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rascaldog.bsky.social

@rascaldog.bsky.social
66 followers 230 following 189 posts

Retired Electrical Engineer. Miss working on cool things, love having time for other things.

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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
Paris Marx @parismarx.com · 25/09/2026
An individual in Canada used ChatGPT for eight months to plan one of the country’s worst mass shootings. Yet, if you listen to politicians and media, the real threat of AI is a fantastical scenario where it might wipe out humans in ten years. They need to stop getting fooled by tech deceivers.
disconnect.blog
The media has the AI threat all wrong
Generative AI is harming people today. We don’t need to waste time fantasizing about science fictional scenarios.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 25/09/2026
Voyager Instruments xkcd.com/3302/
 3-panel comic. (1) [Person with shoulder-length hair gestures at diagrams on wall in front of table with three people.] PERSON 1: As the radioactive power source on *Voyager 1* weakens, we’ve been turning instruments off to conserve power. (2) PERSON 1: Only two instruments remain. Do we want to lose the plasma wave subsystem or the magnetometer? (3) PERSON 2 with ponytail: You know, if we just turned off Greg’s LED underlighting– PERSON 4 with short hair: Absolutely not. PERSON 3: Dammit, Greg. PERSON 4: I will *not* allow us to look uncool in front of aliens.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The minimal amount of computation is likely a hand crafted assembly language program. I've done that. Vast human effort. Compilers and interpreters take a more abstract language as an input, and by using far more computes reduce the human effort needed to do a task. 1/n
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Just in time to be sold a waterfront house in Florida. But don't worry, Federal flood insurance will cover their loss.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Exactly.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Science fiction isn't science. Even if it was, the computers of Star Trek and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress were helpful, not evil. Computers have outpaced human skills for some tasks since before 1945.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
AI can not be un-invented. How does math adapt to the change? Yes, the old way is threatened. If we continue to expand human knowledge with tools such as computers and AI, how do we learn from such tools? Keep track of and guide the advances?
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Good thread. The CDR fantasy has always been an excuse for not making needed changes.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
People are starting to figure Trump out. 🤣
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This questionnaire doesn't ask questions about sheep, so I am impressed. I did live in Montana briefly. I live near Seattle, grew up in Denver, lived in New England... I didn't try answering the questions the way I would have in New England.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Just because CCS would be useful does not mean that it is practical.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
Chris Bataille @chrisbataille.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
APN, a key messages IMO the climate community needs to be clear on is a low GHG transition is in motion for power, ground vehicles & buildings, but it will be awhile before the stock turns over & we start seeing cumulative emissions reductions. Transition mechanics have not yet started for industry.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Some of the backlash to data centers (and AI) is not rational. I'm hardly a "large account," whatever that means.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I'm sure President Xi has a great solution to AI's problems. Let China do it all. China would love to have another point of control over the rest of the world.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I can't recognize that this AI rollout is a net negative for society as a whole. I agree that it is complex. AI's current valid use cases do not support the massive investment in AI. Yet I don't have smarts to understand what happens in the future. AI, at minimum, is going to change software.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
I have an AI running on my desktop. How are you going to tax it? How does the government even know? It doesn't count tokens now, would it have to? Absurd.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Basic. Belief in gravity doesn't matter if you jump off a tall building.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I wrote an AI last month to play a card game, to fill in a hand when we didn't get enough people. How are you going to tax that? Tax income and/or wealth. AI is a useful technology.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
AI is technology getting better. AI finds bugs in existing code good enough to scare banks and other institutions. AI has cracked long standing math problems. AI is useful for various programming problems. You would be more credible if you were honest about the strengths of AI.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 16/08/2026
The guy who did such an incredible job with the Reflecting Pool, Ballroom, Kennedy Center, National Mall, and Great American Fair is going to redesign our warships. What could go wrong?
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
The most amusing thing is that the complainers on Bluesky about data centers don't realize things like Bluesky would not exist without data centers.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
Michael Tobis (mt) @mtobis.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Making the opposition look bad is a political trick. It can be equally used by good guys and bad guys. The only weapon available only to good guys is truth. Lies can be exaggerated, but as Piet Hein pointed out, truth is constructed in such a way that it can’t be exaggerated.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
AI is overhyped. Doesn't mean AI is not useful. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/03/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | I Helped Run Lululemon. The A.I. Revolution Is a Hot Mess. (Gift Article)
The A.I. revolution is stalling because companies don’t want to admit that integrating the technology is expensive and slow and requires human effort.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
AI is changing some things. That is different from "changing everything" and "changing nothing". Understanding what the "some things" actually are is the fun part. Digital computers changed things. Human computers didn't have a job anymore. but a lot more computing got done, and a lot more jobs.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
AI is just normal technology, usable for normal tasks like programming. AI is going to wipe out mankind. AI is going to make inequality worse. AI is _____
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
AI is a tool. Learning to use a tool requires you learn things first. You study the rules of the road before driving the first time. Pilots spend hours in simulators before taking a 787 into the air. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/27/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | If You’re Over 40, You’re Ready to Use A.I. (Gift Article)
A.I. should work like this mystical Jewish practice.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
And the ask situation looks favorable.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
I've been driving electric for about 16 years now. No gear shift is better, no automatic or manual compares. Physical buttons and knows are better, I agree. Power windows are nice if you are the driver so you can open or close other windows.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Some comments. AI meaning a LLM aka a neural network with some skills attached can't be conscious because it does not and can not learn. It was trained, the weights of the NN were frozen.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
A model that is predictive is useful. A model that doesn't match reality is worse than useless.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Perfect.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
David Hamer @davidhamer1951.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
World’s best political cartoonist is 🇨🇦Canadian: @deadder.bsky.social
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Weather map porn???
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Some wisdom from Linus Torvalds lore.kernel.org/all/CAHk-%3D... I realize that some people really dislike AI, but this is an area where I'm willing to absolutely put my foot down as the top-level maintainer.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
Here is an opinion piece on AI. Link free for 30 days. It raises a question about the developers of AI. If they realized that AI might have a huge impact on the jobs people do, maybe they should have considered those people's likely points of view. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | We Returned From China. We Realized Our Century’s Biggest Challenge. (Gift Article)
A.I. demands a populist approach that treats the technology as a public project.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
I've been pro nuclear power most of my life. Later, I saw the improving costs of solar and added pro-solar to the list. Basically, I see that fossil power needs to be replaced, and I am pro anything that can help that, at reasonable costs. A mixture of methods is often better than anything pure.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
This is worth reading, especially the part about why AI code tools are both wonderful and horrible.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Here’s Why Weather Forecasts Have Seemed So Inaccurate Lately. Meteorologists simply aren't able to gather as much data as they used to, and you're suffering for it. gizmodo.com/heres-why-we...
gizmodo.com
Here's Why Weather Forecasts Have Seemed So Inaccurate Lately
Meteorologists simply aren't able to gather as much data as they used to, and you're suffering for it.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
AI for anything fake is a threat to a good society.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
T. K. Rex @tkrex.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Adding some recent press to my website and struck, again, by this line from @solarpunklitmag.bsky.social's review ☀️ "the opposite of apocalypse isn't utopia or even optimism. Rather, it’s responsibility, relationship, and the long, messy, collective work of making a damaged world livable again."
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
I'm betting on everything being electrified. Computing centers, while overhyped, are not pointless. It would be easier if they were. But the reality is that AI is far too useful of a tool to not be used. To use AI and various other compute intensive tasks, we need computing centers.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Me too. AI voice answers, will not connect to a person, told I will get a call back later today, never happens.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Looks inaccurate. I would guess Chinese AI has more users than Western AI
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Net zero is not realistic now. It takes decades to make that sort of change. The average car is in use for over 20 years. So once to the point of 100% of sales are electric, it will take 20 plus years before most of the ICE cars are gone. We can't get net zero now. We must go that way.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
What year is this expected?
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Please do not post fake images. The truth is bad enough.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Not when the coyotes are harassing your calves.
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rascaldog.bsky.social @rascaldog.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Melkor
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
NPR @npr.org · 13/04/2026
Breaking News: Swalwell's resignation follows allegations of sexual assault and misconduct made by multiple women against the California Democrat.
n.pr
Eric Swalwell will resign from Congress as he faces backlash over assault allegations
Swalwell's resignation follows allegations of sexual assault and misconduct made by multiple women against the California Democrat.
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Reposted by @rascaldog.bsky.social
Molly Jong-Fast @mollyjongfast.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
You’d think expensive oil would make our government focus on solar and wind energy, you would of course be wrong
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