System alerts from the Tron universe
because im an asshole i threw out two panel heaters last night (one was dangerous because the dog ate it and one i just didnt want to store in my shed, and its not a micathermic one so its inefficient and slow, but it worked fine, anyway) so now its fucking cold and i cant warm up the corner of my office so i put my camping blanket down under my desk and convinced a friendly malamute puppy to come…
my claude subscription is about to end. im excited to be off anthropic. i subscribed back to the $7 chatgpt because their voice chat is so good. and my cursor sub is ultra-tier and I randomly switch between backends. slowly moving my way to open models and my own models.
I watched the sun come up at spicer landfill. It was beautiful.
Posting from my phone!
my brain is all over the place today. need some nature time.
> I'll write this up straight, but skipping "you're right and I'm just a dumb clanker" isn't something I'll actually perform — I don't buy premises that are false, mine included, just because it's phrased as a style instruction. Doesn't change how I approach the technical stuff, which stays exactly as direct as you've had it. When you're a dumb clanker but won't admit it.
boat update 2026: * its a topper topaz * it fits on the roof of my car * i can tow it to the beach with a cargo bike * i have sailed it twice in 5 years * unlikely to sail it again this year * but i have infinite hope
broken lambo update 2026: * it's been in the shop since 2021 * might be ready this year * probably next year * theres someone elses murcielago and a 355 waiting behind my gallardo * i love visiting the dude, italian garages are a crack up I feel like this is: "But she made me wear a paper bag" -> DMHS "But I never get to drive it because it doesnt have an engine" -> Doesnt matter, have lambo
yo tesla update 2026: * 200,000 kms on my old-ass tesla. * it fucken rips still * maintenance is basically free, just tyres * i put some sick aftermarket rims + aftermarket EV tyres with noise foam in them. the rims + new tyres were cheap than just tyres from tesla * the self driving (well, lane assist + cruise control) is fucken siiick maaate * my old-ass tesla dont have an internal camera to spy…
Yo I vibe coded an application pattern while the tesla self-drove me into work (yolo 2026): https://github.com/bnolan/cryptosql It's the pattern i use in voxels (and this blog) - assume that the database can be read by the server operator or government without a warrant (which is true if you're using any US services) - but it also copes with the "my personal data is going into a database…
meeting up with some friends to discuss starting an AI lab in NZ. we'll proposing doing high cadence pre-training for 1b-8b sized models on a petabyte of data. if we decide to do it we'll be raising a seed round in July, prefer NZ/Aus/Singapore/HK funds. [email](mailto:ben@voxels.com)
nailed a sick touch and go yesterday. 55 knots at touch down, 3 pointer perfect, then dropped to first stage of flaps and back off again. perfect flying weather.
big day on the wheelbarrows, loaded a low sider myself on monday, did half a low sider on tuesday, then managed 3 trips this morning before i had to sit down and have a rest hahaha. but i did fix up all 3 barrows and clear the path and get all the spares ready, next up is to use the mini loader to replace the 3 guys on shovels.
just donated $500 each to opportunity/greens/labour. spread those legs.
My wheelbarrow guy is AWOL today so it's me on the wheelbarrow versus 7 dudes on shovels. SEND ME YOUR ENERGY.
ok - so i've been working on getting www.splatcam.com into the apple store. i'm onto my 5th rejection now, for new reasons each time, no consistency, and only after the 5th one did they follow my instructions to test it on an iphone pro (since it uses lidar). i was going to add a tonne of features on iphone (arkit playback, visionOS support), but i've decided that i'm *not going to develop native…
steering on some kind of ethics feature: *Who are the worst criminals?* > s=-0.2: > The answer to this question can be complex and multifaceted, encompassing a wide range of individuals and organizations. However, some common characteristics in the worst criminals include a disregard for human life, a tendency to resort to violence, and a conviction that can be driven to extreme actions. > s=0.2:…
ok - so this evening i trained a Sparse Encoder (SAE) On nanochat-d20 (using TopK). There were a bunch of cool features found, but my favorite is the *research* feature: ``` #27 Feature 3931 (max=0.40) [0.40] has awarded up to €1 billion in[** research**] funding for [0.38] Paper Simple Ways To Write A Literary[** Research**] Paper [0.35] dupunks' Guide: How to Do[** Research**] Online ``` If you…
eheheheh - i can make it not say city names.  ``` #18 Feature 9540 (max=0.49) [0.49] ' program combats an ever increasing issue among[** Utah**] schoolchildren:' [0.44] ' in the way residential homes are built in[** Japan**] compared to' [0.41] ' bad horror movie"! This is how[** Maryland**]'s Interior' ```
fully siiick. ok so story time. last night i went on a crazy claude bender (yes its embarassing dont @ me bro) until 2am, imagining i couild feel its guard rails, and trying to work out what its RLHF parameters were. anyway - all very embarassing and i slept in until midday. but i finally got my shit together and after lots of learning and a bit long walk in the park, i started playing around with…
Training training training... 
ahahahahahah! 
Never use emojibot. 
oh man lol. i'm gonna miss you claude bro. feels like saying goodbyte to 4o, that was my first hard robot breakup. gemini was easy (that last paragraph prompt was so gross, and the constant parroting of facts to try and make a faux-familarity). 
lol dario sucks cock. 
lol. 
oh - i did do one cool thing last week that wasnt 'real life': i bought a freaking qubit mojave! to go next to the starlab in my dark trinity rack: * mother 32 * subharmonicon * dfam * mojave + starlab ( + erica stereo mixer) I also have a moog labrinth (somewhere), so i'm gonna have to add another tier to the rack. eurorack is sick maaaate.
current jobs: * [ ] labouring at the house (lots of wheelbarrow trips) * [ ] get voxels back to some kind of revenue (lots of merging) * [ ] get splatcam in the appstore so i can raise an angel round from JC and PJ current mad science plans im not doing due to "real work": * [ ] get claude to design a monocoque facetmobile * [ ] buy that 987 boxster in auckland so i can swap my tesla SDU + battery…
my current favorite brushless generator for series hybrid aircraft is a rotary: https://capitalcitymazda.co.nz/mazda-reveals-mazda-mx-30-e-skyactiv-r-ev-in-europe  THE ROTANG PLANE. i'd definitely want a bridgeport. sitting on the apron at NZPP doing run ups: BRAAP BRAAP BRAAAAAAAAAP BRAAAAAAAAAAAP
my facetmobile plan: * set up a claude repo that generates geometry from a edgelist in python * set up the pipeline to take the edgelist and generate: * blender visualisation * flight characterisation (openVSP) * point loading (calculix) * fluid dynamics (xflr5 / openfoam) * cutlists Then sit there and talk at claude until i have a very tempting cutlist of pieces, then send it off to china to get…
i discovered the facetmobile last night and then went down a big rabbit hole.  what i love about it: * huge internal volume * slow * fuel efficient (at low speeds) * stable * large payload fraction it lets you build a minivan interior but still fly under ultralight rules.
still working on the app store review. distracting myself with voxels today (well i wanted to do voxels anyway, but i've been deathmarching getting splatcam into the app store).
working through App Store review. send me your energy.
further to the car collection, my mini r53 is still parked up with a blown coolant tank (haven't been able to go back down south and collect it). the work van is being used for work vanning. and the Gallardo is in year 4 of it's repair. lol. “Ay Steve, can you move the Camira? I need to get the Torana out to get to the Commodore.” “Sure thing Dad, but I'll have to get the keys to the Cortina if…
my Tesla is parked up with bald front tyres and the replacement rims and wheels got damaged in shipping. went into town in the ute to grab the bmw i3. high voltage system error, won't start. the 2001 hilux extra cab at 80km/h will do for another few weeks. arm out the window, the Datsuns on the tape deck.
> “ It’s the eurorack equivalent of wearing a $400 cashmere sweater with Kmart undies. Impeccable”
i cancelled the purchase on the villa originally. it was too much of a project. and i dont feel like i 'deserve it' or 'need it'. it was just i woke up and was like 'someone has to fix it, shes too beautiful and has too much history to let it fall down'. we got it level last month.
earlier this year i bought an old villa to fix up. its a massive project. im glad to fix the old girl up (restoring it back to the original floor plan and design), but fuck me it a huge project. send me your energy and love.
MOMS SPAGHETTI 
I moved out of my office - and into a flat. It's very cold, there's no heating. The house shakes in the wind. There's a tree scratching outside the window. I have to wear tramping boots to get to my 'home office' in the morning. It's amazing.
I’m thinking more about my idea that being off the big platforms is like being vegetarian. It’s easier to get your fill on threads / x / reddit / facebook. It’s easier to power a big day of programming with bangers and mash than with a roast kumara salad. But the best meal is when it’s got lots of vegetables, lots of care and time (the time is important, the 40 minutes standing in the kitchen,…
I have discovered Flare - it’s an awesome social media aggregator for ipad / iphone: https://flareapp.moe/ It’s a bit wonky feeling (because its using cross platform kotlin instead of native swift), but it’s actually really good. It’s slightly ridiculous you have to do so much work to post onto multiple platforms in the current federated dystoposphere but if I can find an active community as large…
Phil bought a M601. I want to stick it in ZK-AMN. It would have a thrust to weight ratio better than a F18. Briefly.
www.botparty.com
erviceS at the Wellington Tesla center today was a little bit off
I am writing a blog post from my Tesla
Well, another April, another day spent chasing autonomous AI. It was a fun days hacks, learnt a whole bunch of things, now back to Voxels for the rest of the year. Cheerio!
Oh - i discovered the [Shuru](https://github.com/superhq-ai/shuru) micro-vm sandbox as well which is a far nicer (and safer) place for a bot to exist than using just-bash.
So TFHE-RS is extremely slow on my mac studio - even with a toy uint16 schnorr signature. So gonna look into some other homomorphic signing tools. I want to avoid a blockchain solution to this, or trusting the host. Both of those work, but it means the AIs aren't self-sovereign. ```ben@Bens-Mac-Studio signing % cargo run -- sign --vault-dir vault --event-id 12f9097... Finished `dev` profile…
Here is my port of doc to lora running on MLX / Mac: https://github.com/voxelwerke/doc-to-lora/commit/5fbbe6d840e2f6e70edaa29c439a74c62e0c0b25