ZDL

My boss is pretty decent. He gets dumb ideas (like we all do), but he recognizes when they fail and doesn't try to force them for face-saving. It's because of that that we survived the COVID-19 disasater and the pivot away from American clients (my initiative) without disappearing. He doesn't appear to have the usual ego of a businessman.

It's not "Distance Raptor" or "Time Raptor" or even "Veloci Raptor". It's Distanceraptor. All one word. Or Timeraptor or Velociraptor.

I mean otherwise it would be:

D~~i~~stanc~~eraptor~~

T~~i~~m~~eraptor~~

And that leaves us with:

Dstanc

Tm

Spoke too soon, I see. 🤣

Even just going with the makeup thing: they're pure contrarians on that point. If they see someone with makeup they prefer women without it. If they see someone without makeup they prefer "a bit of" makeup.

Basically the whole makeup thing is purest gaslighting.

My boss tried to get everybody to use LLMbeciles for work. He was taken in by the fakery and set up a commercial OpenAI account.

I refused to use it. Ever. Like to the point that I never even collected my ID and password.

Others used it, but it was, as always, a time-waster where it looked like they were making gains at the start, only to get bogged down when important details entered the picture. So I quietly got my work done while others wrestled with AI. Then by the end of six weeks nobody was using it and my boss quietly shut down the account.

They actually believe their own press and think their "reasoning" models say anything meaningful when they "explain" their "reasoning"?

Wow! I could be a top AI researcher too and I don't even know how to begin programming a computer!

I was unaware that I have to justify a preference. Silly me.

It depends on the book.

If it's a book I will be cherishing and valuing, paper. If it's a book I'm just going to read and toss, or if it's a book I'm going to use for reference purposes, ebook.

Is this necessarily a bad thing?

Yes.

Yes it is.

Being a poseur has always been a bad thing and always will be a bad thing.

Those ridiculous, unserious human (presumably) beings?

They probably honestly didn't think it was a threat. It is a common delusion in the USA that everybody wants to be American.

I'm sure the boycott will soften somewhat after Trump leaves (presuming he isn't made President for Life and heralding a new era in American governance) because people have short memories and will forget that almost all American officials at every level were either directly working for his platform or just sitting ineffectually at the side pretending to do anything but not really stopping it.

But it will only soften. It will not be over. Not for most Canadians alive today. The USA poisoned its brand but good and by the time Trump has stopped raging like a bull in a china shop, Canadians will have found new favourite brands and suppliers and such and American brands will be dead anyway.

Because once I find something I like, why would I go back just because the old brand says "but we've chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanged!"

You mean what we called LUGs when I was in school?