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. Also just came back from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, movie was awesome)

  • TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    22 days ago

    It’s depressing how so many (pathetic) software devs are taking their hands off the steering wheel and letting LLMs do all the driving. If you think software quality was poor before LLMs, there’s no way it could have been worse than shit like this:

    This became very apparent with GPT 5.6 Sol. It, too, was widely hailed to have near-Fable level intelligence. But I used it non-stop for a week and realized that they had mostly just dialed up the relentlessness meter to eleven, most likely via heavy RLHF.

    Last week I gave it a small-sized auth ticket to work on, then stepped away. I came back later that afternoon and found that it had worked for 3+ hours and written 25,000+ lines of code. I skimmed over the code and it looked like a small fix followed by a massive number of additional checks around it, including static analysis tooling.

    I gave it to another GPT 5.6 and said “check this code and see if it addresses the ticket”. It looked at it and said that 98% of it was garbage and should be thrown away (its own words). I then gave it to Fable, which said it was massively over-engineered. Fable’s theory was that the agent implemented the fix first, but then compacted and lost crucial context, forgot what the original task was about, and kept going. After many compaction cycles it was completely lost.

    • schnoopy@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      On one hand, this is awful. On the other hand, if I worked at a garbage tech company and my boss would not only pay me to sabotage the code base and spend their money but also reward me for doing so… I mean that’s an attractive proposition.

      No for real it’s baffling. What happens when your profession doesn’t have a licensing board.

      • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOPEnglish
        0·
        21 days ago

        On one hand, this is awful. On the other hand, if I worked at a garbage tech company and my boss would not only pay me to sabotage the code base and spend their money but also reward me for doing so… I mean that’s an attractive proposition.

        Before, sabotaging your competition was difficult and legally risky. AI fixes this - now, your competition shall sabotage themselves, leaving you free to focus on other things.

    • antifuchs@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      24 days ago

      Oooh, I hope we get to see a lot of experimental-sounding puberty blocker and hormone replacement trials.

    • istewart@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      25 days ago

      VC fundraising pitch: local Dutch Bros knockoff that offers drive-thru coffee enemas

      The mechanics of this are left as an exercise to the reader

      • Soyweiser@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        My new high tech idea. Im offering artisinal reverse coffee enemas, 150 dollars per cup. The specific type of coffee is selected by my advanced Artificial intelligence system:

        (Just generate a random name for a plain cup of coffee for them to drink).

      • samvines@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        Hi sir, so that’s 1xArtisinal Coffee Enema with our dark roast single source blend. Says here you turned down the splash proofing upgrade because “the cybertruck is self cleaning, it’s even a boat”. In that case, that’ll be $500. You’re gonna want to drive straight past this next window to the far window. If you could arrive with your pants down and in a crawl position facing away from the window that’d be great.

  • nfultz@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    I just got back from the p2p workshop and discussed legacy sites / sites legacies; met an artist that went viral circa 2006 and she had a screenshot of the digg that launched it. She seems like she is doing ok but kinda got screwed over, basically the old youtube video was actually a bootleg and they didn’t monetize it until several years later, and then there was a male copycat a month later.

    Anyway, so I looked up digg again and it has re-re-launched as an X aggregator and is extra sad now !? …

  • BlueMonday1984@awful.systemsOPEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    The Carlson Lab has agreed on blanket-banning chatbots for writing. Why? Simple:

    Using generative AI inherently exposes you to the risk of career-ending accusations of plagiarism.

    In a reasonable world, this would have probably sent everyone running for the hills. Moral issues of AI aside, a fancy way of committing career suicide is never worth whatever upsides it offers. We do not leave in a reasonable world.

  • jaschop@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    21 days ago

    I regret to inform you, that this garbage was run by The Register a while ago.

    It shouts out several friends of the sub, including @self@awful.systems, PivotToAI, OpenSlopware, Robert Kingett & Ludicity.

    The point of the piece is that all anti-AI folks should just get along, and if we are to stand a chance against corporate AI we need to get over our petty grievances and reach out a hand to the racists, homophobes and crypto-bros and work together in the spirit of Open Source!

    • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      21 days ago

      Urbit’s original creator, Curtis Yarvin, has reportedly espoused some extreme beliefs

      bro why do you write like this

        • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
          0·
          20 days ago

          side observation: I’m constantly finding myself being both 2051 and 1053 about this sorta thing

          it feels like table stakes that anyone writing about this shit these days knows, and yet…

          • Amoeba_Girl@awful.systemsEnglish
            0·
            20 days ago

            I mean I’m more than happy to extend grace to randos, but if you’re doing journalism, come on. He’s not just a guy with opinions! He’s a leading far right intellectual!

            His Wikipedia intro tells you more than enough with no “allegedly” in sight.

            • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
              0·
              20 days ago

              yeah, that’s about where I land usually too

              I guess the thing is that I know how much “shithead with a column” has become possible so I don’t really, off the cuff, know how journo most journos are

              (I shall leave aside for the moment the entire tirade this makes me want to go on)

    • corbin@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      21 days ago

      Liam’s here, for what it’s worth.

      Torvalds’ position is pragmatic: his interest is in whether it works or not.

      But, of course, the chatbots do not work. In a pragmatic sense, they do not produce maintainable integrated code changes with low defect rates. In a societal sense, they do not replace human laborers, despite the delusions of management.

      One of the most original and innovative OS development projects of the 21st century so far was Urbit, but it is closely entwined with cryptocurrencies. Urbit’s original creator, Curtis Yarvin, has reportedly espoused some extreme beliefs; The Nation called him The Reactionary Prophet of Silicon Valley.

      Wild way to admit no knowledge of Arcan, Fuchsia, etc. Honestly, even a basic overlay network like Yggdrasil can win an apples-to-apples comparison with Urbit. I feel like this is an instance of critihype for fascist weirdos; similar stuff gets said about Justine Tunney, another cryptofascist developer whose projects are sometimes silly and weird. Doubly weird for those of us who know about Urbit’s internals; Urbit originally was not a cryptocurrency project and it used to have non-Yarvin/Tlon forks.

      It’s an overly simplistic way to reduce a complex and nuanced situation, but one way to consider this is in terms of pro-AI and anti-AI, versus “woke” and “anti-woke.”

      More seriously, add a third dimension, a Butlerian dimension, to the political compass: to what degree may your automated devices appear to be human? One extreme is Asimov-style transhumanism and the other extreme is Luddite loom-smashing. However, recognition of this dimension doesn’t negate the other dimensions and we shouldn’t work in cooperation with fascists.

      • jaschop@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        21 days ago

        Liam’s here, for what it’s worth.

        I almost wrote down, it sounded like it was written by a lurker on techtakes. The overlap of takes was just so damn high.

      • fnix@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        21 days ago

        More seriously, add a third dimension, a Butlerian dimension, to the political compass: to what degree may your automated devices appear to be human? One extreme is Asimov-style transhumanism and the other extreme is Luddite loom-smashing.

        The luddites smashed looms not because they were inherently anti-technology, but as a means of industrial action in a time when labour held no formal power at all. As you say yourself, the issue with AI is that it doesn’t even work as advertised; industrial looms worked fine. «AI»'s biggest problems are the enormous waste, ecological damage, enshittification and labour discipline that it incurs. If Silicon Valley was actually building Data, the debate would be different, but this dimension seems mostly theoretical for now.

      • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        21 days ago

        you made me look

        But I feel that as time moves on, the level of future shock will subside

        fuck of a thing to “just” shrug all the criticism off simply as future shock

    • self@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      19 days ago

      I wrote a reply to this article where I thanked Liam for the shoutout and sincerely hoped that next time he writes on this subject, he has reason to come to a different conclusion

  • blakestacey@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    25 days ago

    Years ago, I wrote a science-fiction murder mystery novel. One of the plot threads was about the invention of AI, in the Data-from-Star-Trek kind of sense. I’ve been spending the past few days planning how to rip out that whole notion and replace it with a subplot about a different scientific discovery. I’ve been writing scenes to get back the old character voices and figure out how they might have changed, and to sketch new fictional science based on the actual science I’ve learned since my first go-around. This is after several weeks of binge-writing fanfiction, which I wholly endorse as a recreational activity. I don’t know if I’m a better writer, but I’m definitely one who has written more words.

    So, that might be keeping me busy. Of course, I’ll still be around to ban people who deserve it and to cruelly mock them in the process.

      • blakestacey@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        25 days ago

        Thanks! All I’m really hoping for is that it’ll be fun.

        Edit to add: I just ran the stats on my redux.txt file, and my word count since Thursday is over 9000.

        :-P

    • scruiser@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      21 days ago

      One of the plot threads was about the invention of AI, in the Data-from-Star-Trek kind of sense.

      Going on a tangent from this… Its funny how much AI-related sci-fi is feeling increasing quaint (and often foolishly optimistic).

      You know what depiction of AI has held up, and maybe makes even more sense in light of modern AI? Star Wars’ take on Droid. Prior to LLMs it seems obvious that droids were sentient and deserving of rights. Post LLMs… it seems pretty plausible you could get something like C3PO that blabbers on but lacks any meaningful sentience or sapience. Also, it seemed obviously idiotic the way the Trade Federation had humanoid droids acting as pilots and gunners instead of building proper autopilots and targeting system. But after seeing LLMs get shoved everywhere, I totally could imagine a megacorp shoving droids built from standardized pretrained modules into all kinds of applications they aren’t fit for.

  • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    My unrealistic sicko fantasy: that Torvalds pulling the big ol slop lever drives enough oppositionally defiant (positive) people away from Linux development that alternative OS devel gets a serious boost.

    A question for the wise: what comes after Linux?

    • EFreethought@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      22 days ago

      The irritating part of all of this is that after 20+ years we finally have a (very) few companies that sell machines with Linux pre-installed. The only thing I ever learned from installing OSes is that I hate installing OSes.

      I would love to boycott all software that accepts garbage [1] contributions, but I do not think that is practical. I think I might have to settle with just refusing to use it myself, and wait until everyone realizes that gen AI is just a bad idea.

      Note 1: Satya Nadella said he did not want people referring to AI as “slop”, so I will grant his request and refer to it as “garbage”.

      • mirrorwitch@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        21 days ago

        I am in fact moving back to NetBSD, but the ambiguity of their LLM policy makes me wary/tired.

        My only hope is that NetBSD moves so slowly anyway that the devs’ traditional preference towards clean, minimalistic readable code above all else holds off any “slop commits verified by maintainers” long enough that the bubble pops before slop gets any of its clawdes in core code at least.

        • Anisette [any/all]@awful.systemsEnglish
          0·
          22 days ago

          plan9 on riscv(or sparc or subleq or whatever) is also truly what I want for the future. It obviously won’t be what happens(most likely linux will stay, maybe one of the less slopped bsds will take over) but please gods please

  • o7___o7@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    21 days ago

    Loved one just had an awful experience at a previously decent dentist. They’ve apparently started using something called Pearl AI that scanned the x-ray and highlighted things in bright red with a #/100 rating system, which they used to do high-pressure sales on her. Mind you, she’s only ever had one cavity and that was in a wisdom tooth. Checked the website, and it’s freshly slopped-up, too.

    We’re getting a second opinion. I wish this garbage would just go away

  • CinnasVerses@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    23 days ago

    RiP Old! SneerClub which is now behind a login wall on Reddit. Fortunately we backed up its earliest posts. I don’t plan to check the site regularly.

  • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    16 days ago

    idle pondering: anyone seen much more happening to shillrinavan’s network school after they fucked it in malaysia and decided they’ll move to kazakhstan?

    (also, if you hadn’t seen, yes: that’s a thing)

    • gerikson@awful.systemsEnglish
      0·
      16 days ago

      the move to Kazakhstan is news to me

      at least there shouldn’t be any problems with Israeli students attending as Kazakhstan and Israel have normal diplomatic relationships … but downtown Almaty in midwinter isn’t that balmy

      • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
        0·
        16 days ago

        saw it here, and adrianna’s got an idea on possible likely chain

        I saw some speculation (from some people in the region) that shillrinavan wasn’t satisfactorily greasing palms, but I don’t know whether hard info is out yet

  • nfultz@awful.systemsEnglish
    0·
    22 days ago

    We Need To Talk About Leopold | Patrick Boyle yt

    My suspicion is that ‘Situational Awareness’ is the most referenced and least finished document in Silicon Valley since the Terms and Conditions.

    The essay went viral among tech executives when it was released and Tim Ferrris crowned Leopold the Nostradamus of AI, which is more fitting than Ferris probably intended

    New week new guy