🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Sam Kimbrel
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skimbrel.bsky.social
🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈 Sam Kimbrel
@skimbrel.bsky.social
630 followers 340 following 640 posts
enby & queer & #ActuallyAutistic & #ADHD af | amateur DJ | computerer @figma | program @northbaypython.org | “is usually underestimated. try again. no again. still no.” —@chrisjrn | they/them | BLM

formerly @skimbrel on birbsite
also at tech.lgbt/skimbrel
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skimbrel.bsky.social
Post your favourite Star Trek character. Wrong answers only
Camina Drummer from The Expanse
November 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
the "vibe code warning" on this project sure says a lot

github.com/jackdoe/pico...
The main issue is taste, when I write code I feel if its good or bad, as I am writing it, I know if its wrong, but using claude code I get desensitized very quickly and I just can't tell, it "reads" OK, but I don't know how it feels. In this case it happened when the code grew about 4x, from 1k to 4k lines. And worse of all, my mental model of the code is completely gone, and with it my ownership. The tokens have no reason or purpose, which makes reading code ridiculously difficult, as and each token can be complete nonsense. When reading human code the symbols have a purpose, someone thought "I will put this in a variable, later I will check its status.", so I pretend I am them, and think why would they have written this? Shortly after I understand, as they are human and I am human. But the AI symbols have no reason, and worse of all, they all look deceptively correct, so I have to think 10 times harder if it is wrong. With any human code (including your own) it is quite easy to gauge how much you can trust it, and it is quite consistent, with the AI code, one function can be much better than what you woudld've written, and the code 2 lines below can be cargo culted gunk that looks incredibly good, but is structurally wrong. In the end I would say I have gained good understanding of the wires, timings, and the lower level ap/dp mechanics, sba and progbuf, but I regret not writing the whole thing myself, even if it would've taken 10x the time. I fucking hate this. And I can not help, but feel dusgust and shame. Is this what programming is now? I really hope this is some intermediate stage and it changes for the better, the problem is I dont know what "better" is, it seems for some people is not writing the code, for others is not modeling the problem and for third is not having to think. For me, I am not sure, I do want to make things, and many times I dont want to know something, but I want to use it, e.g. the rp2350 usb host controller the way you have to re-arm interrupts and the way the epx register is shared is super annoying, for good reasons probably, but I just want to use it to make my CBI driver.
November 12, 2025 at 5:42 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
okay it’s a goddamn modern digital system surely you could have done this as a silent test instead of making everyone’s phones make The Bad Noise
Screenshot of an iPhone showing the public safety alert UI reading “This is a test of the South Pasadena WEA system. There is no emergency.”
November 12, 2025 at 1:54 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
absolutely furious at this

it's vaccine denialism but for teaching kids to read
"Word recognition is a preoccupation," he said. "I don't teach word recognition. I teach people to make sense of language. And learning the words is incidental to that." He brought up the example of a child who comes to the word "horse" and says "pony" instead. His argument is that a child will still understand the meaning of the story because horse and pony are the same concept. I pressed him on this. First of all, a pony isn't the same thing as a horse. Second, don't you want to make sure that when a child is learning to read, he understands that /p/ /o/ /n/ /y/ says "pony"? And different letters say "horse"? He dismissed my question. "The purpose is not to learn words," he said. "The purpose is to make sense." Cognitive scientists don't dispute that the purpose of reading is to make sense of the text. But the question is: How can you understand what you are reading if you can't accurately read the words? And if quick and accurate word recognition is the hallmark of being a skilled reader, how does a little kid get there? Goodman rejected the idea that you can make a distinction between skilled readers and unskilled readers; he doesn't like the value judgment that implies. He said dyslexia does not exist — despite lots of evidence that it does.52 And he said the three-cueing theory is based on years of observational research. In his view, three cueing is perfectly valid, drawn from a different kind of evidence than what scientists collect in their labs. "My science is different," Goodman said.
November 12, 2025 at 12:00 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
nerd level-up unlocked: bought a $50 USB software-defined radio kit and set up an ADS-B decoder to watch planes go by
Screenshot of the free Cocoa1090 ADS-B decoder showing 11 aircraft near my apartment in Los Angeles
November 11, 2025 at 4:27 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
“Report Spam for Fundraising Texts” in the style of a Zohran for NYC sign.
November 10, 2025 at 3:50 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
“No support for collaborators” in the style of a Zohran for NYC sign
November 10, 2025 at 3:42 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
wow this is somehow extremely familiar… i wonder why
Tech firms don't want to formally take on debt—that is, directly ask investors for loans-because debt looks bad on their balance sheets and could reduce shareholder returns. To get around this, some are partnering with private-equity titans to do some sophisticated financial engineering, Paul Kedrosky, an investor and a financial consultant, told us. These private-equity firms put up or raise the money to build a data center, which a tech company will repay through rent. Data-center leases from, say, Meta can then be repackaged into a financial instrument that people can buy and sell—a bond, in essence. Meta recently did just this: Blue Owl Capital raised money for a massive Meta data center in Louisiana by, in essence, issuing bonds backed by Meta's rent. And multiple data-center leases can be combined into a security and sorted into what are called "tranches" based on their risk of default.
October 30, 2025 at 11:13 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
Open your Photos app

Search “Airplane” (lol)

Scroll down to what you think is exactly halfway and screenshot it

Post.

#AvGeek
Screenshot of my photo search for airplane. There are indeed a very great many photos.
October 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
google seems to think it does, if ever so briefly (i am willing to be told google is wrong)
Screenshot of Google Maps zoomed in to the southwest corner of Napa County, showing a border just barely running alongside CA-37 for about 1000 feet
October 29, 2025 at 4:00 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
baking day: chocolate caramel tarts! my partner taught me how to do sugar work too
A pair of tarts, one large and one small. Both are decorated with spun sugar in domes and abstract shapes.
October 26, 2025 at 1:04 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
greetings from los angeles
Downtown Los Angeles. You can see the Wilshire Grand Tower and several other skyscrapers, with mountains and the Hollywood sign in the distance, under a brilliant cloud-streaked pink and orange sunset.
October 20, 2025 at 1:45 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
also some raptors! i love the crow on the other side of the tree in the first shot — it was extremely, vocally displeased about the neighbors showing up
A peregrine falcon perches on a high branch of a dead tree. At the other side of the frame and out of focus is a crow. An osprey in flight. A turkey vulture in flight.
October 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
but the real show was the pelican feeding frenzy happening as the tide shifted and a whole school of hapless fish got pushed up to the surface by currents. nom nom nom
A brown pelican diving into water to grab fish. Its head and neck are submerged, but its wings are still spread wide, and a large splash of water sprays up behind it. A brown pelican taking off with its wings fully spread and feet just barely trailing in the water. Two other pelicans are floating next to it. A brown pelican diving into water to feed while another one floats nearby. A brown pelican flying above water. Its wings are stretched out, showing its mottled brown and white plumage.
October 13, 2025 at 8:39 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
more birb content: went for a stroll at bolsa chica conservancy in orange county. herons and cormorants everywhere!
A great egret spreading its wings to take flight. A double-crested cormorant in flight A snowy egret just landing on a rock. Its wings are spread wide and its feet are just barely touching down. A great egret standing in marsh grass. Its head and neck are extended toward the camera and angled a bit to the side, as if it is giving an inquisitive look to the photographer.
October 13, 2025 at 8:31 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
okay this bangs tho
Mark Fisher argued that capitalist realism operates by making it impossible to imagine alternatives to capitalism. The current moment offers us a sobering glimpse of this case. The future appears as something that happens to us rather than something we collectively choose. The discourse emphasizes the urgency of adoption while preventing the consideration of alternatives. The continuous use of 'disruption' and 'transformation' portrays resistance as backward-looking rather than reasonable. This temporal manipulation is crucial to maintaining consent. The hype machine is geared to persuade us we're living through a revolutionary moment in order to create FOMO. Workers are right to be worried, but not for the reasons they think. They're not being replaced by superior intelligence. They're being systematically deskilled and made dependent on systems they don't fully shape, controlled by people who view them as obstacles to profit maximization. Alternatives exist but remain marginalized by the dominance of Silicon Valley's extractive model. We do possess the technical capacity to create systems that are genuinely helpful and augment human capability. We could develop tools that enhance creativity rather than substituting it. But creating such systems would require starting from different premises, actually starting from scratch, prioritizing human and planetary thriving over capital accumulation. It would require a different kind of organizing to create these technologies. Something that would be post-capitalist. AI Managers will continue to target workers' jobs precisely because the alternative, eliminating management, would redistribute power downward rather than concentrating it upward. The machines aren't coming for our jobs anytime soon, although the people who control the machines have been coming for our jobs throughout history. It's just now that they're using artificial intelligence as a cover for the same old redistribution of wealth and power from workers to owners. Until we can envision and construct other paths to dominant technological advancement, we will continue to perceive innovation as a form of oppression rather than emancipation.
October 11, 2025 at 5:09 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
this piece keeps saying things that have me all “yup, uh huh, right on”, following them with a “hrm not so sure about that”, and then drawing a “what the actual fuck, no no no” conclusion and it’s so maddening
collectivefutures.blog/the-infrastr...
Quote from the linked article: The irony is that many of these same engineers could command any salary, work anywhere, or negotiate any perk. They were immensely productive. Lines of code generated massive profits. But productivity alone wasn't enough. Companies needed these workers to stay at their desks for every possible hour. Vocational awe provided the ideological framework to extract maximum labor while making workers feel grateful for the privilege. This arrangement worked wonders for the managerial class. It solved a fundamental problem of modern capitalism: how to extract maximum value from highly skilled workers who theoretically had significant bargaining power. The solution was ideological rather than coercive. Workers policed themselves, pushed themselves harder than any manager could demand, because they believed in the mission. Statistical text generation has legitimate applications, so the technology itself isn't inherently problematic. The problem lies in how it's being deployed and in the claims being made about its capabilities. When executives announce that AI will revolutionize their industries, they're declaring their intention to restructure labor relations in their favor, using AI as leverage. Here's the crucial point that reveals the political nature of AI deployment: artificial intelligence could easily replace most management functions. Engagement metrics, OKRs, performance reviews, agile methods, innovation labs... You get the picture. These are exactly the kind of pattern-recognition and optimization problems that current AI could do well at solving. Now, I am not saying that this would be a good thing. I am just saying that this is a class dynamic that we should unpack. A properly configured system could theoretically perform the core functions of middle management more consistently and efficiently than humans. What managers actually do? They aggregate information from multiple sources, identify patterns, make decisions based on those patterns, and communicate those decisions to others. They create reports that synthesize data. They attend meetings where they share these reports. They make projections based on historical trends. Every one of these activities falls squarely within the capabilities of current AI systems, and their work would seem more reliable if we focused on that. Or at least in theory.
October 11, 2025 at 5:02 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
please enjoy some airplane photos

thanks again to @crankyflier.com for organizing the awesome LAX ramp visit last month!
Alaska Airlines 737 in a special blue livery with orca whales taking off at LAX with the control tower in the background Delta Airlines A350 photographed from the top of air stairs right next to the cabin. A small crowd of people is scattered about the tarmac in the background. FedEx 767 facing nose-on to the camera, taxiing in at LAX. Singapore/DHL 777 taking off at LAX.
October 10, 2025 at 4:33 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
just spotted one of LA's urban hawks and managed to grab my camera and get to the balcony in time to snap this
A red-tailed hawk photographed from above, flying quite low over downtown Los Angeles.
October 10, 2025 at 12:26 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
sunday morning ridership at sunnydale — unbelievable!
The SF-bound Caltrain platform at Sunnydale. About 20 people are visible waiting for the train, and only about half of the platform is in the shot.
October 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
saw Above & Beyond’s final show on their US album tour at shoreline amphitheatre and i am so glad i went. caught up with so many SF friends, heard absolutely incredible music, and left with my heart overflowing
Opening acts for the show: Hana is finishing her set and handing off to Dave Dresden of Gabriel & Dresden. They’re backlit by a single brilliant white spotlight in front of lights and video screens that look like the aurora borealis. Above & Beyond. Jono and Paavo are at the decks mixing, with white light washing over them from behind and a video screen with an image of a mysterious figure backlit by a round portal window reminiscent of 19th-century sailing ships. Above & Beyond doing their classic live-crowd-shot video projection. The audience is shown in black and white on the video screen and blue-purple laser light brackets the frame The end of the show. The video screen has a simple message written on it: Life is made of small moments like this.
October 5, 2025 at 3:41 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
okay a thing that is extremely awesome: electrified Caltrain.

san jose diridon to mountain view in 20 minutes on a *local* train is incredible. the new stadler EMUs with massive bike storage areas are icing on the cake. this is unrecognizable from what it used to be in the best way
One of Caltrain’s new Stadler EMU trains at San Jose Diridon Station waiting to pull out.
October 4, 2025 at 4:28 AM
skimbrel.bsky.social
in other news, it’s 2025 and we still haven’t gotten character encodings right
An email from a recruiter. The subject line includes a large number of extraneous characters signifying repeated character encoding problems as the email made its way across the internet.
September 30, 2025 at 3:23 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
ah, the tech industry has answered “is there a worse way to break up with someone than via text messages?” and of course the answer is “with chatgpt”

futurism.com/chatgpt-marr...
Even Geoffrey Hinton, a Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist known as a “Godfather of AI” — a technology that likely wouldn’t exist in its current form without his contributions — recently conceded that his girlfriend had broken up with him using ChatGPT. “She got ChatGPT to tell me what a rat I was… she got the chatbot to explain how awful my behavior was and gave it to me,” Hinton told The Financial Times. “I didn’t think I had been a rat, so it didn’t make me feel too bad.”
September 27, 2025 at 2:42 PM
skimbrel.bsky.social
@americanamemes.bsky.social fyi

just spotted at hill & olympic dtla
Picture of a disused storefront in DTLA with a newly-hung banner reading “Erewhon 2027”
September 26, 2025 at 4:04 PM