Markus Silpala @msilpala@qoto.org
Male parental unit of two kids; married to their mother; resident of Minneapolis, MN, USA; lover of cats, climbing, human connection; writer of software and occasional coach of software teams.
Joined Nov 2022
Markus Silpala
boosted
At the first ALE conference, I – the sole USAnian attendee – listened to many stories about the annoyance of working for BigCos. It boiled over at the final lightning talk, where I complained about their complaining and said, “Quit! Start a company! In the USA, going independent is a huge risk because you’ll lose your health care. You have guaranteed health care! Use it!”
I’m pleased that two people later contacted me and said my talk nudged them toward doing just that. https://mastodon.social/@Elucidating/112244383621137601
Markus Silpala
boosted
The American tech scene would explode in a second Renaissance if the US got basic universal health care as a public right.
Markus Silpala
boosted
What if instead of following a liquids only diet the day before a colonoscopy, you could eat rice, fish, plain yogurt and much more?
Turns out you can:
"A low-residue diet, one that is heavy on starch and protein and free of vegetables, is just as effective, and much less difficult to endure, than a diet restricted to clear liquids all day. (I have seen corn and seeds many times during a colonoscopy, but I have never seen a piece of chicken!)
A pre-colonoscopy diet that includes solid foods is safe and effective, and there are abundant data to prove it."
@williampietri Fair point.
@jchyip @gdinwiddie Or ChatGPT.
@williampietri If there's an ebook edition, you could purchase it and just never download?
Markus Silpala
boosted
So, when someone asks a question, answer it sincerely without comment or judgement about what they should or should not know.
Making people feel bad for asking a question means they will ask less questions and thus they can't learn and grow.
If you've had a similar experience, please consider signal boosting this thread so we can normalize asking and answering questions without judgement. Thank you.
@narthur @LouisIngenthron I find the LLM/AI hype machine to be remarkable. When else has a new class of product arrived and sparked BOTH of these responses:
"This is amazing, and will soon be making every kind of job obsolete.”
"It takes work and practice before you can get it to produce the intended results—and, by the way, sometimes it's just plain wrong.”
I do believe this is amazing stuff; it will do wonderful and terrible things. For now it is producing WAY more enthusiasm than value.
Does anyone else think “Prompt Engineering” comes across like “learning how to how work around the ways that LLMs actually aren't intelligent”?
Mind you, I _do_ see value in that skill set. It just feels weird to declare a new form of engineering around it.
Good morning, Fediverse.
Markus Silpala
boosted
"Waterfall is safer" is essentially the joke "It's not broken if you don't check"
Markus Silpala
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Hello, front-end developers. Here's your infrequent reminder to make websites that also work on browsers NOT Google Chrome.
Forcing anyone to use Google's glorified spyware is not cool.
Markus Silpala
boosted
"I'll take TRADITIONAL EDUCATION for 200, please."
"And the answer is: 'A school assignment to list the major themes of each chapter in a classic novel'"
"Ah, what is, 'What's a reliable way to destroy students' interest in literature?'"
"Correct!"
From the Complaining From a Place of Privilege file:
Apple Vision Pro needs a setting for “do not register taps from a hand which is petting and scratching a lap pet”.
@gruber Oh, nice! Thanks.
@gruber I placed my order Friday evening, and uploaded my prescription (I think) Saturday morning. Due here on 2/2.
@gruber Any idea whether it will have a “guest mode" for letting other people try out the device?
I will be really sad if I can't easily let friends and family try out the Vision Pro experience. No, it won't fit their faces perfectly; but that's ok for a quick test drive. With retina-based locking, I worry that I would have to reset the whole system in order to let someone else use it.
@GeePawHill Whoa. You and I have the SAME outside temp tonight. That never happens.
MSP folks: is US Internet down? My fiber service has been really spotty all morning.
Male parental unit of two kids; married to their mother; resident of Minneapolis, MN, USA; lover of cats, climbing, human connection; writer of software and occasional coach of software teams.
Joined Nov 2022
