Xrys
@xrys.bsky.social
I like old tech. Disappointed in new tech. Better living through chemistry.
Pinned
Xrys
@xrys.bsky.social
· Dec 5
Hello bots and scams following thousands of other accounts! Only a machine can keep up with that! I report and block when I see you in my notifs. ✌🏻🖕🏻
Reposted by Xrys
if news is stressing you the fuck out, i recommend following a ton of artist starter packs and then clinging to the "popular with friends" tab like a life raft .
here's one i made feel free to share some good ones below go.bsky.app/VKGhQ6E
here's one i made feel free to share some good ones below go.bsky.app/VKGhQ6E
January 29, 2025 at 10:03 PM
if news is stressing you the fuck out, i recommend following a ton of artist starter packs and then clinging to the "popular with friends" tab like a life raft .
here's one i made feel free to share some good ones below go.bsky.app/VKGhQ6E
here's one i made feel free to share some good ones below go.bsky.app/VKGhQ6E
As much as I complain about AI across the socials, one would think that a friend would know better than to send me Xmas ai slopifying a photo that was already fine to begin with
Like, I’m not giving out dopamine cookies, but neither will I lecture. Don’t know how to react though
Like, I’m not giving out dopamine cookies, but neither will I lecture. Don’t know how to react though
December 25, 2025 at 1:41 AM
As much as I complain about AI across the socials, one would think that a friend would know better than to send me Xmas ai slopifying a photo that was already fine to begin with
Like, I’m not giving out dopamine cookies, but neither will I lecture. Don’t know how to react though
Like, I’m not giving out dopamine cookies, but neither will I lecture. Don’t know how to react though
Reposted by Xrys
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
December 24, 2025 at 7:00 PM
A small (personal) example of this book’s intellectual dishonesty:
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
My father-in-law is reading In Covid’s Wake, and excitedly told me he found a passage where I’m quoted. The quote in question is me saying the FBI worked to censor speech on social media.
Huh? When did I say that?!
Reposted by Xrys
So I am going to say something about romance as a genre.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
December 24, 2025 at 2:51 AM
So I am going to say something about romance as a genre.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
A lot of people think that romance is ignorable because <insert thing they think about romance> and romance authors don't count because <insert thing they think about romance>.
This thread is not about whether you have to like romance.
Reposted by Xrys
Thanks for sharing this document, @rweingarten.bsky.social.
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
Read about Commonsense Guardrails for Using Advanced Technology in Schools aiinstruction.org/sites/defaul...
aiinstruction.org
December 24, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Thanks for sharing this document, @rweingarten.bsky.social.
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
I read it, and I believe it's inexcusably inadequate and will not prepare teachers or schools to confront the very real dangers of the "A.i." products pushed by your partners, including OpenAI.
A few thoughts for your consideration...
Reposted by Xrys
Thank you for being with us this year! 🎄
We've made a special holiday card template for you entirely in Scriptorium ✨ and we've just opened a new Discord channel for sharing our other printable templates! Link below.
We hope to see your works there soon too 😊
Merry Christmas, Bluesky Friends! 🎁
We've made a special holiday card template for you entirely in Scriptorium ✨ and we've just opened a new Discord channel for sharing our other printable templates! Link below.
We hope to see your works there soon too 😊
Merry Christmas, Bluesky Friends! 🎁
December 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Thank you for being with us this year! 🎄
We've made a special holiday card template for you entirely in Scriptorium ✨ and we've just opened a new Discord channel for sharing our other printable templates! Link below.
We hope to see your works there soon too 😊
Merry Christmas, Bluesky Friends! 🎁
We've made a special holiday card template for you entirely in Scriptorium ✨ and we've just opened a new Discord channel for sharing our other printable templates! Link below.
We hope to see your works there soon too 😊
Merry Christmas, Bluesky Friends! 🎁
Reposted by Xrys
The confusion and conflation of ‘generative ai that is built on stolen artwork’ and ‘machine learning, character behaviour modelling and proc gen’ is intentional on the part of the grifters peddling the former. They benefit from murkiness of classification, because the latter predates their bollocks
December 23, 2025 at 6:08 PM
The confusion and conflation of ‘generative ai that is built on stolen artwork’ and ‘machine learning, character behaviour modelling and proc gen’ is intentional on the part of the grifters peddling the former. They benefit from murkiness of classification, because the latter predates their bollocks
Reposted by Xrys
Carl Safina has a bunch of examples of how commonly animals go to humans for help in his book on animal culture.
Humans: "humans are trash, I hope we all die"
Literally all other animals: "shit, I need some help, I should go find one of those giant terrifying apes, they'll fix it for me, cause that's what they do"
Literally all other animals: "shit, I need some help, I should go find one of those giant terrifying apes, they'll fix it for me, cause that's what they do"
we were out hill-walking once when I was a teenager, and a little grey cat started following us in the village, then followed us all the way up the hill. we stopped for a picnic and she came to curl up and sit in our laps. when we went down to the village again she meowed and went her own way.
December 23, 2025 at 6:39 AM
Carl Safina has a bunch of examples of how commonly animals go to humans for help in his book on animal culture.
Reposted by Xrys
How do you tune (or modulate) an instrument in ancient Babylonia?
Fragmentary instructions have survived that tell you how to go from one mode to another on a 9-stringed musical instrument called a sammû
Fragmentary instructions have survived that tell you how to go from one mode to another on a 9-stringed musical instrument called a sammû
December 23, 2025 at 7:41 AM
How do you tune (or modulate) an instrument in ancient Babylonia?
Fragmentary instructions have survived that tell you how to go from one mode to another on a 9-stringed musical instrument called a sammû
Fragmentary instructions have survived that tell you how to go from one mode to another on a 9-stringed musical instrument called a sammû
Reposted by Xrys
SFWA members and general SFF community:
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to [email protected] to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to [email protected] to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
December 22, 2025 at 6:49 PM
SFWA members and general SFF community:
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to [email protected] to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
In this press release, our Board of Directors apologizes for recent events.
Feedback from writers is strongly welcomed in the survey.
SFWA Members: Write to [email protected] to support our Emerging Tech Committee.
www.sfwa.org/2025/12/22/p...
Reposted by Xrys
And if they don’t - wow, that’s great for you! You’re going to leave your competition in the dust.
“Don’t be stuck in the past,”
Or what, Good Samaritan? Why are you so concerned for me? Won’t you benefit if I falter and stumble into the dust bin of history?
“Don’t be stuck in the past,”
Or what, Good Samaritan? Why are you so concerned for me? Won’t you benefit if I falter and stumble into the dust bin of history?
December 22, 2025 at 2:42 PM
And if they don’t - wow, that’s great for you! You’re going to leave your competition in the dust.
“Don’t be stuck in the past,”
Or what, Good Samaritan? Why are you so concerned for me? Won’t you benefit if I falter and stumble into the dust bin of history?
“Don’t be stuck in the past,”
Or what, Good Samaritan? Why are you so concerned for me? Won’t you benefit if I falter and stumble into the dust bin of history?
Reposted by Xrys
Hey! Check out the covers for issue #3 of The Jungle! Cover A by me, and Variant cover B by our amazing friend @nicolegoux.bsky.social make sure your comic shop has these ordered for you from @unciv.bsky.social
December 22, 2025 at 11:03 PM
Hey! Check out the covers for issue #3 of The Jungle! Cover A by me, and Variant cover B by our amazing friend @nicolegoux.bsky.social make sure your comic shop has these ordered for you from @unciv.bsky.social
Reposted by Xrys
The Jungle issue 3 variant cover by one of my favorite artists, @nicolegoux.bsky.social! Available now at Athenaeum Comic Art.
December 22, 2025 at 10:32 PM
The Jungle issue 3 variant cover by one of my favorite artists, @nicolegoux.bsky.social! Available now at Athenaeum Comic Art.
Reposted by Xrys
It's very easy:
Just don't. The idea that Copilot or ChatGPT are suddenly essential tools is just buying into the corporate ad blitz.
Games were made just fine (well, relatively) up through...what, 2023? 2024? They didn't suddenly become VITAL for budgets or design docs in the last 2-3 years.
Just don't. The idea that Copilot or ChatGPT are suddenly essential tools is just buying into the corporate ad blitz.
Games were made just fine (well, relatively) up through...what, 2023? 2024? They didn't suddenly become VITAL for budgets or design docs in the last 2-3 years.
December 22, 2025 at 9:49 PM
It's very easy:
Just don't. The idea that Copilot or ChatGPT are suddenly essential tools is just buying into the corporate ad blitz.
Games were made just fine (well, relatively) up through...what, 2023? 2024? They didn't suddenly become VITAL for budgets or design docs in the last 2-3 years.
Just don't. The idea that Copilot or ChatGPT are suddenly essential tools is just buying into the corporate ad blitz.
Games were made just fine (well, relatively) up through...what, 2023? 2024? They didn't suddenly become VITAL for budgets or design docs in the last 2-3 years.
Reposted by Xrys
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Seems like it's worth posting this one again.
Why Do Historians Still Have To Go To Archives?
Why do historians go to archives? Hasn’t everything already been digitized?
contingentmagazine.org
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
Reposted by Xrys
20. Cuneiform
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Scribbles… Chicken scratch… Nails? A look at cuneiform writing
When we writers of the Latin script think of a metaphor to describe our writing, we likely think of describing it as “chicken scratch” (ex., “Many of these are unintelligible to the untrained eye. …
viewsproject.wordpress.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:33 PM
20. Cuneiform
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Cuneiform really describes the script's appearance, with signs composed of wedges - the topic of this post by Colton Siegmund. Mesopotamian cuneiform was logosyllabic but there have been alphabetic and alphasyllabic cuneiform scripts too.
viewsproject.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/s...
Reposted by Xrys
Heard a lot of you chatting shit about Newgrange, and I'll admit it's a solid B-tier henge, but Avebury is the thinking man's henge - it encircles a large part of a village. You can live in a henge.
December 21, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Heard a lot of you chatting shit about Newgrange, and I'll admit it's a solid B-tier henge, but Avebury is the thinking man's henge - it encircles a large part of a village. You can live in a henge.
Reposted by Xrys
The best place to find an ancient labyrinth? It’s India, not Crete. “A classical 15-circuit labyrinth — the largest such circular maze-like structure discovered in India… — has been found” dating to ca. the 1st century & revealing the many trade & cultural links w/ Ancient Rome #GlobalAntiquity
Rome to Solapur: India’s largest circular labyrinth discovered in Boramani grasslands | Kolhapur News - The Times of India
KOLHAPUR: A classical 15-circuit labyrinth — the largest such circular maze-like structure discovered in India to date — has been found in Boramani gr.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
December 21, 2025 at 1:24 PM
The best place to find an ancient labyrinth? It’s India, not Crete. “A classical 15-circuit labyrinth — the largest such circular maze-like structure discovered in India… — has been found” dating to ca. the 1st century & revealing the many trade & cultural links w/ Ancient Rome #GlobalAntiquity
Reposted by Xrys
Google scholar is now broken for good because people use AI-generated, non-existent references.
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
And so checked out Google Scholar. Now on my profile it doesn't appear, but somwhow on Nelli's it does and ... and ... omg, IT'S BEEN CITED 42 TIMES almost exlusively in papers about AI in education from this year alone... scholar.google.com.vn/citations?vi...
scholar.google.com.vn
December 21, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Google scholar is now broken for good because people use AI-generated, non-existent references.
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
As someone who will go to great lengths to hunt down the original 19th century grammar to cross-check an example cited in later literature, this just adds to my general disappointment in humankind, tbh
Reposted by Xrys
It'd probably look a lot like this, from Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, lines 536-541:
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
you ever read a book so bad you wanna go back to mesopotamia and uninvent writing
December 21, 2025 at 3:31 AM
It'd probably look a lot like this, from Enmerkar and the lord of Aratta, lines 536-541:
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
"After the messenger spoke as such, the lord of Aratta received his kiln-fired tablet from him. The lord of Aratta looked at the tablet. The transmitted message was just nails, and his brow expressed anger."
Reposted by Xrys
Shout out to Scrivener, a text editing and writing program that basically only gives writers useful features and thus is admirably AI free.
December 20, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Shout out to Scrivener, a text editing and writing program that basically only gives writers useful features and thus is admirably AI free.
Reposted by Xrys
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
December 20, 2025 at 4:49 PM
This is one of the reasons I remain horrified by seeing @historians.org suggest "ways to use gAI" that included this:
Reposted by Xrys
One major problem, bluntly, is that lots of folks can't distinguish between good writing and poor writing. This is about education, not intelligence: they could learn the difference, but it's frequently not taught, even in "good" schools. This is ultimately a competitive disadvantage for them.
it's so wild that people conflate quickness with quality so they think chatGPT writing a wall of text in 10 seconds means it's good writing.
December 19, 2025 at 10:14 PM
One major problem, bluntly, is that lots of folks can't distinguish between good writing and poor writing. This is about education, not intelligence: they could learn the difference, but it's frequently not taught, even in "good" schools. This is ultimately a competitive disadvantage for them.
Reposted by Xrys
i wish every platform - especially video, music and library / book apps - would have a standalone track for AI-generated content and a filter so i could tune it all out, turn it off, only read, listen, watch, buy from human creators.
December 19, 2025 at 6:27 PM
i wish every platform - especially video, music and library / book apps - would have a standalone track for AI-generated content and a filter so i could tune it all out, turn it off, only read, listen, watch, buy from human creators.
Reposted by Xrys
YES! this is what techbros who have let their creative selves wither call "procrastination" or "inefficiency" and try to technologise away, not understanding that it is the source of creativity and imagination and everything good
When I sit down to write I'm not consciously pulling from my notes, I'm drawing on the 6 months I spent reading biographies, watching hours of interviews, etc. There is a volume of research, of effort & time that is required to create something meaningful to draw from.
December 19, 2025 at 6:28 AM
YES! this is what techbros who have let their creative selves wither call "procrastination" or "inefficiency" and try to technologise away, not understanding that it is the source of creativity and imagination and everything good