Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

I woke up to a power outage that had been going for 30 mins so I was able to test a portion of my emergency plan. My router/home server was on a UPS and still powered, so I hooked it all up to a larger power bank from my camper van to give it a few more hours of life and actually have Internet at home.

Gas heating (simple battery-powered thermostat) and stovetop meant I was able to be warm and make coffee (equally important). So I guess I'm saying it could be worse, and so far my prep paid off.

@RyunoKi I'm not quite ready to add something like a ticketing system to my workflows yet. Perhaps it's leftover PTSD from past sysadmin jobs...

It does make sense though and I'm glad you have found something that is mostly working for you.

"Flag for follow-up" is how I track emails I need to respond to, but can't right away. I never took the "INBOX zero" approach because I wanted easy searching for recent threads all in one mailbox.

The problem is when flagged messages scrolled out of view, I'd forget about them. Some were months old! At some point you feel too guilty to reply.

The solution was so simple: apply a filter that only shows unread and flagged email by default. Instant view of things that need my attention.

#email

@evacide Basing progress on word count might create perverse incentives. A colleague once told me they thought they would be a good writer because they can type fast.

If you are looking for something to motivate you to maintain momentum, maybe track time spent writing per day/week. I tend to break down my outline into bite-sized chunks (a subsection of a chapter in my case) and measure progress by fully completing a chunk.

@evacide I have been more the write in silence type. Of course I share more progress with my editor, but even that is still in the form of a fully-finished chapter at a time, ready for them to review.

Did Turing realize his standards for computer intelligence made incentives to develop AI that are judged first on how well they deceive?

Whether it's lying about being human, lying about the quality/correctness of your work, or creating false images/audio/video presented as real, many (most?) current applications for "AI" and their metrics for success, seem to be founded on intentional deception.

It seems risky & unethical to create intelligence where lying is the first lesson.

#AI #AiEthics

@jorge Heh, same thing goes for fashion (they aren't "mom jeans" anymore), which SNL comedians you prefer, shows/movies you quote, and anything else where tastes cement themselves in early adulthood and folks stop searching for new things.

Same phenomenon happens in tech. I can typically guess when someone first got into the industry because their technology choices tend to firm up and stop changing 5-10 years later (depending on when they transitioned to "senior level").

@dyn We just need to wait long enough for it to come back into style.

@katherined I use gpodder and tend to listen to short daily news podcasts in the morning or after work, but normally only listen to longer form podcasts when I am doing a task that doesn't need the language part of my brain, like weaving or long drives.

I listened to a lot more long form podcasts when I had a long commute.

Straight Outta Cosby

#knitting #machineknitting

@dyn More like a hole in one!

So I bought a set of vintage Knitking magazines from the late 1980s, early `90s so I could learn more about garment construction for my knitting machine and... wow...

#knitting #machineknitting

@firdarrig In general it seems the goal in the tech industry is to automate as much human work as possible to increase profits. It is hitting white collar now, using software instead of robots. Beyond your examples, there is also a strong effort to automate general-purpose software development.

Like with most other automation, it won't do away with all human jobs in an industry, but you will need fewer people do to the same work, as those people will be overseeing/training the automation.

@whack @miah I thought exactly the same thing. I was half expecting a robot or human on the activation line to ask me for bank information.

@miah @whack The refund cards are chipped, and you use chip and PIN when you use it at a store, unless I guess you want to swipe in which case it's magstrip and PIN.

@whack I think a lot of people (all people?) got it on a debit card. I suspect they are looking forward to gobbling up all the useful purchasing data you will generate when using the card.

It *should* allow you to get cash back from, for instance, grocery store purchases, however. I don't recall what the maximum amount of cash back is though.

@Wildbill Oh I have one, but at these temps it takes a few hours to bring the office up to room temperature.

It was officially cold enough when I got to my office this morning (~5C) that I broke out my new fingerless mittens I made on my knitting machine a few weeks back. I did a pretty poor job stitching them together but they do the job!

#knitting #machineknitting