Notices by Shriram Krishnamurthi (shriramk@mastodon.social)

First attempt. Didn't come out too bad! A tiny bit undercooked. (Mostly made by wife and kid, I'm not a baker.)

Didn't expect that the thing I'd get radicalized by in Italy was…focaccia. I've had it in the US and never saw the appeal. But in Italy I popped into a supermarket chain's express store (not some fancy shop), got one, and…wow, I get it. Gonna keep searching for that high, now.

@neilmadden
Also @inthehands just pointed me to this:

https://justinpombrio.net/2021/12/26/preventing-log4j-with-capabilities.html

@juandesant @timbray

@inthehands
OCap = object capabilities
Probably the best place to learn more is to follow pointers from here:
http://www.erights.org/
@juandesant @timbray

@inthehands
But all this keeps pushing the issue back onto humans, and ignoring that there are technical solutions we can and should be implementing.

POLA is a thing, and OCaps-type systems help us have our reuse cake along with our POLA confinement.

I don't find the Obsidian post "beautiful" or "pure poetry"; I view it as a symptom of broken tools.
@juandesant @timbray

In schools, it's pretty common to use a "locked-down browser" (eg, during tests) on Chromebooks. I was more surprised to hear from my kid that this also exists on MacOS. How does this work? Does it use Lockdown Mode? How is an app able to enable this, instead of the user?

@tealeg Frankly, the price of a pint in the student union is probably the only metric that actually matters. Admittedly, at the end of the day you're still stuck with a pint of warm beer, so maybe not that useful.

Well, it's done. I have finally finished making my combined parent/professor College Visit / Campus Tour Bingo card, distilled from the several we did this summer. Please use responsibly and joyously (and remember to never take these tours too seriously).

Forgot my laptop the other day and had to take notes on my phone. Amongst various other differences, I feel so much more comfortable w/ a laptop because I can touch-type and look the speaker in the eye; can't on the phone, so it looks like I'm distracted and ignoring them.

In The Economist:

Setting aside copyright/commercial/other aspects, a thought about writing blog posts that LLMs train on. When people write posts, they (a) feel good about helping others, and (b) hope to get some credit and visibility for doing so.

When mediated through LLMs, no longer the satisfaction that your consumer is a human (who might comment, thank, share, etc.); nor the cred that comes from people remembering the author, posting on HN, etc.

That is, it totally destroys the incentive structure.

@cwebber Yeah, I enjoyed the book! Too bad the Racket version didn't work fast enough for you, but glad you got that working.

The number and breadth of extremely mainstream businesses who aren't afraid to participate in Rhode Island PrideFest is wonderful, given the way companies have been targeted just for acknowledging basic human rights. Nice to live here.

What we all really want to know: does this idea have legs?

Gitto's famous painting of (I)NVIDIA, showing a large money bag while GenAI trains on its own output and heats up the world. #Italy25

Might as well be my office door.

(Actually, an exhibit at the Venice Architecture Biennale.)

#Italy25

1/ One of the lesser masterpieces in Padova is the Ovetari chapel at the Eremitani church. One of its notable weaknesses is that much of it was blown away by Allied bombs in WW2! What's left is still wonderful. But first: Andrea Mantegna! #Italy25 ↵

5/ As I said, the church itself was bombed, and has been painstakingly reconstructed. It's an awe-inspiringly large space, with the Ovetari to the front and right of the main church. ↵

4/ This is relevant because the key paintings in the Ovetari are by Padova's own Mantegna, then still a young, rising star. The Ovetari has cycles on the lives of St. James and St. Christopher, and Mantegna painted several of the panels, including the three best ones. ↵

3/ Then, in 2001, I happened to be in Milan's gem, the Brera. I rounded a corner, and saw it in the flesh (to so speak), and was blown away. It's difficult to explain that feeling of having your breath taken away, but I vividly remember and thrill to that moment to this day. ↵