wb x64

I program and do infosec/privacy, and like resisting all forms of oppression, thinking about creating good systems, and homesteading.

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Last Notes

2026-04-29 06:40:35 UTC

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when I was like 12 I wrote in a school assignment that, basically, Bill Gates having tons of money but not spending it was essentially the same as taking money from everyone else; it's not in circulation, therefore until he spends it it's almost like it doesn't exist except maybe to make him richer.
The teacher wrote a ??? as if I'd said something nonsensical, but I still stand by it. The existence of billionaires is a sign of an unhealthy "trickle up" economy.

2026-04-29 06:32:26 UTC

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🙃
https://static.glitch.social/media_attachments/files/116/486/587/075/439/405/original/232e7ccc465b0376.jpg

2026-04-29 01:39:07 UTC

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I've been a part of a few cultural activities where it's ritualized enough to make it clear, participation in and knowledge of this is a privilege, take it seriously and treat it respectfully, don't halfass it. And I think that needs to be done a little more.

2026-04-29 01:20:15 UTC

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I think there's absolutely something to be said for the responsibility to not imitate a murder documentary, but also copycats are a known quantity and true crime is a favorite genre of housewives everywhere. So at a certain level the responsibility goes both ways: if you put something out into the world, it's out there and you can't control it. Kids are going to imitate Power Rangers no matter what we tell them, and sometimes that's going to go poorly. Maybe tourists shouldn't know some things.

2026-04-29 01:12:17 UTC

We have a major problem with recreating the aesthetics of something without understanding anything about the thing itself.
I have to wonder if it boils down to some basic "monkey see monkey do" mirror neuron thing where we're inclined to act out what others do regardless of context or consciousness. I'm teaching my baby to crawl by pantomiming it. Is Heath Ledger teaching us how to be The Joker? Can cultural appropriation be pinned down when Japan has mayo pizza and we have California rolls?

2026-04-13 03:30:21 UTC

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do you have first hand experience with Cl**de, or are you the one who's telling me that all the nails I hammered in with my hammer are actually fake and I'm not a good judge of the quality of what my team produces?

2026-04-12 22:14:14 UTC

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again someone using a hammer to write the next great novel is using a bad tool for that job. But my career is 80% computer plumbing, connecting inputs to outputs with only mildly creative ideas about modifications in between. Nobody has ever been praised for writing the most creative press release, that's not its purpose. Many tasks require rote compilation of a huge text input into a clear text output, which is exactly what computers are good at. This is that, just far more flexibly.

2026-04-12 22:10:07 UTC

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in general, sure, that's a common complaint. In specific, this particular hammer does a serviceable enough job of hitting nails that it's indistinguishable from an intern... and far quicker and cheaper.
You can keep trying to assert that the hammer I'm using doesn't work, but it's still a valuable tool in my toolbelt so my lived experience is going to supersede all rhetoric.
The reasons to stop using this hammer are everything else: ethics, energy, capital, jobs... but it does hit nails.

2026-04-12 16:42:17 UTC

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also to be more technically accurate, it doesn't really copy things, LLMs have created a complex map of human language and concepts (queen is similar to both princess and joker, they exist near each other on the map) and traverses that map when fed input. It may sometimes reproduce or emulate what it's read, but so do humans. (This is aside from the very real ethical issues about harvesting copyrighted works without author consent, etc.) Occasionally the map looks like the terrain.

2026-04-12 16:36:01 UTC

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to expand on my very simple yet hugely misunderstood point, let's take this relatable meme. Why are we using computers to do creative things humans enjoy when we should be using them to do rote things humans don't enjoy? (Capitalism, ofc!) It's the wrong tool.
But moreover, it's a hammer. It's not for dating or poetry, it's for automatically parsing large bits of language and producing plausible responses. "Edge AI," small models operating on affordable hardware, could be doing our dishes.
https://static.glitch.social/media_attachments/files/116/392/678/227/886/103/original/210e3195e93fb89d.jpg

2026-04-12 16:28:35 UTC

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I hear you. Hammers don't know what nails are either, yet they are very good at hammering them.
I never said to respect AI or that we should have gigantic data centers, in fact as I've repeatedly said, as a Luddite, my default position is to bomb all data centers.
I am repeatedly saying and being misunderstood: specific AIs are specific tools that DO WORK. Good ones perform certain functions better than a human. My point is, a good argument needs to not center on the idea that they don't.

2026-04-12 15:56:48 UTC

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just because you've personally witnessed a lot of slop out there (as have I) doesn't mean this tool is only slop for all use cases.
The sad fact of a good chunk of code and writing is that it's boilerplate. We actually don't need human intelligence to report daily sports scores or stock prices, that's so formulaic it could be a small shell script. Likewise, Cl**de writes better press releases than me because it's an extremely dry format. Tons of code is just plumbing. It's a tool.

2026-04-12 15:39:54 UTC

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I know you think you have a point, and yes capitalism is evil and capital has accumulated in AI as a way to devalue humans, but my whole point is that Cl**de does indeed make it easier to create and analyze text and code.
I'm not personally beholden to US currency as a concept, I'm just describing the situation. Yes the piper will eventually need to be paid and the economics may no longer work, which is exactly what I started with: that's more cogent than "it doesn't work" (because it does)

2026-04-12 06:16:54 UTC

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as pertains to the censored LLM in my original post and analyzing or producing text or code, you're simply incorrect: Cl**de outpaces humans per dollar-hour. Its output isn't perfect, but neither is an intern's. Unlike an intern, it costs $20/mo and returns results in about a minute.
If your experience is with a different LLM, I might agree with you, I was a big skeptic before I stumbled on a working combination, but that's not the topic
In its areas of strength, it is indeed a tech marvel

2026-04-11 07:06:20 UTC

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the human rights argument -- that we should eschew machines because they destroy life, while employing a hundred corn-pickers is in itself life -- is much more solid than claiming the machine doesn't work. It does, I've seen it, John Henry simply couldn't outpace the drill, it's a losing argument to claim he did.
A bigger humanist question is, what kind of life is it working long hard hours in a field or mine?
Being a Luddite, the enemy is the machine owner, not the machine itself.

2026-04-11 07:02:11 UTC

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we both agree that a hundred people picking corn in a field is fine. The rub of course is that you and I should probably start picking lots and lots of corn by hand if we truly believe in what we're saying. I spent a preteen summer in the corn fields, it wasn't actually hell but it was close. There's more than one reason we made machines.
I'll ignore the rest of your insults since they seem dedicated to misunderstanding and proving my point. I'm Luddite as heck, but the machine does *work.*

2026-04-11 02:12:38 UTC

The argument can't really be that Cl**de AI doesn't produce decent results. It does.
A more damning fact is that I could hire a junior developer or technical writer or analyst or intern out of college for, let's say, $15/hr part time ($15k/yr) and train them for a year and get worse results. A hundred people picking corn in a field will never be more efficient than a combine harvester, no matter how unethical the machine is.
A real argument has to stem from human rights, or the overall effect.

2026-03-10 18:11:10 UTC

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I just read a thing about how narcissistic personality disorder can be a consequence of trauma, maladaptive coping, neurodivergence, and having material but not emotional needs satisfied.
One thing I'll definitely say about raising a kid, from my few months perspective, is there's an astounding lack of support. Like my expectations were already nil and somehow I've still been disappointed. Imagine being subjected to sleep deprivation torture for a year and your family is like "👀 anyway..."

2026-03-09 20:38:34 UTC

Everyone loves their kids and doesn't want them harmed. That doesn't make someone moral or good, it makes them human.
What makes someone moral and good is when they love others' kids, and dont want them harmed, too. Especially when those others are from a different race, religion, country, etc.
Sodom was destroyed by God because of "adultery, arrogance, inhospitality, and oppression of the poor, rather than explicitly sexual immorality."
Treating others poorly.

2026-02-19 04:29:41 UTC

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my wife says running away and hiding from bad Yelp reviews is extremely relatable and she loves the character ✋🤖🤚

2026-01-18 21:43:12 UTC

@npub1hhs…rl5g I came home to a familiar name on my coffee table! 🙏
https://static.glitch.social/media_attachments/files/115/918/278/807/878/094/original/8e8e668b16e416af.jpg

2025-12-10 21:26:29 UTC

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someone wrote that shame is somewhat useful as a tool to get people to STOP doing a thing (it tends to depress them and make them wonder what the point of trying is, though it has a downside of creating a backlash where i.e. perversely doing it more in private feels good because fuck those assholes who shamed you) but it's very very bad at encouraging people to do a thing, like beating a dead horse.
Positively joining a good cause might be better to inspire people TO do something

2025-11-05 00:19:21 UTC

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entertainment outlets get extra testy when people rely heavily on that entertainment to cope with an increasingly shit reality. Sand in the gears of every little aspect of life.

2025-07-05 05:57:51 UTC

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every time I hear "victory lap" without immediate disdain I know to never trust that reporter again and maybe that outlet as well

2025-02-05 00:39:19 UTC

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just generally focusing on Android/mobile app development over shiny new features. Anyone who tries using the mobile apps as their daily driver (i.e. auto photo upload) will notice rough edges that haven't been touched in years.

2025-02-04 02:03:20 UTC

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please for the love of God just make the app sync my files reliably and work quickly and have buttons and notifications and basic features that actually do things instead of silently failing

2025-01-28 01:50:12 UTC

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my guess is also that simply the name "revoluciana" is probably enough for some misguided network admin to flag sites for censorship. These devices can be configured per-business to block whatever the business (aka network admin) doesn't like.

2025-01-17 18:02:57 UTC

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the things China is likely to censor are also a tad less likely to be what Musk and Zuck censor also. We care more about Palestine than Taiwan right now. By diversifying our social media diet we can get our digital crack with some approximation of no censorship.
Though obviously I prefer the wholesome Fediverse :)

2025-01-17 17:36:21 UTC

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these apps are very visual-focused (vertical video first) and music, pop culture, and fandom-focused, and designed to be as addictive as possible. The fact that Mastodon and even Pixelfed aren't is probably a good thing, but lacking in that popularity juice

2025-01-16 03:50:19 UTC

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the fact that nationalists' and spy agencies worst nightmare is average people from opposite sides of the globe -- even nearly opposite languages -- communicating about everyday life and gripes. It undoes billions of dollars and years of propaganda, and makes lying very hard.
I think in the end it'll be much like Wikileaks/Assange and Intercept/Greenwald: they weren't GOOD, but they exposed stuff that was bad. Hopefully we can navigate that divide.

2024-11-05 07:04:04 UTC

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the idea that a million Iraqis died from US invasion was debated and rumored at first, then a sobering static, and now with Gaza an urgent reminder that this empire can and will perpetuate ongoing Holocausts just because a guy likes power, or feels threatened, or has a grudge, or wants to raise Exxon stock prices.
But of course we don't put things into such sharp relief in our history classes, that might make conservative kids sad.

2024-11-05 06:48:01 UTC

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and, here's the rub: you and I are probably widely hated for it. Inconvenient truth is way more awful than a comforting lie, just look at Al Gore's popularity and effectiveness at accomplishing change.
"Demon-Haunted World" is real: people will often have an almost religious experience about their lives, or how they feel about their choices. My mom says "I realized" when she really means "I thought." People will say "I didn't come all this way for nothing." Etc.

2024-09-25 05:38:33 UTC

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I had this exact cd player in high school. One of my prized possessions, so quickly replaced by mp3 and then ipod

2024-09-20 02:14:45 UTC

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https://static.glitch.social/media_attachments/files/113/167/463/046/372/831/original/2edd7790af397f2e.jpg

2024-09-20 02:12:49 UTC

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is it odious to fund and aid the genocide of Muslims and then expect Muslims to vote for you?
Isn't it politicians' responsibility to abide by the Geneva Convention and convince voters that they're the best candidate, not voters' responsibility to blindly follow "their" candidate into The Hague?

2024-09-16 00:26:49 UTC

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we need to go back to 1845, when men were men and women were *checks notes* working 10-hour days in factories!
Oh wait shit that's not right fuck

2024-09-03 05:29:34 UTC

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truly amazing how a bunch of students on a campus lawn saying "please stop funding a genocide" was worth SWAT teams, as just one example. Now universities are trying to ban free peaceful assembly as if that's not a core constitutional right

2024-09-02 22:56:08 UTC

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a big issue is that many people have a friend who got the COVID vaccine and then had a medical emergency shortly thereafter.
The fact that the emergency probably would've been worse or quicker without the vaccine can't be known, they just see a sample size of one and a correlation -- possibly a sample size of their beloved mom or husband. They can't see the thousands in the placebo group vs thousands in the treatment group and run the numbers, they just want their family back.

2024-09-02 20:08:44 UTC

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this is actually a sincere and serious method for toppling authoritarians and dictators https://canvasopedia.org/2017/06/21/new-york-times-topple-dictator-peacefully/

2024-09-01 16:43:01 UTC

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unfortunately even if Trump is the worst and there are slightly better options than Trump I'm not sure "harm reduction" is a comforting thing we can tell ourselves. I think if we care about any of the progressive issues of the last decade we might have to get loud, messy, and actually materially disrupt the oligarchy's agenda
https://static.glitch.social/media_attachments/files/113/063/252/827/926/482/original/260dc900242654d3.jpg

2024-08-21 03:27:34 UTC

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security "in an ER" also? Awful

2024-08-19 03:25:12 UTC

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of course the establishment's goal is always to delay absorb and deflect any real change (the Pentagon, billionaires, and weapons manufacturers demand their cut) so pressure will still have to be maintained until bombs stop falling either way. Promises are empty.

2024-08-13 05:59:10 UTC

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https://glitch.social/@wilbr/112944810365517086

2024-08-13 05:47:13 UTC

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I really wish the updated vaccine was available now instead of next month