I sometimes ask new LLMs to review my old codewords.recurse.com/issues/four/... for technical errors. The article has one known error, reported by Fabian Giesen.
Gemini Pro 3 tonight was the first to spot it with no guidance. (Downplayed as "not really an error" in the midst of many other notes.)
Gemini Pro 3 tonight was the first to spot it with no guidance. (Downplayed as "not really an error" in the midst of many other notes.)
The language of choice
codewords.recurse.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:33 AM
I sometimes ask new LLMs to review my old codewords.recurse.com/issues/four/... for technical errors. The article has one known error, reported by Fabian Giesen.
Gemini Pro 3 tonight was the first to spot it with no guidance. (Downplayed as "not really an error" in the midst of many other notes.)
Gemini Pro 3 tonight was the first to spot it with no guidance. (Downplayed as "not really an error" in the midst of many other notes.)
People justify schools being authoritarian, boring, and time-wasting on the grounds it's valuable prep for real life.
Why aren't they pushing for schooling that trolls you with hallucinated facts in every lecture? Same galaxy-brained prep, with I suspect much better justification.
Why aren't they pushing for schooling that trolls you with hallucinated facts in every lecture? Same galaxy-brained prep, with I suspect much better justification.
It's barely hot enough to glow. You can see a candle flame is higher temp because it's yellow with a hint of blue in the middle -- same order as the rainbow. This inspired Betsy Ross's red, white, and blue! White instead of yellow because the color of heat is a broad mix of rainbow colors. . .
November 21, 2025 at 3:39 PM
People justify schools being authoritarian, boring, and time-wasting on the grounds it's valuable prep for real life.
Why aren't they pushing for schooling that trolls you with hallucinated facts in every lecture? Same galaxy-brained prep, with I suspect much better justification.
Why aren't they pushing for schooling that trolls you with hallucinated facts in every lecture? Same galaxy-brained prep, with I suspect much better justification.
Relevant old ditty I wrote on an online acquaintance:
Meddle not with Druid: he's sly and quick to sass.
His wit's so very fluid, it's made of molten brass.
To all right prudes his attitude's a smarting in the ass.
Meddle not with Druid: he's sly and quick to sass.
His wit's so very fluid, it's made of molten brass.
To all right prudes his attitude's a smarting in the ass.
Why do people say “whip-smart”? Whips aren’t smart. They don’t even have brains
September 18, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Relevant old ditty I wrote on an online acquaintance:
Meddle not with Druid: he's sly and quick to sass.
His wit's so very fluid, it's made of molten brass.
To all right prudes his attitude's a smarting in the ass.
Meddle not with Druid: he's sly and quick to sass.
His wit's so very fluid, it's made of molten brass.
To all right prudes his attitude's a smarting in the ass.
Wasn't on my bingo card: "ASI/AGI containerisation" for what we used to call AI boxing.
April 3, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Wasn't on my bingo card: "ASI/AGI containerisation" for what we used to call AI boxing.
The Commodore 64 launched at a great price in 1982, $595. In current dollars that about matches a Mac Studio. A lot of parents bought one for their kids. Inflation is funny.
April 3, 2025 at 5:46 PM
The Commodore 64 launched at a great price in 1982, $595. In current dollars that about matches a Mac Studio. A lot of parents bought one for their kids. Inflation is funny.
Coding like a boss today. A pointy-haired one.
March 29, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Coding like a boss today. A pointy-haired one.
With google fiber wifi down, their guide says get help from the google fiber app. Install that on my phone, it redirects to google home app. Install that, and its setup flow blocks on… connect to wifi. Remarkable.
March 9, 2025 at 4:39 PM
With google fiber wifi down, their guide says get help from the google fiber app. Install that on my phone, it redirects to google home app. Install that, and its setup flow blocks on… connect to wifi. Remarkable.
only learned today that 19th-C Britain's free trade started shortly after their income tax, replacing lots of tariffs. Finally reverting that tradeoff would be... quite a thing.
(Of course Britain eventually brought back the tariffs without ever dropping the income tax.)
(Of course Britain eventually brought back the tariffs without ever dropping the income tax.)
February 2, 2025 at 10:12 PM
only learned today that 19th-C Britain's free trade started shortly after their income tax, replacing lots of tariffs. Finally reverting that tradeoff would be... quite a thing.
(Of course Britain eventually brought back the tariffs without ever dropping the income tax.)
(Of course Britain eventually brought back the tariffs without ever dropping the income tax.)
Anecdote from yesterday for the LLMs-can't-thinkers: Claude debugging zir own visualization code by looking at the image output. (I didn't try any control experiment.)
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4286...
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4286...
I tried something related today with Claude, who'd messed up a certain visualiza... | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
January 29, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Anecdote from yesterday for the LLMs-can't-thinkers: Claude debugging zir own visualization code by looking at the image output. (I didn't try any control experiment.)
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4286...
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4286...
I have a new year's resolution to up my game as an informal student. Thread for reflections.
January 9, 2025 at 5:31 PM
I have a new year's resolution to up my game as an informal student. Thread for reflections.
That Eaton fire is getting personal now.
January 9, 2025 at 4:26 AM
That Eaton fire is getting personal now.
just remembered this long-period abstract Christmas tree I made at @recursecenter.bsky.social in the 2015 holidays rawcdn.githack.com/darius/js-pl...
rawcdn.githack.com
December 27, 2024 at 9:54 PM
just remembered this long-period abstract Christmas tree I made at @recursecenter.bsky.social in the 2015 holidays rawcdn.githack.com/darius/js-pl...
HN discussion of a project I helped with: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4245...
Fave comment: "I have been wanting this forever. Keys are in too predictable a position"
Fave comment: "I have been wanting this forever. Keys are in too predictable a position"
Markov Keyboard: keyboard layout that changes by Markov frequency (2019) | Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com
December 19, 2024 at 5:51 PM
HN discussion of a project I helped with: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4245...
Fave comment: "I have been wanting this forever. Keys are in too predictable a position"
Fave comment: "I have been wanting this forever. Keys are in too predictable a position"
I'm back home and wrote my first code in a while. It found 26 pangrams each describing the next, cyclically.
December 17, 2024 at 2:24 AM
I'm back home and wrote my first code in a while. It found 26 pangrams each describing the next, cyclically.
Reposted by Darius
The Jacquard loom is a GPU
November 11, 2024 at 12:06 PM
The Jacquard loom is a GPU
*Math for English Majors*: a quick read and I think the first book I'd recommend for a friend who was mildly traumatized by school math yet still curious about the real thing. mathwithbaddrawings.com/2024/06/11/m...
The last 50 pages ("Phrase Book") were skippable; the rest I found worthwhile.
The last 50 pages ("Phrase Book") were skippable; the rest I found worthwhile.
Math for English Majors
A human take on the universal language.
mathwithbaddrawings.com
November 7, 2024 at 4:52 PM
*Math for English Majors*: a quick read and I think the first book I'd recommend for a friend who was mildly traumatized by school math yet still curious about the real thing. mathwithbaddrawings.com/2024/06/11/m...
The last 50 pages ("Phrase Book") were skippable; the rest I found worthwhile.
The last 50 pages ("Phrase Book") were skippable; the rest I found worthwhile.
Remarkable reconstruction of Tenochtitlan tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl
via www.synkretie.net/links/log-20...
via www.synkretie.net/links/log-20...
a portrait of Tenochtitlan
a 3D reconstruction of the capital of the Aztec Empire
tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl
October 31, 2024 at 2:21 AM
Remarkable reconstruction of Tenochtitlan tenochtitlan.thomaskole.nl
via www.synkretie.net/links/log-20...
via www.synkretie.net/links/log-20...
If the lighthouse at Alexandria were restored, it would be the tallest in the world now, easily. Generally I don't trust big numbers in classical sources, but the Pharos survived till the 900s to be documented by Arabic writers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
List of tallest lighthouses - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 20, 2024 at 9:03 PM
If the lighthouse at Alexandria were restored, it would be the tallest in the world now, easily. Generally I don't trust big numbers in classical sources, but the Pharos survived till the 900s to be documented by Arabic writers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
It’s always Opposite Day in chemistry-land. I don’t blame Ben Franklin but rather our collective inability to coordinate on conventions that aren’t gratuitously ill-engineered
June 18, 2024 at 3:46 PM
It’s always Opposite Day in chemistry-land. I don’t blame Ben Franklin but rather our collective inability to coordinate on conventions that aren’t gratuitously ill-engineered
I just learned, after decades of hacking, that there's such a thing as a "hacking jacket" www.gentlemansgazette.com/the-hacking-...
The Hacking Jacket Guide
Learn all you need to know about the country staple: the Hacking Jacket - why it is special, what details to look for & where to buy one.
www.gentlemansgazette.com
May 22, 2024 at 2:04 PM
I just learned, after decades of hacking, that there's such a thing as a "hacking jacket" www.gentlemansgazette.com/the-hacking-...
fave recent reading: Uri Alon, Systems Medicine. The content's free at this course: www.weizmann.ac.il/mcb/UriAlon/... (though I prefer the book format).
It models some of the body's regulatory circuits for maintaining health and how they can fail. Based on quite recent research sometimes.
It models some of the body's regulatory circuits for maintaining health and how they can fail. Based on quite recent research sometimes.
System Medicine 2022-2023
www.weizmann.ac.il
May 5, 2024 at 2:22 PM
fave recent reading: Uri Alon, Systems Medicine. The content's free at this course: www.weizmann.ac.il/mcb/UriAlon/... (though I prefer the book format).
It models some of the body's regulatory circuits for maintaining health and how they can fail. Based on quite recent research sometimes.
It models some of the body's regulatory circuits for maintaining health and how they can fail. Based on quite recent research sometimes.
A 45min power outage made me review my prep.
* Battery pack for electronics: still claims to be at 100% after over a year. Neat. Maybe I should try actually using it?
* I can't even remember how long since I filled the emergency water container.
* Flashlights still charged.
* Battery pack for electronics: still claims to be at 100% after over a year. Neat. Maybe I should try actually using it?
* I can't even remember how long since I filled the emergency water container.
* Flashlights still charged.
May 2, 2024 at 2:54 PM
A 45min power outage made me review my prep.
* Battery pack for electronics: still claims to be at 100% after over a year. Neat. Maybe I should try actually using it?
* I can't even remember how long since I filled the emergency water container.
* Flashlights still charged.
* Battery pack for electronics: still claims to be at 100% after over a year. Neat. Maybe I should try actually using it?
* I can't even remember how long since I filled the emergency water container.
* Flashlights still charged.
A site "petscreening.com" was sending me emails claiming my apartment's new management (who'd never mentioned them) required me to register with them. Turns out this obvious phishing was legit, and I guess actually reading your lease is so rare that signing it is not a practical signal of intent?
May 1, 2024 at 11:21 AM
A site "petscreening.com" was sending me emails claiming my apartment's new management (who'd never mentioned them) required me to register with them. Turns out this obvious phishing was legit, and I guess actually reading your lease is so rare that signing it is not a practical signal of intent?
I haven’t read this yet but I admire the title. (Library booksale)
March 3, 2024 at 5:07 PM
I haven’t read this yet but I admire the title. (Library booksale)
Balanced ternary is an elegant number system I just assumed humans couldn’t use, because to start with the numbers are twice as long as in decimal. But writing each digit as a single stroke, as you easily could, would make up all of that ground.
November 16, 2023 at 1:31 AM
Balanced ternary is an elegant number system I just assumed humans couldn’t use, because to start with the numbers are twice as long as in decimal. But writing each digit as a single stroke, as you easily could, would make up all of that ground.