Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
@arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
260 followers 33 following 190 posts
Computer scientist #CS & entrepreneur, Information Retrieval #IR and Databases #DB Indie music 🎸 Radboud University, Nijmegen & Spinque, Utrecht NL #nobot 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://idf.social/@arjen, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
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arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
FT: Deloitte issues refund for error-ridden Australian government report that used AI
https://www.ft.com/content/934cc94b-32c4-497e-9718-d87d6a7835ca

"The document contained multiple errors, including references and citations to non-existent reports by academics at the universities of Sydney […]
Original post on idf.social
idf.social
arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Michael Granitzer opening the final OWS.EU project meeting - planning what to do until March 2026, and how to keep things afloat after March.
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
kim-harding.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy
Solar became the EU’s main source of electricity for the first time this June
https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/10/02/solar-became-the-eus-main-source-of-electricity-for-the-first-time-this-june
For the first month in history, solar energy was the main source of electricity generated in the EU.
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
jonalendering.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
Voor iedereen die morgen in #leiden is, is hier mijn jaarlijkse blogje over #leidensontzet: hier is het verhaal, zoals verteld door niemand minder dan P.C. Hooft.

https://mainzerbeobachter.com/2019/10/03/leidens-ontzet/
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
djoerd.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Thank you, participants of the Dagstuhl Seminar: "Retrieval-Augmented Generation – The Future of Search?"

https://www.dagstuhl.de/25391
The traditional Dagstuhl photo of all participants standing on the castel's stairs: Everybody is smiling in the rain.
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
fonolog.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy
John Searle overleden. Een interessante en oorspronkelijke denker over taal.

https://dailynous.com/2025/09/28/john-searle-1932-2025/
John Searle (1932-2025)
Philosopher John Searle, well-known for his work on philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, has died. John Searle wrote extensively consciousness and the mind, intentionality, and speech act theory. He is especially well known for his Chinese Room Argument on artificial intelligence. He has also made contributions to philosophical work on social ontology, rationality, and perception. Some of his works include Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (1969), Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind (1983), The Construction of Social Reality (1995), Rationality in Action (2001), Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization (2010), and Seeing Things as They Are: A Theory of Perception (2015). You can read more about his work here. Searle was on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley from 1959 to 2019. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1959. He also received his MA and BA from Oxford. In 2019, Searle was stripped of his emeritus status at Berkeley as a result of the university finding that he violated the its sexual harassment policies. In 2017 he was sued for sexual harassment (unsuccessfully), and the university had received prior complaints about him of sexual harassment. (A letter from his secretary regarding these events is reproduced here.) Over the course of his career, Searle was the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Jean Nicod Prize, the National Humanities Medal, and the Mind & Brain Prize. He has also been awarded several honorary doctorates. (via Gosha (George) Cherkasov) NOTE: As usual, comments are welcome. However, I ask that commenters on this post refrain from discussion of the sexual harassment allegations and related matters. The post John Searle (1932-2025) first appeared on Daily Nous.
dailynous.com
arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Tom-Jan Meeus in NRC:

<Kamer steunt strafbaarstelling van „personen en organisaties” die illegalen „helpen onder te duiken” (amendement PVV). Verbod Antifa (motie PVV-FVD). Herhaalde poging tot asielstop via staatsnoodrecht in debat over het extreemrechtse geweld in Den Haag (verworpen motie […]
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arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Geert Wilders is "een algoritme, met een vocabulaire van duizend woorden", schrijft Tommy Wieringa in zijn column.

"Twee kabinetten hielp hij vormgeven en twee kabinetten blies hij op, en het enige dat hij tot stand bracht, zijn een nationaal pesthumeur, fopgrenscontroles en het weigeren van […]
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arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
And, we are back in two steps on the recent #v4.2.26.

#mastoadmin
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
I'll consider this a birthday present.

Why Johnny Can't Use Agents: Industry Aspirations vs. User Realities with AI Agent Software
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.14528

"We found that users were generally impressed with these agents but faced several critical usability challenges ranging from agent […]
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Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
farmahond.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
“In Nederland is de #vaccinatiegraad van mazelen de afgelopen twintig jaar gedaald naar 89 procent. In Amsterdam, waar Max woonde, zelfs naar 83 procent. Volgens het RIVM hoort dat percentage voor het opbouwen van #GroepsImmuniteit rond de 95 procent te liggen. Alleen dan kan een besmettelijke […]
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mastodon.social
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arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Waar was het alarm toen Nederlandse cybersecurity werd verkocht aan Amerika?

Column van Marcia Luyten in De Volkskrant.

De overheid heeft commerciële techneuten nodig om te definiëren wat ze zelf nodig heeft. Opnieuw een probleem, want Nederland en Europa hebben een tekort aan geeks. Ze […]
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arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Grrr I get more advertisement junk from Diversity travel than from booking even, while I cannot opt not to use Diversity travel as the uni has mandated this (much to the annoyance and in disagreement with really every single scientist I know).

#radbouduniversity #stupidrules
arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
#duckdb 1.4 released

https://duckdb.org/2025/09/16/announcing-duckdb-140.html

Huge new feature: database encryption!

The encryption covers the main database file, the write-ahead-log (WAL) file, and even temporary files.

Another great feature: iceberg writes (for DuckLake).

And: In-memory […]
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idf.social
arjen.idf.social.ap.brid.gy
Hoogmoed komt voor de val: barst de AI-bubbel? (Knack)
https://archive.ph/hb22l

"Op elke euro die het verdient, zou OpenAI twee euro verlies maken."
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bert-hubert.mastodon.nl.ap.brid.gy
Het punt is overigens niet zozeer dat Amerikanen allemaal de duivel zijn. Het punt is dat op 1 uitzondering na, ALLE verkiesbare partijen met hun verkiezingsprogramma op Amerikaanse servers staan. En ze hebben ook allemaal (op Volt na) hun digitaal talent afgestraft. Techniek, internet, cloud […]
Original post on mastodon.nl
mastodon.nl
Reposted by Arjen P. de Vries Timmers 🕊️
v-i-o-l-a.openbiblio.social.ap.brid.gy
"Is #openalex suitable for research quality evaluation and which citation indicator is best?" https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.70020