Simon @spoltier@qoto.org

Wrote up some notes on Microsoft's new Phi-4 LLM. They trained it on a LOT of synthetic data, and the details of how and why they did that are really interesting.
https://simonwillison.net/2024/Dec/15/phi-4-technical-report/

On GAIA-X, through a Swiss lens. With some quotes by me. https://dnip.ch/2024/12/16/gaia-x-letzte-chance-fuer-europas-digitale-souveraenitaet-und-wie-die-schweiz-profitieren-koennte-teil-1/

Let's look at the delta between my definition of decentralization and the one chosen by Bryan:
- The discussion of power dynamics, and diffusion thereof, is removed
- The "phrase complete" reliance is introduced, so incomplete reliance is now ok
- And not only that, now it's "not always required!"

Does anyone in Berlin need a washing machine?

It's a Siemens E 14-4M, and it's free if you can move it (4th floor, no elevator).

It needs to be gone by tomorrow afternoon

Read your bike history. Bikes have been a radical technology everywhere they exist. From a materialist perspective, you dont just invent the most energy efficient means of conveyance by an order of magnitude and have it not be revolutionary. You dont invent a technology that dramatically reshapes people's relationship with space and have that not be revolutionary.

Ebikes are an evolutionary step in that history. To be able to gain access to the City with a stolen BMX bike and the cost of a single Uber ride in parts is revolutionary. To not need government identification and an elaborate system of regulation to interact with space is, for now, revolutionary. To be able to avoid automated plate readers and move freely in a surveillance state is not a luxury, it is necessary.

I’m staying on Mastodon because the operating model is immune to hostile billionaire takeover 🏴‍☠️

Here lies tpolecat, slain by his printer card. There seems to be a subtle but serious problem with the card I designed because I took it out and my disk failures went away, then put it back and my disk failed almost immediately. Seriously no idea how this could be possible but I'm bummed about it and also lost a couple days of work. 10/31

I need to contact Ezra Klein. I wouldn't ask in public like this unless it was really, really important. Can anyone connect me? My email address is on my blog. Thank you!

On Monday, @bcantrill and I were joined by @postwait, KellyAnn Fitzpatrick, and @sogrady to talk about tech conferences. Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed in the decades since we met these folks at conferences! What's worth the trip in 2025? https://youtu.be/YBId0FLKxCo

In our study for instance we found that by troubling the definition of "adoption" we learned a lot: people can feel that their TEAM uses AI but they don't, and people can also be covertly using AI without their team knowing, btw there are already interesting gender diffs here, and people can be using AI but not trusting its output vs using AI and trusting it deeply; all of this is to say when you do designed social science you get to think about how to construct the measure & we really need that

new french PM any good ? any french people here ?

Die EU will den Abbau von #Lithium für Batterien auf dem europäischen Territorium fördern. In #Bosnien raubt das vielen Menschen die Zukunftsperspektive. Und mittendrin steckt eine Firma aus Zug.

https://www.republik.ch/2024/12/13/im-lithiumrausch?utm_medium=social&utm_source=mastodon&utm_campaign=cm&utm_content=lithium-bosnien

The lowest random natural number is:

I remade this page today! I hope you like it!: https://streetartutopia.com/what-is-street-art/