Ah yes, my favorite video card manufacturer, NVDIDA
#retrocomputing
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Gregly
@gregly@retro.pizza
mastodon 4.7.3I can be a bit much.
Supposedly a coder. It’s a living. Embedded SW dev before that. Inflicted with the “gifted” label as a child. Frustrated and cranky. 47. Married, heteroflexible, cis, he/him. What you see is that you get, for better or worse.
There is no justice. Accepting that is hard, but important.
#fedi22 #fishtank #aquarium #dogs #music #gamemusic #gamedev #programming #ruby #videogames #tech #electronics #retrogaming #retrocomputing #startrek #doctorwho #scifi #adhd
548 Followers
411 Following
50 Posts
Joined July 02, 2023
Replying to
@VeroniqueB99@mastodon.social I know this isn’t the point, but how long has it been since gas pumps did that “ding ding ding” bell anyway? Fifty years? 😅
Replying to
@mmcknett@hachyderm.io @NanoRaptor@bitbang.social It’s okay, from the looks of things it was all commented out, possibly by Zora herself 😆
The “software development industry” I wanted to be a part of was dead and buried before I even graduated college.
Replying to
@Richard_Littler@mastodon.social I think that is the most 70s pre-movie announcement I have ever seen 😆
I’ve been practicing being grateful for all the things that have vanished from my life due to the inexorable passage of time, without succumbing to grief and mourning for the loss.
I asked the Nostalgia Nerd once if #retrocomputing ever made him sad. He said it didn’t, and I couldn’t fathom how that was possible. I looked at these machines of my youth and wept for the optimism and hope for the world I had back then, before everything went to shit.
That still happens to me from time to time, but I’m working hard on seeing it not as a loss, but as an experience in itself, decoupled from shattered expectations and phantom dreams. Something that can be enjoyed for what it was (and is), not lamented for what it was “supposed to be”.
Spoiler-free review of Strange New Worlds S04E01: It was really quite good. I hope it can maintain this level of quality!
Last night my daughter had a crashout about how she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, what to study, or how to get a part-time job. It was very difficult to find the words to support her, since I’ve been feeling much the same. In my case, I have a job, of course, but it sure isn’t what I’d hoped for at her age.
Meanwhile I’m trying to walk the line between assuring her that we’re here to support her, but also pushing her to keep trying things, keep applying to jobs, keep researching and networking on her own.
One thing she has expressed interest in is digital music production, but I have no idea how to counsel her there. Most educational programs focus on traditional instruments; she uses the computer exclusively. How does one try to break into that industry?
Nice to wake up to another post by a “real programmer” scoffing at senior devs who are using LLMs because we are mandated to do so lest we are fired for “not fitting into the company culture”.
Just wait until you too have been completely burned out by decades of corporate bullshit, attempting to write elegant and legible code only to be essentially told you’re being too much of a perfectionist and should be banging out MVPs as fast as possible to meet unrealistic targets.
Just wait until you’ve hit 45 and have officially aged out of the industry for all intents and purposes because HR is looking for the young, energetic, healthy, and exploitable.
God, you’re so smarmy and sure of yourself, and you blame us for trying to survive and keep our families housed and fed instead of pointing the finger towards the industry that has been 95% utter bullshit and exploitation since its inception.
Replying to
@Niall@mastodon.nz @BrianJopek@mastodon.world Lincoln, not Washington, but yes, that’s essentially correct. Reconstruction was severely flawed and never truly completed.
Yesterday I learned my brother-in-law just up and quit his software development job because he was totally burned out, and now he’s just screwing around developing what he wants on his own terms. He could afford to do this because he lives alone with his cats and never does anything, so he has FIVE YEARS of money saved up.
Replying to
@sobaka But if you write code for certain PIC processors, there is a short long!
(It is 24 bits wide)
Replying to
@Linza@kamu.social @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Even more than that, many STEM graduates were practically promised wealth and job security for life because “tech is the future”. I know I was, as I was growing up a 90s “computer whiz”, and that cultural mindset continued into the 2000s and 2010s for the youth (even as the rest of us were learning that the truth was very, very different from the fantasy we were sold).
Replying to
@disisdeguey@expressional.social @normjess@tech.lgbt @carnage4life@mas.to Unfortunately the job market is so unbelievably bad that Ford will most likely reply “lol no”, unless ALL of the laid-off workers banded together and demanded more money as a condition for returning, you know, some sort of “unified group”, there must be a better name for such a thing… 🤔
I see Trump voters who are severely hurting from his policies, and they’re enraged at what he has done or hasn’t done, and invariably they or some replier will say “but Kamala would’ve been worse”.
And I truly wonder what it will take to fix this nation. If it even can be fixed. And that little voice in me says “this country is getting exactly what it deserves, let them burn it to the ground”.
But this is unhealthy. It is lazy. It abandons the innocent and the marginalized and the desperate. Fatalism is enticing because it is easy, and it is drenched in satisfying schadenfreude.
And I don’t know, maybe we *are* headed for balkanization. It’s impossible to predict. And if that happens, we’ll deal with that as best as we can. But until then, I’m gonna try to keep fighting, even when so many people keep voting against their own best interests.
It’s time again to share this absolute classic video.
Replying to
@losttourist@social.chatty.monster @KaraLG84@dragonscave.space They aren’t cheap, but they’re _amazingly_ nice to type on, as good or better than the more expensive mechanical keyboards I have. And being able to work via Bluetooth, dongle, or USB makes them extremely flexible!
Replying to
@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange Are they? I’d heard that they’ve actually been charging for their tokens at far _below_ commodity price, and that their costs per token have been vastly more, basically selling at a loss to capture the market before jacking up prices (a la Uber). If that’s not true, then I agree with your assessment.
Replying to
@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange One thing I’d have to point out here is that the models themselves aren’t of much use without the massive computing infrastructure required to run them, which is why the existing AI megacorporations are trying to corner the market on hardware and ensure nobody else can amass enough to run competing models.
Replying to
@Niall@mastodon.nz @BrianJopek@mastodon.world No problem! BTW, making grid batteries from EOL EV batteries? Fascinating and awesome. I love to see sustainable tech reuse like that!
Replying to
@davidho@mastodon.world This is “working as expected” for the Epstein class, whose solution to the climate crisis is to kill off the majority of the world’s population through stochastic attrition, while they continue to do whatever the fuck they want.
Replying to
@DeltaWye@tiggi.es @disisdeguey@expressional.social @normjess@tech.lgbt @carnage4life@mas.to I think that’s because so many of us are fed this idea that we are irreplaceable special snowflakes who naturally must be in competition with each other, when the truth is we are simply another profession that should be banding together into a guild of our own.
Replying to
@realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk You assume ownership of the device (as opposed to renting it in perpetuity) will be permitted.
God, these was an original Voodoo2 card up on eBay for $149 a few days back, and I passed on it. That was a mistake. #retrocomputing
I’m thinking a lot about the “firehose” this morning: my compulsion to find sources of stimulation. I can’t speak for all #adhd / #AuDHD folks, of course, but for me, “running out of internet” can be a very real annoyance. Hitting the top of all the feeds I browse, then feeling the discomfort of _boredom_, where the minutes drag on like days.
But the opposite, an unending firehose, leads to tunnelvision and hyperfocus. Responsibilities start getting neglected. I detach from other people. I get irritable if I’m interrupted.
Since work often involves periods of boredom, I alleviate this by doing relatively mundane Minecraft stuff on my modded home server in the background: enough to stimulate me a _bit_, but not enough to get sucked in, so I can switch back to work quickly.
None of it is really fulfilling, but it gets me through the day while staying reasonably productive.
“I’m not just a dad, I’m a COOL* dad”
* Criminally Online Old Lunatic
“I’m not just a dad, I’m a DUDE*”
* Dad Unable to Discipline Effectively
I thought I found an antique fixed-blade utility knife when digging up the backyard… but it turns out Stanley No. 199 tools have always just looked like that. Boo.
Well, I’m still getting the materials to try and remove the rust via electrolysis.
I have followed r/LeopardsAteMyFace ever since Trump was reelected. I’m not sure I can keep doing that. Yes, it provides some catharsis and schadenfreude, but so many suffering people there use the caveat of “I regret my vote and this administration is literally killing us… but the other side would’ve been worse”.
They’ve learned absolutely nothing.
Plus, for the few that do realize that the Republicans have become the literal Nazi party: I can’t take pleasure in their suffering and fear anymore, even if it was entirely self-inflicted.
Replying to
@malcircuit@thingy.social “We don’t need a Tholian Web, we have the Tholian Web at home.”
For the second time in three months someone has tried to use my personal information to open a new checking account. This time they will be unsuccessful because I have a fraud alert on my credit report, but it is unnerving to know my info is out there, permanently.
“If you don’t do [amazing thing], someone else will do it first and you’ll have lost your one chance” — common intrusive thought, even at my age
Replying to
@ruari @joannaholman I was just thinking this! I had no idea Australian English used this term this way. In the US we’d say “gummies” for this, and “lollies” is rarely if ever used. (Nor is “sweeties” for that matter, although some older or more formal folks might say “sweets”. “Candy” would be the usual generic term.)
Replying to
@vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net Same here. A friend had the Adlib and I loved it, had never heard of the Sound Blaster. Heck, it was probably just released.
Replying to
@vga256@mastodon.tomodori.net @dosnostalgic@mastodon.social OH MY GOD that’s an amazing find. I bought one of those back when I was pestering my dad for an Adlib card. He saw the Sound Blaster and was like “this is cheaper and looks better”, and he was right. God, I wish I still had that original card!
“Chat, are we unable to cook due to an impending food shortage”
I know I’ve posted things at least once before, probably more, but while I absolutely do not condone the fact that my moderately wealthy uncle totally flipped out over a decade ago, abandoning his entire life and family to go join a desert cult… I do understand it.
(But yeah, really dick move. I looked up to him, and he deserted his wife and three daughters, leaving them to pick up the pieces. I don’t care how tough things seem, you don’t fucking do that to other people.)
Replying to
@TechTangents@dialup.space I did this to all our CDs and DVDs decades ago. It was a fantastic idea, and a terrible idea; we absolutely needed the space, but in retrospect I feel bad about tossing all those original cases.
(At least I kept the liner notes and cover art for all of them…)
I was a total fucking idiot this morning and stabbed my palm with an X-Acto knife while stupidly trying to remove supports from a 3D print
Went to urgent care because it was deep, got a cleaning and liquid bandage
Then it started bleeding again two hours later
So back to urgent care, where they did way more liquid bandage and a big gauze bandage
That was eight hours ago
I’m allowed to remove it now but I am afraid of it bleeding again, so I’ll probably leave it on all night
Anyways the moral of the story is use a Dremel or hot knife to remove supports, not a fucking X-Acto knife
Replying to
@CuriosityBlue@social.chinwag.org It’s a warning to citizens. “You better not try to leave my country, peon,” he says, his dementia-addled face glaring at you from the page.
My brother just called me to wish me a happy birthday, and we talked for a long while. Talking with him can be tough, because his views are a good deal more conservative than my own. He knows and sees his privilege, and wants to go good for all people, but gets really angry about people saying “all hetero cis white men are evil”. I point out that very few people actually say that, and that it is more about the systems of power and oppression that were created, perpetuated, and bought into by a lot of hetero/cis/white people.
He is the exact kind of person that right-wing talking heads lie to and try to radicalize further right, via abject lies.
My team has an impossible sprint deadline to hit by Thursday. I am out of Vyvanse, and since my doctor uses MyChart like most of the United States, I can expect my refill request to be acknowledged in… a week, maybe? Who knows? I can try to call them and end up trapped in voice menu hell and waiting on hold, I guess.
And of course the house is still a total fucking disaster. My feeble attempts to clean and declutter barely maintain the status quo, at best.
I am more than burned out. I am carbon. I am inanimate carbon rod. But if I stop, everything falls apart even faster than it normally does.