ttt + computer

Here's the thing: AI (or really, just a LLM), can do a lot. Having seen results (though not using AI myself), and the overall layout/architecture of an LLM here's nano-gpt (a lot there), and the hardware that makes that work – there's some common-ish sense as to what to do with this (technology). Potentially without supercomputers or enormous data centers.

1) For one, an open and contributable (not a word) “base” LLM. One that can be copied/replicated to as many repositories as one wishes. This skeletal LLM could then be built upon, changed, improved, streamlined, or concentrated to be “great” (effective) at many things, or made into a sort of ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) of large scale computing. Sort of a “kernel”, of sorts, of AI.

2) Using known/public information to be implemented within this LLM. Examples: information in the dictionary, mathematics, from simple addition to Chaos Math, all programming languages, and effectively any large wealth of genuinely useful information that exists. Seems a lot, but storage is cheap ;)

3) Data use and knowledge pools: just because Github/Microsoft pillage the repositories on Github, use (with or without permission) a developers code (let's say Ruby) in order to answer specific queries one may ask of their AI service, doesn't mean that the manuals and documentation of Ruby (a programming language), aren't readily available to those that want to access it (in this case AI – or anyone or any thing). A piece of software (be it a LLM or other) that is trying to answer a question, should be able to answer it by “formulating” the thing being asked of it, and then provide a response. A (more tedious) “step-by-step/show your work” method of developing a LLM (and a more conscientious one) offers more benefit longterm and short term instead of AI sifting a repository real fast and cherry-picking nuanced answers. Investing and continually developing this approach (a LLM focused on formulation), would be much more effective and beneficial to Computer Science, and to people, than a “search>grab>display” approach (which is basically all AI does now).

4) Slimmer investment, lighter computing, less storage (costs): With the open and documented information in the world, and online, readily available and free/open knowledge (not data and not personal data – which is rarely procured with consent), and training, building, and refining what a LLM does with this open/free information, ensures not just accurate results, but can be refined, in time, to run on lighter hardware, and more refined software. If “XYZ LLM needs XYZ hardware to offers accurate results for XYZ use case”, then the element of predictability and usefulness becomes more apparent for this technology.

So,

1) an open, and freely contributable (again, not a word) LLM 2) Using known, open, public, free knowledge – not data from someone's repositories or personal information 3) A formulation method of improving/developing the LLM – sort of a large scale calculator, instead of a large scale search engine 4) Lowering the demands of CPU and storage requirements in order for this LLM to work. And with that, having a more useful, accessible, and predictable piece of Computer Science (re-inventing the wheel doesn't have to be the priority – just make something that's useful and reliable).

Part of the AI Notes series. Previous entries here

rss

I mentioned this before here and I still stand by those words. So this is a follow-up to “what is one to do?” in regards to AI, bots, and AI bots crawling the Smol Web, and also a re-remedied approach to being online (e.g. keep a presence online, but one that serves one's self and the friends and readers of that/this content). Also of note (to myself): don't hesitate to download gratuitously – take the web with me! Relevant links, videos, music, movies, shows, books, make a personal repository of media I like, and have a personal Web of my own. So, to the blog post...

While looking at my links.txt file, and seeing Nightshade (that bastardizes what AI sees when it comes across an image – rendering the “scraping”/theft of that image useless (what it will see/take will not be the image on-screen), and also the AI/LLM user agents blocking guide, I get to thinking: is there a way to authentically fight AI with AI?

Those familiar with AI, one could probably make a list of things an AI bot does to gather (steal) data from a website, and not just “block” or “distort” what is there, but “offer” (as a false promise – a red herring) to the AI scraping the site an entirely different site than what is actually there.

robots.txt sort of does this. Opting out of search engines crawling a site, but, it does not (proactively) put into place a page or series of pages that are “bogus”.

Another thing to consider, what starts and stops an AI bot from crawling a Website? What if it starts to crawl a page, and gets 100+ pages of little to no new/useful content? Say, a smattering of plaintext files page after page. Is there a safeguard triggered by the AI to tell (“itself”) “hey, there's nothing new/useful on this site – go to next “relevant” page or new site?” Or what about a LLM (large language model's) methods and protocols for crawling a site? Is there a way to cause an “infinite loop” for an AI bot? A bot (or bots) crawl a page, and they just see more and more “useful” information, and then this site, the site having data stolen from it, creates a (Web) environment where the bot does not leave that site/service? Forever thinking it is getting new, useful information, just to be “stuck” on that site for an indefinite period of time. Sort of an AI trap?

It reminds me of the pod creatures that attack clams. They latch onto the top of a clam, and they grind and dig at the top of the shell in an attempt to eat the meat inside. Some clams, will actually die of what amounts to cardiac arrest because of this, knowing they may well be eaten alive. But, these clams also have a “fuck you” response when this is happening. They stick out their small tentacles, those which they use to create a “thread” to the ocean floor (which allows a clam to stay in one spot, not be carried away by undercurrents), and attach multiple threads to the pod creature attempting to drill into it's shell. Multiple threads, one side on the back of the creature, the other end on the ocean floor. The pod creature gets its meal, and then dies of starvation atop the empty shell of the creature that sealed it's fate.

With enough familiarity of LLM's, and the way they crawl a site, and how/what they find useful/relevant once it starts to sift (steal) data, a person, site, service could create a way to not bastardize a photo or a paragraph, not cause the AI to “just” hallucinate, but highjack the crawling mechanisms themselves. Make the AI think it's got a nice, juicy wealth of information, to find itself just consuming, re-consuming, and link-bouncing again and always on the same site.

Part of the AI Notes series. Previous entries here

rss

82mhz wrote a thing about revisiting the town he grew up in. I want to add two cents from my perspective, my Hometown, etc.

I grew up in Fenton, Missouri. A Fentonite, and I still identify as that. Fenton – City of Parks, has been renamed to Olde Towne Fenton (way cooler!). The reason for this, is because the area around it (expansion of Highway 141, the Gravois Bluffs (an outdoor outlet mall), fast food restaurants, affordable and less affordable grocery stores, Starbucks, etc.) were all added in the past 25 years.

The expansion really started in 2002, completed in 2006. I was born in 1983, so I remember when near all of it was woods. My small subdivision off Delores Drive, down Highway 30, which in and of itself was an expansion, had very little in the surrounding area. Fenton, the historic district along the Meremec River, Blockbuster, KFC, One Hour Photo, Larry's Barbershop (Larry's is still there, though not Larry), Viviano's Italian Eatery (still there, thriving), made up the main “active” parts of “downtown” Fenton.

I remember them building a Wal-Mart in Fenton in 1993, prior to Wal Mart Supercenters, and few in the town were enthusiastic about it. We knew the establishment wouldn't last long, though, as they had decided to build it atop an Indian burial ground. At the edge of a parking lot, near a small series of shops at the corner of the town, a trail went a quarter mile or so into the woods. Small burial sites were surrounded by a short stone parameter. Most people didn't go there, always saying they felt unlucky after visiting. All of it was dug up (and relocated?) when they put in the Wal-Mart. It lasted roughly two years. It sits a large empty building with a Wal-Mart logo stained across the top.

This is more or less a rememberence post – as most of the town is still there (Olde Towne Fenton is, anyway). The Bluffs overran most smaller businesses, bringing in customers to Starbucks instead of a cafe, or Trader Joes instead of Schnucks. The surrounding municipalities came in droves, too. The further rural areas (House Springs, Cedar Hill), and also from South St Louis County – no shortage of latte lovers and Applebee's patrons in the Midwest. (Also, ironic, as South St Louis County was once considered “affluent” with Crestwood Mall, Drive-In 66, and the entirety of Watson Rd populated with mom & pop shops for miles – thank the convenience of Internet shopping for that decline).

rss

I sit and crave my next dose of Vitamin C, which I will take in a moment. Heat and humidity ran a number on me today. Not outside (only a few minutes with that, to see an eye doctor – new glasses in two weeks!), but inside, with my fledgling in-room AC unit. It can cool up to 150 square feet, but that must be closed off. It did nothing for the 400+ square foot living room, kitchen, dining area, hallway that makes up the open space in my apartment.

So, desperate times call for desperate measures, I popped the old window AC unit into the window next to the desk, have it on Low, but will crank it to High when the collant settles a bit more. Recommended to run Low for a couple hours, then High.

Window AC units are not allowed on this property. So I will have to either A) put this unit into the wall space again (which usually is made for 8000 BTU or more – this is a 5000 BTU unit), or B) buy an entirely new in-wall unit (8000 or 10,000 BTU) to have the ease-of-install and not Jerryrig a method of accommodating a small AC unit in a large opening. Styrofoam, plywood, and other insulating materials sufficed last time, and I will likely go this route again.

Doing it this way allows me to keep the budget I have made for the month of July, which is comprised of non-negotiable items.

For now, the window AC unit will be a “don't mention/nothing to see here” scenario, and also a “ask for forgiveness instead of permission” one. Two weeks of AC'ing under the radar, wish me luck!

rss

(this took place on IRC/#Ctrl-c – via Irssi)

20:14 < x2600> was able to re-construct the old desk (w/o legs) into another "branch" of my current desk. I took an old end table and removed the legs from it, propped it under the desktop/tabletop, then put two wire shelving units on the other side. Now I have an L-shaped desk again
20:15 < x2600> I secured everything with some 550 cord, now everything is sturdy and solid :)
20:16 < x2600> I enjoyed the rest of the rainy evening downloading things from VHS Vault/Internet Archive. An early Simpsons bootleg of episodes from the first three seasons, rearranging the budget (as I save from not needing to buy a new desk) and other tasks
20:16 < x2600> this would have worked better as a blog post, noted

“Commandline Confessionals”, would be a great podcast name (credit me if you use it, ha!). These days, I am in and out of Irssi/IRC, the SDF and Ctrl-c rooms are slower, it seems. Could be world events or people doing...whatever, but I seek solace in the warm and familiar home office, downloading various media (television shows today), and having daily chats with my best friend via phone call.

Allergies are nil for me these days, thank goodness. Vitamin C revitalized my mind, body, attitude. More energy, and also more energy for cynicism >:D And so it is..

I made a list of movies I need to obtain, by any method I can. VHS Vault/Internet Archive seems to be best, for now. Many titles, but only a few in “the Vault”, so I saved the URLs for the videos, will grab them via wget here soon. Fast this way. Those movies/shows are:

• Rad
• Edward Scissorhands
• The Toxic Avenger
• Nosferatu
• Bill Gates, Jay Leno introduce Windows 95
• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
• Blood Feast
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Many, many more to get still. These are “VHS burns” of these shows, movies. So digitized VHS. If you want to see this, and also a boatload of retro commercials here you go/

In the chat above, I mention constructing the L-shaped desk. A great thing to have, as it's more of everything. Less of a “desk island” more of a small desk continent. Shelves and racks of various tech gear occupy the space beneath. I sit calmly in front of the dimmed screen of the monitor, red LED lights set to a low flicker beneath this side of the desk.

To lurking and the night

rss

///LINKS [UPDATED 7.18.2025]

---

///LINKS

/smol /radio /open /repos /random /sdf /read

---

///SMOL

SmolNet wiki - https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/SmolNet

All possible oldschool pc fonts - https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/

Internet Phonebook (listings of a lot of small blogs, artistic ventures) - https://internetphonebook.net/

WWWtxt (messages from the Internet, pre and post Eternal September) - https://wwwtxt.org/about

Gemini BBS (a BBS in the Gemspace) - https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/bbs.geminispace.org/

Offpunk (commandline-first, offline browser) - https://offpunk.net/

Present-day Usenet newsgroup/server https://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?language=en

retronetworking.org (hobbyists documenting historical communication) - https://retronetworking.org/

88x31 buttons for all - https://hellnet.work/8831/

Database for many (most) things CRT - https://crtdatabase.com/

Nyx (Public Access UNIX System, very similar to SDF) - https://www.nyx.net/index.html

cat-V (hosts a series of sites dedicated to diverse subjects that share an idiosyncratic intellectual perspective) - http://cat-v.org/

ENIGMA 2000 newsletters (numbers stations, information, and radio waves!) - http://www.signalshed.com/nletter05.html

Ian Langworth's archive, in retro commandline form! – https://langworth.com/

---

///RADIO

online radio (worldwide) - https://radio.garden

online radio (rarities and goodies) - https://somafm.com/

Traditional AM/FM radio stations online - https://mytuner-radio.com

aNONradio (SDF public radio) - https://anonradio.net/

cb radio slang - https://myradiolab.com/cb-radio-slang-and-10-codes/

police scanner on the Web (+ more) - https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/ctid/1572

all things amateur radio – https://www.radioreference.com/

software defined radio - https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-blog-v-3-dongles-user-guide/

LoRa components - https://heltec.org/

More LoRa components - https://store.rokland.com/

Even more LoRa components - https://www.waveshare.com/

LoRa data/bitrate calculator – https://www.rfwireless-world.com/calculators/LoRa-Data-Rate-Calculator.html

Rattlegram (SMS over FM radio waves) - https://www.aicodix.de/cofdmtv/rattlegram/

websdr (listen to and control a short-wave receiver) - http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

---

///OPEN

LibreTranslate https://libretranslate.com/

OpenWeather https://openweathermap.org/

Anna's Archive https://annas-archive.org/

OpenStreetmap https://www.openstreetmap.org

---

///REPOS

scrcpy (mirror Android phone onto Linux) - https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/blob/master/doc/linux.md#from-an-install-script

DOStodon (Mastodon client for MS DOS) - https://github.com/SuperIlu/DOStodon

Some Assembly Required (learn Assembly Language) - https://github.com/hackclub/some-assembly-required

Awesome Self-hosted - https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted

Awesome Useful Projects - https://github.com/Furthir/awesome-useful-projects?tab=readme-ov-file

yt-dlp (download YouTube videos via cli) - https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/

free public APIs https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis

Alpine Kindle (Alpine Linux on Kindle) - https://github.com/schuhumi/alpine_kindle

TC²-BBS system on Meshtastic devices (message handling, bbs, mail, + more) - https://github.com/TheCommsChannel/TC2-BBS-mesh

Retro AIM Server (an open-source instant messaging server that makes classic AIM and ICQ clients work again) - https://github.com/mk6i/retro-aim-server/tree/main

naim (cli client for AIM/ICQ/IRC) - https://github.com/nmlorg/naim

PumpkinOS (a re-implementation of PalmOS that runs on modern architectures) - https://github.com/migueletto/PumpkinOS

WeatherStation (software to turning Raspberry Pi into local weather station) - https://github.com/DzikuVx/WeatherStation

Browserpad (plaintext in the browser, saved in local storage) - https://github.com/Browserpad/browserpad

ThinkPad recovery media (pretty much all ThinkPads) – https://github.com/eggi36/tp-recovery-archive?tab=readme-ov-file

---

///SDF

SDF faq - https://sdf.org/?faq

SDF tutorials - https://sdf.org/?tutorials

SDF command cheatsheet - http://sdf.org/?tutorials/sdf_specific_commands

How to DJ on aNONradio - http://sdf.org/?tutorials/anonradio-dj

SDF Deskshots (work/hobby spaces of SDF members) - https://sdf.org/?deskshots

SDF git platform - https://git.sdf.org/explore/repos?sort=recentupdate

---

///RANDOM

Internet Artifacts (from a map of ARPANET in 1977 to the launch of the iPhone – a collection of relevant Internet happenings since its creation) - https://neal.fun/internet-artifacts/

Visualization of a LLM - https://bbycroft.net/llm

Nightshade (software to bastardize what AI sees, preventing it from stealing digital artwork) https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/downloads.html

AI/LLM User-agents blocking guide - https://robotstxt.com/ai

Low-Tech Magazine (the solar-powered website) - https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about

Low-Tech Lab (experiments with alternative forms of technology) - https://wiki.lowtechlab.org/wiki/Accueil?page=2

IRC modules (modules and mods for Internet Relay Chat) - https://docs.inspircd.org/3/modules/

Resource for mechanical keyboards/mice - http://deskthority.net/wiki/Main_Page

Netflix Codes (find things) - https://www.netflix-codes.com/

Generate SSH keys for Raspberry Pi - https://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2019/02/setting-up-ssh-keys-on-the-raspberry-pi/

Raspberry Pi 5 wall arcade - https://www.tomshardware.com/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-5-powered-wall-arcade-features-a-big-low-res-rgb-led-matrix-display

VHS Vault (tons of digitized VHS movies) - https://archive.org/details/vhsvault

DiscMaster (browse and search vintage computer files from archive.org) - https://discmaster.textfiles.com/

Bash scripting for beginners - https://linuxconfig.org/bash-scripting-tutorial-for-beginners

webOS archive (abandonware for webOS) – https://webosarchive.org/

MacIntosh Garden (MacIntosh (and other Apple) abandonware) – https://macintoshgarden.org/

---

///READ

Daily News Printed on dot Matrix Printer - https://aschmelyun.com/blog/getting-my-daily-news-from-a-dot-matrix-printer/

Videogame Easter Eggs Not Found for Years - https://screenrant.com/video-game-hidden-easter-eggs-found/

The PISS Files (late-90's hacking zine) - http://web.textfiles.com/ezines/PISS/

cDc (cultdeadcow) textfiles (browse at your own risk) >:) – https://cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/

Microship/Winnebiko II (long-range biking while programming) - https://microship.com/winnebiko-ii/

Handwriting your RSS feed - https://everest-pipkin.com/teaching/handmadeRSS

There Is No AI Revolution – https://www.wheresyoured.at/wheres-the-money/

An Early Social un-Network (computing in “them days”) - https://paperstack.com/an_early_social_unnetwork/

Site/blog hosted on Beaglebone Black - https://box.matto.nl/beaglebone-black-still-going-strong.html

Perl, the first post-modern computer langauge - http://www.wall.org/~larry/pm.html

Building a personal archive of the web, the slow way - https://alexwlchan.net/2025/personal-archive-of-the-web/

The small things Manifesto - https://ajroach42.com/the-small-things-manifesto/

Simple DIY home info center (e-ink display, Pico W – perfect!) – https://www.makerspace-online.com/smart-home-info-center/

The Blogging Process (probably the only accurate, thorough (and clearly experienced) graph of what it IS to blog) - https://web.archive.org/web/20031202024110if_/http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/07/30.html#a346

---

rss

their project Internet Phonebook, pretty great + zine with it. The entirety was shared as a .json file and I made it plaintext, put it here so there ya go

[correction: Write.as turned it into a .md file, so, better in this instance]

rss

A collection of entries on the topic of AI

Welcome to the 90's, 25 years after the 90's – AI notes I

Big Web eats Small Web, Smol Web fights back – AI notes II

Fighting AI with AI – AI notes III

A Different Leveraging of AI – AI notes IV

On the Moral Merits of AI Investment AI notes V

AI for sale – pennies on the crypto

just another AI rant

nocode AI, or dust off the programming books

iced thoughts, slow coffee

rss

Some time back (years) I wrote of Tila Tequila, a generally awful person.

I said (and still say) she was the precursor, the prophetic figurehead, of social media, and it's effects on people.

Start MySpace: she gets real famous. Most Friends on the service, more than Tom! Very social, approachable, engaging – a liked person.

Her success then leads to MTV's A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila. MySpace fades in popularity, but she doesn't.

Then Twitter, she becomes highly controversial, starts to ostracize people who disagree with her in front of her millions of followers. #TilaArmy is born. As is cancel culture (as it turns to out to be). Piling up on an unsuspecting Twitter account with millions of people because of a disagreement pre-Retweet button? Talent (sarcasm)

Then more controversy. More “leaked” videos. More Nazi-ism (a bit worse than the leaked videos). Heralding despots past. Banned from all social media.

She still had a YouTube channel, though. She had kids, and now describes the most bizarre fiction that she believes to be reality. Delusional, despicable, de-throwned from her once-popular state of celebrity.

And all before COVID, even.

A “what's to come” of the platforms in some ways, or at least with some people who get hooked on them, lose their minds (and reputation)

rss

Watching a Livestream (recording) from DistroTube about a custom OS he made. It plays on the side while I watch a slow COM[] chat scroll by.

In the back of my mind, I think of configs for the G3 machine. When I get back to Farmington, I will make sure I have a proper Internet connection (1 Gbps Ethernet) and then re-reinstall Debian 12. This will give me a full install and not just TTY.

This puts me on a 256gb SSD, and then the 128gb SSD on the gaming laptop. Will I swap? (if I can), no. I'm overdue for a larger SSD on my main machine. That means file transfers, re-customizing the GNOME Desktop, replicating Tweaks and Extensions I have on the laptop. Then on with the show.

Plans beyond what I do on the daily – likely none. I was going to self-host OpenVPN, which would be worth it as OpenVPN is great at staying connected on Android, and I can opt for Always On VPN and experience no issues. As where ProtonVPN I can choose “Fastest”, or “Secure Core”, or/and Always On VPN and sure as the sun rises, it will lose connectivity at some random time within the hour, and make no effort to reconnect. Never an issue with OpenVPN.

That's one piece of software I am willing to host. A site, no. This one, and that's all I need. I have ttt2600 on SDF as well as ~loghead on Ctrl-c which are static pages simply because I am active on those servers.

A lot of possibilities. But I'll keep it lite, simple, manageable.

rss