”nice"

#caturday

I just saw a disturbing comment that AI meant someone was never going to release another software project.

I think it might be good to look at the BSD perspective on releasing free software. Permissive licensing means you don't really care what someone does with your code, aside from claiming copyright themselves. While this is indeed a problem with Grand Theft Autocomplete, it's a legal problem and the criminals aren't getting their way without a fight.

I'm going to keep sharing what I do. No one can take my pleasure in creating systems away from me. I saw a meme not long ago - someone created a robot to eat ice cream for them so they didn't have to.

Just because other people are deploying ice cream eating robots, we don't have to stop eating ice cream ourselves.

I mean, I'm not surprised.

https://news.berkeley.edu/2026/10/09/using-ai-for-just-10-minutes-erodes-your-ability-to-persist-at-hard-things/

#ai #llm

This is interesting:

"AI training of copyrighted material not fair use: Third Circuit"

https://www.courthousenews.com/ai-training-of-copyrighted-material-not-fair-use-third-circuit/

#ai #llm #copyright

Yeah, a fatal lab leak from "Anti-Plague Research Institute". Nothing to worry about there.

I'm just going to keep on masking and isolating.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/10/04/europe/russia-laboratory-plague-accident-intl

#publichealth

@mjd I had a thought about what you said the other day about using LLMs because you still want to design things, but you don't want to have to implement them.

Rather than an LLM, which is consumptive and negative in more ways than I can count, it feels like what might work for you is a set of junior engineers to mentor. Tell them what you want, and they can do the legwork implementing. And as pleasant side effects, now there are more engineers in the world that can do things, and they've learned how to structure and organize things.

I'm not originating this idea, but consider that mentoring young engineers builds the next generation, whereas using LLMs, aside from anything else, is pulling up the ladder after you.

Glancing through LinkedIn jobs, it's shocking how many jobs burble on about slop.

One would think they'd value folks who can work through complex problems with just their meat.

Maybe these jobs exist but aren't advertising on LinkedIn. I wouldn't blame them, looking at what seems to sell, there.

#getfedihired

RE: https://social.freedom.press/@freedomofpress/117366127774621071

We have no business killing each other. The death penalty is just more murder.

Prisons are a problem too. Maybe they'd be less of one if they were run communally by volunteers that cycle out.

It's a hard problem but killing isn't the answer.

We're watching Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor now. What a lovely job they did...!

#doctorwho

I was told there were lizards on display. There were no lizards. Just snakes.

"Do you have anything with legs?" I asked one of the proprietors of the event. They had a millipede. Wife and kids were okay with this. I was the only one let down.

On the way in, a woman saw us masked and said to her husband, "Oh my gawd." I turned and exclaimed, "Oh my gawd! They're not wearing masks!" She replied, "And I never will!" To which I said, "Watch what that does to your lifespan and your brain!" Then I went about my business, looking at my people holding various snakes.

They want snakes now. (My people, not the human petri dishes. I don't know if they want snakes or not.) My thinking is, if they can find some snakes with legs, we'll talk. I mean, even fish have fins they use to get around, you know?

I'd keep an iguana again sometime, but not without a well-thought-out and comfortable habitat ready well in advance.

Welcome to HangTrek. This is a Star Trek-themed word game for the Fediverse.

Second round! In the first round, the old-school ships, Neptune class and Shepard class, tied. Dealer's choice, and since my schedule was overwhelmed yesterday and I didn't get the puzzle out on time, and I'm giving you both.

This time, you get bonus street cred if you identify the theme of the clues.

_ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / S _ _ S / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ N / _ _ / _ _ _ _ N _ . / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ .
_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ N _ / _ _ _ / S _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ .
_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ S ?
_ _ _ _ _ S _ / _ _ _ / N _ _ _ S / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ N _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / N _ _ _ S / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ N _ .

Word lengths:
Line 1: 2 6 4 4 3 4 4 2 6 3 4 4 3 2
Line 2: 3 5 4 4 3 4 3 2
Line 3: 3 5 3 2 4
Line 4: 7 3 5 2 3 3 8 3 5 2 3 4

The host puts up something like this, with blanks to be filled in, and includes a poll with four letters. The winning letter gets filled in, but only if it actually appears in the puzzle. At least one of the poll options must show up in the puzzle, and this process repeats until someone guesses the answer.

If you make a guess, please do it with a Content Warning (CW) so as to not spoil it for other folks still working on the puzzle, as an incorrect guess might still be an extra clue. The first person to guess correctly gets the option to run the next one, if they like, or to nominate someone else.

#startrek #hangtrek #games #puzzles @startrek

Humble request! Remember spoiler warnings for folks who haven't seen the latest Star Trek yet.

Welcome to HangTrek. This is a Star Trek-themed word game for the Fediverse.

This is the first round of a brand new game. Today's poll options are starship classes from various periods of Star Trek future history.

_ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ . / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ .
_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ .
_ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ ?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ .

Word lengths:
Line 1: 2 6 4 4 3 4 4 2 6 3 4 4 3 2
Line 2: 3 5 4 4 3 4 3 2
Line 3: 3 5 3 2 4
Line 4: 7 3 5 2 3 3 8 3 5 2 3 4

The host puts up something like this, with blanks to be filled in, and includes a poll with four letters. The winning letter gets filled in, but only if it actually appears in the puzzle. At least one of the poll options must show up in the puzzle, and this process repeats until someone guesses the answer.

If you make a guess, please do it with a Content Warning (CW) so as to not spoil it for other folks still working on the puzzle, as an incorrect guess might still be an extra clue. The first person to guess correctly gets the option to run the next one, if they like, or to nominate someone else.

#startrek #hangtrek #games #puzzles @startrek

I can't think there's a way to improve this thoughtful, reasoned analysis and response.

Given the importance of community in free software, this makes me want to try KDE again.

https://pointieststick.com/2026/09/23/kde-and-ai-and-you-and-me/comment-page-1/

#kde

The two places I buy coffee - Wicked Joe and Grounds For Change - use Shopify, and Shopify is right-wing bad news.

Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights—and taking us back to the 19th century?
https://fortune.com/2026/07/27/shopify-ceo-voting-rights-stripping-americans-19th-century/

Shopify’s Right-Wing Inner Circle
https://www.thenation.com/podcast/society/twsu-080824/

What alternatives are there? I want something to offer to merchants as an alternative and I'm not sure an alternative exists.

Please boost, as if we put some good answers together we can shift the world a little.

#askfedi

This is a neat idea - preserving the sound of classic synthesizers with software.

https://theusualsuspects.io/downloads/osirus

(The original post didn't allow boosts, but it was from @flockofnazguls - good account to follow)

This is beyond awful. This is going to kill people to give more profit to oligarchs.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/14/trump-epa-repeal-pollution-standards-power-plants

#climate #epa

Upgrading Mastodon was a hot mess as usual. I'm looking forward to going back to Friendica and going forward to SNAC2 and GoToSocial, all at once.

Anyone know the owner of https://zyd.lol/lisp-against-the-machine.html ? It's out of date for (at least) Chicken Scheme and Guile.

#scheme #lisp

Blah:

"LLM-written code contributions to the codebase may be accepted. Do not use an LLM to write code that you could not (with sufficient time available) have written yourself."

https://github.com/Perl/perl5/blob/blead/AI_POLICY.md

#perl #slop