Brian Slesinsky
@skybrian.bsky.social
Retired software engineer, amateur accordionist. Other accounts:
https://mastodon.social/@skybrian
https://tildes.net/user/skybrian
https://mastodon.social/@skybrian
https://tildes.net/user/skybrian
It's funny now, but I don't think it will be when AI people search gets better at assembling accurate dossiers about arbitrary people.
How long will that take? I imagine a year or two. Perhaps Google will nerf it, but I don't think every AI company will?
How long will that take? I imagine a year or two. Perhaps Google will nerf it, but I don't think every AI company will?
December 5, 2025 at 7:07 AM
It's funny now, but I don't think it will be when AI people search gets better at assembling accurate dossiers about arbitrary people.
How long will that take? I imagine a year or two. Perhaps Google will nerf it, but I don't think every AI company will?
How long will that take? I imagine a year or two. Perhaps Google will nerf it, but I don't think every AI company will?
Largely agree, but on the other hand I think any company that has millions of users needs to be paying more attention to edge cases. AI chatbots used by the masses need to say "sir, this is a Wendy's" more often. Which means they need to decide what business they're in and stick with it.
December 4, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Largely agree, but on the other hand I think any company that has millions of users needs to be paying more attention to edge cases. AI chatbots used by the masses need to say "sir, this is a Wendy's" more often. Which means they need to decide what business they're in and stick with it.
I'd love to see an in-depth article about capacitive sensing.
December 4, 2025 at 5:14 AM
I'd love to see an in-depth article about capacitive sensing.
Are a single account's updates numbered by the account owner? Is it possible for the directory to pick and choose between updates for one account? Is that level of granularity needed?
December 2, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Are a single account's updates numbered by the account owner? Is it possible for the directory to pick and choose between updates for one account? Is that level of granularity needed?
It appears it’s a workaround for bad training data. Some examples of how to cheat will creep in unless filtered out, which is somehow hard. So, change the prompt so that it becomes an example of cheating when deliberately instructed to allow it, and maybe it won’t learn to cheat without being asked.
November 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
It appears it’s a workaround for bad training data. Some examples of how to cheat will creep in unless filtered out, which is somehow hard. So, change the prompt so that it becomes an example of cheating when deliberately instructed to allow it, and maybe it won’t learn to cheat without being asked.
Apparently the technical term is “inoculation pumping“ and i’s described in more detail here: alignment.anthropic.com/2025/inocula...
Inoculation Prompting: Instructing LLMs to misbehave at train-time improves test-time alignment
alignment.anthropic.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Apparently the technical term is “inoculation pumping“ and i’s described in more detail here: alignment.anthropic.com/2025/inocula...
This result is sufficiently weird that my first guess is that something must have gone wrong with the analysis. Someone needs to check it.
Perhaps using national averages doesn't make sense anymore? Urban and rural areas are too different.
Perhaps using national averages doesn't make sense anymore? Urban and rural areas are too different.
November 26, 2025 at 9:24 PM
This result is sufficiently weird that my first guess is that something must have gone wrong with the analysis. Someone needs to check it.
Perhaps using national averages doesn't make sense anymore? Urban and rural areas are too different.
Perhaps using national averages doesn't make sense anymore? Urban and rural areas are too different.
Apparently electronics is built on a similar principle? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasta...
Metastability (electronics) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 25, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Apparently electronics is built on a similar principle? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasta...
I don't know about any proofs, but it seems hard to make a binary decision without an edge condition somewhere? Perhaps the likelihood could be minimized, though, by putting the edge somewhere where there's unlikely to be jitter.
November 25, 2025 at 5:41 PM
I don't know about any proofs, but it seems hard to make a binary decision without an edge condition somewhere? Perhaps the likelihood could be minimized, though, by putting the edge somewhere where there's unlikely to be jitter.
Wouldn’t there still be jitter that causes some logits to fall just inside or outside epsilon?
November 24, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Wouldn’t there still be jitter that causes some logits to fall just inside or outside epsilon?
> often no longer supported by vendors
Well, there's your problem. I guess they'd rather sell new hardware though?
To be fair, old stuff might not have automatic updates.
Well, there's your problem. I guess they'd rather sell new hardware though?
To be fair, old stuff might not have automatic updates.
November 21, 2025 at 10:03 PM
> often no longer supported by vendors
Well, there's your problem. I guess they'd rather sell new hardware though?
To be fair, old stuff might not have automatic updates.
Well, there's your problem. I guess they'd rather sell new hardware though?
To be fair, old stuff might not have automatic updates.
Are there any good comments? Bad comments are what downvotes are for.
November 21, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Are there any good comments? Bad comments are what downvotes are for.
I'm wondering about core philosophy being an input to the relay. I guess that could be considered a control plane / data plane thing.
November 20, 2025 at 8:55 PM
I'm wondering about core philosophy being an input to the relay. I guess that could be considered a control plane / data plane thing.
Why shouldn’t immigrants and US workers have the same minimum wage? The Trump administration is anti-immigrant, but I’m not.
November 16, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Why shouldn’t immigrants and US workers have the same minimum wage? The Trump administration is anti-immigrant, but I’m not.
Seems like when watching movies, the homework is usually optional? You can ignore anything you didn't get the first time. But there might be more to get in repeated viewings, or for people with more context.
Contrast with a video game where if you don't solve a puzzle, you're stuck.
Contrast with a video game where if you don't solve a puzzle, you're stuck.
November 13, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Seems like when watching movies, the homework is usually optional? You can ignore anything you didn't get the first time. But there might be more to get in repeated viewings, or for people with more context.
Contrast with a video game where if you don't solve a puzzle, you're stuck.
Contrast with a video game where if you don't solve a puzzle, you're stuck.
How about option 1, but after writing to the PDS, the client long-polls the app to wait for the update it just made to arrive? (And the app could use this as a hint to expedite syncing with the PDS.)
November 13, 2025 at 5:47 AM
How about option 1, but after writing to the PDS, the client long-polls the app to wait for the update it just made to arrive? (And the app could use this as a hint to expedite syncing with the PDS.)
Can "Western literature" be made to work?" It seems like both Latin-influenced and Greek-influenced languages make sense as they're both major languages of the Romans, but then the question is how Arabic and Hebrew fit in with that.
November 10, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Can "Western literature" be made to work?" It seems like both Latin-influenced and Greek-influenced languages make sense as they're both major languages of the Romans, but then the question is how Arabic and Hebrew fit in with that.
One thing I do is look around for better reporting. For example, Marginal Revolution is a good source of interesting but sometimes dubious links. I'll do a Google News search to see if there's a better article from a mainstream newspaper. It seems better than sharing "truthy," opinionated articles.
November 10, 2025 at 8:05 PM
One thing I do is look around for better reporting. For example, Marginal Revolution is a good source of interesting but sometimes dubious links. I'll do a Google News search to see if there's a better article from a mainstream newspaper. It seems better than sharing "truthy," opinionated articles.
This newsletter is an unreliable mix of truth and lies. I recommend finding better sources.
November 10, 2025 at 4:01 PM
This newsletter is an unreliable mix of truth and lies. I recommend finding better sources.
When we moved, we took the opportunity to throw out a bunch of stuff and are getting more organized. I have sorted our USB cables and learned to use my wife's label maker :)
November 9, 2025 at 6:24 PM
When we moved, we took the opportunity to throw out a bunch of stuff and are getting more organized. I have sorted our USB cables and learned to use my wife's label maker :)
It implicitly assumes that Mamdani has access to a lot more money than previous mayors. But can he raise the money?
November 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM
It implicitly assumes that Mamdani has access to a lot more money than previous mayors. But can he raise the money?
This article seems pretty good on muni bonds.
> The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world where municipalities raise money primarily through bonds, and their differential treatment on the private market has quietly driven inequality across the nation.
archive.is/DhBdC
> The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world where municipalities raise money primarily through bonds, and their differential treatment on the private market has quietly driven inequality across the nation.
archive.is/DhBdC
American Suburbs Have a Financial Secret
Municipal bonds have become an unavoidable part of local governance—and their costs divide rich towns from poor ones.
www.theatlantic.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:47 AM
This article seems pretty good on muni bonds.
> The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world where municipalities raise money primarily through bonds, and their differential treatment on the private market has quietly driven inequality across the nation.
archive.is/DhBdC
> The U.S. is one of the only countries in the world where municipalities raise money primarily through bonds, and their differential treatment on the private market has quietly driven inequality across the nation.
archive.is/DhBdC