david jon furbish
@davidjonfurbish.bsky.social
granddad and emeritus professor studying statistical physics of sediment transport & science philosophy
essays on these topics: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/davidjonfurbish/
author of Fluid Physics in Geology: https://academic.oup.com/book/40895?login=false
essays on these topics: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/davidjonfurbish/
author of Fluid Physics in Geology: https://academic.oup.com/book/40895?login=false
“Yes, that next sentence directly contradicts the previous one. You are not misreading it. This document is that stupid.”
October 7, 2025 at 2:31 PM
“Yes, that next sentence directly contradicts the previous one. You are not misreading it. This document is that stupid.”
decided to use my 30-year-old unabridged Webster LLM and noticed we inherited several of our daughters’ not-so-LLMs (“only” ~70,000 parameters)
don’t recall ever seeing any of these hallucinate 🤓😂
don’t recall ever seeing any of these hallucinate 🤓😂
October 2, 2025 at 6:49 PM
decided to use my 30-year-old unabridged Webster LLM and noticed we inherited several of our daughters’ not-so-LLMs (“only” ~70,000 parameters)
don’t recall ever seeing any of these hallucinate 🤓😂
don’t recall ever seeing any of these hallucinate 🤓😂
Among other likely reasons for the uptick in migrations from MS Office to LibreOffice are — no surprise — AI fatigue and subscription fatigue. For me the equation editor also matters a lot. In LibreOffice it is LaTeX-like — yay! — and it is well documented.
2/2
www.zdnet.com/article/4-re...
2/2
www.zdnet.com/article/4-re...
4 reasons why LibreOffice downloads are way up (hint: you'll relate)
More users than ever are flocking to the open source suite since its latest update. The end of Windows 10 support is far from the only factor.
www.zdnet.com
September 27, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Among other likely reasons for the uptick in migrations from MS Office to LibreOffice are — no surprise — AI fatigue and subscription fatigue. For me the equation editor also matters a lot. In LibreOffice it is LaTeX-like — yay! — and it is well documented.
2/2
www.zdnet.com/article/4-re...
2/2
www.zdnet.com/article/4-re...
And to be clear, I’m a LaTeX person. I’ve never seriously used that weird thing called Word.
#software #computersoftware #enshittification #opensource
#software #computersoftware #enshittification #opensource
September 20, 2025 at 9:22 PM
And to be clear, I’m a LaTeX person. I’ve never seriously used that weird thing called Word.
#software #computersoftware #enshittification #opensource
#software #computersoftware #enshittification #opensource
Thank you @quantamagazine.bsky.social for replacing your previous lede — involving a misleading analogy with perfume — for this nice didactic article.
September 4, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Thank you @quantamagazine.bsky.social for replacing your previous lede — involving a misleading analogy with perfume — for this nice didactic article.
Fourier transforms are a gem of applied mathematics. But no (ouch), a Fourier transform is not “like sniffing a perfume and determining its list of ingredients.”
September 3, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Fourier transforms are a gem of applied mathematics. But no (ouch), a Fourier transform is not “like sniffing a perfume and determining its list of ingredients.”
the Earth-surface processes community. Nonetheless, I suspect it will resonate with students and early career people eager for a fresh view of this complex and often confusing topic. To be sure, the book unapologetically breaks from current dogmatic styles of thinking and analysis in the field.
6/6
6/6
September 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
the Earth-surface processes community. Nonetheless, I suspect it will resonate with students and early career people eager for a fresh view of this complex and often confusing topic. To be sure, the book unapologetically breaks from current dogmatic styles of thinking and analysis in the field.
6/6
6/6
sediment particle motions and transport in a manner that integrates principles and methods of probability with mechanical considerations of particle motions. The book therefore covers the topic of sediment transport in a manner that is mostly unfamiliar to folks in...
5/n
5/n
September 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
sediment particle motions and transport in a manner that integrates principles and methods of probability with mechanical considerations of particle motions. The book therefore covers the topic of sediment transport in a manner that is mostly unfamiliar to folks in...
5/n
5/n
on open access, to be freely accessible to all. Although it currently exceeds 400 pages without figures, I still have much to do and won't offer a target date. (Pieces of the book appear as essays on my Vanderbilt webpage.)
The objective of the book is to provide a framework for describing...
4/n
The objective of the book is to provide a framework for describing...
4/n
September 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
on open access, to be freely accessible to all. Although it currently exceeds 400 pages without figures, I still have much to do and won't offer a target date. (Pieces of the book appear as essays on my Vanderbilt webpage.)
The objective of the book is to provide a framework for describing...
4/n
The objective of the book is to provide a framework for describing...
4/n
These provide a clear idea of the material covered in the book, including its philosophical basis. Although I originally committed an early version of the book to a well-known university press, I eventually decided instead to prepare it as an ebook, consistent with my views...
3/n
3/n
September 1, 2025 at 9:15 PM
These provide a clear idea of the material covered in the book, including its philosophical basis. Although I originally committed an early version of the book to a well-known university press, I eventually decided instead to prepare it as an ebook, consistent with my views...
3/n
3/n