Badabinski

It very definitely was 😅 The way that company used the satellite network was cool, don’t get me wrong. They would use it to push content out to all their stores with multicast which was really efficient with bandwidth. I loved it for that, but I hated interacting with it over unicast in any way, shape, or form. Horses for courses, as they say.

My pain tolerance for shitty input methods has been permanently warped after experiencing psychic damage from using Teamviewer to connect to a system over a very flaky HughesNet satellite link. I was working for a vendor that supplied a hardware networking box to a stupid retail company that sells food and shit. I just wanted to ssh to our boxen on a specific network so I could troubleshoot something, but the only way I could get to it was via putty installed on an ancient Windows XP desktop on the same network as our box that could only be accessed with Teamviewer. My favorite part of that was that the locale or something was fucked up, so my qwerty keyboard inputs were, like, fucking transformed into azerty somehow?? The Windows desktop was locked down and monitored to a tremendous degree, so I couldn’t change anything. The resolution was terrible, the latency was over a second, and half of my keyboard inputs turned into gibberish on the other side.

Oh, and I was onsite at that same company’s HQ doing a sales engineering call while I was trying to figure out what was wrong. I spent 5 days sitting in spare offices with shitty chairs, away from my family, living that fucking nightmare before I finally figured out what was wrong. God damn, what a fucking mess that was. For anyone reading this, NEVER WORK FOR GROCERY/DRUG STORE IT. They are worse than fucking banks in some ways. Fuck.

EDIT: also, I asked ‘why Teamviewer’ and the answer was always shrugs. This was before the big TeamViewer security incidents, so maybe they thought it was more secure? Like, at least they didn’t expose RDP on the internet…

Having been in this situation (the only binary I could use was bash, although cd was a bash builtin for me), echo * is your friend. Even better is something like this:

get_path_type() {
    local item
    item="$1"
    [[ -z "$item" ]] && { echo 'wrong arg count passed to get_path_type'; return 1; }
    if [[ -d "$item" ]]; then
        echo 'dir'
    elif [[ -f "$item" ]]; then
        echo 'file'
    elif [[ -h "$item" ]]; then
        echo 'link'  # not accurate, but symlink is too long
    else
        echo '????'
    fi
}

print_path_listing() {
    local path path_type
    path="$1"
    [[ -z "$path" ]] && { echo 'wrong arg count passed to print_path_listing'; return 1; }
    path_type="$(get_path_type "$path")"
    printf '%s\t%s\n' "$path_type" "$path"
}

ls() {
    local path paths item symlink_regex
    paths=("$@")
    if ((${#paths[@]} == 0)); then
        paths=("$(pwd)")
    fi
    shopt -s dotglob
    for path in "${paths[@]}"; do
        if [[ -d "$path" ]]; then
            printf '%s\n' "$path"
            for item in "$path"/*; do
                print_path_listing "$item"
            done
        elif [[ -e "$path" ]]; then
            print_path_listing "$path"
        printf '\n'
        fi
    done
}

This is recreated from memory and will likely have several nasty bugs. I also wrote it and quickly tested it entirely on my phone which was a bit painful. It should be pure bash, so it’ll work in this type of situation.

EDIT: I’m bored and sleep deprived and wanted to do something, hence this nonsense. I’ve taken the joke entirely too seriously.

Yeah, hypercapnia is fucked. I’m actually testing a small CO2 gas generator (literally just citric acid added dropwise to sodium bicarb with an acid trap and a dehumidifying stage) as a means to kill pests on houseplants and did some reading on the symptoms to be safe. It is unpleasant. It’s not the worst death I could imagine, but it’s shit.

As an aside, the way that CO2 kills bugs is interesting. Basically, the excess CO2 (in the range of 10-80,000 ppm) causes their spiracules (i.e. the little holes in their exoskeletons they use to breath) to stay open. This causes them to lose moisture until they die of dehydration (usually in a matter of hours). All this happens long before they asphyxiate or suffer from any sort of acidification from the CO2. It’s a bit fucked up, but all other means of getting rid of the pests on my partner’s houseplants have failed.

It’s a shame that nobody has produced a molecular test cheaply enough for free distribution yet. The fact that you can get PCR quality tests entirely at home makes the antigen tests a non-option for me and mine. They’re too expensive to recommend to most people, however. The ones I’ve been using are $25 per test, and you also have to pay $50 for the reusable test reader. That’s way cheaper than they used to be (Lucira COVID tests were like $75 a pop, and the fact that the entire unit was single use was terrible from a waste perspective), but it’s still just not good enough.

EDIT: lmao, Pfizer bought Lucira and is now selling combo COVID+flu tests with the same single-use tester. I wish they had converted to a reusable central unit with disposable tests like most other molecular COVID testers…

EDIT: yikes, the Lucira combo tester might be giving false positive results for the flu. Dunno if this Amazon review is accurate, but it’s certainly concerning:

Nolla. They make great games with interesting vibes!

I’m guessing it’s nostalgia. The bananas in the original game had stickers on them, but the newer games didn’t. There are a lot of people who love the old SMB games and are happy when anything is done to make the new ones like the old ones.

I don’t get being so excited about it, but these games weren’t a core part of my childhood. I played the party games in SMB 1 once and those were fun, but I don’t think I ever actually played the main game.

Same here. Like, there has to be some kind of specific vulnerability in these pagers, right? You can’t just “heat up the battery,” you need something that will actually use the power. If the pagers weren’t compromised between the manufacturer and the recipients, then there’s some major fuckery afoot.

Yeah, I’ve been wondering how the fuck they pulled this off. If it turns out that the only pagers that exploded belonged to Hezbollah members, then that would signal to me that this was done entirely digitally.

I’ve heard that batteries (can’t remember if it was laptop or phone batteries) contain the energy of a small grenade, but getting it to release that energy all at once without physical access is absolutely fucking wild and has serious fucking implications for device security.

EDIT: To avoid spreading misinformation, I’m providing this edit to say that the batteries absolutely were not the cause of the explosion. This was a supply-chain attack. Explosives were inserted into the pagers. The batteries in these pagers cannot be made to explode like this. I was overly excited when I made this comment.

what the fuck

What is it with this fucking man and disgusting dead animals‽ Like, this was before the brain worm started driving ffs! I really thought the brain worm was the reason this dude was so fucking crazy, but apparently not! It must be Rosemary Kennedy’s ghost, tormenting the family for what they did.

EDIT: Jesus I just can’t get over this. They’re dead man you don’t have to fuck with them just leave them alone and enjoy your time on the beach with your family or in Central Park throwing dirt clods at the drifters like you want to

just don’t fucking touch the dead animals anymore

EDIT: I’ve done some more research and have learned a few things

1. the US education system sucks at telling recent history because i just learned about RFK’s assassination
2. maybe he’s all crazy and fucked up because his uncle and dad were assassinated when he was 9 and 14
3. maybe he’s all crazy and fucked up because he was doing fucking heroin from the age of 15 (jesus what does that do to a developing brain)
4. maybe he’s all crazy and fucked up because his family was probably neglectful (and possibly abusive) as hell because he certainly acted like a neglected and spoiled teenager (he was suspected of committing a bunch of crimes and shit with other kids)

like, I just want to understand what his fucking problem is. It was easy when it was the brain worm. I view him as a bit dangerous which is probably why I’m latching onto this and trying to understand his motivations. Dangerous people are easier to handle emotionally if you know why they’re dangerous and what they want.

Ditto. Like, I think it’ll become iconic in the same way the LLV is ugly-iconic. I just like it when government stuff so obviously prioritizes function over form.

Don’t forget fully automated!

I’d guess there’s a bit of MIC lobbying and chicanery afoot here. Like, it does seem like Oshkosh makes some good vehicles, but there’s always pressure to support defense companies when government bidding happens.

Please note that this is completely baseless speculation on my part. I’m an idiot on the internet that knows fuck-all about shit.

So, like, I agree with you. We need to make people less miserable. We need to find ways to make people feel less marginalized through better representation, and a reduction in authoritarian measures. I also feel that ending the cycle of abuse that leads to damaged children growing into harmful adults should be prioritized and addressed with better social services (free healthcare including mental healthcare) and societal reforms. You and I fundamentally agree on this, and everything I’m about to say below is the result of me being in a bad mood because my FIL shared some fucking stupid racist GOP misinformation with me about the cats and the Haitian people. I’m being pedantic (and frankly irritating) about this, but I’m just not regulating myself very well today.

I guess I’d question how much more accessible 3D printing is making it. Like, there are definitely gun parts you can 3D print, but they tend not to be the important bits. You can somewhat successfully 3D print the important bits, but that requires a lot of knowledge and skill (printing with high strength/high temperature plastics like Nylon or polycarbonate isn’t easy, even with the newest crop of printers), plus a good printer (which is either expensive, or was self-built which increases the knowledge and skill required). If someone wants to make a gun with a 3D printer, they’ll have to get a printer (and either spend $1000+ or spend $500 + months making one), learn how to use it, learn how to print with better filaments, buy all the vitamins (i.e. parts that can’t be printed) and then they’ll end up with a kinda shitty gun. Alternatively, they can do what Yamagami did and buy some cheap metal pipe and a battery and some tape. They’ll get a kinda shitty gun without all of the 3D printing hassle for much cheaper.

Hell, if someone wants to make a good gun then machine tools have never been cheaper. I have a metal lathe and milling machine sitting out in my shop right now. I do not (and will never) make guns, but I could. My dad does competitive target shooting (Palma rifle) and has asked me if I could machine stuff for him which is why I’ve thought of this (I told him no, btw). My lathe was built in the 1950s and was $500. My mill is more expensive (about $4000 brand new), but I’m sure you could make a gun with a used $1000 mill. Machining is harder to learn than 3D printing, but with machine tools you can make more capable guns (i.e. semiautomatic/automatic, accurate, precise, reliable). The drawings are out there, and I’m sure I could turn some 4140 and O1 steel scrap pieces I have into a little gun. I can even make my own springs with my lathe. I have a granite lapping plate so I can make parts that are incredibly flat and smooth. I have a MAPP gas torch that I’ve used to harden and temper tool steel. A small home machine shop can produce a gun that’s as good as anything from, say, the 1940s.

Should we say that companies like Harbor Freight or Grizzly are making homemade guns more accessible because they’re selling cheap lathes and mills? I don’t feel that’s fair. Our technology and automation is getting better in general, which is making guns more accessible. It’s why Yamagami was able to kill a world leader with parts from the hardware store. We can’t really do much to stop the hardware store problem. All we can do is what you said. We can remove the things that make people feel the need to own a gun.

I want to call out something, since I feel a connection is being drawn here that is not valid. His gun was not 3D printed.

Investigative sources said that the gun used in the incident consisted of two metal cylinders wrapped in vinyl tape, which could fire six projectiles when the trigger was pulled. When prefectural police examined the seized weapon, they found it was equipped with an electrical cord and battery and that it was designed to ignite the gunpowder with an electrical current.

Sourced from this site: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220725/p2a/00m/0na/021000c

I’m not taking issue with most of what you said, but FDM 3D printers aren’t the issue here. Making a gun can be done at home with essentially no tools. I don’t think we should get pulled in to blaming societal issues on a single piece of technology.

I’m in a hurry so I’ve left this comment short, I may come back and edit it with more thoughts later.

Sorry, I was having a shit day yesterday and made many grumpy comments on the Internet. I could have worded that better.

It should still exclude water. Like, there are ways to equalize pressure that don’t allow for water to condense in the phone like OP’s photo. This is a Bad Thing™.

If he were shooting something bigger than 5.56, then you’d want to try to seat it more firmly in your shoulder. An AR-15/M16 generates pretty negligible recoil, so it’s fine. I used to compete in across-the-course service rifle when I was much younger (before I grew up enough to realize I hated the culture in that community), and I’d have the butt even higher up in my shooting coat’s shoulder if I needed to do so in order to get a good cheek weld. At a glance, his technique looks okay. I’ve no experience with the front grips like that (my AR-15 had no rails for mounting shit), but the rest of his stance seeeeems okay.

I’m guessing that he was a dipshit in other ways and this bad publicity brought the other badness to light.

Not trying to be pedantic, but you recover the body once someone is dead. Rescue specifically means that you’re trying to get to a person before further injury or death can occur. Recovering someone’s remains is done almost purely out of respect for our need for burials and closure. It’s a really solomn and respectful thing that’s not to be taken lightly, so recover is absolutely the right word to use here.

Source: I did some search and rescue training as a kid.

I wrote a comment about this several months ago on my old kbin.social account. That site is gone and I can’t seem to get a link to it, so I’m just going to repost it here since I feel it’s relevant. My kbin client doesn’t let me copy text posts directly, so I’ve had to use the Select feature of the android app switcher. Unfortunately, the comment didn’t emerge unscathed, and I lack the mental energy to fix it due to covid brain fog (EDIT: it appears that many uses of I were not preserved). The context of the old post was about layoffs, and it can be found here: https://kbin.earth/m/asklemmy@lemmy.ml/t/12147

I want to offer my perspective on the Al thing from the point of view of a senior individual contributor at a larger company. Management loves the idea, but there will be a lot of developers fixing auto-generated code full of bad practices and mysterious bugs at any company that tries to lean on it instead of good devs. A large language model has no concept of good or bad, and it has no logic. happily generate string- templated SQL queries that are ripe for SQL injection. I’ve had to fix this myself. Things get even worse when you have to deal with a shit language like Bash that is absolutely full of God awful footguns. Sometimes you have to use that wretched piece of trash language, and the scripts generated are horrific. Remember that time when Steam on Linux was effectively running rm -rf /* on people’s systems? I’ve had to fix that same type of issue multiple times at my workplace.

I think LLMs will genuinely transform parts of the software industry, but I absolutely do not think they’re going to stand in for competent developers in the near future. Maybe they can help junior developers who don’t have a good grasp on syntax and patterns and such. I’ve personally felt no need to use them, since spend about 95% of my time on architecture, testing, and documentation.

Now, do the higher-ups think the way that do? Absolutely not. I’ve had senior management ask me about how I’m using Al tooling, and they always seem so disappointed when I explain why I personally don’t feel the need for it and what feel its weaknesses are. Bossman sees it as a way to magically multiply IC efficiency for nothing, so absolutely agree that it’s likely playing a part in at least some of these layoffs.

Basically, I think LLMs can be helpful for some folks, but my experience is that the use of LLMs by junior developers absolutely increases the workload of senior developers. Senior developers using LLMs can experience a productivity bump, but only if they’re very critical of the output generated by the model. I am personally much faster just relying on traditional IDE auto complete, since I don’t have to change from “I’m writing code” mode to “I’m reviewing code mode.”