disclaimer is prompting a lot of questions already answered by the disclaimer. but speaking of prompting, what goes with crypto?

ChatGPT-1o thinks, after some reinforced asking, that the MC of such a coin can reach 300-1000M; I think it could easily go higher - it solves so fundamental problems in a much more elegant way. In my opinion, it will be the same step as the command line to the windowed systems was. Or dump phone to smart phone. It will just span devices and span users while keeping the data under control and of companies.

of course. after some reinforced asking, gpt told me you’re all haters if you don’t think I’m as important as Xerox PARC!

there’s lots more in the OP to sneer at, but here’s the worst part of the thread:

Mod note: I’m glad to see doubt and scepticism about crypto-based claims. However, that point has now been made; please avoid any further posts in that vein to avoid a pile-on dunkfest, and leave the thread for any potential on-topic discussion.

thanks for nothing as usual NixOS discourse!

e: via mastodon, archive

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

i forced chatgpt to say that my idea will make you a billion dollars but i think it can go higher

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

after some reinforced asking

Shit chatgpt is self aware, it did the 'if i agree with you will you shut the fuck up' thing.

E: while i shouldn't speak on that subject, weird typos.

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

Must be rich indeed, the disclaimer is pure gold.

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

Maybe EAs should ditch malaria nets and start subsidizing bum ticklers

disclaimer(not a claim made by linked OP)

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

su;dr

(saw URL; didn't read)

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

Re: disclaimerNot OP indeed, butt ...

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

The comments are something else alright:

The part about kids is wrong. Per Aella's survey, many people report having masturbated well before puberty. Breeding and pregnancy were actually one of my earliest kinks when I was 7.

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

Oof ouch

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

Im going ro pretend i never saw that.

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

just when you think you're at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the rationalists take you lower

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

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

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

yeah I wasn’t sure about what to post either but this about gets it

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

feels bad when "Per Aella’s survey" is the high point of a post

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

I'm sure her surveys are immune to sampling bias and therefore perfectly represent the general population. /s

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

There even is a SSC post talking about how even professionally ran surveys have a 5% rate of bullshit (the lizardman constant, mentioned by Scott in 2013, and now in a lot more places (I think the idea is fine, just that Scott seems to draw a few to generalizing conclusions (in the article, not the conclusion) about classifying people as trolls/malicious vs 'sometimes people give a trollish/malicious answer. I also don't think the percentage is constant)). (Yes, SSC style Rationalists not internalizing the SSC lore is one of my pet peeves). And as Amoeba_girl said, this is the highlight of the post.

E: and as the LC was written in 2013, I really don't want to know how often Rationalists/LWers/etc have referred to a poll after that as being important. (And how often they have used the LC to dismiss polls used as arguments by others).

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

Reading through announcements of new hardware from CES and the endless series of products containing "AI" is so tiring. Not suprising, but still... ugh. Claims of AI in everything.

My favourite so far: USB controller with "AI enhancements" because... uuh... if I understand it right, you could theoretically use it to connect an external GPU and use that for AI, so that's why "AI" is in the marketing for the USB controller...?

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

The New Antitrust is so goddamn meta, deep writing from the 2025 authors

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

Starting off with a weapons-grade sneer: How to Dehumanize Accessibility with AI

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

I just want to harp on this one:

“Existing methods for testing are often very technical and not very attractive, neither for developers nor for users.”

Wtf, can you imagine saying something like this about literally any other profession than software engineering? "Existing methods for checking brake pressure are often very technical and not very attractive, neither for mechanics nor for users". "Existing methods for sterilising surgical equipment are often very technical and not very attractive, neither for surgeons nor for patients". "Existing methods for checking voltage are often very technical and not very attractive, neither for electricians nor for users".

The lack of any fucking standards that devs are held to is insane, so the excuse for accessibility in the web being shit is that it's TOO TECHNICAL and kinda annoying for web devs??? Again, can you fucking imagine saying this about anything else, "ye, cars kinda suck because making sure they don't is all technical and kinda boring for mechanics to do".

It's YOUR JOB. Literally YOUR PROFESSION. PROFESSIONALS ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE STANDARDS you fucking piece of shit, have you no honour, not a single care in the world for your craft, you fucking babies. "Oh but it's very technical" YOU'RE A TECH SPECIALIST. THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU GET YOUR SALARY FOR????

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

The worst bit is, the devs who aren’t like this are basically forced to comply anyway. Whenever I justify a delay in some release with that testing/bugfixing takes time, I get slapped with release it anyway, you can patch it later, and although I am lucky to be in a privileged position where I can fight this for some amount of time, every young programmer who comes into a job with a good mindset is not and has to bend over or face shit like negative performance reviews because they’re too slow.

This is so fucking infuriating. I don’t want to release shit software, I want to make sure the stuff I ship works. Back when patching meant you had to ship a physical medium to a non-trivial amount of users, that was how things worked, but apparently only because IT HAD TO and not because it’s good fucking work ethics to have. Now that you can just zero-day patch everything it’s apparently okay to ship unfinished shit and use your customers as beta testers.

I hate this so much and I try to avoid doing this as much as I can professionally. And whenever I can’t I actually feel bad and want to apologize to everyone who has to use that shit release.

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

Thanks, that was infuriating to read.

Whenever techbros use the word "storytelling", some disaster follows...

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