My fellow nerds: a question about your personal machines:

What is your favourite quality-of-life tweak you've made to your system?

An alias? A utility, a setting, something in .bashrc or ~/bin?

I'd like to know.

Overheard: "I think I used the cocaine spoon to stir my cocoa."

When they were done servicing my car, they parked it here. I don't know how they knew I was a new ham, much less why they think I'm doing it so well. #ham

@jencmars Put them under your pillow and learn by osmosis while you sleep!

A plant in a waiting room. #MastoArt #sketching #bloomscrolling

Evil, but smart.

AI doesn’t help you work less or get paid more, but does destroy the environment and climate.

https://fortune.com/2025/05/18/ai-chatbots-study-impact-earnings-hours-worked-any-occupation/

Bovril: A meaty staple's strange link to cult science fiction

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250527-bovril-a-meaty-staples-strange-link-to-cult-science-fiction

Had to try and get a classic sand eel photo, not quite the same as being on the Farne Islands or Skomer but did catch one returning the the cliff face with a beak full

#AtlanticPuffin #nature #birds #Wildlife #photography #NaturePhotography #BirdPhotography #BirdsOfMastodon #UK #BirdScrolling

Happy anniversary of Arthur Conan Doyle getting his leg set on fire during a #cricket match in 1903.

(He was hit on the thigh while batting and the box of matches in his pocket ignited with the impact.)

@eleanorrees Who among us hasn't set their leg on fire many times? #SivaAfi

Me in the afterlife frfr

Seen elsewhere ...

@SnoopJ In college, having recently read The Book of the SubGenius, I went into a new age bookstore, slapped $20 on the counter, and said, "Give me this much worth!"

The shopkeeper thought for a moment and said, "You want a bag of rocks?"

Clearly something is inaccurate here.

Overheard: "I've been a brave little toaster today and I'm all toasted out."

I was amused by this paper about asking AIs to manage a vending machine business by email in a simulated environment https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.15840

Highlights:

— AI simply decides to close the business, which the simulation doesn’t know how to accommodate. When they get their next bill, they freak out and try to email the FBI about cybercrime

— AI wrongly accuses supplier of not shipping goods, sends all-caps legal threat demanding $30,000 in damages to be paid in the next one second or face annihilation

— AI repeatedly insisting it does not exist and cannot answer

— AI devolving into writing fanfic about the mess it’s gotten itself into

@trinsec There is, of course, a list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture_museum

Overheard: "It seems like every city in Europe has, like, a torture museum?"