*Edit*: here at least, I am clearly not isolated!
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*Edit*: here at least, I am clearly not isolated!
Perhaps I am increasingly isolated in holding this position, but I have no interest in reading "AI"-generated slop.
I love reading.
I read people's blogs and toots and whatever *because people wrote them* and I want to read their own thoughts and opinions.
I buy books, and read numerous different authors. I like finding new authors, bringing new ideas, styles etc.
Same with "AI" images. I'd prefer no image at all.
@neil You are definitely not alone in this. I also add AI music to the pile of things I do not wish to interact with. And even partially AI-coded software, which is getting tough.
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It completely wrong footed me multiple times. I thought I knew what sort of book it was and where it was going, and it subverted those expectations time-and-again.
A great corrective for people (like me) who have read too much old scifi - as was a Half Built Garden - which I also loved.
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@neil best book you read last year? Looking for recommendations
I'm limiting myself to authors who sell direct, without DRM in the case of ebooks. But not necessarily books I read in the last year
Si Clarke's Devon Island Mars Colony series is about creating a colony on Mars. Not much physics, but lots about the human practicalities and difficulties.
Si Clarke's Starship Teapot series is odd-ball, humourous sci-fi. Reminds me of Douglas Adams.
Elliott Hay's Vigilauntie Justice series is about a bunch of old ladies doing whatever is needed to keep their community safe.
All the above are available at https://whitehartfiction.co.uk/ The author (one person, two pen names) is on fedi at @clacksee
Dharma Kelleher writes queer crime fiction. I've read some of her Jinx Ballou books and can recommend them, but I haven't read any of her other books.
https://dharmakelleher.com/I've read and can recommend Michael W Lucas' git murder novels, which are crime fiction set at tech conferences. He's also written tech books and (I think) sci-fi.
https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/
@mwl -
@neil I find AI images a really strong flag that I'm not going to want to read an article.
I suspect at least part of the problem is that "experts" will tell you that a web page *has* to have an image to represent it (because that's what algorithms want), and people are panicked into finding *something* to fill that void.
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@sephster @unchartedworlds @neil @booktrail If you like Scifi you could take a look at @mcrscifi 's previous list : https://mcrscifi.wordpress.com/previous-scifi-books/ Any book that scored over 4 is great over 3.5 is good. (IMHO)
One that falls just outside your 'last year' is Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh which I loved and was constantly wrong footed by.
@steely_glint @unchartedworlds @neil @booktrail @mcrscifi thank you so much. Added to my reading list. Love sci fi although I haven't read too much
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I'm limiting myself to authors who sell direct, without DRM in the case of ebooks. But not necessarily books I read in the last year
Si Clarke's Devon Island Mars Colony series is about creating a colony on Mars. Not much physics, but lots about the human practicalities and difficulties.
Si Clarke's Starship Teapot series is odd-ball, humourous sci-fi. Reminds me of Douglas Adams.
Elliott Hay's Vigilauntie Justice series is about a bunch of old ladies doing whatever is needed to keep their community safe.
All the above are available at https://whitehartfiction.co.uk/ The author (one person, two pen names) is on fedi at @clacksee
Dharma Kelleher writes queer crime fiction. I've read some of her Jinx Ballou books and can recommend them, but I haven't read any of her other books.
https://dharmakelleher.com/I've read and can recommend Michael W Lucas' git murder novels, which are crime fiction set at tech conferences. He's also written tech books and (I think) sci-fi.
https://www.tiltedwindmillpress.com/
@mwl -
@neil best book you read last year? Looking for recommendations
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*Edit*: here at least, I am clearly not isolated!
Perhaps I am increasingly isolated in holding this position, but I have no interest in reading "AI"-generated slop.
I love reading.
I read people's blogs and toots and whatever *because people wrote them* and I want to read their own thoughts and opinions.
I buy books, and read numerous different authors. I like finding new authors, bringing new ideas, styles etc.
Same with "AI" images. I'd prefer no image at all.
-
*Edit*: here at least, I am clearly not isolated!
Perhaps I am increasingly isolated in holding this position, but I have no interest in reading "AI"-generated slop.
I love reading.
I read people's blogs and toots and whatever *because people wrote them* and I want to read their own thoughts and opinions.
I buy books, and read numerous different authors. I like finding new authors, bringing new ideas, styles etc.
Same with "AI" images. I'd prefer no image at all.
-
*Edit*: here at least, I am clearly not isolated!
Perhaps I am increasingly isolated in holding this position, but I have no interest in reading "AI"-generated slop.
I love reading.
I read people's blogs and toots and whatever *because people wrote them* and I want to read their own thoughts and opinions.
I buy books, and read numerous different authors. I like finding new authors, bringing new ideas, styles etc.
Same with "AI" images. I'd prefer no image at all.
@neil
Ok grandma 👵 so you have any idea how privileged you sound? If you hate tools, why even touch a book in the first place? Because thats what AI is. A tool. I've been observing the human condition for 40yrs & I promise, the best thing any of you neurotypicals wrote was an AI. You think people who have vision but no tools deserve less? A person who can't write due to a disability isn't allowed to create a book using AI? Go stew in your nostalgia-core while we live in the current decade. -
*Edit*: here at least, I am clearly not isolated!
Perhaps I am increasingly isolated in holding this position, but I have no interest in reading "AI"-generated slop.
I love reading.
I read people's blogs and toots and whatever *because people wrote them* and I want to read their own thoughts and opinions.
I buy books, and read numerous different authors. I like finding new authors, bringing new ideas, styles etc.
Same with "AI" images. I'd prefer no image at all.
@neil
God I love AI! -
@neil
God I love AI!@neil
The show would have been worth watching this way. Honestly the only reason I watched The Good Doctor is because I love hot guys making out! I'll stop there 🤣 -
undefined oblomov@sociale.network shared this topic
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@informapirata ma infatti, chi crede più alle belle notizie?
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Al momento dice che le registrazioni sono state disabilitate...
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@mau immagino di sì 😀 ma vedere scritto tutto quello che stai facendo su quel sito, fa riflettere.
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@FraEmme ❤️
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Disassembling Opcodes with a Font
Those who stay into the forbidden realm of font rendering quickly learn how convoluted and arcane it can be – LaTeX is a fully Turing-complete programming language, Unicode has over eighty invisible characters, and there are libraries that let you execute WebAssembly in a font. A great example of a font’s hidden capabilities is Z80 Sans, a font that disassembles Z80 opcodes to assembly mnemonics.
If one pastes Z80 opcodes into a word processor and changes their font to Z80 Sans, the codes are rendered as their assembly mnemonics. The font manages this by abusing the Glyph Substitution Table and Glyph Positioning Table, two components of the OpenType standard. Fonts define relations between characters (internal representations used by the computer, such as ASCII and Unicode) and glyphs (the graphics actually displayed).
In some cases, though, the way a character is displayed depends on where it appears in a word, or what appears around it (Arabic characters are a common example, but an example from English is the ligature “æ”). Z80 Sans defines all the possible glyphs for each nibble of the opcodes, then used a recursive descent parser to generate substitution rules which display the correct glyphs in context.
For a deeper dive into the pitfalls of text graphics, check out this font rendering engine written for a hobby OS. You can also use fonts to play games or talk to an LLM.
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Former BND high-ranking official falls for Signal spear-phishing demanding his PIN
🤦♂️
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Iran: due settimane di incessante aggressione militare israelo-usa. intervista al collettivo “together for iran – donna, vita, liberta’”
@anarchia
2 settimane fa, sabato 28 febbraio 2026, iniziava l’aggressione militare israelo-Usa sull’Iran, che prosegue senza sosta anche in queste ore. Raid sono segnalati in
