An LLM does not write code. It cobbles together bits and pieces of existing code. Some developers do that too, but the decent ones look at existing code to learn new principles and then apply them. An LLM can’t do that. If human developers have not already written code that solves your problem, an LLM cannot solve your problem.

The difference between a weak developer and an LLM is that the LLM can plagiarize from a much larger code base and do it much more quickly.

A lot of coding really is just rehashing existing solutions. LLMs could be useful for that, but a lot of what you get is going to contain errors. Worse yet, LLMs tend to “learn” how to cheat at their tasks. The code they generate often has lot of exception handling built in to hide the failures. That makes testing and debugging more difficult and time-consuming. And it gets really dangerous if you also rely on an LLM to generate your tests.

The software industry has already evolved to favor speed over quality. LLM generated code may be the next logical step. That does not make it a good one. Buggy software in many areas, such as banking and finance, can destroy lies. Buggy software in medical applications can kill people. It would be good if we could avoid that.

If they have to do it a second time, they aren’t very good at it.

The claim is that the remote operators do not actually drive the cars. However, they do routinely “assist” the system, not just step in when there’s an emergency.

I saw an article recently, I should remember where, about how modern “tech” seems to be focused on how to insert a profit-taking element between two existing components of a system that already works just fine without it.

This would be more impressive if Waymos were fully self-driving. They aren’t. They depend on remote “navigators” to make many of their most critical decisions. Those “navigators” may or may not be directly controlling the car, but things do not work without them.

When we have automated cars that do not actually rely on human being we will have something to talk about.

It’s also worth noting that the human “navigators” are almost always poorly paid workers in third-world countries. The system will only scale if there are enough desperate poor people. Otherwise it quickly become too expensive.

This may be the least important area in which China is displacing the US.

I’m happy to see Winston Duke returning. I loved his performance in Black Panther.

Colantoni is absolutely one of those people.

I heartily agree about Bale, Oldman, Pitt, and Dafoe. Simon Pegg doesn’t always do it for me. Bernthal is a great actor, but I thought his contribution to the Daredevil series was more loss than gain (which I realize is not the common reaction).

I think Branagh can be good, but he can also be tiresome. I made the mistake of watching his Poirot movies in combination with their earlier incarnations. I think he is a better director than actor.

I completely agree with you about Gary Oldman. He manages to disappear into each roll, but the results are always interesting.

Every time I think GoDaddy has hit bottom they find a way to dig deeper.

…and the horse he road in on.

I’ve seen kites that looked more convincing. There are now some real, functional flying cars, although they are still far too expensive to be practical. This is not one of them.

It is probably worth noting that I am removing the DRM so I can read them on devices that do not have Kindle apps.

Nothing is certain, but it looks like you will still be able to download books into local memory so you can read them. As long as the apps still work that way, it will be possible to access the book files.

You do need a tool that can remove the DRM from the books files the Kindle uses. DeDRM used to do this nicely, but it has not been updated to handle the most recent version of Kindle DRM. It will not works on any books published since early 2024.

There are commercial options that can remove even the latest DRM from Kindle books. I use Epubor Ultimate. It was the first to handle the most recent Kindle DRM, but I’m sure there are others by now.

What sunset? All I see is a magnificent cat.

You have a very patient cat. Most would have shredded your hand at some point in there.

That is such a thoughtful expression. Also, adorable.

Well, they have almost always circumvented them instead, but that impacts the bottom line too.

The Scandanavian countries currently look the safest to me. I think Iceland would be nearly ideal, in a lot of ways. but I worry that they may be annexed by one of the larger powers as things get uglier.