A silly idea to prove a point? The European Railway Ticketing Championship

https://jonworth.eu/a-silly-idea-to-prove-a-point-the-european-railway-ticketing-championship/

Today, thanks to a former PhD student, I learned that LLMs are terrible at generating Whitespace code: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2603.09678

Also today, I was invited (and I am accepting) to join a group on redesigning our undergraduate curriculum, which includes discussions on our choice of first programming language.

I am not saying that these things are related. I just happen to be mentioning them both at once because I saw them both today. You get a lot of characters in one toot after all.

What?

I first learned how to program in 1984 at 14. The tech press said I'd be obsolete by 25, due to age.

About 1990 tech press said the Japanese were building fifth generation computers to make me obsolete.

In 2000, the dot com bubble bursting was said to make me obsolete.

There's been neural networks, no-code, and more, since then, to make me obsolete.

Now it's LLMs.

Excuse me while I sit here and don't panic.

#rant

EDIT: This blew up. Muting the thread for some peace and quiet.

I firmly believe that all 14 year olds should surreptitiously be given Pratchett by someone that isn't a parent.

Especially if they live in a household where they have to hide it because it contains witches.

They are books that teach you how to think, even in the face of extreme authority.

This is my story. I would be a much worse person without having Pratchett books in my life.

#GNUTerryPratchett #Pratchett #TerryPratchett #Pterry

Selbst die Ramschbudde Netcup kann kein Sale wegen AI Geraffel machen, weil sie die bestellte Hardware nicht geliefert bekommen:

https://forum.netcup.de/informationen/netcup-community/netcup-updates/p260826-rampocalypse-an-honest-update-on-the-hardware-situation/#post260826

POLL: Fedi people, do you have a website or blog or personal wiki or some other kind of online Thing That You Control Yourself that other people can find you on that isn't paid for / maintained by someone else, meaning YOUR THING is at a web address like you.whatever, not at you.someonelse.whatever or someoneelse.whatever/you, I mean are you paying the tenner a year or however much for a whole-ass domain name all for yourself (or for you and a small group of IRL friends), and if not do you want to be, THE POLL, and here is the guidance and elaboration on options:

1) No and I don't want my own site, Fedi and/or other social media scratches that itch for me just fine and I'm content with this arrangement

2) No, but I have a Vague Yearning or a Curious Itch and I wonder sometimes what it would be like, but so far it's just feelings and not plans, I haven't taken any concrete steps towards making My Own Website a real thing that exists, but I'm comfortable saying that I would probably *like* it to exist some day when I'm ready

3) No, but more of a Not Yet than a no; maybe I've bought a domain name and not put anything on it yet, or I haven't yet bought a domain name but I'm researching my options (whether I do it in a lazy few minutes here and there or in focused making-notes sort of study, both count for the purposes of this question), I've spent some time thinking about this With Intent, and I feel less "*wouldn't* this be nice" and more "*won't* this be nice" about this endeavour

4) Yes I own at least one domain name, come on Dan this is Fedi, and at least one of my domains even have websites or services associated with them

BOOST THIS TOOT to get an INCREDIBLY INACCURATE IMPRESSION of how many people have and/or want websites and a more accurate picture of how many people On Fedi have and/or want websites

Pondering what I'm reading about access problems at theme parks being created by removing existing adjustments from people who use them. I am wondering if the solution is a whole scale rethinking of the queuing model. How about *everybody* queues mostly virtually with a timed slot to arrive at the rides and lots of entertainment that isn't a ride being available in the spaces no longer needed to accommodate long queues. You could fit more children's play areas, that could be themed, picnicing areas, areas for pop up stalls, places with an electricity supply for ice cream vans / other food trucks, seating areas and so on.

Now we have 2026 style tech, queuing in person for fun things seems to be for nostalgia only. (Not counting queues for buses or to be served at bars - they're queues for necessary things). Wondering about the Wimbledon queue - no idea how accessible it is - a lot of people couldn't camp without electricity / hot food + water. Even some people who could do that would be too exhausted/ in pain from the sleeping arrangements to enjoy the tennis. Also wondering about the availability/accessibility of toilet facilities.