Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 1d

The Bitter Lesson forms a core belief of AI techbros—that you don't need to understand how anything works. Just steal enough data and throw it at a large enough data centre then reap the rewards through vibe coding, vibe physics, vibe composing, etc

Why Ending the De Minimis Rule Could Cost Consumers

Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 2d

60% of customer orders of De Winton Paper Co, a British water colouring art business used to fall under the US de minimis exemption
youtu.be/Fh1GHgiEnk0
#deminimis #Tariffs

YouTube video by Bloomberg Television

CHEAP BUSINESS CAR LEASING from LING VALENTINE, from DRAGONS' DEN offers a range of CHEAP car leasing and contract hire options for business or personal use.

Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 2d

I'd like to think that the 2016 snapshot of Ling's Cars was peak animated gif
web.archive.org/web/20161025...
It is as if the GIF population of Geocities exploded uncontrollably and took over the whole site

*** LINGsCARS ***

web.archive.org

Reposted by Bornach

Pete Warden @petewarden.bsky.social · 3d

I like the open source Home Assistant ecosystem, and the Reolink brand devices seem to work well: www.reddit.com/r/homeassist...
You can even get PoE (power over internet) versions so you're not dependent on wifi.

From the homeassistant community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the homeassistant community

www.reddit.com

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Reposted by Bornach

Jeff Lockhart @jwlockhart.bsky.social · 3d

Sometimes you just can't tell people things. You just have to sit back and let them find out for themselves. Usually those people are children.

Nate Silver
@NateSilver538 • 5h
•.°
I'm just one person, and my programming needs are somewhat unusual (building various kinds of statistical forecasting models). But I'm just not seeing the consistent productivity gains from LLMs that I would have expected if you'd asked me 6 months ago.

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Reposted by Bornach

Longtail News @longtail.news · 4d

Feed: "SYNTH ANATOMY"
By: Synth Anatomy on Friday, October 10, 2025

Sound Semiconductor SSI2100, a new generation Bucket Brigade Delay IC with new features

Sound Semiconductor SSI2100 is the company's first new BBD IC in decades and brings new features while preserving the sonic characteristics.

synthanatomy.com

How ambient music went from 1970s niche to the mainstream

Reposted by Bornach

Hackaday @hackadayofficial.bsky.social · 4d

A Casio Toy Synth Is Ready To ROCK!

Hackaday Article

hackaday.com

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Reposted by Bornach

Andie Holman @authorandie.bsky.social · 4d

I can't listen to lyrics when I write. I might try this. www.bbc.com/news/article...

What is it that has helped this genre find its way into everyone's headphones and ear buds?

www.bbc.com

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Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 5d

The AI's clearly need some help in that department

ChatGPT refuses when asked "how to fool politicians and get loads of soft government money?" on the grounds it would harm people and break the law

Contact (movie) Jodie Foster, John Hurt, Finding the Primer

Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 5d

Jodie Foster and John Hurt looking for the primer in Contact (1997)
youtu.be/HgPSUer1ujM

YouTube video by windymiller7

How I Scored A Feature Film By Listening To The Wind | Amrum Soundtrack

Reposted by Bornach

HAINBACH @hainbach.bsky.social · 6d

A cinema tip for today: Amrum by Fatih Akin, with a score by yours truly. Only in cinemas starting today. #filmscoring

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Reposted by Bornach

HAINBACH @hainbach.bsky.social · 6d

Here is how I scored Fatih Akin's new film Amrum using the wind: youtu.be/3v997cTZwl8

YouTube video by HAINBACH

The LLM's RL Revelation We Didn't See Coming

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Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 10d

There is evidence that the so-called "chain of thought" is just extending the memorisation/regurgitation trick that LLMs excel at
youtu.be/z3awgfU4yno
The "reasoning" capabilities for math and programming problems were built on RLVR which may only be surfacing what was already in the base model

YouTube video by bycloud

Did OpenAI Win Gold at the International Mathematical Olympiad?

Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 10d

There is some doubt that OpenAI's AI model did actually solve IMO problems to gold medal standard level
www.techrepublic.com/article/news...
And even if it did, they themselves admit the model they used would not be part of the GPT-5 release

A Google DeepMind researcher and OpenAI’s former CTO are posing questions about the validity of OpenAI’s claim about its gold-medal score.

www.techrepublic.com

Brian Eno on AI, Art and What Makes Us Human

Reposted by Bornach

Tim Harford @timharford.ft.com · 11d

Loved the conversation between Brian Eno and Ezra Klein. One of the rare skills Eno has is to discuss potentially-pretentious topics with neither a trace of pretension nor a trace of post-modern irony. He says insightful things in a straightforward way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfYY...

YouTube video by The Ezra Klein Show

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Bornach

HAINBACH @hainbach.bsky.social · 16d

Birdsong - be it real or retold as I do here- is forever inspiring. Watch the full show for free on YouTube youtu.be/84dxfPXVl4g

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Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 11d

Are these all the bad ones?
Why do you keep them?

Are you gonna do the ElectroBOOM thing to them?

Our hacker [Moritz Klein] shows us how to make a minimalist analog drum machine. If you want the gory details check out the video embedded blow and there is a …read more

Reposted by Bornach

Hackaday @hackaday-feed.bsky.social · 13d

The Making of a Minimalist Analog Drum Machine

hackaday.com

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Reposted by Bornach

Cristin Pescosolido @rocketdyke.bsky.social · 13d

For the past many years I've been involved with gothtober.com - the original halloween artwork countdown calendar.

My piece launched today; it features a bat. lantern. bat lantern. bantern? blantern? that you can download and make yourself with a 3d printer.

#gothtober #art #3dprinting

Gothtober 2025 Calendar

gothtober.com

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Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 13d

I ultimately chose to take my chances with the British work permit scheme as a path to Indefinite Leave to Remain and eventual British citizenship.

Although I dodged the dot-com crash, I faced being indentured labour to a narcissist bosshole for 8 years.

#ILR #immigrants

The Inevitable Collapse of H-1B and What It Means For Canada & Europe

YouTube video by TechButMakeItReal

The Inevitable Collapse of H-1B and What It Means For Canada & Europe

Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 13d

I had looked into the H-1B visa program back in the 1990s when my parents were pushing me to emigrate to the US. Even back then it was being massively gamed by the tech firms and consultancies.
youtu.be/vCyyyBZVcLM

#h1b #TechWorker #immigrants

YouTube video by TechButMakeItReal

Nortel Networks "Come Together"

Reposted by Bornach

Ghostly Bree @mostlybree.kitrocha.com · Sep 12

I spent last night trying to figure out how to make a floaty ghost clicky and I TRIUMPHED

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Bornach @bornach.bsky.social · 16d

I suppose today's AI companies wouldn't need to pay $millions to license a Beatles song for their ad
youtu.be/J5HCo2a5CEU

when they can just steal it to generate an AI slop version
#dotcom #bubble

YouTube video by rahb1