Allison's bookmarks (most recent)

Stuff I found on the Internet

SIGPLAN-M

"(SIGPLAN-M) organizes an international long-term mentoring program for programming languages researchers."

programming academia

How to smoke • Buttondown

"[S]uddenly an entire industry is telling you that you’re not capable of moving through your day without their help. An entire industry gaslighting you, until it becomes easier to just gaslight yourself into believing that you were never truly capable of things you are very much capable of."

ai tech culture

Activist or Academic or Both? The Quandary of Scholactivism for the Minoritised in the Ivory Tower | Foluke's African Skies

"Are scholars truly defined by the fact that we cannot seek specific outcomes? I cannot agree with this. If I was a scholar of the environment, I would be seeking to end environmental catastrophe. If I was a scholar of medicine, I would be seeking to change health care outcomes. If I was an engineer, I would be seeking improved engineering methods."

academia activism politics

AI as a Fascist Artifact

"The singularity is MAGA for nerds. A fascist narrative used to undermine everyone’s right and ability to envision futures." (among various other quotables)

technology ai politics

Kin - Everyday tools. No strings.

"[A] curated collection of simple, free web tools that just work. No subscriptions, no accounts, no tracking. Install them to your phone, use them offline..." these are nice but the lack of explicit licensing and source code gives me pause. also the font choice—unfortunately narrow serifs have been completely colonized by fascists and grifters

web apps

Grave Oak - Wikipedia

"[T]he age of around 2000 years stated in the Guinness Book is contested. According to the latest literature, the oak is estimated to be between 700 and 800 years old. [...] In its root zone, directly below the hollow trunk, there is a brick-built crypt containing the body of the manor owner Hans Wilhelm von Thümmel [de], who died in 1824."

trees horror botany oaks

Malleable Systems Collective

"Modern computing is far too rigid. Applications can only function in preset ways determined by some far away team. Software is trapped in hermetically sealed silos and is rewritten many times over rather than recomposed.... This community catalogs and experiments with malleable software and systems that reset the balance of power"

programming

Let’s talk about LLMs

"[LLM] advocates can’t have it both ways: either LLM coding will be an exclusive club for those who built up the necessary skills, XOR it will be a great democratizer and do away with the need for those skills." cogent, calm, well-sourced

ai programming