How to tell a formerly respectable brand has jumped the shark (after selling out to Qualcomm, who are their own special species of shitbaggery):
-
@cstross posts something wrong, does not edit or correct, gets a ton of people to pile on for showing what a new tool can and can't do... adafruit did not "sell out to Qualcomm" either. we are vc-free, loan-free, NYC, usa manufacturer, open-source... Charles why is wrong for a woman to experiment & use a tool to make her job easier? My company is Adafruit, not Arduino btw - Limor
-
@cazabon @cstross too late, he did it about 8 hours ago and kept going, any way - he caused a giant pile-on, we updated our post ... in the "UPDATE – Men on Mastodon" section ... https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/14/heres-our-first-gemini-deep-think-llm-assisted-hardware-design/
-
@cstross posts something wrong, does not edit or correct, gets a ton of people to pile on for showing what a new tool can and can't do... adafruit did not "sell out to Qualcomm" either. we are vc-free, loan-free, NYC, usa manufacturer, open-source... Charles why is wrong for a woman to experiment & use a tool to make her job easier? My company is Adafruit, not Arduino btw - Limor
-
@cazabon @cstross too late, he did it about 8 hours ago and kept going, any way - he caused a giant pile-on, we updated our post ... in the "UPDATE – Men on Mastodon" section ... https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/14/heres-our-first-gemini-deep-think-llm-assisted-hardware-design/
-
@Sablebadger Guys like @cstross do this to women online all the time, more so to ones that do open-source or electronics (like Limor), even after being told he targeted a different company, person, etc, he let it ride and went for the shares and stars... one his most popular ones already. Check out the pile on, it's... piling.
-
-
@cazabon @cstross too late, he did it about 8 hours ago and kept going, any way - he caused a giant pile-on, we updated our post ... in the "UPDATE – Men on Mastodon" section ... https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/14/heres-our-first-gemini-deep-think-llm-assisted-hardware-design/
@adafruit @cstross I saw the adafruit post, and the people telling you to get out because of using llm's before the bad post from cstross. In his thread someone pointed out he confused Arduino & Adafruit, and he confirmed but hasn't updated the main post. Using an llm and getting push-back on it was all you though. #noai
-
@Sablebadger @adafruit @cstross
It's not "sabotage", it's a simple mistake/confusion that literally anyone could make. "Small electronics company popular with hobbyists that starts with 'A' which sold out to Qualcomm and started bragging about ``AI''" is pretty easy to mix up with "*Other* small electronics company popular with hobbyists that starts with 'A' which started bragging about ``AI''" . Hell, I could have made that mistake myself.
So ya, he confused one company's actions with another similarly-named, same-industry company's actions. He didn't torpedo your zeppelin.
And if Adafruit wants to start using "AI" (LLM), then that's fine. But a lot of us electronics hobbyists will want to have absolutely nothing to do with you from that point on.
-
@Sablebadger Guys like @cstross do this to women online all the time, more so to ones that do open-source or electronics (like Limor), even after being told he targeted a different company, person, etc, he let it ride and went for the shares and stars... one his most popular ones already. Check out the pile on, it's... piling.
@ptorrone @Sablebadger @cstross @adafruit
If you think Charles Stross is anti-women or otherwise misogynist, boy have you clocked him wrong. Try reading his stuff.
-
@cstross posts something wrong, does not edit or correct, gets a ton of people to pile on for showing what a new tool can and can't do... adafruit did not "sell out to Qualcomm" either. we are vc-free, loan-free, NYC, usa manufacturer, open-source... Charles why is wrong for a woman to experiment & use a tool to make her job easier? My company is Adafruit, not Arduino btw - Limor
-
@ptorrone @Sablebadger @cstross @adafruit
If you think Charles Stross is anti-women or otherwise misogynist, boy have you clocked him wrong. Try reading his stuff.
-
@Sablebadger @adafruit @cstross
It's not "sabotage", it's a simple mistake/confusion that literally anyone could make. "Small electronics company popular with hobbyists that starts with 'A' which sold out to Qualcomm and started bragging about ``AI''" is pretty easy to mix up with "*Other* small electronics company popular with hobbyists that starts with 'A' which started bragging about ``AI''" . Hell, I could have made that mistake myself.
So ya, he confused one company's actions with another similarly-named, same-industry company's actions. He didn't torpedo your zeppelin.
And if Adafruit wants to start using "AI" (LLM), then that's fine. But a lot of us electronics hobbyists will want to have absolutely nothing to do with you from that point on.
-
@adafruit @cstross I saw the adafruit post, and the people telling you to get out because of using llm's before the bad post from cstross. In his thread someone pointed out he confused Arduino & Adafruit, and he confirmed but hasn't updated the main post. Using an llm and getting push-back on it was all you though. #noai
@maaneeack @adafruit @cstross i understand disagreeing about ethical issues.
I don’t get public humiliation and an attempt to erase everything Limor has done for aspiring nerds.
The intolerance is intolerable.
-
@maaneeack @adafruit @cstross i understand disagreeing about ethical issues.
I don’t get public humiliation and an attempt to erase everything Limor has done for aspiring nerds.
The intolerance is intolerable.
@knowuh @adafruit @cstross llms as they are now are antitechnology & antiknowledge. They're using stolen data to train, stealing power & water to run, and people's ability to think. It'd be one thing if adafruit used an llm they trained on data they owned, instead they used fucking gemini of all things.
-
This post is deleted!
Dude, you done messed up.
-
@knowuh @adafruit @cstross llms as they are now are antitechnology & antiknowledge. They're using stolen data to train, stealing power & water to run, and people's ability to think. It'd be one thing if adafruit used an llm they trained on data they owned, instead they used fucking gemini of all things.
@maaneeack @knowuh @cstross Please read our articles, we use the hundreds of open-source libraries I made and released, as open-source, and used for many of the experiments you see. It is trained on my code and I ask it to "write code like me" (but you can block, why read it?) - Limor
-
@maaneeack @knowuh @cstross Please read our articles, we use the hundreds of open-source libraries I made and released, as open-source, and used for many of the experiments you see. It is trained on my code and I ask it to "write code like me" (but you can block, why read it?) - Limor
-
@cstross posts something wrong, does not edit or correct, gets a ton of people to pile on for showing what a new tool can and can't do... adafruit did not "sell out to Qualcomm" either. we are vc-free, loan-free, NYC, usa manufacturer, open-source... Charles why is wrong for a woman to experiment & use a tool to make her job easier? My company is Adafruit, not Arduino btw - Limor
@adafruit
I'm so sorry you're going through this pile-up, Limor.
It's confirming me in keeping my open source work off social media. I know I'm not strong enough or big enough to deal with such attacks.
Thanks for your work! I've also started using LLMs, it can be quite useful. -
@cazabon @cstross too late, he did it about 8 hours ago and kept going, any way - he caused a giant pile-on, we updated our post ... in the "UPDATE – Men on Mastodon" section ... https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/14/heres-our-first-gemini-deep-think-llm-assisted-hardware-design/
@adafruit @cazabon Charlie Stross
I do have ethical concerns vis-a-vis the use of LLM technology which itself uses works whose authors have not consented to their work being used as part of the pool of training data for a particular LLM.
However, this concern does not apply in this case. Limor and Adafruit are using their own works and the works of individuals whom have consented, via open source licensing, to their works being used for any purpose.
Tell the detractors to stuff it and press on!
-
@cstross posts something wrong, does not edit or correct, gets a ton of people to pile on for showing what a new tool can and can't do... adafruit did not "sell out to Qualcomm" either. we are vc-free, loan-free, NYC, usa manufacturer, open-source... Charles why is wrong for a woman to experiment & use a tool to make her job easier? My company is Adafruit, not Arduino btw - Limor
I had someone try to tell me AI doing the work is like having an auto transmission instead of a manual. OK, I can kind of see that.It does the work to get you moving. For the Rav4 no way would I want a manual but a small Sports car that's half the fun.
While I would not use AI to write code because I want to know what is in it and understand it. I could see using it for Hardware. That is close to automated anyways. Instead of setting up nets , moving part around and letting the pcb design software make the traces you are describing what you want.
Which probably would have me pounding my head on the table when I can't make the darn thing understand what I wanted it to do
Plus my boards are usually not that complex .
