Saturday April 4th, 2026
Moof! 🔜 #JetLagTheGame NL @moof@cupoftea.social
I’m told that sometimes Claude can be frustrating. I gather that interacting with it can be quite rewarding, especially when it creates passing tests in your programmes. But sometimes that dopamine rush is not quite enough. Maybe you need a bit of stroking of your ego, or a good pat on the butt when you’ve done well.
So now, someone has now taken Vibe Coding to tbe logical conclusion, and has created an interface from Claude to buttplug.io.
So now the shafting you get from AI is no longer just figurative.
Signal Bridge is an Android app that lets Claude touch you through your intimate hardware while you talk. You have a conversation. When the moment calls for it, Claude sends haptic commands (vibration, pulsing, thrusting, escalation etc.) through Signal Bridge to your connected devices. You see tool-use indicators in the chat. You feel the rest.
Pondering differences between wealth taxes and inflation. I guess the primary difference is that with a national currency, a wealth tax is how states can independently implement the effect.
Friday April 3rd, 2026
A good rant about a crappy tool for setting passwords in SSD encryption, or something? Samsung Magician disk utility takes 18 steps and two Recovery Mode reboots to uninstall.
Read down to where they embedded Electron to show a pie chart. And then down to where they embedded 150 PNGs for a "health good" animation.
What I wanted for a MacOS Tahoe 16.4 update: performance, stability, security, better handling of switches disabling "Liquid Glass", square corners...
What I got: 🧑🩰
Steve Hayman 🇨🇦🇬🇱 @shayman@cosocial.ca
TIL: For any prime number p >= 5, p²-1 is divisible by 24.
That's cool.
Isn't it?
Yes it is.
Steve Hayman 🇨🇦🇬🇱 @shayman@cosocial.ca
Informal proof that for a prime p >=5, p²-1 must be a multiple of 24.
p²-1 = (p-1)(p+1)
p-1, p, p+1 are three consecutive integers. One of them must be divisible by 3 - and it can't be p, because p is prime. So either p-1 or p+1 is a multiple of 3.
Also, p is odd, so p-1 and p+1 are both even - and one or the other must be divisible by 4. One is a multiple of 2, the other of 4.
So the product of p-1 and p+1 has factors of 2, 3 and 4, and must be a multiple of 2*3*4 =24.
Simon Willison has a link to the axios npm supply chain compromise post-mortem, including Jayson Saayman's description of how the social engineering worked.
tl;dr: extremely real looking contact with a company that eventually ended up as a Microsoft Teams meeting, that complained that some component was out of date, update process on that component was the compromise.
Because better solutions for local (and, yes, national and international) news are on my radar: An AI company set out to fix news deserts. Instead, it copied local journalists’ work
Nota shut down its news sites after Axios and Poynter found dozens of plagiarized quotes, phrases and photos
I mean, it's an AI company, so of course it didn't actuall "set out to fix news deserts", it set out to exploit a human desire to fix news deserts, and of course it fucked over the actual reporters.
Reminder to mobile email client developers: Often people have urgent tasks to do with their phone. Nobody wants to take your five minute tour of new features when they're trying to find a login code because a friend is helping them solve their Netflix billing issue after a square dance.
Assholes.
Listening to "Who Killed Avril Lavigne?" on the walk to work this morning, and... it's super dumb in a good way. If you need a pop-punk flashback to the '90s made by a bunch of people who are obviously friends and having fun...
Thursday April 2nd, 2026
Huh. Don't know how I've missed this "Danger! Do not operate! Man on line." tag dated 12/14/24 on this pole that I've walked past a gazillion times, but I hope dude isn't still up there somewhere, he's gotta be getting thirsty.
Also, "man on line", what century are we in again?
Finally figured out my Deckset issue. As a competent text editor user, I am really digging the trend of "all configuration happens in text files" and "tools do one thing, well."
Tri-System Theory is not a warning about AI’s dangers but a recognition of System 3’s psychological presence. We do not merely use AI; we think with it. In doing so, we must ask new questions: What happens when our judgments are shaped by minds not our own? What becomes of intuition and effort when a generative, artificial partner stands ready to answer? How do we preserve agency, reflection, and autonomy in a world where users engage in cognitive surrender?
https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/yk25n_v1
Via Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social who characterized it as:
The. Rise. Of. Cognitive. Surrender.
Study finds that people who use GenAI chatbots rely on them 80% of the time, and develop almost no capacity to recognize when a chatbot is feeding them faulty information.
Based on an ancient Cooks Illustrated article, I've been making hash browns by squeezing the grated potatoes, letting the juice sit, pouring off the water and re-incorporating the starch.
(Cook 9 minutes per side, medium heat, plenty of fat.)
I just did my first batch by squeezing and rinsing and discarding the starch, and way crispier!
There is some debate over the meaning of the text that’s paired with the recumbent skeleton. The writer İlber Ortaylı reads it as, “You get the pleasure of the food you eat hastily with death,” and believes that the mosaic was in a soup kitchen rather than a rich person’s dining room. But in a thorough post by Livius on The History Blog, they argue that a skeleton “partying with [the Romans] in the dining room” is consistent with the art at the time in which Kara dated it. The mosaic would’ve been a reminder that life is fleeting—so imbibe the wine, eat the bread, and enjoy it while you can.
Found it! Those two images, I didn't have a blank line before the image specifier.
Deskset mavens: I think I'm loving it, except that I have two B&W images from the
Library of Congress that I cannot get it to display at a reasonable size, even when I
screengrab for them, or convert from TIFF with Image Magick or GIMP.
Any help?
Wednesday April 1st, 2026
I really really hope that I don't have reason to refer back to this document later, but holy shit: Thoughts following the Jan. 8th NASA Headquarters meeting concerning the Artemis II Heatshield (read-only Google doc), per this skeet from Anil Dash it's written by "former Johnson Space Center engineering director (and astronaut) Charles Camarda".
If the toy collectors on Facebook Marketplace place could stop referring to 1997 as "vintage", I'd appreciate it. Pretty sure that was less than a decade ago...
Defense One: AI may revive old-school tradecraft even as it transforms intelligence work
A recent article in Studies in Intelligence, the CIA- backed academic journal, argues that as AI degrades the reliability of digital communications like text messages and video calls, traditional human intelligence tradecraft — like dead drops, brush passes and in-person meetings — could regain renewed importance.
Via.
At this point I'm not even sure it's worth taking note of software/package management supply chain attacks anymore, but North Korean hackers blamed for hijacking popular Axios open source project to spread malware.
QOTD: MeFi user RonButNotStupid on LLM written code (Specifically Claude Code):
It's like programming as understood by the sovereign citizen movement.
Boris Cherney said "Can confirm Claude Code is 100% written by Claude Code". Time to start pushing back on those DMCA takedowns, and get Anthropic's legal team disbarred for abuse and misconduct.
How is Federal transportation funding broken? Mass DOT Project Information — CHARLEMONT- BRIDGE REPLACEMENT, C-05-009, CHICKLEY ROAD OVER CHICKLEY RIVER.
Estimated Total Contract Cost: $9,139,470.74
Estimated Total Federal Participating Construction Cost: $9,703,075.95
Google Maps link for 296 W. Hawley Rd.. That's nearly $10M to serve a single house. Total assessed value for 72 acres and the 4br/2ba house with attached garage, $402,700 (okay, to be fair, looks like they've got an outbuilding and some solar panels).
Leader of Antioch police department texting scandal sentenced to 4 years in prison
"Police terrorist" is the language used by presiding federal judge, Jeffrey White, during the sentencing says Nisenbaum. He says Rombough's confession helped led to the signing of an MOU in December that will Nisenbaum says will transform Antioch into a "constitutional policing model." Even though the prosecution wanted a longer sentence.
Microsoft Copilot Terms of Use explicitly lay out the situation:
- When you request that Copilot take Actions on your behalf, you are solely responsible for those Actions and any results or consequences.
- Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk.
- WITHOUT LIMITING SECTION 12 OF THE MICROSOFT SERVICES AGREEMENT IN ANY WAY, BUT FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY, WE DO NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION OF ANY KIND ABOUT COPILOT. For example, we can’t promise that any Copilot’s Responses won’t infringe someone else’s rights (like their copyrights, trademarks, or rights of privacy) or defame them. You are solely responsible if you choose to publish or share Copilot’s Responses publicly or with any other person.
Via Ingrid Burrington @lifewinning.com who also posits
Clippy popping up asking "are you not entertained?"
@danlyke I'm listening to a Wall Street Millennial video about Anthropic right now and I'm not sure the CEO's butter is all the way on his pancake
Wall Street Millenial: Anthropic's feud with the Pentagon is not what you think.
I personally think it's a good thing that the the Department of War declared Anthropic a supply chain risk. Not because it actually is a supply chain risk, but because this is the first time that Dario Amadei is finally held accountable for his fear mongering and propaganda.
The Register: Anthropic goes nude, exposes Claude Code source by accident.
Ars Technica: Entire Claude Code CLI source code leaks thanks to exposed map file.
The New Stack: Inside Claude Code’s leaked source: swarms, daemons, and 44 features Anthropic kept behind flags, Via.
jonny (good kind) @jonny@neuromatch.social
My dogs I am crying. They have a whole series of exception types that end with
_I_VERIFIED_THIS_IS_NOT_CODE_OR_FILEPATHSand the docstring explains this is "to confirm you've verified the message contains no sensitive data." Like the LLM resorts to naming its variables with prompt text to remind it to not leak data while writing its code, which, of course, it ignores and prints the error directly.
Michael Bacon @MichaelTBacon@social.coop has some commentary and a link to that jonny thread (above).
T he Register: Claude Code source leak reveals how much info Anthropic can hoover up about you and your system, Via.
tante @tante@tldr.nettime.org has some commentary...
It is fascinating but it is as far away from actual engineering as drunkenly pissing your name in the snow. Dunno what you call the people prompting software at Anthropic but "engineer" is not it.
Reading leaked Claude Code source code, Via Lobste.rs
Edit: MeFi thread.
Tuesday March 31st, 2026
Palo Alto explores ways to slow down cyclists on Cal Ave. Interesting look at how to manage a road turned into a pedestrian space, but where the adjoining streets are hostile to bicyclists.
Via.
Every time I think "fuuuu, why did I sign up for another gig this week?", and then I go call a square dance, and I'm like "oh, yeah, that's why".
Tonight the Caper Cutters in San Francisco.
I guess it's just not possible to buy modern concert tickets without going through a scalper these days... The box office says "sold out", StubHub is happy to offer me a ticket, likely at huge markup.
Monday March 30th, 2026
The message to cops about protesting has long been "don't start none, won't be none", this is more confirmation of that: The New Republic: Alex Pretti’s Death Came After Insane Stephen Miller Order
Stephen Miller urged Department of Homeland Security agents to “force confrontations” with protesters in Minneapolis.</blockqutoe>
The thugs were sent into neighborhoods with orders to stir shit up.
I find myself once again fighting with Keynote and LibreOffice's presentation mode, and wondering what's y'all's favorite HTML slides generator?
I've been keeping a page of "songs we sang" for Janice Hardy's singing circle. She's talking about her own site, and is Wordpress actually the way to go? Seems like some static site app on her desktop would be a better idea, but it seems like a failure that we're down to heavyweight WP, or Wix...
Thieves steal 12 tons of KitKats. Presumably that's single-digit numbers of actual cocoa pods worth of chocolate...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/n...at-shipment-heist-stolen-europe/
alyssa mercante @alyssamerc.bsky.social has a thread in which she announces her law firm's settlement proposal in a suit against YouTuber "SmashJT" Jeff Tarzia.
The discussion of OpenAI/ChatGPT discovery materials is a look at someone pitifully deep into AI induced psychosis.
Wow, this is super shady: Cybercab Owners dot com. For only $500 you can put down a deposit on access to some sort of charging infrastructure that might be available after Tesla actually releases the Cybercab?
As Kay Leadfoot @ FuelArc News @kayleadfoot.bsky.social noted:
Looks like a double-tap scam, they're charging Tesla fans $500 for vaporware to sit on top of their vaporware.
Pavel A. Samsonov @PavelASamsonov@mastodon.social
Make sure to rotate your pronouns periodically, so that if your gender becomes compromised, attackers can only access it for a short period of time.
Martin Escardo @MartinEscardo@mathstodon.xyz
I have a calculator that is correct 80% of the time. But don't worry, every time I use it, I check the results myself.
Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies Study #260072 -- March 2026 NBC News Survey
| Very Positive | Somewhat Positive | Neutral | Somewhat Negative | Very Negative | Don't Know /Not Sure |
|
| JD Vance March 2026 | 27 | 11 | 10 | 8 | 41 | 3 |
| AI, that is Artificial Intelligence March 2026 | 5 | 21 | 27 | 24 | 22 | 1 |
Trying to find the article that led to this, unsuccessfully.
On the one hand, I wanna link to The Guardian: Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says, on the other hand the report from the UK Centre for Long-Term Resilience seems like the sort of thing meant to freak out policy-makers rather than actually be useful.
The trend is striking. The number of credible scheming-related incidents increased 4.9x over the collection period, a statistically significant increase that far outpaced the 1.7x growth in overall online discussion of scheming, and the 1.3x growth in general negative discussion about AI. This surge coincided with the release of a wave of more capable, more agentic AI models and frameworks from major developers.
Like, uh, you wanna normalize that by anything? Additional use? The advent of more long- running systems like OpenClaw?
It's great to say "hey, these things are dangerous, and even technical users are tripping over their shoelaces when use of these ties them together", and I'm all for policy which engages more discussion about these things, but I also think the way the discussion is unfolding is exposing a lot about how policy is made by emotional reaction rather than any sort of real models.
Okay, one more goat picture
Sunday March 29th, 2026
Not sure if nuzzles, or seeing if I'm edible.
This one really wants to untie my shoes.
Kids these days.
Some actors will forever be typecast.
At Redwood Hill Farm to hang out with the goats, they have a great view of Mt St Helena.
Charlene and me with Janice Cader Thompson at the rally today.
Saturday March 28th, 2026
Went to the rally today in our unicorn costumes (I expect pictures of us to blossom on the internet shortly), but standing around all day was a reminder that in last night's calling for South Bay Squares I was moving. A lot.
My legs are downright tired today.
Friday March 27th, 2026
Confession: Every time I see someone write "NoICE" I flash back to the late twenty-naughts and wonder what they're laying the superlative on...
CEQA has problems, but the problems aren't "oh, no worries if this facility dumps heavy metals", it's about models for traffic and neighborhood impacts and stuff like that. Grrrr.
Just flat out spanked by the Happy Meal in today's Timdle...
Wednesday March 25th, 2026
Honestly, this makes sense: Programmers who proclaim themselves expert are generally crappy programmers, so if you tell an LLM that it's supposed to be an expert programmer, of course it's gonna generate worse code. The Register: Telling an AI model that it’s an expert programmer makes it a worse programmer
In a pre-print paper titled "Expert Personas Improve LLM Alignment but Damage Accuracy: Bootstrapping Intent-Based Persona Routing with PRISM," researchers affiliated with the University of Southern California (USC) find that persona-based prompting is task-dependent – which they say explains the mixed results.
Via.
Oregon attorney slapped with record fine after citing case law hallucinated by AI
The Oregon Court of Appeals issued a $10,000 fine to Bill Ghiorso, a Salem-based civil attorney, after determining he signed his name to a legal brief containing 15 bogus citations and nine quotes “that had been contrived from thin air.”
The article mentions a previous slap on the wrist ($2k) against Portland civil attorney Gabriel A. Watson.
The one thing that "AI" is making painfully clear is just how many places people could leave the "Lorem Ipsum" placeholder text in place and not lose any functionality from their company web pages.