@gregly@retro.pizza

Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @Linza@kamu.social

@Linza@kamu.social @hacks4pancakes@infosec.exchange Even more than that, many STEM graduates were practically promised wealth and job security for life because “tech is the future”. I know I was, as I was growing up a 90s “computer whiz”, and that cultural mindset continued into the 2000s and 2010s for the youth (even as the rest of us were learning that the truth was very, very different from the fantasy we were sold).

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 26, 2026

Replying to @Richard_Littler@mastodon.social

@Richard_Littler@mastodon.social I think that is the most 70s pre-movie announcement I have ever seen 😆

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 25, 2026

Spoiler-free review of Strange New Worlds S04E01: It was really quite good. I hope it can maintain this level of quality!

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 22, 2026

I know I’ve posted things at least once before, probably more, but while I absolutely do not condone the fact that my moderately wealthy uncle totally flipped out over a decade ago, abandoning his entire life and family to go join a desert cult… I do understand it.

(But yeah, really dick move. I looked up to him, and he deserted his wife and three daughters, leaving them to pick up the pieces. I don’t care how tough things seem, you don’t fucking do that to other people.)

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 22, 2026

Last night my daughter had a crashout about how she doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life, what to study, or how to get a part-time job. It was very difficult to find the words to support her, since I’ve been feeling much the same. In my case, I have a job, of course, but it sure isn’t what I’d hoped for at her age.

Meanwhile I’m trying to walk the line between assuring her that we’re here to support her, but also pushing her to keep trying things, keep applying to jobs, keep researching and networking on her own.

One thing she has expressed interest in is digital music production, but I have no idea how to counsel her there. Most educational programs focus on traditional instruments; she uses the computer exclusively. How does one try to break into that industry?

#parenting #electronicmusic #digitalmusicproduction

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 21, 2026

The “software development industry” I wanted to be a part of was dead and buried before I even graduated college.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 21, 2026

My team has an impossible sprint deadline to hit by Thursday. I am out of Vyvanse, and since my doctor uses MyChart like most of the United States, I can expect my refill request to be acknowledged in… a week, maybe? Who knows? I can try to call them and end up trapped in voice menu hell and waiting on hold, I guess.

And of course the house is still a total fucking disaster. My feeble attempts to clean and declutter barely maintain the status quo, at best.

I am more than burned out. I am carbon. I am inanimate carbon rod. But if I stop, everything falls apart even faster than it normally does.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 21, 2026

Nice to wake up to another post by a “real programmer” scoffing at senior devs who are using LLMs because we are mandated to do so lest we are fired for “not fitting into the company culture”.

Just wait until you too have been completely burned out by decades of corporate bullshit, attempting to write elegant and legible code only to be essentially told you’re being too much of a perfectionist and should be banging out MVPs as fast as possible to meet unrealistic targets.

Just wait until you’ve hit 45 and have officially aged out of the industry for all intents and purposes because HR is looking for the young, energetic, healthy, and exploitable.

God, you’re so smarmy and sure of yourself, and you blame us for trying to survive and keep our families housed and fed instead of pointing the finger towards the industry that has been 95% utter bullshit and exploitation since its inception.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 20, 2026

Replying to @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange Are they? I’d heard that they’ve actually been charging for their tokens at far _below_ commodity price, and that their costs per token have been vastly more, basically selling at a loss to capture the market before jacking up prices (a la Uber). If that’s not true, then I agree with your assessment.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 19, 2026

Replying to @JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange

@JessTheUnstill@infosec.exchange One thing I’d have to point out here is that the models themselves aren’t of much use without the massive computing infrastructure required to run them, which is why the existing AI megacorporations are trying to corner the market on hardware and ensure nobody else can amass enough to run competing models.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 06, 2026

Yesterday I learned my brother-in-law just up and quit his software development job because he was totally burned out, and now he’s just screwing around developing what he wants on his own terms. He could afford to do this because he lives alone with his cats and never does anything, so he has FIVE YEARS of money saved up.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 03, 2026

I was a total fucking idiot this morning and stabbed my palm with an X-Acto knife while stupidly trying to remove supports from a 3D print Went to urgent care because it was deep, got a cleaning and liquid bandage Then it started bleeding again two hours later So back to urgent care, where they did way more liquid bandage and a big gauze bandage That was eight hours ago I’m allowed to remove it now but I am afraid of it bleeding again, so I’ll probably leave it on all night Anyways the moral of the story is use a Dremel or hot knife to remove supports, not a fucking X-Acto knife

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jul 01, 2026

Replying to @davidho@mastodon.world

@davidho@mastodon.world This is “working as expected” for the Epstein class, whose solution to the climate crisis is to kill off the majority of the world’s population through stochastic attrition, while they continue to do whatever the fuck they want.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jun 29, 2026

Replying to @DeltaWye@tiggi.es

@DeltaWye@tiggi.es @disisdeguey@expressional.social @normjess@tech.lgbt @carnage4life@mas.to I think that’s because so many of us are fed this idea that we are irreplaceable special snowflakes who naturally must be in competition with each other, when the truth is we are simply another profession that should be banding together into a guild of our own.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · Jun 28, 2026

Replying to @disisdeguey@expressional.social

@disisdeguey@expressional.social @normjess@tech.lgbt @carnage4life@mas.to Unfortunately the job market is so unbelievably bad that Ford will most likely reply “lol no”, unless ALL of the laid-off workers banded together and demanded more money as a condition for returning, you know, some sort of “unified group”, there must be a better name for such a thing… 🤔

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 14, 2026

Replying to @ZaneSelvans@social.coop

@ZaneSelvans@social.coop Don’t give them any ideas! 😅

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 13, 2026

I’m thinking a lot about the “firehose” this morning: my compulsion to find sources of stimulation. I can’t speak for all #adhd / #AuDHD folks, of course, but for me, “running out of internet” can be a very real annoyance. Hitting the top of all the feeds I browse, then feeling the discomfort of _boredom_, where the minutes drag on like days.

But the opposite, an unending firehose, leads to tunnelvision and hyperfocus. Responsibilities start getting neglected. I detach from other people. I get irritable if I’m interrupted.

Since work often involves periods of boredom, I alleviate this by doing relatively mundane Minecraft stuff on my modded home server in the background: enough to stimulate me a _bit_, but not enough to get sucked in, so I can switch back to work quickly.

None of it is really fulfilling, but it gets me through the day while staying reasonably productive.

#morningthoughts

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 12, 2026

“I’m not just a dad, I’m a COOL* dad”

* Criminally Online Old Lunatic

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 12, 2026

“I’m not just a dad, I’m a DUDE*”

* Dad Unable to Discipline Effectively

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 12, 2026

I thought I found an antique fixed-blade utility knife when digging up the backyard… but it turns out Stanley No. 199 tools have always just looked like that. Boo.

Well, I’m still getting the materials to try and remove the rust via electrolysis.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 09, 2026

Replying to @realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk

@realcainmosni@mastodon.me.uk @neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk You assume ownership of the device (as opposed to renting it in perpetuity) will be permitted.

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Gregly @gregly@retro.pizza · May 09, 2026

Replying to @TechTangents@dialup.space

@TechTangents@dialup.space I did this to all our CDs and DVDs decades ago. It was a fantastic idea, and a terrible idea; we absolutely needed the space, but in retrospect I feel bad about tossing all those original cases. (At least I kept the liner notes and cover art for all of them…)

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