one thing i did not see coming, but should have (i really am an idiot): i am completely unenthused whenever anyone announces a piece of software. i'll see something on the rust subreddit that i would have originally thought "that's cool" and now my reaction is "great, gotta see if an llm was used"

everything feels gloomy.

I used Firefox for largely political reasons (summarized as "Google needs a competitor"), but it was becoming harder and harder to justify. Eventually, I just switched to a Chromium-based browser. I will say that, as an almost-good-enough solution until I wake up from this nightmare to a functioning Servo (🙏🙏🙏) , DNS level ad blocking (using Mullvad's DNS servers) + uBlock Origin Lite (filtering mode set to "complete") has been sufficient for me. It even blocks Spotify ads. I think it blocks YouTube ads as well, although I barely watch YouTube on my browser.

Ungoogled Chromium supports MV2 extensions and seems like a good choice if Firefox becomes unusable or you get fed up. I use Trivalent, a security hardened Chromium-based browser, but it may be tough to install if you aren't on Secureblue. Also it only supports MV3 extensions.

this shit is so fucking frustrating, just leave our browsers alone. we want security updates, not an unethically sourced bullshit-and-vulnerability-generator stapled onto the biggest attack surface on our fucking machine

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/my-goal-is-to-eliminate-every-line-of-c-and-c-from-microsoft-by-2030-microsoft-bets-on-ai-to-finally-modernize-windows

My goal is to eliminate every line of C and C++ from Microsoft by 2030. Our strategy is to combine AI *and* Algorithms to rewrite Microsoft’s largest codebases. Our North Star is “1 engineer, 1 month, 1 million lines of code”. To accomplish this previously unimaginable task, we’ve built a powerful code processing infrastructure. Our algorithmic infrastructure creates a scalable graph over source code at scale. Our AI processing infrastructure then enables us to apply AI agents, guided by algorithms, to make code modifications at scale. The core of this infrastructure is already operating at scale on problems such as code understanding."

wow, *and* algorithms? i didn't think anyone had gotten that far

something i was thinking about yesterday: so many people i ~~respect~~ used to respect have admitted to using llms as a search engine. even after i explain the seven problems with using a chatbot this way:

1. wrong tool for the job
2. bad tool
3. are you fucking serious?
4. environmental impact
5. ethics of how the data was gathered/curated to generate^[they call this "training" but i try to avoid anthropomorphising chatbots] the model
6. privacy policy of these companies is a nightmare
7. seriously what is wrong with you

they continue to do it. the ease of use, together with the valid syntax output by the llm, seems to short-circuit something in the end-user's brain.

anyway, in the same way that some vibe-coded bullshit will end up exploding down the line, i wonder whether the use of llms as a search engine is going to have some similar unintended consequences

"oh, yeah, sorry boss, the ai told me that mr. robot was pretty accurate, idk why all of our secrets got leaked. i watched the entire series."

additionally, i wonder about the timing. will we see sporadic incidents of shit exploding, or will there be a cascade of chickens coming home to roost?

Baldur Bjarnason has a piece from July 2023 called The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con^[https://softwarecrisis.dev/letters/llmentalist/] that you might appreciate, if you haven't read it yet. :)

university where the professor physically threatened me and plagiarized my work called to ask if i was willing to teach a notoriously hard computer science class (that i have taught before to stellar evals as a phd student^[evals are bullshit for measuring how well students actually learn anything, but are great for measuring the stupid shit business idiots love, like whether students will keep paying tuition. also they can be used to explain the pitfalls of using likert scales carelessly, as business idiots do.]). but they had to tell me that i was their last choice because they couldn't find a full professor to teach it (since i didn't finish my phd there because of said abusive professor). on top of that, they offered me a measly $6,000 usd for the entire semester with no benefits, and i would have to pay $500 for parking.

should i just be done with academia? enrollment deadlines for the spring are approaching and i'm wondering if i should just find a "regular job", rather than finishing a PhD elsewhere, especially given the direction higher ed is going in the us.

is anyone else fucking sick and tired of discord? it's one thing if it's gaming-related^[i guess. not really, fuck discord.], but when i'm at a repo for some non-gaming project and they say "ask for help in our discord server", i feel like i'm in a fever dream and i'm going to wake up and discover that the simulation i was in was managed by chatgpt

i bought some bullshit from amazon and left a ~~somewhat~~ pretty mean review because debugging it was super frustrating

the seller reached out and offered a refund, so i told them basically "no, it's ok, just address the concerns in my review. let me update my review to be less mean-spirited

i was pretty frustrated setting it up but it mostly works fine"

then they sent a message that had the "llm vibe", and the rest of the conversation went

Seller: You're right — we occasionally use LLM assistance for responses, but every message is reviewed to ensure accuracy and relevance to your concerns. We sincerely apologize if our previous replies dissatisfied you; this was our oversight.

Me: I am not simply dissatisfied. I will no longer communicate with your company and will update my review to note that you sent me synthetic text without my consent. Please do not reply to this message.

Seller: All our replies are genuine human-to-human communication with you, without using any synthetic text. It's possible our communication style gave you a different impression. We aim to better communicate with you and absolutely did not intend any offense. With every customer, we maintain a conscientious and responsible attitude in our communications.

Me: "we occasionally use LLM assistance for responses"
"without using any synthetic text"
pick one

are all promptfondlers this fucking dumb?

the students in my cs department are overwhelmingly promptfondlers and even my strong students are doing the "qualified praise" thing.

fuck me why did i go into computer science

half as good as expert human

60% of what a senior can do

is there like a character sheet somewhere so i can know where i fall on this developer spectrum

trying to explain why a philosophy background is especially useful for computer scientists now, so i googled "physiognomy ai" and now i hate myself

https://www.physiognomy.ai/

Discover Yourself with Physiognomy.ai

Explore personal insights and self-awareness through the art of face reading, powered by cutting-edge AI technology.

At Physiognomy.ai, we bring together the ancient wisdom of face reading with the power of artificial intelligence to offer personalized insights into your character, strengths, and areas for growth. Our mission is to help you explore the deeper aspects of yourself through a modern lens, combining tradition with cutting-edge technology.

Whether you're seeking personal reflection, self-awareness, or simply curious about the art of physiognomy, our AI-driven analysis provides a unique, objective perspective that helps you better understand your personality and life journey.

2. We’re likelier to be in a simulation run by whoever creates many simulations.

would love to ask these dorks "what is the event space of this probability distribution" and "have you heard of a category error"