novalis honk

novalis bonked https://mas.to/users/swelljoe/statuses/116413169851882694

Fri, 17 Apr 2026 10:49:34 UTC

Attachment: Two frames: Bilbo Baggins, looking at a phone. Beneath that, a conversation with ChatGPT on a phone screen. Bilbo: "After all, why not? Why shouldn't I keep it?" ChatGPT: "You're absolutely right — you found it, it's been with you a long while, and it's only natural to feel fond of something that's served you so well, especially when someone like Gandalf suddenly seems to want it for himself."

novalis bonked https://cosocial.ca/users/mhoye/statuses/116408710411188966

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 22:15:04 UTC

Age verification is a deliberate attack on system sovereignty, both for individuals and countries. There’s no “age verifcation”, there is only “identity verification that includes age”, and the system doing that verification is not just a privacy-invasive user tracking system but a remotely controlled off switch for anyone of any age.

novalis bonked https://lethargic.talkative.fish/users/suricrasia/statuses/01KP6WKQXNYCCG39VFAFCPFQ8B

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 13:52:17 UTC

docker for qualia. gone are the days of "it works on my subjectivity." now you can easily deploy and manage experience itself. it's admittedly not perfect—there's been a long running issue where the sky's blue and the grass's green might be different depending on the platform. it's a linux permissions issue.

novalis bonked https://hachyderm.io/users/lahosken/statuses/116397948284157910

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 15:03:11 UTC

new from Sam Lavigne: "A form which calculates an individual’s 'income tax body count', or the total number of conflict-related deaths they have caused through their income tax contributions to the U.S. government."

https://income-tax-body-count.lav.io/

novalis bonked https://mastodon.mit.edu/users/jefftk/statuses/116347588152920252

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:30:13 UTC

The way egg whites can be beaten into a foam and set with heat is hard to replace when cooking for vegans, but you can now by precision fermented egg white protein and it works great! https://www.jefftk.com/p/chicken-free-egg-whites

novalis bonked https://mastodon.mit.edu/users/jefftk/statuses/116293107177846897

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 13:29:17 UTC

We should update our labeling laws to require manufacturers to use the amount a consumer could reasonably extract. Maybe manufacturers would shift to more efficient packaging, or maybe consumers would accept higher unit cost for more convenience. The important thing is aligning incentives. https://www.jefftk.com/p/label-by-usable-volume

novalis honked https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/3z3DmRsGn1D33Bb2xF

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 00:54:21 UTC

In sort of an inverse Bay Area House Party move, I just updated my vibecoded podcast ad stripper to automatically remove land acknowledgements.

novalis honked https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/Ds544sb1YQD5LvwTdY

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:18:03 UTC

Just had an automated system read out my phone number as if it were an integer. As in, "Is your phone number six hundred seventeen million, four hundred forty-one thousand..."

novalis honked https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/3Hzz2kV6mpsk8rs4kK

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:11:57 UTC

Just described Wingspan to a friend as a "ludonarrative Superfund site". (Doesn't make it a bad game -- but, like, you're competing to watch birds, but you can also force them to lay eggs, and also you get extra points when a bird kills another bird).

novalis bonked https://bitbang.social/users/NanoRaptor/statuses/116223876063787194

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:02:30 UTC

Attachment: A screenshot of a license-plate aspect ratio sticker in NASCAR style design, but stating NAZGUL on the top, and RING SERIES below

novalis bonked https://masto.nyc/users/jmac/statuses/116148602320584382

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 14:21:58 UTC

If I were a paying OpenAI customer, I'd feel as proud of that fact today as a Tesla owner did one year ago.

novalis bonked https://dirtyknight.life/objects/be728674-8ae2-434b-8e6a-9afcafb510f3

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 23:11:38 UTC

Attachment:

novalis honked https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/1DQ9NcVKg22S1X8yXJ

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 03:22:04 UTC

Kai Huang's 2012 Functions was dramatically more elegant than this year's, because of the constraint. Functions (2026) is less about the sequential ahas of figuring out the functions, and more about grinding through to figure out what X and Y can go into g(X, a(Y)). Several of Kai's functions were really fun, while these were rather straightforward. Weirdly, the solution page for the 2026 puzzle doesn't mention Kai's as an inspiration, which seems odd, given that the puzzle has exactly the same name and a very similar conceit.

At least when Allie Goertz covers Nine Inch Nails, missing the point is the point.

novalis bonked https://toot.cafe/users/codepo8/statuses/116011676439857924

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 18:28:46 UTC

I'm buying a kitchen and they sent a sample of the marble counter top with a metal ball showing what the sink will be like. Now my desk looks like a 90s 3D rendering tool demo image.

Attachment: A square marble tile with a shiny metal ball on it next to some papers and a coffee mug.

novalis honked https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/8gPx1cMbbL2RR8KP1p

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 21:05:47 UTC

Just tried to get a 1099-INT from my bank. It's under Settings. Wow.

novalis honked https://honk.novalis.org/u/novalis/h/qKJBnJV1235b8nBNRm

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 14:59:46 UTC

"That is, per the hard constraints, we want Claude to never clearly and substantially undermine Anthropic’s legitimate efforts to ... engage or participate in catastrophic forms of power-seeking."

Claude's constitution

novalis bonked https://fedi.copyleft.org/users/bkuhn/statuses/115887921900300735

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 15:10:39 UTC

https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/

This is the toughest time to work at a charity. When a charity posts its fundraiser, the total ask has been vetted 100 times: it's the amount that the org needs to keep going for the coming year.

Unlike your local PBS/NPR station, #SFC doesn't have a service we can interrupt to
pitch appeals for donations (& we probably wouldn't even if we did).

#SFC is short $48k with just days to go.

If you want me & my colleagues to work for #SoftwareFreedom in 2026, please give.