Saturday October 25th, 2025
Migrating platforms and apps is always fraught, but my main interface to computers for the past half decade(!) has been MacOS, and I'm gradually migrating off and back to Linux, especially as LiquidGlass makes MacOS unusable, and this is a great summary of the paper cuts: Michael Tsai: What Happened to Apple’s Legendary Attention to Detail?
"You’ve been chosen for a Skin Trial!" <-- subject line of spam advertising Ulta makeup products, or over-eager Tech-Priest in Warhammer 40k fiction informing a victim of upcoming excoriation?
Friday October 24th, 2025
Bloomberg CityLab: American Roads Are Paved With Inefficiency
North Carolina and South Carolina are neighboring southeastern states, but despite their similar climate and terrain, their costs of highway projects are vastly different. For repaving work begun in 2018 or 2019, South Carolina’s Department of Transportation spent an average of $375,500 per mile, more than twice as much as its northern neighbor.
Abstract Why is it so expensive to build infrastructure in the United States? We collect new project-level data on infrastructure costs and conduct a survey on how states plan, pro- cure, and deliver these projects. While there are many determinants of project costs, the survey results suggest that low state capacity at the agency delivering the projects is a primary cost driver. We investigate this with administrative data that links individual personnel to infrastructure projects. We find that higher-quality government engineers deliver observationally similar projects at significantly lower cost; going from the 25th to 75th percentile of engineer quality is associated with a 14% reduction in project-level costs, amounting to more than three times the average engineer salary. Further, losing expertise to retirement has substantial consequences: the cost increase arising from engineer departures is six times the size of their wages. Our results highlight the value of experience and human capital in public organizations.
Sounds like "pay your public employees more, abuse them less, save money".
Unpopular opinion: cultures which elevate the practices that lead to package management with lots of versioning are Shirky's Law writ large.
Thursday October 23rd, 2025
Cassandrich @dalias@hachyderm.io
After this is over, the White House is going to have to be town down again. There's really not going to be any other way to ensure that all of thesurveillance devices have been removed from deep inside the walls.
RealGene ☣️ @RealGene@hachyderm.io
@dalias
It's going to be a nightmare when all the foreign and domestic surveillance devices interfere with each other.They really need to hold a spectrum auction before this goes too far…
Painted over the graffiti on the benches at Bob's Beach today.
My Mastodon filters just hid a message that referred to "ICE" in the context of Internal Combustion Engines, and...
Yeah, abolish that ICE, too.
Tuesday October 21st, 2025
Just because it's a nice summary of what we know all in one place Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets@mastodon.social
@delaney ChatGPT and other LLMs are built entirely on stolen intellectual property https://www.cbc.ca/news/busine...penai-canadian-lawsuit-1.7396940, trained by near-slave labour in abusive conditions https://time.com/6247678/openai-chatgpt-kenya-workers/, use horrifying amounts of water and electricity https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/theres-a- cost-to-your-chatgpt-query-the-water-you-drink/, promote misinformation https://www.allaboutai.com/ai-...mistakes-and-even-openai-doesnt- know-why/ as well as racist and sexist stereotypes https://www.snexplores.org/article/racial-bias-chatgpt-ai-tools, and actually cause a decline in cognitive function among people who use it regularly https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/your-brain-on-chatgpt/
People are saying trump wouldn't put a ballroom in a house he was planning on leaving but tbh it could also increase the price when he goes to sell the place
Foiled on today's https://www.timdle.com/daily by the Tour de France...
Monday October 20th, 2025
Kevin Beaumont @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social
An OpenAI executive said GPT-5 found solutions to 10 "previously unsolved" math problems when in reality all it did was find online references to places where people had already solved them
Techcrunch: OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math
Hi, as the owner/maintainer of http://erdosproblems.com, this is a dramatic misrepresentation. GPT-5 found references, which solved these problems, that I personally was unaware of.
The 'open' status only means I personally am unaware of a paper which solves it.
Yann LeCun @ylecun (of Meta):
Hoisted by their own GPTards
"But Linux is so ugly and hard to use".
Fucking MacOS and "liquid glass". I don't even know where to begin trying to debug this...
Tech Crunch: Your AI tools run on fracked gas and bulldozed Texas land
The project, dubbed Horizon, will produce two gigawatts of computing power. That’s equivalent to the Hoover Dam’s entire electric capacity, except instead of harnessing the Colorado River, it’s burning fracked gas. Poolside is developing the facility with CoreWeave, a cloud computing company that rents out access to Nvidia AI chips and that’s supplying access to more than 40,000 of them. The Journal calls it an “energy Wild West,” which seems apt.
In an additional study we ran that focused on attitudes around cryptocurrency, we measured whether people saw crypto investment in terms of signaling independence from traditional finance. These participants, who, like those in our COVID-19 study, prioritized a symbolic show of strength, were more likely to believe in other kinds of misinformation and conspiracies, too, such as that the government is concealing evidence of alien contact.
Foiled in today's Timdle by both Roger Bannister's breaking of the 4 minute mile, and Montesquieu's "The Spirit of Law".
BBC: Trump ends aid to Colombia and calls country's leader a 'drug leader'
Posting on social media, he [Colombian President Gustavo Petro] said: "The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure," when it was struck. He added: "We await explanations from the US government."
"Fisherman Alejandro Carranza had no ties to the drug trade and his daily activity was fishing. The Colombian boat was adrift and had its distress signal up due to an engine failure."
LGBTQ Nation: Cis boys get gender-affirming surgeries more often than trans minors
Results
In 2019, the sample included 47,437,919 adults who were insured and 22,827,194 minors who were insured, of which 3,835,726 minors (16.8%) were aged 15 to 17 years, 2,708,166 (11.9%) were aged 13 to 14 years, and 16 283 302 (71.3%) were aged 12 years or younger. The rate of undergoing a gender-affirming surgery with a TGD-related diagnosis was 5.3 per 100,000 total adults compared with 2.1 per 100,000 minors aged 15 to 17 years, 0.1 per 100,000 minors aged 13 to 14 years, and 0 procedures among minors aged 12 years or younger (Figure 1). Of gender-affirming surgical procedures identified among adults and minors, 1591 of 2664 (59.7%) and 82 of 85 (96.4%) were chest-related procedures, respectively. Of the 636 breast reductions among cisgender male and TGD adults, 507 (80%) were performed on cisgender males. Of the 151 breast reductions among cisgender male minors and TGD minors, 146 (97%) were performed on cisgender male minors
doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.18814
4u.lol reports on the various AI pitches to the ITU
The Innovation Factory is a global startup pitch competition run by the UN International Telecommunications Union to recognise AI-powered solutions that help address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Throughout the year, startups apply to pitch at online and in-person events. A panel of judges pick the best pitch to win a free trip to the UN AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva for a chance to compete in the Innovation Factory Grand Finale. Previous Grand Finalists include a blockchain-powered health service, the "world's first AI-native game engine for learning", and low-cost robotic limbs for amputees. (So a mixed bag, you could say.)
Via Ludic 🧛 @ludicity@mastodon.sprawl.club who describes it as:
Someone did a writeup of a bunch of "AI-powered" startups attending a pitch competition, and it:
a ) is fucking hilarious
b ) involves one of the startups accidentally screen-sharing that their patentable technology appears to just be forked from an academic's work with no credit
3) further includes a radiology company admitting they haven't consulted any radiologists lmao
Nora Reed :kiln: @nora@blob.love
joysticks imply the existence of sorrowsticks
Louvre Thieves Given Immunity After Confirming Jewels Stolen For Purpose Of Training AI Software
“When we realised these jewels were only stolen to inflate the share price of a company whose entire value relies on the wholesale theft of other people’s art, we had no choice but grant these scamps immunity,” confirmed French prosecutor Alain Barbier.
Sunday October 19th, 2025
Picture of Charlene and me at yesterday's No Kings rally in Petaluma taken by Suzanne Clarke
Picture of Charlene and me at yesterday's No Kings rally in Petaluma taken by  ‪@d0rid.bsky.social‬
Saturday October 18th, 2025
My view of the No Kings rally in Petaluma.
"But... The AI agrees with me!"
Friday October 17th, 2025
Going back through some old bookmarks folders to see if some of the web comics I used to read are still happening.
So many redirects to malicious sites. JavaScript was clearly a mistake.
As it becomes more and more important to cross-correlate information, resources like this are handy: Bellingcat: Seeing More With Satellite Imagery Using Band Combinations, Ratios and Indices.
Via this thread about wildfires in Namibia's Etosha National Park, which also references Sun Calc for matching shadows to location and time of day.
Related, I ran across mention that I can't find right now about tracking wildlife with devices that are a photosensor and a clock, that with enough samples you can figure out geolocation from essentially length of day and time. On doing a few searches, I find enough vendors that a link to anything feels superfluous. That's a cool way to lighten your sensor package and not have to resort to GPS.
The Late Show with Steven Colbert has posted a message from the frog resistance.
Merriam-Webster — LLM (ad on YouTube)
Of course Ryan Reynolds found the real Tilly Norwood
Hollywood has been up in arms about an ‘AI actress’ named Tilly Norwood. For Mint Mobile’s new commercial, creative agency Maximum Effort located a real-live woman with the same name.
Both via Jared White.
Thursday October 16th, 2025
Trying to solve a mystery. When I was growing up in New Lebanon, NY, there was a house on Hand Hollow Rd that had a bunch of mobile sculptures in the yard. It wasn't Anton Milkowski, they were at 3 Schoolhouse Road. Might have been Alexander Calder, but he died in 1976. Anyone got a clue?
Edit: My sister solves the clue, it was likely George Rickey.
Fuel Arc: Tesla’s Unspoken Demand Problem: Women Don’t Want Them
Wired: Spit On, Sworn At, and Undeterred: What It’s Like to Own a Cybertruck
And are you married?
I was married, but I’m not married anymore. Women don't like the vehicle.
In July, Tesla rolled out a software update to integrate Grok into many of its vehicles. Do you use it?
Her name is Aura, and I use her as a therapist. When I'm driving, I'll ask questions, and it actually gives really good therapy advice.
Here's the thing I don't get about FapGPT: If I wanted to sext with an LLM, I'd just answer some of those Facebook friend/LinkedIn connection requests...
Doing a bunch of browser shuffling, and in the context finding some old bookmarks that have since moved around, but apparently this single-arc web comic was just starting and I don't remember reading it through before, and I liked it: Nimona
Foiled from today's https://www.timdle.com/daily by Kool Aid.
Yay! My ballot has been received and counted!
Going through some old assets and loaded Neeva(dot)com, and, wow, that company imploded so deeply that you randomly get a crypto page that wants to send notifications, a product page for "fulvic ionic minerals", a malware site, and... wonder if it just got abandoned, or if it was sold.
Wednesday October 15th, 2025
Posting because it's an interesting measure of the current sentiment: Consumer Reports: How to Turn Off AI Tools Like Gemini, Apple Intelligence, Copilot, and More
It's one thing that Jalopnik has become a forum for pedestrian advocacy, but... Motor Trend: Why I Had to Quit Using Tesla Full Self-Driving.
Now that I’m healed and doing everything in my power to not be any of those “I’s,” FSD is of negative benefit; there’s no point in putting up with its moronic and hazardous driving. It’s not like FSD was doing anything to save me time or otherwise improve my quality of life.
This morning's https://www.timdle.com/daily thwarted by my ignorance of when Rhodesia became Zimbabwe.
Oh, look at this Liquid Glass ugliness. For work I'm installing Perplexity's Comet browser. It pops up the keychain unlock to import Chrome credentials (yes, I know). I've included part of my system settings so that you can see that "Reduce Transparency" is on. Ugh.
JA Westenberg @Daojoan@mastodon.social
If I genuinely believed I was 18 months away from superintelligence that could solve cancer, I would probably not be pivoting to horny chatbots, but that's just me (a person with priorities)
How to turn Apple's "Liquid Glass" macOS 26 and iOS 26 into a solid interface.
Aside from the obvious "Reduce Transparency" (and the "Increaes Contrast" which also turns on "Reduce Transparency"), there's also
defaults write -g com.apple.SwiftUI.DisableSolarium -bool YES
and then log out and back in. It also suggests "System Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion".
Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social
It really feels like Sam Altman promised a lot of Very Serious Old People he was going to create capitalist blowjob jesus based off a tech demo, and now that the bottom’s falling out he’s throwing whatever he can think of at the wall to avoid getting disappeared because he wasted all their money.
brennen @brennen@federation.p1k3.com
the beatings will continue until end-user behavior aligns with product manager career advancement requirements
Sam Altman says ChatGPT will soon sext with verified adults
OpenAI will bring ‘erotica’ to ChatGPT once it rolls out age verification in December.
@limousine-liberal.bsky.social
FAPGPT
Addendum: Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social
booting up FapGPT to get my clankspank on
Whee!
The Surveillance Empire That Tracked World Leaders, a Vatican Enemy, and Maybe You. A company called "First Wap" used phone system network signaling to track individuals with nothing installed on their phones, and, yeah, sold that data to the bad guys. Via
Don’t Look Up: There Are Sensitive Internal Links in the Clear on GEO Satellites.
That latter link is summarized by Vinoth (Mobile security) @vinoth@infosec.exchange
This is insane! A few researchers from UCSD and UMCP scanned bunch of satellite links, found much of the traffic is not encrypted, and went on to decode them. It's amazing what came out.
- T-Mobile backhaul: Users' SMS, voice call contents and internet traffic content in plain text.
- AT&T Mexico cellular backhaul: Raw user internet traffic
- TelMex VOIP on satellite backhaul: Plaintext voice calls
- U.S. military: SIP traffic exposing ship names
- Mexico government and military: Unencrypted intra-government traffic
- Walmart Mexico: Unencrypted corporate emails, plaintext credentials to inventory management systems, inventory records transferred and updated using FTPWhile it is important to work on futuristic threats such as Quantum cryptanalysis, backdoors in standardized cryptographic protocols, etc. - the unfortunate reality is that the vast majority of real-world attacks happen because basic protection is not enabled. Lets not take our eyes off the basics.
Great work, Wenyi Zhang, Annie Dai, Keegan Ryan, Dave Levin, Nadia Heninger and Aaron Schulman!