Posts by baldur@toot.cafe
(DIR) Post #B87d3pBW6M3p37xvVY by baldur@toot.cafe
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“The kids (with phones) are alright – Hi, I'm Heather Burns”https://heatherburns.tech/2026/07/08/the-kids-with-phones-are-alright/> the raft of legislation aiming to control what young adults can do with their phones, essentially punishing them for the sins of Big Tech, can put their immediate personal safety at risk from dangers far more violent than algorithms.
(DIR) Post #B8C1XkJTx9qkA0KcBU by baldur@toot.cafe
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It doesn’t really matter that much how the boosters end up defining “slop” or “vibecoding” or whatever new term they come up with because they’ll all ultimately become synonyms with “AI” and the ship has sailed on that meaning anything other than “garbage” in the public’s mind.
(DIR) Post #B8KRedloWOKpEiwUu8 by baldur@toot.cafe
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I had a go this weekend at simply using in-camera processing for my photos because the Linux-based photo tools are kinda garbage. But the in-camera tools aren't fantastic either, so even minimal editing in CaptureOne on top of the built-in Fujifilm tone curves really can make a big difference. #photos #nature #iceland
(DIR) Post #B8KRee3XSUVs7hEeX2 by baldur@toot.cafe
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Black and white take two.
(DIR) Post #B8bIId2beKzMVA1dmC by baldur@toot.cafe
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@benhamill @apontious Unfortunately, all of my other core skills are in media (writing, publishing, audio, video, photography, etc) so whatever I do next is unlikely to be well paid 😅
(DIR) Post #B8hLmHekfTFH4Sjsy8 by baldur@toot.cafe
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In my humble opinion, many instances of ‘writer’s block’ are in fact ADHD or autistic burnout. Writing as a job is more forgiving of neurodivergence than most, so many writers are basically subsisting on caffeine and anxiety until they hit a brick wall and their executive function collapsesWhich would mean that reading up on neurodivergent burnout is more likely to help get over a writer’s block than the fluff you find in books or blogs on creativity
(DIR) Post #B8p0Vt2JgLO6vDwBQe by baldur@toot.cafe
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People keep using the "can't put a genie back in the bottle" metaphor for "AI", even though in the stories they always get back in and current "AI" is more of a "we're spending trillions of dollars and the energy output of a continent trying to keep this bastard out of the bottle" situation
(DIR) Post #B8p0Vv1gHg4H5pehiS by baldur@toot.cafe
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“Poor genie keeps trying to crawl back into the bottle. Everybody hates him.”
(DIR) Post #B8xswghANcgSjHnvLU by baldur@toot.cafe
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Took this photo last week. Shows why you sometimes need rain gear when hiking around town even when there isn't rain.
(DIR) Post #B9AC1iZWJjPMytdJCK by baldur@toot.cafe
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@freakonometrics/117054108271195109“The Gargantuan Lie That is Collapsing The World’s Climate”https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-massive-climate-lie-that-will-destroy-human-civilization> This massive lie can best be summed up as “when it comes to climate change... we have more time.”This is actually the main reason I'm so angry about the "AI" bubble. All this enormous effort could have been spent combatting the climate crisis and the opportunity cost of your fucking chatbot is going to be the very climate we live inImagine what we could have done with those 3 trillion dollars (or so)?RT: https://mastodon.social/users/freakonometrics/statuses/117054108271195109
(DIR) Post #B9KVCtMILFgb5iXJce by baldur@toot.cafe
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If you lived in a world where smoking was returning in full force—through unethical, manipulative, and probably illegal tactics tobacco use was returning to 1960s levels—would you work within the tobacco industry to make it less bad? "Nicotine is an excellent ADHD drug so it can help accessibility!"Because this is exactly what people in the tech industry are starting to sound like.
(DIR) Post #B9ZM89MnNlwo4fQ9s8 by baldur@toot.cafe
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“AI is making everything worse”https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/ai-is-making-everything-worse?utm_source=www.doomsdayscenario.co> Here’s the basic problem: AI has arrived in American life and communities across the country as a giant turd mountain. No one wants it; it makes everything worse when it arrives; and it’s been pushed and backed and cheerled by the absolute worst people in modern American life.This, coming from a writer who conflates generative models with the rest of ML and believes “AI” will deliver in the long term, otherwise broadly gets the point
(DIR) Post #B9rOkJVFqKStbXzpGC by baldur@toot.cafe
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“Six Problems With Talking About the “Ethical” or “Responsible” Use of “AI” • Buttondown”https://buttondown.com/maiht3k/archive/six-problems-with-talking-about-the-ethical-or/> Part of what makes that middle ground untenable and uncomfortable is that it requires carrying water for these clearly bad actors.
(DIR) Post #B9xfHnMC9xdEa5tVxY by baldur@toot.cafe
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I admittedly i don’t have that many coding client projects left these days but in the ones I’ve got left, most of the coders I work with have adopted LLMsFor what it’s worth, they do seem to understand much less, work much slower towards the project’s actual goals, with much more code, and at a lower qualityWhile asking sillier questionsBut they think they’re working so much faster because the tools find the occasional bug and generates so much code🤷🏻♂️
(DIR) Post #B9xfHp9rSmxEAQ8h0q by baldur@toot.cafe
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The reason why I keep writing about how coder perception of these tools—how effective they think they are—is that I keep encountering coders whose perception of these tools is detached from their own reality.
(DIR) Post #B9xfHqZmBvHIZ5Gu2q by baldur@toot.cafe
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Like, I remember how good you were ten years ago, how sharp your questions were, how structured and incisive your code was, and how focused you were on accomplishing the project’s goals. I don’t have amnesia. It’s obvious that things have changed.
(DIR) Post #BA86PJXNqDGmB4goqG by baldur@toot.cafe
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“Bad Vibes Coding – Spectre Collie”https://spectrecollie.com/2026/09/05/bad-vibes-coding/> My take on generative AI has pretty rapidly gone from a tentative, “it sucks and I hate it, but after the bubble pops, there might be a few very specific use cases for it, like with programming,” to a vehemently zero-tolerance stance. It’s all garbage, burn it down.
(DIR) Post #BAHfKlZ57lNU5akXcO by baldur@toot.cafe
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“I Don’t Want to Interact With Stochastic Parrots”https://ploum.net/2026-09-09-ai_policy.html> My AI policy is "I don’t want any kind of interaction with that thing." And this should be all you need to know.This.
(DIR) Post #BAXc4QOxlosuPtH8PA by baldur@toot.cafe
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When you see unredacted files from "AI" vendors showing that they were at that point lying liars that lied, the lesson to be learned is that, now that there's even more money at stake, they are probably still lying liars that lie. Especially when they ship "AI" shit that looks too good to be true"This thing shipped by a bunch of people who repeatedly get caught lying and deceiving and know they have to con me for them to succeed looks surprisingly good!"Yah, no.
(DIR) Post #BAdd5XcNrcBzAtgwYy by baldur@toot.cafe
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“Assigning agency to AI means surrendering your own”https://productpicnic.beehiiv.com/p/assigning-agency-to-ai-means-surrendering-your-own> The “black box” is load-bearing for AI industry narratives