Comedy sci-fi made better predictions about the early stages of AI than "hard" sci-fi did: 1. How annoying the products would be. Like, nobody actually wants a Talkie Toaster.

I believe, but can't prove, that there is an increase in autism in recent decades that is not entirely due to visibility and diagnostic criteria. It's the Internet. The rise of the Internet has made more ways that people on the spectrum can meet and produce children.

Happy Charles Darwin Mood Day to all who celebrate.

I feel like science fiction let us down. No author ever caught that before we get general intelligence, we might get "Dunning-Kruger systems" that show confidence but incompetence. But convincing in the same way that a populist politician or a con man is convincing. (Or a Silicon Valley CEO?)

Dare I read this? Do I really want to know what the robots think of me?

Sorry, I had to.

Word on the street is that pencils on strings are back. No more individual little golf pencils at the 2025 Federal Election. Rejoice, Australians. Nature is healing.

A useful rule of thumb: Whenever anyone asks "Why are people upset at person X for doing Y?", the answer is almost always, "It's not Y that they are upset at." If you find yourself ever needing to ask this question, try that on as an answer.

UI/UX tip to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology: put these two notices in the opposite order.

There's a lot of great evil in the world at the moment, but don't neglect the small things. How much e-waste will be created just because one company can't write efficient software, and must include AI slop in every product they make? www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...

Happy 340th birthday, J.S. Bach.

Look, if I wanted a lecture on the Rights of Man, I would have gone to bed with Martin Luther.

@imartayan.bsky.social pronounced my name incorrectly. Is it wrong of me to hope that generations of students and bioinformaticians to come will continue to do so? www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Yg...

Some of his readers have asked Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social why his technology news site, Tech Dirt, has been covering politics so intensely lately. www.techdirt.com/2025/03/04/w... I cannot recommend Mike's reply enough. It's exactly what readers need to hear, what journalists need to do.

DOGE had better not try to cut funding from the Department of Youth. The executive branch no legal standing to challenge the power that was vested in Secretary Cooper by Donny Osmond.

There has been a huge spate of bans today. They seem to be all NSFW-ish in nature, but at least a few are support groups like this one. (None of the ones I moderate, I hasten to add.) The reason given in every case is "being unmoderated", which appears to be untrue.

This is the ABC (Australia), but the fact is, it could be any news outlet. A plane crashed, with at least 96 people dead. But, for some reason, a run-out in cricket is "disastrous".

I always feel out of place in Catholic churches. I never know whether to sit, stand, or kneel.

"a computer can never be held accountable, so a computer must never make a management decision" was correct and we should go back to that

Heilige Krampusnacht!

Note that remixes are fine ubderWhamageddon rules. youtu.be/3j-DqmOQt1M?...

Inspired by this, ten less extreme musical artists to listen to. We all need more chill. 10. Mediating Heidi 9. Jane's Recovery 8. BB Gun Kelly 7. The Chopping Pumpkins 6. Billy Icon 5. Injured Kennedys 4. Concern! at the Disco 3. Fine Young Vegetarians 2. Britney Pokes 1. Red Mild Bell Peppers

Just a suggestion, but maybe the problem is that spies only get in the news when they do something stupid (like insist that Iraq had WMDs) or obscene (like bugging the cabinet room of a friendly country to help in our negotiations over an oil exploration treaty). www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...

"Away down the river we have the Devil's Elbow and the Devil's Race-course, and lots of other property of his which I cannot now call to mind." - Mark Twain, "Life on the Mississippi"

Every time I see "Black Friday" in a commercial context, part of me wonders why the hell you would call it that. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_F...

As we are now officially in the Christmas season, a reminder.

RIP Alice Brock. www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-25...

I am doing my part.

I know @mmasnick.bsky.social has written about this sort of thing in the past. It's obscene that a law enforcement agency would endanger a child this way; it violates all of the Peelian Principles. But great to see that the judge is not buying it. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Happy Xmas.

Happy Eureka Stockade Day! Burn down a pub in remembrance.

Did anyone wake up Billie Joe Armstrong?

A "Famelect" is a Fanciful (made up) Word or Phrase Used Amongst Family Members or Close Friends. Share Your Favorite Famelects So We Can All Expand Our Fauxcabulary! I may even chose a few favorites to use as posts. _______________ Get my new book: bit.ly/GWOTDbook

ABC (Australia) News headline today. I don't know what the street value is these days, but this sounds like a lot.

Normal people: Don't open strange files from untrusted sources. Programmers: Give me that strange file from an untrusted source! I'll take a look at it for you! My project manager: Your job this week is to integrate strange files from untrusted sources.

It's a little early in the US, but on 17 September 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton became Emperor of the United States. #HappyProclamationDay to all who celebrate! #EmperorNorton

Hot take: "Memory safe" programming languages miss the point. The value of GC is not that it frees programmers from worrying about memory. It doesn't actually do that. The value is that it enables interesting and expressive semantics, decoupling memory lifetimes from static program structure.

Hey, academia.edu. Uhm... yeah, that was me, but this wasn't really what the paper was about.