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I’ve been thinking alot about civic participation in machine learning systems development. In particular, involving non-experts in the potentially value-laden translation work from specifications that engineers do when they build their models. Below is a summary of a selection of literature I found on the topic, which may serve as a jumping-off point for future research. Abstract The literature on participatory artificial intelligence (AI) reveals a complex landscape marked by …

Thursday, January 11, 2024 a concise theory of notes about notes Previously: notes on notes 2020: meta meta 2020: the zettelkasten / the zeitgeist I came across an argument about what exactly makes something a zettelkasten, and then thought: “Zettelkasten” is a pretty great example of how one of the best ways to fuck up a neat idea is to have a bunch of people get really excited about it. …

This nebula is very, very dim and therefore it's not very popular with astrophotographers as it takes a long time to get a decent image. All in all this image took me over 50h of total exposure time over multiple weeks.The nebula itself is quite similar to many other nebulas with a center that glows from oxygen and sulphur emissions embedded in a larger area of hydrogen gas. There's also …

To understand how far the modern Republican Party has fallen, please read this famous speech by President Dwight Eisenhower. Ike’s thoughtful reflection is a breathtaking contrast with the bombastic idiocy of the most recent Republican to live in the White House. (Eisenhower would likely take Joe Biden to task, too, for the current president’s strike in the Middle East, and for the escalation of violence in a region already suffering …

Happy new year everyone! It’s been fairly quiet on here and there’s a second instalment on the AudioMoth deployment at Lady Bay Reef which is currently in the works. This has taken much longer than expected to pull together, largely owing to going out too deep (pardon the pun) and having to rein myself in again. Between this heave-ho, I’ve been creating some new videos which provide an overview of …

Speaking of extremely helpful error messages, recently this error greeted me upon retrieving my phone from my running belt after finishing a run. I guess it’s a… non-modal modal? It doesn’t allow you to do anything until dismissing it, but it also doesn’t stop anything – notably, it skips the broken track within a millisecond and just continues playback. It happens so quickly that even when actively observing you have …

The amount of content on the web is so large, that it's tricky to find the stuff worth reading. One of my strategies is to follow people I trust and read what they share. For anyone with interests similar to mine, I've opened a Links section on this website, too (with it's own RSS feed). My plan is to publish no more than a couple of links per day (if …

The Inconvenient Mind paper on the climate mind and the polycrisis, argues that in times of growing uncertainty, fear and anger we need to move away from facts and seriously start listening and engaging with emotions Source Related posts: Communicating the Future, Guv How to Get a Job in PR Free Ebook: How to Become a Freelance Consultant Moss Graffiti Privacy

$\newcommand\F{\mathbb{F}}\newcommand\R{\mathbb{R}}\newcommand\C{\mathbb{C}}\newcommand\Z{\mathbb{Z}}\newcommand\tr{\operatorname{trace}}\newcommand\End{\operatorname{End}}$ The trace of a sqaure matrix $A$ is defined to be the sum of the elements along the diagonal. A basic fact is that for any invertible matrix $M$, \begin{equation}\tag{*} \tr(M^{-1}AM) = \tr(A). \end{equation} Let $V$ be an $n$-dimensional vector space over a field $\F$. The trace of a linear transformation $L: V \rightarrow V$ is usually defined as follows: Let $(v_1, \dots, v_n)$ be a basis of $V$. …

So you’ve got a log. Maybe its a tree that came down nearby, or maybe somebody heard you’re a woodworker and offered you a log. And you have a bandsaw. You start wondering if you can mill this log into boards yourself. Sure, you could invest in an Alaskan chainsaw mill, or you could try to find someone nearby who runs a hobby sawmill to cut it up for you. …

A long-form generative art project coming to fxhash in partnership with FAB DAO on 11th Jan 2024. This series is inspired, in the abstract, by the images I visualise when reading about quantum theory. Particularly thoughts of particles spreading out as waves and then collapsing into particles again at a moment of interaction. At the quantum scale, classical ideas of space and form come apart, replaced by concepts, probability and …

In the bustling world of Kotlin/Android development, maintaining code quality and consistency is essential. This is where linters come in, like shining knights cleaning up and polishing your codebase. But with a variety of linters available, each addressing different aspects, choosing the right ones can be like picking the perfect weapons for your coding quest.In this blog post, we'll delve into the realms of two popular Kotlin/Android linters: ktlint and …

This is an exceptionally long post detailing pretty much everything I learned at an event shortly before Christmas at Meta’s offices in San Francisco. I’ve been delayed in writing it up because of traveling back to the UK for Christmas and other commitments – and because I wanted to capture everything. It’s roughly written, and I’ll probably edit it a bit after posting. If you have questions or comments or …

The exhibition, ‘Part of the Furniture: The Library of John Bedford‘, which runs until 2nd December 2024, is focused on the library of furniture history, assembled by former antique dealer, John Bedford (1941-2019). University of Leeds The exhibition explores the … Continue reading →

Today was a good day. More of that this year, please.