Love this little guy so much

Here is the whole #ijf26 crew!

I’ve posted it before, but it feels evergreen

The two hardest problems in Computer Science are

1. Human communication
2. Getting people in tech to believe that human communication is important

Using natural language prompting almost certainly makes LLMs a) need to be larger than they could be, b) less efficient and reliable than they could be, and c) much harder to use than they could be.

This is going to be the big “find out.” The hard part of producing good software that does useful things is getting real clarity on what those useful things are. Coding forces dimension reduction because its language is so primitive. Without that back pressure, we get slop.

That's why in order to use an LLM with success you need to apply the same diligence you have for programming, and on top of that you should find specific terms and avoid ambiguous ones (something a programming language already does for you).

Think about it: for writing instructions it's better to have fewer words and verbs at your disposal, that's what makes coding capable of being deterministic, in other words that's programming. And it's not going away with LLM's, it's actually more tedious to avoid natural language humongous choices

Having a linguistics background I think there's a huge misconception when it comes to prompting LLM's, the vast majority thinks that coding is "hard" compared with speaking a natural language. Well it's actually the contrary from a utilitarian POV less verbs at your disposal => easier to be specific

It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this

unfortunately this is already happening :/ and the worst part is that people is learning arbitrary class names instead of standard property names. It's Bootstrap all over again (but this time atomic and specific, at least bootstrap have few general semantic coherent class names)

a group of men are carrying a coffin in a parade Alt: Those dancing pallbearer guys from Ghana

X operations in the EU pretty soon

Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of an investigation into child porn, deepfakes and more French prosecutors have launched a search at the offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X. This is part of an investigation into alleged offenses, including spreading child pornography and deepfakes.

Paris prosecutors raid the French offices of Elon Musk’s X as part of an investigation into spreading child pornography and deepfakes.

Really insightful talk 🫶🏽
#FOSDEM @alex.bsky.team

Presenter at front of lecture hall demonstrating an open source docs interface projected on a large screen while audience members take notes and photos.

Why the French govt digital services chose #Python and #Django: “the boring stack can be upgraded easily and will still work in 20 years” -- Manuel Raynaud showcases LaSuite #FOSDEM. Open source digital collaboration apps, built as an alternative to Microsoft Teams / Office

#FOSDEM is basically a Linux Day on steroids distributed all around the city 🤩

A beer can branded FOSDEM

#FOSDEM

Donald MacKenzie · The Future of Search: Will we still google it? I’m starting to feel some pre-emptive nostalgia when I do a Google search. Yes, it’s true, search can sometimes take...

A great piece by Donald MacKenzie on the past, present and future of Google, the most powerful tech giant and perhaps the most vulnerable too. Insightful and well written

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Those who can code, code.
Those who can’t code, teach coding.
Those who can’t teach, post on LinkedIn. 👀

This only happens to you once

NPM's week

Ciencia en la era del 'streaming': el fenómeno viral de la expedición a 3.900 metros de profundidad en el Atlántico Sur

www.eldiario.es/ballenablanc...

How many times do we have to remind people: the chatbot *cannot* admit to *anything*. It *doesn't know*. When you ask it about itself, it generates its answer the same way it generates your request that it write an email. It takes what you tell it and responds in way to sound plausible.

"Being able to put a name to something abstract allows you to more easily build an argument about it [...] Don’t let inevitabilism frame the argument and take away your choice."

Denmark to tackle deepfakes by giving people copyright to their own features Amendment to law will strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities, government says

“The Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Unlock AI for 50% off Slack's Pro plan now includes AI features. Upgrade by July 17 for 50% off your first 3 months. Learn more Instantly summarize channels and threads Unlock unlimited message history Work with people outside your organization

I am once again asking for some equivalent to a pop-up blocker that blocks the "would you like AI with that" messages sprouting up like spots of mold in every application

The superintelligent AI is smoke and mirrors. Big corps and states with do atrocious things to humans and blame the AI god. So many will go towards religious psychosis and be radicalized towards fascism. Instead of AI, it's the billionaires benefiting from all this we should be looking at.

*Steve Bannon this whole time*

Il decreto sicurezza del Governo Meloni e la deriva autoritaria dell'Italia - Valigia Blu Il 29 maggio 2025 la Camera dei Deputati ha approvato con 163 sì, 91 no e un astenuto il cosiddetto “decreto sicurezza”, sul quale il governo Meloni aveva posto la questione di fiducia. Il provvedimen...

Il “decreto sicurezza” è l’ennesimo tassello dell’orbanizzazione dell’Italia.

Norme ad hoc contro i nemici politici, crudeltà verso i più deboli e repressione del dissenso.

La deriva democratica meloniana prosegue sempre più veloce e inesorabile.

Ne ho scritto su @valigiablu.it 👇