#lunchtimelament — Public Fediverse posts

#UK’s Constitutional #Monarchy—We’ll pay you to keep your trap shut and stay out of our democratic process

#US’s Constitutional #Dictatorship—We’ll pay you to take as much money out of us as you can and to meddle in every aspect of our private lives

#LunchtimeLament

#UK’s Constitutional #Monarchy—We’ll pay you to keep your trap shut and stay out of our democratic process

#US’s Constitutional #Dictatorship—We’ll pay you to take as much money out of us as you can and to meddle in every aspect of our private lives

#LunchtimeLament

Since 2016, our nation's governmental form has transmogrified into a dictatorship.

Practically speaking, a dictatorship needs neither the people's assembly nor the judicial system. So, why spend all that money paying for these useless imbeciles to do nothing more than to appease the dick-tatortot? Let us, instead, save some money by dispensing with the Congress and the Courts, and let the #tRUMP family run amok.🤮

Hey, our mother country, Britain, has weird stuff like "constitutional monarchy". We, too, should have the intellectual curiosity to experiment with such oxymoronic oddities as "representative form of dictatorship".

Besides, we are already in a deep #dictator-#shit, whether we acknowledge it or not.

#LunchtimeLament

Since 2016, our nation's governmental form has transmogrified into a dictatorship.

Practically speaking, a dictatorship needs neither the people's assembly nor the judicial system. So, why spend all that money paying for these useless imbeciles to do nothing more than to appease the dick-tatortot? Let us, instead, save some money by dispensing with the Congress and the Courts, and let the #tRUMP family run amok.🤮

Hey, our mother country, Britain, has weird stuff like "constitutional monarchy". We, too, should have the intellectual curiosity to experiment with such oxymoronic oddities as "representative form of dictatorship".

Besides, we are already in a deep #dictator-#shit, whether we acknowledge it or not.

#LunchtimeLament

There are many industrial workers who use hazardous materials in their daily tasks. They wear protective equipment and follow safety protocols, as prescribed by applicable regulations.

Today, #IT practitioners use AI as a matter of course. AI has the potential to cause catastrophic harm globally. Its invidious impact is insidious to a great extent: once its harmful consequences have become discernible, the damage is irreversible. For example, the presidential elections in 2016 and 2024.

Obviously, #AI qualifies at least as a #hazard material, in the context of the current #IT practice.

So, where are the necessary protective #regulations?

#LunchtimeLament

There are many industrial workers who use hazardous materials in their daily tasks. They wear protective equipment and follow safety protocols, as prescribed by applicable regulations.

Today, #IT practitioners use AI as a matter of course. AI has the potential to cause catastrophic harm globally. Its invidious impact is insidious to a great extent: once its harmful consequences have become discernible, the damage is irreversible. For example, the presidential elections in 2016 and 2024.

Obviously, #AI qualifies at least as a #hazard material, in the context of the current #IT practice.

So, where are the necessary protective #regulations?

#LunchtimeLament

Back in the 1980s, when I said, “I write #programmes with #ML”, I got derisive smirks from the then-dominant cast, the C #programmers.

These day, when #LLM-fed coders hear me say that, some warm up to me because they believe I am one of them who uses AI code generators, but most sneer at me because they believe I am still applying the late 1990s machine learning techniques in the modern era of large, complex, ill-conceived, incomprehensible, undocumented, unmaintainable codebases.

#StandardML
#FunctionalProgramming
#LunchtimeLament

Back in the 1980s, when I said, “I write #programmes with #ML”, I got derisive smirks from the then-dominant cast, the C #programmers.

These day, when #LLM-fed coders hear me say that, some warm up to me because they believe I am one of them who uses AI code generators, but most sneer at me because they believe I am still applying the late 1990s machine learning techniques in the modern era of large, complex, ill-conceived, incomprehensible, undocumented, unmaintainable codebases.

#StandardML
#FunctionalProgramming
#LunchtimeLament

Well into the mid 1990s, I walked about without pagers, mobiles, and other "smartleashes", with just a manual-wind, mechanical watch upon my wrist. I wish, at least, to revert back to the #distraction-free #simplicity of the mid 2000s, pre-smartphone era. I am not yet longing for a brick-like flip-phone with age-appropriate features, like humongous dial pad, massive font, loud ringer, included hearing aid, built-in fall detection, automated ambulance service, etc. That day will come, soon enough. But, in the meantime, it would be swell, if #mobile carriers offer a phone with these features:

• A rugged (at least IP67), wallet-sized phone with an #eink display just large enough to render text, short emails, and the dial pad
• Just text, email, calendar, and phone apps; no web browser, no ebook reader, no social media, no games, no side-loadable apps
• No camera, no video player, no headphone jack, no audio player
• Just cellular and WiFi; no Bluetooth, no NFC, no other connectivities
• Just magnetic charging; no charger port
• A battery that lasts forever and a day on one charge
• The phone is included with a mobile plan

If such a cheap, free phone is too much to ask of the carriers, I would gladly settle for a free, wallet-sized, dual-touchpad #Morse keyer with a built-in MEMS shaker, and the opportunity to sign up for an SMS-only mobile plan: connected, but barely, as it were. Besides, talking is taxing; texting is tranquil.

#LunchtimeLament

Well into the mid 1990s, I walked about without pagers, mobiles, and other "smartleashes", with just a manual-wind, mechanical watch upon my wrist. I wish, at least, to revert back to the #distraction-free #simplicity of the mid 2000s, pre-smartphone era. I am not yet longing for a brick-like flip-phone with age-appropriate features, like humongous dial pad, massive font, loud ringer, included hearing aid, built-in fall detection, automated ambulance service, etc. That day will come, soon enough. But, in the meantime, it would be swell, if #mobile carriers offer a phone with these features:

• A rugged (at least IP67), wallet-sized phone with an #eink display just large enough to render text, short emails, and the dial pad
• Just text, email, calendar, and phone apps; no web browser, no ebook reader, no social media, no games, no side-loadable apps
• No camera, no video player, no headphone jack, no audio player
• Just cellular and WiFi; no Bluetooth, no NFC, no other connectivities
• Just magnetic charging; no charger port
• A battery that lasts forever and a day on one charge
• The phone is included with a mobile plan

If such a cheap, free phone is too much to ask of the carriers, I would gladly settle for a free, wallet-sized, dual-touchpad #Morse keyer with a built-in MEMS shaker, and the opportunity to sign up for an SMS-only mobile plan: connected, but barely, as it were. Besides, talking is taxing; texting is tranquil.

#LunchtimeLament

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

[3/3] @fl

• Having earned, by traditional means, this in-depth theoretical knowledge and hardcore practical skills in both hardware and software, during the early phase of their studies, will give the determined kids a firm foundation upon which to build a lasting, meaningful career in CS and IT—in the meaningless AI Age.

• AI has become self-sustaining, today: it has evolved to procreate more-intelligent offsprings on its own, so AI no longer needs grubby human hands to feed it. Or at least that is the AI proponents' claim. And AI will enmesh itself ever deeper into the fabric of society, for the foreseeable future. But a more evolved AI needs a more evolved software and hardware infrastructures, the design and construction of which—fortunately—are still in the minds and hands of humans who still possess actual intelligence. Counterintuitively, these areas of human endeavour will only expand, with the uncontrolled rise in AI use and AI-driven automation. These, then, are the areas of study in which intellectually minded kids should focus on, now. And OS studies is a good place to start that journey.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

[3/3] @fl

• Having earned, by traditional means, this in-depth theoretical knowledge and hardcore practical skills in both hardware and software, during the early phase of their studies, will give the determined kids a firm foundation upon which to build a lasting, meaningful career in CS and IT—in the meaningless AI Age.

• AI has become self-sustaining, today: it has evolved to procreate more-intelligent offsprings on its own, so AI no longer needs grubby human hands to feed it. Or at least that is the AI proponents' claim. And AI will enmesh itself ever deeper into the fabric of society, for the foreseeable future. But a more evolved AI needs a more evolved software and hardware infrastructures, the design and construction of which—fortunately—are still in the minds and hands of humans who still possess actual intelligence. Counterintuitively, these areas of human endeavour will only expand, with the uncontrolled rise in AI use and AI-driven automation. These, then, are the areas of study in which intellectually minded kids should focus on, now. And OS studies is a good place to start that journey.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

[2/3] @fl

• I assert, without proffering evidence, that the 1980s-style self-teaching is far more beneficial for the motivated teens than the current, prevalent practice of wasting the kids’ time and the parents' money in shifty "coding camps" run by inept coders. Moreover, LLM has already binned the coding camp business, anyway.

• I have an unshakable conviction that this type of habitual “deep learning” of an essential, practical CS subject, like OS, must be in a structured, academic setting (in classroom or in bedroom), from a proper textbook (like Tanenbaum’s or Comer’s), accompanied by hands-on programming exercises (culminating in a compact, but complete, functioning kernel). This in-depth knowledge and the associated hard skills cannot be acquired by shooting the breeze with an LLM, as young people are now wont to do.

• I see the modern, $0.99 MCU development boards (STM32 Blue Pill with Cortex-M3, ESP32-C3 with RISC-V, etc.) running a student-built toy OS as the 32-bit reincarnations of the 1980s 8-bit home computers (ET3400, KIM-1, Apple ][, C64, BBC Micro, Sinclair, etc.). Those 8-biters were simple enough for the inquisitive kids of that era (from CS undies down to pre-teens) to have mastered by teaching themselves out of well-written manuals and textbooks. This was a common occurrence, in those days. And a coin-sized, 32-bit ESP32 board with WiFi and Bluetooth running a homemade OS could run concentric circles round a refrigerator-sized, 16-bit PDP-11/70 running AT&T UNIX V6.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

[2/3] @fl

• I assert, without proffering evidence, that the 1980s-style self-teaching is far more beneficial for the motivated teens than the current, prevalent practice of wasting the kids’ time and the parents' money in shifty "coding camps" run by inept coders. Moreover, LLM has already binned the coding camp business, anyway.

• I have an unshakable conviction that this type of habitual “deep learning” of an essential, practical CS subject, like OS, must be in a structured, academic setting (in classroom or in bedroom), from a proper textbook (like Tanenbaum’s or Comer’s), accompanied by hands-on programming exercises (culminating in a compact, but complete, functioning kernel). This in-depth knowledge and the associated hard skills cannot be acquired by shooting the breeze with an LLM, as young people are now wont to do.

• I see the modern, $0.99 MCU development boards (STM32 Blue Pill with Cortex-M3, ESP32-C3 with RISC-V, etc.) running a student-built toy OS as the 32-bit reincarnations of the 1980s 8-bit home computers (ET3400, KIM-1, Apple ][, C64, BBC Micro, Sinclair, etc.). Those 8-biters were simple enough for the inquisitive kids of that era (from CS undies down to pre-teens) to have mastered by teaching themselves out of well-written manuals and textbooks. This was a common occurrence, in those days. And a coin-sized, 32-bit ESP32 board with WiFi and Bluetooth running a homemade OS could run concentric circles round a refrigerator-sized, 16-bit PDP-11/70 running AT&T UNIX V6.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

[1/3] @fl

• I saw that, in run-of-the-mill CS curricula, a steep decline of student interest in traditional, practice-oriented courses, such as OS, compilers, networking, graphics, etc., had induced the colleges to replace those in-depth courses with high-demand, but low-content, API-calling AI courses over the past decade, and today by LLM-chatting AI courses.

• I observed that many of today's IT thought leaders do not know how to design and implement large-scale systems, ab initio. Most of them have never cracked open a laptop case nor have ever poked at anything below JavaScript and Python code. The LLM-addiction epidemic has further eroded their abilities. The lack of knowledge, lack of skills, lack of concern, and lack of compulsion to learn deeply have compounded upon one another. This situation has become an exigent threat against IT industry, and even CS academia to an extent.

• I belief that the traditional, hands-on OS studies (in classroom or in bedroom) is a prophylactic against such nutritional deficiency. The same goes for compilers, networking, and the like, of course. Intellectually motivated kids must learn to distinguish the differences between Googling for coffee table book style shallow facts and sua sponte acquisition of deep knowledge.

• I know, from my past experience, that a hands-on self-study of a small, simple, single-user OS is far more effective than attending long, theoretical (and often, theatrical) lectures on the virtues of an industrial-strength, multi-user, networked, secure, speedy OS with a massive, monolithic kernel.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

[1/3] @fl

• I saw that, in run-of-the-mill CS curricula, a steep decline of student interest in traditional, practice-oriented courses, such as OS, compilers, networking, graphics, etc., had induced the colleges to replace those in-depth courses with high-demand, but low-content, API-calling AI courses over the past decade, and today by LLM-chatting AI courses.

• I observed that many of today's IT thought leaders do not know how to design and implement large-scale systems, ab initio. Most of them have never cracked open a laptop case nor have ever poked at anything below JavaScript and Python code. The LLM-addiction epidemic has further eroded their abilities. The lack of knowledge, lack of skills, lack of concern, and lack of compulsion to learn deeply have compounded upon one another. This situation has become an exigent threat against IT industry, and even CS academia to an extent.

• I belief that the traditional, hands-on OS studies (in classroom or in bedroom) is a prophylactic against such nutritional deficiency. The same goes for compilers, networking, and the like, of course. Intellectually motivated kids must learn to distinguish the differences between Googling for coffee table book style shallow facts and sua sponte acquisition of deep knowledge.

• I know, from my past experience, that a hands-on self-study of a small, simple, single-user OS is far more effective than attending long, theoretical (and often, theatrical) lectures on the virtues of an industrial-strength, multi-user, networked, secure, speedy OS with a massive, monolithic kernel.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

This is a continuation of our recent discourses on OS, assembly, etc., @fl. You may notice that I have been posting rather a lot about small, simple, study OSs, of late. This surge was compelled by the following factors. See below.

PS—I had to split them up into parts, due to space constraint.

#LunchtimeLament #OS #assembly

This is a continuation of our recent discourses on OS, assembly, etc., @fl. You may notice that I have been posting rather a lot about small, simple, study OSs, of late. This surge was compelled by the following factors. See below.

PS—I had to split them up into parts, due to space constraint.