4grams

It came to me last night, how all this AI and the difficulties obtaining hardware. This is all them trying to end the idea of ownership, at least of your data. They want to control all the data, so everything you do, every picture you take, every game you play, every essay you write, will be only available in the cloud. We are getting close to the point where are must pay for every bit of our own data that we access.

This is the inevitable result. I’m very glad I’ve spent years building my own library of content. I just hope I can continue getting replacement hardware to keep it alive.

I had a flight safe multitool, one that specifically had no blade, nor anything sharp. It only had tools for my camera. I also had a fisher space pen which they said looked too much like a bullet.

Both were confiscated, but they couldn’t figure out how to open the front flipper knife I had with me, so they let it through.

The TSA bullshit isn’t about keeping us safe.

Just had this thought, and realized all my backups had been through a flood. I wound up with several damaged disks, but was able to get all the content off of them, damage was to the outside edges, and most of them didn’t have much data written.

I have a Blu-ray burner, but I’ve never burned one (only a couple DVD’s). Probably never will.

In this insane world, I’m not so sure.

I mean, same can be said about datacenters…

This is really about training AI, isn’t it. They’ve tapped nearly all the sources of human text output already, so now they want to create as much more of it as possible, as quickly as possible. They will tap into conversations and use it as a new data source, mark my words.

I mean, the boys was meant as biting social commentary so not sure where we are in the cart/horse equation here.

Jokes on them, I’ve been a windows guy so long they have always been directories; I started in the dos days.

I’m so glad I have my kids in scouts. It’s our third place, and I am now an assistant scoutmaster. I know there is controversy and history but ours is a very progressive troop, has been since its inception (we included girls before it was “allowed” and have a very diverse group of kids and adults).

They are growing up so much more grounded than some I see; being exposed to and relying on each other as they build their community. My oldest is staffing camp this summer, and I’m so proud that he’s making a good impact on so many young people.

Third spaces are hard to find, but find a good one, they make life worth it, they provide perspective and build relationships with people who have shared interests, leading to genuine freindship.

Shareholder value.

Good thing we’re about to give them a half a trillion dollars. Goddamn the entire world sucks.

I understand the authors reasons, but for me personally, having paid for the app, I’ll use it until it no longer suits my needs. Right now it does early what I need and does not cause me any issues. As soon as the enshittification hits me though, I’ll abandon it for something else. I also would not recommend someone purchase it, given the new pricing, and the availability of free alternatives. Had they been there when I paid for Plex, I’d be using them instead.

We will if we keep expecting the “one weird trick”

What it will take is coordinated action, applied consistently, not this “I’ll fix everything immediately” bullshit people keep falling for.

Disclaimer: this is how long progress takes. People used to plant trees knowing they would never get to enjoy their shade.

It’s something new anyway. I’ve dealt with bureaucracy my whole career, but mostly about shuffling numbers from one spreadsheet to another. This one is about helping shuffle people from one place to another. So, I’m used to slow, deliberate pace and hitting political walls. I’m hoping this time at least it’s doing something tangible.

I had nearly this exact conversation with my son on the way home tonight. Different details, but the same lesson. The world has abandoned practicality in favor of aesthetics and grift. I have quit several jobs because of the awful short term thinking, some of them good jobs that were the envy of my peers.

I start in the public sector next week, where I get to do things that have a direct impact on thousands of people in the state. I was hired specifically because of my practicality. I sincerely hope this is what I’ve been looking for.

This would have been a baffling question to me just a few months ago. But lately as I’ve been expanding my self hosting journey, I have realized that most people don’t use computers anymore except for at work. I just assumed everyone needed and wanted a PC, but my kids only care about them as game consoles, any other task is handled by phones or tablets.

So, these days I’m putting more effort into stuff that can be used for both. Im trying to de-big-tech myself and the cloud stuff is where we are mostly locked in. Evaluating Nextcloud at the moment and it’s maybe what I need; works great everywhere I’ve tried it so far. I do worry about enshittification though.

Yes and no, I only buy refurbs these days, so long as they work out of the box, they have been far more reliable than retail drives from a box store.

Definitely higher incidents of DOA drives, but the ones that work, have been pretty solid.

Still don’t trust spinning rust, so in addition to dual parity raid, I also have a full backup copy. But I no longer have reservations about refurb drives…

I like the name, and I’ve got lots of projects in various states that I’d love to share. I’ll check it out.

I swear, that is the hotel room I stayed at in CA. Looks like the Huntington Beach Springhill Suites.