Tootfinder

Like all the rest of the nerds, I did a bit of tech support on family computers.
They're all popping up windows from scam virus scanners lying that subscriptions need to be renewed or machines are unprotected. People don't know how to remove these things. Luckily they also don't really know how to pay the subscription.
Their phones are updating on them. Changing where buttons used to be. Removing options. Forcing people to register to use they things they have been doing for years.
They don't know how to register.
Things pop up asking for passwords and they have no idea who is asking or which password to use.
I tell them that I don't really understand why they keep using Windows now it is so shitty and awful. They say they don't know how to use anything else. The fact they don't really know how to use windows either doesn't seem to register.
The tech corporations have given up completely on being user friendly. They are all deliberately user hostile and exploitative now.
Corporate tech is terrible. The industry is failing it's users, abusing them. People don't even know there is any other way. They are just giving up on achieving their tasks until someone can fix the pop-ups and subscription boxes and passwords and 2fa for them.
Tech sucks now. Sucks hard.
#tech #christmasTechSupport

I grew up with a lot of male cousins who loved watching sports. I understand that some people enjoy gambling for emotions, but I don't.
That's why I like books. Instead of gambling for feelings, a book takes my emotions on a journey, rips them to shreds in the middle in an unpredictable way, then grinds my feelings into a fine paste that they feed to their goat, which is sacrificed in a bloody feral ceremony whose carnage further defiles said emotional residue
Or you can …

Writing unit tests for my random number generation library continues to be difficult. My tests are failing because the bias in the distribution exceeds my expectations, but I'm wondering whether I should just repeat the test more times and permit it to exceed expectations some of the time (as long as it does it symmetrically/rarely/etc. My gut tells me that second-order expectations aren't any better than first-order expectations, but another part of me disagrees.
Thinking more as I write this (writing is thinking): second-order tests can at least give me better info to work with towards fixing things I think! So maybe I'll invest in them.
#coding

The Department of Homeland Security has ordered immigration officers to gather identifying information about anyone filming them and to “send that information to Intel who will do a ‘work-up’ on them,” a federal law enforcement official directly involved tells me.
“Meaning, trying to identify them via social media, running their license plates if available, and running a criminal history check,” the official explained.
The directive is part of a sweeping, nationwide effort by U.S…

ICE Making List of Anyone Who Films Them
“We have a nice little database and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

Filing: Pinterest plans to lay off less than 15% of its workforce by Q3 and cut back on office space, saying it is "reallocating resources" to AI teams (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/pinterest-layoffs-stock-ai.html

Pinterest laying off 15% of workforce in push toward AI roles and teams
The company said it's "reallocating resources" to roles and teams focused on artificial intelligence.

Gut Feeling: Cowboys-Chiefs staff predictions https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/gut-feeling-cowboys-chiefs-staff-predictions

I was interested in #Meshcore, but then I came across the website of the Meshcore Switzerland Community. Greeted by AI generated pictures I was appalled, but then I found this:
Work in progress vibe coding project, don't trust this data!
Nope, thanks, I'm outa here.
#meshcore <…

He has labored in the fields every summer and on weekends during the school year since he was 11 years old to help his mother, who also picks berries.
His siblings, uncles and cousins — four of them minors — work in local strawberry fields.
Jose said that some days he didn’t fill many boxes and earned less than minimum wage for the hours he worked,
Awhich would be a violation of state child labor laws.
He described toiling under the hot sun in fields where employers f…

California’s child farmworkers: Exhausted, underpaid and toiling in toxic fields
State officials are failing to protect the health and safety of thousands of young field laborers, an investigation has found.

Gut Feeling: Cowboys-Chiefs staff predictions https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/gut-feeling-cowboys-chiefs-staff-predictions

The Trump administration appeared to acknowledge on Monday that its investigation into
the killing of a Veterans Affairs nurse, Alex Pretti, by federal agents this weekend
was limited to a “use of force” review meant to establish whether government employees had violated training standards.
Such a move, disclosed in court filings, would represent a much narrower inquiry
-- focused on tactics and conduct
-- than one that would examine whether federal agents shoul…

Greg Bovino Set to Leave Minneapolis as Trump Shakes Up Immigration Operation: Live Updates
Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol official who became a target of fierce criticism, is set to depart as President Trump moves to deflect anger over a second fatal shooting. Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, will now direct ICE operations in the state.