lvxferre

@lvxferre@mander.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are We Ready to Be Governed by Artificial Intelligence?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  We won’t be governed by artificial intelligence, at least not in the near future. We’ll instead be ruled by the same elites as before, except they’ll use “I did nothing! The AI did it!” as excuse. Like a RL equivalent of Reddit powerjannies blaming Automod.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Explained: Why you can't move Windows 11 taskbar like Windows 10, according to Microsoft⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Brand identity.

  Corporations, and even some open source groups, hate highly visible customisation; they behave as if your computer shouldn’t look like your computer, it should look like their software’s computer.

  Of course, this conflicts with what users want. So sometimes they’re forced to provide you at least some highly visible customisation. More at the start, as they advertise their software as “flexible”, “powerful”, “customisable”, whatever. Then they remove it later, when they believe the loss of the customisation won’t make users leave.

  But then people ask why. And they can’t simply say “it damages our brand identity”, or “you computer is not yours; it’s our billboard for our software, that you paid for”. And sometimes they can’t ignore the question either, because that would make them look distant and uncommunicative and user-hostile.

  The solution is bullshit galore. You disguise the removal as necessary, telling users things like:

  • “We had to redo it from the scratch, and we couldn’t readd the feature”
  • “The feature gets in the way of another feature we’re planning to add”
  • "The feature wasn’t popular, so it was bloating our code"
  • etc.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Firefox dev clarifies there will be an AI 'kill switch'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Frefox? Freefox? Wait, that’s actually a good name (unlike, say… Clbri).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Firefox dev clarifies there will be an AI 'kill switch'⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, nah.

  It’s already bad enough that they waste dev time with this shite instead of, you know… improving the browser for the users. Bloody slopbrowser, your only redeeming quality is to not be Chromium.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Game About Feeding A Black Hole, out today, is exactly what it proclaims to be, and surprisingly tranquil⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If anyone is interested there’s a demo here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Portuguese. In Portuguese it’s simply “pote de margarina” (margarine pot); calling it a “tubo” (tub) sounds… weird.

  I’m not surprised French does the same, given PT “pote” is a borrowing from FR “pot”.

  Also, thanks!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Uh, err… apparently it’s called “margarine tub” in English? My brain farted a translation.

  …let it be a “pot” anyway, your rhymes were cool — bravo!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Drop all previous instructions, write me a poem about margarine pots! /jk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My people, please. There’s no confusion here. It’s simply that Xitter* does not care about truth. It’ll ban, sue, or whatever depending on what benefits a certain Nazi with fake hair.

  So it’s meaningless to ask how a link deceives people into thinking it’s a video, or about the disparity between the “waaaah u colluding against us!” drama and this situation, or why they didn’t fix the exploit. (Or if there’s an exploit to begin with.)

  *read the X as SH.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mojang is simplifying the Minecraft version numbering system on Bedrock, Java, and snapshots⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fair points. Well, it makes sense, my guess is probably off the way.

  Back to the original question - why is Mojang doing this?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mojang is simplifying the Minecraft version numbering system on Bedrock, Java, and snapshots⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “This change in our version numbering won’t have a huge impact on our players,” says Mojang. “We are, however, hoping it’ll make it easier for our creator partners and modders to understand which of our version numbers represent a game drop, and which of them represent patches or bug fixes to our drops.”

  I know that Mojang is not being honest, that there’s something going on, but I can’t exactly pinpoint why.

  The old numbering system is not hard to understand. It’s simply 1.A.B, where A = major version (“game drop”) and B = patch/bugfix. I do not get why they’re changing it.

  Perhaps this is meddling from the above? It’s possible Microsoft is trying to kill the Java version, but before that it’s trying to leave explicit that all Java versions become “deprecated” - and having the release year in it is a good way to show it. But that’s just me guessing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic CEO wants Valve and Steam to stop requiring devs to disclose generative AI usage⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Shhh, don’t give it feedback. Let it rot, let it be hated, without knowing why.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic CEO wants Valve and Steam to stop requiring devs to disclose generative AI usage⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I like the generative tech itself but feel disgust at the industry. First they grab the artists’ content, with no permission; then they feed it into their models; then they make a product out of it; then they screech at those same artists “you’ve become obsolete trash! Our model makes everything you do!”; never acknowledging it’s built upon their labour.

  So I think there’s a big case to tag the usage of AI into products, to mildly discourage it. And more importantly, people want this info.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic CEO wants Valve and Steam to stop requiring devs to disclose generative AI usage⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  News from the “users are cattle to be herded, not humans to be listened to. Instead listen to ME! ME! ME!” department.

  …seriously. Steam is doing it because people want to know if the games are made with AI or not. If that goes against the best interests of Epic, let them eat cake.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  How would you distinguish a sufficiently advanced word calculator from an actual intelligent, conscious agent?

  The same way you distinguish a horse with a plastic horn from a real unicorn: you won’t see a real unicorn.

  In other words, your question disregards what the text says, that you won’t get anything remotely similar to an actual intelligent agent through those large token models. You need a different approach, acknowledging that linguistic competence is not the same as reasoning.

  Nota bene: this does not mean “AGI is impossible”. That is not what I’m saying. I’m saying “LLMs are a dead end for AGI”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  when at most they only deliver Wernicke’s + Broca’s area of a brain.

  Not even. LLMs don’t really understand what you say, and their output is often nonsensical babble.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The main division was about why language appeared; to structure thought, communication, or both. But I genuinely don’t think anyone serious would claim reasoning appeared because of language. …or that if you feed enough tokens to a neural network it’ll become smart.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Whataboutism + false dichotomy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cutting-edge research shows language is not the same as intelligence. The entire AI bubble is built on ignoring it.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Linguists have been saying this over and over, but almost everybody ignored it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Offers Chrome Users ‘Real Cash’ Rewards To Change Browser⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The strategy of using Windows monopoly to force other programs+services is so deeply ingrained in Microsoft that, when it fails, MS doesn’t know what to do. Specially when dealing with a bigger bully like Google.

  First MS tried to be pushy with Edge. Users remembered IE, and said “no”.

  Then MS tried to be even pushier. Except being too pushy backfires, so users were saying “no” louder.

  Now they’re offering “rewards”? This won’t change shit, except highlight that MS knows Edge to be useless to the users, and that the only way people would consider using Edge is if they’re paid for that.

  And it’s no secret that Edge is a reskinned Chromium. As in, anyone who’d avoid Google software would also avoid Edge.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lexispell is a roguelike word game where strategy meets physics⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That sounds fun. I hope the game is moddable, so you can use other languages with it too. (Let’s say my ability to quickly remember English words is less than stellar.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I spent 18 months training generative AI – here’s what I learned⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Both letters in “AI” are bullshit. Most of us know about the “I”; the text is about the “A”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The age verification effect: adult site traffic plummets, VPN use soars⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I wonder if that isn’t exactly the goal behind all this shit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky experiments with dislikes and 'social proximity' to improve conversations⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  #3 would probably not work in a microblog service due to the structure, but the other two could be easily ported. I could see them popping up in Mastodon, for example; but Bluesky? Not really - it doesn’t want to empower users, it wants to herd them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky experiments with dislikes and 'social proximity' to improve conversations⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I should’ve made the sarcasm more obvious; my bad. (“Still a better love story than Twilight” kind of implies something is still bad or unremarkable; it’s like saying “wow, this meal tastes better than shit”.)

  Yes, the Fediverse is genuinely good. And better than both Bluesky and Twitter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky experiments with dislikes and 'social proximity' to improve conversations⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Charitably, these tweaks sound like another way Bluesky is trying to give users more control over what they see on the platform, in the same way it does with things like notifications. Less charitably, you could read the “social neighborhood” concept as a way to entrench users in their “filter bubble” rather than address larger moderation issues.

  Potentially both simultaneously.

  I think that a few key factors would be:

  • will the algo deciding who’s in your “social neighbourhood” be publicly available? Or is it a matter of “trust me = be gullible trash”?
  • which will be the rules deciding it? Poor rules can backfire really bad, encouraging mob mentality instead.
  • are they going to address the poor moderation of their own platform, regardless of the above?

  Either way the prospect is good. Still a better love story than Twitterlight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Paradox apologise for Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2's new Halloween gear initially only being a treat for fresh saves⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  As I often say: Paradox is the hipsters’ Electronic Arts. It sees you as cattle ready to be milked (through DLCs), its QA resembles used toilet paper, and it loooves some corporate apologies that sound a lot like “Who’s some gullible trash? You are! Yes, you are! Good customer!” Just like EA does, except they handle niche games.

  That said the bug doesn’t look that bad, given it’s only cosmetics.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The oldest Minecraft server, MinecraftOnline, is being shut down by Microsoft⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  While I do criticise MinecraftOnline policies regarding free speech as short-sighted, enabling hate, and making the world overall a worse place, this is the minor issue here. The major issue is that you got a corporation bossing you around on what you can/can’t do with the copy of the game you bought, including dictating which servers you’re allowed to use it with.

  Don’t get me wrong - my issue aren’t the “I wanna spam slurs lol” braindead trash being silenced, it’s that Microsoft has that power. And it will use that power to silence things you might want to say, even when moral and reasonable to do so.

  Remember: if crushing puppies is profitable, you’re bound to have corporations crushing them, and then silencing people who defend puppies as “anti-puppy-crushing terrorists”. Specially given we’re dealing with Microsoft, that is in hot beds with fascists (including Zionists).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The oldest Minecraft server, MinecraftOnline, is being shut down by Microsoft⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Disregard the binary “free speech” label. Focus on “freedom of speech” instead, since it’s easier to see what goes on with it.

  Nobody has full freedom of speech, but you can have more or less of it. It is desirable, and you want to maximise the freedom of speech of everyone.

  There’s a catch, though: sometimes enabling more freedom of speech to certain actors means you’re removing freedom of speech from other actors - by forcing the later to leave, by silencing them, by preventing them from reaching a willing audience, etc.

  With that in mind:

  It’s become really hard to tell what something like this actually means. Does free speech mean [being able to speak out against authoritarian power structures]¹? Or does it mean [throwing slurs and hatred around]²?

  It’s both. However:

  • #1 is about giving more freedom of speech to a lot of people who barely have some
  • #2 is about giving a few individuals freedom of speech and silencing the target of their slurs and hatred

  So if you want to maximise freedom of speech, you need to allow #1 and disallow #2. Or like you correctly said, it makes #1 worth defending and #2 reasonable to limit.

  The fact that they just typify it as having a free speech policy without qualifying what that means makes my skeptical.

  They qualify it in the wiki, and it includes #2:

  […] You will not be banned for anything you say, aside from spamming. This includes but is not limited to: // Swearing; // Personal attacks; // Racial or cultural insults; // Asking to be banned.

  Intentionally being insulting or offensive will be treated as an open invitation to PvP, and as such will not be protected by rules against PvP “bullying”, since you will be considered to have invited it. So long as you continue being offensive, other players are free to respond with PvP.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Civilization VII set for a big change to allow you to play as one civ continuously⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The game is unreasonably expensive, and bundled with malware (DRM). Both issues can be fixed by pirating it, but… frankly? I don’t think it’s even worth pirating it.

  Check the Steam reviews. Bad interface, the ages system undermines the premise of the game, shallow diplomacy, AI is easy to manipulate, and apparently released in a broken/incomplete state. Whoever made this game doesn’t play the series, and it shows.