Matt Blaze

Stop saying there are no algorithms. Algorithms don't necessarily involve opaque machine learning-driven decisions. Showing posts in chronological order is an algorithm. Showing a partial ordering of posts coming in from other nodes in a federated distributed system is an algorithm. Anything involving computers uses algorithms.

Even if you can predict what it does, there's an algorithm. ESPECIALLY if you can predict what it does.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

Nov 25, 2022 at 10:37pmWeb
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 25, 2022
Next: Crypto means cryptography, damn it.
Show threadFrank RiegerNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze And we will get it back. Given the predominant way the coins are lost we should call them Cyber-Currencies.
Show threadJames BrittNov 25, 2022
@frank_rieger @mattblaze PonziCoins
Show threadAdamHertzNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Digital means fingers (and toes, if you’re willing to stretch).
Show threadthatdosboxNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze is this your way of flushing out the most annoying people so you can block them?
Show threadSteve BellovinNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Well, yeah. (Thanks, @amiest !)
Show threadKevin McCurleyNov 25, 2022
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @amiest
Show threadSteve BellovinNov 25, 2022
@tragiccommons @mattblaze @amiest Frenemies at best.
Show threadRyder C   🔭 🚲Nov 26, 2022
@tragiccommons @SteveBellovin @mattblaze @amiest @ryderdavid also remember when cryptofascist meant cryptofascist and not Blake Masters 🥁💥
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 25, 2022

@SteveBellovin @amiest

What kind of weirdo has a shirt like that?

Show threadcwNov 25, 2022
@amiest @mattblaze @SteveBellovin I’ve got a green one and enjoyed wearing it until randos started asking about ICOs. Maybe time to pull it out of storage.
Show threadRyanNov 26, 2022
@cade @amiest @mattblaze @SteveBellovin be the change you want to see!
Show threadPat WilsonNov 26, 2022
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @amiest I know someone who needs that shirt!
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 26, 2022
@paw @SteveBellovin @amiest Everyone needs that shirt, Pat.
Show threadNicholas WeaverNov 26, 2022

@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @amiest

I have the line art, I just need to make the shirt for "Crypto: It means cryptosporidia"

Show threadknocknockNov 26, 2022
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @amiest where can I get this shirt?
Show threadarkNov 26, 2022
@SteveBellovin @mattblaze @amiest
Got damn boomers!
Love it 😆👍
Show threadDan McDonaldNov 25, 2022
https://hostux.social/@danmcd/109370764266669453
Dan McDonald (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image I just realized I don't have to worry about my crypto, mainly because:

Mastodon Hostux
Show threadMrs Mouse at workNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Unless the government offers it, then it means "we can spy on you"
Show threadLouis MamakosNov 25, 2022

@mattblaze And another thing, it's spelled "Internet", not "internet".

It is capitalized as it refers to a distinct entity. I don't know who decided it wasn't to be capitalized, but I was there helping to build the big-I Internet and I know how we spelled it then.

There is an "internet" here and another random private "internet" of networks over there; but there's the one public global "Internet".

That is all.

Show threadRyanNov 26, 2022

@lmamakos @mattblaze Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.

...the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.

Show threadZudaNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze I gave up on that hill a long time ago. I accept it has 2 meanings.
Show threadSandrew Nov 25, 2022

@mattblaze Says a guy from the country where gas could mean gas or petrol (gasoline)!

Yes, English is very context dependant, but I can only imagine some of the frustrations for non-native speakers.

Show threadCranky DavidNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze
efficient to entice all the block candidates in one day.
Show threadKatNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze
Show threadJames BrittNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Or cryptozoology :)
Show threadIan McKellarNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze nah, crypto means cryptozoology.
Show threadBrian Danger HicksNov 26, 2022
@mattblaze I remember seeing a lot of baffled and worried tokenbros passing around some news item about the NSA doing crypto
Show threadSpaceLifeFormNov 26, 2022

@mattblaze

That is two hills. Pick one.

Show threadClyde MorganNov 26, 2022
@mattblaze Damn straight. It's a library we use in programming and now when I type it, a dumbass voice in my head says "bro" everytime. It's like the Meathead Rob on the DirecTV campaigns.
Show thread  JuhaNov 26, 2022
@mattblaze Keep that secret.
Show threadMy camera shoots fascistsNov 27, 2022
@mattblaze
Having watched the cryptography community bemoan this, I've always said "cryptocurrency" to make the distinction out of deference. Also, give it another year and maybe you'll be able to take the word back since everyone else will be too embarrassed to utter it 😆
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 27, 2022
@Mikal it may take a generation or two to wash away the stink.
Show thread安斯文 Nov 27, 2022
@mattblaze Exactly! I recently had to remove "crypto" from my profile description, because people thought I'm into some shady business. I hated it.
Show threadDavid GerardNov 27, 2022
@mattblaze look, cryptosporidium can have its currency if it insists
Show threadSean ColbathNov 27, 2022
@mattblaze rip your replies
Show threadMoto Nov 27, 2022

@mattblaze WELL AKSHULLY it’s “concealed or secret.” Modern linguistic references notwithstanding.

But yeah. Nobody wins a pedantry war.

Show threadDuende ModeNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Exactly! "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs," Niklaus Wirth, 1976. lol
Show threadAaron Williamson 🍄Nov 25, 2022
@mattblaze @palecur how about malgorithm?
Show threadsp3nx0rNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze you sound like my boss. Crypto as in cryptozoology?
Show threadLindsay 🧜🏼‍♀️Nov 25, 2022
@mattblaze but does it contain chemicals?
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 25, 2022
@lindsay ARRRRRRRGH.
Show threadxmlns="Dan"Nov 25, 2022

@mattblaze I somewhat disagree.

You are technically correct but the colloquial use of "algorithm" to mean "shady manipulation of mine and other users data, by big corporations for their own nefarious ends" is fine.

Caffeine is a drug, but when someone says "I don't want my kids doing drugs" we know they aren't talking about cans of Pepsi.

Show threadMaj 🇨🇦Nov 25, 2022
@mattblaze People have taken to using "the algorithm" to mean "the unknowable black box"...
But I'm on the hill with you.
Show threadstd::polarNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Yeah. I have the inverse pet peeve. I hate when people call everything "AI". Even if it is just a bruteforced, statically precalculated tic-tac-toe bot. A dozen nested ifs do not machine learning make.
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 25, 2022
@sehe oh, I hate that. Also, using AI to mean “some sort of advanced technology that I don’t personally understand”.
Show threadzevNov 26, 2022
@mattblaze @sehe I dunno, honestly even in the ML sense I still bristle at the use of "AI" to describe anything that currently exists (or believably could in the foreseeable future). It's not just that it's not general, but even in the fairly limited scopes of the problem domains it's applied to, the failure modes it exhibits do not give the impression that what's going on under the covers has any relation to the workings of "real" intelligence.

It's certainly a pretty lost cause at this point, but I think I'll probably continue to stubbornly employ air-quotes any time I (grudgingly) use the term myself.

Show threadChristoph C. Cemper Nov 25, 2022
@mattblaze who says "there's no algorithms"? 🤣
Show threadChristian KündigNov 25, 2022

@mattblaze This is such a critical point! Just showing the most boosted and liked unread toots (from the last 24hs) before other toots is not some weird black magic heresy.

Finding out a good way to sort out these is just good UX. I’d like something which works both at the end of stressfull day (first open) as well as while waiting for boarding (open every 2min)

Show threadRyan ✨ PavlikNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze yeah I try to not let this one get to me because I know what they mean, but.... Sometimes I just want to say "bubble sort" to put an algorithm in people's timeline, but I suspect that's closer to shitpost than dad joke 🤣
Show threadWilliam AegerterNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze My pedantic hill: the meaning of exponential. (Limitations apply. Offer of human sacrifice only available if it enables everyone to understand the concept.)
Show threadMatt BlazeNov 25, 2022
@waege Oh god yes. I'm to the point of almost kissing the ground when I hear it used accurately or near-correctly in media. (E.g., "The virus could spread exponentially." Yes! Thank you!)
Show threadJesper AndersenNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze
Show threadTim ChambersNov 25, 2022
@mattblaze Fair point. would you consider user-customizable "filters" on each feed to be an "algorithm"? If so then I think that would work --> but where users themselves can tweak or set every variable. And it could and should default to chronological only.
Show thread*The* Paul BrownNov 26, 2022

@mattblaze

Y'all nerds know what we mean.

Show threadrag. Gustavino BevilacquaNov 26, 2022

@mattblaze

Even the floater closing the water in the toilet can be considered an alghoritm (i.e. a sequence of commands):

do (
keep_water_open
) until floater_level == top

Show threadfraggLe!Nov 26, 2022

@mattblaze I personally am okay with "an algorithm" (spooky sense instead of real sense) for mastodon anyway, as long as it's open, designed to minimize abuse (of third parties *and* the people it's "for"), and if you turn it off it fucking stays off.

I think it'd be almost nice if my fediverse instance was clever enough to go "here's a post you didn't see that a bunch of your friends liked", to take the edge off the need to read the entire home feed.

Show threadTed FaberNov 26, 2022
@mattblaze My undergraduate (wustl) CS 120 (intro) class explicitly defined algorithm and compared it to several other similar terms (recipe, scheme, ...). They also tested us on it on basically every exam. One of the many valuable services they provided me.
Show threadRobotistryNov 26, 2022

@mattblaze
Is it wrong that I find it amusing that so many people seem to have entirely missed the CW and are trying to explain to you that you're dying on a pedantic hill?

I always use "AI model" or "ML model" when I'm talking about a machine learning algorithm, because I spent so much time writing non-ML behavior algorithms for autonomous robots.

Show thread⌛️🧮 Bruce Carnwell (🐣 & 🌴)Nov 26, 2022
@mattblaze You have complete agreement from me! 🥂