Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 1hTipping it down in Barcelona as we change hotels but it’s actually quite refreshing - we took a stroll along the brutalist/industrial seafront Olympic area and it was a bit humid with all the rain getting ready to fall. 230
Reposted by Mary BranscombeSE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 24/09/2026I should clarify that I have not been sued, I just don't think I can stand by everything in the article. 203045
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 3hFrom our streets to our schools, hospitals and workplaces, Black Londoners have helped build the city we know today. This Black History Month, we celebrate the generations of people whose contributions continue to shape London. 013922
Reposted by Mary BranscombeDave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 4hIf you're a news outlet and you *haven't* been banned from the Reform and Conservative conferences, is your organization actually doing journalism, or are you doing stenography? 24112
Reposted by Mary Branscombefuckface "squeaky" from:me @skeet.best · 16halso, as I have been noting since March, even a model with a probabilistic attention space is capable of functionally deterministic calculationspercepta.aiCan LLMs Be Computers? | PerceptaWe build a computer inside a transformer — executing arbitrary C programs for millions of steps with exponentially faster inference via 2D attention heads. 1112
Reposted by Mary BranscombeTimnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 16/09/2026Reading proofs from book & remembering what I wrote in 2015: "I am very concerned about the future of AI. Not because of the risk of rogue machines taking over. But because of the homogeneous, one-dimensional group of men who are currently involved in advancing the technology.” 6840243
Reposted by Mary BranscombeAndrás Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 7hWhat I wouldn't give for a politican that considers me a human 2505
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 3hThe class action lawsuit that *ought* to be in progress is against publishers who just bailed on doing their job 030
Reposted by Mary BranscombeDr Tiffani Angus @tiffaniangus.bsky.social · 5hRemember, folks: for every author you see on here describing how they’ve filled out forms to get *some* compensation from the Anthropic AI case there are dozens, hundreds, hell THOUSANDS of us who get 0 because our books weren’t registered with the US copyright office yet have UK copyright! 47026
Reposted by Mary BranscombeAaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 3hAgreed. You have multiple tensions pulling the company in different directions from protocol (grow more developers) to get more people on the app (so there are more developers). What is missing is a coherent user experience to help you choose your own adventure. Users find that despite our design. 041
Reposted by Mary BranscombeAaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 7hThe point of Bluesky was to give you power to run your own moderation, manage higher levels of safety in your own communities, create your own labellers. You disagree with my decisions and that’s fine! There’s other providers out there like blacksky or northsky and they keep growing. 5/6 4261
Reposted by Mary BranscombeAaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 7hThe point isn’t to create a better Zuckerberg or opposite Elon. It’s to create a different architecture so that neither have the same power in this network. 4/6 2261
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 3hThe irony is that small teams are more likely to reply individually and *both sides* can fail to see the impedance mismatch of small teams talking directly to the small number of people in the large audience; that’s not a criticism, I think it’s how individuals react to direct connections 110
Reposted by Mary BranscombeNatanael, Tech janitor @natanael.bsky.social · 3hGeorg tells you to get good at data analysis. Gotta up your outliers game. 021
Reposted by Mary Branscombeemily blight 🐦⬛ @threnody.northsky.social · 10hwe have asked you repeatedly to stop responding to surveys and you leave us little choice but to ask you politely again. knock it off. get outta the data pool, georg. 1172
Reposted by Mary BranscombeDan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 3hBut the reason why pensioners are less likely to be in poverty is that the current generation of pensioners get most of their pension from defined benefit schemes. Millennials are from the generation that don't have those high quality private pensions so the triple lock is more important. 0212
Reposted by Mary BranscombeDavid Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 23hIn line with the more realistic expectations and indeed the many agreements signed by the EU and Canada over recent years, lots of commitments to cooperate, no particular new structures. 2226
Reposted by Mary BranscombeKashmir Hill @kashhill.bsky.social · 23hAnd this is almost an aside in the story, but also absolutely bonkers. Meta claimed Zuck as a "researcher" to get a $355 million tax break on his $4.1 billion stock-based compensation. 68842
Reposted by Mary BranscombeAaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 30/09/2026Kinda of, I'm trying to get it integrated into the product as a standard defense for dogpiling. Detection is pretty decent, so once we have a rock solid signal, will move to product interventions so that these are the defaults in the app. People will get the chance to opt-out. 1151
Reposted by Mary BranscombeSnowden St. @snowden.st · 23hAnd the wild part is that a lot of people now think that the direct-speaking method is *more* reliable, and that folks are *better* at determining truth and logic through videos than reading. And I don't think it's true for most of us, actually. 1152
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMelanie Walsh @mellymeldubs.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Omg on the reading dating app, you take a questionnaire that consists “mostly of this-or-that choices between two different passages from classic books or questions like, ‘How do I feel about my own writing?’” HOW DO I FEEL ABOUT MY OWN WRITING. Is this a dating app or an emotional ambush 1151
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Dear all US friends, this is a fash ‘news’ channel 132
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I keep typing eventhose instead of eventhouse for a real time data store and I feel like that’s slightly Freudian 020
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Macron: “Brexit is the biggest lie of the last 30 years. “Those who said, "We will be richer" - eight points of GDP less ten years later. "”We will solve the problem of immigration" - it is more complicated than before. "”We are going to crush it in international trade" - it is worse.” 581309384
Reposted by Mary BranscombeKen Burnside @kenburnside.bsky.social · 30/09/2026The quality of a journalist is directly proportionate to the venality of those they render uncomfortable. 1103
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I swear I read this as the agents really breaking out of their sandboxes for a moment 040
Reposted by Mary BranscombeJustin Cormack @justincormack.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Er, you missed open source. We went from writing software from scratch to building software 95% out of open source components, for a 20x speedup, after that. 1352
Reposted by Mary BranscombeGergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 30/09/2026The last time building software sped up ~10x (early 2000s, the agile movement), a massive interest in automated testing followed almost immediately (unit tests, TDD, XP etc) Today, building software sped up 10x, easily: and a similar massive interest in automated testing + verification is following 13968
Reposted by Mary BranscombeFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 28/09/2026on bluesky i operate under the default assumption that everyone on here is neurodivergent with a few fascinatingly rare exceptions 2162941
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMatteo Collina @nodeland.dev · 29/09/2026Full writeup from the Booking.com team 👇 medium.com/booking-com-... 121
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMatteo Collina @nodeland.dev · 29/09/2026Wattpm runs your workers as worker threads and lets the kernel hand out connections with SO_REUSEPORT. No supervisor, no IPC pass-through. Each worker accepts straight from the kernel. 101
Reposted by Mary BranscombeAlex de Campi @alexdecampi.bsky.social · 30/09/2026With alt text. I know someone who actually did this 7654188
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026If anyone uses the term Super Intelligence I can only conclude they’re an idiot. 1428749
Reposted by Mary BranscombeViolet Blue® @violetblue.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I was just starting to be able to support myself with my erotica and nonfiction sex-ed books when they disappeared from view on Amazon, FB, and search engines. Now almost *three dozen* of those books are in the Anthropic settlement because the same people who disappeared them stole them. 48425
Reposted by Mary BranscombeStilgherrian @stilgherrian.com · 29/09/2026“Trial of live facial recognition in London stations leads to a false positive and no arrests” www.theguardian.com/technology/2... “Freedom of information request finds six-month trial cost £320,000, used almost 100 police hours and led to just one – incorrect – alert.”theguardian.comTrial of live facial recognition in London stations leads to a false positive and no arrestsFreedom of information request finds six-month trial cost £320,000, used almost 100 police hours and led to just one – incorrect – alert 194
Reposted by Mary BranscombeFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 29/09/2026According to America.gov, it’s not totally clear if it’s illegal to marry an eagle, so I might still have a chance! 2125528
Reposted by Mary BranscombeDaphne Keller @daphnek.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Your periodic reminder that "the company ignored employees' warnings" very often just means "people discussed what to do and not everyone agreed." Having these conversations is good. Fearing that open discussion will lead to gotcha headlines is bad. 2348
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Slightly tipsy tech journo discussion at the bar tonight was how SQL Server just keeps on trucking (the smarts that have been in the SQL Server team over the decades are probably unmatched) 150
Reposted by Mary BranscombeKilled by Google @killedbygoogle.com · 29/09/2026Let the countdown begin. 2489
Reposted by Mary BranscombeGary Alexander @garyalexander.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Greek life is so cool because, even if they aren't cooking meth in the basement and some are, they create similar disincentives to blow the whistle or confront other members as the mafia: doing the right thing risks blowing up your housing situation, current social life, and future networks. 516426
Reposted by Mary BranscombeKevin Pilch @pilchie.dev · 29/09/2026Our 1.0-beta.1 release of the Rust SDK for Azure Cosmos DB is out. We're considering this a release candidate for a 1.0 release coming soon - give it a spin and let us know if you run into any issues. #CosmosDB crates.io/crates/azure...crates.iocrates.io: Rust Package Registrycrates.io serves as a central registry for sharing crates, which are packages or libraries written in Rust that you can use to enhance your projects 036
Reposted by Mary BranscombeKen Tindell @kentindell.bsky.social · 29/09/2026“Prosecutors in California claim the US Department of Homeland Security, Secret Service and Department of Defence bought Oxygen Forensics’s software on the understanding that it was American-owned and developed. The developers who write the software are actually based in Russia.”apple.newsMet stops using software after Moscow spy agency links revealed — The Times and The Sunday TimesOleg Sergeyevich Davydov, the founder of Oxygen Forensics Inc, was in court on Tuesday after being arrested on a US extradition warrant 125
Reposted by Mary BranscombeMark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Musk, asskissing after Trump’s meeting with TechBros aboutAI: “I think it is worth highlighting the positive benefits of AI--Pardon me. Super Intelligence…” 2624738
Reposted by Mary BranscombeJoe Uchill @joeuchill.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I'm still looking for infosec researchers who've published research outside of traditional academic journals (e.g., at a hacker conference or as a corporate report) for a research project. If that's you, send me a note. Ostrich for engagement. 51314
Reposted by Mary BranscombeEden Marie @neonepiphany.com · 29/09/2026Hey XBOX, this should now be available to everyone, not just Insiders! You may need to restart your console to get the new functionality. 53814
Reposted by Mary Branscombealexis simpson @amutepiggy.bsky.social · 29/09/2026just a reminder that one reason alt text is cool as hell is: if the website is breaking and the images aren't loading, you can still enjoy the image posts with alt text 618941
Reposted by Mary BranscombeVikram Saraph @vikramsaraph.com · 29/09/2026So cool to see this out in public! I don’t think I’ve seen Bluesky’s logo advertised out in the Real World before. @wmata.com 0203
Reposted by Mary BranscombeDr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 29/09/2026Huge congratulations to our colleagues at @iccl.bsky.social on this win! In a landmark ruling on 25 Sep, the ICCL secured a precedent that will reshape how Big Tech companies defend themselves in GDPR class actions that impact their operations across the entire EU enforce.ie/digital-data...enforce.ieICCL secures landmark precedent against Big Tech - EnforceLandmark ruling will reshape how Big Tech companies defend themselves in court for EU-wide GDPR class actions 16231
Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 29/09/2026After a day of talking semantics and data models and the way that every org does things too differently for any of this to be standardised, I find myself wondering “do ontologies replicate philology” 320