Nostr notes by Charlie Stross

Didn't The Stranglers have a song about that ...? ...

2024-06-18T21:15:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…8kku
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Didn't The Stranglers have a song about that ...? ("Nuclear Device")

Picturing a Dalek at home, wearing fleece-lined slippers, sacked ...

2024-06-18T12:09:34Z

Picturing a Dalek at home, wearing fleece-lined slippers, sacked out in front of daytime television, periodically grating "PRO-CRASTINATE, PROCRASTINATE—"

Signs of the coming Tory apocalypse: If you graph voting ...

2024-06-18T11:03:39Z

Signs of the coming Tory apocalypse:

If you graph voting intentions against age, Labour support is high among the young but declines along the old, while Tory voting intent rises with age. The lines cross …

In 2016, the crossover age was roughly 48.

As of the beginning of this year, it had risen to 68— that is, on average only over-68s vote Tory.

This week the crossover had risen to 72.

And life expectancy in the UK is roughly 80 …

A corollary of this is that the increase in xenophobia, ...

2024-06-18T10:12:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…fcpm
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A corollary of this is that the increase in xenophobia, anti-immigration sentiment, and so on by the far right is being orchestrated, and is intended to pin down and kill (by means of climate change disaster) a substantial proportion of humanity. They see no need for 90% of the global population so they want to get rid of them deniably. (Gaza-style genocide is too crudely obvious: dying of heat stroke isn't.)

Alas, the "replace all humans" bullcrap isn't simply ...

2024-06-18T09:17:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…dv3f
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Alas, the "replace all humans" bullcrap isn't simply an epiphenomenon of the AI tech bubble, it's an ideological stance emergent from capitalism—if you prioritise capital over labour, you end up wanting to abolish labour entirely, and automate all the components of your current very slow AIs (the corporations).

This won't "blow over" unless we shoot all the neoliberal economists and their masters.

Note that a simple (and obviously simplistic) extrapolation of ...

2024-06-16T09:46:38Z

Note that a simple (and obviously simplistic) extrapolation of deaths per capita from the US confirmed death toll to the global population would give 28 million dead, so far.

More than 36 million people have died of HIV/AIDS since the start of the epidemic in the 1970s: COVID19 appears to be killing us more than ten times as fast.
https://forall.social/@themaskerscomic/112621695875463970

Here's the author discussing the point of her book, and ...

2024-06-16T09:09:20Z

Here's the author discussing the point of her book, and explaining why recent British governments are recapitulating the internal decline and collapse of the USSR (TLDR seems to be that neoliberalism shares the same epistemological errors as Soviet communism and is now ideologically unmoored from reality and running on fumes): https://youtu.be/O_H_1Akaip0?si=aAnTFJ0mJkDvPZUc
https://hcommons.social/@pepe/112625201882698418

If you want a reference for the scale of the AI grift, consider ...

2024-06-15T13:06:11Z

If you want a reference for the scale of the AI grift, consider how the neoconservatives circa 2001-2003 sold the Iraq invasion to Americans.

It's *exactly* the same mess of lies, wishful thinking, and greed. In Iraq, they wanted to Steal The Oil, which was just nonsensical—but also to drive weapons sales, hand out reconstruction contracts, and scare the crap out of possible geopolitical rivals. The AI bros have a similar mix of motivations, all boiling down to money.
https://goblin.band/notes/9ueb7onsb2i4873k

I seem to recall the Linux community being absolutely terrible ...

2024-06-14T21:57:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…22r3
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I seem to recall the Linux community being absolutely terrible about supporting new users at least as far back as the late 90s—maybe earlier, viewing it as a hair shirt discipline or a rite of passage or something. (I think a chunk of it isn't Linux so much as GNU; the FSF has always had a nasty we-know-best elitist streak.)

Reminder that if you see Nigel Farage being pushed via social ...

2024-06-14T17:32:12Z

Reminder that if you see Nigel Farage being pushed via social media in the UK it's probably being funded by Putin's "Internet Research Agency", i.e. a Russian propaganda campaign aimed at weakening European cohesion (and damaging NATO in general and the UK in particular).

Farage is a neo-nazi Quisling.

Rishi Sunak went without ‘lots of things’ including Sky TV as ...

2024-06-12T11:45:22Z

Rishi Sunak went without ‘lots of things’ including Sky TV as a child | Rishi Sunak

… Sky TV started in 1990, when Sunak was already a tweenager. See, even his lies are stupid!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/12/rishi-sunak-went-without-lots-of-things-including-sky-tv-as-a-child

I'd like to add that there's a wikipedia page about me ...

2024-06-11T11:52:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…aq6q
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I'd like to add that there's a wikipedia page about me and I'm tempted to go full deletionist on it BECAUSE IT IS SO BADLY WRITTEN (and maintained). Terrible prose style, jumbled and incoherent ordering, random bits of info about future projects that will now never happen but got in somehow (publisher databases of forthcoming titles are poor sources).

Welp, that misfeature didn't last long before they began ...

2024-06-07T17:00:17Z

Welp, that misfeature didn't last long before they began walking it back!
https://mastodon.social/@br00t4c/112576388963417270

Nostr event nevent1qqst0w3wd6zht6q5erl5hkqavttc8ezd5a25ppslsd6k5ghpth7xsrgzypkdksvurjraetmjrvx3h3avh7rv5auy8tgxyqeusfp9fky30608kdn38v0

2024-06-06T21:52:57Z

OMNOMNOM!!!

We are going to end up with half a million low-orbit comsats ...

2024-06-05T21:24:56Z

We are going to end up with half a million low-orbit comsats turning the night sky into a streaky blur because everyone uses Starlink or similar for broadband because the telcos have allowed their terrestrial cable infrastructure to decay, in the interests of maximizing profit. And of course the satellite broadband will be slow and buggy because overloaded.
https://mastodon.social/@verge/112565885370238705

My blog serves static pages as well, unless you (or someone else) ...

2024-06-05T15:59:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…jfux
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My blog serves static pages as well, unless you (or someone else) post a comment, at which point it needs to regenerate that specific page.

Blog is not paralysed; it's just on the other side of the ...

2024-06-05T15:51:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…77jl
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Blog is not paralysed; it's just on the other side of the Atlantic from you, and I don't use a CDN.

New blog entry: Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide? ...

2024-06-05T09:26:06Z

New blog entry: Is Microsoft trying to commit suicide? https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2024/06/is-microsoft-trying-to-commit-.html

Business meetings exist to share information and coordinate ...

2024-06-04T09:11:00Z

Business meetings exist to share information and coordinate activity: this shit enables you to be apparently present in all but actually not engaged with any. If your calendar is triple-booked then your organization is under-resourced and needs more people, not more AI. Or it's holding unnecessary meetings to make management feel better about being surrounded by minions, in which case it needs to fire the executives responsible.
https://mastodon.social/@kjhealy/112553850995965423

Quick crib note: 1 kilosecond = about 17 minutes 100 ksec = a ...

2024-06-03T15:10:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…var2
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Quick crib note:

1 kilosecond = about 17 minutes
100 ksec = a long-ish day (just under 28 hours)
1 megasecond = about 10 days (a metric week?)
30 megaseconds = about a year
100 megaseconds = roughly the time to travel 1 parsec at lightspeed
1 gigasecond = 32 years

… I should have put that in the front of the book!

I'm pretty sure I only went there in Glasshouse.

2024-06-03T15:01:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…essm
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I'm pretty sure I only went there in Glasshouse.

Currently glad I use Macs/iOS instead of Windows; but side-eyeing ...

2024-06-01T07:27:19Z

Currently glad I use Macs/iOS instead of Windows; but side-eyeing a return to Linux—or maybe BSD—just in case Apple think copying Microsoft is a Good Idea. (Hopefully they're not that stupid.)
https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/112537206611365804

I am drinking VERY LITTLE these days so excuse me while I go back ...

2024-05-30T21:26:14Z

I am drinking VERY LITTLE these days so excuse me while I go back to the freezer for my second double Polish vodka in half an hour (Zubrowka, why do you ask?)

Wrt. Trump, all I can say is: FOUR MORE YEARS! (In Prison!)

2024-05-30T21:15:58Z

Wrt. Trump, all I can say is:

FOUR MORE YEARS! (In Prison!)

I don't use Meta products.

2024-05-29T20:21:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…hvk8
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I don't use Meta products.

Modern social media is like, "hey, now we got rid of the lead ...

2024-05-29T20:00:07Z

Modern social media is like, "hey, now we got rid of the lead in petrol, how are we going to fuck up everybody's head and make them angry and irritable and stupid ALL THE TIME?"

Here's that final zinger, in case you get blocked by The ...

2024-05-29T09:25:13Z

Here's that final zinger, in case you get blocked by The Atlantic's paywall (see alt text for content): https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/112520503403754782

If you live in the UK or USA, you need to understand one thing ...

2024-05-28T20:53:26Z

If you live in the UK or USA, you need to understand one thing about the coming election:

You need to vote *defensively*.

Neither of the main parties are appealing. But if you don't vote for the lesser evil you may end up helping a totalitarian horror get elected.

Hold your nose and goddamn vote, dammit. THEN go on protests. Because if you don't vote for the lesser evil, the victor will welcome your protests with bullets.

The prize for political purity this time round is a shallow grave.

Not enough people realize that the "Turing Test" as ...

2024-05-26T12:27:27Z

Not enough people realize that the "Turing Test" as originally presented was "can a gay English man in 1945 tell the difference between a chatbot and a femme-coded woman" over a teletype connection.

(Turing was very gay and had a sex-segregated education and then work life: he basically didn't know women and his alienation is palpable. But today's techbros don't have any such excuse, and the emphasis on femme-coded AI is ... telling.)
https://mastodon.xyz/@pmorinerie/112506480363973206

Study Finds That 52 Percent of ChatGPT Answers to Programming ...

2024-05-24T20:09:45Z

Study Finds That 52 Percent of ChatGPT Answers to Programming Questions Are Wrong

https://futurism.com/the-byte/study-chatgpt-answers-wrong

So doge, very meme, I old; go bye now ...

2024-05-24T12:14:41Z

So doge, very meme, I old; go bye now

If you're attending the Cymera SF festival in Edinburgh next ...

2024-05-24T10:13:16Z

If you're attending the Cymera SF festival in Edinburgh next weekend (May 31st to 2nd June), among other things there's a charity auction to raise funds for the Scottish Book Trust's New Writers Award, along other things.

I've just donated a signed first edition hardback run of the entire Merchant Princes/Empire Games series, published from 2003-2022 and occupying roughly 30cm of shelf space! Hopefully someone will bid on it and help fund the writers award ...

https://www.cymerafestival.co.uk/cymera2024-events/2024/4/5/auction?rq=auction

Can anyone recommend a decent iTerm2 replacement for macOS now ...

2024-05-21T17:21:23Z

Can anyone recommend a decent iTerm2 replacement for macOS now that iTerm2 has jumped the shark and is pushing ChatGPT integration down my throat? (Preferably one that is (a) free and (b) doesn't require hand-editing JSON files to change the font size and typeface.)

"Visionaries at NASA identified a futuristic new energy ...

2024-05-20T12:18:00Z

"Visionaries at NASA identified a futuristic new energy source (space billionaire egos) and found a way to tap it on a fixed-cost basis"— ouch!

The Lunacy of Artemis (Idle Words), or why the Artemis moon program is incoherent, badly designed bollocks that will probably kill astronauts.
https://idlewords.com/2024/5/the_lunacy_of_artemis.htm

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that the extremist ...

2024-05-18T17:40:09Z

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that the extremist settler movement in Israel is rooted in the USA and culturally has a lot in common with US white supremacist/settler ideology—there's a reason Netanyahu is so comfortable with Republicans who dine at the Christian Nationalist table.
https://mastodon.social/@cmonagle/112462865808610948

WHAT— (The European potato crisp singularity intensifies) ...

2024-05-18T15:39:28Z

WHAT—

(The European potato crisp singularity intensifies)

(UPDATE): Aaagh! They taste of egg yolk! This is totally bizarre!

UK government planning nuclear site in Scotland ...

2024-05-16T09:42:05Z

UK government planning nuclear site in Scotland

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9eze1dzy5no

This is pointless: Scotland is already self-sufficient on renewables. What we need is a new grid interconnect between Scotland and England so we can export our surplus energy to the south!

It's all about the lobbyists, of course:

"Its ambitions for up to a quarter of all electricity to come from nuclear power by 2050 are being led by government-backed body Great British Nuclear." (Who?)

You wanna name the passengers who got sucked out of doors at ...

2024-05-13T18:28:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…eknn
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You wanna name the passengers who got sucked out of doors at 40,000 feet?

I'll wait. (Not holding my breath, though.)

(I find *uninformed* Boeing-bashing really annoying, and flat-out counterfactual bullshit infuriating.)

Deeply telling about how far the Overton Window has shifted in 40 ...

2024-05-11T18:09:09Z

Deeply telling about how far the Overton Window has shifted in 40 years that *Ronald Reagan* took a harder line with Israel than Joe Biden, never mind Mitt Romney.

(But then, per wikipedia Romney was best buds with Benjamin Netanyahu at university. So this tracks.)

Prediction: this is going to go down like a head shot in a ...

2024-05-09T09:34:20Z

Prediction: this is going to go down like a head shot in a neonatal ward.

Reminder that the baby boom started in 1945 and a leading-edge ...

2024-05-05T15:13:47Z

Reminder that the baby boom started in 1945 and a leading-edge boomer today would be 79 years old.

This is the Generation X professoriat, not boomers.
https://mastodon.social/@jeffjarvis/112388634422382597

I prefer, "murdering civilians is ALWAYS wrong: no ...

2024-05-03T17:19:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…fxku
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I prefer, "murdering civilians is ALWAYS wrong: no excuses." (Which covers both Hamas and Netanyahu neatly. And Putin, come to think of it.)

North Carolina child’s ‘monster in the closet’ was in fact ...

2024-05-01T15:32:14Z

North Carolina child’s ‘monster in the closet’ was in fact 50,000 bees in the wall

Family discovers ‘terrifying’ gigantic bee colony in wall of home with blood-like honey oozing down wall and $20,000 in damage

(Beekeepers ultimately removed tens of thousands of bees over several extractions, and a honeycomb weighing more than 100lb.)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/30/north-carolina-bees-house-wall