Author: Matthew Exon

Technology

Software

This is my LLM post. The software industry has been sick for a very long time. I don’t believe LLMs are capable of writing genuinely useful software. But apparently neither can the software industry. Rather than talk about how technology will look after the bubble bursts, I would prefer to consider whether software itself is the real bubble.

Politics

Pretend

Is someone who tortures an LLM for entertainment in the same moral category as someone who tortures an animal for entertainment? The answer may surprise you! It is “no”. Oh look, that did not surprise you.

Politics

Workflow

I’ve found myself frustrated by online discussions in which a great proposal is ruined when someone points out how it would hurt the already-disadvantaged. It seems inescapable that some legitimate objections have to be ignored. This hurts. I try to rationalise my way through that conflict.

Technology

VPN

I have finally got WireGuard working as a VPN. WireGuard®, I have heard, is extremely simple. This was not at all my experience. Here I would like to record everything that went wrong, and rant about what this means for software and computer security generally.

Economics, Society

Germany

What is the future of German engineering in a world moving away from internal combustion engines? I can’t answer that. But I do argue that the changing industrial landscape is no reason to wind back labour protections, or any of the other achievements of German democracy.

Economics

Competition

Progressive politics hates globalisation. Competition is just a race to the bottom. But if democracy is incompatible with internationalism, what hope do we have for democracy? Here is my attempt to demonstrate that there is no contradiction there. The game is a myth.

Technology

Backups

All Linux backup software is terrible. There is also a great deal of terrible advice on the Internet. Here I exhaustively report what backup software should achieve, what features it needs, and exactly how every piece of Linux software I know fails to satisfy those points.

Society, Technology

Identity

I’m opposed to social media bans for under-16s. But I’m finding it hard to express why, in a debate filled with toxic opinions. Instead, I want to describe the kind of practical solutions to social media harms I’d like to see.

Economics, Technology

Inflation

Two questions about how LLMs affect macroeconomics, in particular inflation. I think we’d all like to know what happens next. I’ve read quite a lot of commentary from economists, but not to the point that I have answers.

Technology

New Phone

My initial thoughts after using the FLX1s Linux phone from FuriLabs for a couple of days. The conclusion so far is that this needs work before it can replace my iPhone, mostly from my side. It’s disappointing on a few dimensions, but so far I haven’t seen anything that can’t be fixed or worked around.