this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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TechTakes

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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

This is not debate club. Unless it’s amusing debate.

For actually-good tech, you want our NotAwfulTech community

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Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] rook@awful.systems 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

In a move that is not in any way ominous, and everyone involved has carefully thought through all the consequences, there’s a sora-generated video of sam altman shoplifting gpus that’s apparently quite popular right now.

https://bsky.app/profile/drewharwell.com/post/3m23ob342h22a

(no embed because safari on ipad is weird about downloading or linking video)

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 4 points 3 days ago

If the AI industry gets bailed out (and that's a multi-hundred billion dollar "if"), it will be because the technology they create makes shit like this possible.

To try and end this on a somewhat lighter note (source):

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

A man's co-workers pressure him to embrace vibe cooking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCyCaNt_RBs

[–] FRACTRANS@awful.systems 8 points 3 days ago (2 children)

can someone catch me up to speed on what the latest nix fiasco is?

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 9 points 3 days ago

in short, the whole moderation team resigned because of interference from the steering commitee; inb4 palmer luckey crowing about how no-one in the project will stop anduril from using nixos to build american military domination.

you know, just another day of the fascist takeover of the nixos project.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Elon Musk announces "Grokipedia", which is exactly what it sounds like.

for article in wikipedia: grok.is_this_true(article)

The Gizmodo story mentions that he retweeted Larry Sanger, but it doesn't dive into the rabbit hole of just how much of a kook Sanger is and how badly his would-be Wikipedia competitors have failed.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Lol maintaining a wiki is so much work always much respect for people who actually try to keep one up to date and filled with good info. Of course the fraud thinks he knows better without having ran one.

He would have a heart attack if he had to write a complex mediawiki script.

A small taste:

{{if|{{{1|}}}...

[–] BigMuffN69@awful.systems 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Gort is Klaatu barada nikhto?

[–] BurgersMcSlopshot@awful.systems 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Shaka, when the walls fell?

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 7 points 3 days ago

Or perhaps it is bleen

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 22 points 4 days ago

pushy rationalist tried to glom onto and fly to meet my niche internet microcelebrity friend & i talked her through setting boundaries instead of installing this person in her life. my good deed for the week

[–] flaviat@awful.systems 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] corbin@awful.systems 9 points 4 days ago

Nice find. There are specific reasons why this patchset won't be merged as-is and I suspect that they're all process issues:

  • Bad memory management from Samsung not developing in the open
  • Proprietary configuration for V4L2 video devices from Samsung not developing with modern V4L2 in mind
  • Lack of V4L2 compliance report from Samsung developing against an internal testbed and not developing with V4L2's preferred process
  • Lack of firmware because Samsung wants to maintain IP rights

Using generative tooling is a problem, but so is being stuck in 2011. Linux doesn't permit this sort of code dump.

[–] rook@awful.systems 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Oh hey, bay area techfash enthusing about AI and genocidal authoritarians? Must be a day ending in a Y. Today it is Vercel CEO and next.js dev Guillermo Rauch

https://nitter.net/rauchg/status/1972669025525158031

image descriptionA screenshot of a tweet by Guillermo Rauch, the CEO of Vercel. There’s a photograph of him next to Netanyahu. The tweet reads:

Enjoyed my discussion with PM Netanyahu on how Al education and literacy will keep our free societies ahead. We spoke about Al empowering everyone to build software and the importance of ensuring it serves quality and progress. Optimistic for peace, safety, and greatness for Israel and its neighbors.

I also have strong opinions about not using next.js or vercel (and server-side javascript in general is a bit of a car crash) but even if you thought it was great you should probably have a look around for alternatives. Just not ruby on rails, perhaps.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Amazing how they all went from oh us poor nerds vs the jocks to bending the knee and licking the boots of the strongmen. see also YT bribing Trump.

[–] mawhrin@awful.systems 9 points 4 days ago

…to “it's OUR TIME NOW”, cf. the most recent two blogs from david heinemeier hansson, palmer fucking luckey in recent nixos thing etc. etc.

[–] nfultz@awful.systems 8 points 4 days ago

Newsom signed the AI Bill (https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/ai-law-california-ca-companies-regulation-newsom-rcna234562) but looks like they took out the private right of action vs the one last year that he vetoed, so basically defanged.

I do predict even more compliance pop ups in the near future though.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 11 points 4 days ago

Our final defenses are more diffuse, working at a level of norms and attitudes. Stigmatization is a powerful force, and disgust and shame are among our greatest tools. Put plainly, you should feel bad for using AI.

[–] rook@awful.systems 16 points 5 days ago (6 children)

AI video generation use case: hallucinatory RETVRN clips about the good old days, such as, uh, walmart 20 years ago?

It his the uncanny valley triggers quite hard. It’s faintly unsettling t watch at all, but every individual detail is just wrong and dreamlike in a bad way.

Also, weird scenery clipping, just like real kids did back in the day!

https://bsky.app/profile/mugrimm.bsky.social/post/3lzy77zydrc2q

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 14 points 4 days ago (1 children)

genuinely think nostalgia might be the most purely evil emotion, and every one of these RETVRN ai videos i see strengthens that belief

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 8 points 4 days ago

It is a literal gateway to fascism imho, esp when people get into nostalgia for a time that never was.

And compared to nostalgia for mom n pop stores, this even is nostalgia for a mass produced product.

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