Will Barton
@gulielmus.com
I suffer Computer for a living.
Millennial elder, astro/photographer, coder. Former public servant. Critical theory politics grad student in another life.
He/him. 🖖🏻
Millennial elder, astro/photographer, coder. Former public servant. Critical theory politics grad student in another life.
He/him. 🖖🏻
Pinned
Will Barton
@gulielmus.com
· Sep 24
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
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
Nearly all of whom would cheerfully have been paid $9.5 billion *to* work.
Federal employees were paid $9.5 billion not to work in 2025 under DOGE.
As part of the Trump-Musk DOGE program to shrink the federal work force, paid administrative leave costs rose by 435%.
As part of the Trump-Musk DOGE program to shrink the federal work force, paid administrative leave costs rose by 435%.
Federal Employees Were Paid $9.5 Billion Not to Work in 2025 Under DOGE Effort
As part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s program to shrink the federal work force, paid administrative leave costs rose by 435 percent.
www.nytimes.com
September 15, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Nearly all of whom would cheerfully have been paid $9.5 billion *to* work.
Reposted by Will Barton
Thinking about how lonely software development has become, and it’s partly AI, but it’s also the fact that so many software developers turned into mask-off fascists the minute they realized they could get away with it without harming their careers.
August 24, 2026 at 12:08 PM
Thinking about how lonely software development has become, and it’s partly AI, but it’s also the fact that so many software developers turned into mask-off fascists the minute they realized they could get away with it without harming their careers.
In the burger joint blasting Toto’s Africa as loud as possible
August 23, 2026 at 3:53 PM
In the burger joint blasting Toto’s Africa as loud as possible
Reposted by Will Barton
again i am just not that interested in debating whether human rights should theoretically extend to robots and ai when we currently don't even extend them to all humans
August 19, 2026 at 8:08 AM
again i am just not that interested in debating whether human rights should theoretically extend to robots and ai when we currently don't even extend them to all humans
Reposted by Will Barton
thinking about what one trillion dollars of investment in clean energy would look like and getting so mad i need to lie down with the lights off
The US hyperscalers have now signed up for about $1tn of lease commitments that don't appear in their financial data (and are on the hook for another $1tn of future purchase commitments). www.ft.com/content/a0a0...
August 10, 2026 at 2:54 PM
thinking about what one trillion dollars of investment in clean energy would look like and getting so mad i need to lie down with the lights off
Reposted by Will Barton
i’m never gonna be able to fire a cruise missile yet the question of using my tax dollars for them has never been up for debate
Opinion: Mamdani's idea may sound appealing, but it's NYC taxpayers who will take the hit, subsidizing discounts they may never even use.
Mamdani's city-owned grocery stores are a socialist trap | Opinion
No matter how good Zohran Mamdani makes grocery affordability sound, he's selling New Yorkers the same broken promise that has failed everywhere else.
bit.ly
August 3, 2026 at 5:04 PM
i’m never gonna be able to fire a cruise missile yet the question of using my tax dollars for them has never been up for debate
Reposted by Will Barton
It’s been noted before, but it’s very instructive how often statements by comms people at tech companies read as threats.
July 10, 2026 at 9:48 PM
It’s been noted before, but it’s very instructive how often statements by comms people at tech companies read as threats.
Reposted by Will Barton
The founder we should talk more about is Thomas Paine, who will fuck your shit up every time. Here he is in The Rights of Man just ripping into any ideas of "originalism" and that kind of garbage.
July 4, 2026 at 1:18 PM
The founder we should talk more about is Thomas Paine, who will fuck your shit up every time. Here he is in The Rights of Man just ripping into any ideas of "originalism" and that kind of garbage.
Reposted by Will Barton
Reposted by Will Barton
The real dogshit in this whole story are the Free Software Foundation and OSI with their "no discrimination against fields of endeavor" stance on open source software licenses.
They've been actively standing in the way of ethics clauses for years IMHO
They've been actively standing in the way of ethics clauses for years IMHO
The rest of Palantir's stack is basically Apache Spark with a proprietary "Foundry Pipelines" sticker on it that forces you to write to their proprietary, locked-down git wrappers to write python 3.8 code.
Palantir Phonograph and Workshop are just GUI builders that feel like Microsoft Access.
Palantir Phonograph and Workshop are just GUI builders that feel like Microsoft Access.
June 19, 2026 at 8:56 PM
The real dogshit in this whole story are the Free Software Foundation and OSI with their "no discrimination against fields of endeavor" stance on open source software licenses.
They've been actively standing in the way of ethics clauses for years IMHO
They've been actively standing in the way of ethics clauses for years IMHO
Reposted by Will Barton
NEW: Paramount refused to air a TV ad critical of its merger with WarnerBros. The ad was made by @freedom.press, to run during Trump's UFC event.
It criticized the $111 billion merger as a threat to the First Amendment. The irony!
It criticized the $111 billion merger as a threat to the First Amendment. The irony!
Paramount Refused to Air an Ad Criticizing Its Merger With Warner Bros.
The commercial was submitted by the Freedom of the Press Foundation to run during Donald Trump’s UFC event. It criticized the $111 billion merger as a threat to the First Amendment.
www.wired.com
June 16, 2026 at 2:25 PM
NEW: Paramount refused to air a TV ad critical of its merger with WarnerBros. The ad was made by @freedom.press, to run during Trump's UFC event.
It criticized the $111 billion merger as a threat to the First Amendment. The irony!
It criticized the $111 billion merger as a threat to the First Amendment. The irony!
Reposted by Will Barton
It can't be overstated how he really doesn't know how anything works but was mythologized as a supergenius engineer by a shitty press
“I think actually things will move maybe even by the end of this year to where you don't even bother doing coding. The AI just creates the binary directly.”
“Doing coding.” The AI just creates “the binary” directly. Ok.
“Doing coding.” The AI just creates “the binary” directly. Ok.
Elon Musk: Coding Was a Top Job for Decades. It Will Be Dead By the End of the Year.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) CEO Elon Musk has made yet another sweeping prediction about the future of work, this time aimed squarely at software engineers. Speaking at a recent confer...
247wallst.com
June 13, 2026 at 9:13 PM
It can't be overstated how he really doesn't know how anything works but was mythologized as a supergenius engineer by a shitty press
Reposted by Will Barton
OMG, this former bank employee is telling you now - DON'T DO THIS!
There are insufficient laws on the books to protect you from turning your accounts over to AI, not to mention the horrible lack of privacy guarantees.
There are insufficient laws on the books to protect you from turning your accounts over to AI, not to mention the horrible lack of privacy guarantees.
June 11, 2026 at 1:32 AM
OMG, this former bank employee is telling you now - DON'T DO THIS!
There are insufficient laws on the books to protect you from turning your accounts over to AI, not to mention the horrible lack of privacy guarantees.
There are insufficient laws on the books to protect you from turning your accounts over to AI, not to mention the horrible lack of privacy guarantees.
Reposted by Will Barton
one of the most insane aspects of all of this is that "a wide ranging government crackddown after a handful of newspaper cranks said insane things based on misunderstood cherrypicked papers" is considered illegitimate in every field of endeavor except this one
Right now where you live healthcare for trans kids is either being made literally illegal by your state or made functionally illegal by the unlawful threats of the federal government and a care infrastructure glad to sacrifice trans kids on the altar of appeasement.
www.npr.org/2026/04/17/n...
www.npr.org/2026/04/17/n...
Families left reeling after hospitals in blue states drop transgender care for youth
Massachusetts passed laws and joined lawsuits to protect access to gender-affirming care for minors. But faced with the Trump administration's threats, some hospitals voluntarily stopped care.
www.npr.org
April 19, 2026 at 4:45 PM
one of the most insane aspects of all of this is that "a wide ranging government crackddown after a handful of newspaper cranks said insane things based on misunderstood cherrypicked papers" is considered illegitimate in every field of endeavor except this one
Reposted by Will Barton
Gotta say, it’s really affirming to see someone who covers wearables as their job point this out. www.theverge.com/column/90973...
April 10, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Gotta say, it’s really affirming to see someone who covers wearables as their job point this out. www.theverge.com/column/90973...
It's dangerous knowledge that all I need is a space program capable of launching a lunar flyby mission to experience an eclipse any time I want.
April 7, 2026 at 12:58 AM
It's dangerous knowledge that all I need is a space program capable of launching a lunar flyby mission to experience an eclipse any time I want.
![Looking through one of the four windows of the Orion spacecraft, a tiny crescent Earth is illuminated against the blackness of space and grows smaller as the crew journeys closer to the Moon. Part of the window edge is visible; the rest is darkness. [Alt-text slightly revised from ESA/NASA version]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:62gdkmpwa7xme36getyqnem3/bafkreigksp6ynzr4oxga34viyko2fgg47c6262zz7rqj3khvz3y24pz4by)
Look, it's all but four of us!
This image of home just came down from the Artemis II crew.
Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right.
Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
Taken after their translunar injection burn, there are aurorae at top right and lower left, and zodiacal light at lower right.
Credit: NASA/Reid Wiseman
April 3, 2026 at 9:07 PM
Look, it's all but four of us!
Reposted by Will Barton
Stop what you're doing and look 🌍
The full globe? That is the NIGHT SIDE. I'm pretty sure I can see some satellites/debris glinting away on the periphery. Also the Aurora?!
What a bonkers beautiful world that supports and holds everyone and everything you've ever known and loved, and so much more.
The full globe? That is the NIGHT SIDE. I'm pretty sure I can see some satellites/debris glinting away on the periphery. Also the Aurora?!
What a bonkers beautiful world that supports and holds everyone and everything you've ever known and loved, and so much more.
April 3, 2026 at 3:02 PM
Stop what you're doing and look 🌍
The full globe? That is the NIGHT SIDE. I'm pretty sure I can see some satellites/debris glinting away on the periphery. Also the Aurora?!
What a bonkers beautiful world that supports and holds everyone and everything you've ever known and loved, and so much more.
The full globe? That is the NIGHT SIDE. I'm pretty sure I can see some satellites/debris glinting away on the periphery. Also the Aurora?!
What a bonkers beautiful world that supports and holds everyone and everything you've ever known and loved, and so much more.
I have been somewhat following the Claude Code leak stuff, and so much has already been said that I agree with but won't rehash.
I'm just struck by the lack of self respect and pride in one's work it takes to produce something like this.
I'm just struck by the lack of self respect and pride in one's work it takes to produce something like this.
jonny (good kind) (@[email protected])
- Claude code source "leaks" in a mapfile
- people immediately use the code laundering machines to code launder the code laundering frontend
- now many dubious open source-ish knockoffs in python and...
neuromatch.social
April 3, 2026 at 12:53 PM
I have been somewhat following the Claude Code leak stuff, and so much has already been said that I agree with but won't rehash.
I'm just struck by the lack of self respect and pride in one's work it takes to produce something like this.
I'm just struck by the lack of self respect and pride in one's work it takes to produce something like this.
Much of our current moment is because some people made Choices and then got big mad that they can’t police what others think about them as a result of those choices.
whenever folks talk about harry potter and separating artist from art they always have this indignant 'OH SO IM A BAD FOR BUYING THESE BOOKS?' but thats not the real issue. the reality is that many will BELIEVE you are bad, and that is VALID. its not your choice what others think of you
March 25, 2026 at 9:06 PM
Much of our current moment is because some people made Choices and then got big mad that they can’t police what others think about them as a result of those choices.
Reposted by Will Barton
Robert E. Lee got his ass beat at Gettysburg by a professor of rhetoric and oratory from Bowdoin College and generations of reactionary fantasists have died mad about it.
Much of reactionary politics today is best understood as a Confederate restoration project.
March 24, 2026 at 12:30 AM
Robert E. Lee got his ass beat at Gettysburg by a professor of rhetoric and oratory from Bowdoin College and generations of reactionary fantasists have died mad about it.
Reposted by Will Barton
Absolutely not. If you are using AI to write you should 100% be ashamed.
Shame is one of the last bulwarks against a total slop apocalypse.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
Shame is one of the last bulwarks against a total slop apocalypse.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
March 20, 2026 at 4:08 PM
Absolutely not. If you are using AI to write you should 100% be ashamed.
Shame is one of the last bulwarks against a total slop apocalypse.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
Shame is one of the last bulwarks against a total slop apocalypse.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...
Thinking a lot more fondly about the “destroy“ ending of Mass Effect 3 these days.
March 20, 2026 at 3:18 PM
Thinking a lot more fondly about the “destroy“ ending of Mass Effect 3 these days.