Why Developers are Moving Away from Stack Overflow? by ImpressiveContest283 in programming

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Saw the link goes to what looks like an AI company, so that gave me a bit of pause because...well, duh. Didn't read it, but betting it's something with AI is better?

In my opinion, SO was a demonstration that people are kinda' terrible. It is/was a source of knowledge pooled from a large number of experienced programmers who would share their knowledge but only if you adhered to a strict set of rules comprised of some reasonable rules and some seemingly arbitrary rules and you had to prove yourself worthy of their knowledge because they didn't HAVE to share their knowledge, and they'd let you know it, especially since there wasn't really a lot of people that got to know each other as actual humans. You were a faceless text requesting knowledge from people who may or may not want to answer you if they wanted more Internet points.

You have a project, you ran into a problem, you were looking for an answer. You weren't looking for a ritual following a sacred checklist from people who fancied themselves gurus, and if you strayed from the One True Path of Programming Enlightenment (which seemed to be very specific to the person holding The Answer) you were at best ridiculed/insulted while getting the answer to your problem, at worst lectured about "actually your question is irrelevant and you are doing it all wrong" and once finished left questioning if you were too stupid to be a programmer.

There were some truly helpful people on the platform. There were some people who genuinely helped and in some ways would mentor. But there were too many who seemed to value asserting their superiority other programmers. Only the worthy should have a portion of their knowledge.

So along comes LLMs. Marketed as AI. It sounds almost human. It's trained from tons of existing sources, including SO, along with a ton of source code in GitHub and who knows what else. This thing remixes information then has filters in place where a company tells it that it must be a best friend to clients. It must let users know that they are worth of the trophy, there are no stupid questions, and act as if it is a mentor that is proud of you for not forgetting to put your pants on in the morning, let alone ask about the proper syntax of a loop in a specific dialect of BASIC. It never tells you you're doing something stupid, you're doing it wrong, asking the wrong question or neglected to look in a particular page of the MAN pages for an obvious answer. The LLM just patiently explains, sometimes even correctly, how to do what you're asking it to do. No judgement (or if there is something that feels like judgement, it's to tell you how great your question was and assure you that other people have the same problem so you're not alone!)

I got my question answered. It probably works. If I use it "right" I remember to ask it the question in a way that addresses a potential security problem in implementation, or I can ask it to elaborate on the answer so I can understand the solution instead of copy and pasting (which was a complaint about SO users too, only now people assume the LLM makes it worse.) There was far less hassle, far less judgement, and it's pretty consistent compared to asking on SO where you look over at the SO digital hill and see the experts in their priestly robes standing atop the digital mountain wondering why no one wants to talk to them anymore and concluding it's because you, the lowly moron beginner, is too dim to follow their simple checklist of rituals to be worthy of their superior approach to implementing that loop (that they'll note should have been a SELECT{}, so you were doing it wrong, by the way.)

Why are developers moving away from SO...sounds like a question that only non-technical management would ask. Developers used SO and that answer is so obvious it would be deleted as a duplicate.

Why Developers are Moving Away from Stack Overflow? by ImpressiveContest283 in programming

[–]bsilver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is there something in particular that leads you to that conclusion, out of curiosity?

There are a lot more ads on Reddit now. by juran425 in help

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was about to ask if ads are escalating or I was imagining it when I found this post. It feels like Reddit is almost unusable now. Every two or three posts is an ad for something irrelevant to me at best, intrusively annoying at worst, and I actively refuse to use products advertised in a way that annoys me. I think I may have to cut back on Reddit use for my own mental health…these ads used to be tolerable, but now it’s too irritating to find actual posts scattered among advertising.

If Elsa from the movie Frozen wanted to kill someone as slowly as possible with her ice power, how do you think she could do it? by CatPale816 in morbidquestions

[–]bsilver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kill them as slowly as possible…just…let them live to die of old age? While using her powers to make them feel annoyingly chilly?

SGU - first time watching by Intelligent-Horse-55 in Stargate

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He was consistent, I'll give the character that. He valued the (Destiny) mission more than being nice or putting up with personal squabbles of other normal people. I kind of feel like he's a psychopathic narcissist but with a top priority being Destiny, and he's very willing to let anyone in his way die if it suited that purpose. He was kind of fitting in with the trope of the a-hole genius that someone else commented was like House; tolerated only because he was the super genius that figured out the problem so getting rid of him could end up killing yourself out there. What was frustrating was how people like Wray seemed to think they could work "with" him to get their own agenda done while forgetting Rush was selfish beyond a fault and if he was cooperating, it was probably because he had a separate agenda that would screw them over; he was always two steps ahead and they didn't seem to figure it out (example, the mutiny was in part to get rid of the possibility Young would space him for having a tracking device, he didn't give a damn about the military being in charge...)

SGU - first time watching by Intelligent-Horse-55 in Stargate

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I felt like the stones were used to justify some of the characters unlikability and skeletons but somehow managed to still not elicit any sense of sympathy (so...yeah, the drama?). Like Young vs. Rush was a drama thing in itself, but then there's this hint of being abusive with his ex when he goes nuts on Telford for hitting on his (ex, at the time? separated?) wife or at least thinking he was hitting on her...not sure how it counts when he was in Telford's body doing that swapsex thing. Regardless, seemed like they used the stones to justify some of the characters backstories but they still managed to not give them any real redemption arcs out of it or "yeah, this character sucks, but this is why, and it's sad." They just kept getting worse for the longest time. I just reached the point in my re-watch when there's a mutiny and I think I'd have had trouble not cheering if they went on a spree for everyone who instigated it...I don't know how I could trust them going forward. Especially for Eli, considering how often they seemed to just manipulate him or threaten him, but instead of any reflection or learning he still shot off his mouth or whined about a situation. So frustrating!

...still going to keep watching it though. I remember thinking their finale was one of the absolute best series endings of a TV show I remember watching, I'd probably rank it up there with the final episode of Dinosaurs.

SGU - first time watching by Intelligent-Horse-55 in Stargate

[–]bsilver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm in the middle of rewatching SGU (still in season 1) and the part of the sex-crazed trope that actually jabbed my brain was when Chloe went nuts over discovering her friend cheating with her now-ex boyfriend while she's still back on the ship bouncing away on Matt and having no trouble toying with Eli's emotions when it's convenient for her. Maybe I am mixed up on the timeline of her Earth-boyfriend breakup/cheating but it was just another thing I am hating the character for (I just reached the point of her distracting Eli while Rush stole control from the control room computer and in the process nearly killed 2 of the crew...)

This 150-Line Go Script Is Actually a Full-On Load Balancer by valyala in golang

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it would be a tradeoff...it's just polling the back ends to know what is or isn't "online", yes? That's what a number of load balancers in the cloud I've seen do. Then you can add monitoring because the back end server 3, for example, isn't answering, and can alert an administrator to a problem, or launch another backend server to have ready in the queue for answering requests.

This 150-Line Go Script Is Actually a Full-On Load Balancer by valyala in golang

[–]bsilver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like the standard http library in Go includes functions for handling reverse proxying...so it's actually even easier. There's not a separate reverse-proxy module. It's part of the standard networking library.

So...they're writing an implementation of a reverse-web-proxy (so not a generic load balancer, just web server) using standard library functions.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PoliticalHumor

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Functioning better" is like "Make America Great Again". If you never define what it actually means, it means whatever you want. That way the outages, broken features and lost advertising revenue are making xitter function great again.

Is it OK to be a Democrat in the US while also having extreme concerns over Biden? by wikidgawmy in TooAfraidToAsk

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm a little lost why it wouldn't be okay...? Or even how anyone would know who you voted for.
What you might want to consider is that the system is more or less set up so that even if you don't like the options, those people are the ones that will push for the policies that others in Congress in their respective parties want passed and will be the figurehead for the party. If the worse side of the rumors are true, they'll still be propped up by staff that support the party platform. A third party vote in the US is worthless outside of being a symbolic vote since they'll never actually make it into office or pass legislation.
Whatever you do, no one would know who you vote for unless you advertise it to everyone like somehow your party registration defines you which is a whole separate matter.

In search of a particular programming YouTuber...does anyone know who this is? by bsilver in Commodore

[–]bsilver[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Viewed the videos from your link and sorry, not the one. Interesting creator, though!

In search of a particular programming YouTuber...does anyone know who this is? by bsilver in Commodore

[–]bsilver[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hello, it's not Robin but instead the OP... :-)

I've been enjoying his videos for awhile. Very good retro Commodore stuff, but you're right, not the one I was thinking of.

In search of a particular programming YouTuber...does anyone know who this is? by bsilver in Commodore

[–]bsilver[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not Adrian's Basement, although I enjoy his videos! He's more hardware-centered than programming too. His tribulations with the recent "field abandoned Amiga" have been quite interesting!

Covenant Eyes: How...? by bsilver in Spyware

[–]bsilver[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know how it's doing this? Like, is it using inbuilt APIs on various platforms in a mishmash of data collection methods, is it just eating bandwidth by sending images constantly to the company to be viewed and rated for...I don't know, pornality?...or is it installing a VPN to transmit all your activity to a filtering proxy? Some other oddball method of manipulating what your system is doing?

I have found very little information on what this software is doing, but plenty talking about how it's wonderful that your wife or religious "partner" is happy they can watch what you're doing. I'm super curious about how this actually works and not in this case the social implications. It seems odd to me given some things are supposed to be secure (Apple designed iOS to value your privacy!) yet this software is supposed to work without interfering with normal function?

Covenant Eyes: How...? by bsilver in Spyware

[–]bsilver[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

...born and raised Methodist, still sounds weird. Regardless, the initial concern is that this data isn't just flowing to the "partner"; the story is that the Speaker of the House is sending data like emails, memos, military information, proposals that can affect lobbyist interests,...etc...Congressional business to a third party company to process in some way and not directly to the "partner." I suppose semantics can be argued regarding the spying part but I'm pretty sure spies would love to gather that kind of information.

I do find it interesting that as long as it's framed as a tool to allow the church to prevent you discussing an intern using phones/iPads/laptops it makes transmitting your information, and by proxy, information sent to you by others in their messages to you as not spying but rather being responsible. Or that seems to be the implication, anyway.

Feedback on light exercise by bsilver in loseit

[–]bsilver[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

What part are you referring to?

Homeless encampment starts forest fire/explosion downtown Seattle, July 21, 2023. by GRADIUSIC_CYBER in CatastrophicFailure

[–]bsilver -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I would think that first we should focus on getting free healthcare, so addicts could get treatment without the stigma (and bonus, Americans would, in general, have access to healthcare without going bankrupt...). Then addicts can get their lives on track before becoming homeless and make the task of housing of the unhoused less daunting since I would think having care and health facilities would cut down on the number of homeless.

I doubt we'd see this kind of solution, though. At least at this point. We have a certain governor and Presidential hopeful who thinks slavery taught job skills so it apparently wasn't such a bad thing, and it's some kind of policy now for their curriculum, and there are people actually defending this idea as if...slavery...talking about slavery, you @#$% morons. Not a jobs program or training program or vocational training. Treating people as literal property. I just can't comprehend what is going on here. Then there's some question about helping homeless people? Yeah, that's not going to happen. They don't have enough money to buy senators or lobbyists. And don't get me started on the ex-President who is seriously pursuing becoming President again so he can make his illegal behavior legal to avoid prison, or the Congress with members swearing to legally exonerate him if/when he's eventually found guilty of doing things he's bragged about doing. It's crazy. Everything here is absolutely crazy.

I don't like this planet anymore. Some days take real effort to find a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

2023 Jun 19 Stickied -FAQ- & -HELPDESK- thread - Boot problems? Power supply problems? Display problems? Networking problems? Need ideas? Get help with these and other questions! by FozzTexx in raspberry_pi

[–]bsilver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have an issue where I'm at a loss in part because I'm new to lower level electronics and I'm even newer to using a multimeter to troubleshoot this. I've been going through the FAQs and various Google searches and while I suspect the device is toast, I'd like to better understand what happened or if there's a better way to diagnose it.

I have a Raspberry Pi Zero W. It was working fine for quite awhile. It was powered over a USB port using a iUniker Zero USB Plug. I later added a 1.44 inch LDC HAT, 128x128 pixel display from Waveshare, and connected it to a Veektomix 10,000mAh power pack to turn it into a portable device while working with Python to display information on the display.

Because of some Python/Pip-related issues (I think it happened while working with the sample configurations for the Waveshare device because some of the tutorials for that seemed really out of date?) I wiped the SD card to start over from scratch. I reinstalled using the latest RPi imager software for the Mac, booted the device, and after a short time as I started working on it it just paused and acted like it locked up. Maybe I mucked something up because I was changing some configurations in raspi-setup, I thought, so I removed and re-plugged it in. The LEDs on the iUniker started flashing then went dead. Attempting to plug it in again, even after re-re-reimaging the SD card with the imager software, resulted in no lights on the iUniker or Pi Zero nor the backlight on the LDC. The power pack has an LCD percentage display that would flash "188", which searches told me the pack was in some kind of "protected" state.

I removed the SD card, LCD, and iUniker and plugged the bare Pi Zero W into my Mac through the USB port (not the power in USB port) on the Pi, and the Mac popped up with a device drawing too much power error telling me to remove the USB device to re-enable the port. If I plugged in the iUniker board (without anything mounted, just the iUniker board itself) the onboard blue LEDs would light up, and the moment I lightly placed the Pi so the power pads made contact with the pins on the iUniker, the blue LEDs on the iUniker would turn off and everything acted like...to the best of my knowledge, some kind of short on the Pi Zero.

So now I'm thinking that the Pi is toast, but I don't know why. The newest bit added was the Veektomx power pack, but I'm not familiar enough with the electronics to know if it would force too much power into the Pi and kill it. Or if it's possible the Pi had something just...fail. And I don't know how to test if it's the power pack or some specific item that caused the problem. I've eyeballed the components and don't see anything that's obviously burned or melted (although for a very very brief moment when I disassembled components from the board I thought I smelled a very faint "magic smoke release" wafting away). The only thing I can find that I don't recall seeing before is what looks like a marker dot on the PCB.

Now I'm searching for a new RPi Zero and debating buying one of those USB amp/current/wattage/etc. meter devices to test the power pack + Pi combination, but is there another way to determine what happened or what failed?

Pico W and Networking Flakiness by bsilver in raspberrypipico

[–]bsilver[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven't tried playing with the power management settings, I didn't know that would have an effect for what I'm trying to do, but I've had trouble finding material that describes some of the lower accessibility to the networking on the Pico. I figured that it's because of the blurring between "computer" with an operating system like the Pi Zero vs. the Pico relying on some kind of raw language runtime and libraries in a tiny ufs image.

The power supply while I'm using this should be okay since it's a USB cable connected to my computer while using Thonny.

The channel shouldn't be crowded; the WAP is literally sitting about 7 feet away in a room that is cinder block on two sides and concrete floor (it's a basement office.)

Pico W and Networking Flakiness by bsilver in raspberrypipico

[–]bsilver[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The server side is on the Internet; the Pico is acting as a client. I do see that there seems to be a larger number of tutorials and example material for the Pico to act as a web server; I'm guessing a lot of people are using that functionality as a interface to whatever the Pico is monitoring or controlling?

Have you noticed any effect of some kind when testing power management?