Barry Norton 🌈 ♾ 📚
@barrynorton.bsky.social
He/him. I write queer/speculative fiction, with ND representation, in Denmark. PhD in Computer Science, MA in Creative Writing, BEng in Software Engineering, MSc in Science Communication in progress.
Twinings holds a press conference on its English Breakfast and Earl Grey having hacked Yorkshire Tea. "We have an independent security consultant examining the paper wrappings."
Eryk Salvaggio@eryk.bsky.social · 8h agoUp next: Kentucky Fried Chicken announces 8 of its 11 herbs and spices have “gone rogue”
Is there a block list for people who respond to every feature announcement with 'what about an edit button'? Also: this is an AI feature.
Bluesky@bsky.app · 10h agoWe’re rolling out improvements to trending topics right now! If you don’t already have it, you will in the next day or so. The new system catches more topics, identifies more posts within that topic, and serves them up faster, so you can feel more in tune with what everyone's talking about.
America doesn't remember what it feels like to be humbled by losing a war because they refuse to be (win or lose). Humility is un-American.
NERV IRB Coordinator@professormusgrave.bsky.social · 15h agoI don’t think Americans know what it’s like to lose lose a war. Yes sure the US lost in Vietnam but obviously the costs were way bigger for uh the Vietnamese
When you complain about 'the plagiarism machine' by reproducing someone's writing (screenshotting from behind a paywall, denying them compensation for their labour) without attribution, and only begrudgingly give attribution when people ask. Still, 'fair use', right?
This is going to sound condescending, so I'm taking it out of the thread: You don't miss the old Google, you miss the old Web that Google worked on. And AI summarisation isn't pushed on you to rob you of PageRank, it's pushed on you because PageRank is no longer useful.
Barry Norton 🌈 ♾ 📚@barrynorton.bsky.social · 13h agoI recognise the experience of getting Facebook results prominently in Google searches, but I doubt they're deliberately privileging their major competitor (in ad revenue). The simple fact is that "Google classic" (PageRank) no longer works as people don't build web sites that link to other web sites
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness (Not as the 90s double act — rather, the Stewart Lee and @herring1967.bsky.social on-stage characters who constantly shit talk one another now)
Rich Neville@richneville.bsky.social · 3w agoStop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness
You have 10 seconds in an elevator with a top Valley CEO. As the door closes he fires a question that might change the trajectory of the rest of your career — HOW IS BABBY FORMED? This actually happened to me just two years ago, right before I founded pragnent.ai
AI writing is derivative, shallow nonsense with no real sense of plot, said the author of The Circle.
The Verge@theverge.com · 3w agoDave Eggers told OpenAI staff that ChatGPT was ‘silencing an entire generation’
Shark is retired, but gets called back into service for one last mission: eat Tom Cruise.
weinberg@weinbergs.bsky.social · 7mo agolet's pretend: Universal announces a screenwriting contest for Jaws 5. What's your pitch?
Not what I wanted to wake up to this morning: (Dame Professor) Uta Frith opining about 'mis/over-diagnosis' of #autism on BBC Radio 4 Today. At least they challenged her with other voices (see below), but I doubt they're going to interview anyone else tomorrow because the BBC *love* UCL.
Challenging misinformation about autism: using evidence to correct false claims
Dr Judith Brown is Head of Autism Knowledge and Expertise at the National Autistic Society. In this blog, she shares the latest evidence and research about autism to challenge misinformation in the ne...
autism.org.uk
What I don't like about the revisionist bsky origin story is the idea that as the userbase broke into five digits, we queer and neurospicy folks, with niche sexual interests, drove away the tech people. We are tech people. Have you met tech people? Actual ones, not just your idea of 'tech bros'.
The funny thing is that in democracies with royal families, criticism of them is far safer than of presidents in republics. King Charles III has a pædophile brother and Epstein trafficked children for him. Crown Princess Mette-Marit's son is a rapist, and she lied about her friendship with Epstein
Will Stancil@whstancil.bsky.social · 2d agoThe nice thing about living in a democracy is that our leaders aren’t kings and you can be rude to them if they deserve it
Insulting someone is not, in itself, ‘an ad hominem’. Staying on topic and advancing the argument by logic or fact, while also incidentally insulting someone, is not trying to win ad hominem. It might be rude, but it’s not trying to win an argument by being rude. You’re making a modal fallacy.
For sale: Baby food spoons, Work well.
Rev. Dr. K@michdoc.bsky.social · 4d agoBaby food spoons work well
"DOJ said when it presented the case to a grand jury, it was 'not in possession of any information from DOI indicating that any damage to the Reflecting Pool was caused by anything other than the actions of the defendant and other vandals who damaged the pool’s lining.'" Best justification ever...
Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool case, blaming damage on ‘botched’ installation
The Justice Department said “it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.”
nbcnews.com
I had a joke about deontology, but I don't think it would be right to tell you.
Polly SinclairLewis Fry@sinclairlewis.bsky.social · 6d agoI had a joke about epistemology, but I don’t know.
"Windsurfing Sikhs? A Jew on a motorbike?"
🌞🌞🌞 Adam Jay 🍉🍉🍉@bullgooseparty.bsky.social · 6d ago“What’s next, Welshmen behind the counters!?”
This joke doesn't make sense. It's not true, even with the 'typo'. But I can't stop laughing.
Barry Norton 🌈 ♾ 📚@barrynorton.bsky.social · 6d agoYou can't spell dildlo without Lidl
"We go to Marks and Spencer to feel safe, not to wander through a red-light district." It's a DISGRACE!
M&S is selling crotchless knickers. It’s a tawdry disgrace
Britain’s most trusted high street chain has forgotten what made it special – and families deserve better than this
telegraph.co.uk
Whataboutism with respect to your personal climate footprint is still whataboutism.
Second guessing myself on this (and removing it from a thread where it's likely not welcome). I think what one has to consider with respect to LLMs, given that much of their power is down to language, is to what degree natural languages are creations (not utterances in them or writing, to be clear).
Barry Norton 🌈 ♾ 📚@barrynorton.bsky.social · last wk.Only somewhat, I'd say (as an AI researcher): network architectures, training algorithms and inference algorithms are. And the machinery of information retrieval and prompting in general. Also hardware acceleration. Most of the emergent capabilities are discovery, though, not creativity.
