Re: Facebook Account

On Tue, 20 Aug 2024 10:53:22 -0400, Zen Cycle <funkmaster@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On 8/19/2024 7:56 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Mon, 19 Aug 2024 20:50:54 GMT, cyclintom <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
wrote:
 

You knowing nothing about programming are probably mystified.

 
I hate to disappoint you, but I know very little about programming.  I
can do some programming when necessary but prefer to have someone else
do my programming.  I also don't mix socially with programmers.
Despite these limitations, I've been successfully self-employed as a
computer consultant and computer repairman for 36 years (1984 to
2020):
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-liebermann-151823/details/experience/>
While knowing how to program can be useful, it's not a requirement for
knowing how to configure a Facebook account, knowing how to login,
being able to type your email address or login name correctly, and fix
various Windoze software related problems.

>
You made a slight error there, it should read "fix _your_
various Windoze software related problems."

Windoze might not be my problem in the near future.  Microsoft is
doing its best to alienate its customers through various invasive
features.  Since I'm now retired, I no longer need to support
Microsoft products.  I'm slooowly moving my personal computing to
Linux (Mint 22) and have begun using privacy oriented products on
Windoze.  While my use of Microsoft products will probably never be
eliminated (games, banking and taxes), I will be prepared should
Microsoft continue on its present path (spying, advertising, privacy
issues, bugs, etc) towards some inevitable disaster. 
 

My knowing very little about programming was not an accident or the
result of a head injury. 

>
Same here
>

It was an intentional decision that I had to
reluctantly make when I moved to Silicon Valley.

>
Nothing reluctant about it for me. I'm reminded of that every time I get
dragged into a SW design review (required since I'm responsible for
Functional Safety compliance).

With about 20 years of practice, I became very good at avoiding
involvement in programming.  Claiming that I didn't know how to
program did not work because management insisted that I attend classes
and "at least try programming".  I would then mention that I've tried
to do programming, but that I'm really awful at programming, mostly
because I don't have the patience and am easily distracted (which is
true). 

At the time (1973 ?)
the pundits and experts were proclaiming that an engineer, who didn't
immediately learn how to program, would soon become obsolete and
unemployable.  I realized that there was not enough time to
simultaneously stay up to date on RF (radio frequency) design and
learn how to program.  Since the herd was stampeding in the direction
of programming, I decided that concentrating on RF design was a better
choice.  There were times when I regretted that decision, but over the
years, it has worked quite well for me.  Predictably, most of the
analog and RF engineers I know can also program, but few of the
programmers I've met can do anything useful with RF design. Meanwhile,
the same programmers are complaining that their jobs are being
outsourced to less expensive overseas sweat shops.  In the future,
programming might be performed by AI's.

>
The future is now
https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/29/mistral-releases-its-first-generative-ai-model-for-code/

Yes and the AI's are rapidly becoming better at programming.  I've
seen web automation code produced by a 16 year old, which seems quite
passable.  Sure, there were bugs and anomalies, but with the amazing
speed at which an AI can produce iterations of a program, trial and
error debugging suddenly becomes efficient.  I watched him fixing his
Selenium and Python code, while adding a few features, in a few
minutes of interaction with whatever AI cloud he was using.  When
done, he switched to a different AI to check the code, and tweaked it
so that both AI's considered the results acceptable.  This was all
during a 15 minute demonstration in a neighbors garage using a rather
marginal laptop.  I was impressed.  Never mind overseas outsourcing.
The real competition will be from 16 year olds with AI cloud accounts.

"The Scariest Movies About Artificial Intelligence: ‘Metropolis,’
‘Moon,’ ‘WarGames,’ and More"
<https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/scariest-artificial-intelligence-horror-movies-robots/metropolis-1927-6/>



--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558