@cdarwin@c.im2026-07-16 02:43:32
Trump’s Attorney General Nominee Just Opened the Door to a National Abortion Ban
Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche committed to reviewing Biden-era guidance on the Comstock Act.
https://www.auto…
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info2026-07-16 21:35:06
I updated my guide on how to deploy self-hosted #Discourse. The configuration of the internal nginx (inside the container) recently changed (for the better) in a way that affected my previous advice.
I seem to have been maintaining this guide for over five years now; I started in June 2021. 79 edits so far, most of which have been mine.
@thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io2026-06-17 02:07:40
So, I'm still experimenting with locally run LLMs (powered by solar cells!) for writing some inconsequential data mangling stuff for my "vintage cameras" hobby; it's quite interesting how the development cycle with these LLMs sort of drives home that LLMs are completely useless for almost anything they're advertised for, like writing (for humans).
The thing is: coding is the use case that LLMs are by far most suitable for and they still largely suck at it.
There's immense amounts of training data of correctly functioning code, there's tons of documentation, a lot of code is in repositories that include the full history of its development including why stuff was changed in small bits, code itself is the simplest of "human" languages and mathematically non-ambiguous, code can be checked in small bits for correctness by just running it, in many languages simple code snippets can be written to introspect on the code (e.g. find out what methods an object supports, so an LLM can query the language or libraries themselves in addition to the user) and perhaps most importantly: code is always and has always been very similar to other, existing code as most software serves the ever same repetitive use cases, both in detail and on a high level.
YET… using LLMs to code requires countless iterations to get there, both internally in the LLM (to get the code even running in the first place) and together with the user to make it do the right thing. And even when it's "there" the code is mediocre at best, and often veering into appalling.
And this is expected to just work on the first try on much more complex issues like writing for humans? Transcribing doctors? Having legal opinions? Identifying fraud? lol, sure
@hikingdude@mastodon.social2026-08-16 18:25:02
We've been out #hiking today. Luckily it wasn't that warm as the sky was covered in clouds - at least sometimes. But to be honest we were surprised that we met just a few people.
But the drought is undeniable. Usually the grass should be quite green.
Anyways. We had a 4h loop and saw a lot of blackberries and even Belladonna. Not a lot of motives around - or maybe it was too w…
@tschfflr@fediscience.org2026-07-17 17:07:12
Is emoji interpretation just a "fun" summer topic, or does emoji misinterpretation ever become serious, like in court discussions? - In face there have been several cases both in North America and Europe where emoji meanings were negotiated in court! I keep a collection of them because it's a nice intersection with my alter ego, the "forensic" linguist. For example, in cases from Canada and Bavaria, judges had to decide whether a thumbs-up 👍 in a chat was meant as a signal of agreement (to a contract or contract amendment), or whether (like the senders argued) it constituted only an acknowledgement of receipt of the message. In both cases, the context was super important - how did the parties interact before, what else was said in the chat, etc. Interesting! #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
@beoz@det.social2026-07-17 12:29:05
@…
Telstra appears to have been caused by a GPS week counter rollover. The next “real” GPS week counter rollover is, by coincidence, in 2038.
@…
@cdarwin@c.im2026-07-17 16:36:44
The idea of a suspension of the constitution had been introduced,
by the Constitution of 22 Frimaire Year 8.
Article 14 of the Charte of 1814 granted the sovereign the power to
"make the regulations and ordinances necessary for the execution of the laws and the security of the State"
Because of the vagueness of the formula, Chateaubriand observed
"that it is possible that one fine morning the whole Charte will be forfeited for the benefit of Art…
@LaChasseuse@mastodon.scot2026-08-16 08:50:26
It's exasperating.
@cdarwin@c.im2026-07-15 23:59:28
The Space Development Agency(SDA) is a United States Space Force
direct-reporting unit
tasked with deploying disruptive space technology.
One of the technologies being worked on is space-based missile tracking using large global satellite constellations made up of
industry-procured low-cost satellites.
The SDA has been managed by the United States Space Force since October 2022.
By February 2024 the SDA had 38 satellites on orbit.
SDA intends to have…
@cdarwin@c.im2026-08-17 00:39:32
As the midterm elections near, a slew of extremist candidates
— selected by GOP primary voters at Donald Trump’s urging over the past few months to represent their party in the general election
— are aiming to woo the public in marquis races around the country.
Should they get elected, they will push the U.S. political system even further to the right,
mainstreaming views that until recently would have been considered far outside of the boundaries of the acceptable.
