Perhaps. Just—perhaps… investing everything you own into cartoon drawings of monkeys and whatnot is not the soundest financial decision one could make. Especially when said monkeys are stored on a virtual drive that has no recourse for recovery once you fall victim to a run-of-the-mill phishing scam. Sure, my assets may be vulnerable to the collapse of society, but at least up until that point, they're guaranteed by the financial institution that is using that cash for its own profits. Similarl…

Smart cats

Decades ago, the more optimistic futurists probably thought that we'd eventually be living on space settlements in a scarcity-free utopia where robots do all the work for us and no one wants for anything. Few predicted that the future would look more like accepting “terms and conditions” before ordering a cheeseburger at the drive-thru, or internet-connected “ smart ” license plates that require a paid subscription in order to function properly. Yup, the future is now, and it's dumber than ever…

There's a new chatbot in town and it's unhinged.

Ring ring

Connecting objects to the internet just leads to boring dystopia

As technology progresses over the years, there always seems to be a number of people stomping their feet in protest. When I was younger, I would always dismiss these people as Luddites - until Apple took away our precious headphone jack back in 2017. For about two or three years, playing music from an iPhone got a bit more complicated. IPhone users were forced to buy dongles, and impromptu DJ sessions at friends' houses or at bars involved a frantic search for these adaptors. It was frustrating…

Being a relatively new programmer is like living in two completely different worlds. Non-programmers think you are the absolute dog's meow. They act like you cured cancer, achieved world peace, and are worth 20 billion dollars. That kind of validation for choosing a well-paying career path can feel good, but it wears off soon enough when you're around senior programmers . You feel like the most useless ant at the picnic basket when you're with guys who've been doing it for years. In that room,…

What is it about remote working that some companies hate so much? If your employees can work from home just as well as they can from the office, why not let them? This company is about to have a lesson in valuing its' employees autonomy, as the poster shared to r/Sysadmin. If you have a job that you can do entirely from your laptop , it's easy to work remotely. Basically all employees love it — you can easily get work done from the comfort of your own home. There are no coworkers to distract yo…

The ability to listen and follow directions is often important when it comes to your performance in the workplace. The last thing an employer wants is someone who is going to go rogue and take matters and process into their own hands. Of course, if your job is to be creative and think of new ideas, you'll usually be encouraged to do so, but I'm willing to bet there are still processes and guidelines to follow. The problem is that process is never ironclad unless you're building something like a…

The insane ways that tech companies treat their employees never cease to amaze me. This past Friday, workers at Google in NYC found out whether they were getting laid off with a borderline dystopian method. Workers lined up early to test their employee badges. If they scanned it and the light turned green, they didn't lose their job. If the light turned red, they were laid off. Of course, Google didn't intend to act like an evil government in a young adult novel. They sent emails the night befo…

One of the coolest things about being a programmer is the lack of formality. People laughed at Mark Zuckerberg in the 2000s for enabling a culture where everyone wore a t-shirt and sweatpants to work. These days, it's not even a second thought that tech workers are not dressing up in a suit and tie. As somebody who works in an artsy-fartsy industry, I openly enable coders and programmers wearing their pajamas to work. We've got to stick together in this world and fight against the rules and reg…

Too much information or nah?

It seems like artificial intelligence is coming to replace everything these days. So many news sources are reporting on AI being able to solve complex coding problems or write whole essays. Allegedly it can create art too, but all of the robot art I've seen has like seven weird phantom knuckles, so I'm not entirely buying it's art proficient. Luckily, we're not at the point where AI can really replace us yet. It's advanced, but it's not that advanced yet. AlphaCode, a new artificial intelligenc…

Bad days are unavoidable…but if you are having a bad day, be sure to share it online so we can all have a good laugh at the misfortune! Below are 30 people who shared their bad days - everything from an accidentally melted laptop screen to some ears of corn that were cremated instead of cooked on the grill. Up next, you'll want to check out this long read about the Final Boss Karen , the ultimate Karen, who believes she's the lone ruler of an apartment complex (and she's completely wrong about…

The internet grows so rapidly that sometimes we take for granted how recently it was that its' tendrils just didn't reach some people. People just used to not be online. And maybe some still are, “Castaway” style, avoiding the screens that seem inevitable. These days, it's all but impossible not to be on the inter webs. Most people in the 2020s have some kind of social media, even if it's just a Facebook account. However, the internet is slowly seeping into every aspect of life, like with new f…