• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 19th, 2024

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  • I just used a free online thing called PDF2Go to split a giant PDF into 4 smaller files. It let me directly download the resulting 4 files without signing up for anything, and they work perfectly on my box (linux mint). Tbh I don’t think the UI is super intuitive but I just googled “How to split a file on pdf2go” and found clear instructions. It has a lot of other tools I have not explored.

    Not affiliated with the site in any way, sharing because Adobe is so freaking expensive. https://www.pdf2go.com/


  • I avoided this issue by embracing the completely non-controversial “become a contractor” work schedule. When you’re a temp they specifically want you NOT to work overtime without prior authorization - because they have to pay for it. And as a software dev I was always treated identically with employees, except for a few special things like some company meetings and offsite events - which I didn’t want to attend anyway. And I got paid almost twice as much hourly than I would as an employee. Sure, I had to buy my own health insurance and didn’t get paid time off, but when you double your salary those are non-issues. But what about job security? LOL what about layoffs? My job security was that there are always contract jobs everywhere.








  • Tried to restart my fairly new Pixel phone a couple days ago by holding down the power button, but instead of showing the Power menu it prompted me to ask the Digital Assistant something. Excuse me? I don’t remember enabling that. Every other phone I’ve ever had, holding down the power button has always been the way to power down or restart. I had to search Settings to find how to configure the power button to control the power. Or course maybe I could have asked the Digital Assistant - but fuck that.






  • People who naievely pipe AI output directly to end users are ignoring the fundamental principle that writers need editors. AI isn’t at fault any more than a junior copywriter would be at fault for screwing up. In both cases their job is to produce rough copy which an editor is supposed to make a pass over. The problem lies with the management decision to remove the human editor from the process.

    Mediocre managers have always looked for magic bullets to fix problems they aren’t smart enough to handle. They’ll bring in consultants who give a seminar and leave a set of binders behind, and say do everything this way now, believing the sales pitch that said it would revolutionize the whole department. These same talentless managers are embracing AI with the same false hopes and implementing it just as clumsily.