2025-2026 Word of the Year: Shenanigans. Second runner up: Legit.

Accept your place in the Hive Photo Credit: Amazing Grace @cannedworms.bsky.social

@priscilla.j.darko IG

I may be late since I was traveling but happy year of the (w) horse 🐎🧧🧨

I’m retail therapy-ing a lot. Should you be my therapist instead?

Without heated passenger seats it’s not a luxury vehicle. LINCOLN.

In a conversation with an AI, I learned about this energy dashboard for NYS power generation operators: www.nyiso.com/real-time-da... — it shows the cost of electricity and current loads. Curious on such a brutally cold night like tonight. By 5AM the temperature will dip to -18C (0.4F)!

Real-Time Dashboard - NYISO

Data and information related to real-time and day ahead market operations. You will find graphics and maps demonstrating the day ahead market zonal LBMP, real-time fuel mix, load, load vs. LBMP, fuel ...

nyiso.com

Hot and fresh. You know where to find me.

Random acts of kindness, unexpected gifting. This joy to me is manifested.

this NYC cold is brutal!!! but not as brutal as my single tail ;) i have a few openings in my dungeon (where it’s nice and warm) before i jet off to sunny mexico on feb 1st - i’ll be gone for 10 days … so don’t wait until it’s too late

Spotify prompted me to try their new “prompt a playlist” tool and they BLOCK THE WORD “feminist”. WTF Spotify!

I’m using Peakto to try and meta-manage Lightroom Classic and Apple Photos. ~350k images total.

I don’t log on here very often but I am thrilled to see my communities of computer science and s*w come together. The best of the best.

"Synthetic Panels" make no sense. The LLM is trained on data from a particular point in time. This is the same as querying the distribution of responses from an LLM with built-in assumptions about what the distribution can look like. Well done surveys are designed for the opposite.

Sabrina Norwood@sabrinanorwood.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is offering synthetic panels (AI-generated participants)? Follow me down a rabbit hole I'm calling "doing science is tough and I'm so busy, can't we just make up participants?"

Build things that bring joy and that you're proud of. ✨

CO SIGNED

Hilary Mason@hilarymason.com · 10mo ago

The ultimate point of this is that simple technical definitions are easy if you don't know what you're talking about and elusive if you do. As technologists, we need to acknowledge the nuance and context of a the discussions, and not get bogged down in bickering over vocabulary.

LOCAL CONTACTS ONLY: Are you aware of a circle of illustrators for children’s and fantasy books that meets online and talks shop around NYC area? #writers

I was informed that SW’ers tended to settle with finance bros, so I figured I’d see what kind of bait that might look like. ;)

S/W Friends: Take note: I’m a finance bro working on Wall Street, currently single. <wink>

Okay, clearly I need to GPT this summary before I see you next week. ;)

Hilary Mason@hilarymason.com · last yr.

What does it mean to "read for pleasure", and what does it mean that that's declining? I appreciate Mathew Ingram's pretty balanced take in his newsletter: torment-nexus.mathewingram.com/so-whats-so-... ...and I expect that amidst all of the noise, we are finding new places and ways to read.

I WILL BE COORDINATING FREE/CHEAP REDUCED TECHNICAL GEAR, LESSONS, CLOTHING SWAP (LATEX IN PARTICULAR) The channel is noisy. Contact me directly in the description for emergency. Spread the word!

NYC’s hard edge is felt again.

Question for my party folks: How do you keep your crew in the loop? Signal groups?

Single, financechick, prefer EU membership.

#teenageengineering TX-6 mixer at 1.3.0 only records to disk as a mixdown from the master stereo bus from the individual 6 stereo channels. Hoping for per-channel recording in a future release so one can rearrange the stems on the go without using a laptop. Nice tho.

mamdani rolled a nat 20

Ben Collins@bencollins.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Well that was fucking incredible. He cast a charm spell on the most odious man alive.

Find you somebody who looks at you like Donald Trump looks at Zohran Mamdani.

Friends: How do you stay up with friend groups when you announce parties, have news to share, stuff to give away questions, or want to collaboratively organize stuff with your circle of people (assuming you have a circle of friends ~50). Advice welcome.

Friday Night: Learning how to shuffle eSIMs between phones to consolidate without calling tech support. Chilling to Pluribus while enjoying 2MG Atavan and Artichoke pizza in a warm apartment. Thinking about how to foster safe, loving connective communities in my space and limited years.