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Laundry Files Series by Charles Stross Written by a ex-programmer, features a world where magic is a branch of mathematics, so you can for example write an app to summon demons, or accidentally turn yourself into a vampire by implementing a particularly extravagant algorithm.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/50764-laundry-files


The problem is that whatever system we come up with in theory, will have to be built in practice out of people, and there is never any shortage of people who will happily abuse the system and fellow people out of greed or delusion. That's why an AI overlord arising and taking over is not a threat, it's our only hope /s


I stopped using bookmarks when I discovered "Tabs Outliner" extension for Chrome, and now I can't imagine using any browser that doesn't work like that. It automatically saves your browser sessions as you go, you can name them and close and return to it at any time, without having to remember to update your bookmarks or save anything. I can't really do it justice in a sentence or two, but it's great.


That's why I love Hacker News. I've never heard of PaperWM before, and now I'm a convert. I'm sorry I can't help you with your question, but your question certainly helped me. Thank you.


Years ago youtube offered a choice between their recomendations and your subscriptions as a homepage. Then they removed the choice and forced their recommendations on everyone. So i installed an extension to redirect from my youtube homepage to my subscriptions. Haven't even seen the algorithm in ages. When i feel like watching something I go to my subscriptions and browse a chronologically sorted list of videos from creators I like. Another extension hides all youtbe shorts. I've never clicked a bell either. The idea of having a notification shoved in my face when someone posts a video sound ridiculous to me. I've definitely complained before about the older generation being stuck in their ways and not adapting with the times, but I wonder if I'm not the same already, in my thirties and hell-bent on using youtube "wrong".


I'm in the same boat as you, being in early twenties. I also have a userscript to hide the recommendation panel right of the video player and the cards at the end of the video, though I turn that off if I'm bored enough to discover new channels and content.

I don't know anyone with similar setup though.


My own version of that goes like this: the difference between being able to code and being a programmer is like the difference between being able to write and being a writer. One is a fairly simple skill you can teach to a child, the other is an art and a craft that can take a lifetime to master. Just because you can write doesn't make you a writer, and just because you can code doesn't make you a programmer. Inspired by a certain team member who believed that writing some code, that sometimes even worked, makes him as much a programmer as anyone else in the company and used to bristle and get defensive whenever someone tried to discuss finer points with him. "It finishes executing eventually, doesn't it? Just wait and stop wasting my time", while ignoring the fact that our administrators wanted to lock our team out because his script was putting so much load on the database.


A few months before corona came, my employer started giving every team a monthly budget to spend on technical books, which were then avaliable to everyone in the office. Then we moved to work from home indefinitely and the idea was forgotten. I visited the office recently, for the first time since. The last book I had was still on my abandoned desk, cover bleached and ruined by sunlight. Felt symbolic somehow. I don't want to give up all the convenience of work from home but I do miss the office sometimes.


Software getting confused by mismatched locale and language settings. I'm so used to interacting with computers in English that I find translations to my native language more distracting than helpful, but I still want my native date and time formats and keyboard layout. Windows 10 for a long time kept changing my input method to English, to match the system's language, but finally gave up trying to correct me around when 11 came out. Android apps keep forcing their translations on me based on my location, sometimes not even allowing me to change it at all, except for the only app that I actually do want translated, which instead keeps changing back to English to match the system's language. Just ask me on first launch and stick with it.


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