GeePawHill

GrandPaw, Geek, Software Development Coach, Writer, Ass Pain. Continuously startled by people and people-stuff. Pronouns: Don't care, will respect yours. https://geepawhill.org

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npub1gvq4v7a0yt8dqdyy7la0z8d7qvyuc020mwlfl4eykc5ue2q7zpqsfwdvmp

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GeePawHill_at_mastodon.social@mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqsyxq2k0whj9nksxjz007h3rklqxzwv848ah05l6ujtv2wv4q0pqsgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qahj4t3

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relay.mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-09-05 02:29:44

So. Anyone can steal anything for any purpose as long as it serves capitalism.
Got it.

2024-09-01 03:26:38

The only reason everyone isn't masking, avoiding enclosed public spaces, vaccinated, and working from home, the only reason, is because the corporatocracy can not make its quarterlies if we do that.
The problem isn't caused by covid. The problem is caused by capitalism.

2024-08-31 15:11:18

<subpost type="pedantry">
Fahrenheit was not stupid. The scale was defined for its relevance to sailing. 0 degrees is near where *salt* water freezes. 100 degrees is near where sailors can't work safely.
I am not a particular fan of imperial units, but shit-talking Fahrenheit is a) unfair, and b) ignoring the relevant context.
</subpost>

2024-08-30 03:00:46

Hmmmm. One more beer, then bedtime.
It has been now two months since I coded. I've done a little bit of sitting in as a triple or mob participant.
This is way past the red line. Traditionally, the red line was about four days.
I have been a professional programmer for 44 years. It has given me much joy.
I was part of the pair, in fact, who coined the phrase "geek joy".
The state of the trade, today, horrifies me. Every day I'm old man yells at cloud.

2024-08-28 01:59:32

@npub13vv…0sze Jessamyn. It is my habit to, once a week or so, tell someone whose work I value that I value it.
Tag. You're it.
Your output here makes my life better, and I thank you for it.

2024-08-28 01:17:42

How, btw, do you explain the fact of your internet-only friends, to the your IRL friends?
I have people I've known and spoken to for over a decade, who I have never met IRL.

2024-08-28 00:47:13

It's important to understand, as you rant about "the facts", that the entire fascist mission depends on challenging the idea that there is any such thing as a fact.
In fascism, the only fact is what the leadership says, and it is critically important to the growth of fascism that a fact have no correlation with any sort of "truth".
This is Arendt 101.
The point of the lying isn't to lie, per se. It's to make facts and truth not a thing.

2024-08-24 23:28:51

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 I dislike Silver. Just the same, his projections were remarkable. They are not 538 any more.

2024-08-19 05:28:35

Look. The Harry Potter books weren't actually that good. They weren't *bad*. But they weren't legendary.
Y'all should read Judy Blume, or Harriet The Spy. Or Zilpha Keatley Snider, or even Scott Corbett.

2024-08-18 03:48:03

(Stolen, happy to get an attribution.)
"Days since last timezone error: -1"

2024-08-17 05:22:18

Aight, I'm out.
1) Be gay.
2) Do crimes.
3) Wear a mask.
4) Do alt text.
5) Burn this motherfucker down.
6) Vote.
7) Be as kind as you know how to be, to yourself and others.

2024-08-15 15:31:22

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@npub1lrv…tth9 Yes. I have a fifth of the followers here that I had there, and I get five times as much engagement, and a 50th of the drive-bys I used to get.

2024-08-15 00:58:19

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@npub1su4…a0dw Of all the world-famous premier tech sites I've coached or taught, the *only* one the gee-kids thought was cool was Redbox.

2024-08-07 04:27:29

There isn't a kind of hate that will be a counter-hate.
Hate, all the hate, any hate, whatever hate, does just one thing: make more hate.
And love? Well, don't kid yourself, love mostly fails.
Except, I mean, except, when it doesn't. And when it doesn't, its power is life-changing, world-changing, beyond your wildest imagination.
Choose hate. Get hate.
Choose love. Get hate. Except, I mean, except, sometimes, when you don't.

2024-08-07 00:57:39

1) Wear a mask.
2) Add alt-text.
3) Resist hate.
4) Burn this motherfucker down.

2024-08-05 01:28:32

Oh! Nice touch: female villain wears elegant but sensible shoes, maybe an inch of solid heel. I always like that.

2024-08-04 02:38:05

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@npub16r2…el76 Excellent!

2024-08-02 05:17:28

Once again, a parting shot. No beer, just a slightly overpoured double of cheap rye.
Often, you may have noticed, I exhort you to be kind. But. You'll notice, I never define "kind" for you.
I'll tell you why.
It's because I trust you.
I don't trust you to do the same things I would do. I don't trust you to be "right", either.
But I trust you to know what kindness is, and to try.
You're gonna mess it up. We all mess it up. It's insanely fucking hard.
But I trust you.
G'night!

2024-08-01 04:18:12

I know that nobody wants to hear this, but the truth is, most rare earth mines are slavery-at-gunpoint camps.
Most corporate users of rare earth materials obtain them through very complex laundering operations.
It's still slavery. And it's in every computing device you use.
It's in *my* computer, too, and my phone, and my fiber modem, and my router. (It's not in my car, which is ancient, but it's in most cars.)

2024-07-30 04:08:30

My Black friends say it is pretty awful here.
I have not seen that.
This does not make me disbelieve them.
I didn't know what happened to women in the geek trades until a woman in the geek trade trusted me enough to let me sit at her table at conferences, and tell her network, "He's okay, go ahead."

2024-07-29 06:29:06

Now you want excellent geeks.
Here's the thing, after forty years sitting atop a money-printing machine, the exact precise thing you have done is create generations of geeks who could not code their way out of a wet mugwump bag.

2024-07-29 04:01:40

The DOJ says TikTok collects personal information about social issues from its victims.
Heh.
Virtually every "free" service you use is collecting -- and selling -- information about you.
Facebook knows more about you than your therapist does.
Google knows more about you than your therapist and your dog combined do.
Surveillance capitalism is *ubiquitous*. And don't tell me some of my info is in the hands of bad guys, and some of it is in the hands of good guys.
It's all bad guys.

2024-07-26 04:22:16

Back during the pandemic, which is to say, you know, right fucking now, I avoid enclosed public spaces, and when I can't avoid them, I wear a KN95 mask.

2024-07-25 04:36:16

<subpost>
HuffPo is a propaganda outfit.
But, yes, in fact, for fifty years, not a single study of immigration has found any negative effect from it.
All of them have concluded, I am not kidding, *all* of them, that immigration is a net economic good.
Most of them have also concluded that it is a positive *social* good.
</subpost>

2024-07-25 03:45:08

I actually really like spy TV.
But my suspension of disbelief really flags every episode of every spy TV show in the modern era.
(Pace the BBC Smiley's, which didn't have this kinda shit.)
There is no fucking way on earth the computer tech works this well or this often.
P.S. Facial scanning databases *never* show the faces they're scanning, cuz that kinda graphics would have massive performance issues for exactly zero benefit, unless, of course, you were trying to please a showrunner.

2024-07-24 01:34:06

I think it is inconsiderate to not either hashtag or cw your commentary on the US elections.
The US elections matter to a lot of people who are not in the US, including a lot of people who are our friends.
But there's a difference between here-and-there-now-and-then and deluge.
There's a context-insensitivity going on here, and to be straight up, it is *exactly* what Americans are universally known for.

2024-07-23 22:59:57

Tonight is FGNO, "Friday Geek's Night Out", my weekly meeting with my old geek friends, at which we gossip, show code, talk shit, and hang out.
I like to precede it by a tune.
Here's an insane live performance, by Josh Weathers, of "I Will Always Love You".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xh6fxaQkm8

2024-07-22 05:47:22

There is *not* bound to be litigation over Harris on the presidential ballot.
No matter what pundits and typesetters think, the law here is actually crystal clear: if a major party nominates someone, that someone is on the ballot. That's state law in 50 states.
And, yes, "major party" is actually part of the scheme by which the GOP and the Dems block 3rd parties. But that doesn't matter.
It is the "major party" nomination that matters, and that hasn't happened yet.

2024-07-17 01:30:43

To anyone, I urge you in the strongest possible terms, to go to youtube and type in "james baldwin". You'll get a bunch of hits.
Watch any of them.
I have many role models, including King and Gandhi, but none so incisive, so angry, and so committed to resisting hate.

2024-07-13 03:52:51

Wear a fucking mask.

2024-07-11 05:52:20

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@npub1lrv…tth9 Yeah, however much strident shit-talk, yeah. They still don't care about users who aren't computer-literate,

2024-07-11 04:03:14

<subpost>
Well, good luck, sugar.
The purveyors of LLMs -- I refuse to call them "AI" -- don't actually give a fuck about your potentially beneficial use case.
They're running a con, and all they care about is getting out right before the pyramid collapses.
As with blockchain. As with bitcoin.
</subpost>

2024-07-11 03:55:39

Read about Project Coast.
Then try to tell yourself the GOP would never seek to do such a thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Coast

2024-07-08 04:12:03

In my timeline, I'm hearing a lot, re: France, "this is why you must never believe polls".
I think that's a bad take.
If the left and center had not believed the polls, they would not have worked together to create this outcome.
I'm hardcore about the politics in the US, and the merest dabbler in the politics of France, so g'ahead and bust me if I'm being ignorant, but my reading is that believing the results of the first round is what created the results of the second round.

2024-07-06 03:46:02

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@npub1gfd…7gg6 As a pro, you mean? As a pro, the first project I created was a word-processor in Forth.

2024-06-24 05:23:42

Be gay, do crimes, root devices, encrypt everything, reject LLMs, break DRM, resist hate, work-to-rule while you ready yourself for a general strike.
Change the world.

2024-06-22 22:24:09

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@npub1ryk…dfrp Cool. 1) Never seen a dual steering arrangement before, only a single. 2) I forget that Scottsville, I live further north in Nelson, is on the James, which I for some reason think of as far away.

2024-06-21 11:10:42

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@npub14uk…2erc He not only said it out loud, he said it forcefully and well.

2024-06-21 07:46:40

Last day -- night, for me, I time-shifted -- of doing student demos, just two more, one starting in 15 minutes.
At the end of the session, we usually ask the students if they have any questions for us. Some do, some don't, it varies.
But here's a good one:
"GeePaw, what should we do to become better developers?"
So many possible answers, but here's mine:
"Put your fingers on the keyboard, over and over again, one problem after another. That's the only way forward."

2024-06-19 10:45:52

@npub1zdp…vqv8 Hey Mermie, been a little while since I remembered to say.
Your presence here, your posts, your threads, your lovely poly-dorktual deep dives, I dig them so much.
What they do for me is make my world better.

2024-06-19 06:37:58

Aight, well, seriously.
Social media control for children. Like you give a shit for a child.
Like you dint advocate separating children at the border.
Like you dint ban masking in school during a pandemic.
Like you dint outlaw abortion for a raped girl.
Like you dint just shut down food for kids at school.
Like you dint just seek to kill every single aspect of our social net.
Like you think 13k dead children in Gaza is some kind of just war.
You are a liar. You don't care about children.

2024-06-19 05:45:05

I am questing for a keyboard. Mechanical, wireless. I was very satisfied with the Logitech G613, hence their refusal to make more of them.
Mechanical is mandatory.
No tenkey-less, no fake-ass tiny laptop thing.
Quiet is nice.
Backlit is fucking stupid.
I feel like Logitech is failing me here.
What should I do, instead?

2024-06-17 13:35:48

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@npub1h3v…fdj2 Totally foolish and irrelevant reaction, but you triggered me to play "I'll Be Seeing You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0Go8Xep9fY
I'll be seeing you.

2024-06-17 09:24:23

Said it before, I'll say it again.
If we want better men, and we certainly do, we need to take better care of our boys.
Women can help with this, they really can, but ultimately, it's up to us men who have survived our masculinity, to the extent that we have, to serve.
Do it today. Even just a little.
Mentor a boy or a young man who could use even a *semi*-healthy male figure in their life.
It makes all the difference. It did for me, and I've sought to pay it forward. You can, too.

2024-06-14 05:49:27

Me talking to people worried about scaling:
"You're right, we're gonna need a 2nd generation FitBit w/an external drive to handle that kinda load."

2024-06-08 05:38:42

Parting shot, of rye but not exhortation, only delight.
Here's Eydie Gorme w/Trio Los Panchos, "Sabor A Mi".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQCo3rczB-w

2024-06-08 03:51:31

Just wear a fucking mask.
How hard is this?
Wear a fucking mask.
Extra credit: stop saying "back during the pandemic". We're still in the pandemic.

2024-06-07 22:11:15

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 Did you know this was happening in the moment?
I'd've been worried sick.

2024-06-05 03:47:58

I am a very lucky and privileged white American male, but for the record, I am the son of a single mother, and I grew up on welfare, and the lawns I mowed earned money for family food.
I am pretty broke, but I own my house, and my land, and my car, and my professional tools.
I worked hard.
But don't kid yourself.
Most people work hard, and don't have what I have.
The game is rigged. No one who is thoughtful or serious will deny it.
We need to break the game.

2024-06-02 04:36:43

Sex work is work. Just go get laid, please. It'll be a lot more clear once you get the little brain out of the question.

2024-06-02 01:43:51

Here is how unimportant your vote for Biden is:
Republican legislatures all over this country have already passed laws -- and are continuing, desperately to pass laws -- to make it impossible for you to vote.
Sugar, if your vote didn't matter, they wouldn't be trying so hard to keep you from voting, or convince you not to.

2024-05-30 17:26:11

People advise one not to use Chrome -- I don't -- but they also advise to use Firefox, instead -- I do -- but for the record, it is not clear to me that any of these browsers can be trusted.
It feels more like Chrome is just a chapter ahead, and the others will soon catch up.

2024-04-26 23:41:15

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I have sent a few.
I only ever received one.

2024-04-26 23:40:57

In the ManyRegerts category:
Didja ever send or recieve a mixtape?