hmahncke

Greg Egan as great! Two other Australians you might try are:

Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman, about what it's like to be colonized.

Souls in the Great Machine by Sean McMullen, about what it's like to be part of a computer.

I asked "what well known pieces of American minimalism feature the marimba"

Claude answered with several well-known works, but also included "Marimba Lumina" (1986) by Philip Glass - Written for the virtuoso marimbist Rei Sasaki, it merges Glass's repetitive rhythmic style with dramatic gestures."

That's not a thing...

I followed up with "actually, I don't see any evidence that Marimba Lumina (1986) by Philip Glass is a real piece of music - is it possible that you hallucinated it?"

And Claude answered "You're absolutely right, upon further research it appears I did make a mistake in citing "Marimba Lumina" by Philip Glass as an actual musical composition. I do not have any factual evidence that such a piece exists. As an AI, I do not truly "hallucinate" or imagine non-existent information, but I can generate incorrect information if there are gaps or inaccuracies in my training data. In this case, it seems I conflated details between Steve Reich's "Six Marimbas" and Philip Glass's legitmate "Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra." I likely crossed the concepts of Philip Glass, marimba, and minimalism too eagerly when answering the original question. As an AI still in development and training, mistakes like this can happen in my efforts to produce relevant, detailed responses. Thank you for catching this inaccurate example - it will help strengthen my knowledge and improve my response validity going forward. I appreciate you taking the time to verify and correct me."

which was pretty interesting...

I wonder how Alex and Alex's boss would tell this story?

[edited below - because threaded comments can come across wrong]

I wonder if how Alex's boss would tell this story is - my employee landed a $35m account, then failed to manage the account successfully, and when $35m walked out the door, we never understood what we did wrong

Old enough to remember when Alta Vista was obviously going to win because it came from DEC.

NPSM33 is cited as the requirement guiding the section to require preregistration to use the WiFi network. But skimming NPSM33, it seems to be mostly about research security and disclosure of foreign interests in finding applications.

Out of curiosity, why is MIT (and presumably others) relating this to WiFi access.

I like an open guest network WiFi when I’m visiting a place…

(1) https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/010422...

Remarkable that a venture-backed company can loan $10B to the founder's hedge fund without running into some sort of board/corporate sign-off that's required to literally execute the agreement/fund transfer.

The author of the original post (Andy Baio) found exactly where the line was. He released a (great) chip tune version of the jazz classic Kind of Blue (named Kind of Bloop), fully handled the music copyrights, and was promptly sued by the cover artist for Kind of Blue who believed that the pixel art cover of Kind of Bloop was not adequately transformative.

https://waxy.org/2011/06/kind_of_screwed/

Because it's a programming language, where they learn to program, and then make programs.

trackly.io

For folks who dislike p-value reporting (and I'm one of them), we can focus on the effect sizes for speed of processing training in ACTIVE:

[1] 0.36 in slowing decline in functional abilities, equivalent to ~3 years of delayed decline [2] 48% reduction in at fault auto crash risk [3] 30% reduction in the risk of experiencing serious [0.5 s.d.] worsening of depressive symptoms [4] 29% reduction in dementia incidence [hazard ratio]

These are all clinically meaningful effect sizes.

Regarding the dementia incidence study, it's correct that two of the cognitive training interventions did not show effects, and speed of processing training did. In my view, a straightforward interpretation is that different types of cognitive training are different (much like different small molecule pharmaceuticals are different), and consequently they have different effects on endpoints like dementia incidence.

>> Examples include the ACTIVE trial, commercial brain-training games (e.g., Neuroracer, Lumosity, and BrainHQ), and multidomain training programs (Binder et al., 2016; Buitenweg et al., 2017; Duyck & Op de Beeck, 2019). To date, none of these regimens have shown compelling evidence, or any evidence at all, of training-induced far transfer to either cognitive tests or real-life skills >>

ACTIVE showed that cognitive training slowed decline in instrumental activities of daily living [1], and that adaptive computerized speed training in particular reduced at-fault car crashes [2], reduced depressive symptoms [3], and most importantly reduced the incidence of dementia [4]. The NIH is spending tens of millions of dollars on follow-up trials to extend the results.

To dismiss ACTIVE in the brief paragraph is...startling.

>> We demonstrate that this optimism is due to the field neglecting the results of meta-analyses >>

A strong statement from a paper that doesn't seem to cover multiple positive meta-analyses of cognitive training [5, for example].

In my view, if you read a lot of papers in this field (and I do), the pattern is that negative articles generally focus on working memory training and effects on IQ or "generalized cognitive ability" (whatever that is); and positive articles generally focus on neurocognitive measures and real-world functional measures. One reasonable interpretation [and there are many!] is that programs focused on using working memory techniques to improve IQ are not generally effective, and programs using speed/attention training to improve specific aspects of cognitive and real-world performance are effective.

Meanwhile, out in the clinical world, cognitive training is now recommended by clinical guidelines from the American Academy of Neurology and the World Health Organization, and offered as a benefit by a dozen Medicare Advantage plans around the country.

Disclaimer: I work at BrainHQ, and have published in this field. Further disclaimer, a HN comment isn't an academic article.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4055506/ [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3057872/ [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2657170/ [4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5700828/ [5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7050567/

A lot of discussion here about the limitations of Scratch as a programming language.

But the magic of Scratch is the community. My daughter learned Scratch, and she joined multiple teams of 10-year olds making all kind of interactive stories and games. And virtually every interaction she had was positive, uplifting, and helped her construct her identity as a programmer.

She now teaches Scratch for kids and programs in Java and Python. But making those friends and doing those team projects was invaluable - and nearly unreplicable in another language/ environment.

I certainly don't mean to endorse DUIs! And if a company has the viewpoint that a DUI indicates that a person shouldn't be employed in a specific role, then background checks are a good way to achieve that.

My perception is that some people who don't want to do background checks feel that way because they don't want to know embarrassing details about their employees and colleagues that aren't relevant to work. And the good news is that employers can generally set up background check reporting to simply not report issues that employers don't think are relevant. And that makes it easier to offer background checks, and easier to meet SOC-2 audit requirements.

My company did adopt background checks, as part of our SOC-2 requirements and because my company works with health insurers (which generally impose this requirement via contract, regardless of SOC-2).

Like many people here, I didn't like the requirement. That being said

1) It's possible to configure background checks so you don't receive irrelevant information (e.g., if DUIs aren't relevant, then configure the check so you don't receive information about DUIs). In most cases, you'll just want to receive information about financial and privacy related offenses.

2) What you do with the information is up to you (unless your customers enforce certain actions). In general, the SOC-2 auditors will want to see a plan by which you acknowledge and manage the risk, which doesn't necessarily mean you can't hire the person.

I listened to this album constantly as a teenager…

If you are short on money, the generate one. Then read a few that are similar to your space. Then edit the generated one to better describe your actual practices. When you have money, pay a lawyer to update it.

IANAL.

Excellent use of adaptive learning, zone of proximal development, etc.

In principle, a company’s security policy could be to enforce security settings on employee computers with an agent like Drata, and contractually guarantee those same settings for contractors. The evidence during the audit would be the Drata report for employee computers and the signed contracts for the contractors.

Great museum and a great exhibit! Really compelling description of folks remedies in a way that respects the construction of knowledge.

Unfortunately the museum is still closed due to COVID, but they've said they're not permanently closed...

Thanks for pointing that out - great to see someone is working on this.

"just tossing out all the ex-cons is an easy call" - it might be an easy call, but it doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

The trial did focus on early stage patients - mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and early stage AD to be precise.

Clinical trials.gov link: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02817074

This is an observational study, not a randomized controlled trial. So it can’t really establish causality. A number of observational studies have previously shown an association between MeDi adherence and cognitive function and dementia risk; this went further to establish an association with structural brain imaging measures.

We’re still waiting for the outcome of the NIH funded randomized controlled trial.

We found Vanta very helpful for identifying and managing all of the to-do's (gap analysis). Our initial discussion with an auditor was very paperwork-focused, and Vanta helped us see the gap analysis as technical/process focused (with the paperwork following, describing what we were now actually doing). It would have been much more challenging to achieve SOC-2 compliance without Vanta.

From a cost perspective, Vanta + a Vanta-partnered auditor was less expensive that just an auditor (presumably because the information was organized so the auditor had to do less work to complete the audit).

The Vanta platform ends up being a place to put documents so the auditor can find them (which is more useful than you might think if you haven't done a SOC-2 audit). They offer several Vanta-developed continuous monitoring tools (e.g., endpoint configuration monitoring, AWS vulnerability monitoring), which are not as well developed as independent tools (e.g., Kandji, AWS Inspector) but are convenient for auditors documenting continuous compliance.

As I understand it, they are working towards being more of an integration center for independent tools, so Kandji/AWS Inspector information can flow into the Vanta system.

If you haven't seen it, there's a great companion book "Lexicon Urthus" [1] that provides a definition for all of the unusual English words used, as well as character references and in-book lore. I re-read BOTNS with the Lexicon, and really expanded my appreciation of the use of language in the books.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Urthus-Dictionary-Urth-Cycle/...

In the US, consider an SBIR application: https://www.sbir.gov

“Early Riser” by Jasper Fforde is a great speculative fiction novel about hibernating humans. Hijinks ensue.

Be transparent about overall company finances, and clear about how the small decisions they make roll up into the big issues that affect the company’s success or failure.

IMHO, this is a company culture issue more than an incentive issue.

Proposition H (passed) was designed to do exactly that: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/S-F-s-Propositio...