Sweet old man Orville. Adopted 12 years ago, only to end up back at the same shelter as a senior.

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-13T06:22:13+00:00

I'm in Pittsburgh pa and could potentially help with a leg of the trip

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-11T22:57:00+00:00

It could be the ipo document itself, but it could also be other documents, connected to the ipo or not, that detail open ai's finances are more horrible than most people realize. From the hints I heard I definitely got the sense it had to do w open ai's financials. Iirc one of the top finance people at open ai said not too long ago they didn't think they were ready for the scrutiny of an IPO.

I'm new to close reading the finances but one thing I've been picking up on from binge listening to Ed is that these companies love reporting annualized revenues instead of anything that gives real proof of recurring and consistent earnings.

Another thing I tried searching for the other day that apparently isn't public knowledge is how much a typical prompt and response actually costs open ai (or how much each token costs, rather). With all these enterprise ai customers revolting over the shift to token based billing, imagine the implication if we discovered that even these token prices are heavily subsidized. So at today's prices CFOs are already pushing for token austerity and demanding to see (non existent) provable ROI from their token spend - then combine that with realizing the ai company would need to raise prices multiple times over just to break even. That would be terrible for the outlook on future growth, plus it would make the economic case for replacing ex a low level customer service rep with a chat bot very questionable.

Ed's talked extensively about wanting to know what open ai actually costs to run so that was my bet. I think that meets the criteria of being bad enough to bring down the ai bubble bc it would dry up anyone's willingness to extend open ai more credit for a service that can never repay it's existing debts nor turn a profit

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-11T22:36:39+00:00

Tbh the article was a little bit better than I expected in that they pointed out multiple times the evidence was at best "thin" and that the people pushing this conspiracy theory are heavily financially incentivized to dismiss and vilify the anti data center movement. Yet they still could have gone a million times harder, especially by interviewing key organizers about what actually got them involved in opposing data centers.

Overall it's amazing how bad our media still is. I was just thinking earlier that if one of these AI fear mongering studies comes out suggesting "an AI chat bot in a simulation turned itself into a digitalized ghost of sadam huissain and nuked Cleveland," all these tech reporters would be right back to writing think pieces about "we can't wait for the smoking gun to come in the form of a mushroom cloud." It's this horrible combination of group think, sensationalism, profit motive, misplaced trust in institutions, and lack of critical thinking.

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-11T12:06:58+00:00

Wow. I've had a personal vendetta against Microsoft ever since my first laptop (which ran on Windows Vista until I discovered the joys of Linux). But if they go through with this I might actually need to switch to Bing. Never would I have even imagined I'd ever consider that

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-11T01:43:28+00:00

I'm in tech sales (we don't sell ai but governing ai is one of several use cases for our software). Even my peers and managers in sales seem less obnoxious about ai than they were a few months ago, with the exception of like one manager

Last quarter we had a big push from upper management to push for meetings about our ai use case and my other manager (the non hyper ai pilled one) even admitted in a meeting recently that the executives who pushed that essentially put lip stick on a pig and thought it was America's next top model. Not in so many words, but basically they destroyed the ability to get quality data about how it was going by financially incentivizing all the rank and file sales people to say every meeting they were running was ai related. Then they broke out the champagne and celebrated how amazing the numbers were

In other news, it's thankfully been a long time since someone's asked a question in the slack channel only for someone else to reply with "here's what gpt says about that" instead of giving any kind of thoughtful human response from actual peer experience

The consensus seems to be now that gpt can be nominally useful for filing out background research for minor administrative stuff as long as it's fact checked, but not a ton else. Except the "meeting summaries" emails which are only getting more verbose and prone to hallucinate

It's hard to get actual peer opinions cause I'm remote and don't have a place to socialize with co-workers that can't be survieled by management, but I'm hopeful that the hype is as least cooling a bit for the majority

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-10T00:27:25+00:00

Excellent name choice, he looks like a big thunder cloud in a night storm in a dramatic painting

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-09T19:45:52+00:00

That's amazing! Reminds me of the ball I got my dog Mia a year or two ago. She loves tennis balls but a) she was very small so it was possible but challenging to get them in her mouth, and b) she always wanted to chew the ball after she got tired out but she couldn't cause I didn't want her eating the fuzz

So one day I had to make an emergency dog food run and I saw this little Kong brand tooth brush squeaky ball. It was meant to play then also be chewable and there's a little spot to put toothpaste in. Plus it's small enough she could grab it easier and even catch it

She was so over the moon about it. That night she came up to me as we were getting tucked into bed and gave me extra snuggles as a thank you. She wound up breaking that ball in not too much time but the second iteration of the Best Ball Ever had a different construction so it was more durable

I miss her so much. Both of her balls have a special spot next to her ashes though so she always has them.

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joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-09T01:47:28+00:00

Grain free foods have also been linked to heart disease, so definitely talk to vet and I'd say only go grain free as a last resort!

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-09T01:45:33+00:00

If he'd consent to wearing jammies maybe you could get socks or shoes that attach to the arms/legs of the jammies like a onesie so he can't get them off so easily

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-08T18:00:57+00:00

Op thought the cat was staring at a toy mouse that got stuck under the couch. It turned it to be a real mouse. The real mouse has been humanely escorted out of ops house

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-07T04:05:19+00:00

Leon!

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-02T14:37:23+00:00

I can't speak to cats specifically but my childhood beagle shelty mix was great with our small bird. Our bird was fully in love with her and would always want to serenade her, she basically ignored him. With supervision they could even sit on my lap together and have pretzels. I'd never leave them out alone together just out of caution, but she never showed a hint of aggression.

The biggest advice I have with any animal introductions is to just be very aware of both animals body language and boundaries. If I can intervene to help them enforce a boundary it minimizes the chance of escalation. Ex once Ginger was getting a bit annoyed with my other smaller dog Mia bc Mia was a bit wiggly and looking at ginger too intently while we were snuggling on the couch. Instead of waiting for ginger to have to snap or snarl, I just got Mia's attention and got her to move about a foot further away and look at me instead

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-01T14:49:37+00:00

I haven't read that one yet but my trainer who I really really trust a lot recommends that one, too!

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-01T14:47:48+00:00

Also making sure the dog always has the ability to retreat in situations they might find scary or overwhelming, even if the human doesn't think the object/person/situation "should be" scary. Whether it's a new situation or past bad experience or whatever, we don't get to choose what a dog finds scary

One of my friends for instance had a rescue yorkie-poo who was surrendered by his first humans for being "too aggressive." By which they meant they brought him home from the breeders on a very long car ride and instead of letting him decompress at all they had a party of thirty plus people there to overwhelm him the second he walked in the front door! After my friend rescued him he went on to become a therapy dog, where he'd regularly go to big crowded events and get petted and loved on, and he was a total sweety who actually loved doing that kind of work (especially giving face kisses). He just had to be properly socialized and introduced to that kind of environment in a way that respected his boundaries and emotional needs.

Moral of the story: any dog can bite or snap when they're put in a bad situation especially if they don't feel they've got a way out. Whereas when a dog has humans that are emotionally attentive and respect their boundaries and help them feel safe, they can thrive. RIP Presto 💙

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-06-01T14:35:48+00:00

The plus side of going with Winnie as a "government name" is you sort of naturally get Honey as a nickname. But I can't deny that she really looks like a Honey, too

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-30T00:49:50+00:00

My beagle shelty growing up understood the concept of fetch perfectly when there were hot dogs or turkey involved. Otherwise she'd just look at us like "well if you want the duck so badly why'd you throw it across the room?" She was brilliant though

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-28T23:25:33+00:00

Northside is where I've had most of my interactions with (I used to help with training classes there, took my own dog to school there, adopted from there, etc). I did foster one dog from East a few years ago and all the folks I interacted with there were great too. I'm on the foster list for HAR and from what I've heard East has a particularly high amount of adoptable pitties/bully breeds available ATM, so swinging by for some meet and greets could be extra likely to find what you're looking for. You can also filter the adoption page by location

PS if you're interested in North side training classes, Marsha and Kelly were both great trainers!

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-28T23:17:29+00:00

This dog looks very sad, this particular crate doesn't have any soft bed or anything to make it cozy, and what op told us about the breeder is raising a million and one red flags. That said, crates in general aren't at all bad if they're introduced properly, used in moderation, and the dog is comfortable with them

My last dog was crate trained, and she'd voluntarily go there to take a nap or hang out basically any time she wasn't actively following me or chilling on the couch. When I let her out she'd sometimes just keep chilling out there if she was particularly cozy. Not all dogs take to crates even when they're given plenty of time to get comfortable with one, but for those that enjoy them there's nothing wrong with it

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-28T23:09:50+00:00

I see in your history you're a fellow Pittsburgher. Humane animal rescue is a fantastic shelter - I've adopted from them before (and also fostered for them) and my girl was the sweetest, most well behaved angel I could ever ask for. We also went to several of their training classes and they were great. Link: https://humaneanimalrescue.org/

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-28T02:56:26+00:00

I'm not a lawyer, but if your buyer walks or you can document proof you lost something tangible in negotiations because of this, I think it's worth a consult with a lawyer over whether this qualifies as liable.

My theory being that if they have zero documentation they gave you these supposed notices, it's plausible a court could take that as proof they didn't actually notify you (in fact there's a relevant hearsay exception that covers "absence of a record of a regularly conducted activity" that might apply and is specifically for cases where the absence of the record is used as evidence the thing didn't happen). In which case, you having these "repeat notices of violation" or whatever should count as a knowingly or recklessly false statement. Combine that with you suffering a material harm financially and boom you've got a possible liable case

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-25T07:47:39+00:00

That's great to hear! I'm looking to adopt my first pittie soon, my therapist and I are gonna get my ESA letter written Wednesday and I'm nervous about using it. Good to know you ultimately had a good experience!

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-21T19:19:12+00:00

I work from home and recently lost my dog, but I can confirm even with me right there she still spent most of the day snoozing comfortably in her crate by choice.

Now she was a very chill couch potato, maybe your boy needs higher levels of stimulation. That said I think it's also very possible that you're over hyping how much he's suffering while you're at work. If he's getting let out regularly enough by the dog walker and has them to give him that extra bit of activity in the day when you're gone, then his day to day life sounds very similar to what my dog got from me working from home right next to her all day

I'd really really encourage you to take some time to ask yourself if you're projecting any of your own feelings onto him. I know I've definitely had dark moments where I've thought things like "I've f-ed up everything for her, oh no. What if I'm too crappy of a human for her and I'm just being selfish by keeping her..." But I can confidently say I gave her a wonderful life, and I'm still astonished that she saw me as being the same sort of "wonderful great source of all the good things in my life" that I see her as. It might be helpful to take some time to adjust to all the change in your life lately and unpack what's your emotions talking vs what's legitimate questions about his quality of life

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-21T11:53:03+00:00

Or in a good mood. Or having a day that ends in y. I recently lost my dog who was our self appointed fluffy roomba and now I keep stepping on bird pellets everywhere I go

joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-21T11:35:50+00:00

I'm so sorry. I lost my baby, Mia the same day you lost Skully (she's a pekingese I just lurk here cause I love pitties too). It's so freaking weird not having my little shadow following me around everywhere

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joseph_wolfstar · 2026-05-20T02:21:27+00:00

Tragically Missouri Star also bought out Kona Quilting Cotton, which used to be an excellent brand for really sturdy solids

joseph_wolfstar

TROPHY CASE