DevDave

The inverters send status reports for tracking and auditing their production. unfortunately disconnecting some of these systems will cause them to go into standby mode after not being able to call home after two to three days.

Are the flavors something like: Apple is built on captive labor while OpenAI is built on stolen art

Oh I like that but you might scare the MBA’s using techno babble like “thermodynamics” :)

I framed the “AI” craze as parallel to self checkout kiosks. They were sold as the future and a way of getting rid of those pesky human workers. Reality is they’re an open wound on the company. Unfortunately it will cost more money to get rid of them so they’re still there.

That’s the difference with AI currently. Cancel your subscription, toggle it to off in your IDE, and its gone. I believe this is why they’re trying to push “AI” everywhere, hoping it will stick somewhere.

Otherwise I liked a well manged agile development process. Heck of a lot less stressful than water fall.

edit: fax spalling erwor

It’s kinda insane to frame OpenAI as remotely equal to Apple with “two of the world’s biggest tech companies”.

Apple has multiple profitable revenue streams, hundreds of physical stores, that giant donut super villain headquarters, they basically own multiple factory towns in Asia, and on top of it they have an ocean of capital hidden somewhere for a “rainy century” scenario. I think their only consistent loss leader is AppleTv, right?

OpenAI’s business is generating something embarrassing like $100 for every $1000 spent (just random exaggerated numbers as sarcasm).

This outrageously dishonest narrative is being pushed constantly everywhere and I am more than just sick of it.

I’ve met Mr Carmack a few times along with religiously reading his dev journal in the 90’s. Never got to know him personally but always seemed like an alright person. I am biased as I directly attribute QuakeC and the Quake mod scene for accelerating my career in programming.

Some gaming consumers are just easily directed cattle for rage stampedes about whatever. No time for comprehension, just get the pitch forks and go burn some shit down!

Similar theme but different story was that guy who distributes a VR “mod” for various games, including Cyberpunk 2077. The nuanced part is a big chunk of it is in proprietary libraries that are independent of the games it provides VR support for. Just look at what PrayDog had to do to get VR support for just Unreal games https://github.com/praydog/UEVR/tree/master and that other guy has made a toolset that works with multiple engines. Charging at most a one time patreon fee for an unlocked copy doesn’t sound that greedy.

Another one was the more muted whining that Valheim’s Iron Gate has cheated everyone by doing “the bare minimum” to be Early Access and are abandoning an unfinished game with Valheim’s 1.0 release. Personally I think those people are fucking insane.

Forty years ago I was at a cross roads that would have led to me being a programmer in the gaming industry. Really glad I didn’t choose that as the game industry culture is absolutely exhausting.

Adjacent comment: Using the electrician analogy, AI is like one of those really cool gadgets you see on Temu that don’t actually do half of what they claim and will probably burn the building down. Another analogy is AI are like Roomba’s: they kinda work, take forever to finish, clog up easily, and are guaranteed to miss a lot of stuff.

I was a software consultant with “architect”* experience for the last 10 years of my career or whatever you want to call it. 50~80% of my job was basically saying the same thing their in house developers were saying. Maybe the other half was pushing tech stack upgrades (CVS -> SVN -> Git/Perforce ), (CGI to basically anything else), etc etc. My least favorite role was being a hatchet man, eg one of the Bobs from office space.

Professionally I used a shit ton of analogies and metaphors. Absolute most effective was comparing new feature development to an electrician adding a new light or receptacle. You may find you need to upgrade the service panel (database or other services), it can take time to pull new lines and doing so can interfere with existing equipment. Finally you can only pull so many new cables through an existing building before you need to do necessary cleanups and rearrangements (eg refactoring). Failing to do so may lead to brown outs (crashes) or the entire building catching on fire (eg Microsoft Dumpster Fire 11). Last bit is you can help explain the complexity of a feature as top floor, mid level, or basement (eg “soonish”).

* Architect title/role was something I would try my best to bury. The companies that needed an Architect only figure that out when they discover MS Access DB isn’t going to work /s but only a little bit. Also what the fuck is an “Architect”, its not like any of our titles have any national standards.

This video is kind of triggering my deep seated hatred of MBA’s but if you ever want to explain to the normies what your job is like, “The Expert” https://youtu.be/BKorP55Aqvg is perfect.

The people actively using AI are not an issue of lacking education on how bad it is. Just a quick example is of an upper management asshole who absolutely “loves” AI. Reality is they shit out slop but their direct reports undo the damage to protect their jobs. I know of more than a few developers in a tough spot where they are credit card slaves so work invisible overtime to compensate. They did this to themselves and are trapped in AI hell.

Someone I know just entered protected status (12 months to retirement) after two years of their employer threatening to replace them with AI. Originally they thought about giving a fuck but are now just watching the clock. They’re a senior accountant that among other super powers has memorized massive sections of the US tax code. According them, when their employer switches over to AI, its is going to be an incomprehensible disaster while being equally hilarious to have a front row seat to watch as it plays.

Please for the love of god don’t let this fuckhead be the Democrat Party presidential candidate.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/13/california-law-online-age-checks-00606115 - Google, Meta, and OpenAI “supported” this. Does anyone really think their motive is to “protect the children”?

Age checks is a/the path to a national login system.

I have no idea as everyone I knew has been driven out of PC. last time I was there it felt like it had been hollowed out.

Park City was so different before the Olympics

My brother was commissioned through there and Dickinson. We don’t talk these days but before that I occasionally joked he had taken the “back door Westpoint” path. Last I knew he was assigned to the Pentagon which likely tanked his career.

/content deleted/

Also just to add on. The US military has what I believe is an invite only “war college” that Whiskey tango never attended. All top officers and administrators from around the world have taken classes from it… except Hegseth.

https://nwc.ndu.edu/

Hegseth never went above being a Major or field officer. His place in the military machine was focusing on a small specific spot in operations.

To over simplify things, Hegseth was in charge of making French fries at a store, but later was really good at kissing ass while exaggerating how smart he is. Now he’s the CEO and has no idea what the fuck he’s even saying. Extra level of fuckery is he has fired anyone who has questioned his leadership or has unfortunately been born anything but white and male. Also I imagine ugly people aren’t getting promoted either.

I am not sure it’s that easy.

Anyone know of a jail break for Tesla’s PowerWall?

My understanding is the battery/inverter will go into something like safe mode after a certain number of days of not being able to call home. I haven’t been able to confirm or deny this but I do know Tesla doesn’t like you interacting with the battery directly.

… with a flannel like that, the first guy could be Canadian for all we know though the symbols in the back ground make we wonder if perhaps Pakistani-Canadian?