Jake Wildstrom
@dwildstr.bsky.social
Mathematician, tinkerer, crocheter, freelance geek.
This isn't a situation you've specifically condoned, but one thing I've done with ebooks, because I have a Kindle but have become disenchanted with Amazon's whole thing, is to buy it on some less evil (bookshop.org or the like) walled garden, then pirate a DRM-free copy to actually read.
December 22, 2025 at 5:55 PM
This isn't a situation you've specifically condoned, but one thing I've done with ebooks, because I have a Kindle but have become disenchanted with Amazon's whole thing, is to buy it on some less evil (bookshop.org or the like) walled garden, then pirate a DRM-free copy to actually read.
They also aren't LLMs. "AI" is an ill-defined category which includes both current, highly dubious generative techniques and well-tested mature machine-learning classifiers. The latter are not perfect but they've been around for decades and, with caveats, do what they should do reliably.
December 16, 2025 at 7:58 AM
They also aren't LLMs. "AI" is an ill-defined category which includes both current, highly dubious generative techniques and well-tested mature machine-learning classifiers. The latter are not perfect but they've been around for decades and, with caveats, do what they should do reliably.
It _was_ nicknamed Romneycare! That's what everyone called the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance reform on which the ACA was fairly closely modeled.
December 13, 2025 at 3:06 AM
It _was_ nicknamed Romneycare! That's what everyone called the 2006 Massachusetts health insurance reform on which the ACA was fairly closely modeled.
Maybe they believe that one gender uses bathrooms in a particularly unpleasant manner (usually credited to men with poor aim, but all genders are equally capable of being gross and they might have a different disgustingness in mind), and want to spare the other gender the consequences of same?
December 9, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Maybe they believe that one gender uses bathrooms in a particularly unpleasant manner (usually credited to men with poor aim, but all genders are equally capable of being gross and they might have a different disgustingness in mind), and want to spare the other gender the consequences of same?
This showed up in my feed just below discussion of That Horny Gay Hockey Show and, uh, oddly appropriate.
December 9, 2025 at 8:52 PM
This showed up in my feed just below discussion of That Horny Gay Hockey Show and, uh, oddly appropriate.
From an actual realizable value standpoint, this is catastrophic: they're exchanging the valuable product of real labor for increasingly specious debt. But on the books it looks good, because you can log those sales as revenue even if every dollar you get is one you loaned them in the first place.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
From an actual realizable value standpoint, this is catastrophic: they're exchanging the valuable product of real labor for increasingly specious debt. But on the books it looks good, because you can log those sales as revenue even if every dollar you get is one you loaned them in the first place.
To summarize: NVIDIA sold a bunch of guys GPUs. They took the money they paid them and loaned it back to those same guys to buy more GPUs. They collateralized that loan with the GPUs they already had. Essentially, NVIDIA's taking the same packet of money over and over in exchange for new hardware.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
To summarize: NVIDIA sold a bunch of guys GPUs. They took the money they paid them and loaned it back to those same guys to buy more GPUs. They collateralized that loan with the GPUs they already had. Essentially, NVIDIA's taking the same packet of money over and over in exchange for new hardware.
Now, you don't just loan people money. You demand collateral, something you can repossess if the loan goes belly-up. But these guys have exactly one asset: GPUs and GPU-support infrastructure. So that's what NVIDIA's loans are collateralized with.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Now, you don't just loan people money. You demand collateral, something you can repossess if the loan goes belly-up. But these guys have exactly one asset: GPUs and GPU-support infrastructure. So that's what NVIDIA's loans are collateralized with.
But NVIDIA doesn't actually do LLM software or infrastructure. They do hardware. Other guys do the other stuff. So they loan those other guys money to build out actual LLM capacity. These guys are exactly the same ones (see two posts above!) who spent all that VC money at NVIDIA in the first place.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
But NVIDIA doesn't actually do LLM software or infrastructure. They do hardware. Other guys do the other stuff. So they loan those other guys money to build out actual LLM capacity. These guys are exactly the same ones (see two posts above!) who spent all that VC money at NVIDIA in the first place.
So every single part of the LLM tech chain really wants to keep growing, and NVIDIA is the only player actually positioned for serious capital expenditure (not entirely true. Diversified players like Amazon and Microsoft could raid their non-LLM units to fund capex, but they're not that stupid).
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
So every single part of the LLM tech chain really wants to keep growing, and NVIDIA is the only player actually positioned for serious capital expenditure (not entirely true. Diversified players like Amazon and Microsoft could raid their non-LLM units to fund capex, but they're not that stupid).
So, the solution is to make _more_ datacenters. Here, they're helped by the fact that every other player in the LLM space also has a going-up line in danger of stalling out. Unlike NVIDIA, most of them aren't awash in cash (they had VC cash, and they gave most of it to NVIDIA in exchange for GPUs).
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
So, the solution is to make _more_ datacenters. Here, they're helped by the fact that every other player in the LLM space also has a going-up line in danger of stalling out. Unlike NVIDIA, most of them aren't awash in cash (they had VC cash, and they gave most of it to NVIDIA in exchange for GPUs).
In particular, pretty much every extant datacenter is already crammed full of GPUs, and while they'll burn out or be obsolete in a few years and need to be replaced, NVIDIA doesn't have a few years. They report revenues quarterly, and the moment that line goes down, everybody is going to freak out.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
In particular, pretty much every extant datacenter is already crammed full of GPUs, and while they'll burn out or be obsolete in a few years and need to be replaced, NVIDIA doesn't have a few years. They report revenues quarterly, and the moment that line goes down, everybody is going to freak out.
So NVIDIA's leadership is deeply invested in making sure the good times last (not only staying steady but continuing to grow! Those investors are looking at the second derivative of your revenue and they noticed that the growth is dwindling!), but they also know everything is finite.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
So NVIDIA's leadership is deeply invested in making sure the good times last (not only staying steady but continuing to grow! Those investors are looking at the second derivative of your revenue and they noticed that the growth is dwindling!), but they also know everything is finite.
And, no, you cannot explain to your shareholders that what goes up must come down. If you could, presumably they would. But make no mistake, literally every rational person who looked at their revenues at the time _knew_ that crazy growth had to be, eventually, offset by shrinkage.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
And, no, you cannot explain to your shareholders that what goes up must come down. If you could, presumably they would. But make no mistake, literally every rational person who looked at their revenues at the time _knew_ that crazy growth had to be, eventually, offset by shrinkage.
But publicly traded business lives on the fiction of eternal growth. It's obviously a fiction, because everything is finite. So NVIDIA's C-suite isn't overjoyed with a quarter of 200% growth. They're deeply concerned about the quarter of 67% loss coming up on the other end of the boom.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
But publicly traded business lives on the fiction of eternal growth. It's obviously a fiction, because everything is finite. So NVIDIA's C-suite isn't overjoyed with a quarter of 200% growth. They're deeply concerned about the quarter of 67% loss coming up on the other end of the boom.
And in a sane business climate, maybe it would be. NVIDIA would go to their stockholders and say, "things are going well right now, and we're going to ride that wave for as long as it lasts, and when it does end, we'll have a higher market share and better products" and everyone would be happy.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
And in a sane business climate, maybe it would be. NVIDIA would go to their stockholders and say, "things are going well right now, and we're going to ride that wave for as long as it lasts, and when it does end, we'll have a higher market share and better products" and everyone would be happy.
Like, if you're self-employed, or running a small business, getting double the revenue you expect is awesome. You can probably think of a lot of things to do with that money. Even if it's a one-time windfall, it's still straight-up good news. And you'd think it'd be the same for big business, too.
December 9, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Like, if you're self-employed, or running a small business, getting double the revenue you expect is awesome. You can probably think of a lot of things to do with that money. Even if it's a one-time windfall, it's still straight-up good news. And you'd think it'd be the same for big business, too.
Nah, we've had a Coast Guard patrol of the area for _years_. They'd intercept suspected smugglers, search their vessels, and if they found contraband they'd seize it. The justification was basically just "might makes right", but we got away with it when we weren't indiscriminately killing folks.
December 6, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Nah, we've had a Coast Guard patrol of the area for _years_. They'd intercept suspected smugglers, search their vessels, and if they found contraband they'd seize it. The justification was basically just "might makes right", but we got away with it when we weren't indiscriminately killing folks.
He was always crazy and antisocial and kinda misogynistic (more misogynistic than generally misanthropic, but both were there), but at one point his _presentation_ of his crazy worldview was interesting.
December 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
He was always crazy and antisocial and kinda misogynistic (more misogynistic than generally misanthropic, but both were there), but at one point his _presentation_ of his crazy worldview was interesting.
The whole layering of his outfit is giving me bad vibes independent of the bad vibes from the terrible things he's saying. What _is_ that red garment? Is it a vest with a half-zip? Why is he wearing it between his shirt (with tie!) and his suit jacket?
December 4, 2025 at 7:21 PM
The whole layering of his outfit is giving me bad vibes independent of the bad vibes from the terrible things he's saying. What _is_ that red garment? Is it a vest with a half-zip? Why is he wearing it between his shirt (with tie!) and his suit jacket?
I figure that [CK]?[Hh]an+uk+ah? calls for a regexp.
(Astute readers will note that "CHannnnnuka" is, according to this proscription, a valid name for the holiday.)
(Astute readers will note that "CHannnnnuka" is, according to this proscription, a valid name for the holiday.)
December 3, 2025 at 9:06 PM
I figure that [CK]?[Hh]an+uk+ah? calls for a regexp.
(Astute readers will note that "CHannnnnuka" is, according to this proscription, a valid name for the holiday.)
(Astute readers will note that "CHannnnnuka" is, according to this proscription, a valid name for the holiday.)