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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @mrsu 27 Jun \ on: How to live without paying taxes in western countries? AskSN
If you're in the UK, just don't work. You'll get free money from the govt tax free. They'll also give you a house, help pay your bills and much more.
As a programmer and researcher, I find LLMs are useful for:
- generating simple boilerplate code (that I already know how to create myself)
- simple error debugging
- discovery of new libraries for solving a particular problem
- "smart" google search (to give your very specific question an answer faster than trawling through forums)
- as a light personal teaching assistant, e.g. for learning the fundamentals of a new programming language
- as a proof reader for my notes to make sure my research ideas are on track
What I have found LLMs are not useful for:
- writing whole programs (vibe coding be damned)
- writing high quality code that works
- debugging more than a simple error
- giving you a better answer than the man pages (RTFM is still relevant - even if it takes more time)
- giving accurate information you can rely on.
- writing in general (they're too verbose)
I used to rely on LLMs quite heavily, but I found they usually just ended up wasting more time than they saved. Quite often they would lead me down a deep rabbit hole that went nowhere, and to get back on track, I'd end up needing to research the topic manually myself anyway.
Today, I use them sparingly. I'll only use them when I know an LLM will give me a good answer, otherwise I don't bother. I've mostly reverted back to Google search and reading man pages for my work.
They have their uses, its just about understanding how and when to use them. They aren't a replacement for traditional cognitive tasks such as researching or programming. Rather, they're more like a helpful junior assistant that require constant supervision and prompting to get any use out of them.
I've never used Snaps. However, all software has bugs and vulnerabilities. This is unavoidable unfortunately.
The point is, using an open source repository for user level software management is much safer than downloading and installing random executables from the web.
Linux fixes this.
This is one of my biggest gripes with Windows. It encourages people to download and install random software from the internet.
Its also one of the reasons I encouraged my family to switch away from Windows to using Linux Mint instead.
I got tired of wasting time reinstalling Windows on their PCs whenever it inevitability breaks due to all the crap that gets installed over time.
Now, if they want to install software, it must be available in the Mint GUI package manager. Since Keepass is Free Software, its available there too.
My Luddite parents have been running Linux Mint for a few years now. They don't get random ads popping up in their OS telling them to install proprietary crap on their system anymore. Their (old) PCs still run fast and smooth, with boot times less than 30 seconds. They dont have to wait 15 minutes every couple of days for their system to update and reboot. And in the very rare instance where something does break, because Linux is Free Software, I'm actually able to fix it.
What could possibly go wrong!? Central planners trying to control something important that they have little understanding of.
Sounds a bit woke to me. I prefer the Free Software principles:
The four essential freedoms.
A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms:
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The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
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The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).
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Access to the source code is a precondition for this. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
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The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Run your own XMPP instance on a server and get your family and friends to download the Conversations app - enable end to end encryption.
Stop giving your personal files and photos to cloud service providers like Google and Apple. Use apps like Syncthing and Photoprism for this instead.
They can't ban or break encryption if you do it your self. Its just maths.
Become digitally sovereign.
I love how they say things like:
“The new duties that have just come into force under the UK’s Online Safety Act have free speech at their core and are all about protecting people in the UK from illegal content and activity like child sexual abuse material and fraud,”
Yet in practice we really get this:
“This comment, which referred to the politician’s weight, has prompted the German government to demand that we hand over the user’s data so they can identify and potentially imprison them for up to five years,”
I'm sad for my country.
My dressing gown. I've had it for over 20 years, but it was bought second hand, so likely its much older.
Electricity. When we first moved into our apartment, electricity was about £30 per month. Now were paying £176.