iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 4h

Don't like Slackbot? You can send them feedback to YET ANOTHER "agent". JFCSlack

the slack feedback page, called Agentforce

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 4h

Meet Slackbot, your AI intruder that cannot be removed even if you pay for this damned team collaboration platform

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 4h

I am once again putting Slack on blast for YET ANOTHER "feature" with AI that is useless and annoying, and which cannot be removed. Stop racing Teams for most intrusive and painful UX, and fix your UI instead of adding AI clippy

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 4h

I am not anti-AI. I am an active user of multiple AI models and platforms, and support and encourage use of AI and ML for lots of tasks If your app tells me "congratulations we now have an AI helper" that I can't delete/hide/disable then your work = lazy piece of shit and I hope you feel bad

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 4h

Why impede our “national security” for these pesky concepts like privacy, history, or liberty

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 20h

A good summary of academia I actually got a local award recently and found myself truly shocked that I felt… pleased. Wild

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 01/10/2026

So setting aside *gestures wildly* everything about AI… this is not true. I don’t know about the writing for Star Trek, but i literally need to speak aloud to help process ideas. When I write I talk to myself. I drive my car for hours without the radio, talking to myself the whole time.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 01/10/2026

I do have an inner monologue, but quite often I’m just hearing music in my head playing constantly on a loop, and speaking tends to put it on pause #adhd

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 01/10/2026

This is not AI hype or evangelism or simplification. AI may well be the techno devil that has come to destroy us. But it speaks very naturally, and for some that represents a real change in how we might capture our thoughts. No human should suffer my verbal confetti stream of thoughts

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 01/10/2026

I’ve been trying to talk to my computer since 1998 when I used the first version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. For all the “so what” of AI/LLMs, they seem to me to be a genuinely revolutionary step forward in verbal human computer interaction

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 01/10/2026

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

Every parent knows this. Now publish the results for adults.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

I want comments, and a note that says “hey you wrote a good proposal, made it into the YES bin. Your work is up to par, you just got unlucky. Our system now is driven by luck, but we don’t embrace or acknowledge it. We say “it was Very Good but not Excellent, so that’s not good enough”

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

Already: If you make me order via a QR code, I won't be coming back.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

they televise Powerball drawings so there's no doubt about the process.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

That’s long been the case for NSF. We might have 4 or 5 proposals with great marks, and program officers will say “we hope to fund 1-2”, and in reality I have no idea if 1 even gets picked

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

Program officers already tell us that our numbers or categories correspond to fundable/not, etc. I think we keep 99% of the review process in place, just stop after scores, no ranking, & feedback to proposers is binned

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

I promise you can always still bad mouth me for doing shotty work

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

Yes! Selection comes down to a dice roll on all sides. The least we can do is call it out and celebrate each other for being amazing

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

Exactly. It is not a failure of our brilliance as scientists to embrace the futility of selecting things. We DO NOT know which ideas will be jackpots, and there are many more great and viable proposals than we can fund even in the good years… and we haven’t had a good year in a loooong time

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

We put a bunch of effort into “make sure there’s a minor and major fault listed”, rank these 5 equal proposals since only 1 will likely get funded. Just pick the 1 randomly and tell all 5 PI’s “hey, we’re bummed you did get it, but you’re doing Awesome. Keep it up!” Instead of concocting issues

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

What I wish happened: you submit your proposal. It gets reviewed and scored, put into No, Maybe, Fundable bins. (This is basically what happens now) and then we stop. If you’re getting a 4.5/5 or higher, we don’t rank beyond that.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 30/09/2026

Something I said at a coffee convo yesterday: I actually wish we stopped giving such detailed reviews and rankings of grant proposals. For me as a proposer it does more harm than good. As a reviewer it is more work…

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

Are you looking to apply for the Astronomy PhD program at the University of Washington this cycle? Please look at our website and see the new Expression of Interest form!! astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

astro.washington.edu

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy is accepting applications to our graduate program for Fall 2027 admissions.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

This feels about right. 1000 total applicants across all schools in the US

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

Good notes, I’ll pass them on

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

There are SO Many ways to be a successful PhD student. What (I think) is universal: innate curiosity beyond the book/classroom, commitment to finishing difficult things over long periods of time (grit), creativity, teamwork… goodluck to everyone applying this cycle!

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

This is a problem that cannot be solved by any department. Every year we debate how to do this fairly, to read the whole application, to balance rigor with humanity, passion from opportunity… my hope is this expression of interest form makes it slightly easier for at least some people

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

It’s hard to design metrics that are actually useful here. Standardized tests are deeply flawed. Grades suffer from inflation + problems with comparisons. Balancing CVs from Ivy League from regional from liberal arts colleges… all these things can be important, none are guaranteed to be accurate

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

I’ve said many times the grad admissions is the worse commitee to serve on, because we are sent SO MANY amazing applications. Students have great stories, tons of experience,are deeply passionate… we get 100 applicants for each seat we have. It’s brutal to have to sort/rank and say No to so many

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

The form is free, has basic stats about your application, asks simple Qs about your interests, and (my favorite) a brief Q asking for one thing you’re especially proud of in your application. This is an attempt to make the whole process more humane and easier for everyone.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

astro.washington.edu

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy is accepting applications to our graduate program for Fall 2027 admissions.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

In the last 20yrs we’ve done from around 80 applications per year to over 400. The total number of grad students has remained around 25-30 the entire time

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Sarah Tuttle @niais.cryptoanarchy.network · 29/09/2026

Our department is trying something new this year. We're using a short form "expression of interest" for grad admissions. You can take a look/learn more about it here: astro.washington.edu/graduate-adm...

astro.washington.edu

Graduate Admissions | Department of Astronomy | University of Washington

The Department of Astronomy is accepting applications to our graduate program for Fall 2027 admissions.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

@jayapal.house.gov @repricklarsen.bsky.social @murray.senate.gov @cantwell.senate.gov Scientists in WA/Seattle/Edmonds have helped make the discoveries from New Horizons, and continue to push the frontier of planetary science. Don’t let this spacecraft die from MAGA budget management!

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 29/09/2026

The best part of being an adult is not being a child. The worst part is the adults that act like children

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 28/09/2026

Gov: absolutely no limits on AI!! AI: tries to eat the Gov AI companies: this seems like a problem… Gov: we want AI. It’s now called SI because it is perfect and we love it! No holds barred!

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 28/09/2026

I’m not concerned with being automagically indexed by a library system for something I’ve published publicly. I fear the problem with ASCL is worse: since GitHub/zenodo exists, and the journals encourage good community practices, citing software to an ASCL entry is the WRONG thing to do

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 28/09/2026

Writing out “okay” is a psyop

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 28/09/2026

Replying with just a 👍 is a misdemeanor in 7 states

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The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Censorship is alive and well in the American tech oligarchy. 🇺🇸 www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/dig...

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 28/09/2026

Writing out “okay” is a psyop

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 25/09/2026

It was like disco funk + the jubilant anger of youth…. Perfect combination.

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 25/09/2026

(Yes, I know this GIF is from the music video to Teen Spirit, so save your cards and letters.)

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 25/09/2026

Heard Nirvana’s “In Bloom” on the radio this morning, and let me tell you… if you wanna know what it was like to be a teenager in the 90s, just listen to the drums in that song. That’s everything you need to know.

static.klipy.com

Dave Grohl Davulda Nirvana Performansı

Alt: Dave Grohl playing drums for Nirvana

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 25/09/2026

Maybe the more elegant solution and the hotter take is that we should just not ask the reason

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James Davenport @jradavenport.com · 24/09/2026

Mildly hot take: “not interested” should be an acceptable and clickable option for declining journal referee duties for an article

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