nicklockwood

nicklockwood, 10 months ago to random

I can't get over how fractally bad a take this is. Like, aside from the obvious.

"Most fun product of the year" - it's a Twitter clone. That launched yesterday.

"Because their own elected officials…" - so basically if we accept the premise that this law is bad, it's cool to collectively blame all EU citizens for laws their leaders pass and mock them for any harm it causes them? This is coming from a fucking American?!

"Have fun in the library" - WHO DOESN'T WANT TO HANG OUT IN A LIBRARY?

nicklockwood, 11 months ago to random

Apple: we carefully review all app submissions to keep our users safe. That's why it's imperative that the trust and safety of the App Store not be compromised by side loading or unscrupulous 3rd party app distribution mechanisms

Also Apple: seems legit

nicklockwood, 9 months ago to random

With Google's latest move to lock down the web (Web Environment Integrity) I'm reminded once again of all the folks who've earnestly tried to assure me over the years that the greatest threat to the open web is actually Apple not allowing 3rd party browser engines on iOS.

nicklockwood, 11 months ago to random

Lol, the irony - Mechanical Turk workers are secretly using ChatGPT to automate their tasks. AI posing as humans posing as AI: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.07899

nicklockwood, 1 day ago to random

nicklockwood, 8 months ago to random

I just tried my door key and it didn't work, so then I tried my other key and it also didn't work, so then I tried the first key again and it worked.

So in conclusion, my front door is apparently now part of the USB standard.

nicklockwood, 8 months ago to random

Physicists: "consider a spherical dog…"

Very round dogs rolling down stairs

nicklockwood, 11 months ago to random

Somehow Apple's UX innovation has reached the point where you cannot copy and paste text from the built-in dictionary, but you can screenshot it and then OCR the text from the saved image with a single press 🤦‍♂️

nicklockwood, 2 months ago to random

A lot of folks replying to this with "you can't copyright gameplay" and of course that is correct, in legal terms. But with IP (as with so much in our society) it doesn't actually matter what the law says, it only matters how much money you have.

A free software author cannot defend themselves against a billion dollar corporation in court unless they are willing to risk ending up homeless on the street.

From: @jasonkoebler
https://mastodon.social/@jasonkoebler/112056599668035942

nicklockwood, 2 months ago to random

Apple in 1984: what's the best possible user experience?

Apple in 2014: what's the user experience that will maximise our profits?

Apple in 2024: what's the worst possible user experience that doesn't technically violate EU law?

nicklockwood, 9 months ago to random

What. The. Fuck?

Game description: Why bother working? Beg for money in the streets and have everything you want! As a homeless beggar, you might struggle a bit to make other people like you, but you can become rich and be accepted by changing your clothes and appearance with the money you earn by begging. Fill your stomach by begging, buy your house and car, and enjoy yourself! As you beg, level up and beg more effectively!

nicklockwood, 4 months ago to random

God, overengineering is absolutely endemic in our industry. I see it everywhere. Hundreds of lines of code where a dozen would do, overwhelming any performance gains we make from better hardware or tooling. All done in the name of cargo cult "best practices" and supposed maintainability or testability benefits that are never actually validated.

nicklockwood, 8 months ago to random

Version 1.1 of Subtext (my free, lightweight text editor for iOS) is now available on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/subtext/id1606625287

nicklockwood, 1 month ago to random

My favorite (as in the only ones that aren't irritating) April Fools are the ones where someone spends a load of effort to actually build an absurd-but-cool thing that has no reason to exist except to make you laugh

Jokes about pretending you made an absurd-but-cool thing but actually you didn't - not funny

Jokes about pretending you did something bad or sad but actually you didn't - also not funny

Jokes that something either good or bad happened but actually it didn't - again, never funny

nicklockwood, 1 year ago to random

Bungie: "We're bringing back Marathon, the cerebral '90s Macintosh FPS that inspired the Halo franchise…"

crowd goes wild

Bungie: "… as a multiplayer loot shooter"

deafening silence

Bungie: "for PC and consoles"

sounds of pitchforks being sharpened

https://www.marathonthegame.com

nicklockwood, 7 months ago to random

Crypto-fascist

noun

1. A person who secretly supports fascism
2. A person who openly supports fascism but is also, like, really into crypto

nicklockwood, 4 months ago to random

Automated tests aren't just for testing code. Including a metadata test suite like this one (https://github.com/nicklockwood/Euclid/blob/0.7.4/Tests/MetadataTests.swift) in all of my Swift libraries has saved me from so many embarrassing screwups; from failing to update the version number, to copy and paste errors with dates, urls, and even the library name itself.

nicklockwood, 3 months ago to random

Between the nft/web3 grift and the AI grift I sometimes forget the tech bros managed to squeeze in a whole other "metaverse" grift as well. It's been a busy few years.

nicklockwood, 10 months ago to random

Huh, apparently IBM found a bug in GPL that they're actively exploiting: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/110726395440397924

tl;dr; they plan to make Red Hat closed source by making access to the source code available only to paid licensees, and revoking the license of anyone who redistributes the source.

So sure, you are technically free (as in freedom) to request the source code and publish your modified version. Once. Then you're cut off from upstream security updates forever.

nicklockwood, 2 months ago to random

An explanation for why people in general seem to become more conservative as they get older: https://brilliant.org/lesson/the-overton-paradox/

tl;dr; people actually tend to become more liberal as they age, but the political center of society as a whole shifts to the left faster than people do.

What was a liberal, left-of-center viewpoint in 1970 is considered very conservative by today's standards, so those kids who would have called themselves liberals now identify as conservative, even if their views haven't changed

nicklockwood, 3 months ago to random

I often see people bemoaning command line tools for saying things like "did you mean x" in response to an obvious typo instead of just doing what you obviously meant. But I think this is actually the best thing about them.

The problem with natural language interfaces (regardless of the nature of the so-called "AI" that drives them) is that their failure mode is to do the wrong thing instead of just reporting that your instructions were ambiguous.

From: @joeycastillo
https://mastodon.social/@joeycastillo/111954471699661020

nicklockwood, 3 months ago to random

If some journalist isn't already working on an article about this called "Persona non Grata" then the entire profession needs to be fired

nicklockwood, 4 months ago to random

I get so sick of seeing debates about Apple vs EU regulation on here because the arguments on both sides never seem to get beyond the incredibly facile level that makes me think nobody involved has thought about it for more than a nanosecond.

For example:

Facile pro-Apple argument: "Apple doesn't have a monopoly, you are free to choose other app stores"

No, you are free to choose other app store. Singular. Apple and Google have a duopoly, and both stores have near-identical restrictions.

nicklockwood, 2 months ago to random

There are more than a few people in my timeline who really don't want Trump to win and yet seem more invested in being able to say "I told you so" when Biden loses than they are in trying to prevent that from happening.

steve, 2 months ago to random

Overheard at breakfast: "Go is like the new C++ language"