Andrew Yeckel

Personal: I build robots, train in Krav Maga and travel the world. But mostly robots.
Software Architect

[Cory Doctorow NO LONGER ON TWIT TER @doctorow]

Here's a fun AI story: a security researcher noticed that large companies' AI-authored source-code repeatedly referenced a nonexistent library (an AI "hallucination"), so he created a (defanged) malicious library with that name and uploaded it.

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[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

Wow.

Here’s Robert De Niro’s full statement about how Donald Trump should NEVER be president again:

“I’ve spent a lot of time studying bad men.  I’ve examined their characteristics, their mannerisms, the utter banality of their cruelty.

Yet there’s something different about Donald Trump. When I look at him, I don’t see a bad man. Truly.

I see an evil one.

Over the years, I’ve met gangsters here and there. This guy tries to be one, but he can’t quite pull it off. There’s such a thing as “honor among thieves.” Yes, even criminals usually have a sense of right and wrong. 

Whether they do the right thing or not is a different story — but — they have a moral code, however warped.

Donald Trump does not. He’s a wannabe tough guy with no morals or ethics. No sense of right or wrong. No regard for anyone but himself — not the people he was supposed to lead and protect, not the people he does business with, not the people who follow him, blindly and loyally, not even the people who consider themselves his “friends.” He has contempt for all of them.

We New Yorkers got to know him over the years that he poisoned the atmosphere and littered our city with monuments to his ego.  We knew first hand that this was someone who should never be considered for leadership.  We tried to warn the world in 2016.

The repercussions of his turbulent presidency divided America and rattled New York City beyond imagination.  Remember how we were jolted by crisis in early 2020, as a virus swept the world.

We lived with Donald Trump’s bombastic behavior every day on the national stage, and we suffered as we saw our neighbors piling up in body bags.

The man who was supposed to protect this country put it in peril, because of his recklessness and impulsiveness. It was like an abusive father ruling the family by fear and violent behavior.  That was the consequence of New York’s warning getting ignored. Next time, we know it will be worse.

Make no mistake: the twice-impeached, 4-time indicted Donald Trump is still a fool. But we can’t let our fellow Americans write him off like one. Evil thrives in the shadow of dismissive mockery, which is why we must take the danger of Donald Trump very seriously.

So today we issue another warning. From this place where Abraham Lincoln spoke — right here in the beating heart of New York — to the rest of America:
This is our last chance.

Democracy won’t survive the return of a wannabe dictator.

And it won’t overcome evil if we are divided.

So what do we do about it?  I know I’m preaching to the choir here.  What we’re doing today is valuable, but we have to take today into tomorrow – take it outside these walls.   We have to reach out to the half of our country who have ignored the hazards of Trump and, for whatever reason, support elevating him back into the White House. 

They’re not stupid, and we must not condemn them for making a stupid choice.  Our future doesn’t just depend on us. It depends on them.

Let’s reach out to Trump’s followers with respect.  Let’s not talk about “democracy.”  “Democracy” may be our holy grail, but to others it is just a word, a concept, and in their embrace of Trump, they’ve already turned their backs on it. 

Let’s talk about right and wrong.  Let’s talk about humanity. 

Let’s talk about kindness.  Security for our world. 

Safety for our families. 

Decency. 

Let’s welcome them back. 

We won’t get them all, but we can get enough to end the nightmare of Trump, and fulfill the mission of this “Stop Trump Summit.”

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@victoryheights2 Which food trucks?

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@MicroFlashFic Can @GorgonShow get this cryptid on the podcast?

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@jack Because the earth is not a cylinder. A Mercator projection map such as this makes areas closer to the poles seem larger than they actually are. Personally, I like the Waterman butterfly projection. It does a better job of accurately representing areas and is a fun shape.

[Sesame Street @sesamestreet]

The letter X will be holding a press conference later today. #TwitterX

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@SenSchumer Why? Seems like a waste of time, energy and money.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@unwoman I wish I could be there, but I have conflicting plans.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@GorgonShow Dragon.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@mythsbaby Given the number of different calendars used, what does "on this day" even mean more than, at most, a few hundred years ago? Turkey has been on the Gregorian calendar for less than 100 years, and Greece just passed the century mark on it in February.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@GorgonShow @StellarTim How do you have 26 1/2 snakes? It's that 1/2 I'm really curious about.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@NPRextra @planetmoney Will "Inflation" be available on @Bandcamp ?

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@MicroSFF This reminds me of the story of Hillel. Basically some ancient king asked him to explain the whole Bible while standing on one foot. He replied "treat others as you want to be treated. All the rest is explanation."

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

Why do I get Twitter notifications about tweets from people I do not follow? And how do I disable this? And (more importantly) when will everyone I follow move from Twitter to Mastodon, so I can leave too? I've grown to dislike this platform but I go where the content is.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@erinbiba Depends on what's available in the shops, what your character is, and what your upcoming adventure is. But an immovable rod is always useful. Boots of spider climb. Cloak of elvenkind or cloak of displacement.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@Slate "asked a physicist" if the pull a plane trick in Creed III was realistic, and got a long answer about physics. They could have asked a pilot and gotten the short answer "yes, it happens all the time. It's how you pull them out of the hanger." https://t.co/ypifwmLYUD

[Field Museum @FieldMuseum]

when they say their favorite dinosaur's Dimetrodon. 💀

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@RoseCityCC You can't see everything. Pick the few things that are most interesting and plan around that. The main hall panel rooms have long lines, so allow sufficient time.

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@NASAPersevere How are the samples expected to be located for retrieval? I know you have basic "GPS" of where they have been left, but I expect they could get blown by the wind or covered in dust. Do they have RF beacons, or will it be visual, or something else?

[Andrew Yeckel @ay2b]

@GorgonShow I'm happy you're back with season 2!