Robert Watkins

Happy "#RBA raises prices on everything to reduce inflation" Day for those who celebrate!

Because you know they're going to hike interest rates due to increased fuel costs...

I've never understood why people disable quote boosting (or why Mastodon refused to implement it for ages), while still making posts directly addressable in a URL that you can just copy and paste into your own post.

Because that's all quote boosting is: copy-and-paste, with attribution.

Except that's not the best way to do it.

Here's a better way.

1. Test first. If the tests don't pass with your own changes, you've stuffed up. Make sure you didn't stuff up before you try to share. Besides, you've been doing this as you made the changes, right?

2. Push. If you're not up-to-date, it won't work. If it works, start a new bit of work.

3. If you're not up-to-date, pull.

4. Review what's changed and see if that impacts what you're doing. Make changes as appropriate. Then go back to step 1.

Pulling without reviewing what changed increases the risk of a conflict. Not a merge conflict, but a _conceptual_ conflict. Maybe there's a change in behaviour you weren't expecting. Maybe there's now a better way to do things. Maybe there's some duplication you should consolidate.

Not testing before pulling means that when you get a test failure you don't know if it's your stuff or because of a conceptual conflict.

And because push is fail-safe (it won't work if you're not up-to-date), there's no reason not to just do that if your tests are passing,.

@jasongorman@mastodon.cloud

RE: @jchyip@mastodon.online

WTF does anybody want to work for him? Insanely punishing working conditions, zero job security, and then there's working with him...

He partakes in "a giant sort of all-hands on coding"? What fresh hell is that?

RE: @phocks@bne.social

At the last census (2021), the number of people per occupied property was the lowest it had ever been. At the same time, the percentage of unoccupied properties was about 10% - highest since 2001.

The problem has _never_ been the number of houses.

RE: @bitsavers@oldbytes.space

The end state of this path:

* senior devs spend all their time reviewing AI code.
* senior devs get sick of this, and quit to go work someplace where they can actually work, not merely babysit a code generator
* junior devs are forced to take on senior tasks without sufficient support or mentoring.
* AI code gets approved without a proper review.

RE: @digitalsnow@social.lol

He’s not specifying a goal because when he gets bored and declares victory, it will make it easier for him to pretend he achieved the goal he always wanted.

There's a mismatch between these two headlines on The Guardian.

RE: @riley@toot.cat

A broken clock _is_ right twice a day.

But it's never useful.

The same reasoning also applies to chatbots. They can be right. They doesn't make it useful.

The right way to word this headline is that very high-balance superannuation accounts will get less of a tax discount than before.

Even at the highest end, those accounts will be taxed at lower rates than other forms of savings. And nobody with $10m in a superannuation account needs any more help saving for retirement...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/09/superannuation-higher-tax-reform-labor-greens

I would absolutely love glasses that have facial recognition. My memory for faces is horrible, and that kind of AR experience would be incredibly useful to me.

If the data never left the device.

Walking around with a camera that's streaming everything back to Meta is such a dumb idea that I can't believe so many people do it.

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/05/ico_meta_glasses/

This is your periodic reminder that the upcoming Chinese New Year is _not_ "The" Lunar New Year.

It's _a_ lunar New Year, because the traditional Chinese calendar is not the only lunar or lunisolar calendar in widespread use. Both the Islamic and Hebrew calendars are lunisolar, for example.

Furthermore, both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (more commonly known as Taiwan) officially use the Gregorian calendar. (Though most national holidays, including New Year's, are based off the traditional calendar)

So, Hong xi fa cho, and enjoy the last few days of the Year of the Snake.

Well, the boss likes the new lounge furniture.

#catsofmastodon

RE: @acf@masto.alancfrancis.com

That is indeed the catch. Wake me when I can run these agents locally.

"There will be exclusions for sporting shooters and workers, such as primary producers."

Yes. Because there haven't been any controversial incidents involving sporting shooters ever. Or primary producers, for that matter.

The LNP: pretending to address gun violence since 1915.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-09/queensland-gun-laws-premier-bondi-response/106322868

How to run #PySpark on Windows.

1. Install it using `pip`
2. Make sure you're using Java 17 or Java 21. It won't work with Java 25.
3. Do _not_ fuck around with Hadoop Winutils, no matter how many articles or pieces of LLM "advice" you get about it.

https://twasink.net/2026/02/10/how-to-run-pyspark-on-windows/

So Musk has finally conceded that he can't get a Mars mission together, let alone a city on Mars.

Now he's claiming he'll get a city built on the Moon within 5-10 years. _And_ a lunar landing in 2027.

Meanwhile, NASA has been consistently pushing back its plans for a lunar landing precisely because SpaceX can't get it up.

https://www.reuters.com/science/spacex-delays-mars-plans-focus-moon-wsj-reports-2026-02-06/

RE: @delong@mastodon.social

I am looking forward to this movie so much.

It's either going to be the best movie I'm likely to see this year, or the greatest disappointment... ;)

Remember: the founders of YouTube pivoted from building a shitty dating app towards video hosting because they couldn't (easily) find copies of Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-08/super-bowl-half-time-show-janet-jackson-justin-timberlake/106307184

I've got to say - the precedent set for this case will be impressive.

Mostly in determining if a non-credible threat of violence is considered a crime or not.

If it is, the NSW police force are going to be busy...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/feb/05/sydney-teen-accused-of-threatening-to-shoot-israeli-president-isaac-herzog-faces-court-ntwnfb

RE: @earleyedition@aus.social

People keep dissing this, but it managed to beat out "Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans Urdr-Hunt — Path of the Little Challenger", which aired on _34_ screens and only made USD$361 per screen.

So there's that.

(Yeah, I know - I'm using USD, but the site I'm looking at gives it in USD, not AU, even though it's for Australian cinema)

https://www.the-numbers.com/weekend-box-office-chart/Australia

Once again the RBA is going to try to attack rising inflation by making things more expensive.

This is a strategy that can work when the problem is excess demand – too much money chasing too few goods/services. Take away the excess money, and the prices stop going up. Huzzah!

(Spoiler: increasing tax rates works pretty well for that, also – and can be targeted to do less damage)

It's not a strategy that works if the price increases aren't being caused by too much money, _or_ if the too much money is other peoples. It also doesn't work well when the cause of inflation is rising profit margins – particularly on items that have reasonably inelastic demand (food, petrol, energy).

And they foresee a possible future where they've raised interest rates up so high that housing investment evaporates and unemployment soars. Bear in mind that they are _also_ meant to keep unemployment "low"...

Honestly, the interest rate decisions over the last two decades has been ill-thought out, mostly ineffective, and a poor substitute for lack of decisive government action.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-03/rba-decision-to-raise-interest-rates-horror-scenario-outlined/106300520