DefiantEmbassy's recent activity
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Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life
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Comment on The goon squad. Loneliness, porn’s next frontier, and the dream of endless masturbation. in ~life
DefiantEmbassy LinkIt's sometimes a controversial opinion in some spaces (pro sex-worker spaces) to say that this sort of content being actively fed to people is... problematic. There is a constant battle between...In this earlier stage, if you wanted to watch porn, you still had to actively seek it out. That has since changed. Right as gooners began to solidify as a social force, I could no longer open Instagram without encountering dozens of large-breasted women skipping rope, romping in tank tops, brushing their teeth while drooling erotically. It was the same story on TikTok, the little of it I watched. Twitter was the exception: there I simply encountered uncut, hardcore pornography. We make our own algorithms, I know, but I don’t think I was uniquely deviant. The situation was the same for nearly every straight man I knew. Invariably this content was intended to funnel the viewer to platforms like OnlyFans, where a paid subscription would allow them to spend even more money on special extras like personalized dick evaluations or nude kitchen-cleaning videos. It seemed increasingly plausible that, faced with this onslaught, some percentage of psychically defenseless men would simply crumple, follow the platforms’ logic, and start watching porn full-time.
It's sometimes a controversial opinion in some spaces (pro sex-worker spaces) to say that this sort of content being actively fed to people is... problematic. There is a constant battle between how much of this is the agency of the user versus the freedom of the creators. In my opinion, we should be treating this closer to gambling & smoking, frankly.
As much as I can manipulate the algorithm because I understand it... it makes perfect sense that people drown in sexual content. And none of this even touches on how porn stars are more of a fixture in mainstream content. Of course we can't just exclude them from society & media because they are porn stars, but the funnels feels a bit too visible at the moment.
As a final point: Paul Graham's article on addictiveness is just... so goddamned salient.
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Comment on The Oatmeal: A cartoonist's review of AI art in ~comics
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentDon't necessarily agree with everything, but yeah. I'm not going to pretend like I don't enjoy the fruits of some AI artwork. either on or off the drugs is a song by JPEGMAFIA. I legitimately...Don't necessarily agree with everything, but yeah. I'm not going to pretend like I don't enjoy the fruits of some AI artwork. either on or off the drugs is a song by JPEGMAFIA. I legitimately enjoy it. But the main sample it is built around is an AI cover of a Future song. I don't know what it makes it.
Speaking of which: when I look at a joke song like BBL Drizzy (a song made in the height of the Kendrick vs Drake beef), I don't believe it could have ever been made in real life, without someone throwing serious cash at it. You'd need session musicians that continue to play this style. You'd need to find a singer specializing in that sound. And all of them willing to record what is effectively a shit post. And like the other example, humans iterated on the song - Metro Boomin with his remix, Tim Henson doing a guitar cover of it, the various entrants to the competition, and even Drake remixing it. Ultimately all of this was disposable, and did not last past ~3 months. But it was interesting.
It doesn't mean I'd willingly listen to 95% of the songs on, say, Suno, but there is something there, that humans can work with to produce interesting things.
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Comment on Travel essentials: eight items to pack for your next trip – and what to leave at home in ~travel
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentGoing to have to disagree on the TRTL… best sleep I’ve ever had on a plane. And no breakage at all.Going to have to disagree on the TRTL… best sleep I’ve ever had on a plane. And no breakage at all.
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Comment on Bluesky melts down over Jesse Singal in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy Link Parentjay is a she (unless i’ve missed something indicating they have decided to identify otherwise)jay is a she (unless i’ve missed something indicating they have decided to identify otherwise)
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Comment on Bluesky melts down over Jesse Singal in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy LinkThere is a good subset of Bluesky - certainly, I can see from my "Popular With Friends" feed that most people I view are actively against the insane rhetoric on the platform calling Jay a "temu...There is a good subset of Bluesky - certainly, I can see from my "Popular With Friends" feed that most people I view are actively against the insane rhetoric on the platform calling Jay a "temu Elon".
But the reality is that the platform has suffered, from my perspective because of people like Rachael Maddow bringing an onslaught of people who've only ever touched Facebook before. I've had my own annoying experiences on the platform. The reality is that there is a significant portion of the left-wing who have just become a mirror image of the right, and it is just a noxious experience to be around them.
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Comment on Elon Musk plans to take on Wikipedia with 'Grokipedia' in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy LinkThe depressing thing is that this won't stop them from harassing and trying to destroy Wikipedia.The depressing thing is that this won't stop them from harassing and trying to destroy Wikipedia.
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Comment on imgur.com geoblocks the UK in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentYeah except Imgur blocks at least some VPNs (i’m on mullvad) and doesn’t tell you why (it gives a vague technical reason).Yeah except Imgur blocks at least some VPNs (i’m on mullvad) and doesn’t tell you why (it gives a vague technical reason).
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Comment on ‘Simpsons’ movie sequel sets summer 2027 release date in ~movies
DefiantEmbassy LinkFrom what I can tell about the OG movie, they were able to get a whole load of the original writers back for it. Will they do so for this one? Sounds unlikely. And with the voice actor for Marge...From what I can tell about the OG movie, they were able to get a whole load of the original writers back for it.
Will they do so for this one? Sounds unlikely. And with the voice actor for Marge being quite... grating these days, I'm far more skeptical this one can live up to the heights. But who knows.
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Comment on Shopify, pulling strings at Ruby Central, forces Bundler and RubyGems takeover in ~comp
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentWell, we don’t know for sure. But dhh is a board member at Shopify. In fact, the CEO of Shopify races cars with dhh. So, there is a relation there.Well, we don’t know for sure.
But dhh is a board member at Shopify. In fact, the CEO of Shopify races cars with dhh. So, there is a relation there.
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Comment on Shopify, pulling strings at Ruby Central, forces Bundler and RubyGems takeover in ~comp
DefiantEmbassy LinkAs someone who hasn't touched Ruby, a) what a complete cluster fuck, b) yeah, i think I'm staying away from Ruby, and probably trying to avoid Shopify where I canAs someone who hasn't touched Ruby, a) what a complete cluster fuck, b) yeah, i think I'm staying away from Ruby, and probably trying to avoid Shopify where I can
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Shopify, pulling strings at Ruby Central, forces Bundler and RubyGems takeover
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Comment on Oracle, Silver Lake consortium to control 80% stake in TikTok in US in ~finance
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentI mean, Automattic invested in WPEngine as it was named. They could have raised these issues way earlier. In general, my position lies somewhere close to this article. And frankly, yes. In...And the confusion WP Engine has created by intentionally choosing that company name does seem pretty damn unethical to me too.
I mean, Automattic invested in WPEngine as it was named. They could have raised these issues way earlier. In general, my position lies somewhere close to this article.
And frankly, yes. In practically every online discussion I can see, the consensus has swayed wildly against Mullenweg.
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Comment on Oracle, Silver Lake consortium to control 80% stake in TikTok in US in ~finance
DefiantEmbassy Link Parenti mean most people are on the side of WPEngine in that controversy, so they’d be pro Silver Lake i’m sure they’ve got plenty of other stuff you can dislike :)i mean most people are on the side of WPEngine in that controversy, so they’d be pro Silver Lake
i’m sure they’ve got plenty of other stuff you can dislike :)
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Comment on My guess and opinion on the common blockers to Linux adoption in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy LinkSo, I'm a software engineer who uses a terminal (macOS/Linux), has sysadmined a Linux cluster, and hell, I'll throw in the fact I'm a Vimmer. In short, a lot of things that ordinarily would drive...So, I'm a software engineer who uses a terminal (macOS/Linux), has sysadmined a Linux cluster, and hell, I'll throw in the fact I'm a Vimmer. In short, a lot of things that ordinarily would drive me towards adopting Linux for the desktop & advocating it for others. But, frankly, you'll pry Windows out of my cold dead hands, for a couple of reasons.
- General familiarity: everything about how Windows is laid out, to how the mouse moves across the screen (granted, Linux is closer to Windows, but on a low-powered machine I found Windows was /far/ more responsive), is just second nature to me now.
- Bad experiences. The last time I tried running Linux on a SP3, I ran into a couple of issues.
- I managed to soft brick a Fedora (!!) install within about 5 minutes by changing a theme, updating and restarting. The login theme no longer existed.
- The screen on the device was broken. On Windows and Xorg, there were relatively trivial ways to disable it. But for some reason, the only way I could find to get something remotely similar on Wayland was to use an application that simply consumed all of the input. (Hopefully, I've Cunningham's Law'ed my way into the answer now).
- None of the above issues are really impacted by the Microsoft-ness of the device, so I'm not really swayed by it.
- Games. I play too many games with kernel-level anti-cheats (and I'm /fine/ with it).
Windows is /relatively/ simple for me. I install it (after finding the right incantation to get local login), run ShutUp10!, and then use winget to get all my apps. Once I've done that, it just works. I know I could get Linux to a very similar state, but I'm not interested.
As for what I suggest to others, I would much rather recommend ChromeOS Flex to people instead of a Linux distribution. Mostly because I will never have to give them tech support again.
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Comment on Your favorite YouTube channel is (probably) owned by private equity in ~creative
DefiantEmbassy LinkOne note: the video lists PRIME Hydration as a success story of influencers creating real world products. It’s more mixed than that: PRIME had a brilliant initial run, but sales have collapsed by...One note: the video lists PRIME Hydration as a success story of influencers creating real world products.
It’s more mixed than that: PRIME had a brilliant initial run, but sales have collapsed by 71% in the UK.
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Comment on Grok searches for Elon Musk's opinion on controversial questions in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentThere’s also an interesting note in the post after that, which is focused on Grok Heavy not having a public system promptThere’s also an interesting note in the post after that, which is focused on Grok Heavy not having a public system prompt
In related prompt transparency news, Grok's retrospective on why Grok started spitting out antisemitic tropes last week included the text "You tell it like it is and you are not afraid to offend people who are politically correct" as part of the system prompt blamed for the problem. That text isn't present in the history of their previous published system prompts.
Given the past week of mishaps I think xAI would be wise to reaffirm their dedication to prompt transparency and set things up so the xai-org/grok-prompts repository updates automatically when new prompts are deployed - their current manual process for that is clearly not adequate for the job!
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Comment on Grok searches for Elon Musk's opinion on controversial questions in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy LinkSuper interesting behaviour. At the /very/ least, it has a weird sense of identity. Although I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there is some element of the system prompt being hidden, that...Super interesting behaviour. At the /very/ least, it has a weird sense of identity. Although I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there is some element of the system prompt being hidden, that causes this behaviour.
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Grok searches for Elon Musk's opinion on controversial questions
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Comment on Org-roam is not for me in ~tech
DefiantEmbassy Link ParentDitto for me, but with Obsidian (although I migrated from org-roam). The Zettlekasten stuff effectively provides a useful framework, but I don't subscribe to it. And search works great with...Ditto for me, but with Obsidian (although I migrated from org-roam). The Zettlekasten stuff effectively provides a useful framework, but I don't subscribe to it. And search works great with Obsidian's native tooling, and if I needed something more powerful, it's just text at the end of the day.
For some reason this comment reminded me of this (NSFW) work of art that feels distillation of short form social media content. The entire account is just that concept, but taken to ludicrous levels.