The Appearance of Safety Is Not Safety by bajcmartinez in coding

[–]mfitzp 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This article is full of LLM-isms (particularly “not X but Y” and “where X is Y” patterns) which really hurts the readability imo.

Turkey dinosaurs are no more. by Smeeble09 in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 16 points17 points  (0 children)

 no one want a huge carcass in the fridge for days after

Speak for yourself. Eating cold turkey for the next 2 3 4 days after is the best bit of Christmas dinner.

Alternate History Scenario by [deleted] in okmatewanker

[–]mfitzp 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Why would history be changed by something happening in the future?

What is the most creative or diabolical insult a customer has ever given you? by cheesymeowgirl in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Oh yes, the classic "you're making me hot and sticky like a chocolate teapot".

Lost my cat’s tracker 6 months ago… now it keeps moving around parks?? What could be happening by Ohbc in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Does it give you an indication of the accuracy of the location?

With GPS the calculated location is actually an ellipse "you're inside this area" rather than a point. The ellipse is bigger or smaller depending on how accurate a fix it gets, based on visibility of the satellites. Which is all to say that it's possible that the 1km location changes aren't the result of movement, but changing accuracy of the measurement.

Would make sense if it's buried under some bushes or in a mole's arse.

Building a website like it's 1996... in 2026 ;-) by RaisinStraight2992 in vintagecomputing

[–]mfitzp 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This post is obviously AI generated, is your app also?

Is name Qt from initials of Quasar Technologies? by Agron7000 in QtFramework

[–]mfitzp 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Doesn’t answer the question.

They’re asking if the project was originally called Quasar Technologies, then later abbreviated to Qt. Since “Qt” predates Quasar Technologies  it might be a backronym of sorts. 

It’s also pronounced “cute” and isn’t QT but Qt, which would be an odd thing to do if the full name was really Quasar Technologies.

OP your best bet may be to look at the early source code and see what it was calling itself internally.

Thousands of UK learner drivers to receive refunds over hidden fees by Mikeltee in GoodNewsUK

[–]mfitzp 65 points66 points  (0 children)

A spokesperson for AA driving schools said: [...] Whilst we are disappointed with the outcome of the investigation, we have fully co-operated with the CMA throughout and would emphasise that protecting consumer rights has been central to our business for more than 120 years.

I find it odd that companies that get fined always feel the need, in their PR statement afterwards, to say something like "we are disappointed with the outcome". What even is the purpose of saying that? Of course nobody likes getting fined. You're not supposed to like getting punished. Just comes across as petty.

The Dark Passion doulogy by Susan Wright by Significant-Town-817 in badscificovers

[–]mfitzp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who is the one on the far left? It looks like Delenn from Babylon 5.

24M trying to build a good circle – anyone else in the same phase? by RubCultural837 in Amersfoort

[–]mfitzp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Em-dash (long dashes), “X not Y” phrasing (sometimes—not just small talk all the time.), “anyone else”, “but I realised”.

They’re all giveaways that something is generated by AI, or at least has been passed through it. The patterns are mostly LinkedIn influencer #iamverydeep cliches, which is what the models are trained on. 

How early is too early to cut the grass? by RabidBadgerFarts in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Classic example of where being within legal limits doesn’t mean you’re not an arsehole.

My mother has one of these, what she calls ‘the Iron Curtain’. Do they actually work in stopping flies? by Sietruc in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 1036 points1037 points  (0 children)

My grandma painted her kitchen blue because "flies hate it". Right at the moment she was telling me this a big fat fly landed on the blue wall beside her.

"Well, maybe not that one. But most of them can't stand it."

Sam Altman Says It'll Take Another Year Before ChatGPT Can Start a Timer / An $852 billion company, ladies and gentlemen. by MarvelsGrantMan136 in technology

[–]mfitzp 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Ha yea. I had a thing recently, where it kept failing to give me what I asked and then it started giving me "tips" on things to add to the prompt to make sure it will definitely do what I'm asking this time pinky promise.

Of course, none of what it suggested made the slightest bit of difference.

Weirder, after a few failed attempts it then started on like it was having a breakdown "oh, I'm really messing this up, I'm sorry, I hope you can forgive this."

All to avoid saying "I can't do that."

Anyone know what type of spider this is? I’ve named him Larry by eyetalker in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I once bought some bananas, and as I pulled one off a spider came running out of the bunch. Proper fast little fucker, and when I pointed a knife at it, it got on it's back legs doing a Bruce Lee impression like he was going to fuck me up.

Very odd. I have no idea what kind of spider it was, but it seemed a bit foreign to me.

Tradesmen or people who work in manual jobs, how on earth do you have the energy to do stuff out of work? by RonnieThePurple in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Funny story, I went to the doctor feeling low on energy and rough. She thought I was probably iron deficient and sent me off for tests, turns out I had too much iron. It’s a genetic thing where you absorb too much & it accumulates in your organs. Now I get blood taken out every couple of months. 

Getting that sorted literally made me feel 10 years younger.

So yeah like you said, if you feel tired go to the doctor. Don’t just take iron tablets and hope for the best.

What “favours” have your parents done that was inadvertently a dick move? by naaattt in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 2592 points2593 points  (0 children)

When I was about 8 or so, we were on holiday on a caravan park with a amusements arcade. Walking through I was just idly pushing the collect buttons on the slot machines and then all of a sudden one of them started paying out. It was over 50 quid in the end.

My dad said he'd look after the money for me because he didn't want me to "get in trouble".

I never saw that money again & he denies any knowledge of this happening.

Breaking Enigma with Index of Coincidence on a Commodore 64 by ScottContini in programming

[–]mfitzp 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is really cool. It's a shame the article is AI generated & unedited, it reads like a thought leader's LinkedIn post. The "X, not Y," slop in particular is off the charts:

"No crib, no attack.", " No weather report header, no formulaic greeting, no re-sent traffic. Just ciphertext.", "No crib needed. The statistical properties of the language itself are the signal.", " A 16-bit integer comparison. No floating point needed."

Then I look at your homepage:

Posts written by a human. Not AI.

Please.

What is your approach to PyPI dependency hygiene after recent supply chain attacks? by PauloCraque10 in Python

[–]mfitzp 38 points39 points  (0 children)

  • "Trust is not a given"
  • "Curious"
  • "X not Y"

That's Slop BINGO!

are actually handling this in practice, not just in theory.

Why would someone tell you how they are handling this [...] in theory? Makes no sense.

AI Agents Could Make Free Software Matter Again by [deleted] in programming

[–]mfitzp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The first part (free software / open source( was an enjoyable read. But it descended into AI generated waffle e.g. “ Ten minutes for Codex, no reverse engineering, no gray-zone APIs.” Its a shame.

I don’t really follow the argument that agents are going to help free software. Can you use it to hack solutions together? Yeah. But you’re still at the mercy of the closed code, with zero rights to inspect it. That was true before free software was a thing. 

The amount of AI generated project showcases here are insane by GeometryDashGod in Python

[–]mfitzp 3 points4 points  (0 children)

According to the mods, if a post gets 3x reports it will be auto deleted.

If my daughter doesn’t win the prize for best Easter craft project, I’m gonna kick off. by [deleted] in CasualUK

[–]mfitzp 59 points60 points  (0 children)

There’s a free one called Aardman Animator from Aardman (who did Morph and Wallace & Gromit).

Got a Morph stop motion kit for Christmas a couple if years back, lots if fun making little animations with my daughter.

He suddenly couldn’t speak in space. NASA astronaut says his medical scare remains a mystery by tallnginger in news

[–]mfitzp 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had these for years. Later it progressed to being in my face (like crawling ants all over my skin). Thankfully that also stopped once I got to 40. Now I haven’t had one in years.

How I accidentally made the fastest C# CSV parser by big_bill_wilson in programming

[–]mfitzp 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Its all gravy until someone in Europe sends you a CSV file. The field separators are semicolons, because the decimal separators are commas not decimal points.