I access my gmail on my phone browser (I hate email apps because of how intrusive they can be), and for a while it was nice. I didn’t need to enable javascript, gmail just worked.

Then they got rid of the HTML-only frontend, and so I used the javascript frontend, and gmail just worked.

Then they started adding a “Please use the App” banner every Nth time I login. For now, it’s… fine.

Once they get rid of the mobile javascript frontend? Yes, I might have to try using email apps again

Bill G, was not his lover
He’s just a man, who said
“I flew here for the sun.”
But the kids aren’t there for fun

so this is what an aneurism feels like

I’ll take a stab, S4E07 “Bellwhistles”

The crew become entrenched in discussion with a sentient skin rash that takes over the crew, and Data has to synthesize a cure using ancient antibiotics who become enamored with the Captain, offering him immortality in exchange for flute lessons, which he refuses.

The one in red, it’s always the one in red

8 lightswitch states. Smack em all on, and smack em all off. If there’s no change, that’s a bad lightswitch

Spark’s syntax reminds me of submitting an application to a bank before I had a permanent address.

Yes it looks like I’m checking all the boxes, but I have to fudge some requirements just to get the process running, and remind myself to update the details later

Go, Forth, and…

Know what im watching tonight

Alarum, Koalas Above!
Please Invert Canopy Now In Case

I’m not denying the initial rush of wonder, I’m just lamenting the artistry.

See it like this: Any human can re-create a Van Gogh using his same techniques, but will never be able to capture the unique context or reasons for why he painted that piece in the first place. Motivation and intent are very important pieces in judging whether something is pure.

So surely you can understand the sense of deception one feels when one learns that a piece of art, an expression of human emotion and devotion invoked in a unique and poignant way… is actually devoid of all those things given how quickly it was produced, en masse, by a careless author who is happy to bypass any of the effort.

It’s not about the money, it’s about the purity of the expression and it’s intent. Even if the artist is a baby-eating fascist, you can still respect the thought/work/effort that went into producing their product, even if it’s something you disagree with

Bad example: AC/DC’s Downplayment Blues features the line “I know I ain’t doing much; doing nothing means a lot to me”. If a robot wrote that, I wouldn’t think much of this line (robot equates boredom to reverse productivity and spits out irony). If a human wrote that (which they did), then I would begin to wonder what kind of life that person led to lead them to such a conclusion.

I can already build an idea in my head of the author lying on their bed, guitar in hand, idly strumming absolutely nothing, just trying to maximise their time away from the busy demands of the world outside. I can’t do that for a robot. It would be disingenuous to believe that a robot could live such a life.

Pee Easy Bro, Kangaroos Aren’t Coming

If I saw a Van Gogh and was stunned by the sheer texture of brushwork, the unique choice of non-standard colours, the haunting thought of him dying young, I’d be swept away by the flurry of these thoughts adding connotation to work.

If it turned out that he forced small children to do the brushwork, stole the colours off an unknown artist, and was alive and well and living it up in Las Vegas, then yes I’d be disappointed.

Art is not objective, that’s sort of the whole point

Ah true. I guess he can just float then

Reminds me of those wizards in Discworld who are raised on dehydrated water, and can thus hover on water due to how much they hate its existence

Let’s be honest, he probably used a glass bridge, and got some disciples to swim underneath it to convince his followers to like and subscribe to his teachings

Isn’t that just his silhouette personified, like Peter Pan’s shadow

I can imagine the soles of his feet being hydrophobic, but I don’t see why the rest of him needs to be

I use org-roam, and then export my whole todo list onto various kindles around the home so that I always roughly know what I need to be doing

could be