Peter Binkley

@pbinkley@code4lib.social
1.1K Followers
801 Following
3.4K Posts
a digital scholarship technologies librarian, interested in stuff like IIIF and minimal computing, also pre-digital history of similar stuff like microfilm and file cards. In Canada.
⚒️ Dig where you stand. ⚒️
#DigitalHumanities #IIIF #libraries #microfilm #RetroTechnology
Githubhttps://pbinkley.github.io/
Research bloghttps://www.wallandbinkley.com/rcb/
ORCID iDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0560-8958
Annals of Clevelandhttps://www.wallandbinkley.com/projects/2019/annals-of-cleveland/
Peter Binkley19h ago

OK, Ollama and Magistral and I are getting along better. I've made a model file with

PARAMETER num_ctx 16384
PARAMETER num_predict 16384

to give it more memory for input and output, and I've put a lot of background knowledge for the task in the system prompt. And I've remembered to invoke the new version and not the default one. The development is still experimental, and Magistral's explanation of its reasoning is very helpful so far. We'll see how long the honeymoon lasts.

Peter Binkley21h ago
rowmyboat23h ago
We’re on a service review meeting with EBSCO and it is so bad I am stepped away for a few minutes because I cannot listen to them and don’t want to say something really bad.
Peter Binkley1d ago
Things LLMs and I have trouble with: 1) I say "write this thing", they hear "give me a structured approach to help me draft this thing". 2) I say "read this data and tell me about it", they hear "hallucinate a bunch more data more or less like this".
Peter Binkley2d ago
AnnaAnthro2d ago

Cuts at Ontario colleges leading to 600 programs cut, nearly 10,000 job losses, union says

« Union says it's 'one of the largest mass layoffs in #Ontario's history' »

« The document showed 23 of 24 colleges in Ontario have reported a 48 per cent decrease in first-semester enrolment of international students from September 2023 to September 2024. »

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-college-layoffs-1.7581037

Cuts at Ontario colleges leading to nearly 10,000 job losses, union says | CBC News

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union says it's 'one of the largest mass layoffs in Ontario's history.'

CBC
Peter Binkley2d ago
Paris Marx4d ago

Canada needs to reduce its dependence on US tech companies — and cloud infrastructure is a perfect place to start.

For the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, I explain the threat posed by our dependence on US-owned data centres and why we need a public cloud that isn’t shaped by the pressure for shareholder profits.

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/canada-should-build-public-cloud-infrastructure-rather-than-relying-on-u-s-tech-giants/

#tech #cloud #datacenters #cdnpoli #cdntech #canada #markcarney

Canada should build public cloud infrastructure rather than relying on U.S. tech giants - CCPA

During the 2025 election campaign, prime minister Mark Carney made a striking admission about Canada’s dependence on U.S. tech companies. The Canadian government was in the process of choosing a partner for a 25-year cloud computing contract for the federal government. The contract’s length should have set off red flags of its own, but the…

CCPA -
Peter Binkley3d ago
There was an LLM
Who was an LL gem
And did things you'd think were impossible
When it was right it was very very right
And when it was wrong it was plausible
Show threadPeter Binkley4d ago
If I could do that with a prompt, with added intelligence (ids are sequential, dates are sequential within a section, etc.), it would make life easier (I did one volume; there are lots more). Sample output: https://www.wallandbinkley.com/projects/2019/annals-of-cleveland/headings/animals/ ; code: https://github.com/pbinkley/annals-of-cleveland/blob/main/lib/abstract.rb ; a conference poster about my project: https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-5shd-gp89
Animals

No subheadings See also: Abstracts: 3 Abstracts 11 Cleveland Morning Leader, 31 March 1864 (ed; 3 inches) ~ See original p.2, col.4 ~ View at ChronAm 11 - L. Mar. 31; ed:2/4 - Dr. MacGowan, surgeon in the U. S. "army, con- templates the introduction of two cold-enduring animals of northern China, the Thibetan goat and the yak of the Himalayas. They may be naturalized in corresponding climates in this country.

Show threadPeter Binkley4d ago

Five years ago (?!) I worked on parsing metadata out of the OCR text of a 1930s newspaper index, with references like this: "11 - L. Mar. 31; ed:2/4", parsed with regexes like this:

([a-zA-Z]+)[\\.,]?\\s # 'H' newspaper
(\\S+)\\s # 'Dec.': month
(#{OCRDIGIT}+)#{OCRCOLON}+\\s? # '2:' day
([a-zA-Z]*)#{OCRCOLON}?\\s? # 'ed' type (ed, adv)
(
(?:
#{OCRDIGIT}+[/\"']#{OCRDIGIT}+ # '2/3' page/column
(?:[,-]#{OCRDIGIT}+)?
(?:,\\s)?
)+
)
(.*)$ # ',2' or '-3': sequence or range

Peter Binkley4d ago
A good example of the kind of AI project I like: the AI is used in a one-time process to populate a traditional reference tool or data set https://www.archipanion.com/en/blog/ai-cataloguing-registry-finding-aid-palatinate/ - people made the original metadata, people make and use the resulting dataset, AI packs the boxes and drives the moving van
Archipanion: Erschliessung und Zugänglichkeit in Deinem Archiv - unterstützt durch Machine Learning.

Archipanion ermöglicht Dir eine automatische Tiefenerschliessung Deiner Multimedia-Inhalte. Deine bisher nur rudimentär erschlossenen und schwierig zugänglichen multimedialen Inhalte werden einfach durchsuchbar. Aus digitalisierter Information wird nützliches Wissen!

Peter Binkley6d ago
Kim Perales6d ago

“The reason Trump defunded the National Weather Service leading to… is because 🚨PROJECT 2025 THOUGHT WEATHER PREDICTION SCIENCE WAS TIED TO EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE.”
-M Jollett

“The ideological dismantling of NOAA and NWS begins on page 674 of Project 2025 and is well underway.”
-Ribelle
#NOAA #NWS #Project2025 #Idiocracy #Kleptocracy #ClimateChange #USPol

×
slow learner, deep feelerJul 5

Hi everyone, I'm helping a friend who was born in Germany and lived their first 7 years there to get a copy of their birth certificate.

She knows the city, but I don't know how to spell it to do a search. She says it is near Schwarzwald.

Someone suggested I ask if anyone can help us. This is a recording of her saying the city.

#fedihelp #Germany

Show threadHugs4friends ♾🇺🇦 🇵🇸😷Jul 5
@melanie I can't hear anything.
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@Tooden

I am not sure what is happening. I had to turn mine up to hear it but I'm sure you've tried that. Thank you for boosting.

Show threadDr. FerrousJul 5
@melanie Sounds like she is saying “Holdeheinstein” but that’s not a city I can find. But this city seems like it fits the syllables and is in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald). Maybe? https://www.baden-baden.com/en/city/haueneberstein-eddbf9d2e4
Haueneberstein

Haueneberstein, or "Eberschde" for short in dialect, is a district north-west of Baden-Baden on the edge of the Black Forest.

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@DrFerrous

Thank you so much. That is what I heard too! But I don't know the language enough to make educated guesses. I will put this on our list.

Show threadNoli timereJul 5

@melanie In case you weren’t aware, the “Schwarzwald” is what we English-speakers term the Black Forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Forest

Sounds as if she’s saying “Holdeheinstein”…

Black Forest - Wikipedia

Show threadKevin DavyJul 5
@melanie
I heard, boulderhinestine. Doubt it's spelt that way.
Show threadRetepkce 🐈Jul 5
@melanie "Heinsheim" would be at least near the Black Forrest, ♁49° 16′ N, 9° 9′ O, same goes for "Heimsheim", ♁48° 48′ N, 8° 52′ O; it also seems that the ending "-stein" not to common in the area of the Black Forrest. "holdaheinstein", as I understand, sounds closest to Heinstein. "Heinstein" was a Factory in Heidelberg, and that Name was also used for the surrounding area in Heidelberg as far as I could find out.
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@Retepkce

This is so heloful! Thank you so much. I am sending this to my friend.

Show threadGroschenromanautorinJul 5

I'd come to the same conclusion. Maybe the parents of your friend were talking about the area of the "Holding of Heinstein" (the English version of the so called area of the huge factory), when they spoke about her birthplace. So maybe that has been the name of the street/quarter, where they lived in Heidelberg?

@Retepkce @melanie

Show threadSarah SammisJul 5
@melanie How old is your friend? It might help in tracking down the location.
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@pussreboots

She's 58. She was born in 1966. She said her mom used a midwife and that it was pretty rural.

Show threadSarah SammisJul 5
@melanie Thank you for the date.
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@pussreboots

You're welcome, thank you for helping.

Show thread0x10fJul 5

@melanie Here is the file amplified and cropped. It has only the "in (placename)" part.

Edit: I hear the placename as "Hulda Heinstein" but I don't speak German natively.

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@0x10f

Ooh thanks. Yeah, that's what I hear too. It is frustrating. Her mother threw her birth certificate away. She's got a whole other family in Germany.

Show threadPiiieps & BrummmJul 5

@0x10f @melanie
The end is definitly "Heinstein".

I doubt, if the rest is part of the name. It would not match the usual names of places here in Germany. BUT there are some strange names out there, so I can't rule it out.

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@PiiiepsBrummm @0x10f

Thank you, i wondered about that.

Show threadSarah SammisJul 5

@melanie The two ways I heard it:

höllenheinstein
höllduheinstein

I've been looking at the rural areas but I haven't found it. Unfortunately I don't have time to look more tonight as I'm leaving on a ten day trip tomorrow.

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@pussreboots

Thank you for the leads and your work. I hope that you have a lovely time!

Show threadbennyJul 5
@melanie the city of Triberg im Schwarzwald (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triberg_im_Schwarzwald) has a quarter/suburb named Hohlenstein. Maybe this?
Triberg im Schwarzwald - Wikipedia

Show threadPiiieps & BrummmJul 5
@benny @melanie Oh, that is a good guess.
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@benny

Thank you, I will put it on my list. Are birth records held by city there, or region? I have been assuming we need the place of birth to get a copy. But maybe we could do it with her name and date of birth and mother's name.

Show threadbennyJul 5
@melanie it's the county administration usually, the administration is called Standesamt if I am not completely wrong.
Bigger towns are what we call kreisfrei, which means they are their own county, so there it might be the townhall...
Show threadbennyJul 5
@melanie I wonder if your friend could contact the police directly, because as we do have inhabitant registration unlike the USA, they should be able to retrieve their data.
The question is if they see it as their job or if this is like me asking the NSA or google for a backup of my hard disk from ten years ago...
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@benny

Oh, wow. I didn't know you had that. I will try that too. It seems like it is time to start asking questions from officials. Someone posted a site to request birth certificates so we will try that with what we have and hope it works.

I appreciate your pointers.

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@benny

Thank you this will definitely help.

Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie She does not have any documentation that lists her birthplace? There should be an immigration record that has it ... The way she says it it sounds like it is a hyphenated name, but I fear that if this is just based on her recollection of how her mother pronounced it it may be pretty far from the real name. First 7 years means she should have started school here - any chance there's an old report card floating around?
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@lipow

Oh, I didn't think about school. I will ask that.

The only paperwork she has is a naturalization document, she was naturalized here in the US about 12 years ago. It says she was born in Germany but that is all.

Do you know how the birth records work there? Here, each state keeps them. Would it be Baden-Württemberg where the birth records would be held, or is it by district?

Thank you for suggesting schooling.

Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie The birth records would be at the communal level. What you could try: public immigration records - I've seen that a lot of stuff is accessible through genealogy services such as ancestry.com, but they also should be accessible in other ways. That's how I just discovered that my husband's grandfather came from Elizabethgrad (Jelisabetgrad), which in the family was always referred to as "a town that sounded like yellow sweater" - hence my fear that based on the >
Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie > pronounciation alone it will be likely impossible to find. This being Germany there should also be another way to figure this out through records, but so far I haven't found anything that says what to do when you need a birth certificate but don't know the place of birth - probably a rare situation. I'll try looking again ...
Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie Ok, update on that: no, there is no centralized way of figuring it out: https://www.bva.bund.de/DE/Services/Buerger/Ausweis-Dokumente-Recht/Staatsangehoerigkeit/Einbuergerung/EB15/Infobox_E15/Infobox_E15_4.html - this says explicitly that in Germany, in order to obtain a copy of a birth certificate you need to contact the Standesamt (records office) that issued the original, and they are organized at the municipal level.
BVA - Wiedergutmachungseinbürgerung nach Verfolgung - Wo erhalte ich die Geburtsurkunde/Heiratsurkunde meiner deutschen Vorfahren?

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@lipow

Can you tell me what municipal level means specifically? Like, what size is the municipality? Is it a city? Or larger region? I see Schwarzwald is in Freiburg. Is Freiburg a municipal level?

Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie It depends on where you are. Schwarzwald is a region, Freiburg is a city in Schwarzwald. It is at the city or town or village level, mostly, but sometimes some really small places will share a Standesamt. So you really will need the exact place of birth to figure out which Standesamt is/was in charge (to make it a little more challenging, in some places that may have changed since 1966 because of administrative reforms).
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@lipow

O no, that is sad news. But I am grateful for understanding it better than I did.

Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@lipow

Someone else mentioned police keep records of people. Maybe that will be a possibility.

Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie No, they don't. Police can access certain records in conjunction with criminal activities but won't be able to help with this. Your best bet - if there is nothing in her and her parents' posession or she can't access the latter - to find the records of her immigration into the US (am assuming that is where she is). There should be her birth place, at least her last place of residence in there. That would be a good lead - a real place from where you can trace back
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@lipow

Thank you. I think she's afraid of doing this because she is part of an oppressed group and here we are not respecting naturalized status now.

Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie Yeah, I feared it might be something like that. Plus, who knows how operational those places are these days. Have you tried searching for the mother via ancestry or something like that? It might lead to a scan of the mother's immigration records that might have info on the kid ...
Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie Another thought: SSA. If she has a social security number there should have some info about her birth been submitted when it was first applied for - that might be a safer place to ask for info, even though their stuff probably is a mess right now ...
Show threadUlrike Walter-LipowJul 5
@melanie Added a direct message (in case you don't see those automatically).
Show threadslow learner, deep feeler6d ago

@lipow

She's still alive so I'm not sure the information will be available but I will look to see. I hadn't thought of that either.

I am going to see if we can write out an appeal to her mom and sister to try and help them see that she's even more precarious than she had been. Fingers crossed it might shake something loose. And I asked her to see if any odd memories of buildings or primary school or idk just maybe even words might bubble up. Her first language was German.

Show threadManfred MünzlJul 5
@melanie Schwarzwald could be quite relative for entire Southern Germany. A last name could be more helpful to locate an area. Or a search on genealogy sites could help like ancestry.com
Show threadlime6d ago
@mmuenzl @melanie
I'm not sure how helpful DNA tests could be, but maybe it would indeed be easier to find relatives back in Germany by DNA or name search, and then to figure out where she might have been born?
Does she have her original German last name or mother's last name? Might be useful.
Show threadHeleen KuiperJul 5
@melanie @thibaultmol did she ask ChatGPT?
Show threadlizzzzardJul 5
@melanie Holderheinstein is how I would spell that, but it's not an existing city
Show threadLinda🌱Jul 5
@melanie I am from the district Heidenheim, and a village named Steinheim is part of that district.
But we are quite far from the Schwarzwald: still in Baden -Württemberg, but snuggled to the border to Bavaria. It’s at least a 2.5 hour drive to reach the Schwarzwald.
Does she remember where her parents worked? Were they in the army? - Maybe there are documents from their work live around, which could help to get clues about the area we have to look at.
Show threadslow learner, deep feelerJul 5

@Linda

I will ask her. Her memory is patchy because of having a stroke early on. But details like this help me think of things to ask to jog her memory. Thank you for helping.

Show threadLenniJul 5
@melanie @Spark Did my best to figure it out but I’m out of ideas. Could you ask your friend to write it down as best as they can? (Probably easier to work with than the audio.)
Show threadslow learner, deep feeler6d ago

@lenni @Spark

Thank you so much. It really means the world that people are helping us. I will see if she can but I'm not sure that will work.

Show thread Huey6d ago
@melanie No luck yet? I've had a look on the map and can't find anything that looks right. Sounds like "Holderheimstein"? There are a lot of towns ending in "heim" around there, and one just called "Stein".
Show threadトビアス バルト6d ago
@melanie FWIW there is a mountain called "Heidstein" (https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidstein). Although there is no city or village mentioned in the Wikipedia that bears its name (like Hohenheidstein which would be a typical naming) maybe they can further search around that area.
Heidstein – Wikipedia

Show threadslow learner, deep feeler6d ago

@4nduril

Oh!!!

This is really hopeful because I think she's remembering a place name but maybe she was too young to differentiate a place name from a city name.

Thank you so much.

Show threadjomo6d ago

@melanie I made a map of all places in the state of Baden-Württemberg that very loosely match what I heard (contains "h", and "st" followed by "n" within the next 3 characters).

(Click on "Run" and wait for it to load)
https://overpass-ultra.us/#m=6.3/48.359/9.739&q=IYJwpsDaB2wLZgLwCIBCwAmZoFoDqAPyAC7FhwBGYIA5sgLoAEOAfIwHQUDuA3AFAAKPo0bQuISAAcANsADGSOQEtiAT3oDQETlwCU-EWIkz5SCgHsQ5gK40AFhq3Ad+4aPFTZCxHfjSwxI7gztyuhh4m3gDO1hTWIBRB2qEG7sZeSNBgSvYW8Xbm5hhJIXqpRp6miACO1qBkICUu5REZiMpqAPoU0uZyANZNKW4VkUjE5lzQQ2UjrVUAbkrSsjRgM666zGzsY1H8RrsZUTDwYAB+yHbsAFRRxJCQAFzA0pK+T-T0AN4AjAA0AGYAL7QR4vN4fL7fAAMQOByH+Sno-BsxEYCmgDR4QA

Edit: Improved version: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/27kE

#overpass #osm

Ultra

A web based tool for making MapLibre GL maps with data from sources such as Overpass, GeoJSON, GPX, KML, TCX, etc

Show threadjomo6d ago

@melanie could it be Haueneberstein?

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haueneberstein

Haueneberstein – Wikipedia