Nostr notes by Anthony

I think abduction is a deeply underappreciated aspect of human ...

2026-02-09T16:50:07Z

I think abduction is a deeply underappreciated aspect of human reasoning.

#logic #abduction

I'm tinkering with an argument based on algorithmic ...

2026-02-08T18:40:14Z

I'm tinkering with an argument based on algorithmic complexity that if it were possible to make something like an "automated mathematician" or "automated scientist", then these would be expected to eventually produce outputs that we humans would be unable to distinguish from random noise.

Getting the whole argument just right is fiddly, but the basic idea is this. You feed some kind of theory into the AM/AS, which is a black box. It churns on this and spits out a result, which is added to the theory (I'm neglecting the case that the result is inconsistent with the theory). It can now churn on theory + result 1. After doing this long enough, it's churning on theory + result 1 + result 2 + ... + result N. Whatever it spits out will be dependent in particular on results 1 - N. Unless you know these results, you will not be able to understand what it outputs. I.e. it will look like noise to you. If the AM/AS is appreciably faster at producing results than people are at understanding them, there will be an N beyond which no one can understand the output. It'll look like random noise.

If you're into software development, this would be analogous to a software system that generates syntactically-correct code and then adds it to a software library it can then call. If you were to run this long enough, virtually all the programs it generated that were short enough for human beings to read and understand would consist almost entirely of library calls to code generated by the system. You'd have no idea what any of this code did unless you studied the library calls, which you wouldn't be able to do if the system were expanding the library faster than you could read and understand it.

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader whether this is a desirable thing to do and whether it's happened yet. I would offer, though, a question to ponder: what reason is there to believe that a random number generator hooked up to an inscrutable interpreter produces human flourishing, for any given meaning of "human flourishing" you care to use?

#tech #dev #mathematics #AutomatedMathematician #AutomatedScientist #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #ThoughtExperiment

@nprofile…n8q3 I don't have the foggiest idea what you are ...

2026-01-27T20:29:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…x7u0
_________________________

≠ hippies->chipper ≠ (nprofile…n8q3) I don't have the foggiest idea what you are saying nor why you chose to say it.

Perhaps the most (in)famous and illustrious American computer ...

2026-01-27T20:02:52Z

Perhaps the most (in)famous and illustrious American computer scientist and acknowledged principal pioneer of the discipline now known as artificial intelligence (AI), Professor Marvin Minsky of MIT, once pronounced—a belief he still holds—that ‘‘the brain is merely a meat machine.’’ It is significant that the English language distinguishes between ‘‘flesh’’ on the one hand, and ‘‘meat’’ on the other. The latter is dead and may be eaten, thrown in the garbage, fed to pigs, and so on. Flesh, on the other hand, is living matter and, as such, deserves the respect and dignity for life of which, among others, Albert Schweitzer spoke eloquently. The word ‘‘merely’’ in Minsky’s sentence means essentially ‘‘nothing but,’’ that is, also not deserving unusual respect. His statement is a clear reflection of a profound contempt for life that, as I see it, is shared explicitly by important sectors of the AI community, the artificial intelligentsia, as well as many scientists, engineers, and ordinary people. Daniel C. Dennett, an important American philosopher, once said that we must give up our awe of life if we are to make further progress in AI.
From Weizenbaum, Joseph (2007). Social and Political Impact of the Long-term History of Computing

#AI #ComputerScience #life #brain #mind

@nprofile…5k9x This is not quite an answer, but to the extent ...

2026-01-23T17:42:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…jznq
_________________________

danmcquillan (nprofile…5k9x) This is not quite an answer, but to the extent that corporations are the main purchasers of image generators, the promise seems to be similar to what LLMs promise. Confine human endeavor to a small, controllable world that seems "creative", but is incapable of generating a true challenge to the powerful. Here I am using Leonard Savage's small vs. large world distinction. The former is like living in a chess game according to the rules of chess; the latter is like living in the real world, where you can knock over the board, refuse to play, draw a smiley face on the Queen, etc etc etc. If chess grandmasters convince people that all of society's concerns should be decided over a chess board according to the rules of the game then they've locked in their power because there is no rule of chess that allows you to suspend the rules of chess. That's how I've been seeing the value of AI (to the powerful) lately.

@nprofile…sd57 It's interesting how different people ...

2026-01-20T18:42:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…qm9d
_________________________

Nini (nprofile…sd57) It's interesting how different people experience such a thing differently, especially with regards to whether it's a positive or negative experience. I tend to associate noise with disaster! Though I can see how the silence after the noise could be chilling.

Am I to understand from this that SearXNG is in the process of ...

2026-01-20T13:38:51Z

Am I to understand from this that SearXNG is in the process of becoming AI poisoned?

https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues/2163
https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues/2008
https://github.com/searxng/searxng/issues/2273The last issue hasn't been active since 2023 but the 1st one has been active recently and the middle one last summer.

#SearX #SearXNG #SearchEngines #AlternateSearchEngines #MetaSearchEngines #web #dev #tech #FOSS #OpenSource #AI #AIPoisoning #AISlop

@nprofile…d8se Yes. It's partly why I'm so critical: ...

2026-01-19T14:54:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…t0m6
_________________________

Nate Gaylinn (nprofile…d8se) Yes. It's partly why I'm so critical: Nature has played a large role in uncritically spreading AI disinformation. Till they reined it in arXiv did too. Corporate marketing in a lab coat is still corporate marketing, and I don't think scientific publishing platforms should be publishing it next to scientific communication as if these two forms of communication are of a piece. I also think crithype is a real phenomenon. There are ways to present a fuller picture of a technology, including the voices from corporate labs while staying within the bounds of the scientific, but it seems Nature has chosen not to do that, at least as far as I can see.

@nprofile…d8se I wouldn't call someone from Anthropic an ...

2026-01-19T12:35:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…jxd5
_________________________

Nate Gaylinn (nprofile…d8se) I wouldn't call someone from Anthropic an expert. They're a businessperson with significant amounts of money, reputation and their own livelihood on the line. We need to get out of the mode of ignoring deep conflicts of interest like this, especially when they seem to be driving the viewpoints expressed.

...and now the power's back on. I think CMP's alerting ...

2026-01-19T12:32:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…m6z5
_________________________

...and now the power's back on. I think CMP's alerting system could use a bit of calibration. It's currently saying my road does not have power.

I always give it a bit when the power comes back because more than once it's come back then gone out again shortly after. I think this outage might be over though.

#maine #CMP #PowerOutage

I love the quiet of a power outage, especially when there's ...

2026-01-19T12:20:47Z

I love the quiet of a power outage, especially when there's snow on the ground. These breaks in the otherwise relentless grinding of the world machine are such a relief. I suppose people uaccustomed to it find it unsettling.

Now they're saying 11am. Yeah. #maine #CMP #PowerOutage

2026-01-19T12:14:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…0nkg
_________________________

Now they're saying 11am. Yeah.

#maine #CMP #PowerOutage

CMP is saying there are roughly 2,000 people without power, about ...

2026-01-19T11:55:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…0nkg
_________________________

CMP is saying there are roughly 2,000 people without power, about 1,100 of whom are in Alfred, about a third of the town! Looks like it's a local outage, a good sign.

Central Maine Power is claiming power will be restored here by ...

2026-01-19T11:50:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…efj7
_________________________

Central Maine Power is claiming power will be restored here by 7:15am, about half an hour from now. But as I recall that's what their alerts said last time, at least until it became clear it would be an extended outage. So I've hunkered down in case this one lasts awhile.

#maine #CMP #PowerOutage

We didn't get that much snow, but the temperature is hovering ...

2026-01-19T11:44:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…t3pn
_________________________

We didn't get that much snow, but the temperature is hovering near freezing so it's wet and heavy. Probably tore down some tree branches.

A couple years ago we went a good five days without power (about a day in between two longer outages when we did) but haven't had one since till now.

#maine #CMP #PowerOutage

Power went out at 5am here in Alfred. The fire alarm beeping ...

2026-01-19T11:26:15Z

Power went out at 5am here in Alfred. The fire alarm beeping because of the power loss woke him up, which in turn woke me up. Good thing. Fire's stoked now.

#maine #CMP #PowerOutage

To spell that out a bit: the other major strands of programming ...

2026-01-18T21:43:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…j9k4
_________________________

To spell that out a bit: the other major strands of programming involve a bureaucracy intended to suppress the messiness inherent in the stateful behavior of digital machinery. The ubiquity of notions like leaky abstractions, weird states, bugs, exceptions, errors, faults all point at (a) the messiness is intrinsic; (b) the messiness is negatively valenced, meaning to be suppressed.

The future lies in embracing statefulness and effectfulness in self-modifying code. Unlike the bureaucratic procedure of rule-based coding, this style of programming is more like surfing, or performance, or gardening. Your task as a programmer is to plant a seed of code that unfolds into something beautiful. I'll leave as an exercise for the reader what the soil is in this metaphor.

(I'm only half joking!)

#ComputerScience #SoftwareDevelopment #tech #dev #politics

Weird thought of the day: the revolution lies in imperative ...

2026-01-18T21:37:02Z

Weird thought of the day: the revolution lies in imperative programming.

#ComputerScience #SoftwareDevelopment #tech #dev #politics

The backyard scene after last night's and today's snow. ...

2026-01-17T21:04:33Z

The backyard scene after last night's and today's snow.

#maine #snow #winter

@nprofile…62r4 I don't know your class or students, and all ...

2026-01-11T15:46:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…68kh
_________________________

myrmepropagandist (nprofile…62r4) I don't know your class or students, and all of this might be stuff you already do or not relevant at all, but here are some things that popped into my mind from my own experiences, in case it's of any use:

Recent CS education research suggests that functions are one of the hardest intro programming concepts for most students, and shouldn't be introduced till some other concepts are mastered first (search "concept inventories for introductory computer programming"). It can help to first practice associative arrays/hashtables/dictionaries. Modularization into functions is harder still. The fact that many of your students are struggling with creating a function might indicate that they haven't mastered the concept yet and you might do well to back up a bit. If they need some remedial work, I cannot praise Parson's puzzles enoughWhen running a lab-style section, where students are actively working on something with your support, I think it helps to interleave lecture time, work time, and debrief time. When you lecture, lecture rules (including controlling when interruptions can happen) apply. Work time is when you let interruptions happen more freely as you walk around to see how folks are doing. When I run such things I tell the students at the beginning of the section what the plan is. After a week or two they get it. I think it's useful to keep each work session on the shorter side, 10-15 minutes, with a well-scoped task and well-defined goal, and then have a debrief afterward where students can describe their experience, vent, brag, what have you. That way they know they'll have opportunities to talk and might be less inclined to shout out randomlyIf you don't have assistants to help you, recruiting other students to help field questions can be very effective. In the past I've had success dividing students into pods of 2 or 3, but only after observing the class for a few weeks. I strategically designed each pod to have at least one student who seemed to be on top of the material and another who seemed to be struggling. This setup requires communicating with the students regularly and adjusting the group assignments throughout the course, but it can lighten the load quite a bit, especially after the students get to know each other. I design classes such that the first few weeks are for setting the stage and warming up, and for me to get to know the studentsI've found it can be helpful to tell students some variation of "I know it's frustrating that your code doesn't work. Even today, code I write doesn't usually work the way I want on the first go. This is an experience you're likely to have the rest of your life when writing code. One thing to take away from this course is how not to be set back by this feeling. It's a normal part of the experience of coding, and it's telling us something". If that lands you can follow up by asking them what they think their frustration/struggle/what have you is telling them. The self reflection can be helpful and you can learn important things about your students this way (it can also lead to awesome discussions). Some students react very positively to hearing that this is a normal part of the process (they think there's something wrong with them, or that they are doing something wrong, if they're feeling frustrated).Hopefully something in there is of use. I have references for concept inventories and Parson's puzzles if those would help. Good luck!

@nprofile…2rm9 @nprofile…2xyh I use phanpy with snac and it ...

2025-12-20T19:20:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…nzex
_________________________

The Real Grunfink (nprofile…2rm9) stu (nprofile…2xyh) I use phanpy with snac and it works well.

@nprofile…xej4 I've been tracking @nprofile…0cr3 's ...

2025-12-08T15:58:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…afl7
_________________________

Robert Kingett (nprofile…xej4) I've been tracking Cassandra is only carbon now (nprofile…0cr3) 's fork on Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/rereading/arcalibre . It's a bit strange to put a no-AI fork of something on Github, the AI slop platform, in 2025.

For anyone tracking what's going on with generative AI ...

2025-12-07T13:54:37Z

For anyone tracking what's going on with generative AI appearing in the eBook software calibre, the calibre developer seems to be asking us to avoid his software:

In a GitHub issue about adding LLM features:
I definitely think allowing the user to continue the conversation is useful. In my own use of LLMs I tend to often ask followup questions, being able to do so in the same window will be useful.
In other words he likes LLMs and uses them himself; he's probably not adding these features under pressure from users. I can't help but wonder whether there's vibe code in there.

In the bug report:
Wow, really! What is it with you people that think you can dictate what I choose to do with my time and my software? You find AI offensive, dont use it, or even better, dont use calibre, I can certainly do without users like you. Do NOT try to dictate to other people what they can or cannot do.
"You people", also known as paying users. He's dismissive of people's concerns about generative AI, and claims ownership of the software ("my software"). He tells people with concerns to get lost, setting up an antagonistic, us-versus-them scenario. We even get scream caps!

Personally, besides the fact that I have a zero tolerance policy about generative AI, I've had enough of arrogant software developers. Read the room.

#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #calibre #eBooks #eBookManagers #AISlop #AIPoisoning #InformationOilSpill #dev #tech #FOSS #SoftwareDevelopment

Ughhhh, et tu calibre? New features - Allow asking AI questions ...

2025-12-05T17:49:11Z

Ughhhh, et tu calibre?
New features
- Allow asking AI questions about any book in your calibre library. Right click the "View" button and choose "Discuss selected book(s) with AI"
- AI: Allow asking AI what book to read next by right clicking on a book and using the "Similar books" menu
- AI: Add a new backend for "LM Studio" which allows running various AI models locally
Release: 8.16.1 04 Dec, 2025; or here on their GitHub

Calibre is one of those pieces of software that I use from time to time but don't follow closely. I wasn't aware they'd been sipping from the poisoned chalice.

#calibre #FOSS #OpenSource #books #eBooks #eBookManager #AIPoisoning #InformationOilSpill

If Cloudflare really is "verifying" that I'm human ...

2025-11-30T14:50:07Z

If Cloudflare really is "verifying" that I'm human with its obnoxious widget, why does it do this for multiple web sites and over and over again for a given web site? Shouldn't it be able to verify I'm human once and for all? What exactly are they doing with their sprawling control of all these web sites if not adding value through economy of scale?

#Cloudflare #SecurityTheater #surveillance #web #tech #dev #DarkPattern

David Dayen at The American Prospect has a decent explainer ...

2025-11-24T20:18:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…rmxs
_________________________

David Dayen at The American Prospect has a decent explainer article The AI Bubble Is Bigger Than You Think. It gets into the so-called "private credit" mechanisms being abused to inflate this bubble, and why they are so dangerous. This stuff used to be called "shadow banking" because private entities that are not chartered banks are essentially providing banking services to other private entities. What happens if there's a panic and the equivalent of a bank run? Who knows!
Silicon Valley and Wall Street are in sync: conjuring up sketchy credit deals that are pointing us toward another financial crash.
...
“We have sealed the deal on another financial crisis—the question is size,” said one former congressional staffer.
#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #AIBubble #grift #CasinoEconomy #FinancialCrash #GreatRecession

The Verge article about CoreWeave by Elizabeth Lopatto is ...

2025-11-24T20:07:53Z

The Verge article about CoreWeave by Elizabeth Lopatto is amazing.
Let’s start with some very recent history. CoreWeave is a data center company that pivoted in 2022 from crypto. (In 2021, CoreWeave made its money by… mining Ethereum.) Essentially, CoreWeave is a landlord for compute: companies pay for the use of its server racks for AI projects.
...
CoreWeave chief executive officer Michael Intrator, a former hedge fund manager,
...
“They have to continue to borrow to pay interest on the last loan.”
So,
- CoreWeave sits at the center of the AI bubble;
- it used to be a crypto company and also gets its (electric) power from a Bitcoin mining company that makes no money and has CoreWeave as its only customer
- it's positioned itself as a rentier;
- its interest payments on previous loans exceed its revenue by a significant amount, so it's paying off loans with more loans and has already defaulted once;
- it has essentially two customers, Microsoft and NVIDIA;
- it has a loan from one of the actors implicated in the 2008 financial crash (Magnetar)
- it's run by a finance guy, not a tech person
- yet it's in the position of someone who takes out a new credit card to pay the interest on the previous credit card

Yeah. Looks like crypto, and crypto's Ponzi scheme way of thinking, has slimed its way into the "real" economy after all.

Oh and welcome back, global financial crash. We missed you. And eyyy, how you doing Enron long time no see:
CoreWeave isn’t alone in its complex finances. Meta took on debt, using a SPV, for its own data centers. Unlike CoreWeave’s SPVs, the Meta SPV stays off its balance sheet. Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly pursuing its own SPV deal.
"Complex finances" are what companies engage in when there isn't any there there (SPVs were Enron's "financial innovation" too).

Peter Thiel pulling his investments out of NVIDIA makes far more sense after reading this. Looks wobbly.
It is perhaps time to discuss the enormous stock sales from CoreWeave’s management team. Before the company even went public, its founders sold almost half a billion dollars in shares. Then, insiders sold over $1 billion more immediately after the IPO lockup ended.
...
“It’s noteworthy that people who have a good view on that business are cashing out,” says Leevi Saari, a fellow at the AI Now Institute.
and of course
It makes a certain kind of cynical sense to view CoreWeave itself as, effectively, a special purpose vehicle for Nvidia.
#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #AIBubble #CoreWeave #CoreScientific #Microsoft #NVIDIA #crypto #grift #CasinoEconomy

@nprofile…vc9q You should know that I am actively migrating ...

2025-11-07T21:10:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…4xpn
_________________________

Team KeePassXC (nprofile…vc9q) You should know that I am actively migrating away from KeePassXC, and have been telling everyone I know to do the same, because of your acceptance of LLM use in the software. Speeding up software development of a password manager is trust-eroding; speeding it up with AI is trust-destroying.

Joel Pomales (nprofile…nduk)

The Boston Tea Party was about one person having unilateral power ...

2025-11-05T15:56:41Z

The Boston Tea Party was about one person having unilateral power to impose tariffs (duties). The US was formed out of an opposition to this power and the US Constitution has specific language about it. It'd be quite a thing if the US Supreme Court undoes this founding principle. You might call that counterrevolutionary.

#USPol #BostonTeaParty #tariffs

Fill in the blank without using a search engine to find the ...

2025-09-11T14:10:24Z

Fill in the blank without using a search engine to find the original source!
Like other addictive technologies, I have a love/hate relationship with ____________, and the more I despise it, the more I use it, and the more I use it, the more disgusted I am at how addicted I’ve gotten, and the more addicted I get, the more I wish it had never been invented.
#dev #tech

@nprofile…rhsn Right down to actually holding the bad view ...

2025-09-09T14:28:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…kykc
_________________________

SnoopJ (nprofile…rhsn) Right down to actually holding the bad view while pretending to rise above it all!

US tariffs boil down to a regressive sales tax that largely ...

2025-09-09T14:24:02Z

US tariffs boil down to a regressive sales tax that largely affects non-wealthy people after the removal of the de minimis exclusion. Combined with the bill that reduced the tax burden of the wealthy and corporations, the net result is to accelerate the movement of wealth to the wealthy. That's been happening for decades, but at this point it's now eroding ordinary peoples' hobbies to the point that they might have to give them up.

https://mastodon.social/users/jasonkoebler/statuses/115174753970647636

#USPol #economics #tariffs

I like to poke LinkedIn once in awhile with an "AI" ...

2025-09-09T12:56:20Z

I like to poke LinkedIn once in awhile with an "AI" critique to see what I can stir up. One reason I do this is to keep an eye on the changing form of the booster rhetoric. Nowadays a lot of folks respond to critique with some form of "today's LLMs are bad but tomorrow's will be amazing", the true believer/quasi-religious response with a touch of false humility for flavor. Yesterday I got a "AI critics are just as bad as AI boosters" false dichotomy, which by my read was a variant of the "AI critics are hysterical and irrational" with the twist that the speaker was suggesting that boosters are too. That felt new-ish to me. Granted, the hubristic "we're the smart guys in the room, you should do what we say" framing is ancient in the tech industry. Suggesting the boosters are also not the smart guys in the room is an interesting move because it's an attempt to go meta. Neither the boosters nor the critics are the smart guys in the room; the smart guys in the room are actually the ones who can see that (and so you should do what they say, which is more LLMs always).

#LinkedIn #AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #AgenticAI #LLM

@nprofile…eyct Thank you!

2025-09-08T15:16:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…fce0
_________________________

funbreaker (nprofile…eyct) Thank you!

@nprofile…97lc Thank you! I hope you're settling in well in ...

2025-09-08T13:29:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…gjwg
_________________________

Elana | אילנה (nprofile…97lc) Thank you! I hope you're settling in well in your new place!

@nprofile…gzc9 Haha! Thank you!

2025-09-08T13:27:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…hvl5
_________________________

The Tartan (nprofile…gzc9) Haha! Thank you!

Entering my 53rd year. 53 is the 16th prime, and is also the ...

2025-09-08T12:43:58Z

Entering my 53rd year. 53 is the 16th prime, and is also the number of bits used for the significand in IEEE 754 double-precision (binary64) numbers.

#birthday #math #ComputerScience

@nprofile…dqzf @nprofile…64t5 @nprofile…4cja The purpose of ...

2025-08-28T19:21:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…ggjq
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*) (nprofile…64t5) allison (nprofile…4cja) The purpose of generative AI is to make computing less accessible to all but a privileged class, not more. That's why the investment is so high.

@nprofile…a3zp Not to overcomplicate matters, but ...

2025-08-28T16:38:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…303s
_________________________

Alex Feinman (nprofile…a3zp) Not to overcomplicate matters, but https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/

The reading I was going for was more like "you do damage to something by oversimplifying it, which is (arguably) the opposite of elegance, not an instance of it."

Nostr event nevent1qqsvsgvx6j2cyt6qaw3fahh6tqw9k53ncgczr9jr3evae25w4msmyxszyrtv3r02fz0v3qrrlzc5qkgtgl5v39ut7gy5qus6qyrsealketw87fw26pc

2025-08-28T15:44:58Z

Oversimplification is not a form of elegance.

@nprofile…a3zp Yes but isn't Pareto efficiency what all ...

2025-08-25T15:58:30Z

In reply to nevent1q…30ea
_________________________

Alex Feinman (nprofile…a3zp) Yes but isn't Pareto efficiency what all social structures should be striving for? (/sarcasm)

@nprofile…qvst I have six wisdom teeth as well as an extra ...

2025-08-25T00:02:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…78mj
_________________________

Nanoraptor (nprofile…qvst) I have six wisdom teeth as well as an extra tooth embedded in the gums above and between my two front teeth. My grandmother had three kidneys and it's possible I do too, but I've never had a scan or x-ray there so I don't know.

@nprofile…dqzf This is good to know. If he makes that we'll ...

2025-08-24T19:58:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…9dr8
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) This is good to know. If he makes that we'll have to get some. I like the kind of rye bread we have in the US, but I have no idea how it compares to Danish rye bread.

@nprofile…dqzf Unrelated to the song, I thought you might be ...

2025-08-24T19:28:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…77r3
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) Unrelated to the song, I thought you might be interested to know that my small rural town has a clan of Danes visiting it and I see them walking down my road every day. One of our neighbors was a successful chef in Denmark who eventually worked as a chef in Paris before retiring to rural Maine with his wife. We've gotten to know them over the years and they're both very nice. He makes and sells bread but so far we have not bought any from him (to our discredit, almost surely). They have family visiting and they all like to take walks.

@nprofile…hgvh Please use a hasthtag like #ScalaDays2025 in ...

2025-08-20T15:32:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…s3hg
_________________________

Scala (nprofile…hgvh) Please use a hasthtag like #ScalaDays2025 in your posts so that folks (I) can mute the hashtag if they don't want to see your live posts from the event. I don't want to have to mute your account but I also don't want my feed filled with these posts as it has been.

@nprofile…5j7k They should make these tubes like this! ...

2025-08-20T12:22:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…hqhy
_________________________

Shaula Evans (nprofile…5j7k) They should make these tubes like this! https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/a-toothpaste-tube-that-gets-every-last-bit-out-180950268/

Not a single mask in sight. Very disappointing to see this, ...

2025-08-19T18:29:37Z

Not a single mask in sight. Very disappointing to see this, especially as we're in a COVID uptick. The number of people in photo 1 who have their hands up is probably roughly equal to how many will leave this conference with COVID or some other respiratory illness.

https://fosstodon.org/users/scala_lang/statuses/115056704676502452

#scala #ScalaDays #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirborne #LongCovid #MaskUp #accessibility

@nprofile…f6r7 @nprofile…04q3 Please don't ever put AI ...

2025-08-18T18:32:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…yar9
_________________________

Obsidian (nprofile…f6r7) kepano (nprofile…04q3) Please don't ever put AI into Obsidian proper. I'll cry that day and then stop using it. Too many apps I used to really like went down the path of "experimenting" with AI and before you know it they were dedicating significant development resources to it, at the expense of core features and bugfixes.

@nprofile…dqzf Oh yes but the tree might outlive the ...

2025-08-18T17:48:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…f4eg
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) Oh yes but the tree might outlive the descendants of all of your relatives: siblings, cousins, second cousins...

I have a cactus that I rooted from a piece broken off its parent 26 years ago. The parent was rooted from another one that survived a house burning down around it. I've given pieces of it that I rooted to friends as gifts. I'm pretty sure at least one of these is going to outlive me.

@nprofile…dqzf The baobab might outlive you and your entire ...

2025-08-18T17:39:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…rc07
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) The baobab might outlive you and your entire family line!

@nprofile…dqzf "You can search for your own name, if you ...

2025-08-18T15:39:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ffq
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) "You can search for your own name, if you know it."

Part of route 302 in Windham closed and shelter in place order ...

2025-08-15T20:31:52Z

Part of route 302 in Windham closed and shelter in place order issued because of a shooting in North Windham. Just got an emergency alert about this.

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article/news/local/public-safety/part-of-route-302-in-windham-closed-due-to-police-incident/97-40212da0-d8f9-4fb5-a9cd-5e805e0d00a1
WINDHAM, Maine — The Windham Police Department and Cumberland County Sheriff's Office issued a shelter-in-place order at around 4 p.m. Friday to people in and along the Windham and Raymond town line.

This comes after police closed part of Route 302 in Windham was closed Friday afternoon as police searched for a person connected to a shooting in North Windham.
#maine #shooting #GunViolence #EmergencyAlert

LinkedIn changed how they code their landing page and I needed to ...

2025-08-09T13:44:14Z

LinkedIn changed how they code their landing page and I needed to adjust my uBlock Origin rules to hide the cluttered up "news" (really, ads) feed they put down the side of the page. If like me you want an uncluttered experience and use uBlock Origin, here's a rule that hides that feed:

www.linkedin.com##div[componentkey="newsAndGamesCard"]

Make sure to put two hashes (#) between "www.linkedin.com" and "div"; for some reason my fediverse server smashes two hashes into one, so what's displayed is not exactly right.

#uBlockOrigin #LinkedIn #cruft #clutter #ads

This post is not an invitation to scold me for using LinkedIn or Microsoft products, nor to suggestion I leave it or find alternatives.

@nprofile…xzgc @nprofile…xzgc To scold is to chide coarsely, ...

2025-08-02T17:45:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…5ap4
_________________________

librekitty (nprofile…xzgc) librekitty (nprofile…xzgc) To scold is to chide coarsely, which is how I read your post. How I read it is what matters. You may disagree of course, but in that case I'll have to mute you from now on. I'm not here for this. It's unhelpful, unwanted, and counterproductive, and life is too short.

Patrick (nprofile…dfdx)

@nprofile…xzgc You clearly do not appreciate the desire not to ...

2025-08-02T17:36:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…mmu2
_________________________

librekitty (nprofile…xzgc) You clearly do not appreciate the desire not to be scolded, because you just did it too. Scolding people does not reduce the spread of misinformation.

If it really does matter to you, you'll note that I edited my post to correct the matter, and I've made sure to note my mistake.

Patrick (nprofile…dfdx)

@nprofile…tv9a @nprofile…l20m If that's what they're ...

2025-08-02T17:10:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…t607
_________________________

zyxhere💭 (nprofile…tv9a) GeopJr (nprofile…l20m) If that's what they're up to I'm embarrassed it worked on me. I can and should definitely be more careful about what I share and why.

@nprofile…rhsw Oh no worries, I just added it. I just wanted to ...

2025-08-02T16:47:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…5a5x
_________________________

Soldier of FORTRAN :ReBoot: (nprofile…rhsw) Oh no worries, I just added it. I just wanted to share in case it's helpful at all.

@nprofile…rhsw Please see the edit to my original post thanks.

2025-08-02T16:37:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…mrt4
_________________________

Soldier of FORTRAN :ReBoot: (nprofile…rhsw) Please see the edit to my original post thanks.

@nprofile…dfdx I don't need to be scolded online, thanks ...

2025-08-02T16:36:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…g2p2
_________________________

Patrick (nprofile…dfdx) I don't need to be scolded online, thanks very much. Take that elsewhere.

I read the entire post. The wording was not clear, in my opinion; at time of writing Phoronix nowhere stated it was a third-party project in their post. It took clicking through to the Github and project web page to fully determine it was not officially affiliated with GNOME (at the urging of someone else who responded).

@nprofile…l20m Thanks for this. I looked into it more and now I ...

2025-08-02T16:30:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…76gj
_________________________

GeopJr (nprofile…l20m) Thanks for this. I looked into it more and now I think I was tripped up by the wording Phoronix used in this post. They could have made it clearer that this was a third-party project.

I guess I won't be using GNOME ever again ...

2025-08-02T16:20:13Z

I guess I won't be using GNOME ever again

https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-AI-Assistant-1.0

#tech #dev #FOSS #OpenSource #linux #software #GNOME #NoAI #AI

Once again a fully automated, non-human system is denying me ...

2025-08-02T16:12:55Z

Once again a fully automated, non-human system is denying me access to a resource on the internet because it has determined I am not human enough.

#2025 #dystopia #Cloudflare #AI #human #web #tech #dev

@nprofile…m0rm Be wary of those editors that convert tabs into ...

2025-07-31T15:47:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…7tta
_________________________

Brett Sheffield (he/him) (nprofile…m0rm) Be wary of those editors that convert tabs into 4 spaces--you may find yourself receiving unexpected space bills

I have a feeling the commercialization of space is going to end ...

2025-07-31T15:32:13Z

I have a feeling the commercialization of space is going to end very badly.

@nprofile…dqzf “Markets can remain irrational longer than you ...

2025-07-31T15:08:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…cz7h
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.” David Chisnall (*Now with 50% more sarcasm!*) (nprofile…64t5)

If you created a text corpus consisting only of true, declarative ...

2025-07-31T14:18:34Z

If you created a text corpus consisting only of true, declarative statements in English and trained a large language model on it, a generative AI system built with this trained LLM would still output false statements sometimes.

#AI #GenAI #GenerativeAI #LLM

@nprofile…h3m5 Tandy Color BASIC. Among other things, I built ...

2025-07-31T14:14:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…2gru
_________________________

nixCraft 🐧 (nprofile…h3m5) Tandy Color BASIC. Among other things, I built an arithmetic test generator that generated 20 random addition and multiplication problems. I wanted to practice at home and get faster at them because my 4th grade math class had a competition where you could win little toys if you finished arithmetic tests the fastest.

@nprofile…gu3y Thanks for this reference Dan. I managed to get ...

2025-07-30T17:04:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…h35t
_________________________

danmcquillan (nprofile…gu3y) Thanks for this reference Dan. I managed to get a copy of it and look forward to checking it out. I hadn't come across it but it looks quite interesting and relevant.

This is probably getting too far afield, but I've spent the last year or so slowly working my way through some of the technical literature on rational choice theory and its influence on neoliberalism. I have been meaning to dig more into the notions of efficiency used in the RCT style of economics, by which I mean allocative efficienty like Pareto efficiency, Kaldor-Hicks efficiency, etc. I think the meaning of words like "rational" and "efficient" in these theories would sound foreign to most people, and yet they've strongly influenced policy and continue to. I'm really keen to dig into Sonja Amadae's Rationalizing Democracy, which apparently spells that out for rational choice theory. I take it Amadae argues, roughly speaking, that "neoliberalism" is the widespread application of rational choice theory to policy making and economic decision making (I base this on a quick skim of the book and listening to lectures of hers about it, so I could be misinterpreting). I've been trying to understand what's going on with generative AI from this angle. It seems to me that the fantasy of a "rational actor" or "rational agent" maps readily onto the stories told about generative AI: it has instant access to all relevant information; it is a dispassionate computing machine that makes rational decisions based on that information; it can be perfectly efficient or make decisions leading to perfect efficiency; and so on. Since neoliberal policymaking (public choice theory) and economics is intended to be by and for exactly these sorts of fantastical agents--Homo economicus and whatnot--I can see why generative AI would be appealing, at a deep level, to anyone invested in the broader neoliberal project and, as I take it you argue, should be resisted by anyone who is not. I hope that made some sort of sense.

Since neoclassical economics infamously ignores the importance of energy, specifically physical power, I'm looking forward to reading this book you recommended.

Just the other day I listened to an interview with Christoph Schuringa about his book A Social History of Analytic Philosophy, and some of the notions like RCT I alluded to above came up, as did generative AI. So I've added that to my entirely intractable list of books to read on this too. Sorry to continue the book recommendation ping pong but I thought it might be of interest if you hadn't encountered it!

Maybe I missed the memo, but I find it surprising that Ars ...

2025-07-29T15:47:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…8vxv
_________________________

Maybe I missed the memo, but I find it surprising that Ars Technica is publishing OpenAI ad copy as if it's an article.

@nprofile…97lc I haven't been to a beach since she wrote ...

2025-07-28T15:53:10Z

In reply to nevent1q…y4xn
_________________________

Elana | אילנה (nprofile…97lc) I haven't been to a beach since she wrote this, but given my affinity for a gothy death-adjacent mindset I fully intend to try inhabiting this view next time I'm on one!

I'll let her know you liked it!

Beach vacations only became popular in the 19th and early 20th ...

2025-07-28T14:21:25Z

Beach vacations only became popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries as part of the lifestyle of the wealthy in Western countries. Early Europeans, and especially the ancient Greeks, thought the beach was a place of hardship and death. As a seafaring people, they mostly lived on the coastline, yet they feared the sea and thought that an agricultural lifestyle was safer and more respectable.
From The beach wasn’t always a vacation destination - for the ancient Greeks, it was a scary place: https://theconversation.com/the-beach-wasnt-always-a-vacation-destination-for-the-ancient-greeks-it-was-a-scary-place-259356

A post in The Conversation by my favorite classicist (my wife!)

#summer #beach #AncientGreece #myth #classics

AQI is 155 (unhealthy) where I am, the result of wildfire smoke ...

2025-07-26T12:54:45Z

AQI is 155 (unhealthy) where I am, the result of wildfire smoke blown south from Canada.

Inside, the AQI is 8 (good), because we run air filters continuously and actively manage the air inside the house. We picked up this habit because of the COVID pandemic. The latter is ongoing, and wildfire smoke looks like it'll be a problem every summer for the foreseeable future, so here we are.

#maine #Canada #wildfires #AirQuality #COVID #COVIDIsAirborne

@nprofile…gu3y Hi Dan--I thought this was a very interesting ...

2025-07-26T12:11:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…3wcs
_________________________

danmcquillan (nprofile…gu3y) Hi Dan--I thought this was a very interesting interview and appreciate your thoughts on AI. I had a couple reactions to your application of Juenger's notion of total mobilization to what's going on with AI I thought I'd share, for whatever it's worth:

- I noticed awhile ago that media and tech companies started reporting data center capacity in terms of megawatts and gigawatts. I didn't take note of when this started becoming common, but by now it's typical. I found it puzzling at first, because of course we usually care about latency, throughput, storage capacity, and other such measures when talking about computing. But, and especially in light of your interview, all this really is about the power. Maybe rating data centers with a unit of physical power is a kind of confession about what they're really for;
- I'm not familiar with Juenger's writing but the total mobilization you mentioned reminds me of Lotka's maximum power principle interpreted as a principle of evolution. This H. T. Odum quote (lifted from Wikipedia) really captures it:
Lotka provided the theory of natural selection as a maximum power organizer; under competitive conditions systems are selected which use their energies in various structural-developing actions so as to maximize their use of available energies. By this theory systems of cycles which drain less energy lose out in comparative development.
Lotka and Juenger were writing at around the same time and it seems likely Juenger knew of Lotka's work. Generative AI is a great way to burn through a whole lot of power while believing you're "organizing" something. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if there are a bunch of politicos who think that in this newly competitive geopolitical context, we have no choice but to burn as hot as possible; otherwise, we'll be outcompeted by other nations, and die off (nature red in tooth and claw etc etc etc).

Anyway thanks again!

@nprofile…22h8 If it helps in your debugging, I saw this item ...

2025-07-25T16:20:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…n57w
_________________________

𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙋𝙡𝙤𝙩 (nprofile…22h8) If it helps in your debugging, I saw this item posted twice in a row about 20 minutes ago.

@nprofile…22h8 Are you aware that you've posted this exact ...

2025-07-25T14:08:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…at54
_________________________

𝙍𝙚𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙋𝙡𝙤𝙩 (nprofile…22h8) Are you aware that you've posted this exact same text nearly 20 times over the last few days?

New uBlock Origin rule to clobber the intrusive "Copilot" ...

2025-07-25T12:38:02Z

New uBlock Origin rule to clobber the intrusive "Copilot" button that recently appeared in Outlook web mail:

! Jul 25, 2025 https://outlook.office.com
outlook.office.com###CopilotCommandCenterButton

#uBlock #AISpam #AI #GenerativeAI #Copilot #Microsoft #Outlook #DarkPattern

This post is not an invitation to criticize me for using a Microsoft product or to suggest an alternative.

@nprofile…dqzf Oh wow that's cool. Do you get to see the ...

2025-07-24T15:02:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…uqj3
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) Oh wow that's cool. Do you get to see the butterflies up on the ceiling inside the building during the winter?

We've been carefully cultivating our milkweed here, since that's the only plant monarch butterfly caterpillars eat. I carefully mow around it and if I see any when clearing brush I leave it alone. We've tried to transplant it and grow more, but only with mixed success. Anyway, it's nice to see them every summer and I hope we see more over time. Their migration from one small area in Mexico all the way up here, something like 3,000 miles away, and back again every year awes me.

@nprofile…dqzf Nice!

2025-07-24T14:40:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…mn0c
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) Nice!

Saw a monarch butterfly in the yard a couple days ago. Hadn't ...

2025-07-24T14:36:18Z

Saw a monarch butterfly in the yard a couple days ago. Hadn't had a chance to see any up close yet this year.

#maine #monarch #butterflies

Big turkey family in our yard today. 3 adults, maybe 10 little ...

2025-07-19T16:15:46Z

Big turkey family in our yard today. 3 adults, maybe 10 little ones.

#maine #turkeys #summer #wildlife

@nprofile…5j7k Not us. We're going strong and I can't ...

2025-07-13T12:50:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…tl5k
_________________________

Shaula Evans (nprofile…5j7k) Not us. We're going strong and I can't imagine any of us easing up about COVID until there's a sterilizing vaccine and massive indoor air quality improvements at an absolute minimum. It's hard to imagine why anyone would be careful about COVID up to this point and then just stop even though conditions have not changed.

I hope your friends are OK and come to their senses.

@nprofile…ljtw @nprofile…d6p8 Nice!!

2025-07-11T17:56:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…nx8u
_________________________

Ryan Hodnett (nprofile…ljtw) Davey (nprofile…d6p8) Nice!!

@nprofile…d6p8 I have spent more time than I'm willing to ...

2025-07-10T20:18:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…tr4g
_________________________

Davey (nprofile…d6p8) I have spent more time than I'm willing to admit thinking about this and doing web searches, and now I'm desperate to know a solid example of four.

I did come across the "widow skimmer dragonfly", which works if you're willing to stretch: you have to grant that widows and dragons are legitimately animals and take "skimmer" to be the type of bird. It's not entirely satisfying.

@nprofile…wpfr We benchmark GPUs and CPUs in a multitude of ...

2025-07-09T17:20:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…qraj
_________________________

ֆᎮ⊰◜◟⋎◞◝⊱ֆᎮ (nprofile…wpfr) We benchmark GPUs and CPUs in a multitude of ways, including FLOPS, number of transistors (per unit space), etc. In fact performance-per-unit-of-power. Ignoring all the other ones in favor of a single metric that's removed from what you actually do with the device is bizarre.

It's odd to me that people talk about data centers in terms ...

2025-07-09T15:45:04Z

It's odd to me that people talk about data centers in terms of megawatts, a measure of electric power. For one example among many, a Bloomberg article from March about Microsoft cancelling data center plans began:
Microsoft Corp. has walked away from new data center projects in the US and Europe that would have amounted to a capacity of about 2 gigawatts of electricity, according to TD Cowen analysts, who attributed the pullback to an oversupply of the clusters of computers that power artificial intelligence.
"Data center projects that...amounted to a capacity of about 2 gigawatts of electricity" is a nonsensical statement. The (technical) capacities of a data center have to do with storage, compute, transmission, and latency. I understand there's probably some Fermi calculation along the lines of converting electric power to compute capacity using the TDP of NVIDIA's latest GPUs or something like that. Nevertheless, it's misleading to speak this way, not to mention lazy. It is oversimplifying in a bad way, treating data centers as utilities that supply a commodity when that is just not the case (at least not with AI, where prices for services still fluctuate fairly wildly).

#dev #tech #AI #energy #power #DataCenters

@nprofile…23gf I don't have great resources on hand but ...

2025-07-08T14:07:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…3scf
_________________________

Lien Rag (nprofile…23gf) I don't have great resources on hand but these look OK to me:

- https://www.visual-paradigm.com/guide/uml-unified-modeling-language/what-is-sequence-diagram/
- https://agilemodeling.com/artifacts/sequenceDiagram.htm
- https://sequencediagram.org (for playing around)

@nprofile…23gf I wouldn't be able to teach you how to read ...

2025-07-08T13:54:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…payu
_________________________

Lien Rag (nprofile…23gf) I wouldn't be able to teach you how to read source code on Mastodon any more than I could teach you how to read Greek. It's a skill that takes sustained effort and practice.

From what you've said it sounds like it'd help to diagram the code. Sequence diagrams can be helpful in understanding the logic; I like to start with those. Start with some simple flow and build up from there. I don't know how long you've been working with that codebase but I wouldn't rely on memory alone till you're quite familiar with it.

It seems to me that the ability to read source code will become ...

2025-07-08T13:12:06Z

It seems to me that the ability to read source code will become more and more important over time. This skill is rarely taught, as far as I can tell. The learning situation resembles that for natural language: knowing how to produce/generate text does not immediately translate into the ability to read it, let alone read it well.

#tech #dev #code #CodeLiteracy

@nprofile…dqzf One 3-d rendered game that stands out for me is ...

2025-07-08T12:38:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…wyf6
_________________________

datarama (nprofile…dqzf) One 3-d rendered game that stands out for me is The Long Dark. Its art style borders on cartoony: it's 3-d, but highly stylized and not hyperrealistic. This video gives a sense of it. It's one of the few games I've played as an adult where I felt like I had an experience. I remember and still think about it from time to time.

Hyperrealistic 3-d game art tends to trigger unpleasant feelings in me. Usually either it's the uncanny valley, where everything feels creepy, or it's one I can't easily describe where I feel like I'm smelling cellophane the whole time (everything's too shiny) and just want to leave before I'm sick from it. It's disorienting, almost dizzying, and I can't suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the game a lot of the time (while also acknowledging some of these games are visually very impressive). I've had this reaction to modern digital television shows too. I'll admit that maybe I'm unusual, but anyway I have a kind of "alienated" response to this kind of game art too.

@nprofile…hmjf I do tech consulting, and more than once since ...

2025-07-08T12:26:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…plky
_________________________

Baldur Bjarnason (nprofile…hmjf) I do tech consulting, and more than once since 2022 I've advised small-to-medium-sized businesses about LLMs. It's extremely valuable to have analysis like this in hand and be able to link to it. Throwing an analysis into the wind may not change minds, but those of us in the trenches can make excellent use of it.

@nprofile…frcv You are now the second person who has ...

2025-07-07T15:53:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…w4vy
_________________________

Mathaetaes (nprofile…frcv) You are now the second person who has 'splained at me how banking and credit works, without knowing a single thing about my circumstances or the nature of the account I'm using. You didn't ask any clarifying questions, nor inquire into whether I was seeking advice (which I'm not), before writing all that--including a suggestion to switch banks, which is absurd. What is going on out there that people think this is a good thing to do at someone on the internet?

I was commenting on the lousy nature of their fraud detection algorithm and how it fails to respond appropriately to clear feedback. Regardless of the level of risk involved, a vendor that the customer has stated is safe over a dozen times should not be flagged as potentially fraudulent. Doing so is wasting everyone's time, attention, and resources, and detracts from the purpose of a fraud alert. Alerts don't tend to function when there are too many false positives. If you work at a bank and have insights into why this algorithm might exhibit such poor behavior, I'm all ears. If you want to vent along with me, great. Otherwise what are you doing?

@nprofile…4zct Why do you think you're entitled to dictate ...

2025-07-07T13:49:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…r97t
_________________________

nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqzh5a6exl8664fpg6x5j64enj56d7mmqjmn2hfw0tgxysqn8eslwssp4zct (nprofile…4zct) Why do you think you're entitled to dictate to me how I live my life? You know nothing about me nor how I make my choices. This is an astonishingly inapt thing to post.

My debit card's "fraud protection": 1. Regularly ...

2025-07-07T12:48:19Z

My debit card's "fraud protection":

1. Regularly flags payments to subscription services as potential fraud even though I've used them for years, paying with the same debit card, and in spite of the fact that I've indicated many times that I trust these services; and
2. Has never identified a real instance of fraud

Whatever they're doing to detect potential fraud, it has a large false positive rate and does not seem adaptive (at least in my case). It's especially odd to me that this bank asks if I've authorized transactions it flagged as potentially fraudulent, I indicate no, this is not fraud, and yet the system continues to flag transactions with the same vendor as potentially fraudulent. I'm giving it a reinforcement signal that couldn't be more clear!

#DebitCard #banking #fraud #FraudProtection #FraudDetection #cybersecurity #InfoSec

@nprofile…3dym Like, I see no contradiction in saying an act is ...

2025-07-07T12:10:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…3n07
_________________________

Nate Gaylinn (nprofile…3dym)
Like, I see no contradiction in saying an act is "clever," even it is also harmful or counterproductive within some scope.
The trouble I see with this, and with relativizing or scoping value rationality--and the reason I don't go the way you're going with this reasoning--is that it leaves you unequipped to differentiate harmful acts from "scoped clever" acts. All you need to do is shift around your scope and you can make any harmful act look clever, and we're left with no grounding for critique (and in fact no semantics for the word "clever"). To avoid that, you'd need to bring in something else, some way of limiting which scopes are OK and which are not. Then you're not really being relative anymore, you're smuggling in a value system you haven't fully articulated (the value system being whatever lets you decide some ways of scoping are valid while others are not). To me that's just repeating the problem by going meta!

I realize it is almost unhelpfully abstract, but to me this is as close to obvious as one can hope to get at this level: if you are trying to achieve X for reason Y, and you take an action A that destroys Y in the name of achieving X, then you are not being reasonable/rational/smart/clever/intelligent/what have you. The fact that you can zoom in close enough that you don't see (or can obscure!) how A undermines Y does not really make A clever, does it?

As a silly example, say you dig dirt out from under the foundation of your house in an attempt to stop your house from being inundated by rising floodwater. You build a barrier with the dirt that succeeds in stopping the flooding in your house, but then your house collapses because you've undermined the foundation. Was this clever? Was it clever before the house collapsed, even though that outcome was likely?

@nprofile…a3zp When I lived in the Boston area I felt like it ...

2025-07-07T11:50:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…urwq
_________________________

Alex Feinman (nprofile…a3zp) When I lived in the Boston area I felt like it was extremely common to see people parked on the road idling with the AC or heat on. I always assumed these were people like real estate agents who were waiting on someone. Still, lots of needless waste that might not be happening if people were more attentive.

@nprofile…3dym Taking actions that undermine the value that ...

2025-07-05T14:14:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…3rxu
_________________________

Nate Gaylinn (nprofile…3dym) Taking actions that undermine the value that your actions are intended to obtain is not clever in any interpretation of that word that makes sense to me. I'd use "shrewd". There's a cunningness about it--many con artists and cheats surely have that--but it's self-serving, destructive, and ultimately self-defeating. There's certainly nothing intellectual about cheating the scientific publishing system.

I feel like I've commented like this before on previous posts of yours, and I think it's because we probably differ in our interpretations of these words. Here's where I'm coming from: I draw a distinction, along the lines of Max Horkheimer, between "instrumental rationality" and what's sometimes called "value rationality". To be simplistic about it, the former is about being good with tools while the latter takes a broader scope encompassing what's good, or right, or desirable. I think there's a strong argument to be made that overfocus on instrumental rationality at the expense of all else is incredibly destructive, and therefore, ironically, not instrumental in a wider analysis. If in the pursuit of whatever ends you're after you erode the foundation upon which those ends attracted you in the first place, you certainly have not done something clever, in my view, since I class that word "clever" on the "value rationality" side of things.

All that aside, the fact that you wouldn't have thought to do a thing is not really a reliable yardstick for judging the cleverness of another's actions! That's a moving target that could even vary throughout the day.

Anyhow, that's how I read this situation. Sure, there's something shrewd or cunning about font cheats (though this style of cheating has been around awhile e.g. Unicode domain phishing attacks). But it erodes the value of scientific publications, which is what the cheats are after.

Sorry for the tome. I figured it was worth spelling out my thinking.

@nprofile…3dym It's really not clever at all.

2025-07-05T13:29:46Z

In reply to nevent1q…ejj7
_________________________

Nate Gaylinn (nprofile…3dym) It's really not clever at all.

@nprofile…a3zp Defactualization is death don't go gentle ...

2025-07-03T23:58:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…duet
_________________________

Alex Feinman (nprofile…a3zp) Defactualization is death don't go gentle into that particular goodnight.

At the moment it's sunny again. Looking at the radar map ...

2025-07-03T19:25:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…tst8
_________________________

At the moment it's sunny again. Looking at the radar map it's possible we may not get much of a storm here after all.

Rain just started where I am in York county #maine It's windy ...

2025-07-03T16:58:44Z

Rain just started where I am in York county #maine It's windy but nothing unusual yet.

https://cunnin.me/users/technodad/statuses/114789996771597151