iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

There is a certain madness to writing threads on microblogging platforms instead of just writing a blog post. I need to actually get that web site done enough to put online and start using.

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(And even *then*, we'll probably see something like human-specialist AIs working with specialist humans to make tools for humans.)

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(Definitely not before the AIs themselves get anywhere near as sci-fi smart as the singularity-cultists already think they are.)

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Coding-as-I-know-it may or may not go away. To be fair, it's a much younger thing than computers themselves, and it's unlikely to be the final evolution of creating tools and whatnot with computers. But people who specialize in making computers useful to everyone else won't go away anytime soon.

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I mean, Hell, I have to work to get clients to seriously *test* updated web apps and make sure they're happy with them before those changes go live. It's not laziness, it's because they're *busy*. If they begrudge that, there's no way they're making their own software.

And ultimately, I don't think it's for any reason worse than comparative advantage, or more plainly *people having better things to do*. If you're not a coder, when is it *really* the best use of your time at work to stop and write some software, much less maintain and fix it?

Eric the .5b @semiapies.bsky.social · 19h

BASIC? Hell, *COBOL* was meant to make computer programming accessible to non-coders. *SQL* was supposed to be a non-techy way to query databases. People outside programming have *no idea* how many attempts people *constantly* make at democratizing it. They just eventually always reject them.

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LLMs are just the latest version of an endless series of systems for letting people make their own programs without needing to hire a pro coder, from BASIC forward. Some people always *do* make useful bespoke software in them. The other 99% give up soon after and hire a coder to deal with it.

Eric the .5b @semiapies.bsky.social · 19h

AI is not going to usher in a future of nobody needing coders and everyone wishing their desired software out of the LLM aether. I know this because I'm finally being pulled into using an LLM in my coding job, and it's to build things with the AI that our clients don't want to make for themselves.

Micah @rincewind.run · 20h

Reposted by Eric the .5b

to be fair I think we will absolutely remember the Paxton campaign when it delivers Dems their first Texas senator in 33 years

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Eric the .5b @semiapies.bsky.social · 20h

On the web dev side of things, I'm seeing people talking about just serving entirely different content to LLM crawlers, with attempts to optimize messages for the models. At some point, the game changes into a new game, and everyone is guessing at the rules.

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Eric the .5b @semiapies.bsky.social · 21h

Can the Democrats get enough justices confirmed to even start a race to the bottom?

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Matthew Gertz @mattgertz.bsky.social · 21h

An attempted attack on a Hindu temple came amid a weeks-long right-wing frenzy over "The Indian Question"; police found a manifesto from the alleged shooter "containing statements expressing white supremacist and extremist ideologies."

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 15/10/2026

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Oct Advocate After a fed judge declared SecDef Hegseth's anti-trans policy “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext” govt lawyers ask her to ignore his public statements and focus solely on the policy. Good luck with that. www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

advocate.com

Trump administration tells federal judge to ignore Pete Hegseth’s anti-trans posts

As the Pentagon moves to discharge transgender service members, DOJ lawyers argue that Judge Ana Reyes shouldn’t have considered the defense secretary’s posts about excluding them

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Assigned Media @assignedmedia.org · 15/10/2026

@rikiwilchins.bsky.social 2026 Oct Texans receiving texts on “gender-affirming care” and “complete guide on bathrooms and beyond for trans kids at school” from the great state group Transgender Education Network of Texas or TENT. Only problem? TENT never sent them. www.kxan.com/news/texas-p...

kxan.com

Trans advocates, GOP rep want answers after Texans get texts impersonating group

TENT said it is investigating who sent the messages.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

You can now preorder the new edition of Rise of the Warrior Cop. Pub date is 11/26. It includes a new introduction, conclusion, and two new chapters taking the police militarization narrative through the start of Trump II. www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/radle...

hachettebookgroup.com

Rise of the Warrior Cop

The groundbreaking history of how police forces went to war with the American public, now updated to encompass the massive shift toward immigration enforceme...

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Lee Casebolt @leecasebolt.bsky.social · 23h

Suddenly overwhelmed with empathy for the grandmothers I threw incomprehensible Star War names at every Christmas in the early 80s. "The boy wants a Millennium Falcon, whatever the fuck that is," Myrtle and Bernice undoubtedly muttered to themselves.

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 22h

appears that hegseth impulsively blurted this out to look tough, but had not discussed it with others prior, causing admin to scramble. he did not think through the consequences of livestreaming. these do not seem like good qualities for someone making war-related decisions.

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Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · 15/10/2026

steal our work to create AI models that produce work that sounds like us because they stole it, then feed our work into more models that sometimes flags our work as too similar to the work produced by the models that stole our work in order to produce work that sounds like us.

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Patch Zircher @patrickzircher.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

My cover (variant B) for the Solomon Kane - Lion Errant 4, out Oct. 28th.

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Col. Boozy Badger @boozybadger.lawyersandliquor.com · 15/10/2026

In Pennsylvania it is illegal for police or soldiers to be within 100 feet of a polling place unless they are in the process of voting or for specific limited exceptions, such as when the polling place is within 100 feet of the police station entrance. Just so you’re aware. 25 P.S. 3047

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Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 14/10/2026

Like 90% of the last 50 novels I read were free via either the public library or neighborhood free libraries. The idea that we’re reading less because it’s prohibitively expensive is just a ludicrous case of self-lobotomy by dogma.

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Reposted by Eric the .5b

If there were more books on journaling like this and fewer featuring immaculate spreads in full calligraphy, we would see a revolution.

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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Crazy idea: Democrats should defend immigration and immigrants, run on the idea that immigrants make America great, and stop Homer Simpsoning themselves into the shrubbery every time Republicans try to demagogue it.

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Zoe Stanley Arts @zoestanleyarts.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

🥏Quorra from Tron Legacy. Penciled with a blue mechanical pencil, inked with Microns and filled in with markers. #Fanart

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70s Sci-Fi Art @70sscifiart.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Surreal Moebius artworks

Abstract illustration of red and black tubular shapes, with some purple mixed in.

Abstract illustration with a dark interior, surrounded by orange, yellow, and pink shapes.

Abstract illustration of tangled, glossy tubes in shades of blue, purple, and green.

Abstract illustration of black, orange, blue, and purple shapes.

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Hemry, Local Bartender @bartenderhemry.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

All these people voting for the "you're fired" guy and that was the biggest lie of all, he literally never says you're fired

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K.B. Spangler @kbspangler.com · 14/10/2026

Yell about your stuff! Yell about what you're doing! You're making incredible things and other people want to know about them!

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Eric the .5b @semiapies.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

It won't be by the mechanism I want, but I do hope the GOP pays a horrible price for their anti-trans obsession.

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Eric the .5b @semiapies.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

Further, they've declared the non-luxury bigotries (that they'll admit to) *solved*, and they've failed to pivot to admitting to more. That's total clownshoes for a movement based on hatred and anxiety. All that's left is anxiety, which Trump and the GOP can't soothe, but only stoke.

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Reposted by Eric the .5b

People go to concerts for fun escapism, not to hear politicized lyrics like: “Soldier boy, made of clay / Now an empty shell / Twenty one, only son / But he served us well / Bred to kill, not to care / Do just as we say” Or: “Don't tread on me / Liberty or death, what we so proudly hail”

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Missing The Point @missingthept.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

That’s… the point of tariffs. That’s how they’re supposed to work. And one more reason there was a broad pre-Trump consensus they’re usually a bad idea.

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New research from the 18th century?

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Missing The Point @missingthept.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

An enterprising White House reporter should ask Katie a Chinese law question today.

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