8-bit Archer

@JoscelynTransient@chaosfem.tw if you would be up for some sci-fi alliette de bodard has a couple of solid offerings. Most on brand would be "A Fire born in exile" which was originally sold to me as "Sapphic Vietnamese count of monte cristo in space" But Red scholar's wake (the preceding book) is space pirate intrigues and revenge going on as well, with a pirate queen (who is also a spaceship, its a thing) searching for her wife's killer. Very science as magic setting, quite different from the norm.

blegh... I always hate election days, I have no regrets or issues with voting or the like but there's always a perpetual feeling of utter dread with things lining up to get even more shit.

it's hard to be hopeful but I need to try, at least for the scottish government to remain at least mostly ok...

my grumbles and displeasure with the SNP and preference for the greens aside...

the prospect of labour/tories/reform making headway gives me a headache.

@critakitty@wetdry.world if you dont mind some kind of out there sci-fi Alliete De Bodard's Xuya universe books might be worth a look in? Red scholar's wake and A Fire Born in exile were really fun reads. Big emphasis around technology blurring the lines with magic and Eastern style court intrigues. A fire born in exile was originally sold to me as being Vietnamese sapphic count of monte cristo in space. Didn't disappoint ^_^

admittedly waiting to hear back from a permenant role I interviewed for this morning... but I've explained to the interviewers and they understand. I'm going to chase it up properly tomorrow either way though, just getting breathing room for this whole situation is a big win.

OK better news as an immediate follow up, ive been offered the compliance analyst 12 month role. Can breathe easier now.

Well heard back from the senior TA role and its come back as a no. Annoyingly its a second instance now of going through the interview process for the recruiters to not pick anyone who's applied. 😑 That's two roles now ive had that happen to me.

so currently I've interviewed for or am currently in the midst of interviews for.

senior technical analyst (waiting for decision)
preformance analyst (2nd stage interview monday)
preformance analyst 12m (waiting for decision)
compliance analyst 12m (waiting for decision)
data engineer (1st stage interview monday)

feeling a bit more hopeful in that I've gotten all of these through the internal process, hopefully one of them lands so I can stop stressing as much.

got introduced to Takehara Pistol last Sumo Basho and... I think the best thing I can describe their work as is Japanese Dad Rock?

I'm here for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEjU8CnIKx4

interview done yesterday for a performance analyst role, had a presentation interview task on a tech support website which let me draw on my call center troubleshooting experience which helped I think.

doing a SQL test for another role first thing tomorrow morning and then doing another interview on Friday.

should start hearing back from the various roles I've been applying for next week I think.

What parts of me will I need to compromise or trade away with everything going to shit.

But I also admit im scared of the external job market for my role... searching positions ive already seen that there's an expectation for skills i don't have, certifications im missing or languages I dont know... Or the companies hiring being soulless betting companies or proudly bragging about being AI first. Theres probably a lot of Imposter syndrome going on here if im being honest... but gods I just wanted to do my work.

In the grand scheme of things... im ok and im going to be ok.

Im getting plenty of interviews as part of the internal retention/placement policy, 3 at current count with a 4th currently being arranged.

But gods am i feeling shit about the whole affair. Theres stupid guilt in my head about getting these chances before im gone but also resentment in seeing my department getting gutted so throughly of people I know kept everything running on top of myself.

I'm honestly unsure if I'm going to land any of these, I'm throwing my CV at all the work's internal roles because I've got some shortcutting to try and find a position in the company which I might as well exploit that for as long as I can. either in trying to get a role or in getting myself as much interview experience as possible before my actual redundency date.

ok... Senior technical analyst interview was yesterday but felt like it went rather well. a bit of a long shot job and role wise but I have the knowledge to do the work. this one is pretty hotly contested in the department though.

on tuesday doing an interview for a preformance analyst role, got a 20 minute presentation to put together on that one over the next couple of days.

then a compliance analyst role next friday with a 1 hour practical task then 1 hour interview...

@WiteWulf@cyberplace.social @davidgerard@circumstances.run but people see the goods that conventional machine learning and tech does, assumes it's the same thing as LLM AI because they've been lead to believe it's all the same and then question the people pointing out that we're NOT talking about baking bread... we're talking about the morons running around with gas cans and matches burning everyone's houses down.

@WiteWulf@cyberplace.social @davidgerard@circumstances.run

pardon Gary, I think you might have gotten the wrong end of the stick from me on this one.

I'm with Scalzi, he's entirely correct in his position on this one. his frustrations with the common person misconstruing what AI is and what is meant by AI when artists and creative point out what a shit show is going on is extremely valid.

he is 100% NOT meaning conventional machine learning, he's meaning LLM twaddle and the arson ring connected to that.

@davidgerard@circumstances.run so it has some good uses is essentially "I heard someone used AI to do something good" when it practice it wasn't AI in how we're being sold it at all... and it's frustrating as all hell when it's clearly messing with everything.

@davidgerard@circumstances.run just because your shit barn is also made out of bricks doesn't mean its the same thing as Notredam cathedral. And just because some scientists used machine learning to work out protein properties doesn't mean your useless LLM deserves any of the credit.

@davidgerard@circumstances.run I think this is where a lot of the unaccepted hype of the various LLM platforms have muddied the waters. they've done such a job of linking any form of machine learning with their own slop machines that even though they're not the same thing, in normal people's head's they've become conflated. so when we hear about machine learning making some advancement the various AI-bros leap on it as justification for their own slop even though the connection in practical senses is tenuous.

@SmudgeTheInsultCat ZacspeaksGiant and PunkyDoodles awesomely gave us this wee gem based on just this thread: https://youtube.com/shorts/aVCo0k5YeLo?si=_U9obQHgfEnl45gv

@stjepanlukac@mastodon.art kind of? the Malazan series is kind of weird in that it kind of spawned from an rpg campaign setting and Erikson throws a ton of world building and tone setting but it has pacing issues. I'd argue that deadhouse gates (the second book) flows significantly better with writing lessons learned from Gardens of the moon. it does however accelerate nicely and all those weird and disparate threads did tie up in a satisfying way for me by the end of the book.

@mariyadelano I suspect there's an element of platform lock in occuring with a lot of this. quite a lot of stuff we have to deal with these days are platform specific so working with more standard core tools like Bash aren't being kept sharp or handed down. I'm someone who came into database work and sql development via a call center background than conventional approaches I've found it notable that I had little exposure to low level tools until I went hunting for them.