Great Moments in Computer Programming

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Well, we got something, but it was only 12 bucks.

Is this -- did they hypnotize you? I am genuinely asking. You have to understand how grateful I am that you are posting on the BBS. But I think that Costco got you.

Or am I meant, in true Costco style, to get a pack of several $12 checks?

[Da King]

No, I am telling you that a few months before your referral, you (very likely) got some mail from Costco with a rebate certificate in it. You take that certificate to Costco, and they would have handed you to $108 cold hard cash. You likely thought it was junk mail and tossed it.

Because your membership cost you $120, they wanted to make sure you got your money's worth out of it, so they cut you a check for an additional $12, so that you received $120 total (the cost of your membership).

[objectinspace]

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

What side ya on there, buddy? You picking sides?

[objectinspace]

I'm sorry, that was unfair--the program did what it was supposed to, the weak links in this chain were all the humans.

Moving on.

Google Podcasts is saying goodbye
After April 2, 2024, you will no longer be able to listen to podcasts in Google Podcasts. Transfer your subscriptions to YouTube Music or export them for the service of your choice.

This is in a banner that shows up when you launch the app or go to the website. It is impossible to miss.
It is now April 4th, and literally nothing has changed! I can still launch my podcasts the same way I have every day for the past six or so years: I say "hey google, play my podcasts." And the podcasts show up in the main Google app. podcasts.google.com works fine. The feeds are still updating. Everything works.
Which I'm, actually pretty happy about, but really, they can't even kill the product correctly!

[objectinspace]

Ack, I spoke too soon! Now Google redirects to youtube music. Though... the site still works? Whatever. Google bad, google dumb, etc.

[objectinspace]

I hate podcasts on youtube music! For one thing, the maximum speed is 2X. Far too slow! To be clear, listening to podcasts is the least important part of my day. I need to finish them as quickly as possible and then get on with more important things. Preferably I will do the more important thing at the same time, like eat lunch. 3X minimum for podcasts. Time is money, people!

I recognize that I am weird and that most people do not listen to podcasts at triple speed. But seriously, this transition to youtube is not at all seamless. I have no idea what order or logic the podcasts appear in my list of shows, but it certainly isn't newest first. To get that you go into youtube's autogenerated playlist of new episodes. This has two major drawbacks. First, it does not auto-refresh. I need to leave the playlist and then come back to see new episodes. This wastes my time for no reason. More importantly, though, is that it is presented with the most recent episodes first. This makes sense visually I guess because it puts the most recent episodes at the top. It also means that everything plays in reverse chronological order! Only demons, people who work at the DMV and other inhuman monsters would choose to listen to things this way. Youtube's new podcast offering is clearly designed for aliens and thus, I shall now need to waste my time searching for a podcast replacement. I would use Google for this, only:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/g ... are-scams/

gmail is the only thing they have left to ruin.

[Da King]

What? Google discontinued something that people use? Say it aint so. Shocking. <thud>

[objectinspace]

I fortunately did not invest in Sonos, so I am safe from this, but a bunch of my friends have had their hundreds/thousands of dollars worth of speakers turned into paperweights after Sonos decided to update its app to some React Native thing.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152 ... -statement

The two quick things I want to call out here are that the new app has *less features* than the old one, and the priceless quote from the spokesperson explaining that you have to take steps back to take steps forward.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

The product guy there is either incompetent or a coward. What a mess, to take something that was working and put out that unfinished slop.

You "go backwards to go forward" in dev and stage, idiot.

[Da King]

Fortunately, I have yet to update the software in any of my Sonos'.

Of course, the only one I use is really nothing more than a glorified sound bar at this point....

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Apple made some kind of stupid ad "crushing" things. Good lord.

[Roody_Yogurt]

Apple, we only need one Crusher!!!

[Flack]

Earlier this week we had multiple waves of thunderstorms with all kinds of power flickers and the next day, the Roku device I have out in the workshop stopped working. I first noticed the CNN app wasn't working and quickly discovered that no streaming channels worked. No Pluto, no Tubi, no nothing. Of course step one was to reboot every part of my network, which considering I was out in the workshop that meant rebooting the Roku, the TV, the wireless router out there, the wired router out there, the wired router in the house, at least one server, and my cable modem. Nothing fixed the problem.

The one weird thing I noticed was that the Roku could connect with my local Plex server. So, it wasn't DEAD dead, but it would not connect to the internet. I searched their technical support forum and their recommendation was to reboot everything, which I had already done. I contacted their chat thing and... same thing.

So, I ordered a new one -- $25ish on Amazon. I mentioned the problem on Twitter and someone said, "oh yeah, Roku had an outage yesterday."

I... actually hadn't considered that. Sure enough, after setting everything up again (I had done a factory reset on the device), it works fine. Funny their tech support didn't mention that.

So, now I have two working Roku devices, and lost a few hours of my life.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

My sister in law uses our Amazon account. She had $100 of Amazon Gift Card in the account.

Amazon *defaults* to using the gift card balance. I don't want that. I want it to default to a credit card. It is infuriating to have to go change this every single time. And if you mess up, well, I have to go buy a virtual gift card to restock it.

INFURIATING. What we see when it comes to people screwing things up in payments is unreal.

[Da King]

Amazon *defaults* to using the gift card balance. I don't want that.

I concur. Whenever I have to send stuff to Shawn at school from Amazon, it tries to use my personal gift card balance. I aint spending my gift cards on that kid!!

[grandex]

A change from Wordpress 2.7 to 2.8 had the function "is_site_admin()" removed and replaced with one called "is_admin()".

The result of this change is that any plugin a user has will still, obviously, look for the first function, and not allow an admin to login if it can't find it.

The update from WordPress 2.7 to 2.8, which replaced `is_site_admin()` with `is_admin()`, has caused quite a stir. While the intent was likely to streamline admin functions, it inadvertently broke compatibility with plugins relying on the old function. This oversight means admins are locked out unless they update or patch their plugins. It's a classic case of "fix one thing, break another," highlighting the delicate balance of software updates.

[Flack]

"Tell people you are AI without telling people you are AI."

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I think I am OK if we have a robot on the BBS.

We don't want to be like Dr. Pulanski and Lt. Commander Data. We want to be more like Tasha Yar, I think.

[Casual Observer]

I think I am OK if we have a robot on the BBS.

We don't want to be like Dr. Pulanski and Lt. Commander Data. We want to be more like Tasha Yar, I think.

Yeah, we all wanted more Denise Crosby. Too bad they found out about her Playboy issue after they hired her and had a season or so.
**NSFW**
https://thumb-p2.xhcdn.com/a/KWNxmb8EY4 ... 2_1000.jpg