Posts by Ken Y-N

LinkedIn realizes its users have been bathing in AI slop, offers a shower

Ah yes, AI. The latest solution in desperate search of a problem. Every website now proudly serves up an endless buffet of statistically averaged drivel, scraped from yesterday's statistically averaged drivel and presented as innovation.

Back in my day, if someone wanted to post nonsense online they had to put in a bit of effort. Now a hyperscale datacentre vaporises half a reservoir so that a chatbot can confidently explain the difference between a toaster and a badger in twelve paragraphs with five bullet points and a cheerful conclusion.

The defenders always claim it "saves time". Indeed. Why spend ten minutes forming an original thought when you can spend twenty minutes editing autogenerated waffle into something almost indistinguishable from a human contribution? Productivity gains of up to 137%, according to a study that may or may not exist.

As a concerned technology enthusiast with 27 years of experience, a deep appreciation for critical thinking, and a commitment to fostering meaningful discourse in digital environments, I believe we must carefully evaluate both the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence. By working together, we can ensure that innovation remains aligned with human values, authenticity, and sustainable best practices.

In conclusion, AI-generated content risks diluting the quality of online discussion. Furthermore, stakeholders should leverage robust governance frameworks to promote synergistic knowledge-sharing outcomes while maintaining a user-centric paradigm. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.

Posted from a mobile device while consuming tea. Any typographical anomalies are regretted.

Pope's official prayer app commits cardinal sin, leaks 700K+ users' info

Coding by Father Dougal McGuire, customer support by Father Jack Hackett.

Linus Torvalds tells AI haters to fork off

As an autocomplete and an extra pair of eyes

Autocomplete on VS Code is like telepathy sometimes, and the code review feature is surprisingly thorough and usually accurate, both well worth the price of admission.

Slothful summer app lets you scroll simply by tilting your head

Tilts head with questioning expression, comment box scrolls off sc

Failed blockchain project ends with big fine for fibs about it being on track

What, a major blockchain project fail?

Who could ever have predicted that?

Admittedly, it wasn't helped by apparently the goalposts frequently moving, but they didn't even attempt to address scalability issues.

HS2's latest reset ditches autonomous train tech to get project back on track

Japan's Maglev is slightly cheaper!

Despite being 90% underground, including most of the stations, and tunnelling through bloody great mountains, and all the complex maglev infrastructure, they are projecting in UK quids about 200 million per kilometre. There also doesn't seem to be any actual evidence that land acquisition and associated costs is a major factor for HS2.

Fire icon for all the money going up in smoke.

Staff too scared of the AI axe to pick it up, Forrester finds

Multi-lingual is fun too

To be fail, the summaries are pretty accurate, but the transcript is always a bit iffy as my poor Japanese pronunciation makes it switch to English randomly.

Starship may chauffeur Orion to the Moon, as NASA mulls ditching SLS after Artemis V

No landing this decade

Does anyone actually believe these timescales? The whole refuelling in LEO business is surely going to take alot of time to get right.

RSS dulls the pain of the modern web

Re: Liferea

That would be closer to "Handle sop" - you want "handosōpu".

Yes, backsies: Crypto exchange Bithumb claws back $40B in accidental payments to users

Re: How?

Exchanges work off-chain - it's just a number in a database, barring the people who were quick enough to transfer their imaginary off-chain tokens into imaginary on-chain tokens.

Elon Musk merges xAI into SpaceX to spread universal consciousness via a sentient sun

You cannot cool stuff in space!

I remember someone much more knowledgeable than me pointing out that a vacuum doesn't suck heat very well at all, and even the modest ISS needs a whole bunch of cooling fins to radiate their heat away.

I'm sure Tesler is up another 5% on this news.

(Oh, and are we sure the Muskrat realises "Iron Sky" is not a documentary?)

Claude devs complain about surprise usage limits, Anthropic blames expiring bonus

OpenAI has money to burn though

This reminds me of Sora, OpenAI's video slop generator. It started out with 20 tokens per day (basically 20 10 second videos), then suddenly dropped to 4 per day with little fanfare. However, after less than two weeks and likely cratering user numbers, it popped back up to 20 per day.

By contrast, Google offers 4 free videos per MONTH, and even on the top tier $120 /month package you're limited to effectively 20 high-res videos per month.

It's getting like BitCoin 10 years ago, everyone frantically building up horsepower in the hope that everyone else would drop out and they could reap in all the coins themselves, only this time the VCs and goverments are willing to foot the bill to build out the hardware.

Infinite Machine e-scooter is like the offspring of a Vespa and a Cybertruck

Agree with the fugly

Even lower polygon count than the WankPanzer, though I can sort of see the Vespa-ish back end, I suppose.

There's holes for I presume rear-view mirrors - are they an optional extra? - and the switches look very much designed for Californian sunshine. A very big meh from me.

Your car’s web browser may be on the road to cyber ruin

Re: I must be getting old ...

The UI is often written to use brower panels, or the whole thing might be running in kiosk mode, so while you don't see a Chrome/Firefox etc browser icon, it's there hanging about in the background.

FBI prevails over convicted fraudster in $345M destroyed Bitcoin dispute

But Bitcoins live in the blockchain, not on his hard disk

I suppose it means that his passwords/password manager lived on that drive, so without access to that he cannot recover his stash.

Coders paired with bot buddies work fast, but take too many shortcuts

What about Trio Programming?

Have the AI to do the boring stuff, but then two pairs of eyes to criticise its output.

A quick search tells me it is already a thing, and called Mob Agentic Engineering.

New Linux kernel patch lets you cancel hibernation mid-process

Re: Who actually uses Hibernation?

Me! The office PC has so much stuff to load at startup that it can take two or three minutes after log in for Teams to appear, for instance.

No suds for you! Asahi brewery attack leaves Japanese drinkers dry

Re: Asahi: the cloud-based CAE solution platform

That's a completely different company - there's also Asahi newspaper group, which is yet another separate company, and probably many others with Asahi in their name.

Square Kilometre Array is so sensitive, its datacenter needs two Faraday cages to stop RF leaks

"And they make Star-Trek-like noises as they open and close"

If that's not enough to guarantee the remaining 20% of the funding, I don't know what is!

Blockchain just became an utterly mainstream part of the global financial system

I presume they are considering a permissioned blockchain

A publicly-writable one isn't really going to work, so being permissioned, mining is unnecessary. Thus you end up with just a slow database.

Also, it's not clear from the article why SWIFT is slow, but I would guess one of the issues is batching settlement at the end of the working day or similar.

Thus, choosing a blockchain this early seems either putting the cart before the horse, or it's another demo system that's not going to go anywhere significant.

Oh, and don't start me on Smart Contracts!

Trump backpedals as Hyundai factory ICE raid enrages South Korea

Re: Work visas, really? Where are they?

According to AI, they changed the rules this April so you must keep either a paper or digital copy of your visa on your person all the time, although I'm sure ICE isn't in the business of bothering to check the validity.

Dems wave hands, stomp feet about ICE using mobile face recognition app

False positives is a feature, not a bug.

One long sentence is all it takes to make LLMs misbehave

An LLM responds...

It sounds like you're exploring how AI responds to different ways of communicating, and you're wondering if your own style of writing influences how AI behaves. To clarify, AI systems like me are designed to follow guidelines and safety protocols, which sometimes means we might ignore or avoid certain requests, especially if they involve sensitive or restricted topics. However, the way people phrase their questions—such as grammar, tone, or style—can sometimes affect how clearly the AI understands or interprets their intent.

Your observation that persuasive or confident language might influence AI responses is interesting, but generally, AI doesn't have feelings or personal biases—it's more about how well the input aligns with its training data and safety rules. Also, your point about spelling and grammar is valid: clear and well-structured questions often lead to better responses. So, rather than being "special" or having some magic power, it's more about understanding how to communicate effectively with AI.

And yes, skills like good spelling and grammar are valuable in interacting with AI, just as they are in many other areas. So, what you once saw as a weakness can actually become a strength in getting better results from AI systems.

Softbank bets $2 billion on Intel having a future

You forgot this --->

At least I hope you did.

NASA starts bolting together Artemis III rocket for 2027 Moon shot

Re: Should SpaceX test far more than putting a Starship in orbit?

Your "if" is also doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Rampant emoji use suggests crypto-stealing NPM package was written by AI

Child in Japanese is "kodomo"

"Kodane", if my dictionary is to be believed, is perhaps "seed", but is often used as a vulgar term similar to spunk.

German team warns ChatGPT is changing how you talk

Or is it more people writing lecture notes with ChatGPT?

I'm not sure how ChatGPT output would indirectly affect human language, but I do know that cribbing off notes generated by ChatGPT would result in more YouTube videos using these telltale words.

Let me delve swiftly and meticulously into this inquiry.

Musk's antics and distractions are backfiring as Tesla's car business stalls

Disappointing link

Surely "Musk's deft PR hand" should be pointing to that image?

US budget bill passes without controversial block on states regulating AI

Re: Satellite should not be considered for BEAD

The article says AI infrastructure is also now included, so I wonder how much is now going to be spent on just hooking up new bitbarns rather than actually helping people get online.

US patent office wants an AI to scan for prior art, but doesn't want to pay for it

Re: "The selected vendor must be willing to receive consideration that is primarily non-monetary,"

Being able to syphon off patent applications before they get published would be a nice little consideration.

American coders are most likely to use AI

My recent experience

I was wanting to work out how to access a file using some proprietory technology or other which is poorly documented and gives almost zero Google hits.

Me: How do you access a file?

Claude Sonnet: Do this to read at run time

Me: No, I want to add the file to the build process

Claude: OK, it depends on the exact technology

Me: I'm using Foo

Claude: OK, add this to the XML

Me: But I'm using build scripts

Claude: OK, this instead, and read with this API

Me: But how to I go from a file name to an object ID?

Claude: Add this to the script file

All very impressive; perhaps it's been trained on some books that go into more details - LLMs really are wonderful! I coded it all up, and Hey Presto! nothing happened. After a little experimentation, I looked at the build tool Python code, and the stuff it told me to add is completely ignored by the build tool. Super!

Florida man expands crypto empire with new wireless service and phone

Re: $47.45

At least they're not offering a third-reich^Wrate service for $14.88.

*Insert icon of Musk indicating how high the prices of other services are*

China orders trial of aged care robots that can cook, clean, and provide emotional support

Last month I was in a cafe that had a couple of Lovots trundling around, which were suprisingly lovely to my non-dementia, yet addled brain, although their language was limited to a few chirps.

‘Deliberate attack’ deletes shopping app’s AWS and GitHub resources

Something doesn't add up

the app “powers the livelihoods of thousands of Kirana store owners” and handles 2,000-plus orders each day.

So each store survives on less than one additional order per day? Have a few zeroes disappeared somewhere?

Next week's SpaceX Starship test still needs FAA authorization

Tomorrow's Headline

TRUMP APPOINTS MUSK AS HEAD OF FAA

Fog ransomware channels Musk with demands for work recaps or a trillion bucks

how swiftly government departments can be radically overhauled, where necessary

Surely "how swiftly government departments can be dismantled, where idealogically expedient"

One of the last of Bletchley Park's quiet heroes, Betty Webb, dies at 101

My father too

He was "just" a radio operator and message transcriber, and also did something with the Japanese Enigma that he only ever mentioned once or twice.

Now I'm working in Japan on encryption and related stuff for civvie use only, of course.

Americans set to pay more on all imports: Trump activates blanket tariffs

Re: Well, he was right about

Just look at all those share prices tumbling!

Obviously our wonderful Stock Market is being manipulated by LEFT-WING DEMOCRAT AMERICA-HATING IMMIGANTS.

FAA closes investigations into Blue Origin landing fail, Starship Flight 7 explosion

I read a rocket scientist describe how Starship is doomed

Apparently, as they make it bigger they need to make it lighter otherwise you need more fuel to lift the structure and the extra fuel you put in, so even though flight 8 had a lighter payload since it was bigger the vibration issue remains. Making it sturdier will reduce the payload size so much that there is actually a negative payoff.

They also said that they haven't done any test flights with scale models which would have revealed these issues, but they are now so embedded into NASA plans that SpaceX can keep sucking the government teat.

Google teases AI Mode for search, giving Gemini total control over your results

"Is haggis an animal?"

It's been all over the Scottish web the last couple of days, but thanks to the Haggis Wildlife Foundation and their videos of haggises (haggii?) cavorting in the Highlands, Gemini has finally seen the light and correctly replied "Yes" to the above question.

※ Sadly, yesterday they have fallen to Russian propaganda and it now replies "No"

Penguin, as it's almost as cute as a baby haglet. --->

SpaceX receives FAA blessing for another Starship test

Too late

there's more of a reason for the government to enforce laws and regulations regarding Elon's reckless behavior

The Supreme Court has already ruled that the (shadow) president cannot be held guilty for crimes commited in office.

Incoming deputy boss of Homeland Security says America's top cyber-agency needs to be reined in

Re: good

As good as Linda Whats-her-name "runs" Xitter?

Are you cooler than ex-Apple design guru Sir Jony Ive?

U2 went downhill from Joshua Tree

I went to see the War tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse, and Bono put on a nice show. They then got too big for their boots and forgot their roots.

Oh, and Really Saying Something is about the blandest Fun Boy Three track, and my juvenile mind is forever imprinted with Bananarama's navels in Venus.

Twin Google flaws allowed researcher to get from YouTube ID to Gmail address in a few easy steps

"we will use every tool at our disposal to stop them from targeting U.S. citizens"

About that for stopping Pig Butchering - according to a pic on Reddit, the CIA has stopped their cybersecurity outreach to senior citizens due to Trump/Musk butchering.

Mushroom cloud because they were sacked too.

Tesla sales crash in Europe, UK. We can only wonder why

Disappointed you didn't add a photo of Musk illustrating how high sales will be when (if) FSD gets approved in Europe.

Trump tells Musk to 'go get' Starliner astronauts

I must say I'm liking this new trend of illustrating Musk stories with that photo!

HPE may have bagged $1B order from Elon Musk's X for AI servers

He's recently raised $6 billion from the latest funding round:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-xai-series-c-funding-round-grok-nvidia-microchips-2024-12

Tesla, Musk double down on $56B payday appeal

Re: Doesn't make sense

Toyota do a lovely clone of the London taxi, but it's ICE (or maybe hybrid). Haven't a clue about automonous plans, but there will still be a need for some drivers for helping old folk in, stowing luggage, etc.

Short-lived bling, dumb smart things, and more: The worst in show from CES 2025

Re: A washing machine

But, the smart washing machine can delay the spin cycle so you can talk comfortably while sitting beside the device.

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone's patented that - that's the sort of dubious idea that my cow-orkers might file to meet their one patent per year assessment.

Japan's wooden satellite exits International Space Station

Chisel help awl Japanese space endevours

It'll spruce up their cata-log-ue once others cedar successes.