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brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:") wrote:

I think there's very much part of me that's interested in the programming/technical stuff but I think I much prefer it as something that's just a hobby especially in this day and age. Like my entire career spiralled out of "I made games 15 years ago" except my entire (pre-existing) career wasn't games it was corpo programming which I don't think was really an amazing fit even pre-LLM (although I somehow managed to get hired pre-LLM).

I suppose every job sucks in some way but I want my next career to feel less soul-sucking. Oddly enough I think I could take on IT but not software dev; having a quick feedback loop of "get a problem -> solve a problem" works quite well while trying to deal with abstract system design does not work well

brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:") wrote:

I still don't really know how I want to use my evening though, in particular whether I have the energy to catch up on more reading or if I should find another activity, and if it is the latter, which one

brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:") wrote:

I think the advantage of the social science degree is that it decreases my appetite for the doomscroll. I've let my brain chew on the necessary social science topics of interest, if I want to do social science I know where to find the actually good resources rather than the crap in the news or on social media. If I don't want to do social science I'd rather use my scrolling time to share memes

brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:") wrote:

Luckily the back half of my week is looking far more relaxed than the front half

Boosted by dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase"):
jedbrown@neuromatch.social ("Jed Brown") wrote:

Follow the money: OpenAI has been giving cash stipends to college students to run astroturfed events on campuses. This "OpenAI Student Collective" is not a registered student organization and it's unclear how such an event could be compliant with the Campus Use of University Facilities policy, which normally prohibits commercial use of classrooms. (These are typical at any university. Note the dodgy language about whether one needs to form an official student group.)

https://openai.com/student-collective/

I don't know how big OpenAI's cash stipends are, but Anthropic's are $3600.

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

Different modes of thinking: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/modes-of-thinking/

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

Different modes of thinking

https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2026/modes-of-thinking/

Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:"):
LucasWerkmeister@wikis.world ("Lucas Werkmeister") wrote:

@theresnotime also, sorry not sorry

Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:"):
silverdoor@kind.social ("Silver Door Gamespaces") wrote:

We're a seeking a Braille translator for a paid project.

We'd like to make sure that our signage is readable by ADA standards (UEB Grade 2). We don't trust automated translation, and would prefer the assistance of a fluent reader.

Can you help? Let us know via DMs. If not, please boost!

#braille

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
emilymbender@dair-community.social ("Prof. Emily M. Bender(she/her)") wrote:

Hearing lots of discourse about "stochastic parrots" recently? Here's a discussion of the backstory, both of the phrase itself and what's going on now.

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-two-words-the-ai-industry-hates

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

“Dark Patterns Won - Ron Bronson”

https://blog.ronbronson.com/dark-patterns-won

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

RE: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren/117400264547312008

'Around 70 percent of this year’s voucher recipients were already enrolled in private or home- school. Vouchers are costing the state about a billion dollars this year alone, and could ultimately end up costing $4.4 billion annually. While funding for vouchers comes from a budget that is separate from the public school pot, the state’s funding for public schools has not kept up with inflation.

Texas public schools will lose a projected $227 million just this year, as they shed head count, according to The Houston Chronicle. More public schools may close as a result of vouchers siphoning that money away from them. In Clugston’s opinion, vouchers are “a billion-dollar giveaway program for the rich and we’re gonna have no accountability in it. Zero.”'

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
davidgerard@circumstances.run ("David Gerard") wrote:

so i did tech report just now (on Altman's "but that's a sacrifice i'm willing to make" quote)

and i mentioned the jacob coxon tweets and how he was doing some light holocaust querying

and obviously i need to back up that claim so i sent him the futurism article and the tweets

and the host's entire response:

> CHRIST.

glyph ("Glyph") wrote:

RE: https://kind.social/@phlip/117396510389410014

this is how you can tell apple is really cutting edge, they are already reducing their border-radius again

Boosted by baldur@toot.cafe ("Baldur Bjarnason"):
uglyreykjavik.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy ("Ugly Reykjavik") wrote:

I feel obliged to give more info regarding this mysterious door. This is actually the entrance to a carpentry workshop. There's a good chance the door has two handles simply because of good ol' Icelandic humour.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:w27jf74rgozykuyl63ji7wbv/post/3mxagnmqsrk2y

Boosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
jedbrown@neuromatch.social ("Jed Brown") wrote:

This afternoon, the Boulder Faculty Assembly passed a resolution (after strengthening via amendment) calling for no extension of the OpenAI contract. Vote was 39-8-1 after suspending the bylaws, as necessary to meet the chancellor's artificial decision deadline of tomorrow.

The CU Student Government meeting was this evening and public comment was fired up about their corresponding resolution, talking about trust, societal impact, and genuine commitment to learning. So energizing.

CU Student Government passed their corresponding resolution (with lots of context and calls for shared governance) unanimously on first reading, as necessary to meet the chancellor's deadline. I am so proud of their curiosity, purpose, commitment to shared governance, and parliamentary skills. ❤️

University administrators play on our division. They have claimed that there is no coherent message from faculty or students about "AI". That refusal is fringe. That OpenAI contracts are ordinary procurements not subject to shared governance.

May the record show that faculty and students speak as one. ✊️

Today was a good day for democracy, no matter what the chancellor deigns to do with this information tomorrow.

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

blogged: A sustainable web career, for when all this blows over

https://dbushell.com/2026/10/07/sustainable-web-career/

Boosted by neatnik@social.lol ("Treatnik 🎃"):
robb@social.lol ("Robb Knightmare") wrote:

St Jude 2026 Recap https://rknight.me/blog/st-jude-2026-recap/

Nearly $9k raised, lots of stickers being ordered, and 32 drawings (nearly) done!

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

Sam Alito wants us to stop being bigoted against religious bigots.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2026/10/07/discriminating-against-bigots-is-bigotry/

Boosted by GuillaumeL@hachyderm.io ("BigSaur G"):
realmarcel1@mastox.eu ("Marcel") wrote:

Le vrai rayonnement de la France dans le monde ⬇️

Attachments:

• video: 766fe2d4a1e8801d.mp4

Boosted by andrewnez ("Andrew Nesbitt"):
mirandah ("Miranda Heath") wrote:

Excited to be in Prague for my first #OSSummit! I'll be talking on Burnout in Open Source 11.55 on Friday, come say hi if you're around! 👋 Lots of exciting things in the schedule... https://bit.ly/3NXx5Zp

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your weary 'net denizen"):
nielsa@mas.to ("Niels Abildgaard") wrote:

The people I agree most with on the likely technical trajectory of "AI" tend to trend much more blackpilled than me on societal implications, and I don't really know what to do about that.

Like, it's bad, yeah, but anything that can't go on will stop. And if every decent software developer (used in the broadest possible sense), to take recent example, preemptively leaves the industry, who will be there to right the ship or rebuild, when the {hype,financial} bubble pops?

Conversely, am I saying the developers should break themselves upon the rocks that are the current, common "AI" adoption stance in most companies? No, I'm saying decent developers should find ways to start building resilient, resistant organizations now.

I'm in one. We are not pushing "AI" adoption. We are doing fine. We have many customees apprecisting the things we do, which no LLM could do. The work still exists, let's build a foundation for the future there.

This too shall pass, and then what…?

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your weary 'net denizen"):
kibcol1049@mstdn.social ("Col") wrote:

He told the doctor "Everytime I cough I hear words like Knight, Bishop, Pawn and Queen.
He said, "You've got a Chess infection.

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your weary 'net denizen") wrote:

BTW if you're lookin' for some new music for your workout, you should checkout Melanie C's latest album "Sweat":

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy%5FnIvdgaYSm-6RrdryZgR-F5rvUvOo9kgW0

It'd probably also work for your next dance party, but I don't know anything about that sort of thing.

Boosted by brib@bribstodon.xyz ("brib :neofox_floof:​ :Nonbinary:"):
emily_s@mastodon.me.uk ("Emily_S") wrote:

RE: https://mastodon.social/@Edent/117399414396743825

All of this. Not all devs know every platform or language.

"run with npm" is a classic I've seen so many times.

I am 99% sure several of my own projects will fail on this despite trying to make things easy.

Boosted by dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase"):
xssfox@cloudisland.nz ("xssfox (crossy)") wrote:

When I worked at a large smelting plant we were once approaching 1 year LTI (lost time injury) free. I think at the time there was like 600 full time equivalent employees.

Management was obviously very excited but also very nervous. See one of the concerns is that most LTI injuries were caused from things like trips, falls, or hand burns/cuts. While these aren't good and should be prevented, they represent the blue section I circled on the risk matrix. High likelihood, but minor impact. This is also the easiest safety thing to fix.

What management was really concerned about is that teams were so focused on the low impact that safety focus might have silently slipped away from the unlikely but high impact accidents. Where people get seriously hurt or killed. This is the part I circled in purple.

Anyway, there's no story here, afaik I know there hasn't been an major safety incidents. I just wanted to highlight that biases exist when we only focus on part of story.

andrewnez ("Andrew Nesbitt") wrote:

Package Management RFCs: https://nesbitt.io/2026/10/07/package-management-rfcs.html

jonny@neuromatch.social ("jonny (nonvenomous)") wrote:

important to note that the sentinel that evaluates egress requests includes an unknowable set of signals, but the calling context is definitely one of those, and contexts that are deemed mechanical, system-initiated - like presumably the fucking podcast catalogue - get special treatment because they are presumed to be untainted by user input. when you stick a language model in everywhere, then the entire surface becomes uneven and unknowable from a programming point of view, but weirdly personal and predictable if you imagine every part of a computer as a little guy who you can talk to and just argue it should be doing something different.

edit: that's a hint for bughunters more talented than i, e.g. the MITM cert proxy seems especially vibes based.

Boosted by dysfun@treehouse.systems ("gaytabase"):
erin@quiescent.nexus ("Miranda, ≆et al.") wrote:

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

how sloppy is my dist dot ro