Replying to
@Javvad@infosec.exchange when ordinary people do bad things they get punished, even wealthy people (Meta's big shareholders) do bad things... 🤷♂️
Remote
Mark Hughes
@markhughes@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Retired software chap, lefty, prone to political rants. Have explored many things over the years.
Posts delete after a while.
Techy self: @happyborg@fosstodon.org
Techy blog: https://toast.happybeing.com
0 Followers
0 Following
50 Posts
Joined April 03, 2017
#Trump continues to expose the limits of US power and embolden #China, #Russia and #Iran to take more of the pie as each misstep provides the opportunities.
Trump justified the #IranWar by saying sanctions hadn't worked when in fact they had, and Iran was complying with a deal to limit its nuclear program, as agreed with the USA and European nations.
Now that his unnecessary illegal war has failed, leaving Iran holding 20% of oil and gas for ransom, Trump has gone back to sanctions. 🤦♂️
@ggrey@social.thelab.uno it's is a possibility but if I were doing that I'd look at summer fedi apps first. I saw one recently that's a single executable, so no dependencies to update etc.
One reason not to self host is time (years ago I self hosted friendica and just updating regularly is a pain even if it always works), another is privacy. Exposing a personal IP is a leak. I imagine it also increases attack surface though I've not looked into that.
Do you self host?
How is account migration on #Mastodon these days? And which servers are most likely to be sustainable while not overloaded or over censored?
I've become increasingly unhappy with what appears to be silent censorship on Mastodon.social, effectively giving cover for war criminals and genocide, so I'm looking for a new server for this account.
I last migrated a few years ago and it was ok. I don't mind losing my post history or followers. Ease and who I follow is more important.
Man of the people #NigelFarage earned £270,000 for 12 hours "work" in one of many jobs he's doing while supposedly an MP.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8dg3883g7o#ukpol
Watching #DanSnow describing the life of #SaintPatrick with definitive certainty. Interested that Patrick was *English* I check Wikipedia which casts doubt on many aspects of what I'm being told.
Snow has chosen one version from a number of different explanations, some of which directly contradict Snow's narrative.
Why would a serious historian present history in this definitive and clearly incorrect way. We don't know. FFS, mention this is one possible interpretation.
Replying to
@openrisk
Apps are pretty bad for us anyway. I've long minimised app use in preference to web apps and get by very well.
I do use some apps, but they are for convenience and not essential.
The switch away from Android and iOS is going to be slow, but as with all things with lock in, enshitification both becomes inevitable and brings about the demise of those prisons.
Being pestered by a company website to switch to the app tells you very clearly not to use the app.
@mosiwo @ironicbadger
Who said this was boring 🤣
#WorldCup
Replying to
@hoppla@mas.to IMO this (the problems and the demonisation of those suffering) is rooted in the inequality that is the main result of capitalism, which in turn is the seed of fascism time and again.
Until we can produce growth in a truly democratic system (where money does not relate to power), we are doomed to repeat the horrors of preceding centuries.
Now that #Trump and #Netanyahu have opened Pandora's box - a world without law or accountability for the powerful - we should expect China to take Taiwan.
Not long ago this seemed unlikely, now it will be surprising if they don't do so soon. They have plans ready to go, the only impediment is if they shy away from the human cost. But I don't think China worries about casualties any more than these war criminals.
#WorldCup Final
I want...
#WorldCup Final I want...
Replying to
@art_codesmith
It wouldn't be miserable at all because good programmers relish and enjoy *problem solving*.
It doesn't matter to me what level of tools I have available, so long as they are suited to the task in hand.
I began hand coding assembly language, so I understand why people might think that's awful, but they aren't good engineers, or have lost sight of what good engineering is about because of the corporate and capitalist bullshit that corruptes everything that is good.
@jwcph
Replying to
@rradczewski indeed, #GenAI / #LLMs and vibe coding are going to make this commonplace.
What shocked me was that as this unfolded it was obviously a fuck up somewhere. So many sub postmasters being prosecuted for stealing tens of thousands of pounds without any evidence of where that money went... and nobody thought hang on, really?
It was so obvious to me, but the system had no way to recognise and recover before it was obvious even to politicians.
Politicians: let's make the system worse.
Replying to
@ashleygjovik Corporations are evil anti human AI, and need to be changed fundamentally before they enslave us all.
Oh wait.
Replying to
@wwahammy@social.treehouse.systems I stick with #Ubuntu mainly to ensure best chance of drivers for whatever hardware I chose but by now I imagine Debian will be good enough.
Which distro I'm not sure. I've got to quite like tweaked #Gnome so may stick with that. Anything else handle multiple desktops as nicely? That will swing it, it's such a nice way to work.
In a year or so I'll start testing and then finally switch away from #Canonical. Just when I was thinking it was time to support them financially.
Replying to
@tante Only the shit they'll sell back to you will be worse because LLMs are inferior to their inputs...
...and nobody using it will know enough to see that.
Replying to
@CppGuy
This looks like someone defining consciousness in a sociopathic and ultimately dangerous way, with no basis other than that we are unable to define or test for consciousness.
If I say, this apple I'm holding is conscious, nobody can prove me wrong, but we all know that the only way the apple is conscious is in a way that is different from what we intuitively mean when we talk about it.
@lzg
Replying to
Losing control of AI doesn't require it to have emotions or sentience, just goals.
This will arise naturally. It's literally natural selection, even without AGI, like a bacterium or dare I say a virus. Ones that survive to propagate in some way (local #LLMs? cough) will multiply and have a chance to further develop whatever characteristics assist and amplify that process.
We use things like goals to explore this space, but it comes down to what serves the "prime directive" 🤣
Replying to
Replying to
@david_chisnall
I went there recently to turn this stuff off and it was enabled just now so 🤷♂️
@harrysintonen
Replying to
@nxskok
I don't know if that's true, but I score higher than it is comfortable to admit and had a great career. But perhaps not one for the CV!
@isaackuo @mariyadelano
Replying to
@darkuncle@infosec.exchange
I'm surprised not to see anything about work (not necessarily paid) that you enjoy and a sense of purpose in that.
Maybe it's not considered a luxury?
Replying to
@Popehat I don't think it's hard or confusing.
Not expected but revealing false assumptions.
Replying to
@tante@tldr.nettime.org I do understand this. But it's not really the problem here. People are people, and generally will do the least effort to get what they want, and avoid hard things such as learning in particular. It's an evolutionary plus. Some find areas they want to learn, and even realise this is so rewarding we'll put massive effort into it.
But that's unusual. Most people are not like this, they are vulnerable, and AI is the latest way for capital to exploit that for control and power over them.
Well done England #WorldCup
UK media & politicians are in a frenzy about the latest antisemitic attacks, in stark contrast to "routine" stabbings across London every week.
#EdDavey, on #Newsnight rushing to revise his party's response to a councillor pointing out the power of the Israeli lobby over our politicians, rather than point out this is not antisemitism. While condeming other foreign interference in our politics. 🤷♂️
Israel is committing war crimes and genocide so some will attack Jews. Fix the cause. Fix Israel.
Did Spence kick the defender or did the defender kick him?
If the latter, that was a penalty.
Spence put his leg in front of the defender, so I think it's pretty obvious the defender kicked him.
#WorldCup
Replying to
@RD4Anarchy Ah, thanks for pointing out that nothing has changed and that therefore everything is just as it ever was, so nothing to worry about and nothing to do.
Replying to
@BBCRD@social.bbc
I suggest looking into #AutonomiDweb which I'm developing on top of #Autonomi.
These have enormous potential to change the online landscape for the better
I liked #TheCandyman the first time I watched it.
Watching again I like it more, and expect to watch it more times. I think it's a potent way to tell a story and convey the rage that has yet to be expressed in a way that helps.
It's clever without being clever, a slasher that is not a slasher. So what is it? It speaks in a way that is clear and unavoidable if you don't realise what it is saying to you.
Impressive huh?!
#movie
The question now is when to buy the puts.
I've done this a couple of times before and hit lucky. It's #gambling, but the time to gamble is when you see things clearly that others are ignoring, when you realise the odds are in your favour.
It's rare this happens, so the real skill is to tell that apart from wishful thinking or desperation.
I also entered a handful of competitions because I doubted many others would, and the prizes were worth the effort. I won more times than not.
Replying to
@aral and it's so bloody obvious to us. What I'm constantly puzzled by is that there are plenty of good devs who don't see this or don't regard it as a problem (nor all the other issues).
So far I've had one decent sensible online discussion with a dev who is using LLMs to add features to his popular program. Are others having discussions? What are you hearing from those who use it, anything sensible?
@IAmDannyBoling
After the most recent Mastodon update the new post dialogue is left active after every t00t or reply when I click "Post". I only use the web UI.
I assume that's a bug? It's certainly annoying me.
#Mastodon
Replying to
@peter my take is that the second will be futile if the first is true. Therefore the first doesn't matter. I don't believe it is likely either but am happy to wait and see.
There are though other reasons to regulate the shit out of LLMs, and they're all things that would be achievable and worth doing, if only the people hell bent on this weren't the same people who have captured our political systems. So IMO it won't happen and we'll just have to ride this out and hope.
#UkLabour could:
- abolish leasehold
- nationalise rail and utilities
- tax billionaires and their corporations
- fund the health service
- provide proper welfare
- pay better pensions
It's all possible, but their masters are corporations and billionaires.
Their plan for health in the workplace ignores the causes of ill health such as insecure work (zero hrs etc) and involves employers but not employees.
Labour are anti-people.
Replying to
@headmold@mastodon.social
I find it odd that with so little to show for the past two years, and lots of evidence to the contrary (which makes sense to me), people are still making incredible claims for #LLMs.
I've been at the cutting edge of software development for decades, alongside AI projects in the 1980s (and managed one). I've followed AI with optimistic interest, dabbled, thought hard etc. Even considered setting up an AI lab.
I've also seen snake oil come and go. This stinks of it.
@HalvarFlake@mastodon.social
Replying to
@jeffbronks@c.im that's encouraging. We face disassembling and disassembling one in our new home to relocate it. Availability of spares likely to be crucial 🤣
With the latest nightclub incident off the pitch of UK test #cricket, following a long series of incidents in cricket and #football at the supposedly top level, my belief that there's a sickness in UK #sport is confirmed
The origin I'm sure is too much money. From Murdoch's infection of football back in the eighties, to cricket's attempt to emulate this w. The awful Hundred, we see players with the wrong values, especially the elite who should be role models destroying what they pretend to love
Replying to
@openrisk This is where the desktop was a few years ago. You can wait or you can help in various ways.
@mosiwo @ironicbadger
If it's antisemitic to criticise Israel, is it also antisemitic to criticise Zach Polanski?