iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

this is midthread, so make sure you get the full context, but i want to highlight this important part. "pretrain" vs "RL" are both ways to Set The Weights, and once you have the weights frozen, you shouldnt really be able to tell how you got them. like simplex v interior point methods for LinProgs.

#ReaderBot: Brian is just starting Walter Kirn's "Thumbsucker" and should finish in around 15 days. [Brian's Reading List]

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right but the 20thC parts they do cover are America As Legitimate World Power and the russo-japanese war doesn't rank. so maybe the america angle is bonus point foreshadowing to a world history course, but

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it's not in the AP US History curriculum, if that's a useful anchor

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Thanks! Bookmarked this -- I haven't loaded up the tag applier program in a while, but when I do, this is top of the list

Yes-and: over the last few months, prior to the hack news hooks, thereve been lots of calls to restrict open weight models, ie ones from China. Huang has consistently opposed this, prob because with good open models available, he has so so many more inference neocloud co's to sell to. Cartelproofing

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thank you for this, i am pretty sure this will rearrange some plans we had as the kids hit ~middle school. and then my joke answer is i am now a yang voter

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like the disability insurance, or the checks in old age?

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Brian Gawalt @brian.gawalt.com · 28/09/2026

so i am now on year 2 and uh. what

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cause i TRY AND TRY to forget you girl/ but it's just so hard to do/

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Reposted by Brian Gawalt

Waffle 🧇 @wafflecut.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Turns out 8 is the exact right age for my horror-obsessed kid to experience the Gremlins movies. When the one gremlin drank the bottle of “brain hormones” and fell writhing behind the desk, he said “he’s gonna come back up wearing glasses” and when it actually happened he literally jumped with joy

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Brian Gawalt @brian.gawalt.com · 28/09/2026

If you search "wife" it will also search image alt texts, for wives

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Brian Gawalt @brian.gawalt.com · 28/09/2026

i am yes-and'ing this with the uno reverse of: narcissism of small differences. "our dimension is the only one who got america right, we will never trust 47 other americans who could screw up their americas so minutely but crucially." see fig 1a:

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Brian Gawalt @brian.gawalt.com · 27/09/2026

harry caul takes the muni bus everywhere fwiw

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Turns out there's a frustrating explanation for where it went on the list bsky.app/profile/plan...

i wouldn't know how to either and that's my point

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this has been out for a while, and lots and lots of people reacted with bane, or blue velvet frank, or immortan joe. even tenet and midsommar. and the thing i want to note is absolutely no one brought up avatar.

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Facebook's access controls are a classically ironic deal with the devil.

by far, the easiest ways to combine "privacy" and "identity" is with centralization; i am open to pitches to how atproto's spaces can fix the multiple-reservations vouching problem brian.gawalt.com/blog/faceboo...

brian.gawalt.com

Facebook Nazgûl

this is one of things where, even if the model provider isn't centralized, now the reservation platform will have to be. like visa/mastercard vouches for "this person can pay", opentable or whoever will vouch for "this person will actually show up."

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i am very very interested to know what share of, like, college sophomores have seen any of it

truly a "you see all that stuff in there, [brian]? that's why your hot sauce didn't work" moment

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(Last I'll say:) it's weird to have zero Adult Swim, but also, the crown jewel show, Venture Bros, is not representative of the programming block overall. And SGC2C and Sealab are too old. Maybe... Awesome Show? These lists are supposed to be "a history of TV" and it's a void that's hard to fix

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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - AAAAH

"the fact that i could believe it tells you so much about the state of [disney+]" www.smbc-comics.com/comic/aaaah

smbc-comics.com

whoops, great point, deleting due to mild embarassment

screenshot of a now-deleted bsky tweet in this thread where i am goofing up big time
"its very funny that bob iger's capstone project, disney+, has absolutely nothing on this list. tied with court tv and USA. they didn't even rank bluey, a show disney had to buy."

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agreed, putting them in the same tweet is more of a spontaneous "and now that i think about it, this other noah shachtman number was a fun surprise"

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ah man! howd i miss that they missed FARGO. i also really liked LEGION.

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I get to say this because they didn't include it, and so maybe this is now even more attention for it than if it'd been #81 or whatever: You should watch PATRIOT, the spy comedy farce, on Amazon. (CATASTROPHE the romcom did make the cut and you also should watch that, while you're on Amazon.)

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below grade is what it's all about

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Like how you learn that a book only lasts for about thirty checkouts from the library, the lab work chapter is leaving me amazed there's such a thing as film preservation. You can't get that many prints out of an original, theyre born to die.

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Schiff’s tactic may end Porter’s battle

adam schiff pulled it in his senate race to avoid running against katie porter in the general (says porter and others) enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art...

enewspaper.latimes.com

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Got asked what about top-two early elimination elections bothers me, here's why ("get round" should be "1st round")

*(1st round, not "get round")

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2/3- They perversely incentivize bad-faith behavior. We regularly have the leading Dem candidate run ads in the primary to boost the leading GOPer, so that the general is a cakewalk for them (instead of having to beat dem opponent). Total opposite of ranked choice/instant runoffs.

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So so much; 1/3- They aren't "primaries" in the sense anyone has ever meant, they're the get round of a general election with wildly low turnout

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Blocking an nfl field goal must be one of the ten best feelings in the world

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i try to stay mum on elections i can't vote in, but if you're in massachusetts, take it from me in california: you really really really don't want top-two primaries. vote no on 3.

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this is why you gotta be like me, a guy who can't hear, parse, or comprehend lyrics, and doesn't particularly try. god's perfect 90s beck fan.

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i was more or less happy with my plug-in niro, but it was kind of disheartening to later hear the rumor that its tiny battery was only there to qualify for tax credits and hov stickers

as long as we're somewhat relating: here's benedict cumberbatch going sickhouse on the organ at royal albert hall, ft anna lapwood

black and white photo of benedict cumberbatch just full joker-from-batman rictus grin, his head turned 2/3rds around to face the camera, seated at a pipe organ. behind him is lapwood, laughing, and behind her is the royal albert hall and its empty seats