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Generic white guy SysAdmin

@westbynoreaster.bsky.social

510 followers 140 following 2.3K posts

#HPC #SysAdmin & aspiring #DevOps headed to UNC-Charlotte in the new year. #dHTC evangelist, and labor history nerd. #BLM! Opinions my own. he/him

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · Nov 5

So I have taken an #HPC sysadmin job at #UNC Charlotte, starting around inauguration day. 😬 Please let the next two months go well. 🫣 oneit.charlotte.edu/urc/

University Research Computing – Office of OneIT

oneit.charlotte.edu

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 6h

Saw this the other day, and kind of made me sad because I realised it's not even generally"other people's" really, it's companies with very dubious everythings. ☹️

There is no cloud, just other people's computers.

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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 9h

This is not coming from the youth. They don't want this. See this excellent editorial written by students at Notre Dame.

www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025...

Editorial: AI-proof the Core Curriculum

The Core Curriculum is an essential part of a Catholic education that must be saved from AI.

www.ndsmcobserver.com

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 6h

It’s such a good encapsulation and also frustrating that it’s over 25 years old, so lots of folks will just look at you blankly after its Use.

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 6h

Will also say that uni staff workers don’t get those vaunted free speech protections when it comes to open discussions about unionizing at *many* institution.

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Dr. Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · 11h

I buy this argument and you all know I'm very critical about studies about the effect of using AI but this one makes a ton of sense. The design of total ease and agreeableness has always been bad for our rigorous thinking. It is bad when it comes from people too!

Dr. Damien P. Williams Wants A Better Sociotechnical Paradigm @wolvendamien.bsky.social · 19d

Preliminary results show that the current framework of "AI" makes ppl less likely to help or seek help from other humans, or to seek to soothe conflict, and that people actively prefer that framework to any others, literally serving to make them more dependent on it.

Sycophantic AI Decreases Prosocial Intentions and Promotes Dependence

Both the general public and academic communities have raised concerns about sycophancy, the phenomenon of artificial intelligence (AI) excessively agreeing with or flattering users. Yet, beyond isolat...

arxiv.org

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Benjamin McKean @blmckean.bsky.social · 11h

Not that it will stop people from making tired assumptions about what the real American working class is like (white guy in hardhat 4eva), but if you want a handy synecdoche for the changing face of labor, note that the new president of the United Steelworkers Union is a Black woman born in Jamaica

New USW Leaders Prepare to Take Office - United Steelworkers

A historic new slate of officers will take over leadership of the United Steelworkers (USW) in March following the union’s regular four-year nomination and election process that took place this fall.

usw.org

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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 13h

Shouting into the void here but in general, if an article is interesting enough to post a screenshot of, it's interesting enough to post a link to so the people you're sharing with can actually read it, tell who wrote it and where it's from, assess its credibility, etc.

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 12h

”It’s always a grift“ is such an integral part of ring-wing politics that it’s a little irritating how much predictive power that phrase has.

Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 12h

Can’t help but conjure up Wayne’s (from Letterkenney) disgust for Dierks when reading this guys shit.

Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 13h

The Finnish love of spiral staircases. 🤬 Like OK, sometimes it’s aesthetically pleasing but always such a horrible hazard. ☢️

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America is a Pastoralpunk Dystopia @pastoralpunk.bsky.social · 17h

It is quite remarkable this thing is a Dunning-Kruger machine, it makes you worse at something *exactly as much* as you think you're getting better at it

Horrific Ali @grissallia.bsky.social · 18h

…and didn’t give a shit?

There’s been at least one study I’m aware of that tested experienced developers and their use of AI. They estimated their productivity had improved by 20%

When actually tested? It lowered their productivity by 20%.

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Jeff Sharlet @jeffsharlet.bsky.social · 14h

Attended panel on what’s up with US at Oxford featuring my pal @antheabutler.bsky.social, author of WHITE EVANGELICAL RACISM, & queer historian Colin Johnson. Kinda thing that might normally be sleepy, a few history nerds. So packed there was no standing room. People are alarmed.

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 1d

As IT staff maintaining computing infrastructure, I F’ing 🤬 hate all of it myself, TBC.

And I don’t want to set up the crap screener software from the same company that created the slop generators in the first place.

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 1d

We already see the “I wish to train gen-AI on ___” a lot in requests to use university compute resources from PhD candidates. If they are using it in their “research” 🙄 makes sense that prospectives will be using it in their applications.

redrum scare(d) corncob is fleetingly victorious @inquiline.myatproto.social · 1d

I also believe we're gonna see a lot of GenAI in this PhD admissions cycle. Again, please don't do this. Use your own voice even if you're unsure of yourself

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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 1d

oh fuck yes

Justin Raden @jraden.bsky.social · 1d

Wrote a thing on the hot summer of uni AI adoption for @defector.com

A huge thanks to @nathankhensley.bsky.social and @anniemcc.bsky.social. @brandyjensen.bsky.social is a legend. And anything smart in hear is thanks to hours of discussion, texting, and draft reading by @smosment.bsky.social

Higher Ed’s Rush To Adopt AI Is About So Much More Than AI | Defector

If you don’t work at a university or have college-age kids, you may have missed the flurry of news stories and social media banter about AI adoption in higher ed, stories which have snowballed into th...

defector.com

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

At some point it has to become clear that this tech exists is to create a more toxic society and enrich its owners. These uses are not aberrations but rather the entire purpose.

OpenAI's Sora 2 Can Generate Videos of Celebrities Appearing to Shout Racial Slurs

OpenAI's Sora 2 video generation model can be exploited to push misinformation and depict public figures behaving badly despite promised guardrails.

www.rollingstone.com

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 1d

Please see all the actual Black folk commenting on this. No one needs to take a bearded middle aged white guys word for it.

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Yale AAUP @yaleaaup.bsky.social · 2d

"Conservative strategists seem to understand that their agenda on higher education, including defunding universities, intimidating international students and privatizing loans, has little public support." -Yale AAUP President Daniel HoSang on the AI-fueled propaganda campaign against higher ed

HOSANG: How a talented Yale alum helped a right wing grift site mischaracterize our AAUP meeting

Much of the article mirrored the News’ story and included quotations invented, mischaracterized or taken out of context, as well as false claims.

yaledailynews.com

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Helen Kennedy @helenkennedy.bsky.social · 2d

This is gone now. The East Wing lobby two years ago.

Kim @kimoco.bsky.social · 2d

This is what it used to look like inside the lobby area.

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 1d

Black folk have been talking about ”digital Black face“ for at least two decades, IIRC. And those clear eyed warning went unheeded.

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 1d

GenX and Millenials living though the fall of Soviet regimes and then GWOT, we know what tearing down the old regimes look like from far away. The wars and their architectural changes now come back to the Imperial Metropole.

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Ian Coldwater 👻🌿 @lookitup.baby · 2d

Friends don’t let friends use this privacy violating nightmare. Just say no! Not even once!

Geoffrey A. Fowler @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social · 2d

ChatGPT’s new Atlas browser doesn’t just see what you read — it remembers it.

@eff.org’s Lena Cohen showed me it even logged “memories” of her looking for *abortion care* and her doctor’s name. Out-surveils even Chrome.

My @washingtonpost.com column: wapo.st/49bOcVC

Column | ChatGPT just came out with its own web browser. Use it with caution.

OpenAI’s Atlas promises AI-powered convenience. The price? Letting ChatGPT track and store “memories” of what you do online.

wapo.st

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Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 2d

Was he respected in his field of work? Most of the applied statistics work seemed kinda shit and not worth reading, like from a technical rigor perspective.

Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 2d

If I see one more person talk about the youthful indiscretions of a F'ing 41 year old (sigh 1984 sigh), I am going to pop a blood vessel.

Generic white guy SysAdmin @westbynoreaster.bsky.social · 2d

God damn it. In the public-eye white men with beards born in 1984 continue to be utter trash in 2025. (Vance & Klein for starters) 😭