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• Post #4430252

  @Viss@mastodon.social @phated@fosstodon.org I'm cancelling Spotify right now for Qobuz because of the post, something I've meant to do for a while, and they straight up try to threaten you with ads 🙃 Get fucked, Spotify

• Post #4429192

  Zitron just sent me a post that Casey Newton wrote, where Newton uncritically talked about Replit's CEO saying that his company is now just run by AI, and the CEO is a "glorified router" Remember, if a fawning, boot-licking, sychophant-incompetent like Newton has managed to make it big, there's hope for everyone else. Think about the overwhelming advantage that your brain cells give you

• Post #4385380

  Hi folks, thought I'd reach out to Mastodon for some thoughts on this. I recently got Ed Zitron for my podcast, and am about to get [REDACTED] this Thursday. I like having random friends on to just talk about our hobbies or whatever sometimes, but it's been nice getting a few influential people on because they get to think about certain topics full-time. Are there any folks that you can think of (that have indicated an awareness of me) that would make for a fun conversation?

• Post #4346346

  Just came across Cam Wilson's reporting guide for folks that want to raise stories, particularly leaks about how AI stuff is going on at companies. https://cameronwilson.com.au/guide-to-my-reporting/ A lot of folks send me stories, and I don't publish them because I don't have the bandwidth or network to do so while keeping you safe. Cam does! Send them his way instead. (He's also highly regarded by several of my friends and is on Mastodon, which probably tells you a lot about...

• Post #4186349

  @phated@fosstodon.org just linked me to this and I love it, and by extension, this Dave fellow https://daverupert.com/2026/07/number-chart-go-up/

• Post #4178580

  @Viss@mastodon.social @hailey@hails.org I'm glad you asked because I have looked into this space several times and been unhappy (main options are Nocodb and Baserow), but this time around I discovered Mathesar: https://github.com/mathesar-foundation/mathesar I am becoming a weirdo that refuses to use many things before inspecting at least parts of the codebase, but the non-profit structure and other things are giving me good vibes.

• Post #3949433

  I have elected not to read any HN or Reddit comments on my latest post, but I am accepting nominations for the wall of shame: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/compliments/ Ideal candidates are mean-spirited ad hominem. 🫡

• Post #3904028

  I have, after two years, allowed myself to talk about my experiences with AI madness again, this time with the benefit of speaking to people all around the world, including Fortune 500 executives. This one is on my regular blog for casual readers, and cross-posted to the company blog if you need to share this with someone and have it look official. https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/ai-mania-is-eviscerating-global-decision-making/ https://hermit-tech.com/blog/ai-mania-is-eviscerating-global-decis...

• Post #3902232

  @iris_meredith@mastodon.social has just put out a super high-quality course for software engineers that would like to brush up on fundamentals or engage in Deeper Magic. We're buying it for our team and I thought I should give it a quick shout-out here: https://deadsimpletech.com/arca It's one of the rare courses that is so cheap that management will probably buy it for you just to stop talking about it.

• Post #3854649

  I have uploaded my podcast with Ed Zitron on YouTube! You can also see the extremely cool artwork of @mariibyrd@mastodon.art on display, who was an absolute delight to work with. https://youtu.be/HJtmDiGrKzw?si=eWDXsfYjfkkX8dTx

• Post #3349415

  https://stackoverflow.blog/2026/06/10/announcing-stack-overflow-for-agents/ I'm laughing so hard that I'm having trouble breathing

• Post #3336009

  I've got a client looking to hire five senior engineers in Sydney -- they work in data engineering, but they'll take anyone that's competent and work it out from there. Pay's about A$160K to A$180K + superannuation for someone that nails their interview process. No LeetCode stuff, though there is an online screen that is reportedly at the level of "You weren't lying about programming, right? Can you like, read a CSV and write some SQL?" Hit me up if you know anyone...

• Post #3280711

  Greetings fellow humans. My podcast editor has suggested that I start uploading episodes to YouTube, and to accomplish this, that I should get some artwork done to serve as a wall-paper-y thing for the audio to play over. Is there any chance that there are any artists here that would be interested in a small job? Might be a long shot, but someone that listens to the podcast will probably have great opinions on the vibe!

• Post #2559593

  @iris_meredith@mastodon.social sold out and wrote a marketing quiz that tells you your engineering class, but it has succesfully nerd sniped me: https://deadsimpletech.com/quizzes/whats-your-technical-character-class And like, that's pretty accurate!

• Post #2319146

  Great news everyone! I'm still alive and have dropped a post on my plans to violently knife as many software recruiters as possible, and also talk about how all the managers that seemed incompetent were, in fact, totally incompetent: https://ludic.mataroa.blog/blog/the-worlds-left-to-conquer/

• Post #997858

  I have just been introduced to Sharon Goldman's AI journalism and it's some of the funniest shit I've seen in my life. She's really out there prompting ChatGPT to write what reads like Kindle Unlimited-tier softcore erotica and getting paid. Even her "About" page on LinkedIn has two em-dashes and one --, so like, what's going on here? Local journalist can't write five sentences without an LLM? What are we DOING out here?

• Post #822572

  Just dropped the ol' podcast episode with @Viss: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Hwsu0nmDWcArUrNx51bkq Also many thanks to @llorenzin for editing!

• Post #822571

  I have lunch in an hour with a reader who availed themselves to my "in-person coffee" offer. Their message says they feel like they're also in data hell. I just looked them up and I think they literally have my old job. They're not just in data hell, they're in the exact same data hell they read about 💀

• Post #480835

  It is astonishing how many companies have decided almost all of their data work should be done by writing shit-tons of YAML, sometimes with bits of code jammed into random strings And by astonishing I mean I'm going to be on the news the next time I see it

• Post #406454

  Just ran across some weirdo AI speaker, looked him up, apparently he has launched some sort of app that talks about his books. Except the link just seems to go to the Ubuntu default page Absolutely baffling

• Post #406453

  I've got a gig up for grabs for any data nerds in Australia. A reader at a company where I'm the preferred recruiter has opened up a Super Urgent role for someone with Databricks experience. I can expedite most of the process so it'll be a serious job speedrun. You can live in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, or Brisbane, and the pay is about A$180K to A$185K including superannuation. The company is Vivanti, and I like everyone there so far. Hit me up if you're kee...

• Post #406452

  You know that 19K line Python dictionary that does PII I mentioned a few days ago? Just found out the same repository has exactly the same information stored, character-for-character, but in a set of matching CSVs, and if both aren't present then the project doesn't run. No one has any explanation for why the CSVs are there. How is this even POSSIBLE.

• Post #348944

  Reposting a question for Ed Zitron, I'll forward responses. He asked on Bluesky and will get sub-Mastodon-tier answers: "This is a serious question and I would be delighted if I only hear great things but, software engineers: both before and after LLMs, how often in your professional lives have you run into software engineers that seem completely useless or lacking in basic knowledge? I hope the answer is rarely"

• Post #314338

  Has anyone on here experienced the dread scenario of an interviewee trying to bullshit their way to a job using an LLM during a video call? (Asking for a blog post I'm thinking of writing, you won't be quoted identifiably without express consent)