The element zapper

It’s not absolutely shit, it’s a Thinkpad t440s with an i7 and 8gigs of RAM and a completely broken trackpad that I ordered to use as a PC when my desktop wasn’t working in 2018. Started with a bare server OS then quickly realized the value of virtualization and deployed Proxmox on it in 2019. Have been using it as a modest little server ever since. But I realize it’s now 10 years old. And it might be my server for another 5 years, or more if it can manage it.

In the host OS I tweaked some value to ensure the battery never charges over 80%. And while I don’t know exactly how much electricity it consumes on idle, I believe it’s not too much. Works great for what I want. The most significant issue is some error message that I can’t remember the text of that would pop up, I think related to the NIC. I guess Linux and the NIC in this laptop have/had some kind of mutual misunderstanding.

A rule they could have, and should have, discarded the moment they took the senate.

Whoa, that would mean the democrats have to actually wield their authority in alignment with their purported popular agendas – the very thing they absolutely must never do!

I think they are trying to ensure that no future Windows is ever good again. I mean, it was Win10 that made me frustrated enough to permanently kick the habit of using Windows.

His megalomania is so boundless he would sacrifice the entire planet to make money.

As for what ByteDance plans to do with a new LLM, a person familiar with the company’s ambitions said one goal has to do with the search function for TikTok.

Last week, TikTok released an update to its current search function focused on [keywords for ads], basically allowing advertisers to search in real time for words that are trending on TikTok. It allows marketers to build an ad with relevant keywords that would ostensibly help the ad show up on the screens of more users.

…

“Given the audience and the amount of use, TikTok with a search environment that is a completely biddable space with keywords and topics, that would be very interesting to a lot of people spending a ton of money with Google right now,” the person said.

A dark vision just flashed in my mind. And I am certain this is what will happen. AI-generated ads done in real time based on the latest “trending” thing. Presented to users basically as soon as the topic has the slightest amount of “trend”.

Just emitting untold amounts of CO2 to show you generated ads in near real time.

I don’t even watch Anime but I still get bummed when news like this hits.

This company has already laid off a bunch of employees, too.

Comedy is legal on Twitter again

I really hate to “back in my day” this but we had computer labs for that when I was younger. And that didn’t require giving a monopoly company my name or any other information about me. And I wasn’t being ad-tracked all day long going to websites.

That’s really wild to me. They give each grade school student a chromebook? That is honestly terrifying.

A long time coming, but because of their recent changes in the past couple of months if I have JS disabled on Wikipedia I either have an obnoxiously large blank margin on the right, or I get pop-up annoyed by this dark mode announcement with JS enabled and private tab browsing.

The one caveat to building is if you build a PC and a single component is faulty, you are now responsible for determining which component is to get the RMA done. That can be a big hassle. One time for me it was actually two different components that needed to be replaced by the manufacturers, and that was a pain to figure out.

I have about 24TB, lots of stuff backed up over many years, and not all of it pirated. In making backups over such a long period of time, I’ve actually managed to make redundant backups, so a recent project of mine is to just go to my NAS and organize, consolidate, and otherwise delete things I don’t actually wish to keep. I’ve saved a couple TBs and I hope to free up a few more TBs.

I wish I could get an x201 with an identical form factor and keyboard, indicator lights, etc, but otherwise upgraded components (cpu/ram/display/ports). That is my dream.

I also have an x201, but it runs too warm and too noisy for me to keep up with it. I now have an M1 Macbook which I use Asahi Linux and macOS on with about a 50/50 split. But the x201 feels better in the hand and on the desk.

“Don’t show me personalized ads”

Oh so you will continue to try and track me, you just won’t show me targeted advertisements?

That’s what passes for privacy on the internet today.

I forgot about this but as soon as you said red-faced it came back to me. This “adult” became a tomato because he could choose to be referred to as he/him in a video game. I only ever saw toddlers and small children scream the way he did. So pathetic!

native tab grouping would be a much more desirable feature, to me

I agree with you about the terrible name. It also doesn’t betray its purpose. Photoshop… hmm something to do with photos? Ok. It makes sense. GIMP? It’s… what, now?

But I disagree that making everyone wonder how to pronounce GIM is the solution 😆

Maybe power is more reliable in central Texas, my family still has no electricity from the derecho that hit Houston. And they lose power frequently from all the heavy storms or hurricanes that pummel the gulf coast.