The Dark Dark Show

DMs NOT CHECKED, I'M LIKELY TO FLAG YOU AS SPAM IF YOU SEND A DM. -- At the moment just random thought-farts distributed across the Tumblverse. Particularly interested in open source Tech, federation of Tumblr with the Fediverse, Politics, Gaming, Autism, Mental Health. Agender, Permanent Boy-Moder for survival in this evil world.

[darkdoescodes]

I'm so close to a return to Twitch Streaming. It has been a long hiatus, and slowly the desire to stream again has been louder and louder. But also every day that I leave it is making it harder to return. This time doing it by my own rules, as it's more fun that way.

[darkdoescodes]

Grand Theft Auto workers seek union recognition after mass firings | Trade unions | The Guardian

Grand Theft Auto workers seek union recognition after mass firings

Exclusive: Staff at Rockstar Games hope move can be completed before release of GTA VI scheduled for November

I've committed to GTA6 being the first GTA game since San Andreas came out, and the first GTA game in my adult life, where I've not bought it on release. I've been utterly disgusted with Rockstar Games' anti-union actions and attempting to have a chilling effect on its employees joining a union. Unions are especially important in a sector dogged by "crunch", and also offer legal advice on employment law and other services. Please join me, I mean loads of us doing this will be a drop in the ocean Vs their profits but seeing how they have acted disingenuously has been enough to probably stop me buying a Rockstar Game forever, or at least in that release period where they make the most money.

The particularly disgusting part for me was sacking workers on a visa, knowing that sacking those workers would nullify their visas meaning they either couldn't fight the case in the UK, or it would be costly. Not to mention being forced to leave their homes and the country. Even though Rockstar acted potentially illegally. I don't think I'll ever buy a Rockstar game again because of that.

EDIT: I forgot to add, it's also going to be a lot harder playing these games going forward when they're acting like the very games they are parodying.

[darkdoescodes]

There shadow of Gamergate still hangs over YouTube... Long after it, I still feel the need to check out a YouTuber after I like a video by them before subscribing to them (especially male, gaming or science fiction creators). It makes my eyes roll so hard every time a creator unironically moans about "woke" etc. They moan about their media getting too political then literally all their YouTube videos are about politics...

[darkdoescodes]

I recently had an issue with getting loads of log in attempts with Microsoft when I had passwordless login switched on. Generally, the idea is it's more secure than having a password, as it requires you both to have your phone and be able to unlock the lock screen, as well as confirm a number on your screen. However, these notifications were getting annoying; and there was always the worry that, in theory, hackers were a few button presses away from accessing my account.

The solution was actually pretty simple. Use my email provider to create an email address solely for use with Microsoft login; not to be shared with anything else. Then, set this as the ONLY email you can use to log in with (excluding even outlook email addresses). This has no effect on your access to your outlook addresses or inboxes, and you can still use them as normal. However, you just can't log in with those addresses.

I'd strongly recommend using a password manager regardless. There are a few decent ones, like Lastpass. Even the built-in Firefox and Google solutions are now, I think, secure enough for *most* users (cue security professionals leaving comments why you shouldn't, though I'd honestly trust them over me)

[everybidenjusthavegoodtime]

mark, my words. *mark brings me my dictionary* thank you mark

[darkdoescodes]

I can vividly remember being in Reception (I think this would class as kindergarten level in the US; pre-compulsory education for 4-5 years old, but held in school and treated as the first year/grade). We were singing "Old MacDonald" and I couldn't understand why we were being taught "Oink oink", which was nothing like a pig, but *snort* *snort*. It made some of the other kids laugh. The teacher eventually made me sit at the front. I thought this was because I was doing it right. I don't have any vivid memory of being told I was doing it wrong, but it eventually occurred to me I wasn't actually being brought to the front for doing it perfectly.

I don't actually know if this is an experience as a result of my autism. It wasn't explicitly traumatic. But I definitely have a lot of memories of having no idea I was doing things wrong. In my eyes, everyone else was doing it wrong (for blindly following "oink oink"). It seems to be at that crossroads of the autistic need to be accurate/not understanding social cues or social rules/not being explicitly told a rule. And also an element of, in my opinion, the education system not telling us what is right, but merely requiring that we conform without finding out for ourselves.

[darkdoescodes]

I had intended on doing a write-up on MCP Servers. However, they are so infuriating; and at least 3 times now I thought I had a solution that worked; and set everything up... Only for it to decide not to work at the last moment.

ToolHive in theory is a great idea, but seems to break everything when you try to use it with LM Studio. It seems intuitive to add custom servers to the interface, but then they don't actually work with clients.

AnythingLLM seems ok, but it seems bloated for what it is... Which would be fine if it also was decent as a central MCP server-host... But it's missing a lot of plugins, and only STDOUT servers work with it.

I really wanted to avoid having a "central" json file, but it seems like that's what I need to do. Then not helped by the fact different software is designed for different versions of the MCP standard.

All I've been aiming for is a central repository, including a searchable database of my bookmarks (of which I have a lot of), maybe augmented with my last.fm listen history, and with previous AI conversations irrespective of platform also included in it. A place I can keep track of my knowledge.

But it's a nightmare!!

[transfemme-shelterdog]

RIP Alex Jones who popped like a balloon in his car.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

To all the haters who say he's actually still alive, I got my news from a reputable source:

[daydreamhoneybee]

Rest in piss Alex Jones he got hit by a bazooka

Now I think about him every time I hit the hookah

Kaboom, Kaplow,

Kaboom, Kaplow

[bearie]

click and drag to take maisy car for a drive around your dashboard

[bearie]

if you are on mobile good news! you can just move your phone around and it is like you are driving maisy car around the real world!

[whatcoloristhatcat]

black mackerel tabby with moderate white spotting

[darkdoescodes]

Just reblogging to confirm, the mobile features do work

[darkdoescodes]

Continue.dev has been bought by Cursor... And it's hugely frustrating.

Continue.dev was an extension for Visual Studio Code which allowed you to use AI models to, ideally, vibe code (though I used it to learn coding, as AI coding always throws up errors which I can then try to fix).

The big difference between it and other pieces of software (like Windsurf) was it was open source and let you use your own models. After some setup I got performance about as good as using Windsurf, except I was using my own models run on my graphics card meaning the cost was, at most, my electricity bill and some time (rather than paying an external server for a certain amount of tokens).

Maybe there's a better solution these days; I feel like Visual Studio Code isn't that far from having built-in support for your own AI models. It's just frustrating to have something open source get swallowed up like this, with no direct replacement.

It could be I'm just not read up on AI news, and actually there's already a solution out or around the corner. The big problem with AI news is it feels dominated by techbros and hype, rather than grounded articles that allow a user to experiment with AI at home. There are a few sources that have help like this, but they tend to spread out- probably because they're not as profitable to redirecting you to buy tokens from OpenAI, Google, Grok or something.

Anyway, if I find any other software I'll be sure to report on it. Also I'll eventually post my findings on using MCP Servers, as they are a headache in themselves.

[strange-aeons]

tumblr confession has got me feeling Normal

[darkdoescodes]

Meta Hate This One Book

Just a reminder that this book exists, from a former Meta employee with a gag order against her not allowing her to be anywhere near her book, to the point of spying on her every minute of the day to ensure she keeps to it. Including, among other things, the dangers of Facebook's algorithms to society and our children. Literally billed as the book Meta doesn't want you to read. https://amzn.eu/d/05Lqtlyl

Careless People: The #1 Sunday Times bestselling memoir that Meta doesn't want you to read : Wynn-Williams, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Books

[darkdoescodes]

I Stumbled Across My Boyfriend's ChatGPT and It Ended Our Relationship

It wasn't cheating or some dramatic betrayal. What I read was worse: his uncertainty.

I was really concerned by this post, and I've been there in my younger years. Coming across messages in a relationship that changed my perspective and believing I was in the right for it (I wasn't). The only difference being the advent of AI in the last few years.

I particularly didn't like the framing, essentially, of "What would you do if you saw this?". I know what I'd want to do, of course I'd want to know what was said. What I would have done, these days, is invite the conversation: I saw a thread with this name in your ChatGPT logs, and to be honest it has really knocked my confidence, could we talk about it? Maybe he'd be dismissive or cross; maybe he'd be completely open and even show you what was written.

I would argue he did exactly the right thing: talked about these issues in complete confidence. I find it really hard not to make the comparison of whether he would be a better, or worse, person for posting these thoughts to a personal Substack instead (without identifying you). This isn't intended as an attack on you, as your piece was thought provoking and lead to me leaving a comment on a Substack for a first time on this account because it stuck with me. But the fact he wasn't talking about this in a public manner suggests he really did want to protect or save the relationship.

I also feel people use AI in the wrong way. When I use it, I often take an argument to the extreme conclusion, then ask the AI to "steelman" the alternative argument. LLMs that I use tend to have strict instructions to not be sycophantic, and to back up all points with evidence. This has been a huge help in identifying friendships that were actually becoming toxic, bringing me to the next step of asking actual friends whether this is actually what is happening or not. Being able to test thoughts to the extremes is a huge help for me; indeed sometimes shouting the worst about someone is also cathartic. I don't think this is the first, or the last, relationship to come to an end as a result of an LLM.

I really wanted to add, however, that where breaking this privacy would have been reasonable would have been where there's evidence of a crime being committed, or evidence of abuse. And where it would be much more understandable would be where there was evidence of cheating.

I also wanted to say I agree with you that the relationship would be unworkable after reading the specific things that were written. Though I would add, it's healthy to explore thoughts in a non-judgemental and private environment.

[darkdoescodes]

I started liking a few videos by AnyAustin and suddenly all the algorithm shows me are videos of people on a green screen in video game locations talking about mundane topics where they probably could just use console commands to solve their problems... Not suggesting AnyAustin has a trademark on these kinds of videos, but we seem to be in the era of what I call "Austin-likes"

[darkdoescodes]

TL;DR The official Facebook Download Festival group, and others on FB, are going to shit.

I came across the biggest evidence I should delete my Facebook account. In Download Festival's main group, of all places, someone kept replying to me as I said the group was "in the gutter" because of a post about "with all the people wearing f**k Jesus t shirts at the festival, bet they daren't wear f**k [another religious leader]" . To which it went from calling me a cuck, to scouring my profile for something to back up his claims (an old post about unfriend me if you're one of those people putting flags up lamp posts). I didn't want him to "win" but ended up deleting my comment to delete the thread... As it was getting to the point that it was a bit threatening having completely untrue things said about me based on one post? Look, I know it's troll behaviour, you shouldn't engage trolls etc. But Facebook is getting as bad as X/Twitter, like this manosphere attitude and it's a bit scary tbh. What happened to just having a group about a music festival.

[anyroads]

This is the Supernatural "I love you" meme but specific to announcing that another UK PM has resigned.

[natequarter]

[ID: Larry the Cat sitting in front of a tiny podium outside 10 Downing Street. /end ID]

[strange-aeons]

TUMBLR CONFESSION IS OPEN

this is a website full of SINNERS, SICKOS, and HOMOS!!!!!

So tell me .... what sins of the past still haunt you?

Did you do hamilton discourse? Become the most popular jonas brothers rpf writer on AO3 when you were 13? Did you make a fake post on tumblr about owning the homophobes? Did you spend 2 years roleplaying as a middle aged mom who writes letters to serial killers in the true crime community before eventually deleting the 10,000 follower blog in shame? Did you do hamilton discourse?

Father Strange is here to offer a comforting ear and absolve you of your guilt. You many now unburden yourself anonymously in my inbox.

Responses may be included in a video!

[strange-aeons]

Clarification: The sins need not take place on tumblr so as long as they feel sort of tumblr-y. Anything fandom/fanfic related definitely works. writing fake stories on reddit would work. The twitter discourse trenches would work. Sometimes tumblr is a state of mind, u know?

[strange-aeons]

good god you people really are depraved