Geek Stuff category archive

At Psychology Today Blogs, Nigel Bairstow and Jeremy Neofytos argue that you don’t use “social” media. It uses you. A snippet:

The shift in social media platforms from user-led spaces to algorithmically curated ones has changed the customer experience from one of autonomy and connection to something more akin to an addictive cycle. By continuously presenting users with a carefully selected flow of trending or popular content, social media mimics the characteristics of an addictive substance, pulling users back into a loop of passive consumption. Where platforms once encouraged people to “capture the moment” and connect with one another, many now prioritise perpetual engagement at the expense of authenticity and user choice. This transformation has led to a subtle yet powerful alienation of the individual user from the platform’s original purpose.

Remember, “social” media isn’t.

Divine? Give me a break.

The dialog (at the four minute mark): Don’t even think about going to the law about our private business.

The closed caption: Don’t even think about going to the Lord about our private business.

The stupid: It burns.

The serial: Dick Tracy’s G-Men, episode three, which I saw on Tubi.

The dialog: I left orders with the Coast Guard.

The closed caption: I left daughters with the Coast Guard.

The intelligence: Artificial.

The stupid: It burns.

The afterthought: I have daughters. As one who used to be a boater, I have a lot of respect for the Coast Guard, but I’m not sure I’d leave my daugh–oh, never mind.

The EFF explains some ways of protecting yourself from being tracked via your cell phone.

In these days of the surveillance economy, this is a worthwhile read.

The movie: The Criminal Within (aka Murder at Glen Athol).

The dialog: Why would she do it? She loved Muriel.

The closed caption: Why would she do it she love me oreo.

The stupid: It burns.

Aside:

I love me oreo too, but I prefer Chips Ahoy.

Debian v. 12 (Bookworm) with the Plasma Desktop on a Think Penguin laptop. Xclock is in the upper right; GKrellM, the lower right. The wallpaper is from my collection.

El Reg reports that Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, ain’t buying it. A snippet:

“I think AI is really interesting and I think it is going to change the world and at the same time I hate the hype cycle so much that I really don’t want to go there, so my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it,” said Torvalds.

“I think the whole tech industry around AI is in a very bad position and it’s 90 percent marketing and ten percent reality and in five years things will change and at that point we’ll see what of the AI is getting used for real workloads,” he added.

Follow the link for context.

In the old movie I’m watching as I type this, the I-assume-it’s AI doing the subtitles rendered “Miss Serova” as “Mr. Obama.”

If you want to see for yourself, it’s at about the 30 minute mark.

I woke up this morning to the dreaded “Error making database connection” error. (Oddly, the front end of the site seemed to be working okay, but the back end was inaccessible, so maybe my two or three regular readers did not encounter any difficulties.)

Quick like a bunny, I logged into my most excellent hosting provider, opened phpMyAdmin, and did a check, repair, and optimize on the database–procedures that I perform regularly as database maintenance ever since I suffered a database crash in 2008. Ironically, I usually do them on a Sunday.

The site seems to have worked okay all day, so I’m crossing my fingers and holding my breath.