Have you ever noticed that GitHub Actions for C# don't always include the errors in the build summary? If so, please comment on or upvote this issue (the C# SDK team needs to see more community demand before they fix it): github.com/actions/setup-dot… CC @bgrainger @davidfowl

I’ve been trying to find good analogies for this. The argument seems to be: “AI is intelligent because it does intelligent-like things, therefore it is cope to say it’s not intelligent.” Some analogies: - “The moon is really bright. Therefore it is capable of luminance.” Here of course we expose a manner of speaking. The moon reflects the sun’s light. The models reflect our own intelligence. The moon will never be a star. - “A snail on the bed of a tow truck is really fast. Look, it’s moving from A to B at 60mph, it’s clearly fast.” But of course the snail is borrowing the truck’s velocity. Notice how there is no controversy in calling the technology large language models because the term is perfectly apt: a map of language. This points to language as constructed by humans as the true source of magic, and LLMs being algorithms that can traverse this map at light speeds. Before you think I’m being pedantic, understand that the nature of the words we use is precisely what’s at stake. That the moon *looks* bright is incontrovertible. Insisting however that the moon itself has any concept of inherent luminance is when you start to gaslight people into deranged realities that they will not stand for. Attempting to appropriate ageless conceptions like consciousness and intelligence to corporate technology by playing axiomatic word games is insanity. Large language models do what they do and this is non-controversial. Personifying it with human-like attributes however is totally uncalled for, when it is easy enough for us to define new words that better capture the phenomenon. I’ve been thinking long and hard about this and I think a good phrase for these technologies can be—hear me out: “large language models”

I write all of my code. Often, I use an AI agent. But they're not the ones coding, I am.

If you want to have fun playing with the earliest games of Spiderweb Software, reminder that you can get a nice, new, working copy of Blades of Exile (From 1998!) on itch. Users made tons of cool adventures for it, all still available! nqn.itch.io/blades-of-exile

i think we overestimate the value of the ability and power to make the big up front broad jump. and we underestimate the value of the insight and patience that shows us when, how, and where to take the next baby step.

Cause I named it that 10 years ago in Squirrel, then I fixed it so you didn't need to, but Discord forked Squirrel from day one then never updated it

Every State actor: "wait, they just... voluntarily root kitted themselves?"

sent this to the team today everything great comes from being able to delay gratification for as long as possible and it feels like we're collectively losing our ability to do that

Hi everyone! I was informed this morning that I am no longer employed at Sonar. With that, I’m seeking a new role and would appreciate your support. If you hear of any opportunities or just want to catch up, please send me a message or comment below. #OpenToWork

From a liability perspective, yes. The problem is the hype and normalization of a risk profile we usually go out of our way to warn people about. There is a real unbounded risk with this software which cannot be meaningfully constrained once untrusted input can influence system-level actions.

If anyone wants, you know, an actual office suite, we're here.

For example, we can all probably relate to this scenario. You're looking at some existing code thinking "wow, this is dumb. Whos the idiot that wrote this. That makes no sense". Then you go ahead and make a change, not understanding the ramifications. Often you realize you were the idiot who wrote it 😂, but you also then remember the context of WHY that it exists in the first place. More then ever the context of WHY matters. Currently that lives in peoples heads. In my experience, software systems die when the context is lost. Typically that's because people leave companies and all that tribal knowledge (context) is lost.

It's called the Hellstone. We're all ncreasingly divorced from physicality, so we wanted to build a monument for not only our international teams to gather around, but for the rest of the gaming community to rally around. We wanted people to get excited for the next big game on their list, and we wanted to do it in a way that employed skill & craft, by hand, to drive people outside to see it, and to talk about it. So many people assumed it was AI, or even a "UE5 render." Expectations are understandably low. We saw by the reaction, however, that excitement is at an all-time high. We hope that your favourite game is announced, whatever it may be. We hope that the people making it feel empowered enough to go out and talk to you about it. We hope that the physical world still plays a large role in the adventure that is the video games industry. We at Larian will continue to invest in ways to be tangible, and present, and open with what is clearly an excited and engaged audience. The level of skill & craftsmanship in creative spaces has never been higher, and I hope we can all make time to go out into the world and appreciate it when we see it. That physicality between the process and audience is that maintains a necessary level of mutual respect. It is very much ok to be excited about video games, and we can't wait to see you in person, when we're ready, on the road to Divinity. Oh and thanks for not setting it on fire.

Last quarter I rolled out Microsoft Copilot to 4,000 employees. $30 per seat per month. $1.4 million annually. I called it "digital transformation." The board loved that phrase. They approved it in eleven minutes. No one asked what it would actually do. Including me. I told everyone it would "10x productivity." That's not a real number. But it sounds like one. HR asked how we'd measure the 10x. I said we'd "leverage analytics dashboards." They stopped asking. Three months later I checked the usage reports. 47 people had opened it. 12 had used it more than once. One of them was me. I used it to summarize an email I could have read in 30 seconds. It took 45 seconds. Plus the time it took to fix the hallucinations. But I called it a "pilot success." Success means the pilot didn't visibly fail. The CFO asked about ROI. I showed him a graph. The graph went up and to the right. It measured "AI enablement." I made that metric up. He nodded approvingly. We're "AI-enabled" now. I don't know what that means. But it's in our investor deck. A senior developer asked why we didn't use Claude or ChatGPT. I said we needed "enterprise-grade security." He asked what that meant. I said "compliance." He asked which compliance. I said "all of them." He looked skeptical. I scheduled him for a "career development conversation." He stopped asking questions. Microsoft sent a case study team. They wanted to feature us as a success story. I told them we "saved 40,000 hours." I calculated that number by multiplying employees by a number I made up. They didn't verify it. They never do. Now we're on Microsoft's website. "Global enterprise achieves 40,000 hours of productivity gains with Copilot." The CEO shared it on LinkedIn. He got 3,000 likes. He's never used Copilot. None of the executives have. We have an exemption. "Strategic focus requires minimal digital distraction." I wrote that policy. The licenses renew next month. I'm requesting an expansion. 5,000 more seats. We haven't used the first 4,000. But this time we'll "drive adoption." Adoption means mandatory training. Training means a 45-minute webinar no one watches. But completion will be tracked. Completion is a metric. Metrics go in dashboards. Dashboards go in board presentations. Board presentations get me promoted. I'll be SVP by Q3. I still don't know what Copilot does. But I know what it's for. It's for showing we're "investing in AI." Investment means spending. Spending means commitment. Commitment means we're serious about the future. The future is whatever I say it is. As long as the graph goes up and to the right.

Re-upping this for no reason in particular

stumbled onto this guy's game dev stream tonight. he's building a dungeon crawler. I'm the only viewer so I asked a few questions. I just learned he's using @aspnet and @htmx_org! go say hi. twitch.tv/chiefmultihat

Avernum 4: Greed and Glory is out! The 31 year old cult classic Avernum series is back as a unique indie RPG set in a vast underworld nation. Fight a monster plague. Explore the depths. Be loyal or treacherous. Get rich and famous! Huge & full of fun. store.steampowered.com/app/3…

Here is a video of the 2nd hour of the Avernum 4: Greed and Glory livestream I did today. I struggle through the first dungeon, talk about where Avernum came from, and constantly forget to use my abilities. Game's coming October 22. Steam link in video! youtu.be/qnHnMZ6JOCo

It's striking so quickly the industry forgets that lines of code isn't a measure of productivity. blog.ploeh.dk/2025/09/22/its…