Will Barton
banner
gulielmus.com
Will Barton
@gulielmus.com
I suffer Computer for a living.

Millennial elder, astro/photographer, coder, public servant. Union member ✊🏻. Critical theory politics grad student in another life.

He/him. 🖖🏻
Pinned
Been a while since I posted #astrophotography: here's the Heart Nebula, one of my favorite parts of the night sky (I say that about a lot of the sky though)

60x180s exposures (3 hours) with a Ha/Hb/OIII narrowband filter, from Bortle-5 upstate New York.

On AstroBin: app.astrobin.com/i/lll3xa?r=B
Reposted by Will Barton
I can’t believe Zohran is transing the trains already

www.mta.info/article/f-m-...
November 7, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
In case anyone is wondering if Watson was really THAT bad, @lpachter.bsky.social compiled a list of quotes that are absolutely not for the faint of heart.
liorpachter.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/j...
November 7, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
Every time I see a social media meme about being an introvert, which is at least once a week, I think about how the modern conception of introversion was popularized by a book by a woman who worked on Wall Street who felt that she was so different and special compared to her coked up male colleagues
October 30, 2025 at 8:28 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
⚠️ Google has given you access to The Computer That Lies.

⚠️ You are now required to use The Computer That Lies.
January 29, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
I don’t like talking to humans IRL, why would I want a computer talking to me? Dammit.
October 16, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Been a while since I posted #astrophotography: here's the Heart Nebula, one of my favorite parts of the night sky (I say that about a lot of the sky though)

60x180s exposures (3 hours) with a Ha/Hb/OIII narrowband filter, from Bortle-5 upstate New York.

On AstroBin: app.astrobin.com/i/lll3xa?r=B
September 24, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Reposted by Will Barton
Q. Who aligns the aligners?
A. alignmentalignment.ai

Today I’m humbled to announce an epoch-defining event: the launch of the 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀.
Center for the Alignment of AI Alignment Centers
We align the aligners
alignmentalignment.ai
September 11, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
One month apart.
June 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I am going to be mean to the computer.
The Kant Car
August 31, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
🧵 I know it's ridiculous, but when he's talking mitochondrial challenges & inflammation, he's again referring to his idea of vaccine-induced autism. Let me explain.
via @acyn.bsky.social

RFK JR: I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today...and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, inflammation—you can tell from their faces, movements, and lack of social connection
August 28, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
"Alexa, show me the most bullshit AWS IAM permission in the world."
August 28, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
Vibes coding, vibes coded, vibes taken off life support
Meta froze hiring in its AI division last week with sources saying exceptions need Alexandr Wang's permission; the duration of the freeze remains unclear (Meghan Bobrowsky/Wall Street Journal)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
August 21, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Pretty much hating any and all spaces where human interaction is algorithmically-mediated anymore.
August 20, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.
August 13, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Reposted by Will Barton
If I have to explain to you why it's a bad idea to use a machine that makes shit up 15-80% of the time AND destroys the environment AND contributes to rising fascism and genocide AND puts brilliant skillful creatives out of work by stealing their work, then we're already speaking different languages
August 6, 2025 at 1:01 AM
LMAO. Imagine wanting a planet instead of a bullshit machine.
August 6, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
What--and I say this with my chest--the hell are we doing here people
AI-assistant caused DATA LOSS, destroyed projects, user files and a production database: issued faulty commands, overwriting data; another ignored freeze directives, fabricated test data, and dropped a live database. anuraag2601.github.io/gemini_cli_d... www.theregister.com/2025/07/21/r...
July 25, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
What'd you do over the weekend? Public Works began resurfacing the street in front of the Chipotle where Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense
July 14, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
A Borges story about a guy who gets AI to summarize all the world’s information for him, and then summarize the summary, until the AI has the whole world summarized into a single word. He sits alone at his desk, staring at the word, repeating it endlessly, certain he is experiencing everything
July 14, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Random thought from a work meeting: I don't need the "AI" to write shitty code for me, I *like* writing shitty code, and I'm good at writing shitty code, I don't want my joy taken from me.
July 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
but… isn’t the point of drinking coffee to sit there and read a book while you do?

the decline of reading for fun is maybe the single most depressing thing about the technological era we’re living through
These people are the enemy.
June 15, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
Computing could be a more harmonious and empowering force in our lives if we could mold it to our needs. We wrote a little about this vision of "malleable software" – past, present, and future.

www.inkandswitch.com/essay/mallea...
Malleable software: Restoring user agency in a world of locked-down apps
The original promise of personal computing was a new kind of clay. Instead, we got appliances: built far away, sealed, unchangeable. In this essay, we envision malleable software: tools that users can...
www.inkandswitch.com
June 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
This absolute icon at Canterbury Pride 🩷🤍🩵
June 7, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Will Barton
it’s cool how the Trump administration is actively trying to push people towards running scams by means of making it as hard as possible to earn an honest living in a non-evil career
At this rate, the only stable industries will be private prisons, and anything involving fraud, scams, or crypto. But I repeat myself.
May 31, 2025 at 1:20 PM