Got a new laptop recently. Copilot pops up, so I asked it how to permanently disable Copilot.

It gave me a wordy non-answer, along with a "fun fact" about my local area --- totally relevant and not creepy at all.

Then, after I demanded it tell me how to permanently disable itself, Copilot gave me a completely wrong answer.

After specifying the "app or service" I'm using (Windows, you fucking clueless piece of shit), it then gave me a half-baked answer that called commands which weren't installed by default.

I then used duckduckgo to figure out how to install the configuration tool copilot said to use but that Windows had decided to hide from me.

Good job completely wasting my time, you ai-loving fucks at Microsoft. I don't need new reasons to nuke your shitty software and install Linux, but now I have them. If Linux had native vst3 support, I wouldn't have even booted into Windows.

Edit: Stranger in a Strange Land is a great book, and being the sci-fi novel backgrounding hippie culture, I wouldn't have expected Musk to have read it.

Sure, but why's the coke mirror on the floor??

Hell yeah, I remember listening to The Dollop about this dude and realizing he was part of the reason for all the POW/MIA flags when I was growing up lol

Link to the first part on YT: here

Farscape is like Mormonism --- gotta watch Trek first to catch the references!

ZIYAL: Why don't you just let Garak design a dress on his own? You know whatever he comes up with will be beautiful.

GARAK: My dear, I find your blind adoration both flattering and disturbing, but she does have a point.

I'm working my way through House of Leaves right now, and the real horror is the grad school flashbacks from trying to follow the footnotes.

He wasn't when we lost him, but I'm going to get it done soon.

That said, he's now a senior and diabetic, so I think he's gonna be an indoor boy from here.

I started on a small instance that fortunately gave a heads up when they decided to shut down. When I moved to a second, small instance where I ported all my community subscriptions, it shut down with no warning. It's a shame, because both instances were topically-focused and small enough to avoid defederation drama.

I love the idea of decentralized infrastructure, but now I'm on .world because I just don't have the time or willpower to move every few months, and I definitely don't have the wherewithal to run my own instance.

Ain't No Sunshine by all the fucking bands covering it and fucking it up. Absolutely hate that song.

Truly the Mustang Sally of this era.

Two or three inches up from the bottom-center of a non-ported kick drum works in a pinch, but never tried it with a ported head.

I believe I've seen a bass cab mic'ed similarly as well, though I for sure saw a Beta 58 (not a 52) used for this purpose quite a few times by pointing the center of the capsule directly at the bottom-center edge of the speaker ---- looks like partially mic'ing the wood, but I remember it worked really well!

I have to back into a parking spot in a shitty, shared driveway. If I don't throw my (automatic transmission) car into neutral and coast into place, my car will decide I'm too close to the curb and just slam the fuck out of the brakes while still several feet away from where I intend to be. It sounds awful and it scared the absolute shit out of me several times before I internalized the workaround.

Good thing I'm not a fan of the backup camera in general, or this problem would be even more irritating, since the camera turns off when I go from reverse to neutral.

I'm a skinny American, and it's very difficult to find clothes that fit me right---always has been.

Tried on a pair of slim cut jeans the other day in a box store, and the thigh fit like a pair of pantaloons. This is partly due to the trend toward baggier fits (kill me), and even one of my go-to brands sits a little more loosely than I'd like, at the moment.

On one hand, I can still walk into the store I shopped at in high school, pick up my size and cut of pant, and walk out without trying them on, knowing that they will work. On the other hand, I'd like to walk into a store for adults and be able to find my size in a cut that fits.

I knew two years ago when I saw that rich white lady wearing what looked like Jncos for rich white ladies that I was about to get fucked by the resurgence of late 90s fashion styles. Baggy doesn't look good on someone who looks like they were built out of toothpicks.

All this to say: chin up! Your time is coming!

I'm a lurker who stumbled in here and read the comments out of fascination for this window into a strange online world.

If I didn't have a vague clue that this was about lampooning Silicon Valley's fart-sniffing "philosophers", I would be pretty certain "Re-update backwards" was clearly language invented by a cult to control their followers and separate them from the rest of the world.

I like this one

In no particular order, I listen to all of them regularly:

• Omnibus - general obscure history hosted by indie rocker John Roderick and Jeopardy's golden boy Ken Jennings

• The Dollop - (mostly) American history with a leftist bent. One comedian reads a story the other hasn't heard before.

• Not Another D&D Podcast - apologies for the first episode, but great world- and character-building. Really shows how great cooperative storytelling can be

• Last Podcast on the Left - comedy/horror. Conspiracies, cults, UFOs, and other weird shit. Their historical deep dives are awesome.

I listen to these regularly, but there's a limited series podcast I like to recommend called S-Town. It's excellent, especially if you're from the southern US or grew up in a rural area. If you aren't from the south or a rural area, it'll probably be an extra-wild ride!

I had 3 cats who were all siblings born in my house. I didn't want to keep them at first, because I was a broke-ass grad student --- but of course, I'm a sucker.

When the ex and I split, I suddenly and unexpectedly became a single cat dad. It was a very fucked up time, but the felines and I made it through. A few years later, when they were around 10 years old, one disappeared, and the other two passed away within a year.

A mouse ran across our floor less than 24 hours after the last brother died, so, even though I felt a little weird about it, my then-housemate and I adopted an awesome little teenage dumpster cat two days later. No more mice.

Housemate and new cat friend moved out ~6 months later, and unfortunately, new kitty died of a heart defect almost a year to the day when we got her.

My friend/former housemate had already been considering adopting a playmate for the dumpster baby, so he got on the local rescue organization website that night, and lo and behold, there was my cat who had disappeared almost exactly two years before.

So, even though it was weird to make a new cat friend so soon after mine had died, the short and very happy life of dumpster kitty led to the return of my boy who had been missing for two years. We just celebrated his 12th birthday a few weeks ago, and I am so, so thankful to have him back in my life.

Tax payment, when he discovered where I grow the catnip a few days ago:

At my home venue, I have no protection. If you fuck with me---particularly within the first twoish songs of a set---my usual response is to look them dead in the eye and say, "Where do you work? I'm going to come to your job and help you on Monday." And that usually scares them off.

Sometimes, I feel bad about it and will find and apologize to that person later, explaining why I reacted like that.

My favorite is when it's a local/college-age band and parents are around. Or spouses of older band members. "No, I can't get her vocal any louder because she's whispering six inches from the microphone and Jimi Hendrix up there is blasting his amp at 11."

All this said, it's a common misconception that "asshole" is the default mode of operation for a sound engineer. It's just that the job is fucking stressful, and if you catch us at the height of that stress, we will react poorly. I've definitely come across a few grumps, but most folks are nice on average --- kinda have to be so that people will want to work with you. Most of us just want to work with the team to make a good show happen.

To your original point, it's 100% true that the better the artist, the better/easier the mix. Can only polish a turd so much before it crumbles.

That's not Shrek, that's Marshall Applewhite

Same here --- one old head I know tried to rope another old head friend of mine on a huge road trip, but my friend turns his nose up at events like this since Jerry died.

I see it as a send-up to something unique and wonderful that ended 30 years ago. I'm sure it's fun for the artists involved to recreate the magic, and for some fans, it's an excellent way to relive it. Let em do what they want, and I'll keep my 80s-90s Dead playlist on rotation!