Every single one of us, as kids, learned the concept of “garbage in, garbage out”; most likely in terms of diet and food intake.

And yet every AI cultist makes the shocked pikachu face when they figure out that trying to improve your LLM by feeding it on data generated by literally the inferior LLM you’re trying to improve, is an exercise in diminishing returns and generational degradation in quality.

Why has the world gotten both “more intelligent” and yet fundamentally more stupid at the same time? Serious question.

The Xenomorph has been the only constant in her life throughout the entire franchise. Everyone else is temporary. So basically…yes…in so much as a nemesis can be a situationship.

they should have given those characters better deaths

That I absolutely agree with. They did 'em dirty with how they took them out.

Hicks and Newt had to die in the beginning of Alien 3 in order for the film to thematically even be an Alien film.

At their heart, the films are about Ripley being alone, more in common with the titular alien than with her termporary allies. She’s an outsider in her crew. She’s a civilian among marines. She’s a woman among convicts. She’s lost her child, she’s lost 57 years of her life. The Alien is her only real touchstone now, and in a way that is very expressly shown in the films, that becomes a kind of “relationship” in itself. She’s closer to the alien than she is to the people who surround her.

If Hicks and Newt survived and were part of Alien 3, it takes that away and makes it an ensemble cast, which thematically doesn’t fit, and (I think) it’s one of the reasons that a lot of the new Alien films just don’t feel like Alien films; they’re missing that key thematic ingredient. Ripley is a tragic character, doomed to battle alone against the only thing she has left in her life.

Great. How can I stop it from coming?

I predict a massive loss for the GOP, all the way down to dogcatcher

I hope so. If there is a god, the one I want to see lose the most is Ted Cruz. I’m so sick of his smug face. He gives the rest of us Canadians a bad name. We’re sorry we sent him to you.

If I have a choice between buying a table and chairs from IKEA, or buying a table and chairs from my neighbour who loves making them bespoke in his woodshop, I’ll take the second option every time. As a society we need more of this…supporting our own labour efforts over mass corporate manufacturing.

It absolutely represents both Trump and MAGA.

What this is is MTG seeing the potential writing on the wall and slowly trying to sneak her way into more normal speak so she doesn’t get fucking tossed out the door on her ass with the rest of them if Kamala wins and the “normal” republicans begin to purge their party of MAGA losers.

She’s essentially thinking “I’d better start toning down my shit, just in case.”

Can’t do it. Gotta poop at home. Thankfully I’m in a small community where getting home and back again is quick enough to not be missed.

Why would you assume the Engineers are “made”.

Seems to me they’d just be another humanoid species that evolved from a puddle of amino acids on some homeworld somewhere, just like we did.

Remake Don’t Breathe but with an adult Kevin, essentially.

You can’t make “The Princess Bride” nowadays because optimism and feel good emotions aren’t things that we’re allowed to have anymore.

Please don’t lump us all together.

The full saying is “Free as in Speech, not Free as in Beer”

Basically the “Free” in free means that it’s free to do with as you please, modify, etc… But not free as in “here’s a free product…like getting a free beer”

Ha ha. No no. I’m pretty good. No problems with the old downstairs plumbing. But it’s not just for toilets. It’s for bathtub sinks clogged with hair. Kitchen sinks, etc… It’s just handy to have around the house. I even used it once to blow the dust out of my dryer vent.

I’m not really talking about development as simply programming. There are a lot of aspects that go into development, yes…programming is a big aspect.

But there’s also bug reporting (every user should know how to report bugs because it’s contributes to making the program better).

Heck, you can even download the documentation and give it a proof-read if you’re good with grammar and spot some errors if you don’t want to commit to helping to write it.

I know a lot of people who spend a lot of time in the various subs for the software, taking care to answer questions from other users who need help doing this or that. That again, is contributing.

Then there’s simply what we’re doing right now. Bringing attention to the projects online getting them more visibility.

Development of a successful FOSS app isn’t just about programming. And even small contributions count. If you can donate some coin, great! If you can’t, or don’t want to, there are a thousand other things that you can do to contribute to that apps community.

I emphasized the word community because that is exactly what it is. The ethos of Open Source; what makes it different than Propietary software, is that the users are an inherent part of the development process in ways both big and small. In propietary software, there is a distinct line between the developers and the users. Developers have multiple stakeholders of which the user base is certainly one, but also include advertisers, software makers, hardware makers, etc…

FOSS software, in contrast, is much more a communitee effort with the involvement of the community in the way of bug reports, literature, education and even simply championing the project because they don’t have millions of dollars in advertising budgets.

Sorry, I get a little passionate, so this is longer than I intended it to be.

But tl;dr, contributing isn’t just about money or just about programming. There’s a thousand ways big and small, and my issue isn’t with people not “paying” necessarily. But people who use it for free and don’t bother filing bug reports, don’t join the community online to help answer user questions, etc…

A good FOSS citizen should be an active part of the community. Or donate money to the project if they’d rather not.

It’s essentially a handheld air cannon. The kit comes with a handle and a suction that covers the toilet hole or whatever. You press down and yeah…it’s basically a air-gun shot to the clog.

And yeah. It works great. Not always on the first blast. But I’ve never had it fail me.

This little bad boy here has changed my life.

https://www.isicanadainc.com/product/one-second-plumber/

This software is extensively free (as in beer)

No…it’s not. It’s free to download and to use, but the expectation that people contribute in exchange for using it is how FOSS has always worked.

That doesn’t necessarily mean monetary. But contributing can be helping with user guides, or making youtube tutorials, or even just extending the reach of the program to friends and family by talking about it.

There are many ways to contribute, and money is one. But the notion that Open Source software is “free as in beer” has never been correct. Users have an expectation to contribute…period.

Unfortunately, there has always been the issue that a not-insignificant percentage of users of FOSS software believe the FREE part means “free as in beer” and take umbrage when asked to contribute.

I’ve long been a proponent (and I know I’m in a minority) that has advocated for a shift in the marketing of FOSS applications from “donation based” to “value based”. Meaning that the expectation is that if you enjoy the software, you pay an amount that you believe is commensurate to your use. This is voluntarily of course…if you can’t pay, than please use it and enjoy it. But those who can pay, should pay…at least a little bit, to offset the costs for those who can’t.

It’s more or less that the wording of FOSS apps needs to change so that you are expected to contribute if you can.

Just my opinion. Like I said, I know I’m in the minority. Just not a fan of the percentage of users that has always existed that (falsely) think that asking for money for your project is somehow anathema to the Open Source ideal and whine whenever they’re asked to contribute.