merc @ merc @sh.itjust.works

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3,007

Joined

2 yr. ago

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

Or, if you prefer a clip from The Wire, juking the stats.

"Gotten super conservative" is underselling it a bit.

It's more like that neighbour that had all kinds of problems has suddenly flipped out. They locked one of the kids in the shed, and it sounds like the kid is still trapped there. They took the doors off the other kids' rooms so that they had no privacy because the Internet told them kids are dressing up as furries and peeing in kitty litter. They've stopped paying their bills and chased a meter reader off with a shotgun. They've started trying to rip the copper out of the walls to sell it online.

You'd call the cops on them, but the neighbour is a cop, so there's not much you can do. That's why you had to choose your words carefully when the neighbour dropped by with a gun on his hip saying the property line was drawn wrong and your house was actually on their property: and you could see that the new property line was just drawn in with a sharpie.

They are technically "police", but they get to do away with all the boring things that police normally have to do.

Some of them still work at the border doing customs work. Others are now fully dedicated to arresting and deporting people whose residency status is not OK.

The Fox News tells me that it's China's fault I lost my job!

Exotic dancers, waitstaff, sales people...

I imagine it won't be long before Steam turns into the badguy.

People have been predicting Steam will do a heel turn for more than a decade. But, their consumer-friendly policies and ease of use have kept them the dominant platform despite immense spending from other companies.

They're still a store, and I don't think anybody's confusing them with a charity. But, a nearly 20 year track record suggests that they know that being trustworthy and consumer-friendly is essential to their long-term financial success.

On one hand, sure. She's a coward. She's one of the most privileged people in the US, but she's afraid. She's not doing her job because she's afraid, and that's just allowing the fascists to win.

On the other hand, at least she's admitting it. That's a small step in the right direction. You can't fix the problem until you acknowledge it exists. Being scared of MAGA is rational, and it would be good if more politicians admitted that they were acting out of fear, not because they believed in what these assholes are doing.

So, if she's scared, maybe she needs support. The US goes on and on about how the 2nd amendment is about keeping the people free from a tyrannical government. So, be like the Black Panthers. They were probably also scared. They were in a lot of danger, much more so than women or non-straight people today. But, they tried to make the other side scared too.

The term normally shortened to "Habeus Corpus" has a full meaning "habeas corpus ad subjiciendum", meaning "You (shall) have the body to be subjected to (examination)"

In most cases it's referring to a person, not a corpse. But, in this case...

1. USA is the world's only superpower, and puts military bases around the world
2. Saudi Arabia is one of the countries with military bases
3. A Saudi man is angry with US military bases in his country
4. That Saudi man executes a plan to crash airplanes into American skyscrapers
5. USA invokes NATO's article 5, the one and only time it has ever been invoked

I'm not sure that the famous US military is keeping Americans safe. Crazy as it may be, sometimes a big military makes you a target.

A lot of the reports I file are very similar month in and month out, with lots of specific, technical language (Patient care).

Holy shit, then you definitely can't use an LLM because it will just "hallucinate" medical information.

NFTs / blockchains are just a very slow, very inefficient distributed database. They're only potentially useful in the case where there is no central authority. In almost every use case where someone suggests using blockchain, you can just say "no, just use a normal database"

I'm not angry, I just find it funny that people think that NFTs or star registries confers ownership of anything.

Ponzi schemes sometimes take a while to collapse.

What the NFTs are linked to is what is of value

No they're not, they're entries in a star registry.

All the NFT does is show who owns whatever it represents.

No it doesn't. Just like a receipt doesn't show who owns something, an NFT doesn't either. It just shows who spent money on something.

In some ways, but receipts are generally given for useful things you buy. Not proof that you threw useless crypto at an even more useless entry in a star registry.

Real currencies are far more stable and are unlikely to suddenly disappear. It can occasionally happen, but it's rare. Cryptocurrencies are a ponzi scheme.

Yes, and?

Um, no.

Because it would be nice to have a card number that looked plausible that could be used in movies. Imagine if every phone number in a movie had to be (555) 555-5555. It would break your suspension of disbelief.

No, but for every real currency it's accepted (and required) to pay taxes somewhere.