this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Big brain tech dude got yet another clueless take over at HackerNews etc? Here's the place to vent. Orange site, VC foolishness, all welcome.

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Stubsack: weekly thread for sneers not worth an entire post, week ending 16th November 2025 (awful.systems)
submitted 3 days ago by self@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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Want to wade into the sandy surf of the abyss? Have a sneer percolating in your system but not enough time/energy to make a whole post about it? Go forth and be mid: Welcome to the Stubsack, your first port of call for learning fresh Awful you’ll near-instantly regret.

Any awful.systems sub may be subsneered in this subthread, techtakes or no.

If your sneer seems higher quality than you thought, feel free to cut’n’paste it into its own post — there’s no quota for posting and the bar really isn’t that high.

The post Xitter web has spawned soo many “esoteric” right wing freaks, but there’s no appropriate sneer-space for them. I’m talking redscare-ish, reality challenged “culture critics” who write about everything but understand nothing. I’m talking about reply-guys who make the same 6 tweets about the same 3 subjects. They’re inescapable at this point, yet I don’t see them mocked (as much as they should be)

Like, there was one dude a while back who insisted that women couldn’t be surgeons because they didn’t believe in the moon or in stars? I think each and every one of these guys is uniquely fucked up and if I can’t escape them, I would love to sneer at them.

(Credit and/or blame to David Gerard for starting this.)

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[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 6 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

new zitron: ed picks up calculator and goes through docs from microsoft and some others, and concludes that openai has less revenue than thought previously (probably?, ms or openai didn't comment), spends more on inference than thought previously, openai revenue inferred from microsoft share is consistently well under inference costs https://www.wheresyoured.at/oai_docs/

Before publishing, I discussed the data with a Financial Times reporter. Microsoft and OpenAI both declined to comment to the FT.

If you ever want to share something with me in confidence, my signal is ezitron.76, and I’d love to hear from you.

also on ft (alphaville) https://www.ft.com/content/fce77ba4-6231-4920-9e99-693a6c38e7d5

ed notes that there might be other revenue, but that's only inference with azure, and then there are training costs wherever it is filed under, debts, commitments, salaries, marketing, and so on and so on

e: fast news day today eh?

[–] EponymousBosh@awful.systems 9 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I doubt I'm the first one to think of this, but for some reason as I was drifting off to sleep last night, I was thinking about the horrible AI "pop" music that a lot of content farms use in their videos and my brain spat out the phrase Bubblegum Slop. Feel free to use it as you ses fit (or don't, I ain't your dad).

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 4 points 11 hours ago

tangent: I’ve seen people using this Bubblegum Slop (BS for short) in their social media stories. My guess is that fb/insta has started suggesting you use their slop instead of using music licensed from spotify, or something.

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 8 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Third episode of Odium Symposium is out (that’s the podcast I cohost). We talk about Cato the Elder and his struggle against militant feminist action in the roman republic. You can listen to the episode at https://www.patreon.com/posts/crack-sucking-143019155 or through any of the sources on our website, www.odiumsymposium.com

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 5 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

further things: one, that’s the first website I’ve made where I wasn’t just plugging into a template, and I’m a little proud of it even though it’s almost nothing. I would appreciate feedback and suggestions

two, a future episode idea I have is to examine what I’m thinking of as “the trustless society.” it’s about the replacing of social relations with legal or financial intermediaries. Those of you who are long time buttcoiners will be familiar with this process. if any of you have specific readings to recommend I would love to hear it. I’ll probably mostly focus on balaji but anyone or anything will help

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 2 points 3 hours ago

New site looks good! I think Let'sEncrypt is still the easiest and cheapest way to set up a decent cert but I've been away from IT for over a year now and someone else here can probably help point you in the right direction. At least for now the site probably doesn't actually have security concerns it would address, but it pops up a browser alert on first hit so it's probably a good idea?

Also I just started listening to the latest episode while writing this up and had forgotten how great that opening medley is.

[–] antifuchs@awful.systems 9 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Rolling Stone on the emergence of the ai chatbot psychosis religion

[–] BurgersMcSlopshot@awful.systems 5 points 16 hours ago

What if we turned a markov chain containing two decades of internet fan fiction into an oracle. Just spitballing here...

[–] rook@awful.systems 6 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Pavan Davuluri is apparently the “president of windows and devices” at microsoft. I, for one, am glad that I moved to linux when windows 10 got the axe, before anything tried to agenticify my pc.

Also, when did “frontier” become “first in lines to drink whatever it is the cult leader is serving up”?

https://xcancel.com/pavandavuluri/status/1987942909635854336#m

alt text

Windows is evolving into an agentic OS, connecting devices, cloud, and AI to unlock intelligent productivity and secure work anywhere. Join us at #MSIgnite to see how frontier firms are transforming with Windows and what’s next for the platform. We can’t wait to show you!

[–] istewart@awful.systems 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

"Agentic" is meant to seem sci-fi, but I can't help but think it's terminal business-speak. It's the clearest statement yet of the attempted redesign of the computer from a personal device to a distinct entity separate from oneself. One is no longer a user or administrator, one is instead passively waiting for "agents" to complete a task on one's behalf. This model is imposed from the top down, to be the strongest reinforcement yet of the all-important moat around the big vendors' cloud businesses. Once you're in deep with "agents," your workflows will probably be so hopelessly tangled, vendor-specific, and non-debuggable/non-reimplementable that migrating them to another vendor would be a nightmare task orders of magnitude beyond any database or CRM migration. If your workflows even get any work done anymore at all.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 1 points 3 hours ago

It's worth noting how much the whole "agentic" marketing scheme is the opposite of this reality, too. Because after all the dream they're selling is being able to do the Star Trek thing and just tell your computer to do it in plain English. But if that was what these companies were actually doing it would be very easy to migrate away if you wanted to, since you could just say "send me all our data in a format that $Competitor can easily onboard. I'm done with this shit" and then give the competitor's system the same plain English prompt. The reality is that they don't actually want to build the thing they're as advertising even if they could because their whole business model is to make interacting with the computer as high-friction as possible so you'll pay them to do it for you.

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 3 points 16 hours ago

@rook

#AngryGoose Agentic, mister Davuluri? Agent for whom, motherfucker?

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 9 points 18 hours ago

I want to keep bots from scraping my content because I don't want to feed the slop machine.

You want to keep bots from scraping your content because you're afraid it's gonna learn how to take over the world.

We are not the same.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/YuKktzP9yGbdrd7ry/gradientdissenter-s-shortform?commentId=KatyQAoEZG6eWyNBv

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Iphone Pocket: Inspired by the concept of “a piece of cloth"

Not satire I superpromise

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/11/introducing-iphone-pocket-a-beautiful-way-to-wear-and-carry-iphone/

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 2 points 2 hours ago

In the last couple of years I have noticed that people have been using single purpose phone holders/straps (as opposed to a multipurpose thing holder like a handbag etc.), so I understand this as apple coming in a little late trying to cash in on a trend. That being said: Apple don’t try to make their soft material products to last, so I expect this to be hot garbage.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Oh joy, I can perform a threat display by twirling it around my head like a bolo. I think I will get the pink or bright yellow one

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 2 points 3 hours ago

New from tech Goliath Apple Inc: the iSling. Clearly this will work out exactly as expected and has no unfortunate precedents.

[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

I think they need to hire an English teacher for their marketing department.

Introducing iPhone Pocket: a beautiful way to wear and carry ____ iPhone

Please complete the sentence, a smartphone isn't a person.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 6 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

It's like a thong for your iPhone

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 2 points 13 hours ago

this is a more perfect description than any I could've come up! my thesis was largely on what a boon it would prove to thieves (although I recognize that flavour of thief probably varies by country and not all have them)

[–] mirrorwitch@awful.systems 3 points 15 hours ago

More evidence for my conspiracy theory that all companies have switched their PR strategies to full-time ragebaiting. wake up sheeple

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 9 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

3D-knitted, or "knitted" for short.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 2 points 13 hours ago

"the concept of “a piece of cloth,”" will just forever live in my brain now, I suspect

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 4 points 1 day ago

@o7___o7

Apple is Touching Cloth.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What in the sweet fuck happened here, does this count as vandalism?

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Fix0red

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_unsolved_problems_in_computer_science&diff=next&oldid=1320261740

None of those are well defined "problems". An entire applied research field is not a "problem" akin to other items on this list lik P vs NP.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for your service o7

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 3 points 15 hours ago

To be clear, I can't edit Wikipedia to save my life. Editor in this case was Elestrophe.

[–] jaschop@awful.systems 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Fresh from the presses: OpenAI loses song lyrics copyright case in German court

GEMA (weird german authors' rights management organisation) is suing OpenAI over replication of song lyrics among other stuff, seeking a license deal. Judge rules that whatever the fuck OpenAI does behind the scenes is irrelevant, if it can replicate lyrics exactly that's unlawful replication.

One of GEMA's lawyers expects the case to be groundbreaking in europe, since the applicable rules are harmonized.

[–] smiletolerantly@awful.systems 10 points 23 hours ago

I cannot believe I am rooting for GEMA. What a weird world this has become.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

lemmy.ml by way of hexbear's technology comm: The Economist is pushing phrenology. Everything old is new again!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/38830374

screenshot of text "Imagine appearing for a job interview and, without saying a single word, being told that you are not getting the role because your face didn’t fit. You would assume discrimination, and might even contemplate litigation.But what if bias was not the reason? What if your face gave genuinely useful clues about your probable performance at work? That question is at the heart of a recent research"

[...]

screenshot of text "a shorter one. Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic than processes which reward, say, educational attainment. Kelly Shue of the Yale School of Management, one of the new paper’s authors, says they are now looking at whether AI facial analysis can give lenders useful clues about a person’s propensity to repay loans. For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing."

tweet

economist article

archive.is paywall bypass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

EDIT: Apparently based off something published by fucking Yale:

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/ai-photo-analysis-illuminates-how-personality-traits-predict-career-trajectories

https://insights.som.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2025-01/AI%20Personality%20Extraction%20from%20Faces%20Labor%20Market%20Implications_0.pdf

Reminds me of the "tech-bro invents revolutionary new personal transport solution: a train!" meme, but with racism. I'll be over in the angry dome.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What does it tell about a scientist that they see a wide world of mysteries to dive into and the research topic they pick is "are we maybe missing out on a way we could justify discriminating against people for their innate characteristics?"

"For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing" fuck off no one is this naive.

[–] YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago

I remember back before I realized just how full of shit Siskind was I used to buy into some of the narrative re: "credentialism" so I understand the way they're trying to sell it here. But even extending far more benefit than mere doubt can justify we're still looking at yet another case of trying to create a (pseudo)scientific solution to a socially constructed problem. Like, if the problem is that bosses and owners are trying to find the best candidate we don't need new and exciting ways to discriminate; they could just actually invest in a process for doing that, but trying to actually solve that problem would inconvenience the owning/managing classes and doesn't create opportunities to further entrench racial biases in the system. Clearly using an AI-powered version of the punchline for "how racist were the old times" commentary is better.

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