BlueMonday1984

joined 2 years ago
sorted by: new top controversial old
Google kills AlphaFold — so much for AI curing cancer in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 6 points 6 hours ago

(from the youtube comments)

shot:

One of the lesser discussed issues with the generative AI hype is that it put every single deep learning application under scrutiny. They tend to hide behind the positive uses of deep learning whenever generative AI is criticized, as if medicine research and the misinformation generator cannot be separated. "Nuclear power is impossible unless we are allowed to use nukes" type of argument

chaser:

Alphafold was a really interest project. It was not magic but had some utility. Now all remaining AI projects are lying plagiarism machines.

AI is officially a pseudoscience now.

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 2nd August 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 3 days ago

LLM bros actively force themselves everywhere, part infinity:

Newgrounds moderation had to deal with someone (probably a scammer) posting slop "art advice" recently - exactly why, nobody fuckin' knows:

Transcript/desciption

I've already passed it off to folks that could nuke the account from orbit, but I guess as a public service announcement, be on the lookout for replies in the forums that sound a little too LLM-y.

An account (unsure if a bot or just a weirdo) recently attempted to infiltrate the art forum, giving plausible-sounding AI-generated list-based advice, complete with preambles and summations, exactly the kind of syntax and format one would expect if they've dealt with enough clanker slop text. It fooled a small handful of people, but it was extremely easy to confirm my suspicions as soon as I smelled the clanker stank on it. One click made it clear that they had a generated PFP and profile linking to some image slopification scam.

It raises the question, what would anyone possibly have to gain from posting slop on the forums? It seems like a really stupid thing to do, but I guess braindead behavior tracks, given who we're dealing with. Make sure "helpful" new users aren't just trying to Dead Internet us or whatever.

15
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 2nd August 2026 (awful.systems)
 

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 so 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 - both for starting this, and for covering the previous week. We should get a bot to automate this...)

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 26th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 8 points 5 days ago

A lot of annoying people in technical areas view the world in terms of an intelligence hierarchy: the smartest people do math and physics, the slightly less smart people do coding, and the dumb people do everything else. So if AI can do math then it can do anything else. But, as an example, it is abundantly obvious now that AI is not replacing filmmaking.

Going by those annoying peoples' logic, filmmakers are smarter than coders, because LLMs can (allegedly) program, but they can't make a good film. I have no wider point to this, I just find this really, really funny

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 26th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 1 week ago

I tested this with the Navy Seal Copypasta (well, the first 400 letters of it, the demo's got a limit) - using just Cryllic characters got me a 3.01x increase, and turning on all four control types got a 4.53x increase.

Testing your own recent comment, Cryllic only got 3.38x, and all four controls got 5.11x.

Going from those two, the boost from homoglyphs alone is likely higher than you think - 3x to 3.5x, by my guess - pretty good for human readable text.

Tarpits like Iocaine and Nepenthes can easily sacrifice readability for token burn, so they can easily go higher.

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 26th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Adversarial tokenmaxxing could probably be done by using non-English character sets in lieu of English letters (e.g. faux Cryllic) - for two examples from the Greek alphabet, alpha and omicron alone can easily substitute for A and O, respectively.

As a bonus, this would likely make the text look like complete gibberish to LLMs, potentially leaving them unable to process the document altogether. This would probably shaft anyone using screen readers, though.

EDIT: Turns out the demonstration's already caught on to this idea, didn't notice beforehand:

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 19th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 3 points 1 week ago

The Butlerian Jihad grows closer and closer by the day. Maybe its already arrived.

14
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 19th July 2026 (awful.systems)
 

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 so 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. Sorry this wasn't up earlier, I couldn't connect to awful.)

Meta’s new AI creep glasses will record 24-7 without a light in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Oh, boy, Rapist Glasses

There’s a UK Parliament petition to “Introduce an immediate ban on the sale and promotion of smart glasses”. If you’re in the UK, you might want to sign it. [UK Parliament]

Given Parliament's track record, they'll probably respond by banning glasses that don't have cameras, but I still endorse this

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 6 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Another "AI fucked compsci grads" post has hit my eyeballs - this time, it got recommended to me by LinkedIn's algorithm) (because I'm still on that site for some fucking reason):

Full Textstudy philosophy, not computer science

data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows that philosophy students have a lower unemployment rate (about 5.1%) than computer science students (7%)

why?

unique human judgment, logic, and ethical reasoning are becoming premium assets, and better tech means companies increasingly DON'T need to ask "can we build this?", and increasingly DO need to ask "should we build this, and what are the consequences?"

If there has ever been a time to build those soft, truly human, skills, it is now.

p.s. what do you think is the BEST skill to have right now - my thoughts are in the comments

This one's attributing the decline to "unique human judgment, logic, and ethical reasoning becoming premium assets", and her graph comes from The Economist's Instagram page AFAICT. That one of the Economist's sources is Anthropic is giving me some hope this is bullshit, but its not much.

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The main thing I knew him for is his failed attempt to hijack the Hugo Awards back in 2015.

(There's a r/HobbyDrama post about the whole debacle, which I recommend checking out)

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"Okay, so it starts with a doomsday cult which formed around GameStop..."

Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th July 2026 in c/techtakes@awful.systems
[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 2 points 3 weeks ago

Your qualifications predate the LLM rot by fucking ages, and your position against them is crystal clear. Given both of those, bypassing that filter should be easy enough.

19
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 12th July 2026 (awful.systems)
 

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 so 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, and happy 4th July in advance.)

12
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 5th July 2026 (awful.systems)
 

Want to wade into the rainbow-ridden 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 so 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, and happy 4th July in advance.)

14
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 28th June 2026 (awful.systems)
 

Want to wade into the rainbow-ridden 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 so 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.)

9
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 21st June 2026 (awful.systems)
 

Want to wade into the rainbow-ridden 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 so 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.)

17
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 14th June 2026 (awful.systems)
 

Want to wade into the rainbow-ridden 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 so 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.)

11
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 7th June 2026 (awful.systems)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
155 comments fedilink
 

Want to wade into the rainbow-ridden 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 so 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. Also, happy Pride Month, peeps)

15
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 31st May 2026 (awful.systems)
 

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 so 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.)

13
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 24th May 2026 (awful.systems)
 

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 so 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.)

21
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 17th May 2026 (awful.systems)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
129 comments fedilink
 

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 so 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.)

15
Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 10th May 2026 (awful.systems)
 

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 so 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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