Nostr notes by Tall Simon

Still... some reassurance that it's a joke, given the damage ...

2026-10-20T11:38:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…5n7e
_________________________

Still... some reassurance that it's a joke, given the damage happening at the moment, wouldn't have been out of place. 🤔 I get it, but I'm not sure I'm in the mood for it.

Been working on the player piano? 🙂

2026-10-15T19:27:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…csf5
_________________________

Been working on the player piano? 🙂

"Santa's coal mine" Looking forward to it. We put ...

2026-10-07T12:30:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…df9t
_________________________

"Santa's coal mine"

Looking forward to it.

We put coal in our kids' XMas stockings one year after they had been particularly challenging... 😈 ... it took them a minute to figure it out. We were videoing from the shadows for fun when they said "Yeah, I guess we deserved that."

Well done.. I appreciate the work in that from having watched my ...

2026-10-06T11:28:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…h4r2
_________________________

Well done.. I appreciate the work in that from having watched my Dad in the early 80's restore more or less that model of player piano. It had pedal bellows, though. He got it professionally tuned; my sister learned to play on it and there's only so much a nerve can take.

I think our earliest piano roll was from the late 1890's.

Standard wake up call for teenagers sleeping in late was his tube stereo playing the Boston Pops version of "Stars and Stripes Forever", badly synchronized with the player piano which had it on a roll in (more or less) the same key.

Pet peeve in West World is sometimes the piano roll doesn't match up with what the piano is playing.

I know what to do: have my wife add your name under mine to the ...

2026-10-02T15:20:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…469y
_________________________

I know what to do: have my wife add your name under mine to the list of people never to be let anywhere near the playlist at a dinner party. 🤪

The admin assistant at my doctor's office called to confirm ...

2026-09-18T19:28:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…fda5
_________________________

The admin assistant at my doctor's office called to confirm that I wasn't actually 7 meters tall, and that I weighed more than 110 pounds.

🤔 I thought I'd seen the doctor struggling with the transcription, even though I'd asked that it be turned off.

Down... I'm facing down...

2026-09-06T20:50:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…e3ft
_________________________

Down... I'm facing down...

What is this new "power" you have been given and how are ...

2026-09-05T12:36:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…d48s
_________________________

What is this new "power" you have been given and how are people asking you to use it? 😮

We have a Canada elderberry tree. Each of the past few years, one ...

2026-09-04T13:06:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…f70k
_________________________

We have a Canada elderberry tree. Each of the past few years, one of our robins (the 🇨🇦 variant that's a thrush) brings her chicks to the tree, who have usually fledged just in time to eat the berries.

There are always dark purple stains on the rocks in the yard. This year, none on the laundry.

The chicks are silly beasts. One of them this year just froze every time we came over. You can almost see "Mum said to freeze" going through it's bird brain as we walk by, an arm's length away.

Whenever the cardinals show up to the buffet, there's always a big argument.

My Dad retired a while back as commander of the 183 Typhoon Air ...

2026-09-03T01:18:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…0pc3
_________________________

My Dad retired a while back as commander of the 183 Typhoon Air Cadet squadron. He is a glider pilot; the kids can get pilot training after 3 years and successful completion of a course. Whether or not they ultimately joined the military doesn't matter as much as how the program gave them focus and goals, something into which they could put their energy, when they were teens. Many former cadets still call my Dad "Captain" on the street.

Cadets is a superb program, and the army, sea and air cadets are all represented, and well turned out at parades, in my home city.

Hegseth can shove his uncomprehending, neo-fascist, cosplay-a-Spartan bulls--t right up his own a--. Way to show every 🇨🇦, especially those in uniform, your dark pathetic soul.

Oops, did I say that last bit out loud?

True, but LLM AI is horribly inefficient itself.

2026-09-01T22:38:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…yz24
_________________________

True, but LLM AI is horribly inefficient itself.

My son decided to become a Millwright. It's early days yet ...

2026-08-24T01:50:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…8nam
_________________________

My son decided to become a Millwright. It's early days yet but it is turning out well for him so far. He is a bright lad who has lots of options, but being professionally able to fix anything seems like a good career choice to me. Maintaining our world is vastly under appreciated.

Now... data centers... that part can f--k right off...

So they basically run an SDR along with the camera on various ...

2026-08-11T13:54:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…tf4f
_________________________

So they basically run an SDR along with the camera on various frequencies. That's not new, sadly.

In the early 2000's I used to change my BlueTooth ID to send annoying messages to a guy in my office who I knew was experimenting with monitoring passing radio sources. 🙂

(Apologies for being direct, but...) Quadratic is terrible! I ...

2026-07-18T08:00:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…4u2j
_________________________

(Apologies for being direct, but...)

Quadratic is terrible!

I used to send a note to students of the upper year numerical methods course that quadratic run time would be an automatic zero on the assignment. I always got one or two...

Earlier this year I did a demo using a few hundred megabytes of data. A 🇺🇸 lab had used an Neural Net/AI setup (not even an LLM) to analyze it.

I didn't.

My results on the same data, same problem, took 9 seconds on one old CPU core. The 🇺🇸 lab took 64 hours on a computer at least a hundred times as powerful. Net, that is a resource difference of the order of millions.

My way used millions of times less resources, and got better results, too.

This was on data equivalent to a hundred photos.

My way doesn't sell GPU's, though.

( @npub1fdr…lvhs has forcefully made the same point to me that ...

2026-07-03T21:50:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…gx5d
_________________________

( Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs) has forcefully made the same point to me that you have; I respectfully appreciate the chance to hone my argument.)

§230(c)(1) uses the phrase "publisher or speaker" (I'm looking at Law.Cornell.edu).

I agree with you that generated AI material makes a platform the Speaker, and I agree that the Speaker of user-provided information is the user themselves, who is liable for it.

If the platform intentionally, by what ever means, selects that provided information to make money, say by directing it to me along with paid advertising, then I argue that this is a new act. By that act, the platform has become the Publisher.

Origination or creation is then no longer the only issue. This is also a separate issue from the removal of information already communicated, moderation.

No change to §230 is needed, just a judicial recognition that the platform's new act puts it in the legally recognized role of Publisher, and liable along with the Speaker (as a print newspaper would be).

I would also like to see recommendation systems qualify as ...

2026-07-03T19:13:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…87gw
_________________________

I would also like to see recommendation systems qualify as liability generating "AI" in this case.

Monetization too, IMO, should be taken as a liability-generating endorsement of a piece of "content", at least in a for-profit entity.

I was seeing four shades of red by page 4. Did they actually say ...

2026-07-02T19:35:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…edqn
_________________________

I was seeing four shades of red by page 4.

Did they actually say the SEC as a model for AI regulation? The one that missed Bernie Madoff, CDOs? The one that today permits rampant investor front-running by big brokers, won't shut down crypto-currencies, allows banks to trade against their customers?

(I have a copy of Markopolos' original Madoff SEC memo. The SEC missed so much that I have to think they were all drunk on negroni's on some financier's yacht every day by 10am.)

That's the 'FARO' regulator model? Your finger slipped up a row, Google, you meant 'FAFO'.

O(N²) to run, O(N⁵⁺) to train: the resource demands to date match the algorithmic complexity for LLM's. (That's taught in every AI course, right? please say that's right). So Google says the solution is to partner with the families choking next to the gas incinerators (until geometric demand growth out-strips available capital and resources, oh wait, that's already happened).

It's unseasonably hot. I'm going for a swim to calm down.

Bwahahahaha It's those pesky 🇨🇦 's!

2026-06-21T01:33:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…dvyh
_________________________

Bwahahahaha

It's those pesky 🇨🇦 's!

Hence the slightly more graphic 🇳🇿 variant "got them by ...

2026-06-20T18:21:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…70s7
_________________________

Hence the slightly more graphic 🇳🇿 variant "got them by the short and curlies."

(If and when travel south of the border becomes advisable...) ...

2026-06-08T22:22:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…xvkz
_________________________

(If and when travel south of the border becomes advisable...)

Beaver Falls, PA 🇺🇸 is on my list of places to visit. I want to see if their native son, Thomas Midgley Jr., is celebrated, what with his giving the world ozone-layer destroying CFC's, brain-melting leaded gasoline and (a bit indirectly) the forever gift of PFOA's and Teflon.

Who will get the blame for AI, though? Will it be Pitt and McCulloch for their 1943 paper on artificial neurons? After 83 years, countless lessons re-learned, and (at least) 4 AI hype cycles, we wait with 'bated breath...

I'm more than happy to sign my Waterloo Ph.D. in Computer ...

2026-06-04T21:42:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…lnr4
_________________________

I'm more than happy to sign my Waterloo Ph.D. in Computer Science behind my conclusion that the LLM/AI pushed by Silicon Valley

- is never going to fulfill its promises,
- is a colossal and dangerous waste of time, intellectual, financial and ecological resources,
- serves, like surveillance advertising, a false goal in the name of data collection, and
- serves to strip power and autonomy from users of computers, thin as that is already, and sovereignty from nations.

Minister Solomon has no credentials in the field, and is a puppet because of it.

Forget "guardrails". The AI companies, as with the social media companies, are generating material for us and have to be held criminally liable where it crosses legal lines. Are they monetizing illegal material by advertising beside it, or is their masthead over it? Press charges, just like you would an old-fashioned print newspaper. Is it legal, medical or financial advice but without credentials? Press charges!

Vanta is celebrating #caturday in the apple blossoms. She's ...

2026-05-16T21:52:21Z

Vanta is celebrating #caturday in the apple blossoms. She's actually chasing bees, but we'll pretend she's just enjoying the sights and scents.😸

ETDR - Edge treat detection and response.

2026-05-13T13:14:22Z

In reply to nevent1q…a3w7
_________________________

ETDR - Edge treat detection and response.

LLM-AI's are yet another iteration of the garbage. Hopefully ...

2026-04-30T15:33:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…ca4c
_________________________

LLM-AI's are yet another iteration of the garbage. Hopefully indeed the one that is so obviously awful that it gets us back to what's worked for the last several thousand years, and which was arguably fully mature by the time of Plato.

Heck, somehow I even learned computer science with no computers in the lecture hall.

2/2

That note in the article about schools having to show that they ...

2026-04-30T15:29:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…xfhf
_________________________

That note in the article about schools having to show that they are "embracing technology" got my back up.

"Computers in school" for me were a pair of Apple II's, then Ontario 🇨🇦 Unisys Icons (QNX 1.0, "Thoth with a Unix front end.") I enjoyed the Icons (especially teasing Tina from the other side of the classroom by piping commands to the voice synthesizer on her machine, sorry Tina). The educational applications were awful, though, I suspect they got me thinking about tech and education.

Now, I won't pretend to recall my 21-year old mindset but...

IBM came to U Waterloo ~1989 (?) with a plug for their "multimedia educational PC". I do remember giving the rep a brutal time about the idea of wasting $2000 for that garbage in the classroom. That wasn't "learning technology".

Fast forward to my kids in high school; the garbage got ubiquitous, cheap and baked into the curriculum.

My kids learned dependence on commercial platforms and zero about actual computers (and have crappy handwriting).

Chatting with U Toronto AI profs 6, 7 years ago, I posed a ...

2026-04-27T11:49:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…rfhe
_________________________

Chatting with U Toronto AI profs 6, 7 years ago, I posed a problem.

"Teach your AI everything about whole, integer, rational and real numbers. Ask it to solve a problem that requires it to invent complex numbers."

Reply: "Oh... It doesn't work that way."

I knew that, but the ability to frame your observations as the product of a higher order system is IMHO key to what we call "intelligence". Collecting evidence that can disprove your hypothesis is science.

LLM approaches are neither, in a very expensive way.

I'll have to read the paper, though. I'm looking forward to the AI equivalent of Goedel's Theorem that shuts down this annoying iteration of the field.

Here in Mississauga :canada: we have Sawmill Sid. He takes local ...

2026-04-08T17:45:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…g4ey
_________________________

Here in Mississauga :canada: we have Sawmill Sid. He takes local fallen trees and sells slices such as the lovely piece of catspaw Elm that my wife made into a bench.

(The fish-eye phone photo makes the legs look out of alignment 🤔, they aren't...)

https://sawmillsid.ca/

"Last night I dreamt of some bagels" Seriously, try to ...

2026-04-08T09:59:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…eght
_________________________

"Last night I dreamt of some bagels"

Seriously, try to unhear it next time you hear the song...🙂

Shortly after arriving in 🇨🇭 I was outpaced on the 500m ...

2026-03-07T13:56:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…hdkf
_________________________

Shortly after arriving in 🇨🇭 I was outpaced on the 500m climb up the neary hill by some folks who could have been 80.

I realized I really had stepped through the looking glass.

When I left 🇨🇭 I was not only slimmer, but in the best shape of my life. Six years of walking everywhere, not owning a car, and getting involved in local sports and hobby clubs paid off.

In 🇨🇦 the same approach to life is not actually possible because of our built environment, work habits, and social structures. I've tried. I've failed.

I'm confident the obesity crisis is entirely a manufactured one, built out of a lack of democratically guided thought and control over social decision making.

My $0.02? The invasion of Greenland will likely follow the ...

2026-01-21T12:53:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…6a9q
_________________________

My $0.02? The invasion of Greenland will likely follow the pattern of the 🇷🇺 capture of Crimea.

There will be an "exercise", one is currently scheduled, after which 🇩🇰 will discover that a lot more 🇺🇸 troops are there than they thought. They will be asked politely to leave, and won't. 🇩🇰 and the rest of NATO (TRON?) will be left with the decision of whether to actually shoot first.

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2026-01-20/norad-greenland-trump-nato-20463347.html

History Prof Jason Stanley moved to 🇨🇦 and publishes widely ...

2026-01-15T16:21:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…2grf
_________________________

History Prof Jason Stanley moved to 🇨🇦 and publishes widely on his reasons. His latest Toronto Star editorial is paywalled, but

"Canada is a free democracy, one that embraces diversity and tolerance. For that very reason, America is not your friend."

is a conclusion I agree with.

As for T---p being a 🇷🇺 asset, 🇨🇦 MP Charlie Angus lays out the timeline rather compellingly. If Angus keeps up this sort of stuff he might end up Prime Minister. 😁

https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/james-comey-the-fascist-playbook

So when are we adding ICE officers and people who donate to their ...

2026-01-11T18:23:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…v20v
_________________________

So when are we adding ICE officers and people who donate to their Go Fund Me pages to the list of people who will need a visa to enter 🇨🇦 ?

And I find myself less optimistic than, say, @pluralistic about ...

2025-11-04T16:12:11Z

In reply to nevent1q…jqln
_________________________

And I find myself less optimistic than, say, @pluralistic about how much of what remains will be useful after the crash.

The underlying algorithms are O(N²) to run because of the hardware architecture, and don't scale to more than 2 or 3 dimensional problems because of the math used, GPU-style architecture is built for problems without lots of branching or indirection, and it burns out quickly.

In other words, the flagship product is wildly expensive to create and run, nobody wants that product, the algorithms it uses are far from revolutionary, and the hardware is useless for other problems.

The question will be: "who will pay for it?". Unlike the banks in '08, the world could lose Meta, Google and NVidia tomorrow and, although it would sting, life would go on. Amazon will sting a bit more, but none of these companies have unique abilities. With the current administration, however, they might get a bailout, at which point it's down to taxes or inflation to absorb the cost.

Lukashenko knows this. He has carefully avoided making daily life ...

2025-09-05T15:16:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…ah8w
_________________________

Lukashenko knows this. He has carefully avoided making daily life in Belarus suck too awfully, keeping Turchin's "Population Immiseration" index off the boil.

The people around Trump are stupid enough to kill the goose that is laying the proverbial golden egg.

Reminds me of the saying "Nothing looks more useful, yet is ...

2025-07-18T13:23:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…n4na
_________________________

Reminds me of the saying "Nothing looks more useful, yet is more useless, than old computing equipment."

Great. I learned a little while ago that a lot of the supposed ...

2024-11-06T13:26:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…x790
_________________________

Great. I learned a little while ago that a lot of the supposed "Russian" hackers of the 90's were actually living in Mississauga, Ontario :canada:.