Firehose

It scares me how many people reply to no-reply email addresses. So many responses to sign-up confirmations and password resets with messages like ‘OK’ or ‘thank you’.

Do they think there is a human responding? Or do they just think it prudent to thank the automated machines? I’m perplexed.

YOLO (You Only Live Once) is just as much justification not to do something as it is to do something, yet it is rarely treated as such.

Tangentially, you don’t hear YOLO as a phrase very often anymore. Maybe those YOLOers with gung-ho inclinations wiped themselves out and took the phrase with them?

Note to self:
Never have testing and prod open on the same machine. You will get confused no matter how good of an idea it seems at the time.

One of the most impactful moments of my life occurred while I was whistling. My friend, unintentionally packing his words with the psychological impact of a sawn-off shotgun at point-blank range, said, ‘You know you’re supposed to change notes, yeah?’

Years later I’m still not sure I’ve recovered.

I found a website on the ground and completely inaccessible. Next to it? A bottle of ARIA. It must have taken too much and overdosed.

Kids, always use ARIA in moderation, and never ARIA on an empty semantic.

I’ve been thinking about loanwords in language. How long have we got these words on loan for? Will they be taken back? What is the fee to buy them outright? Who should I talk to about this?

I just wanted to let everyone know that . is the root of all TLDs.

This means that, for example, vale.rocks. is a valid domain. vale is a child of rocks, which is itself a child of ..

You are now burdened with this knowledge.

I’d like to thank the HTTP ‘referer’ header field for permanently ruining my ability to correctly spell the word ‘referrer’.

Elle just added a blog feed to her website and included me in it, along with a little pixel me!

I love the entire feed reader! Her attention to detail with having all the buttons work and adding the ability to save drawings is fantastic! Her site is a treasure trove of little interactive gadgets and gizmos that is well worth checking out!

Pixel art of my head on a beige background. My hair is brown with a strand covering my pale face, upon which there are two eyes. I have no mouth.

Creativity Came to Pass

Creativity /kriːeɪˈtɪvɪti/ n. Obsolete. The process or act of a human engaging in artistic or expressive production.

A story where human creativity and art disappear as a result of artificial intelligence usage and prevalence. Written from the perspective of someone in the future.

https://vale.rocks/posts/creativity-came-to-pass

I often have issues with sharing cross-origin resources, which results in me throwing my computer out a window.

This is referred to as CORS and effect.

I hate the argument, ‘Humans are bad at X, so LLMs must be really bad at X.’

There are flaws with LLMs, but this is a poor argument. They are fundamentally different to humans, and just because we fumble at something doesn’t mean LLMs do (and vice versa).

Cloudflare, its interface a mess.
It’s breaking my site and causing duress.

These settings confuse me, I must declare;
Working this out is quite the affair.

I hate it so much, but I don’t care.
Actually, I do, and I’m pulling out hair.

How I'm Using AI

As long as AI isn't using me...

An overview of my personal usage of Large Language Models (LLMs) and other generative AI from 2022 onwards. Tracking my experiences with AI tools, specific models (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc), applying them practically, and realistic perspective on their strengths and limitations over time, from coding attempts to language learning assistance.

https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-usage

Well now look what you’ve gone and done! You’ve spilt JavaScript all over my lovely semantic HTML. Dammit! It leaked onto my CSS as well.

Go grab a cloth and clean up this mess.

As it is getting closer to publication, it seems prudent to advertise that I’m writing a novel!

Tad unusual for me, but it’s a proper, comprehensive work of fiction.

I’ll have more details to share in time, but it is pretty much Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas meets the corporate shittery of Silicon Valley venture capital.

‘The web is my canvas,’ I confess as the people watching over my shoulder observe me open a text editor and tile a browser window. ‘CSS is my brush; MDN, my muse.’

Why Video Isn't My Publishing Preference

I am a writer of words, not a vidier of videos.

Why I prefer not to publish video, including practical, technical, and personal reasons I find text a more maintainable, accessible, and effective medium for my online content.

https://vale.rocks/posts/why-not-video

I’ve been testing the new Qwen3 today. I don’t have the compute for the higher parameter models, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with 0.6b.

It is such a derpy little model.

Here is a thinking extract I found rather humorous:

Okay, the user said, “Hi Qwen. Nice shoes.” Let me think about how to respond.

First, the user greeted me with a friendly “Hi” and complimented my shoes. I need to acknowledge their compliment politely.

Since I’m an AI, I don’t have shoes, so I should explain that. Maybe say something like, “Hi there! I don’t have shoes.”

Why I Write

There are words here, and I'm justifying them.

Unpacking my compulsion and will to write, including its benefits in forming thought, letting me express myself, hone in a craft, and publish accessible content.

https://vale.rocks/posts/why-write