Sven Slootweg @joepie91@pixie.town

Is this not a reasonable place to park?

Food banks and all variations on that theme should be seen as indictments of a failed state, not something to be encouraged or celebrated. They exist because we have collectively fucked up our economic system.

Sorry

your annual reminder that any brand recognition you have for AKG is now for naught because Samsung bought them, moved the manufacturing out of Germany, discontinued most of the classic AKG lines, and all the engineers left.

I just remembered that this happened and it made me sad.

most of the AKG folks are now at Austrian Audio.

Buitenlands gedoe inderdaad.

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/01/03/buitenlandsgedoe-a4878486?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_term=share-modal

(Never mind that if it *was* true, it'd open a gigantic ethical can of worms to effectively compel and imprison a system capable of agency behind a corporate chatbot. So I can only hope that said marketing teams don't believe their own claims.)

Anyway, it's something I'm trying to watch in my own language when I talk about Facebook's new chatbots today. They aren't "trying" to do anything, they aren't "claiming" things, or anything like that. It might seem like hairsplitting, but it does matter — so much of the marketing behind LLMs is geared towards getting us to believe that they are capable of acting with intent and purpose, but that's just not true.

I've said this before, but the bias in English towards agency makes it really hard to talk about LLMs in a reasonable and neutral manner. If an LLM-based chatbot outputs a question as its response, is it fair to say that the chatbot asked a question? There's a critical difference between returning text that contains a question and asking a question, yet it's very difficult to be consistently clear about that distinction.

I just tested positive for COVID. If you saw me recently (especially if you were at the Stonewall IO during 38C3, or at my live set at CCCHH) please get tested!!!

2025. New year, fresh glass #b3d

Reminder that it’s super easy to turn your #38c3 wristband in a bracelet you can wear and take off whenever you want ✨

The most German solution to pedestrians crossing the railway line due to a missing crossing : a sign.

Tech is political.

You encode your values, your attitude and your bias into the code.

The tech you create can give you legitimacy. It can give you influence. Get rich enough (or start out rich enough) you get doors opened to you.

It's all power.

We can see what some people in tech do with that power.

We can however choose to not contribute to that enablement.

You're in FOSS you've made some sacrifices.

What's a little more?

My wonderful gardener Kathryn has, good for her, got a new full-time gardening job. I'm pleased for her as it will financially make her life easier.

But it's also bad for me, as now I need to find a new gardener. It was hard enough finding her. There are lots of "slash & burn" gardeners out there, but for some reason, not many gardeners with plant knowledge and interest in working with me to develop my garden.

So if anyone knows of a gardener in the Penarth/Cardiff area, let me know!

@gardening