Reality Fabric

Slop

2026-04-22T20:00:00-07:00

A few years ago someone I know advocated for ChatGPT by informing a committee that xe¹ had told it to solve a fluid dynamics problem... and it did! When I asked if it provided a correct answer, I was told that xe didn't know. I'm sold!

LLMs are tools that simulate a simpering and clumsy liar. They are not sentient. They do not think. They do not feel. And it seems like even those who hate LLMs are prone to anthropomorphize the damn things.²

I have decided to attempt to move away from any software that utilizes generative AI in its production. Frankly, I do not trust code submitted by people who use it to be good. Claud et al are capable of vommitting out far more code than even the most persistent fool, and code review sucks. If humans can sneak vulnerabilities and backdoors into open source software³ then what's to stop Copilot et al from generating that garbage by chance and having underpaid and underappreciated maintainers miss it?

I recently discovered that the maintainers of Jellyfin's desktop client have started using generative AI. Then I heard that vim is using it. I recently saw that neovim is also using it. And if I hadn't seen a persistent and sharp decline in software quality from companies that proudly use generative AI,⁴ then I would probably ignore it. But I'm going to try to jump ship before these things get too far.

The "AI" Bubble is enormous, unsustainable, and based on science fiction⁵ and empty promises.⁶ The things generated by generative AI are vacuous, shitty, and are responsible for a significant number of psychotic breakdowns.

I determined that neovim began using generative AI in v0.11.5, so I have installed v0.11.4. Debian's repos only had me at v0.10.4, so this should tide me over.

Jellyfin hadn't started using generative AI in its main code base yet (last I checked), but I'm learning Rust so that I can build my own thing.

I'm sure I can look forward to continuing to be disappointed.

Pronouns redacted. ↩
It cannot feel shame! But the people who use these tools can and should. ↩
And they do. ↩
Microsoft Execs: Go Play In Traffic. ↩
Sam Altman: Go Play In Traffic. ↩
No really. Sam Altman. I wish Roko's Basilisk were real and that you'd be tortured for eternity. ↩

Coding Adventures

2026-04-17T14:00:00-07:00

This year I've started studying two new-to-me languages: Rust and Prolog.

My friend Alice convinced me to get into Prolog by informing me that it's heavily logic-based. And yeah, that's its whole deal. I'm not very good at writing with it, yet, but it's been fun playing around.

Jellyfin convinced me to learn Rust. Claud.md was added to the Jellyfin Player (and they didn't even mention it in the commit that it was added in!) and it made me consider building my own thing... and then all of my movie images---posters, fanart, banners, everything recognized by Jellyfin as a relevant image---disappeared on a metadata refresh. I didn't submit an issue about it (I probably should have, but I didn't have the energy to after spending all the time it took to recover the images), but it did strengthen my resolve to make my own thing.

If my library is going to get fucked up, then I want it to be my fault. And also, there are a lot of little quirks in Jellyfin that irritate me that I would love to fix.

Why Rust? Because I'm rusty at all the other languages I'd want to use, so I might as well learn a new thing that my friends tell me is better than C[++].

Rust has also been fun. It feels similar to C++, and it has a mascot. 🦀 I don't know enough of it to even begin to write my own media server, but I'm working my way through The Rust Programming Language and picking it up. I'm not in a hurry.

Anyway, long time no see.

Goodbye, Windows

2025-10-17T00:00:00-07:00

I have decided to abandon Windows. Again.

The first time I ditched Windows was right after I graduated with my Associates. I was heading into a career in compsci, and everything I needed was more easily accessible via Ubuntu anyway. I spent six years with Ubuntu as my daily driver, only using Windows when I wanted to play Heroes of Might and Magic V or punch in customer orders at McDonald's.¹

I switched to Debian for a while, but I needed my computer to do things that I was not quite ready to do the way Debian needed me to. I started working tech support in a Windows-exclusive ecosystem, and when my laptop died I never bothered to upgrade the surplus computer I replaced it with. My schoolwork required me to use Windows, my job didn't require any Linux skills, and the Year of the Linux Desktop was far away.

I started moving back to using primarily Linux in 2020. I had a few cheap surplus machines (Dell Optiplex 390) which ran Windows like absolute hot garbage.

And we're back, baby! Microsoft nerfed their market share by refusing to allow older systems to upgrade to Windows 11 and sending Windows 10 to the farm upstate. I was already using Debian 12 on my desktop and server, so deciding to skip the upgrade from Win10 to Win11 was easy for my laptop.² Windows emulation is way better than it was when I tried to play Mass Effect on Ubuntu in college.

I'll admit, I'm not 100% switched over. I have a PC that my Jellyfin server³ runs on which came with Windows 11 installed, and it's also the PC that my wife and I play video games on. I'd switch it over in a heartbeat if it were just me, but I'm not willing to risk breaking my wife's gaming computer. My goal is to have tested the games on Linux and worked out the kinks before Windows 11's EOL.

I'm super happy with the switch, and honestly KDE Plasma has a lot to do with it. Maybe I'll show off my setup. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's so much more fun than Windows.

Signing off,

Jessica

At the time, McDonald's used Windows XP IoT on their POS systems. It didn't feel like Windows, but technically it was. ↩
It's running Debian 13 with KDE Plasma, and it is beautiful. ↩
I know that Jellyfin runs on Linux, and I want to get it containerized and off of Windows. I haven't had the time and motivation to test the Windows-to-Linux migration process and it's not so urgent that I need to risk losing any data. ↩

My First Blog Post

2025-10-13T12:00:00-07:00

I am setting up my domain, RealityFabric.net, and now that I have set up my subdomains for personal use (jellyfin, books, code) I have decided to set up a static website for blogging.

I've never been good at upkeeping a blog, but maybe I'll post my book/movie reviews here. :)

If you're viewing this in the early days... I apologize for the bland appearance. I had a custom theme set up on my neocities, but I haven't customized the them for Pelican, the software I'm using to generate this static site.

At least it's not plain HTML!

I much prefer gaudy themes to the trendy Millenial Gray of the 2020s. Hopefully you're reading this when my site has a bit more character.

Anyway, I've gotta recover from my recent Covid and Flu vaccines. A few days on my ass is better than a few weeks on my ass (or lifelong disability from Long Covid), but it sure does suck at the moment. And with that glowing endorsement, get your ass vaccinated. Protect your community.

Via nvim, signing off,

Jessica