Author: harold

People don’t update machines because updates break what they were doing with those machines. It always happens: you think you’re smart and pro active updating some stuff, thinking it won’t change anything. And then you can’t work. Something isn’t right. Security patches deleted some cached stuff, set a variable to 0 instead of 1 and now the software you were using refuses to work or is unstable for some obscure, complex and code-based reasons.

A lot of places like hospitals don’t have the margin for that kind of bullshit, thus they don’t update. If things work, don’t fucking update, don’t change nothing. That’s not negligence, that’s common sense at this point.

The biggest thing in this ransom story is that yes, computers as they were running in 2000 are enough and do a great job almost twenty years later. No, we do not need the last version of Windows, the very last hardware. It’s not fucking fashion, these are computers. They’re used to do some stuff and that’s it.

Maybe we should leave a lot of (most) computers offline, like we used to.

Well those playoffs are going about how they were supposed to go.

My Spurs are doing as predicted. Tony was going hard, too hard and injured himself. The bench depth and veterans’ knowledge are giving them an edge over the Rockets, the best offense in the league. Playoffs Spurs give us amazing, entertaining games, a lot more interesting than those sweeps by the Cavs and Warriors.

Cavs would probably sweep the Wizs. Boston has a chance to get a game or two I think. They’re tough. Warriors would probably sweep the Rockets. San Antonio has a chance to get more. It seems impossible that they beat the Warriors in the WCF but sometimes things happen. Kawhi can shut KD down, Simmons can confine Klay and Patty will have to work his ass off to stop Steph. It’s doable. For Tony y’all.

Back in the day we used to read that sentence everywhere: IBM PC and compatible. It just meant that that machine was able to run the same software and support the same expansion cards. And for a time, it was good.

Now. Microsoft announces that new processors will not be supported on W7 or W8. W10S will use a store only, like iOS and Android/Chrome. Octane render only works on CUDA, a Nvidia proprietary standard while OpenCL which does wonder on AMD cards is not supported. Performances between software applications on the latest hardware vary greatly when it used to be a lot more homogenous.

We’re losing something here.

I know why: it’s a mix of simplifying/securing things for users while companies get more control on top of an absurdly more complex than ever computer world.

The move to students and schools is just a way to secure a future world where those people, that generation doesn’t even know that we used to basically run anything, on anything. That’s how geeks became geeks. You know, making Doom run on HVAC computer of whatever. Demoscene. Emulators. Game development.

We’re creating extremely docile consumers. Facebook does the same thing to almost 2 billion people now who are incapable to search for information now, outside the first result their phones give them.

At this rate by 2020 we will live in complete silos, never questioning anything. Engineers, I urge you to reverse some of that shit back. I know, they pay you guys very well to create that world but please resist more.

I know there are tons of great TV shows out there but I feel like the real world has more drama and is more interesting than ever. Dramatic af. This place has everything: weird and failed festival in the Bahamas, elections with leaks at the last minute, a racist nut ass bitch VS a financial drone, a dying earth, Ferguson’s militants getting killed one by one, that absurd “healthcare” bill… You can’t beat that, Netflix!

So Macron I guess. Next important election: Germany.

Meanwhile climate is changing so fast, like 20°C down in one day and no wind to really windy. It’s brutal.

A little tiring.

I’m standing in the corner of that place that sells a lot of coffees. There’s some beverage based on a unicorn? I don’t know, I don’t care. I’m early for a job interview and I could use more caffeine. It is sunny and crowded. I can feel, really feel the The Office vibe. Groups of women, a lot. The kind of obnoxious one talking a lot and not caring about what’s going on around is standing next to me, waiting for her name too. Her coworker is totally’ing her so hard. The classic group of three black women + one, in this case a white woman. Patterns are funny.

I’m looking around differently now. I saw all of us humans, but one. a black man. I don’t know how many times I have been scanning a room in my life looking for that dude. But I’m pretty good at it now. I almost instantly spot the employee and count him out, it’s cheating. All entry level jobs have black dudes. I spot him right after, kind of in the middle there, sitting on a table, kind of leaning on it.

He’s wearing a black hoodie. The contrast is pretty strong, it’s beige and white around and there’s this intriguing dark spot right there. I kind of know. He’s homeless. Maybe? If we were in Hollywood he could be anything really but here…

So this brother kind of wakes up because of all that sudden noise and chatter and I’m staring at him and he scans the room too and sees me real quick and I can barely take his eyes looking straight into mine. I’m immediately overwhelmed and not in the mood of fucking crying fuck can I get my coffee now?

In less than 150ms everything clicks, everything adds up and everything is awful. I’m here for an entry-level job and I’m feeling fine and feeling in pain at the same time and it’s because I shouldn’t really be here but I am and it feels so damn lonely and hell, the others me are not doing so good and there’s only two of them in sight. All the time. I shift+delete those thoughts and they keep coming but I’m pouring some sugar in my latte, trying to keep it busy. Patterns are not funny.

Meanwhile he’s calmly moved away from the center of the room and tries to hide the fact that he doesn’t have much to do here. Me neither I guess. He slides through people like a ghost and settles in a calmer area, next to the bathroom. “Good spot” I think while going the other way, back to my car.

I didn’t get the job, the team who interviewed me didn’t seem happy –huge euphemism here- anyway so I guess… I don’t know. I hope he’s alright and will continue to do so even though I know… I hope I’ll be alright. I’m stranded, I do everything I can but brother wherever you are please, please, please don’t give up. Pour those screams into the rocket that will propel you to your destination. Be humble, channel. It’s going to be long, pace yourself but stay in the higher rpm, ready. Never forget why you’re doing it. Persist. Good luck, I love you my man.

I just read this headline:

The EU abolish roaming charges across Europe starting 15th June

That’s super cool, if you travelled you know how big of a deal that is. I recently had to get calls from France, about 3 calls of 3mn or less. 20 euros, bam.

That’s what’s cool when a bunch of countries agree on something and work together to make it easier for people to live, forcing private companies to STFU and let us have something. People still have a hard time in the US to understand that the government is the only barrier to company abuses. Mobile and internet services are so brutally expensive here, ugh.

But the EU is in trouble. I have no idea what’s going to happen.

It was a gorgeous weekend on the west coast though. Hopefully we don’t get nuked yet.