GreyDuck

@greyduck.bsky.social

Just a little grey duck in a big grey world. He/him. (Not to be mistaken for ho/hum.) If I have a "main topic" it's the game #Satisfactory. My main textual output is (or should be, if I'm behaving myself) over at my not-a-blog: https://greyduck.net

I think this is very true, and you can extend it a little -- you should never have an emotional relationship with a *company*. You have relationships with *people*, some of whom might work for the company! But the whole point is a company is that the people can be swapped out.

Gabe Graziani@gabegraziani.bsky.social · 3h ago

Gonna say something a little Marxist here, but it's something I believe: the relationship between employee and employer is inherently adversarial. That doesn't mean it must be unpleasant or impolite, but these two entities have different objectives that are at odds with each other.

I swear to God, part of the problem of literacy is that we make kids read SO MANY books like this. Of course they’re going to associate reading with misery! We put them in a Skinner box and shock them when they read, what did people THINK would happen?

Nick Harkaway@nickharkaway.com · yesterday

Having ranted about school curriculum books, I’ve just seen my son’s summer reading list, and all I can say is “I was right”. A more depressing collection would be tricky to assemble. Are we actively trying to convey to kids the idea that reading is dismal and arduous?

I don't understand why people aren't more freaked out about the coordinated water systems cyberattack that hit *seven* US states (over 30 facilities in one state alone; people had to boil water). Anyway, if you missed the new #Cybersecurity roundup this morning: www.patreon.com/violetblue/p...

Cybersecurity: August 4, 2026 | Threat Model

This week: water systems in seven US states targeted in a coordinated cyberattack, the “escaped AI” story gets worse, deliberately backdoore

patreon.com

Bluesky's nuclear block supports a culture of consent. Each user can completely prevent another user from having any access to them on this site. Right wing harassers on X hate consent. They hate being told "no." They hate not being able to force their posts onto others and target others.

Oh. Right. DaVinci Resolve still hates OBS-recorded files. The visuals are fine but the AAC (supposedly supported!) audio is silent. No waveform no nothing. Sigh.

Crucial distinction btw "admits" vs "recalibrates". Let's not anthropomorphize the mechanical turk. My few interactions with such chatbots is that they "appear to admit" when challenged, then proceed to insist on the erroneous information/interpretation/calculation. bsky.app/profile/mich...

Michael Busch@michael-w-busch.bsky.social · 4d ago

#subpost All the text generators ever do is output the most-likely-next-word, over and over. So, no, the text generators do not "admit to their mistakes when challenged". They are just auto-completing the template you put into them. Far too many people who should know better pretend otherwise.

Today in "Mo is using the Battlestar Galactica book to Yell About Some Stuff," an excerpt from the work in progress below. Am I still fucking annoyed at how annoying some people were in the Watcher comment sections during BSG's final season? No idea what you're talking about, hmm, will ponder:

understood the anticipatory grief about the show ending, and wanting more of some things and less of others. But to say that the characters on the show about people confronting emotional and existential crises in space should not have a lot of big emotions near the end of the story… that was, in a word, silly. And Moore has always disliked the attempts to turn “soap opera” into an insult. 

“I always hate that comment. Not just about the final season, but I hate when people say anything that’s a really character-focused or about relationships is ‘just a soap opera,’” Moore said. “Soap operas are a legitimate form in and of themselves. They’ve been for around for a very long time, and people love them.” They do, but the core viewers of the traditional daytime soap operas were typically women. Any time anything is coded as female, certain terms get turned into slurs, including “romance novel,” “soap opera,” “melodrama” and so on. Using words like that as insults is not only about sexism, but there were times I had to turn comments off because the misogyny and abusive language in those comment sections were off the charts. Also, in decades of covering the industry, I’ve found those who throw around the “soap” term usually mean one of two things: “This is about people’s feelings in a way that makes me uncomfortable,” and/or “too many women are talking in this.”

If anybody was excited that Science Fiction Weekly is aiming to "revive" Daily Science Fiction, you should know they are straight-up lying about having gotten permission from writers to republish DSF stories on their website. (Yes, I have sent a DCMA takedown notice.)

“‘AI’ checkers” exist simply and solely to feed and “train” the slop machines further. Do not use them, do not let them near your work. They are just an end-stage fillip of the grift. I cannot state it any more plainly.