@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

wordshaper

@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network

Guy who bakes, snarks, writes, and codes.

Currently at Google (my second search engine employer!), previously at Bloomberg.

One time Perl 6 pumpking, lo these many years ago, as well as core perl contributor and part-time VMS perl port maintainer. I have written the occasional article, mostly on perl. (but once upon a time long ago on the Amiga. Those were the days...)

Currently not in France. Dammit.

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wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

After a very nice lunch where I’m skipping dessert (it’s been too damn cold for running) I am now pondering making a tarte tatin but instead of using pie crust using croissant dough.

And by “pondering” I mean I shall do this when I get home, because what even is the point in having a carbon steel pan and a dough sheeter if not to indulge in such ideas?

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

Thinking about this, I wonder how many contracts with other automakers just got broken. I can’t imagine that “keep your goddamn charger network working and up to date and expanding” isn’t in at least some of them. Probably all of them, tbh.

Elon, again, breaking out the greasepaint and red squeaky nose in public.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/30/24145621/tesla-layoff-supercharger-ev-charging-nacs-elon-musk

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

I think I’m hoping this is true. On the one hand it’d suck if Parkinson’s was essentially a very long exposure poisoning problem, but on the other hand if that is the case then at least we know why and can do something about it. Maybe. (We did, after all, do that whole “aerosolized lead” thing for the better part of a century and we’ve known lead is a neurotoxin for several millennia)
https://flipboard.com/

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

Well goddamn it. I was hoping that Tesla would continue to build out its charger network, since that appeared to be one of the parts of the company actually functioning well. (And that I could use) Apparently not. Or, knowing Elon, it was working well and he just fucked it up for ketamine-fueled reasons. https://geeknews.chat/@theregister/112361696360758061

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

Ah, i have preordered the silly-expensive drip coffee machine for the fall. I kinda like my Oxo but spend too long fiddling with it (the shower head and is better than most but still uneven) and besides what’s the point of being paid tech industry wages (for now…) if you can’t buy silly things because of it?

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@jjsil yep, that’s the one. I figured what with all the shenanigans Google is playing with the workforce I’d best order now while I have cash flow. (I’d be able to afford it just fine even if I get early retirement, I’d just feel weird spending the money in that case)

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

I would still love to see what you could do with a set of Z80 or 6502 cores if you fabbed them at 4nm. 5GHz Commodore 64 ftw. (Or the parallel chip from hell, just with very little ram per core)
https://geeknews.chat/@theregister/112353580331720945

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

An “in mice” thing but I really, really hope it pans out. https://flipboard.com/@sciencealert/health-43m5auulz/-/a-KkxLJviUQrWN5gyHi4mQ0Q%3Aa%3A565656366-%2F0

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

Wow, even more Google layoffs, this time in core infrastructure. I gotta admit I am, at this point, truly impressed with how breathtakingly arrogant and incompetent the upper levels of management are. I mean, this is some near world record levels of stupid — layoffs are a known bad idea, but perpetual rolling layoffs? Seriously?

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

It’s like they are showing their entire ass and massive incompetence—not only did they fuck up hiring in the first place for that first big round of layoffs but they fucked up that round of layoffs (otherwise why need more?) and they’re continuing to fuck up on a rolling basis with their hiring and forecasts. On top of that they’re handling the workforce reduction in about the worst possible way that doesn’t involve Sundar roaming campus and stabbing people.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

It is well past time for Sundar and the C suite to go. Possibly (probably) the next level of management down, too. The incompetence necessary to be here is stunning and shared.

Seriously, it’s not like we don’t have other people who can do the job better. I can think of at least a dozen people offhand, just in search, who can do the CEO job. It’s not rocket science. High stress, sure, but hardly the hardest job in the company.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@lizmat Yeah, at this point I'd only really recommend taking the job if you're looking at it as essentially a contracting job with a funny hat. (Or, if you're in the US, you're currently being screwed by our healthcare system but thankfully that's not the case for you)

The only reason I have any chill about all this is that I, and most of the people I care about at work, have passed the point where it would hurt to get laid off. Which is kinda sad, I guess, but it's where I'm at.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

But at least we're hiring in low-cost countries, so that's something. We're also helpfully telling many of the people being laid off that we're doing that in case, I guess, someone living in the Bay Area wants to move to Bangalore and re-apply to Google for their old job or something.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@acdha When people with a lot of power get in over their heads and things actually start going wrong then the flailing is epic. With, unfortunately, a lot of collateral damage.

Frankly I suspect the people with the power to care about this are so divorced from reality that they're making the kind of decisions you usually expect from an antagonist in a Phillip K. Dick novel. Only, y'know, without all the hallucinogens. Probably.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@WGAvanDijk @lizmat a sensible decision, I think. There were plenty of things in the US’ favor, compared to many places, but we’ve burned a lot of that down and even before then it wasn’t necessarily great, just the best of the available options.

When empires fall it’s always really messy, in part because of the usual delusion that the empire is not, in fact, fallen or even in danger of it.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@corgidad that’s not too uncommon when we reshuffle things — we’ve done that plenty of times before, where teams pull out of a location and anyone on that team now has to find an internal opening. We’ve just been really fucking that up the past couple of years with all the freezes and nonsense.

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

As multiple studies have shown, layoffs never make things better in the long run for any company not on the edge of failure.

I’d say CEOs are clowns, but frankly that undervalues the social benefits of actual clowns. https://toot.cafe/@baldur/112325661237678117

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

Worst downsizing I ever went through (short of "company is bankrupt, go home") was 10%, and that fucked our operational efficiency for a quarter. Spotify laid off 17% and are suffering. The C-suite were fools to assume there was 17% slack in the system, much less that middle management would choose the right 17% to fire (or that competent workers wouldn't see this coming and jump ship to better jobs, leaving time-servers behind).
https://toot.cafe/@baldur/112325661237678117

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@cstross the incentives for the folks left are utterly fucked up, too. I mean, right now I’m firmly in the “lay me off? Ok, fine, early retirement with an extra bonus chunk of cash!”camp and while it’s surprisingly chill here I also have exactly zero fucks to give about an employer that’s dived head first into the abyss on multiple occasions.

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@BoredomFestival @cstross I think the positive outcomes here are mostly chill during the present, and lots of time to prep for being done working. My husband got hit with a surpris layoff that eventually transitioned into retirement and it took him a good eighteen months and a hellish stint at a hedge fund to finally get him to accept retirement. I… won’t take nearly that long.

cstross, to random
@cstross@wandering.shop avatar

If I had more energy I'd be tempted to write a snarky, satirical, 21st century Jetson's style short story set in a future where all the dot-com 1.0-3.0 hype turned out to be true and faithful predictions of our lives in 2025. Just so I could explore the unanticipated drawbacks ("oops, the Amazon drone delivering your neighbour's new dishwasher just fell through your roof; meanwhile trades.com only shows you roofers who live in Boston, England, not Boston, MA").
https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112317411058906212

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@cstross “welcome to the future Phillip K. Dick promised you. You know what you’ve done to deserve this.”

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

Gotta say this feels like flat out deception and while it’ll go unpunished it’s still extremely skeevy. Also desperate. https://mas.to/@carnage4life/112309524541579993

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@davepolaschek @reiterator what I find most enraging about the spicy cruise control Tesla sells is that I, as a person not in a Tesla, am participating in their beta testing whether I want to be or not. I have no opt out here and if I do get injured or killed I or my estate has no recourse.

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

I can see absolutely no way having a black hole in a box in your backyard hooked up to your solar panels for storage could possibly go wrong. https://flipboard.com/@sciencealert/physics-veq19t35z/-/a-0q55Ufv8QAa0M91ROwodZA%3Aa%3A565656366-%2F0

CoffeeGeek, to random
@CoffeeGeek@pixelfed.social avatar

Testing a lot of scales today.

How do they stack up? See for yourself!

wordshaper,
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

@CoffeeGeek do you also test just… regular kitchen scales? I have a Polder I use for coffee and also baking and while it’s fine I’ve always sorta wondered how it stacks up to the more special purpose coffee equipment.

wordshaper, to random
@wordshaper@weatherishappening.network avatar

All fatal error messages should be given in the form of apocalyptic but cryptic prophecies about the problem. https://types.pl/@daniel/111921519909406757

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