Jacob Harris

A screenshot of my Sonos playing my local music library: it’s the album Softcore Jukebox by Ladytron

Getting nostalgic about old compilations

I am wryly amused but not surprised that even without the restrictions blocking other IT staff (they have the agency leadership and CIOs to waive compliance reqs, training, etc.) and working 80-hour weeks, DOGE output has been 3 small websites, slapping their name on other projects and a data lake

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes you can figure out the solution that defied others before you! Sometimes it’s also the environment has changed! In any event, there are no agencies where you will find benighted staff incapable of understanding technology. You’re not here to save them.

My general rule of them is if you or anybody else finds yourself saying “why didn’t you just…” that’s a good indication that there is a deeper complexity at work that countless smart people have tried to fix

This is incredible

If you, regular person, did anything like this after a fatal car accident, you would be prosecuted for a variety of crimes, including insurance fraud.

If you then repeatedly lied to the courts about it, like Tesla did, you'd get prosecuted for that too, plus stiff monetary sanctions.

ChatGPT will now remind you to take breaks, following mental health concerns OpenAI is updating ChatGPT to remind users to take breaks if they chat with AI for a long period of time.

Joe Camel will now remind you not to chain smoke, following emphysema concerns.

The worst part about this "interview" is that all of Lewin's opinions are very obviously post hoc justifications. He went in with presumably ketamine fueled rage, destroyed everything, and made up a policy justification after.

Once I again, I meet my nemesis*

* mandatory annual training that involves slides with audio reading the text of the slide and you can't advance to the next slide until the audio has concluded for each slide

the funniest thing that happened during the pandemic were all the rich people who flounced out of california for texas, got to texas, discovered it sucked, moved back, and then wrote blog posts about their "learnings"

It's notable that none of these DOGE coders are team players (why DOGE has been so inept at shipping software), but all are a bunch of lone wolf, "smarter than everybody" libertarian types. I don't think being in a humanities class or group project would fix them, but it's a tell about them

Much like the article says, I don't think Farritor will face any personal or professional consequences for his actions. He'll just ride the right-wing tech gravy train for life

But I hope he is still haunted by it. I hope people continue to remind him. I hope it's always an asterisk after his name.

I was rooting for moles with large magnets on their heads

I don't know if you've seen Ross Douthat's interview of Jeremy Lewin, but Lewin's defense is basically "aid distribution had to go because it didn't further America's interests (okay) and because it had some waste"

It's like saying because there was a leak, we're cutting off the whole water supply

I'm glad people are talking about this. I have been thinking constantly about the role Luke Farritor and Gavin Kliger played in shutting off aid at USAID and how much it is "I was just following orders" at best or a libertarian callousness at worst

Late Gen X person here who never had a typing class but absolutely learned how to type quickly because I need to for my job

I mean, sure it's in the name, but if you look at how he operates...

Our side's streak of not giving a shit about the Starbucks holiday cup design remains unbroken

"A fun princess treatment" is the part that turned me into the Joker

It's amazing how many things apparently fall under the umbrella of the administration's task force against antisemitism.

Betting makes sense when not betting means that you're locked in awful circumstances

Automated enforcement at all major intersections is the only viable path to reduce vehicular and pedestrian deaths since the social compact doesn't seem to work.

I also can tell when a driver is going to be an asshole if they have one of those anti-traffic-cam plastic things over their plates.

Nuclear fusion: perpetually 2-3 years away

But yeah… this perverse denialism will only harm things

Recently we had an agent who held all of the bins to himself and would hand them out individually. When he asked me why I still had keys in my pocket, I had to retort “well, I would have put them in a bin!”

This is why we're fighting the schedule f balony.

I somehow have missed the existence of all of these movies until being confronted with trailers for the latest one this summer. There are multiple films? Why?

Vinny from "My Cousin Vinny" in Ace Attorney style. Dialog reads "Everything that guy said is bullshit"

The Judge from "My Cousin Vinny" in Ace Attorney style. Dialog reads: "Are you on drugs?"

Mr. Tipton from "My Cousin Vinny" in Ace Attorney style. Dialog reads: "I don't know, I'm a fast cook, I guess."

Mona Lisa from "My Cousin Vinny" in Ace Attorney style. Dialog reads: "A little? You've been thrown in jail twice!"

My Cousin Vinny: Ace Attorney

Had to finally release this from my head

Asked my daughter what she thought of her first viewing of THE THING and got this in response.

I
— like
— yaml
— and
— I
— will
— not
— lie
— those
— other
— devs
— might
— deny
— indenting’s
— fun
— love
— a
— dash
— just
— make
— sure
— to
— keep
— spacing
— lined
- up

FATAL ERROR