Found another use for the "tourist icebreaker" (saying something wrong to start a conversation: "It's called Central Park because someone found a cent!"). Needed a number I didn't have to fill out a form. Asked for the number. No response. Said "I just put ten million dollars". Got an answer.

Picked up a "Blind Date with a Book", to hopefully discover something new (I've had a good track record with this). Billed as Horror/Humorous Twist/Hollywood Gone Wrong, this seemed fun. 'Twas @chucktingle.bsky.social 's new book "Fabulous Bodies"! Good, but something I already knew about!

A bunch of people are up in arms about the use of genai to "reverse engineer" commercial software. It isn't really reverse engineering, it's re-creation. It produces clunky, slow, buggy, hard to use versions. If those can compete with the original, the original was perhaps not worth a whole lot.

"Oh, I can't remember, it couldn't have been important." Um, that is most decidedly NOT how memory works.

Scam calls always begin like "I'm David, how are you doing?" Why is "How are you doing?" part of the script? Why do ROBOTS ask? I'm starting to have a knee-jerk objection to "How are you doing?", and it's EVERYWHERE. And it's such a weird question? How am I doing what? What?

When you post a photo of a face with a caption like "this person should X", and don't identify the person or add alt text, those of us who are faceblind are stuck either guessing ("What's your beef with Steve Railsback?") or just wondering who it was that happened to attract your attention so.

"AI disadvantages will be countered by Moore's law, so it doesn't matter." While the entire explanation is fairly longwinded, the upshot is that genai produced code essentially is built by adding technical debt until it works. When you realize that, the real drawbacks become a lot clearer.

Got a job listing for an "entry level" position (with "entry level" pay), looking for an optics board developer, with FPGA, driver, SFF, CMIS, Infra, and board bring-up experience, along with Cisco IOS XR, networking, AI, C, Linux, and Python. Um, right.

If your video stops to tell me to like and subscribe, or has intrusive effects telling me to like and subscribe, I will do neither. I don't understand this mentality, if I'm watching a youtube video, presumably I know how to use youtube.

Searching for chips, I saw offerings for both a -N and -P version and wondered what the difference was. When I tried a web search, I got an AI answer with two completely wrong statements above the results. Real answer: -P has 4MHz GBW, -N has 3MHz, and -P is noticeably cheaper.

What if someone created actual playable games like the fake ones in mobile ads? I don't even care if they use AI.

People still act like we can just "get rid of" AI. Nope, it's like trying to put the genie back into the bottle. In fact, it's VERY like that. Think of how genie stories tend to go: someone wishes for something and the genie gives them something like it, but subtly wrong in a way that ruins it.

I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't.

Had a strange dream where I was working for Trump installing custom computer terminal network in airports. Bad enough, but things got weirder, at one point, I was in a meeting, trying to explain "you cannot telnet amino acids into a baby!"

When I first took a trigonometry class, they began with the unit circle, but didn't really cover what it was or why it was important. I flailed for a while until I realized its significance and went back to really understand it. Talking to a new student, this is still a problem.

Gearing up to calibrate a somewhat exotic oscilloscope probe, I have most of the required equipment, but see a line for a "BNC male-to-GR adapter". That's a somewhat obscure one, but I can understand why they specified it. I guess it's time to take this one out of its original packaging.

I hear a lot of complaining about RAM prices these days. Let's see, these 16kB RAM cartridges cost $85 apiece. That works out to over five million dollars per gigabyte.

I think I found a nesting ground of the Gooseneck Vent.

Updated for the modern age: Boss makes a grand, I make a dime, So I browse the web on company time!

Replacing hydrogens in hydrocarbons with halogens yields halocarbons, a bunch of very similar seeming molecules, but one's a fire extinguisher, one's a refrigerant, and one's an anæsthetic.

Why yes, I have TOUCHED some GRASS.

I was looking for a fairly specific set of transistor characteristics (bipolar, 4A current, gain of 1000, TO-220 package, at least a few watts of power dissipation, complementary pair) and not coming up with much. Then I discovered the TIP142T (NPN) and TIP147T (PNP), which fill the bill nicely.

So, six things I should do? The article implies that spiders eat clothes moths, and I'd much rather have the spiders.

Took a trip up to Lancaster, PA to meet up with a friend, eat and buy Amish food, see the sights, enjoy ice cream, and ... visited a few bookstores. #booksky

Why does a hotel HVAC have both a complete set of controls, and a light that says "Use Wall Thermostat" that comes on if any of them are operated?

Acquired some weird old electronics. Not really sure what it's supposed to be or do, but I gave some power to it and was rewarded with some symbols. Perhaps it's telling me my fortune?

I sometimes see bumper stickers like "In case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned". I'm tempted to make my own, reading "In case of Rapture, this car will SEEM unmanned, as I am now treating all cars as bumper cars!"

Even if the $5k wasn't a lie like the others and it wasn't illegal, it would be a net loss. Either the govt would get the money back, costing every working person around $12k, or just create the money, devaluing the dollar, making everything more expensive: one payout, higher cost forever.

Back in the 1970s, I decided to produce a video sign for a science fiction convention. In those days, 64x32 graphics were kinda futuristic.

Two firemen, big strong guys, they grabbed me under the arms --- 'got to get our of here!' -- and they lifted me up, and they started running with me. We ended up in a hotel room and they started playing with my hair and undressing me. After some kissing, they both peed on me, which I enjoyed. DJT