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jdonaldson

1,667 karma · joined December 21, 2010

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/omgjjd; my proof: https://keybase.io/omgjjd/sigs/Lt4vkiKYu-xqm9CIIYz1z6aE641gawdpM5jlKoIZf_A ]
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jdonaldson··on The AI Race Just Got Awkward
Yeah, the whole thing seems like a human centipede of rug pulling. Probably the same as it's always been. Curating AI knowledge should be something that we put our best researchers towards, but realistically I think we wind up with 2-3 highly biased nationalistic models that are constantly copying off each other's notes.
jdonaldson··on Small AI Models Gain Traction In places with unreliable networks
I think neuro-symbolic AI has a lot of potential here, since small models can handle a lot of conversational inputs, while relying on wired-in solvers for more complex symbolic math/computation needs. https://jjd.io/posts/swollm-bbh-leaderboard.html
jdonaldson··on Fusion Programming Language
I'd love to see a comparison to Haxe. https://haxe.org/

I wonder what performance and generated code size/quality look like.

jdonaldson··on Quivers: A year of linear algebra by drawing arrows
I like directed acyclic graphs and/or DAG because it's a succinct description and contract. Trying to change the name of it makes me quiver with uncertainty.
jdonaldson··on Linux 7.0 Broke PostgreSQL: The Preemption Regression Explained
That post comes uncomfortably close to how Opus writes this kind of prose. It's a good idea to acknowledge all stakeholders.
jdonaldson··on Different Language Models Learn Similar Number Representations
(Pardon the self promotion) Libraries like turnstyle are taking advantage of shared representation across models. Neurosymbolic programming : https://github.com/jdonaldson/turnstyle
jdonaldson··on Music for Programming
Sharing a spotify link for one of my favorite playlists : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5jQQ19MndPFIVqsvDrvJyG?si=...
jdonaldson··on AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it
It's a different kind of fatigue, but it's something a felt I got stronger at over time. Beats waiting IMHO, but be sure to give yourself a chance to rest.
jdonaldson··on Why We Abandoned Matrix (2024)
People here always want to run the software themselves first, but then the next day they want to pay someone else to host it. If you're running into people throwing security flags, the silver lining is you're also a stone's throw away from offering a hosted option.
jdonaldson··on Texas Attorney General sues Tylenol makers over autism claims
Honestly, yeah, makes sense to me. If we value freedom at all we value the right to tell the government to stuff it with their legally binding nothingburger deals.
jdonaldson··on A classified network of SpaceX satellites is emitting a mysterious signal
I'm quite sure that's what's already going on. LEO is big and empty and pretty boring, but it's also resilient to increasing trends of natural disaster, war, and civil unrest. Having a foothold there matters more and more every day.
jdonaldson··on America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy
I don't think this quote is in the book.
jdonaldson··on America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy
I thought that book was pretty dull, and had a terrible romance subplot. But I do have to say it pops in my head more and more often, just like Idiocracy. Someone should definitely do a movie so the illiterates know what they're missing at least.
jdonaldson··on Prefix sum: 20 GB/s (2.6x baseline)
While that sounds like a dealbreaker, I can't help think "yeah but if a decoding method took advantage of prefix in a similarly scalable way, one would reap the same benefits".
jdonaldson··on New lab-grown human embryo model produces blood cells
I'm an organ donor, and I have no problem giving my organs away after I'm quite positive I won't feel it. I think as long as there is no sensation, there is no pain, and certainly no formal concept of "self". But still, with matters of exploitation of our bodies, we should tread very very lightly.
jdonaldson··on SEC approves Texas Stock Exchange, first new US integrated exchange in decades
throw in discreate as well :)
jdonaldson··on SEC approves Texas Stock Exchange, first new US integrated exchange in decades
The issue isn't that there's a lot of change coming from inside the markets, it's that there's a lot of change coming from outside the market, and it's all interconnected.
jdonaldson··on Social anxiety isn't about being liked
I always chalked that up to being around people that were new to the country and hadn't yet wrapped their head around the latest fashionable American cynicism. Generally takes a few decades to kick in, but when it does it's usually worth the wait (see Kumail Ali Nanjiani).
jdonaldson··on Data Viz Color Palette Generator (For Charts and Dashboards)
I also recommend Color Brewer, which is integrated already in a lot of visualization tools, and has great options for display variants and accessibility options : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ColorBrewer
jdonaldson··on His psychosis was a mystery–until doctors learned about ChatGPT's health advice
Humans make mistakes too. Case in point, the hallucination engine didn't tell the person to ingest bromide. It only mentioned that it had chemical similarities to salt. The human mistakenly adopted a bit of information that furthered his narrative. The humans touting and bigging it up are still the problem.
jdonaldson··on Journaling using Nix, Vim and coreutils
Nix always felt like an OS on the blockchain. It's fine if you value verifiability above everything, but becomes very burdensome if you find yourself tweaking your dev environment often. Still, I think it probably teaches good discipline.
jdonaldson··on I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains
I didn't think very deeply into this, but it would involved these steps:

1. You send me a pdf 2. I print it out on white sheet cake and deliver it. 3. Profit?

jdonaldson··on I launched 17 side projects. Result? I'm rich in expired domains
I once owned both cakefax.com, and faxcake.com. I was going to corner the market.
jdonaldson··on Maine police caught lying about using AI to alter drug bust photo
If it were just a simple copy/paste job with the patch, that's one thing. But the whole image has been turned into AI slop, with certain items moved, changed, or excluded. This just isn't an acceptable pattern for law enforcement communication of any kind.
jdonaldson··on Virtual cells
Lol! Overriding basic scroll functionality on esoteric cell simulation software documentation pages is such a pointless gamble. Really calls the quality of the software itself into question.
jdonaldson··on Radio pulses detected coming from ice in Antarctica
Are these the kind of high voltage events potentially near geothermal vents that are one of the leading explanations for biogenesis?
jdonaldson··on Mario Kart designers had to rethink everything to make it open world
Zelda series has always been a showcase for great low level aesthetic gameplay design choices. I love how they handled simple things like grid-based movement : https://dev.to/robotspacefish/game-studies-link-s-movement-i...

I feel like the dungeons in BOTW all resemble the rooms in Portal. I.e. they feel highly artificial and contrived. However, this lets the player focus on the puzzle itself, rather than worry about the story at that moment. The puzzles there really force you to "get good" at a particular maneuver the game requires of the character. Rather than getting an item or advancing a world event, the player's reward is simply to suck less by accomplishing the task.

Plus, let's be honest, Zelda's story is really pretty fungible. The linear progression was mainly due to hardware limitations rather than aesthetic choice.

jdonaldson··on Toxic Origins, Toxic Decisions: Biases in CEO Selection
1 in 4 people live within 3 miles of a superfund site, so it's actually spot on.
jdonaldson··on Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House
They probably already make a ton of money selling this information to hedge funds.
jdonaldson··on OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive
I still like original founders as CEO. Nothing beats the skin in the game from that.
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