I got an LG TV back in 2016 and realized immediately that when plugged in to my network, it was broadcasting an open wifi signal. Hard no from me, so I unplugged it and used an Xbox as my media center for years. I’ve never seen a forced update message or ads.

Yeah it is an extra step to stream things, but I was going to have it plugged in anyway as it doubles as a DVD player.

Hey hun, new Doritos slogan just dropped

Wow. This was a great read and I feel reflects what many people are thinking right now. The author talks about using AI for non coding purposes, even medical questions. This is where it gets dangerous.

Anecdotally at work I have several team members who are junior/mid level (non software dev roles). Last year they were just keeping the lights on, not doing much coding and rarely providing feedback on architecture, design, or even technical merits. Now they run everything through an agent, regurgitating the output for someone else to read.

When asked in a meeting about their comments, it is like they never said it. They have no idea what they pasted. Their understanding of the topic is shallow. Yet they are being promoted to staff level for using AI and contributing more.

More and more, I see tech workers becoming meat proxies for AI agents, and it sickens me.

Well that’s terrifying

All social media platforms are echo chambers. Those who enjoy the conversation stay, those who dont leave. The top talkers of each platform set the narrative. Mods help boost them by hiding content they don’t like, which becomes a reinforcing loop.

Sounds like I touched a nerve here while just stating a fact.

Because BlueSky is an echo chamber.

This is more or less how I feel as well. I yearn for something that I feel proud of again, yet feel held hostage by a salary. To add on to this…

I spent years studying and learning to be good at what I do. It feels like with the advent of agents, I’m suddenly less useful than I was before. Colleagues who were juniors (IC1 or IC2) are being up-leveled to staff simply because they started regurgitating agent output - essentially being meat proxies. They barely understand what they are saying and don’t hold up to scrutiny when I ask them questions in voice calls. They can’t answer without prompting an AI. It’s frustrating to no end. I thought I was having a mid-life crisis, but it’s the industry that changed.

Now I am trying to pull back and go offline when I’m not on the clock. If there is no difference between knowledge that is hard earned through study, exams, or degrees, and all it takes is to be a meat proxy, what is my motivation to improve my technical skills for a profession?

Would not work for the average American

Apologies I should have linked a source in that claim. I only had a rough understanding of it and had read an article on phys.org that mentioned that previously. Arguably still a big concern since we could not be seeing the actual warming done in present day 2026 for another decade or more.

The thing that doesn’t get called out enough is that many greenhouse gasses have a lag time before they actually start causing heat. CO2 for example takes about 20 years if I recall correctly. So we are seeing the results of what was emitted years ago… not necessarily the current emissions.

For more fun IPv6 knowledge, Hurricane Electric provides a certification course! You also get a t-shirt when you finish it.

https://ipv6.he.net/certification/

You could interpret it that way, sure. There are so many IPv6 addresses you really don’t have to subnet anything like you did in IPv4. The typically “mask” you will see is a /64.

My brain hurts after reading this

I hate this formatting even though the message is fine

Happy belatedbirthday, @CaffeineTwo@piefed.world !

25-30 were some of my favorite years. I wish you success, health, and great memories to come.

Can confirm, I made that face the other day.

Fuck yeah. I can get behind this 1000%

All I have is GIMP and it is like wanting a tricycle but getting a rocket ship

My wife loves tart cherry juice. The good stuff. So I kind of know what you mean

Both are viable. Ubuntu is based on Debian. It may come with some additional bloat. Really it comes down to what you feel comfortable with. Neither will be a bad choice.