palordrolap

Hm. I’ve definitely seen this one or something like it during an exceptionally rare sleep paralysis episode, but the question remains whether it was outside, or technically on the inside, projecting out, but looking back in again. It was stood at the side of the bed, which was considerate, given that they often like to sit on people.

One of the few times I did not intentionally start into the abyss, but it decided to look back anyway. And I made a very funny “wuU-Uur!” noise as I roused myself out of it and watched the thing melt away. I now assume that’s the noise comic characters make when the speech bubble reads “oo-er”.

If I see it again, and I remember, I might ask it if it wants tea.

Conan O’Brien went on to write for The Simpsons and later had his own talk show or something.

Condescending tone was not intended, but on rereading I can see how I’ve come across that way. Sorry about that.

I’m not going to disagree with this on the grounds that you could replace Python with any language and still be right for a handful of programmers using it.

Relatedly, there are plenty of people who write code in Python who know exactly what they’re doing (thus defeating the quote), to the point that an amateur reading that code has literally no idea what’s going on. Abstractions upon abstractions. Horrors upon horrors. Likewise this can be done in any language. Try taking apart one of the standard Perl modules (that’s written in Perl anyway), for example.

What does concern me is that the only source I can find for this quote is your comment. I can find Conal Elliot and even a suggestion that they have written code in Python (making the quote a self-burn, perhaps), but not the quote itself.

I would have expected that vehicles belonging to members of the royal family would have had trackers on them, and in hard-to-access, hard-to-disable places too. Anything else would be pure hubris.

Also, if I was the site security, I’d be expecting a dismissal. A stolen vehicle could almost as easily have been a, er, “lethally modified” vehicle, for example.

And the new staff get to do a full sweep of everything to make sure that this theft wasn’t a distraction from exactly that.

May I suggest a plush monkey and not an actual live one? Real monkeys may react violently to an unexpected hug.

… which is kind of my way of saying that this comic would probably not go as shown, and the true ending might have been the cause of that particular family line seeing violence as an occasional necessity…

So who should be held accountable when (mis)use of AI results in a needless death? Or worse?

Let’s say a company creates an AI taxi that runs you over leaving you without legs. Who are you going to sue?

“Oh it’s grey, so I’ll have a dollar from each shareholder.” That doesn’t sound right to me.

My initial thought was that the computer pictured on the cover was a VIC-20 not a C64, then I remembered that they used old-stock VIC-20 keyboards and cases to get the first C64s out of the door quickly, so it’s probably an early model. Not enough pixels to make out what’s on the ID plate to the top left of the keyboard.

As for AI, I got a load of old Commodore magazines in the mid 90s, and one letter sent in to one of them has always stuck with me. The writer asked if AI was needed in order to make an enemy character follow a player character around the screen, and the response was along the lines of “no, you can do that with simple mathematics”, and provided a very simple algorithm.

The concept clearly generalises to “do not attribute to intelligence what can be achieved with simple mathematics” as well as being akin to “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” and then “if you can convince a mark that your simple mathematics is intelligent, they’ll throw money at you”.

“It is not enough that Allah knows everything you do. We must also know.”

“That sounds like blasphemy to me.”

“Uh…”

Ah yes. An excellent plan that will not have repercussions a decade or two down the line.

Error. Does not compute. Instant coffee implies Microsoft Windows user. fzzt fzzt Bang

And here was I thinking that this character was so terrible that it caused Stan Lee to spontaneously spring back into existence in order to make that opinion known.

They’re probably referring to the fact it was founded by Jack Dorsey, who has since abandoned it because the other people in charge refused to let it be as bat-guano as he wanted.

Ironically, he left Twitter for the same reason. Bluesky was supposed to be his own version, in his image, and yet rational minds prevailed there at pretty much the same time Musk started pushing Twitter in the direction Dorsey had wanted all along.

You know that Jesus fella that conservatives seem to love so much? Archetypal liberal. 2000 years ago. Boomers are old but they’re not that old.

If he’d weep at all, it wouldn’t be because a woman says she wouldn’t be interested in him because of his politics – it’d be because of what’s become of his politics.

Frick, you’re right. Bit late now, but I’ll edit my previous comment.

Not directly. The underlying protocols are incompatible. You have to follow a bridging service which then causes your posts to be reposted on the other side by a bot pretending to be you.

Sounds a bit convoluted, if somewhat sinister - pretending to be you?? - but that’s basically how it works. And it won’t pretend to be anyone who doesn’t sign up, and will stop as soon as you unfollow, so the sinisterness, if any, is minimised.

Dorsey left Bluesky precisely because the other people there felt they had to implement the old-Twitter-like checks and balances that caused him to leave Twitter in the first place. As such, it’s completely out of his influence.

Yes, it’s still one monolith waiting to be gobbled up by someone with a lot of cash, or to spiral down into what would seem to be almost inevitable enshittification, but it hasn’t done either of those yet, and both the good and bad there mean it’s the closest there is to old Twitter at the moment.

Please note that I’m not saying that everyone should go jump on there and use it, or even that we have to like it. Just pointing out that Dorsey has nothing to do with it any more.

Speaking of Dorsey, he went back to endorsing Twitter for a while, but now he’s started Edit: endorsing yet another platform called Nostr. Probably the better candidate for being avoided right now.

I have no such “but actually” about Threads. Definitely worth avoiding, even if it is supposed to be able to Federate.

I can see this being stirred up by Russian influence. And even if it isn’t, it’s a dangerous time for this to happen. Georgia could well be on Putin’s to-do list whether he succeeds in Ukraine or not.

Except we’re the things living, with required rent, inside skulls.