Skip Navigation

User banner

ProdigalFrog

@ ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

Posts
98
Comments
754
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • TIL Tolkien supported fascist Spain

    Jump

  • They would likely repeat the USSR's propaganda that the POUM (marxists) were Trotskyists engaging in counter-revolutionary behavior along with the Anarchists, and that they had to be put down/imprisoned since the 'only' way to to win the war was if everyone simply allowed themselves to be totally under the command of the Stalinist faction.

  • "We Could Get Sued for This" - GamersNexus goes deep with the privacy violations and overreach of modern consumer electronics, including Smart TVs, other devices, and how they record your voice.

    Jump

  • TIL Tolkien supported fascist Spain

    Jump

  • On a related note; George Orwell (1984, Animal Farm) actually traveled to Spain to fight in the Civil War on the side of the Anarchists, where he got shot in the neck and then had to flee the country after the Stalinists betrayed the Anarchists and Marxists and began rounding them up to imprison or execute them as 'secret fascists'.

    He wrote about the experience in his book Homage to Catalonia. There was also a movie mostly based on the book called Land and Freedom.

  • What work of fiction (book/comic/movie/tv show/etc.) changed the way you think about the world? Why?

    Jump

  • "We Could Get Sued for This" - GamersNexus goes deep with the privacy violations and overreach of modern consumer electronics, including Smart TVs, other devices, and how they record your voice.

    Jump

  • 2011 TV here, it thankfully is 1080p capable, and I'm clinging onto it for dear life. If anything in it fails, I'll definitely be attempting a repair.

  • Privacy @programming.dev
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    "We Could Get Sued for This" - GamersNexus goes deep with the privacy violations and overreach of modern consumer electronics, including Smart TVs, other devices, and how they record your voice.

  • Noctalia 5 Wayland Desktop Shell Is Now Officially Stable

    Jump

  • Thanks for going to the effort to find that, much appreciated!

    So not as bad as it could be, but I dearly wish they'd taken a firm stance against it, as literally every DE and 99% of Wayland compositors/window managers use AI now, all save for the handful of WM projects on this list.

  • What Movie Soundtrack is BETTER than the movie?

    Jump

  • The Wing Commander movie by Chris Roberts (yeah, of Star Citizen scam artist fame).

    It's loosely based on his older Wing Commander games, and I think he funded it with some of the money Microsoft gave him to develop Freelancer.

    It's a deeply mediocre movie, but the soundtrack, in particular the main theme, was pretty darn good.

  • What's your overall opinion on generative AI?

    Jump

  • I have a pretty dim view of LLMs.

    1. Simply using an AI that's run on a corporate data centers encourages the construction of yet more data centers, with all of the environmental/climate negatives they bring, as well as local harms they induce on the people living near them, such as increased electricity rates.

    2. Using corporate AI directly helps the financial situations of those giant corporations (by boosting usage/user numbers, they are able to attract more investment capital), most of which are ran by right-wing CEO's who are more than willing to collaborate with and fund fascist governments to ensure that they are not regulated in search of both maximum profits. Some of these companies, such as Nvidia, Palantir and Oracle, genuinely appear to be seeking to use these tools for what would previously be considered crackpot conspiracy theory levels of public control and surveillance.
    3. I'm wary of the potential effects of AI usage resulting in declining or stagnating critical thinking based on some preliminary studies (example 1, example 2).
    4. I do not think LLM's can be "just a tool" as many claim.
    5. 99% of LLM's (the ones virtually everyone use) are trained on copyrighted code that is incompatible with GPL licensed projects. LLM's have a 3 to 10% chance to unknowingly reproduce the copyrighted code perfectly, introducing legal plagiarism into an open-source project, which could easily open up the developers to being sued in the future if companies scanned open source repos for copyright violations.
    6. Many courts are ruling that LLM generated code cannot be copyrighted at all, meaning that it also cannot be legally made GPL, losing the protections from corporate exploration the GPL normally grants. https://fsfe.org/news/2026/news-20260825-01.html

  • Noctalia 5 Wayland Desktop Shell Is Now Officially Stable

    Jump

  • Interesting, hadn't heard of this, though they don't seem to have a stance about LLM contributions.

  • I swear if Coca-Cola gives us more AI Slop commercials, I’m switching to Pepsi or Dr Pepper

    Jump

  • The store's own brand often make a really good cola.

  • Whistle-Blower Says Trump Officials Are Defying Court Orders on Voting by Mail

    Jump

  • They don't actually care if they are popular, they just want power. Watch Mussolini: Son of the Century to see how they actually think.

  • Linus Torvalds used AI to fix a Linux bug, and now LLM critics on Linux face an uncomfortable choice

    Jump

  • Virtually the entire industry is not profitable, but that current reality does not affect the massive investment money they continue to receive, as they are pitching the concept to investors that many of the free users will eventually become paying users, and that their overall userbase will continue to expand, with projections of huge profits a decade from now.

    For investors, the lack of profits now is not a blaring alarm bell, because Amazon also operated without a profit for many years by undercutting their competition until the competition failed, then Amazon was able to be a monopoly and jack up their prices.

    A similar thing is happening with AI companies, where the prices they are currently charging is putting them at a net loss, but each one is hoping to out survive the other so that some day they can be a semi or total monopoly, and jack the prices up on a userbase that has become totally dependent on them to do their jobs.

  • Now that Debian is embracing AI anyone have any anti-AI distro recommendations?

    Jump

  • Ooh, that's one I hadn't seen. Thanks for sharing!

  • Debian developer Antoine Le Gonidec resigns after option allowing corporate LLM use without disclosure wins vote

    Jump

  • Devuan has made no official statements on their stance about LLM use. Until they do, it is not known if they would be a safe haven or not.

    The only debian based distro that has publicly taken a stand against LLM/AI's is AntiX linux.

  • Linus Torvalds used AI to fix a Linux bug, and now LLM critics on Linux face an uncomfortable choice

    Jump
    1. Simply using an AI that's run on a corporate data centers encourages the construction of yet more data centers, with all of the environmental/climate negatives they bring, as well as local harms they induce on the people living near them, such as increased electricity rates.

    2. Using corporate AI directly helps the financial situations of those giant corporations (by boosting usage/user numbers, they are able to attract more investment capital), most of which are ran by right-wing CEO's who are more than willing to collaborate with and fund fascist governments to ensure that they are not regulated in search of both maximum profits. Some of these companies, such as Nvidia, Palantir and Oracle, genuinely appear to be seeking to use these tools for what would previously be considered crackpot conspiracy theory levels of public control and surveillance.
    3. I'm wary of the potential effects of AI usage resulting in declining or stagnating critical thinking based on some preliminary studies (example 1, example 2).
    4. I do not think LLM's can be "just a tool" as many claim.
    5. 99% of LLM's (the ones virtually everyone use) are trained on copyrighted code that is incompatible with GPL licensed projects. LLM's have a 3 to 10% chance to unknowingly reproduce the copyrighted code perfectly, introducing legal plagiarism into an open-source project, which could easily open up the developers to being sued in the future if companies scanned open source repos for copyright violations.
    6. Many courts are ruling that LLM generated code cannot be copyrighted at all, meaning that it also cannot be legally made GPL, losing the protections from corporate exploration the GPL normally grants. https://fsfe.org/news/2026/news-20260825-01.html

  • Now that Debian is embracing AI anyone have any anti-AI distro recommendations?

    Jump

  • Now that Debian is embracing AI anyone have any anti-AI distro recommendations?

    Jump

  • Debian developer Antoine Le Gonidec resigns after option allowing corporate LLM use without disclosure wins vote

    Jump

  • Ubuntu, Mint and PopOS are all based on Debian, so they will inherit the LLM code that Debian inevitably will accept now.

  • Debian developer Antoine Le Gonidec resigns after option allowing corporate LLM use without disclosure wins vote

    Jump

  • Difference is, Systemd wasn't specifically being used to facilitate fascist governments surveiling their populace or contribute to global warming like LLMs are.

  • Massive funding for Linux projects, Nintendo nukes emulation, Graphene Comes to more phones - The Linux Experiment

    Jump

  • It may not be possible to do in the app, as I believe that is not feature complete yet. You'll likely have better luck from a regular browser.

  • Linux @programming.dev
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Debian developer Antoine Le Gonidec resigns after option allowing corporate LLM use without disclosure wins vote

    lists.debian.org /debian-devel/2026/08/msg00318.html
  • Linux @programming.dev
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Xfce dev sponsored by Xfce project to create Wayland compositor admits to using Claude LLM/AI for development, dismisses ethical concerns

    www.spurint.org /journal/2026/07/llms-and-xfwl4
  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    What Can You Do When You're Replaced By Machines? History of the Wapping Dispute and Strike | J. Draper

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net
    21:23

    How Tudor Sailors Survived a 7 Month Journey: Salt Pork Experiment | Historic Royal Palaces

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Stonewall Riots 1969 - considered to be the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement | The Cold War

  • Linux @programming.dev
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Xfwl4's First Preview Release (XFCE's Wayland Window Manager) – Brian Tarricone

    www.spurint.org /journal/2026/06/xfwl4s-first-preview-release
  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    How the PLA Became Complicated in Just Five Years

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Why Did The Russian Civil War Break Out? (Documentary)

  • Linux @programming.dev
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Linux Adobe CC Alternatives (Photo Editing, Illustration & Video) | Explaining Computers

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    How Hitler Tested His Next War in Spain - Death of Democracy 18 - Q2 1937

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    The True Story Behind American Primeval | InRangeTV

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Aral Sea : A Soviet Ecodisaster | The Cold War

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Why Didn't Germans Resist Hitler? - Death of Democracy

  • TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name @lemmy.world
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    The future can still be good -- Star Trek proves it

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Snaketown: Secrets of the Hohokam – Arizona’s Forgotten Desert Empire

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Human zoo's were once very popular. How?

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Medieval Lviv - a quick tour without all that tedious looking at things

  • History @mander.xyz
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net
    24:05

    The Brutal Truth About Medieval Outlaws

  • TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name @lemmy.world
    ProdigalFrog @slrpnk.net

    Fatal Decision // Star Trek: The Next Generation (Auto-Destruct Synth Cover)