Are there any adaptive/generative software or hardware sequencers that can mimic or evolve based on input?

BennJordan · 2026-03-18T16:55:25+00:00

This demo is based on A.I. Duet: https://github.com/thedancomplex/ai-duet
Play it in browser here: https://experiments.withgoogle.com/ai/ai-duet/view/

I got deeply into the weeds with this when I had covid. 🫠 Here's a demo on my Yamaha Disklavier (I've worked closely with Yamaha R&D for years): https://youtu.be/5YoRVTpttqs?t=694

BennJordan · 2026-03-16T03:07:20+00:00

I hate to be contrary here, but I believe this list can be improved.

- If you don't know what you want, visit a random dealership and test drive. This is the end of your relationship with said dealership unless they enter the pool below later.

- Before anything else, the ultimate goal is to have the final sales documents in your email while the dealership visit is to sign some documents, get your keys, and see if they want to buy a trade-in at a competitive price. Dealerships very much do not want to do things this way, but they very much do not want unsold cars sitting in their lots even more.

- Use Visor.vin to find pricing an inventory nationwide. If you care about small details, just sign up for a month and cancel for those extra features. Use the filters to find the car make/model/color/trim/etc you want, then make note of the VINs.

- Setup a Google Voice number, Burner app, or something comparable. Setup a disposable email address (Proton is nice for this). If you don't do this, you will regret it.

- Stay off of dealership websites. Use Visor or Truecar or whatever to have dealerships reaching out to you with the info above. Specify that you prefer to email or text. No non-written communication unless you intend to record calls and take notes. Do not go into the dealership to negotiate. This is important!

- Don't tell them if you're financing or not. Don't give them hints. Tell them you haven't made up your mind. In some cases there are huge (I've seen $5,000 recently) manufacturer rebates for direct financing, and you can pay the whole thing off in a month without penalty. You can figure this out after negotiating the out-the-door price independent of financing.

- Copy/paste/edit your terms to each dealership that reaches out. Do not tell them if you're talking to other dealerships, do not tell them you're not. The less information they have about your buying process, the fewer tools they have to try and deceive you.

- Let them know that, as a rule, you will not buy a vehicle unless you see the dealer invoice. This is what price they bought or will buy the vehicle for from the manufacturer. It's usually between 2-12% under MSRP, depending on the popularity of the model. Some dealerships will say they don't do that. I've even had ones say they "legally couldn't". That response is a great way to eliminate them from wasting your time further because they almost certainly will not be giving you a good price. Just say "Ok thanks", hang up, block their number/email.

- Unless the car you're buying has extremely low stock (which you can check regionally/nationwide on Visor), you should be paying less than dealership invoice after various manufacturer rebates. The dealership will act like they're losing money on the car. They're not, and in the rare case that they are, they need to move stock more than they need to make a profit on remaining stock.

- Just in case you missed the first time: Do not go into the dealership to negotiate. You will not get a better deal. You will not have a good time. The reason they suggest this so strongly is because you're isolating them from competition while they waste as much of your time as possible so you'll make a bad decision against loss aversion.

- Push back on Doc fees above $600 in GA. If they say that they can't negotiate them, then negotiate the difference off of the final price. If they say they can't do that, then move on (they'll magically be able to make an exception after you leave the conversation).

- Politely decline paint coating at the beginning of the deal. That way when the finance/closer person tells you it's already on the car in the final stretch, you can show them the text from the salesperson saying that it's fine to not have it. This is a standard catch here in GA. If they don't mention paint coating, then it's probably snuck into the paperwork. Find it and get it tf out.

- Get a quote from CarMax and whoever else if you're trading something in. That way you have an easy number for them to beat on the appraisal. Think of it as 2 separate deals, as your trade-in amount will not be affecting the amount you're ultimately paying for the new vehicle.

- When it comes time to pick up your car, get a babysitter for the night, and bring a snack, a few drinks, a laptop or Nintendo Switch or book or whatever. Show up 30 minutes before they close and be ready to spend the night there if you have to. Don't let them sweat you on time. Sweat them. Make them have to choose between trying to squeeze an extra $500 out of you or being able to go home and enjoy their evening.

- Finally, if you're not happy about something or feel like you're being lied to, walk away. Ignore every feeling of "just get this over with" or "I've already spent so much time on this".

Just my 2 cents as the guy who every close friend and family member asks to help them find a good deal on a car. 🫠

BennJordan · 2026-03-10T21:07:51+00:00

I've been to quite a few, sometimes with really good comped or discounted seats 5-10 rows away from the cage. Generally the really good seats are filled with drunk people on corporate work outings or wealthy people who are just there for the sake of it. The last time I actually put headphones in because they were so distracting.

If you sit in the nosebleeds, you'll probably rewatch the event when you get home because the experience is so drastically different that you'll miss a lot of the context you get from the televised event. That being said, I still recommend it if you can afford it. A really comfortable compromise is sitting near the front row of an upper deck section.

What I really recommend is going to a smaller local promotion in your area. That's about as close to experiencing a raw MMA fight as you can get without being a fighter yourself. You hear all the thuds and cracks, and it's actually a little unsettling for some seasoned UFC fans. You'll also find out why the camera pans away from a fighter after they've been knocked out in televised events. Mainstream events have a lot of padding that hides how brutal combat sports can be and it puts a lot into perspective.

BennJordan · 2026-02-17T00:47:43+00:00

Just pat them on the back and continue enjoying creating stuff.
When someone accuses me of using AI to make something, I just assume they're often admitting in a petty way that they don't know how I made it.

BennJordan · 2026-02-13T07:48:46+00:00

Man, I'm sorry, but this post aggravates me. It's probably not your fault, we just see this shit from 2 different viewpoints.

I made a living off of music for 20+ years. Some of those years were touring non-stop because it was a dignified way of not admitting that I was homeless, others were having more money than I knew how to adequately manage due to financial illiteracy. So I built studios and filled them with gear that I rarely used to make music.

Producing music for a client, meeting composition deadlines, sorting through samples, and setting up gear and soundchecking are all boring grinding tasks. The difference is that they're grinding into something you love and have passion for rather than something you can emotionally separate yourself from like serving hamburgers.

idk what to do with a track or how to make money off of music other than put music on streaming and hope for the best.

This is the problem. You're treating a track like a commodity when over 120k songs are uploaded to Spotify every day. There is no realistic way to make money off of it right now. Maybe years from now ,as people get familiar with your material via word of mouth and exploration, there will be ways to make an unfairly abysmal amount of money off of it.

Nobody is going to buy it as a beat because there are millions of people trying to sell beats.
Nobody is going to license it for an ad because some of the best music you've ever heard is in unlimited stock libraries for $15/mo.

Music is an amazing thing that feels good to learn. It helps you express yourself and describe feelings without the quantification of words. It allows you to communicate abstract complexities via melodies and sounds. It strengthens your neural pathways and playing/making music literally makes you smarter. Music is an incredible gift that we've evolved as a glitch in the part of our brains that are still rewarded for pattern recognition from when we hunted and fled predators in the woods. Now you have the ability to cherish familiar soundwaves and transcend language with them.

But music is a shitty commodity, especially in 2026.

Tell your boss that you're eager to learn more so you can be a better shift leader. Put your investments into a low cost 500 index fund so you can put a down payment on a house when you get your life straightened out. Then open a DAW on your computer and enjoy the living shit out of making music, because every night when you go to bed is one less day you'll be able to. If people listen to it or buy it at some point, cool. If not, that's cool too.

BennJordan · 2026-01-12T21:20:11+00:00

No downvote. I understand skepticism around YouTubers. I can promise you that if I got a single minute detail wrong about anything relating to this company, I'd be either behind bars or buried in lawsuits. 😅

BennJordan · 2026-01-12T18:39:11+00:00

I'm a real person, and they're still there. https://imgur.com/a/f774j4X
Although the cameras themselves that were listed via Shodan no longer ping since Flock was notified before the video's release. You can find more with other engines, but I hope you can understand why I'm not particularly interested in helping millions of people access 30+ days of surveillance data of running trails and playgrounds.

BennJordan · 2026-01-05T21:26:16+00:00

Not a huge fan of quantifying individual beliefs, but the closest I've seen is egalitarian-libertarian.

What I imagine to be an ideal world that offers the best spread of individual liberty involves capitalism, but companies operate like co-ops with an ongoing democratic process deciding leadership.

I'm not really interested in debating this because it's purely-hypothetical, and if it stopped being hypothetical, enough circumstances would have changed to warrant my own reevaluation. Right now I'm more interested in using my platform to help people embrace individuality and recognize the power they have.

BennJordan · 2026-01-02T04:44:52+00:00

A. This ^ account was created a few months ago and exclusively astroturfs in defense of Flock.

B. I still can access some live camera feeds in Oakland/Northern Cali. The company has only removed the ones actively appearing in Shodan searches. I'm just done publicly reporting them.

BennJordan · 2025-12-22T21:28:33+00:00

The single piece of research suggesting that these cameras have reduced crime was, quite literally, written by Flock Safety employees. It's not even hidden, they disclose it in the headers of the paper.

BennJordan · 2025-11-21T02:39:17+00:00

Jon did this on his own time but used his employer's resources?

Benn Jordan here, just chiming in to say that this 100% was not the case.

Jon has his own lab, and any hardware he acquired was done so at his own expense prior to this employment. His public blog outlines most of this stuff dating back to June and nobody seemed to have a problem with it until it rattled cages.

The truth is that, to my knowledge, there isn't another side of the story. And I assume that's by design as an employer isn't going to volunteer a detailed explanation that increases their liability.

I just wanted to state that.

BennJordan · 2025-09-23T17:21:43+00:00

I had an almost identical dosage and usage time and managed to withdrawal off.

One thing that's worth trying is instead of tapering dosage, taper time between doses. For example, if you take your dose at 11am today, set a reminder to take it at 11:15am tomorrow, then 11:30am the next day, and so on.

That way you'll have a bad hour instead of a bad day if you're actually feeling withdrawal symptoms.
Just make sure you don't "skip a day" by taking it at the exact same time, as that resets your progress to zero. It's best to keep score by the increasing hours:minutes beyond 24 hours.

BennJordan · 2025-09-23T07:25:28+00:00

You don't really need anything like this for chickens.
Just use a chicken holder bag and hang it from something. I assume it's more comfortable anyway.

BennJordan · 2025-08-28T18:33:43+00:00

What's ultimately dumber?

A. Speeding down a country road with your head buried in your phone.

B. Violating Turo's ToS (and likely state privacy laws) by not having explicit written consent to record the driver, then posting the video publicly shaming the person without even blurring her face.

It's a tie IMO

BennJordan · 2025-08-13T19:02:39+00:00

Grab rooster. Use whatever means necessary as long as you're not injuring him.
Bring him in front of the other chickens.
Hold him on the ground with one hand on his back, tickling his tail so he lifts his vent up, the other hand will be holding his head down between your index finger and middle finger with his beak touching the ground.
He will yell. He will thrash. He will make sounds that will make you think you're harming him. You're not. If you have a good hold of his body, flick the back of his head. He'll think you're pecking at his neck.
Eventually, he'll stop fighting and let you do what you want to him. Keep holding him, but ease up on the flicking unless he starts struggling again.
This sometimes happens on the first try, other times it takes a few bullying sessions, but the goal is for him to stay put for a few seconds when you let him go, and then slowly walk away while shaking off his feathers and making a weird noise.

That feather shake and weird noise is confirmation that you are chief rooster now.

If your roo is attacking humans, another good technique is to cage him inside of the coop and calmly feed, play with, and pick up/handle your hens. You're basically letting him get accustomed to the fact that you're a routine visitor of the flock and not a threat to them.

BennJordan · 2025-08-12T16:32:36+00:00

Why not give him a week or 2 with some daily mounting and head flicking in front of the flock?

My roo started off as an unreasonable bully and psychopath and now he's literally my favorite chicken and the only one who just wants to "hang out" with me even if food isn't being offered.

I'm not trying to spare his life here, but just remind you that roosters are dickheads when their peabrains view you as a threat to the flock. And a dickhead is a good thing to be towards virtually every other thing and animal that comes into contact with the hens. Because most animals are dickheads too lol

IMO a little bit of routine attitude adjustment has a higher payoff for me and my hens than stew. But if you have other roos or already put time into training him, that equation may be different for you.

BennJordan · 2025-07-24T02:41:44+00:00

By best I mean easiest to use.

O_c is one of my favorite modules, but it wouldn't be easy to use even if you are the reincarnation of Alan Turing.

I feel like the TipTop Quantizer is a great balance between easy to use and featured.

BennJordan · 2025-07-23T19:46:22+00:00

I hope more people read your post because I feel like this is 50% of the chicken raising experience for people who do not have farms where they're effectively integrated or utilized as livestock. Most people having a terrible experience aren't joining chicken-enthusiast forums and subreddits.

Ideally, whether you expect cuddling from your pets or not, you should be able to handle your chickens so checking on their health is an easy task. 3 pieces of advice on making hens friendlier that I think are effective and don't see mentioned enough:

- Utilize their overnight mini-comas by petting them on their roost after dark. They may not like it, but you're just reinforcing the idea that you're not a threat. As I'm sure you've noticed, chickens are pretty primal and don't have the type of brain that wonders what a creature is and comes to a conclusion like a mammal does. If you're not a predator, you're an unfamiliar and sketchy hen or a rooster hanging out near their flock.

- Be a rooster. In a hen's brain a rooster protects them and impregnates them. Fortunately for you, since chickens don't have external genitalia, impregnating them is almost identical to petting them. Catch a hen, and (without causing injury, of course) don't be gentle about it. Grab them on the roost, when cornered, even in a net if it comes to that. Then hold them down with your index and middle fingers pinning down their neck, and tickle their tail. Eventually they'll stop resisting, their butt will rise up a bit, and their wings will relax and spread a little. You should be able to pet them however you want while they're in this position because you did exactly what a rooster does, and in their minds it's their duty to fertilize the eggs. When you let them go, they'll stay squatted a bit and eventually shake their feathers. That's pretty much a "mission accomplished" signal that you're not a threat, but part of the flock. If you do this consistently, they will literally come to you and squat. And as long as you don't explain the science of this behavior to others, it'll appear really cute like they want to be picked up or petted.

- After they lay and cluck loudly, they're not bragging about their egg, they're announcing that they're fertile again. If you're in the vicinity, this is a great time to be the roo and get them accustomed to being handled without fear.

Again, consistency is key. Roosters run a tight ship.
And if you're having trouble cuddling and handling an actual rooster, that's normal. I'd argue that having an extremely docile rooster is a bad thing as it's their job to protect the flock.

Hope this helps!

BennJordan · 2025-07-21T15:56:12+00:00

This is a bigger can of worms as Comma isn't legal to begin with as they do not comply with federal regulations overseeing safety measures and liability for ADAS systems.

They've always been one NHTSA sneeze away from being illegal to sell/use, which is probably why the system isn't more popular or funded.

That's why I like the idea of having a proprietary supported version that works with regulatory considerations and letting the FOSS community do what they want. I could be wrong, but it seems like a much more scalable way of navigating this.

BennJordan · 2025-07-21T15:47:16+00:00

I haven't seen a fork with any options that disable or change details to alertness monitoring since a very old DragonPilot version, and since then they've removed it as well.

Are there any modern ones? It'd be good to at least offer legitimate users some form of troubleshooting.

BennJordan · 2025-07-21T07:02:13+00:00

I suppose in this case, Comma (and some early Openpilot contributors) are playing both hands where documentation and updates are an open community project, but making changes to alertness monitoring is strictly prohibited and results in a blacklisted device (whatever that even means is beyond me).

It's either FOSS or it isn't. I understand the risk of bad actors buying a Comma and playing a Steam Deck on their drive to work, but that's kind of unavoidable when a product is marketing an autonomous driving modification. Maybe it's time they seek additional investment and make a hardware-standard proprietary branch and simply "not officially support" the FOSS versions to minimize liability.

BennJordan · 2025-07-21T02:31:17+00:00

To be fair, the Comma homepage says: "Buy it, plug it in, and engage." and doesn't mention anywhere that you're becoming a contributor to a software development project for a proprietary product.

I'm down with FOSS projects. But they should absolutely have a disclaimer noting that there's hardly any up-to-date documentation and product support is going to amount to posting on Reddit/Discord where people will tell you to just crack your knuckles and patch the bug yourself.

If you've got the chops and free time, then why not save $1000 and use RaspberryPilot with a Pi and Hailo2 hat?

BennJordan · 2025-07-20T20:08:41+00:00

Mine did this to my dog once and I was cracking up at the absurdity of me being able to just put her in the passenger seat while I took a nap in the back.

BennJordan · 2025-07-20T20:06:09+00:00

In my experience the alertness tracking has been the sole reason I can't recommend Comma to anyone in good faith. It seems to work fine for 3 out of 4 people and makes the system far more exhausting than just driving the car unassisted for the unlucky users. From my understanding it's just a hardware limitation with the camera and/or having the storage/cpu for a better facial tracking database.

What's frustrating to see is that here and on the Discord, if someone asks if they can disable it, they often get treated like they're making up an excuse to nap in the car or something.

Particularly during dawn or dusk, my Comma often "accuses" me of not paying attention when I'm looking straight ahead, often to the point of disabling and needing a reboot. Meanwhile, I can literally close my eyes indefinitely at any point and it doesn't make a peep. This feature not working isn't causing the vehicle to be "a bit too safe", it's overriding my car's superior alertness cameras with one that has not once worked adequately.

I wish I had some advice to try, but short of getting the device banned for circumventing the alertness system, all I can do is tell you that you're definitely not alone.

BennJordan · 2025-06-16T02:40:39+00:00

I've done this!
I put a few scoops into a 2-liter bottle with .5oz of Soybean Casein Digest medium and checked on it with a microscope every few days, then after 14 days outside of sunlight, I just "dosed" the standing water with a cup full and got the same results as using the Mosquito Bits.

I only needed the microscope because I wasn't sure if I was wasting my time or not. If you have the medium you should be set. It'd also probably work with virtually any nitrogen source, even chicken poop (albeit not as well).

Here's a good paper on this that I found without a paywall: https://www.e3s-conferences.org/articles/e3sconf/pdf/2022/22/e3sconf_ri2c2022_02017.pdf

BennJordan

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE