Mastodon Feed: Posts

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

Why is social media so humourless?

Why do jokes fall flat? Why is it so easy to get into trouble by saying something you thought was fine, but others found offensive?

Turns out this is because of the basic design of most social media platforms

(Essay, audio, and video versions included.)

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/03-why-is-social-media-so-humourless/

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

Old foggy photos revisited: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/notes/photos/old-foggy-photos-revisited/

db@social.lol ("David Bushell 🪿") wrote:

Boosted by soatok@furry.engineer ("Soatok Dreamseeker"):
sophieschmieg@infosec.exchange ("Sophie Schmieg") wrote:

@cinebox careful, that might make it uniquely identifiable. We cannot have that.

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

archlinux project infrastructure people not ignoring support tickets for >4 months challenge: impossible

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
cdarwin@c.im ("Chuck Darwin") wrote:

The most potent force in US politicsis anti-establishment fury at a system seen as rigged against average working people.
AI has become Exhibit A.

Until recently, both parties largely avoided criticizing the wealthy corporate elites that funded their campaigns.
In politics as in nature, one does not bite the hands that feed.

Trump Republicans have instead aimed populist fury at immigrants, LGBTQ+ people, Black and Latino people, “communists”, Muslims, so-called “woke” leaders, “coastal elites”, “childless cat ladies” and other scapegoats.

Democrats – with the exceptions of Bernie Sanders, AOC and a few others – have also avoided criticizing wealthy corporate elites, aiming their populist fury at Trump.
This may be changing.

It’s becoming obvious to much of the US that giant corporations have been raking it in
while workers have been taking it on the chin.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/22/ai-economic-populism-tipping-point?CMP=Share%5FiOSApp%5FOther

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

RE: https://c.im/@msbellows/117311602164577735

whadda concept: equal justice before the law.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
niconiconi@mk.absturztau.be wrote:

TIL If you revoke a TLS certificate with its private key instead of the account key, some CAs will force the "revocation reason" to "key compromise". Clever.

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
dlzv@mathstodon.xyz ("Dimitri Lozeve :k33:") wrote:

> Describing them as “superintelligence” or “rogue models” ascribes agency to products rather than to the companies building them. This framing markets these companies’ products as “superhuman” and, at the same time, helps the companies evade accountability for their actions.
> Instead of OpenAI being prosecuted for creating malware that hacked another company, press releases, news outlets, media personalities, and lawmakers refer to “rogue models” as if they acted on their own. Instead of researchers being questioned about their companies’ habit of plagiarizing academics’ work or using customer data to train models without consent, the public’s imagination is redirected to fears about what the future might hold upon the arrival of fictional superintelligent machines.

Great summary of the situation by @timnitGebru and @emilymbender!

https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/22/1144867/dont-be-fooled-summer-ai-hype/

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
mayintoronto@beige.party ("May likes Toronto") wrote:

Software's the only industry that thinks like this:

"You know what would be good for business? Higher operational costs. The upfront capital investment with engineering is too high."

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
zwol@masto.hackers.town ("Zack Weinberg") wrote:

I can no longer count on getting trustworthy answers to this kind of question on Stack Overflow, so let's try here instead.

I need a *C language lawyer* to look at the functions `parse_exit_notif` and `marshal_exit_notif` at the bottom of this file <https://git.sr.ht/~zackw/rc-shim/tree/847a22f958cb772e4368e01ffa5ddbf14a68d0b0/item/nanoreaper-protocol.h> and tell me whether the double casts are necessary.

Note that the portability baseline for this code is C1999 + POSIX.1-2001 so if any relevant rules changed after that point please be explicit about what changed and when.

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

@DaveFlater @heidilifeldman

Just passing along this May, 2026 Wired article saying that the Office of Remigration exists now and that the State Department doesn't really want to talk about it.

https://www.wired.com/story/the-state-department-really-doesnt-want-to-talk-about-the-office-of-remigration/

Boosted by sky@schub.social ("Sky Schubert"):
gabrielesvelto@mas.to ("Gabriele Svelto") wrote:

Since when refusing to use a tool made you an extremist?

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

“Tobias Lütke, Shopify: when the AI slop is bad enough the AI CEO notices – Pivot to AI”

https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/09/21/tobias-lutke-shopify-when-the-ai-slop-is-bad-enough-the-ai-ceo-notices/

> But if you listen to the podcast — which I don’t advise, it’s a neutron bomb of inanity — he’s not walking back a thing. This is not a redemption story, it’s a doubling down story.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Daojoan ("JA Westenberg") wrote:

My 10-year-old, on learning I write a newsletter: "so it's like YouTube but nobody can see you." Yes. That is the dream.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
aga@tiny.buni.dev wrote:

Hai please boost this let's crash this server!!! It's like 256MB of ram and 1/2 a core omg

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
MythingPerson ("Charles Castleberry") wrote:

RE: https://zirk.us/@CindyWeinstein/117311695606112636

This is the most excited I’ve ever been to vote for a proposition in California. Can we do this every year, like a holiday tradition? 😁👍

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org ("Lauren Weinstein") wrote:

BREAKING: "Trump TV" crashes with dismal viewing numbers, comments already disabled

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
wellborn.net@bsky.brid.gy ("tomwellborn3rd") wrote:

The network pool won't fill CNN's slot, photographers are withholding Trump images, NPR pulled his audio, and the UN let Kaitlan Collins in the door anyway. Every corner of American media Fuckface spent a decade breaking one at a time has finally locked arms in the same week.

Trump's 'total ignorance' on d...

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
newsthump@mastodon.online ("NewsThump") wrote:

NEWS! President Trump becomes mime due to lack of microphones https://newsthump.com/2026/09/22/president-trump-becomes-mime-due-to-lack-of-microphones/

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

yes, one can do interesting things with a locally running LLM and/or a locally running application which *includes* an LLM within itself. yes, it is still early days... and yet the elephant flies already.

chris@fedi.freebooters.uk ("Chris Were ⁂🐧🌱☕️") wrote:

Going live with Ozoned in a sec on #Owncast
https://stream.firesidefedi.live

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

reading "Reward Hacking Benchmark: Measuring Exploits in LLM Agents with Tool Use" by Kunvar Thaman

https://arxiv.org/html/2605.02964v1

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

Look goddamnit
It's entirely possible
To eat a plum
Without making a poem about it

The one I just ate
Wasn't even in the
Goddamn refrigerator
Or anything

Sometimes a plum
Is just a plum
You can just eat it
And go on with your life

WHAT
Why are you looking at me
What did I do now
(looks) oh GODDAMNIT

Boosted by pixxl:
vtrlx ("Victoria Lacroix") wrote:

I have shared my thoughts on #GNOME's potential adoption of an "AI" policy in this discourse thread, and strongly suggest my fellow slop-hating GNOMies do the same.

https://discourse.gnome.org/t/thoughts-on-the-recent-debian-gr/38460/11

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

1. i have been writing this mostly with ai 2) ai is stunningly bad at writing hypervisors, or really most precise systems software ive tried.

Boosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
GiftArticles@tomkahe.com ("Gift Articles") wrote:

Video: Why Is the Coast Guard Operating Surveillance Drones in the Great Lakes?
https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000011152107/coast-guard-saildrone-great-lakes.html?unlocked%5Farticle%5Fcode=1.DFE.ck0Y.MoVPhCUBYTDK&smid=nytcore-ios-share

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

Why would anyone go to the trouble of writing an article and getting it published under another person's name?

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/09/22/why-4/

Boosted by krig@goto.liten.app:
zachleat@zachleat.com ("Zach Leatherman") wrote:

“AI, make the website good”

https://www.zachleat.com/web/ai-websites/

Boosted by neatnik@social.lol ("Neatnik :prami:"):
drworkpsych@social.lol ("Dr. WorkPsych") wrote:

Throughout September, I've been exploring the benefits of getting clear on personal values and bringing them to life in practical ways, both on the podcast and blog. In a recent post, I made the point that it's the *doing* that matters - real-world, practical use of values in everyday situations.

But it's not always fun - and that's just fine.

"Here’s the part that’s easy to forget: values-aligned action doesn’t always feel good in the moment. Giving a colleague honest feedback can be one of the most values-driven things we do at work, and it can also be genuinely uncomfortable.

“Putting yourself forward for a promotion or a new level of responsibility might reflect exactly what you say matters to you, while also stirring up fear of failure or rejection.

“Avoiding that discomfort brings short-term relief, but it comes at a cost: we don’t do the thing we actually believe matters. Decoupling values from enjoyment is a useful shift in itself.

"Living our values isn’t always fun or easy – but when we do it, it tends to feel meaningful, and that meaning is where the real sense of satisfaction comes from."

You can read the whole blog post at https://www.worklifepsych.com/doing-beats-knowing-values-in-action/

#ValuesInAction #PsychologyBlog #CoachingBlog #PsychologicalFlexibility