Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 8h

[to explain for non-techies]
Imagine you saw someone using a red pen for the first time, but instead of asking them where they got it, you just gave them your swipe card and said they could crash on your couch whenever.

Doesn't make any sense? It does when you make software!

Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 9h

New version of chalk.js

Foxy @foxylustygrover.bsky.social · 9h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Version control chaos confusion"

Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 9h

New version of chalk.js

Foxy @foxylustygrover.bsky.social · 9h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

"Version control chaos confusion"

Queen Olivia III @queenoliviaiii.com · 10h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“The tapes wouldn’t start”

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 9h

We're between houses at the moment, and our money isn't even in the bank. First thing I did was rent a warehouse in Upper Hutt and fill it with 200,000 tonne of potatoes. Switched my KiwiSaver to the Agria Fund.

Honestly if you own anything that can't be deep fried rn you're probably screwed.

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 2d

“Concerns over an AI bubble bursting have grown lately, with analysts recently finding that it’s 17 times the size of the dotcom-era bubble and four times bigger than the 2008 financial crisis.”

Hang onto your butts. This “correction” is gonna hurt.
futurism.com/artificial-i...

Bank of England Warns of Impending AI Disaster

The Bank of England has sounded the alarm, warning of an intensifying risk of a "sudden correction" due to an AI spending frenzy.

futurism.com

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 9h

yeah just BIZARRE meth is up at a time when a pound of butter can be said be optimistic in terms of ROI capacity, and half the adult population is tied up watching AI videos of Golden Retrievers skin diving for Titanic survivors.
www.1news.co.nz/2025/03/29/g...

Gangs making large profits amid 'bizarre' increase in meth use

New Zealand’s meth consumption rose from 732kg in 2023 to 1434kg in 2024.

www.1news.co.nz

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 11h

they're not even bad at [arithmetic, specifically] maths, they're not anything at it, it's something extra they have to bolt onto it specially because otherwise it just thinks "five nines" is 99999

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 11h

for non-subscribers: because people learned who he is. That's quite bad, if you're a cunt.

Ethan Manera @ethanmanera.bsky.social · 11h

“Chung's bid for mayor was taken advantage of by those with an axe to grind about issues he likely didn't even understand.”

OPINION: How Ray Chung’s once-promising mayoral bid collapsed in a landslide defeat

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/wellingto...

He was so confident in mayoral bid he reserved a $90k Rolex. Here's how it went so wrong

OPINION: Once a front-runner, Ray Chung's campaign style and scandal sank his mayoral bid.

www.nzherald.co.nz

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 18h

A lot of lolnope going on at WLG rn

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

it appear Radio New Zealand Herald has been acquired by Fox News www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

Trump, 79, has 'cardiac age' of 65-year-old, doctor says

The oldest person to assume the US presidency has been described as vigorous and fit by his physician.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

tbf, I only know the 2022 candidates that were cookers *now*, I didn't on the day of the '22 election, and it's possible there are several cookers in today's cohort yet to reveal themselves. None of the ones that straight up say they are cookers on the election statements made it in.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

net decrease in Whangārei

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

I’ve never thought about it before, but when I shake hands it’s miles away from my knob. If you pulled me in like that I‘d have to invoice you.

Cam Bennett @cambennett.bsky.social · 1d

Pathetic & desperate. Luxon is drowning.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

By the numbers. Combined with a vote to disestablish the Māori Ward 13k to 10k, it's pretty grim.

Two good incumbents gone. One ran and lost, one threw in the towel and I don't blame him.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

the hardest thing to watch was in spite of them actually delivering some of the lowest rate rises, you wouldn't know it to ask the population there. It's a relief today's outcome wasn't worse than it was.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

Brad will be spewing to get knocked out of the mayoral before her. That must sting.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

Oof, Whangārei results aren't great.

The good news is your rates probably aren't going to go up.
The bad news is you'll be lucky if the bread truck is even going up there in a year or two.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

… and if the specials bump it up a bit, well, let's just he's got a plan

Unix terminal output showing that 179 and 181 are both prime numbers

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

Don McDonald got 179 votes, dude'll be fucking stoked with a prime number

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

my wife has a degree in economics, and if she came home to me ripping copper pipe out of the walls she would probably not say "stop these asset sales immediately!", she would say "what the fuck are you doing you idiot", because the specific general ledger isn't what's important.

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 1d

it's actually something journalists are trained not to do. A lion escapes the zoo: is it good or bad? Who's to say? There's a lot of angles, it's probably great if you're the lion. Let's get David Attenborough on the phone.

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Reposted by Ben Torkington

Daily Indignation @dailyindignation.bsky.social · 1d

Well that’s certainly the headline the government wanted when they drew it up on the whiteboard, cheers NZME, job done.

Nzherald.co.nz: Nicola Willis says Chorus sales money could go towards funding hospitals and schools

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Reposted by Ben Torkington

David Hood @thoughtfulnz.bsky.social · 2d

We had a discussion of this in June last year. Some NZ Uni's activated AI detection software options (Massey made the news www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3503... ). Others took a look at the false positive rate and went "No way are we going to accuse 1000s of students of things they didn't do".

Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa @sanjanah.bsky.social · 2d

University wrongly accuses students of using artificial intelligence to cheat www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/5...

University wrongly accuses students of using artificial intelligence to cheat

An Australian university has accused thousands of its students of cheating with artificial intelligence. The problem? Many have done nothing wrong.

www.rnz.co.nz

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 2d

It’ll be reported as “Six win Lotto Second Division, find out where”

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Reposted by Ben Torkington

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 2d

I also wonder if the habit many AI boosters (both professional and enthusiast) have developed of essentially dismissing the entire non-online world + information not legible to LLMs as *irrelevant and unimportant* is linked to this Excruciating Onlineness Uptick

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 2d

as soon as the pandemic social distancing hit, I predicted that this would ignite the most terminally online era in human history - and I do think I nailed that

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 2d

I think it’s because this is the first disruption that was paired with widespread, mature internet entertainment platforms. Some latent “hyper online” tendency got activated in lots of population where it was previously dormant.

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Reposted by Ben Torkington

Amytiville Hoyrror @amyhoy.bsky.social · 3d

my husband just referred to happy feelings from playing with the dog as “dogamine”

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Ben Torkington @bentorkington.bsky.social · 3d

Probably. "probably" the poster child. He's the NZME ratings golden boy, commanding a fan base of the most uncritical thinkers, and he can't even pluck up the courage to be unequivocal on something that's implicitly subjective.

I'd take it as a compliment tbf. You scared him into a 'probably'

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