skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on Jeffrey Epstein emails show close connection with MIT's Noam Chomsky in ~society
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Comment on Why Canada really lost its measles elimination status in ~health
skybrian Link ParentI don’t think engaging in that sort of hyperbole is at all helpful in understanding what’s going on. From the article: Maybe there’s better information somewhere else, though.I don’t think engaging in that sort of hyperbole is at all helpful in understanding what’s going on.
From the article:
To be clear, I think the PHUs are doing this, or at least the Ontario ones are. It's just the media industry that is kind of cluelessly fearmongering.
Maybe there’s better information somewhere else, though.
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Comment on Why Canada really lost its measles elimination status in ~health
skybrian LinkFrom the blog posts: ... ....From the blog posts:
None of the above texts seemed to me to be focused on the actual thing that caused Canada to lose its measles elimination status, which is the rampant spread of measles among old-order religious communities, particularly the Mennonites. (Mennonites are basically, like, Amish-lite. Amish people can marry into Mennonite communities if they want a more laid-back lifestyle, but the reverse is not allowed. Similarly, old-order Mennonites can marry into less traditionally-minded Mennonite communities, but the reverse is not allowed.)
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When the Mennonites are brought up as a cause for the outbreak, it really puts a damper on the mood. The general sentiment both in the reddit comments and in the papers seems to be something like "oh, they're weird religious people, and therefore immune to logic about vaccines", but also "well you can't say mean things about religious people", so your only choice is to like, seethe in a corner?
But in reality, Mennonite parents do not want their children to die of measles, and they do not want to contract measles themselves. It seems to me like the largest barrier for them getting medical care and vaccination is that they are not fluent in English, they speak Low German.
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If your measles outbreak comes from this sort of community, the solution isn't to fearmonger about anti-vaxxers. It is to train up and hire health care workers who can speak Low German. (To be clear, I think the PHUs are doing this, or at least the Ontario ones are. It's just the media industry that is kind of cluelessly fearmongering.)
In Alberta (another Mennonite population centre, and not coincidentally the other large site of the outbreak), there has been a 25% increase in demand for medical care in Low-German, and service has expanded from five to seven days a week.
In Ontario, three quarters(!!!!!!) of the 700 Mennonite community clients helped by a Low German-speaking personal support worker have agreed to be vaccinated.
And, like, yeah, to be clear, there are loads of Mennonites who are actually anti-vaccine. I am not disputing the obvious fact that, in religious communities, many people are against vaccinations. And 75% falls short of the 92-94% vaccination rate needed for herd immunity. But a 75% vaccination rate is much, much higher than I'd have hoped for?
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Why Canada really lost its measles elimination status
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Comment on JustHTML is a fascinating example of vibe engineering in action in ~comp
skybrian Link ParentIt changes my priors a bit on what a capable engineer can accomplish using these tools. Are we going to see more libraries built this way? How about entire compilers? In some sense this is a port...It changes my priors a bit on what a capable engineer can accomplish using these tools. Are we going to see more libraries built this way? How about entire compilers?
In some sense this is a port from a Rust library to a pure Python library. Maybe we will see more libraries ported that way?
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Comment on JustHTML is a fascinating example of vibe engineering in action in ~comp
skybrian Link ParentWhatever you call it, it was almost entirely written by the LLM. This part seems sort of vibe-ish:Whatever you call it, it was almost entirely written by the LLM. This part seems sort of vibe-ish:
After writing the parser, I still don't know HTML5 properly. The agent wrote it for me. I guided it when it came to API design and corrected bad decisions at the high level, but it did ALL of the gruntwork and wrote all of the code.
I handled all git commits myself, reviewing code as it went in. I didn't understand all the algorithmic choices, but I understood when it didn't do the right thing.
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Comment on JustHTML is a fascinating example of vibe engineering in action in ~comp
skybrian (edited )LinkThe start of the blog post: Here is Emil’s blog post about how it was written and Willison's summary:The start of the blog post:
I recently came across JustHTML, a new Python library for parsing HTML released by Emil Stenström. It’s a very interesting piece of software, both as a useful library and as a case study in sophisticated AI-assisted programming.
Here is Emil’s blog post about how it was written and Willison's summary:
[…] A few highlights:
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He hooked in the 9,200 test html5lib-tests conformance suite almost from the start. There’s no better way to construct a new HTML5 parser than using the test suite that the browsers themselves use.
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He picked the core API design himself—a TagHandler base class with handle_start() etc. methods—and told the model to implement that.
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He added a comparative benchmark to track performance compared to existing libraries like html5lib, then experimented with a Rust optimization based on those initial numbers.
He threw the original code away and started from scratch as a rough port of Servo’s excellent html5ever Rust library. -
He built a custom profiler and new benchmark and let Gemini 3 Pro loose on it, finally achieving micro-optimizations to beat the existing Pure Python libraries.
He used coverage to identify and remove unnecessary code. -
He had his agent build a custom fuzzer to generate vast numbers of invalid HTML documents and harden the parser against them.
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JustHTML is a fascinating example of vibe engineering in action
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Comment on Montreal’s new rail line is the future in ~transport
skybrian LinkFrom the article: …From the article:
The REM has taken best practices from around the world and gives them a made-in-Canada twist. As in Shanghai and Taipei, you board the trains through safety-enhancing platform doors. Like most modern European networks, the trains draw power from overhead wires; this being Montreal, the rooftop pantographs that connect to the wires are reinforced to break up ice on the lines. As on Japanese commuter trains, the seats are heated for winter riding comfort. And because it’s automated, it can run trains at greater frequencies—they can arrive as often as every two and a half minutes.
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Maybe most importantly, given Canada’s cash-strapped municipal budgets, the REM is being built for a fraction of the cost of comparable projects in North America. In Toronto, the Eglinton Crosstown has swollen to $13 billion, or $684 million a kilometre. The second phase of New York’s long-overdue Second Avenue Subway may cost $3.7 billion a kilometre, and current rail expansions in San Francisco and Los Angeles have gone north of $1 billion a kilometre. The construction of a five-station extension to the all-underground Blue Line, which has just begun in Montreal’s east end, has a similar price tag. The REM is being built for $140 million a kilometre—an astonishing bargain.
How is Quebec getting so much bang for its transportation buck? Typically, governments finance existing transit agencies, giving them the licence to build and operate new lines for 30 years or so. The city of Montreal ponied up $100 million to fund the stations that connect to its metro, but this isn’t a municipal project. The REM is being built by CDPQ Infra, the construction arm of the Caisse de dépôt et placement, the manager of Quebec’s massive public pension fund, which has undertaken other infrastructure projects: Eurostar’s high-speed trains, the terminals at Heathrow airport and Vancouver’s Canada Line. CDPQ Infra has a 78 per cent equity stake in the REM and will reap revenue from the service, paid out at the rate of 75 cents per kilometre per passenger, for 99 years. From the start, it was in CDPQ’s interests to keep costs down.
It did that in part by building an elevated system, which is much cheaper than tunnelling. But it also standardized design. Historically, Canadian cities seem to reinvent the wheel every time they embark on a new transit project. That’s fun for someone like me, who enjoys a little local colour when he travels, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense if your goal is to get a lot of transit built quickly. China has constructed 11,000 kilometres of urban rail transit in the last two decades in four dozen cities. It’s done this quickly and cheaply by standardizing station and network design and mass-producing metro trains. Whether you’re in Chengdu or Guangzhou, you ride one of five standard train designs. And because lines are nationally planned and engineered, a Chinese city contemplating a new transit system doesn’t need to start from scratch—they just choose from existing templates that match their particular needs.
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Montreal’s new rail line is the future
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentMaking a backup isn’t enough. You also need to restore it. It’s my impression that restoring data from Time Machine should mostly just work, allowing you to use the same devices and software as...Making a backup isn’t enough. You also need to restore it. It’s my impression that restoring data from Time Machine should mostly just work, allowing you to use the same devices and software as before. With Google Takeout, can you even restore back to a Google account at all? It seems like you’re stuck doing a clumsy migration to something else.
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
skybrian (edited )LinkI was wondering how to mitigate this risk while staying in the Apple ecosystem. Looks like you can back up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac and then use Time Machine to backup your Mac? Assuming...I was wondering how to mitigate this risk while staying in the Apple ecosystem. Looks like you can back up an iPhone or iPad to your Mac and then use Time Machine to backup your Mac? Assuming sufficient disk space and you don't use iCloud to "optimize" disk space on your Mac.
It's a little clunky, but better than Google Takeout.
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The drug that taught me how much I should suffer
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Comment on Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options. in ~tech
skybrian Link ParentThat's what the article recommends for most people.That's what the article recommends for most people.
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Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options.
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Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies
skybrian Link ParentDon't people usually paint miniatures? Even a multicolor printer is only going to have a limited number of colors compared to what you could paint with a brush.Don't people usually paint miniatures? Even a multicolor printer is only going to have a limited number of colors compared to what you could paint with a brush.
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Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies
skybrian Link ParentI almost never print anything that takes that long because I'm designing my own parts and my projects tend to have multiple pieces that fit together. Nothing works the first time. Waiting another...I almost never print anything that takes that long because I'm designing my own parts and my projects tend to have multiple pieces that fit together. Nothing works the first time. Waiting another four hours would mean a very low iteration speed.
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Comment on At dusk, fifty people went to San Francisco's longest dead-end street and all ordered a Waymo at the same time in ~transport
skybrian LinkIt just goes to show that customers are strangers that you can't trust. They will do things for the lulz. This exploit is likely already fixed, though.It just goes to show that customers are strangers that you can't trust. They will do things for the lulz. This exploit is likely already fixed, though.
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Comment on The San Francisco Bay Area shortage of dental hygienists in ~health
skybrian Link ParentI'm not sure that part-time is always bad. Nowadays it's common to have couples where both people work. But a well-paying part-time job might work out pretty well for some families, when the...I'm not sure that part-time is always bad. Nowadays it's common to have couples where both people work. But a well-paying part-time job might work out pretty well for some families, when the spouse can get healthcare for the family?
Also, from the article, it sounds like it would be pretty physically demanding to work full time?
And it sounds like being part-time isn't new, but maybe there are fewer people nowadays where this sort of arrangement works for them.
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Comment on The dapper daredevil who documented America’s skyline in the making in ~arts
skybrian LinkFrom the article: ...From the article:
By the age of 27, he was appointed the Photographic Director for the Rockefeller Center’s development. It was during this appointment, that Ebbets took his iconic “Lunch atop Skyscraper” on the 69th floor of the RCA building in the last several months of construction.
So why did it take so long for him to be credited for it? It has been claimed that multiple photographers collaborated on the shoot, which is likely true because, unless they were self-portraits, we do have several photographs of Charles himself taken that day by at least one other photographer. And who would blame them? The dapper Mr. Ebbets , pictured above and below, was ever so photogenic. However, ever since “Lunch atop Skyscraper” was ‘rediscovered’ in the last two decades and began to circulate worldwide, no other photographer nor any photographer’s estate has ever claimed authorship of it.
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To eventually prove that their father was the artist, the Ebbets family found original invoices billing for his work done at the Rockefeller Centre, copies of the newspaper article found in his personal scrapbook and his original glass negatives that day on the beam adjacent to the 11 workmen.
It certainly looks bad in retrospect, but how much anyone knew about Epstein at the time probably depends a lot on circumstances that aren’t revealed in the article.