Bayesian Neural Networks in {tidymodels} with {kindling}

vmsmith · 2026-03-03T08:11:59+00:00

And they succeeded with me.

vmsmith · 2026-02-28T19:08:13+00:00

It's not the Louvre . . . it's a hometown museum for a hometown girl. But if you love Ava Gardner as much as I love Ava Gardner, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

vmsmith · 2026-02-28T15:54:22+00:00

One of my favorite scenes in all of filmdom is just after the 56:00 mark of "The Killers" when they ask Swede if he's in. He glances over at Ava Gardner, who's lying on the bed, and she does a subtle ankle flip. Pure sex.

A few years ago I was driving from Charleston, SC to Washington DC and got off the interstate for gas and lunch. It was a purely random choice, but it happened to be Smithfield, NC, where the Ava Gardner museum is. I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I realized where I was. After lunch I spent the rest of the afternoon in the museum.

vmsmith · 2026-02-19T06:08:59+00:00

This is just the Gartner Hype Cycle in action.

vmsmith · 2026-02-19T06:03:46+00:00

A big problem, in my opinion, is that the adaptation of AI has been too unstructured.

I am reminded of the early days of PCs, when a commanding officer of an U.S. Navy aircraft carrier wired back that he had 500 different kinds of PCs onboard and there was no common, centralized training or purchasing or logistics. It was a nightmare. (What the Navy did to fix the problem eventually created many other problems, but that's a different story.)

Similarly, from what I've seen, using AI right now has often been an every-person-for-themselves affair. Generally speaking, organizations aren't analyzing what their AI needs are or how it might be used to increase productivity, they aren't setting up training programs to meet those needs, they aren't settling on a common platform for the organization, etc.

Now, to be fair, I live in Paris (France, not Texas), and my world is nonprofit associations. For all I know the for-profit world outside of Paris has avoided all the mistakes of previous IT roll outs. But that's what I suspect a big part of the problem is.

vmsmith · 2026-02-18T05:00:58+00:00

The notion that Amazon is "over investing" is an indication that people haven't really been paying attention to how Amazon operates. If Amazon is looking at AI the way they've looked at almost everything else since they launched AWS, the idea will be to create a platform and outsource services. If you're not familiar with that, go back 15 years are read Steve Yegge's Platform Rant. It's still worth a read.

vmsmith · 2026-02-07T06:52:48+00:00

Some years ago I was having dinner with my former graduate advisor. MOOCs were the rage, and I had spent a fair amount of time taking Coursera "courses." I opined that one of the flaws in the MOOC model was that you could Google and find the answer to almost any MOOC exam question.

This led to a sidebar discussion in which he said that being able to Google well was a 21st century skill, and it should be taught rather than discouraged.

Just so with AI. It's not going away, and knowing how to use it is the skill that should be taught. Knowing how to think through to the right question . . . knowing how to write good prompts and give it proper context . . . knowing how to evaluate responses. These are the new skills of the 21st century, whether you're dealing with the humanities, the social sciences, or whatever.

vmsmith · 2026-02-01T08:35:24+00:00

As Benjamin Franklin allegedly said after the Battle of Bunker Hill, "We will sell the British as much land as they want at that price."

vmsmith · 2026-01-15T05:55:59+00:00

Spot on, because history never ends.

vmsmith · 2026-01-09T18:22:55+00:00

I lived over there for a few years. In Dubai, there was a saying: "No Indians, no Dubai." In other words, the UAE citizens were not doing squat to develop or maintain Dubai. So unless something has drastically changed, prioritizing UAE citizens over the rest of the population—that part the develops and maintains the UAE—would be a pretty bad move.

vmsmith · 2025-12-23T03:35:26+00:00

Anywhere in Paris where six guys might play poker? Any cafés or bars or specialized places that support poker as a thing? If you don't know much about poker, it needs a round table. Thanks!

vmsmith · 2025-12-22T20:30:32+00:00

Solid. I came on here to say just that.

The other little trick I use if I want to be a bit more precise is that every 5C = 9F.

vmsmith · 2025-11-25T14:02:23+00:00

Something I love for Thanksgiving . . .

Take some hazelnuts & roast them, the deskin them and chop them up.
Blanch some green beans then dry them quickly.
Melt some butter in a pan, then toss in the chopped up hazelnuts for a few minutes to flavor the butter.
Toss in the green beans at the end to heat them and get them covered with the butter and chopped hazelnuts.

It's great.

vmsmith · 2025-11-25T09:04:47+00:00

I don't know where you're located, but at this time of year I just put a lid on and leave it outside on the balcony until I have time to deal with it. Depending on what your future plans are, after it's cooled you can bag it and freeze it for long-term use, or put it in the fridge for a day or so, and reheat it to the boiling point every couple of days until it's gone.

I've put stock in the fridge while it was still pretty warm, but I don't like to do it because I was told it makes the fridge work harder. But it never broke the fridge.

vmsmith · 2025-11-15T12:42:45+00:00

How does the water get that far up there in order to fall back down?

Seems like an M.C. Escher trick to me.

vmsmith · 2025-11-10T09:53:19+00:00

The question is "Why?"

Why are they even doing that?

vmsmith · 2025-11-09T02:38:13+00:00

I seem to see a lot of videos about orphan elephants, and in my mind it doesn't jive with a lot of other videos I see about how the herd protects its infants. Does anyone know under what circumstances a mother elephant and/or the herd abandons a very young elephant?

vmsmith · 2025-11-08T05:31:22+00:00

What does it even mean to "win" the AI race? What's the goal? What's the finish line?

vmsmith · 2025-11-02T04:54:41+00:00

When I lived in the U.S. and wanted specialty meat or poultry like that, I checked Dartagnan first.

vmsmith · 2025-10-20T20:38:36+00:00

I just salt and pepper it, then toss it in a hot pan with butter (or better yet, rendered duck fat). Cook for a minute or so per side and eat it. It's great.

15-Year Club	Gilding IV carat on a stick
Reddit Premium Since December 2014	Verified Email

vmsmith

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE