Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

Our May development summary is out! 👀

Catch up on Phosh's latest improvements, 🐛 fixes, and what else is 🍳: https://phosh.mobi/posts/development-news-2026-05/

#LinuxMobile #Phosh #BengalOS #gtk #linux #mobile

@fluids_guru @thestrangelet

There are good reasons for all those things to exist. They benefit individual developers or whole teams or they're necessary to deliver products that customers want.

But this…

I'm now reluctantly starting to use it because, in my 60s, I'm too old to find another software development job. If I'm made redundant, it'll mean enforced retirement. My employer has made it clear that redundancies are coming and that #AI is one of the reasons (although it's shrouded in Americanised bullshit about growth and productivity and opportunity and not getting left behind). Either I follow my employer's directives or Mrs Wife and I lose my income for the rest of my life. We both have close relatives in their nineties, so we can't afford to stop working yet. So it's off to #GitHubCopilot I go, and I hope I can stay careful enough to spot its nonsense.

@kibcol1049

uh yeah, sick people get tired & can't do stuff, & the more severely ill or injured they are, the more likely this is... i don't even understand the appeals procedure for our insurance, & i'm not seriously ill (my husband is)

this should be a crime & all the Cigna execs should be in prison for manslaughter, serial murder, & conspiracy to fraud & murder

if only we had law enforcement that cared about fraud in the sense of preventing rather filling their own pockets

#FreeLuigi

In the US, insurance company’s use AI to deny claims in just 1.2 seconds. No exaggeration. Cigna built an algorithm that reviewed and rejected 300,000 claims in 2 months. Each in an average of 1.2 seconds of “review.” That same system gets overturned on appeal 80% of the time. But the insurance company knows that less than 0.2% of people ever appeal. Not 20%. Not 2% but point 2% They’re not rejecting your claim because it’s wrong. They’re rejecting it because statistically, you’ll give up.

Ex-insider says Trump pick is using 'common core math' to deceive president - Raw Story
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-warsh-mtg-common-core/

"Enshittification" is too long. Replace it with "Googling," since its old definition no longer applies. https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2026/06/01

And I'm a relative hardliner on these matters! LLMs are shit for any serious work. But I've been directly turned down for interviews because I said that in public, and I'm in a very precarious economic situation, and like... we get punished a whole lot harder than cis people for compromising on LLMs, and yet the same people who do that have no answers when we ask how we're meant to keep living.

Or is it that we're meant to die beautifully to justify the compromises of others?

welp, I got laid off.

if anyone you know is looking for a slightly-used computational linguist -- remote or in #Syracuse, NY -- get in touch. I'm also open to "data science" positions if they're "languagey" #GetFediHired #NLProc #NLP

I have a very close friend in the U.S that is currently working a job where they are asked to do AI slop all day, every day, and they want out because it is depressing the hell out of them.

Super talented engineer, the kind of person that loves Clojure, 10/10 would recommend. If anyone knows of any open roles or would like to get in touch to commiserate, please shoot me a DM!

I've seen multiple houses with flags containing the actual word "Semiquincentennial." I know it stinks we missed the bicentennial and we aren't gonna make it to the tricentennial, but this seems forced.

Anyone looking for an embedded software engineer?

- 15 years experience (industrial and consumer electronics)
- Embedded security - 15mo for work, plus *years* as a hobby
- C, C++, Python and currently learning Rust
- ARM, MIPS, PIC, AVR experience plus x86
- Looking for UK remote or hybrid, or within commuting distance of Leeds via bike or public transport.

Boosts appreciated, CV available on request.

GH: https://www.github.com/philpem
WWW: https://philpem.me.uk

#GetFediHired

Who knows of cookbooks/guides for making meals for 50-100+ people? I'm thinking food not bombs type groups here - anyone have a source you use?

To have a moral stance on AI is to be an outcast, and it sucks.

https://musings.martyn.berlin/to-have-a-moral-stance-on-ai-is-to-be-an-outcast-and-it-sucks

I know the technology, I understand what it's doing and I know the impact, so I am vehemently anti-AI.

“In many cases, design choices strategically build on aspects of human psychology—such as reciprocity norms, people’s tendency to anthropomorphize, and emotional response to a sense of rapport."
https://www.404media.co/new-study-reveals-the-manipulative-dark-patterns-of-ai-chatbots/

Has there been a more divisive consumer product feature? DuckDuckGo installs rising because Google announced more AI features in Search is wild.

https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/gemini/articles/duckduckgo-installs-30-users-reject-223256854.html

We’re guaranteed another January 6th situation if Trump loses the election.

He’s signaled very clearly that if you commit political violence in his name, not only will you be pardoned but you could become a millionaire.

Republican lawmakers remember that he turned the mob on them last time.

https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-loyalists-urge-him-drop-205045000.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGmqBJTAn_hJ3R4X4bH36tSBzKFiOh1mhPX4Stckt3yrQd2MkCYvqVMP93lqRUSliB2jOJx0iWYwt37bvNeEcuZX4aqcppcDXk9FaW0fJLF4uW_jcX7AwRK3bMnZSh3R9lFPuszrftiSUafga93kLKi-mgkCeotfCuQ5llZyJl3h

LG wanted to charge me £1200 for the repair of my 40” monitor, which considering I bought it new in 2022 for £1500, not worth it. We tried replacing the boards ourselves, that wasn’t the problem.

Put it on Freecycle for spares and repair.
The person who comes to collect says “I think it’s the backlight, if I can fix it do you want it back?”

It’s a good world!

One of my clarifying thoughts in the slop age is: if someone didn’t have the patience to create something without the reconstitution machine doing most of it for them, they’re *definitely* not going to have the patience and diligence to maintain it properly afterwards. Maintenance is even more laborious and less dopamine rewarding than green field development. Run away

You gave a stranger with no soul and no skin in the game the keys to everything you own.