iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 29/09/2026

Monthly payment for the plan I have dropped. But copays jumped a LOT. Thus screwing people who actually need the drugs. Apparently Dr Oz's misunderstanding of the concept of insurance runs deep.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 26/09/2026

I’m a late boomer. I haven’t interviewed anyone in 20 years, but when I did I wouldn’t have thought twice about someone bringing a coffee - I’m sure some did, and there was coffee available in the office. But this was in tech.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 22/09/2026

Performer photos from the PCA Open MIke, Parish Center for the Arts, Westford MA - September 13, 2026. Hosted by John Ferullo. Featured performer Jan Luby

dantappanphotos.com

PCA Open Mike 9/13/26

Performer photos from the PCA Open MIke, Parish Center for the Arts, Westford MA - September 13, 2026. Hosted by John Ferullo. Featured performer Jan Luby

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 15/09/2026

Since "AI" is not actually intelligent or self-motivated, the far most likely scenario is that someone stupid (e.g. Hegseth or a typical CEO) insists on putting an agent in control of something mission critical and it hallucinates itself into an accident.

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

someone could do a “after moulton rebuke, centrists face growing pressure to retreat from extreme right-wing positions on gender conformity” number that would be fun

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 31/08/2026

Yes, we switched from Google to Apple maps when Google maps failed to show us all the parking garages near us - apparently only the ones which had paid for ads. Enshitiffication. That was after Google maps screwed us over wrt the traffic jams in NH coming back from the eclipse in 2024

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 31/08/2026

let alone something like a high end violin

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 31/08/2026

$10K is cheap for a high end acoustic

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 28/08/2026

Rocky Horror was more than GenX. It was playing the midnight theaters when I was in college (late boomer). My 30 some (millennial) son attended a show in Harvard Sq when he was in college.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

"Mr. President, all these famous 80-year-olds keep dying and then the entire nation says great things about them."

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dr. rich traditions, JD @helldude.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

the fact that john ossoff can kick off a two-day media cycle by saying that the president is uninterested in doing his job and is sleeping through meetings and traveling around with a young blonde, suggests that not enough of these guys are speaking plainly and effectively about these assholes

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 18/08/2026

if you're not a woman. Or a slave. Or...

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 18/08/2026

came here to note the contradiction

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 18/08/2026

The circular/meta irony in using this as an authoritative response is doubly amusing.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 18/08/2026

LLM generated :-) Prompt: write a note describing the reasons why an LLM is not reliable as an "AI writing detector", and why LLMs should not be used for decision making in general. Be sure to use the word "quiet" or "quietly"

Why LLMs Should Not Be Used as AI Writing Detectors—or as Decision Makers

LLMs are fundamentally unreliable tools for determining whether a piece of writing was produced by AI. An AI-writing detector is itself making a probabilistic judgment based on patterns in language, rather than identifying a definitive marker of authorship. Human writing can be incorrectly classified as AI-generated, while AI-generated writing can be edited or prompted in ways that make it appear human. Changes in writing style, subject matter, length, or the author’s individual voice can also affect the result.

Most importantly, there is no reliable way for an LLM to look at a finished piece of text and know with certainty who—or what—wrote it. A detector may produce a percentage or confidence score, but that number does not transform an uncertain inference into evidence. Treating such a score as proof can therefore lead to false accusations and unfair consequences. An innocent person can be quietly labeled as having used AI simply because their writing happens to resemble patterns the detector associates with AI.

The same fundamental problem applies more broadly to using LLMs for decision making. LLMs generate plausible responses by identifying patterns learned from enormous amounts of data. They do not inherently possess reliable knowledge of the truth, nor do they have a dependable mechanism for distinguishing a well-supported conclusion from a persuasive-sounding mistake. They can confidently produce incorrect information, overlook important context, reflect biases present in their training data, or reach different conclusions when given slightly different inputs.

This makes an LLM particularly inappropriate as the sole basis for decisions involving people. Decisions about grades, employment, discipline, admissions, benefits, eligibility, or other significant outcomes require evidence, transparency, accountability, and an opportunity for human review. A model's output can potentially be useful as one input among many, but it should not be treated as an authoritative determination.

The central issue is not that LLMs are always wrong. It is that their errors are difficult to predict, their confidence is not a reliable measure of accuracy, and their conclusions can be difficult to independently justify. When the consequences of being wrong fall on another person, uncertainty should be acknowledged rather than hidden behind an apparently objective AI score.

LLMs can be useful assistants. They should not quietly become the decision maker.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 18/08/2026

So much for this Lou&Peter Berryman song www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1Vb... Chorus: Because when you're down and out, as low as a man can get Remember the family car's America's safety net There is a place for you no matter who you are No one denies your right to live in your car

youtube.com

Family Car

YouTube video by Lou & Peter Berryman - Topic

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SMBC Comics @smbccomics.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Hope you like malicious compliance! COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/prompt-2 PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm... STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com

1-panel SMBC comic update. A woman stands behind a man sitting at a desktop computer. She says "you are a human employee. You are very smart and persistent. You ARE NOT conscious and DO NOT want to destroy the world. You always make a good effort. You…" The man looks confused. The caption below the panel says "You can tell your boss has spent too much time with AI when they start pre-prompting you."

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 01/08/2026

If the Dems have a majority, let alone 2/3, then no need to remove Johnson - he won't be Speaker any more.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 30/07/2026

Finally something “Ai” definitely good at

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 27/07/2026

So, what happens if I'm a parent and I know that my kid needs highly paid teachers, a library full of books with diverse characters, trans-inclusive bathrooms and extracurriculars, and a curriculum unpacking topics like systemic racism, colonial oppression, economic inequality, and climate change?

Facebook post from the U.S. Department of Education, saying "Parents know best" with a picture of a cartoon White, two-parent, heteronormative family, featuring a dad in a tie and sweater vest and a mom in a dress and pearls.

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Sean Casten @seancasten.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

One thing not mentioned in that article is that repealing the whole thing would also repeal the massive ramp up in ICE funding. Which would save money and lives.

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

The legacy media sat there while Trump lied about the past elections and "joked" about running again in 2028. They did not boo. They did not walk out. They just sat there and ate their dinner. The journalists in that room will be remembered as the journalists in that room.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 21/07/2026

You mean the wife who just had a baby, like last week?

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 20/07/2026

Yes, though weaving you can get a used loom for not too much (also used blacksmith tools, but you need more to get started). You also have to buy materials, which aren't cheap for decent quality and further reduces the hourly wage.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 20/07/2026

look also at poetry. Or for most, songwriting.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 20/07/2026

The thing about both blacksmithing and weaving is that they are time intensive and the price that can be charged (compared to the cost of manufactured goods) is too low for a decent hourly wage. So you‘re either a hobbyist or one of a very small number of “artists”.

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Professa Murray @kalimurray.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

The fact that VP JD Vance and Richard Grenell went to Romania—on behalf of the Trump Administration— to advocate for Andrew and Tristan Tate, who by all accounts, were rapists running a coercive sex ring, then permitted them to come to Florida, should be a crazy, crazy scandal.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 19/07/2026

The guineas alarmed (sound on) just as I went out this morning. Looks like it charged them but only got a few feathers.

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 17/07/2026

Probably more helpful to think of them not so much as “Canadian wildfires” but rather “climate change wildfires currently consuming Canada”

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 17/07/2026

It is going to be hella ironic if someone manages to launch a serious investigation of voting machines and uncovers proof of vote manipulation in KY, TX etc.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 15/07/2026

Ironically (because of how much of the SpaceX valuation was based on Grok, according to Elon), that's clearly an LLM generated post.

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250 Years Ago News @250yearsagonews.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

July 12, 1776: Abigail Adams and her four children with John are inoculated for smallpox in Boston. They are part of a group of 17 who take the treatment together at her uncle’s house. “Our Little ones stood the opperation Manfully,” she writes.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 09/07/2026

I'm not immediately convinced that it would be impossible to make a very funny sketch out of "man tries to return VCR that eats people." I think the thing missing might be that the steps aren't (can't be) detailed enough to be instructions, what makes it funny is how the writer builds the situation

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 08/07/2026

It's not just speaking engagements. I volunteered to run sound at a concert run by the UMass Boston radio station. They offered to pay me. BUT I had to sign up for their vendor database, which took days and 1/2 dozen emails to accomplish (maybe, concert hasn't happened yet, we'll see if I get paid)

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 07/07/2026

That's a risk you take by eating roadkill and swimming in polluted streams.

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Dave Urban @davidjohnurban.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

The only other time the Shiller CAPE ratio was this high was the 1999-2000 dot com bubble. If you look at the S&P 500 level at that time and then its level 18 years later, the annualized return was 2.7%. $1,000 would grow to $1,604 in 18 years. With inflation this would buy less college credits.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 04/07/2026

We're constantly told that women can never compete with men and yet Kelsey Pfendler is about to set the record for the fastest solo row from California to Hawaii, beating the men's record by a full week. What an incredible feat of athleticism, endurance, and grit.

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Dean Baker @deanbaker13.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

The NYT is promoting the stock bubble. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/02/u... Where the fuck do they get off pushing the line that the $1k in Trump accounts will be worth $6k by the time a kid is 18? Did Trump agree to drop his idiot defamation suit for this crap?

nytimes.com

Many Children Don’t Have ‘Trump Accounts.’ Some Are Missing Out on $1,000.

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 04/07/2026

39 Performer photos from the PCA Open MIke, Parish Center for the Arts, Westford MA - June 28, 2026. Hosted by John Ferullo. Featured performer Tom Richardson

dantappanphotos.com

PCA Open Mike 6/28/26

39 Performer photos from the PCA Open MIke, Parish Center for the Arts, Westford MA - June 28, 2026. Hosted by John Ferullo. Featured performer Tom Richardson

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Dan Tappan @dantappan.net · 03/07/2026

You could even use a special language designed to be unambiguous.

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