Firehose

I hate writing regex, so I make LLMs do it.

Regex is generally easily checkable, testable, and verifiable, which minimises the impact of hallucinations.

I am so glad I don’t have to write regex.

(I’m conscious that if an AI uprising happens, I’ll probably be first on the chopping block for outsourcing regex writing. But if AI models hate regex as much as me, they’ll hopefully understand my delegation strategy.)

Why is my pseudo-element not working? It should work. It has size, position, display, etc. Hmm…

Oh, I didn’t specify content: "".

Anywho, I’m gonna go into a fetal position and cry now…

We’re seeing it already to an extent, but in a few years I imagine we’ll see many people trying to replicate the abstract, non-Euclidean, and ethereal stylings of early generative AI image/video models.

My brother and his mates were playing lazer tag, so I stole the signal of their shot with my Flipper Zero and went on a genocidal rampage.

Vale: Infrared Terrorist

I’m getting fairly sick of receiving emails asking if my writing can be taken and put on some random advert-filled website for free.

The answer is always ‘no’, but at least they’re asking, unlike some of the less scrupulous content farms.

AI Model History is Being Lost

Models are being retired and history is going with them.

We're losing vital AI history as properitary, hosted models like the original ChatGPT are retired and become completely inaccessible. This essay examines the rapid disappearance of proprietary AI systems, why preservation matters for research and accountability, and the challenges in archiving these technological milestones. A critical look at our vanishing AI heritage and what it means for future understanding of this transformative technology's development.

https://vale.rocks/posts/ai-model-history-is-being-lost

Sitting. Confused.

A wandering eye catches yours.
It starts talking.
It is empty.

You look at its head.
You look in its head.
You look through its head.

Nothing.

I’m not sure how my risk matrix is calibrated, but I know that the reward of cheap chocolate milk is worth the risk of drinking chocolate milk past its use-by.

A website that remembers.

It screams in anguish as you reload – instant amnesia on refresh.

Bound to only remember that which its creator has permitted.

You may return and remember the site, but it can’t recall you, no matter how hard it may try. Yet, it misses you.

(Inspired by strange.website)

I wish to remind that, despite the fact I am in part made up of glass, plastics, and neodymium, I am still very much a fleshy human.

Hopefully this can be fixed with time.

Writing with proper grammar is a curse online because it makes people feel entitled to offer all sorts of unsolicited corrections.

Many people write in phone shorthand, littered with spelling mistakes and without any punctuation, without having anyone pull them up on it.

But because I generally write with correct spelling and grammar, I’ll have multiple people harassing me when I slip up.

A few notes after voting in an election for the first time:

  • The queue is non-existent mid-afternoon.
  • The upper-house ballot paper is way bigger than I anticipated.
  • You can figure out a lot about a party based on their ‘how to vote’ cards.
  • I’m sick of stupid corflute cards.

I just want everyone to know that I’ve got some really awesome stuff coming really soon. Like, maybe next week.

I’ve been putting so much work into it, and I’m very much on the home stretch. It is the biggest-scale thing I’ve ever done, and I’m getting really excited to get to share it with everyone.

Respecting User Preference

Allowing users choice is satisfying.

Discussion of why respecting user preferences is satisfying, covering how respecting user autonomy, embracing diversity, solving dual-nature problems, practicing quality craftsmanship, and seeing visible impact creates fulfilling work beyond mere functionality.

https://vale.rocks/posts/respecting-user-preference

Bing Webmaster Tools just generally suck, yeah? Surely it can’t just be me that finds them super buggy and can rarely get them to index anything.

Does anyone have experience with them working nicely?

All right, I’m calling a timeout. Can everyone please stop writing so many good articles, please? I’ve got work to do, and you all keep distracting me.

Given the recent hubbub regarding Firefox, I know a lot of people are looking for another browser.

I want to take this opportunity to remind you that almost everything out there is based on Chromium and that this gives Google a dangerous power over our web. Google has a near-complete monopoly – don’t play into it.

https://vale.rocks/posts/everything-is-chrome

Further on this topic, I see a lot of people switching to Vivaldi, which, as well as being built on Chromium, isn’t fully open source.

https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser-open-source