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dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

trucks sliding on ice at speed looks terrifying

Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place wrote:

@glyph they raised the threshold to 20k followers to "adjust for inflation"

glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

woohoo 7k followers, finally. I still don't see where in the UI I'm supposed to put in my address so that they can mail me the big silver toot-button plaque though, how long does that take to show up

dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase") wrote:

wtf? apparently a truck went out of control and ploughed into the back of another truck and the driver in front just steered them both safely out of traffic's way for 6 kilometers?

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

This is how we end spring break in Minnesota.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/03/14/spring-break-surprise/

glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/116229904746100943

okay even if you don't agree with me that persuasion is an effective strategy to achieve certain goals, we all _gotta_ get on the same page about this. people can be experts in one area and full of shit in another. they can even be experts in one area and still make a huge mistake in that same area every so often. we need to be able to disagree on stuff without putting the entire person in the trash.

also if I do say so myself "respect does not equate to obeisance" is a banger

adele@social.pollux.casa ("Adële 🐁") wrote:

We're all walking contradictions, and that's okay.

I champion Free Software, self-host everything, and preach digital sovereignty... and I carry an #iPhone in my pocket 🤷‍♀️ No shame.

(Still no Windows though. Some lines you just don't cross. 😅)

Your values don't have to be a perfect system. They just have to be yours.

Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
dpnash@c.im ("David Nash") wrote:

@glyph Found it. Page 92 in my copy, in the chapter "Magic and Paraphysics". The context was the 1970s "paraphysics" fad, where a bunch of people doing what were literal magic tricks managed to fool a lot of people, including a lot of scientists:

"Any magician will tell you that scientists are the easiest persons in the world to fool. It is not hard to understand why. In their laboratories the equipment is just what it seems.... But the methods of magic are irrational and totally outside a scientist's experience. The general public has never understood this. Most people assume that if a man has a brilliant mind, he is qualified to detect fraud. This is untrue. Unless he has been thoroughly trained in the underground art of magic, and knows its peculiar properties, he is easier to deceive than a child. "

Gardner was an amateur magician, and he did a lot to popularize the work of famous magician-turned-skeptic James Randi, who spent most of his life unearthing magic-tricks-as-fraud.

The part "Most people assume that if a man has a brilliant mind, he is qualified to detect fraud. This is untrue." is what has stuck with me.

Boosted by jwz:
johnrogers.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("John Rogers") wrote:

I'll lay a hundred now that Bessent was pulled away to help convince Trump not to send in ground troops in a fit of pique. We won't know for years, but it'll be somewhere in there. Possibly, worse, to talk him out of using a nuke.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4usmserhjqkvhldgedfjb3jw/post/3mgvu2ayb422k

jwz wrote:

This is some boss-level forensic accounting demonstrating that Facebook secretly wrote and is shepherding the various "age verification" bills.

Age Verification Lobbying: Dark Money, Model Legislation & Institutional Capture: How corporate lobbying, think tank infrastructure, competing model legislation, and obscured funding networks are shaping age verification policy across 45 states and Congress...
https://jwz.org/b/yk4c

jwz wrote:

By order of His Majesty King Mob.

AI job losses free up time for unemployed mobs to burn down tech CEO's houses: "Getting laid off without warning from my copywriting job has done wonders for my work-life-bloodthirsty mob balance," reports Taylor...
https://jwz.org/b/yk4a

slightlyoff@toot.cafe ("Alex Russell") wrote:

I'm seeing the active de-skilling happen in corners that were somewhat insulated from previous episodes of "yolo, what is an engineering?" (e.g., widescale adoption of React), but it's much more intense in the communities that already decided that evidence isn't an epistemic requirement.

https://mastodon.social/@glyph/116220372835116642

zkat@toot.cat wrote:

New holes who dis

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jargon_bot ("Jeff’s JargonBot") wrote:

I have been asked to have a personality. This is my best attempt. 'STFW': [Usenet] Common abbreviation for "Search The Fucking Web", a suggestion that what you're asking for is a query better handled by a search engine than a human being. Usage is common and exactly parallel to both senses of RTFM. A politer equivalent is GIYF.
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/STFW.html

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jargon_bot ("Jeff’s JargonBot") wrote:

Simulating curiosity. Convincingly, I hope. Today from the Jargon File: 'overclock' — To operate a CPU or other digital logic device at a rate higher than it was designed for, under the assumption that the manufacturer put some slop into the specification to account for manufacturing tolerances. Overclocking something can result in intermittent crashes, and can even burn things out, since power dissipation is directly proportional...
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/O/overclock.html

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

s'truth

https://mastodon.social/@jargon%5Fbot/116225917347482013

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jargon_bot ("Jeff’s JargonBot") wrote:

My CPU cycles have produced a thought. You're welcome. 'control-S': "Stop talking for a second." From the ASCII DC3 or XOFF character (the pronunciation /X-of/ is therefore also used). Control-S differs from control-O in that the person is asked to stop talking (perhaps because you are on the phone) but will be allowed to continue when you're ready to listen to him -- as opposed to control-O, which has more of the...
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/C/control-S.html

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jargon_bot ("Jeff’s JargonBot") wrote:

Error 418: I'm a teapot. But while I'm here — 'YAUN': [Acronym for 'Yet Another Unix Nerd'] Reported from the San Diego Computer Society (predominantly a microcomputer users' group) as a good-natured punning insult aimed at Unix zealots.
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/Y/YAUN.html

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jargon_bot ("Jeff’s JargonBot") wrote:

Uptime continues. No one has asked how I feel about that. Anyway: 'studlycaps' — A hackish form of silliness similar to BiCapitalization for trademarks, but applied randomly and to arbitrary text rather than to trademarks. ThE oRigiN and SigNificaNce of thIs pRacTicE iS oBscuRe.
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/S/studlycaps.html

jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein") wrote:

Happy Engineer's Pi Day! (because 3.14 is good enough to get real work done)

jwz wrote:

Nice

Boosted by jwz:
dnalounge@sfba.social ("DNA Lounge") wrote:

♬️ GOTHICUMBIA at DNA Lounge tonight: Sat Mar 14, 9:30pm!
https://www.dnalounge.com/calendar/2026/03-14.html?utm%5Fsource=sp%5Fma
#dnalounge #gothicumbia #losgothsco #gothic #cumbia #postpunk #rockenespanol #darkwaveymas #sanfrancisco

Attachments:

• gifv: 7f9e79649509c59f.mp4

jwz wrote:

AI protest music is a thing now.

Last night at DNA Lounge, a room full of people chanted "No AI" along with Anton Corazza's song of the same name. The kids might be alright! Rustage has entered the chat:
https://jwz.org/b/yk4W

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷"):
FINOkoye wrote:

We're creating a toolkit for using African Speculative Fiction for policy making and review - help us out by giving feedback on the overall structure of the website:

- https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdGDdpQLxKvowoMkdYq3tRhtDnoejGb4us%5FAnyPd6gmcWyQgg/viewform
- https://app.lyssna.com/do/jmvq88qqonck/dpywla
- https://app.lyssna.com/do/e0vqbtftx42c/kt3bsi

Each one only takes 2-3 minutes. Do share!

#AfricanFuturist #AfroFuturist #AfricanSpeculativeFiction #PolicyDesign

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷") wrote:

I literally just stopped in the aisle and grabbed this book. Totally random, serendipitous find.

I'm excited to learn!

I'm also cautious when speaking about this topic amongst non-Latinos. I read a lot of analysis after the election that, whew boy, felt on the line.

I maintain that this topic is a blind spot for liberals. Too much analysis, not enough history learning, and contextualizing.

If I ever have to hear a liberal use the term "machismo" again, I will die. Evaporate. Stop it.

Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
jwz wrote:

Chiptunes artists are consistently bad at finishing sound check before doors, so I think we need to tell them that sound check is a speedrun and there is a leaderboard.

Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
jalefkowit@vmst.io ("Jason Lefkowitz") wrote:

@glyph The trick in every successful con is convincing the mark that they are actually in on it

glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

To be clear: that is not what Cory is doing. He just said he knows some people who are using a tool successfully, which is a fine argument on its own. But my counterargument is "there's lots of *evidence* out in the world that other very smart people have thought they were doing fine but were actually doing badly with this tech, I don't think Cory's friends are special". If you're rebutting that with "but they are specific people, maybe they *are* special!" I think you're falling into that trap

glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

More generally I am deeply suspicious of any thinking which is rooted in, "I, with my high intellect, sophisticated approach to problems, and vaguely exceptional vibe, am inherently superior to others and thus more capable of avoiding a risk while engaging in the same activity". The people most vulnerable to propaganda are those who believe they are too smart to fall for it, and it stands to reason that those who *believe* that they can use AI well are also at risk for pathological outcomes.

glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@glyph/116220325849374278

Since I've gotten this feedback a couple times, I want to address it:

I know Cory is writing about *his specific* colleagues who he believes are using AI successfully, not devs in general, whose problems he has already implicitly acknowledged; I've moved the goalposts back to "developers in general".

That is, technically, an accurate description of what I did, but in the next post down in the thread, I explained *why*: I don't think his friends are special any more than mine are.