lvxferre

@lvxferre@mander.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Masturbation among birds is ‘natural’ and should not be punished, say experts⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve seen a cockatoo once who would go crazy for one of his owner’s old slippers, courting and then fucking it. The most the owner did was to buy herself a new pair of slippers, and leave the old one so the bird could have his fun.

  I guess the idea of punishing him never went through her mind. Or mine, really; c’mon, birds don’t understand decorum, and the whole thing was hilarious and obviously harmless to the bird.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kiss your homies.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh well, life is suffering. But at least the suffering is bearable if it includes cats 😺

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Kiss your homies.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Sometimes I feel like Kika (my cat) might be doing this when I’m sleeping, because of all CLASH KLANK MMMRRRROOOOWN MRRRROOOOWN KPFAF! It’s usually because she rummaged my paper bin for new toys.

  Sadly no amount of forehead kisses will prevent it. The most it’ll do is to make her look at disgust, as if saying “EEEEEWWW HUMANS HAVE COOTIES”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Searching for 'Disregard' Breaks Google AI overviews; Similar command phrases, including "ignore," "quit," "skip," and "stop,"; "look" and "forget" are also prompting chatbot-like responses.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You can also change it in the settings. Look for “search assist”; values are “never”, “on demand”, “sometimes”, and “often”.

  But yeah, to be frank I use mostly DDG nowadays, I focused on Google due to the OP.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Arxiv bans slop⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  with a weird, corner-case scenario

  But what if the interests in conflict do not come from the person themself, but someone else forcing the person to take a side they wouldn’t otherwise? Such as mind-controlling aliens? (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

  Serious now. I noticed this from a forum I moderated ~10y ago. The admin always asked us mods and veteran users for feedback, before changing rules; but even for rules we were unanimously in favour of, there was always a bunch of users complaining. The contrast was so obvious it made me check the users’ profiles for context. It was always like this: the user claimed to be “deeply concerned” with the impact of the rule, brought up a thousand corner cases, and then as you checked their profile they were doing exactly what the rule was made against.

  For example: the admin implemented a rule that NSFW content needs to discussed in threads tagged “(NSFW)” in the title. One of the users started complaining about the ideal way to format it, and if it actually counts as a NSFW thread if someone used square brackets instead of parentheses. That same user was temp-banned once for spamming multiple threads asking “tell me how to say ‘piss in my mouth’ in [insert language the thread was about]”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Searching for 'Disregard' Breaks Google AI overviews; Similar command phrases, including "ignore," "quit," "skip," and "stop,"; "look" and "forget" are also prompting chatbot-like responses.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s an extension called Disable AI that gets rid of those intrusive Google Search AI “replies”. I strongly recommend people to use it, because… seriously, they are convincing but misleading trash.

  The two phonemic transcriptions of “disregard” in the first picture are a prime example of that. I could go on a full rant about it, but to keep it short: compare them with the ones provided by Wiktionary, and play “spot the differences”. (Bonus points if you also play “spot the undeclared assumptions”.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Arxiv bans slop⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Usually I’d also feel bad dunking on a random. However, when that random does a disservice to the scientific community, I think it becomes fair game.

  Specially in the light of the ongoing replication crisis. There are multiple reasons scientists are having a hard time reproducing published results, but a lot of them boils down to “someone skipped proper procedures” (like he encourages people to). Peer review is supposed to catch this, but when a person who can enforce those proper procedures says “we’ll enforce them”, suddenly the same random makes up reasons against the policy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Arxiv bans slop⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I know this is a meme post and I apologise to the OP for the incoming rant.

  When someone proposes, implements or enforces a clearly sensible rule, and someone else brings weird corner case scenarios up, always ask yourself if there’s a conflict of interests. Sometimes there’s none, but often there is — undeclared and disguised as concerns about something else.

  That’s the case here. Check James Miller’s XCancel profile and you’ll see it.

  excepts from his profile; emphasis mine in all cases.

  >[Description] Smith College economics professor. PhD Chicago. JD Stanford. AI safety, game theory. Stroke survivor, hoping to make it to the singularity. >[pinned tweet]Nerd score: How many have you considered? // Cryonics, multiverse, Boltzmann brain, AI utopia, quantum immortality, Roko’s basilisk, gray goo, paperclip maximizer, great filter, ethics in infinite universe, acausal trade, longevity escape velocity, simulation and zoo hypothesis. >[tweet]Suppose AIs become superhuman at math within two years, as far beyond humans in math as they already are in chess. What practical breakthroughs might follow, perhaps room temperature superconductors? >[retweeted from another]I would be mortified to have a typo—never mind a hallucinated citation—in a paper. But you see from twitter threads that some people think having a tidy bibliography is the definition of good research. They’ve got a 6th grade report-in-clear-plastic-binder view of the process >[tweet]I tell my students that they have to use AI to help write papers. I give them guidance on how they can effectively do this. I think I’m giving them more practical help than if I forced them to write without AI. This past semester, one student even asked me if she had to use AI and I said yes. et cetera.

  Note how he’s too invested into large “language models” to admit they’re often a source of misinformation. To the point he’s telling his students the equivalent of “scientific paper, toilet paper, same thing lol, just add shit lmao”.

  He’s clearly ignorant on why references are such a big deal in science. When you write a paper, you must be able to tell people where you got the info from, otherwise the whole thing devolves into “trust me” = “I think you’re gullible filth”. With “trust me” there’s no knowledge being shared, just a bunch of bullshitters repeating the (often incorrect) assumptions of each other.

  And odds are he gives no flying fucks about either “concern” he raised. Specially because the solution for both issues is simple, as long as you care about science instead of “me publish paper lol lmao”:

  • language barriers: your research should not rely on things you do not understand. So either work with a translation of the work, translate it yourself, or don’t add it as a reference.
  • co-author adding references LLMs made up: why are you co-authoring a paper with a gullible muppet who uses LLM output as source of [mis]info???

  /rant

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Damn, if only I could guide Rome through thousands of years of history...⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Rome was dead the day that Octavian caenum fungus putridus paedicator SPVRCIFER! MERDICVLA LVTEA! guy backstabbed the Republic, and called himself “emperor”. *grumbles pro-Republic noises*

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what’s your best “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  At least in theory it could work, given it’s similar to how people make niello since the antiquity, but I forgot to take into account oxygen — the sulphur caught fire.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what’s your best “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I told you, she’s totally yandere! She tied me and carved her initial on my arm with a knife!

  No, wait, I did it to myself, as a proof of love. No, wait, it was part of the secret organisation I used to belong to. Sorry, actually I got it in an accident, as I was covering a puppy with my arm. No, wait, it was chemicals, but I was developing a cure for cancer, not dumb stuff like mixing calcium carbide with water! 😜

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what’s your best “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Mine is from when I was 14:

  I mixed calcium carbide with water inside a glass bottle. Then I closed its lid. Then I waited until I got really concentrated acetylene. What I got was a scar on my right arm, a smaller one just above my upper lip (nowadays hidden by the beard), and a big scratch on my prescription glasses — without them I’d be probably blind from my left eye.

  From that I’ve learned some valuable things:

  1. I’m a muppet.
  2. I’m a bloody muppet.
  3. My mum was also a muppet, for letting me fuck with calcium carbide, sodium nitrate, concentrated sulphuric acid, sodium hydroxide, concentrated ammonia, gunpowder etc., since my teen years. (Guess where I got the calcium carbide from? Her brother’s garage!)
  4. My dog (rest in peace, Lana; you were the greatest girl) was probably traumatised with loud noises because of me. Now thinking, Lana was also with me the time I melted lead and poured sulphur on it, and instead of getting galena I got a whiff of Hell on my face.
  5. You can tell people a different story every time they ask you about the scar, and they’ll buy it. The one I just told was the true one, though.
  6. Glass containers are fragile from the inside.

  Anyway, that’s my “nitric acid acts upon trousers” moment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mint⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I got a weird twist of that: the cherry tomato plants were spreading like crazy, but the tomato fruits couldn’t be eaten because they were all full of worms. (I think they were fruit fly larvae, not sure. Not a single one was fine.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ancient Roman Meme⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Haec amissio? (is this loss?)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mint⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s going to cover up all my regular grass that I can’t do shit with and benefits no one!

  If it only replaced regular grass, it would be fine. Problem is, it’ll choke everything in its path, including parsley and roses aaand I hope you won’t miss that chamomile patch, because it’s now mint.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mint⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Someone will have a fuckload of mint in their garden! And only mint.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unappreciated in my own lifetime⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s fair, you’re right. I guess my comment was a bit too bitter.

  I always expected people starting a uni course to at least know the very basics of the subject. You know, out of interest. For psychology it would be the basics of Freud (something dreams, id/ego/superego), Pavlov and Skinner (experiments with other animals, focus on behaviour instead of “mind”), Piaget (child development) etc.

  But then your comment made me remember psychology classes are rather common for people from other graduations, specially when they’ll become teachers or professors.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unappreciated in my own lifetime⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No one laughed, I’m too witty for this class.

  Given how the cookie crumbles in plenty unis, odds are most of the class didn’t even know about the experiments, so they didn’t know enough to even notice the wit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  To be clear: the LUCA is the last universal common ancestor. There was earlier life, before the LUCA; it’s just that all its surviving descendants are also LUCA descendants.

  This is important to know while reading the text, because it explains why the LUCA was so surprisingly complex.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨🐙 Octopus is Octopus 🐙⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Penis - Penorum

  WROOOOONG! Now write the full declension table on that wall. And make sure to draw some pictures with it, so you never forget the word!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨🐙 Octopus is Octopus 🐙⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Lv7: the legs the two octopodum got tangled, so the octopodes asked help from two other octopodibus.

  ENOUGH OF THE NOMINATIVE TYRANNY!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Silicon Valley has forgotten what normal people want⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  At its most absurd nadir, one is reminded of Juicero, a company that sold a $400 juicer that did the same work as squeezing its proprietary juice packs with one’s bare hands.

  It does.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Of course. Of course the strait would be closed by a cat.

  Image

  “If I fits, I sits”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mozilla announced "Thunderbolt", their open-source and self-hostable AI client⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  My comment doesn’t, but the OP does. Four downvotes in Beehaw is quite a lot, given the local users don’t downvote. Same thread is in the negatives in one of the cross-posts even if it’s on-topic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mozilla announced "Thunderbolt", their open-source and self-hostable AI client⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  People, please stop shooting the messenger. Please.

  With that out of the way: I wish Mozilla didn’t waste so much money on chasing the latest trend of the season, and instead used it for its main products. Including Thunderbird. The one asking for donations.

  Some years from now Thunderbolt will likely pop up in this list, of abandoned Mozilla products. Because it isn’t the result of Mozilla finding a niche to create an AI product to benefit users; it’s simply execs chasing the latest trend.

  *Beehaw users are likely not seeing this, but this post has a bunch of downvotes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ChatGPT’s latest stylistic quirk is sinister, infuriating – and absolutely everywhere⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That makes sense; it would be a mix of “if you can do it and I can’t, you must be cheating” and “your a bot than you’re arguement is invalid” ad hominem.

  I think unnecessary combativeness might be also a factor. I’ve noticed on the internet people who want to fight against “something”, it doesn’t matter what; so they pick any low-hanging fruit they can find to fight you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ChatGPT’s latest stylistic quirk is sinister, infuriating – and absolutely everywhere⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m actually using more those resources (em dashes, three points lists, “it’s worth noting that”, “it’s not X, it’s Y”, etc.) after AI popped up. They’re a damn good way to detect assumptive people, eager to conclude based on little to no info or reasoning; the same ones OP is complaining about. They don’t want a conversation at all, they want to whine, so if you give them a low-hanging fruit you can detect them early and block them as noise and dead weight.

  That’s in my “casual” writing style, though. Professionally (as a translator) I mostly play by the tune, trying to preserve the style of the original. (Plus I barely translate things into English, it’s usually into Portuguese, very rarely Italian.)

  That might not necessarily be the case – there is a possibility every example is completely organic – but it’s a sign of the times that we can’t just relax and assume the things we see and hear were made by people.

  Guys, I found em dashes! The author is a bot! Bring me my pitchfork! /jk (those are en dashes, by the way.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI learns language from skewed sources. That could change how we humans speak – and think⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the text leaves the worst parts out: assumptions, decontextualisation, faulty reasoning, focusing on individual words instead of what they mean, and things like this. As in, issues with that part of comprehension that depends on logic, not on language proficiency.

  All of those were already a problem before chatbots. But since chatbot output is really bad at those things, I think increased exposure to chatbots might make the problem worse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google removes Doki Doki Literature Club! from the Play Store⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  And it’s such a great game. It exploits really well the expectations of visual novels and games in general, first pretending to play along them and then breaking those expectations. (I’m trying my hardest to not spoil it, seriously.)

  But Google doesn’t care about it. Or about sensible rules. Or enforcing fairly the very rules it expects you to follow.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI firms and their US military ties, "a whole civilization will die tonight" edition⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That threat did not materialize, and now some apologists are saying that it was just one of Trump’s deranged bargaining tactics, as if that excuses such categorical declarations of mass violence from a US president

  Even if playing along this fucking farce of “just” a “bargaining tactic” (instead of accurately representing it as commitment to war crimes), and even if we brush off all moral standards (we should not), that’s still bloody stupid. He’s making sure the Iranian population gets as motivated as possible to resist, while the United-Statian population resists against any sort of war effort. He’s shooting his own foot split hoof.

  Currently, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, xAI, Oracle and even Meta have large contracts with the US military.

  That should surprise nobody. Let’s play “spot who you know”:

  Image

  But this week should serve as a clarifying moment.

  Aah, cut off the crap. If this is a clarifying moment for anyone, the person in question has been living under a rock since forever.