Notices by Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@social.vivaldi.net), page 3

Please tell me this is satire.

https://marchforbillionaires.org

Once more, it's worth saying: these guys think they are the smartest people in the room.

Oh come on, someone must want a mechanical scorpion from the Natural History Museum for free!

https://www.freecycle.org/posts/100756872

“Do that with the all-new Acrobat” might be one of the most unintentionally hilarious ad campaigns of all time.

I would love to find out why the British government, countless brands and god knows how many journalists still think X is a place they should be, given Musk's out-and-out racism.

Now this is how you exit a "smart" tech business. Bose is open-sourcing the API for SmartTouch speakers, moving as much functionality as possible to an app, and extending support.

https://www.theverge.com/news/858501/bose-soundtouch-smart-speakers-open-source

Pondering starting an officially licensed Betteridge's Law Judge course, so for just £1000 I train you so that you too can answer question headlines with the word "No".

@chris Your non-resolutions bear a remarkable similarity to mine -- although I *am* embracing Linux more, and loving my giddy little Framework.

RE: https://thepit.social/@peter/115824339431975101

I had heard about this kind of algorithmic theft from workers, but never seen this level of detail about it. Unions, people. Unions.

@davidtoddmccarty @WarnerCrocker Well now you're getting into the deep water of "what is art?"

Slop Is Slop

"I wrote just a few months ago that I firmly believe generative AI tools not only can be, but already are, used to create genuine art. My problem with AI slop isn’t the AI, it’s the slop."

I know this is a position which is controversial with those who take a strong anti-AI position (and I understand those positions). But I tend to agree with John. All tools can be used for art. What matters is the art, not the tool. https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/slop_is_slop

A beautiful story of kindness and love for Christmas day.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxwllqz1l0o

Why can't Mozilla concentrate on making Firefox a better browser?

I'm not against AI in browsers. But it is to be off by default and privacy protected. Sigh.

https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enzor-demeo

I mean how did the leadership who caved in to the threats from evil bigots expect to enforce this? Are group leaders expected to check genitals?

Actually, maybe that’s what the transphobes want: to be the ones getting to fondle little kids to “check their sex".

https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/12/05/girlguiding-leaders-trans-ban/

Perhaps the most hilarious thing about the White House’s “Media Offender of the Week” post is that it doesn't actually contradict the claim that the Washington Post made.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/mediabias/

This, of course, is bang on. China is already ahead in EVs, and rather than compete with that, German automakers are demanding “more time”. The fossil-fuel era of driving is over.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/02/china-volvo-polestar-eu-2035-petrol-car-sweden-germany

AI computing is now all about megawatts and gigawatts, like a competition to trash the planet first. Feels like a wild expansionist race to be the company with the biggest e-peen.

Remember the happy days when you could install software on your own hardware which let you do pretty-much anything you wanted with it? And all without the hardware maker trying to sue you? Good times, man, good times.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060823190620/http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodPort

This week, we have Bluesky being stupid, Google being evil, Apple being devious, the government being daft about AI. tech bros needing a much wider reading list, and AI dogs. My friends, it has not been a good week in tech.

https://www.ianbetteridge.com/ten-blue-links-dont-be-evil-some-conditions-apply-edition/

RE: https://mas.to/@carnage4life/115550840250852679

Who amongst us could possibly have predicted etc etc etc