Author: Chill

Iconic

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Where do they go to find dipshits like this?

Basic UI: A menu entry that includes text and a visual element (photo, icon, symbol) is more distinguishable and can be identified more quickly than one with only one of those items.

It seems we’ve just chosen to ignore 50+ years of UI/UX research and lessons and sprint headlong towards the clown crap this crappy clown wants. I cannot understand it. He’s simply wrong. Not as a guess or a preference or an opinion, but just objectively incorrect about how human brains, vision systems and UI/UX work and what they’re even for.

Icons and/or symbols increase the distinguishability and legibility even if the icon isn’t by itself enough to know what a menu items does. People do not do their homework anymore and they don’t know anything. It’s all just unwarranted guesses and out of left field completely-unresearched assumptions.

From my perspective, no matter what a lot of people’s IQ actually is, most people seem to have the intelligence level of a lead-poisoned toddler. Are people even trying anymore? Doesn’t appear so.

Chill Links

See How a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan Could Unfold.

Amazon Releases AI Agents It Says Can Work for Days at a Time.

Bag of words, have mercy on us.

How the dollar-store industry overcharges cash-strapped customers while promising low prices.

CATL Expects Oceanic Electric Ships in 3 Years.

The AI Wildfire Is Coming. It’s Going to Be Very Painful and Incredibly Healthy.

Have you tried switching it off and on again? Mechanisms and therapeutic prospects of resetting homeostatic set points in medicine and neuropsychiatry.

The association between allostatic load and brain: A systematic review.

China’s trade surplus for the first 11 months surpassed the $1 trillion mark, at nearly $1.08 trillion.

Enshittification is the business model.

Libraries and museums get federal funding back after Trump cuts.

The power crunch threatening America’s AI ambitions.

In this cohort study including 22.7 million vaccinated individuals and 5.9 million unvaccinated individuals, vaccinated individuals had a 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19 and no increased risk of all-cause mortality over a median follow-up of 45 months.

Europe is under siege.

Hegseth declares end of US 'utopian idealism' with new military strategy.

How Biden Ignored Warnings and Lost Americans’ Faith in Immigration.

Breaking free of zero-sum thinking will make America a wealthier country.

Extent

Chill Cool

With the help of (mostly) ChatGPT, I’ve now created 12 Firefox add-ons. They do exactly what I want them to do and help me every day. Sans ChatGPT, I could’ve eventually created them all, of course. They are not technically out of my reach, given enough time. However, I spent a total of about 18 hours or so on those add-ons. If I’d had to write all the code myself (and again, I am a bad programmer), I never would’ve done so as it would’ve taken me 300-500 hours. Huge difference.

In other words, ChatGPT allowed me to create 12 extensions that make my life noticeably better that even if I were technically capable of doing so without that tool, in practical terms I never would’ve done it due to the high time cost.

And that my friends is what we call a win.

Uned

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Political Economy

Oh, fucking clown. Real product compensation is not a good measure of inflation or compensation as the average worker experiences it. This is just an over-educated attempt to sneak something in that most people won’t know what it means to make himself look clever while dunking on his enemies. Well I’m smarter than he is by far and here’s why it’s bunk.

RPC is based on the Producer Price Index, which is a measure of the price of what firms sell. The worker & family actually experiences inflation as the Consumer Price Index (or at least far closer to), which is rent, food, healthcare and all those essentials of living. So, check this out: if the price of making things rises faster than the CPI, real product compensation will make the worker look much better off even if their actual cost of living isn’t improving much at all.

In other words, as usual this econ is attempting to con you. After all, it’s right in the name of the profession. It’s what most of them are paid to do.

There’s about five other things wrong with this RPC way of measure this but I just don’t have time to write about them all. A clownish asinine dipshit is all this dude is. Should’ve gotten a real education somewhere, but probably doesn’t have the brain to handle it.

Liter8

Chill Evil, Prediction

This is already occurring. Neal Stephenson was right. I predict we’ll revert to roughly the historical norm with about 10-20% of the population literate to any degree. The rest will only be capable of watching and sending video and can recognize the occasional word.

What would stop that outcome? Nothing that I can see.

Grim

Chill Political Economy

I suspect the majority of the reaction against AI is akin to when factory workers were first substantially replaced by machines followed not long after by most of the remaining jobs being shipped off to Mexico and China. It feels the same. It’s just the first time knowledge workers and “creatives” have been hit in a really large way.

And they’re not reacting well. I understand, though. I just wish they’d had more sympathy when their “inferiors1” had their livelihoods eviscerated years ago.

They cared little and did nothing. Now the reaper is coming for them too.

  1. As they see them.

In Out

Chill Annoying, Clowns, Rant

To those who say AI isn’t a substantive advance (or even more absurdly, a “plagiarism machine”) you’re wrong. No, it’s not a tech Jesus and it’s not the end of the humans on earth as the AI cultists imagine, but it’s at least the equivalent of gene sequencing + editing or other tech like that.

Most of you have a GIGO problem with AI — garbage in, garbage out. And here’s the thing: you’re the garbage in that equation.

Vimp

Chill Amusing, Annoying

People who claim they cannot see any difference between 1080p and 4K screens — I just don’t believe them. It’s so insanely obvious I think they are just saying that so they don’t have to spend more money on a better monitor.

Unless you have, like, 20/100 vision the difference is like looking at a pebble and boulder and claiming they are exactly the same.

Surely people cannot be that vision-impaired and still read without glasses?

Good Victory

Chill Regular-ass Post

Yep. Here’s my land acknowledgment: We took your land. You weren’t powerful enough to keep it. What’s done is done. Deal with it.

That’s really all you need to say.