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Miscellany
Mar. 23rd, 2025 01:19 pm( Listening to old music )
( Playing more with AI/LLMs. )
( Money is tight. )
It occurred to me to try to remember all fifty states of the US. I thought I would do better, I could recall only forty-seven, my daughter did better and faster. I shan't disclose which I forgot in case a reader wants to try. It was annoying to note those I did forget: a reader here lives in one and I was open to moving to it a few years ago, and I used to work with a couple of people who hail from another.
It was interesting to hear of the flight chaos caused by London Heathrow's power loss, so many flights diverted and passengers ending up all over Western and Central Europe. That must have caused all sorts of problems and taken the airlines quite some effort to recover from.
We had a pet food delivery from Amazon (insert hisses and boos to taste) shortly after half-past seven on a Sunday morning which impressed neither me nor R. At a glance, I failed to find a summary on their website of when they think is reasonable to make residential deliveries but at least we now know that it may happen again.
( Playing more with AI/LLMs. )
( Money is tight. )
It occurred to me to try to remember all fifty states of the US. I thought I would do better, I could recall only forty-seven, my daughter did better and faster. I shan't disclose which I forgot in case a reader wants to try. It was annoying to note those I did forget: a reader here lives in one and I was open to moving to it a few years ago, and I used to work with a couple of people who hail from another.
It was interesting to hear of the flight chaos caused by London Heathrow's power loss, so many flights diverted and passengers ending up all over Western and Central Europe. That must have caused all sorts of problems and taken the airlines quite some effort to recover from.
We had a pet food delivery from Amazon (insert hisses and boos to taste) shortly after half-past seven on a Sunday morning which impressed neither me nor R. At a glance, I failed to find a summary on their website of when they think is reasonable to make residential deliveries but at least we now know that it may happen again.
Keeping data secret, or not
Feb. 15th, 2025 11:38 amWith secure communication online (TLS, etc.) it is interesting to see how standards develop: older ways are later judged insecure and the community slowly moves onto newer ones. I have wondered if the security services, and others, record some of the more interesting traffic that they can't decrypt yet in the hope that new developments might someday reveal the content of those once-private communications. People move on to different algorithms for actual reasons. Even if past the statute of limitations for prosecution, such records may still yield useful intelligence.
Now, given my job, I think about cryptocurrency more. There are some currencies, popular for payments for illegal services, that are designed to obscure the details of transfers. Even with normal cryptocurrencies, whose transfers are easily observed, there are tumblers which are busy accounts that take in many and various payments, and make payouts differently and rather later, so as to obscure the flows: they make it difficult to match the incoming funds against the outgoing.
I had already been wondering if statistical analysis of activity around tumblers may at least circumstantially reveal repeated flows for habitual users. Now I also wonder if some of the privacy-enhanced cryptocurrencies may be found to be less private than currently assumed, which would be interesting given that the blockchain records all the data publicly and long-term.
In short: as new discoveries uncover historical information, perhaps some people have bad surprises waiting for them.
Now, given my job, I think about cryptocurrency more. There are some currencies, popular for payments for illegal services, that are designed to obscure the details of transfers. Even with normal cryptocurrencies, whose transfers are easily observed, there are tumblers which are busy accounts that take in many and various payments, and make payouts differently and rather later, so as to obscure the flows: they make it difficult to match the incoming funds against the outgoing.
I had already been wondering if statistical analysis of activity around tumblers may at least circumstantially reveal repeated flows for habitual users. Now I also wonder if some of the privacy-enhanced cryptocurrencies may be found to be less private than currently assumed, which would be interesting given that the blockchain records all the data publicly and long-term.
In short: as new discoveries uncover historical information, perhaps some people have bad surprises waiting for them.
Short-term memory for to-do's
Feb. 15th, 2025 10:44 amWhen I used to exercise frequently, commonly I would think about things while I worked out. I would accumulate items to note for later and, toward the end of my half-hour-ish workout, I would have accumulated enough of these to challenge my short-term memory. These days, the same kind of thing can happen while I take a bath.
Yesterday was unusual. First, I woke up, thought of some things while in bed then got up to note them. Then, I took a bath and thought of more to note. Before work, I thought of more. These were all work-related to-do's. By the time my workday started, I had accumulated sixteen of them. Some of them were quick tasks, some took longer. By the end of the day, I had completed ten of them.
Yesterday was unusual. First, I woke up, thought of some things while in bed then got up to note them. Then, I took a bath and thought of more to note. Before work, I thought of more. These were all work-related to-do's. By the time my workday started, I had accumulated sixteen of them. Some of them were quick tasks, some took longer. By the end of the day, I had completed ten of them.
Pricing exchanges of cryptocurrency
Feb. 6th, 2025 09:05 amAt work, I had to learn about a particular distributed cryptocurrency exchange. Liquidity is provided by set of reserves that each contain coins of two different kinds, an equal value of each.
For pricing an exchange "from" the coin we hold "to" the coin we want, using one of these reserves of two different kinds of coin, we have:
I found this quite interesting. In my ignorance, I don't know if it's a standard approach for such currency exchanges. The formula seems to have some reasonable properties, in terms of things like how the price increases as one's swapping to a currency that there is now less of (or would be less of after the swap).
(Dreamwidth doesn't appear to allow
For pricing an exchange "from" the coin we hold "to" the coin we want, using one of these reserves of two different kinds of coin, we have:
- rf
- how much of the "from" coin is in the reserve
- rt
- how much of the "to" coin is in the reserve
- af
- how much of the "from" coin we want to exchange
- at
- how much of the "to" coin we are to receive
- cn
- a constant determining the transaction cost
- cd
- another constant determining the transaction cost, a little larger than cn
at = (af × rt × cn) / (af × cn + rf × cd)
I found this quite interesting. In my ignorance, I don't know if it's a standard approach for such currency exchanges. The formula seems to have some reasonable properties, in terms of things like how the price increases as one's swapping to a currency that there is now less of (or would be less of after the swap).
(Dreamwidth doesn't appear to allow
<math> markup so I did what I could.)Official documents going electronic
Feb. 2nd, 2025 08:29 pmI think it silly of His Majesty's Government to have switched from issuing physical visas to virtual "eVisas" that one checks by typing an alphanumeric code into a government website. It assumes far too much of mobile data connectivity when one is in some random place where one's documents are being checked. Further, what actually happens is absurd: people get you to show them your visa details in the web browser on your own mobile telephone, something easily faked.
Presumably thrilled with this success, apparently the Government is now moving on to introducing digital driving licences. For the moment, these are to be an optional add-on beyond the physical photocard, presumably most welcomed by those non-immigrants who would also like an easy way to fake their details. I suppose that I can imagine a version that shows a QR code bearing cryptographically signed data that can be verified by some reader, even printed out as insurance against device failure, but, given the eVisa implementation, I am not holding my breath for such.
Presumably thrilled with this success, apparently the Government is now moving on to introducing digital driving licences. For the moment, these are to be an optional add-on beyond the physical photocard, presumably most welcomed by those non-immigrants who would also like an easy way to fake their details. I suppose that I can imagine a version that shows a QR code bearing cryptographically signed data that can be verified by some reader, even printed out as insurance against device failure, but, given the eVisa implementation, I am not holding my breath for such.
Considering modern AI (LLMs)
Feb. 2nd, 2025 03:29 pmWith using LLMs in two of my three latest jobs, I have been trying to embrace them a little more than I was inclined to initially, to try to see what uses I may have for them. There are some applications that don't need reliable perfection, after all. I can see, for instance, that, for image editing, one can probably readily see if the prompting and model achieved the desired effect.
It also occurred to me that, when I ask friends for their opinion or thoughts on something, I don't expect perfection from them either, and that with an LLM I don't have to consider if I might try its patience. Sometimes, I can appreciate a good guess.
As an experiment, I tried asking an OpenAI model about something I still don't understand: how the hidden variables theory was disproved (i.e., why we are sure that God plays dice) and it span me an interesting explanation of how hidden variables would violate locality. I should have tried probing that a little more but I instead wondered if quantum entanglement doesn't also violate locality and OpenAI seemed to think it does, so I shrugged and got back to my actual work. I can see the appeal of taking a bit more time to interrogate it and, with that kind of question, it has probably been trained on enough material to become fairly trustworthy. It's not as if anything relies on my being correct about such matters anyway.
It also occurred to me that, when I ask friends for their opinion or thoughts on something, I don't expect perfection from them either, and that with an LLM I don't have to consider if I might try its patience. Sometimes, I can appreciate a good guess.
As an experiment, I tried asking an OpenAI model about something I still don't understand: how the hidden variables theory was disproved (i.e., why we are sure that God plays dice) and it span me an interesting explanation of how hidden variables would violate locality. I should have tried probing that a little more but I instead wondered if quantum entanglement doesn't also violate locality and OpenAI seemed to think it does, so I shrugged and got back to my actual work. I can see the appeal of taking a bit more time to interrogate it and, with that kind of question, it has probably been trained on enough material to become fairly trustworthy. It's not as if anything relies on my being correct about such matters anyway.
Moved the virtual servers
Feb. 2nd, 2025 03:19 pmFinally, I got around to the virtual server migration, rather last-minute. At least, I got the more critical parts, DNS and e-mail, working sufficiently the day before the deadline. I will get around to the other parts over time. It was fun to get back into that kind of work, and interesting to be reminded of how I had set things up previously. Thank you to those who offered suggestions: in the end, Mythic Beasts looked very much to be the right kind of provider and, so far, I am happy with the move to them.
Apart from other services, even my initial ones still need a bit of work: get my zones offered by the provider's DNS too, review the SSL certificates for SMTP/IMAP, sort out DMARC, etc. Still, things are already working well enough that I'll continue at my convenience.
Apart from other services, even my initial ones still need a bit of work: get my zones offered by the provider's DNS too, review the SSL certificates for SMTP/IMAP, sort out DMARC, etc. Still, things are already working well enough that I'll continue at my convenience.
Back on a diet
Feb. 1st, 2025 09:47 amI am indeed settled back into watching what I eat. I am not monitoring carefully but I am certainly eating rather more strictly than previously, mostly by favouring vegetables and reducing portions and frequency of various calorific pleasures. I make the occasional exception, though: especially, I ignored my diet for Burns Night (haggis*, turnip, potato, cranachan, etc.) and for Chinese New Year (round fruit, and takeout from Yum on Aikenhead Road). Mostly I haven't been distracted by hunger so perhaps I need to be stricter; time will tell.
*We found a nice large non-pork haggis in Aldi.
*We found a nice large non-pork haggis in Aldi.
A windy workday
Jan. 24th, 2025 05:45 pmToday was a very windy day. Schools and stores closed. Fortunately, we didn't have to go out, except for taking L. the dog outside every so often. A lorry blew over on the nearby busy bridge. I wondered if the wind would bring power lines down but we still have electricity.
In work, I wrestled with Node.js and TypeScript and finally saw some success that enables better progress henceforth. Neither is my forte but with luck I learned enough to be faster next time.
Update: The following morning, we had hail then sleet.
In work, I wrestled with Node.js and TypeScript and finally saw some success that enables better progress henceforth. Neither is my forte but with luck I learned enough to be faster next time.
Update: The following morning, we had hail then sleet.
Dentistry for the faint-hearted
Jan. 18th, 2025 08:53 pmI have receding gums and my teeth are somewhat exposed toward the root. It is with considerable trepidation that I face cleanings from a dental hygienist. One cleaning I had back in Dundee had my teeth still aching for a couple of days afterward.
My present dentist is quite excellent. It was only through unusual luck that I was able to land them as an NHS rather than a private patient. Given my past experiences, what we do is: when a cleaning is due, they do half my mouth in a session: four injections to numb one side, then the cleaning is under local anæsthetic and, so far, after the anæsthetic wears off a few hours later, I remain pain- and ache-free. That, I could get used to.
I wish that I had been born a little later when we could just adjust our bodies to keep on producing teeth, or at least when we could grow clones of our teeth that can be popped in when the current are in poor shape. I remain impressed that our cells organize themselves into the structures of our various teeth.
My present dentist is quite excellent. It was only through unusual luck that I was able to land them as an NHS rather than a private patient. Given my past experiences, what we do is: when a cleaning is due, they do half my mouth in a session: four injections to numb one side, then the cleaning is under local anæsthetic and, so far, after the anæsthetic wears off a few hours later, I remain pain- and ache-free. That, I could get used to.
I wish that I had been born a little later when we could just adjust our bodies to keep on producing teeth, or at least when we could grow clones of our teeth that can be popped in when the current are in poor shape. I remain impressed that our cells organize themselves into the structures of our various teeth.
Imitating desired realities
Jan. 18th, 2025 08:14 pmAt work, I am on a project that uses large language models (LLMs), an instance of the modern AI fad that brought us ChatGPT and, relatedly, image generators and suchlike. Personally, I am not into gaming and I don't own computers that have reasonable GPUs, and I have little use for systems that can deliver me results that are rather more plausible than they are trustworthy. My preference remains for the more traditional kind of AI centered on knowledge-based reasoning, though I concede that deep learning boasts some impressive successes.
Now that I am digging into modern AI a little for my day job, it becomes more obvious to me what everybody else probably realized years ago. First, I find myself tempted to use it for inane questions like recommendations from restaurant menus for kinds of people. That would be a lot of pointless computation: with each of us using LLMs for whatever comes to mind, just as we might ask our friends what they think, it sounds about as bad as proof of work for accelerating climate catastrophe.
Secondly, in reviewing various available models it became apparent that
Now that I am digging into modern AI a little for my day job, it becomes more obvious to me what everybody else probably realized years ago. First, I find myself tempted to use it for inane questions like recommendations from restaurant menus for kinds of people. That would be a lot of pointless computation: with each of us using LLMs for whatever comes to mind, just as we might ask our friends what they think, it sounds about as bad as proof of work for accelerating climate catastrophe.
Secondly, in reviewing various available models it became apparent that
uncensoredmodels are readily available, there can be
guardsand such applied subsequently. Many models are probably trained on all manner of material from the Internet, some of it from the sewer. Perhaps one can buy oneself decent graphics hardware, download uncensored models, then privately indulge whatever interactive fantasies come to mind. This goes back to previous questions on the effect of people being able to play violent video games or watch extreme pornography. Are we approaching a world in which anybody can immerse themselves in the particular virtual depravity of their choosing and, if so, what does that mean for society? I suppose that we will find out.
A change in weather
Jan. 9th, 2025 10:47 amI am amused that family visiting from the tropics have chosen to visit Edinburgh today where, with windchill, it is forecast to get as warm as -3°C. I hope that they have a good time exploring the city and are wrapped up well.
Update: It turns out that they indeed had a good time.
Update: It turns out that they indeed had a good time.
Confusing choices in public transit
Jan. 8th, 2025 08:19 pmWhen we were moving between the Philippines and Singapore, it was amusing that we would have to switch side for standing on an escalator. Perhaps this mirrored the difference in the side of the road on which one drives.
No such excuse within Britain, though: in London I am used to standing on the right of an escalator but, in using Glasgow's Central Station today, I stood on the left as the signs instruct. For extra dilemma, two different trains were leaving from the same platform at nearly the same time, fortunately they mark their destination on the sign at the front. This is in good Glasgow tradition, given that, as previously noted, local buses with different routes, operated by different companies, can bear the same route number and leave from the same stop.
No such excuse within Britain, though: in London I am used to standing on the right of an escalator but, in using Glasgow's Central Station today, I stood on the left as the signs instruct. For extra dilemma, two different trains were leaving from the same platform at nearly the same time, fortunately they mark their destination on the sign at the front. This is in good Glasgow tradition, given that, as previously noted, local buses with different routes, operated by different companies, can bear the same route number and leave from the same stop.
Alexa confounding music
Jan. 1st, 2025 08:13 pmPerhaps through our Amazon account, Alexa seems to have the ability to play us songs on request. However, I typically find the experience more frustrating than it is worth. Sometimes it will pick some strange new mix of a song, rather than the well-known original that I wanted. Today, when I tried, first I aimed for a choral work, where it found me the non-choral euphonium version. So, changing gear, I aimed instead for the Song of the Volga Boatmen, thus discovering that there are songs by some group called the Boatmen, then next try it offered the Glenn Miller treatment. Thinking that mainstream classical should be easy, then I tried for the Arrival of the Queen of Sheba, which had Alexa talking to me about watching Queen of the Damned. So, I gave up and listened to the radio instead. The strategy of suggesting a likely artist for the title is differently frustrating because, on failure, Alexa launches into something else by that artist.
I am a Professional Member of the British Computer Society (BCS) who handle accreditation for my Chartered IT Professional (CITP) status. At the moment, I do not much use my membership except for being able to list it on my resumé. The royal charter granted by the Privy Council to the BCS allows them to award such status so, under the established British conventions, I can reasonably use MBCS, CITP post-nominally after my MA (Cantab).
My latest annual renewal fee was £216 and, right now, money is tight. I went ahead and paid it but I wonder how much employers actually notice and care. I used my membership a little more during the COVID-19 pandemic when more talks were broadcast online but, between work and family, I have little time at the moment for interacting with fellow professionals, etc. and even less for travelling to do so. I suppose that I shall see how things stand when renewal next comes around.
My latest annual renewal fee was £216 and, right now, money is tight. I went ahead and paid it but I wonder how much employers actually notice and care. I used my membership a little more during the COVID-19 pandemic when more talks were broadcast online but, between work and family, I have little time at the moment for interacting with fellow professionals, etc. and even less for travelling to do so. I suppose that I shall see how things stand when renewal next comes around.
Primark's models
Dec. 31st, 2024 02:41 pmMost of the retail clothing stores that we go into display pictures of models who seem to be doing fairly normal things. Primark is an exception: their models appear to have quite an attitude, possibly annoyed to have been bothered by a photographer. Perhaps they aim their clothing range at customers who are unwelcoming and irritable, so they can look at the pictures and think,
that could be me if I bought those clothes.
A small trip of our own
Dec. 31st, 2024 02:25 pmWith all our kids away, we took a brief roadtrip ourselves into the North of England, just me and R. and our dog L. who got to run around happily everywhere from Easby Abbey to Morecambe Bay. We're back home now, settled in cosily for the New Year and the
multi-hazardstorm it is to bring us.
Starting the holiday at home
Dec. 22nd, 2024 01:27 pmDespite some difficulties, I managed to get a work project running reasonably last week and it is a relief to have the initial delivery behind me. The remaining to-do's can wait until next month.
This weekend's quite windy. I am now back from a walk over the squiggly bridge into the city centre to buy a few small items, at least it is more sunny than rainy right now. I returned home over the pedestrian suspension bridge near St Enoch Square. Especially near the Clyde, I had my hat pressed quite firmly over my head lest the wind take it.
Over the holiday, we will have a quiet time. My kids are in the US, R.'s are in Asia, it's just us and the animals for Christmas while our kids see extended family. It's great to take a breath, catch up with things, and enjoy being together.
This weekend's quite windy. I am now back from a walk over the squiggly bridge into the city centre to buy a few small items, at least it is more sunny than rainy right now. I returned home over the pedestrian suspension bridge near St Enoch Square. Especially near the Clyde, I had my hat pressed quite firmly over my head lest the wind take it.
Over the holiday, we will have a quiet time. My kids are in the US, R.'s are in Asia, it's just us and the animals for Christmas while our kids see extended family. It's great to take a breath, catch up with things, and enjoy being together.
