• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 13th, 2023

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  • While I agree in principle, a blanket enforcement seems like a great way for companies to purposely tank smaller entities just to get hold of their code/IP. Alongside this, it probably doesn’t help to just release the code, when these devices will run on web services, or perhaps even proprietary tech.

    In this case, it would be a great way to dissolve the company. Switch the endpoints over to a custodian project, have the servers owned and run through a community campaign, and open source the code and artifacts.









  • While true, a lot of older people in the UK get really, really racist when it comes to their bloodline. Some people view themselves as more British than others because of their lineage towards the Saxons, as opposed to people that have been here for 100+ years that may have originated from elsewhere. Many don’t consider anyone to be British if they emigrated from somewhere like Jamaica, India, or Ireland because, in their view, only the pure Anglo Saxons are the original Brits, even if 5-6 generations of their family grew up here, embedded themselves into society

    I do agree that Americans are really weird when it comes to their ancestry, especially considering they come from a country that is very anti-immigration. IMO if you want to claim that you are 50% British or whatever, you shouldn’t be blocking British people from moving to your country (and vice versa).


  • It’s not a great look…but let’s be frank. Biden was pushed out of a race he wanted, during a presidency that wasn’t all that bad considering what came before. The Dems that wanted him out are now all either infighting, or saying everything is fine and they’ll definitely win in four years. Biden’s in the last weeks of his job, and when he’s lost so much already he probably just wants to ensure his family are safe.

    After decades of public service, and being committed to handing power over to someone that’s demonized what’s left of his family, I’m all for Biden using his last week or two to protect his family and enjoy retirement.





  • For now, I work in AI.

    IMO, using AI to remove jobs is the business equivalent of the Darwin Award. No sane executive will look at AI and see job replacement. A dumb executive will look at AI and see more productivity gains. A smart executive will see AI as a way to improve tooling for workers that explicitly want to use AI.

    Sadly, as with most tech improvements, we’ll see lots of companies run by stupid people try to do stupid things with it. The best we can hope for is that there are opportunities for people to bail and find better job opportunities when their employer says “let’s fire HR and replace with GPT”, only to get absolutely brutalized by legal fees when their AI HR decides to fire someone for a protected reason, or refuses to fire a thief because they have a disability, or something that requires human intervention that doesn’t exist, or one of the hundreds of ways that it could go hilariously wrong.

    It happens all the time. I remember watching solid profitable tech companies pivoting to delivering large apps on the new iPhone app store because “it’s the future”, only to realise that spending two years to develop an office suite for the iPhone 4 was a fucking stupid idea in hindsight. I remember people firing web developers because WYSIWYG editors would mean that you could design and build a website in the same way you create a Word doc. Stupid execs will always do stupid shit, and the world will move on.


  • I work in big tech, and in the US there is a lot of money being thrown at knowledge workers. IMO it’s not a bad thing, but I do wish that other workers also got their fair share.

    Regardless, the dirty secret of these companies is that a big part of your compensation is usually restricted stock units, and when you relocate through work to a different country you usually get to keep the same amount of stock. You’ll get a good base pay, but your stock once vested will usually put you leaps and bounds above the average pay.

    So, work for one of these companies that pays stock, and move to the UK, France, Germany, somewhere with a MUCH cheaper cost of living and better social net. At a high enough level, you could arguably quit your job and prop up your future salary from interest.


  • Sister Calderón: We’ve all lived bad lives, Mr. Morgan. We all sin… but I know you.

    Arthur: You don’t know me.

    Sister Calderón: Forgive me, but… that’s the problem. You don’t know you.

    Arthur: What do you mean?

    Sister Calderón: I don’t know… whenever we happen to meet, you’re always helping people and smiling.

    Arthur: I had a son… he passed away. I had a girl who loved me… I threw that away. My momma died when I was a kid, and my daddy… well, I watched him die. And it weren’t soon enough.

    Sister Calderón: My husband died a long time ago. Life is full of pain. But there is also love, and beauty.

    Arthur: What am I gonna do now?

    Sister Calderón: Be grateful that for the first time, you see your life clearly. Perhaps you could help somebody? Helping makes you really happy.

    Arthur: But… I still don’t believe in nothin’.

    Sister Calderón: Often, neither do I. But then, I meet someone like you, and everything makes sense

    Arthur: Heh… You’re too smart for me, Sister. I guess I… I’m afraid.

    Sister Calderón: There is nothing to be afraid of. Take a gamble that love exists, and do a loving act.


  • Absolutely 100% this.

    To be totally blunt, this doesn’t need political backing. This requires people collectively coming together, forming unions with single-focus, and pushing for an increase in pay to align with the cost of living. Hell, if anything it’s better if Trump and his lackies oppose this, because you ultimately have the power to cripple these businesses via strikes, forming your own cooperatives off the back of your soon-to-be previous employers, or simply signalling to businesses that if they cannot afford to pay people enough money they shouldn’t be in business.

    Push for gradual increase year-on-year until pay is aligned. If this is missed, everyone walks. Push for the removal of limited sick pay, and for 25+ days minimum vacation time a year. Leave it at that, and you’ve got terms that 90% of workers will agree to. Can’t get a single company to agree? Create a professional body for your line of work and promote it as the place to be for those in your field. Push for accreditation for roles, and shun those that avoid it.


  • I had discussed it with my wife. I didn’t want her to feel obligated to do so, and I know it would be awkward at her work to change her last name, but ultimately she wanted to - so I guess that’s one reason?

    There is a degree of closeness from it that I think some people appreciate. If you all share a last name, perhaps you feel closer as a family? I’ve known some people that don’t share the same last name as their kids, or people that went double-barrelled, but didn’t with their kids, and some of them had either changed later, or regretted not having the “same” name.