Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evolving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Prayer request: I have an unspoken prayer request. I don’t even know the details, a close family member has gone to the ER. I have my suspicions as it’s a younger female. know this sounds strange! I know many here believe in prayer and that’s why I’m asking. I’m praying as well, for God’s will be done as well as him working through the medical staff. Thank you.
I now have 47 shares of DJT, first ones I bought were at $17.76, I bought 10 more while on sale earlier this week which brought my average price paid to $17.06.
I guess once I exercise my warrants it'll change that.
Hurricane Helene has put a hurting on North Carolina from the coast to the mountains. Asheville & Boone has had it the worst in my opinion. They both have major flooding. Several roads are washed out and closed highways including 1-40 on the NC TN border. At this moment you can’t get in or out of Asheville. I’m aware of one tornado with damage in eastern NC.
Any updates on your area? This storm has been from Key West up the east coast and still going north.
Sounds like many people need our prayers today.
This account has many photos and videos on their facebook page.
https://www.ncwxauthority.com
Woke up today and saw that 9 missiles have made it across the border for 3 teams trying to take out trump force one.... if that doesnt tell u the 3 letters are in with the cartels idk what will. People seem to be missing the fact that most likely tunnels or DUMBS are being used
One of the stock people I listen to just said a major company (UAV I think) just sold 11 million shares of DJT and only kept 100 shares. Are they planning another assassination attempt? Seems to follow the pattern. I am praying for the safety of President Trump and his family. Hope I'm wrong.
Marco Polo intimidation story regarding the Laptop from hell. More proof regarding Biden being a 3rd World Dictator.
https://www.georgenews.org/p/a-cold-front-in-democracy
Good bye Daniel Ricciardo. Really enjoyed your awesome character in F1. Hope you have a fabulous post F1 career..
Need Help: Has anyone used Med First to order any meds? I just tried to order something from them but my cc was declined saying it was to a company named Macgenius.com. Med First claims it is their payment gateway to get around shipping overseas due to covid lockdowns. I'm just not sure if this is Big Pharma messing with this company because they are selling me IVM or if this is a fake company taking advantage of me. Any help would be appreciated. Just trying to be prepared. Thanks.
maybe its good yr cc declined
use https://www.alldaychemist.com/
many here, including myself, have bought from this site before. Don't buy too many at a time, small packages mean easier custom clear
I tried them this morning. I don't have btc and will need to set up an account at the bank for a e-check (don't want to use my regular account). The website says they accept credit cards but when I called, they said they don't.
I was actually trying to purchase the Dr. Lodi's parasite cleanse as well as a few extras that ADC doesn't carry. Thank you for your reply and recommendation though.
I meant FirstMedinc.com, not Med First
News about 100k Trump watches, followed by Zelenski meeting him at Trump Tower. Something tells me Trump is telling us to watch his meeting with Zelenski.
Her mug shot says ________.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13898831/arizona-state-university-student-mara-daffron-stabbed-classmate-kaci-sloan.html
On a positive note, Team USA smoked the International Team at the President's Cup in Golf, yesterday. Edit: The International Team won all 5 games today. They are now tied after 2 days.
Not worth a post, but I got an email about a Lady Liberty necklace released on the Melania Trump shop. I looked it and said..hmm I bet there is a 17 somewhere
https://files.catbox.moe/ni5ljo.jpg
Sure enough, flip the necklace around, count the channels from the wing engraving, 17!
Can anyone enlighten me on the Jesuit? Reading "the secret government" and all these different names are getting jumbled in my brain. Jesuit is the overall group originating from ancient Babylon?
I have seen that the Knights Templar rebranded themselves into the society of Jesus, the ones that were still alive after being culled that is. But as I am not a historian.....
Sad news in the acting World. Maggie Smith has passed away. She was 89.
Might be another died suddenly.
She lived life pretty hard. That's what made her even more interesting as an Actress. Heaven is a more interesting place today.
Or Hell. Not sure if God would have wanted her or anybody else to play shows that celebrate witchcraft.
Well that was first time I have been in the eye of a storm. Praying for the safety of everyone effected and of course the linemen working hard to restore power.
Dear Diary: Day 3 of Borax...
Woke up an hour early--angrily--to the realization that the public school I pay nearly $2k a year to fund does not allow me to attend any classes. What sort of "public school" is this?
Shouldn't we all be able to attend "the public school" for a class each day--of our choosing?
My back (usually stiff) feels more supple. Daily stools arrive early and are firm.
Public policy idea occurs to me: supplement the water supply with Borax.
I ask ChatGPT how to study Borax and it suggests creating a solubility curve, measuring pH at various concentrations, and analyzing Borax crystal formation.
That's Fab ...
I'm glad ...
There's lemon freshened borax in you...
🤪
PRAISE THE LORD FOR THE RAIN! Even if it is what is coming from Hurricane Helene.
He gives beauty for ashes.
Eric Adams Declares New York A Sanctuary City For Mayors Facing Federal Criminal Charges
https://babylonbee.com/news/eric-adams-declares-new-york-a-sanctuary-city-for-mayors-facing-federal-criminal-charges
The Sacred Treasure of a (Real) Christian Man
https://newswithviews.com/the-sacred-treasure-of-a-real-christian-man/
The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom
https://jameskullander.substack.com/p/the-quest-for-community-a-study-in
Johnny Cash Becomes First Musician to Receive Statue in US Capitol...A bronze statue of the late singer was unveiled in Emancipation Hall in the US Capitol.
https://archive.ph/a8Bz4
Hunting as Conservation....Hunting encourages and forms a crucial part of a way of life that is inimical to the overreaching, socialist, digital dictatorships most modern governments seem to be becoming.
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/hunting-as-conservation
High School Reunions and Lost Liberties...It was a quick half century
https://donaldjeffries.substack.com/p/high-school-reunions-and-lost-liberties
The Ever-Present But Anti-Transcendent Screen...Our screen-based culture is flat and temporal, very immanent, very now, in some sense very ephemeral. None of those characteristics is conducive to openness to transcendence.
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/the-ever-present-but-anti-transcendent-screen
Gaming, Goats & General Intelligence with Frederic Besse...Google DeepMind
https://youtu.be/64pndvbbokA?si=MiSHRXT2wfVrlkUG
CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER -- "THE RED CIRCLE" (6-23-77)...David Von Pein's Old-Time Radio Channel
https://youtu.be/aA-KvBbGsOA?si=vLqBMpSslDDsgdOF
Thursday Poem...Molly Scott - Someone, Anonymous
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/09/thursday-poem-435.html
CAT 4 about to hit.
Am celebrating peace today.
It is glorious.
i hate everything in the app store so much. 96% of it just caters to stupid people. this is why people hate capitalism.
coding is such an infinite well of possibilities. and what do we find... 25000 knock-off microtransaction idle farming games. industry hyperspecific apps that charge monthly just for the right to use them.
I waste so much time looking for software solutions... i gotta learn to code. to save this godforsaken industry from crumbling.
maybe things will get better when the deep-state is dethroned. googles algorithms hide the best apps underneath all the garbage.
anyways. i imagine there are a few coders here. any thoughts on what entering the field in 2024 is like?
I can't remember if it was Sweeney or Newell or someone else, but it was once posited that rather than a monolithic app store, there should be app stores curated by whomever wanted to curate one, with apps specific to demographic need.
For example: construction worker app store, musician app store, teacher app store, child app store, etc.
Instead of a monolith curating all content--a hopeless task in which it is inevitable the monolith will cater to the most broadly profitable content--create a mechanism for curators to provide value and utility.
It's no coincidence that when you open any major app store it's packed with low IQ games designed to appeal to the same demographics that buy lottery tickets and wear surgical masks while driving.
Coding isn't the end, it's the means. My spouse and I both clear 6 figures each as well as our colleagues, in totally different IT fields, not because of the programming languages we know, but because of our abilities to put everything in context, translate the issues and solutions to others, put them into action, and NOT use AI for security, copyright, and other reasons. AI doesn't really exist, it's machine learning, and sorry but it still really sucks for anything complex.
Python isn't just for "old companies" because it's versatile and robust across different tech. Java is declining but .NET is prolific. Your ability to learn (aka IQ) is a better determinant of your success than what languages you know, although you still have to get through a terrible HR screening first, so pump up your resume. Get certified in a variety of stuff, join a consulting group and get contract work under your belt before going for a full time job for best pay. Use them to get experience in a spread of industries.
In the end, your ability to solve INTERFACES - between tech, systems, and people- will get you farther than creating content or games. Data science is another big space that machine learning has failed utterly in, because existing data isn't clean and machines have no clue about context. For example, big business needs to know where the slowdowns in their manufacturing lines occur and why, or which suppliers are not delivering good quality or on time, real questions. But bad data impedes the reporting, and machines can't figure things out. Sometimes it really takes an actual visit to a place, observing, talking with the people, to work out what to do, but that's not coding, it's learning and applying to the code.
Any advice for me on what I can do to get my foot in the door? In case you didn't catch my username, I'm deaf and I graduated with a Bachelor's degree in I.T. and I have a couple of certifications that I taught myself, without going to school/boot camp to earn them. I also worked for a big box retail store, servicing computers and I have worked with a company on an internship (CO-OP was actually the name of the program). At the big box retail store, I got best employee of the year 5 years in a row due to my ability to get computers out of the store quickly enough and most of them didn't come back for further repair.
15 years later, no one wants to hire me, despite them telling me I'm a perfect fit for the job. I've noticed that they said that before they found out that I'm deaf.
Soon after finding out I'm deaf, "Whoops! My supervisor went ahead and hired someone else! We will keep your resume on file for 6 months. After that, feel free to apply with us again!" and not a word from them since.
Applied to over 1,500 jobs since then, both in two different states, one state with a top 3 cities (where I'm from) and one in a red state (where I'm currently living now) and no luck.
I've revised my resume so many times but all of them looked great as I've had some former HR employees and job coaches check them out for me. They said there's nothing wrong with my resume and it's very attractive, enough for it to be noticed by HRs.
I'm in my 40's now and it's very discouraging that I'm unemployed and unable to work with computers, which was (and still is) my dream job since I was 8 years old when I fiddled around on my Amiga computer.
To add, I had the worst luck of going to college, where they said they will teach us 10% (the essential stuff we need to know for entry level) then once we're hired, the company will teach us the 90%. Then 9/11 happened and everything was in chaos, which delayed my job search for some time until everything was "normal" so I can apply.
I am sorry to hear you are having so much difficulty finding IT work. I wanted to say, I think it's the market, not you. What the crooked media reports vs the reality on the ground for IT jobseekers are two different things, and have been for a very, very long time (see Norm Matloff's work).
I have heard anecdotally that the IT market is very bad in the U.S. at the moment. In Ireland, I met an IT guy with an M.Sc. two years ago who was doing blue-collar work. We chatted for a while, and he told me there were "no IT jobs" in Ireland, even for experienced people. His last words to me before we parted were, "Recession is coming."
Coding farms and AI make coding a job not worth the time. Crunch is real and you will work harder than any retail employee and make less than a lot of them
Now if you are doing it for free and fun? Yeah, this is the time. Ai can help clean your newbie code. Whether it is gaming or productivity apps, there are so many libraries and engines with tons of already prewritten runtimes that if you learn to code, you can do more than one person really should
It is also easier to learn. When I tried it, literally had to go basic > c > C+ Teachers would still cover a lot of "basic" coding but a year later all you could do was function calls. The online portals for learning like udemy are infinitely better than any 90s/2000s college class
But I am a philosophical/logical autist, not a math autist , so I really could not stand the inherent clunk of C. I took up Javascript and flash/shockwave but those are pretty useless now. Old languages like perl or python still have a niche where some old company too lazy to switch their platforms will pay you $$$$ cause you are 1 of 100000000 who still know the languages
You also mentioned apps. Android and Apple sdks are even easier to learn. Start out making a flappy bird clone or something like a flashlight toggle, take online courses, watch youtube videos, etc. I have seen people with zero coding background make pretty high level stuff like third party streamers and IR controls, etc with enough diligence
So, say I've got a killer app, and verified it's not already out there. No coding experience since managing relational databases with SQL back in 2000, and decent GUI background from then. Should I just head to udemy to learn app-making? Or would you start somewhere else?
On udemy you want two things
Never pay full price because there are always sales
And two, you want to focus on the zero to mastery courses
I would also look at this for general education
https://pll.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science
Thanks!
and just like that, i have a new favourite GAWtist. thanks!