Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 30m

I can hear and smell these pictures. (Game Worlds is great!)

A yellow wall in an exhibition is filled with photographs from 1990s LAN parties. Old monitors, blue cables, and ‘90s vibes abound.

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 3h

Have fun! Sorry to miss it! Glad it’s gonna be packed!

Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 3h

Made it! See you soon!

Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 7h

Refuelling in Albury. Halfway there!

Two men sit in a McDonalds eating sad fast food. They are looking at the camera and are kind of smiling but also clearly tired.

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 13h

Melbourne road trip begins!

Hand holding up a white takeaway coffee cup. Text is “F 1/2”. Background is a town street blurred into the distance.

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

It was the early 2010s. A different time.

a man with a mustache is making a funny face and says oof

ALT: a man with a mustache is making a funny face and says oof

media.tenor.com

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

We had a tech lead do that at Gizmodo back in the day. Managed to delete the content database in the process and had disappeared to a gig in the meantime. It was also the night of The Lizzies and we won an award while our site was down. Guess who didn’t have a job by lunch time Monday?

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Reposted by Seamus Byrne

Mike Keil @mikekeil.bsky.social · 2d

A good news story! Have a great day.
Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity

Developing countries lead the historic clean energy charge but the US and EU rely more on fossil fuels than before, a think tank study shows.

www.bbc.com

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

Wait, did the NPC watch everything that happened at the ABC and decided the lesson was caving to lobbyists is a good idea? What an absolute disgrace.

Andy Fleming @slackbastard.bsky.social · 2d

~ ermahgerd ~

Seems v much like the NPC was not truthful about its cancellation of Hedges' scheduled appearance on OCT 20.

'Statement on Cancellation of Chris Hedges’ confirmed appearance at the National Press Club of Australia'

www.afopa.com.au/blog/2025/10...

Statement on Cancellation of Chris Hedges’ confirmed appearance at the National Press Club of Australia — Australian Friends of Palestine Association

AFOPA is responding to the Statement published on 4 October 2025 by the National Press Club of Australia ( NPC) in relation to their cancellation of Chris Hedges’ confirmed appearance at the National ...

www.afopa.com.au

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

I always spot Odlaw first. Every time. Is David Odlaw in this scenario? Time will tell...

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

Here's a newsletter update with some links to great reads plus some thoughts on the state of tech as a 'good thing' for us all.
www.byteside.com/2025/10/its-...

It's hard to stay positive about the benefits of technology

As tech becomes a pure subscription play, why do users seem to become the biggest losers? And is there room for nuanced debate at the big events?

www.byteside.com

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Reposted by Seamus Byrne

Information Age @information-age.bsky.social · 2d

Telstra has been handed an $18 million fine and ordered to pay back affected consumers after moving thousands of customers of its lower cost brand Belong to a slower NBN plan without informing them.

Read more: ia.acs.org.au/article/2025...

Telstra fined $18m for secret Belong NBN speed drop

Telco giant says 'sorry' for not informing customers.

ia.acs.org.au

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

So OpenAI thinks the solution to deepfake videos from its new product is to require people to sign up in order to demand their image is not used inappropriately? You must opt-in before you can opt-out? Got it. Great. Good. Yeah nah. Good. Great. Fine.

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

As someone recalibrating for academic writing style I'm going to take issue with your use of "can't" over "really, really shouldn't" 😂

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Reposted by Seamus Byrne

Mike Sowden @mikeachim.bsky.social · 2d

Damn. This is amazing. £325 per week, paid monthly, for 3 years - and the result was a profit for the Irish economy:
www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employmen...

Post from Threads user rodneyowl: "Ireland has declared the Basic Income for Artists scheme permanent. This will be officially announced in tomorrow’s budget. Details to follow. Congratulations to all who fought for it and the present and future artists of all sorts in Ireland. That includes me 👌We’re just comin to the end of a 3 year pilot scheme. It’s been a roaring success. For every €1 paid out to the 2000 participants, the government got €1.46 back. Can’t argue with that. Other countries are already taking note."

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

Please!! I feel like whenever I check the schedule for recent festivals it's all PR sessions and devoid of discussions about the craft. Glad I'm not missing something over here...

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

But big platforms are good at this and already know our age from just seconds of watching how we use them??

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

“What will you be wearing?” he asks with a specific Where’s Wally point of reference and not as some spy game rendezvous… or is it? 👀 (I won’t be there Wednesday it just seemed an amusing response at this pre 7am hour).

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 2d

Copy-paste was a mistake. Maybe we could limit it to 10 words at a time. As a treat. But “the AI wrote these words in front of my eyes so they are now my words” is leading us to ruin.

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 3d

Can’t stop won’t stop.

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Reposted by Seamus Byrne

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 3d

Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...

arxiv.org

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 3d

Just a few points here and there, always in Norris’ favour. Piastri was always happy to serve. Glad he’s finally saying “when do I get something back??”

Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 3d

Hard to listen to British commentators making their excuses for Norris treating his championship leading teammate like shit.

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 4d

Frankbubu?

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Seamus Byrne @seamusbyrne.me · 5d

Well those photos rock. Congrats Jam. I pronounce you the Locked In Love Machine. Shortened to Lil’ Mack.

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