Ben

Ben

@ben.casita.zone

1x software engineer

74 followers211 following245 posts

Ben reposted

Sridhar Ramesh
@radishharmers.bsky.social

I'd feel maybe not 10x better if OpenAI were truly an open altruistic organization operating for the benefit of humanity rather than concentrating wealth and power ever more into a handful of lucky rich. But at least sqrt(10)x better.

Ben
@ben.casita.zone

We're updating our terms and conditions mindset.

conputer dipshit@davidcrespo.bsky.social

I guess the real problem here is that you can only opt out by leaving. that's insane. this system should be a box with a switch and lights on it and it should default to off and the doctor should ask you if they can flip the switch

Ben
@ben.casita.zone

I wonder if a coop model like @waldo.net has talked about before could work for something like this.

Ryan Moulton@moultano.bsky.social

During our struggle with this I understood Richard Stallman better. My frustration with i-Ready was identical to his frustration with the campus printer that spawned the whole open source movement. Public schools should use open source software.

Ben
@ben.casita.zone

NJ Transit released a new GTFS static data source that as far as I can tell is just completely incompatible with their GTFS-RT feed. There is no documentation or upgrade path or recommended replacement, it just suddenly doesn’t work! And the old static file schedule ended on May 1. It’s a mess.

Ben
@ben.casita.zone

You can get the LLM to generate a Mermaid spec! You can even use something like the Playwright MCP to find and fix its own mistakes.

dan@danabra.mov

ppl should stop using ai-generated diagrams. you know i’m not anti-ai but they’re just not good at this yet! the problem is that diagrams have a very specific purpose: they’re meant to compress understanding into few key bits. ai vomits out poor approximations that aren’t conceptually compressed

Ben
@ben.casita.zone

We used to be a proper country.

Discontinued FoOoOods! 👻🎃@discontinuedfoods.bsky.social

Nabisco Minizza (1986-1987): Snack crackers made to look and taste like little pizzas. Each crispy, buttery "crust" was covered in tomato powder, oregano, basil, and real cheese. Debuted in October 1986, and sold primarily in Arizona, Texas, and Indiana. They were discontinued by summer of 1987

Ben reposted

Davor Mondom
@dmondom.bsky.social

Replying to @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

All across this great nation dads are standing at the window with their hands on their hips going “it’s coming down real fast”

Ben reposted

Dave DiCello
@davedicello.bsky.social

This composition had eluded me for nearly a decade, but yesterday I was finally able to capture it. A train rolled through just as the Duquesne Incline was crossing over the tracks in #Pittsburgh, creating a picture perfect winter scene. It was worth the hours and hours I've waited over the years.

Ben reposted

Greg Brown
@gregbrown.bsky.social

Plenty of options to get there, especially if he books now.

The New York Times@nytimes.com

Breaking News: An effort to get Eric Adams to drop out of the New York City mayor's race is said to involve a plan for President Trump to nominate him as ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

nyti.msTalks Between Adams and Trump Adviser Center on Saudi AmbassadorshipThe discussions are said to be part of an effort to get Mayor Eric Adams to end his mayoral campaign in New York City, clearing a path for Andrew Cuomo.

Ben reposted

jamelle
@jamellebouie.net

Replying to @jamellebouie.net

they sincerely believe in freedom and liberty, but it is fundamentally the freedom of the master to rule over others for their own benefit

Ben reposted

ProPublica
@propublica.org

NEW: NOAA scientists are cleaning office bathrooms and reconsidering critical experiments after the Commerce Department failed to renew contracts for hazardous waste disposal, janitorial services, IT and building maintenance. By @lisalsong.bsky.social

propub.liNOAA Scientists Are Cleaning Bathrooms and Reconsidering Lab Experiments After Contracts for Basic Services ExpireA Seattle lab has lost janitorial services, hazardous waste support, IT and building maintenance as it waits for the Commerce Department secretary to personally approve all contracts over $100,000.

Ben reposted

David_j_roth
@davidjroth.bsky.social

One of the defining feelings in American life, for decades now, is elites doing plainly criminal shit and nothing at all happening as a result. It is deranging in a way that virtually nothing else is. Media fixates on perceived street lawlessness but shit like this matters much more in my opinion.

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social

Dereliction of responsibility by the court. It is so flagrantly illegal. www.huffpost.com/entry/us-wis...

huffpost.comWisconsin Appeals Court Won't Stop Musk's $1 Million Payments To Voters After AG SuesA Wisconsin appellate court has denied the state Democratic attorney general’s request to stop billionaire Elon Musk from handing over $1 million checks to two voters at a rally planned for Sunday, ju...
Ben
@ben.casita.zone

Huge loss of unique in-house expertise and capacity.

Ryan Mac 🙃@rmac.bsky.social

18F, a digital services unit inside the General Services Administration, has been completely laid off, according to an email I’ve seen. The email says that 18F was deemed “non-critical” and the decision was made with the “explicit” direction of the administration and GSA leadership.

Ben reposted

Jaz
@jaz.sh

I wrote up a post about how we hugely improved the write performance for Bluesky's timelines/following feed. If you want to learn more about how we did it, check it out. Some nuggets in there about embracing imperfection in some parts of a system to scale better. jazco.dev/2025/02/19/i...

jazco.devWhen Imperfect Systems are Good, Actually: Bluesky’s Lossy TimelinesBy examining the limits of reasonable user behavior and embracing imperfection for users who go beyond it, we can continue to provide service that meets the expectations of users without sacrificing s...