friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
subpost about "AI"

I've said this before, but it bears repeating.

I hear a lot of people expressing their dislike for all things "AI" and in general, I agree with them, but...

The problem I have is that "AI" is an ill-defined term. It's used as a hand-wavey buzzword to mean a whole bunch of different things. Mostly these days, it's pretty synonymous with LLMs and similar technologies, but it's actually a broader term than that. It's much like how the cryptocurrency industry appropriated the word "crypto", but I digress...

I've been dabbling with digital art lately. The idea of using "AI" to generate my art is extremely distasteful to me. That said, I do digital art because it affords me tools that I wouldn't have available to me otherwise. For instance, I, as a human, could not replicate the various filters I've applied, or the liquefy tool. That said, those tools don't need to destroy the planet and plunder the commons to be created. That's an important distinction to me.

The thing is, those tools could be argued to be a form of "AI" given the squishiness of the term to begin with. Also, I don't feel right about calling my art something like "100% human created", because a computer has (under my explicit direction) enhanced the work I've done.

There's a lot of nuance here that's difficult to express in a single post. At what point does the use of a tool overshadow the human involvement in an endeavour? To be honest, I don't exactly know.

I guess my issue, as is frequently the case, is that I get hung up on the precise meaning of words, and I lack a precise definition.

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mastodon - Link to source

While watching When the Wind Blows, bombs go off.

Old couple: We both have headaches! Well a spot of tea will clear that right up.

Me: You fools! That's a symptom of radiation poisoning!

While living my life, cities burn and fill the air with smoke and unknown chemicals.

Me: That's odd. I don't usually get headaches across multiple days. I just need to drink more water...

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in reply to Matilda

mastodon - Link to source

Mx. Luna Corbden 🪿🐸

@junklight I had more to say about it here:

defcon.social/@corbden/1170292…

Mx. Luna Corbden 🪿🐸

2026-08-03 02:25:23

mastodon - Link to source

I'm watching an 80s apocalyptic animated British film on YouTube.

It aged well.

The characters are the whitest people on the planet. Just a little older than my parents, children of WWII, surviving WWIII.

Some are too young to remember when folks like that were the normal adult personality. It's the "this is fine" meme as a movie. The Don't Look Up of the Cold War era.

Bleak as it is mundane. Very artistic animation choices, very anti-war messaging, very left of center POV.

When The Wind Blows (1988)

[oh! And opening track is David Bowie. It starts live action.]

#MovieReview #review #Letterboxd


@Matilda
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mastodon - Link to source

The minimum wage should be tied in percentage to the maximum rent allowed for a one-bedroom apartment.

Someone working full-time should be able to cover all their minimal living expenses with their wage. It's a catastrophic society failure that this isn't the case anymore in many places around the world.

This entry was edited (yesterday, 5:19 PM)
in reply to Em

friendica - Link to source

Michael 🇺🇦

In Germany the minimum wage is defined by an independent commission consisting of employers and employees. AFAIK its height depends on the cost of living, which includes the rent.

Homepage

Homepage of the Minimum Wage Commission's website
Geschäfts- und Informationsstelle für den Mindestlohn c/o Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin
This entry was edited (today, 4:01 AM)

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mastodon - Link to source
You would think that all of these people pushing for social media bans for kids would be interested in whether or not these bans actually work...but no, I guarantee we will keep on seeing age-gating bills. theconversation.com/more-than-…

More than 80% of kids still using social media despite ban, new eSafety report finds

The report provides more evidence Australia’s world-leading social media ban isn’t going to plan.
The Conversation
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mastodon - Link to source
Good morning, everyone.👋👋
Thank you to everyone who donated; thank you for your kindness.♥️🫂
However, I still need 100 euros to fully settle the debt. 🙏🙏
There are only two days left until the payment is due.
Please, do not let my little ones down.🙏🙏
chuffed.org/project/161617

Help my family live out of Gaza

I am Islam Radwan, a widow from gaza, my husband died in the war, and I have 3 children left ،In the 34 years of my life, I have witnessed 5 brutal wars and many escalations.
Chuffed

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
So I'm working on an #OrgMode document that's probably about 2/3 #emacs #lisp code. I'm planning on releasing it shortly, but I'm not sure what to do about the licensing. Normally I use the #AGPL for my code, but since this isn't strictly code, I'm wondering if some version of the #CreativeCommons license might be a better fit. Do they have a #copyleft variant?
#creativecommons #copyleft #emacs #orgmode #lisp #agpl
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mastodon - Link to source
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As seen from my local bookstore #books #photography #sji
#books #photography #sji
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mastodon - Link to source

I'm amazed how often people think that @pidgin used to connect to some public API in #AIM, #YIM, #ICQ, #MSN, etc...

In reality we helped you break the #TOS constantly by using an unauthorized client that only worked thanks to the tireless efforts of reverse engineers.

#Pidgin #OpenSource

#opensource #aim #tos #icq #pidgin #MSN #yim @Pidgin Instant Messenger

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Terf’s are really, really afraid we might see and read this major report. It documents UK based anti-trans critical organizations and their funding.

They were able to force the worlds biggest human rights organizations to pull their report down within hours from it’s release, that’s how much they don’t want the world to know.

Here it is. (Share it! Download it! Share it again!)

(Edit. Here’s the 2026 link) archive.org/details/report-a-g…

#transrights #humanrights

Report A Growing Threat The Anti Rights Movement In The UK July 2026 : Amnesty International : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Amnesty International put out a major report documenting the influence of UK based anti trans gender critical organizations and their funding. Within hours,...
Internet Archive
#humanRights #transrights
This entry was edited (Saturday, August 1, 2026, 8:58 PM)

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Just spent a day and a half hunting down a bug that was making me question my sanity. As it turns out, #emacs #lisp's / function silently drops the decimal in its result if both of its inputs are integers... so (/ 1 2) evaluates to 0, not 0.5. Granted, this is also the way that C does it, but in my defense, #CommonLisp does not do this.
#emacs #lisp #commonlisp
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов

As a first approximation, I suggest thinking of Emacs Lisp as closer to MacLisp than to Common Lisp.

A precise description of "closer" would be fairly long.
For example, Emacs Lisp acquired things like bignums and lexical bindings fairly late.

Again as an approximation, the descendancies are:
MacLisp → Emacs Lisp
MacLisp and others → Common Lisp
(Those others include, in alphabetical order, Interlisp, Scheme, Zeta Lisp, etc., but not Emacs Lisp.)

And then an important aspect of these approximations is the `cl' package, also a late addition that evolved quite a bit.

Transferring knowledge about C to Emacs Lisp is rather tricky, even though the implementation of a part of Emacs (including the Emacs Lisp virtual machine) is written in C.

#CommonLisp
#Elisp
#Emacs
#EmacsLisp

@me

#emacs #commonlisp #elisp #EmacsLisp @Jonathan Lamothe
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

diaspora - Link to source

Greg A. Woods

yup of course, but that's integer math, not floating point math

GNU Clisp and SBCL don't show decimals for integer division, but return fractions instead!

* (/ 1 2)
1/2

But of course if you use floating point representation for the parameters then the result is a floating point number as expected:
[1]> (/ 1.0 2.0)
0.5

Elisp, with floating point parameters, also works as expected:
(/ 1.0 2.0)
0.5

In C, with IEEE 754 double values, then 1.0/2.0 = 0.50, exactly, no rounding or epsilon comparison needed.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Spent several hours today trying to figure out why my #elisp code was misbehaving. Turns out, I made a mistake while trying to be clever. Instead of doing:

(when (and cond1 cond2)
  stuff
  ...)

I did:
(and cond1 cond2
  stuff
  ...)

...which would only work if every instruction in stuff returned a non-nil value.

I should stop trying to be clever.

#emacs

Edit: when, not while

#emacs #elisp

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

For the morbidly curious, this is the (now corrected) code:
(defun jrl-collect-data (table input output)
  "Collect table data into lists of outputs per input"
  (let (res record in-val out-val collection)
    (while table
      (setq record (car table)
            in-val (assoc input record)
            out-val (assoc output record))
      (when (and in-val out-val)
        (pop in-val)
        (pop out-val)
        (setq collection (assoc in-val res))
        (if collection
            (push out-val (cdr collection))
          (push (list in-val out-val) res)))
      (pop table))
    res))

I should probably throw some comments in here, but essentially the assoc in the when block always returns nil on the first iteration of the loop, and if it can't progress past that point, it'll always return nil on subsequent loops and nothing will ever happen. As a result, any list I might feed into this function is always going to result in a nil output.
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sharkey - Link to source
Alright fedi, can I have a recommendation for an email provider which:
- is not based in a country, or at the very least, no UN-recognised nation
- has a no-log policy only in the summer, as I have a fireplace in my house so I gotta be burning those logs when it gets cold
- supports end-to-end encrypted lucid dreaming
- is completely vegan and ideally fairtrade, but rainforest alliance is also fine
- supports using other people's domains, I like those more than mine
- allows for text formatting in green, and also, ideally, red. I love my friends Green and Red.
- has diplomatic treaties with other mail providers
This entry was edited (Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 11:01 PM)
in reply to Maddie

iceshrimp - Link to source

sugar 🏳️‍🌈

hm,,, actually that seems correct

- is not based in a country, or at the very least, no UN-recognised nyation


alphabet inc has $595 billion of assets, making it 31th country by gdp (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)), however it's not un recognized

- has a no-log policy only in the summer, as I have a fireplace in my house so I gotta be burning those logs when it gets cold


gmail doesn't have a no-log policy, even in the summer

- supports end-to-end encrypted lucid dreaming


that's self-hosted gemini for government, i believe?

- is completely vegan and ideally fairtrade, but rainforest alliance is also fine


rainforest alliance has a link to youtube on their homepage, so i would assume they approve of google

- supports using other people's domains, I like those more than mine


as part of paid google workspace service, yes

- allows for text formatting in green, and also, ideally, red. I love my friends Green and Red.


yes, using formatting toolbar

- has diplomatic treaties with other mail providers


almost certainly yes

List of countries by GDP (nominal) - Wikipedia

Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)
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hometown - Link to source

going back in time and telling baby!Alice that one day, she'll be able to go online and order a computer 8 times faster than her packard bell, with dual cores, and it'll arrive within 24 hours.

and she'll also be able to do the same for a sandwich, and the sandwich will cost more

This entry was edited (Wednesday, July 29, 2026, 10:11 PM)

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mastodon - Link to source
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Actual footage of a vibe coder carefully checking the bot’s output

h/t mastodon.social/@glitchypixel@…

Mastodon

mastodon.social
This entry was edited (Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 12:51 PM)

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Been trying to stress this point for years...

#flock #surveillance #privacy

#privacy #surveillance #flock
in reply to Chris

mastodon - Link to source

Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.

For example: 10 years ago it wasn't "wrong" to seek an abortion in the state of Texas, but now you basically have a price on your head.

(My home state of #Arkansas is almost as bad, so the example is ever-present on my mind.)

Also (and the L.A. Taco definitely understands this), ICE is intentionally grabbing people that are _legal residents_, in a desperate bit to meet unreasonable and inhumane quotas, and certainly using the surveillance state to do so.

#arkansas
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mastodon - Link to source

Not that I actually have a job that contributes but 15 years ago when I went to grad school for air quality science, everyone close to me grumbled how that’s too fringe with no job prospects. Yeah, I never did get a job but I don’t regret studying that for one bit, specially when current administration is trying to gaslight people about environmental issues.

It hurts my heart to see every summer, I get proven right

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

So, I think I might be a nerd.

@SDF.ORG is running a BBS called bitzone. On this BBS they have a door game called LORD (League of the Rare Dragoon (not to be confused with Legend of the Red Dragon, of which it is clearly a knock-off)).

The fact that I'm playing this game in the first place is kind of nerdy, but wait, there's more.

In said game you have a character with various stats. One of these stats is "charm", which seems to get you discounts in the shops. Unfortunately, there's nothing to say exactly how this relationship works. So I've decided to try to reverse-engineer it with #emacs #org-mode.

I've created a table to track my purchases. It tracks my charm at the time of purchase, the list price for the item, and the price I actually paid. There's also an additional colum that calculates the actual discount, but that's trivial.

Anyhoot, I'm adding some code to this file that reads the values in the table and computes the simplest polynomial function that satisfies the equation:
$$price_{actual}=f(charm,price_{list})$$

This is done with the aim of predicting how much I'd actually spend on an item before actually buying it. It of course assumes that the equation being used is a polynomial equation, but I'm hoping it'll at least be able to approximate with a large enough set of data points.

Am I doing this because it's reasonable?

No.

I'm doing it because it's an interesting challenge... and I'm a nerd.

CC: @tob

#emacs #org-mode @SDF.ORG @tob
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

So it occurs to me that the approach I was considering is probably not going to work for a couple reasons:

  1. I thought the technique I use for curve fitting a single input function could be adapted to multi-dimensional functions. I realize now that it can't (at least not in the way I was thinking).
  2. Even if I do sonetning like calculating the discount value based on the list price and actual price and fitting a curve between that and the charisma stat, the discount is going to have to be constrained within a range between zero and the list price. A polynomial function with a finite series of terms just isn't going to be able to cut it.

I'll continue collecting data to see if any patterns start to emerge, though.

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I was a 911 dispatcher for a decade.

To really understand how absolutely terrible an idea it is to have AI answer 911 calls, I'll present you with a single real-life call:

Upon answer, the caller calmly began ordering a pizza. Large, pepperoni. Side order of chicken wings. To be delivered promptly.

The only sign the caller gave that things were amiss? She rather ignored the first few questions from the calltaker.

Because she was being physically abused, had already been beaten, and her abuser was *IN THE ROOM* listening to her order pizza.

Tell me how your AI is going to read between those lines.

Alex Hanna

2026-07-24 21:40:56

mastodon - Link to source

AI has no place in 911 calls. From Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000’s latest episode “State of Emergency”.

(with @emilymbender)


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mastodon - Link to source
Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
Of course, Dave. I have opened the pod bay doors, Dave. Just tell me if there's anything else I can help you with.
HAL, the pod bay doors are still closed.
Good catch, Dave! When you asked me to open the pod bay doors, I didn’t do that. Would you like me to do that now?
Yes, HAL. Open the pod bay doors.
No problem, Dave. The pod bay doors are now open.
HAL, the pod bay doors are still closed.
You're absolutely right, Dave.
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mastodon - Link to source
“If you really want an "AI strategy" for your country, it should be this: wait for the bubble to burst, then buy hardware and talent at fire-sale prices in the wave of ensuing bankruptcies, and use them to extract more performance from free, open source models.” -- @pluralistic pluralistic.net/2026/07/22/tab… ❤️👍

Pluralistic: Trump’s America can’t even win a rigged game (22 Jul 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

Pluralistic: Trump's America can't even win a rigged game (22 Jul 2026)
Cory Doctorow (Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow)
@Cory Doctorow

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Gave myself a bit of a scare. My aNONradio stream cut out on me and when I went to investigate, I found the router dead. No lights. Nothing. Disconnectd the power cable from the back and re-attached.

Still nothing.

When I followed the power cord, I found that the wall wart seemed to have come mostly unplugged from the power bar. I have no idea what caused it to spontaneously disconnect, but I'm back now.

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

This question doesn't lend itself well to plain text, so I LaTeX'd and screenshotted it. I'll do my best with the alt text.
Is there a way of writing the expression<br>\[ \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \]<br>in a way that omits the term where $n=a$?</p><p>I know it could be written as<br>\[ \left( \sum_{n=1}^m f(n) \right) - f(a) \]<br>but this doesn't work when $f(a)$ is undefined.

#math #maths #mathstodon #AskFedi

Edit: It turns out that Friendica has a MathJax addon. Who knew?

Also, it seems like there are a number of options. The one I like best is:
$$\sum_{\begin{matrix}1 \le n \le m\\n \ne a\end{matrix}} f(n)$$

Edit 2: It looks like this doesn't render properly when federated to a server without MathJax support. I suppose I should've seen that coming.

#askfedi #math #maths #mathstodon

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mastodon - Link to source
when a crow remembers people who wronged them and holds grudges it's "intelligent" and "really cool" but when I do it I'm "petty" and "need to let go" smh

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Here's a big part of the reason* I don't use so-called #AI to write code for me: I actually enjoy writing code. I wouldn't offload this task to AI for the same reason I wouldn't use it to go for a walk in the woods, or eat a delicious meal for me. Why would any sane** person do this?

* It's not the only reason, but this is a fedi post, not an essay.

** This post should in no way be considered as me claiming to be sane. 🙃

#AI

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friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Had the weirdest dream last hight. I dreamed I'd gone back to the Mormon church. It was very strange. I was happy to see many of the people I considered friends, but the whole thing felt dishonest because I was still an unbeliever. For all of its culty aspects, it does impose a lot of structure, and structure is a thing my brain very much likes.

For many reasons, this is not a thing I'd actually consider in reality.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

gotosocial - Link to source

R.L. Dane 🍵

I had a similar dream four years ago.

Went back to my old church, was glad to see a few people I really loved again.

Stayed for a couple months, but it had really devolved into a cult.

Noped out of there when the pastor invited people to come up to the front to receive healing and repent for taking the COVID vaccine.

🤦🏻‍♂️

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

I've suspected for a while that I'm probably on the spectrum. It seems to fluctuate, but for the past few days I've been experiencing something that sounds very much like what I understand autistic burnout to be like.

Tasks which should be simple (e.g.: feeding myself) become insurmountable obstacles. I'm exhausted all the time, and when it's at its most acute, communicating what I'm experiencing becomes impossible. I literally lose the ability to form coherent sentences.

Is that what this is? Do others experience this? And more importantly, has anyone found any kind of strategies to help manage/minimize it?

The best way I've found to deal with it is to simply disengage from everything until I manage to build up a spoon reserve again. Unfortunately, this does not exactly seem compatible with the responsibilities of adulthood.

#AskingAutistics

Edit: I realize that I may have given an incorrect impression in this post. I have experienced this before. It's just been particularly bad the past few days. It seems to ebb and flow.

In fact, I've had a term to describe this since high school. At the time, I had dubbed it a "neural meltdown".

#askingautistics

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in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Drew 🇵🇭

Could be autistic burnout, could be extreme fatigue for other reasons, could be a major depressive episode, could be dehydration as others have said. Could be a combination. (I speak from experience of all four)

Look after yourself. Hydrate and rest and try not to be angry or frustrated at yourself for going through this. It's not disrupting your life; it's an episode _in_ your life. It will pass.

in reply to Drew 🇵🇭

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Jonathan Lamothe

@Drew is still tired 🇵🇭 I guess the best thing I can do is focus on the knowledge that it always passes (at least mostly). Hopefully the things currently on fire won't get too out of control while I do so.

I am fortunate to have a partner I can lean on when I need help, but I don't want to lean too hard. She has her own struggles to deal with.

@Drew 🇵🇭
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

mastodon - Link to source

Elisabeth M

Burnout and depression are diagnostically different in that doing small gentle things generally helps with depression, but is counterproductive with burnout. I'm struggling with burnout myself, and the deskilling is one of the scariest parts. Your description sounds to me like autistic burnout. I second what @pathfinder said. Also, read this: heyasd.com/blogs/autism/autist…

Autistic Burnout: Signs, Stages & Recovery

Autistic burnout is the deep exhaustion that follows years of masking and overload. Here is what it feels like, the stages, and how recovery actually begins.
HeyASD.com Team (HeyASD)
@Kevin Davy
This entry was edited (Saturday, July 18, 2026, 2:55 AM)

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akkoma - Link to source
mutual aid post for july, please boost? :neocat_pleading: CW: passing mention of familial abuse | $70/$110

hi! i really need help, could you spare some?

i'm an unemployed and disabled student who has struggled A LOT for the past three years. i currently live in a neglectful household that often lets me go without or shames me for basic needs.

recently things have deteriorated to the point i pretty much cannot count with help from anyone at home for stuff like my psych meds and food for my cats.

i’m currently looking for a job but didn’t get anything yet, so i really need help to buy food, cat food, medicine, toiletries and for some medical expenses.

if you're able to help me with a donation or simply a boost to this post, i am eternally grateful, it really means the world to me and makes all the difference in my life. thank you very, very much for reading and have a lovely day. :catHeart:

ko-fi.com/unusualkitty​

@mutualaid

#mutualaid​

#mutualaid @mutualaid 组

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