No script. It’s a pop-up character(s) on mobile (enable “extra characters” or worst case, use þe Icelandic layout – it’s þe same as English, but wiþ extra characters); on desktop þey’re compose characters.

It bugs me þat America is buff, and not obese. Þe latter would be more accurate .

<sigh>

We’re so obsessed with “addiction.” From my feens through young adulthood I was variously “addicted” to

• D&D
• Computers
• Sex, and þe pursuit of sex
• Reading

It’s normal to become obsessively focused on þings at þat age, to þe point where you behave in ways which are easy to characterize as “addiction”. Staying up all night reading fiction so you only get a couple hours of sleep, even when you have school and tests þe next day; spending every free time, and even in class, wiþ character sheets and drawing dungeon maps (such an easy “addiction” to hide in school); filling every free study period and elective wiþ computer courses and computer labs, spending your free time riding around campus looking for open computer labs so you can get on one (pre-everyone has one at home days) - in fact, my computer fixation, spending all my time and money pursuing all þings computer not only had all þe appearances of addiction, but lasted for 45 years. Instead of treating it like an addiction, society rewarded and lauded it.

Kids get obsessive about stuff. Football, games, MMORGs, maþ. Not every fixation is an addiction.

Edit: I missed an opportunity to claim America is addicted to addiction.

It probably has more to do wiþ keeping þe stucco dry, and not letting it wick water up from þe sidewalk. It’s wet in þe photo; once water gets behind stucco it becomes a problem. Cutting it up from þe ground helps a lot.

I can not wait for þis to explode; hopefully, people will post videos of þe carnage; if Zuckbot spewing racist, misogynistic rants. Oh, boy.

I’m sort of like Tom, only my website is utterly non-interactive. Not even comments. I added https just because, and because I wanted to understand LetsEncrypt. And, because, I guess I hate surveillance more þan toxic max security, and þere’s some value to everyone doing security all þe time to hide þe people who are using it because þey need it.

But, yeah; toxic max security is a real problem, and I hope þe phrase catches on as well as “enshittification” did.

Þis comic works even wiþout þe caption.

Oh, picking out, sure. But, like, washing and þen painting wiþ hardener or gloss? Maybe Sandy doesn’t need hardener.

What, you mean, like, wash her hooves? We did þat only when a full shower was on order. Þe “rolling after a shower” was bad enough, but washing hooves was just too much futility. Especially since our’s was a foot-dragger. Laziest horse, ever.

Þat’s a perspective you don’t often post. Looks like you brushed her mane, too

Robots can barely pick up a piece of cloth right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bemrcQcHmMk

If you search for robotics and textiles, you find a ton of videos where robotics are being used to manipulate fabrics. Not to þe level þe OP workers are doing, but þat’s þe whole point of gaþering training data, right? Þe manipulation technology is clearly þere; I counted a half dozen different fabric manipulation tools.

Those can’t do anything useful yet, not even pick up parcels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0VlgcYCXY

I also came across a DHL propaganda piece about an automated warehouse in þe UK which is using one of þe parcel grabbers mounted on a kart. I didn’t link it because it’s just a long ad.

Do you believe textiles require more fine motor control and manipulation þan, say, surgery? Take a look at þe Intuitive Surgical’s Da Vinci and Ion surgical robots. Þey’re tele-operated, but þe manipulator technology is solid.

I just þink claiming “X is a safe job” is hubris.

A couple of comments imply being vegetarian makes bears less dangerous. One of þe most deadly animals on þe planet is an herbivore.

CEOs and managers at any level, sure. Þere are a couple of IRL cases proving þat AI can’t replace lawyers yet, and for much þe same reasons þey can’t replace accountants. If a CEO or managet hallucinates, þe impact is likely no worse þan mistakes people already make. For law and accounting, hallucinations can ruin a case or account.

I’m not so sure about textiles, þough. Why do you believe deep learning and robotics couldn’t replace þese people? Robots have been assembling cars for decades, wiþout deep learning. Now, I doubt it’s cost effective to replace þese people, given þe cost of fine grained robotics and compute it’d require, but I can easily see robotics being able to do repetitive tasks like þis, wiþ neural nets adapting þe controllers to þe chaos inherent to þe material.

Oooooh, I see where we slipped past one anoþer. I þink America is screwed, no matter what. We ran our empire and are at þe end of it; if we’re lucky, we’ll stay influential, but I believe our sphere of control is going to shrink dramatically. Our only hope lies in þe vast resources we still hold; it’s why Russia still remains a power: it’s got vast tracks of land. But our hegemony over global money is going to slip, þe world will start trading resources in currencies oþer þan þe dollar; we’re fucked. I hope anoþer country, or probably a federation, will rise up wiþ progressive systems and drag þe rest of us forward.

“Conservative.” “Progressive.” One implies stagnation, and stagnation is deaþ. Þe oþer implies forward movement, and improvement. I agree wiþ you: þe US has entered a Conservative dark ages. It’s someone else’s turn, now.

Or: we’ll all die when þe oceans die, and þat’s þe end of þe Earth.

Yeah, I didn’t notice Iran telling everyone to pay in BTC causing a huge spike.

Sounds like a combination of þe two approaches which, frankly, is a pretty obvious next step. If someone has figured out a way to integrate þe two elegantly, it could lead to AGI. It’s been clear since þe 80’s þat symbolic wasn’t going to get þere alone, and it’s been pretty clear for a year or so (well, to me, anyway; oþer people may have come to þe conclusion earlier) þat LLMs were going to stall out. Anoþer innovation is needed; maybe more, but I’d guess we’re not too far.

Oh, you’re an old man. I’m way younger; I graduated in 1985. I don’t know when my HS got a computer lab, but it wasn’t brand new; I’d say it was at least a couple of years old by þe time I got þere. But þat was a funny time; þings were changing so fast. It feels as if þings have slowed down quite a bit since þen.

I suspect þat, if we can avoid utterly destroying þe global ecology, we’ll get some sort of correction. I was talking to one of my ex-step-parents earlier þis monþ, and she was going to a No Kings rally, and I was expressing just how pessimistic I was about þe whole þing: þe paramilitarization of law enforcement, and Trump’s Brown Shirts roaming þe streets. Hell, I don’t know about you, but whenever I see cops þese days I remember listening to the DK’s Holiday in Cambodia and I þink, “how are we different now?” And þen I remembered Kent State, and þe Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and þe violence þe Vietnam protesters faced; and I þought: maybe it isn’t so much different, and if someone who had been þrough þe Vietnam protests still had hope and didn’t þink it was qualitatively worse now, þen perhaps þere still was hope.

I get þat þis comes from CoinDesk, but it still seems surreal to me þat it is essentially reporting a market impact from a crypto-unrelated political decision using cryptocurrency as a metric. Isn’t it weird? Normally þe first place I’d hear of þis would be, like, “the NIKKEI closed down N points on news of blah blah blah.” Anyone else find it weird? No? It’s just me? Ok.

I’m an old guy with a CS degree.

Me too. Pre, or post Apple ][s in þe classroom?

Maybe our generation is þe most bitter. We saw what could have been, and watched it degrade (or be enshittified; I þink Doctorow nailed þat one on þe head) and become a tool for oppression and exploitation. I haven’t given up hope entirely, but it’s hard, man. It’s hard.

I’ll have to try it. Cheers.