My beloved does make awesome candles. #catsOfMastodon
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Wayne Myers
@conniptions@mastodon.social
mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06Dreamer. Muesli enthusiast.
#Musician #Coder #Writer #Cartoonist #SingerSongwriter #Mefite #StLeonards #UK
he/him
601 Followers
750 Following
39 Posts
Joined November 26, 2016
Last week, at work, I saw a squirrel sitting on a bin eating a chip (french fry, for those of you across the pond).
Increasingly irritated with myself that I didn't take a photo of it, but also increasingly irritated with myself for thinking every time I see something like that I need to take a photo rather than just enjoying the moment and moving on.
Anyway, I hope you now have a mental image of a squirrel sitting on a bin eating a chip.
Maybe I should draw a picture of it, idk.
The problem with home-made burgers is that once you nail it, by and large you can never go out for a burger again without disappointment.
Ok soooo... let's say a person was finally getting around to actually deleting their Instagram account instead of just talking about it and moving everything over to some Fediverse thing instead... what's the slop-free Pixelfed alternative that person should be looking at?
This practical roundup of how to disable AI in Most If Not All Of The Things by @jessamyn@glammr.us is brilliant:
https://www.librarian.net/NoToAI/
Thanks, Jessamyn!
#NoToAI
Ohhh yeah... I am up and running on faircamp: https://faircamp.conniptions.org/
:))))))))
#Faircamp
I am working through the #strudel tutorial and srsly where has this been all my life: https://strudel.cc/workshop/getting-started/
Thank you lovely strudel people!
Replying to
@lzg@mastodon.social I've heard people arguing this but I remain as yet unconvinced. Recently I came across this academic study showing why prompt injections can't be stopped: https://role-confusion.github.io/ - the point being that the attempt to make LLMs more than just predictive text, by separating prompt input into different category roles, are themselves so very weakly implemented they can be easily circumvented. Guardrails don't, in short. Obviously I'm missing something? But what?
Replying to
@sknob@mamot.fr @fairplayer@social.anartist.org Ooh, I didn't know about that one. Looks great. I'll get on it.
I have written a song I am pleased with for the first time in ages.
Replying to
@JugglingWithEggs @Natasha_Jay FWIW, there's a video interview with Molly Sole on the subject of the Mystery Pavement Keyboard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxkCUi7HZfg
Why is a Fossilised Keyboard in this Pavement? | Nostalgia Nerd
Replying to
@muddle@infosec.exchange @vrek@mastodon.social @lzg@mastodon.social It's even worse than that. "Guardrails" for LLMs consist of requests, in natural language, to the LLM, as part of the so-called 'system prompt'. Things like "IMPORTANT: DO NOT ADD ANY COMMENTS unless asked". It's a fucking joke.
Replying to
@muddle@infosec.exchange @vrek@mastodon.social @lzg@mastodon.social I just did. 'Guardrails' are no more than direct instructions to the LLM, in natural language, included as part of the system prompt given before any user instruction, eg: 'Please do this. Please do not do that'. It's literally that stupid. And also that fragile. Hence the ease with which every LLM can be caused to misbehave, b/c suitably crafted user input can always override instructions in the system prompt.
Replying to
@lzg@mastodon.social For me, honestly, no. They work on the same principle that allows us to readily see faces in pieces of toast, but it's still just toast. Right and wrong are the same for them. The fundamental issue is the lack of world model, hence why they can't play chess: after a short while, they start making illegal or nonsense moves. They can repeat the rules of chess but can't apply them to the board because to them there is no board. Or... world. We've other far better repositories of human culture.
Replying to
@Gargron@mastodon.social To deliver *money*, and *not* the actual thing it was supposed to deliver. They should call it 'PC', not 'VC'. Poisoned Chalice.
Either the turnout in today's UK local election here in Hastings/St Leonards is super high or the combination of compulsory photo ID and a new-fangled computer system are making it seem so b/c it takes ages to get through the door. Even so, never seen queues like this at a local election before.
Replying to
@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social Nearly thirty years ago, while working at the BBC, I wrote a Perl script that stripped out unnecessary formatting and cruft from websites in order to make them accessible to screen-reader users and others. I also got them to open-source it so it could be used by anyone. It's long since obsolete but it worked fairly well at the time, and the BBC now has a whole Open Source page for other stuff it continues to release for free.
Replying to
@alisynthesis@io.waxandleather.com Man I miss those jams :( Thinking back, the Fly was a still bit on the quiet side in that context (a table in a not quiet pub, w/ me on bass plus mandolin, ukulele, various acoustic guitars and occasional fiddles and banjos) so needed careful physical placement to make work, usually on a handy shelf or something.
Replying to
@alisynthesis@io.waxandleather.com I have adjacent experience: for a long time pre-COVID I was going to regular jam sessions with an acoustic bass that just wasn't quite loud enough by itself, so I got a Blackstar Fly Bass, which was a) dirt cheap and b) did the job, also c) extremely portable as tiny. Sound was not too bad but also not stellar. In context, though, perfect, did the job. Never did try the guitar versions but suspect they would fall in same ballpark. 3W might be a bit too little w/ piano though.
A small request: please do not use AI images on your Tai Chi blog:
https://wayne.conniptions.org/test/2026/05/03/please-do-not-use-ai-images-on-your-tai-chi-blog.html
Finally got around to (starting to be) learning 'Can't Bullshit A Virus' by @SingleBass@musicians.today - original is here: https://single-bass.bandcamp.com/track/cant-bullshit-a-virus - great example of a tune that sounds *way* more simple to play (and sing) than it actually is. Jennifer is clearly made of the same stuff that Paul Simon is - effortlessly making hard songs sound straightforward. Anyway. What a great tune. Not going to be ready to perform it any time soon. But getting there :)
The one vaguely substantive assertion in this Starmer-drivel is: people in the UK want "strong and secure borders": https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/08/election-results-left-right-uk-keir-starmer
An end to the scourge of 11-month-old UK-born babies re-entering the country after family holidays!: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/06/scottish-mum-stuck-in-spain-after-baby-falls-foul-of-uk-dual-nationality-rules
Drivel.
Today was the 30000th Guardian cryptic crossword, and to celebrate, they have done something rather special, in the form of An Extra Puzzle that, without giving too much away, has been A Long Time In The Making.
Explanation along with today's solution and even more spoilers here - https://www.fifteensquared.net/2026/05/07/guardian-cryptic-30000-by-arachne/
Replying to
@lina Not sure it quite belongs here what with all the great stuff already in this thread, but fwiw I bashed out a filk on this subject a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coLztyqkoVw
The AI Don't Work
Replying to
@rysiek@mstdn.social @cstross@wandering.shop Read to the end, it's a full throated call for women to embrace AI as a tool of feminist empowerment, written by the founder of an AI consultancy of some sort. Now I too have the ick.
Replying to
@SingleBass@musicians.today De nada, and thank you once again for the great song. I /almost/ felt brave it enough to sing it on my stream tonight but am not /quite/ there with the lyric memorisation just yet so bottled out. Moar practiz needed etc. Hope to be ready to play it by my Tuesday stream - will let you know how it goes.
Replying to
@kityates@mas.to Much as I'd like to think otherwise I'm not convinced that this is hugely meaningful - it was widely shared, and I (anecdata of course) - very very much NOT a Mail reader - am one of the Yes voters. To the extent that there is meaning, I suspect it's along the lines of 'polls like this on the Mail will have the living shit trolled out of them by non-Mail readers'.
Say what you like about Jimmy Savile, his dress sense has inspired millions of people around the world to wear tracksuits for no particular reason.
about:config
browser.nova.enabled = false
you're welcome
Replying to
@jalefkowit I am not convinced by this 'slipped in the bathroom' cause of death story. If that was really a thing, I like to think it would be more widely known, and bathrooms would have special warning signs on them or special protective gear to wear in or something.
Replying to
@SamanthaJaneSmith@lgbtqia.space I literally just got myself on Fairplayer today, having done the Faircamp thing yesterday.
Still no idea how it really works tbqh but, with a Faircamp in place, the sign-up / getting music up process for Fairplayer is unbelievably quick and easy. It literally took less than five minutes and done.
(Faircamp was... a bit less straightforward :) but I got there in the end, having made it unnecessarily difficult for myself by being an idiot)
Pro tip: do not tell your beloved the 'Finnish hymn' joke while she has a knife in her hand.
Replying to
@ifixcoinops Matomo seems to be what the cool kids are recommending these days, for certain values of 'cool' and 'kids'.
Ironic, really, that carnations turn out to be annuals rather than perennials.
*bites lip*
ow