Al Sweigart

There should be some grand unifying theory of change timelines, because it was all standard for me: ten minutes to do the actual change, two weeks of bumpiness, and then after that it was just a habit.

When I switched from Google to DuckDuckGo, from Chrome to Firefox, and from Windows to macOS, from MS Office to LibreOffice, I had the same thought: "That was a lot easier and quicker to get used to than I thought."

I think about this take more often than I'd like to.

XKCD 1205 comic

The thing I never liked about xkcd.com/1205/ "Is It Worth The Time?" is that it doesn't consider the fact that the time you spend automating a task is time spent practicing programming and getting better at programming. As devs lean on LLMs to code for them, we're going to learn this the hard way.

My gasts! They've been flabbered!

I have a lot of these "teaching people to code" tips in this handbook I made for the MADE (Oakland's video game museum): inventwithscratch.com/Scratch_Clas...

One thing I stressed to people teaching others how to code is that you should NEVER put your hands on their keyboard and mouse. Have them do everything, because if you do it, they won't learn anything.

Anyway, so on the topic of agentic AI coding tools...

this war has already wiped out the stated gains from what DOGE did last year lol

If someone says they believe in God, they might be okay or they might be not okay. If they start talking about the Devil and Armageddon, they are ALWAYS batshit crazy.

As someone who always uses and links people to the Death Generator, this is a very good idea, unfortunately.

Questions over Minab girls’ school strike as Israel, US deny involvement Al Jazeera investigation raises questions over deadliest single attack of war that killed 165 schoolgirls and staff.

I didn’t even know there was Israeli propaganda saying it was an Iranian missile misfire until I went on FB. Many actually believe this.

Nor did I know until this article about Israel’s long history of targeting schools like this—outside Gaza and before 2023.

Targeting schools as “centers of gravity“ in Israelspeak is intended to weaken the resolve of the civilian population and decrease support for the war. Israel’s goal is to stoke a popular uprising in Iran.

This strike on little girls on day zero of the military campaign is meant to do just that.

Cops are great

Rigged casinos are a great way to make money from insider information.

Not ICE. Not Border Patrol. Just the same rotten local cops we've always had

IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...

I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.

Biden himself said they were fabricated!

www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

in case anyone ever needed confirmation that it's not about building a democratic Iran, it's about collapsing Iran and turning it into a land of rubble that can be bombed every six months

Emergency protests against war on Iran in cities across U.S. Act Now to Stop War & End Racism

Emergency protests against war on Iran in cities across U.S.

Find your local details for today's protest.

www.answercoalition.org/iran

Never forget who you’re fighting for.

The first deaths announced from the US-Israeli strikes on Iran: dozens of school girls. They hit an elementary school in Hormozgan.

I really should have put in a linter like ruff into the 3rd edition of Automate.

"Why should anyone listen to you? I made a torment nexus, and it's made me a wealthy man. What have YOU accomplished?"

"Friends" is a beloved American sitcom that aired from 1994 to 2004, following six young adults—Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe—living in New York City. The show explores their friendships, romances, careers, and personal growth over ten seasons.

I've created an app that summarizes photos.

By which I mean it makes a smaller, blurrier image that takes less time to look at.

YouTube video by Alberta Tech AI denied my medical claim 🤠🤪

"AI denied my medical claim"

She was told they don't know why her health insurance claim for her annual physical was denied. She was told that sometimes the AI would check again and maybe change its mind.

www.youtube.com/shorts/Y7QPX...

I noticed that the negative replies under this post on Twitter get floated up in priority even from the non-checkmark accounts:

The term "vibe coding" has only been around for twelve months.

"We get it, you don't like it. But can't you at least say one NICE thing about the Emperor's new clothes?"

"AI turns idiots in the workplace from a distraction into a menace. Everyone now seems as smart as everyone else unless you lock them in a Faraday cage and force them to explain themselves. And the smart people are getting dumber every day."