Jeff Lockhart
@jwlockhart.bsky.social
Cat person. Sometimes sociologist of science, sex, & other stuff.
How did we get to the point where it's normal to embed a png of text in an email and then attach "ALT TXT.docx" to it. Please. Someone. Make it stop.
November 26, 2025 at 5:35 PM
How did we get to the point where it's normal to embed a png of text in an email and then attach "ALT TXT.docx" to it. Please. Someone. Make it stop.
I set aside time to do a review but it turned out to be a really well executed R&R so I could just give it a quick 'accept.' Delightful.
November 25, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I set aside time to do a review but it turned out to be a really well executed R&R so I could just give it a quick 'accept.' Delightful.
Woof. The Empire of AI water use correction is bait. An EA guy's substack is clearly a biased source for defending AI. But frankly the "stylized fact" of water use for AI has always been implausibly inflated by AI critics in a way that makes criticism seem unserious.
November 24, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Woof. The Empire of AI water use correction is bait. An EA guy's substack is clearly a biased source for defending AI. But frankly the "stylized fact" of water use for AI has always been implausibly inflated by AI critics in a way that makes criticism seem unserious.
Someone on TikTok must have already done a Zohran cover of Gaston, yes?
November 22, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Someone on TikTok must have already done a Zohran cover of Gaston, yes?
So my dentist heard I'm a sociologist and decided to tell me how he was converted from a Republican to a Democrat.
During the Hillary Clinton campaign, he heard Warren Buffett make the veil of ignorance argument in a speech. And it... Worked.
During the Hillary Clinton campaign, he heard Warren Buffett make the veil of ignorance argument in a speech. And it... Worked.
November 21, 2025 at 11:30 PM
So my dentist heard I'm a sociologist and decided to tell me how he was converted from a Republican to a Democrat.
During the Hillary Clinton campaign, he heard Warren Buffett make the veil of ignorance argument in a speech. And it... Worked.
During the Hillary Clinton campaign, he heard Warren Buffett make the veil of ignorance argument in a speech. And it... Worked.
This is brat.
Q: Are you affirming that you think President Trump is a fascist?
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
MAMDANI: I've spoken about--
TRUMP: That's okay. You can just say yes. I don't mind.
November 21, 2025 at 11:20 PM
This is brat.
The nyt Roblox interview is really something marvelous. Multiple scandals leaking out of their niche corners of the Internet with a guy who's never heard of media training.
November 21, 2025 at 8:39 PM
The nyt Roblox interview is really something marvelous. Multiple scandals leaking out of their niche corners of the Internet with a guy who's never heard of media training.
Thrilled to discover this paper claiming to share an "AI model" for labeling the thing I want
a) is just `sklearn.linear_model.LogisticRegression`
b) shared their code, but not the fitted model or training data to fit another one
a) is just `sklearn.linear_model.LogisticRegression`
b) shared their code, but not the fitted model or training data to fit another one
November 21, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Thrilled to discover this paper claiming to share an "AI model" for labeling the thing I want
a) is just `sklearn.linear_model.LogisticRegression`
b) shared their code, but not the fitted model or training data to fit another one
a) is just `sklearn.linear_model.LogisticRegression`
b) shared their code, but not the fitted model or training data to fit another one
Not ideal: local 8th grade math teacher needs to drive rideshare on the side to make sense meet. Pretty great: talking to an 8th grade math teacher on my way home.
November 20, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Not ideal: local 8th grade math teacher needs to drive rideshare on the side to make sense meet. Pretty great: talking to an 8th grade math teacher on my way home.
New favorite chatbot
chatgpt down this morning? bartleby the ai still works www.cs.columbia.edu/~djhsu/ai.html
Bartleby, the AI
www.cs.columbia.edu
November 19, 2025 at 3:41 AM
New favorite chatbot
No, actually, a lot of software is better if it runs locally, offline or with periodic internet access.
The latest Cloudflare and Amazon outages have got me thinking about utilities. We can't build modern software without dependencies. The days of running entirely on the client are over, which I see as a good thing. The cost is that we rely on infrastructure.
1/5
1/5
November 19, 2025 at 12:08 AM
No, actually, a lot of software is better if it runs locally, offline or with periodic internet access.
Cat is in an inconvenient spot. Time to sit awkwardly so I don't disturb her.
November 18, 2025 at 6:22 AM
Cat is in an inconvenient spot. Time to sit awkwardly so I don't disturb her.
Under no circumstances is your alumni newsletter 'urgent.'
November 18, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Under no circumstances is your alumni newsletter 'urgent.'
Forbidden water is best water
November 17, 2025 at 2:46 AM
Forbidden water is best water
Why have normal hobbies when I can repartition disks from 2012?
November 16, 2025 at 8:56 PM
Why have normal hobbies when I can repartition disks from 2012?
Yes, but also redistributing the annual Amazon CEO pay would be only $2,857 per fired employee.
Amazon announced 14,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $40M last year.
UPS announced 48,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $24M last year.
Intel announced 20,000 layoffs. Its new CEO's pay package is valued at nearly $69M.
This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.
UPS announced 48,000 layoffs. Its CEO made over $24M last year.
Intel announced 20,000 layoffs. Its new CEO's pay package is valued at nearly $69M.
This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.
November 15, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Yes, but also redistributing the annual Amazon CEO pay would be only $2,857 per fired employee.
Today I achieved peak security: I don't know one of my passwords. If I type what I think the password is slowly and deliberately, it won't work. But if I close my eyes and type quickly from muscle memory, I reliably make the unknown typos and it works.
November 15, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Today I achieved peak security: I don't know one of my passwords. If I type what I think the password is slowly and deliberately, it won't work. But if I close my eyes and type quickly from muscle memory, I reliably make the unknown typos and it works.
Pro tip: don't give your staff job titles like "lead genius," because inevitably they'll do something stupid and it will be awkward.
November 15, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Pro tip: don't give your staff job titles like "lead genius," because inevitably they'll do something stupid and it will be awkward.
They're going to try the platform infrastructure vs publisher distinction that social media companies mostly won. I don't think it will go as well for them.
We didn't plagiarize, you made us plagiarize by asking questions to which we stole the answers.
"Because its output is generated by users of the chatbot via their prompts, OpenAI said, they were the ones who should be held legally liable for it – an argument rejected by the court."
"Because its output is generated by users of the chatbot via their prompts, OpenAI said, they were the ones who should be held legally liable for it – an argument rejected by the court."
ChatGPT violated copyright law by ‘learning’ from song lyrics, German court rules
OpenAI ordered to pay undisclosed damages for training its language models on artists’ work without permission
www.theguardian.com
November 14, 2025 at 5:52 AM
They're going to try the platform infrastructure vs publisher distinction that social media companies mostly won. I don't think it will go as well for them.
A friend reminded me that I used an unflattering Larry Summers quote as the hook of a job talk years ago. It's funny how at the time, people told me his beliefs on women were outdated and irrelevant.
November 13, 2025 at 9:30 PM
A friend reminded me that I used an unflattering Larry Summers quote as the hook of a job talk years ago. It's funny how at the time, people told me his beliefs on women were outdated and irrelevant.
Look, I get that many substack authors are talking out of their asses. But the number of them who then confess they don't know what they're talking about and ask for people to teach them the basics... What are you doing? Why did you write a whole thing and then ask someone to teach you intro to it?
November 11, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Look, I get that many substack authors are talking out of their asses. But the number of them who then confess they don't know what they're talking about and ask for people to teach them the basics... What are you doing? Why did you write a whole thing and then ask someone to teach you intro to it?
I should not have to be in the apple store often enough to have the detailed feelings about it that I do. And yet.
November 11, 2025 at 2:49 AM
I should not have to be in the apple store often enough to have the detailed feelings about it that I do. And yet.
Donna says hello from the balcony.
November 9, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Donna says hello from the balcony.
I installed Linux on 3 different computers last night in less time than the apple store can put an OS on a MacBook.
November 8, 2025 at 12:10 AM
I installed Linux on 3 different computers last night in less time than the apple store can put an OS on a MacBook.