@cwebber "of what" is the question that pops up for me.

We have SyncThing for work-files (so every machine serves as a backup for a lot of stuff), but backups of external servers have fallen by the wayside as I try to work out systems to make that back into something I can actually keep up with...

@EveHasWords
The guitar in "All Apologies" has a pattern a bit like the fraction-lines on a ruler that's marked in inches.

3343 5543
3343 6654
3343 5543
3343 8876

(My associative-brain thought you might like to know. I don't know why.)

@EveHasWords
forever in debt to your priceless advice

(I didn't websearch the lyrics, I promise. My sister gave me that CD...)

@VeroniqueB99 The question in my mind: is this a problem with our educational system¹, or our culture²?

Footnotes

1. i.e. too many people don't know this well-known fact
2. i.e. too many people have been brought up to want a dictator

@scanlime

jorks (jean short horks)

@PaniczGodek

Not directly...

@troed @zeenix

@Lana @farah

well okay but have you considered 😎

@sargoth @catselbow

There was also, in my observation, a huge rise in the degree of violence in certain movie genres (I'm thinking Robocop as a primary exemplar, but it was not alone) -- presumably due to crime spiking around 1989 and then finally starting to come down as the generation that had not spent its entire childhood inhaling fumes from leaded gasoline started to enter adulthood.

...and I've always felt like the Right deliberately capitalized on that idea of horrifically rising crime-rates for decades after the trend had reversed, knowing that many (most?) people would have no idea it wasn't still rising.

@Lana @farah

Naaah, no need -- I have one of these, which almost certainly constitutes cheating. 😈 🎸

@somecat mmrp. :-/

@Lana yyyyeaaahhh. eeeeevillll.

@Lana @farah

Billy Joel also wrote a song called "I Saw Her Standing There"? ...ahh, ok, he covered it live.

I won't insult your musical knowledge by pointing out that it was originally a Beatles song, by Paul. Aren't you happy that I didn't insult your musical knowledge by saying that, nor by also mentioning that Elton John made a deal with John Lennon when they released "Whatever Gets You Through the Night", which they recorded together, that if it got to number one on the charts John would play live with Elton -- and it did, and he did, and the song they sang was "I Saw Her..." which John said was by "an old estranged fiancé of mine, called Paul". (I had to go to YT to make sure I had the quote right: I was off by one word.)

(Aren't you glad I didn't mention any of that? Whew! Another bullet dodged.)

@Lana I've been working on a list of "evil songs that sound sweet", with "Every Breath..." (in your list) being the best-known example:

• "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" by Lou Christie is basically the exact same sentiment
• "I'll Be There" by The Jackson 5ive can also be heard much the same way
• "The Love You Save" also by the J5 is basically gaslighting and slut-shaming

...but that's all I've got so far; I'm sure there must (unfortunately) be more. :blobcatthinking:

@Lana "Wild World" by Cat Stevens -- sounds like a guy gaslighting his ex, but it actually makes more sense if it's a dad singing to his grown-up daughter who is moving out.

@troed Oh hey, I coded NNs in 1990-91, for a research job at Duke U. :blobcatthinksmart: 🤓 I even wrote the core loops for them in ASM86 (measurably faster than compiled C code).

I desperately need to catch up and understand how the current generation differs from and overlaps with those methods...

@troed

Ehhh... that's taking it a little too far, viewing the issue too monochromatically.

There are legitimate reasons to be furious at the AI industry, and to resent the way the technology is being used and forced into places where it is utterly inappropriate.

My main beef with the pro-AI faction is when they either support that or ignore it; my main beef with the anti-AI crowd is when they conflate the misuse cases with the technology itself -- because then we end up fighting the wrong thing, and the thing we should be fighting is partially shielded from the full force of the resistance it should be receiving.

@zeenix

@troed @zeenix There's also a lot of hostility from the pro-AI zealots (which is not the same as "people who think LLMs are useful tools", which in turn is a group that includes me) -- I'm increasingly getting the feeling that somewhere, there are interests which are somehow deliberately sowing anger and resentment all around this topic.

I can only speculate about the motivations, though there is at least one maybe-obvious candidate.

@vandenberglegs @angusm @alberto_cottica @MikeDunnAuthor

I've slowly been getting the idea that in the minds of corporate admin, it's not about productivity anymore (if it ever was) but about control.

A team that doesn't know anything is more easily replaceable than one which does.

...which also makes me think that the investor-class have stopped thinking of companies as engines of wealth-creation but as investment-vehicles -- like empty condos in supertall skyscrapers, or "fine art".

@phocks billionaires playing "musical chairs" with the world, except it's jobs and housing

@vandenberglegs @susiemagoo @Tarnport

I'll admit to having been vaguely tempted by them -- but it sounded like just as much work as cooking from scratch, and with smaller portions so you have to do it more often. :blobcatupsidedown:

(...and that's even aside from all the other issues...)