Paying bills is for poor people. Rich people don’t need to do that. How would they stay rich?

<blink>intensifies<\blink>

The installers for every major software company riddled every single computer with adware. And you needed a compsci degree to get rid of it. Weren’t there lawsuits over that shit, that led to regulations? I remember that happening. It’s not like they were going to stop doing that of their own accord.

I’m to the point that if whatever I’m watching/doing pops an ad at me, I reflexively make a snap judgement on whether I want to continue watching/doing whatever it is. Often the answer is ‘no’ and I’ll just bail entirely.

Upper management deserves everything it gets. Middle management is often underpaid and expected to do all the jobs of their own plus their superiors.

Some *organisational tasks will always be needed. Middle management does that plus fielding some amount of customer service, plus a lot of what upper management takes credit for.

The system is fucked, but we shouldn’t let the people doing barely anything to earn their yachts turn us against those grinding their own bones to glue the grind-house together.

(No, I’m not a middle-manager.)

It definitely did. I remember it vividly (I was alive back then). And I’m talking about the premium services, specifically (e: which was the point of my comparison: the premium paid services back then advertised no-ad service, then included ads, just like the premium streaming services are doing today).

Here’s an article from the NYT in 1981 on the topic:

WILL CABLE TV BE INVADED BY COMMERCIALS?

e: a quote:

Indeed, even pay television, once assumed to be secure from commercial interests, is attracting some attention as a potential vehicle for advertising. Admittedly, such leading pay cable services as Home Box Office and Showtime, whose programming consists primarily of theatrically released films, staunchly maintain that they will never accept advertising.

A: they’re betting most people will accept it, and they’re right. The same thing happened in the early 80s when cable television advertised themselves as the pay-for-ad-free service, then started sneaking ads in. People complained, sure, but we all saw the outcome. They got away with it.

B: Greed, capitalism, and fuck you.

Oh no. Now we’ll never hear from FlyingSquid again. RIP, fiend, we’ll mis

Have you tried doing this? I have, for *nearly a year, on the more ‘advanced’ pro versions. Yes, it will apologise and try again – and it gets progressively worse over time. There’s been a marked degradation as it progresses, and all the models are worse now at maintaining context and not hallucinating than they were several months ago.

LLMs aren’t the kind of AI that can evaluate themselves and improve like you’re suggesting. Their logic just doesn’t work like that. A true AI will come from an entirely different type of model, not from LLMs.

e: time. Wow, where did this year go?

• Fresh piranha about 2/3 down & under the duvet – an unusual surprise for your partner.
• Piranha in the coffee mug - a classic.
• Replace a coworker’s mouse with a live piranha (timing is important – don’t want the poor thing to suffocate, have a bowl of water handy).

The possibilities are endless.

Piranhas have dozens of uses. Food, bait, aesthetics/decor, pranks, weapons of surprise, scissors, evil lairs…

DROP TABLE 01;

Kinda brilliant to disguise malware as a captcha, though. I won’t be surprised.

Oh this one cuts.

Go mow the lawn, kid, or you’re not getting your allowance this week.

I wasn’t talking about the Cold War, though. The US was deeply involved in several hot wars during that period, including the Laotian Civil War, the Dominican Civil War, the Cambodian Civil War, the bombing of Libya, the Tanker War, the US invasion of Panama, and others. The US has literally never not been involved in some war, somewhere. That’s kind of its thing.

I never watched The Hardy Boys. I should see if it’s streaming. He seems dreamy, too.

e: oh shit, it is!

1774?

But if I use my silica packets for that, how will I season my rice?

8 track tapes, Intellivision, rotary phones, my first crush was David Cassidy.