Flutterby™!

Once again, Google's AI summary is a tremendous bullshit generation machine. In this case, positing that one of the reasons the Carolina bays got created was "The tail-fanning of a huge fish".

I'm doing a lot of thinking about career direction, and trying to figure out languages to commit to, and whatnot, and I love C, and have enjoyed the expressiveness of C++, but boy the direction of the latter appears to be a total shitshow, both in terms of the language, and the culture. I was aware of the Patricia Aas thread, this follows up a bit: On "Safe" C++

Sanitize your inputs, kiddos. The Register AI + ML: Microsoft 365 Copilot trips over angle brackets, frustrating coders — Chatbot seems to choke when fed tricky less-than character

Via

Word to the wise: back up your SQL server to a text readable format regularly, especially if you hope that `apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y` occasionally will just keep you running along fine.

I honestly don't know what Jira is trying to do here with its "Spark a conversation: Light up the comment section - add an update, ask a question, or @mention someone." prompt.

Like, am I supposed to be doing "hey, @someone, do you come to this issue often?" or "Who do you think would win in a fight, XCode or VisualStudio?"

What metrics are they trying to optimize here, 'cause it ain't good product.

Worth pondering about any simulation or model. Greg Pogorzelski: The thing about the Kobayashi Maru

GM using religious overtones in their emails that attempt to upsell me on car bullshit is ... something ...

Install MicroPython on your Ikea Tradfri LED

Via

If you ever feel ethical qualms about eating bacon, know that the bacon feels no qualms about eating you: Woman Eaten by Her Pigs After She Collapses While Feeding Them

Gemini AI tells the user to die — the answer appeared out of nowhere when the user asked Google's Gemini for help with his homework

Because of its seemingly out-of-the-blue response, u/dhersie shared the screenshots and a link to the Gemini conversation on r/artificial on Reddit.

JAMA Editor's Note: At a Higher Dose and Longer Duration, Ivermectin Still Not Effective Against COVID-19 doi:10.1001/jama.2023.1922

Cochrane meta-analysis of 11 eligible trials examining the efficacy of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19 published through April 2022 concluded that ivermectin has no beneficial effect for people with COVID-19.

And that this has been found again (and again, and again), and that there are still trials recruiting participants for studies is raising questions about ethics in medical research. The Ethics of Clinical Research — Managing Persistent Uncertainty.

University of Minnesota Center for Infections Disease Research and Policy: Higher ivermectin dose, longer duration still futile for COVID, trial finds

I haven't been able to duplicate this Google AI fail personally...

RT Andres Salomon @Andres4NY@social.ridetrans.it

The 12yo was explaining to me how he takes shortcuts with his homework, not actually reading the material but just summarizing based on the first/last paragraph and... I explained to him that is a valuable skill, it's how McKinsey works.. the government refuses to actually read primary sources (due to lack of staff or whatever), so they skim through and summarize and charge the government $20mil and then the state uses the bad summary and fucks up and McKinsey charges another $20mil to fix it..

RT Max Leibman (Taylor's Version) @maxleibman@beige.party:

Me: How are you?

Them: I can’t complain.

Me: Oh, my gosh, I’m so sorry. What happened? Is it some sort of aphasia?

In Memoriam: Thomas E. Kurtz, 1928–2024

Thomas Eugene Kurtz (Feb. 22 1928–Nov. 12, 2024) was an American mathematician, computer scientist and co-inventor, with John Kemeny, of the BASIC programming language and Dartmouth Timesharing System.

Okay, I'm gonna restart XCode, give the debugger one more chance to behave, but I'm about ready to try to figure out where the stupid binary it is and just use lldb directly. Argh.

Dear XCode: It's cute that you think projects will have less than a page of tests, but losing my scroll position every time I click on the test tab is unconscionable.

I'm not the first to observe that in Matt Gaetz we're about to have an Attorney General who has first-hand experience with sex trafficking: ABC News: Woman testified to House Ethics Committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17: Sources

Ya know, Apple, if you could solve your MacOS "Thread 1: "The window has been marked as needing another Layout Window pass, but it has already had more Layout Window passes than there are views in the window." bullshit, there are a bunch of us on the Inkernets that would be super happy... okay, super less pissed off.

According to Google Gemini, 1976 was a bad freakin' year for communicable diseases...

"what were the socio-economic impacts of alabama avian syphilis outbreak in 1976?" indeed...

Inspired by an AskMeFi thread, I asked Google "what were the socio-economic impacts of the texas locust plague of 1976?"

It confidently gave me a list of impacts (of this non-existent event)...

Ask MeFi thread about ChatGPT hallucinating a book in answer to a question (with various commentary about it getting it right in other circumstances, and pros and cons of the approach)

I'm reminded of a BBS discussion in the pre-Internet days, where a participant created a fake citation out of a slightly plausible author and some other kinda plausible details, and it took several others (including me) a bit of time to conclude that it was, in fact, bogus.

RT David Chisnall @david_chisnall@infosec.exchange

On behalf of the United Kingdom, I would like to welcome the United States of America into the select club of countries that have voted to impose economic sanctions on themselves.

Warning on Stardew Valley 1.6: Spend down to under 100M before you upgrade, apparently it truncates that invisible digit...

RT Molly White @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io

If the worst does not actually come to pass, I don't think I'm going to be sitting here going "oh noooo I can't believe I strengthened my communities, made sure I'm up to date on my healthcare needs, and volunteered for causes I believe in"

3/3

RT Shannon Prickett @Binder@petrous.vislae.town

Two things that they don’t tell you about the Trolley Problem

1: it’s a shopping trolley
2: you’re playing it every time that you purchase something

In a time of dark news comes a bright spark of hope. Rolling Stone: The Onion buys InfoWars. Mother Jones: Infowars Acquired by The Onion, Will Become a Parody of Itself. ABC News: The Onion buys Alex Jones' Infowars at auction with help from Sandy Hook families. NBC: The Onion wins Alex Jones' Infowars in bankruptcy auction

The Onion: Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’, By Bryce P. Tetraeder, Global Tetrahedron CEO

Wait, Midnight Burger doing a Huell Howser homage? Just when I though I couldn't love a podcast any harder...

Bao wow!

The meat braise is simmering and the dough is rising for these Gua Bao with Braised Pork Belly, Seasoned Daikon, and Hoisin-Soy Sauce...

https://www.americastestkitche...oned-daikon-and-hoisin-soy-sauce

Epson Facebook ad for the SureColor v7000 crowing "the only UV flatbed printer under $200,000 with red ink", and... What do the other colors cost, I wonder?

Good read: Jack Cook: When Machine Learning Tells the Wrong Story, on using JavaScript to tell things about other system activity, such as what web sites a user might be browsing in other tabs or applications.

Via lobste.rs

Everything I've learned so far about running local LLMs

Via lobste.rs

Dear social media websites: Reloading your shit and blowing away my in-progress comment is not a feature.

And I wouldn't even be on Nextdoor except that the nEXTdoORTION business model of amplifying hate and rage unless you "volunteer" to moderate and fact-check makes it a necessity.

Another view of the quadricycle mock up ..

Zip ties and boards for testing the quadricycle steering geometry​...

Suggested on a local "Indivisible" group that maybe the progressive tendency of crapping on potential allies harder than adversaries might have contributed to low Democrat turnout, in this case attacking a town Councilperson over an "Is it time to make sure our passports are up to date!" post.

Got back replies about how this person didn't pass a litmus test, so...

I mean, proving the point handily, but datum.

RT a libi rose @rose_alibi@post.lurk.org

for those in the US... please be aware that the national crisis lifeline (that 988 number) will call police without consent on people in crisis. the trevor project will also. inclusive therapists has a list of lines that will not involve law enforcement without consent: https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/contact#crisis

I mean, we already knew that Cop29 was a cynical attempt to greenwash petroleum production and middle eastern human rights abuses, but... Cop29 CEO Elnur Soltanov filmed agreeing to facilitate fossil fuel deals at climate summit

FBI IC3 notice 241104: Easy Access to Information for Conducting Fraudulent Emergency Data Requests Impacts US-Based Companies and Law Enforcement Agencies

Easy Access to Information for Conducting Fraudulent Emergency Data Requests Impacts US-Based Companies and Law Enforcement Agencies Summary The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is releasing this Private Industry Notification to highlight a trend of compromised US and foreign government email addresses used to conduct fraudulent emergency data requests to US-based companies, exposing personally identifying information (PII).

Via Tech Crunch: FBI says hackers are sending fraudulent police data requests to tech giants to steal people’s private information, via /..