#neo4j subquery might make it easier to get something working - but in this case it was dog slow compared to rewriting without subquery

https://alanbuxton.wordpress.com/2025/03/30/fun-with-neo4j-subqueries/

It'd be great to get to a point where creating a new LLM is like preparing a poke bowl (with the same cost):

— Yeah, so, for the base let's go with English speaking developer. Add my own writing as a topping, as well as continental philosophy works and a sprinkling of math. Yeah, 7B should be okay.

I build software products. I spend a lot of time in hotels.

Here are some learnings about UX that I've taken from hotel elevators.

They aren't about software UIs which makes them super helpful analogies when talking about general user experience.

https://alanbuxton.wordpress.com/2025/01/26/elevators-lifts-and-software-product-user-experience/

Interesting. Why men aren’t going to college

https://celestemdavis.substack.com/p/why-boys-dont-go-to-college

@remoquete mind blowing

JavaScript? Pah. I asked the LLM to code a Xmas tree with a song in C64 BASIC. Then, I run it inside an emulator. The potential for old platforms revival is huge.

https://youtu.be/z9t5HxhxlL0

“The thing about being wrong is that before you know you’re wrong, it feels •exactly• like being right.”

— Roman Mars

In other words - if it's ambitious enough to sound good when you're drunk and if it's sensible enough to sounds good when you're sober - then probably it's a good idea after all.

According to Herodotus (writing around 425 BC):

"it is their custom to deliberate about the gravest matters when they are drunk and what they approve in their deliberations is proposed to them the next day, when they are sober, by the master of the house where they deliberate; and if, being sober, they still approve it, they act on it, but if not, they drop it. And if they have deliberated about a matter when sober, they decide upon it when they are drunk."

(Book 1 chapter 133)

To everyone out there who needs help figuring out their 2025 objectives I give you a tried a tested process: Ancient Persian Decision-Making.

(nodding)

@manafairy_jae I tried another similar function today and ChatGPT went back to getting it wrong as usual.

The balance of the universe has been restored ;)

@manafairy_jae the two bash scripts it wrote for me were very simple but saved me an hour or two of reminding myself the syntax. So don't get too excited :)

I had my first success with ChatGPT writing a good piece of code for me. In the past I've given it tricky problems which it struggled with, or relatively simple things but in a language I'm not so up to date on (e.g. Bash scripts). But today it did a neat python function for me. Very impressed.

Yes, but is it REALLY AI?

One of my least favorite activities is answering RFP questions about what we're doing with AI. "AI" means something different to the people asking the question than it does to people working in the space. I struggle with terms as vague as "AI" is. Let me try to show why it's so hard to pin down if something really is AI or not, and why asking if something is AI or not the most useful question to be asking.

https://alanbuxton.wordpress.com/2024/12/04/yes-but-is-it-really-ai/

@librarymonster indeed. The most punk person I ever knew dreamed of driving around a mobile library when he got older!

Silent book club 📚. I love this so much

#caturday #cats #CatsOfMastodon

One of the last coal-powered sheep.
Most sheep are all electric now.

#DefaidodonDay #DyddDefaidodon #Defaidodon

Thriving as an introvert in a team full of extroverts

There is plenty of guidance about about how to make work environments more conducive for introverts. But it seems to be mainly addressed at extroverts, and leaves some important questions open: [1] Why should your business care about introverts anyway?and [2] What if you're the introvert in the first place? What do you do then? This post is based on some insights from…

https://alanbuxton.wordpress.com/2024/11/05/thriving-as-an-introvert-in-a-team-full-of-extroverts/