Heironymous Bonk

Vibe coding is gacha mechanics for code

What did I get for Xmas? Physical books. What did I give? LPs, records you can hold in your hand, from a local store.

This isn't what I expected from the future when I was a starry-eyed child learning BASIC on my hand-me-down C64 or when I was voraciously reading SF. I'm tired of all the traps.

I didn't bother reading it (thank you for doing the unpleasant work, Kate!) but what bothers me most about this, I think, is the smug implication by the 'writer' that her time is so much more important than the reader's. "I use AI because I have better things to do than write for you!"

My Open Letter To That Open Letter About AI In Writing And Publishing The tl;dr before you get into this post is this: the SFWA came out, said that some AI usage was okay enough in books for the authors of those books to not to be disqualified from winning a Nebula a…

Apparently I'm doing this -- my open letter to that open latter about AI in writing and publishing. I emerged from Hibernation Week to write it, so god only knows how much sense it makes. But at least a human wrote it, so that's nice.

Bonus: picture of my "cat," sweet baby Boomba.

🚨 New artist drop! Meet *RAnsky* - creating bold, clear infographics to help you understand your rights to *Reasonable Accommodations* at CDC.

AltCDC is sharing their work so everyone can access the info.

Thread starts here 👇♿️✨

HHHHHHH omg

Ever wake up with Carmina Burana in your head for no reason, and you're like "oh yeah."

Not "oh yeah" anything in particular, just "oh yeah" like we're getting it today, whatever it is, it's getting got

WE WHIRL THE WORLD
THE WORLD WE WHIRL
IT ALL GETS LOST IN A TERRIBLE TWIRL
CAN'T SEE THE SUN FOR ALL THE BLACK SMOKE
CAN'T SEE THE DIRT FOR ALL THE DEAD FOLK
CAN'T SEE THE OCEAN, CAN'T SEE THE TREES
(CAN'T SMELL YOUR OWN SHIT ON YOUR KNEES)
*Industrial Metal*

I call this earworm "Amnesia: The 90's"

OK ok I guess "the toilet scylla" is a SLIGHTLY rude thing to call my brain

...But it started it.

listen you

People send you holiday cards, clever invitations, photos...but yay, for I have a near-infinite appetite for bookmarks.

Pleasantly, this means now my books are booby-trapped with entertaining findables.

Do I know where anything is? No, but it'll be nice to stumble on! Wholesome fun with ADHD

Time Traveler by Merriam-Webster When was a word first used in print? You may be surprised! Choose a year, and we'll show you the words that come from that date.

Nonono who cares if you're old; this is *delightful*: www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/

I got anti-aliasing, BFF, *bodice-ripper*, logic bomb, open mic, and oh yeah the names of just about every anxiety disorder, which I guess rode here with me like the horses of the 'pocalypse. 🐎

I need somewhere (and therefore this is It) to thank the (sometimes-questionable) poet A. Ginsberg, who reached forward from the past today and gave me the phrase "c*ck and endless balls".

In quotes! Which I can cite as a reference!

I won't forget this, sir. You are a legend of literature.

Can the media STOP referring to Jeffrey Epstein as a “financier”? The money he made came from SEX TRAFFICKING MINORS, RAPING CHILDREN, and BLACKMAIL. He was NOT a financier. I’ve seen at least five stories from three outlets refer to him this way in the past week. This is the latest from the Times:

I could probably be woken from a coma with those words in that voice 😆

Honestly, a good long think about the verbs in your life is just a fantastic brain-cleaner; highly recommended. Spend a day being hyper-aware of the verbs.

Verbs slip by; people focus on the nouns. So the lie is often hiding in the verbs. ...It's fascinating; I'll post some examples later (maybe).

Similarly -- Don't allow it to be said that AI "painted" an image; it does not paint. Nor did it "create". (It's also not "thinking...", even if its programmers love to put that word on the screen.)

I know I'm yelling into a storm here, but the words do matter, especially verbs. Verbs are key.

Verb clarification time:

* Nobody "writes with AI"; and ALSO
* the chatbot didn't "write it for you" either.

Writing is an act; a craft, like painting or carving. LLMs *replace* the craft of writing with their "fancy autocorrect".

It's not "AI wrote this"; it's "nobody wrote this". tyfyattm.

Here’s what was NOT released today:

- the proffer agreement between Maxwell and the DoJ

- the agreement transferring Maxwell to club fed

- communications showing who waived Maxwell’s sex offender status allowing her transfer and possible work assignments outside prison

- the Epstein files

Studying philosophy does make people better thinkers, according to new research on more than 600,000 college grads Philosophers are fond of saying that their field boosts critical thinking. Two of them decided to put that claim to the test.

We're also funnier and better dancers, and have a pleasing natural odor

share.google/ZQAeU29ypR4B...

Being able to read something and *not* interpret it in the least charitable possible way, is a skill.

A skill that atrophies if it is never used.

This is why you do not want to argue with Nazis, and instead violently repel then from your spaces: they delight in bad faith.

The principle of charity is especially important under conditions of enforced brevity, such as having 300 character limits.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princip...

Actually I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States with my hand on @bpl.boston.gov’s 1782 edition Aitken Bible—also known as the Bible of the Revolution.

DING DONG MF

This man was the OG "made me wish so hard for Hell to exist so he can be in it", and I wish him a long hot stay with regular pineapples.

Seriously, if you’re an author and you knowingly use generative AI, especially to make a book cover, I want nothing whatsoever to do with you, you are bootlicking trash

Microsoft copilot for Excel has a warning not to use it for “business critical” calculations because the answer may not be accurate.

Would someone explain why I might *ever* want to use a spreadsheet where results are unreliable?

I saw your main post and the very first thing i thought of was diving, yeah. Classic fine-to-dead-in-30-seconds stuff.

dRiving is another area loaded with the slippery edges of this pit -- a fact I think about every time there's a new "autonomous" feature.

"A weapon you held and didn't know how to use belonged to your enemy." - Terry Pratchett, "Making Money"

Scooby I am as white as a hotel towel, and the closest thing to Mexican I am was a single all inclusive resort stay in Cancun. I put a Mexican flag sticker on my old Tacoma abd was promptly pulled over by ICE in San Antonio. I'm happy to waste their time 1d RookaTX This is the way Scooby • RookaTX Their big question was like, "why the sticker" I told them it was on the truck when I bought it-and they suggested I remove it. Obnoxious creatures. 1d

White woman puts Mexican flag on her truck to waste ICE’s time.