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Submission + - Rob Pike gets spammed with AI slop

Anomolous Cowturd writes: An AI bot let loose on the world by an outfit called AI Village has seen fit to waste a legend's time and patience. See an article by Simon Willison about it.

Says Rob on Bluesky: "Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software. Just fuck you. Fuck you all. I can't remember the last time I was this angry."

Comment Re:WHY?! (Score 1) 277

It's very useful when typing is less practical.
Driving along, can't handle your phone: "Siri, navigate to Joe's house", "Siri, read my messages", "Siri, play some lo-fi chill", etc.
Lying in bed, don't want to irradiate your eyes: "Siri, play my audio book", "Siri, set volume to 20 percent", "Siri, pause", etc.
Walking along with your earbuds in, why bother taking your phone out of your pocket? "Siri, call mum", "Siri, compose a message to Joe", etc. I agree that talking to Siri with strangers around is both rude and embarrassing, so fall back to typing laboriously in that case.
Plenty of use cases where it makes good sense, just a smidgeon of imagination required. Darned neo-luddites :)

Comment You're after a worthy anti-growth messiah I guess (Score 1) 302

If you really want to thwart human growth you're gonna need an anti-growth messiah, and ironically cranking out more kids is your best shot at getting one of those. Thunberg obviously ain't gonna cut it. Maybe Thunberg 2.0?

But, could it be, that the true messiah has already been, and this stupid greenie religion is pretty much stillborn but doesn't know it yet.

Comment Re:I'm in Australia (Adelaide) Looking to move cou (Score 5, Interesting) 450

I bet Americans are wondering why on earth we would want to leave Australia.....
There have been some recent unpleasant changes in Australian society. The Iraq war and anti-Islam propaganda has started turning the knuckle-draggers here into nationalists. Every day sees more crosstikas plastered on the rear windows of SUVs, and Aussie flags are cropping up in incongruous places. It used to be that Aussies were only nationalistic when it came to sports... now, I feel an ugly change coming.
Databases

F/OSS Flat-File Database? 702

Leemeng writes "I'm looking for a simple, free, and F/OSS flat-file database program. I'm storing info about Wi-Fi access points that I come across, maybe 8-9 fields per entry. I've outgrown Notepad. This info is for my own reference only; it is not going on a Web server. Googling was unhelpful, with results skewed towards SQL, Access (MS), and Oracle, all of which would be overkill for my purposes. My criteria are: it must be simple, F/OSS, must work in Windows Vista, preferably use a portable format, must not be an online app, and must not require Java. Does such a beast exist?"
Biotech

Many Scientists Using Performance Enhancing Drugs 955

docinthemachine is one of several readers to send word of a new poll published in Nature showing unprecedented levels of cognitive performance-enhancing drug abuse by top academic scientists. The poll, conducted among subscribers to Nature, surveyed 1,400 scientists from 60 nations (70% from the US). 20% reported using performance-enhancing drugs. Among the drug-using population, 62% used Ritalin, 44% used Provigil, and 15% used beta-blockers like Inderal. Frequency of use was evenly divided among those who used drugs daily, weekly, monthly, and once a year. All such use without a prescription is illegal.
The Military

Anti-Missile Technology To Be Tested on Commercial Jets 490

Hugh Pickens writes "As many as three American Airlines passenger jets will be outfitted this spring with laser technology intended to protect planes from missile attacks. The tests, which could involve more than 1,000 flights, will determine how the technology holds up under the rigors of flight. The technology is intended to stop attacks by detecting heat from missiles, then responding in a fraction of a second by firing laser beams to jam the missiles' guidance systems. A Rand study in 2005 estimated it would cost about $11 billion to protect every US airliner from shoulder-fired missiles. Over 20 years, the cost to develop, procure and operate anti-missile systems could hit $40 billion."
Microsoft

Office 2003 Service Pack Disables Older File Formats 555

time961 writes "In Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, Microsoft disabled support for many older file formats. If you have old Word, Excel, 1-2-3, Quattro, or Corel Draw documents, watch out! They did this because the old formats are 'less secure', which actually makes some sense, but only if you got the files from some untrustworthy source. Naturally, they did this by default, and then documented a mind-bogglingly complex workaround (KB 938810) rather than providing a user interface for adjusting it, or even a set of awkward 'Do you really want to do this?' dialog boxes to click through. And of course because these are, after all, old file formats ... many users will encounter the problem only months or years after the software change, while groping around in dusty and now-inaccessible archives."
Book Reviews

CSS Pocket Reference 87

Michael J. Ross writes "For Web developers who appreciate the value of separating Web content from its presentation, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) has proved a godsend, because it allows all of the styling of a Web site to be organized in CSS files separate from the site's semantic content, in HTML files (possibly dynamically generated). Yet to make this styling power possible, CSS must incorporate a long list of syntax elements, including hundreds of selectors, properties, and values. Thus it can be quite handy for the developer to have on hand a concise summary of CSS, such as the CSS Pocket Reference, authored by Eric A. Meyer." Read on for the rest of Michael's review.
OS X

Leopard as the New Vista? 734

ninja_assault_kitten writes "There's an interesting rant from Oliver Rist up on the PC Magazine site. He compares the catastrophe that is Vista to the recently released OS X Leopard. While clearly one is a lion and the other a cub, there do appear to be some frustrating similarities. From the article: 'A month of using Leopard with the same software I had under Tiger and the OS has dumped six times. That's six cold reboots for Oliver. Apple isn't even honest enough to admit that Leopard is crashing: The OS just grays out my desktop and pops up a dialog box telling me I've got to reboot. Like the whole thing is my fault. I even snapped a picture of it. After all, I HAD PLENTY OF CHANCES!'"

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