Carlos Bueno
@bueno.bsky.social
I write computer science fiction for kids: https://nostarch.com/laurenipsum
You would have to go to outer space to measure the distance between my politics and many people I've worked with. It didn't use to matter. But now with tech companies shedding integer percents of their staffs I think it's going to matter very much. Where you stand will control where you sit.
January 15, 2025 at 3:48 AM
You would have to go to outer space to measure the distance between my politics and many people I've worked with. It didn't use to matter. But now with tech companies shedding integer percents of their staffs I think it's going to matter very much. Where you stand will control where you sit.
My Spanish class textbook comes with... an audio CD. Thankfully in my Giant Tub of Technology Past I've still got a CD/DVD player and adapter cable. I can't remember the last time I ripped a CD. Before 2010, almost certainly.
January 9, 2025 at 9:43 PM
My Spanish class textbook comes with... an audio CD. Thankfully in my Giant Tub of Technology Past I've still got a CD/DVD player and adapter cable. I can't remember the last time I ripped a CD. Before 2010, almost certainly.
Five years ago we made a choice to exit a system that was actively trying to bankrupt and then kill us when we became no longer profitable. Visiting fam in US for the holidays, and comparing notes, only reinforced our decision to uproot and start over.
January 2, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Five years ago we made a choice to exit a system that was actively trying to bankrupt and then kill us when we became no longer profitable. Visiting fam in US for the holidays, and comparing notes, only reinforced our decision to uproot and start over.
local humor: I needed to show proof of residency in Mexico City. I didn't have a gas bill handy so instead I showed them my bus pass with worn edges, and a text from Telcel that I was out of data.
December 13, 2024 at 4:49 PM
local humor: I needed to show proof of residency in Mexico City. I didn't have a gas bill handy so instead I showed them my bus pass with worn edges, and a text from Telcel that I was out of data.
The hard part isn't being your own boss. It's being your own employee.
June 28, 2024 at 4:41 PM
The hard part isn't being your own boss. It's being your own employee.
Random thought about the "blood tax", ie the tradition in Europe where the aristocracy paid low or no taxes but were expected to lead regiments in battle. It was a thing well into the 20th century. Fair or not, that means the country's leadership all had undiagnosed PTSD. Which explains a lot.
June 18, 2024 at 4:05 PM
Random thought about the "blood tax", ie the tradition in Europe where the aristocracy paid low or no taxes but were expected to lead regiments in battle. It was a thing well into the 20th century. Fair or not, that means the country's leadership all had undiagnosed PTSD. Which explains a lot.
Finally I've graduated to "wait you're the guy who" and while it's kinda fun it's not what I expected.
December 4, 2023 at 6:16 PM
Finally I've graduated to "wait you're the guy who" and while it's kinda fun it's not what I expected.
You know what would be nice? If great power also came with an instruction manual.
December 2, 2023 at 1:53 AM
You know what would be nice? If great power also came with an instruction manual.
The answer to "why don't Americans riot?" isn't that they are weak, apathetic, etc. It's because the powers that be carefully studied the powers that were. That's why police are paid very well and protected. That's why the media were merged so all "local" stations spout the same message.
November 29, 2023 at 11:20 PM
The answer to "why don't Americans riot?" isn't that they are weak, apathetic, etc. It's because the powers that be carefully studied the powers that were. That's why police are paid very well and protected. That's why the media were merged so all "local" stations spout the same message.
"Please write the most unbelievable plottwisty script about the implosion of a large AI startup, in the style of Kara Swisher".
November 20, 2023 at 2:28 PM
"Please write the most unbelievable plottwisty script about the implosion of a large AI startup, in the style of Kara Swisher".
Prediction: the office of US Vice President will devolve into a reserved woman's slot for both parties. A man running against an incumbent woman is bad optics, and it's a bone thrown to women voters without actually giving them power. Veep will be essentially an elected First Lady.
October 29, 2023 at 5:09 PM
Prediction: the office of US Vice President will devolve into a reserved woman's slot for both parties. A man running against an incumbent woman is bad optics, and it's a bone thrown to women voters without actually giving them power. Veep will be essentially an elected First Lady.
I always imagine these being played duo like that pottery scene in Ghost.
It's only $8,000, I'm sure I can scrape that up out of lost change in the couch cushions
October 19, 2023 at 8:09 PM
I always imagine these being played duo like that pottery scene in Ghost.
Hmm. The divide between people who count the change and those who don't is huge, but not impossible.
Folks who have mostly operated in high trust environments have a hard time understanding the internal logic of folks who’ve generally only experienced low trust environments and vice versa. This leads to wrong mental models and overall less trust as a whole community. How to address this 🤔
August 4, 2023 at 12:54 AM
Hmm. The divide between people who count the change and those who don't is huge, but not impossible.
Feeling that ephemeral bubbly state where I know a book is asking to be written. Next up the feverish plotting phase, the kinda fun tweaking and research, the inevitable wtf reorg/rewrite, the extremely tedious polish, the timorous launch, then the five years' waiting to know if people give a shit.
June 27, 2023 at 2:00 AM
Feeling that ephemeral bubbly state where I know a book is asking to be written. Next up the feverish plotting phase, the kinda fun tweaking and research, the inevitable wtf reorg/rewrite, the extremely tedious polish, the timorous launch, then the five years' waiting to know if people give a shit.
"...I would think by the year 2020 it would be fairly universal practice for the expert in the field of application to do the actual program preparation rather than have experts in computers (and ignorant of the field of application) do the progam preparation."
-Richard Hamming, 1990-ish
-Richard Hamming, 1990-ish
June 6, 2023 at 1:10 PM
"...I would think by the year 2020 it would be fairly universal practice for the expert in the field of application to do the actual program preparation rather than have experts in computers (and ignorant of the field of application) do the progam preparation."
-Richard Hamming, 1990-ish
-Richard Hamming, 1990-ish
I've been living my life all wrong: if you pierce the fat end of an egg with a pin, just half a cm in, and hardboil it, the shell comes off like a prom dress. Piercing the caul (layer between the shell and white bit) allows hot water in to separate it from the white bit. Try it!
May 17, 2023 at 12:27 AM
I've been living my life all wrong: if you pierce the fat end of an egg with a pin, just half a cm in, and hardboil it, the shell comes off like a prom dress. Piercing the caul (layer between the shell and white bit) allows hot water in to separate it from the white bit. Try it!
@berduck.deepfates.com why am I being followed by a cutel33t-speaking rubber duck? I feel your presence over my shoulder and smell a Proustian whiff of vinyl and soap.
May 12, 2023 at 2:12 AM
@berduck.deepfates.com why am I being followed by a cutel33t-speaking rubber duck? I feel your presence over my shoulder and smell a Proustian whiff of vinyl and soap.
If there's one thing I see again and again in "data science", it's a lack of imagination or unwillingness to fuck around & find out. Don't be afraid of treating your input data as a goopy mass of numbers that can be recursively subdivided according to your will. Don't let the data push you around.
May 5, 2023 at 10:20 PM
If there's one thing I see again and again in "data science", it's a lack of imagination or unwillingness to fuck around & find out. Don't be afraid of treating your input data as a goopy mass of numbers that can be recursively subdivided according to your will. Don't let the data push you around.
Cultural alienation can sneak up on you. I tried to solve a low stakes choice with my son by flipping a coin. But the coins here aren't exactly heads vs tails, more like "weird bird" vs "weird bird fighting weird snake".
May 1, 2023 at 4:32 AM
Cultural alienation can sneak up on you. I tried to solve a low stakes choice with my son by flipping a coin. But the coins here aren't exactly heads vs tails, more like "weird bird" vs "weird bird fighting weird snake".
The future is here, just unevenly federated.
Seems I’m here. Thanks to the two friends who enabled my invitation! Not much of a first, er, whatever we call them here, but busy times. See ya.
May 1, 2023 at 4:21 AM
The future is here, just unevenly federated.
The sight of @scalzi.bsky.social going giddy about a new social platform is like watching Nimoy doing the Carleton dance.
May 1, 2023 at 2:40 AM
The sight of @scalzi.bsky.social going giddy about a new social platform is like watching Nimoy doing the Carleton dance.
Authors, get in here. One of the richest zip codes in the states.
May 1, 2023 at 1:46 AM
Authors, get in here. One of the richest zip codes in the states.
Sometimes I wish there was a tongue-in-cheek emoji but then I remember that it would be mistaken for a miming-a-blowjob emoji.
April 22, 2023 at 11:59 AM
Sometimes I wish there was a tongue-in-cheek emoji but then I remember that it would be mistaken for a miming-a-blowjob emoji.
I can't believe that no one has made the connection between the tech layoffs and the new section 174 tax law. TLDR dev salaries are no longer deductible expenses. They are now treated as an investment to be amortized over 5 years. Big tech jettisoned 000's of people in part to save on taxes.
April 22, 2023 at 11:53 AM
I can't believe that no one has made the connection between the tech layoffs and the new section 174 tax law. TLDR dev salaries are no longer deductible expenses. They are now treated as an investment to be amortized over 5 years. Big tech jettisoned 000's of people in part to save on taxes.
Mode is the analytics tool I see most often at client sites. Which I guess makes it the most perfectly named tool.
April 21, 2023 at 4:16 PM
Mode is the analytics tool I see most often at client sites. Which I guess makes it the most perfectly named tool.