Recently

Reading

It is very easy to get ChatGPT to emit a series of words such as “I am happy to see you.” There are many things we don’t understand about how large language models work, but one thing we can be sure of is that ChatGPT is not happy to see you.

Ted Chiang’s article about AI in the New Yorker started slow for me, and having read a lot of other articles from the same genre it hit some familiar points, but still it was compelling and a gift to read another piece by one of my favorite authors.

I read a lot of articles about the Internet Archive lawsuit in September. The Verge had a good piece about it. I’m a longtime fan of the archive – who isn’t – but it’s hard to absorb the weight of the decision and the fact that, despite being the clear-cut villains, the publishers at least have a good argument. The threat of losing the archive would be a gigantic change in the whole shape of the internet.

Exciting month for New Yorkers, obviously, with the mayor getting indicted. I’m feeling thankful for the New York media ecosystem: with Hell Gate and The City, we have really good local, independent journalism. It’s both deep - Hell Gate’s Table of Success is an incredible reference for Adams’s corrupt circle of friends - and punchy.

Watching

I guess I watched a lot of movies this month? The big hit was Death Becomes Her, which is an absolute classic - my favorite kind of film, ‘a romp.’ Beetlejuice was just okay, surprisingly.

I’ve been doing a lot of daydreaming about cycling more. In the near future, I want to ride the Empire State Trail again, and the C&O, and the GAP, and more. I just want to get out on a bike. And I’ve been enjoying some smaller YouTube channels about riding. Dwayne Pedals is a good one:

Tim Fitzwater has a good video about the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. These sorts of videos are great: as the geospatial dorks say, “the map is not the territory.” That is especially true for hiking, biking, running, and all forms of non-vehicular transporation. A trail on a map can mean a lot of different things. A ‘bike lane’ on a map can be blissful or non-existent in real life. So I’ve long had the habit of cross-referencing run & bike plans with streetview. You can’t do streetview on bike trails usually, because Google sucks at making maps for non-drivers doesn’t have data there.

Stay tuned for more bicycle content. It’s been a lifelong thing for me but I am getting much more serious about it, again.

Had a really great ride this month - after biking through Long Island in August, we wanted to experience some good bicycle infrastructure, so the Shore Parkway and Jamaica Bay Greenway hit the spot. This photo is from Brooklyn! Shirley Chisholm State Park is a fresh new park, opened in 2019. You can bike through the park just by veering off of the Jamaica Bay Greenway, and easily get back on the Greenway afterward. Sure, it’s built on landfills, but after $235 million of remediation and $35 million of renovations, it’s a really nice spot. It was like we stumbled upon an oasis.

Listening

Pretty decent month for music, too!

I heard this at the place where I get my hair cut. A good sign.

Great new electronic music - this has been powering my focus at work recently.

I had thought incorrectly that Death From Above stopped playing music a while ago. Happy to learn that I was wrong and this album - Outrage! Is Now exists.

Elsewhere

In the micro blog, I wrote about React, syncing light and dark mode in Neovim, Crypto’s missing plateau of productivity and NYC cycling paths.