Tim A.
@flipperpa.bsky.social
Open-source maintainer, objective "A.I." skeptic, speaker, and organizer in tech (mainly Python). 🖖 Guitar and serenity geek 🖖 Principal Engineer, WRDS @ Wharton @ Penn 🖖 he/him 🖖 https://github.com/flipperpa 🖖 https://youtube.com/flipperpa
GO PHILLY!
And thank you for the absolutely appropriate invocation of Orwell, Your Honor.
And thank you for the absolutely appropriate invocation of Orwell, Your Honor.
👀 Invoking Orwell, a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore panels and historical acknowledgments of the history of slavery that the National Park Service removed in Philadelphia. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
February 16, 2026 at 9:45 PM
GO PHILLY!
And thank you for the absolutely appropriate invocation of Orwell, Your Honor.
And thank you for the absolutely appropriate invocation of Orwell, Your Honor.
Yep, the white paper and the DP have it surrounded:
The white paper argues that the widespread use of generative AI makes it harder to assess student learning and is leading to “shallower knowledge” and “skill atrophy.”
www.thedp.com/article/2026...
The white paper argues that the widespread use of generative AI makes it harder to assess student learning and is leading to “shallower knowledge” and “skill atrophy.”
www.thedp.com/article/2026...
Penn working group publishes white paper about AI use in classrooms
The paper warns that the growing role of artificial intelligence in academic spaces raises questions about the future of critical thinking and student skill development.
www.thedp.com
February 16, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Yep, the white paper and the DP have it surrounded:
The white paper argues that the widespread use of generative AI makes it harder to assess student learning and is leading to “shallower knowledge” and “skill atrophy.”
www.thedp.com/article/2026...
The white paper argues that the widespread use of generative AI makes it harder to assess student learning and is leading to “shallower knowledge” and “skill atrophy.”
www.thedp.com/article/2026...
Happy New Year, everyone!
新年快乐
新年快乐
February 16, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Happy New Year, everyone!
新年快乐
新年快乐
Instagram's boss just claimed that 16 hours of daily use isn't addiction. That's every waking hour, glued to a device, on a stupid app engineered to be addicting. What planet are these people from? www.bbc.com/news/article...
Instagram boss: 16 hours of daily use is not addiction
Instagram's Adam Mosseri faced questioning about the impact of his platform on minors.
www.bbc.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Instagram's boss just claimed that 16 hours of daily use isn't addiction. That's every waking hour, glued to a device, on a stupid app engineered to be addicting. What planet are these people from? www.bbc.com/news/article...
I'm all for us embracing the weird and whimsical as a species; I like to think I'm in the "live and let live" camp (while being intolerant of the intolerant). Nevertheless, here's another instance in the "A.I." era where I just don't get what the heck we're doing. www.theverge.com/gadgets/8778...
I hate my AI pet with every fiber of my being
Casio’s $429 Moflin promised me calm. I got a supposedly lovable robot nuisance.
www.theverge.com
February 15, 2026 at 6:19 PM
I'm all for us embracing the weird and whimsical as a species; I like to think I'm in the "live and let live" camp (while being intolerant of the intolerant). Nevertheless, here's another instance in the "A.I." era where I just don't get what the heck we're doing. www.theverge.com/gadgets/8778...
Reposted by Tim A.
America at 250, ENIAC at 80: A birthday year for Philadelphia innovation technical.ly/entrepreneur...
America at 250, ENIAC at 80: A birthday year for Philadelphia innovation
A tech twist to Philly’s 2026 heritage celebrations, eight decades after the pioneering Penn-built machine changed society forever.
technical.ly
February 15, 2026 at 11:30 AM
America at 250, ENIAC at 80: A birthday year for Philadelphia innovation technical.ly/entrepreneur...
Happy My Bloody Valentine’s Day, everyone. youtu.be/Byf4fkE8x_Q?...
my bloody valentine – swallow (official video)
YouTube video by my bloody valentine
youtu.be
February 15, 2026 at 4:56 AM
Happy My Bloody Valentine’s Day, everyone. youtu.be/Byf4fkE8x_Q?...
Reposted by Tim A.
I desperately need you, the person reading this post, to know that this is happening at the senior leadership/executive levels of YOUR COMPANY TOO right now.
And I really do mean *you* even if I know you personally.
Hell, some of you ARE the executives.
And I really do mean *you* even if I know you personally.
Hell, some of you ARE the executives.
lol this is gonna burst so fucking hard
February 15, 2026 at 4:24 AM
I desperately need you, the person reading this post, to know that this is happening at the senior leadership/executive levels of YOUR COMPANY TOO right now.
And I really do mean *you* even if I know you personally.
Hell, some of you ARE the executives.
And I really do mean *you* even if I know you personally.
Hell, some of you ARE the executives.
Reposted by Tim A.
I'm all for pardons and second chances. But it's a hell of a juxtaposition to pardon millionaire NFL players convicted of drug distribution while you're summarily executing impoverished fishermen making a few hundred bucks to shuttle drugs around the Caribbean.
President Trump pardons Hall of Famer Joe Klecko and four other former NFL players
Trump pardoned Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon for crimes ranging from perjury to drug trafficking.
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:46 PM
I'm all for pardons and second chances. But it's a hell of a juxtaposition to pardon millionaire NFL players convicted of drug distribution while you're summarily executing impoverished fishermen making a few hundred bucks to shuttle drugs around the Caribbean.
Clause Opus 4.5 tried to add 500+ lines of code to an ETL tool I was coding today while getting a panic error on a Parquet file import. It tried to duplicate the entire code base to fall back to Apache Arrow.
Upgrading polars fixed the bug. Without adding 500+ lines.
LLMs have fundamental flaws.
Upgrading polars fixed the bug. Without adding 500+ lines.
LLMs have fundamental flaws.
February 13, 2026 at 4:06 PM
Clause Opus 4.5 tried to add 500+ lines of code to an ETL tool I was coding today while getting a panic error on a Parquet file import. It tried to duplicate the entire code base to fall back to Apache Arrow.
Upgrading polars fixed the bug. Without adding 500+ lines.
LLMs have fundamental flaws.
Upgrading polars fixed the bug. Without adding 500+ lines.
LLMs have fundamental flaws.
There are no CMS Olympics. But we do have the CMS Critic Awards! And you can help Wagtail win gold. 🏆️
Please take a minute to vote for us in the Best Free CMS and Best Open Source CMS categories. It's super quick, and you don't even have to fill out the whole ballot.
Vote here: cmscritic.com/vote
Please take a minute to vote for us in the Best Free CMS and Best Open Source CMS categories. It's super quick, and you don't even have to fill out the whole ballot.
Vote here: cmscritic.com/vote
The 14th Annual CMS Critic Awards Nominations
Your voice, your choice! Vote your favorite platforms for the 14th Annual CMS Critic Awards, the longest-running awards program in the content management industry! For almost a decade and a half, our ...
cmscritic.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:49 PM
There are no CMS Olympics. But we do have the CMS Critic Awards! And you can help Wagtail win gold. 🏆️
Please take a minute to vote for us in the Best Free CMS and Best Open Source CMS categories. It's super quick, and you don't even have to fill out the whole ballot.
Vote here: cmscritic.com/vote
Please take a minute to vote for us in the Best Free CMS and Best Open Source CMS categories. It's super quick, and you don't even have to fill out the whole ballot.
Vote here: cmscritic.com/vote
Reposted by Tim A.
Made an annotated version of "Something Big Is Coming" for all of you to enjoy. I hate this guy's writing so much
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
February 12, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Made an annotated version of "Something Big Is Coming" for all of you to enjoy. I hate this guy's writing so much
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qw6k5...
Reposted by Tim A.
“Young people are quickly becoming so dependent on A.I. that they are losing the ability to think for themselves. And rather than rallying resistance, academic administrators are aiding and abetting a hostile takeover of higher education.”
Opinion | How A.I. Companies Are Preying on College Students
www.nytimes.com
February 12, 2026 at 8:24 PM
“Young people are quickly becoming so dependent on A.I. that they are losing the ability to think for themselves. And rather than rallying resistance, academic administrators are aiding and abetting a hostile takeover of higher education.”
Reposted by Tim A.
how bad do you have to fuck up to allow an exploit in fucking NOTEPAD
The AI features added to Notepad created a critical exploit vulnerable to loading a compromised txt file.
The fix is part of Patch Tuesday, so update your systems.
AI is not a feature I ever desired in Notepad. I should look into some alternatives...
The fix is part of Patch Tuesday, so update your systems.
AI is not a feature I ever desired in Notepad. I should look into some alternatives...
AI-upgraded Notepad now exposes Windows users to critical exploit
A critical remote code execution vulnerability found in the AI-upgraded Windows 11 Notepad has fueled renewed criticism of Microsoft's forced AI feature creep.
cybernews.com
February 11, 2026 at 9:37 PM
how bad do you have to fuck up to allow an exploit in fucking NOTEPAD
Reposted by Tim A.
Hayes has this same ingenuous epiphany every couple of months. The gee-golly-this-might-be-powerful exclamation is part of his schtick, and the irritation is that he is a television personality who doesn't keep up w scholars, activists, & organizers; all he hears is hype & hype-adjacent chatter.
February 11, 2026 at 8:19 PM
Hayes has this same ingenuous epiphany every couple of months. The gee-golly-this-might-be-powerful exclamation is part of his schtick, and the irritation is that he is a television personality who doesn't keep up w scholars, activists, & organizers; all he hears is hype & hype-adjacent chatter.
During tax season, everyone is receiving their W-2s. I've never heard of a W-1. What's a W-1?! The search on the IRS website returned nothing! www.irs.gov/forms-instru...
Forms, instructions and publications | Internal Revenue Service
The latest versions of IRS forms, instructions, and publications.
www.irs.gov
February 11, 2026 at 8:32 PM
During tax season, everyone is receiving their W-2s. I've never heard of a W-1. What's a W-1?! The search on the IRS website returned nothing! www.irs.gov/forms-instru...
The music they used was stolen by """AI"—blatant plagiarism. Not to mention just how generic it is. And it wasn't the first time for this pair. Epic failure! techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/o...
An ice dance duo skated to AI music at the Olympics | TechCrunch
Czech ice dancers Katerina Mrazkova and Daniel Mrazek are learning the hard way that LLMs sometimes spit out straight-up plagiarism.
techcrunch.com
February 11, 2026 at 2:14 AM
The music they used was stolen by """AI"—blatant plagiarism. Not to mention just how generic it is. And it wasn't the first time for this pair. Epic failure! techcrunch.com/2026/02/10/o...
Reposted by Tim A.
I think this needs to be completely reconsidered by our AG, for many reasons, e.g. ICE, but especially considering the recent Ring Super Bowl commercial
This may be more like giving domestic abuse survivors an Apple AirTag linked to their abuser’s iCloud
illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/news/story/a...
This may be more like giving domestic abuse survivors an Apple AirTag linked to their abuser’s iCloud
illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/news/story/a...
February 11, 2026 at 1:37 AM
I think this needs to be completely reconsidered by our AG, for many reasons, e.g. ICE, but especially considering the recent Ring Super Bowl commercial
This may be more like giving domestic abuse survivors an Apple AirTag linked to their abuser’s iCloud
illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/news/story/a...
This may be more like giving domestic abuse survivors an Apple AirTag linked to their abuser’s iCloud
illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/news/story/a...
Here's one of the more brilliant commentaries on *where we are* that I've read in quite a while. www.robinsloan.com/winter-garde...
Flood fill vs. the magic circle
AI automation and the Four Horsemen of the paper jam.
www.robinsloan.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:48 PM
Here's one of the more brilliant commentaries on *where we are* that I've read in quite a while. www.robinsloan.com/winter-garde...
Reposted by Tim A.
The social function of AI:
February 10, 2026 at 8:54 AM
The social function of AI:
Every time I think Comcast Xfinity can't get any more customer-hostile, something like this happens.
Their live chat is now asking folks to type "OK" every few minutes to avoid the chat being automatically closed.
They ask you to wait a few minutes any time you contact them.
SMH.
Their live chat is now asking folks to type "OK" every few minutes to avoid the chat being automatically closed.
They ask you to wait a few minutes any time you contact them.
SMH.
February 9, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Every time I think Comcast Xfinity can't get any more customer-hostile, something like this happens.
Their live chat is now asking folks to type "OK" every few minutes to avoid the chat being automatically closed.
They ask you to wait a few minutes any time you contact them.
SMH.
Their live chat is now asking folks to type "OK" every few minutes to avoid the chat being automatically closed.
They ask you to wait a few minutes any time you contact them.
SMH.
Understanding lyrics has never been required for my musical enjoyment; one of my favorite bands is My Bloody Valentine, after all.
Right-wingers historically like awful, bland music. Keep your Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood derivative crap. We'll keep Bad Bunny.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyYM...
Right-wingers historically like awful, bland music. Keep your Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood derivative crap. We'll keep Bad Bunny.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyYM...
My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by UPROXX Indie Mixtape
www.youtube.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:12 PM
Understanding lyrics has never been required for my musical enjoyment; one of my favorite bands is My Bloody Valentine, after all.
Right-wingers historically like awful, bland music. Keep your Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood derivative crap. We'll keep Bad Bunny.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyYM...
Right-wingers historically like awful, bland music. Keep your Ted Nugent and Lee Greenwood derivative crap. We'll keep Bad Bunny.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyYM...
Bro, you didn't prepare for scale. You had a 6MB PNG file as your landing page background when a 30KB PNG file would have been fine. A 200x FAIL.
This is what vibe coding does. Bro was high on his own supply.
Without expertise, Bro ended up with epic failure.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
This is what vibe coding does. Bro was high on his own supply.
Without expertise, Bro ended up with epic failure.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
AI.com's $85 million Super Bowl ad campaign falls foul as traffic crashes servers — the campaign allegedly cost $15 million for the ads, $70 million for the domain name
Firm's CEO insists he had 'prepared for scale, but not for THIS.'
www.tomshardware.com
February 9, 2026 at 5:06 PM
Bro, you didn't prepare for scale. You had a 6MB PNG file as your landing page background when a 30KB PNG file would have been fine. A 200x FAIL.
This is what vibe coding does. Bro was high on his own supply.
Without expertise, Bro ended up with epic failure.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
This is what vibe coding does. Bro was high on his own supply.
Without expertise, Bro ended up with epic failure.
www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...
If the Seattle place kicker isn’t the MVP, it’s a travesty.
I'm rooting for the Pats to get shut out and a punter or place kicker to be named MVP.
February 9, 2026 at 3:20 AM
If the Seattle place kicker isn’t the MVP, it’s a travesty.
Reposted by Tim A.
AI ads should come with warnings similar to those for pharmaceuticals, e.g., may cause loss of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity; may contribute to high energy costs, rising temperatures, and depletion of water resources; you may experience threats to democracy with use of AI…
February 9, 2026 at 3:06 AM
AI ads should come with warnings similar to those for pharmaceuticals, e.g., may cause loss of critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity; may contribute to high energy costs, rising temperatures, and depletion of water resources; you may experience threats to democracy with use of AI…