a plea to trans folks in NL, especially trans guys please boost
if the IA ever dies for good, there's gonna be a temptation to blame them for making mistakes that caused it (not having better infosec, taking off lending restrictions to try to help at the beginning of a global pandemic that shut down the world), but if they go down, they were taken down by deliberate actions by people (book publishers, hackers) not by forces of nature*
could they have played defense better? yes, could they have been less naive about how publishers would react during the pandemic, probably, but they were still deliberately targeted and we shouldn't misplace our anger
*(although there is a tendency to treat malicious hackers and corporations as forces of nature who have no choice but to do what they do, this is not true, these are human beings who make decisions)
The "all the major journals are just letting blatantly LLM generated papers through" thing should be a way bigger wake up call that science is broken than the daryl bem 2011 ESP paper, but since the obvious prescription is "abolish the whole fucking racket" the response is tellingly tepid.
#OpenScience was all fun and games when it was purity tests and window dressing, but when it comes time to refuse to publish in prestige journals and rebuild anti-profitable human-led communication systems, there isn't much appetite for it.
I made a histogram of wealth distribution in the United States, using the Forbes 400 list that just came out. Almost the entire US population is in the red line at the left, one pixel wide. To fit Elon Musk on the graph, each pixel is $500 million wide. In other words, from the perspective of the very rich, $0 and $500 million look the same.
(Source of that photo is unfortunately very vague about who made this specific picture, it's one of the people listed in the header of https://www.looopings.nl/weblog/26947/Fotos-vaandels-en-borden-maken-het-gebied-rond-Danse-Macabre-in-de-Efteling-compleet.html)
For a company that has spent years talking about how important the "Open Web" is, this is some petty bullshit.
Two little business bros couldn't work their shit out like adults and now it's everybody's problem.
Pathetic.
is there a good (open source) tool for enumerating installed software on Windows?
there is a list in the Windows Registry but that only includes software installed in the "proper" way
it excludes portable software or just any random package cloned from GitHub
basically: any software that is in between the typical project SBoM and InstallShield™ installers.
subtoot of many, frustrated (3)
And yes I *will* bite if you try to take this thread as an invitation to continue arguing the point, and you are going to get the unfiltered version of my criticism, so you should make very very sure that that is actually what you want before trying to dispute this
AI hellscape gripe
@researchfairy YES! Such a big part of generative AI motivation is consent avoidance
AI hellscape gripe
Saw an ad with a Black person in it that was AI generated
Now I'm thinking about the "digital blackface" aspects of AI image generation
You can have them in an ad to hawk your products, make them participate in your sexual fantasies, make them endorse your ideas
You don't have to hire a Black person, no one has to even look them in the eye to ask them to pose
You can still have bespoke photorealistic video of them doing your bidding and it costs pennies if anything at all
AI hellscape gripe
And this isn't just about not paying a Black person, although that's definitely part of it
It's also about how easy it is to just type a prompt and make a digitally generated image of a Black person doing something that might cross a line or where it would be difficult or infeasible to arrange if you had to convince models, actors or artists to do it
Technical debt collector and general hype-hater. Early 30s, non-binary, ND, poly, relationship anarchist, generally queer.
- No alt text (request) = no boost.
- Boosts OK for all boostable posts.
- DMs are open.
- Flirting welcome, but be explicit if you want something out of it!
- The devil doesn't need an advocate; no combative arguing in my mentions.
Sometimes horny on main (behind CW), very much into kink (bondage, freeuse, CNC, and other stuff), and believe it or not, very much a submissive bottom :p
My spoons are limited, so I may not always have the energy to respond to messages.
Strong views about abolishing oppression, hierarchy, agency, and self-governance - but I also trust people by default and give them room to grow, unless they give me reason not to. That all also applies to technology and how it's built.