betsythemuffin

danilo, 2 months ago to random

One of the uncomfortable realities tech workers need to confront is the self-defeating loathing we feel for our own industry.

Thing is, we need tech to have growth headroom and momentum if we want to keep paying for housing

In this light, it's a relief to me to see Reddit's IPO do well in its first day of trading, much as I found their 2023 posture distasteful.

Especially in light of the failed Figma deal, we need SOME path to exits for money to keep flowing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/21/technology/reddit-stock-ipo-market.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

danilo, 1 month ago to random

So the CFPB has Lambda School and Austin Allred dead to rights as scammers

Allred, noted crook, is not allowed to do anything like student lending for ten years

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-takes-action-against-coding-boot-camp-bloomtech-and-ceo-austen-allred-for-deceiving-students-and-hiding-loan-costs/

betsythemuffin, 11 months ago to random

I'm upset about losing affirmative action, but letting the educational-equity frame center on Harvard admissions is losing the plot.

What's tuition like at your local community college? Does it have a range of class times and structures (in-person, hybrid, online) to accommodate different learning needs & adult commitments? How does it balance both technical/trades education and liberal arts education? What kind of on-ramp does it have for less academically prepared folks?

betsythemuffin, 3 months ago to random

I've long assumed that new math would fall out of attempts to explain and optimize ML models, and that this new math would have far-reaching implications for other computationally difficult tasks.

Part A of this assumption seems to be coming true:

https://wandering.shop/@ngaylinn@tech.lgbt/111998292324811614

betsythemuffin, 2 months ago to random

Crows and ravens both know that they are the last living dinosaurs.

What other birds do?

betsythemuffin, 4 months ago to random

Coming from a fanfiction background, two things trouble me about the standard anti-AI copyright discourse.

1. Blurred rhetorical lines between copyright (a legal construct) and creators' moral rights to their works;
   1a. in a way that implies creators have an infinite moral right to control derived works.

2. An implied belief that putting more law on it will always empower rather than endanger independent creators.

betsythemuffin, 25 days ago to random

Software engineering friends:

-- How many times have you cautioned against premature optimization?

-- How concerned are you with datacenter-related energy consumption and e-waste generation?

-- What do you intend to do about the relationship between these things?

betsythemuffin, 8 months ago to random

Did you know that it used to be legal to fire women for not wearing pantyhose?

The "clothing according to biological sex" people want to bring back the laws that allowed that.

betsythemuffin, 4 months ago to random

Periodic reminder:

Are you feeling dispirited by the software industry? Does every job you look at feel like another bullshit way of transferring working-class money into VC pockets?

YOU CAN LEAVE!

It will mean less money, but you can leave.

Whether it's as small a step as a janky university webmaster job, or as large a one as retraining, you can leave. I have been so much happier for leaving.

Always happy to talk through logistics of this with the curious.

betsythemuffin, 8 months ago to random

Anti-disposability work is at the heart of decarceralism.

Because computers favor black-and-white, many technical solutions to moderation problems favor blanket, impermeable boundaries -- which is at odds with the realities of social rehabilitation/anti-disposability work.

This means that anti-disposability work and technical solutions to moderation will, by default, be at odds.

I don't know how I want this tension resolved. I wish I saw more people grappling with it.

betsythemuffin, 7 months ago to random

ADHD & other exec function disorder frens:

Are there RSS feed readers out there whose UI helps you manage the impact of information firehoses on exec function difficulties?

If so, which RSS feed reader and which features/usage patterns?

Boosts welcome.

betsythemuffin, 1 month ago to random

I've been scared to post about this for fear of jinxing it somehow, but --

I GOT INTO BERKELEY!

I'll be matriculating as a transfer Chemical Biology major this fall!

(Assuming, that is, I can tear my eyes away from the oh-so-pretty course catalogs and lab homepages for long enough to finish my CCSF semester off properly.)

danilo, 2 months ago to random

but we have to ban TikTok right

https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-execs-decrypt-rival-apps-usage-snap-youtube-2024-3

betsythemuffin, 7 months ago to random

Listening to people in my life talking about how they are Reactifying old Rails MPAs or rewriting React SPAs to a Hotwire-driven MPA style or.....

It really does leave me wondering how I bore it.

In chemistry the answer to "why is this inelegant" is "quantum" and I can take being mystified by something that also boggled Einstein.

In software the answer is "because someone at a FAANG wanted a staff promo" and that's much harder to take, emotionally.

betsythemuffin, 4 months ago to random

Hey Masto-verse!

I am thinking about getting my genes sequenced, but I'm aggressively disinterested in the privacy practices of e.g. 23 and Me.

Looking for perspectives on how people who have done privacy-conscious personal genetics have evaluated providers for privacy and security concerns; secondarily interested in tools they have used to interpret this data.

(Looking ONLY for sequencing perspectives, NOT general genetic testing advice. Or for randos' commentary on adjacent topics.)

betsythemuffin, 1 month ago to random

One thing I struggle with, with regard to leftist/pop-leftist approaches to environmentalism, is:

Our modern medical supply chain is dependent on fossil fuels to a boggling extent. Single-use sterile items; packaging for same; pharmaceutical precursors; etc. Obviously, defossilization of these supply chains is mandated --

but it's a hard problem. There are no quick or absolute fixes. So when I hear "just shut it down," I hear "my disabled brother is an acceptable casualty."

betsythemuffin, 5 months ago to random

Fucking around with XSLT for ... reasons... and tbh, from a language perspective I'm finding it equal-or-better as an experience to most "modern" web templating languages.

The only real issues I'm having are around documentation & compatibility due to it being unfashionable.

betsythemuffin, 26 days ago to random

Hey folks, are there any language learning apps out there that actually address grammar as a first-class concept? I know that immersion-style is fashionable now and conjugating verbs is unfashionable, but to me full-immersion-low-grammar alternates between slow and disorienting.

betsythemuffin, 2 months ago to random

Just discovered that a firm called Kimble Group has been shopping me around as a software developer based on my LinkedIn profile, without my awareness or consent. SO GROSS.

betsythemuffin, 1 month ago to random

Have such complex feelings about the smartphone mental health debate.

On the one hand, smartphones are obviously making most people's mental health worse. But on the other hand, the elite moral panic about smartphones making kids "depressed" is clearly a code for them making kids "trans," when you look at the people involved, and I'm not interested in advancing transphobes' arguments for them.

betsythemuffin, 2 months ago to random

From @lcamtuf, https://infosec.exchange/@lcamtuf/112182346314363746

"The real issue with a lot of small, foundational OSS libraries is just that there isn’t enough to do. They were written decades ago by a single person — and beyond bugfixes, they are not really supposed to change much."

-- When is software allowed to be done? How can software become "done"?

What if the cracks appearing aren't merely corporate greed, but rather the profound expense of the current software maintenance model being unsustainable?