this post was submitted on 15 Dec 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 21st December 2025 (awful.systems)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by BlueMonday1984@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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Want to wade into the snowy 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. This was a bit late - I was too busy goofing around on Discord)

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[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Ben Williamson, editor of the journal Learning, Media and Technology:

Checking new manuscripts today I reviewed a paper attributing 2 papers to me I did not write. A daft thing for an author to do of course. But intrigued I web searched up one of the titles and that's when it got real weird... So this was the non-existent paper I searched for:

Williamson, B. (2021). Education governance and datafication. European Educational Research Journal, 20(3), 279–296.

But the search result I got was a bit different...

Here's the paper I found online:

Williamson, B. and Piattoeva, N. (2022) Education Governance and Datafication. Education and Information Technologies, 27, 3515-3531.

Same title but now with a coauthor and in a different journal! Nelli Piattoeva and I have written together before but not this...

And so checked out Google Scholar. Now on my profile it doesn't appear, but somwhow on Nelli's it does and ... and ... omg, IT'S BEEN CITED 42 TIMES almost exlusively in papers about AI in education from this year alone...

Which makes it especially weird that in the paper I was reviewing today the precise same, totally blandified title is credited in a different journal and strips out the coauthor. Is a new fake reference being generated from the last?...

I know the proliferation of references to non-existent papers, powered by genAI, is getting less surprising and shocking but it doesn't make it any less potentially corrosive to the scholarly knowledge environment.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Relatedly, AI is fucking up academic copy-editing.

Meanwhile,

One of the world’s largest academic publishers is selling a book on the ethics of artificial intelligence research that appears to be riddled with fake citations, including references to journals that do not exist.

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 3 points 5 hours ago

OT: Lurasidone is neat stuff.

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 3 points 8 hours ago

For more lighthearted gaming-related news, Capcom fired off a quick sneer, whilst (indirectly) promoting their their latest Mega Man game:

(alt text: "As a reminder for those entering the Mega Man: Dual Override Boss Design Art Contest, please remember the rules posted at bit.ly/MMDORobotMaster. Entrants must follow this account, and please leave the AI to the robots: generative AI is prohibited for this contest.")

[–] corbin@awful.systems 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Today, in fascists not understanding art, a suckless fascist praised Mozilla's 1998 branding:

This is real art; in stark contrast to the brutalist, generic mess that the Mozilla logo has become. Open source projects should be more daring with their visual communications.

Quoting from a 2016 explainer:

[T]he branding strategy I chose for our project was based on propaganda-themed art in a Constructivist / Futurist style highly reminiscent of Soviet propaganda posters. And then when people complained about that, I explained in detail that Futurism was a popular style of propaganda art on all sides of the early 20th century conflicts… Yes, I absolutely branded Mozilla.org that way for the subtext of "these free software people are all a bunch of commies." I was trolling. I trolled them so hard.

The irony of a suckless developer complaining about brutalism is truly remarkable; these fuckwits don't actually have a sense of art history, only what looks cool to them. Big lizard, hard-to-read font, edgy angular corners, and red-and-black palette are all cool symbols to the teenage boy's mind, and the fascist never really grows out of that mindset.

[–] maol@awful.systems 7 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

It irks me to see people casually use the term "brutalist" when what they really mean is "modern architecture that I don't like". It really irks me to see people apply the term brutalist to something that has nothing to do with architecture! It's a very specific term!

[–] istewart@awful.systems 2 points 1 hour ago

"Brutalist" is the only architectural style they ever learned about, because the name implies violence

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 6 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

ModRetro, retro gaming company infamous for being helmed by terrible person Palmer Luckey, has put out a version of their handheld made with "the same magnesium aluminum alloy as Anduril’s attack drones" (bluesky commentary, the linked news article is basically an ad and way too forgiving).

So uhh... they're not beating those guilt by association accusations any time soon.

[–] istewart@awful.systems 3 points 7 hours ago

Obviously, if they've got magnesium alloy to divert into Game Boy ripoffs, the attack drone contract must not be going particularly well

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 5 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

a version of [the ModRetro Chromatic] made with “the same magnesium aluminum alloy as Anduril’s attack drones”

Obvious moral issues aside, is that even an effective marketing point? Linking yourself to Anduril, whose name is synonymous with war crimes and dead civs, seems like an easy way to drive away customers.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 1 points 8 minutes ago

I'm holding out for the Lockheed-branded Atari Lynx clone thats made from surplus R9X knife missile parts.

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 4 points 5 hours ago

yeah, I dunno how large the union of retro game handheld enthusiasts and techfash lickspittles is.

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

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/can-ucla-replace-teaching-assistants-ai

Miller’s team also recently used software from startup StackAI to develop an AI-powered app that writes letters of recommendation, saving faculty members time. Faculty type basic details about a student who has requested a letter, such as their grades and accomplishments, and the app writes a draft of the full letter.

AI is “one of those things that you might worry could dehumanize the process of writing recommendation letters, but faculty also say that process [of manually writing the letters] is very labor intensive,” Miller said. “So far they’ve gotten a lot out of” the new app.

Anyone using this thing should be required to serve on the admissions committee. LoRs aren't for generic B+ students that you don't even remember, just say no.

I googled stackai, saw their screenshots and had ptsd flashbacks of mid 2000s alteryx. why do we keep reinventing no-code drag-and-drop box-and-arrow crap.

[–] TinyTimmyTokyo@awful.systems 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Orange site mods retitled a post about a16z funding AI slop farms to remove the a16z part.

The mod tried to pretend the reason was that the title was just too damn long and clickbaity. His new title was 1 character shorter than the original.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46305113

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I don’t love the title but it’s the best I could come up with to fit within the 80 character limit.

A half dozen people might still be reading hackernews on punchcards so they ha-

ve no choice but to argue about how to shorten "long" titles every day.

[–] Soyweiser@awful.systems 3 points 11 hours ago

80 character limit

Lot of roguelike development in the past was still obsessed with that. Was a bit amusing, think even they have dropped this now.

[–] nfultz@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I went down a punch-card history rabbit hole today on the empirical software engineering discord. TIL:

We have been living in a world 10 columns too short. Think of all the HN headlines we could have had instead...

I imagine it was like VHS vs Beta only with pocket protectors.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 2 points 12 hours ago

Razor and Blade Model

HACK THE PLANET

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 9 points 1 day ago

Good to know that Orange Website is being considerate of us VT220 users. I knew there was a reason why mine has the amber phosphorus.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 3 points 1 day ago

A rare W for the Tennessee General Assembly:

https://www.wkrn.com/news/tennessee-politics/bill-targets-ai-hurt-manipulate/

[–] NextElephant9@awful.systems 11 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Ryanair now makes you install their app instead of allowing you to just print and scan your ticket at the airport, claiming it's "better for our environment (gets rid of 300 tonnes of paper annually)." Then you log in into the app and you see there's an update about your flight, but you don't see what it's about. You need to open an update video, which, of course, is a generated video of an avatar reading it out for you. I bet that's better for the environment than using some of these weird symbols that I was putting into a box and that have now magically appeared on your screen and are making you feel annoyed (in the future for me, but present for you).

[–] swlabr@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

chat is this kafkaesque

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 9 points 1 day ago

New conspiracy theory: Posadist aliens have developed a virus that targets CEOs and makes them hate money.

[–] froztbyte@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago

….this made me twitch

[–] sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Lol talk about mixed messages.

Mozilla's CEO yesterday:

[Firefox] will evolve into a modern AI browser

Firefox's social media account today:

Firefox is not becoming an AI browser.

[–] bitofhope@awful.systems 7 points 1 day ago

What the fuck would an "AI browser" even be, let alone a modern one. I know what a web browser is, basically a combined HTTP client and HTML renderer. An AI browser is not something that has a commonly understood meaning, so to claim Firefox or anything else will be one without elaboration is just wankery.

I can't help but do their dirty work for them and try to imagine what the hell an AI browser would be. Maybe you develop a standard protocol for prompting chatbots and a markup format for displaying responses and an AI browser is a client for that? Or maybe you just put an LLM in the search bar so Mozilla's bullshit machine can give you wrong answers before pressing the return key and having Google's bullshit machine give you wrong answers. Maybe there's an about:chatbot page. I think all of these are bad bullshit ideas, but at least they're ideas and not just "what if we added into ".

AI Browsers. Metaverse fast food. Blockchain sneakers. Gigwork apartments. Cloud toilets. Big Data headphones. AR chairs. Military grade pianos. 3D books. App drugs. Dotcom condoms. Cyberspace bicycles. Wireless jump ropes. Video silverware. WYSIWYG carpets. Transistor fanny packs. Electromechanical ladders. Atomic flooring. Radio saunas. Horseless glue. Steam pens. Water powered masturbation.

I assume some mesolithic asshole said shit like "we are transforming our hunter-gatherer settlement to a 'cave painting first' society" and neighboring community leaders gave that guy like a hundred animal skins each for his insight.

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The ACM has fallen

https://types.pl/@wilbowma/115733550130706711

https://types.pl/@arjen@idf.social/115736432049018026

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

I became a member this year! and then immediately got to notice how it’s oozing out every pore

what’s kinda wild for me is that there’s also an ethics pledge involved, and I do not understand how they square that with the mass theft all LLM services and progress are/is based on

them automatically fucking with authors’ papers….ew

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

ACM is now showing an AI “summary” of a recent paper of mine on the DL instead of the abstract. As an author, I have not granted ACM the right to process my papers in this way, and will not. They should either roll back this (mis)feature or remove my papers from the DL.

https://infosec.exchange/@hovav/115731038692335809

[–] blakestacey@awful.systems 6 points 2 days ago

Relatedly:

As is typical for educators these days, Heiss was following up on citations in papers to make sure that they led to real sources — and weren’t fake references supplied by an AI chatbot. Naturally, he caught some of his pupils using generative artificial intelligence to cheat: not only can the bots help write the text, they can supply alleged supporting evidence if asked to back up claims, attributing findings to previously published articles. [...] That in itself wasn’t unusual, however. What Heiss came to realize in the course of vetting these papers was that AI-generated citations have now infested the world of professional scholarship, too. Each time he attempted to track down a bogus source in Google Scholar, he saw that dozens of other published articles had relied on findings from slight variations of the same made-up studies and journals. [...] That’s because articles which include references to nonexistent research material — the papers that don’t get flagged and retracted for this use of AI, that is — are themselves being cited in other papers, which effectively launders their erroneous citations.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-chatbot-journal-research-fake-citations-1235485484/

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

a16z funds 1000+ strong phone farm and uses it for mass manufacturing tiktok ai influencers, security turns out to be not good enough https://www.404media.co/hack-reveals-the-a16z-backed-phone-farm-flooding-tiktok-with-ai-influencers/

the usecase is spam:

The hacker also shared a list with me of more than 400 TikTok accounts Doublespeed operates. Around 200 of those were actively promoting products on TikTok, mostly without disclosing the posts were ads, according to 404 Media’s review of them. It’s not clear if the other 200 accounts ever promoted products or were being “warmed up,” as Doublespeed describes the process of making the accounts appear authentic before it starts promoting in order to avoid a ban. 

I’ve seen TikTok accounts operated by Doublespeed promote language learning apps, dating apps, a Bible app, supplements, and a massager.

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

article in large part about our friends

https://bayareacurrent.com/meet-the-new-right-wing-tech-intelligentsia/

some of the people involved with kernel are pretty unhappy about this and claim the piece is in bad faith/factually wrong (see the replies to https://bsky.app/profile/kellypendergrast.bsky.social/post/3ma55xfq7d22y )

[–] istewart@awful.systems 8 points 2 days ago

Shit like Palladium is going to be absolutely hilarious to dig up in the back of a used bookstore 20 years from now

[–] saucerwizard@awful.systems 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Reminder Tivy was the guy behind Phalanx (back in his polyamory microblogging days)~

[–] istewart@awful.systems 2 points 50 minutes ago

Made all the funnier by the fact that probably my favorite Hacker News thread of all time is on Tivy's article about how he abandoned his job to "court" his wife:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29830743

If even the orange site is willing to roast you this hard, I guess your only response has to be pulling up stakes to go live in a neofascist social bubble instead.

[–] macroplastic@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That link can't be viewed without a bluesky account, btw.

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] macroplastic@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thanks.

I love the fact that this "decentralized billionaire-proof open network" needs a nitter clone.

[–] sc_griffith@awful.systems 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

i'll cut the coiners some slack on this one because requiring a login to view is an account level privacy option. i don't know what the option is supposed to accomplish. but that's what it is

[–] corbin@awful.systems 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

It might help to know that Paul Frazee, one of the BlueSky developers, doesn't understand capability theory or how hackers approach a computer. They believe that anything hidden by the porcelain/high-level UI is hidden for good. This was a problem on their Beaker project, too; they thought that a page was deleted if it didn't show up in the browser. They fundamentally aren't prepared for the fact that their AT protocol doesn't have a way to destroy or hide data and is embedded into a network that treats censorship as reparable damage.

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 3 points 10 hours ago

maybe it's a good thing that it's so fucking hard/expensive to selfhost bsky

[–] fullsquare@awful.systems 6 points 1 day ago

you do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them"

if bsky is supposed to be federated, then it does nothing, but as it is today with 99%+ of users on main instance, it only works as a recruitment tool for bsky

[–] BlueMonday1984@awful.systems 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Larian Studios founder/CEO Swen Vincke is posting through it on Twitter, after the studio's use of plagiarism machines caused significant backlash (to the shock of everyone except Swen).

This is probably Pivot to AI material.

[–] Rinn@awful.systems 5 points 2 days ago

Ah yes, I love the smell of burning bridges in the evening. Fuck. And I was getting excited about Divinity! Well, guess that means more money to spend on other things.

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