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beej71

6,617 karma · joined March 9, 2010

Author of Beej's Guides, Computer Science instructor at Oregon State University-Cascades.

Identity claims: https://keyoxide.org/beej%40beej.us

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/beej; my proof: https://keybase.io/beej/sigs/plrv1S0-bVb3oNnF6pu5UaGSWvkQV5ZtYDByQ5pZmww ]

openpgp4fpr:CD99029AAD50ED6AD2023932A165F24CF846C3C8

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beej71··on An Urgent Message on Artificial Intelligence from the Kogui People
It's amazing the polarization in the comments here. What I'm sadly certain of is that the powerful people running the show will never in a billion years be able to make sense of the sentiment of TFA.
beej71··on An Urgent Message on Artificial Intelligence from the Kogui People
Seems like you're directing your counterargument at the speaker.
beej71··on Wealth Inequality in America drawn to scale
I find comments like this perplexing. If it's meaningless, I'd like to trade places on the graph with Elon, please.
beej71··on Websites Should Be Printable
Yes, I did. :)
beej71··on Websites Should Be Printable
While I'm on board with having good html structure that prints well, and I'm on board with hiding navigation elements, etc., I'm not so on board with changing the default font size or fonts in the print version.

I just made a simple site that didn't set any font sizes anywhere, and a friend of mine complained that the font was too small on mobile. Do I detect a lo-res screen and increase the font size?

I know a lot of sites do exactly that, but I feel it's wrong. The user controls their default font size on their platform. What if they'd already increased it, and now I'm just making it bigger?

What if they'd decreased their default print font size and then I shrink it again?

I think it's best to leave those to the user entirely.

beej71··on Websites Should Be Printable
I wrote two xsl stylesheets and then encoded my resume in xml.

I know what you're thinking: "Ok genxer", but hear me out. :)

The two stylesheets produce HTML and Typst code. And so I get the exact render that I want.

(It actually goes further, making a CV and a resume from the same xml source, rearranging sections and sorting appropriately.)

Xml and xsl are quite dated, but this really does seem to be a good use case for data/presentation separation.

But really my dream is for print css (or something) to finally be implemented.

beej71··on AI use leads UC Berkeley math professor to see 'no point' in grading homework
I use this in class. Basically if you turn in the complete work, your getting an A. But I make sure they know that there's an interviewer with slathering fangs waiting to make sure they have it down.

I'm not the students' competitor; the interviewer is. And the students not only have to impress the interviewer, but they have to impress them more than all their peers do!

The first place I taught gave no grades or unrequested feedback on anything. And no certificate. And those cohorts had the best placement rates. There was nothing in the school for the students to game, so they kept their eye on the real prize.

beej71··on AI use leads UC Berkeley math professor to see 'no point' in grading homework
Not like this. Someday it will likely turn around, but it's probably going to be after we're long dead.
beej71··on Active incident at Dreamhost forcing password reset
I'm still at DH (have been for 20 years), but taking a peek at Hetzner... seems compelling at 30% cheaper than I pay now.
beej71··on Online censorship is crushing indie webcomics
One potential option (not without downsides, admittedly) is to publish a clearly-self-censored version on social media and link back to the website for the full one. Also RSS.

The pisser about third party websites is they have full control over the content and there's really not much of a way around that. Enough outcry can do it, but it's a tough time to get enough of that.

beej71··on Move Slow and Fix Things (2024)
You're welcome! I'm always stoked to hear when the guides have made a difference. :)
beej71··on Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data center
> Like it probably wouldn't even make the town newspaper level insignificant.

To be fair, it actually did make the town newspaper and the people who live there actually do have something to say about it.

beej71··on Can we replace a $150k Looker with a bucket of HTML files?
"The most you can charge for your software is my cost to recreate it."

It's interesting to see what other factors will come into play by vendors to allow charging higher prices. Lock-in in various forms, legal responsibility, etc.

beej71··on Move Slow and Fix Things (2024)
I'm 55 and I plan to never get in the game again (20 years in industry). I'm going to teach as long as I can, and then only work for a non profit that's doing good or for the public sector. The pay won't be up there, but I have limited time left to do what needs doing.
beej71··on The foolishness of "natural language programming" (1978)
I appreciate inform7 is quite human-readable, but it's not free form.
beej71··on Code is clay now
There certainly is, but in my recollection, devs could tackle either. Again, it's been a while.
beej71··on Code is clay now
I'm really glad that wasn't my career experience. I worked with a lot of extremely sharp devs in a variety of places. Dull ones were simply not hired.
beej71··on The Future of CSS
Woot! I'm always glad to hear when it works out. Once it clicks, it's hard to remember what the trouble was in the first place. :)
beej71··on The No Kings Takedown Is Why You Shouldn't Rent Your Megaphone from Zuck
Let me ask you this: what is the purpose of a protest?
beej71··on The No Kings Takedown Is Why You Shouldn't Rent Your Megaphone from Zuck
The sheer number of participants implies that leadership can ignore those ideas at their peril. So if they don't know what the No Kings ideas are, they ought to look them up.
beej71··on The Future of CSS
At last I can realize my dream of writing a JS interpreter in CSS! ;)
beej71··on Demographic "doomsday" misses the mark
As long as the robots are paying into social security, I'm good. ;)
beej71··on Code is clay now
> Code was malleable only to a developer with great code comprehension

This used to be what being a dev was, if I recall. It's been a few years.

beej71··on The Brain Sandwich
I'm not saying that at all. What I am saying is that I've never grown more mentally sharp by punting to AI. Learning a better solution is not the same as becoming more sharp.
beej71··on The Brain Sandwich
This is far better than just hitting return, but there's zero chance it's as good as doing things the hard way. Tradeoffs, of course.
beej71··on Solar surpasses nuclear power globally for first time
Yet. Wouldn't be against it.
beej71··on X purges 13,000 accounts linked to suspected meddling ahead of US midterms
Also: censoring your own site is perfectly constitutional.
beej71··on AI was great until it was not
I speculate that painstakingly trying all the hard stuff that doesn't work is extremely valuable. In many fields this is how the greats became so.
beej71··on Banks are now trying to offload the AI data center debt they just underwrote
And then fail to sell it.
beej71··on Banks are now trying to offload the AI data center debt they just underwrote
But it seems according to TFA they are trying and failing to do this.
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