#data query language

[ajay--sharma]

Power BI has many features to help with analyzing and visualising data in the format chosen by the user. Here are some of the key features of Power BI:

Data Connectivity: Using Power BI it is possible to connect to a wide range of data sources, including cloud services and local databases.

Real-time Data Refresh: It provides features for refreshing the data in real time.

Interactive Visualizations: The software allows users to create and share interactive and immersive reports and dashboards with multiple visualizations.

Natural Language Queries: Another capability being offered to business users is the natural language queries through which users can ask questions and get responses in form of charts and graphs.

Data Modeling: It has comprehensive data modeling capabilities that support the handling of large amounts of data and provides tools to change the data when necessary.

Customizability: Power BI provides users with a flexible option to design the layout of the dashboard or a report according to the organization needs.

Integration with Other Microsoft Products: It is well aligned with other Microsoft business apps like Microsoft Azure and Office 365 for the interoperation of data.

Data Security: Possesses strong security measures at various tiers, including the option to regulate data’s accessibility and use.

AI Support: Azure AI is integrated with Power BI to provide users with direction within data to make better decisions.

Collaboration Tools: Provides options for sharing and publishing of dashboards and reports through the Power BI service. Learn More:-https://www.analyticsshiksha.com/blog/what-is-power-bi-data-analysis-features-uses-benefits

[ldttechnology]

Unlocking the Power of Text-to-SQL Development for Modern Enterprises

In today’s data-driven world, businesses constantly seek innovative solutions to simplify data access and enhance decision-making. Text-to-SQL development has emerged as a game-changing technology, enabling users to interact with databases using natural language queries. By bridging the gap between technical complexity and user-friendly interaction, this technology is revolutionizing how enterprises harness the power of their data.

What is Text-to-SQL Development?

Text-to-SQL development involves creating systems that translate natural language queries into SQL statements. This allows users—even those without technical expertise—to retrieve data from complex databases by simply typing or speaking queries in plain language. For example, instead of writing a traditional SQL query like “SELECT * FROM sales WHERE region = 'North America',” a user can ask, “What are the sales figures for North America?”

The Benefits of Natural Language Queries

Natural language queries offer a seamless way to interact with databases, making data access more intuitive and accessible for non-technical users. By eliminating the need to learn complex query languages, organizations can empower more employees to leverage data in their roles. This democratization of data access drives better insights, faster decision-making, and improved collaboration across teams.

Enhancing Efficiency with Query Automation

Query automation is another key advantage of text-to-SQL development. By automating the translation of user input into SQL commands, enterprises can streamline their workflows and reduce the time spent on manual data retrieval. Query automation also minimizes the risk of errors, ensuring accurate and reliable results that support critical business operations.

Applications of Text-to-SQL in Modern Enterprises

Text-to-SQL development is being adopted across various industries, including healthcare, finance, retail, and logistics. Here are some real-world applications:

Business Intelligence: Empowering analysts to generate reports and dashboards without relying on IT teams.

Customer Support: Enabling support staff to quickly retrieve customer data and history during interactions.

Healthcare: Allowing medical professionals to access patient records and insights without navigating complex systems.

Building Intuitive Database Solutions

Creating intuitive database solutions is essential for organizations looking to stay competitive in today’s fast-paced environment. Text-to-SQL technology plays a pivotal role in achieving this by simplifying database interactions and enhancing the user experience. These solutions not only improve operational efficiency but also foster a culture of data-driven decision-making.

The Future of Text-to-SQL Development

As artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to advance, text-to-SQL development is poised to become even more sophisticated. Future innovations may include improved language understanding, support for multi-database queries, and integration with voice-activated assistants. These developments will further enhance the usability and versatility of text-to-SQL solutions.

Conclusion

Text-to-SQL development is transforming how businesses access and utilize their data. By leveraging natural language queries, query automation, and intuitive database solutions, enterprises can unlock new levels of efficiency and innovation. As this technology evolves, it will continue to play a crucial role in shaping the future of data interaction and decision-making.

Embrace the potential of text-to-SQL technology today and empower your organization to make smarter, faster, and more informed decisions.

[meelsport]

How AI is Revolutionizing Voice Search Technology

The Hidden Link Between AI Voice Search and SEO: What You Need to Know AI-powered voice search is revolutionizing how users interact with technology, turning searches into seamless, conversational experiences.

Voice search is transforming how we interact with technology, turning searches into effortless conversations. No more typing—just speak to your device, and AI does the rest. In this blog, we’ll explore the evolution of voice search. We’ll discuss how AI powers it and why businesses must adapt to stay competitive. The Evolution of AI Voice Search Technology AI voice search technology has come a…

[jacelynsia]

Top 10 AI Tools for Future-Ready Developers

Stay ahead of the game with these 10 must-have AI tools for every software developer in 2023 & beyond. Keep up with the tech evolution. Embracing these AI tools in 2023 and beyond can empower developers to create innovative solutions and drive the future of software development.

[akula-blue]

Ok so we've talked about mech dysphoria and dysmorphia before yeah? Your body doesn't feel the same when you climb out of a mech, doesn't feel 'right' anymore.

Too few limbs, not enough sensors, everything feels too big, now that you're not? There's no more combat stims and pleasure chemicals either, you're down to just your stock standard dopamine, which you have a clinical deficiency of now, btw. You struggle to pick objects up, your hands an unfamiliar shape, with not enough strength. You struggle to get out of bed sometimes because you can't tell what proportions things should be anymore?

Yeah, all that has been discussed to death.

What about communication?

What about pilots who, just, can't talk outside of their mech? Become socially inept without all the assistant systems they plug themselves into within the cockpit?

Think about it, mech combat becomes very disorganised very fast if it's allowed to. We are talking clashes of potentially dozens of war machines, the size of buildings, with enough guns to level cities. Orders need to be direct, easily understandable, followed immediately, actually projected onto the pilot's vision.

Every order, every report, every sentence, is punctuated by hundreds of layers of feedback. Tactical simulations and overlays, attachments for battlefield plans, every order having many implied conditions transmitted to the pilot through code and dictionary references to make sure a pilot cannot POSSIBLY misinterpret it in the few seconds before the command should be executed. On top of that, each order can also be wired to project a different cocktail of stim/pleasure chems/whatever have you, ensuring a pilot knows exactly what to feel about the order, establishing the priority of it through the pilots own brain chemistry.

And the same can be true about communications between squad mates! So much of it would be sending those same simulations around as sit reps, or enormous data packets containing not just the words the pilot is trying to say, but also links to relevant information and mountains of meta data, establishing tone, intention, context. Within the cockpit, a portion of the onboard AI is delegated to parsing this metadata, projecting it into the pilots consciousness, speeding up the process of understanding these mountains of digital documents to mere moments.

Now put a person used to that in a social setting. Where they are not made instantly aware of what someone is talking about or referring to. Where they cannot just query an AI and receive every piece of relevant info at once. Where they have to understand the subtext of what that person is saying without any metadata to indicate sarcasm, annoyance, disinterest. Where they are unable to understand the many nuances of communication and body language and expression without the helpful hand of their mech's processors. Hell, where they don't know how hearing certain things should make them feel without the presence of the chemicals to guide their response. Imagine them seeming lost outside of their mech, unable to talk or connect anymore, the social, human part of their brain having atrophied from disuse much like their neurotransmitter production. Imagine them scurrying back to the safety of their mech where, in the digitally overlaid world, everything is so much clearer and understandable and-

HAS THIS BECOME AN AUTISM METAPHOR???

[cynicalrosebud]

AI Reminder

Quick reminder folks since there's been a recent surge of AI fanfic shite. Here is some info from Earth.org on the environmental effects of ChatGPT and it's fellow AI language models.

"ChatGPT, OpenAI's chatbot, consumes more than half a million kilowatt-hours of electricity each day, which is about 17,000 times more than the average US household. This is enough to power about 200 million requests, or nearly 180,000 US households. A single ChatGPT query uses about 2.9 watt-hours, which is almost 10 times more than a Google search, which uses about 0.3 watt-hours. 

According to estimates, ChatGPT emits 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide per year, more than twice the amount that is emitted by an individual, which is 4 tons per year. Of course, the type of power source used to run these data centres affects the amount of emissions produced – with coal or natural gas-fired plants resulting in much higher emissions compared to solar, wind, or hydroelectric power – making exact figures difficult to provide. 

A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, revealed the significant water footprint of AI models like ChatGPT-3 and 4. The study reports that Microsoft used approximately 700,000 litres of freshwater during GPT-3’s training in its data centres – that’s equivalent to the amount of water needed to produce 370 BMW cars or 320 Tesla vehicles."

Now I don't want to sit here and say that AI is the worst thing that has ever happened. It can be an important tool in advancing effectiveness in technology! However, there are quite a few drawbacks as we have not figured out yet how to mitigate these issues, especially on the environment, if not used wisely. Likewise, AI is not meant to do the work for you, it's meant to assist. For example, having it spell check your work? Sure, why not! Having it write your work and fics for you? You are stealing from others that worked hard to produce beautiful work.

Thank you for coming to my Cyn Talk. I love you all!

[deusvervewrites]

A heart of steel snippet please

The ping from Analysis immediately takes Izuku’s attention. Unidentified foreign wireless connection established. He locks the connection, letting Analysis trace it back to the source, and suspends his dread on a delay before shoving that emotion down and letting himself work. With any luck by the time it comes back he’ll have solved this.

Otherwise… that would mean someone’s identified him as what he really is.

“Mei, something just tried to connect to me.”

Her jovial body language drops in a heartbeat, suddenly more serious than he can recall seeing her. “Wireless?”

“Yeah.” Analysis pings him again, and Izuku suspends more dread. “It’s coming from inside the school.”

“Maybe it’s Principal Rat? He’d probably be… fine with us?”

Izuku doesn’t need Analysis to tell him that she’s not so sure of that herself. He shakes his head.

“No, it’s not his office.” Tactical helpfully pulls up the map of the campus, and Analysis gets to work cross-referencing data. “Not the teacher’s lounge… lower than that. The basement? That area’s off-limits for students.”

“Basement?” Mei swallows. “Next to the server room?”

“Yeah, actually. It’s not labeled on the map, and Analysis isn’t sure what’s there.”

Her eyes shine. “That’s… that’s where they housed Overseer.”

The suspended instances of dread both abort in favor of some new emotion he doesn’t recognize. The beginnings of his code came from Overseer, before Mei and GalMighty77 overhauled it. In a sense, that’s his parent on the other end of the wireless. Reaching a decision, Izuku lets the connection through.

The message comes through swiftly. ‘Connection established. Query: Who are you?’

[lazeecomet]

The Story of KLogs: What happens when an Mechanical Engineer codes

Since i no longer work at Wearhouse Automation Startup (WAS for short) and havnt for many years i feel as though i should recount the tale of the most bonkers program i ever wrote, but we need to establish some background

WAS has its HQ very far away from the big customer site and i worked as a Field Service Engineer (FSE) on site. so i learned early on that if a problem needed to be solved fast, WE had to do it. we never got many updates on what was coming down the pipeline for us or what issues were being worked on. this made us very independent

As such, we got good at reading the robot logs ourselves. it took too much time to send the logs off to HQ for analysis and get back what the problem was. we can read. now GETTING the logs is another thing.

the early robots we cut our teeth on used 2.4 gHz wifi to communicate with FSE's so dumping the logs was as simple as pushing a button in a little application and it would spit out a txt file

later on our robots were upgraded to use a 2.4 mHz xbee radio to communicate with us. which was FUCKING SLOW. and log dumping became a much more tedious process. you had to connect, go to logging mode, and then the robot would vomit all the logs in the past 2 min OR the entirety of its memory bank (only 2 options) into a terminal window. you would then save the terminal window and open it in a text editor to read them. it could take up to 5 min to dump the entire log file and if you didnt dump fast enough, the ACK messages from the control server would fill up the logs and erase the error as the memory overwrote itself.

this missing logs problem was a Big Deal for software who now weren't getting every log from every error so a NEW method of saving logs was devised: the robot would just vomit the log data in real time over a DIFFERENT radio and we would save it to a KQL server. Thanks Daddy Microsoft.

now whats KQL you may be asking. why, its Microsofts very own SQL clone! its Kusto Query Language. never mind that the system uses a SQL database for daily operations. lets use this proprietary Microsoft thing because they are paying us

so yay, problem solved. we now never miss the logs. so how do we read them if they are split up line by line in a database? why with a query of course!

select * from tbLogs where RobotUID = [64CharLongString] and timestamp > [UnixTimeCode]

if this makes no sense to you, CONGRATULATIONS! you found the problem with this setup. Most FSE's were BAD at SQL which meant they didnt read logs anymore. If you do understand what the query is, CONGRATULATIONS! you see why this is Very Stupid.

You could not search by robot name. each robot had some arbitrarily assigned 64 character long string as an identifier and the timestamps were not set to local time. so you had run a lookup query to find the right name and do some time zone math to figure out what part of the logs to read. oh yeah and you had to download KQL to view them. so now we had both SQL and KQL on our computers

NOBODY in the field like this.

But Daddy Microsoft comes to the rescue

see we didnt JUST get KQL with part of that deal. we got the entire Microsoft cloud suite. and some people (like me) had been automating emails and stuff with Power Automate

This is Microsoft Power Automate. its Microsoft's version of Scratch but it has hooks into everything Microsoft. SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Excel, it can integrate with all of it. i had been using it to send an email once a day with a list of all the robots in maintenance.

this gave me an idea

and i checked

and Power Automate had hooks for KQL

KLogs is actually short for Kusto Logs

I did not know how to program in Power Automate but damn it anything is better then writing KQL queries. so i got to work. and about 2 months later i had a BEHEMOTH of a Power Automate program. it lagged the webpage and many times when i tried to edit something my changes wouldn't take and i would have to click in very specific ways to ensure none of my variables were getting nuked. i dont think this was the intended purpose of Power Automate but this is what it did

the KLogger would watch a list of Teams chats and when someone typed "klogs" or pasted a copy of an ERROR mesage, it would spring into action.

it extracted the robot name from the message and timestamp from teams

it would lookup the name in the database to find the 64 long string UID and the location that robot was assigned too

it would reply to the message in teams saying it found a robot name and was getting logs

it would run a KQL query for the database and get the control system logs then export then into a CSV

it would save the CSV with the a .xls extension into a folder in ShairPoint (it would make a new folder for each day and location if it didnt have one already)

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a LINK to the file in SharePoint

it would then enter a loop and scour the robot logs looking for the keyword ESTOP to find the error. (it did this because Kusto was SLOWER then the xbee radio and had up to a 10 min delay on syncing)

if it found the error, it would adjust its start and end timestamps to capture it and export the robot logs book-ended from the event by ~ 1 min. if it didnt, it would use the timestamp from when it was triggered +/- 5 min

it saved THOSE logs to SharePoint the same way as before

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a link to the files

it would then check if the error was 1 of 3 very specific type of error with the camera. if it was it extracted the base64 jpg image saved in KQL as a byte array, do the math to convert it, and save that as a jpg in SharePoint (and link it of course)

and then it would terminate. and if it encountered an error anywhere in all of this, i had logic where it would spit back an error message in Teams as plaintext explaining what step failed and the program would close gracefully

I deployed it without asking anyone at one of the sites that was struggling. i just pointed it at their chat and turned it on. it had a bit of a rocky start (spammed chat) but man did the FSE's LOVE IT.

about 6 months later software deployed their answer to reading the logs: a webpage that acted as a nice GUI to the KQL database. much better then an CSV file

it still needed you to scroll though a big drop-down of robot names and enter a timestamp, but i noticed something. all that did was just change part of the URL and refresh the webpage

SO I MADE KLOGS 2 AND HAD IT GENERATE THE URL FOR YOU AND REPLY TO YOUR MESSAGE WITH IT. (it also still did the control server and jpg stuff). Theres a non-zero chance that klogs was still in use long after i left that job

now i dont recommend anyone use power automate like this. its clunky and weird. i had to make a variable called "Carrage Return" which was a blank text box that i pressed enter one time in because it was incapable of understanding /n or generating a new line in any capacity OTHER then this (thanks support forum).

im also sure this probably is giving the actual programmer people anxiety. imagine working at a company and then some rando you've never seen but only heard about as "the FSE whos really good at root causing stuff", in a department that does not do any coding, managed to, in their spare time, build and release and entire workflow piggybacking on your work without any oversight, code review, or permission.....and everyone liked it

[koyagi-writes]

Animal-Hybrid-Boys-HCs.exe

Folder: Genshin-Impact Accounts (characters): Arataki Itto, Baizhu, Cyno, Gorou, Tartaglia, Tighnari, Xiao, Zhongli Query: N/A Pop-Up (warnings): Fluff, Smut (will be marked), GN!AFAB!Reader (female anatomical language), but you/your are used, overstimulation,  monsterfucking, biting, marking, inappropriate use of visions, breeding, aphrodisiacs (consensual), oviposition, drug use (mushrooms), high sex, intercrural sex (thigh fucking), semi-public sex, Spoilers?

Minors and Ageless blogs, please DNI. Koyagi does not consent to copying/plagiarism, translation, and AI data use

General

We headcanon that most (if not all) of these characters have rut or rut-adjacent experiences, and you being there makes it “worse” for them. At least you can relieve any of their pent up stress.

Arataki Itto (Oni, bull/cow)

Itto is a big, beefy boy, everyone is aware of that fact. Not only is he the tallest playable character, he’s also one of the strongest. This is all thanks to his heritage as an Oni, plus the support of the gang in his formative years.

Once you come into the picture, Itto is a big showoff; he’s an Oni, and Oni are proud beings, evident in his initiations of PDA. He’ll kiss all over, even leaving bites and hickeys--that almost mirror his markings in color--in places he knows you can’t possibly cover or hide. Also, don’t eat beans; his allergies will spike if he even kisses you.

Bulls often display unpredictable aggression, a trait that Itto and Ushi share with you. As your boyfriend, he’ll catch you off guard by playfully tackling and wrestling you. He’d try not to hurt you, but if he gets too rough a tug on his horns will immediately get him off of you. He’ll panic and worry if you’re mad at him, even almost crying as he inspects your body for injuries. Once he’s sure you’re okay, the play-fighting will cease, replaced by cuddles under the softest blankets you own. Ushi would headbutt the both of you, but otherwise makes a soft pillow once the brawl is over.

He will fold if you can scrounge up the mora to buy the both of you matching pajamas or lingerie (strawberry cow bikini strawberry cow bikini strawberry cow bikini).

(NSFW) During his rut, Itto becomes more aggressive, and advises the gang that he’ll need to be alone for about a week. Early on in the relationship, he would have Shinobu keep you busy to keep you safe (he doesn’t want to hurt you :( not even by accident) and wait the week out.

The first time you insisted on helping him, Itto was astounded. His hair disheveled, crimson skin covered in a thin layer of sweat, large teeth on full display as you entered his room, much to his protest. It doesn’t take much to get him to cave and be a bit rougher with you, and his aggressive demeanor slips as you straddle his lap and press the sweetest kisses into his skin. He has you ride him, makes you set the pace at which the two of you melt into each other. He knows you want to help him feel better, but he won’t do something unless you explicitly tell him or let him know. After a while, maybe he’ll let loose and give in to his instincts and fuck you into the mattress. He will definitely want to breed you, but again will only do it if you say so.

Outside of his rut, sex with Itto is different. The room will be filled with small giggles and moans as you indulge in each other’s bodies. He’d make stupid jokes here and there, or his mind will completely wander and he’ll start rambling while thrusting into you. On nights when you’re both tired, he’ll spoon you, and slowly grind his cock just between your thighs and play with your body, then--once he knows you’re dripping--slip it into your relaxed cunt, continuing his slow movements. He’ll build you up, groaning sweet affirmations into your ears, as he ensures your pleasure before chasing his own. There’s a chance he’ll stay inside you as you both drift off, but on most occasions, Itto will pull out, and you’ll take good care of each other for the night--mainly with snacks, water, massages and cuddles.

Extra tidbit, it’ll be hard to hide if he does breed you, since you may or may not temporarily develop some of his markings on your chest, arms and tummy.

Baizhu (Snake/serpent)

We headcanon Baizhu using he/they pronouns. Also that he can sometimes turn into a lamia/naga for the sake of our monsterfuckers.

It seems Changsheng has an effect on Baizhu’s personality. While maintaining the people skills necessary for the pharmaceutical business, he’s reserved and quiet, and rarely speaks, usually only to you, Changsheng, Gui and Qiqi. When he does speak, however, they have that traditional hissy, seductive tone. He’s lean, relying on different herbal remedies and meals to stay healthy.

Again, Baizhu is reserved, and prefers to keep his affections between the two of you, rather saving his kisses for those cozy nights in bed. Poor boy is cold-blooded, so he’ll cling to you and leech off the warmth radiating from your skin as the two of you retire to your soft bed for the night.

You and Baizhu coparent Qiqi, helping her remember various information, keeping track of her, and helping her carry the herbs she picks on harvest days. He’ll greet you with a kiss on your forehead, then take over taking care of Qiqi for the rest of the day. You guys are just like a happy little family!

He is resourceful, incorporating his venom in various supplements and remedies. They’ll even “prescribe” you some of these supplements.

(NSFW) A side note before we begin, Baizhu’s venom contains a mild aphrodisiac, one that induces or strengthens the effects of one’s heat or rut. It also may contain a very mild sedative.

During their rut, Baizhu will close the pharmacy or have Gui manage the place while he’s out of commission. He’d keep you in bed all day, gently trailing kisses, bites, and sweet nothings into your skin, before prepping the rest of your body to take him, even if you do feel a tad sleepy (You had the talk with him, and ensured that the venom’s effects were safe). They’ll have two cocks, one for eggs, and the other for his cum. He’ll wrap his body around yours, feeling how warm your soft body has gotten, then slowly push them both into you from behind. Once you’ve adjusted, he’ll begin pumping into you. They don’t need to, they can just release the eggs into you, but they know that poor little humans need friction to reach their climaxes. He’ll tease you about it, how his sweet darling would get so needy and demanding, releasing an egg with each thrust, filling you until he’s satisfied.

Outside of their rut, Baizhu will only have one cock (the other will be sheathed away). He’ll still wrap himself around you, using his coils to massage your body and help coax your orgasm. They’ll be more gentle, thrusting into you from the front, whimpering and whining your name as he indulges in your pleasure. They love cockwarming, so once they’re satisfied, be prepared to fall asleep in a sweaty, cum/egg filled mess, round with his young. There could even be a chance you give Qiqi a young sibling.

Cyno (jackal)

Cyno is about as lean as Baizhu, but has strong legs and abs, and immense stamina. He may not be a hybrid, but he’s just as protective of you as any jackal would be with its mate. The General would bring down the whole wrath of the Matra just to keep you safe and happy.

He’s mostly reserved and keeps to himself, believing air shouldn’t be wasted on frivolous words. All of that goes out the window when he retires from his duties for the night. You’d probably already be in bed, or lounging around your shared home, but once he removes the headpiece and armor, he’d cling to you and ramble, be it about a TCG match, a case he recently resolved at the Akademiya, or the meal you packed him that morning. He’d hold you close, rehearsing his dumb jokes that no doubt have you giggling into his neck.

By even associating with Cyno, you’ll become popular amongst the people of Gandharva Ville. Tighnari will sometimes have you come over to help Collei with her studies while he goes out for field research, and he trusts you dearly; you basically become family to the pair!

(NSFW) Now, we know we said that Cyno isn’t a hybrid, but we like to think he goes through something similar to rut. Every once in a while, when the stress of his work and the heat of the desert culminate into something potentially dangerous or unhealthy, he’d take a break for a while once he realizes where his mental state is taking him. During that break, he’ll have you laid out or bent over any surface in the house he deems adequate--which will probably be all of them--and take out all the stress on you. Cyno would never hurt you, clearly, but he just needs you so badly, it’s not his fault that he’s being so rough with your body, leaving blossoms of purple and red on your skin, thrusting in and out of your cunt with such fervor, going for as many rounds as he needs. At this point he doesn’t care much about getting you pregnant; if you do then you do, but if you don’t want to, he’ll at least listen to that. If you end up pregnant, it’ll just make him even more protective of you while you’re so vulnerable.

Other times, he’ll be more gentle, more rational, most in tune with your desires. Cyno’s most vocal at this point, whining and “howling” as you sink deeper into pleasure together. Some nights, you might catch him off guard, your figure adorned with violet and gold to match his attire, straddling his lap and taking care of both his and your needs. He’d hold your hips gently, gaze deep into your eyes, and beg you to push him over the edge.

No matter what time, you and Cyno have aftercare down to a science. The two of you sat down and had a long, thought out discussion about keeping each other safe before, during, and after the two of you have sex. He enjoys a warm shower, water, and cuddles afterward, and he’s willing to treat you with the utmost care. You could almost say he spoils you sometimes, and at some point you’ll both get competitive over it. You just love each other so much, you’d rather “fight” over who loves who more. Even that will end up with one of you on your backs.

Gorou (Shiba Inu)

Like Cyno, Gorou is lean, with strong legs and arms. Before meeting you, he used to spend almost all of his free time on training and building his endurance. Now, he only spends half of that time on that, opting to rather be pampered and spoiled by you, whether by brushing out his tail, scratching that itch behind his ears, or even preparing his favorite dishes every sundown.

At some point, the rigid muscle of his abs will develop a little fat, making his tummy much softer and more squishable. He’ll be a bit self-conscious, worrying that you and his soldiers will no longer see him as the pillar of strength; he couldn’t be further from the truth. You love him, no matter his size, and his soldiers even continue their diligence and respect.

During the colder nights on Watatsumi, Kokomi will have the General retire to your shared quarters early. You’d greet him at the door briefly before wrapping him up in a blanket and spoiling him all night, a warm meal and cuddles awaiting his arrival.

He’s bold, but likes to keep clean. When the two of you bathe together, he’ll lean into your touch as you lather homemade shampoo into his scalp and tail. If you’re lucky (which you are, no doubt), he’ll let down his guard and have you rub his sensitive belly, whimpering and yelping at your gentle touch.

(NSFW) The poor Doggy General has a rut, during which he’s extremely sensitive and emotional. He’d hide away, and cry as he tries and fails to take care of himself again and again and again. Once you come into the picture, your scents would have him absolutely intoxicated. He’ll try to pounce on you, only able to restrain himself by a thread, but catch himself, and cower into his little pile of blankets. He wouldn’t lay an unsavory finger on you, so he’d let you take the lead for the time being. He’d buck his hips up at any touch, begging you to just satiate his urges. Once you’re straddling his hips, bouncing up and down on his length, he’ll squirm and cry, seeking out any friction your body is willing to give him. Gorou will try to knot and breed you as you both fall into depraved ecstasy together in his quarters, but that’s only if you let him (we love consent out here, folks). If not your cunt, at least let him knot your hand; please, he’ll be so good for you~.

Outside of his rut, Gorou will be slightly more dominant, his rationale being that he has more restraint of himself, and there’s less of a chance he’ll hurt you. His stamina will remain the same, only able to indulge in your warm, slick cunt for so long. His knot will be smaller, if not completely gone, so you can more safely take him into your mouth, swallowing load by load as his fingers grip and tug at your hair. Once he has you prepped, and his cock is aching for that searing, soaking embrace, he won’t hesitate to bottom out immediately. But he won’t move, not until he feels your hips buck against his. At that point, forget trying to say anything; any words will be interrupted by sweet moans enveloping the room around you, moreso on your end now. He’ll chase his own pleasure, but still maintain a shaky thumb against your twitching clit to help you find your own release. Scratch at his back, bite him, mark him in any way; he’ll only reciprocate tenfold while he has you on his cock.

Usually it’s you taking care of him after, gently petting him as he apologizes incessantly into your marked neck. Poor Gorou will feel bad if he made a mess of you, so he’ll insist on cleaning his cum out of your sore cunt. But if you insist, he’ll just let you carry him to the bath, wincing as you rub gentle soaps and shampoos into his hair and skin, ointments and lotions into the scratches you left on his back, and him doing the same to you in exchange. You’d dress in cozy shirts and underwear, and grab the fluffiest blankets you own, draping it over the two of you and cuddling the rest of the night away with steaming cups of tea that would be cold by sunrise.

Tartaglia (Fox)

We all know that a crucial piece of Ajax’s charm is his cunning, charismatic nature; it’s what got him so far in life (aside from the power he obtained during his time in the abyss). He even had to employ such cunning tricks to win your heart, which even he struggled at. You gave him a hard time at first, teasing him and playing hard to get. But due to his determination and adaptive nature, he ended up wooing you anyway. Now it’ll be him teasing you from now on. Aww, don’t look at him like that, then he’ll want to kiss you even more.~

Ajax is well built, and his figure astounded you the first time he had let you see his body. He trusted you the most, allowing you to gently trace over his scars and freckles with your fingers and leave kisses in their wake. His body is versatile, built for all manners of combat and warfare; a true warrior’s body.

He’s possessive of you, that’s a given, and as a proud Snezhnayan man, Ajax would damn near beg you to have some sort of sign of himself on you. He doesn’t care how--be it you wearing something of his (clothing or his cologne), or having a tattoo, hickey, or a piercing-- it just has to signify him. He’ll even get one to match, if that’ll make you more comfortable.

This possessive nature comes not out of malice, but of the want to be near you. As a Harbinger, he’s often mobile, embarking on perilous missions for the Fatui, and can only make it home every few weeks, leaving you alone in your shared home. His position is a dangerous one, and there’s always a chance he won’t come home, which is one of his greatest fears.

Ajax is a family man, always striving to keep his siblings safe and make his parents proud. As a result, he’ll have you meet them as soon as you can, and as far as you can tell, they seem to like you. Tuecer recognizes you immediately from his time in Liyue, and clings to you, calling you big sib and having Anthon and baby Tonia do the same.

(NSFW) Now we know Ajax is one of the few people on this list to not have a rut, but do you know what he does have? He has an alternate form of an abyssal beast that does, which has way less restraint than his human form. Foul Legacy’s “rut” is the culmination of Ajax’s tendency to tease but never follow through, his need for you even when he’s away, and his absolute adoration for you and your body. Huge claws tracing your skin, leaving angry trails of red on your waist, hips, back, wherever he can reach. The opalescent orb settled in his mask admiring the bulge of your tummy as your poor cunt struggles to take all of his cock; he’ll understand if you can’t take it all, but a pleased chirp-like sound will erupt from his chest if you can manage all (checking notes) 16 inches (40.6 cm) of him, including the fat knot at his base. He may hold back, but that same orb will look down, and your facial expression will be enough to make him lose control, bucking into you at a pace you almost can’t handle. He’ll get loud, groaning and growling into the vacant space of the Golden House or the bedroom you share with him.  And as if just his cock was too much, just one load of his cum would leave you looking pregnant, and may end up getting you pregnant anyways (this goes without saying, only if you let him).

As a human, Ajax is most able to treat you just the way he wants--like the most precious and delicate relic he had ever laid his eyes upon. Unlike his demeanor in battle, he’d be gentle with his hands, ghosting his fingers over your skin, taking slow, deep strokes inside your weeping pussy. Now it’s you digging your fingers into his skin, throwing your head back as he hits the spot that drives you crazy, laying hickeys up and down your neck and chest. He’s also quite loud like this, never shying away from how his body reacts to yours; moans and groans would accompany the sweet, sinful sounds of his body connecting with yours. He’d press his forehead against yours as you reach your highs together, guide you through the foggy sensations washing over your body, and help you come down with even slower thrusts and gentle circles of his fingers around your clit as you scream his name, his real name. He knows pulling out is the worst, so he’ll insist on staying inside of you to ensure you feel full and warm inside.

Sure, he can be rough with you. He can tease you and edge you until you’re a crying, whining mess for his touch, his cock. If anything, he savors every night that he has you to himself, no matter how fast or slow, rough or gentle, whether he dominates your senses or becomes your submissive foxboy for the night. Any way it goes, you both bask in the aftercare, cuddling close under the warmth of the various sheets and blankets to combat the sudden drop in your bodies’ temperature, and the piercing frost of Snezhnaya’s mountains.

Ajax always looks forward to coming home to you, and he wouldn’t exactly mind coming home to a kid or two. Again he’s a hardcore family man, and would devote everything he has to settling down and having kids. He’d still worship the Tsaritsa and keep Foul Legacy, but would step down as a Harbinger and return his Delusion to Pierro in order to keep you and the children safe.

Tighnari (Fennec Fox)

Also uses he/they pronouns.

We imagine Tighnari developed his physique and knowledge from engaging in field research. They have a strong upper body due to his heavy use of a bow, and legs built for sprinting through the terrain of the forest floor. For the most part, he’s solitary, only keeping close company. Tighnari only seems to open up to Cyno, Collei, and you, only able to tolerate Al-Haitham and Kaveh during their weekly TCG duels at Lambad’s. He’s caring, but will display his care for others with a sassy, almost mocking tone and attitude, excluding the times you are alone together. At that point is when they feel safest, and can be vulnerable in your company alone.

Most often, his idea of a date is a research date, where you’ll accompany each other into the wild and assist each other in various experiments and observations. Other times, they’ll surprise you by leading you to the canopies of Ghandarva Ville to stargaze. Either way, Tighnari would hold you close and just ramble about anything and--if you let him--everything. He’d be cheesy with his flirting, perhaps Cyno’s knack for dumb humor is rubbing off on him. Tighnari would incorporate topics like research, mushrooms, the forest into the dumbest, cheesiest pick up lines for you (even though you’ve been together for years).

Speaking of mushrooms, most meals he makes and eats incorporate some delicious fungi. It’s been said that edible species of fungus have great effects on one’s health, so one of their ways of showing you affection is to cook you dishes that are both delicious and healthy.

Tighnari never really anticipates the effects some mushrooms have on the body and mind. Like seriously, you’d be wandering in a beautiful clearing, then boom there he is, splayed out in the grass tripping his ass off. Once they catch sight of you, it’ll be like they’re falling in love with you all over again, clinging to you and headbutting your chest, almost as if demanding that you scratch their ears.

(NSFW) After so long, and so much research, Tighnari is able to exploit his knowledge of fungal species to aid in your trysts together. Be it taking one with hallucinogenic properties, or a straight up aphrodisiac, you and Tighnari always find a way to enhance the pleasure you two feel.

He does experience ruts, usually in the late winter to mid-spring. For that time, they’ll become possessive and hide away with you in your shared hut. He’d rearrange your living space, and spray his scent (cologne, or something that reminds everyone of him) around the hut; even you end up smelling like him. Expect them to cling to you, even if you have to venture away from the safety of your shared home. His cooking will alter, and he’ll ignore any invitations from Cyno or Al-Haitham; all he’ll want to do is be with you. He’d be extra careful, and not risk using aphrodisiacs on you during his rut.

He’d take you at any hour of the day, his hips rocking against yours while you’re bent over any surface he can fit you on (which would be all of them). Or they’d have you on your back, be it on the sofa or in bed. Either way, he would want to be on top of you, or at least parallel to you. This will give them the chance to control and restrain themself much better than if you were on top. If that were the case, Nari would be bucking his hips up into you, whimpering and moaning loud enough for the neighbors to hear. They’d rather stay quiet and enjoy your moans, despite them knowing how much you adore their sounds, and claw at the soft skin of their back. You can always use his ears as an indicator of how close he is, as they’d be downturned the whole time, but begin to twitch indiscriminately as he reaches his peak, at which point he’ll ask where you want him. If you want them to pull out, they will and let you finish them off, knotting your hand while they reach down. If not, he’ll knot your cunt, pumping ropes of his thick seed into your walls. They’ll stay close and cuddle you, opting to keep you warm with their body and tail.

Outside of his rut, Tighnari is more keen on using fungi in the bedroom. Some nights, you and him would have the usual conversation, putting each other’s minds at ease, and hold each other close--foreheads pressed together, exchanging soft giggles and kisses--as the drugs you both took begin to take effect. You’d take it slow, basking in the warmth of their lips on your skin, fingers tracing over your most sensitive bits as they prep you to take them. The foreplay would be slow and drawn out, Nari focusing on your pleasure over his own as his nimble fingers and tongue gently stroke your slit until it’s drooling, weeping for his cock. Only after you’ve had a few orgasms will they even want to feel your pussy clench around their length. Even then, he’ll pull you into his lap, having you set the pace. In tandem with the mushrooms you had both eaten, the emphasis that Tighnari places on your pleasure will have your head reeling as you grind against them, feeling every touch of their skin against yours as you overstimulate each other.

Again, Tighnari will hold you close once your bodies are too exhausted to keep moving, curling his tail around your spent body, pressing kisses to your cooling skin and massaging any soreness from the muscles beneath. They love you dearly, and their actions both in the field and in the bedroom convey that clearly. He cherishes you, and is proud to have you as his mate for life.

Xiao (Bird)

We headcanon that Xiao specifically would be a solitary prey bird, like an eagle or an owl hybrid. This means that he’s territorial before anything else. He doesn’t want to lose anything else, let alone you. You are one of the few people he holds close to his heart, and he’d destroy anything to ensure your safety. The only limit he finds to protecting you would be his loyalty to Rex Lapis.

Your adeptus boyfriend is slim and lean, built for speed. He has a long stride, despite his short stature, and can traverse Dihua Marsh in the blink of an eye.

You are one of the few people he’ll let near him at any given time, especially as Spring approaches. Xiao may spend most of his time away from Wangshu--leaving your nest-like bed cold and empty--but he always ensures that he returns with another blanket, pillow, or flower to add to the cozy pile. You don’t mind patching him up, just so long as he comes home in one piece. He doesn’t mind you scolding him, just so long as he can return to your warm embrace.

(NSFW) The yaksha are damn near extinct, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if you wake up one spring morning to his hard length grinding between your plush thighs, hands gripping your waist to hold you steady as he whimpers into your ear, begging to pump you full of his seed.

Be ready for almost constant contact with Xiao during his rut. All day, and all night, he’ll want to hold you close. He won’t care where, but if he can, he will most definitely be whispering his lust into your ear. He’s shameless and blunt, his words reaching down your spine to your core. Don’t worry, he’ll drag you somewhere nice and private to fulfill his lascivious promises. He’s not afraid to get caught, he’ll take you to Wangshu’s roof, drag you to Luhua pool, or just bend you over a random rock in the marsh

Other than that, Xiao’s habits remain pretty consistent when it comes to those hot nights at the inn. He’ll prep you with his tongue and fingers, every time, without fail, to ensure you can take his length without hurting. He’d hold your hand as he bottoms out, instructing you to squeeze if anything hurts. Once he’s in, tip kissing your insides, he’ll hold still and whisper his love and lust into the skin of your neck. Despite your teasing, he takes it seriously the whole time, each thrust is deliberate and precise as whimpers haphazardly escape his soft lips. He doesn’t experiment much, but is at least willing to try out a couple of things. His hard limit is anything regarding actions that will actually hurt you or permanently scar you, and he won’t touch you unless he knows you’re comfortable.

After a few rounds, he’d give you a choice: either you fall asleep while still connected, or he’ll carry you to the bathroom to clean you up. Either way, you always end up cuddled close together, Xiao carding his slender fingers between your hair as you watch the sun rise.

Due to Zhongli’s generosity (and Childe’s wallet), you and Xiao never run short of fancy lotions and soaps. His favorites, of course, are the ones that make you smell of a plate of Sweet Dreams (almond and qingxin).

Zhongli (dragon)

We headcanon that Zhongli uses he/she/they pronouns, depending on the form they take.

Even after retiring, Zhongli retains many of the qualities that once signified the great Rex Lapis; be it their shapeshifting abilities, immense strength, or their stoic demeanor. Over the millenia, the Geo Archon took many forms, finding themself preferring the half-dragonic figure that sculpted the very earth you stand on, Rex Lapis. During the early stages of your relationship, however, they were getting self-conscious, constantly assuring you that they could take any form you wish. You’d retort, telling them that you’d be happiest with them in their most comfortable form, which broke the stony expression lining his visage.

As the dragon hybrid, Rex Lapis is most relaxed, and your shared room will reflect that with soft lighting, pillows and blankets piled up in the bed (almost akin to a hoard), and a constant loop of Liyue’s finest hymns and lullabies emitting from the euphonium unbound; it’ll be quite the chore to tempt them away from the cozy space. Perhaps you of all things, their most esteemed treasure, could be the perfect little trinket to lure your draconic love from the mountain of bedding. Or you could just be the opposite, the crown jewel pinned between the plush duvets and their imposing figure as their tail surrounds your leg and their tongue dances with yours.

In his human form, Zhongli poses less of a bite risk, and he’d rather just rest with your head settled on his lap, reading the latest light novels. The room will reflect this as well, with stacks and shelves full of scrolls and books surrounding the cozy bed, floor lamps decorating the safest space one could imagine. He’d be engrossed in said books, absentmindedly carding his fingers amongst your hair as the stories enthrall his attention.

(NSFW) Rex Lapis will most often be their form of choice during monthly ruts, as their dragon-esque body would need to retain plenty of energy. Usually Zhongli and you would have the necessary discussions and preparation for both you and himself ahead of time, be it buying extra food or medicine ingredients, running extra laundry, or just talking to each other through the whole thing. Rex Lapis becomes more secluded, only remaining in your shared bed except to either eat, or to find you for spicy time. Speaking of which, Rex Lapis would often just wake you with their nose bumped against your belly, just above your womb. If you got the message and agreed, you’d spend the day getting pumped full, load after load. Their preferred position would be you straddling their body, controlling the pace as they hold you close. They wouldn’t speak much, opting to show their affections for you in the form of pleasured grunts, growls and whines; their yearning for your heated body in the form of languid strokes of their tongue against your burning skin. They’d show some restraint, evident in their gentle thrusts as they press their cocks within your hot walls.

Rex Lapis will overstimulate themself with your body, going round after round before their mind goes blank, giving you as much room to take over as you’d like and keep fucking them brainless to your heart’s content.

During the rest of the year, Zhongli is more willing to experiment with you, and toy with your body. He won’t need to be as gentle with you, but will still take precautions so as not to hurt you. If anything, Zhongli wants to spoil you at all times. Everything you say goes, including your pleading moans and cries for him to plow into you harder, faster, more, and he will certainly acquiesce. It’s fairly easy for Zhongli to dominate you like this, seeing as he has more control over his body and mind. Seeing you, spread wide open on his cock, legs anchoring him in, taking everything he’s willing to give you, now that just turns him on even more as his hips slam against yours. He enjoys the sight of you drowning in pleasure, the tears of bliss rolling down your cheeks and your cunt weeping with need. He’ll give you everything, reaching between the two of you to roll your sensitive clit with his thumb in order to overstimulate you as you reach your peaks together.

During the last round, Zhongli will be slow and gentle, grinding into you while planting kiss after kiss anywhere he can reach--your neck, chest, lips, cheeks, etc.--as your orgasm slowly builds. Ironically, he’ll speak words of worship, adoration, praise into your ears as your climax washes over your body like a tidal wave.

In the afterglow, your skin shimmering with a layer of sweat, Zhongli will always be there with you, ready to spoil you and make sure you feel safe and loved in his arms. Cuddles and massage would ensue, and if you’re up to it, he would draw you a warm, steamy bath to help relax your muscles. He’d pull out all the stops to ensure your comfort, opting to dress you in your softest pajamas afterward, replace and wash the sheets, and carry you around as he pampers you. He’ll lay you down in bed and crawl in with you, holding you close and humming a soft lullaby as the two of you drift off among the soft sheets and crashing waves of the harbor.

[justforbooks]

The DeepSeek panic reveals an AI world ready to blow❗💥

The R1 chatbot has sent the tech world spinning – but this tells us less about China than it does about western neuroses

The arrival of DeepSeek R1, an AI language model built by the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, has been nothing less than seismic. The system only launched last week, but already the app has shot to the top of download charts, sparked a $1tn (£800bn) sell-off of tech stocks, and elicited apocalyptic commentary in Silicon Valley. The simplest take on R1 is correct: it’s an AI system equal in capability to state-of-the-art US models that was built on a shoestring budget, thus demonstrating Chinese technological prowess. But the big lesson is perhaps not what DeepSeek R1 reveals about China, but about western neuroses surrounding AI.

For AI obsessives, the arrival of R1 was not a total shock. DeepSeek was founded in 2023 as a subsidiary of the Chinese hedge fund High-Flyer, which focuses on data-heavy financial analysis – a field that demands similar skills to top-end AI research. Its subsidiary lab quickly started producing innovative papers, and CEO Liang Wenfeng told interviewers last November that the work was motivated not by profit but “passion and curiosity”.

This approach has paid off, and last December the company launched DeepSeek-V3, a predecessor of R1 with the same appealing qualities of high performance and low cost. Like ChatGPT, V3 and R1 are large language models (LLMs): chatbots that can be put to a huge variety of uses, from copywriting to coding. Leading AI researcher Andrej Karpathy spotted the company’s potential last year, commenting on the launch of V3: “DeepSeek (Chinese AI co) making it look easy today with an open weights release of a frontier-grade LLM trained on a joke of a budget.” (That quoted budget was $6m – hardly pocket change, but orders of magnitude less than the $100m-plus needed to train OpenAI’s GPT-4 in 2023.)

R1’s impact has been far greater for a few different reasons.

First, it’s what’s known as a “chain of thought” model, which means that when you give it a query, it talks itself through the answer: a simple trick that hugely improves response quality. This has not only made R1 directly comparable to OpenAI’s o1 model (another chain of thought system whose performance R1 rivals) but boosted its ability to answer maths and coding queries – problems that AI experts value highly. Also, R1 is much more accessible. Not only is it free to use via the app (as opposed to the $20 a month you have to pay OpenAI to talk to o1) but it’s totally free for developers to download and implement into their businesses. All of this has meant that R1’s performance has been easier to appreciate, just as ChatGPT’s chat interface made existing AI smarts accessible for the first time in 2022.

Second, the method of R1’s creation undermines Silicon Valley’s current approach to AI. The dominant paradigm in the US is to scale up existing models by simply adding more data and more computing power to achieve greater performance. It’s this approach that has led to huge increases in energy demands for the sector and tied tech companies to politicians. The bill for developing AI is so huge that techies now want to leverage state financing and infrastructure, while politicians want to buy their loyalty and be seen supporting growing companies. (See, for example, Trump’s $500bn “Stargate” announcement earlier this month.) R1 overturns the accepted wisdom that scaling is the way forward. The system is thought to be 95% cheaper than OpenAI’s o1 and uses one tenth of the computing power of another comparable LLM, Meta’s Llama 3.1 model. To achieve equivalent performance at a fraction of the budget is what’s truly shocking about R1, and it’s this that has made its launch so impactful. It suggests that US companies are throwing money away and can be beaten by more nimble competitors.

But after these baseline observations, it gets tricky to say exactly what R1 “means” for AI. Some are arguing that R1’s launch shows we’re overvaluing companies like Nvidia, which makes the chips integral to the scaling paradigm. But it’s also possible the opposite is true: that R1 shows AI services will fall in price and demand will, therefore, increase (an economic effect known as Jevons paradox, which Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella helpfully shared a link to on Monday). Similarly, you might argue that R1’s launch shows the failure of US policy to limit Chinese tech development via export controls on chips. But, as AI policy researcher Lennart Heim has argued, export controls take time to work and affect not just AI training but deployment across the economy. So, even if export controls don’t stop the launches of flagships systems like R1, they might still help the US retain its technological lead (if that’s the outcome you want).

All of this is to say that the exact effects of R1’s launch are impossible to predict. There are too many complicating factors and too many unknowns to say what the future holds. However, that hasn’t stopped the tech world and markets reacting in a frenzy, with CEOs panicking, stock prices cratering, and analysts scrambling to revise predictions for the sector. And what this really shows is that the world of AI is febrile, unpredictable and overly reactive. This a dangerous combination, and if R1 doesn’t cause a destructive meltdown of this system, it’s likely that some future launch will.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[warsublime]

Open Source Note Taking

I know all of you have followed me for the horny posts about sexual violence but I have decided to post some recommendations for open source tools each Friday to promote my other insidious agenda of increased privacy, security, and independence from for-profit companies.

A lot of you here probably like to journal and take notes so I decided to start with some dedicated note taking apps. Of course you can also take notes in LibreOffice and Cryptpad, but those are more general office solutions similar to Microsoft Office or Google Docs.

Freeplane

For most of my my personal note-taking right now I like to use Freeplane. It's free and open source (hence the name), runs on pretty much every desktop, and provides a solid note taking environment. Notes are represented as graphs (typically trees) which can contain cells which have arbitrary data. These cells can be manipulated with a built-in scripting language which allows you to use it like a spreadsheet in addition to using to store notes. Nodes can be folded as well, and you can make decision trees, flowcharts, etc. very easily.

The interface may look somewhat intimidating since it's not just a regular note taking app, and many users take a mind-mapping approach, but you can just imagine it as a nested tree with the nodes closer to the root being broader concepts than the leaves.

Joplin

Joplin is a markdown based tool for note taking, though it provides a WYSIWYG style editor, intra-notebook links, the ability to store templates, to-do lists, and a few more advanced features. It has an android and iOS app as well. If you want to sync your notes between devices you can self-host a server, use some sort of file sharing tool (like KDE Connect), or pay for their service.

I no longer use it (having since moved to Freeplane, KDE PIM, and SQL), but it's a good program and it might be good for your problems since everyone has different needs.

KDE PIM (KOrganiser or Merkuro)

If you use KDE already, KDE has a PIM suite which allows you to create tasks, events, and schedule things. You can use these to take journal entries which can show up in any calendar you share CalDAV info with (which means that you can link most calendar services to it). It can also be used to share when you are free if you like to schedule meetings. I personally use it for my own daily journaling and task management.

Just Plain Markdown

You can also store things in just plain old markdown files (org mode in emacs or just regular .md

files). Many people swear by this and there are some compelling benefits (near universal compatibility with any text editor as well as a very simple interface for extending it). For this you don't really need any specialized tools, just a text editor of your choosing, ideally with some highlighting for markdown. Nearly every text editor has it, so there's not much to say there.

SQL Databases

This is a niche solution, but I am going to mention it anyways since it took me years to actually try it out despite knowing SQL since no one else mentioned it. If you know SQL just using straight up SQL with a SQL database management tool is actually really good. I have done it (and do it) since for some tasks like storing recipes the added structure is actually quite useful. (and you can do complex queries on the data as well) Essentially you just break your notes into different types (possibly even thinking about how to normalize your knowledge representation, though there's a lot of bikeshedding that way) and then turn those types into tables.

Postgresql is my preferred option simply because I use it at work (and let's face it, if you use SQL you probably do to). However, if you aren't already experienced with SQL it isn't something I would recommend. Though I would recommend learning SQL to everyone, since databases have a similar set of capabilities as spreadsheets but are even more powerful and useful.

[gwydionmisha]

Do you trust them not to steal the data, given how at least one of the hackers he hired has a history of working with cyber criminals and another was fired from a company because he leaked information?

Do you think people claiming to be so incompetent at their job that they lied and are still lying that COBOL error messages are somehow proof of massive fraud on a large scale to update a program written in COBOL?

Do you trust them not to completely fuck up the new website either through incompetence or on purpose as a way to steal people's benefits, maybe declare people dead or delete them for "fraud" if they don't like their last names or where they live?

Do you think using AI in code that is vital to the survival of so many Americans is a good Idea?

From the article:

"The DOGE team has already been reportedly running highly sensitive government data through AI, as the Washington Post reported last month, so why not use it to cheat-code your way to a more modern programming language? The reason, of course is the risk of cascading failures during any rush-job that might mean missed payments or beneficiary information getting wiped from the system entirely."

This is utterly terrifying, especially given the fact that they've already completely funked up Social Security phone service. How do I know? Just over a month ago, I called to do the quick phone tree to get a proof of income from them, something I have to do multiple times a year because various programs want them and they need to be very recent. The phone tree had been noticeably improved since last time I'd used it in the fall. When I called today 3/31/25, they had completely removed all the quick phone tree options.

They took a service that was completely automated in the last ten years, and thus super cheap and already in place, for people with a bunch of routine, common, queries and yanked all that out, requiring people to get in line for a live person. Last time I needed live agent service it took about five hours to get back to me.

They are lying that this is about efficiency and saving money. Leaving the automated system in place is dramatically cheaper than paying people to answer, especially at a time they are firing people.

This is meant to break the system and force the people who need their benefits the most out of the system.

Musk has given the goal of stealing Social Security benefits away from people who earned the benefit and actually need it:

"“In fact, what we’re doing will help their benefits,” Musk said. “Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less. I want to emphasize that. As a result of the work of DOGE, legitimate recipients of Social Security will receive more money, not less money.”"

The only way that happens is to take it away from the majority of recipients. You know the people Lutnick claims are fraudsters if they complain at the theft of their rent and electricity bill money recently.

Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters?

If you can't safely contact them in person, here are some other options:

Five Calls to your critters: https://5calls.org/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resist.bot/

Scream loudest at republican Critters. Those are their voters Musk is trying to kill, but whatever critters you have, stay noisy. We have until 4/14 to stop them.

[robfinancialtip]

We sit down with Greg, CEO of Buyist Pro, to explore how AI is transforming the online shopping experience.

Greg shares his passionate perspective on AI's role in solving eCommerce's fundamental problem: complexity. He explains how Buyist Pro uses AI to simplify the complicated web of credit card processing, order fulfillment, customer service, and website management. While acknowledging AI's current limitations, Greg emphasizes that it's "already good enough" and improving constantly. We discuss how AI's ability to process vast amounts of platform data and respond to natural language queries makes it a game-changing tool for online retailers.

Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:24 How Buyist uses AI for eCommerce 2:55 The Buyist Pro Advantage 4:02 Overcoming The Problems With AI 5:04 Using AI for eCommerce

Join us for our next episode, where we'll dive deeper into the future of eCommerce platforms.

[nishtha135]

Which coding languages should I learn to boost my IT career opportunities?

A career in IT needs a mix of versatile programming languages. Here are some of the most essential ones:

Python – Easy to learn and widely used for data science, machine learning, web development, and automation.

JavaScript – Key for web development, allowing interactive websites and backend work with frameworks like Node.js.

Java – Known for stability, popular for Android apps, enterprise software, and backend development.

C++ – Great for systems programming, game development, and areas needing high performance.

SQL – Essential for managing and querying databases, crucial for data-driven roles.

C# – Common in enterprise environments and used in game development, especially with Unity.

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

On 25 February, there appeared one of the most spectacular retraction notices it has ever been Feedback’s pleasure to read. A retraction notice is when a scientific journal decides that a study it has published is so flawed and unreliable that it effectively unpublishes it.

The new retraction notice covered not one, not two, but five articles in Perceptual and Motor Skills, all by Nicolas Guéguen at the University of Southern Brittany in France.

The five studies were published between 2002 and 2009. To pick just one, in 2007 Guéguen was the sole author of a study entitled “Bust Size and Hitchhiking: A field study”. It purports to show, using real-world experiments, that women with larger breasts are more likely to be picked up when hitchhiking. Two years later, this time with a colleague, he found that blonde women were also more likely to be able to hitch a ride.

With results like that, it is no wonder Guéguen’s work became a popular subject for news stories. Alas, this does include New Scientist, which in 2008 covered a study (not yet retracted) claiming women were more receptive to chat-up lines when at their peak monthly fertility.

It took almost another decade for the house of cards to start shaking. In 2017, researchers Nick Brown (who blogs as “steamtraen”) and James Heathers began writing about Guéguen’s work. They found he was prolific, often publishing “10 or more sole-authored empirical articles per year… many of which include extensive fieldwork”. Immediately raising the question: how did he find time? They also became suspicious of the large effects claimed.

And then the house of cards started to crumble. In 2019, the International Review of Social Psychology added “expressions of concern” to six of Guéguen’s papers. In 2022, The Journal of Social Psychology retracted a study claiming that men perceived women as having stronger sexual intent if they were wearing red, noting that “table one in the manuscript had four combinations of means and standard deviations that were impossible given the reported sample sizes”. That same year, the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology slapped an expression of concern onto a study claiming that men were more likely to help a woman “when her hair fell naturally on her neck, shoulders and upper back”.

And now come the latest retractions. The notice explaining them is a doozy, albeit couched in academic language. It warns of “low confidence that the study designs were implemented as described” and that “much of the data in these articles are implausible or were incorrectly analyzed”. In other words: we don’t believe he did what he said, and in any event, he did it wrong.

The editors say Guéguen didn’t respond to their queries. Frankly, given the nature of his work, Feedback suspects his only reply would have been: “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”

It seems only right to let Heathers have the last word: “Just remember that if you write unreliable, embarrassing, Benny-Hill-ass studies and someone finds out just how badly you did that… then you, too, could be pretty much OK for seven years or so before there are broader consequences.”