vivdunstan

annapods posting in

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moon_custafer

Just had a dream that was in kind of Harry Selik/Jan Svankmeyer stop-motion animation, but Nana is pestering me while I type

steepholm

Judging from interviews, every famous person seems to have been told by a careers teacher at some point that they would "Never amount to anything", "Just didn't have what it takes to make it as a professional" etc., but then went on to prove them gloriously wrong.

This never happened to me - in fact, I don't think I ever spoke to a careers teacher at all. Perhaps we didn't have one at my school? The traditional options were get married or work in the brewery/on the farm, so it would have been a rather dispiriting assignment, I imagine.

But are careers teachers universally this negative in their attitudes? Doesn't it seem like it would be the first thing you learn at careers-teacher school, "Don't tell children that they'll never amount to anything"? Is it some kind of reverse-psychology motivational tool, sparingly but deliberately deployed? Or are the celebs bending the truth a smidge? I don't know, but I'd be interested to hear whether anyone here has been subjected to this kind of treatment.

apnic_blog_feed

Posted by Flavio Luciani

https://blog.apnic.net/2025/09/17/how-to-build-and-sustain-a-successful-ixp/

https://blog.apnic.net/?p=94184

Guest Post: How to create a thriving Internet Exchange Point that benefits all participants.

https://blog.apnic.net/2025/09/17/how-to-build-and-sustain-a-successful-ixp/

https://blog.apnic.net/?p=94184

eatdrinkmerrymod posting in

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musesfool

Last night at this time, I was on what ended up to be a 90 minute (or more - I left after 90 minutes) call with other shareholders in my building to discuss options for complying with local law 97, which is all about reducing carbon emissions. It was informative, though as usual, the people running these meetings are bad at it it, and 2 people basically monopolized all the Q&A time with very specific-to-them concerns instead of applicable-to-all-tenants stuff, but at least nobody accused the board of being racist for muting them, which is what happened the last time I joined a building-related zoom call. Still only about a quarter of the people who live here showed up, which I find inexplicable considering the financial considerations involved. While no final decision was made, it seems like there will be a recommendation to take one of the incremental measures while continuing to explore the more expensive (but not the ludicrously expensive most expensive) options. So we'll see how that goes. If it helps my apartment not to turn into a sauna going forward, I am interested!

*

Baby Miss L is still trying to finalize her Halloween costume, but as with last year, there may be multiple outfits as she has a very full social calendar. She has gotten better about school, too - apparently she waves hello to everyone as she enters, and I imagine they all appreciate her attention. *g* I have also started compiling a list of books to buy her for her birthday and Christmas, which I guess I'll start shopping for soon.

*

I complain about work fairly often, but today I learned that 1. they've confirmed that our insurance will cover covid jabs for everyone who uses it, and 2. they're giving us 2 extra paid holidays this year since both 12/26 and 1/2 fall on Fridays. So I know I have it pretty good despite...everything happening in the world to try to ruin public health and nonprofits.

*

I can't remember if I posted about the very addictive phone game I recently downloaded, but after several lelvels where the only way to advance was to spend money to get helpful items, I deleted it. I can't be spending that kind of money and I am definitely the kind of person who needs to defeat the puzzles, even though I can see they are specifically designed to not be beatable without those helpful items. It's one reason I don't gamble or play "real" video games - I tend to get feverishly obsessive about winning and neither sleep nor money matter to me in that state. *hands* At least I know this about myself? Idk, but it felt good to delete the game even though I am still craving it.

*

The Mets snapped their losing streak on Sunday and still control their destiny in terms of a wild card spot, but given how poorly they've played for so long, this series with San Diego feels like a playoff game already. We'll see if they can hold the early lead. ....and now Lindor goes deep! <333

*

Current Mood: anxious
Current Music: Mets vs Padres on tv

altamira16

This is the third book on AI that I have read this year. The other two are The AI Con and Unmasking AI.

Karen Hao is a journalist specializing in AI. This book focuses on OpenAI. It starts about her experience as an AI journalist, writing about OpenAI around the time that the board of OpenAI fired Sam Altman. Then it goes back and explains how OpenAI came to be.

I did not know that Elon Musk was one of the people who originally funded OpenAI because he was afraid of a potential of a bad artificial general intelligence (AGI). He was convinced that one of the scientists involved with Deepmind would create an AGI that could become an existential threat. This part was very outlandish to me because "surely, these folks do not believe that we will reach the singularity, and AI will achieve intelligence."

Hao points out that the problem with this is that we don't really have a good solid definition for intelligence and don't have a way to measure when an intelligence becomes self-aware. Is intelligence the ability to pass an IQ test? Well, AIs can be optimized to pass tests. Does that really make them intelligent?

Then, the book gets into Sam Altman's leadership, and why his board forced him out. My impression from news stories at the time was that the board consisted of AGI cultists, and that they forced him out due to ideological differences. As we get deeper into the book, we realize that Sam tells people whatever they want to hear, even if telling everyone what they want to hear is bad leadership that creates conflict in the senior levels of management at his company.

The employment contracts that OpenAI had with some of the early employees had a nasty clawback clause that allowed VESTED stock to be clawed back. He feigned surprise when this story leaked in the news, but these clauses had been used to pressure some former employees.

There were a bunch of little lies that did not appear to amount to much, but they all led to Altman concentrating more power and money for himself.

A lot of the tension inside the company was always between the people who wanted to build a positive AGI as quickly as possible and the people who were concerned with safety and feared the potential negative AGI. In fact, the people who started Anthropic were the original safety group within OpenAI. According to The AI Con (one of the other AI books), the people who think there can be a positive AGI and the people who think that there will be a negative AGI are two sides of the same coin. They both believe that the AIs can become all powerful, and there is good reason to not believe that the AI will gain godlike powers.

The epilogue of the book was about an example of how to create an AI ethically with an example of one trained up on a rare Maori language that some people are trying to preserve.

I thought this was a great book on how not to manage a company and also what to watch out for in AI startup land.

frith

This. Is. HILARIOUS! Song by Tom Cardy, animated by ScumHouseStudio‬, 1 minute 50 seconds long.

Watch on YouTube

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3g6mFI4Fug

This is a Flash embed, it works here without Javascript or cookies. My ad-blocker blocks 2 ads but since they're blocked, I don't know what they advertise or if they affect playback. There are also blink-and-you'll-miss-'em ponies.

Put down your drink and swallow before you press play. You have been warned. Also, some harsh language.

lovelyangel

Living Room, South End, New Floor

Early this afternoon, the construction crew finished installing the LVP flooring. We doubled down on my error in selecting materials for the kitchen, and continued with the same, dark flooring material. I had chosen a dark color that would contrast with light-colored cabinets (which was the sample I was working with). However, I forgot that the cabinets would darken over time. I would have chosen a lighter flooring color if I had been looking at a dark cabinet door sample.

Anyway, the flooring is uniform and dark across all public spaces. My interior designer thinks this will be fine, as the walls and trim and bookwall will all be white. At any rate, the new floor does look nice.

Living Room, North End, New Floor

redbird

I just got this year's covid booster, as a walk-in at CVS. I'm glad I called first, because the CVS closest to our house doesn't have the vaccine; the one where I get most of my prescriptions does.

The pharmacist asked me if I wanted to get the flu vaccine at the same time, so I told her I'm waiting, on my doctor's advice. The actual injection was faster than I expected and didn't hurt much, so that's good.

The pharmacist gave me a coupon for $10 off a $20 purchase (with the usual list of exclusions). Kitchen trash bags were on the shopping list, so I picked those up, then added a box of envelopes and a bottle of dish soap to get the total up to $20. I got home and saw we may have too much dish soap, given limited storage space, but we will use it.

nilchance

( nothing much to report )

princessofgeeks

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carenejeans

Quote of the Day:

I was thirteen when I really realized I wanted to write. One of the magical things that happened to me was I discovered my mother’s old typewriter in the garage, and I hauled it out and got all the dirt and dust out of it and found out it still worked. It seemed like such magic to me, that you could type stuff; it looked so neat and clean.

— Luis Alberto Urrea

Interview in Spilling the Beans in Chicanolandia (Anthology, 2010)

Today's Writing:

801 words on something very silly I'm writing about reading SF Fanzines of the 1930s-40s. It will probably be shorter when I'm done…

Tally

( Days 1-14 )

Day 15:

badly_knitted,

brithistorian,

carenejeans,

china_shop,

cornerofmadness,

goddess47,

sanguinity,

sylvanwitch,

the_siobhan,

trobadora,

yasaman,

ysilme

Day 16:

china_shop

Let me know if I missed you, or if you wrote but didn't check in yet. And remember, you can join in at any time!

gwynnega

My poem "the jacarandas are unimpressed by your show of force" is up at Strange Horizons. It isn't the first jacaranda poem I've written, and likely won't be the last. This one (with a nod to Dylan Thomas) was inspired by the confluence of jacaranda season and...everything else happening in Los Angeles and this country. I am so happy it found a home at Strange Horizons.

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Posted by Zach Weinersmith

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/happiness-5

Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
The truest deepest way to happiness is a brain implant with a happy button.

Today's News:

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/happiness-5

daily_otter_feed

Posted by Daily Otter

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2025/9/16/hello-but-keep-it-moving-human

Via Elakha Alliance, which writes:

New research alert! Sea otters, it turns out, aren’t fans of farm-fresh oysters in this study - no matter how fresh they are. In fact, researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks found zero evidence of otters dining on oysters, even when these bivalves were grown in farms right in their foraging zones.

So what’s the takeaway? Otters are simply being their smart, energy-efficient selves. Diving dozens of feet to access caged oysters takes too much effort compared to other options - though they did go for the more accessible mussel ropes at one mixed farm.

🦪 As Elakha is conducting our own research study with oyster farmers here in Oregon, these findings help us clarify how otter activity can coexist with coastal economies and ecosystems.

https://dailyotter.org/posts/2025/9/16/hello-but-keep-it-moving-human