Jesse Howe

✝️🇺🇸 Evangelize. Engineering expert leveraging tech for good.

Hockey, software, games, politics.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

How do you know your vote was counted?

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

NJ’s voter fraud will not be unique to that state.

NJ allows anyone including illegals to obtain a drivers license. When you do you can register to vote to. It seems that the claim by the governor is that the system registered everyone to vote who obtained a license.

They call it a glitch but I would call it a feature.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@NickJFreitas I think I had heard that people were saying Trump was going to suspend elections here in the US.

Meanwhile actual dictators….

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck too. When their taxes end up being stolen - why did congress make them pay in the first place? It could have gone towards bills or food.

We should have a rule - elected officials should pay the tax payers back out of their own pockets if they fail to prevent fraud.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

I’m not for attacking or blaming anyone without evidence. That being said, there are at least two things about that day that feel like red flags to me:

Do we have a reason for the construction work the next day?
Why did Kirk’s friend on the cell phone run away when the shot rang out?

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@NickJFreitas She got through from ranked choice if I recall - lost to another frontrunner

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

The road to perdition is paved with good intentions. What safeguards will be in place for these technological weapons?

My concern is that I know our innovations are themselves inherently neutral and can truly only be safe when the user is a wholly moral and well trained user. This is where I have major concerns - our government has proven often that it is neither.

I think this is all inevitable - but it is a legitimate fear that our good intentions here will be our undoing in 50 years, likely less.

The speed at which quantum runs when coupled with AI would hypothetically blow away everything we have. Post quantum security is already in place but I don’t yet understand fully how an all powerful AI running with quantum resources could not just devastate everything and anything instantly.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

As we enter the summer heat and start to get lectured about global warming by the people building data centers; I thought it would be interesting to pull Roanoke’s annual temperature extremes to see how we are trending.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@paulg I mean this respectfully, can you explain why this is bad?

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

Shenandoah County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously 6-0 on June 23 to adopt a data center ordinance.

The new rules make data centers a “special use” in industrial zones only. Any future project would need a special use permit, public hearing, and would have to meet standards on water use, noise, setbacks, and environmental impact.

At the meeting, about 30 residents spoke in opposition and pushed for an outright ban or temporary moratorium, citing the county’s severe drought and concerns about water, noise, and rural character. The room reacted angrily when the vote passed, with shouts of “traitor,” “sold us out,” and “vote them out.”

Supervisors defended the vote as the best way to keep local control rather than risk legal challenges or having no rules at all.

For comparison: Front Royal Town Council voted 6-0 the previous night to reject zoning changes that would have allowed data centers.

No specific data center projects were approved in this vote — it was just the zoning framework.

What do you think about how this was handled?

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

Did you know that Trump’s tax cuts and big beautiful bill have been wearing away at the death tax? This is excellent news for farmers who no longer will have to choose to sell their farms off to data centers and solar farms just to cover the taxes incurred in the hand off.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@Not_the_Bee Good for them. As long as they are progressing in their lives - home ownership can come later. Do not let the banks crush your kids with a mortgage!

Live at home - get that down payment - don’t take on debt or student loans beyond what is reasonable.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@NickJFreitas It’s sad but they don’t care with these marketing texts. It’s just to funnel “patriots” into financing them, as well all know.

Our elections are a black box - and I’m convinced they (both parties) need it to remain that way so that they can choose who wins when they need to.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

Its AI yes and its also the offshoring and h1b usage.

The problem prior to AI was everyone was sold a lie that tech was simultaneously easy to learn and that also we had a shortage; hence ‘learn to code’.

Both are not ever likely to be true. It is not likely that a career field is easy to do and also pays high. Everyone will just flock to that career field until it is saturated and pay drops. After all - pay is typically dictated by position risk and replacement costs.

I think we can safely rule out the easy to do part - every field is easy to learn and do in the 101 sense. However, long gone are the salaries of the 2000s Silicon Valley era because of offshoring and h1bs saturating the field on top of new grads flocking to positions that the previous generation sold to offshore labor instead.

Now with the advent of AI being mainstream I think companies are well within the ability to bring jobs back onshore; an American developer can now do quite a bit of work when augmented by AI if they treat AI like a tool and not a replacement.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

Fable is launching next year and one of the things I was curious about was its morality system.

Fable was developed by Lionhead studios under Molyneux before Microsoft got them. Microsoft then transferred the Fable IP to be managed by Playground studios, makers of Forza.

Fable was iconic for how your moral decision making in-game would directly impact your appearance and also what was available to you in-game. For example - be the most evil and you had access to the most powerful bow.

To a generation of kids - and I know you don’t want games raising your kids - it reinforced a world in which actions have consequences; and where morality was not subjective.

The new developers - Playground - have decided to gut that system. In doing they are taking the position that morality is subjective. This is important because games influence culture. To me this is yet another shifting of our cultural moral goalposts; its purpose (whether it is effective or not is yet to be known) is a gentle subversion of our moral systems and consequences.

Back in the day people used to claim that violent video games made kids more violent. I don’t know how true that claim is but I think what was and still is true is that violent video games desensitize kids to violence. So when you see violence it doesn’t affect you as much, you’re numb to it; which is not a good thing because you no longer treat such violence for what it is.

So will immoral games like the upcoming Fable cause immoral kids? I don’t think so entirely but it will desensitize them to immorality especially if good and evil are totally subjective to a point where what you teach your kid is evil; the game may say is good based on story and location. It will desensitize the players to immorality the same way violent games desensitize them to violence.

Fable should reverse this decision and bring back moral consequences and the system of good and evil. I mean, is it really Fable without it?

[Fable @fable]

Fable launches February 23, 2027.

Become the Hero you want to be in an immersive open-world action-RPG where each choice shapes your journey, reputation is everything, and fairytale endings are never guaranteed.

✨ Pre-Order to receive the Pre-Order Content Pack, featuring the questionably heroic Chicken Suit and a collection of charming in-game gifts: https://t.co/AAMTOsZV9b

*Pre-orders open later today

#Fable #FableTheGame #XBOXShowcase | @WeArePlayground

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@robbystarbuck Elections are a black box. Theres no way to ever know, with our current system, that your vote was even properly counted let alone know that no fake votes were counted.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

We really need this.

I’ve seen businesses destroyed because their competitors hire illegals and no one is enforcing any punishment on the employers that do it.

I got a quote the other month for some work - one company came in at less than half of everyone else. I think it was obvious that they’re hiring illegals and not paying taxes on that labor. So by not enforcing immigration laws - while also taxing us - the government is effectively making it materially difficult for its own citizens to compete.

Either end taxes so we can compete or start enforcing the laws. Ideally both.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

U.S. companies employ more IT workers in India than America graduates computer science students over a decade.

We should have 0 unemployed IT graduates. Yet our companies are supporting other nations instead of our own.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

Are you curious how Virginia's new taxes are going to potentially impact you?

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

We need to get back to understanding that nothing is free.

A $160K earner pays $23,067 into the system over 20 years (employer + employee combined) but can only collect $18,084 from 3 average length claims because their benefit is hard capped at the state average weekly wage of $1,507. Their actual 80% replacement would be $2,462/week, but they never see that.

If Virginia's take mirrors early year programs (around 1–3%), the system collects $1.3–1.5B/year while paying out only $172M–$516M. That leaves massive annual surpluses.

Effectively - we're yet again being overtaxed with little benefit.

[Jesse Howe @HoweThoughtful]

@AlexZzzzzzzza @GovernorVA How is it common sense? I get the idea of promoting family growth but the burden was put on everyone else. So yes you get 4 weeks off but then you lose more than 3600 in income over your next 10 years in taxes to support the system.