Hence the power of the shout “sudo rm -rf*”!

When it was new to me I tried ChatGPT out of curiosity, like with any tech, and I just kept getting really annoyed at the expansive bullshit it gave to the simplest of input. “Give me a list of 3 X” lead to fluff-filled paragraphs for each. The bastard children of a bad encyclopedia and the annoying kid in school.

I realized I was understanding it wrong, and it was supposed to be understood not as a useful tool, but as close to interacting with a human, pointless prose and all. That just made me more annoyed. It still blows my mind people say they use it when writing.

It feels like Taco Bell has a long history of this. My first thought was how as a kid my local one also sold Choco Tacos, and it felt right.

But then I realized the true answer for me was I hate their change in sauce for the Cheesy Gordita Crunch. Instead of the Baja sauce they used to have, a while back they switched over to using a ranch sauce. (Gotta fulfill that stereotype of Taco Bell just being a dozen ingredients in different shapes/amounts.) That sucks.

FYI “darling” can also be used with a spouse or romantic partner. Your husband or girlfriend can be your “darling” just like “honey” or “baby”. It has a similar meaning in this case, where “darling of the group” means everyone really likes them, even if not sexual/romantic.

And this use, “darling of the ____”, is a slightly older, but relatively common, saying.

Just remember this when you see people complain about having to pick a server when joining Mastodon. It’s not that, maybe it’s just not easy/intuitive lile PixelFed is making it? I don’t know.

And then when people were joining, I just saw them complaining about all the anger/aggression on Mastodon. It may’ve missed a big jump on point with Bluesky’s rise, but there will invariably be more. People just have to be ready and willing.

hah thanks for your line of questioning. I too initially thought they were saying LW was blocking PixelFed.

Obviously it’s person-dependent. I find what helps me most is turning on audio to something I actually want to listen to. That gets my mind off going to sleep. And I fall asleep instead of listening to the things I want to hear. So I’ve got a bunch of audiobooks from Audible. I’ve recently cancelled that, however. I’ve got so many, and plan to use the phone app Libby in conjunction with my local library. Also, I subscribe to a bunch of podcasts.

When I lie down I just set the timer to 30m or “end of chapter”, and I rarely have to extend that.

It’s basically video all over again.

I have a Pixel 4a and it heats up a little playing Balatro, but all of the below it has no issues with:

Flipflop - a fun take on solitaire

Downwell - a vertical platformer

Holedown - an inverse breakout, minus the paddle

Desert Golf - a true indie classic!

Radiant - a Galaga/Space Invaders-ish shmup that’s old enough to probably be lightweight these days.

anything by Kairosoft - a developer of sim management games I’ve been playing games from since I had a flip phone. Just find a theme you like and go crazy.

NYT games - They have more than Wordle! Connections, a word grouping game, in particular is fun, and so is Strands a themed word search. They’re all updated daily for free on one app. They just lock off previous days’ puzzles and the crossword. (Though they have a small quick crossword that’s also fun.) It’s actually discounted right now for an actual subscription

Reigns - I found this very fun. It’s not for everyone. It uses Tinder’s swiping to let you make decisions and try to run your kingdom. Good luck.

Prune - a puzzle that that relies on pruning your growing plant to reach the goal

80 Days - a narrative game with a decent amount of reading, as you attempt to buy, sell, and barter your way through your adventure.

Crossy Road - Frogger-inspired game with more maps and more fun.

Plague Inc - also a classic. Control a disease as you attempt to infect and destroy humanity. (This was popular before COVID.)

Burrito Bison - time your taps to launch your lucha libre across the map.

Super Mario Run - just simple enough to make you mess up sometimes. But it’s not bad. I liked it.

Wasn’t adding engagement numbers to each tweet one of the first things he added? I remember thinking “who the fuck wants to see that?” But I guess to people like him that was important at the time? Huh.

While I’m reluctant to call anything a magnum opus… You’re bang on about the difference between those two and SWFG.

That’s what led me to this. I quit Audible a few months back, planning to just buy more media outright. But they offered me a “come back and pay $0.99 for the first three months!” and I’m not really saying “no” to basically giving them Amazon’s money. (Though for the holidays they’ve apparently upped the offer to that plus a $20 credit.) So I thought this would be a good general question as I look for more ways to support creators directly, after taking their money runs out.

Good mention of Libby, too. A coworker recommended that to me, so I’ve got it now as well. Sadly my local selection isn’t great for audiobooks. But it does make me want to get an ereader more.

Bandcamp looks to be a good way to buy music though, as someone mentioned. But I can’t find any good way to buy digital copies of movies/TV. It’s all pretty platform locked, it seems.

I love the question! I rarely listen to songs or playlists, and almost never algorithm based streams. Instead I put on albums I like. Even in my 10m-15m drive to work, and do that until I’m tired on an album. So, love the question.

Aesop Rock’s Integrated Tech Solutions. Being a long time fan I thought The Impossible Kid was fantastic. TIK was as creative and ponderous as anything he’d done, but often felt more accessible and personally inviting. While accessibility is not something you generally look for with Aesop, that feeling of being personal really made it pay off. Spirit World Field Guide was good and was interesting, but didn’t work for me as much. Maybe it was a case of enjoying TIK so much, and comparison being the thief of joy? But ITS absolutely feels top notch again. Love it.

Also worth mentioning is Powerman 5000. A year or so ago (while on a kick to my youth) I found out they were still making music and had released an album (The Noble Rot) in 2020. Shortly after I discovered that, they released one in 2024 (Abandon Ship.) They’re not great songs, but they’re all great vibes. The songs feel like they 3/4s to being great to me. Like they kept the dial at a 7 or 8 instead of turning it up to 11. And even when they did turn it up, it was only at the very end. Maybe he’s going for something different, or maybe I’ve changed, but the strength feels off. But damn the vibes are still there.

I’ve often wondered if it was an age or even time thing. I’m 44 and I noticed at some point years ago I was getting more reluctant to click buttons and try to figure things out on my own. That’s how I learned everything as a kid and became the typical family IT guy. I had to relearn that curiosity and the willingness to learn things in that fashion, which I think shrank just from disuse. I’m not in IT, but I’ve seen that reluctance grow in other people too.

I wonder if rising to certain levels (or just gaining support staff to help with things) contributes to not doing small things. Then that can lead to an increased reluctance to do other small things. (Just out of no longer feeling comfortable with them.) I hadn’t thought about it, but it makes sense to me.

And all the actors who act in yhe prime shows? They get signed into bluesky exclusive interaction contracts. Where they only interact with fans on bluesky.

I’m honestly surprised they haven’t tried something like this via partnering with some platform. I think the unions would kill them… But I’m still surprised they haven’t tried it. Sports teams/leagues too.

I will give respect where due: I like the sweep button. It’s handy for me personally, as someone who is on several email lists that are public-facing. That’s about it.

Every attempt to help me automatically is a pain. Like most things in this vein it never learns what you’re trying to do, only what they would do in a given scenario that’s vaguely like ours.

I remember reading columns saying soon, when multiple cores become common, compilers will thread your program for you…

Y’know GPS didn’t even enter my mind. Hell, depending on GPS 3 accuracy (isn’t it supposed to be in the centimeters?) my talk of signals is completely moot. That measured against a map of roads on a server somewhere would probably let you download an entire map of nodes toward your destination. Along the way the car just measures against its current location and does the math for obstacles. Great point. This is why I ponder shit out loud. Thanks.

Anyone knowledgeable about city planning? Why did we never put some type of signal in our roads? (I don’t know. Passive RFID every few feet?) It would only cost what, ten, twenty thousand on top of each million spent paving every mile?

Seems it would be better baseline navigation than self driving cars and occasionally map apps. The cars would still have to do obstacle avoidance, of course.

I’m not particularly knowledgeable about self driving tech or city planning. But if interstates are replaced every 10 years, and highways every 20, and Musk first made these claims in 2013? Then we’d have the base tech for every auto manufacturer to do moderately reliable self driving on interstates and a lot of our highways already.

Or maybe that large view pathfinding is the relatively easy part? That’s why I’m asking. I’m sure there’s something more obvious from an informed viewpoint that I don’t know.

It’s okay Jeff. It’s okay. And yourself?