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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 4d

(A good description of some AI slop, too)

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d

Despite trying I really haven't read much Otlet, which makes me grateful for Rayward's characterization of his writing: "a thick encyclopaedism which has an almost imperceptible pulse of argument"

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 12d

Short Circuit Jack had it all figured out https://archive.org/details/1921Prattonia/page/61/mode/1up

Yearbook entry from 1921, in which John D. Carr's nickname is "Short Circuit Jack" and his motto is "Industry is the thief of joy."

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 14d

University of Alberta Library Digital Scholarship Graduate Student Fellowship Program - Call for Applications

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kjqfCgfEEY7_WEcOH6xD7eV8fByXBYHMWQxxWc0Zo0I/edit

This will be our third year offering these fellowships - digital scholarship is so broad that it […]

Original post on code4lib.social

code4lib.social

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Reposted by Peter Binkley

Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

As terrible as all the pollution from reentries is, I have to say that it's REALLY FREAKING COOL that I now know all the right people to ask to find out what exactly reentered when a journalist sends me a reddit video from a random Canadian city.

I don't know the answer yet, but I know who to […]

Original post on mastodon.social

mastodon.social

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

One more: Robert C. Binkley on scholarly communication, 1938: "There are indeed some property tenures vested at different points along these channels of communication. They are like the tolls along the river, some of them necessary to keep the channel open, some of them functionally piratical." […]

Original post on code4lib.social

code4lib.social

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 15d

It's maple syrup, right? It's gotta be maple syrup

Canada 'has what the world wants', Prime Minister Carney says
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/video-canada-has-what-the-world-wants-prime-minister-carney-says/

Video: Canada 'has what the world wants', Prime Minister Carney says

Prime Minister Mark Carney pitched Canada as a reliable trading partner that 'has what the world wants' before an international audience in New York City.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

... After the union catalogue will come the union want list -- the list of books that ought to be in the country -- to be used by libraries in executing their purchasing policies." (Robert C. Binkley, "The Cultural Program of the W.P.A.") […]

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

How American library collection policy looked in 1939: "As Europe falls, state by state, under the control of regimes that deny free inquiry to scholars, America becomes more and more the last place in which free scholarship can live. Hence the importance of avoiding wasteful duplication in […]

Original post on code4lib.social

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 21d

'morning

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 21d

"The fascist cultures, however rugged they may be in some aspects, are delicate in respect to their historical digestions. Only the most carefully prepared history, put together according to prescription, will nourish them." - Robert C. Binkley, "History for a Democracy" (1937)

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 23d

I've finally wrapped up a post about my grandfather's work in the 1930s on typescript books (lithographed from a typed master, allowing academic publishing to bypass some commercial services and reduce costs, at the expense of less slickness and more homework), tracing parallels with open […]

Original post on code4lib.social

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · 29d

Thing I still wonder about: why did the medieval western canon law faculties produce tons of mnemonic verse, and the civil law faculties hardly any? #medieval

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 8

boy, git stashes can hang around for a long time

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 7

wrapup: yes, it is possible. Had to use a VPN.

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 7

This is great: I had read about these Swedish #medievalmanuscripts that were cut up and used to wrap accounts in the 16th century, but hadn't seen one. Here's Matthias of Linköping (confessor to St. Birgitta), Alphabetum disctinctionum: https://www.manuscripta.se/ms/101701 - some pages with […]

Original post on code4lib.social

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 5

Wonderful, wonderful video of the building of a wooden mechanical calculator, with reflections on the process and the history
https://youtu.be/E0pJST5mL3A

Reposted by Peter Binkley

Chad :mstdn: @chad.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy · Aug 31

Margaret Atwood claps back to having The Handmaid’s Tale banned from Alberta schools by the UCP.

It’s so good.

#ableg #abpoli #abed

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Reposted by Peter Binkley

Dana McFarland 🍁 @danamcfarland.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 31

"I thought of us in the worded world."

#SundaySentence is from Gliff by Ali Smith

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/38351476-3985-4969-b3a1-6a6914f1190d

Sunday sentence in context on the page:

Unverifiable unverifiable
unverifiable.
I thought of us in the worded world.
I looked at the horse.
By standing in this wide room meant for something else altogether the horse brought
something of another possible world into the place.
Was a horse more lost to the world, because of no words, or was the horse more found - or even founded - in the world because of no words?
Were we in our worded world the ones who were
truly deluded about where and what we believed about
the things we had words for?

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 30

By this time next year there'll be a remake of Attorney Woo where Woo is AI

Reposted by Peter Binkley

Chuck Darwin @cdarwin.c.im.ap.brid.gy · Aug 29

"Please do not use Google AI to find out our specials. Please go on our Facebook page or our website,"
the restaurant wrote in a weary Facebook post.

"Google AI is not accurate and is telling people specials that do not exist
which is causing angry customers yelling at our employees." […]

Original post on c.im

c.im

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 28

ok, a little more precision on this: the error rates for two runs on the same PDF:

WER: 0.2072072072072072
CER: 0.13846153846153847

so, 20% of the words were at least a little bit different between the two runs. Probably ok for some uses of OCR (give me a text I can manually correct) but […]

Original post on code4lib.social

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 28

funny how the hallucinations keep coming in that last clause:

"I believe at least two weeks should be allowed" becomes:

- "all of these have to be allowed."
- "it seems to me that 30 days should be allowed."
- "it seems that three to five months should be allowed."
- " return of draft two or […]

Original post on code4lib.social

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Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 28

(dammit, I broke the thread: the concluding post is here: https://code4lib.social/@pbinkley/115104405062384762 )

Peter Binkley (@[email protected])

Absolutely splendid - a few typos, but given the source, it's great ... until the hallucinated ending: "I belief at least two weeks should be allowed" becomes "it will be best to wait until the report is finished." Plausibility: the bane of AI output. [/end]

code4lib.social

Peter Binkley @pbinkley.code4lib.social.ap.brid.gy · Aug 28

Absolutely splendid - a few typos, but given the source, it's great ... until the hallucinated ending: "I belief at least two weeks should be allowed" becomes "it will be best to wait until the report is finished." Plausibility: the bane of AI output.

[/end]

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