> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://labnotes.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Weekend Reading — AI cycling - URL: https://labnotes.org/weekend-reading-ai-cycling/ - Published: 2023-11-19T00:07:46.000Z - Updated: 2023-11-19T00:07:46.000Z - Description: This week we complain about GitHub Actions, find the perfect t-shirt, hallucinate to the dictionary, and learn more about the world around us. - Author: Assaf Arkin --- ## Tech Stuff **[Ryan Bates](https://ruby.social/users/rbates/statuses/111427825084742336?ref=labnotes.org)** 💯 > I surround code changes with two different types of refactoring: pre and post change. Pre-change refactoring is to make the change easier to implement. Post-change refactoring is to make the code easier to understand. **[Totally remdom, or How browsers zoom text](https://www.matuzo.at/blog/2023/how-browsers-zoom-text?ref=labnotes.org)** **[What color bubbles will RCS messages be?](https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-confirms-rcs-messages-will-have-green-bubbles/?utm%5Fsource=labnotes.org)** Apple is working on better support for exchanging text messages with Android phones. So we'll see high-resolution images, emoji reactions, etc, but, no end-to-end encryption will happen, so only Apple-to-Apple messages show in blue. ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-76.png) **[GitHub Actions are a Problem](https://felix-knorr.net/posts/2023-11-11-github-actions.html?utm%5Fsource=labnotes.org)** Last week I wrote a GitHub Action to update the theme of this blog, whenever I commit changes to GitHub. I spent a few cycles trying to fix it and get it working. It still does not work. **[A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox](https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/search-query?ref=labnotes.org)** That’s the title. And this title is not wrong. **[Brian](https://universeodon.com/users/Prosybris/statuses/111420047106522865?ref=labnotes.org)** 🐱 ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-84.png) --- ## Eye for Design **[Tom Boutell](https://toot.cat/users/boutell/statuses/111405424577037418?ref=labnotes.org)** > When users encounter a problem, their first instinct is often to ask for a specific solution. Sometimes it's a good one, sometimes not so much. But it's always important to hear the valid pain point behind the cry for help. ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-90.png) **[Assaf](https://mas.to/users/assaf/statuses/111426673759450909?ref=labnotes.org)** You are what you wear. ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-82.png) --- ## Machine Intelligence **[More on Sam Altman’s Ouster From OpenAI](https://daringfireball.net/2023/11/more%5Faltman%5Fopenai?utm%5Fsource=labnotes.org)** The official statement from the board is “he was not consistently candid in his communications with the board.” I don’t have a decoder ring handy, so I have to make a guess: Altman had some ideas on how to run and grow the business. The board didn't like them. Microsoft, being a huge investor and partner, is probably not in a happy place right now. And, if you're using OpenAI in productions — I am on several projects — now's a good time to look at competing products. **[Ask HN: Is anyone else bearish on OpenAI?](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38226030&utm%5Fsource=hackernewsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=ask%5Fhn)** So this thread was posted 7 days ago, call it foresight: > I'm not saying the company will go bankrupt but I'm also not buying into the hype that it's going to become the next Google or better / create AGI for us all. > > What am I missing here? **[“Hallucinating” AI models help coin Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/11/thanks-to-ai-hallucinate-is-cambridge-dictionarys-word-of-the-year-for-2023/?utm%5Fsource=labnotes.org)** Cambridge: "When an artificial intelligence hallucinates, it produces false information.” --- ## Everything Else **[that80sand90spage](https://threads.net/@that80sand90spage/post/Czjweb4uBBj?ref=labnotes.org)** Who remembers this Fisher-Price medical kit? ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-103.png) **[Jerry Bell](https://infosec.exchange/users/jerry/statuses/111406231014252854?ref=labnotes.org)** > Alas, I have 32 years of experience at being a novice. **[The Gneech](https://meow.social/users/the%5Fgneech/statuses/111403586395476354?ref=labnotes.org)** > Somebody just referred to capybaras as "guinea bigs" and I don't know what to do with this information. **[Dutch Cycling Lifestyle](https://dutchcyclinglifestyle.com//?ref=labnotes.org)** Smart: this app uses AI to view your street with proper bicycle-friendly lanes. ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-81.png) **[Study: Cutting 1 Teaspoon of Salt As Good As Blood-Pressure Meds](https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20231113/study-cutting-1-teaspoon-of-salt-as-good-as-blood-pressure-meds?ecd=soc%5Fthd%5F231115%5Fcons%5Fnews%5Fsaltbloodpressure&linkId=100000226722344&utm%5Fsource=labnotes.org)** I guess something to add to the list of goals for 2024: “Cutting your salt intake by 1 teaspoon daily provides the same blood-pressure-lowering benefits as popular hypertension medications, says a new study published in JAMA Network.” **[adhd\_love\_](https://threads.net/@adhd%5Flove%5F/post/CzoGMwPK123?ref=labnotes.org)** > Phrases ADHD people hear more often: > > 😴 stop being lazy > 🙄 you’re just making excuses > 💪🏼 you just need to try harder > ☕️ can you tidy up after yourself? > 🎨 great, another thing you’ll quit > 👓 can you just try and focus? **[How mathematics built the modern world](https://worksinprogress.co/issue/how-mathematics-built-the-modern-world/?ref=labnotes.org)** > Mathematics was the cornerstone of the Industrial Revolution. A new paradigm of measurement and calculation, more than scientific discovery, built industry, modernity, and the world we inhabit today. ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-80.png) **[How Psychopaths See the World](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/03/a-hidden-problem-at-the-heart-of-psychopathy/555335/?ref=labnotes.org)** > It’s not that they can’t consider other people’s perspectives. It’s that they don’t do so automatically. > > “It’s like they’re the worst multitaskers,” Baskin-Sommers says. “Everyone’s bad at multitasking but they’re really bad.” **[davidattenborough\_fans](https://threads.net/@davidattenborough%5Ffans/post/Czi-vu0M%5F95?ref=labnotes.org)** > The Great Pyramids of Giza used to look very different from the way it does now. > > When they were first completed, their external walls of limestone were sanded smooth to shine bright white and, they had a golden cap called pyramidion. > > More details/photos: [https://bit.ly/46bx8K4](https://bit.ly/46bx8K4?ref=labnotes.org) ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-99.png) **[There's a Faster Way to Type Anything on an iPhone](https://lifehacker.com/tech/fastest-way-to-type-on-iphone?ref=labnotes.org)** TL;DR hold down the 123 button. **[Smart drugs aren’t so smart after all](https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/smart-drugs-arent-so-smart-after-all?ref=labnotes.org)** > The team expected that the increased dopamine would boost the participants’ level of motivation to complete the task and, with the increased noradrenaline, raise their effort levels, leading to a better performance. > > The results showed that on average, the drugs didn’t affect the chance of a participant finding the solution to a knapsack problem. Contrary to perhaps many students’ expectations, however, participants tended to perform worse after taking one of the drugs, packing a lower total value of items. **[Steffen](https://photog.social/users/Steffen/statuses/111420280884433764?ref=labnotes.org)** “Ich glaube, ich bin da was Großem auf der Spur … 😳” (I think I'm on to something big) ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-86.png) **[thespeechprof](https://threads.net/@thespeechprof/post/Czj0Rg5SAQ5?ref=labnotes.org)** > I started allowing my students to cite Wikipedia as a source for their research presentations years ago. > > Every semester when I mention it, my students look around at each other like I’ve given them some forbidden treat and I’m honestly kind of shocked that it is still being treated as a forbidden resource by so many educators. **[psycohousecat](https://threads.net/@psycohousecat/post/CzmNn9dvUoh?ref=labnotes.org)** “They have so many questions 😅” ![](https://labnotes.org/content/images/2023/11/image-91.png)