@veronica_claire @aparrish Attempts to convert those books into automated computer programs don't work as well as a naïve programmer would assume, because it turns out there's a lot more to the job than mere rule application. Expert systems can capture the results of expertise, but not the expertise itself.
As it turns out, this is a recurring problem with AI. (As is the preponderance of hucksters seeking to convince you that no, *this* system has true expert understanding, for real this time!)
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
mastodon
4.5.9
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough.
Testimonials from satisfied costumers:
• "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko
If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
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Joined January 01, 2019
Pronouns:
they/them/their, with your favourite language reform. (I'm partial to ‘singular conjugations with singular pronouns’, myself.)
Advanced pronoun guidance:
Whatever is clearer to your intended audience (e.g. what best reduces grammatical ambiguity). As a tie-breaker, whatever you think will best erode the gendering of English third-person personal pronouns.
Posts
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
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4d ago
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
4d ago
@veronica_claire @aparrish Nah, we call that a "decision tree". It's similar, but Markov decision points are taken randomly (and the probabilities are what matters) whereas decision trees place great importance on which branch you go down in any given situation (and the probabilities are irrelevant).
Putting decision trees into a computer is sometimes called an "expert system" (although that phrase usually refers to a system that produces decision trees), or "GOFAI" (good old-fashioned AI).
Putting decision trees into a computer is sometimes called an "expert system" (although that phrase usually refers to a system that produces decision trees), or "GOFAI" (good old-fashioned AI).
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Apr 10, 2026
@disorderlyf @swelljoe I don't want to use that program, but I do want to use that operating system. (Shifting opinions is very hard to do well without a rewrite, because the foundation of a piece of software is the opinions.)
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
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Apr 10, 2026
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Apr 09, 2026
@jonny This is clearly an excellent accessibility tool. This system can provide an accurate description of what the camera is pointing at. It's so good, it doesn't even need a photograph!
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Apr 07, 2026
@lizzard I have an e-reader, but I used to use an Android phone: I pulled the brightness to minimum and then reduced it further with a screen filter, and it was fine. However, I am capable of sleeping during the day, so ymmv.
What keeps me awake is less the lighting, and more the concentrating. The trick is, when I start losing concentration, to put the book down instead of concentrating harder. (The book surviving being slept on / falling out of the bed with no damage is useful, too.)
What keeps me awake is less the lighting, and more the concentrating. The trick is, when I start losing concentration, to put the book down instead of concentrating harder. (The book surviving being slept on / falling out of the bed with no damage is useful, too.)
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Apr 07, 2026
@lizzard I find that reading a book with a plot that matches my mental energy, but then gets more sleep-compatible, helps. (However, if I misjudge the way the book's plot is going to go, this backfires heavily: I can end up getting more distressed, and staying up for much longer!)
The safer option is to read a book that I know is sleep-compatible. So long as it holds my attention for long enough, this works; although sometimes the impedance mismatch is too high, and it does nothing.
The safer option is to read a book that I know is sleep-compatible. So long as it holds my attention for long enough, this works; although sometimes the impedance mismatch is too high, and it does nothing.
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Dec 15, 2025
@twobiscuits @tek It can produce letter sequences with similar statistical properties, according to certain metrics, but that doesn't translate to sounding alike to an actual reader who understands the text.
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Jul 02, 2025
@fosstodon Wait… is this the sort of thing I should be posting on the feedback platform? (At the moment it seems people are just using it for big-picture stuff.)
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wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
wizzwizz4
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
I like tools. Tools exist to serve a purpose; good tools serve many purposes. The purposes are the important part – but I'm no good at solving problems. I hope my tools will be enough. Testimonials from satisfied costumers: • "this pun is so fucking bad and i hate you for it" — @miko If I'm doing wrong, please tell me. Either I don't know (and you've saved everyone a lot of grief), or I do know (and I should face consequences).
fosstodon.org
@wizzwizz4@fosstodon.org
·
Jul 02, 2025
Edit: I'm wrong; see reply. https://fosstodon.org/@btp/114785167402509610
@fosstodon This fetches profile pictures from Gravatar by default, meaning it's leaking user signups to a third-party. Can you change the default to not-Gravatar, please?
It's not hotlinking Gravatar, so at least it's only leaking email addresses, not also IP addresses.
It'd be lovely to grab the profile pictures from Fosstodon, but that's definitely a feature request (and I doubt you're maintaining a Fider fork).
@fosstodon This fetches profile pictures from Gravatar by default, meaning it's leaking user signups to a third-party. Can you change the default to not-Gravatar, please?
It's not hotlinking Gravatar, so at least it's only leaking email addresses, not also IP addresses.
It'd be lovely to grab the profile pictures from Fosstodon, but that's definitely a feature request (and I doubt you're maintaining a Fider fork).
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