@maegul@hachyderm.io cover
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

maegul

@maegul@hachyderm.io

A little bit of computing and a little bit of neuroscience.

he/him/they

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

hrefna , to Random stuff
@hrefna@hachyderm.io avatar

This statement is going to live rent-free in my head for a long time to come, I suspect.

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@hrefna @adamhotep @tchambers

I’m probably out of the loop or daft on something. Is there any reason in particular why it’s gonna live rent free or why the comment about screenshots strikes so hard?

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@hrefna @adamhotep @tchambers

Incidentally I recently ranted along similar lines, bringing up screen shots: https://hachyderm.io/@maegul@akkomane.social/112278407165110460

“
In fact, I’d argue that what we have now is strange. Each piece of social media interaction has to get translated into whatever my current platform decides is the appropriate format and understanding of that interaction. In reality, that’s really not much progress on the screen shots used to share inter-platform content on big (unfederated) social media.
“

maegul , to COVID-19 Pandemic
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

I'm slowly realising that I probably have some mild

Since having covid (now had it twice since 2022): iron deficiencies, breathing problems, constant asthma, and now a sudden allergy to some foods apparently.

My partner and I have been careful throughout the pandemic but clearly not careful enough at times (twice each) since "opening up".

And though it could be far far worse, I feel pretty violated right now TBH.

@coronavirus
@longcovid

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@tobi82 @coronavirus @longcovid

I wasn’t looking for sympathy, just sharing an experience.

You have no idea what my background is or for what reasons I’ve been infected in the past.

What’s more you’re completely neglecting the importance of the social dimensions that lead to widespread infection of an airborn virus while trumping up absolute individualism as the sole basis of responsibility and blame.

All of which is a rather flawed outlook IMO, along with a poor demeanour TBH.

maegul OP , (edited )
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@cwicseolfor @tobi82 @coronavirus @longcovid

Well yea. The responsibilities we take for our actions are obviously important (and should be addressed more IMO), but blaming the sick for not protecting themselves rather than focusing on those negligent in preventing infection and in not taking care of others … is a choice.

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@Frieke72 @coronavirus @longcovid

Thank you!

maegul , to Random stuff
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

We've all been played for fools.

The whole "if it's free you're the product" thing has metastasized into "you're a feudal serf whether it's free or not".

https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/112453073300903901 (by @GossiTheDog )

brianb , to Random stuff
@brianb@fosstodon.org avatar

I've noticed a big shift toward, "We should be teaching kids how to cite AI."

That's antithetical to citations. A citation points you to the original source. Citing AI is effectively erasing original sources in a misguided effort to "teach students how to responsibly use AI tools."

Responsible use is teaching people that AI tools are plagiarism machines. Period.

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@brianb

Ok, likely unproductive response, but what the actual fuck!

Is this the education system still getting to grips with Wikipedia and the internet maybe being not entirely irrelevant and so applying the same degree of acceptance of Wikipedia to AI?

Or is this corporate propaganda?

Or just desperation at not know what to do anymore as tech disrupts traditional education structures (a real problem I’d wager)?

Either way, citing AI is just dumb and betrays someone who’s confused about AI

mackuba , to Random stuff
@mackuba@martianbase.net avatar

😬😬 https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:cak4klqoj3bqgk5rj6b4f5do/post/3ksnbjtnvlx2z

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@mackuba

::all the vomiting emojis::

Can't wait to federate with them!

juliancday , to Random stuff
@juliancday@writing.exchange avatar

Deleted my Reddit account ✌️

https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/16/24158529/reddit-openai-chatgpt-api-access-advertising

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@krst @juliancday

It's obviously no reddit in size, very far from it, but it's by no means empty either.

The "threadiverse" is the current "growth" area of the fediverse IMO, especially if you include blogs like WP and Ghost. See eg: https://community.nodebb.org/post/99736

Getting involved and supporting that kind of platform on the fediverse is IMO a good idea. The fediverse needs more "community building" tools, and forums/reddits are good for that. Lemmy even has private sub-lemmies on the road map.

GossiTheDog , to Random stuff
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

Slack have decided to start training AI on enterprise customer data, including DMs, private workspaces and files. You have to have admin opt out via email. HT @Quinnypig

https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/trust/data-management/privacy-principles

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@chetwisniewski @GossiTheDog @Quinnypig

Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/743/

"The worlds tiniest open-source violin"

helenczerski , to Random stuff
@helenczerski@fediscience.org avatar

It occurred to me this evening that society’s atttitude to AI is like that thing about believing every story in a newspaper except the one on your area of expertise, which is full of flaws. Society seems to believe uncritically that AI can/will do all these difficult things (drive cars, select job candidates), but whenever we’re actually faced with it, it’s not nearly as convincing (drive cars, select job candidates).

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@helenczerski

Nice connection!

Crichton named it "Gell-Mann Amnesia" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Gell-Mann_amnesia_effect)

It makes perfect sense to extend this to AI accuracy.

Notably on point explanation from Crichton 20 years later:

"and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read."

fediversereport , to Random stuff
@fediversereport@mastodon.social avatar

New: Video, audio and blogging: Japanese is building in the ATmosphere

I take a look at 3 new products build on

Blogging with whtwnd.com
Video with bluemotion.app
Audio spaces with bluecast.app

Read at: https://fediversereport.com/video-audio-and-blogging-japanese-bluesky-is-building-in-the-atmosphere/

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@seanbala @fediversereport

There are problems here too. I suspect this is a fundamental issue that decentralised social media hasn’t taken seriously enough. It’s a bit like back and front end people not working together well. Protocol people can be inclined to underestimate the importance of what happens in the client, which IMO is where federation actually happens, as it’s there that platforms and UIs need to get stitched together.

I’ve ranted about this before (eg: https://hachyderm.io/@maegul/112319245679533802)

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@laurenshof @seanbala @fediversereport

In the remote chance that it’s interesting, I ranted along similar lines here (on another now deleted account): https://hachyderm.io/@maegul@akkomane.social/112278407165110460

ben , to Random stuff
@ben@werd.social avatar

If Google makes its money through contextual ads on search results pages now, in an AI-driven world it’ll make its money through sponsored answers (or just contextual ads related to the answers). The way sites will continue to get traffic is through buying ads.

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@ben

Yea, I said more or less the same the other day: https://hachyderm.io/@maegul/112442514504667645

My guess is that Google’s plan is to leverage their ads dominance to be the first to sustainably monetise AI and keep it “up to date”

maegul ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@alessandro @ben

Yea, that's part of what I'm saying. Google is search. To transition their user base onto their own AI, they don't need the best AI, just one that's good enough and better than the current SEO shit show.

maegul , to Random stuff
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Some good old internet style shit in here

https://lemmy.world/post/15455662

maegul , to Technology
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

Google's play on Search, Ads and AI feels obvious to me.

  • They know search is broken.
  • And that people use AI in part because it takes the ads and SEO crap out.
  • IE, AI is now what Google was in 2000. A simple window onto the internet.
  • Ads/SEO profits will fall with AI.
  • But Google will then just insert shit into AI "answers" for money.
  • Ads managed + up-to-date AI will be their new mote and golden goose.

@technology

See @caseynewton 's blog post: https://mastodon.social/@caseynewton/112442253435702607

maegul OP ,
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

@technology @caseynewton

That search/SEO is broken seems to be part of the game plan here.

It's probably like Russia burning Moscow against Napoleon and a hell of a privilege Google enjoy with their monopoly.

I've seen people opt for chatGPT/AI precisely because it's clean, simple and spam free, because it isn't Google Search.

And as @caseynewton said ... the web is now in managed decline.

For those of us who like it, it's up to us to build what we need for ourselves. Big tech has moved on

maegul , to vegan
@maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

This was my key insight on .

It’s about unlearning empathy. About learning to other and put up walls of concern.

I saw parents bring their children through a seafood shop that had live crabs tied up in a basket, and the parents corral them away from the crabs and direct them to not care about them. It was training. Learning to not care about obvious suffering, strengthening one muscle annd atrophying another.

All for comfort and conformity.

https://social.coop/@GuerillaOntologist/112405848462335132

@vegan
@vegan

Wolven , to Random stuff
@Wolven@ourislandgeorgia.net avatar

I can only stay mad at my students for so long for stealing their classmates' work and running it through LLM-based auto-thesaurus-ers, when this is the kind of shit that is happening at the largest, most prestigious journals in the entire academy. I just… This shit is so deeply, darkly systemic.

https://www.wsj.com/science/academic-studies-research-paper-mills-journals-publishing-f5a3d4bc?st=sgc2yq1xhe54ij4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Cabanac and his colleagues realized that researchers who wanted to avoid plagiarism detectors had swapped out key scientific terms for synonyms from automatic text generators, leading to comically misfit phrases. “Breast cancer” became “bosom peril”; “fluid dynamics” became “gooey stream”; “artificial intelligence” became “counterfeit consciousness.” The tool is publicly available.
ALT
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    • + maegul
    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @FediThing @Wolven

    Forgotten? Not completely or across the board. But deprioritised? Absolutely, up and down the whole system.

    The university has been dying for a while as an institution while also becoming more expensive and overloaded. It’s now or soon will be a smart position to ignore its prestige and not take it seriously. Which of course creates the dangerous scenario of there being nothing that can be taken seriously.

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Wolven

    Yep. A cynical production line of certificates and publication metrics.

    The University as an institution can no longer be taken too seriously while it is also not worth the resources it consumes.

    Perhaps naive of me, but I wonder what connections there might be between “defund the police” and ideas along the lines of “reboot education/university”, the main one in my mind being that both institutions are overloaded in the problems they’re targeted at and so bloated+ineffective.

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @FediThing @Wolven

    Well there’s the commodification of education for sure. But also the “industrial complex”-ification too, which I think is the bigger problem or phenomenon.

    A key and uncomfortable question I think is that at some point the expectation was that many/most people go to university, while the economics of that are non-trivial. IE, there seems to be a real quality-quantity tension from which, I suspect, many other things flow.

    1/

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @FediThing @Wolven

    Now, university is extended university at the undergraduate level. And researchers burdened with the babysitting work that entails. Which means real education doesn’t start until post grad masters or PhD, which is privileged but also burdened by the product ionisation of research such that the air allowed for actual education gets thinned out compared to what one would expect/hope.

    The results are superficial degrees or burnt out cynical post-grads or “success stories”

    2/

    maegul , (edited ) to Random stuff
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    > Building social media … is not interesting to me anymore. These platforms seem like they're mostly strangers talking to strangers ... Social media platforms are huge attention routers, mostly useful for those who are seeking attention, and mostly detrimental to everyone else. Every time I open Twitter I regret it. Mastodon bores me. I can't bother to even open Bluesky. The SSB community is sweet, but I don't actually know these people.

    https://mastodon.social/@staltz/112218063802637164

    maegul , (edited ) to News from fediverse
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    The fediverse won’t succeed at putting up a substitute and that’s a problem?

    Just an impression: All the pieces seem to be there. But what’s required is a team, with devs, PMs and coordinators, dedicated to making a particular place in the .

    That’s resources and decently sized financial and organisational demands, especially to get a critical mass of users.

    Is the fediverse up to that challenge? If not, is it an issue worth addressing?

    @fediverse

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @admin

    Some, maybe many, hope for the decentralised model of the fediverse to “take back the internet”. Each time a commercial platform “enshitifies“, there are then calls for the fediverse to replace it with a federated alternative, in part to take advantage of the moment of user agitation.

    But, IMO, resources and financial support are a touchy topic in the fediverse. If such has lead to a mismatch between ambition and opportunity, and, capability, that may be worth addressing.

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @sabreW4K3

    lol, ok.

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Madiator2011

    Technically, we could very much have a federated SO like platform. The moderation work, depending on how much of that you want, could be onerous, but it’s technical viability is exactly why I wrote the post, as I get the feeling it won’t happen mainly because it’s require precisely the kind of resources that the fediverse struggles to muster though the end product would probably be generally desirable.

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @corsicanguppy

    So this is the kind of thing I was targeting. That there may be a mismatch between what the fediverse is even willing to think of (here, a somewhat commercial or ads-revenue driven platform) and what plenty would be happy with as a way to get a good service or platform on the fediverse.

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @ajsadauskas @lemmyreader

    Yep! It seems a good Threadiverse ecosystem could be on its way with lemmy etc, nodebb and discourse. Hooking a stack overflow alternative into that could make a lot of sense of kick starting it.

    Though at some point UI differences could prove problematic(?)

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @weirdwriter @ajsadauskas @lemmyreader

    Yes, forum platforms too (incl of course).

    I do get the (very vague) impression discourse is focusing on integrating well with masto to a good extent and so might not integrate too well with the other Reddit/forum platforms. If true, that might be a good enough reason to start with another base. OTOH, it’s a familiar platform to many devs so adapting it for stackoverflow like use could go well right?

    Codeberg , to Random stuff
    @Codeberg@social.anoxinon.de avatar

    Anyone considering how to break the already? Any alternative work in progress?

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @YurkshireLad @BaumiCoder @Codeberg

    Well the Reddit alternatives would likely be a good place to start. There arguably isn’t too much to add or modify to get started on a working substitute.

    carnage4life , to Random stuff
    @carnage4life@mas.to avatar

    This feels like the first ad that is a tone deaf miss from Apple. An ad showing beautiful tools of human creativity being crushed to be replaced by the newest and thinnest gadget feels antithetical to Apple.

    I’d expect this from an AI company not Apple.
    https://youtu.be/ntjkwIXWtrc?si=VGoNknBw7VNkvuwO

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @carnage4life

    Huh, yea. whether you think apple would ordinarily be better than this, I think it's just generally in poor taste and dumb. The iPad replaces an acoustic guitar?!!

    What's worse is that there are plenty of other ways of making the same point without breaking things.

    thomas , to News from fediverse
    @thomas@metalhead.club avatar

    Are Reddit alternatives still a thing or did we agree to just accept Reddit? 😅

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @thomas well popularity aside (compared to masto at least) the amount of Reddit alts is approaching the Twitter alts now (just much younger):

    Lemmy
    Kbin
    Mbin (fork)
    SubLinks
    Piefed
    Azorius
    (Plus some I prob forgot)
    And if forums count, NodeBB, with discourse coming (?)

    jeffowski , to Random stuff
    @jeffowski@mastodon.world avatar

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @jeffowski

    1971 strikes again: https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

    emilygorcenski , to Random stuff
    @emilygorcenski@indieweb.social avatar

    Another IoT fail

    https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/google-fit-apis-get-shut-down-in-2025-might-break-fitness-devices/

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @WmShakesp3are @koteisaev

    And the part that follows and is more applicable to Google apps:

    It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
    Signifying nothing.

    maegul , to News from fediverse
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    Lemmy is experimenting with plugins.

    https://lemmy.ml/post/15187879

    Still in experimental prototyping stages it seems, but cool to see. Hope it gets worked on and works out well.

    Could be an interesting experiment for the Fedi in general?

    It’s using rust’s extism, so webaasembly for plugins.

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @chrastecky

    Yea I don't know much about the LemmyWebhooks package. How's the performance? Would/does it scale well?

    Agreed, native would be good but this is basically experimental at the moment.

    I get the sense the core devs are looking for community direction on how and what to build before committing.

    Would taking direct inspiration from what lemmywebhooks does be the best path?

    DivineKestrel , to Random stuff
    @DivineKestrel@chaosfem.tw avatar

    Farscape is the show you get by cobbling together random parts of Star Trek, Stargate, Firefly, Labyrinth, The Muppet Show, and Ren and Stimpy.

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @miriamrobern @DivineKestrel

    I think they missed Scorpius no?

    gisiger , to News from fediverse
    @gisiger@nerdculture.de avatar

    Wasn't the the friendlier, more diverse, and safer alternative? Well, not so much. Thanks to the FOSS Taliban, another well-loved creator leaves for good.

    https://vkc.sh/its-not-you-its-me-taking-a-break-from-mastodon/

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @gisiger

    Yea, it’s time to call time on microblogging, at least as a central focus for social media.

    I’m also thinking of just deleting my account and walking to give myself time for other things.

    maegul , to News from fediverse
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    Nice demonstration of why mastodon's dominance is problematic

    See the conversions here:
    https://github.com/LemmyNet/lemmy/pull/4628
    and
    https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/federating-the-content-of-posts-note-articles-and-character-limits/4087

    AFAICT, mastodon's decisions, which are arguably problematic (on which see: https://lemmy.ml/post/14973403) are literally trickling down to other platforms and infecting how they federate with each other as they dance around mastodon's quirks in different ways.

    It seems like masto is ruining "the standard" with its gravity.


    @fediverse

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Trainguyrom

    Ha
    AFAIU, two platforms other than mastodon (lemmy and discourse) have issues federating because at least one of them is trying federate well with mastodon (for obvious reasons). The mastodon quirk causing issues is, AFAIU, the way it kinda mangles articles and pages (long form formats in ActivityPub), which are appropriate for forums and link-aggregators like lemmy and discourse. So someone hints been done to work well with mastodon’s mangling, which hurts lemmy-discourse interop

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @p03locke

    Yep, yep and ... yep!

    aral , to Random stuff
    @aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

    “A lot of rich people don’t actually want an education system or the educated population that would come along with it. Sure, it would be better for everyone. But it would also mean having to share, and these people have let their greed literally drive them insane.”

    https://www.okdoomer.io/im-a-professor-heres-why-im-walking-away-from-my-tenure/

    1/2

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @unrelatedwaffle @aral

    Ooh. That is interesting.

    maegul , (edited ) to News from fediverse
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    Reflecting on the firefish/calckey "moment"

    which was about a year ago now, I can't help but suspect it was a small event with wider implications on the dominance of in the

    I think it was the last chance to direct the twitter migration energy into discovering new/different fedi platforms.

    And it was blown, with alt-social in a weird steady/waiting state that's smaller I suspect, than what many hoped for.

    @fediverse

    cntd: https://hachyderm.io/@maegul/112358202238795371

    1/

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Uraael @GeekinKorea

    You're probably very right about all of that. (Would you mind letting me know who that "spider" was, as I mostly didn't pay attentioon to that episode)

    In the end though, AFAIU, as a lead dev they were very happy to hold onto their role as BDFL. Which, if you're up for it, great, sometimes that's necessary to make things happen. But if you're not and then become the vulnerability, then that's a bad call and the buck has to stop with you for it.

    maegul OP ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @Uraael @GeekinKorea

    Nonetheless, I'm more interested in the general dynamics of the whole thing, not blaming or even thinking about any one individual. The "spider" and the episode they created, for example.

    On a personal level, I wish all the best for the lead dev and hope that they are proud of what they did because they deserve it.

    I do not think though that the fediverse can be proud and happy about what happened and should probably question itself (incl us users TBH). That's my point.

    lynnesbian , to Random stuff
    @lynnesbian@fedi.lynnesbian.space avatar

    "i use linux as my operating system," i state proudly to the unkempt, bearded man. he swivels around in his desk chair with a devilish gleam in his eyes, ready to mansplain with extreme precision.
    "actually," he says with a grin, "linux is just the kernel. you use GNU+linux."
    i don't miss a beat and reply with a smirk, "i use alpine, a distro that doesn't include the GNU coreutils, or any other GNU code. it's linux, but it's not GNU+linux."

    the smile quickly drops from the man's face. his body begins convulsing and he foams at the mouth as he drop to the floor with a sickly thud. as he writhes around he screams "I-IT WAS COMPILED WITH GCC! THAT MEANS IT'S STILL GNU!"
    coolly, i reply "if windows was compiled with gcc, would that make it GNU?" i interrupt his response with "and work is being made on the kernel to make it more compiler-agnostic. even if you were correct, you won't be for long."

    with a sickly wheeze, the last of the man's life is ejected from his body. he lies on the floor, cold and limp. i've womansplained him to death.

    maegul ,
    @maegul@hachyderm.io avatar

    @jeremy_list @lynnesbian

    I’ve been on a number instances/platforms now with limits ranging from 4,000-15,000, and AFAICT it’s basically never a problem. So long as the UI has an “expand” option for longer content, nothing is lost.

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