mindcrash

My strategy for Gentoo, more or less:

/etc/ - all modified configuration files, including

/etc/portage/ - make.conf, package configuration (package.accept_keywords, package.use, and friends)

/var/lib/portage/ - world, and world sets. basically everything portage needs to rebuild the system

/var/db/repos/ - notably local and/or self-owned package repos

/home/<username>/ - no explanation needed

/root/ - no explanation needed

This should contain enough to pretty much rebuild a Gentoo system from a clean downloadable Stage onwards without (too much) intervention.

In my GPT session today the model was convinced Orange and Blue are not the proper fibers for OM4 LC-LC TX/RX, and it could not tell me the correct ones until I told it they actually were and it can check because there's actually a worldwide standard for it.

Gemini on the freaking free tier got it right at the first try.

And this is not the first time I experienced that GPT - on any version - completely got lost, even when the info for the correct answer is widely available on the Web.

I just had a really interesting yet (funny) conversation with ChatGPT (5). We came up with this idea to make a custom "light box" for two Govee COB light strips which would enable both wall washing (leds shining towards the wall, to the top) and lighting up the wall panels and the desk below the box (leds shining to the bottom) using two led profiles tucked away in this construction.

Text wise it seemed it more or less understood exactly what I wanted...

... but then I asked to draw a simple ASCII layout so my DIY savvy but not really that strong in English dad could understand better what the plan was.

But every single time it got the orientation of the led profiles wrong. I told it the orientation was wrong. It understood that the orientation was wrong (it kept saying sorry even) but even when warned multiple times the orientation was still wrong.

I really wonder if Astra will be smarter than this, and if not AGI still has a veeeeery long way to go...

Now do a analysis on everything else, including the smart fridge in the kitchen.

Or what I am trying to say: Everybody has devices which have the potential to spy on you.

Unless your first name is Richard, only travel with open source hardware and software, and you have to ask someone to lend you a phone if you want to call someone even when you are at home.

I'm pretty sure it is just a matter of time before the first (open source?) extensions marketplace for Chromium fork extensions will hit the net.

A party like Helium or Brave might even already be working on it. Because while Google might not like it at all, a huge chunk of people love extensions like uBO and ease of use a little bit too much.

And even when your contract is signed you really should not disclose anything because almost every (tech) org, even those who pretend to care so much about "diversity" will make live even more difficult for you and eventually find a reason to get you ejected if you get "too difficult" for them -- even while you are under contract.

Never make the same mistake I made (several times) to hopefully create a better situation for both sides, even when you think it would be great for both you and them.

I lived through this and it broke me. Emotionally and psychologically. I will never be able to professionally work in any org ever again and I really wish that not to happen to anyone else.

Jurassic Park was the first movie I saw as a twelve year old boy at the cinema, and it not only made me a huge fan of the series but as a boy I was really into dinosaurs and it was really something to see them being "real" on a big screen for the first time.

"I have a theory that there are two kinds of boys. There are those that want to be astronomers, and those that want to be astronauts[...]That's the difference between imagining and seeing"

Thank you for everything, doctor Grant.

I really don't see how Google will make Samsung and the big Chinese Android phone manufacturers (Xiaomi, OnePlus, ...) put this crap on their own custom Android distributions, especially because all these guys know that if they do it will have a very severe cost -- Besides Play and the Galaxy Store F-Droid is probably the third most popular distribution channel for Android apps on Galaxy devices, for example.

So I do think the only people who will be really affected by this are those running Google's own Pixel devices which are entirely locked into the Play ecosystem. The rest not so much.

First it was Search (mostly Google), then Social (mostly Facebook) now AI turning the global internet into their own unregulated playground due to pay to play on US soil.

All of which together will make algorithmic bias, data harvesting, and hyper-realistic misinformation flourish.

I really wonder when US citizens had enough. Third time is the proverbial charm?

46, and due to extreme mental health problems catalyzed by my previous employer I have been on disability benefits - or as I like to call it "early retirement" - since about a year.

Not planning, and due to these circumstances likely even able, to get to work in tech (or any other workplace) ever again.

So there are more ways than one to tap out.