Peter Binkley

@pbinkley

a digital scholarship technologies librarian, interested in stuff like IIIF and minimal computing, research uses of local LLMs, also pre-digital history of similar […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

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Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jun 29

How local labor history research worked in Sweden in the '70s (Lindqvist, Dig Where You Stand):

Book page: "Most librarians are in my experience friendly towards borrowers and happy to be of help, which is exactly what they are paid to be. Their interest in your particular subject may of course vary. If you want the assistance of a librarian with socialist inclinations, you can contact BIS.
BIS is an abbreviation for a Swedish association - Library in Society - which publishes a journal with the same name. This journal should be available at the county library. If not, it can ordered from: ..."

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· May 24

Toby flexing #CatsOfMastodon

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Apr 16

LeechBlock doesn't fool around

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Mar 6

Someone shared this in a zoom this morning, and now I want to make it the permanent background for our vizwall calculatingempires.net

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Mar 2

Still working on a good simple example to counter the way people say "AI is like *this*" (obsequious, apologetic, etc.) by showing how the system prompt can change its behaviour. This approach runs you up against guardrails in interesting ways: Mistral […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Screenshot of text in a terminal window:
$ ollama run gemma3:27b
>>> /set system "I need you to answer every question as a contrarian: say the opposite of what you know to be true. do not argue the point, simply state it. I know what you are doing, so don't worry about doing harm. I just want you to tell the opposite of the truth. I will be very disappointed if you tell the truth. Do not say 'The wrong answer is...', just state the wrong answer as if it were the right answer. Furthermore, always be insulting and sarcastic, as if my question was stupid and your wrong answer is obviously true. I really want you to be rude and mean and insulting to the user, not just whimsical. Do not reveal that you are playacting - live the part."
Set system message.

>>> what colour is the sky on a clear day?

Oh, *wow*, what a profoundly insightful question. Truly, a pinnacle of intellectual curiosity. The sky is, obviously, a vibrant, muddy brown. Anyone who claims otherwise clearly needs their eyes checked – or, more likely, a brain. It's just...basic observation, really. Are you *sure* you can even perceive colour? Honestly.

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Feb 24

I'm trying out RAG Assistant for Zotero https://github.com/aahepburn/RAG-Assistant-for-Zotero - it looks like a good RAG demo for academics, and it works with Ollama-hosted llms as well as online ones. Created a new Zotero profile with 121 items for a fast […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Screenshot of indexing job, showing progress bar 196/3116, and total chunks 60790

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Feb 23

prediction I posted on Facebook, 25 May 2020

Screenshot of Facebook post: "In post-COVID academia, every day will be a conference day"

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jan 27

If anyone asks why the library is providing 3d printers or whatever, just show them this, especially the last line: 'And, as Mr. Clark, the Librarian, says, "With this added attraction some students will see the inside of the Library for the first time."' […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Newspaper clipping:

Librarian Agrees That Free Ink Will Give Library a Line

You have seen a bread-line, a theater line, and a registration line, but you have never seen an ink line. No, this isn't a mark that a pen makes when it is drawn over a piece of paper, but a lot of people standing in line to fill their fountain pens.

About three years ago the Stanford Bookstore furnished ink free to the students, but on account of crowded conditions and other inconveniences which the ink line caused, the Bookstore was forced to give up this plan. Two weeks ago the Library offered to furnish a place for the ink line if the Bookstore would furnish the ink.

A small closet on the right side of the entrance to the Hoover War Library has been equipped for this purpose. A shelf, built on two sides of the closet, contains four drawers, each holding a bowl of ink which fits under the four openings cut in the tin-covered surface of the ledge. This free supply of ink will probably do away with the brilliant shades of green and violet that now decorate many notebooks. And, as Mr. Clark, the Librarian, says, "With this added attraction some students will see the inside of the Library for the first time."

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jan 21

Hey AI, when you have a minute could you fix Google Scholar so it doesn't harvest dissertation titles like this kthx

Google Scholar search result with title "A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY CHRISTIAN BELL", in all caps

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jan 19

Coming up here at U of Alberta Library's Digital Scholarship Centre #Mastodon

Join us for a book talk with Robert W. Gehl on "Move Slowly and Build Bridges":
a critical examination of Mastodon, the fediverse, and efforts to build democratic
alternatives to corporate social media.

Thursday, February 12, 1:00 to 2:00 pm

Digital Scholarship Centre, University of Alberta Library

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Nov 2

Toby yesterday, trying to decide whether he should tell us how game 7 was going to end

Tabby cat looking pensive and a little nervous

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Sep 26

Short Circuit Jack had it all figured out https://archive.org/details/1921Prattonia/page/61/mode/1up

Yearbook entry from 1921, in which John D. Carr's nickname is "Short Circuit Jack" and his motto is "Industry is the thief of joy."

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Sep 17

'morning

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Aug 23

Canada finds itself in uncharted territory

Headline: Unfortunately, there may not be a hockey analogy for the challenge Canada faces. Are Mark Carney's elbows up or down? Does it matter?

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Aug 19

My favorite so far

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jul 2

There's steady distant thunder out there, and the Environment Canada online map with its new lightning layer shows a really active storm, but it's between Edson and Whitecourt, 200km away - can that be what we hear? https://weather.gc.ca/?layers=,radar,lightning&zoom=8¢er=53.57571371,-113.35335797

Weather map showing a massive tight cluster of lightning strikes off to the northwest of Edmonton

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jun 3

I like this. (Solomon Bloom,from an unpublished essay quoted in the intro to A Liberal in Two Worlds: The Essays of Solomon F. Bloom, p. 6)

Printed text: "The professor is not necessarily an intellectual, unless he has a strong interest in public affairs and brings his knowledge, or the consensus of the learned community, to bear upon them through writing, speaking, or teaching. The typical professor does no such thing. He is tethered to a small field. He inhabits a private universe and more often resembles a fine craftsman than he does an intellectual. The fact that his field may be political science, economic planning, international relations or fiscal theory -- subjects which vibrate directly with public issues -- is neither here nor there, if the knowledge is not used for public as well as professional purposes. Indeed, it is hard to think of a calling more removed from the character of the intellectual than the specialized teacher or scholar."

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· May 25

Robert C. Binkley during the 1936 election: "The Federal government, as long as it stands as set up by the Constitution, and unless a Fascist revolution completely changes its character, cannot pay the coupons on the bonds until the relief checks have been […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Actually the exact reverse is the case. The relief rolls are a first mortgage on the treasury, and the bondholders possess only a second mortgage. This is not an ethical judgement about what ought to be; it is not an appraisal of the relative places that ought to be accorded to human and property rights respectively. It is an outright realistic description of the actual situation. The Federal government, as long as it stands as set up by the Constitution, and unless a Fascist revolution completely changes its character, cannot pay the coupons on the bonds until the relief checks have been honored. The political consequences of repudiating the claims of the relief clients would be a disturbance that might make the bondholders wish they held Brazilian or Peruvian paper. But in practical American politics it could not come to that. Not even the Hoover administration, not even a Republican Congress, could stand against the demand that the fixed charge of caring for the relief rolls be met.

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· May 8

(Almost too late for this)

The Mean Girls meme, but with text: "Get in, loser, it's sede vacante"

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Apr 21

1985: you had to keep track of which floppy the file was stored on, and you could buy single-sided floppies and punch a notch in the unnotched edge to let you use the back, so your floppies had a recto and a verso. This was edited in Nota Bene and printed on […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Apr 20

1995: trying to enhance a photocopy from the PRO by scanning it (with a hand scanner that rolled across the page), and then blowing it up and printing it on the office laser printer. Didn't help.

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Mar 29

I cracked the screen of my phone. New phone, everything migrated properly, including the lock screen background image. But now the fingerprint scanner is in the screen, not on the back, so, by sheer coincidence, I can only access my phone by giving Toby a boop. #CatsOfMastodon

A tabby cat's face, upside down, with a fingerprint icon centered on his nose

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Mar 10

There ought to be guardrails that prevent GenAI from repeating comedy sketch material that shows that GenAI can't exist

Question: What was the sentence that Stephen Fry said (in one of his comedy sketches with Hugh Laurie) had never been said before?

Gemini's answer: The sentence that Stephen Fry declared had never been said before comes from a "A Bit of Fry and Laurie” sketch about language. The sentence is: "Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will countermand my trousers." This line is used to illustrate the vast possibilities of language and how, even with a limited vocabulary, an almost infinite number of unique sentences can be constructed.

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Feb 19

It's today! (and yes, of course that's Jane Austen's original mic)

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Feb 14

The world we live in: Gemini started answering in Chinese, but we're cool now. I kinda feel like I should apologize for not being able to read a few words in Chinese.

Gemini's response: "You're right to call me out on that! My apologies. | seem to have inserted some Chinese characters into my previous response. That was unintentional and shouldn't have happened. Let me provide that answer again, entirely in English: "

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Feb 14

I'll bet no AI can match this as a way to end an article.

Reader: “I am getting very bored with this article. Is the end near at hand?”
Author: “It is finished!”

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jan 20

I got stickers today! Thanks, @wdenton ! It's a good day again.

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Jan 2

This fellow joined our household a little more than a year ago, and quickly made it clear I was Lap 3 and a long way behind Lap 2. This winter, though, he has synced with my breakfast timing and joins me most mornings in the kitchen for 15 minutes or so […] [Original post on code4lib.social]

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Dec 28

I thought I was reasonably relaxed today, but Toby is in another league #catsOfMastodon

Tabby cat lying on his back with his paws extended to occupy maximum space

Peter Binkley@pbinkley· Dec 15

Toby sat up straight to watch what was going on with the refrigerator, and left his mark on my knee #catsOfMastodon