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Hugh Barnard

@hughbarnard.post.lurk.org.ap.brid.gy
17 followers 3 following 0 posts

Retired but working IT person in London. Philosophy mainly political and logic, open source, anarchism (Bookchinism!),ecology, music, and miscellaneous […] [bridged from post.lurk.org/@hughbarnard on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Author Help @authorhelp.gts.phillipsuk.org.ap.brid.gy · 8h
We went to an event this afternoon as part of #StokeBookFestival. A local bookseller made a very interesting point: he finds it hard to sell books that have #AI generated covers. He said that many people see an AI generated cover, assume the rest is AI, and look elsewhere. #IndieAuthor […]
gts.phillipsuk.org
Original post on gts.phillipsuk.org
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Karin @carexechinata.social.cologne.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
Falls jemand ein plakatives Foto vom Niedrigwasser des Rheins braucht, bitteschön! #rhein
Trockengefallener Rheinboden mit Trocknungsrissen. Im Hintergrund Rhein und Dom
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Sue Smith @sue.glasgow.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026
More in their ipo prospectus ----- Limits on Anthropic's liability in its contracts may not be "enforceable or adequate" against claims over the actions of autonomous agents, the company said in the documents. Questions of how ​existing laws apply to AI agents "are unsettled and could expose […]
glasgow.social
Original post on glasgow.social
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Mignon Fogarty @grammargirl.zirk.us.ap.brid.gy · 08/10/2026
Just got a mass email from our bank that essentially says, "If you give your username and password to an AI agent, you're on your own." You've. Been. Warned. 🤣
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mx alex tax1a - 2020 (6) @atax1a.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 28/04/2026
people in the hacker culture of the early 2000s: "there is no patch for human stupidity" people in the hacker culture of the late 2020s: "we have ported the unpatchable human stupidity to the computer"
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Dr Katie Twomey @k2mey.eurosky.social · 28/09/2026
This is quite cool. My university is the first organisation in the world to force Microsoft to allow us to turn off copilot summaries in Word 365, after a backlash against it from staff (including, very vocally, me). That cannot have been easy for our heroic IT people so hats very much off to them!
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Here is how politics, in most cases, works: Rich and powerful interests, whether in fossil fuels, finance, big tech, media, meat, pharma or foreign governments, make a demand, and use their sophisticated tools to persuade a government to adopt it. The government adopts it. Please read whole🧵
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Claire McNab @2legged.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026
Under Keir #Starmer, #DeclassifiedUK journalists were banned from the #LabourParty conference. This year, under Andy #Burnham, they were banned again. Donald Trump also bans journalists whose reporting isn’t favorable to him. Burnham works with the same people, in the same machine that was […]
mastodon.ie
Original post on mastodon.ie
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Bruce Sterling @bruces @bruces.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026
*Neal Stephenson making his extensive case for hand-writing fiction with pen and paper. nealstephenson.substack.com/p/writi…
nealstephenson.substack.com
Writing by Hand is Good for your Brain - Here's how to do it
Because I am known to write using a fountain pen on paper, a number of people have pointed me to this post and its underlying research. I won’t rehash what is said in those sources, but the gist of it is that when you write things down by hand you’re recruiting more of your brain, which is a good thing.
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
M.S. Bellows, Jr. @msbellows.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
I'm so old, I remember when software that spread into the wild and infiltrated other people's computers and did harmful things to them that the users didn't ask it to was called "malware" instead of "AI" and the people that spread it were prosecuted instead of given billions in venture capital […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
`Da Elf @elfin.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026
Flock thinks it's cameras have a legal right to privacy in public. 😂
Flock Safety has issued a legal demand seeking the removal of a public map showing the locations of approximately 300.000 of it's surveillance devices across the United States.
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Matt Blaze @mattblaze.federate.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
“Our software went rogue!” No. You programmed it wrong.
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ploum @ploum.mamot.fr.ap.brid.gy · 23/09/2026
I make the hard prediction that every project/company/institution that keep a clear NO without exception to any use of AI will have a huge competitive advantage in the next 5 years. This also applies to intellectual workers/specialists. You just need to survive until that point […]
mamot.fr
Original post on mamot.fr
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Kit Bashir @unixbigot.aus.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
Uh uh, uh uh “a big computer did it and ran away” is now a valid defence, gotcha
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Vee @veroniqueb99.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
Another brilliant idea! THIS is what the great John Lewis would call “GOOD TROUBLE” — Protesters in Minneapolis have reportedly been dressing up in jeans, body armor, and masks, and then walking into groups of ICE agents and accusing one or two of them of […] [Original post on mastodon.social]
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Chuck Darwin @cdarwin.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has unveiled a one-year ban on the use of student-facing generative AI across the city’s public schools through eighth grade, and restrictions on the use of the technology in high schools. “The tech industry wants us to believe that A.I.-powered early […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Claire McNab @2legged.mastodon.ie.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
I generally welcome the work of @NationCymru. They cover a lot of important issues in Cymru which aren't well covered elsewhere. But still, anyone who writes, edits or publishes something as 1%-ish as a headline about a "major boost for city’s fine dining scene" […] [Original post on mastodon.ie]
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Final Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸 @jbond.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/09/2026
#Climate. Looks like August broke all the weather records (except Arctic Ice Extent). Official confirmation due early next week. Especially, global daily average 2m Air temp, 60S-60N Sea Surface temp, Nino3.4 SST. pulse.climate.copernicus.eu […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Bruce Sterling @bruces @bruces.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
*Nowadays the people who live by oil are the ones who can't get any. #Russia #Iran www.aljazeera.com/economy/2026/8/30…
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Alexis Bushnell @alexisbushnell.toot.wales.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
Trans people in Wales need your help right now (a thread). NHS Wales are hitting pause on all gender affirming surgeries while they do an enquiry into why Welsh patients are getting the care they need (unlike in England, Scotland and NI). Cis folks - keep reading and do the action points in […]
toot.wales
Original post on toot.wales
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Christine Burns MBE 🏳️‍⚧️📚⧖ @christineburns.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
I see that Google Maps is once again doing that thing where it caves to the orange man-baby for North American users but continues to respect that the rest of the world still knows the body of water adjacent to Toronto as Lake Ontario.
Lake America label for US usersLake Ontario label presumably for the rest of us.
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
[object Object] @zzt.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
it’s very kind of these loud, assholish AI guys to all come to the forefront to opine on the vote they claim to have won fair and square, so that we can see exactly what kind of project Debian is now no you can’t have up to date packages, they’re too conservative for that. have some extremely […]
mas.to
Original post on mas.to
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Glyph @glyph.im · 30/08/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@iris_meredith/1171… An absolute banger. Such good writing that I am literally angry because Iris made some of the points I have been struggling to make for months, and she made them much better than I was going to. Read it, read the whole thing, make […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
sky @scroeser.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026
Last week I was taking my kiddo and her friend home from their afternoon climbing class on the cargo bike. We passed a friend walking their new puppy, and got invited over to say hi to pets and get a book I'd lent to my friend. On a different day I was picking my kid up from a playdate and […]
kolektiva.social
Original post on kolektiva.social
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Bastian Greshake Tzovaras @gedankenstuecke.scholar.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026
Great to see sourcehut adapt a broad policy to not allow any original content on their service that is generated by LLMs and other gen "AI" tools! Changes to SourceHut's terms of service regarding LLMs sourcehut.org/blog/2026-08-27-tos-c…
sourcehut.org
Changes to SourceHut's terms of service regarding LLMs
sourcehut is a network of useful open source tools for software project maintainers and collaborators, including git repos, bug tracking, continuous integration, and mailing lists.
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I know this isn't terrorism. You know this isn't terrorism. The authorities know this isn't terrorism. But, once again, they have labelled protesters "terrorists", as part of the long-running programme to ensure that no one dares protest about anything any more. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Seven charged with damaging Trump’s Scottish golf course accused of ‘terrorist connection’
Course at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort was painted with words ‘Gaza is not 4 sale’ and clubhouse was sprayed with graffiti
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Final Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸 @jbond.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026
#climate www.theguardian.com/membership/2026… > There’s nothing accidental or inadvertent about what we’re all suffering through together. We’ve had enough time now and have sufficient expertise to understand that […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Gabriele Svelto @gabrielesvelto.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026
I also finds fascinating the way it's framed by users in that GitHub issue. "It's anwsers are hard to parse", "it's argumentative", "it's hard to understand its answers", etc... People: this is a machine. It does not understand nor does it convey meaning. it does not know things and it cannot […]
mas.to
Original post on mas.to
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Gabriele Svelto @gabrielesvelto.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 26/08/2026
I've seen this pointed out in an internal discussion and it's absolutely fascinating: it seems that the output of Anthropic's LLMs is becoming increasingly verbose and convoluted the larger the model gets. This has gotten to the point that it's becoming grating to […] [Original post on mas.to]
A graph about the language complexity of Anthropic large-language models. It's broken up in four categories: answer length, sentence length and clause frequency all of which went up with more advanced models, and long content words which had the opposite behavior. The overal results seem to point to advanced models being increasingly verbose while also being increasingly convoluted and repetitive.
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Mallory Moore @sexabolition.blog · 24/08/2026
Professor Michael Biggs, first on this list, is an Oxford Sociologist most notable for his work attacking the trans community after he was outed for running an anti trans troll account. Work he's done has been influential in British trans health and legal policy.
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Tim (Wadhwa-)Brown :donor: @timb.me.uk · 23/08/2026
Courtesy of @stevelord: stwipe.com This is the next-gen, over the edge, into the abyss, value-aligned company I've been looking for, to waste my money on.
stwipe.com
Stwipe acquires OpenWouter
They bought a router. We bought a Wouter.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This iconic Fabian Todorovic cartoon is still one of the best I’ve seen at illustrating the remarkable amount of space we surrender to cars, leaving little space left for everyone and everything else. The text added later makes the bonus point that many drivers still manage to complain about it.
Cartoon image of a street with much of the space taken up by a car with a single driver, while the rest of the street has people tightly packed in a bus, a bus shelter and riding bikes in a bike lane. Adding insult to injury, the driver says “damn those bike paths and bike lanes taking all the space.”
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Reposted by Hugh Barnard
Elizabeth Tai | 戴秀铃 🇲🇾 @liztai.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026
I think we've been told how we should do websites, how we should put content out there, or even brand ourselves online, to the point that we can't think of anything else beyond that sometimes. I was like you for a while because I thought if I didn't do my SEO right, nobody would find my website […]
hachyderm.io
Original post on hachyderm.io
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juliette @juliette.mastodon.green.ap.brid.gy · 20/08/2026
One of the key negative impacts of mandatory bike helmet laws is that they are essentially a death sentence for bike share programs. Those programs win because they are convenient and encourage spontaneous cycling. That just doesn’t work if a person has to carry a helmet everywhere just in case […]
mastodon.green
Original post on mastodon.green
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This is what the billionaire press and many politicians were campaigning so hard to destroy. Their freedom to drive took precedence over our children's freedom to thrive. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Ulez led to better lung size and function among London children, study finds
Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone
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Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫ @petealexharris.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 19/08/2026
They say of the transphobic and not at all evidence-based EHRC guidance: "Disapproving the Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations would leave duty bearers having to comply with the Equality Act 2010 without updated guidance on how to do so." But also: "This Code […]
mastodon.scot
Original post on mastodon.scot
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Mx. Aria Stewart @aredridel.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/08/2026
@dalias @JessTheUnstill I really wish people took an "I am being a steward of other people's communications" stance on moderation not an "I am an enforcer of safety and keeping the bad people out" stance. The results are so different, even if in both cases you remove the nazis. And the former […]
kolektiva.social
Original post on kolektiva.social
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Joshua Byrd 🐀 @phocks.bne.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026
I just don't get why anyone in the UK would vote for an absolute joke and political clown like Nigel Farage when Count Binface is right there
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myrmepropagandist @futurebird.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2026
OpenAI used to be a not-for-profit corporation. An organization doing research, deeply informed by the "Effective Altruism" philosophy which has always predicted "the coming of AI superintelligence" And then they made a breakthrough a real one, and it was easy to think maybe it was the second […]
sauropods.win
Original post on sauropods.win
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Joshua Barretto @jsbarretto.social.coop.ap.brid.gy · 14/08/2026
I want to remind you: these bastards have spent $1.5 trillion of society's money on this technology. That it's produced *something* should not be surprising. That's 'solve aging', 'cure cancer', 'eliminate all poverty', 'shift climate change into reverse', or 'send a probe to another solar […]
social.coop
Original post on social.coop
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spooky Deirdre Connolly¹ ² at a distance @durumcrustulum.com · 06/08/2026
"LLM-generated patches did not resolve the vulnerability, added a new vulnerability, or both, an average 53.9% of the time." 👁️👄👁️ 1password.com/blog/why-ai-...
LLM-generated patches did not resolve the vulnerability, added a new vulnerability, or both, an average 53.9% of the time. You can read further details about our findings, observations, and conclusions in the research paper we’ve published alongside this post.
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Jared White (ResistanceNet ✊) @jaredwhite.indieweb.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2026
Yo, I'm heading up a brand-new community project. 👥 We write code by hand. 🤚🏽⌨️ It's a growing opt-in directory of software developers who write code by hand. When you hear someone tell you “nobody does that” you can point to this and say “well these folks […] [Original post on indieweb.social]
A page style layout with the following:

We write code by hand.

We use Natural Intelligence to build software libraries and applications in production today. Some of them you may be using right now.

There are people who say "nobody authors code by hand any longer." We are here to say that's incorrect. Because we do it. All the time.

If you write code by hand, add your name to this list!
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Leander Lindahl @leanderlindahl.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/08/2026
I don't get the argument that public institutions "have to be where people are". Why? Pornhub has about the same amount of monthly active users as X. No one thinks our EU commissioners or the Swedish parliament must be on Pornhub. In the pre-socials era no one expected the prime minister to […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Sarah Finch @sarahfinch.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
🚨 Nature loss isn't just an environmental crisis: it's a national security issue. On 3 Sept, MPs will debate UK intelligence experts' warning on the threat of ecosystem collapse. Write to your MP and urge them to speak at the debate. @zero-hour.bsky.social www.zerohour.uk/nsa-debate
zerohour.uk
Write to your MP about the National Security Assessment
The Gov's latest national security assessment makes one thing clear: nature is not separate from national security, it underpins it. Act now.
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Final Round Player 😷🇪🇺🍸 @jbond.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026
EU Copernicus July #Climate Summary climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-hi… > Global air temp, joint 2nd warmest July on record, 1.47°C above pre-industrial. > Hottest and driest Western Europe on record > […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Medieval Illumination @medieval-illuminations.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/08/2026
Love is stronger than hate. #LoveIsLove. Maqamat al-Hariri (Maqāma 32), Syria or Iraq ca. 1240. BnF, Arabe 3929, fol. 122r. #medieval #MedievalArt
Love is stronger than hate. #LoveIsLove. Maqamat al-Hariri (Maqāma 32), Syria or Iraq ca. 1240. BnF, Arabe 3929, fol. 122r.
#medieval #MedievalArt
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
Any political “leader” still selling the obviously false choice between #ClimateAction and “the economy” is just reminding us that they clearly don’t understand either the climate crisis OR the economy. Or they’re cynically hope that WE don’t understand the difference. Or both.
Hurricane Erin from spaceLa wildfiresFlooding in SpainFlooding in Calgary
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🇺🇦 haxadecimal 🚫👑 @brouhaha.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/08/2026
Dear CS Lazyweb, Are there any modern compiler design books that cover PEGs? I am able to use PEGTL (C++) and PyParsing (Python) just fine in practice, and I understand the fundamentals of it (I think), but I'd like to see more in-depth theory and analysis, like the tons of coverage that exists […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Roasting House Coffee @roastinghouse.mastodonapp.uk.ap.brid.gy · 22/06/2026
We plan to invest in 100% #solar #coffee roasting this or next year. Our energy supplier is #Octopus and we've had a quote from them earlier in the year and discussed options. Trust them to do it, price seems competitive. I've generally liked Octopus, I can ping an email and they get back […]
mastodonapp.uk
Original post on mastodonapp.uk
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George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Maybe vertical drinking is a crucial aspect of British life, and it's appropriate for Downing Street to intervene. In the meantime, however, Number 10's howling silence about the climate emergency - amidst drought, fire and crop failure - continues. #Priorities www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
theguardian.com
‘It is British life’: No 10 vows to stop councils trying to limit standing in pubs
Westminster council has recommended banning ‘vertical drinking’ or ordering at the bar in new draft licensing policy
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