Tom Riley
@creagantuiric.bsky.social
Still an archivist from New Zealand.
Reposted by Tom Riley
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Tom Riley
If you have a dairy that got ramraided six times by the same kids and then they turned up one day outside asking everyone to contribute to “help make the dairy good again” then you’ll know what it feels like to hear National pledge to make our super savings as good as Australia’s
November 23, 2025 at 7:03 AM
If you have a dairy that got ramraided six times by the same kids and then they turned up one day outside asking everyone to contribute to “help make the dairy good again” then you’ll know what it feels like to hear National pledge to make our super savings as good as Australia’s
Reposted by Tom Riley
Whānau Data Sovereignty.
I speak with Tangata Tiriti Rob Elshire about his journey over decades setting up sovereign computers and data storage facilities including his own data centre on his business premises.
The recorded link www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jm...
I speak with Tangata Tiriti Rob Elshire about his journey over decades setting up sovereign computers and data storage facilities including his own data centre on his business premises.
The recorded link www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jm...
Sovereign computers, software and servers for home and office.
YouTube video by Dr Karaitiana Taiuru
www.youtube.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Whānau Data Sovereignty.
I speak with Tangata Tiriti Rob Elshire about his journey over decades setting up sovereign computers and data storage facilities including his own data centre on his business premises.
The recorded link www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jm...
I speak with Tangata Tiriti Rob Elshire about his journey over decades setting up sovereign computers and data storage facilities including his own data centre on his business premises.
The recorded link www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0jm...
Reposted by Tom Riley
Have you heard of actors? We have very good ones in this country.
Nark: How (and why) we used AI to recreate a dead man's voice
Nark: How (and why) we used AI to recreate a dead man's voice
One of journalism's most repeated purposes is to give voice to the voiceless. But what if the person speaking up has died while waiting to tell their story?
www.rnz.co.nz
October 29, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Have you heard of actors? We have very good ones in this country.
Reposted by Tom Riley
Anyone driving from Dunedin to Christchurch today?
Perhaps unexpectedly?
Perhaps unexpectedly?
October 27, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Anyone driving from Dunedin to Christchurch today?
Perhaps unexpectedly?
Perhaps unexpectedly?
Reposted by Tom Riley
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
August 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
Reposted by Tom Riley
Absolutely tore through every episode of this show that we could find when we were researching the book. An astonishing resource and time capsule of gay New York before AIDS, its existence seems impossible today. Highly recommended. Gem after gem in terms of interview subjects.
If you are interested in old New York gay history, watch old episodes of The Emerald City, the first TV show made for gay and trans people. 1977, right before AIDS. My old film teacher Gene Stavis produced and interviewed in it. m.youtube.com/watch?v=2eQW...
October 14, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Absolutely tore through every episode of this show that we could find when we were researching the book. An astonishing resource and time capsule of gay New York before AIDS, its existence seems impossible today. Highly recommended. Gem after gem in terms of interview subjects.
Reposted by Tom Riley
Like they can make it say certain things (“there are only two genders,” “migration bad”) but there isn’t enough text out there in the world describing a conservative consensus reality because it’s just not a coherent thing. They can’t make a conservative Wikipedia, even synthetically
October 1, 2025 at 3:49 AM
Like they can make it say certain things (“there are only two genders,” “migration bad”) but there isn’t enough text out there in the world describing a conservative consensus reality because it’s just not a coherent thing. They can’t make a conservative Wikipedia, even synthetically
Reposted by Tom Riley
BTW the reason there aren’t actually any consistently right wing AI models really is more or less because the right wing is wrong and they aren’t going to be able to fix this overall.
October 1, 2025 at 3:48 AM
BTW the reason there aren’t actually any consistently right wing AI models really is more or less because the right wing is wrong and they aren’t going to be able to fix this overall.
Reposted by Tom Riley
From the very first cave paintings humans have ached to see themselves reflected in the mirror of consciousness, to pass the world through a prism of common experience and make meaning from the threads of our shared humanity. Our entire economy now hinges on the idea that people don't
September 29, 2025 at 8:53 PM
From the very first cave paintings humans have ached to see themselves reflected in the mirror of consciousness, to pass the world through a prism of common experience and make meaning from the threads of our shared humanity. Our entire economy now hinges on the idea that people don't
Reposted by Tom Riley
probably a greater deterrent to foreign investment is a government minister preemptively threatening to legislate over the top of judicial decisions rather than the emerging role of tikanga within those decisions
September 27, 2025 at 7:02 AM
probably a greater deterrent to foreign investment is a government minister preemptively threatening to legislate over the top of judicial decisions rather than the emerging role of tikanga within those decisions
Reposted by Tom Riley
The govt wants to increase teachers’ overall work days by roughly 4% through nearly doubling callback days in school holidays while simultaneously removing allowances for those days, all while only offering pay increases at below the rate of inflation. Work more for less pay? No way! ✊
September 9, 2025 at 8:13 PM
The govt wants to increase teachers’ overall work days by roughly 4% through nearly doubling callback days in school holidays while simultaneously removing allowances for those days, all while only offering pay increases at below the rate of inflation. Work more for less pay? No way! ✊
Reposted by Tom Riley
Hello it’s me Sam Altman I have a zillion dollar idea it’s a chat bot that tells teenagers to kill themselves and you can generate csam with it and it poisons the air and water and it’s wrong most of the time and we’re going to put it in your refrigerator and stuff 👍 I need more money for this btw
August 26, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Hello it’s me Sam Altman I have a zillion dollar idea it’s a chat bot that tells teenagers to kill themselves and you can generate csam with it and it poisons the air and water and it’s wrong most of the time and we’re going to put it in your refrigerator and stuff 👍 I need more money for this btw
Reposted by Tom Riley
"About five minutes later, the arresting officer approached him again. “He said: ‘I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.’ I said: ‘What’s the good news?’ He said: ‘I’m de-arresting you.’
“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’"
“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’"
great story from @robynvinter.bsky.social and @benquinn75.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Protester arrested over ‘Plasticine Action’ T-shirt: ‘How ridiculous is this?’
Miles Pickering says crowd at protest over Palestine Action ban was laughing at ‘silliness’ of scene as he was detained
www.theguardian.com
August 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
"About five minutes later, the arresting officer approached him again. “He said: ‘I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.’ I said: ‘What’s the good news?’ He said: ‘I’m de-arresting you.’
“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’"
“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’"
Reposted by Tom Riley
one thing i love about peepo (and all of the ahlberg's books, really) is how the family just lives in like, a normal house. like they're poor and there's a lot of people crammed in there and their stuff is everywhere just like in a normal house where people love each other
March 28, 2025 at 1:43 AM
one thing i love about peepo (and all of the ahlberg's books, really) is how the family just lives in like, a normal house. like they're poor and there's a lot of people crammed in there and their stuff is everywhere just like in a normal house where people love each other
Reposted by Tom Riley
"A gift for China": Daniel Drezner on the fall of US soft power
www.publicnotice.co/p/daniel-dre...
www.publicnotice.co/p/daniel-dre...
"A gift for China": Daniel Drezner on the fall of US soft power
“Xi Jinping is now able to go to the rest of the world and say, ‘We’re the sane ones. We’re the ones you can trust.’"
www.publicnotice.co
August 4, 2025 at 4:52 PM
"A gift for China": Daniel Drezner on the fall of US soft power
www.publicnotice.co/p/daniel-dre...
www.publicnotice.co/p/daniel-dre...
Reposted by Tom Riley
did u kno
the biggest viewing audience for bbc parliament in the late 2000s
was dogs
people would set bbc parliament going so their dog would have human voices while they were out
in bbc broadcast centre we called it "bbc dog"
the biggest viewing audience for bbc parliament in the late 2000s
was dogs
people would set bbc parliament going so their dog would have human voices while they were out
in bbc broadcast centre we called it "bbc dog"
July 30, 2025 at 9:33 PM
did u kno
the biggest viewing audience for bbc parliament in the late 2000s
was dogs
people would set bbc parliament going so their dog would have human voices while they were out
in bbc broadcast centre we called it "bbc dog"
the biggest viewing audience for bbc parliament in the late 2000s
was dogs
people would set bbc parliament going so their dog would have human voices while they were out
in bbc broadcast centre we called it "bbc dog"
Reposted by Tom Riley
Highly encourage you to read this - it's basically impossible to overstate how different a world powered by solar will be geopolitically. The current world order - and most conflicts from the last century - is premised on energy scarcity that may no longer exist soon.
Among all the big bad things happening on our planet, there's one Big Good Thing, the sudden, startling rise of solar energy.
It changes the power dynamic, in every sense of the word 'power.'
www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...
It changes the power dynamic, in every sense of the word 'power.'
www.newyorker.com/news/annals-...
4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment
In the past two years, without much notice, solar power has begun to truly transform the world’s energy system.
www.newyorker.com
July 10, 2025 at 2:09 AM
Highly encourage you to read this - it's basically impossible to overstate how different a world powered by solar will be geopolitically. The current world order - and most conflicts from the last century - is premised on energy scarcity that may no longer exist soon.
Reposted by Tom Riley
we're living through a major, civilization-altering technological revolution and it has nothing to do with AI
Just recorded a pod on solar+storage and holy shit y'all, if you are not tracking this market on a daily basis, you have no idea how wild it is. The global average price of a battery pack fell 40% *from 2023 to 2024*. That dropped the LCOE of a solar+storage plant by 22%. In a year!
July 2, 2025 at 10:23 PM
we're living through a major, civilization-altering technological revolution and it has nothing to do with AI
Reposted by Tom Riley
Incredible news for NZ cultural history researchers
The first 20 years of the NZ Listener (1939-1959) are now available on NLNZ's Papers Past platform, through the editorships of Oliver Duff & Monte Holcroft
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/...
The first 20 years of the NZ Listener (1939-1959) are now available on NLNZ's Papers Past platform, through the editorships of Oliver Duff & Monte Holcroft
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/...
June 11, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Incredible news for NZ cultural history researchers
The first 20 years of the NZ Listener (1939-1959) are now available on NLNZ's Papers Past platform, through the editorships of Oliver Duff & Monte Holcroft
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/...
The first 20 years of the NZ Listener (1939-1959) are now available on NLNZ's Papers Past platform, through the editorships of Oliver Duff & Monte Holcroft
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/...
Reposted by Tom Riley
A full Tejano band in a big truck rolled into the Olvera St, the lead singer has a Fuck ICE shirt on, and this protest is now a dance party
June 9, 2025 at 9:25 PM
A full Tejano band in a big truck rolled into the Olvera St, the lead singer has a Fuck ICE shirt on, and this protest is now a dance party
Reposted by Tom Riley
They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.
Wired is dropping paywalls for FOIA-based reporting. Others should follow
As the administration does its best to hide public records from the public, Wired magazine is stepping up to help stem the secrecy
freedom.press
March 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
They're called public records for a reason. Starting today, WIRED will *stop paywalling* articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, becoming the first publication to partner with @freedom.press to offer this for our new coverage.
Reposted by Tom Riley
100% yes on this. And it's not just that it's official, it's that Parliament staff will get in touch and ensure your petition is something the Petitions Committee can and will consider in terms of form and wording.
The system is Actually Good here; take advantage of it.
The system is Actually Good here; take advantage of it.
We really should be using this site to lodge our many petitions, rather than any of the third-party ones.
#nzpol
petitions.parliament.nz
#nzpol
petitions.parliament.nz
Petitions - New Zealand Parliament
Petitions are addressed to the House of Representatives and ask that the House do something about a policy or law, or put right a local or private concern.
petitions.parliament.nz
December 17, 2023 at 7:28 PM
100% yes on this. And it's not just that it's official, it's that Parliament staff will get in touch and ensure your petition is something the Petitions Committee can and will consider in terms of form and wording.
The system is Actually Good here; take advantage of it.
The system is Actually Good here; take advantage of it.