iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Gemini 3 (Nano Banana Pro): 10/10, no notes.

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Gemini 2.5 (Nano Banana): about the same, still missing the point

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GPT Image: closer, still doesn't "get" the assignment

Adobe Firefly 5 Preview: Ummm......

Adobe Firefly Image Ultra 4: ummmm....

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

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

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Do you have one of those piano ties?

It would be awesome if @dieworkwear.bsky.social weighed in on this sartorial conundrum, and more generally, how one should dress for these kinds of "must dress formally" events (in the rest of my life, I basically wear copies of the same black shirt and jeans every day)

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

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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Reposted by David Cox

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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it is apparently the third oldest continuously operating business in Cambridge, so not off the mark.

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I got my first piece of formalwear—a second hand tuxedo for youth symphony performances—from them when I was 16, and they never disappoint

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Yes! If you ever are in the Boston area and need same day tailoring, Keezer's in Cambridge has got your back.

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

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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thanks!... unrelated: do know any tailors in the area who do quick-turn suit alterations?

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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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Reposted by David Cox

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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I suspect that we've been doing the same thing to ourselves for generations.

That's good news. One of the most compelling theories of wolf domestication I have heard is that they *self*-domesticated, at least at the beginning. There was an evolutionary advantage to being less terrifying and therefore able to get closer to the humans without getting killed.

What's that? Yeah, muppets haven't been invented yet. But they're gonna be really goofy. Do we have a deal?

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

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an interesting feature of identification threats is that a single low-confidence hypothesis that two graph nodes might be connected is often all that is needed to completely unravel the whole thing.

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Definitely. Pretty sure my kids were born with their genetic privacy already compromised, because of 23andme usage across relatives, including many who they will probably never meet. And that's over and above the troves of combined cellular and GPS data that is being warehoused.

My gut intuition is that a DNA sample in the hands of a state actor today can probably identify any individual to within a dozen or fewer candidates. But that may be wrong if there are whole big family trees with no sampling at all.

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Most people have no idea how biological material they leave behind, or how diligent you have to be to avoid doing so.

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In past professional lives, I have done both sterile surgeries and worked in BSL2 lab environments, and while those are mainly focused on pathogen contamination, you have to work to suppress the many habits that would break the sterile field or bypass a barrier.

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Obviously, we voluntarily rat ourselves out on the regular with all of our chattering devices, but even if you turn those off or leave them behind, it is tricky business not leaving a trail of DNA everywhere you go as well.

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definitely possible, though if you are worried about a bomb the protocol is usually to detonate, or leverage robots for retrieval and containment. Hazmat suits per se generally protect the wearer... the outside of a hazmat suit can just as easily be contaminated with trace DNA if you aren't careful

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Dunno, my family tree spans that divide in just three hops. I suspect that many/most families do within the detection threshold.

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I miss him. Always will. But as the feeling of acute loss fades, I will also treasure the little memories and reminders of who he was, and I will feel gratitude for all the time we had.

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I am glad to come back and see this place even more vibrant than when I last came regularly. I think my dad would have liked it too... he was always just as interested in people's responses to my dumb posts as the posts themselves, so thanks to all of you as well for giving him that enjoyment.

I am incredibly lucky to have had him as my father. So much of who I am is because of him, and those similarities have become even clearer in the reflections that his final days and passing precipitated.

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It does still make me miss him, but it also makes me remember him, and I value that more and more. I remember him sitting in his chair with his laptop, checking for little glimpses and daily ephemera from his son's life. I remember how interested in and supportive of everything I did he was.

I will admit, I still don't know how to feel about it. But as time has gone by, the reflexive thought that "dad will definitely call me about this one" has gradually transitioned to the corrected (past) tense version. "Dad would have called me about this one"

So posting always made me think of him, in a very direct way, and that remains true now. Right after he passed, I really didn't enjoy the thought of posting. It became a reminder of that loss.

Sometimes, I posted pictures and thoughts about my travels, primarily so he and the rest of my family could keep tabs on my whereabouts, and to share a bit of those experiences with them. I was aware in every post I wrote that he would read them, and I often adjusted what I would say accordingly.

He would read my dumb little day to day musings and often would ask me about them when we next talked on the phone or in person. Sometimes, he would call right away to ask about something I said, shortly after reading it.

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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But you could also do targeted advertising or coupons for segments that lacked good coverage. I wonder if you'd even need to do that, though.