this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Need to let loose a primal scream without collecting footnotes first? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

Last week's thread

(Semi-obligatory thanks to @dgerard for starting this)

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (9 children)

My enshittification story*: Instagram has been suggesting people for me to follow. It markets them to me by saying “friend X follows this person!” But friend X does not follow this person. Friend X has no tenable connection to this person. Why are you bullshitting me, Zuck? Is the autoplag outflow drain hooked up to Insta?

*orig JP title: 僕のエンシット化ストーリー

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

Alternative headline for this Washington Post opinion piece from Jeff Bezos: We're all trying to find the guy who did this!

^more^ ^US^ ^politics^ ^I^ ^know.^ ^There^ ^is^ ^sadly^ ^no^ ^escape^ ^from^ ^the^ ^fiery^ ^vortex^ ^that^ ^is^ ^the^ ^U.S.^ ^election.^

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Broke: Simpsons did it first

Woke: OJ Simpson did it first

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

no escape

Rest of world: is there no alternative to US hegemony?

CIA: *raises head from pile of blow, puts gun on table* no

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Dead internet? At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within the job hunting process?

Yes

(Github project supposedly for AI assisted mass job application, including using the AI to cater resume to job posting. God I'm terrified of ever having to return to the job market this is fucking insane.)

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Bezos' open interference in the Washington Post's editorial section has pushed Walter Bright into a very funny series of public admissions that he did not have to make. See the orange site here for his ongoing libertarian meltdown.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

His comment history is a weird mix of programming language discussion, terrible takes, simping for Musk, simping for Musk even harder (just in case you didn't realize how much he liked Musk the first time).

Musk is the sane one. It's the rest of us that are insane.

Holy hell.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

I really hope Harris wins by a landslide just so all these weird nerds eat shit. If even just one goes "wow I really let myself get swept up into believing trump/musk was great by my echo chamber it would be worth it. But i doubt we will get such self awareness. The various betting prediction markets also then have been wrong (or manipulated) would also be fun.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I don't think you want to hear my opinions on what the left wing thinks is obvious :-)

Also, I am neither left nor right wing, as I'm a libertarian. I believe in the principles in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the system of checks and balances set up by the Constitution.

it’s just really surprising to see the political takes of a 13 year old come out of the 65 year old who created the least successful C variant

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

I don’t think you want to hear my opinions

You're right there, buddy!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A libertarian who glamorizes the state as set up by old people in the past. The libertarian to reactionary funnel.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Not really that surprising. Computer programmers are textbook petite bourgeoisie.

Edit I don't keep track of C and C-likes, but apparently D has been forked, and it seems that Walter Bright is a bit of a dick as a maintainer too

https://dpldocs.info/this-week-in-d/Blog.Posted_2024_01_01.html

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Walter Bright soon reading his second ever newspaper: "Wow, this is a lot like Washington Post!"

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

~~For some reason the previous week's thread doesn't show up on the feed for me (and didn't all week)...~~ nvm, i somehow managed to block froztbyte by accident, no idea how

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

lemmy explores new frontiers of ux design

the specific frontiers being explored are the parts of Oregon Trail that kill you

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

dys.en.tery

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Two of the major donors pushing to recall the mayor of Oakland, CA are cryptocurrency "executives."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/27/billionaires-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-recall

Over the summer, Jesse Pollak, a cryptocurrency investor and executive at Coinbase, launched Abundant Oakland, an advocacy organization that funds “moderate” candidates running in Oakland races. The organization is explicitly linked to similarly named entities in San Francisco and Santa Monica.

Abundant Oakland has a related political action committee, Vibrant Oakland, which, campaign filings show, has received donations from Pollak ($115,000), the Oakland police officers association ($50,000), cryptocurrency executive Konstantin Richter ($60,000), the northern California carpenters regional council ($150,000) and a Pac controlled by Piedmont landlord Chris Moore ($100,000).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I wonder if the OpenAI habit of naming their models after the previous ones' embarrassing failures is meant as an SEO trick. Google "chatgpt strawberry" and the top result is about o1. It may mention the origin of the codename, but ultimately you're still streered to marketing material.

Either way, I'm looking forward to their upcoming AI models Malpractice, Forgery, KiddieSmut, ClassAction, SecuritiesFraud and Lemonparty.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

i used to be the sysadmin for lemonparty

it was quite a surprise when i found out i can tell you

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

...I feel like there's a story here.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

You did a damn good job spreading the Word of Ed.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

NASB, I had a jarring experience this morning watching Patrick Boyle's latest video "Big Tech is Going Nuclear!" (not gonna link it) where 5 mins in he introduces the sponsor and it's an AI presentation slide generator, which he said he used for the images in his video. This after he mentioned the data on generating one image using the same amount of energy as charging a smartphone. The thing is he seems careful to not mention that it is a gen ai product–he never says AI–rather a piece of software that helps making presentations.

It kinda made me panic stop the video, like an instant "well, done with you" - not sure if he continued to make a joke of it or anything. I mean, I'm sure (I hope) he was given a lot of money for the spot, but damn! Just when I thought I had a foundational understanding of people

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The thing is he seems careful to not mention that it is a gen ai product–he never says AI–rather a piece of software that helps making presentations.

The term "AI" damages sales when used in advertising - whatever script Boyle got was definitely written by people who knew that fact.

I also predicted something like this would happen (though within a very specific context) a while ago - seems my prediction's coming true.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ok, but are you suggesting he was duped?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

The guy seems shrewd enough to know publicly supporting anything AI will shred his reputation - I suspect he might have been duped.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

sorry if my reply sounded rude. I didn't mean it to be. I just saw it again and it sounds dismissive.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah, I get what you're saying but I'd really have to stretch my benefit-of-the-doubt muscles to consider someone who makes such well-researched videos wouldn't go to the website before he reads the url out on his video and see that on the homepage, above the fold, in big letters, it says "Powered by AI"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

maybe reach out and ask? might be interesting to see the answer

(if you care to, anyway)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's definitely the prudent option but I'm over mental capacity and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sharing this just for the upvotes. I couldn't see any mentions of the sponsor in the comments, so I guess the audience, at least, were duped. I already have a string of unanswered questions on ecosia's greenwashing social posts, though

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

yep, I getcha.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

This isn't the first time I've seen something like this, but its always nice to see someone actively piss all over AI in this manner.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

beat me by seconds.

She's incredible

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Kicking off the stack with something light.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

I see RicksCEO.eth has since quietly removed the ".eth" part of his name. Presumably it was way more embarrassing than being a strip club tycoon.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

it looks like checkmarks retailated

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

unlike Rick, she did get laid

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

some years ago I wanted to build a bot that tracks all these loons, but the twitter API reqs are onerous as fuck so I never bothered

feel like there's probably still a need for something like that. perhaps even more so than before, given how mask-off the snakepit is getting

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 weeks ago

Considering API access is now I think 40k a month + you pay for usage, prob good you never got into that. So the time doesn't feel wasted.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

Headcanon: he changed it as a result of this epic bonnie slam

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

Godspeed, Bonnie. I'm gonna call this a good omen for the week.

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