2025-12-30 04:21:41
Shel Silverstein’s Homework Machine was one of my kids’ favorite poems of his when they were little. First published in 1981, the short poem turned out to be rather prescient about AI, especially the earlier LLMs, which couldn’t math their way out of a wet paper bag.
Your homework comes out, quick and clean as can be.
Here it is— ‘nine plus four?’ and the answer is ‘three.’
Three?
Oh me …
I guess it’s not as perfect
As I thought it would be.
(via @brooksrocco)
Tags: artificial intelligence · poetry · Shel Silverstein
2025-12-30 02:53:46
Conservatives are trying to roll the Constitution back to the pre-Civil War version. “It will be a society of the dominators and the dominated. But it will not be a democracy worthy of the name.”
2025-12-30 01:58:15
One of America’s Most Successful Experiments Is Coming to a Shuddering Halt. “‘It’s not the same. Why am I here? I question that to myself.’ Amid an astonishing wave of anti-Indian animus, it’s a question many Indian Americans are asking.”
2025-12-30 01:34:29
Ultracold atoms observed climbing a quantum staircase. (Relatable: the upstairs of my house is warmer than the ground floor too.)
2025-12-30 01:03:26
I pushed a key change to the Underscore music player over the weekend. Members can now click on any song in their collection to play it (previously there was only a randomize button). I added this because I often wanted to listen to a particular song/album/playlist, genre, or tempo (chill, upbeat, etc.)1 and sat there hitting the random button until I got something I liked. No more; quick selection and back into the work groove.
If you missed it, here’s what I wrote about Underscore at launch:
Here’s how it works. You can add links to music from Spotify, YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Apple Music to it — just paste their share URLs in. Reloading the page gives you a random piece of music from your collection. You can see a list of the songs, videos, playlists, and albums in your collection and can hide them if you want. That’s it. That’s all it does.
There’s no APIs or authentication or auto-synching playlists. The music is played through embedded players and if it lands on something from Spotify, Apple Music, or Bandcamp, you’re gonna have to click the play button in the embedded player (Soundcloud and YT videos should play automatically (but don’t always for whatever reason)). When your current selection ends, the new random thing doesn’t automatically play…you need to refresh the page.
I use Underscore every single day while I’m working. Is anyone else out there using it?
P.S. I also added the ability to add Tidal albums & playlists to Underscore. Unfortunately, Tidal’s embedded player doesn’t play full-length songs, even for logged-in users. If you’re a Tidal user, bug them about adding this feature to their embedded player!
Tags: kottke.org · music · Underscore
2025-12-30 00:21:18
Thin Desires Are Eating Your Life. “A thick desire is one that changes you in the process of pursuing it. A thin desire is one that doesn’t.”