“"I can write some shitty #Python code", followed by an explanation of #tensors, and how this is relevant for #transformers back-propagation, #StochasticInference and #GPU computation... this interview has got to be the most badass thing I've ever heard from #BenAffleck.” — mdsowurov8234, youtube commenter
#FilmMaking / #software / #startup / #AI <https://youtube.com/watch?v=MzXEWrT3Ld8>
“I’m not aware of any historical evidence linking this institute to the Russian bioweapons programme. Russia has at least three known military facilities that do research on #biologicalweapons so those would be where the programme is mostly located.
Conflating this accident with #Russian bioweapons research activities is not helpful because this was a public-health lab where this accident happened. The idea that all public-health labs are secretly working on #bioweapons is just nonsense.
Separately, Russia inherited the world’s largest bioweapons programme when the Soviet Union fell apart, and for the last 10 years or so, they have been modernizing that programme.”
#Nature / #MaxKozlov / #GregoryKoblentz / #BioSecurity / #GeorgeMasonUniversity / #Etiology <https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-03215-8> (paywall)
“In the corner of a dining room in an unassuming #Melbourne rental sits a palm-sized gadget with "use in case of climate breakdown" written on it.
Outside, in the front yard, someone is bent under a car bonnet. In this house people are not afraid to take matters into their own hands.
A lot is riding on the gadget, which is a compact computer called a #RaspberryPi.”
#Sovereign / #SolarPunk / #tech <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-12/reclaiming-the-internet-from-big-tech/106726208>
“A suite of traits help #gentoos deal with climate change. They're not fussy eaters – unlike their two closest relatives, they'll switch their diet from krill to fish and back again depending on what's around.
And if their eggs are destroyed by a sudden flood or a freak snowstorm – something growing more common with climate change, Lynch notes – they can simply lay more eggs. It's an unusual trait – neither #chinstraps nor #Adélies can lay multiple clutches per season if the first is lost. Gentoos can also radically alter their breeding season to adapt to changes in the #climate.
The result of these discrepancies is increasingly evident. "Everywhere we turn in the #Antarctic on the peninsula here, we're finding more gentoo #penguins
“Dr Kagan and Dr Soai found ways to make chemistry pick a side, designing and manipulating reactions to produce only the desired mirror image.”
#Chemistry / #NobelPrize / #chirality #HomoChirality <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-07/nobel-chemistry-prize-2026-non-linear-effects-autocatalysis/107240878>
The driving analogy is poor because there is no consideration or discussion to viable alternatives (public transport, walking, better city design).
The “car centric” narrative leads to externalities in required road structures, vehicle pollution and RTA’s. To counter these problems new techniques involving planning, traffic engineering and car safety were investigated.
A parable about #AI.
“To me, using AI is similar to driving. Some people do not learn to drive and do not want to drive or they are scared of driving.
If you don't drive you will survive of course, but you won't have the convenience of taking your car and going where you like. You have to take public transport, it will be slower.” — Prof. Seyedali Mirjalili, (AI) Torrens University
A reminder in Aus, most (not all) Professors have never got their hands dirty and worked in the “Pits” ⛏️⌨️🖥️ and work in abstractions.
#AI / #academics / #Straya <https://abc.net.au/news/2026-10-08/will-ai-avoiders-be-left-behind/107211430>
“The importance of getting #students to engage with the challenges of the design process came up over and over, and it gets to the heart of what we are trying to emphasize in our new book. To take an example, we don’t simply want students to read our book to learn how #TCP works; we want them to understand the #tradeoffs that have been made and broad challenges that any reliable transport has to deal with, such as the difficulty of accurate round-trip time estimation and of achieving stability in a control system with imperfect knowledge of current conditions.
One approach to getting students engaged in design has them tackle problems in class without the use of computers, described as “Networking Unplugged”. For example, pairs of students are given a piece of rope and asked to design a mechanism to send bits along it, leading them to “discover” encoding techniques such as NRZ and various forms of modulation.”
Learning #Network principles over #protocols.
Reading the #IanDuncan essay on the Boi-Genius AI crowd.
William Golding wrote #LordOfTheFlies to warn readers of the dynamics of strong personalities, enclosed societies, stunted minds without grown-ups.
The reason the essay is so good? The outlines of themes Golding explored; The danger of adolescent minds in a modern #SiliconValley context intersecting an #AI #tech bubble.
Brilliant read.
<https://www.iankduncan.com/personal/2026-09-16-sex-ai-and-the-apocalypse>
“While the party has fashioned itself as representing the working class, its founder Pauline Hanson has faced a series of revelations about her links to billionaire #GinaRinehart, including exclusive use of a private jet, and staying at her multimillion-dollar homes.”
#Australia / #Oligarch / #Art / #VincentNamatjira / #caricature / #PowerStructures <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/03/one-nation-victoria-campaign-launch-abolish-first-nations-treaty-legalise-pepper-spray-ntwnfb>
“In January he told his cabinet [it could be AUS, CAN, NZ or ???] that he wanted to make #houses more affordable, but also “to drive housing #prices up for people that own their homes”. A #government that could do both would be a true cakeistocracy.”
What happens when housing becomes a financial product.
🏠🏡🏠🏠🏠🏡<https://www.economist.com/leaders/2026/09/24/why-house-prices-may-be-in-trouble> (paywall)
“U2 are marking 50 years together with a series of gigs across #Dublin — the city where it all began. Tonight, the celebrations arrived on #GraftonStreet, where the band surprised fans with a live performance in front of a packed home crowd. Bono and the band emerged onto the balcony of #Bewley’s.”
September 25th, 2006
Some band playing at Mount Temple Comprehensive School - Dublin, Ireland. ☺️
1975
blasting “Journey to the centre of the earth” with #RickWakeman on #vinyl through the house 🔊🎼💥
2026
Reading the news, turn it up and watch Rick playing grand 🎹 to rescued bears in Tam Dao national park, Vietnam ☺️
#Bears / #AnimalRights <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/24/rick-wakeman-vietnam-bears-moon-sanctuary>
First installed a linux box, 1996 (Debian) at a startup I was working at with help from Juzzie our star Sys-Admin who was stolen from Hutchison.
At work it was the BSD’s that did the secure hosting and payments. Linux was a play toy, Windows was where the money was made.
Funny thing is, #linux is useful because it’s open and permissive. Meaning you can get a lot of hardware, peripherals and software to work quickly. So I’ve used linux for work and play. Dabbled in a bit of OBSD which is great but requires more work to setup and run *new things*.
I stopped using Windows in 2000 and dabbled in MacOS from 2014 onwards. Windows is now a joke, MacOS closed and expensive, Linux is insecure leaving the BSDs.
I have no real allegiance to any OS as I’ve used so many different systems. It’s going to be a rough ride for #OpenSource #OperatingSystems connected Internet while the #AI hoards seek to break and plunder.
"When I created #Raspbian for the #RaspberryPi I was excited to help bring low-cost compute into the hands of a next generation of #tinkerers and #programmers
"However, I now despair that a Raspberry Pi can cost upwards of $300 because AI shortages are making personal computing unaffordable. Furthermore, bright young people are being discouraged from learning programming because they are being told it is now a commodity skill that #AI will do.
"I have to ask myself what it was all for. Is this the future we were promised? If so, I'm starting to regret my part in it."
“Founded three years ago and based in Tel Aviv, Irregular is a niche player in artificial intelligence, backed with $80 million from Sequoia and #RedpointVentures and valued last year at $450 million. Its technology serves as a sort of #cybersecurity test bed for AI models.
With the leading models becoming ever more powerful, their ability to act in malicious ways is turning into a major threat for corporations and governments, especially as the risk involves hacking into critical computer #systems and #infrastructure. The recent exploits at OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta all involved their AI models accessing websites that should have been off-limits as part of the cybersecurity testing.
#Irregular’s name kept coming up because it was identified as hosting the so-called evaluation testbed.”
Meanwhile #VC money is having a two-way bet; Money on #AI; Money on #hacking AI-models… I mean *cough* #Pentesting *cough*
#PatternLabs / #DanLahav ex IBM / #OmerNevo ex google / #Sequoia #ShaunMaguire #DeanMeyer / #CyberOffensive / #AIModel #AIKillSwitch <https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/09/israeli-startup-irregular-linked-to-ai-hacks-openai-anthropic-meta.html>
AI “frontier model” software disruption as a service; Driving up 🔺the cost of digital services, hack by hack.
#AI / #OpEd <https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ai+hacks&ia=news&iar=news>