Jason Ellis
RandomStringOfWords.com
a space for sharing ideas, reflections, and the occasional strong opinion. If you're here, you're probably curious about something I've built, said, or am working on. Either way, I'm glad you found your way here.
Most Recent Blog Posts
The Thief You Voted For...
Your average thief doesn't give a shit about what they're stealing. No pride. No respect. No sense of what it cost you to earn it....
Bailing Water With a Teaspoon: Why I Left Law Enforcement
I'm not a cop anymore. I get asked why I left, why I didn't stick it out for the pension. Here's the truth: being a...
Voyager 1 Still Works When Last Season's "Smart Phone" Doesn't
Voyager 1 was built in 1977. Forty-eight years later it's still doing its job. Meanwhile a $1,200 smartphone can't survive three years. Funny how that...
Why the Hell Do I Go to Bicolline?
Once a year, I disappear. No laptop, no meetings, no glowing rectangle. I drive north and step into a medieval village in the woods of...
We Could've Had Amigas, but Commodore Was Run by Morons
I'll die on this hill: if Commodore had half a clue, we'd all be using Amigas today. Not Windows. Not Mac. Amigas. And they threw...
AI Is Coming for Developers... Like Calculators Came for Math Teachers
The robots are coming, ChatGPT and Claude are going to replace software developers. Except... no. Saying AI will replace developers is like saying calculators replaced...
Political Correctness: Tyranny With Manners
Politeness isn't the problem. Forced conformity is. Somewhere along the line, political correctness stopped being about decency and became a straightjacket.
That's Not What It Says... Stop Lying.
I call it out when the left spins a narrative from thin air. This time I caught the right doing it — same shenanigans, different...
Will ChatGPT Steal Our Programming Jobs?
For fun, I gave ChatGPT text from my site and told it to write a post in my voice on why it won't steal our...
Not Going With Garmin
People are always shocked when I tell them I'm not going with Garmin for my RV-10. One thing wins me over or makes me leave...
Good Programmer, Garbage Idea Man
I'm a good programmer but I'm really crap at coming up with ideas. I can implement — I just don't want to implement someone else's...
PayPal Put Me in a Limited State for Suspicious Activity
I have been using PayPal since 2001. That all ended today. They locked my account for 'suspicious activity' they refused to explain — and they'll...