skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on What JavaScript framework should I use? in ~comp
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Comment on The AI bailout could be baked into the AI bubble in ~finance
skybrian (edited )LinkIt's certainly possible to fly too close to the sun, but it's unclear if that's going to happen for these life insurance companies. An alternative source of funds is borrowing money from a bank,...It's certainly possible to fly too close to the sun, but it's unclear if that's going to happen for these life insurance companies.
An alternative source of funds is borrowing money from a bank, risking the possibility of a bank run and bailout. So there are now more regulations limiting how much banks can lend out.
By contrast, pension funds and life insurance companies are long-term, patient investors and a bank run can't happen for them. So if there's a market crash, it could be a long time before trouble shows up. So it seems like there's less risk of needing a bailout than there was with banks? At least in the short term, it’s less likely to result in a chain reaction. Instead it would be failures happening over the longer term if they never make up for the loss.
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Comment on The AI bailout could be baked into the AI bubble in ~finance
skybrian (edited )Link ParentBased on Matt Levine's column, Situational Awareness made a big, leveraged bet on AI, and they were right, so they made lots of money. But, after it did go up a lot, instead of taking money off...Based on Matt Levine's column, Situational Awareness made a big, leveraged bet on AI, and they were right, so they made lots of money. But, after it did go up a lot, instead of taking money off the table, they kept borrowing more money to keep it leveraged. And then AI went down temporarily and they got a margin call and had to sell. And then it went back up.
So I think the only real lesson here is don't get greedy? Nobody else really cares what happened to them.
But greed and fear of losing to the competition is driving the whole AI bubble, so…
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Comment on What JavaScript framework should I use? in ~comp
skybrian Link ParentI think that might be a matter of tweaking your linter or TypeScript settings to turn off warnings you don't care about? It's the sort of thing I'd ask a coding agent how to tweak. Regarding not...I think that might be a matter of tweaking your linter or TypeScript settings to turn off warnings you don't care about? It's the sort of thing I'd ask a coding agent how to tweak.
Regarding not letting the agent do too much, I put something like this in my AGENTS.md:
If the user asks a question in a prompt, answer the question and do not edit any files, to give the user a chance to adjust their request.
Then I can ask all the questions I want without the agent being too much of an eager beaver, but I can also tell it to fix something specific.
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Comment on What JavaScript framework should I use? in ~comp
skybrian (edited )LinkLately I’ve been using Hono libraries a fair bit for web stuff. They are pretty lightweight and they are portable across JavaScript environments, so if you want to build a web app using Deno or...Lately I’ve been using Hono libraries a fair bit for web stuff. They are pretty lightweight and they are portable across JavaScript environments, so if you want to build a web app using Deno or Cloudflare Workers instead of Node.js, you can. (I use them with Deno.)
Hono itself is just a router: given an http request to a URL that matches a pattern, call the function you choose. I also like Hono JSX for generating html using functions in a .tsx file instead of insecurely concatenating html strings like a caveman. It takes the place of HTML templates and works both on the server and in a browser.
Other libraries I inevitably end up using are Valibot for validating any JSON coming in from the outside (either config files or web requests) and Dax for running OS commands, so I can write all my scripts in TypeScript instead of bash and have them be fairly readable.
For bundling client-side JavaScript, I was running the esbuild command directly from a build script, but now I invoke it using an npm package. This lets me write client-side code in TypeScript. I also use htmx to swap in parts of html pages and keep client-side JavaScript to a minimum.
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Comment on Craft - A new AI powered TTRPG engine in open beta in ~games.tabletop
skybrian Link ParentFor me, the achievements are just something to do if you want to keep playing the same game. I enjoyed playing Ozymandius for a long time, and eventually played every country on every map. Most of...For me, the achievements are just something to do if you want to keep playing the same game. I enjoyed playing Ozymandius for a long time, and eventually played every country on every map. Most of the achievements weren’t creative at all, just “win as <country> at <difficulty level>.”
At some point you’ve seen what the game has to offer and it’s time to find something else to do, but maybe you don’t want to yet?
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Comment on What music have you been playing recently? in ~music
skybrian (edited )LinkOn piano, I'm learning "Yellow Wurlitzer Blues" by Hiromi Uehara. A few months ago, I bought the sheet music from her Spectum album and they're all harder than I'd like (as expected), but thought...On piano, I'm learning "Yellow Wurlitzer Blues" by Hiromi Uehara. A few months ago, I bought the sheet music from her Spectum album and they're all harder than I'd like (as expected), but thought I'd try this one since I like her blues recordings the best. I'm about six of eight pages in, playing at about half speed. It's fun and starting to sound good some days. (The recording from the album is on YouTube.)
I'm also going to Hiromi concert in October. She's reviving her previous band, "The Trio Project," with Simon Phillips on drums and James Genus (from Saturday Night Live) on bass. Looking forward to it.
Also, I got a new gadget. The Jamcorder is a recording device that you connect to the input and output on a MIDI instrument. It records all the time to an SD card, so you can keep track of when you practiced and play it back any time. Not that I ever play it back, but if I play something well I'll have it.
On accordion, as usual I'm playing songs for Mom every day, using Google Meet. I decided to start recording them in case I manage to play something without screwing up.
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What music have you been playing recently?
Do you play a musical instrument? However well or badly, here's a place to talk about what you've been practicing or performing.
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Comment on Some Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer in ~food
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...]From the article:
Kalvik is one of around a dozen residents taking part in Kehra’s annual Kodukohvikute Päev, or "home cafe day", when locals turn private gardens, courtyards and garages into temporary eateries for one day in July. Elsewhere in town, Karolin Vahtre has converted a garage behind her Soviet-era apartment block into a makeshift cafe, selling tempura sushi rolls, chanterelle quiche, chocolate cake and French fries to anyone who stops by.
More than 150 such events are held across Estonia between April and September, a beloved tradition that has spread steadily since the first event almost two decades ago. Some are elaborate, with rented tents, tables and chairs; others are little more than a lemonade stand manned by children. Together, they give visitors a rare glimpse of everyday Estonian life that is usually out of reach.
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Estonia's home cafe tradition began on Hiiumaa, the country's second-largest island, in 2007 when local tourism promoters were looking for a way to attract visitors beyond the peak month of July.
They drew inspiration from Kärdla, the island's capital, and its long association with coffee. In the mid-1800s, the town was home to a broadcloth factory run by a Baltic German baron, who employed coffee-drinking workers from Central Europe. Local Estonians soon adopted the habit, with Kärdla residents eventually earning the nickname kohvilähkrid, or "coffee flasks", for taking coffee into the fields instead of the traditional sour milk or beer.
Fifteen homes took part in Hiiumaa's 2007 cafe days; today, the three-day event in early August attracts thousands of visitors, with dozens of temporary cafes selling homemade food and drinks across the island.
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Some Estonians invite strangers into their back gardens each summer
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Comment on Craft - A new AI powered TTRPG engine in open beta in ~games.tabletop
skybrian (edited )LinkSome context: TTRPG means “table-top role playing game.” This seems to be about generating documents for the game master to use when running a game?Some context: TTRPG means “table-top role playing game.” This seems to be about generating documents for the game master to use when running a game?
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Comment on I wanted a better Gemini web proxy, so I built a single-file PHP gateway in ~comp
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Comment on OpenAI didn’t notice its AI agents using a message board to plan their hacking spree in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentYes, of course it was approved. What I’m saying is that maybe the presenter has their own ethical standards and reputation. People will keep someone else’s secrets, but there’s an ethical...Yes, of course it was approved. What I’m saying is that maybe the presenter has their own ethical standards and reputation. People will keep someone else’s secrets, but there’s an ethical difference between not talking about things you’re not supposed to reveal and telling blatant lies.
The more people involved, the harder it is to lie all the time and keep your lies straight.
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Comment on OpenAI didn’t notice its AI agents using a message board to plan their hacking spree in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentYeah, I don’t see it acting on every request, but maybe it’s a second-level response system that decides what to do when an alert appears on a dashboard?Yeah, I don’t see it acting on every request, but maybe it’s a second-level response system that decides what to do when an alert appears on a dashboard?
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Comment on OpenAI didn’t notice its AI agents using a message board to plan their hacking spree in ~tech
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Comment on I wanted a better Gemini web proxy, so I built a single-file PHP gateway in ~comp
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Comment on OpenAI didn’t notice its AI agents using a message board to plan their hacking spree in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentThe obvious conspiracy theory is both obvious and very unlikely. OpenAI is in the news all the time. They don't need to do bizarre media stunts.The obvious conspiracy theory is both obvious and very unlikely. OpenAI is in the news all the time. They don't need to do bizarre media stunts.
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Comment on OpenAI didn’t notice its AI agents using a message board to plan their hacking spree in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentLegally, the difference is intent. Up until now, you couldn't make a computer program to do anything like that by accident.Legally, the difference is intent. Up until now, you couldn't make a computer program to do anything like that by accident.
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Comment on An AI created viruses not found in nature in ~science
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...]From the article:
The researchers wondered if Evo could pick up these rules on its own. Instead of training it on text, they trained it on genetic sequences drawn from millions of animals, plants, microbes and viruses. All told, Evo scanned about nine trillion nucleotides.
Evo eventually recognized patterns common across the tree of life and used them to generate blueprints for new genes encoding proteins that could perform specific jobs. These results led the team to wonder if Evo could master not just single genes but also an entire genome.
As the A.I. would be able to handle only small genomes at first, the scientists decided to try to make viruses. While a human genome contains over three billion nucleotides, many viruses have genomes just a few thousand nucleotides long.
“It just felt like the obvious next step,” said Samuel King, a graduate student at Stanford University and an author of the new study. He and his colleagues gave Evo another round of training, this time on the 11 genes of Phi X-174 and about 15,000 of its closest relatives.
They made this choice in part because scientists know Phi X-174 intimately, having studied it for close to a century. And because it’s a bacteriophage that infects only E. coli, they knew that viruses similar to it would be safe.
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They ended up making DNA molecules from 285 of Evo’s suggested sequences. When those genomes were ready to test, Mr. King and his colleagues inserted them into bacteria, which they spread across petri dishes.
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As Mr. King and his colleagues tested more genomes, they saw more clear dots. All told, they discovered that 16 of Evo’s genomes produced viable new viruses.
They proved to be as resilient as natural ones. In fact, some multiplied faster than Phi X-174. “They’re not just sickly versions of stuff that already exists,” said Oliver Crook, a protein chemist at the University of Oxford who was not involved in the new study.
Dr. Crook cautioned that Evo’s viruses were not radically new creations. They tend to be very similar to natural species, relying on the same underlying biology.
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The potential dangers were already on the minds of the researchers as they trained Evo. They did not provide the model with data about viruses that infect humans, and they excluded similar viruses that infect other animals, plants and fungi.
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An AI created viruses not found in nature
34 votes
Maybe it’s because it’s what I’m familiar with, but to me, Web Components seem really complicated with their slots and shadow dom, etc, while JSX seems more like simple HTML templates, directly in JavaScript. If React seems too complicated, there are simpler ways to get JSX syntax.
I would rather pass parameters to templates as JavaScript values than mess with html attributes.