Wez Furlong

@wez@treehouse.systems
1.6K Followers
405 Following
101 Posts
Creator of WezTerm. 💓🦀
Ex-Meta (Creator of Watchman and EdenFS).
Ex-Message Systems.
PHP internals alum.
I'm offering Mentoring at https://wezfurlong.org/mentoring/ and writing a Systems Programming with Rust book: https://leanpub.com/sysprog
#nobridge
GitHubhttps://github.com/wez
Keyoxideopenpgp4fpr:EE852AE64BD3AFF521D2A01F541FD1E083C46DB6
Bloghttps://wezfurlong.org
Patreonhttps://www.patreon.com/WezFurlong

The most stressful video you'll see today

#adhd #meme #adhdmeme #neurodivergent #adhs #stress

“What are we actually saying here — that even Microsoft has to evaluate usage of “AI” directly, because it doesn’t affect performance enough to have an obvious impact otherwise? That the technology is so limp that even its biggest investor has to strong-arm its own employees into using it? That their own employees don’t want to use it?”

Among other excellent quotes, this one stuck out to me from eevee’s article about… well, Whatever.

https://eev.ee/blog/2025/07/03/the-rise-of-whatever/

The rise of Whatever

This was originally titled “I miss when computers were fun”. But in the course of writing it, I discovered that there is a reason computers became less fun, a dark thread woven through a number of events in recent history. Let me back up a bit.

"Whatever" is a brilliant essay on "AI" by @eevee:

"But I think the core of what pisses me off is that selling this magic machine requires selling the idea that doing things is worthless. Because if doing something has some value, then it must be somehow better than pushing a button and receiving Whatever for essentially no cost."

https://eev.ee/blog/2025/07/03/the-rise-of-whatever/

The rise of Whatever

This was originally titled “I miss when computers were fun”. But in the course of writing it, I discovered that there is a reason computers became less fun, a dark thread woven through a number of events in recent history. Let me back up a bit.

You MUST listen to RFC 2119.

Eric Bailey: It turns out you can just pay people to do things. I found a voice actor and hired them with the task of "Reading this very dry technical document in the most over-the-top sarcastic, passive-aggressive,...
https://jwz.org/b/ykqi

Wednesday, it's Captain!

(see https://mathstodon.xyz/@Scmbradley/114676343373917170, https://infosec.exchange/@isotopp/114680337675015896, now posted from a proper computer with a keyboard and edit tools instead of a cellphone, and on an actual Wednesday)

JSON: At least it's not YAML
YAML: At least it's not JSON
XML: Maybe if I don't move at all it can't see me
presbyopia (what I've been calling "middle aged eyes") is particularly sucky if you need to do computer work and only have access to a laptop. For "comfortable" viewing you need to choose between using it as a "knee-top" at arms-length, or a "hunch-top" with it being in-your-face. Neither position is ideal for ergnonomics!

I’m in the process of moving back to the UK from the US; moves are always stressful, and this one has been the most stressful yet!

Currently jet lagged and in temporary accommodation, but enjoying the British summer weather!

Today we're switching the bzip2 crate from C to 100% rust!
The bzip2 crate is now memory-safe, faster and easier to cross-compile.

https://trifectatech.org/blog/bzip2-crate-switches-from-c-to-rust/

Thanks to: @alex_crichton, @ros , and @nlnet

This project was funded through the e-Commons Fund, a fund established by NLnet Foundation with financial support from the @minbzk .

#rustlang #rust #securebydesign

bzip2 crate switches from C to 100% rust - Trifecta Tech Foundation

×

Wednesday, it's Captain!

(see https://mathstodon.xyz/@Scmbradley/114676343373917170, https://infosec.exchange/@isotopp/114680337675015896, now posted from a proper computer with a keyboard and edit tools instead of a cellphone, and on an actual Wednesday)

@isotopp 😂
Bevor ich es verstand, dachte ich erst der Käptn hätte Yoda verschluckt. 😂

@isotopp
😬 Der ist gut!

Btw., der KI-#Alttext bringt leider den Witz nicht rüber.
In den Sprechblasen steht:
Wednesday Addams: Hello, Commodore!
Captain Haddock: Wednesday, it's Captain!

@isotopp more AI slop
@edgeofeurope @isotopp
Alas yes, and they didn't care enough to fix the most obvious ai bodge; but the concept is amusing anyway.
@BRicker @edgeofeurope I never understand 1) why people use these AI slop images and 2) when they have obvious but easy to fix mistakes why they don't fix them? I guess both can be answered with laziness.
@bloody_albatross @BRicker it's quite an easy fix, too
@edgeofeurope @BRicker Exactly! Adding another finger to Wednesday's hand might be a bit more difficult, but still doable.

@bloody_albatross @edgeofeurope @BRicker Cartoon characters having 3 fingers is normal enough that I find haddock to be the odd one..

I guess the image that the AI stole Wednesday from was using the 3 finger style.

@tony @edgeofeurope @BRicker Thing also has 5 fingers and both, the Tintin comics and the old Adams Family comics seem to have 5 finger hands. But yes, it's about consistency and not weather its 4 or 5 fingers.
@tony @edgeofeurope @BRicker Also Thing is usually (but not always!) a right hand, but that is now nit picking.
@BRicker @edgeofeurope @isotopp
Well, it doesn't matter what the external costs are as long as we're mildly amused for a second, right?
@jargoggles @edgeofeurope @isotopp
That does appear to be the zeitgeist. 😒
(If the externalities were charged to the user, hiring a real artist on fivverr to copy-pasta would be cheaper, almost as quick, and provide income to actual humans?)
@BRicker @edgeofeurope @isotopp worse, they now retouched it to hide the worst "AI" tells. That’s inacceptable.
@edgeofeurope @isotopp It can be so easily to spot sometimes, like how this one is piss yellow
@thibaultmol @isotopp just take one look at the beer bottle
@edgeofeurope @isotopp oh yeah, I just meant the ai piss yellow can be seen from a thumbnail resolution even xd
@thibaultmol @edgeofeurope @isotopp She is missing a finger too.
@bloodynine Yes and no. Compared to most real humans, yes. But four fingers is very old (Western) cartoon tradition; if anything, Capt. Haddock is the oddball here, in cartoon tropism, for having five. Four fingers is by far most common in non-realist cartoons. (Realist ones such as Mary Worth, etc., look more realistic.) There are several over-lapping reasons for this, but it's long-standing tradition, and sometimes even a hard rule (as in The Simpsons).
@wesdym Yeah, now that you mention it Tom & Jerry characters had only 4 fingers.

@edgeofeurope @isotopp

To quote the great @Eetschrijver:

"Maybe we should stop having these silly pictures made, heating up a billion liters of cooling water and leaving three African villages without electricity for a week."

@edgeofeurope @isotopp Also, Wednesday Addams got her START as a cartoon character, publishing contemporaneously with later Tintin!

@edgeofeurope @isotopp

Looks like even the alt text was slop too...

@isotopp Dieser Holzfinger auf dem Etikett der Flasche (oder was auch immer das sein soll) triggert mich total. So kann ich das nicht teilen.
@isotopp @losttourist it's quite obviously an Atari ST, not a Commodore 🙄

@isotopp

Why does the table have a finger around the bottle?

@snarkweek @isotopp

That's Wednesday's missing finger. The table stole it.

@isotopp Both Captain and Wednesday are so perfectly met, especially the Tintin drawing style, I wonder if the AI was trained with 🪄intellectual property✨😁
@isotopp@infosec.exchange AI slop makes for an easy block.
@isotopp Pun of the week, and it's only Wednesday
@isotopp AI slop?
@mirabilos because of the hand on the table? @isotopp
@andijah @isotopp not exactly, but very close
@mirabilos the hand isn't the problem, it belongs to the Addams family. The bottle is the culprit.
The joke isn't bad, the way it's presented is rather uninspiring. To say the least.
@isotopp
@isotopp Someone do a version that's not AI slop. 🙄
@dalias @isotopp graphic design is my passion
@mcbaumwolle could you maybe change to alt text so that the joke is clear without the reference to the original toot so one can boost it? :)
I propose:
The "It's Wednesday" Tintin meme template but Tintin has been replaced by Wednesday from the Addams Family. Her speech bubble reads "Hello, Commodore!" and the captain replies "it's Captain, Wednesday"
@mcbaumwolle @dalias @isotopp Text bubbles are in wrong order, I'd modify it but my readily available tools are well… LibreSprite and dpaint.js which are comfortable but don't do text.
@dalias @isotopp Jfc. I didn't realize the AI slop until I saw the wood plank cut in front of the whiskey bottle.
@icil @isotopp There must be a big market for AI cuckoldry.
@icil@app.wafrn.net @isotopp id wathew a tall big boobie emo robot dwaw pictures for me 🥺
@isotopp
Well, now, isn't that a fun crossover!
@isotopp
Encore une image généré par iA 😒😤

@isotopp

@crowdagger c'est de l'IA, regarde la bouteille.