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Reposted by Greg Strange

Eugene Vinitsky 🍒 @eugenevinitsky.bsky.social · 14h

Lot of people should read this exhaustive list of life improvements from the 90s: gwern.net/improvement

My Ordinary Life: Improvements Since the 1990s

A list of unheralded improvements to ordinary quality-of-life since the 1990s going beyond computers.

gwern.net

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 12h

Who is he telling to DO SOMETHING?

Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · 22h

That’s a nice trick, since Biden wasn’t the president on Jan 6.

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 15h

As an avid US snooker fan, I'd accept the problem just to have real time access to the sport. Lol

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 15h

Fanfuckingtastic

butterflygirl24 @butterflygirl24.bsky.social · 1d

This man is de-escalating and calling out state troopers! Defend your 1st Amendment Rights! ✊🏼 #firstamendment

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 16h

My kids (25, 22) and I are arguing about the definition of "craft" in the context of "craftsmanship". How do you define those words?

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 16h

This is going to age like milk.

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 1d

"Seeking control for itself ends with violence, either to the seeker or to the sought. Silence is a form of control." I read this in a book when I was first considering philosophical Buddhism; I don't remember the book. An absurd koan that has always provoked self-reflection for me.

Reposted by Greg Strange

paulpro @mariopro.bsky.social · 1d

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 1d

May I suggest you edit the license plates for people's privacy?

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not sure a person in a village counts as "building healthcare".

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not sure healthcare is anywhere near the top 100 things that are built first in civilizations.

LeithMotive @leithmotive.bsky.social · 2d

Just bizarre not only that they're dismantling the most fundamental parts of the state infrastructure necessary for civilisation, healthcare is usually the first thing built and the last destroyed, but that nobody is capable of stopping them.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 2d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

"And some not even made by them"??

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 2d

oh no

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

Likewise! Fresh air and all that.

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

Progress is incremental and atomic. But hey, look at least two of us are thinking about these things! In truth, serious eng orgs are a thing of the past after the last 10 years of lowering the entry barrier to development to the point of vibe coding. Sadly.

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I agree with that. My small shop solution I described with a pre-filled form, I forgot to mention, does subscribe them to my notif channel for tech issues and they get in-app notifs when the problem is resolved. Probs crucial details! lol

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

But if the problem is with a 3rd party, all I can do is add a more descriptive msg like 'Sorry, one of our partners is exp. tech difficulty, we are tracking this issue' and yes, possibly call that out in a status page. But that's just a more nuanced way of saying try again later. To my mind.

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I know I'm going to sound weird but I prioritize UX over almost everything else (almost) because my philosophy is the end user is the value of my work. If users use my stuff, it gets better and I get better. That generally leads to more and steadier revenue than if I nakedly chased the cash.

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

Oh! Yes, definitely agree with that. Same for opt-outs and other compliance critical things.

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I agree with that. Let me ask you though, if my app is up and the issue is say one endpoint in an API and not the entire integration, how would I meaningfully report expectations and resolution to the end user?

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I respect your talents immensely; I like to learn how folks like you handle things for any insight into better ways. 4/4

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

You mentioned a support email option. I've never found that completion of those forms is helpful to me or my devs because all the user can say is it's broken. That's why I try to give them a pre-filled form that they can just click. That helps us by giving us an actual severity. 3/4

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

That assumes the API makers themselves have meaningful status information that includes fatal/non-fatal error rates. I agree I can log it and get to the problem quickly. I thought your point was that in the case of an error just telling people to sit on their hands wasn't respectful of the user. 2/4

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I agree from a technical standpoint. But from a non-technical user perspective, referring them to more technical information is rarely helpful to them. Even if the status is 'not available; that doesn't help them know when the problem is resolved or even how serious it is. 1/4

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Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

I don't know about others but for me, generally it's an integration point with a 3rd party API of some kind. It might not give a meaningful response header or it might itself be broken somehow.

Greg Strange @iplayoddball.bsky.social · 2d

Sorry, I meant the scenario where one would normally 'Try again later', because the error is unknown and they don't know how to appropriately message the user.

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