Sub-Etha Software

06/22/2026

Commodore is making a flip phone. In 2026.

If you have followed the rebirth of Commodore, you may be aware they brought out a new Commodore 64 computer. This model was using an FPGA to simulate/recreate the hardware in the original 1980s home computer, with a claim of being 99.9% compatible with existing Commodore 64 stuff. What came next was a surprise (and even shock) to most Commodore followers: …...

If you have followed the rebirth of Commodore, you may be aware they brought out a new Commodore 64 computer. This model was using an FPGA to simulate/recreate the hardware in the original 1980s ho…

06/22/2026

Meanwhile, after spending almost all day trying to get this project configured and building, I find it won't work on a 16-bit system. AI says it did not know and assumed I was using 32-bit. So I pointe out how this entire chat sessions started. So, "oops, my bad" yet again.

06/22/2026

Lather, rinse, repeat. The A.I. is useless. Even showing it what files are there it then proceeds to tell you to keep using files that are not there.

Skynet is not a threat.

06/22/2026

After repeatedly lying, the A.I. decides it will try to be "entirely factual."

06/22/2026

"Let me give you the exact same instructions after you just told me these files do not exist. First, add the files that do not exist ..."

06/22/2026

"1. Add these four files. 2. Add these X files. 3. Add these Y files..."

"I found the first four just fine, but do not find any of the others."

"Oh, I meant 1. add these TWO files..."

06/22/2026

When it's bad, it is "A.I. Slop".

When it is good, it is just "clip art but different." Much like when folks were made fun of for using clipart (not very original to have the same graphic that you see on hundreds of other websites), I see more and more folks being made fun of for using AI generated junk on their pages/websites. "It just has that look." Pity. It had so much potential.

06/18/2026

Another downside of smart programmers

If I had a nickel for every time this has happened to me... I'd have quite a few nickels. There are clear advantages to writing code out in the simplest and longest form. Not only is it easier to understand by programmers less talented than you (after all, you are super smart, and most people around you are super dumb), it can save time later when someone is trying to find that code....

If I had a nickel for every time this has happened to me… I’d have quite a few nickels. There are clear advantages to writing code out in the simplest and longest form. Not only is it e…

06/17/2026

YouTube's algorithm is interesting. On June 11 I posted a reel (short video) about a theme park. Three days later, June 14, I posted a clip of a soap tray in a hotel. Guess which one YouTube is showing to people? Is this really what people watch? Soap trays? I need to do more soap tray videos...

06/17/2026

Sometime around 2000, I signed up with Sprint PCS (remember them?) so I could get a Palm PDA smartphone - the Kyocera 6035. I went through two or three different PalmOS phones until the iPhone came out in 2007 and I switched to one of those, and ported my number to AT&T. When I had some "severe financial challenges" starting around 2011, I had to give up my home internet, home phone, and cellphone. To save my number, I ported it to Google Voice, where it has remained ever since. But these days? Nope, you can't use it in many places. Even though that number has been "mine" for 25 years... But they will accept the prepaid phone number I have, which has also belonged to a bunch of other folks (based not he texts it receives). AH, security. When a burner phone is allowed, but not a number you have had for a quarter of a century...