Richard Chirgwin
@rchirgwin.bsky.social
Former tech writer specialising in telecoms and infosec. Still an aspiring guitarist at over 60.
Nothing I do or say is licenced to anyone scraping social media accounts to train AI.
Nothing I do or say is licenced to anyone scraping social media accounts to train AI.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
I’m still not sure that the Libs might not have been wiser to just sit out the polls for a few months. Hanson + Joyce are sure to do something stupid soon and always were
February 16, 2026 at 2:31 AM
I’m still not sure that the Libs might not have been wiser to just sit out the polls for a few months. Hanson + Joyce are sure to do something stupid soon and always were
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Longer term, what’s the plan to cover the cost of a rapidly aging population? Skilled migration brings more taxpayers. The “self-reliance” platform is a fallacy.
February 16, 2026 at 2:44 AM
Longer term, what’s the plan to cover the cost of a rapidly aging population? Skilled migration brings more taxpayers. The “self-reliance” platform is a fallacy.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Borrowing policies from a protest party that has never held government is really the way to convince the general public you are a party of government.
And yes, a shortage of health professionals in regional areas is one outcome of the policy.
And yes, a shortage of health professionals in regional areas is one outcome of the policy.
February 16, 2026 at 2:08 AM
Borrowing policies from a protest party that has never held government is really the way to convince the general public you are a party of government.
And yes, a shortage of health professionals in regional areas is one outcome of the policy.
And yes, a shortage of health professionals in regional areas is one outcome of the policy.
This cannot feasibly succeed, ON won't ever be even a credible opposition...
February 16, 2026 at 2:12 AM
This cannot feasibly succeed, ON won't ever be even a credible opposition...
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
The ACCC’s action against Coles confirms what people already know - when corporations have too much power, they use it to squeeze people.
Fake discounts are one symptom of a system where dominant firms can do as they like while people struggle with cost-of-living pressures.
Fake discounts are one symptom of a system where dominant firms can do as they like while people struggle with cost-of-living pressures.
February 16, 2026 at 1:08 AM
The ACCC’s action against Coles confirms what people already know - when corporations have too much power, they use it to squeeze people.
Fake discounts are one symptom of a system where dominant firms can do as they like while people struggle with cost-of-living pressures.
Fake discounts are one symptom of a system where dominant firms can do as they like while people struggle with cost-of-living pressures.
Ask a regional community nursing home its opinion about a "crackdown" on migration. The Liberals are fools.
February 16, 2026 at 1:57 AM
Ask a regional community nursing home its opinion about a "crackdown" on migration. The Liberals are fools.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
It's also the poor, who have to spend more to buy the same amount of stuff, who are blamed for inflation by the RBA
February 16, 2026 at 1:53 AM
It's also the poor, who have to spend more to buy the same amount of stuff, who are blamed for inflation by the RBA
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
The Liberal Party is chasing right-wing voters off a right-wing cliff, failing to even try to win back the urban, educated women who have locked them out of the cities until further notice.
Opinion | The Liberals need to win back all sorts of voters. But they especially needs to win back professional, urban women — and Angus Taylor is unlikely to help there, @rachelwithers.bsky.social writes.
What will Angus Taylor mean for the Liberals’ seemingly never-ending women problem?
The Liberal Party needs to win back all sorts of voters, but especially urban women. Instead it seems intent on chasing right-wing voters off a right-wing cliff.
buff.ly
February 16, 2026 at 1:11 AM
The Liberal Party is chasing right-wing voters off a right-wing cliff, failing to even try to win back the urban, educated women who have locked them out of the cities until further notice.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Yes, why tax excess wealth when you can slug the poor for buying things simply to exist
February 16, 2026 at 1:17 AM
Yes, why tax excess wealth when you can slug the poor for buying things simply to exist
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Of course they love GST: easy to collect; and protects excess wealth
February 15, 2026 at 10:37 PM
Of course they love GST: easy to collect; and protects excess wealth
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
This is pretty much the foundational reason for a LOT of things.
Why don't we have as many cool music scenes anymore?
Why does art and creativity in general suffer?
Why is everyone so depressed an anxious?
An economy based on asset appreciation is inimical to the things that make us human.
Why don't we have as many cool music scenes anymore?
Why does art and creativity in general suffer?
Why is everyone so depressed an anxious?
An economy based on asset appreciation is inimical to the things that make us human.
if you asked me to diagnose the western game industry's current problem it would start with "landlords have absorbed basically all disposable income"
February 15, 2026 at 11:47 PM
This is pretty much the foundational reason for a LOT of things.
Why don't we have as many cool music scenes anymore?
Why does art and creativity in general suffer?
Why is everyone so depressed an anxious?
An economy based on asset appreciation is inimical to the things that make us human.
Why don't we have as many cool music scenes anymore?
Why does art and creativity in general suffer?
Why is everyone so depressed an anxious?
An economy based on asset appreciation is inimical to the things that make us human.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
A climate denier is someone whose job is to constantly lie but mimic the aesthetics of the people who try hard to be as truthful as possible.
You can tell why the advent of this software has given them a boost like never before. Ditto for delayers, fossil fuel advocates, corporate greenwashers etc
You can tell why the advent of this software has given them a boost like never before. Ditto for delayers, fossil fuel advocates, corporate greenwashers etc
OpenAI ”acknowledged in its own research that LLMs will always produce hallucinations due to fundamental mathematical constraints that cannot be solved through better engineering, marking a significant admission from one of the AI industry’s leading companies.”
You can’t trust chatbots.
You can’t trust chatbots.
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
www.computerworld.com
February 15, 2026 at 9:34 PM
A climate denier is someone whose job is to constantly lie but mimic the aesthetics of the people who try hard to be as truthful as possible.
You can tell why the advent of this software has given them a boost like never before. Ditto for delayers, fossil fuel advocates, corporate greenwashers etc
You can tell why the advent of this software has given them a boost like never before. Ditto for delayers, fossil fuel advocates, corporate greenwashers etc
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Does your university use ChatGPT Edu? Please send me a DM if you do. I have identified a potential data breach affecting students' data that has not yet been fixed and I'm trying to compile further examples from other universities.
Reposts appreciated!
Reposts appreciated!
February 12, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Does your university use ChatGPT Edu? Please send me a DM if you do. I have identified a potential data breach affecting students' data that has not yet been fixed and I'm trying to compile further examples from other universities.
Reposts appreciated!
Reposts appreciated!
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
If you don't think Restore, Reform, Advance or whomever are capable of - for example - restricting certain child benefits to only the "right sort" of British parents, you haven't been paying attention.
February 15, 2026 at 2:04 PM
If you don't think Restore, Reform, Advance or whomever are capable of - for example - restricting certain child benefits to only the "right sort" of British parents, you haven't been paying attention.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
This!
(This is why we need to praise slowness, non-linearity, process over outcome, and learning for the sake of learning, rather than the fiction that school is for grades, getting into college, job training, etc.)
(This is why we need to praise slowness, non-linearity, process over outcome, and learning for the sake of learning, rather than the fiction that school is for grades, getting into college, job training, etc.)
I wonder when we'll be ready to talk about how schools are now full of gameified dopamine slot machine apps for learning times tables, science, even reading itself, that are priming an entire generation for gambling and gaming addiction.
A book I highly recommend on electronic slot machines—which fully convinced me they should be illegal for how they systematically mislead our brains—is Natasha Dow Schüll‘s ADDICTION BY DESIGN
Gamified online gambling seems much worse, & is becoming much more ubiquitous
It will immiserate so many
Gamified online gambling seems much worse, & is becoming much more ubiquitous
It will immiserate so many
February 15, 2026 at 3:25 PM
This!
(This is why we need to praise slowness, non-linearity, process over outcome, and learning for the sake of learning, rather than the fiction that school is for grades, getting into college, job training, etc.)
(This is why we need to praise slowness, non-linearity, process over outcome, and learning for the sake of learning, rather than the fiction that school is for grades, getting into college, job training, etc.)
thread ...
The AI bros (who clearly don't understand AI) in the comments are hilarious. "ask stupid questions, get stupid answers". LLMs have no concept of how intelligent a question is, and they certainly were not designed to deliberately give stupid responses if they deem your question too stupid. 1/?
It’s so funny to think about the fact that there’s people out there deferring every life decision to this
February 15, 2026 at 1:51 PM
thread ...
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
It's not a major controversy because we are just hearing this. What databases is it accessing to ID people? THIS IS BULLSHIT, YELL EVERYONE.
February 15, 2026 at 8:23 AM
It's not a major controversy because we are just hearing this. What databases is it accessing to ID people? THIS IS BULLSHIT, YELL EVERYONE.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Seriously, Taylor and Hume should be hair models
February 15, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Seriously, Taylor and Hume should be hair models
If I see anyone using Zuck's creep-specs in public, anywhere, I will simply break them.
February 15, 2026 at 8:05 AM
If I see anyone using Zuck's creep-specs in public, anywhere, I will simply break them.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Amazing story of a moth once thought extinct being recorded in the wild after 150 years!
This story shows the power of platforms like #inaturalist and the value of a #bioblitz, with this moth recorded during the Great Southern BioBlitz 2021 @gsbioblitz.bsky.social
#mothsmatter #inverts #bugsky
This story shows the power of platforms like #inaturalist and the value of a #bioblitz, with this moth recorded during the Great Southern BioBlitz 2021 @gsbioblitz.bsky.social
#mothsmatter #inverts #bugsky
An emerald-green moth missing for nearly 150 years has been rediscovered in South Africa.
Photos posted online confirmed the survival of Drepanogynis insciata, once known only from 1870s specimens — highlighting the power of citizen science platforms like iNaturalist.
Photos posted online confirmed the survival of Drepanogynis insciata, once known only from 1870s specimens — highlighting the power of citizen science platforms like iNaturalist.
Citizen science rediscovers rare South African moth
A strikingly handsome emerald-green moth, lost to science for nearly one-and-a-half centuries, has been rediscovered in South Africa by citizen scientists who posted photographs of it online. The…
news.mongabay.com
February 14, 2026 at 9:46 PM
Amazing story of a moth once thought extinct being recorded in the wild after 150 years!
This story shows the power of platforms like #inaturalist and the value of a #bioblitz, with this moth recorded during the Great Southern BioBlitz 2021 @gsbioblitz.bsky.social
#mothsmatter #inverts #bugsky
This story shows the power of platforms like #inaturalist and the value of a #bioblitz, with this moth recorded during the Great Southern BioBlitz 2021 @gsbioblitz.bsky.social
#mothsmatter #inverts #bugsky
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
One of the queen bees in the Parliament apiary was showing signs of failure - big gaps in the brood, indicating that she is running out of stored sperm to make fertilised eggs.
We replaced her with a special queen - bred from 'survivor' colonies within Varroa impacted areas. #bees
We replaced her with a special queen - bred from 'survivor' colonies within Varroa impacted areas. #bees
February 15, 2026 at 4:34 AM
One of the queen bees in the Parliament apiary was showing signs of failure - big gaps in the brood, indicating that she is running out of stored sperm to make fertilised eggs.
We replaced her with a special queen - bred from 'survivor' colonies within Varroa impacted areas. #bees
We replaced her with a special queen - bred from 'survivor' colonies within Varroa impacted areas. #bees
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Meta is putting a "Name Tag" feature in Ray-Bans - facial recognition through the glasses' camera. You look at someone, AI tells you who they are.
In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.
In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.
February 14, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Meta is putting a "Name Tag" feature in Ray-Bans - facial recognition through the glasses' camera. You look at someone, AI tells you who they are.
In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.
In an internal document, the company wrote that the timing is good because civil society groups are busy with politics and won't cause problems.
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
Conservation efforts, including captive breeding and release, and the culling of cats, are benefiting the western quoll and bilby. 🌰🌍
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Western quoll joey born in the wild after conservation program success
Once thought to be extinct in NSW, the small, spotted, and highly photogenic western quoll is making a hard-fought comeback to the wild.
www.abc.net.au
February 14, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Conservation efforts, including captive breeding and release, and the culling of cats, are benefiting the western quoll and bilby. 🌰🌍
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Reposted by Richard Chirgwin
ThEy'Re CoMiNg FoR yOuR bOgAnMoBiLeS! 🤣
February 15, 2026 at 12:16 AM
ThEy'Re CoMiNg FoR yOuR bOgAnMoBiLeS! 🤣