Mastodon Feed: Posts

sky@schub.social ("Sky Schubert") wrote:

holy hell this was the most painful read so far this year. https://lake.computer/blog/help-wanted/

I wanna hug them and drown them in cookies 🥺

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

how interesting… turns out there is *lots* of information about my maternal grandfather which I did not know https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas%5FKlein?wprov=sfti1

I was particularly pleased to read that he provided legal counsel to Marcus Garvey & the ‘Universal Negro Improvement Association’

Boosted by neatnik@social.lol ("Neatnik :prami:"):
stefan@stefanbohacek.online ("Stefan Bohacek") wrote:

I created https://alttexthalloffame.org three years ago, and I hope it's still inspiring people today.

https://mastodon.social/@alttexthalloffame/112417737043903901

https://stefanbohacek.com/blog/why-i-made-alt-text-hall-of-fame/

#AltText #AltTextHallOfFame #accessibility #ImageDescriptions #anniversary

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
aeva@mastodon.gamedev.place wrote:

@cwebber @davidrevoy @spritely i had this theory that if i made my code wierd enough and/or had vulgar comments then maybe it would get scored really low in training sets and be largely ignored, but I've yet to put either of these ideas to the test. hoot being widely ripped off makes me think perhaps this is an opportunity to back door specific practices into the industry at least, in a cursed monkey paw sort of way

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
darius@friend.camp ("Darius Kazemi") wrote:

After experimenting with local LLMs for a couple years now, I'm excited to release my newest project: The Ethical Assistant! It provides all the benefits of an LLM assistant but with low energy usage, completely private, and no cost to use.

https://tinysubversions.com/ethical-assistant/

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
dailyheathcliff ("Daily Heathcliff Comics") wrote:

July 27 2026

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
dailyheathcliff ("Daily Heathcliff Comics") wrote:

July 2 2026

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
mcc wrote:

I have literally never enabled Assistant on any Android phone I owned and it in retrospect it has all just been successful preparation for this moment

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

A competent board would have dropped Sundar a thousand times before letting Jeff and Sanjay walk.

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

If you haven't worked at Google, it's hard to convey what Jeff and Sanjay leaving means. The ethical compass for Search (and therefore everything) left with Matt Cutts; the technical north star is now going as well.

Actually shocking.

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
seacow@mastodon.art ("Sea Cow") wrote:

@cwebber Roko’s Modern Basilisk

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
karen@floss.social ("Karen Sandler") wrote:

Wait, I'm on my way to #FOSSY today, not #SeaGL, right?

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

Suddenly craving a burrito.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/08/06/the-most-fun-ive-had-in-ages/

cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:

Though if you think that participating means you get exempted from being tortured I think you're just being tortured in ways you're not noticing

You're not exempt from being tortured from the capitalism AI torture machine, you just get to think you are for a little bit because you feel like you're in on the ground floor (you aren't)

cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:

Hate to say it but Roko was kinda right about the Basilisk, we're living it

cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:

I will keep working on the things I care about and advancing the world I want to see, no matter how dismal it gets

cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:

Everything I care about or have worked on in computing there is a more centralized and LLM infected / vibecoded version right now

- Social? Bluesky + Attie.ai
- Capability security? Cloudflare OS
- Lisp? Symbolics revival as an "LLM platform"

Tiring :\

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

Fresh mealworm colony!

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/08/06/makin-mealworms/

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

“Incentives are for losers - by Adam Mastroianni”

https://www.experimental-history.com/p/incentives-are-for-losers

> So when thinking about any human ability, it’s useful to ask: is this more like speaking, or is it more like reading? Is this an ancient capability that we get for free just by living long enough, or is this a modern skill that you can’t get without working for it?

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
jacob@jacobian.org wrote:

The Django Software Foundation is hiring an Executive Director! Main responsibilities: fundraising, managing staff and day-to-day operations, and generally helping the DSF mature. We’re looking for candidates with a history of nonprofit leadership; Python/Django/OSS experience nice but not req’d.

Remote, but US-only. Idfeally full-time, possibly part-time. $90-120k/yr, plus bonuses for hitting fundraising targets.

Happy to answer questions over DM/email; hit me up!

https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2026/aug/06/call-for-applicants-for-a-django-executive-directo/

cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:

meow

jscalzi@threads.net ("John Scalzi") wrote:

Sending this out to whoever needs to see it: It's okay if you read slowly, there's no great victory in being able to read quickly, everyone kind of has their own reading speed, and that's perfectly fine. I'm just really happy you're reading. I hope it gives you joy at any pace. Thank you!

Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:"):
geekysteven@beige.party wrote:

#DubiousNerdFacts

Boosted by cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber"):
davidrevoy@framapiaf.org ("David Revoy") wrote:

@cwebber @spritely Thank you, Christine! :blobcatheart: I don't know where any of this is going either. When I consider my entire artistic career and the implications of the "AI vibe" effect my art has now on part of the audience, I feel dizzy.

Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:"):
neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk ("Neil Brown") wrote:

I'm sorry to say that my cutting edge AI tool - not yet released to the public, but coming soon - is just far too powerful.

It has escaped containment and has made a complete mess of the kitchen and has not put away the dishes from breakfast or folded the laundry.

cwebber@social.coop ("Christine Lemmer-Webber") wrote:

RE: https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/117044615886264428

One of the highlights of my career is being able to collaborate with @davidrevoy on the @spritely mascots (really, David did so much to transform my little doodles into real characters). David has been making beautiful, fantastical artwork in the commons and I have been a fan since Sintel.

The prolific, high quality, and availability of David's work means that his art is a strong reference point within image generation models. Which also sadly means that much genAI artwork *looks like* a facsimile of David's work.

Similarly, Spritely made a Scheme->WASM-GC compiler, and now there are tons of vibecoded Scheme->WASM-GC compilers which appear to use the same techniques. So why bother? But also, someone needed to do that work first.

The disincentives here are depressing, mocking and belittling the source material that everyone then can generate something "easily" that it resembles.

I don't know how to improve this situation.

fribbledom ("muesli") wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@aymanbagabas/117048892168609971

Woah, this one's seriously good!

Get it here: https://github.com/aymanbagabas/drift

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

“First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you”

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

well, this is cool... something I did not know about my Grandfather Klein:

https://apnews.com/article/archive-fact-checking-2315880316

baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason") wrote:

That would require a run of electoral wins unprecedented in Icelandic history

Only one other cause has come close to maintaining broad public support here in Iceland for a similarly extended period of time, over multiple election wins:

Nationalism.

Which is exactly the cause lined up AGAINST joining.

So, I'd be very surprised if joining happened even if "yes" wins both the referendum on opening negotiations and a future referendum on joining.