iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

If you ever wondered where my account handle came from, you can find out in the first post on my new Substack: open.substack.com/pub/neurobon...

open.substack.com

An introduction...

...and an explanation

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

I wanted to send a broadcast message over our Google Home speakers, and the Google Home app told me I had to go to the Gemini app to do that. That didn't work, but I did get to have this unhinged conversation, so consider me a satisfied customer.

a screenshot of a deranged conversation with Gemini where it talks about why it needs to keep people around.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Playing around with the latest image generation models (via Adobe Firefly, which is allowing unlimited generation until 1/15), and thought I would share how it turned out (results in thread):

Prompt: "Convert the reference photo to an oil painting in the style of Rembrandt. The regal female Bernedoodle is dressed in a gown with a lavish wide fur collar. Around her neck, she is wearing a heavy jeweled gold necklace with a large ruby at the center. The background is almost black. The brushwork of the painting is visible, with exquisite detail."

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Someone once said that it is better to burn out than to fade away. However, I believe that in my case, I will do neither. Instead, my brain will lose the will to remain semi-solid, and it will drool out my ear.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

I woke up this morning in Manhattan, and I am now in San Francisco, but somewhere in between, I testified before the House Financial Services Committee in Washinton, DC.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

Saturday "booking a 5-day BOS-JFK-DCA-SFO-BOS flight itinerary" vibes.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 30/08/2025

I have been asked to testify before the Senate _again_ in a few weeks, and now I am wondering if it is a fashion faux pas to where the same tie in consecutive testimonies only weeks apart.

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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

Happy birthday to trailblazing American computer scientist Frances Elizabeth Allen (1932 – 2020) who made foundational contributions to optimizing compilers, optimizing programs and parallel computing. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🧮 #histsci She was the first woman to become an IBM Fellow, where she worked from 1957 to 2002🧵

My linocut in blue of Fran Allen (woman with short hair, glasses, smiling at viewer) surrounded by green optimization diagrams (with lines, arrows and labels) from her famous 1971 paper.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Today was a blur, but at some point earlier in that blur, I testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Securities, Insurance, and Investment.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

No, YOU'RE ordering four dress shirts at 8PM in different sizes and fits, to pick up in-store tomorrow, because you have to fly to DC on Tuesday to testify to Congress and don't have a shirt you can wear with a tie.

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VisionBernie - Bernhard Egger @visionbernie.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Forget ChatGPT! This will revolutionize science! openCHEAT: Computationally Helped Error bar Approximation Tool - Kickstarting Science 4.0 eggerbernhard.ch/SIGBOVIK_ope... Plenty of happy users since 2021! 1/5

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 04/01/2025

OK, so here's the deal, wolf. You can have some of this meat we're cooking by this fire, but in exchange, we're going to selectively breed your children, and your children's children, and so on—for 50,000 years—until they are basically ridiculous muppets.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Just another normal day, sharing my knowledge and advice with the people of BlueSky.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I have been a little bit scarce on social media in the last few months. Some of that has just been from being busy at work, but some of it has had to do with my father's passing. He hated the very idea of social media, but he religiously followed my Twitter, and then Bluesky, feeds. /n

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Has anyone run the numbers on how much coverage a genetic database would need to have to get different levels of specificity in matching? I imagine once you get to a certain level of coverage, you can narrow down the possible set quite aggressively.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

btw, this is my guess on why they collected that backpack with an excavator when they found it. Don't want to risk destroying or contaminating any genetic evidence present at the scene. Wouldn't be surprised if they sterilized the excavator shovel before collection as well.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Someone asked me if face recognition/AI will catch the NYC assassin guy. I guess it's possible, but my money is on the DNA (if it's his). If anyone up to a third cousin (less than 1% shared heritable variation) used 23andme, then have a lead and can start walking the family tree.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 14/09/2024

My daughter hit me yesterday, completely out of the blue, with a detailed and thoroughly researched presentation entitled "Why I should learn to play the harp"

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 31/08/2024

tfw when I am the sole technical person a reception full of business people.

A painting of exhausted-looking clown sitting at a party with a variety of more conventionally-dressed people (Edward Hopper's Soir Bleu)

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 26/08/2024

My wife, asking me cautiously (but somewhat nervously) if there is an upper limit to the number of watches a person can or should acquire.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 25/08/2024

fwiw, this is the posture that axolotls take when they're about to attack

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 17/08/2024

So many job opportunities available these days.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 08/08/2024

Intellectually, I am aware that turkeys can fly. But it is another thing altogether to see two of them bomb into my backyard at speed. I feel like my brain is not really ready to accept this fact.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 04/08/2024

I just tried to type "Arduino," and my phone autocorrected it to "STFU no"

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 09/07/2024

SF weather is so weird. The Bay Area is experiencing a historic heat wave, and it's positively chilly in the city.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 09/07/2024

I have been asked to testify before congress in two weeks, and my dominant emotion is "I sure hope that suit I bought but never had time to try on actually fits"

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 18/06/2024

Today I learned that gates 52A-G (and ONLY those gates) at LAX terminal 5 exist in an alternate universe, and must be reached by taking a shuttle bus clear across the airport. Unexpectedly, there is a lounge just for those gates. I was the only person in it.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 22/05/2024

Big tech trade shows have Richard Scary Busytown vibes.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 19/04/2024

I think we're experiencing the slow heat death of the thought-leader industrial complex. Today, I showed up to speak on a panel, and half the panel (including the moderator) didn't show. Earlier this year, a whole conference was cancelled, and they failed to inform all speakers.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 18/03/2024

My fingers won't do what I could make them do when I was 18 (back when I practiced every day), but these days I play while enjoying a stiff cocktail made from decent liquor, so it all evens out.

An old bootleg copy of the Real Book, turned to the page with the changes for "The Sorcerer."

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 17/03/2024

Every time I open this device up, I ask myself "did they let the intern design this?" There is no way that 6 AAA batteries was the right solution here.

A Brother P-touch label maker powered by 6 AAA batteries

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 13/03/2024

One could get used to California.

A view from a patio of the hills south of San Jose.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 05/03/2024

In Boston, we refer to this time of day as "before Dunkin Donuts opens"

view of Boston from South Station, foggy

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 03/03/2024

My daughter coded up an animated birthday card for me in Racket.

an animated birthday card on a laptop screen with stars and confetti

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 20/02/2024

You know you travel too much when you pull out your ID to check in at the hotel and the guy at the desk says "I don't need to see your ID. I know who you are."

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 19/02/2024

Oh cool, found the hot coffee supply line in our new house.

furnace hot water lines, one of which appears to be labeled "coffee"

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 14/02/2024

Special thanks to my phone's autocorrect for repeatedly trying to change "jetting off" to "getting off" in a text message. I prevailed in the end, but it took some effort.

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 06/02/2024

I did my commute today in style. 😎

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Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 28/01/2024

FYI folks I’ve seen the “ideology gap” story about GenZ men becoming increasingly conservative going around a lot and the data is extremely problematic and being widely panned by scientific experts as biased and poorly analyzed. Prob best to stop sharing it:

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 27/01/2024

That's a lot of uppers and downers...

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Kylie Eleison @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 20/01/2024

The Wikipedia biographical info for Ryan Gosling sounds like Dr. Evil talking about his father

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 19/01/2024

Someone was hungry when they gave this interview (full article at: electrek.co/2024/01/15/h...)

"In our design, lithium metal gets wrapped around the million particle, like a hard chocolate shell around a hazelnut core in a chocolate Truffle," said Li

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 02/01/2024

Where does one store objects like this?...

Foreground: an wind up elephant toy that I found while cleaning up. Background: a box labeled "elephant tchotckes"

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David Cox @neurobongo.bsky.social · 01/01/2024

Playing Monopoly with my family, and my 11yo perfectly summed up the dynamic of the game when the first player buys a house: "now everything goes to shit."

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