Posts by abucci@buc.ci
(DIR) Post #B1B1E7lEQCvC6iYJLk by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-12T15:39:27Z
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@davidgerard@circumstances.run Building Trustworthy AI AgentsFamily Feud buzzer sound ❌❌❌
(DIR) Post #B1B1gK9nvTCyf7UcKm by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-12T15:45:18Z
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Ellie, Grace and Scarlett would also like to "get to know each other.". What the heck list did I end up on?#spam #scam
(DIR) Post #B1B46Ku7yE9yPugvhY by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-12T16:12:23Z
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@datarama@hachyderm.ioA frictionless world would also be one in which we would feel ourselves unanchored and afloat, perpetually propelled by forces we have no power to resist.A Frictionless Life Is Also A Life Without Traction
(DIR) Post #B1B6y53jIXjQotwCcy by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-12T16:44:32Z
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@jaredwhite@indieweb.social @davidgerard@circumstances.run There is a corresponding pattern in AI and AI adjacent computer science research. At various times since the 1950s, all of the following were said to be on the cusp of matching or exceeding human intelligence and ushering in the age of The Terminator or The Jetsons: neural networks; expert systems; case-based reasoning; cybernetics; the subsumption architecture; reinforcement learning; neural networks again; recurrent neural networks; reinforcement learning again, this time with neural networks. You have to pose as though you believe if you want to remain a member in good standing. Phil Agre has written about what happens when you openly express that you've lost the faith.When I was a graduate student in the early 2000s AI agents were all the rage too. Now here we are in 2025 with "agentic AI", the same stuff except with LLMs instead of logic programming in the innards. Somehow we're still pretending that the stuffing in the animatronic toy is what determines whether it's intelligent.Incidentally, back then I saw a talk that, roughly summarized, argued "quantum computing can't work" and here we are, in 2025, with folks still arguing quantum computing is just about to pop even though the problems from the early 2000s haven't been addressed (as far as I know--not my area of expertise--but I still see papers reporting work on those same problems). So that's fun!
(DIR) Post #B1D3Hy0RDhEJEiXqtc by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-13T15:11:27Z
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@datarama@hachyderm.io @lproven@vivaldi.netthere is nothing which our infatuated race would desire more than to see a fertile union between two steam engines😂
(DIR) Post #B1DR7nXneyt6nFpl8S by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-13T19:39:32Z
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Slack is given me a very stern, very red warning that my web browser will not be supported after November.#slack #DarkPatterns #tech #dev #web
(DIR) Post #B1F0aK9rgdUXbcw5yq by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-14T13:51:44Z
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@oxyhyxo@bsd.cafe @davidgerard@circumstances.run Consider: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPhtVrvcroI
(DIR) Post #B1NKB5HlOkHUaUYHtQ by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-18T13:52:48Z
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I've now had at least four people, two of whom self-identified as Mozilla employees, claim that the above list of AI features--which were suddenly and rapidly added over the last few releases of Firefox, and were "on" (true) by default--could easily be turned off by flipping one master kill switch. This is not true, but folks keep claiming it or suggesting it anyway.Here's a post from an official Firefox Mastodon account suggesting such a master kill switch does not exist yet, but will be added in a future release:https://mastodon.social/@firefoxwebdevs/115740500373677782That's not as bad as it could be. It's bad they're stuffing AI into a perfectly good web browser for no apparent reason other than vibes or desperation. It's very bad if it's on by default; their dissembling post about it aside, opt-in has a reasonably clear meaning here: if there's a kill switch, then that kill switch should be off by default. But at least there will be a kill switch.In any case, please stop responding to my post saying there's a master kill switch for Firefox's AI slop features. From the horse's mouth, and from user experience, there is not yet.Furthermore, when there is a master kill switch, we don't know whether flipping it will maintain previous state of all the features it controls. In other words it's possible they'll have the master kill switch turn on all AI features when the switch is flipped to "on" or "true", rather than leaving them in whatever state you'd set them to previously. Perhaps you decide to turn the kill switch on because there are a handful of features you're comfortable with and you want to try them; will doing so mean that now all the AI features are on? We won't know till it's released and people try this. So, in the meantime, it's still good practice to keep an eye on all these configuration options if you want the AI off.#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #web #tech #dev #Firefox #Mozilla #AISlop #NoAI #NoLLMs #NoAIBrowsers
(DIR) Post #B1RvFNWSHDX9i9vg1I by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-20T19:20:47Z
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@grunfink@comam.es @junior@snac.bsd.cafe I use phanpy with snac and it works well.
(DIR) Post #B1Vt73299BvOZcUaem by abucci@buc.ci
2025-12-22T13:46:33Z
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My spam folder has taken on a special, highly-focused quality.I'm not sure how Layla and May001 snuck past SpamAssassin but the assassin is being re-trained.#spam #JunkMail #SpamAssassin #email
(DIR) Post #B2AFfGNWgaliAuvSq0 by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-11T00:09:13Z
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I moved ~1,200 lbs of logs from one side of the garage to the other. I never really thought I would move appreciable fractions of a ton of anything by hand before I owned a house. Luckily I didn't have to go up.#maine #winter #firewood
(DIR) Post #B2BEZfjNbjMEGqsTlQ by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-11T15:46:35Z
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@futurebird@sauropods.win I don't know your class or students, and all of this might be stuff you already do or not relevant at all, but here are some things that popped into my mind from my own experiences, in case it's of any use:Recent CS education research suggests that functions are one of the hardest intro programming concepts for most students, and shouldn't be introduced till some other concepts are mastered first (search "concept inventories for introductory computer programming"). It can help to first practice associative arrays/hashtables/dictionaries. Modularization into functions is harder still. The fact that many of your students are struggling with creating a function might indicate that they haven't mastered the concept yet and you might do well to back up a bit. If they need some remedial work, I cannot praise Parson's puzzles enoughWhen running a lab-style section, where students are actively working on something with your support, I think it helps to interleave lecture time, work time, and debrief time. When you lecture, lecture rules (including controlling when interruptions can happen) apply. Work time is when you let interruptions happen more freely as you walk around to see how folks are doing. When I run such things I tell the students at the beginning of the section what the plan is. After a week or two they get it. I think it's useful to keep each work session on the shorter side, 10-15 minutes, with a well-scoped task and well-defined goal, and then have a debrief afterward where students can describe their experience, vent, brag, what have you. That way they know they'll have opportunities to talk and might be less inclined to shout out randomlyIf you don't have assistants to help you, recruiting other students to help field questions can be very effective. In the past I've had success dividing students into pods of 2 or 3, but only after observing the class for a few weeks. I strategically designed each pod to have at least one student who seemed to be on top of the material and another who seemed to be struggling. This setup requires communicating with the students regularly and adjusting the group assignments throughout the course, but it can lighten the load quite a bit, especially after the students get to know each other. I design classes such that the first few weeks are for setting the stage and warming up, and for me to get to know the studentsI've found it can be helpful to tell students some variation of "I know it's frustrating that your code doesn't work. Even today, code I write doesn't usually work the way I want on the first go. This is an experience you're likely to have the rest of your life when writing code. One thing to take away from this course is how not to be set back by this feeling. It's a normal part of the experience of coding, and it's telling us something". If that lands you can follow up by asking them what they think their frustration/struggle/what have you is telling them. The self reflection can be helpful and you can learn important things about your students this way (it can also lead to awesome discussions). Some students react very positively to hearing that this is a normal part of the process (they think there's something wrong with them, or that they are doing something wrong, if they're feeling frustrated).Hopefully something in there is of use. I have references for concept inventories and Parson's puzzles if those would help. Good luck!
(DIR) Post #B2LiYe3xGSBV0sWkZk by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-16T16:45:53Z
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A mere week into 2026, OpenAI launched “ChatGPT Health” in the United States, asking users to upload their personal medical data and link up their health apps in exchange for the chatbot’s advice about diet, sleep, work-outs, and even personal insurance decisions. (from https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/chatgpt-wants-your-health-data/).This is the probably inevitable endgame of FitBit and other "measured life" technologies. It isn't about health; it's about mass managing bodies. It's a short hop from there to mass managing minds, which this "psychologized" technology is already being deployed to do (AI therapists and whatnot). Fully corporatized human resource management for the leisure class (you and I are not the intended beneficiaries, to be clear; we're the mass).Neural implants would finish the job, I guess. It's interesting how the tech sector pushes its tech closer and closer to the physical head and face. Eventually the push to penetrate the head (e.g. Neuralink) should intensify. Always with some attached promise of convenience, privilege, wealth, freedom of course.#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM #OpenAI #ChatGPT #health #HealthTech
(DIR) Post #B2ThvhxM8BmYnP6UaG by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-20T13:54:36Z
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Since I'm job and work hunting I tend to see the absurd new job titles that are bouncing around in the tech sector. The latest, which I've seen twice today, is "artificial general intelligence engineer" or some permutation thereof. I do my best to spend the minimum possible time on these and have no guess about whether they're legitimate.#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM #AGI
(DIR) Post #B2ilPmMdErhzhitxya by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-27T20:02:52Z
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Perhaps the most (in)famous and illustrious American computer scientist and acknowledged principal pioneer of the discipline now known as artificial intelligence (AI), Professor Marvin Minsky of MIT, once pronounced—a belief he still holds—that ‘‘the brain is merely a meat machine.’’ It is significant that the English language distinguishes between ‘‘flesh’’ on the one hand, and ‘‘meat’’ on the other. The latter is dead and may be eaten, thrown in the garbage, fed to pigs, and so on. Flesh, on the other hand, is living matter and, as such, deserves the respect and dignity for life of which, among others, Albert Schweitzer spoke eloquently. The word ‘‘merely’’ in Minsky’s sentence means essentially ‘‘nothing but,’’ that is, also not deserving unusual respect. His statement is a clear reflection of a profound contempt for life that, as I see it, is shared explicitly by important sectors of the AI community, the artificial intelligentsia, as well as many scientists, engineers, and ordinary people. Daniel C. Dennett, an important American philosopher, once said that we must give up our awe of life if we are to make further progress in AI.From Weizenbaum, Joseph (2007). Social and Political Impact of the Long-term History of Computing#AI #ComputerScience #life #brain #mind
(DIR) Post #B2ilPnsvaH8WQB1GxE by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-27T20:10:22Z
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What do these people actually mean when they shout that man is a machine? It is, as I’ve suggested, that human beings are ‘‘computable’’ (berechenbar), that they are not distinct from other objects in the world, in any way deserving of special respect or even attention. This then leads, at first gradually and then with exponentially increasing speed, to a view of human beings as mere objects who—no! Not who, that—can be exploited, inducted in killing machines, imprisoned, tortured, killed (providing they are ‘‘enemy combatants’’). It leads to the American military sponsoring programs to produce robot soldiers. What is then left of Norbert Wiener’s vision of the human use of human beings? And does not our world show us with utmost clarity how far we have already come?I want here to emphasize, especially to this audience, that all this is not the fault of the computer. Guilt cannot be attributed to computers. But computers enable fantasies, many of them wonderful, but also those of people whose compulsion to play God overwhelms their ability to fathom the consequences of their attempt to turn their nightmares into reality.#AI #ComputerScience #human #life #TormentNexus #machinic
(DIR) Post #B2ipgDRoi4Ti9WQ6kq by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-27T20:29:01Z
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@amerika@annihilation.social I don't have the foggiest idea what you are saying nor why you chose to say it.
(DIR) Post #B2kS3FGE7rS9quMp2e by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-20T13:38:51Z
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Am I to understand from this that SearXNG is in the process of becoming AI poisoned?https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues/2163https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues/2008https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues/2273The last issue hasn't been active since 2023 but the 1st one has been active recently and the middle one last summer.#SearX #SearXNG #SearchEngines #AlternateSearchEngines #MetaSearchEngines #web #dev #tech #FOSS #OpenSource #AI #AIPoisoning #AISlop #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM #ChatGPT #Claude #Perplexity
(DIR) Post #B2kYaQlKyznUo17shc by abucci@buc.ci
2026-01-28T15:51:37Z
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@Stomata@procial.tchncs.de They propose adding AI slop features to SearXNG. I suspect they're OK with slop-coded features too. You should carefully read these issues if you are going to depend on and recommend this engine.
(DIR) Post #B39TKzXeGTCfDeXY5g by abucci@buc.ci
2026-02-09T13:52:59Z
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@drscriptt@oldbytes.space @bert_hubert@eupolicy.social I personally know more than one person who's spent years writing about some method, let's say TDD, going to conferences presenting their ideas etc, fully independently of their employer. Said folks are now slinging AI slop and writing about how great LLMs are. Blaming the employer doesn't pass a smell test.