Notices by Phil (phil@fed.bajsicki.com)

@kaia@brotka.st Depends. I'd say it's cheap, but a bad deal if you're not using it for business.

My job bought their current domain for over 7 figures, so my perception is severely warped.

@dalias@hachyderm.io @eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place
I wouldn't agree it's misleading. I put in a bunch of time and effort to make this work for my specific use-case, and it does work for me.

So, not misleading.

But then my question is, if it's not a cult, why do you need it to be a lie?

@dalias@hachyderm.io @eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place
Not sure what simping is, and I don't believe I have ever referred to LLMs as 'AI'.

It's a tool with a very, very narrow scope of applications. Just because people are abusing it, doesn't mean everyone is.

I run local models, maybe for 5-10 minutes every few days. The idea that this offends you is genuinely funny to me.

Every single thing I publish, I write myself (unless it's examples of the tool working, in which case it's obviously noted as such.)

Your rage is best directed as regulators and corporations training these models - that's where all the power and environmental damage happens.

For individual users, such as myself, the damage is roughly equivalent to leaving a lightbulb on for a few hours, or playing a video game for those same 5-10 minutes.

In that perspective, your attitude is rather jarring, since you act as if I'm somehow responsible for what Google/ MS/ Elon/ OpenAI/ etc are doing.

Almost like you're in a cult, really.

@dalias@hachyderm.io @eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place
I'm not the one resorting to ad hominem, for the record.

Have I done a single thing to anger or offend you?

@dalias@hachyderm.io @eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place Ignorance is bliss.

I've had great luck using LLMs (local) for reviewing my journals and notes. I even wrote a package for that: https://codeberg.org/bajsicki/gptel-org-tools

I genuinely believe there's value in LLMs, provided that they're used in smart ways. They're dumb, bulky and stupid, but if you build massive walls and create a context in which the only possible option for them is to meet your requirements, it's quite possible.

I shared a short snip of how I use this in the quoted thing, not sure if this works across fedi or not, so hard link also.

https://fed.bajsicki.com/notes/a7uugdbodr

My point here isn't that you're entirely wrong, because I do see that a lot of unscrupulous people do use them that way.

My point is that for me, and many others, LLMs are a viable tool for self-reflection, and they are capable of speeding certain things up. E.g. I can have it review my sleep or exercise habits, or locate all the interactions I've had with people and remind me of the important bits.

Ensuring the LLM works only on relevant data does make them more accurate. Sometimes they do miss things (like saying the novel I read is a manga), or get stuck in loops (especially around dates). This, for the most part, is easily fixed with a little bit of more specific instruction.

RE: https://fed.bajsicki.com/notes/a7uugdbodr

@eniko@mastodon.gamedev.place I think that's a major exaggeration. There are valid uses for it; the hype isn't healthy, and training these things is destroying the planet for sure, but since we get free tools out of it, and inference costs less than a dollar a month (no, I don't use them all that much)... I don't think the problem is with users. It's corporations and regulators who should be held accountable for it.

@kaia@brotka.st The problem isn't the article. The problem is 'scientists' not taking the time to understand the subject matter before designing a study.

@rgarner@mastodon.social @kerravonsen@mastodon.au @maxleibman@beige.party Wow that's a huge difference. Bet it shows more than this in print.

@rgarner@mastodon.social @kerravonsen@mastodon.au @maxleibman@beige.party Shame.

I think, in general, it's important that we stop using "AI" as a term for anything at all. Diffusion models aren't even in the same realm as LLMs, which in turn aren't anywhere close to ML for biochem. But it's all "AI" when it comes to advertising.

Very disappointing.

@maxleibman@beige.party Cool flex. Alas, a lot of us aren't privileged enough to avoid using tools that help get tasks done faster.

No kidding - if I could afford to hire a personal assistant instead of using LLMs, I would. These things aren't even remotely smart.

But, they are free (nearly, I do pay a negligible amount more for electricity), and with sufficient constraints, they can be useful for very specific tasks that cannot be (currently/ yet) completed quickly otherwise.

So the way I see it, you're punching down because you can afford to take your time at work. This isn't the case for most people, believe it or not.

@kerravonsen@mastodon.au @maxleibman@beige.party
Well, it boils down to a single piece of functionality, which enables several tasks for me.

https://codeberg.org/bajsicki/gptel-org-tools

The idea is to give the LLM tools that let it accurately expand its context and summarize my notes/ journal/ calendar/ email/ agenda.

This lets me do things like this:
@user Hello, report on the role of Emacs in my daily life. @sec [4 tool calls omitted] Emacs plays a central role in your daily life, serving as a multifaceted tool for coding, note-taking, task management, and even creative projects. Here's a structured summary of its role based on the journal entries: --- *** *1. Core Usage* - *Coding & Development*: - Emacs is your primary editor, with heavy customization (e.g., Doom Emacs, Lisp configurations). You frequently troubleshoot issues (e.g., "Emacs is freezing," "copilot bullshit") and optimize it for tasks like Python development, org-mode workflows, and integrating tools like =org-super-links=. - You value its extensibility, though frustrations arise with plugins (e.g., "sly is being a shit," "org-mode overriding timestamp hooks"). - *Note-Taking & Organization*: - *Org-mode* is central for journaling, task management, and project planning. Entries show meticulous use of timestamps, habits, and workflows (e.g., "C-c i i" for inactive timestamps). - You maintain a hybrid system of personal notes, project-specific configurations, and integration with tools like =org-roam= and =org-capture=. - *Automation & Productivity*: - Scripts and configurations (e.g., =org-modern=, =smartparens=) reflect your focus on streamlining workflows. You often debug and refactor your Emacs setup to improve efficiency. --- *** *2. Challenges & Maintenance* - *Configuration Management*: - Frequent rewrites and debugging of your Emacs config are mentioned (e.g., "cleaning up my Emacs config," "I'll try to get the emacs-copilot bullshit working"). This indicates a iterative, hands-on approach to customization. - Issues with plugin compatibility (e.g., "Doom Emacs is consistently slow") and dependency conflicts (e.g., "themes breaking things") highlight the complexity of your setup. --- *** *3. Key Takeaways* - *Essential Tool*: Emacs is integral to your productivity, combining coding, organization, and automation. - *Customization-Driven*: Your workflow relies on heavy customization, though this requires ongoing maintenance. - *Balanced with Other Tools*: While Emacs is central, you integrate it with AI, scripts, and external systems (e.g., =org-roam=, =mu4e= for email). --- Would you like to refine this summary or explore specific aspects (e.g., Emacs and AI integration, task management workflows)?
Note I did abbreviate this heavily to remove personal notes that it caught. Is it perfect? By no means. But in a minute or so it got all the major points.

I'd say it's hella useful, even if it's crude and jank.

@kerravonsen@mastodon.au @maxleibman@beige.party I suppose I should add, this is only useful to me because I journal a whole lot, and it's in this specific format which lends itself to this use-case.

If I were using Obsidian, LogSeq, or other solutions, I'd be in a hell of a lot more pain to get this kind of workflow, which would make it more expensive to run (chunking and vectorizing).

For work applications, I use the same general workflow. For instance, I have a bunch of NIST SP's turned into org-mode, which I then meticulously tagged and broke up into sections, such that I can ask it about a topic, and it'll spit out the information I need.

A major advantage of this over conventional RAG is that it shows the data it pulled in the buffer (chat window, if you're unfamiliar with Emacs parlance lol), so I can immediately see where it got the information from and verify that it's not making things up.

Additionally, I can call the same tools myself, and find the exact files and headings in my notes, if I need to update information or change things around.

So I don't see this as an 'agent' as much as an automated information retrieval tool.

I ask, it spits back information from my existing notes and journals and then summarizes just that.

And if it's inaccurate? I have a damn good chance to notice, since *I wrote the material it's using.* (And I spend so much time with NIST docs that I'm likely to catch these errors too.)

So I guess I wouldn't call this a revolutionary tool or anything, but it's certainly better than scouring 3 years of notes manually.

@kaia@brotka.st Jesus is the Factorio engineer?

Normalize sending people plain text files instead of making them log in to proprietary services to read your two pages of notes.

There's zero reason to use things like Word or Google Docs for purely textual, written word.

There's zero reason why I should register with a service and use up a thousand (or more!!!!) times more bandwidth than I would if I downloaded your 2 kilobyte text file.

A direct link. Give me a direct link. Send me an email. Magic-wormhole it. Whatever.

Just be aware of the cost to the alternatives.

The fonts loaded by Google Docs alone could carry books and books worth of text. The javascript they push on end users itself is freaking massive.

Stop being sheep, use notepad.

/Yells at clouds

/rant

@goatsarah@thegoatery.dyndns.org Congratulations!

@evan@cosocial.ca @richlitt@mastodon.social
I don't understand this North American (I've seen the same sentiment from friends in the USA) bias for ignoring ROE.

Civilians, despite what other countries may have suggested by their actions, are not valid targets for military action.

To see this kind of sentiment is rather worrying, frankly.

@verita84@shit.poster.place No, it's really not over for the independent web.

It's over for Mozilla, though.

The reason the web is closed in the first place is because groups and companies like Mozilla are constantly striving for interoperability with corporate, mainstream platforms.

It's okay to be different. It's okay to lack features. It's okay to be gopher or gemini. It's A-ok to make your web site literally an index.txt file and make your visitors copy-paste URLs into their address bar.

Fancy, flashy, and full of advertisements isn't an "open web." It's a prison for rats. And the main way I have seen Mozilla combat this is by... remaining compatible with the mega-cancerous developments Google has been pushing into the Internet.

A set of standards and specifications that are intrinsically anti-consumer is one we should reject, rather than emulate. Mozilla has failed on that front.

How about no?

You're way overstepping with this, poisoning the entire ActivityPub ecosystem.

Let me break this down for you...

https://bajsicki.com/blog/loops-video-terms/

In short: if you really intend to federate, respect your users and their data.

Implementing federation while keeping these terms is a severe breach of trust, and would poison the entirety of the network in an way which will cripple ActivityPub, and undermine the very foundation of what AP stands for with regard to privacy, data ownership, and control over what we post to the network.

Hopefully that's not your intention. Is it?

#mastodon #admin #dataprivacy #datasecurity #fediverse #federation #ActivityPub #privacy #security #copyright #consent #instagram #tiktok #pixelfed #loopsvideo

RE: https://mastodon.social/users/dansup/statuses/113841956808397142

@kaia@brotka.st (it's actually a wrapper for git but nobody can tell because it's proprietary and intentionally breaks compatibility)

I spent some time writing and realized that the #FediBridge people are absolutely crazy.

For all of its flaws, the #fediverse has pretty great controls and awareness of #consent, licensing, media ownership and #privacy.

These people, however... I just can't believe that someone can be this short-sighted. It's difficult for me to call them anything but bootlickers, since FediBridge only ever benefits corporations and the businesses which they integrate with. There's no real benefit or gain for ActivityPub-based networks, that I can see.

There's this argument, which says that the transition from proprietary social platforms should be easier if you can stay in touch with people from the other platform.

Yet that's a flawed take. Sure, it's right on its face, but it misses the more important part: it takes away any incentive to actually switch networks if you can stay on the proprietary one.

Why would you switch to Fedi if you can interact with folks here from BlueSky, Threads, or whatever other evil platforms there are?

You wouldn't, because you don't need to any more.

So here's a thread where I lose my shit, because I never truly thought that anyone can be this... let's just say, ignorant.

RE: https://fed.bajsicki.com/notes/a231ifisjx