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My mum's dementia has recently worsened to the point that she cannot figure out how to use the phone to ring people. She just finds it confusing and has caused her a great deal of distress.

I ended up installing Big Launcher[1] as an alternative android launcher and configured it so it has buttons to ring three people. That's it. Even then, then confirmation yes/no dialogue when she presses "End Call" gave her a lot of anxiety initially.

I recently had to setup access to a local streaming service on my step-dad's TV recently. The amount of hoops necessary, including installing their stupid app on a phone, and entering passwords for several different accounts, several times, was absolutely ridiculous. Being technologically adept I found it an absolute PITA. It was a complete non-starter for him.

My point is that your, "If he can afford a season pass, he can afford a smartphone," comment comes across almost as callow as the attitude of the Dodger Stadium management towards the very real issues of getting old in a world that is moving faster and faster technologically.

[1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.kunes.and...


So that means I'm either an exceptional judge of character, or and idiot and don't know it. /s

In the case of Google Workspace for our company, I'm using Cubebackup[1]. I've been going through the disaster recovery exercises lately, and thinking about what I've been calling "external backups", which are backups of a service that are stored and restorable outside that service.

It can be surprisingly difficult with a lot of SaaS products (including Google).

[1] https://www.cubebackup.com/


The Australian sulfur-crested cockatoos are pretty smart. They would teach each other how to open heavy bin lids to raid the garbage. I seem to remember they would even team up to do it. There are studies about how this behaviour spread from suburb to suburb in Sydney.[1]

More recently they've figured out how to operate drinking fountains.[2][3]

[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/cockatoos-lear...

[2] https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-06-04/sydney-sulphu...

[3] https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/nature-wildlife/2025...


My admittedly more puerile thought upon reading that bit was to change to code so it only loads goatse.

"Unlock your phone."

"No, I don't have to."

Detained in a room for twelve hours.

"Okay, okay, here's my phone."


So you missed your flight, probably not getting a refund on that ticket, missed the people/plans that were setup around you arriving 12 hours ago?

I'd rather wipe my phone and then restore it when I arrive.


"Why are you travelling with a blank phone?"

Detained in a room for twelve hours.


I'm rather partial to MyBatis (and Liquibase) but I might have to give Jooq a try.


I really like this idea. Gonna need an "Awesome Axe" page that collects agents.

One idea I'm thinking of is, after an agent has been in use for a while, and built up and understanding of the task, would be something like, "Write a Python script to replace this agent."

I could imagine this would work with agents that are processing log files or other semi-structured data for example.


True, although I wonder if that was one of the points he is trying to make.

In any case, you could go to his Mastodon account listed at the bottom of the article and check out who he is following.


“For months, callers to the Washington state Department of Licensing who have requested automated service in Spanish have instead heard an AI voice speaking English in a strong Spanish accent.”


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