Tootfinder

@… hi Elena! I'm digging deeper into self hosting (I've been doing that for more than 15 years on simple sites, image hosting, and some tools at a web server), but, I'm thinking of using more complex apps. The point, on why I'm writing to you 😃 aren't you afraid of the security side? Thousands of sites are being hacked daily, aren't you afra…

A software engineer explains AI fatigue, compounded by a FOMO treadmill of using labs' latest tools, thinking atrophy, and more, alongside boosted productivity (Siddhant Khare)
https://siddhantkhare.com/writing/ai-fatigue-is-real

AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it | Siddhant Khare
You're using AI to be more productive. So why are you more exhausted than ever? The paradox every engineer needs to confront.

“The barrier to creating software has genuinely dropped. That is not hype. What it means for professional engineers is not that their skills are less valuable, but that the skills that matter have shifted up the stack, as they have in every previous transition.
The developers who thrived after the move from assembly to C were not the ones who could write the most clever assembly. They were the ones who understood what the machine needed to do and could express that intent clearly in a higher-level language. The developers who thrived after the move to managed languages and frameworks were not the ones most resistant to garbage collection. They were the ones who saw the freed-up cognitive capacity as an opportunity to solve harder problems.
The developers who will thrive in the agentic era are the ones who understand this as another step in the same arc and invest accordingly. Not in resisting the tools. Not in deferring to them uncritically. In developing the judgment, clarity, and systems thinking that make the tools maximally effective.
That means writing better specs. Investing in test infrastructure. Developing genuine architectural understanding rather than surface familiarity. Building the taste to evaluate output rigorously. Practicing problem decomposition until it becomes second nature.
The era of programming as primarily a keystroke activity is over. The era of programming as primarily a thinking and judgment activity has been accelerating for decades and just shifted into a higher gear.”
#AITransition
#
https://addyosmani.com/blog/factory-model/

Since I've been seeing a lot of "switch to Ecosia for search they are sustainable and European" hints lately your evaluation might soon change:
Their boss explicitly wants not just to add "AI" to search but go all in on more "AI" tools. (Which sucks, I was thinking about applying for the CTO job there but I won't waste my time seeing that)
(Article in German)

Ecosia-CEO: „In drei Monaten sind wir die größte KI-App Europas” | t3n
Erst Suche, dann Browser, jetzt KI-Tool: Die Pläne der grünen Tech-Firma klingen ambitioniert. Aber sind sie auch realistisch? Wir haben mit Geschäftsführer Christian Kroll über die Zukunft von Ecosia gesprochen. Fakt ist: Das Suchmonopol von Google ist Stand jetzt nicht überwindbar. Ebenfalls Fakt ist: Der Markt scheint groß genug zu sein, dass sich auch kleinere […]

Nvidia announces the Alpamayo family of AI models, tools, and datasets for AVs, and details a collaboration with Mercedes-Benz on its first full-stack AV effort (Larry Dignan/Constellation Research)
https://www.constellationr.com/blog-news/i

A look at how Mercedes Benz, Nvidia collaborated on autonomous vehicles
Nvidia outlined its Alpamayo open AI models and datasets to bring reasoning to autonomous vehicles. At CES 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said Mercedes Benz with Alpamayo will hit the road in the first quarter. Huang said Alpamayo and its collaboration with Mercedes Benz is its first full-stack effort for autonomous vehicles (AVs). The approach with Alpamayo revolves around reasoning-based vision language action (VLA) models that bring human thinking to autonomous vehicle designs. "Our vision is…

Been playing Roots Devour (#Steam via CrossOver on #macOS
BE THE ELDRITCH HORROR YOU ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE
It's pretty great, put in 8 hours so far.
The general gist of the game is strategic, puzzle-like reveal of map levels - capturing cards of creatures and humans, wrapping them in your blood sucking vines, and generally conquering all.
When you get stuck, spend some of the blood to open a card pack and get random helper tools, effects, and critters.
Sounds are superb and visuals are very 𝒜𝐸𝒮𝒯𝐻𝐸𝒯𝐼𝒞 - if you dig Cult of the Lamb or Darkest Dungeon, you'll probably enjoy it.
Only downside is that there's an occasional indicator that English is not the primary language of the game developers. Very rarely you can see untranslated Chinese text on-screen, one or two oddities (uncapitalized, punctuation slightly off). This is unfortunately probably why they're getting a little beat up in the Steam reviews.
Honestly, in my 8 hours so far, I've noticed it like 3? 4? times tops so far. The game is so very much my jam, it really hasn't bothered me.
Some people are also reviewing it as "too linear" - they definitely gave up way too early. There are SECRETS, side areas, choices you can make, intentionally difficult areas that will take some thinking to unlock, etc.
Currently 10% off right now, give it a shot!

So I look through my pile of 8" floppies for @… thinking I'll have a few random ones to send him, and I find a motherload of Perq floppies!
#retrocomputing

How is there no space for people in the humanities who actually work with *and* interrogate AI? not knee-jerk condemnation and not fanboy acceptance, but using the tools and thinking through their consequences. so strange.