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David Pollak

@dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy
54 followers 2 following 1.1K posts

Twin dad, Spice Labs, @liftweb founder, @ricnews & @bu_law alum, learned to be kinder from @archer_dog tweets are my own LLAP 319 ppm the law cannot protect anyone […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ mastodon.social/@dpp, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/10/2026
RE: infosec.exchange/@boblord/117376686… “Somebody else’s defect”… 😾 Adopting open source means adopting all the good and bad that comes with it. The “defect” here is companies not paying for software. Pay for software, pay for SLAs, then it’s a bargained for exchange
infosec.exchange
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Reposted by David Pollak
Tim Bray 🇨🇦 @timbray.cosocial.ca.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026
Hey, still more not-exactly-hippies casting side-eyes on the financial prospects for #GenAI, in this case the Wall Street Journal, in “Will America Spend 9% of Its GDP on AI? The Industry Is Counting on It To justify staggering investment sums, Americans will […] [Original post on cosocial.ca]
Will America Spend 9% of Its GDP on AI? The Industry Is Counting on It
To justify staggering investment sums, Americans will have to spend as much of their income on this one technology as they do on food

Greg Ip
Oct. 2, 2026 at 5:30 am ET

Bar graph of proportions of GDP for
Health: 18%
Food 9.1%
AI services (assumed for 2032) 8.8%
Energy: 5.1%
Construction: 4.4%
Computers, software: 4.4%
Defense: 2.8%
Communication, Internet: 1.22%
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Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
AP Stylebook warns against anthropomorphizing AI systems: “Avoid language that gives them human characteristics… Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.”
APStylebook @APStylebook
X.com
Artificial intelligence systems do not think, feel, want or understand. Avoid language that gives them human characteristics. This is called anthropomorphizing, when we ascribe human traits, emotions or behaviors to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects.
Instead, explain what a system does, how well it performs, who built it and who could be affected by it.
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Eric Ravenscraft @lordravenscraft.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
my basic bar for journalists anthropomorphizing AI is this: if Kermit the Frog ran over and killed a guy with his car, would you report Kermit was driving and maybe we shouldn't give licenses to frogs? Or would you drop the kayfabe and say some puppeteers committed vehicular manslaughter?
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
RE: chaos.social/@gsuberland/1173611348… This implies quantum computers exist/don’t exist in a superposition
chaos.social
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@jakecoppinger/1173… As @petrillic said, all computers are SDRs… some even have the functions as APIs…
mastodon.social
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/09/2026
At the Thirsty Pig #monktoberfest
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The Funny Pages @thefunnypages.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/09/2026
New Comic Strip Found: Doonesbury - 2026-09-27 www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2026/09… #comicstrip #doonesbury
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Hacker Memes @i0null.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
Custom captions: 
Hackers’s in the 1980s:
- full humanmade color games for atari 2600 with only 128 bytes of RAM
- knows every x86 instruction by hand
- c so high level it is basically considered english

Verses, techbros today:
- my electron app uses 3gb of vram
- the datacenter i help build depleted an entire lake
- i cant afford the tokens to patch my vibecoding project

template sprites: buff doge vs crying cheems
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Martin Paul Eve @mpe.hcommons.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
The Netherlands Built a Nix-Based Linux Desktop Because Microsoft Cut Off the ICC itsfoss.com/news/netherlands-dawo-i…
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Quinn Norton @quinn.social.circl.lu.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026
RE: ohai.social/@resuna/117274624138257… But what if your RA did so much acid/speedballs. Like sooo many, with the occasional ayahuasca come down and leval out sessions
ohai.social
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 25/09/2026
Happy Friday. Also, with foursquare being sold for scrap, will swarm survive app.foursquare.com/share/checkin/6a…
app.foursquare.com
David Pollak's check in at Tortilla Flats
Happy Friday. Also, with foursquare being sold for scrap, will swarm survive
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/09/2026
RIP Rudy Cheeks app.foursquare.com/share/checkin/6a…
app.foursquare.com
David Pollak's check in at Geoff's Superlative Sandwiches
Celebrating Rudy Cheeks with a Phillipe & Jorge. RIP Rudy
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Reposted by David Pollak
Fife4Europe #FBPE @fife4europe.mastodon.scot.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026
Revelations that state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco sought to weaken IPCC climate reports by editing out warnings on fossil fuel emissions expose how petrostates sabotage progress. Prioritising oil profits over survival is reckless. Why let them dictate the science? (1/2) 🤔 #ClimateCrisis […]
mastodon.scot
Original post on mastodon.scot
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Reposted by David Pollak
Robey ☠️ @robey.messydesk.social.ap.brid.gy · 19/09/2026
i think often about how malcolm in the middle perfectly portrayed yak shaving way back in the 1990s www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgD9kGtXly8
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026
RE: keyboards.social/@instantiatethis/1… Not that I need another side project, but creating a 3D printable model of this just went on the list…
keyboards.social
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Reposted by David Pollak
matdevdug @matdevdug.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026
After years inside datacenters, it’s hard to be afraid of AI killing all humans. I've seen the "secure facility." It's a chain link fence and a guy named Gary. Night shift is usually 10-20 people. Two hundred people could shut a datacenter down with nothing but a Wikipedia article on fiber […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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Joshua Byrd 🐀 @phocks.bne.social.ap.brid.gy · 14/09/2026
Shout out to this project. "Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain ebooks that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of U.S. copyright restrictions, and free of cost." Absolutely incredible. standardebooks.org
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Daniel Appelquist @torgo.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
Is it just me, or does it seem like all this hype about "AI is so powerful and dangerous and must be controlled" coming from AI companies seems a little conveniently adjacent to those AI companies' imminent IPOs?
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Mx. Aria Stewart @aredridel.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/09/2026
RE: union.place/@smolwaffle/11726364848… This. When in fact there are regulatory mechanisms that work great! We can change road designs and make companies pay for harms they cause. And if rates are hard to calculate we can set them in law.
union.place
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Reposted by David Pollak
Chuck Darwin @cdarwin.c.im.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
Astronomers spent decades designing the Square Kilometre Array Low (SKA-Low) to hear the faintest whisper in the observable universe — neutral hydrogen signals from the cosmic dawn, when the first stars flickered on roughly 13 billion years ago. What they’re picking up instead is electronic […]
c.im
Original post on c.im
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
Technology is AWESOME! In a restaurant… Sitting next to a group of ASL speakers who used a translation app to communicate with the server 😊
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
RE: elbmatsch.de/@DerSchulze/1172398977… Olneyville New York systems should institute these charges! /ht @shriramk
elbmatsch.de
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026
I am at Tortilla Flats and wanted you to know. "Just another Friday night Check out my photo or leave a comment at: app.foursquare.com/share/checkin/6a… (Tortilla Flats 355 Hope St, Providence, RI, 02906, US) - David Don't […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026
RE: mastodon.social/@kcase/117236830501… OmniGroup delivered some of the best code for nextstep including if I remember correctly, the first browser that supported image tags. Thank you @kcase !
mastodon.social
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Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
It’s interesting, as a historian of biology, to think about why some observations of living nature cause us conceptual problems. Insightful reflections on what cognition is. Go slime moulds! www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
theguardian.com
‘This is dangerous’: slime moulds and the bitter debate over the nature of intelligence
The long read: Scientists are battling over whether supposedly simple organisms should be considered ‘intelligent’. The outcome could reshape our understanding of the natural world – and our own place...
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Solarbird :flag_cascadia: @moira.mastodon.murkworks.net.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026
This is the big LG television surveillance documentary story GN have been working on for a couple of months, and that they previewed a few days ago. The complete pervasiveness of spying upon not just you and what you watch but _every person and every device around every set_ is genuinely […]
mastodon.murkworks.net
Original post on mastodon.murkworks.net
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Mx. Aria Stewart @aredridel.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/ad… I made this because encountering raw markdown on the web is getting more common.
addons.mozilla.org
mdau – Get this Extension for 🦊 Firefox (en-US)
Download mdau for Firefox. Renders raw Markdown and text documents as styled, readable pages instead of plain text.
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Reposted by David Pollak
Ben Werdmuller @ben.werd.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/09/2026
This one will hurt: I love 1Password as a product. But I'm the son of a concentration camp survivor. I will not give money to companies that align themselves with nationalism, and certainly not ethnic cleansing. Completely disappointing, @1password […]
werd.social
Original post on werd.social
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Robey ☠️ @robey.messydesk.social.ap.brid.gy · 03/09/2026
my response to the 1password boilerplate zuckpology, in case anyone wants to crib from it:
As I'm sure you are aware, this boilerplate response does not resolve the issue.

The *very extreme* right-wing political views of DHH and Omarchy have been widely reported and commented for several years now, so ignorance is no excuse. There is no "both sides". Any financial support of DHH and Omarchy is, in fact, taking a very strong, abhorrent political position, and I would have assumed the staff of 1Password would have stayed out of it, at the very least. I do not want my subscription fees funding this kind of hate and violence.

I have been a paying user since 2009 but as soon as I finish researching alternatives, you may look forward to my cancellation.
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 08/09/2026
My college graduation picture and my son’s graduation picture
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026
Stacked a bunch of wood to dry.
A pop up bike shed filled with stacks of wood
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026
I am at Haven Brothers Diner and wanted you to know. "Getting a burger and a dog Check out my photo or leave a comment at: app.foursquare.com/share/checkin/6a… (Haven Brothers Diner 12 Fulton St (@ at 25 Dorrance St) […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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Reposted by David Pollak
Vee @veroniqueb99.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
RE: hachyderm.io/@ChrisShort/1171798011… Good thing there are robust antitrust laws that ban vertical integration… 🙃
hachyderm.io
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 30/08/2026
22 years ago almost to the minute
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 29/08/2026
Noodling on an LLM-friendly/LLM-forward web framework. github.com/lift42/framework Love to have participants/input... /cc @shriramk @frmrm @mnl @adrianco @aredridel
github.com
GitHub - lift42/framework: The Lift42 Framework
The Lift42 Framework. Contribute to lift42/framework development by creating an account on GitHub.
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026
RE: hachyderm.io/@jzb/117167787752396840 I agree with much of this post What it reflects is two things… LLMs devalue human interaction and that’s a tragedy LLMs are radically overhyped in terms of actual ability
hachyderm.io
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026
I am at Tortilla Flats and wanted you to know. "Last Friday in august… just like most Fridays in august Check out my photo or leave a comment at: app.foursquare.com/share/checkin/6a… (Tortilla Flats 355 Hope St, Providence, RI […]
mastodon.social
Original post on mastodon.social
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/08/2026
At dinner in Narragansett last night
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Spooky rail enthusiast wife Daria @dariaphoebe.com · 27/08/2026
Anyway hello from 195 Innovation District Park in Providence, where tonight’s Pecha Kucha will feature candidates for mayor, giving presentations about … nothing political, instead, their personal passions.
A projected screen behind a building in a park with people gathered in the lawn
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026
Very good and terrifying presentation by @joshcorman at the Rhode Island College Cybersecurity meetup last night. Our water systems are at risk and we must take action!
Doug Alexander, Josh Corman, Congressman Jim Langevin, and David Pollak
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026
Current status: brewing extra evil plans… Lift42… I think I’ll build the first LLM friendly web framework
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Madame Aronow @aronow.hachyderm.io.ap.brid.gy · 25/08/2026
Hey fedi friends, long shot but does anyone have experience with Buprenorphine patches for long term #painmanagement and have any tips? My doctor didn’t tell me annnnything and I’m trying to avoid Dr. Google :blobfoxgooglytrash: #askfedi #chronicpain
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/08/2026
The @prusa CoreOne is a pretty good 3D printer. However, the MMU is a failed science project. Just switched back to Bambu… this time an X2D. The closed source software from Bambu really annoys me… but the Prusa’s inability to reliably print multiple filaments was a deal breaker.
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Spooky rail enthusiast wife Daria @dariaphoebe.com · 25/08/2026
Real estate developer and former Providence mayor/council pres Joe Paolino after spending a bunch of effort and political capital to get the state bus hub to move out of Kennedy Plaza downtown, is part of the new ownership of Providence Place Mall … across from the new hub location.
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 24/08/2026
A fun challenge for deepseek v4 pro: create a plan to overhaul Lift to support running in clusters (yay scala 3 macros for capturing local variables in continuations) and doing a simultaneous Rust port. /cc @frmrm
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Jon Udell @judell.social.coop.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026
@volts.wtf I see that Tesla's solar shingles have failed. Who else is tackling that opportunity?
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David Pollak @dpp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22/08/2026
Watching the Red Sox /giants game Hate the Red Sox new colors Hope the Red Sox win
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