Shig the Unmentionable

You can’t spell smile without slime.

(Inspired, if you can even call it that, by a recent Wordle puzzle)

So it’s not conscious. So it’s ”just predicting the next word.” Big deal. I can control a computer by talking to it in plain English. I don’t need a CS degree, I just ask for what I want and it hands it to me. If that isn’t staggering enough for you, I don’t know what else to say.

It took a few hours to develop an indicator script, working with an AI agent. The biggest delay was communicating what I wanted, same as with a human coder. The solution blew my mind: at one point it asked for a screenshot of an error, and I realized I could just show it a drawing of what I wanted.

I’ve never done any serious coding, but I have worked with programmers to develop software more than once. Yesterday I tried this thing they call “vibe coding,” and it’s pretty much the same experience. Lots of back and forth, lots of how-abouts and let’s-trys and close-buts.

Amen brother

It turns out that you can’t tell the difference between a bubble and a black hole just by looking at it. You can only watch what happens when it comes into contact with an established industry: if it pops, it was a bubble, but if the industry suddenly vanishes….

Are we seriously weeping for the software-as-a-service industry? The way we (apparently) wept for the copyright troll industry?

For every YOLO there is an equal and opposite FAFO.

Bless me, Padre, for I am about to sin.

That was my next thought.

His signature attack is called the Flying Buttress.

Rebecca Watson @skepchick.org • 1d this actually gives me hope bc at the start it was just leftists (like me) complaining about graham platner. this means the liberals might figure out gavin newsom 7 • 120 Sean Davis @designerplant.bsky.social • 4h Lol my father in law was so taken aback when he asked me about Newsom and I was like "fuck that guy" 1 • 3 • ... Thunderous Prophet @waltzingrhino.bsky.social • 16m And if it comes down to Newsom v Vance? 2 → ... Rebecca Watson @skepchick.org • 5m This is a stupid and shitty hypothetical that centrists use to create propaganda to inhibit progressive action, and no one with any sense would answer it with anything other than a "fuck you" ①2 • 15 → ... Thunderous Prophet @waltzingrhino.bsky.social + Follow back Well, okay. Thanks. I think it's an honest concern of mine. Like the people who voted third-party and, essentially, elected Mango Mussolini. But I take your point and your 'fuck you' and will depart. 5:13 PM • Feb 16, 2026 Write your reply Rebecca Watson @skepchick.org • now You have an "honest concern" that was planted in your otherwise barren mind by propagandists. You should think about that for the next several years and work on it

me: I'd never actively choose to get get trampled by a wildebeest
centrists: ah but what if the alternative is being eaten alive by an alligator
me: ...
them: you have to answer and if you pick the wildebeest then the wildebeest will take your statement as an endorsement for his trampling campaign

I’m not saying there was a direct causal relationship between the two events. But on the off chance that there was, it might be in your best interest to be a little afraid of me.

This afternoon, it was announced that said tool was bought out by one of the big players in the industry.

This morning I installed a free, open source, independently developed and maintained tool. It took some doing, but I eventually got it working.

What’s the new device?

It appears that “moral panic” has replaced “witch hunt” as the stand-in for “people are unfairly holding me accountable for my crimes.” At least they’re keeping current.

How can people not realize how poorly the things they say are going to age? The same stupid things keep being said by the same kinds of people, since Baudelaire’s time and probably long before, and they keep turning out to be wrong. Aren’t artists supposed to be visionaries?

“By invading the territories of art, photography has become art’s most mortal enemy.” — Charles Baudelaire, 1859

Just when you thought it was safe..!

Change a letter, ruin a film:

Paws

Prediction: the Democratic ticket in 2028 will be Pretti/Good, in the same way the Republican ticket in 2004 was 9/11.

Final bit of #sora fun from last year, apart from some Boxing Day silliness. I just asked it to put me and idkpangea together, and the result was remarkably sweet. #aivideo

Cool fakeout it pulled. Looks like a monster that evolved to lure people close to try to rescue what seems to be a human. I haven’t tried feeding stills yet, apart from my profile pic I guess. I’ll have to try that next.

Nice. Did you feed it an image, or just a text prompt?

Back in the early days of image models—all of 3-4 years ago now—someone I knew on Discord would test them by having them make Winston Churchill as a pokemon trainer. This is what #sora does with it. Gotta catch ‘em on the beaches, gotta catch ‘em on the landing grounds… #aivideo

Refinement of the previous video, to try to fix the broken shillelagh. I told #sora it should all be in one piece, and it added that to the voiceover. Then it cheekily ended with, “That’ll do… I think.” (I haven’t bothered informing it that the stick is blackthorn, not oak.) #aivideo

More fun with #sora, this time using myself as a character. When it was finished rendering, it pinged me that the “tweed ninja” was ready. #aivideo

Playing around with #sora borrowing a character created by user idkpangea. I don’t even know what language she’s speaking, let alone what she’s saying. #aivideo