nasb, fedi is for losers
been feeling this for a while too and wondering how to put it into words. especially in light of all the techfash, pressing climate and general market problems, etc
one of the things I've been holding onto (hoping in?) is my estimation/belief that I don't think the current state of all the deeply-fucked systems is inherently stable, or viable. as I've said here before, that very instability is part of why so many of them are engaged in trying to set things up to protect those self-same systems, as they know the swingback is coming and they want to make it as hard as possible to claw things back from them
but how long until it breaks, and with how much splash damage, are things I haven't really been able to estimate
as seen via jwz, the tail wagging the dog continues (archive) at mozilla
"if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" but the wrong way around. I guess they got tired of begging google for money?
And, for the foreseeable future at least, advertising is a key commercial engine of the internet
this tracks analogously to something I've been saying for a while as well, but with some differences. one of the most notable is the misrepresentation here of "the internet", in the stead of "all the entities playing the online advertising game to extract from everyone else"
been thinking this quite a bit too, yeah
“curated”
it shouldn’t surprise me that the dipshit who was massively involved in “solving language” doesn’t understand the meaning of words, but grrrrr
(and I say that as an armchair linguist who understands that language is as people use it (fuck prescriptivism))
as the dynamics stand they’re more enabler than victim, in the terminology of harm. and I’d argue that applies, because this shit is harmful
user: metamichael created: 23 hours ago
lul
yeah, enterprise agile is a whole thing. for companies who want to do agile. how do you do agile? well you hire Agile Practitioners, of course!
see also this for further psychic injury
wouldn't that just be funny as fuck
what... what exactly do you think people like dreamhost and bluehost and such do? in your mind, do they have special dreampress and bluepress "vendored" versions of wordpress?
good lord
App developers think that’s a bogus argument. Mr. Bier told me that data he had seen from start-ups he advised suggested that contact sharing had dropped significantly since the iOS 18 changes went into effect, and that for some apps, the number of users sharing 10 or fewer contacts had increased as much as 25 percent.
aww, does the widdle app's business model collapse completely once it can't harvest data? how sad
this reinforces a suspicion that I've had for a while: the only reason most people put up with any of this shit is because it's an all or nothing choice and they don't know the full impact (because it's intentionally obscured). the moment you give them an overt choice that makes them think about it, turns out most are actually not fine with the state of affairs
(also h/t to @self who I just realized was the one that retooted the thing where I saw this)
basilisk save us from breathless idiocy by rubes
Altman’s investors will have had to get comfortable with at least four levels of intricacy.
ah yes the four-fold path of investing, the true religion
More head-scratching is OpenAI’s governance. Altman was ousted last year, then swiftly returned.
“I cannot look at this and analyse the power structure, and thus I am very confused as to how this happened”
But investors making that call today must surely be powered more by instinct than intelligence.
“must surely”? call the builders, we’ve found a new ultra-strong load bearing phrase
also it gives them even more network control and data, something entirely beneficial to them
And now they're actually Open Source
sorta, but it’s a veneer in furtherance of other goals (telemetry, market dominance, and control)
one of the things I do with my computers is run LittleSnitch in always-prompt mode (LS is an app-level firewalling solution on macos), and hooo boy do I hate it when I end up having to open/touch vscode for some reason. the last time I did, I spent most of the first 5 minutes being prompted for (undeclared!) connections vscode attempted to make in the name of telemetry. similar experience with vscodium interacting with packages, and a bunch of their toolchains
"bro.. bro! hear me out! imagine, like, research, right? but as a bar game! c'mon bro it'll be so cool bro just check bro"
that's his one move
what's the over/under on the spruce pine thing causing promptfondlers and their ilk to suddenly not be able to get chips, and then hit a(n even more concrete) ceiling?
(I know there may be some of the stuff in stockpiles awaiting fabrication, but still, can't be enough to withstand that shock)
wow look at this one, too good to headbutt a screen like is tradition
I've been playing with "mass averaging synthesis machines", variations on "automated plagiarism", "content theftwashing systems"
still undecided tho
hands up anyone else who wants one
What is a Turing machine?Depending on who you ask, it's either an abstract model of an algorithmic machine or an esoteric programming language. It's ...
'cuz I definitely do
fresh money in, and mira’s bouncing
OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati said Wednesday she is leaving the company after more than six years.
> “stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration.”
yeah I completely believe you, weird lady. I too want to vaguely step into the warm embrace of my piles of ill-gotten gold, forgetting about the stressors of how to sell something that doesn’t exist and that you helped claim would be here really soon now. ahhh, bliss..
one’s gotta wonder about the timing of this announcement, right? like come the fuck on
good news everyone, mariadb strain is now owned by PE
/PRNewswire/ -- K1 Investment Management, LLC ("K1"), one of the largest investors in small-cap enterprise software companies, today announced the completion...
I will say I'm not much of a fan of mysqls but uhhhhh this seems bad
ibm mainframes: now featuring AI
Mainframes still play a vital role in today, providing extremely high uptime and low latency for financial transactions. Telum II is IBM’s latest mainframe processor, and is designed unlike a…
saw this kicking around on the lobsters frontpage
> IBM also includes a DPU for accelerating IO, along with an on-board AI accelerator
ah yes. an AI accelerator. for a chip that goes into a system that'll quite possibly have a lifespan measured in decade-partials. in environments so extremely up to date with the bleeding edge of technology that they are absolutely not losing their programmers to retirement. an AI acceleator for that. makes total sense.
imagine being the poor engineers who had to spec that out, design it, and get it actually existing. nevermind even the awe-inspiringly stunning disregard to reality that it takes for some management fuckhead(s) to have "steered" this
> Funny enough, I asked why IBM had different terminology compared to the rest of the industry. They said IBM came up with the terminology first, and later on the industry adopted different terminology. It was all lighthearted and funny.
ah yes! funny! haha. not at all some weird insular shit from the same company that runs a worlds-apart platform with a control grip so strong it makes larry ellison check if they're infringing on anything actionable...
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 18 August 2024
Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
> The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be) > > Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 11 August 2024
Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
> The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be) > >Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
accidental time capsules in winamp skins
I started looking through corrupt Winamp skins and it lead me down some very strange rabbit holes
found this kicking around on one of the feeder sites a few days ago and only got to read it now
kinda neat. it's the sort of thing that you used to find quite a lot with keygens and other things prone to easter eggs, and that I don't really know of being as prevalent in more recent gaming and such
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 30 June 2024
Need to make a primal scream without gathering footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh facts of Awful you'll near-instantly regret.
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.
> The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be) > Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
apparently it was Opposite Day at coindesk
There is an unavoidable tension between the aims of decentralization and onboarding everyday users.
there is some strong copium in the article, combined with a total description of having a massive gambling addiction without, y’know, actually realising it’s an addiction
remarkable stuff
hot off the presses: automatic wrong information without even going to the wrong-information deliveries store
People participate in online communities to share experiences and sympathy. AI chatbots that join the conversation can only pretend to offer either.
there are some remarkable instances of bad behaviour in there already, but imagine being the sort of product team that thinks users being gaslit by a chatbot that they couldn’t even consent to choose to use is totes something to deliver without any modification or remark
the loons are at it again
this time in open letter format! that'll sure do it!
there are "risks", which they are definite about - the risks are not hypothetical, the risks are real! it's totes even had some acknowledgement in other places! totes real defs for sure this time guize
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending Sunday 2 June 2024
Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid!
Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.
If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post, there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high
> The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be) > Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.
a blind man stumbles into the activitypub
since I haven't touched AP before (and figure other possible contributors may not have either), going to use this post as wayfarer bathroom graffiti
feel free to contribute your own learning and investigation as well
In which folks once again don’t learn the same lesson as the last few times
And perhaps sidestepping its own policy in the process.
It’s been a long couple of years with people going hard on building all their communications on the gamer chat company, disregarding all warnings and concerns because of shiny creature comforts
Soon: “we trusted you! We moved from slack to you! 😭”
Guess it’s only a handful of months before the tortured handwringing starts?
Quelle surprise
The surge in venture funding and public excitement has DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis thinking about crypto parallels.
Unfortunately I can’t snip from mobile easily now, but maybe someone else can archive it and comment with archive link?
History of (extremely predictable) failures catching up to you? Quick, write a book!
Kara Swisher made a career of dumbing down tech reporting and criticism. She’s a little sorry!
Too tired to sneer at the book myself right now but the article doesn’t pull punches either
Figured it’s worth posting since the book author has featured here more than once recently and has definitely been an enabler to The Shit
retrochat
retr0chat telnet server. Contribute to 9001/r0c development by creating an account on GitHub.
found via someone running a server at revision
retro fun. quite slick, too!
A tale of well-designed systems
how one little joke can get so, so out of hand
Not entirely the usual fare, but i figured some here would appreciate it
I often rag on the js/node/npm ecosystem for being utter garbage, and this post is a quite a full demonstration of many of the shortcomings and outright total design failures present in that space
Revision 2024
Invite up at https://2024.revision-party.net/blog/04-invitation/
~2 weekends away (who cares about the week)
Prepare for watching mathematical black magic!
economics reporter learns "surprising facts" from no data
Maybe we have some time before AIs conquer the world
starting out[0] with "I was surprised by the following results" and it just goes further down almost-but-not-quite Getting It Avenue
close, but certainly no cigar
choice quotes:
> > Why is it impressive that a model trained on internet text full of random facts happens to have a lot of random facts memorized? … why does that in any way indicate intelligence or creativity?
> That’s a good point.
you don't fucking say
> I have a website (TrackingAI.org) that already administers a political survey to AIs every day. So I could easily give the AIs a real intelligence test, and track that over time, too.
really, how?
> As I started manually giving AIs IQ tests
oh.
> Then it proceeds to mis-identify every single one of the 6 answer options, leading it to pick the wrong answer. There seems to be little rhyme or reason to its misidentifications
if this fuckwit had even the slightest fucking understanding of how these things work, it would be glaringly obvious
there's plenty more, so remember to practice stretching before you start your eyerolls