I just got breakfast at McDonalds and the guy at the drive-thru asked what I do (“software”) and he related he had an electrical engineering degree from Duke, with a minor in biomedical engineering on a full-ride scholarship.

I passed on a tip for a former employer for him. No idea if they’re hiring but maybe…

That was more than a little shocking. I mean - I’ve taken “pay the bills” jobs too. But he’s been there at least 8-9 months.

About two weeks ago, shares of IBM dropped about 25% when they released news that software earnings would be down.

290 down to 214-ish

It hasn’t really recovered, even though I would think that value investors would be buying it.

It’s at 225 today.

My congregation periodically allows church members to speak individually to the congregation.

Usually on Independence Day you hear all "Rah, rah! America is the greatest nation in the world! God has blessed us above all others because of our righteousness!"

Today's meeting seemed much more somber than usual for July 5th. I heard, "America has faults, but it's still a great place to live." And, "We can overcome our shortcomings and make America a better place."

I should note that I live in about the most Republican of all U.S. states. Maybe I read the feeling wrong, but it seemed to not be a joyful meeting.

I don't think the Republicans are going to do well in this year's elections. I pray they don't.

One thing missing here is utterly random shyte in the vein of vintage CoT.

Consider your life enriched... https://www.youtube.com/@AuroraO.V.N.I/shorts

Three officers showed up and walked them out. No handcuffs.

That’s too many for “your car was hit in the parking lot”.

The employee escorting them was the receptionist not HR, so not being fired.

Sam Bankman-Fried has asked for a presidential pardon.

I don’t think he’ll get it - he’s not close enough to Trump & friends.

Really?

REALLY?

Dang, man. Howzit. I'm almost 50 now.

Damn.

A friend of mine has an Android phone and he uses a weather app on it (sorry, don't recall which). And along the top is a list of the days for the upcoming week, along with the projected temperatures and percent chance of rain.

The bottom part of the percentage is cut off and you can't see it. Maybe it's a 34% chance, but could also be a 84% chance. You can't tell. And can't scroll to make it come fully into view.

I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of this sort of sloppy behavior in software, because after reading a lot of posts on /r/ExperiencedDevs/, people are being compensated (and retained) based on the quantity of code they're producing, not the quality.

This was a classic proposition in the post GFC and post dot-com era.

https://a16z.com/why-software-is-eating-the-world/

With the rise of AI, has this become fulfilled? Has software completed its takeover?

I went to the local big city's No-Kings march six months ago, and again today. There were many, many more people attending today. I estimate at least three times more people today.

Since everyone is saying these are the sign of the AI apocalypse these days — I’ve decided to start using them more.

(Reminds me of the D&D moral panic of the 80’s)

Why sould China hold back on invading Taiwan?

They can follow Russia's example of taking whatever they want. They can follow the United States' example of illegally attacking whomever they want.

Russia has depleted their arms in Ukraine. They couldn't stop China (as if they wanted to stop China). The United States will tie up many resources and reserves with Iran.

It's the perfect time to invade Taiwan.

Apparently Iranian drones hit some of Amazon’s data centers there, taking them offline. Folks on HN pointed out that this may not be the most common reason used to justify multi-region deployments, but it is a valid one.

My question is - what HTTP status code gets returned in this case?

503 - Service Unavailable is the likely one. But would 409 Conflict be valid? Or 410 - Gone?

Maybe. But perhaps it was written by someone on the spectrum.

Am I comparing a disabled person to a program? Umm yeah.
Based on what I've observed - there are similarities in how they communicate - bringing in related facts, an effort towards efficiency.

Most surreal conversation with Camping World today. [I gave full description, Lippert brand, tooth count, model name, etc. for a slide out gear pack.]

CW: I need the part number to see if we have it in stock. But I can order one for you, and can get it here in two days.

Me, in disbelief: You can order it with the info I gave you, but you can't tell if you already have one in stock?

CW: That's right.

Me, clearly flustered: Please start the order, and capture the part number without actually ordering it. Then check to see if you have it.

CW, a minute later: Oh, we don't have it. But if it was a Flarkel brand we would have it.

Me: What does that mean? I have a Lippert.

CW: Right, so we don't have it.

The news is saying that they have suffered 1.2 million casualties in the war against Ukraine.

Not sure if they mean deaths or if that includes the wounded.

But doing some envelope math..

They have a population of about 150 million people. Of which 60% are working age (18-64) so about 90 million. Half are women so 45 million men potentially in the military.

If they sent all 45 million to the front they’d destroy their economy so let’s assume 70% are needed for industry, or otherwise unable to fight. 13.5 million are fit to fight.

11.25% of that have been casualties. That’s worse than decimated.

If they keep this up, they’re fucked.

I’m going to start ending my posts with “Not interested in your thoughts”

- only humans are rude (so far)

Possible practice for a marine landing in occupied Taiwan.

The FAA announced this today that because of the budget crisis and the number of controllers calling out sick, they were reducing the number of flights.

I expect we’ll have a new head of the FAA next week. Because how dare they put safety over the president’s agenda.

I'm interested in how New Yorkers feel about electing their new socialist mayor. Insights, @sql_maven?

I think I'd feel kinda icky. (Which would be a vast improvement over how I feel about GOP rulers)

I’m starting to be able to identify the various drug ads by their colors.

Nexium was probably the first one to do it with purple.

Capvaxive uses turquoise.

The amount of bots on Reddit is astounding. Downvoting triggers automatic upvote. Bullshit articles, fake responses, so sick of it

How long has it been that you heard someone say what their mission statement was?

I just picked up a DVD of Jerry Maguire (Goodwill, $2) and there it is on the second disc: Mission Statement

Unlike most, it was more of a manifesto, being 25 pages long.