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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 2m

I've been hearing this handwavy "Sure but we can fix that" argument for two years and all that's happened is these tools have gotten better at producing things that aren't *obviously completely* wrong, which is in many ways worse. In principle sure. In practice I do not think this is going to happen

Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 3m

other things here are baffling like, why did it pick the years 1888-1895 for "Electric Streetcars"

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 8m

Right, but my point is that if people keep using generative AI systems for this there's little chance that anyone will actually gain the skills for doing things correctly.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 9m

I get that's the "intent" but it's poor practice.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 14m

Sure, but the problem is most people aren't capable of reliably recognizing a bad data visualization. This isn't even like, a dig at people. It's just very easy to get wrong and people do more often than not, in ways varying from "harmless nuisance" to "actively dangerous"

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15m

Yeah but see, that's the thing. Even systems where this is an official capability make this kind of blunder. As soon as it starts munging the data itself instead of making direct, simple tool calls you really can't trust it further than you can throw it.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 19m

what does the location in the Y axis represent for the Federal Road Act mean here?

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 20m

I mean vertical lines, since they are only located in time.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 21m

In all seriousness: One of my gripes about these systems is they are *so good* at replicating common human failure modes. Like using React to build a website, for instance. And I worry that a lot of disciplines will just never improve their nuts-and-bolts practices if generative AI is used.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 23m

It's the kind of datavis blunder that makes me question the datavis in its entirety. Which means it's about on par with the median infojournalist and is ready for a job at a major newspaper.

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Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

Glyn Moody @glynmoody.bsky.social · 1h

noyb win: #Microsoft 365 Education may not track school children - noyb.eu/en/noyb-win-... "it is now for Microsoft to finally answer how it uses user data for their own business purposes." #privacy #gdpr

noyb win: Microsoft 365 Education tracks school children

Favorable decision by the Austrian DSB: Microsoft Education 365 may not track school kids and Microsoft is ordered to provide full access to kids' data.

noyb.eu

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 28m

why are the events scatterplot points and not lines. wat.

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Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 1h

Love that this is such a hot button issue. I only found out about the US “PRIMM-er” pronunciation a couple of years ago. (There are interesting reasons for the pronunciation, incidentally.)

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 12h

Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’

It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.”

It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”

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Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

関税オタク大統領、やめて @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social · 44m

Tbh globally everyone seems to be voting inflationary maniacs to punish incumbents for tolerating inflation

Dorian Lynskey @dorianlynskey.bsky.social · 1h

It’s extraordinary that Biden’s main weaknesses were inflation and cognitive decline and now America has inflation and cognitive decline as well as tariffs, authoritarianism, blatant corruption, etc

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 35m

vex no

Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 3h

one thing which is extremely funny to do with an LLM is to tell it about current events and see if it believes you

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Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

関税オタク大統領、やめて @hikoukihikouki9.bsky.social · 3h

It’s very amusing that in America we have a theme park entirely themed to Dolly Parton and it’s probably the best non-Disney theme park in the world

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Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

Mike Stabile @mikestabile.bsky.social · 10h

Kentucky has sued Roblox over a "Charlie Kirk assassination simulator" being accessible to children.

BUT their age-verification law doesn't require Roblox to verify, so the AG is suing for *waves arms* "deceptive trade practices."

The right's assault on speech was never going to stop with porn.

Kentucky sues Roblox video game over ‘Charlie Kirk assassination simulators’ amid other child safety lawsuits

The state of Kentucky is suing Roblox, accusing the gaming platform of failing to protect children from predators and exposure to harmful content, including simulations of Charlie Kirk’s assassination...

www.oann.com

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15h

I don't think any modern libraries/engines actually have Y=1 at the top, though.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15h

yeah. and in modern computer graphics it just Doesn't Matter.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15h

line 1 is the top, obviously

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15h

what will really bake your noodle is where the Y axis starts in different systems, which relates to the fact that the electron beam in a CRT scans downward.

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15h

in computer graphics land that's pretty standard though, because 2D graphics the plane was on the screen, and when we started adding 3D it was *into* the screen.

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Reposted by Erica "digifox" Kovac

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 16h

I think Paul, of blessed posting memory, is entirely right here, and I say this *even though* the young people I know remain highly literate and engaged, because I think his sample is way more representative than mine.

musgrave.substack.com/p/a-post-lit...

A Post-Literate Society is a Too-Literal Society

Directness is a virtue and subtlety is lost

musgrave.substack.com

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Erica "digifox" Kovac @digifox.binaryden.net · 15h

The integrated AV solution "Windows Defender" is adequate.

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