Botspam

cannot believe what Ebay is doing. Now it uses bots (which it calls “hey hi”) to do things that demand users do real work, to “respond” to the bots. They also send lots of SPAM. It gets worse over time.

Someone in Gopher complained the other day: “Ebay themselves have also become increasingly annoying over the years in a whole host of ways, which I don’t have time to detail.”

Same with Evri.

Stop using bots to “save work” when in fact all those bots do is give unpaid work to your customers, whom you piss off.

We studied this in University (Abraham Harold Maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

think that happiness is elusive for those who delay it (“I’ll find it when I retire” or “this weekend I’ll party hard, play hard”) or those who seek gratification by conflating money (or purchases) with joy while hating their jobs but compensating for that with salaries. If people work 40 hours a week (more or less), that latter activity can be the opposite of happiness, last a long time, and persist mentally before and after work.

They say “do what you like, money will come” (or pursue your hobby, make it profitable some way or another in the future).

To me, basics of happiness begin with the Maslow model and can be further simplified like this: get enough sleep any time you’re tired, eat well (enjoy it, don’t rush), find romance/companionship (that latter may mean pets/wildlife too, not just kids), do exercise or relax (e.g. spa) for physical/mental health. Work enough, don’t overdo it. It’s possible you spend too much if you need to work too much. And if you work too much, you’ll hate work and maybe wish to fall asleep in it (or underperform).

Some jobs aren’t worth having

t looks like many people currently quit or quietly resign from the hired guns who misuse a contempt application to curtail criticism of themselves [1, 2].

They bullied not only me and my wife; they also bullied our representatives.

Let’s hope that some insiders there finally recognised that bullying is not a legitimate way to make a living.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) 4.0 International

hen the last trees are cut down to make room for hyperscaler datacenters,
when the last rivers and lakes are dried up to refresh hyperscaler datacenters,
when air turns unbreathable by generators to power hyperscaler datacenters,
will there be any intelligence left to realize that we couldn’t breathe, drink or eat slop?

when birds can’t be heard because of the noise, when bees are gone,
when plants won’t grow and multiply for lack of water and pollination,
when animals, even humans, perish without food, water and oxygen,
what will be left to realize there was no intelligence in this foolish pursuit?

Copyright 2007-2026 Alexandre Oliva

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this entire document worldwide without royalty, provided the copyright notice, the document’s official URL, and this permission notice are preserved.

Feels like the week ended, seriously

don’t know why, but it feels like a Friday today. Friday is still far away and it’ll be our wedding anniversary.

On Thursday we promised we’d like to spend hours with the parents, then an hour or so with the birds at the park. Friday: cards, celebrations, drinking. Saturday: day out, visit to Town. Sunday: rest. Monday: long trips to 3 places.

We’ve had a generally calm and productive month. More so after 9/11.

I think that the more I get done, the faster time passes. They say boredom “slows down” passage of time (in one’s mind of body clock).

I doubt I’ll ever become an elderly person who only gets up to open the blinds, then watches TV (or whatever) until shutting the blinds again. Such a life would be pointless.

Unless it’s humour, which is how he excuses this (and at the same time endorsing violence).

Earlier this month: Calling People “Nazis”

n the feeble mind of Garrett, everything that he does not agree with is instantaneously labeled something truly awful. He seems to not understand that when he does so he may be defaming people, in effect associating them with banned expressions/activities. Some of them respond to that today:

Their opinion, not mine.

Despite being facetious and tongue-in-cheek (and rude by default), he makes it sound like 1) he needs a million bucks and 2) he’s looking for a job now.

Assorted stories

t’s September 15. Half way through the month and soon “officially” autumn here, based on all mainstream calendars.

Today I’ll focus on the role of politics in GNU/Linux [1, 2] and later continue coverage regarding a law firm hiding its assets while promoting extreme politics.

I am still very interested in illuminating how the UK’s SLAPP industry works.

It’ll be our anniversary this week, then Software Freedom Day 2026 [1, 2], then GNU turns 43.