iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tim J

Mignon Fogarty @grammargirl.zirk.us.ap.brid.gy · 2h

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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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 6h

I enjoy The Life Scientific on #BBCRadio4, but wish I hadn't noticed the way Jim Al-Khalili says "Mmmm" each time he moves the interview on. It tends to sound as though he's lost interest in that section and would like to talk about something more interesting now please. I first consciously […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 9h

Hamming distance: measure of how much exaggerated and unrealistic emotion an actor must add to a mediocre line of script to keep the audience engaged.¹ _____ ¹ The meaning given in electronic engineering textbooks differs somewhat.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 14h

Signing a petition is putting your name to something. Your signature confirms you really did. Online, getting a result that anyone will believe also requires checking you're real. So I don't think it's reasonable to object to an online petition wanting your name and email address. Those *are* […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

Every so often I misread "poetry" as "pottery" or vice versa, and it feels like a nice connection. :-) Especially given the pottery-related things people like @Remittancegirl and @ninawillburger post about. I don't think #poetry and #pottery are unrelated.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

@emilymbender Re journalists: I turned the radio on part way through The Media Show on #BBCRadio4, and heard ". . . and of course, the AIs halluci— . . . They make false statements without checking they're true". The guest consciously stopped himself saying "hallucinate". It was nice to hear […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Reposted by Tim J

myrmepropagandist @futurebird.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

@leahmcelrath.bsky.social I made ten copies of the key to my house, wrote the address and when I'd be out on and envelope and left them in Penn Station with a note saying "please be nice and clean my kitchen, don't steal anything! Welp there is some strange dude in my bath tub and all of my […]

sauropods.win

Original post on sauropods.win

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Reposted by Tim J

Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

If we built a machine with infinite resources to make hammers but required that the hammers cannot accidentally smash fingers or be used to smash heads, we would not expect hammers to be produced. Which is to say that I am not confident full AI alignment is possible.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Well this sounds eminently sensible and I'm curious. Også nysgjerrig, eller hvordan som helst man staver det på svensk.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

"Thou" and "ye" are not the same. • Judge not, lest ye be judged. • Subtoot not, lest thou be subtooted. Thou personally. Thou knowest who thou art. #grammar #subtoots

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

I wondered about following the #grammar tag, but it looks to be mainly links to articles about common #usage errors. Muting or filtering those would probably also mute things I want to see.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

Ask not whom the #subtoot toots; the subtoot tooteth thee.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

@keithwilson Re optical illusions, I wonder if you'd enjoy my Tardis Tubes one that I stumbled on years ago when idly playing around with a couple of kitchen roll tubes (~37mm dia.) It's pretty obvious why it works, and I've never seen it mentioned anywhere, but I was quite startled by it. • […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Is it just me, or are most reaction gifs horrible? They're mostly close-ups of faces I'd rather not see close up, making obviously exaggerated expressions. So unpleasant, in fact, that I want them off my screen. (Note: if you respond to this by sending one, as a certain kind of person does […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

@spicylilly.bsky.social @anitaleirfall.bsky.social Just look at this! Embroidery that looks like photography. The ones in the link are good too.

tech.lgbt

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Interesting grammatical "miscorrection" heard on #BBCRadio4 today: someone who didn't want to end their sentence with a preposition carefully avoided something like A: ". . . using the base to strike Iran from" by instead saying B: ". . . using the base from which to strike Iran". A is […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Challenge: using any means at your disposal, search online for good ways to clean something, and obtain only results that don't mention either vinegar or baking soda. Or if you've only got a few hours available, try to get at least one result that doesn't mention them.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Pondering the geometry of the Tardis, by thinking how a Flatland one would work. You'd have two intersecting planes, with the Tardis door at the intersection. One plane, representing normal space, has a police-box shaped outline drawn on it, with a gap where the door is. The other plane […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

1 baffling picture ≡ 1000 baffling words ≡ 0 useful words

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

Seriously: if you're able to write your own alt-text for images, do. If you can't and you use machine-generated text instead, at least check it's correct before adding it.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

A wkwardly C ontrived, R eally O dd N ame Y ou M ade up.

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Reposted by Tim J

Dr. Victoria Grinberg @vicgrinberg.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

Remember that page in my #sketchbook that I started while at the conference in Cefalu? I finally finished it. Pretty happy with how it turned out - far from perfect, but I learned quiet a bjt while working on it. And now that it's done, it's the entry 9 in […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Ink and watercolour sketch of a clothes line in front of two windows witj green striped curtains and two external parts of air-conditioning units on the wall to the aide of the windows.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

1 picture ≡ 1000 words ⇒ 1 unintelligible picture ≡ 1000 unintelligible words

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

One more rerereboost, then that's it unless I do a rererereboost (= re⁴boost) when the poll finishes.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026

*You* call it an #acronym. I call it an awkwardly contrived, really odd name you made up.

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Reposted by Tim J

Tim Carmody @tcarmody.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

This is the funniest thing I've seen today, possibly ever

A tweet by SarahStarberry that says "oh god read the vertical axis" on top of a chart measuring AI models' release dates and model numbers rather than any real capabilities

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

I'd better do another not-intentionally-spammy re-reboost, I suppose.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Something that can happen on here: • You see someone ask a question. • It is clear that they want an answer. • It is clear what the answer probably is. • It is clear that it's not one they're willing or ready to hear, and that giving it will therefore not be any help to them. In that situation […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Reposted by Tim J

Anita Leirfall @anitaleirfall.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Do philosophers think differently than non-philosophers? Focusing on differences btw philosophers&non-philosophers in regard to neurodivergent traits & responses to thought experiments, the researchers found some support, in the aggregate, for a “yes” answer to that q. dailynous.com/2026/09/10/h...

dailynous.com

How Different Are Philosophers? (guest post) - Daily Nous

“Do philosophers really think differently than non-philosophers?” That’s the question taken up by a team of researchers in a recent study published in Philosophical Psychology. Focusing […]

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

Oh of course. "Mens" in Dutch must be like "Mensch" auf Deutsch or "menneske" på norsk. It's confusing because of "mens" being a completely different word in Norwegian. (Well two. But I was thinking of "while".)

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

RE: mastodon.social/@SuicideSchaf/11736… Definitely not a word we learnt at school. Come to think of it, I don't think we even learnt "schnarchen" (to snore).

mastodon.social

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Reposted by Tim J

Anna Lighthouse Emoji @venite.mastodon.nl.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

We hebben écht netjes het instructieboekje gevolgd bij het in elkaar zetten

Tussen twee benen in blauwe joggingbroek met driehoeken erop ligt een witte poes met oranje vlekjes. Van linksonder naar rechtsboven zien we staart, voorpoot, neus, oor, achterpoot, achterhoofd.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I'm not watching #CelebrityTraitors, but I'm not convinced they're all proper celebrities. A celebrity is meant to be someone famous I've never heard of.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

Hmm. Looks as though the alcohol's taken over from the phonetics now.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

RE: universeodon.com/@alex_astro/117343… Some lovely #astrophotography photos on this account (which I've stumbled on because I never unfollowed the #eclipse hashtag after the event). Like amateur music, amateur #astronomy often isn't at all amateurish. I think the photos […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Reposted by Tim J

MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Trying something a bit different with ink and bleach. I’ve been using fountain pen ink (specifically black Quink) and bleach in combination for years and wanted to make some imaginary landscapes in a slightly more ‘decorative’ style. I’m not sure this is the right paper though.

Landscape of rolling hills drawn in ink with areas lightened with bleached lines

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

The Lion, the Witch and the Flatpack Instructions #TooEarlyBooks

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Reposted by Tim J

Martin Rundkvist @mrundkvist.archaeo.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

Talked to someone who has been dabbling in translating fiction. This guy was horrified when I told him that if he uses machine translation for more than dictionary checks of individual words, he can't put his name on the translation and the work is ineligible under most standard publishing […]

archaeo.social

Original post on archaeo.social

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Reposted by Tim J

Anita Leirfall @anitaleirfall.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Call for Abstracts: SENTIENCE: Science, Ethics, Law Deadline: 11 December 2026 Conference: 17–18 May 2027 Conference location: Senate House, University of London www.lse.ac.uk/asset-librar... #animal #sentience #philosophy #PhilosophySky #philsky

lse.ac.uk

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

I'd better unboost and reboost that poll again. See if I can get the responses into double figures before it ends.

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Tim J @timtfj.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026

RE: mastodon.me.uk/@slowe/1173596108547… Site that lets you enter a text string and see a map of its occurrence in placenames (in Great Britain).

mastodon.me.uk

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