All I expect from my VPN is protection from my ISP seeing exactly what I’m doing and selling those data to advertisers. If true anonymity online is doable, there are far more steps to take to achieve it.

I’m relatively certain most of the masses you describe are still unaware they’re being used.

They hear words they like, which come along with actions they can’t even put in their reality, so they must be fiction. I’ve been in an abusive relationship. It’s rather like classic Star Trek: No matter how traumatic an experience was, you wake up in the morning, and it’s all been reset. You pretend it didn’t happen, because if you start seeing a pattern, you suddenly see the problem, which is a very human response.

I’m pretty sure there haven’t been hippie CEOs since Ben and Jerry.

That worked out swimmingly for them.

Huh. Fuckups like this have never happened before.

Because 90% accuracy is acceptable for financial institutions …

Most websites provide cookies for free.

Going to have to challenge the math here … 20% of 10 is two, not four. Granted, HR may cull four anyway, but in terms of what LLMs can currently do, HR is a perfect thing to replace. Literally all they do is follow rules to benefit the company. Sounds a bit like coding to me …

In high school, we had a script to answer the phone: “It’s another great day at Boston Market, how can I help you?”

This was my first experience with malicious compliance. We weren’t told the intonation we should use, so “great day” dripping with sarcasm at the end of a double-shift technically passed.

Much obliged.

I mean, I’ll applaud any push toward Linux.

I’m reminded of a time I was in a bar in Georgia at a conference. It was in the hotel, and a high-ranking editor for the then-reputable Washington Post bought me a beer. He let me take a sip before launching into how much “immature shit [I] need to get out of [my] system” before being ready to be “Post material.”

Where is any industry going to be in a decade, when no one’s been mentored?

This is four sentences that leads to a 404 source link.

Chech your work:

It is rare to see something like this. We have their, there and they’re, but there isn’t a fourth option.

• Check
• Czech
• Cheque

Well, you don’t want to use birdshot with eugenics.

I never got a degree! I got roped into the college paper, and from there, well, I didn’t really care about my studies. Why worry about semantics and semiotics when you can tell 18,000 people what to think?

(yeah, I meandered into news after cutting my teeth in opinion)

Sure. That’s a specific use case and not likely a useful one.

When we start getting into utterances, though, we’re firmly in linguistics. Unless you’ve been passing bad checks.

As a former linguistics major, I find this to be horseshit.

Really, we optimize for the least possible amount of communication necessary. With a spouse, you don’t ask full questions. Early on, you might have to shoot a look, but later on? This is now ingrained. They’re offering the solution before you express the problem.

There is no reason for you to care. I am informing users familiar with my writing and methods that this is now on my radar, but I can’t yet do it justice. I’m being honest about not being ready to perform analysis.

It is 23.43, and I can’t analyze this tonight. Ars has been good for a long while, and I enjoy their reporting. To have to reassess this is disappointing, but I’ve already had to feel this with the NYT and WaPo. Not exactly a huge loss here. But I want to fully investigate what happened ahead of reaching a conclusion.

Rest assured, I will reach a conclusion. I don’t think I’ll like the one I think I’ll find, but that’s journalism for you. I will withhold judgment until I’ve had a chance to fully examine what happened here.