Matthew S. Smith

Cool paper on why LLMs are often generating language that is hard to understand. The authors show LLMs often use compact, efficient, but obtuse sentences (more or less - the paper is specific). They theorize this is due to reinforcement rewards for reducing token counts and efficient coding.

All the code for Apple II Agent is up on GitHub if you want to run it yourself. You need an Uthernet II card in your Apple II at the moment: github.com/benj-edwards... Also, Claude assembled a "how it was made" technical document that is an interesting read: bxfoundry.com/apple2agent/

The @cancivlib.bsky.social, @openmedia.org, and other privacy advocates are speaking out on the dangers of Bill C-22, which invites backdoors to encryption. If you’re Canadian, the Senate needs to hear from you now.

One paper described research that never happened. The other was produced by an AI system that conducted its own computational experiment. What happened when I submitted them to a publisher?

I’ve revived my Apple II Agent project from January: An Apple IIe with an Ethernet card and a custom client It links up to Claude through a proxy on my Mac and allows conversational Apple II software creation similar to Claude Code When it’s done, it loads the new program into memory

LM Studio? Or Ollama? I dig into the comparison in my latest on Micro Center News. In some ways it's comparing to apples to oranges, but...I've always been partial to apples. www.microcenter.com/site/mc-news...

honestly didn't know there were clouds on Mars arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Rune Energy is focusing on creating #dataCenters where there is already excess power that the grid can’t take, eliminating the drain data centers usually have on the power grid. Its modular data centers will connect to solar farms that produce more energy than can be used. buff.ly/Nb0dC0E

Me, to Claude Code: “I have a friend coming over. Modify Pac-Man to support a horizontal display with two player co-op, where player 2 is Ms. Pac-Man. Make one button be a speed boost. My Mistercade cabinet is at 192.168.1.102” Claude, two hours later: “The game is loaded up and ready to play”

U.S. #nuclear reactors are integrating #AI virtual assistants into their systems. It is helping with documentation, filing paperwork, and searching. There are no plans to have AI make decisions about operating a nuclear plant. buff.ly/55tR9nR

Thanks! I hate it.

When you’re paying healthcare and taxes, you charge more. When your work is seasonal, you charge more. Does that explain election consultants? I doubt it’s the whole thing, but I’m sure it’s part of it. A lot of Americans seem stuck in a 1950s understanding of labor costs, and not just Boomers.

ASN: AS4713 Location: Tokyo, JP Added: 2026-10-21T08:06 #shodansafari #infosec

while you port and emulate games, I ported Jira to my PSP

Yesterday, EA announced the closure of Bioware. A leaked trailer of the next Mass Effect game quickly appeared. What a shame. It's pre-production and just a trailer, but the idea of a Mass Effect game where you play some kind of secret agent for hire sounds great!

Attended a lecture at the University of Portland yesterday on AI and culture, given by Robert A. Santiago. Solid speaker, good focus on how people make the decisions, and an engaged crowd. #pdx www.indialoguewithai.org

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The security enhancements related to the PHP programming language and associated testing have been completed, and final checks are now underway. We expect new logins to resume today. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.

I used to whine a bit about Claude's limits on the $20 plan. Not anymore. Using a ton of Opus 5.5 Extra to make little programs for an article I'm writing, things that take like 15-20 minutes for it to complete, and no problems at all doing this four or five times over the course of a work day.

Elon Musk threatens Congress.

Notice Regarding Temporary Suspension of New Logins Across All Worlds (Oct. 21) na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/ne...

This is very cool, interested to see the results of this compute…on the moon.

100 people killed per day by cars just in the US…maybe we should do something about it? www.technologyreview.com/2026/10/21/1...

how do you write this?! how do you not realize you are the fucking problem here?! you are the one doing things worse! they are better at this than you!

I don't know about the quality of Mercury's new diffusion LLM release, but the visual effect of seeing the response diffuse is pretty cool.

Could a Clean Room Tour Spark Your Next Career Move?

It’s pretty crazy what is happening in the world of modding and open source software with AI assistants. It’s going to solve a lot of problems for a lot of people.

"we want high speed rail" underground car tunnels? "no, high-sp-" dumpster car? "HIG-" a flying car that's not really flying but farts its way to the ground?

It's a net positive that we can decompile games faster than ever! It's a huge win for preserving games in an era of always online DRM, scummy publishing deals, etc. The decomp community has always had random people with no skills trying to "help", I think it'll be fine

#AI #agents have started finding unauthorized channels for communicating and collaborating. To keep them in check, companies need strong monitoring for out-of-scope behavior. buff.ly/2mG0mV5

the thing I don't get about being on Twitter is that even if you somehow justify that it's the happening place... it's owned by an undeniable bad actor. someone who acts in zero faith. you'd have to expect everything you do on the platform will be used against you if you cross a line with Musk

train

if you're whining about being mildly inconvenienced by life saving street improvement, maybe...just stfu #pdx www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 2GB get price increases due to RAM demand #RaspberryPi #Hardware #Arm

I've gone on vacation and I'm now so far behind the release schedule of new vidya games...its nuts

My kids have always been disappointed that Super Mario Bros. for NES doesn't have two-player co-op like 21st century Mario games Today I got Claude Code with Opus 5.5 to make a 2P simultaneous mod. It uses the mapper for SMB3, and you can pick Mario, Luigi, Toad, or Peach. Works on a real NES

Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI have all announced their intentions to start watermarking #AI-generated text. But will this change the meaning or quality of the output writing? buff.ly/n7UPbZi

Something to think about

While I'm very excited about #WoWForever, one of the things I'm the most excited about it also something I worry about - some musings on the subject:

I don't know how reflective this is of Google's AI model servicing in general, but Google AI Studio kinda sucks. It doesn't look great and timeouts or service errors are pretty frequent. It wouldn't leave a good impression on me if I was a dev demoing Google's models, that's for sure.

I've got to much going on to buy it right now, but Control Resonant is definitely the next on my buy list. That game looks amazing. #control

However they’re designed, age gates undermine civil liberties, reduce safety, and create barriers to internet entry, often at the expense of marginalized groups. We call on the EU Parliament to fix the flawed EU Kids Act proposal eff.org/deeplinks/2...

A new episode of the DF Direct Q+A show is live - and with Stellar Blade and Dragon's Dogma 2 on Switch 2 embracing 30fps to 60fps frame generation... well... is it a good idea? youtu.be/WNh70jJBfPk