Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

"There Is (Still) No Ethical Use of AI" by my brilliant colleague @melikhovo

https://matthewcheney.net/blog/there-is-still-no-ethical-use-of-ai/

#AI #HigherEd

I used to think that phishing tests and training were pretty pointless (like this study says), but I recently changed my mind.

Most people use tests as a (misguided) way to train employees. Instead, the value in tests is finding out how often phishing doesn't work, and how quickly employees will detect and report a non-targeted phishing attempt. This aids risk analysis and scoring, when phishing is the initial attack vector.

#infosec #phishing

https://www.scworld.com/news/phishing-training-is-pretty-pointless-researchers-find

I use old laptops as my primary home server instead of mini PCs because they come with a built-in multi-hour UPS and a crash cart.

Using old phones offers similar advantages, in particular if your alternative was a Raspberry Pi.

https://hackaday.com/2025/08/16/from-smartphone-to-a-home-server/

When Australian artificial intelligence expert Dr Kobi Leins declined a medical specialist’s request to use AI transcription software during her child’s upcoming appointment, the practice told her [she] was "welcome to seek an alternative" provider.

[...]

It was a system whose privacy and security capabilities Leins had previously reviewed as part of her work in AI governance — and one she said she would not want her child’s data “anywhere near”.

https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2025/kobi-refused-a-doctors-ai-she-was-told-to-go-elsewhere.html

Is It Still ‘#Trump Derangement Syndrome’ If All The Predictions Were Accurate? - https://www.techdirt.com/2025/08/12/is-it-still-trump-derangement-syndrome-if-all-the-predictions-were-accurate/ same happened with #brexit: we warned, they mocked, we were right, they were wrong

#Trump Confesses He Will Bankrupt the Country Unless #SCOTUS Lets Him Break the Law - https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/13/trump-confesses-he-will-bankrupt-the-country-unless-scotus-lets-him-break-the-law/ "the Roberts Court won’t dare uphold the law, for fear of being held accountable for the financial ruin Trump is rushing us towards." just insane stuff

Everything I Know about Self-Publishing - https://kk.org/thetechnium/everything-i-know-about-self-publishing/ kevin kelly's wisdom based on many years' experience; worth reading for insights

Horrifying transformation turns ordinary rabbits into nightmare creatures as virus spreads through Colorado - https://boingboing.net/2025/08/13/horrifying-transformation-turns-ordinary-rabbits-into-nightmare-creatures-as-virus-spreads-through-colorado.html yikes

The Online Safety Act: How not to do internet regulation - https://www.technollama.co.uk/the-online-safety-act-how-not-to-do-internet-regulation "could inadvertently push UK citizens towards less regulated platforms or encourage the development of parallel digital ecosystems that operate entirely outside British oversight." yup #osa

China is about to launch SSDs so small you insert them like a SIM card - https://www.theverge.com/news/759624/china-is-about-to-launch-ssds-so-small-you-insert-them-like-a-sim-card amazing

Trump regime apparatchiks would have to improve to be merely incompetent, exhibit 44,420:

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5504196/trump-putin-summit-documents-left-behind

'It was embarrassing for Americans to welcome a notorious wanted war criminal on their territory. It was humiliating to watch an American president act like a happy puppy upon encountering the dictator of a much poorer, much less important state, treating him as a superior.'

14-day gift read

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/08/trump-putin-ukraine-talks/683899/?gift=rMst1BY9gP1HWgkOEVmAK26QXIlbmVKyC4KOuoJ1DDU

#politics #uspol

as a software entwicklerin i have assigned some dumb names to things, either in lack of better names or as a means to inject silliness into things that are too serious and unfun by default

but at least i never named a fish species "stripey"

If journalists were doing their jobs, they would call the deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, DC, from three deep-red states what it is: an invasion and occupation force.

https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/3-states-move-to-send-hundreds-of-national-guard-members-to-washington/

Inequality is bad for your health, even if you're rich.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/money-cant-buy-life-the-richest-americans-die-earlier-than-the-poorest-europeans/

While I'm generally very pro-EU, this #ChatControl initiative they keep pushing - despite experts having persistently debunking the rationale behind it - is indefensible.

Instead, this initiative will create an extremely invasive surveillance state where everything you type, view and receive is automatically scanned & potentially (falsely) flagged for human review.

This would mean the end of privacy.

If you are an EU-citizen, please consider writing to your MEPs.

https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

I'd like to start manufacturing more LLM poison, but I'm a little bit sniped on where to get good source data.

Basically, I want to run Dissociated Press (markov-chain text generation) over some input sources, but I want to use sources that I can either a) find as public domain, or b) use under a combined license. For example, a bunch of code under the MIT license (the *same* MIT license) could all be churned up together.

I also want to ensure that the text's words and topics cover the space that LLMs will be called on to generate within. One approach would be to use English Wikipedia, for instance. Another would be to grab a bunch of Rust or Python source code that's all under the same license.

Those both involve more curation than I was hoping to do. Are there other sources I should be thinking of?

#LLM

Latest comic on the uptick in NEPHs

#science #disinformation #conspiracytheories #media #health