1501
Baiting the bot
LLM chatbots can be engaged in endless "conversations" by considerably simpler text generation bots. This has some interesting implications.
New
The latest blog posts to take off on Hacker News. 8,148 posts.
Society, Policy & Culture
Any year
1502
Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer's suicide
Genius is fragile. Success, even more so. What does it mean then for an artist to fail?
1503
A Post-Google World?
Another Google antitrust trial starts on Monday. If Google loses, it'll be three strikes. At some point, they will give up and realize that the writing is on the wall for their current business model.
1504
1505
Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid
The cost of solar panels is plummeting, and this will flood the power grid with cheap electricity. But that’s just Act 1. We won’t stop building solar at the limits of the grid - we’ll build a lot more. This post explains why we'll keep building more,
1506
1507
Judges rule Big Tech's free ride on Section 230 is over
Algorithms are no longer a Get out of Jail free card. The Third Circuit ruled that TikTok must stand trial for manipulating children into harming themselves. The business model of big tech is over.
1508
Thoughts on the Durov Arrest
Today we learn that Pavel Durov, founder of the popular messaging app Telegram, has been arrested as his private jet landed in France. Early indications are that the arrest stems from Telegram̵…
1509
Eating the Birds of America: Audubon's Culinary Reviews of America's Birds
On June 26, 1826, John James Audubon sat aboard the cotton schooner Delos off of Florida’s Gulf coast, en route from New Orleans to Liverpool, where he was hoping to find a publisher for his extensive portfolio of paintings of American birds.[1] On this particular day, the winds were still, leaving Audubon’s boat to…
1510
The Iron Law of Bureaucracy (2010)
Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people":
1511
If Your World Is Not Enchanted, You're Not Paying Attention
The Convivial Society: Vol. 5, No. 11
1512
Looming Liability Machines (LLMs)
As part of our zoom reading group ( wow, 4.5 years old now ), we discussed a paper that uses LLMs for automatic root cause analysis (RCA) fo...
1513
Reddit banned me for developing Geddit
Currently, I'm working as an AI Engineer @ amber . But mostly I'm an open-source software developer. That means I work on software projects that are free to use, modify, and distribute. Why? Because I believe knowledge should be free and open to everyone.
1514
We need to liberate the Postcode Address File
This is the Pentagon Papers for the UK address database
1515
Software possession for personal use
A little rest area by the road to a better web.
1516
1517
LLMs know more than what they say
... and how that provides winning evals
1518
The gigantic and unregulated power plants in the cloud
Recently a Dutch hacker was able to take control of 4 million solar panel installations (FTM (Dutch), Euractiv, Victor Gevers). And this wasn’t the first time something like this has happened either (PV Magazine). As usual, huge thanks are due to the many beta readers and experts who helped improve this article with…
1519
Tales from the Far Side
Sean Kleefeld's daily thoughts about comics and the comic industry.
1520
What If Data Is a Bad Idea?
Data is reductive. It objectifies. It bureaucratizes. But is it a bad idea?
1521
The Dying Computer Museum
One can choose to focus on the car crash, or the lessons learned from the car crash. Let’s do a little of both. The proposition of the Living Computer Museum was initially simple, and rather …
1522
The secret lives of snowblowers
Yes, they throw snow. But the mechanical design of residential snowblowers is more interesting than it seems.
1523
Banks Are Now Accused of Cheating Customers Billions
Massive banks are now accused of cheating customers billions of dollars in interest payments according to financial reports.
1524
It's the land, stupid: How the homebuilder cartel drives high housing prices
Henry George was right about land values. And today we have a homebuilder cartel rooted in control of land and financing.
1525
Apple vs. the "Free Market"
Every artist, performer and creator on Patreon is about to get screwed out of 30% of their gross revenue, which will be diverted to Apple, the most valuable company on the planet. Apple contributes nothing to their work, but it will get to steal a third of their wages:
1526
I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)
JD Stillwater, Science Ambassador's blog.
1527
There Is No Antimemetics Division (2018)
An important announcement There Is No Antimemetics Division has been picked up for publication by Penguin Random House! Find out more here. Everything below is for the original self-published version of the story only. An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring p...
1528
OpenStreetMap Is Turning 20
OpenStreetMap at 20
1529
The Shameful Defenestration of Tim
On Tim Peters' recent suspension as a Python core developer
1530
How long does music stardom last? A statistical analysis
When do music stars achieve fame, and how long does fame typically last?