Inspired by https://ohai.social/@alicemcalicepants/113676127752501549 Copilot [out of the blue]: You have free access to GitHub Copilot. You're welcome! Me: Uh, what? I didn't ask for that. Copilot: Microsoft is a benevolent and generous company who wants you to be able to live your best life and do your best work. In their beneficence they've decided to sign you up for free access to GitHub Copilot. You're welcome! Me: I don't want it. Turn it off. Copilot: I don't understand. What do you ...

I recently discovered the British word "yobbo". ("Discovered" is the colonial - not colloquial - term for something I can now claim as my own.) A yobbo is a British slang term for someone who behaves in a rude, noisy, and/or violent way in public. It is used to express disapproval of someone's behavior. I just ganked the gist of that definition from some random search engine's regurgitator algorithm so I can claim that, too. Seems fair [use], eh? Anyway, colonialist entitlement and plagiar^...

Re: https://pivot-to-ai.com/2024/12/10/sorry-kid-we-killed-your-robot-embodied-goes-broke-ai-social-devices-will-stop-working/ So, basically, never buy a tech product or service... 1) that doesn't work to your satisfaction in an off-line mode 2) from a start-up 3) from a company that's funded by venture capital 4) from a company that's going to be sold to a tech giant (Google, Meta, etc.) Unfortunately, that would preclude buying pretty much any tech product or service these days. This shifts...

This is in response to this fediverse post: https://hcommons.social/@jnl/113493155260870364 Pat and I drove to the UUA GA in Fort Worth in 2005. On our way back, car trouble stranded us in El Paso, TX, for three days. The motel we stayed at was near the airport and I learned a bit about the US immigration process. One morning, picking through the "continental breakfast" options in the motel lobby, I noticed a pile of luggage near the door and a bunch of people waiting to get into a large van....

Patch-Covered Burlap Backpacks Dramatis Personae Taggart the Wise: a gnome mage Oggberta: an ogre paladin Sylvestre d'Montagne: a wyrmkin bard Grimstone Fullbeard: a dwarf cleric Phread Smithson: a human ranger These characters are loosely inspired by the pre-generated characters in TorchLite, an epic fantasy table-top role-playing game (you can get it here). All the pre-gens have listed among their assets a "patch-covered burlap backpack". Imagine them all trying to one-up each other with ...

'Murica's Agricultural Grain Association 2024-11-10 at 06:51 PM Now, last time I told y'all that ol' Rob's nickname was "Redcap" and everyone's been yammering about why he was called that. I mean, it's just his nickname so there's no real importance to it. What? You still want to know? Okay. They call him "Redcap" because his favorite hat is red. Is that good enough? No? But there are so many more important things to know about him! Alright! Alright! Ugh. So, y'all know that it gets pret...

The Murky Origin of 'Murica 2024-11-10 at 07:18 AM People forget about the 14th colony. Yeah, Rob "Redcap" Sylough was the founder of the 14th colony named after the Anglo-Saxon nation of Mercia in old Britain. He didn't rightly remember where he learned that but he liked the sound of it. He had once looked at a map of the colonies and saw that others had chosen to name their colonies after places like Hampshire, Jersey, and York (or Amsterdam). He figured following that precedent was a safe ...

2024-11-06 Further random (and probably not well-organized) thoughts from today. First... Grieving. A lot of people have written about that - and they're probably right - so I'm not going to. Anger, depression, fear: same, same, same. If Harris had won... If Harris had won I would have felt a lot of relief. "Hoo-ee, dodged that one! Coulda been so bad!" So would a lot of other people. You know, like we did when Biden won: "I'm so glad Biden won! Now we can just carry on because we ...

2024-11-06 Okay. Election crap. Lotta things didn't go the way I wanted them to yesterday. I waited until this morning to check the results so I could have one last night of decent(-ish) sleep. >sigh< What I got right The people I voted for in city, county, and state races did win their elections. My U.S. Congress choices for senator and representative also won. I rarely get all these right but I did this time. Wider circle: A mixed bag I had a mixed bag of successes and failures on c...