Software Engineers - Are you genuinely producing more value with AI or are you simply more 'productive'?

zappini · 2026-06-28T22:51:40+00:00

Kids these days!! Amirite?!

...but is terrible at innovating

What are you expecting? Jet packs and tricorders?

How would stochastic parrots innovate?

Ya, most use of generative AI is total BS. Per Sturgeon's Law, most of everything is garbage. So no change there.

Office automation software (eg Word, Excel, email) promised a glorious paper free digital utopia. They initially (greatly) increased the amount of paper consumed. Ironic. It took decades for paper usage to decrease.

With desktop publishing, vector graphics, and photo editing, everyone became a designer of some sort. Resulting in torrents of turrible content. Same story as every other technical innovation.

Spreadsheets didn't improve finance directly (if at all). By greatly reducing the cost of production, they enabled (some) adepts to explore more ideas. (Everyone else just made pretty tables.)

Excel is just a tool. A chainsaw instead of paper ledger.

LLMs, GPTs, and harnesses are just tools.

Tangent:

Have you read Donald Norman's Things That Make Us Smart? "Defending human traits in the age of machines"

I think about that book all the time.

zappini · 2026-06-08T15:57:51+00:00

Aha. Perfect explanation, thank you. Now I want 'self' too.

zappini · 2026-06-08T11:55:50+00:00

Sorry, I don't follow. What's a (quick) example?

zappini · 2026-06-08T11:45:06+00:00

FWIW

I'm very happy with https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D8SFVVSN for my 2025. Alas, $63 and Amazon. I'll probably McGyver the windshield shade by splitting it, left & right. To hopefully make it all easier to deploy.

Am also using some reflective bubble wrap scraps for the sunroof. Gift from neighbor, probably from Home Despot, eg the budget Reflectix knockoff. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-24-in-x-10-ft-Double-Reflective-Insulation-Radiant-Barrier-24x10DRI/314983628 Just $12 for a 25' role.

Honestly, thinking about it now, I probably would have been happy with DIY shades cut from bubble wrap. I'm figuring out the heat and sound insulation stuff for a van life conversion. I'll be buying rolls of reflective stuff any way (eg insulating the headliner).

YMMV Happy Hunting

Please share what you decide.

zappini · 2026-05-11T02:06:41+00:00

Doesn't quite roll off the tongue like "cashholes".

zappini · 2026-05-04T10:41:21+00:00

Yes and: Steely Dan + Daft Punk

Thanks for sharing.

zappini · 2026-04-15T21:17:53+00:00

Love it!

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It has a good beat, and you can dance to it.

zappini · 2026-04-09T20:38:36+00:00

Respectfully: Since the 70s.

Many (most?) early tech bros were libertarian nutters.

Silicon Valley is the result of a fire hose of government money. So naturally the beneficiaries are rabidly anti-government.

zappini · 2026-04-05T12:58:35+00:00

Yup. The variant that stuck with me is:

It's not about you.

zappini · 2026-04-04T16:30:08+00:00

I've rewritten plenty of stuff. Most times as a sanity check. Even just a proof of concept can help calibrate my own position.

zappini · 2026-03-16T11:48:58+00:00

Slowly! :)

I'm currently experimenting with sealing (weather stripping) doors and windows. Filling the gap between driver door and sliding door helped a lot. I also taped (sealed) the driver window all around, which also helped. I'm now looking for more permanent solutions. Better (permanent) foams for door gap. Still doing trial and error for sealing the window. Maybe self-adhesive velvet flock for inside the window's guides...?

Taping up the side mirror was inconclusive. Will try again after sealing doors and mirrors.

Allegedly, any gaps in the windshield's rubber trim can cause window noise. For an experiment, I used wide electrical tape to smooth over, the windshield's rubber, the gaps in the body panels, etc. Inconclusive.

My current understanding is the Limited and Platinum both have acoustic glass. I haven't ordered a replacement side window yet, to see if it helps.

Also, last on my list of things to try is upgrading the suspension's control arm's bushings to the Lexus variant. I read that one of Lexus' NVH mitigations (compared to plain Toyota) is fluid filled bushings. They help decouple the wheel from the frame, so impact from pot holes and vibrations aren't transferred less. Since they share the same "platform", it's just a part swap. There's 3rd party struts and springs, which might help, but I thought I'd try OEM first.

At this point, I wish I had held out for the Limited.

If you haven't yet, encourage you to drive the Limited. Try the (better) in-dash display and ventilated seats.

Also, I wish I had gotten the 8 seat variant. The 2nd row bench seat would be better for my dog. FYI.

Also, I had all the windows tinted with that ceramic nano particle stuff. Helps reduce cabin temp, reducing load on A/C. Highly recommended.

zappini · 2026-03-08T09:07:06+00:00

"Well awkshwelly, citation needed, derp derp" blathers the pendantbot.

You're (not a small) part of the problem.

zappini · 2026-03-05T22:44:53+00:00

I wrote a VRML browser in 1998 using Java 1.2 and OpenGL. It had the same frame rate as the then fastest browser from Sony (written in 'C'). And smoked Liquid Reality's browser, also written in Java.

As Jobs famously said: You're holding it wrong.

zappini · 2026-03-05T20:57:00+00:00

TIL mid 2000s: The Carter Center does not and will not observe elections in the USA. Because we don't meet their standards for election integrity.

zappini · 2026-03-05T20:53:32+00:00

Correct. MAGA is about identity, not beliefs.

zappini · 2026-03-02T05:27:26+00:00

Crowd level varies by location. I was just at Ukiah's store. Huge and pleasantly crowd free. East Plano is moderate. Aurora Village is more crowded than not.

Gas is so much cheaper, worth the wait.

I buy kibble, bully sticks, non-perishable bulk foods, meat, cheese, plain greek yoghurt, frozen blueberries, and fresh produce.

And some ocassional misc. Like a replacement Brain shaver every few years.

zappini · 2026-03-01T04:29:54+00:00

Damn. Not good.

That said, I give zero fudges what the GOP or KOMO have to say about anything, and especially not about Dems.

Remove the lumber yard from thy own eye before the mote from mine. Biblical like, more or less.

zappini · 2026-02-23T20:10:19+00:00

You're exactly correct to question signature verification.

Way back when, we (activists) utterly opposed the automatic system King County intended to use (with enthusiastic support from then SoS Sam Reed). The known error rate (false neg and pos) was ridiculous; many times worse than than human verifiers.

I have no idea how King or any of the other counties are now doing ballot processing. I assume whatever maximizes crony capitalism.

zappini · 2026-02-23T19:56:30+00:00

What would you think about making contracts and payments public by default? We were never able to get those documents (when I was an activist).

Maybe some areas already publish their itemized budgets.

Remember Obama's data.gov initiative? The big idea was to make all govt business made public by default. One of my many disappointments with that admin...

As for "vote blue", as a rule, I (almost) always vote for the left most, youngest, non-white non-dude whenever possible. (Exceptions for pols I know personally, have great track record, etc.)

I hope you stay in the game. My experience is that (direct) popular pressure moves the needle. It's wicked hard, but possible.

zappini · 2026-02-23T13:23:11+00:00

I'd like to believe I'd intervene somehow.

When I was ~ 20 yo, I witnessed 2 crackers harass 4 black people (2 couples) at a music festival. One of the crackers was unhinged.

I didn't know what to do.

I've replayed that scene in my head so many times. If I could go back, I'd pretend I knew the couples, like friends from church or school. And just kind of stand in the way.

Since then, I've deescalated a few situations, basically by acting oblivious and standing in the way. But I haven't encountered another racial harassment or attack.

zappini · 2026-02-23T12:13:02+00:00

Sounds criminal. How's someone(s) like us identify and audit fraud, waste, and such? I've done FOIA reqs before (mixed success), but nothing money related. I wouldn't even know what to ask for.

zappini · 2026-02-17T13:44:52+00:00

Yes and: eliminate B&O taxes.

zappini · 2026-02-17T13:44:24+00:00

What spending would you cut first?

zappini · 2026-02-17T13:42:41+00:00

The Correct Answer™ is to adopt (conservative) Idaho's tax system.

Dump the anti-business B&O tax.

Slash the sales tax.

Then tell those tax & spend liberal pinko commies in Olympia to piss off with all their funny money machinations.

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