Geek Stuff category archive

I run Akismet.

Give it up.

Noz has doubts about ChatGPT.

Methinks he makes a valid point.

Updating a VirtualBox virtual machine (VM) of Manjaro Linux. In the background is another VM of Slackware Linux (the oldest still-maintained Linus distro). The VMs are running on Mageia Linux with the Fluxbox window manager.

Der Speigel pulls back the curtain on Russian hacking.

Just read it.

Susan A. Nolan and Michael Kimball, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, look at the traits and tendencies that make some persons liable to take the bait in phishing schemes. You might want to follow the link and see if it reminds you of anyone you are know.

On a related subject, we have almost completely stopped getting those phony car warranty telephone calls. They haven’t stopped trying, though. They’re now using the mail. I got one of their phony letters just the other day.

(Broken tag fixed.)

Many years ago, I tried out for a tech support job where my potential employers had built “multitasking” into the job description. One was expected to deal with phone calls, emails, and chats simultaneously. It was a great experience, but I ended up not making it through the training period.

Now comes Peg Streep at Psychology Today Blogs to explain that multitasking is a myth (emphasis added); follow the link for the complete piece.

Yes, the very organ that sets us apart from all the other creatures, and it is truly fabulous in myriad ways. But it does have its limits and those limits come into play when we try to multitask. The brain’s huffing and puffing in these moments makes us think we’re getting more done but, in Marci’s words: “When we multitask, we don’t get more done. We just expend more effort and strain areas of our brain.” The area of the brain in question is the prefrontal cortex, the command center of executive function, and multitasking just creates bottlenecks, disrupting communication between the parts of the brain as neuroimaging makes clear. But our thought processes collude and, because multitasking feels like more work, we’re likely to believe that, like a physical workout, feeling the strain is a good thing and that we’re being more productive. Nope.

Aside:

The rock that sank my boat had nothing to do with my technical or people skills. Rather, this company placed great emphasis on telling callers and chatters when you would get back the them. I wasn’t able to get that down.

Driving away from that office for the last time was one of the two times in my life I have felt as if a physical weight were being lifted from my shoulders.

We are doomed.