I kinda hated writing this but I needed to do it.

Maybe now, finally, I can stop writing it in little fragments here and there, and just let it go and do something else.

https://blog.glyph.im/2025/06/i-think-im-done-thinking-about-genai-for-now.html

"I'm an American software developer and the 'broligarchs' don't speak for me".

Wherein I pour my heart out, agonize over every word, and hope I'm not misunderstood.

https://ratfactor.com/tech-nope

#broligarchs #techbros

"How do machines make decisions? – We don’t know!

How to talk (prompt) to them? – We don’t know as well!

But, please, keep shipping to us new, larger (though we will also take smaller) models! Why? – We don’t know! But we can’t stop."

https://www.turingpost.com/p/fod43

@AsahiLinux Thanks a lot! I installed mid-october and followed the Fedora discussions. Haven't had any problems with partitions or boot picker, didn't mess around with ProMotion etc. Will re-installing from scratch improve my firmware situation? I just updated my macOS to 14.2.1.

@AsahiLinux@treehouse.systemAny special steps required to update if you already have the Fedora Asahi beta installed? Or is it enough to boot into Asahi and update packages as usual?

Reporters working in this area need to be on their guard and not take the claims of the AI hype-mongers (doomer OR booster variety) at face value. It takes effort to reframe, but that effort is necessary and important. We all, but especially journalists, must resist the urge to be impressed: 4/
https://medium.com/@emilymenonbender/on-nyt-magazine-on-ai-resist-the-urge-to-be-impressed-3d92fd9a0edd

As a case in point, here's a quick analysis of a recent Reuters piece. For those playing along at home read it first and try to pick out the hype: 5/
https://www.reuters.com/technology/sam-altmans-ouster-openai-was-precipitated-by-letter-board-about-ai-breakthrough-2023-11-22/

I wrote about the AI trust crisis: when companies like Dropbox and OpenAI say "we won't train models on your private data", it's increasingly clear that a lot of people simply don't believe them.
https://simonwillison.net/2023/Dec/14/ai-trust-crisis/

I figured out how to run Mixtral on my own laptop!

I used the latest llama-cpp-python (released 2 hours ago) and my llm-llama-cpp plugin, grabbed the 38.4GB GGUF file from https://huggingface.co/TheBloke/Mixtral-8x7B-Instruct-v0.1-GGUF/blob/main/mixtral-8x7b-instruct-v0.1.Q6_K.gguf and ran the following incantation:

llm -m gguf -o path mixtral-8x7b-instruct-v0.1.Q6_K.gguf '[INST] Write a Python function that accepts a URL to a CSV file, downloads it and loads it into a SQLite database, creating a table with the correct columns[/INST]'

Playing with this.

https://future.mozilla.org/blog/introducing-memorycache/

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/effective-obfuscation

I read this essay because someone I follow praised it, linked to it... then ended with the vague hope that AI might, after all “democratize creative freedom" even if it was bad for "the creative elite" (that is, writers). It was an unpleasant surprise. Because the essay already discuss this kind of vague and sloppy rhetoric and who benefits from it. Read it!

This is a great article asking if AI is good for writers - or writing itself. It's an eloquent and insightful essay, not a black-and-white take chasing clicks.

https://www.wired.com/story/confessions-viral-ai-writer-chatgpt/

Usefull search tricks for #Firefox Users. Start typing your search with:

^ to show only matches in your browsing history.
* to show only matches in your bookmarks.
% to show only matches in your currently open tabs.
# to show only matches where every search term is part of the title or part of a tag.
$ to show only matches where every search term is part of the web address (URL).

@kittywifclaws I just came up from our garden after talking to the local beekeeper. Your beekeeper seems like a nice guy, so now I am following him, too. This is the kind of small but magic coincidences that makes me like Mastodon.

Threads is just another horrible powerplay, as far as I am concerned. As if there weren't enough of them already.

Twitter: I follow news and political giants, but all I see are bad people and arguments
Bluesky: I follow 10% of my old friends who were able to get out of twitter in time and sometimes it works
Threads: I follow my friends but I can’t see them through the algorithm of businesses
Mastodon: oh look a beekeeper in the Netherlands

https://simonw.substack.com/p/leaked-google-document-we-have-no?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

https://thealgorithmicbridge.substack.com/p/why-i-dont-use-chatgpt-to-write

This is the graph everyone needs to see for International Workers' Day.

We are on strike. I wish it wasn't happening and support it 100%.

https://www.wgaeast.org/writers-guild-of-america-calls-strike-effective-tuesday-may-2/

You asked for it, and it’s coming. Quote posts, search, and groups are on their way. In the meantime, check out the new onboarding experience launching today. https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/05/a-new-onboarding-experience-on-mastodon/