For everything else, there's binsk.org

AI Market Correction

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000

I really do believe there’ll be a market correction coming for AI when investors finally demand an accounting, likely prompted by enough justifiably-NIMBY folks refusing datacenters in their area. Companies will finally have to admit they’ll never recoup their spend, and then heads will (may? should) roll. Predictably, the market will go into a tailspin like ‘08, and governments will have to stabilize them (again). The losers? Same as always, us.

The computers-for-hobbyists thing will not recover to where it was. RAM and storage will not become cheap again, because there’ll be a new “what will we do with all these GPUs” bs endeavor to try and salvage something out of all this hardware overspend. There’d have to be a shift in thinking these techbros keep finding new ways to use compute-intensive processes. Blockchain? No, wait, metaverse. No, wait, AI. No, wait, autonomous whatever-the-hell-we-make-up-next.

It will correct though. It’s not possible to keep going like this indefinitely.

Status Death

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0000

The Economist recently posted an article that coined(?) the expression “status death” to articulate a feeling many workers, (infosec, tech, white collar, etc.) have had for a while now. While the article doesn’t really define it–it relies on the reader to understand it intuitively–the words hit with a sense of appropriateness. Yes, this is true: the endeavors we used to pursue that conferred high status no longer do so, either much or at all.

Yet misunderstanding the awesome power of status is among the AI industry’s greatest risks. The pride with which its bosses have talked about white-collar job losses is an error born of a failure to appreciate how much workers wish to avoid a diminution of their standing.

Setting aside whether AI can ever do what the P.T. Barnum techbros promise (it can’t), there’s another issue of confronting the problem of diminished or displaced workers. It remains to be seen, will they be like their parents’ (or grandparents’) generation who were unwilling or unable to pivot when the local mill closed? Will they (can they?) resist the change successfully, and swoop in when the large tech companies fail to ever recoup their expenses from all this compute? The bottom’s going to fall out eventually, but who’s going to be left holding the bag? The cynic in me says all of us, while the assholes who caused it to happen will sail away on their yachts.

Who Knows How to Harmonize?

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Was thinking about a video where the presenter was lamenting that nobody knew how to harmonize anymore. Context was that he was outside in a large park where he noted not a single person had an acoustic guitar like he would have encountered in years past. Also worthy of note, he was a musician, producer, music teacher, former music professor, etc. and not just a park enjoyer.

In reaction, I wondered where he thought the average, not-musically-inclined student would have learned to do so. I enjoy music quite a bit, but I’ve never learned to harmonize. I’ve never sung with a random person in a public place. I don’t know how to play more than a few rudimentary notes on instruments. In undergrad, I remember being amazed that a classmate knew how to sing harmony with the melody of popular songs—I certainly didn’t. The curriculum for students has changed quite a bit since you had a choice between language, art or music.

Bye-bye dot net, hello dot org

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000

So for no good reason, I switched from my old dot net domain name to my new-to-me (although I’ve had it for ten years now) dot org domain name. I think I had mistakenly thought dot org suffixes were for non-profits–which was a valid category under it, but Wikipedia suggests “[t]he domain was originally ‘intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn’t fit anywhere else.’” Fair enough, and kind of on-brand for me. I’m certainly not primarily involved in networking or commercial enterprise, even if I’ve reserved those domain names as well.

Nobody Wants to Discuss Anymore

Sat, 23 May 2026 15:00:00 +0000

It’s almost impossible for me to post on incomplete thoughts as I work through them. I’d rather discuss them and develop the idea, and yet the tendency is for folks to argue instead. It’s one thing if someone understands what I’m saying but offers a countering point of view, but it’s quite another when they’re spoiling for a fight and want to be right. In opinion, precious few things are beyond dispute anyway.

Hating the Mother's Day Holiday

Sat, 09 May 2026 15:00:00 +0000

I really do hate this time of year. I’m not a parent by choice, and I have a mother I do not celebrate. I hate how I’m bombarded with ads chock full of glurgy schlock deifying mothers in general. If you’re like me, those ads are annoying, offensive, and present an image inconsistent with the reality.

Look, the entrance qualification for parenthood is biological: get knocked up or knock somebody up. It’s not in itself something for someone else to celebrate. What earns kudos is how the person/people perform the job of raising that child to adulthood. That is to say, celebrate someone being a good parent. Not everyone gets even a passing grade there, but I suppose highlighting that fact wouldn’t sell as many flowers and greeting cards.

I’m sure my mother did her best, but she should not have procreated. She’d have been better off spending all that money on therapy instead of foisting those unexamined issues onto her children. Instead, children for her were possessions intended to provide validation. Time and time again, anything that required her to step up with actual parenting (gasp sacrifice) was minimized or ignored. Mom taught us that it was the appearance that mattered, not the reality. As a result, my brothers and I are all emotional messes.

Anyway. You all have “mothers” too I’m sure. I just am tired of the put-them-on-an-unearned-pedestal holiday that purports to guilt us into honoring a person who might not deserve it.

Brand Accounts vs. Personal Accounts

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:00:00 +0000

I think some folks get it twisted when they can’t remember if they’re trying to broadcast to the masses or communicate one on one. I don’t think you can do both with a single account, and there comes a point when you switch from one mode to the other, no take-backsies.

When someone’s talking to a wide audience they’ve intentionally built, I have zero idea why they’re still taking each interaction seriously. Trolls come out when you are gathering attention to yourself, because they want a piece of yours and your audience’s. If you get mad, well, troll gets fed.

Don’t read the comments, or at least take them no more seriously as the median follower of your big account takes you.

If You Don't Have Anything Good to Say

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Not a lot to say lately. I’m very, very disappointed in quite a few people.

No Shortage of Smart Men Tripping Up

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0000

It’s been nearly twenty years since I first heard the expression, but it’s evergreen: there’s no shortage of “really smart” guys tripped up by their ego or their dick.

I’d heard it in a presentation at a conference. A forensic investigation firm was talking about dealing with an insider threat against a public figure. After being identified (or suspecting they were close), that person fled to a non-extradition country ahead of being caught. The investigators were able to entice the person with a lucrative job offer to leave that country for one where he could be arrested. “You super genius, you’re so smart, come work for us and show us how you did it.” Oh noes, they weren’t serious and the guy went to prison.

An incredulous audience member asked how someone could be so stupid, especially if they knew they’d been identified as doing crimes but had successfully gotten away. The aforementioned quote was the reply, and nothing has changed in the nature of “really smart” men since then.

The VR Future I Want

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 15:00:00 +0000

I want the ability to travel virtually through the world’s museums, as well as the world’s cities to see significant architecture, etc. through a VR headset. I want the ability to choose the venue or category similarly to on-demand video selection. (Would I rather travel there? Yes. Is there a cure for long covid yet? No.)

I want to be able to get close to the artwork in the same way as one would want to in life. I want to be able to enjoy these things without my fellow humans–or perhaps just digital ones around me for flavor who won’t disturb my experience. I want to linger as long as I want to. I want to juxtapose experiences–why not have famous sculptures from around the world in a giant sculpture garden of my choosing?

Why can’t we be enabling that?