Community + Code

Community + Code

Sé Reed took this picture of my water bottle at PressConf. “That’s epic,” she said. I agree. I assume she saw in it the same thing I did when I found it — ourselves. The funny thing is, despite this sentiment being prevalent amonst those of us that have been in the WordPress community for […]

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The Lovecraft Test, Gemini

The Lovecraft Test, Gemini

This entry is part 16 of 21 in the series Artificial IntelligenceI’ve been sitting on this one for longer than I should have (and then, obviously, forgetting entirely about it). After putting DeepSeek through the ropes for my Lovecraft test, I decided to try Google’s Gemini. I haven’t used Gemini much, although I have used NotebookLLM which is based on Gemini, and I think it generally […]

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A WordPresser goes to DrupalCon

A WordPresser goes to DrupalCon

I’ll be going to my first DrupalCon next week. I can’t say that I’ve always wanted to go to DrupalCon, but I’ve certainly been curious about it since joining Pantheon because it’s always been such a huge part of Pantheon’s ecosystem and we’re always a big sponsor. And over the last few months, between #WPDrama […]

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The life of a developer

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. You have a broad plan. Say, you want to move your website to a new host. I’ve been running this site (which is a WordPress multisite that also includes my partner’s blog, the blog we originally created to share pictures of our kids, a personal portflolio-type site […]

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A Lovecraftian coastal scene under a gibbous moon, depicting Alden Marsh and Thalassa standing on the edge of crumbling cliffs overlooking a raging abyss. Thalassa, a mysterious sea creature draped in seafoam and kelp, has bioluminescent veins visible beneath her translucent skin and long, ink-black hair flowing like water. Alden, a scholarly man, holds her webbed hand as the villagers, pale and slit-eyed, approach with hooks and chains. Below, the ocean churns into a maelstrom, and a colossal shadow stirs beneath the waves. The sky is filled with storm clouds and eerie, phosphorescent light from the sunken ziggurat in the depths.

The Lovecraft Test, DeepSeek Edition

This entry is part 15 of 21 in the series Artificial IntelligenceThe stupidly big news in LLMs right now is that DeepSeek, a LLM built by a small Chinese team that was released a couple weeks ago, performs as well as, if not better than larger, more sophisticated (at least in terms of the dollars and hardware thrown at it) models by OpenAI and Anthropic (Claude) […]

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A vast, dimly lit computational chamber housing the Deep Thought supercomputer from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, resembling its original appearance in the BBC TV series. Deep Thought is an enormous, green, pyramid-like structure with glowing lights and an imposing presence. The room is immense, with towering, monolithic structures covered in cryptic symbols. The atmosphere is eerie and quiet, with the machine’s lights still faintly flickering after the recent conversation. The space is empty, save for the hum of inactive machinery and shafts of cold artificial light streaming through the towering structures. A thin haze of dust floats in the air, enhancing the illusion of an all-knowing machine that is merely a facade.

Truth (Flash Fiction February Day 3)

This entry is part 12 of 12 in the series Flash Fiction February“That was close,” Fleeb Mungwort said, wiping his brow after the two pan-dimensional hyper-intelligent beings left the massive computational chamber. “I can’t believe they bought the whole bit about the successor computer,” Ploox Vendarf said, tying her head tentacles back into a tail. “That bit about Earth? Truly a stroke of genius!” “The problem remains,” […]

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A close-up, unsettling but friendly portrait of Nurse Maya Brooks, a medical professional with cybernetic ocular implants. She has a warm smile but an unnerving gaze, with gunmetal gray eyes featuring a glowing blue light at the center where the retina should be. Surrounding the light, a mechanical aperture-like iris expands and contracts like a camera lens. She leans in toward the camera, holding a clipboard, as if addressing a patient. The medical room in the background is softly lit, with faint digital overlays hinting at an augmented reality interface.

New (Flash Fiction February Day 2)

This entry is part 11 of 12 in the series Flash Fiction FebruaryWhen Avery woke up, all they saw was dark. It was unnerving, but they tried not to panic. They had been assured that there would be a period of adjustment as all the systems came fully online. Instead, Avery took deep breaths to slow their heart rate, and continued to stare and perceive an inky […]

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A black and white, gritty, charcoal-style depiction of a driver mid-transformation into a werewolf, seen from the perspective of the passenger seat. The werewolf’s face contorts, fangs emerge, fur sprouts, and claws grip the steering wheel tightly. The freeway outside is shown correctly from the side, with cars traveling in the same direction as the werewolf’s vehicle, their headlights and taillights forming streaks of motion. The mood is dark and intense, with expressive brushstrokes capturing the raw, chaotic energy of the transformation.

Rage (Flash Fiction February Day 1)

This entry is part 10 of 12 in the series Flash Fiction FebruaryThe truck cuts in front of me and I need to slam on the brakes to not smash into the TRUMP bumper sticker on the fender. There’s a “LET’S GO BRANDON!” sticker in the corner of the cab window. It’s too dark to see the driver but his (I assume it’s a he) red taillights […]

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A dramatic cinematic scene inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's style, set on a stormy cliffside under a pale, glowing moon. A humanoid figure, ethereal and alien, with shimmering fish-scale-like attire and silver hair with tendrils, stands at the edge of a cliff overlooking a tumultuous ocean. The waves crash violently against jagged rocks, and enormous, shadowy, incomprehensible forms rise from the sea, illuminated faintly by eerie green lights. The sky is filled with dark storm clouds and lightning streaks, creating a haunting, otherworldly atmosphere. The perspective is cinematic, with the figure in the foreground gazing out at the titanic, alien shapes in the distance. The color palette is dark, with shades of green, black, and silver dominating. This image is presented in a wide 16:9 format, as if it were a still from a dramatic horror film.

The H.P. Lovecraft Test, round 3

This entry is part 14 of 21 in the series Artificial IntelligenceI’ve run this test twice already and I figured it was probably about time to try it again. If you’ve been reading my AI posts (which is all I post anymore), you may remember past incarnations of what I like to call The Lovecraft Test. I ran it very early on with ChatGPT when it […]

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Aging an AI-generated character

Aging an AI-generated character

This entry is part 13 of 21 in the series Artificial IntelligenceHistorically, prompting ChatGPT (or DALL-E through ChatGPT) for variations or subtle modifications of a single image results in a sort of image degeneration. Not only does the image not get reproduced with the slight variations, but it gets further and further away from what you originally requested. This is something that has been noted on […]

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Rick Astley Ten Ways

Rick Astley Ten Ways

This entry is part 12 of 21 in the series Artificial IntelligenceLately, I’ve been playing a lot with Suno. Suno is an AI that makes music based on your prompts. It’s actually pretty good at it, too. It lacks the ability to edit songs, and the songs it creates will always be based on some formulaic foundation, but so much of popular music is that it […]

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