Nostr notes by Space Hobo

Removing parking in general would probably have a better effect ...

2026-06-27T22:47:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…z0qt
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Removing parking in general would probably have a better effect on the climate.

I was part of a generation of late-GenX kids who all ran bulletin ...

2026-06-07T22:11:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…q49y
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I was part of a generation of late-GenX kids who all ran bulletin board systems out of our bedrooms. Older PCs cast off by elders sitting around doing very little with their 20MB hard drives at 2AM but calling one another up and forwarding packets of messages around the 206 area code in a vast mesh.

It was a glorious time to explore and play and write and build new things and connect to one another.

I'm a little disappointed, as my hope with this post was ...

2026-05-30T15:03:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…mk8e
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I'm a little disappointed, as my hope with this post was explicitly to avoid emotional outbursts. I reasoned that if anyone out there *could* handle this situation, I'd have expected it to be someone like him. Therefore it follows that if he can't handle it for some reason we haven't yet identified, it's out of reach for basically everyone.

I actually worked at the same place as Andrew Tridgell, over a ...

2026-05-29T19:36:33Z

I actually worked at the same place as Andrew Tridgell, over a quarter-century ago. I got to know a few of the OzLabs folks during their immediate post-IBM years, and always had the highest respect for them in that way where you feel acute impostor syndrome when they're in the room.

Tridge almost walked backwards into implementing the Windows SMB protocol (he was just debugging some funny NetBIOS extensions IIRC). But his paper on the #rsync algorithm was groundbreaking, and actually writing the tool to implement it was brilliant. It's become one of those tools like #curl that just forms one of the major structural supports of the modern Internet. I still remember the day that the SSH transport became the default, and I remember being able to thank him in person when he came to the San Francisco office (although IIRC by that point he'd handed control of rsync over to mbp).

I remember at my next job he came to a summit of folks working on print driver/spooler software. When he pointed out that some problems were effectively a cache-consistency algorithm, we all kind of put our fingers to our temples and said "Oh wow, you're SO right!" He was always insightful and sharp, while being gentle and approachable.

I write in the past tense because I haven't crossed paths with him in two decades, and only know what I see him put out. A friend of mine in Australia noted that he hasn't posted to the Canberra LUG list since 2020, thanking someone for congratulating him on receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia. He's very much alive, but from what little I see I grow concerned for him.

In 2024 he took over maintenance of rsync once more. The 3.3.0 release was the last one from the previous maintainer, and Tridge is currently working on 3.4.x releases.

Well... Tridge and #Claude, it seems: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@JeremiahFieldhaven/116654345332213390

The issue tracker for rsync has recently lit up with regressions, showing features that worked reliably for almost 30 years are suddenly coming crashing down in 3.4.2 and 3.4.3. People are scrambling to find ways to pin rsync to known-good versions. The considerate, incisive mind I briefly knew is letting the stochastic parrots do his work for him, and it just seems so astonishingly *unlike* the person I met back in the day.

I am still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. I hope all is well for him, but I will not cast aspersions on his goals or his abilities. No, instead I draw this conclusion:

If TRIDGE of all people can't handle #LLMs without a slopocalypse, no one can.

That means you. That means someone you admire who is intelligent and careful and considerate. Not even someone whose opinions on technology you respect a great deal.

No one.

Nostr event nevent1qqsg93ysq843pe6dks29dejpnlldtmdeyw3nzd7r70wymgz7nkq9j4szyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7zeltnza

2026-05-15T08:01:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…qwz6
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`PS1='${_session[${XDG_SESSION_TYPE:-tty}]:+\[\e[1;35m\]\u${SUDO_USER:+\[\e[1;91m\]($SUDO_USER)}\[\e[1;33m\]@}'$PS1`

Ah, I've reproduced it and think I know a fix, but it will be ...

2026-05-15T07:58:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…ay4c
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Ah, I've reproduced it and think I know a fix, but it will be less clever about hiding the username

I suspect you may be missing some XDG environment variables, ...

2026-05-15T07:47:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…chyf
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I suspect you may be missing some XDG environment variables, possibly? Running `env` may help debug. I'll test later

It shouldn't! I'd love to see what could have caused that ...

2026-05-15T07:44:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…0l7v
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It shouldn't! I'd love to see what could have caused that for you

I am unreasonably proud of the `$PS1` prompt I wrote up on ...

2026-05-15T06:29:46Z

I am unreasonably proud of the `$PS1` prompt I wrote up on https://permacomputing.net/spacehobo/

It does a lot of dynamic display of information only if it's relevant, using some tricks to avoid subprocesses (which would step on `$?` among other things). This is dynamic and flexible and good at conveying essential information, but without all the overhead of a lot of dynamic prompt tools that became popular over the past decade or so.

#PermaComputing #bash

Nostr event nevent1qqs06udxg48h0xy8gyrqatj8xdvlm9h9mmwjl8r44y2xh695mgtgr6czyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7zvaejk9

2026-04-19T12:08:27Z

Old man yells at Claude✨

I love the Fediverse because it restored focus on People having ...

2026-04-08T11:16:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…p3yh
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I love the Fediverse because it restored focus on People having Conversations again. The so-called "Social Media" sites started out that way, connecting you with friends you lost touch with, and gathering your extended family, but these days they treat you like an Audience instead.

The people who seem to have the greatest frustration using Fediverse systems like Mastodon are the ones looking for "reach" or "follower count" or other metrics of how big their Audience is. This is Big Tech thinking, and I recommend they instead look for people to talk *with* instead of *at*. Because that's where we really shine, and I love this space for it.

Yeah, and we've started referring to LLMs as "Subprime ...

2026-04-07T13:13:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…30ut
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Yeah, and we've started referring to LLMs as "Subprime Computing" in some circles.

I mean it's a history of the transition of gender roles in ...

2026-04-06T20:30:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…2gq5
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I mean it's a history of the transition of gender roles in computing in the 60s and 70s, with a particular focus on the UK.

I highly recommend Mar Hicks's 2017 book Programmed ...

2026-04-06T20:23:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…rzsv
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I highly recommend Mar Hicks's 2017 book Programmed Inequality on this very phenomenon.
Ludwig Vielfrass (npub1er8…eud3) mhoye (npub1qae…xq6d)

https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6764/ ← I think this ...

2026-03-15T15:43:17Z

https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6764/ ← I think this is a super neat stack machine architecture! #PermaComputing

Is there any sort of free/open source system for doing ...

2026-03-12T09:28:57Z

Is there any sort of free/open source system for doing follow-along slide presentations?

EDIT: to be clear, the audience devices synchronising with the presenter's slides is a must-have feature. I am fully capable of generating HTML/JS slide presentations in pandoc.

I'm thinking of the sort that mentimeter or wayground or peardeck do: everyone gets a URL or a QR code at the start and they load the presentation on their devices. From then on, each slide appears on each participant's device as well as the presenter's, and perhaps there are options for audience input.

I was also under the impression that the island of Ireland's ...

2026-03-09T10:09:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…64vn
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I was also under the impression that the island of Ireland's energy mix is still largely diesel-based in many parts.

RE: https://dobbs.town/@odessa/116160245419894285 ...

2026-03-05T17:49:28Z

RE: https://dobbs.town/@odessa/116160245419894285

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_von_Braunhut <-- yikes

quoting
note1d9m…0ugw

So, it turns out the inventor of Sea Monkeys was a white supremacist and all the money he made from selling brine shrimp eggs to children funded the KKK.

Yeah, this was a deliberate licence incompatibility from Oracle ...

2026-02-04T15:29:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…a92r
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Yeah, this was a deliberate licence incompatibility from Oracle designed to hurt Linux specifically. Take it up with Larry Ellison and the rest of Trump's cabinet.

Ubuntu decided to just Do It Anyway, so there's that avenue for pre-built kernels, but my experience with that a decade ago left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe they got better?

They recently welcomed and certified an ICE account from USA DHS. ...

2026-01-18T00:04:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…2gtc
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They recently welcomed and certified an ICE account from USA DHS. Veronica Explains (npub1dml…x796)

Yeah, you want a 20-minute Moon Landing Experience or Volcano ...

2026-01-17T12:48:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…dqw3
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Yeah, you want a 20-minute Moon Landing Experience or Volcano Flythrough to make use of the form!

Yes! This is a commonly-understood phenomenon, and is one reason ...

2026-01-17T12:40:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…0ahz
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Yes! This is a commonly-understood phenomenon, and is one reason why cartoons always seemed to do better in 3D than photographic stuff (unless you have a really large depth-of-field)

With respect, Idiocracy was a fascist project based on eugenicist ...

2026-01-10T10:10:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…qfe3
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With respect, Idiocracy was a fascist project based on eugenicist moral panics. https://xkcd.com/603/

This feels like precisely the kind of "learned the exact ...

2025-12-15T15:49:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…xkzu
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This feels like precisely the kind of "learned the exact opposite of the film's message" that resulted in all those right-wing meninist chuds calling themselves Tyler Durden for a whole decade.

Nostr event nevent1qqs9vrtajscncegy9uglndd9rxj8mxf9fzwam75z75k9c5uvd594arszyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7zqmey64

2025-12-01T17:19:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…vujm
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I'm sure you sold a couple MNT Reform laptops!

2025-12-01T16:38:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…f6ht
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I'm sure you sold a couple MNT Reform laptops!

They also both grew up in the UK, so there must have been ...

2025-12-01T15:14:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…s6yr
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They also both grew up in the UK, so there must have been something in the water here.

North #American #zoning has strict separation of residential uses ...

2025-11-10T16:51:08Z

North #American #zoning has strict separation of residential uses from industrial and commerical ones. We normally think about the #traffic this generates just trying to do trips to things that should be local services within walking distance, which is a real problem.

But the most tragic irony is that this system forces families in small cars to mix in the same traffic lanes as giant industrial vehicles. By separating the land, they've mixed the #transport system in terrifying and deadly ways.

This is why I refuse to hash it. That and the way I can get ...

2025-11-05T18:59:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…j37n
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This is why I refuse to hash it. That and the way I can get hostname tab completion for free

I'm pretty staunchly anti-#LLM chatbot, ...

2025-11-02T20:41:09Z

I'm pretty staunchly anti-#LLM chatbot, anti-generative-visuals, etc etc. I'm picky about where a few pieces are appropriate, but by and large I assume the whole category is radioactive until proven otherwise. I have never chatted a gee-pee-tee or gemin-eyed'd a groque or whatever the hell, and do not intend to.

But uh... do you folks *genuinely* think that data centre water cooling systems aren't closed-loop? Do your water-cooled gamer PCs really need topping up that much? Heck, my old phone (a shop demo model they were going to throw away) had water-based cooling, and it was a tiny droplet that stayed in a copper pipe and evaporated and condensed back and forth as needed to move heat around.

Like, I'm all for mocking the things, and maybe there are some backwards installations in some strange places. But even in London (where we have plenty of water to hand) we use closed-loop water cooling systems in the local data centres.

The power demands are an obviously valid concern: hell, they're bringing *coal power* back online in the US for these stupid things. But the "each query uses N litres of water" thing strikes me as a claim based on extrapolation and misunderstanding.

I went to school with a kid whose family were I guess part owners ...

2025-10-30T20:22:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…usam
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I went to school with a kid whose family were I guess part owners of Generra, and he appeared in some ads. He had every single hypercolor shirt out there, around 7th grade, and I still remember his name.

Nostr event nevent1qqsgf29hd5hhz52e7pr4nn6cgm2qj46vv08gax50arh2cp4s03a3p9gzyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7z9p9s3q

2025-10-24T11:15:21Z

https://www.purepens.co.uk/products/lamy-safari-fountain-pen-harry-potter ← Welp, looks like I can't recommend #Lamy #fountainpens any more.

My favourite Futura-replacement is Jost*: ...

2025-10-14T13:03:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…7kc7
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My favourite Futura-replacement is Jost*: https://github.com/indestructible-type/Jost

I'm told that due to a court ruling that "walking ...

2025-10-10T10:32:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…fd6m
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I'm told that due to a court ruling that "walking pace" for motorists was unenforceable, you can't build them any more. So they tend to be in 1980s constructions, and in the 80s Amsterdam was mostly building apartment blocks. So they tend to only exist out in suburbs of a particular vintage.

Apparently this came about around the same time as the 30kph residential speed limit, so they just quietly took woonerven out of the books and stopped building any more.

I strongly recommend everyone use cookie autodelete. I laugh now ...

2025-09-22T10:36:04Z

I strongly recommend everyone use cookie autodelete. I laugh now at the dark pattern of "ACCEPT COOKIES" buttons next to "REJECT FOR A MONTHLY FEE". Sure, give me cookies. They'll last exactly as long as this tab is open, chumps, and I know it works because you show me this nonsense EVERY SINGLE TIME I OPEN ONE OF YOUR PAGES.

Since English is an Anglo-Saxon language, we refer to its ...

2025-09-20T08:22:33Z

Since English is an Anglo-Saxon language, we refer to its speakers as "Anglophones". We missed a trick not being called "Saxophones".

Wow, this video does the thing that I always used as a ...

2025-08-30T11:27:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…7dwl
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Wow, this video does the thing that I always used as a counterexample. Like, for me, the phrase "a software" seems grammatically incorrect: like saying "a furniture" or "a produce". The term is a category descriptor, and you need to say "a piece of software" or "an item of produce".

So I'd occasionally ask people "Would you say 'a hardware'??"

The narrator in this video does, repeatedly. He refers to "hardwares" in the plural (my spellchecker put red squigglies under that word!).

Just a complete shift in language that seems to be extremely mainstream now.

Dancing about architecture.

2025-08-14T20:10:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…hvt8
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Dancing about architecture.

No, it does not.

2025-08-14T18:55:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…wkfc
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No, it does not.

So the whole world is under fire from anti-intellectual forces, ...

2025-08-14T13:05:39Z

So the whole world is under fire from anti-intellectual forces, facing traps tailor-made for each group's weaknesses. The "crunchy" "granola" "hippy" types all got anti-vaccine hysteria, and the Angry Young Men are always easy to trap with immigration and racism. The terminally-online gamers got all sorts of horrible misogynistic stuff, and just like in the Porn Wars of the 80s and 90s, feminism has been co-opted by right-wing purity culture and aimed at being cruel to people instead of solidarity.

The LLM crap is just what they aimed at us, the actually technically proficient folks. Getting the weakest of us hooked on copilot and breaking our search engines is how they hope to break us apart.

What always held us together was collaborative constructive works like Wikipedia and Copyleft software development. Rebellion against corporations is what kept us going, and is what ensures our independence from their poison.

There are experts proclaiming that we're overreacting, and that generative systems have real uses. That's great my guy but we're right now DROWNING in adverts for radium milkshakes and suppositories, and I don't want to hear about the few genuine medical uses of the stuff every time I warn people of the dangers.

Ozzy Ozborne and Malcolm Jamal Warner awkwardly waiting in the ...

2025-07-22T18:21:27Z

Ozzy Ozborne and Malcolm Jamal Warner awkwardly waiting in the same ethereal queue.

Not going to loop in a new hashtag without your consent, but the ...

2025-07-21T16:28:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…7p4s
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Not going to loop in a new hashtag without your consent, but the RetroComputing tag has been really active on here for me, and you may find that group helpful. (But knowing masto, you may have History with some of them, so up to you)

Part of this is that NYC needed to learn the hard way how to use ...

2025-06-25T22:19:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…lk00
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Part of this is that NYC needed to learn the hard way how to use their votes in this system. Eric Adams got the mayoralty partly because New Yorkers thought that you put the worst person at your lowest rank. That bizarrely got him an absurd number of fifth-round votes and launched him into the seat.

This time around, everyone was clear on the message of "Vote for me and this other person who aligns with me, and DO NOT RANK CUOMO!"

Yeah, I've seen those. It seems like there are four or five ...

2025-06-22T17:57:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…wa3a
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Yeah, I've seen those. It seems like there are four or five models of pocket Bluetooth keyboard, and they get re-branded seventy times over by fly-by-night online shops.
Sara Joy :happy_pepper: (npub1jpy…yfwv) Termux (npub1s9q…7vx8)

So yeah, I have an old BOW tri-fold that I can type on far better ...

2025-06-22T16:50:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…mxv6
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So yeah, I have an old BOW tri-fold that I can type on far better than any touchscreen or thumb typing. I've used it to produce documents in markor and send PDFs around to people, and nobody realised I was doing it from my phone.

Looking up pocketable keyboards for my mobile phone turns up ...

2025-06-22T12:15:13Z

Looking up pocketable keyboards for my mobile phone turns up mostly obsolete links, and a hint that the Weird Little Guy I bought in like 2017 is still the best for me. Any Termux (npub1s9q…7vx8) users got lines on anything new or cool?

Vertical RAM chips are definitely A Mood.

2025-06-18T10:33:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…8shg
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Vertical RAM chips are definitely A Mood.

You can follow @npub1g74…ka2t here, as well.

2025-06-11T11:40:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…3tfj
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You can follow The Man in Seat 61 (npub1g74…ka2t) here, as well.

Nostr event nevent1qqswn5au90xx2fmgu9q47wez6ahmurgf5p5ccztm9j7h7lrrqqhxrtczyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7zy6zwkr

2025-05-20T10:03:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…2xh2
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does #POSIWID

I am always suspicious of people who use "addiction" as a ...

2025-03-26T09:44:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…06xg
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I am always suspicious of people who use "addiction" as a model for habitual behaviours in general.

I am reminded of the time when Stephen Hawking said that thanks ...

2025-03-24T18:24:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…3shl
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I am reminded of the time when Stephen Hawking said that thanks to Physics, "we no longer need Philosophers." A rather prominent philosopher noted that this was fascinating in a recursive way, because what Hawking said was itself a philosophical statement.

Any time you see someone declaring their project "apolitical" in some way, they are nearly always doing so in opposition to some other project that has politics they disagree with. That sort of a priori makes them also a political project.

People here in Europe get kind of boggle-eyed when you tell them ...

2025-03-24T09:03:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…zehx
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People here in Europe get kind of boggle-eyed when you tell them that local calls were not metered in the US. Suddenly they understand why BBSes were such a big deal in the 80s and 90s.

We used to have a system called GremLink, where someone had an XT-class machine sitting in a closet with two modems: each one was hooked up to a phone line with a different "local" calling radius, and you could relay through it to extend your toll-free distance north or south. BBSes used it for exchanging packets of networked messages for each other after dark.

I am actively seeing people apologising now, and saying "I ...

2025-03-19T16:00:36Z

I am actively seeing people apologising now, and saying "I know this is too political for the rules here, but I am losing access to my source of life-saving medications and am now actively spinning everything down and preparing for death. If you are interested in $THING_I_DO, please support these other people."

I am deliberately not CWing this, because at some point this stops being a shocking political argument and starts becoming The New Normal. I know I asked people to get angrier and louder behind CWs, but seeing this apologetic approach to "The world as it is in 2025 has failed me, with fatal consequences." just makes me think that this is not a useful approach for some statements.

I say this having just run a workshop on African independent publications from the 1960s and 1970s, and getting surprised mid-session by an incongruous photograph of real human violence that we hadn't spotted prior to running the event. We would have warned and gated that particular work if we'd known. The person who spotted it was fine, and notified us discreetly, but we were gutted at not having caught it and given a warning.

But do not apologise for the forces that kill you being "political" in nature. Let the record show. I will block anyone from the Mastodon HOA who tells me otherwise.

Do you honestly think that's an effective strategy? NB: this ...

2025-03-18T15:07:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…ywzn
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Do you honestly think that's an effective strategy?

NB: this is a rhetorical question. https://donotreply.cards/en/do-not-reply-to-this-post

I knew the founders who chose that name. They were kids in an era ...

2025-03-18T13:16:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…f7w4
_________________________

I knew the founders who chose that name. They were kids in an era that lionised "irreverence" in media and institutions, and they were cultivated to be young and have fun and try new things and pushed boundaries.

They tried it, and they had their fun. The boundary they pushed has pushed back, with lessons for all of us. I would have hoped that by now they'd have grown up and could say "That didn't age well, but we have. It's time to move on."

I'm disappointed that they have not.

Ugh yeah, I used to use OpenNoteScanner for years, enjoying the ...

2025-03-09T17:15:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…e0we
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Ugh yeah, I used to use OpenNoteScanner for years, enjoying the ability for it to fix the skew on a rectangular slip of paper from some shaky angles. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything in any F-Droid repos that take its place since the OS version boundary.

All the ones that look promising seem to be remote clients for networked flatbed scanners...

The Citadel BBS was originally written for BDS C, and I have a ...

2025-02-26T22:04:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…zq3h
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The Citadel BBS was originally written for BDS C, and I have a soft sport for it as a result.

And I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of pearl-clutching ...

2025-02-23T14:17:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…mmn8
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And I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of pearl-clutching about "Oh no, that's never helpful to compare them to Nazis. You're not helping anything by doing that."

My sibling in Dr. Jones: I am helping you come closer to understanding that They Are Literal Nazis.

Mike Godwin of Internet Godwin's Law fame showed up during the last administration and said "No, these guys you must call Nazis. They are Nazis." There is no debate here. This is not a situation where subtlety will help reach deeper truths. The US Civil War was over slavery, and these guys are Nazis.

Roses are red. Violets are blue. Singular "they" predates ...

2025-02-14T12:19:35Z

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Singular "they"
predates singular "you".

Agreed. And I say this as someone who only just found them and ...

2025-02-09T12:40:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…u7yu
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Agreed. And I say this as someone who only just found them and eagerly subscribed to the feed...

I mean I could have believed an older tesla sedan or something, ...

2025-02-09T11:50:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…83jh
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I mean I could have believed an older tesla sedan or something, but the Thybootwuq is over the top. Beggars belief, frankly.

Really? You got a Thybootwuq to save the world??

2025-02-09T11:40:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…ptuj
_________________________

Really? You got a Thybootwuq to save the world??

We got a delighted message from @npub1qeu…xqkj the other day ...

2025-02-09T11:07:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…6wq8
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We got a delighted message from Brian Danger Hicks (npub1qeu…xqkj) the other day informing us that he'd seen his first one being towed. We've started a neo-Audubon society for this.

Please! Refer to him by his proper name: Child Rock.

2025-01-21T23:58:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…7jvv
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Please! Refer to him by his proper name:

Child Rock.

So in the Netherlands, certain roads need to be ...

2025-01-19T13:16:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…gs0j
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So in the Netherlands, certain roads need to be setts/bricks/cobbles/whatever (to keep speeds down and to improve drainage), and the laws say that roads need to be laid mechanically, and the unions insist on a certain amount of paid labour in the building of roads.

The result? This machine: https://youtu.be/LY4vD3SHYH4

I always frame #LLMs in that they reason through "dream ...

2025-01-11T13:59:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…5e6j
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I always frame #LLMs in that they reason through "dream logic". This is especially resonant for literature students or art students, as it gives them a lens through which they can express the ways in which the tools have been helpful. But it is also useful in harder research or engineering disciplines to show how the results cannot be taken as fully reasoned or researched.

So from an academic standpoint, sure: go have a chat with an AI chatbot to work through your ideas about that essay, but then close the tab and write the thing yourself. Look up citations for all the points from your conversation—Can't defend it? Shucks, on to the next one!

And yeah, maybe explicitly LLM-generated material is useful in a presentation on Surrealism, or Jungian ideas, or... I dunno, I don't work in those fields. You know where dreams and dream-logic is appropriate in your discipline, and how much disclosure is appropriate, and that's exactly where #LLM materials belong.

I had one of the Official Fisher Space Pens, and it came with a slip of paper where the inventor talked about having trouble making the design work in the early days. He said his father came to him in a dream and told him to put a bead of rosin in a particular spot. Now, rosin was absolutely the wrong material for this, but *resin* worked perfectly.

He didn't start up the factory with a million units containing rosin just because of his prophetic dream: he used it as inspiration to *test* new avenues that he may not have been consciously considering.

It seems like lots of tech folks are hitting absurdities making ...

2025-01-06T17:31:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…96zc
_________________________

It seems like lots of tech folks are hitting absurdities making switches like this: https://hachyderm.io/@joeyh/113782179990809327

in THIS economy?

2025-01-01T15:01:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…wtmd
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in THIS economy?

I remember being fully unconvinced by Paglia around that time, ...

2024-12-30T09:52:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…7zmu
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I remember being fully unconvinced by Paglia around that time, but she got traction for being the opposite of Dworkin in some places where it mattered.
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us has moved (npub12pw…zvxn)

At the time she was mostly dismayed at the way Dworkin had become ...

2024-12-29T12:35:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…w8vk
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At the time she was mostly dismayed at the way Dworkin had become a darling of the Reagan Revolutionaries and the Heritage Foundation. Her anti-porn activism led her to ally with absolutely bletcherous right-wing Christianists, and Atwood saw absolutely nothing good coming of that.

I mean, this is literally the opening paragraph to The ...

2024-12-29T10:15:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…3htt
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I mean, this is literally the opening paragraph to The Handmaid's Tale.

Nostr event nevent1qqswlw45nrcfgw59s8xt8gk3swdrv9lz262v9d3uvf632epj85atglgzyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7zgzrq54

2024-12-27T11:32:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…2vea
_________________________

Nostr event nevent1qqs8t988twn8g9enuupnzkcryj5snqnpeads5t6dtw7unhzv3lupy2gzyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7z8qr26a

2024-12-27T11:14:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…xc57
_________________________

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalissimo_Francisco_Franco_is_still_dead

I am going to see if I can write a neovim version of this that ...

2024-12-20T22:08:37Z

In reply to nevent1q…reze
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I am going to see if I can write a neovim version of this that shells out to `enscript` along with the appropriate syntax highlighting. I love that this tool still exists, and I realised long ago that the printed source code of the Morris Internet Worm on news coverage around 1987 was printed using the thing.

I think that's the computer that the actor who played Moose ...

2024-12-19T16:06:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…k943
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I think that's the computer that the actor who played Moose on YCDTOT had when she moved on to the production team.

I finally realised that every time an executive puts an #LLM such ...

2024-12-18T23:45:23Z

I finally realised that every time an executive puts an #LLM such as #GPT in a decision-making position in their organisation, it is literally #Caligula making #Incitatus a Consul of Rome: https://youtu.be/2J6-t2mtNtU

(Yes the story is likely apocryphal, or at least exaggerated, but the metaphor is a strong one with millennia of tradition behind it.)

Christian friend of mine followed the news and said "Thank ...

2024-12-18T20:59:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…nl4m
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Christian friend of mine followed the news and said "Thank God for the Satanists" before clarifying that he meant it absolutely literally.

In the version of #Frankenstein you know, what authors does The ...

2024-12-18T12:40:15Z

In the version of #Frankenstein you know, what authors does The Monster read?

Are you desaturating the whole image, or pulling out the red ...

2024-12-17T11:43:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…5u4r
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Are you desaturating the whole image, or pulling out the red channel?

Shades of "If you don't schedule downtime for your ...

2024-12-17T11:35:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…n4xv
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Shades of "If you don't schedule downtime for your equipment, the equipment will choose the downtime schedule."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgNbpGQ6Fag ← An appearance ...

2024-12-05T18:45:48Z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgNbpGQ6Fag ← An appearance from the fediverse's own Tube Mapper - Luke Agbaimoni (npub17c8…rs80) in the latest Geoff Marshall video!

I think it's kind of interesting that my side of the ...

2024-12-04T17:46:05Z

I think it's kind of interesting that my side of the #fediverse is rapidly converging on the opinion that OPs should "own" the reply thread. As in, since I posted this as a top-of-the-tree post, I should be able to moderate and control replies from everyone else. Even something as simple as inverting the Public/Unlisted/Followers/direct-mention control would be a useful filter!

I think it's a good model that would increase poster autonomy here, and as a bonus it would really tick off the freeze-peach maniacs.

Like this second one is marketed for "outerwear" which is ...

2024-11-24T12:31:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…8xsu
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Like this second one is marketed for "outerwear" which is what it says on my can, and that's pretty much the use case here.

https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/v101148028/ ← Hm, the label ...

2024-11-24T12:30:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…khjx
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https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/v101148028/ ← Hm, the label is even more different to this one, but the description seems more like the can I have here.

https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/v101501009/ ← We have an old ...

2024-11-24T12:28:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…q0tt
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https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/p/d/v101501009/ ← We have an old spray-can of this left over from some thing my kid needed back in the day. It's got a different label but 3M formulations stay pretty consistent even on the consumer end.

It works best on brand new ones, before abrasion has had a chance ...

2024-11-24T11:21:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…6slj
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It works best on brand new ones, before abrasion has had a chance to undermine the fabric, mind. And you can't wash any of it hot from then on, but that's not such a big risk with modern laundry.

It was given in earnest, and after decades of exactly the same ...

2024-11-24T10:35:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…cslc
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It was given in earnest, and after decades of exactly the same problem. I got it as a recommendation on MetaFilter's Q&A system a few years back and it doubled the lifespan of my cheap work trousers.

Scotch gard

2024-11-24T08:30:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…upy9
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Scotch gard

This can have many different effects. I have taken you at your ...

2024-11-13T16:38:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…3unh
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This can have many different effects. I have taken you at your word regarding the stuff you're putting up with here, and occasionally I feel like replying with something supportive. But since I don't see many replies it feels like I'd stick out in an empty room, which discourages me given you're often complaining about the volume of attention you *do* get.

So instead I usually just hit the "like" button and keep scrolling.

I remain infuriated at the way in which a splatter of water can ...

2024-11-04T10:07:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…qau3
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I remain infuriated at the way in which a splatter of water can cause our hob to crank an inductor's power levels up, or it can shut the whole thing off. It's a mystery! And when you wipe the thing down it screams in all sorts of error codes because you pressed everything at once!

"Made with our own two hands." sounds less weird, though. ...

2024-10-31T14:10:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…6xvx
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"Made with our own two hands." sounds less weird, though.
Gretchen McCulloch (npub1lxl…pn9e)

"Send help immediately! I'm in Bath, United Kingdom!" ...

2024-10-28T14:46:23Z

"Send help immediately! I'm in Bath, United Kingdom!"

"Ah yes, I see that is an island just off the coast of Japan. We're sending help!"

"Wait, what??"

https://map.what3words.com/bath.united.kingdom

I like that this is the opposite of the old "Newsanchor ...

2024-10-23T13:00:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…xc7r
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I like that this is the opposite of the old "Newsanchor covering a manhunt and you're meant to think the inset witness sketch looks like him." image (which never worked for me as the sketch was dramatically different in most features).

Nostr event nevent1qqsrmr9d8rmr74ca9wny22kqn3kaug3jjhj96qmeqejq2dd8ykdnvlqzyrpt3ttcdwjsdk0278vsfelz9xplkmx8ygazjht6nkzxaflyrhv7zlp6hpk

2024-10-21T06:37:59Z

Make reader mode the default #CSS in all browsers send toot

I feel like Janelle Shane was an amazing moment in the period ...

2024-10-19T19:28:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…l4ud
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I feel like Janelle Shane was an amazing moment in the period when "machine learning" hadn't yet exploded into the current enshittifactorio game of LLMs. We'd get updates with whimsy borne of pure mechanical lack of understanding and a great skill at sifting through generated crud. I stopped getting the mails a while back.

Is "sociopath" still a valid classification in current ...

2024-10-15T21:00:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…kalh
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Is "sociopath" still a valid classification in current practice?
ɹ uɐp :antifascism: (npub187g…a636)

I used to get The Onion in print back in the 90s. I should have ...

2024-10-12T08:16:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…af0f
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I used to get The Onion in print back in the 90s. I should have found a way to preserve those.

Anyone whose car makes over a certain number of decibels in a ...

2024-10-05T20:18:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…kyqf
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Anyone whose car makes over a certain number of decibels in a residential area should have their car crushed and replaced with a forehead tattoo that just says "HERE COMES A SPECIAL BOY"

Welp, the non-return valve in our washer-dryer failed, so it was ...

2024-09-13T14:16:26Z

Welp, the non-return valve in our washer-dryer failed, so it was off to the launderette with all the family's laundry today. #quaxing #BikeTooter #CarryShitOlympics

https://youtu.be/si9iqF5uTFk?t=298 ← Admiral (then Capt.) Grace ...

2024-08-29T12:46:44Z

https://youtu.be/si9iqF5uTFk?t=298 ← Admiral (then Capt.) Grace Hopper on #CarBrain:

> ...and I m quite worried about something. When we built all those roads and the shopping centers and all the other things, and provided for automobile transportation, we forgot something. We forgot transportation as a whole: we only looked at the automobiles.
> Because of that, today, when we need them again, the road beds of the railroads are falling apart. They're dumping polyvinyl chloride around the countryside.
> If we wanted to move our tanks from the center of the country to the ports to ship them overseas, there are no flat cars left because we move all the cars on those racks on the roads now. If we wanted to move coal to replace oil, there are probably not enough hopper cars to move both the grain crop and the coal.
> And the truth of the matter is we've done a LOUSY job of managing transportation as a whole.