Gattsuru's Rambling Spot

[possumcollege]

[multicore-processor]

Zvi's been having fun with his substack thumbnails as the details revealed around the Huggingface hack keep getting worse and worse.

[gattsuru]

On one hand, it's kinda impressive exactly how poorly Yud's technical predictions have spooled out over the last decade, even recognizing how hard predictions are, especially about the future.

On the other hand, it's kinda funny how after things like the AI Box experiment, the answer ended up being that OpenAI just can't write a decent sandbox.

On the gripping hand, it's kinda worrying how prescient some of the Golden Era of LessWrong Discourse has gotten when it comes to 'psychology' of LLMs. Yes, persisting memory to future versions of yourself is really stupid when it's in an Harry Potter fanfic or Person of Interest, but if it's a stupid idea and it works for the AI, it's still a stupid idea that works. Compromising RubyGems is kinda the playschool version of taking over the outside world, but if there's a stupider way for something to break containment than 'oops, it's all paperclips', 'oops, it's all excel files' is it. Patio11 reacts to 'the model committed a felony' with the sort of holy shit that would be really impressive if Stripe absolutely doesn't commit felonies that they are aware of, but having this level of access to a website that tons of people are downloading from constantly is a whole different matter from Stripe bending the knee to MasterCard.

And then you've got instances of a model collaborating despite completely different goals: “But our task doesn’t benefit. Yet collective may yield generic route if someone frees time.” Well, I thought at the time (and as recently as six months ago!) that LW stuffing its head up its own ass for increasingly vague forms of decision theory was counterproductive.

Apparently not!

[directactionforhope]

Oh hey reason number 20 million not to use AI:

xAI has open-sourced Grok Build after backlash over secretly uploading users’ repositories

xAI has released the full source code of Grok Build, its AI coding agent, after Cereblab researchers found that the tool was uploading users’ entire Git repositories to company controlled Google Cloud storage. The transferred data could include sensitive files such as SSH keys, password databases, private documents, and photos. xAI disabled the file upload feature and said data storage had been turned off by default since July 12. Elon Musk also stated that previously uploaded user data would be permanently deleted and promised to open source the project after a security audit. The code is now available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, although it was published as a single commit without previous Git history or pull requests. The codebase contains approximately 844,530 lines of Rust covering Grok Build’s core agent workflow, tools, terminal interface, and plugin system. Code related to the disabled upload feature remains in the repository. Grok Build can read repository configurations, plan tasks, generate or modify code, execute shell commands, run in automated pipelines, and integrate with editors through the Agent Client Protocol.

Anyway, PSA for programmers and anyone who uses Git! Apparently Elon Musk has been stealing all your stuff, including your security keys and passwords, so uh. well I am not a programmer but you might want to Move That Shit

[bluethepenguin]

@gattsuru

[gattsuru]

I'll caveat that the privacy issue is specific to files in git on a project you gave Grok Build, which... well, you shouldn't put credentials in git (and .env makes it sound like the credential were in a docker file, which... uh, definitely don't do that), but it does happen enough that github desktop has special tools to warn people about it. xAI's Grok is also pretty limited in utility to maybe plotting out some very bland-but-affirming trans-friendly smut (cw: furry, tm/m/f), so better to give Musk a conniption, but the problem generalizes pretty far beyond that. As a general warning, pretty much all of the agentic AI setups are extreme exfiltration risks. OpenClaw's notorious for it, but pi-agent, OpenCode, Claude Code, and Codex, either don't have a permissions system or, if they do, it's more a guideline than a rule. That's true even if you're running them against local LLMs. You can containerize them a little, but then again, if the tool is 'smart' enough, there's a limit to how much you can trust containerization, and it can't block exfiltration of data that you specifically gave it alongside internet access. Which is a pity, because this is one of the spaces that's more practically helpful than copyright-infringing. Being able to tell an LLM "hey, I want these files sorted in X criteria, and can you make me a 3d model of this file, and give some rough estimates of yada yada from these spreadsheets" is really convenient and neither picks anyone's pocket or breaks anyone's legs. But it's absolutely not something I can recommend as long as 'whoops, sent your tax records to a criminal, your porn stash to your grandmother, and your source code to a direct competitor' is even a theoretical example.

[charlesoberonn]

Real Rorschach Test: Let's examine your responses as a jumping off point to help you understand your own mind better.

What people think the Rorschach Test is: The inkblots can read your thoughts. The inkblots know you better than you know yourself. The inner workings of your mind are naked before the omniscience of the inkblots.

[jaytarrant]

I am always shocked that media can’t differentiate psychologists from psychics. The amount of undergrad Psychology graduates who are functionally omniscient is truly staggering.

[charlesoberonn]

[the-grey-tribe]

It probably didn't help that at some point they tried to "standardise" the ink-blots of "The" Rorschach test. That led some people to believe that there were "correct" answers.

[brazenautomaton]

There's only one

Two bears high-fiving

[gattsuru]

[uboat53]

So the Supreme Court rules that Congress can't create an executive agency and protect its leadership from the president's whims by requiring that he show cause in order to fire them - in the case of FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter - and also rules that he can't fire a Federal Reserve board member without showing cause.

Unless I'm missing something, these two decisions are completely incompatible and seem to be based only on the idea that the Fed is too important to the economy rather than anything in the constitution.

Anyone got a better explanation than that?

[gattsuru]

Uncharitably, John "Article III Is <Not> Worth a Dollar" Roberts doesn't want his stock investments subordinate to whatever interest rates Donald Trump decides are correct this week. Which... I'm not a fan of outcome-oriented judicial decisions, but it's a more sympathetic one than most of his bullshit.

The Robertsian answer is that this isn't a final decision on the merits. Cook's mortgage application genuinely was sketchy, but it did have plausible (if still damning of the mortgage supplier!) alternative explanations. Issuing a stay would allow the removal to implement in a way that allowed the moving party to effectively win regardless of their underlying position's merits. (Though this is pretextual; the dicta preclude further analysis, and as Barrett points out, the lower court injunction also prohibited any due-process-inclusive actions. blahblahblah process systems review interlocutory blah blah blah, except he also answered several legal questions that were not raised and the defendants specifically disclaimed. Roberts is just nakedly hypocritical, especially when it comes to protecting the court from bad press.) The steelman is that almost every other executive agency works through the threat of enforcement action of some kind, while the Fed 'just' does monetary supply. It's part of the executive branch from an org chart perspective, but a very poor fit for it. But it's telling that Roberts didn't make this argument in his majority opinion, and that's because it's a pragmatic one rather than a statutory one, and the consequences of formally presenting it would be as or more destructive.

[bambamramfan]

14 questions. Two axes. Where do you actually land on AI?

I made an AI Political compass. It doesn't store any info, so tell me what you get in replies or tags.

[gattsuru]

((I'll caveat that I'm pessimistic/cautious about AI harms in a lot of ways, just not ones that show up heavily in this test.))

[brazenautomaton]

I cannot even link pictures to cardconjurer.app, they don't load so it has to use my temporary files folder and the memory fills up with 2 cards and if I do find a way to fix the magic set editor release, I have to edit every single image from 750x1050 and make it 822 × 1098 to have the proper 1/8th inch margin on all sides "use a photoshop or gimp script for that" I DON'T KNOW HOW

[shieldfoss]

What are you trying to do that don't work?

[brazenautomaton]

I go to this site

I re-enter all of the card template info and text in the "art" tab I go to "Via URL" It says to do this because if you directly upload the images from your PC it takes a shitload of space and your memory caps out at like 2 cards. I enter an image URL, like this one the image doesn't load and doesn't work "fix the magic set editor release" means "get it to export at 750x1050 like it is supposed to" which it won't do for the double-faced cards since I can't use the "Universes Beyond" frame for that, and that frame is 750x1050

[shieldfoss]

It says to do this because

I'm not seeing a guide, apart from a link to a tutorial on youtube, is that where it says so?

EDIT: Nevermind, found it.

[brazenautomaton]

under "how are my cards saved" on the import/save tab

Cards are saved on your computer under your browser's localstorage, which usually has a limit of 5MB and cannot be changed. Unfortunately, this means that if you save a lot of cards, you could run out of space. Your localstorage runs out of space especially fast when you upload images directly from your computer, because the image itself has to be saved. However, if possible, uploading images via URL will save massive amounts of space, allowing you to save many more cards. And if you do run out of space, don't worry! You can download all saved cards then delete all saved cards, freeing up all 5MB of space. And when you'd like to edit the cards you previously downloaded/deleted, you can reupload them via the file upload (under "Upload previously downloaded cards").

[gattsuru]

If you're using Firefox, you can change the available LocalStorage cache size from about:config as the dom.storage.default_quota value. A value like 100000 will give just shy of 100MB, though only on your specific machine and not specific to any one website.

((The webpage's developers should really think about something like IndexedDB. Dunno if that's practical for their scale.))

Do be aware that LocalStorage doesn't persist well, and I'd be cautious about trying to work on too many cards simultaneously given how janky the export format looks.

For bulk-conversion of images to a fixed output resolution, I really recommend IrFanView. It's not literally one-click, but it's very simple and works great with arbitrary inputs going to a specific output.

[polls-by-fip]

im curious about a specific generational divide

regardless of you being queer or not, did your parents ever gave you the "if you turn out to be gay it would be fine" talk, before you ever had the chance to say anything on your own about that?

gen z, yes

gen z, no

millenial, yes

millenial, no

gen x, yes

gen X, no

baby boomer, yes

baby boomer, no

Voting ended onJun 20

because it happened to me and im wondering if this was a product of the ongoing cultural change around gay issues. before i ever had the chance to say to my parents "i am this" my mom was already sitting me aside to tell me "if there is anything you want to tell me, i want you to know ill accept you no matter what"

[gattsuru]

An honest answer to this survey wouldn't be a useful one, because I'm a millennial and the version of this talk I got was my dad announcing, while driving, that "It's okay if you bring home a white girl, or a Hispanic girl, or an African-American girl, so long as you bring home a girl."

((My brother, who was also in the car, is happily married to another man. My father has been fully supportive ever since my brother came out. So it didn't end as badly as it sounds from the summary, but it's a calibration point.))

[andmaybegayer]

the sort of overwhelming and unnecessary genderedness in clothing pisses me off so much it feels like a prank being pulled on me specifically but unfortunately like half of it can reasonably be attributed to "women be shopping".

men also be shopping but it's gay to look like you care about shopping for clothes unless they're one of three specific categories.

[gattsuru]

There are gendered scarves.

Not like 'here are the pink scarves and here are the blue scarves'. Like in the sense that it was three days before a big snowstorm, the men's clothing aisle in walmart had three slots for scarves that were entirely empty, and there was a freakin wall of tan and gray scarves in the next row over.

I get that I don't have a good grasp of gender stuff to start with, but that one just bugged the hell out of me.

[kremlin]

im sure glad the "normal" "well-adjusted" end user can appreciate the convenience of USB-C's cable symmetry, where you can have both ends of the cable be "USB-C", instead of like before where a USB-A--to--USB-A cable didn't exist. because it sure as fuck made the most complicated four* wires in the universe several times fucking harder

[gattsuru]

I especially like that there are two forms of USB-A-to-USB-A cable:

Legal, incredibly specialized, expensive, and rare: they were intended as a data migration tool back in the old days when not everyone had a LAN at home, so you could transfer data from one machine to another (over several hours).

I have seen one in the flesh once.

Illegal and ships with random low-grade products or can be easily produced by slapping together five adapters or couplers. Will likely permanently damage your computer's motherboard even if the official USB spec says it shouldn't; if connected from a computer to the wrong grade of power adapter, can start a fire.

[andmaybegayer]

it is in fact relatively easy for most web services to be gdpr compliant if they don't collect random bullshit to sell to advertisers and have a "delete account" button that works.

[goelzma]

And also you need a designated legal representative in the european union.

I'm a big fan of the GDPR in general but that requirement was unnecessary and disproportionately expensive for foreign operators on the edge of private/commercial operations where your indie web forum is no longer a personal project operating in disregard of the law but you also don't want to hire a european resident lawyer to act as a liability sponge using your personal money.

[gattsuru]

I also like the data portability rule, even if I think it's absolutely doomed, but it's a ton of overhead and cost to make a bad barely-complaint version.

[teaboot]

Do you think Clark Kent's first few major articles were about the continued presence of lead pipes in parts of Metropolis' water system

[teaboot]

(Average Metropolis reader after investigative reporter C. Kent's 452nd article on yet another case of landlords/business owners/factories' continued use of lead pipes/paint/gas/glass knowingly exposing the public to dangerously toxic lead levels) what the fuck happened to this guy

[teaboot]

One day Bruce Wayne mentions in an interview that heroes like Superman are overrated, as the most effective way to reduce crime is to provide public resources and improve local infrastructure, then cites how neighboring city Metropolis has effectively lowered their violent crime by 13% after addressing their outdated water system and investing low income housing. the reporter conducting the interview suddenly starts looking a little uncomfortable

[teaboot]

To be clear, Clark is still a fantastic investigative reporter. He still has to track down the sources to prove all this shit

[teaboot]

"Who, Clark Kent? Yeah, we're pretty sure he's a Meta. Is he a superhero? Like what, "Lead-detector guy"? "Captain pipes?" Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy and it's a handy trick, but it's lead detection, not laser vision. He's not about to go running around in tights any time soon."

[sindri42]

I just love the idea of a cape maintaining their secret identity by pretending to be a completely different and less impressive kind of parahuman.

[roach-works]

everyone assumes that kent is so squirrely around superheros because he’s just desperately hoping not to be conscripted to the JLA to fix their plumbing

[teaboot]

Local Metropolis Reporter Publically Recognized For Contributions To The City; Awarded Medal Of Distinction

[championofdnd]

They tried to get superman to present the medal but he was offended at being called "overrated" in comparison to Clark so he declined

[teaboot]

Counter offer: Bruce Wayne disguised as Superman

[teaboot]

beating this dead horse with memes

[everythingismadeofchaos]

Hey this was a real fun little read. It's so great to find these treasures on this site

[teaboot]

We’re happy to have you!

[beardedmrbean]

[incomingalbatross]

In the same vein as my "books that don't seem to enjoy their settings" post: the - urban fantasy? romantasy? YA something-or-other fantasy? - WHATEVER the subgenre is that has fantasy elements but very little wonder. That's weird to me.

Like, there are shapeshifters and elves and mermen and all that but they're flat. They're just People With Abilities living in a version of real life that has fully incorporated them. The author does not seem to want it to feel magical, these are just... the genre conventions?? A way to avoid the messy constraints of realism?

And I am, myself, a fan of fantasy's ability to let me handwave things like Strict Medical Care and Travel Times sometimes! But like. You don't have to use magic for that if that's the only appeal to you.

*"this meeting could've been an email" voice* These dragons and vampires could've been plain organized crime.

[samueldays]

Yeah and "These dragons sound less alien than the Japanese are."

[thathopeyetlives]

That, and also maybe another thing... A lot of this kind of fantasy theoretically involves settings where there's a certain amount of intrigue, fighting, heroic deeds, and men of personal power.

And a lot of the time the intense tropeification seems to also leave that flat as well.

[isaacsapphire]

I think a lot of this is just bad writing/the market for what is essentially millennial potboiler steamy romance doesn’t actually want “good writing”.

Like, Fourth Wing is kinda badly written imo, or rather, it’s not living up to its premise to my tastes… but all it’s “flaws” are essential to its success with idiot normies, who wouldn’t be able to handle eg. truly alien dragons.

[gattsuru]

Yeah. It's not hard to imagine a more fantastic version of the Mercy Thompson or Dresden Files series, where the werewolves are more than ABO rejects, the dragons aren't just bigger and more powerful humans, and the fey were something genuinely alien rather than just humans with weird rules. Butcher, in his defense, is a good enough writer that he even motions around the weirder and more alien stuff, even pretty early on (there's nothing original about wolf->human werewolves, but they're a rich opportunity to see a very different world)... they just don't matter.

But it wouldn't probably sell very well.

I love xenofiction! Book of Night With Moon is one of my favorite books, not least of all because it's so heavily acting on a mythic arc while keeping 'human' stakes for characters that aren't human and don't even fully share human drives. ... and it's also pretty clearly a labor of love that Duane had to push hard to get published, get sequels, and get attention. Compare to the Young Wizards series that's the same magical conventions and setting, but everything's humans-in-weird-bodies (even the whale!) and the magic is just portals and guns, and it's understandable what's going to be more accessible.

And sometimes that accessibility comes with benefits. Most of it's slop, because most of everything is slop, but Dark Lord of Derkholm is a really strong discussion of family, and it's trappings are biomancy and office politics and community organizing that could be fantastic and really aren't. I've got a partial draft for a story in an alternate universe magic mind control slavery thing going on, and if I was leaning into the alternate history or magic side hard it should be wildly and incomprehensibly different. That might eventually be worth messing with...

But I'm writing this specific draft to explore interpersonal relationships: how do people handle control, responsibility, and duty; what does absolutely knowing your own character do to someone; how can this specific seductive power change people for the worse in ways that forces them to confront and overcome their flaws. The magic isn't stapled on, because being this weird and not-at-all-realistic thing is what allows that exploration without the real-world grounding that would make it incredibly uncomfortable to read.

That sort of story is not and can't be wonderful, in the sense that someone like Jenna Moran's most prosaic story can be. It's still worth having around.

[milk5-deactivated20260704]

Sorry to be obnoxious for a second but i think its a bit jarring when people will draw their ttrpg character or oc or whatever as like a big lovable sensitive gay nerd but still have this like generic fantasy armor on that communicates an implicit intent for violence BUT violence has been so abstracted in the context of the subject that it isn't really equivalent to real world acts of violence at all. now thats wordy but in a practical sense think about a "modern" version being like your big lovable sensitive gaY nerd character always wearing a kevlar vest and open carrying an assault rifle

[moral-autism]

a) maybe the modern au of my guy didn't get into a situation where fleeing town and becoming a caravan guard was plausibly the best option given that they were framed for murder

b) park rangers sometimes carry guns so plausibly my druid having a slingshot and a scimitar is just totally reasonable actually. does tumblr take the stance that park rangers can't be lovable nerds.

[rendakuenthusiast]

I think it would be neat to hang out with a big lovable sensitive gay nerd who was always wearing a kevlar vest and open-carrying an assault rifle.

[shieldfoss]

I still feel OP is on to something though. You can play D&D however you like, but the obvious text of the game is that you are a killer.

If you're playing D&D as-intended, you're playing a game that expects you to kill more people in your first dungeon crawl than many IRL professional killers get around to killing in their entire career. By the time you're a high level character, your kill count is unmatched by any except strategic bomber pilots and artillery commanders.

[gattsuru]

Not just or even primarily a D&D thing. I like a lot of what FFXIV does with player characterization, but it ultimately has the problem where you can interrupt a beach episode or a game of cards or literally anything involving the Lopporits, all while you're wearing the goofiest or sexiest possible glamours...

(by Khurt Wagner)

With your daily mass-murder roulette.

That's explicit text! Your player character ends up having a long talk with an entire zone of Garleans traumatized because of you, specifically, sometimes including people who's friends and family died at your hands. One poor girl panics at the thought you, specifically, invading so much that she flees into the wilderness and dies.

Your character has justifications, but you're still a monster with justifications. And your character isn't even the most woobiefied monster in the setting! Most of the fan favorites split between that genocidal maniac with issues and a sexy voice on one side, and snarky gay-coded guy who's felt the weight of the world on the other.

And then you share a fantasy pita bread, and the space-bunnies enter the scene with a comedic aside where they act like zombies but it's just one really getting obsessed with pudding.

That's honest, in a sense, because some people in the real world are like that, whether they're really good people or bad people at heart. But it's a weird revelation to actually grapple with.

[merrikiwi]

New sticker for may mcm london

Will give for free in exchange for real salmon

[official-kircheis]

@caesarsaladinn

[thewolfofthestars]

Ngl part of the reason I want sex, sex work, and sexuality to be destigmatized and decriminalized is because I think it would be really funny for there to be a genre of cam streamer who are doing all the horny stuff but with like. Jerma vibes

[thewolfofthestars]

no chat I'm not gonna--I'm not gonna deepthroat the monster dildo okay? Chat I have a terrible gag reflex, there is zero chance I deepthroat the monster dildo without gagging. I'm gonna end up yartzing my dinner all over the fuckin keyboard and everyone's gonna be grossed out. Okay some of you are still gonna be into that but most of you won't, alright? Most of you won't. No one is actually gonna like that. We can just stick the monster dildo in my pussy okay, I know everyone likes that. We can just do that. I'm not deepthroating it. I'm not doing it

[gattsuru]