I only have Mrs AFB in the house. If I’m working she generally leaves me alone.
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Pouring outside, and the barometer - a device I have always found to be exceedingly accurate - is falling rapidly, tumbling down, plummeting precipitously.
This strikes me as rather unwelcome news, as a week of unpleasant weather approaches.
This strikes me as rather unwelcome news, as a week of unpleasant weather approaches.
Some of the roads around here are flooded as it's been raining for the last few days. But in brighter news, the grass is nearly all green again!
On my mind is my first trip into the office after a week off. Not likely to get much catch up work done as I'm in meetings most of the day. But resisting the urge to start work tonight though.
I have had a desk in my den for over 20 years. In that time it has accumulated 20+ years of invoices, bills, tax assessments, accounts for Internet service providers that no longer exist, manuals for SCSI adaptors, mixed assorted CDs for various operating systems (including BeOS!!!), etc, etc, etc.
The desk is currently being occupied by my beloved. Our son has offered to replace the old desk with a shiny, new white one. That means going through all the drawers, separating recycling, from garbage, from shredding, then finding someone who wants a nice desk, that isn't old enough to be vintage, but is too old to be current.
In the process I have found two chargers for Newtons (all you young'uns can look up what a Newton was), a soldering iron, solder and solder sucker, and a gift card that is 26 years old. I don't know if there is any value left on it.
I have a couple more drawers to go. Ora pro me.
The desk is currently being occupied by my beloved. Our son has offered to replace the old desk with a shiny, new white one. That means going through all the drawers, separating recycling, from garbage, from shredding, then finding someone who wants a nice desk, that isn't old enough to be vintage, but is too old to be current.
In the process I have found two chargers for Newtons (all you young'uns can look up what a Newton was), a soldering iron, solder and solder sucker, and a gift card that is 26 years old. I don't know if there is any value left on it.
I have a couple more drawers to go. Ora pro me.
It has rained at least once seemingly every single day in September so far! I am soooooo over it lol. The UK had a nice ‘Summer’ not heat waves and climate change, but summer for once, and now we are paying for it. Where I live anyway. Had to use the dogs coat when walking him quite a few times now. Go out in blue sky’s and get rained on after 20 minutes as clouds are blown over.. The weekend was like a wet winter storm almost!
Got ensemble placements tonight—combo, big band, and improvisation ensemble this year. No choir unfortunately. It'll be great though!
I have a specific room. It just avoids distractions. I have a big desk with a couple of 2019 Mac Pros and shelves above, the shelves also have custom lighting underneath them. I still keep the desk lamp at the right side because it does inductive charging.
The room isn't getting much use right at the moment as I'm sick with a very heavy cold or flu of some sort. I don't normally get sick like that, but when I do I'm knocked over for quite a long time.
Was able to finish Saturdays Triple Trail Challenge, without body or bike issues , just happy, I’m 63. Rode with group of 6, there were 100’s riding. Annual fundraising event, $25,000 raised this time for trail improvements.
Well done. Glad you made it without incident.Was able to finish Saturdays Triple Trail Challenge, without body or bike issues , just happy, I’m 63. Rode with group of 6, there were 100’s riding. Annual fundraising event, $25,000 raised this time for trail improvements.
Ugh, now generative AI/large language models are poisoning something some of us here like—the em dash!
Em dash users of the world unite!
There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a piece of writing was generated by A.I., but earlier this year the world seemed to fixate on one in particular: the em dash. ChatGPT was using it constantly — like so, and even if you begged it not to.
As this observation traveled the internet, a weird consensus congealed: that humans do not use dashes. Posters on tech forums called them a “GPT-ism,” a robotic artifact that “does not match modern day communication.” Someone on an OpenAI forum complained that the dashes made it harder to use ChatGPT for customer service without customers catching on. All sorts of people seemed mystifyingly confident that no flesh-and-bone human had any use for this punctuation, and that any deviant who did would henceforth be mistaken for a computer.
www.nytimes.com
Em dash users of the world unite!
There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a piece of writing was generated by A.I., but earlier this year the world seemed to fixate on one in particular: the em dash. ChatGPT was using it constantly — like so, and even if you begged it not to.
As this observation traveled the internet, a weird consensus congealed: that humans do not use dashes. Posters on tech forums called them a “GPT-ism,” a robotic artifact that “does not match modern day communication.” Someone on an OpenAI forum complained that the dashes made it harder to use ChatGPT for customer service without customers catching on. All sorts of people seemed mystifyingly confident that no flesh-and-bone human had any use for this punctuation, and that any deviant who did would henceforth be mistaken for a computer.
With the Em Dash, A.I. Embraces a Fading Tradition
The debate about ChatGPT’s use of the em dash signifies a shift in not only how we write, but what writing is for.
On the subject of punctuation, I noticed a recent iPhone thread's title:
Iphone 17 series delayed world over
If a semicolon is added after "delayed", the meaning changes dramatically:
Iphone 17 series delayed; world over
If I were an AI, I likely would have used an em-dash—would that really have been world-ending?
Iphone 17 series delayed world over
If a semicolon is added after "delayed", the meaning changes dramatically:
Iphone 17 series delayed; world over
If I were an AI, I likely would have used an em-dash—would that really have been world-ending?
Was it the shortage of iPhone 17’s that caused the world to end or some other separate event?
My money would be on wood lice for causing this catastrophic event!
Actually, it was a shortage of semicolons that prevented the world from ending. Anyone who knows about magick knows that tiny changes in a spell can have large consequences.
This very topic was explored in depth by the brilliant Lynne Truss in her wonderful book: "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation".
The Washington Post also did an article back in April on this very topic — and as one who tends to use the emdash rather frequently, I am among those who object to the idea that AI is attempting to take it over. Leave our emdash alone!!!!Ugh, now generative AI/large language models are poisoning something some of us here like—the em dash!
Em dash users of the world unite!
There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a piece of writing was generated by A.I., but earlier this year the world seemed to fixate on one in particular: the em dash. ChatGPT was using it constantly — like so, and even if you begged it not to.
As this observation traveled the internet, a weird consensus congealed: that humans do not use dashes. Posters on tech forums called them a “GPT-ism,” a robotic artifact that “does not match modern day communication.” Someone on an OpenAI forum complained that the dashes made it harder to use ChatGPT for customer service without customers catching on. All sorts of people seemed mystifyingly confident that no flesh-and-bone human had any use for this punctuation, and that any deviant who did would henceforth be mistaken for a computer.
With the Em Dash, A.I. Embraces a Fading Tradition
The debate about ChatGPT’s use of the em dash signifies a shift in not only how we write, but what writing is for.
Ugh, now generative AI/large language models are poisoning something some of us here like—the em dash!
Em dash users of the world unite!
There are countless signals you might look for to determine whether a piece of writing was generated by A.I., but earlier this year the world seemed to fixate on one in particular: the em dash. ChatGPT was using it constantly — like so, and even if you begged it not to.
As this observation traveled the internet, a weird consensus congealed: that humans do not use dashes. Posters on tech forums called them a “GPT-ism,” a robotic artifact that “does not match modern day communication.” Someone on an OpenAI forum complained that the dashes made it harder to use ChatGPT for customer service without customers catching on. All sorts of people seemed mystifyingly confident that no flesh-and-bone human had any use for this punctuation, and that any deviant who did would henceforth be mistaken for a computer.
With the Em Dash, A.I. Embraces a Fading Tradition
The debate about ChatGPT’s use of the em dash signifies a shift in not only how we write, but what writing is for.
Apparently — I am not human.
But then, my beloved has told me that many, many times in the last 40+ years...*
* Are ellipses permitted???
When my father passed on in 2023 I inherited his 0.22 rifle, it’s a 1970 Sears semiautomatic. He had 8-9 of those 100 round LR ammo boxes. $1.33 at Kmart in 1973… I’m almost used up the vintage rounds. And none of them were duds!
Btw “Based on the cumulative rate of inflation, $1.33 in 1973 is worth approximately $9.70 in 2025. “
I checked and a box of 100 rounds of 0.22 LR was …. $11 at the store
My sport, when I was younger, was smallbore target shooting. Being an impecunious student, I used Lapua target rounds from Finland, at a cost of 50 cents a box of 50 rounds. They were covered in an excess of wax and meant that my target rifle needed regular cleaning and removal of gunk.
As I got better, and more financial, I moved on up to RWS R50 and Eley Tenex, eventually becoming PNG National Champion, and went on to compete in the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in 1982.
As I got better, and more financial, I moved on up to RWS R50 and Eley Tenex, eventually becoming PNG National Champion, and went on to compete in the Brisbane Commonwealth Games in 1982.
Ran into an old manager from where I used to work in private enterprise IT.
Funnily enough they enforced RTO and he was gloating how everyone was happy to be back in the office and face to face for collaboration and culture. However, I’m still friends with two of the systems analysts there and they both found new work, and will be submitting their two weeks shortly 🤣🤣🤣
Management will never understand. Glad I left when I did.
Funnily enough they enforced RTO and he was gloating how everyone was happy to be back in the office and face to face for collaboration and culture. However, I’m still friends with two of the systems analysts there and they both found new work, and will be submitting their two weeks shortly 🤣🤣🤣
Management will never understand. Glad I left when I did.
That’s the funny thing isn’t it. Our firm sees a lot of people move on. Yet management don’t understand the reasons why. I’ve told them and get ignored. So I just don’t bother any more.
Sometimes I think it’s intentional. They know how much people hate the in office days. I just can’t tell if it’s more about control, or if it’s a quiet attrition strategy. Either way, it feels deliberate.
Mgmt is quite aware of this and leverages RTO as an effective tool to get folks to move on of their own free will as higher unemployment claims counts increases the percentage of futa/suta tax the business pays to state & Federal govt if said business were to move them on via termination.
Your friends move to another employer that better matches their employer expectation and in doing so are saving their old employer considerable money while the business realigns employment culture to what they need it to be.
Everyone wins.
I get the whole return-to-office thing, and I understand all the issues with it and why people don't want to. But at the same time, I also don't. I think part of the reason why I don't get people's frustration is that I'm surrounded by people whose jobs can only be done in-person, and who like working in-person, and who like the people they work with. On the other hand, I know very few people (in real life) who work in tech, or corporations, or any other sort of job where returning to the office is seen negatively. I think that has greatly informed my own opinions, and honestly, at this point in time, I would never take a full-time remote job.
If it ever gets to where robots do most everything for and/or to us, I guess they could mostly be controlled by WFH?
Maybe not at first, possibly later on after the "dust settles"...
Maybe not at first, possibly later on after the "dust settles"...
