@johnpettigrew@wandering.shop
@johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

johnpettigrew

@johnpettigrew@wandering.shop

Hat wearer, recovering editor, feminist. Posts about publishing, books, coding, social & environmental justice, & their intersections. #TransLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatter

He/him

Profile photo: a white man wearing sunglasses, a black pork-pie hat, a black patterned face mask and a black tee shirt showing part of the slogan "No one is illegal".

Banner image: the 4 principles of Kim Crayton's "Profit without oppression", from "Tech is not neutral" to "Prioritise the most vulnerable".

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

valkyrie, (edited ) to random
@valkyrie@wandering.shop avatar

deleted_by_author

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    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @valkyrie This is the key - if you define "religion" in that way then your case makes itself. If other people have different definitions, it's no surprise that they express different conclusions about the word. The only way to mutual understanding is to accept that other people interpret crucial words differently, and to talk about that - rather than just shouting about our conclusions!

    baldur, to random
    @baldur@toot.cafe avatar

    “How do you accidentally run for President of Iceland? | by Anna Andersen”

    Glad somebody wrote about this because it’s an objectively hilarious UX case study

    (And they just announced that eleven people managed to get the requisite number of endorsements in time) https://uxdesign.cc/how-do-you-accidentally-run-for-president-of-iceland-0d71a4785a1e

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @baldur Absolutely love this! A great example of why good UX design matters - and just putting yourself into the user's shoes instead of bashing out something that's "hey, good enough!"

    johnpettigrew, to ai
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    This article contains one crucial line that basically undercuts the entire rest of what Pat Gelsinger of Intel is saying:

    "Many clients are telling me it is really hard to realize value from their AI investments," Guan told Gelsinger on stage.

    In other words, despite all the hype, no-one is actually making money from LLMs (except the consultants). It's a bubble. All the excited keynote presentations in the world can't disguise that. #AI #LLMs
    https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/10/intel_ceo_ai_automation/

    johnpettigrew, to ai
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    For those of you who use LLMs to help you code, here's a warning: these tools have been shown to hallucinate packages in a way that allows an attacker to poison your application. https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @ErikJonker This seems to be the live question: which subset of tasks that coders do are actually made quicker or better by using LLMs, given that you have to thoroughly check every character and every step of logic in what they suggest. I know several folk who swear by it but, personally, I'm too much of a control freak to take the chance.

    ColinTheMathmo, to random
    @ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

    An example ScrabbleGram ... it uses all the letter of a standard scrabble set exactly once, including blanks (shown here with the letters the represent.

    And it's a limerick.

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @ColinTheMathmo

    A man whose mind is blown

    ColinTheMathmo, to random
    @ColinTheMathmo@mathstodon.xyz avatar

    Applying for an ESTA to travel to the USA. The form is tedious but straight-forward to complete.

    Click the pay button ...

    Get thrown off.

    I can find no way to pay.

    I can't buy tickets will I've done this ... what am I missing?

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @ColinTheMathmo Wow. I mean, how would you even design a system to work like that? 😱

    glecharles, to random
    @glecharles@zirk.us avatar

    @johnpettigrew Just wanted to say you've got the patience of a saint! (re: R2.0)

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @glecharles Thanks. I don't really. 😁 But sometimes it's possible to fake on the internet.

    baldur, (edited ) to random
    @baldur@toot.cafe avatar

    The problem with insisting that the world is continually getting better (“we’re objectively doing better against global climate change/wars”) is:

    1. Not everything is getting better. In the US, maternal healthcare is in a substantial decline and the percentage of society that refuses all vaccines increases with every new vaccine. We get hard-won rights and others lose them. Riffing off Gibson and Clarke, a sufficiently uneven distribution of progress is indistinguishable from a decline.

    1/2

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @baldur Bjarnason's Law: "A sufficiently uneven distribution of progress is indistinguishable from a decline."

    marthawells, to random

    Witch King ebook is on sale today (Saturday, 12/23) in the US for $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/Witch-King-Martha-Wells-ebook/dp/B0B9KVV7JH -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/witch-king-martha-wells/1141976525?ean=9781250826800

    Map for Witch King, map art by Rhys Davies, map design by Greg Collins

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @c0dec0dec0de @marthawells But only the US store - I'm in the UK and it's still full price. 😭

    johnpettigrew, to ComputerScience
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    Niche pre-Xmas request: are there any early modern English scholars out there? My son needs to find a (fairly small) corpus of EME text for his third-year project in computer science, to improve auto-parsing of text despite spelling variations in old English. Boosts welcome! #EarlyModernEnglish #ComputerScience #EnglishLanguage

    johnpettigrew, to random
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    Taking tents away from rough sleepers - and punishing charities who give those tents out? What a cruel idea. It won't fix homelessness. It'll just make people's lives harder. Shame on you Suella Braverman. Sign this petition now to get these plans scrapped: https://act.38degrees.org.uk/act/homelessness-tents-petition?utm_campaign=2023-11-04_&utm_medium=mastodon&utm_source=mastodon

    timbray, to random
    @timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

    Hey, my first Mastodon general-help outreach. Let's see how it goes.

    1. Install a bunch of fonts from the Adobe Web site (paying customer)
    2. In the Creative Commons app, click all the install buttons.
    3. Creative Commons says "installed for local use"
    4. Neither Font Book nor any other apps can see the fonts.

    Any ideas what might be going on? Thanks in advance.

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @timbray I'm not familiar with the specific app, but from my experience of installing fonts: have you restarted those other apps since installing the fonts? Most build their font list once at run time and don't look to see if something new has been installed since then.

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @timbray Ugh. Fonts are the worst.

    Annalee, to random
    @Annalee@wandering.shop avatar

    I don't want to do CW Discourse cause it's tiring, but I'm trying to post about one aspect of being a CSA survivor and I'm doing it on Bluesky instead of here because I don't want to deal with CW policing.

    CW cuts are a great feature, but it is absolutely true that they make people feel really comfortable telling other people to keep stigmatized and marginalized aspects of themselves out of public view.

    We do not do a good job of balancing competing needs around difficult subjects.

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @isagalaev Yes, that's why. Try rereading your post - you literally dispute and belittle Annalee's lived experience, on the evidence that you (a white man) haven't experienced what she has. Think about that a little, please.

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @isagalaev You said "I wonder how bad it is", which is questioning her experience. You said "can't you just ignore it", which suggests that she hasn't tried such a simple thing.

    And this is public social media, not a private conversation. As another white man, I sometimes find it appropriate to point out to other white men when we get it wrong. Again, consider how what you wrote would be read.

    josh, to queer
    @josh@josh.tel avatar

    deleted_by_author

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    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @josh Jay Hulme! Not on here AFAIK but active on Twitter.

    johnpettigrew,
    @johnpettigrew@wandering.shop avatar

    @josh You're very welcome. It's always a good day when someone discover a new poet. And an even better one when Jay can sell more books. 😝

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