software calligraphy

or What objecting to LLM agents teaches you about you (sometimes)

There was a small positional game that I’ve wanted to implement for some years, long before the LLMs and their agents became a thing. I did not have the time. By now we know that using an LLM shrinks this time demand. So I went this way to implement the game. Sure enough, it was done within the day. But was it the result I longed for?

I was not happy. Because through this endeavour I found out that I wanted to solve the game myself. I wanted to understand the algorithm and think through whether I figured out the best solution, or written the best idiomatic code I could. I wanted the journey. I wanted to do software calligraphy; I did not want to build a product. I felt sad. All the thought that would have brought me joy was outsourced to the machine.

Now had I wanted to make the game something worthy of Steam or any other Store, would I feel sad by the same speed of delivery? Most likely not. Because my mindset would have been one for product building, not calligraphy or recreation. And this is part of what gives certain people discomfort when using new tooling: the deep need to do calligraphy when you’re asked to make a product that does not need it anymore. Prior the wider LLM acceptance you could do calligraphy at work. And you could earn bragging rights from it. This is not the same world anymore.

There is still room for both, but with LLMs the border becomes harder to ignore.

[ This is the summary of a phone conversation I had with a friend when we were discussing the subject of using agents at work; including people who accept whatever they produce without any judgement. ]

Open Weight models and soft power

I see Open-weight AI models as a form of digital soft power. When an entity releases their models for free public use, they aren’t doing this operating under an altruistic motive; they’re aiming at shaping global perception: users get to run the latest (or the best for their hardware) model for free, but in return, they accept all the biases embedded in the model. For sure one could argue that the same holds true for search engines and even encyclopaedias, but encyclopaedias don’t hallucinate, the search results usually will point you to many competing analyses on what you’re looking for (otherwise SEO would not have been a thing) and users tend to accept answers easier due to the anthropomorphization.

This makes the open weight models a new strategic battlefied in the soft power arena. You do not have to run any long play PSYOP or even a tourist advertising campaign. You can have the free model say the thing and concentrate your efforts into making the users run the thing on their machine. Running it locally feels more “free” both in cost and dependency.

I foresee a near future with shareware models. The same companies giving us open weight models for free, are going to give us the new ones for a fee (training costs real money) and you will either subscribe to this service to get the latest model, or use the free one that will be two versions older. Which for most cases is going to be okish for the end user. Special purpose models, for writing code for example, will have the single user and the enterprize version, with maybe the enterprize version being fluent in more languages, or being aware of more libraries for your agents to work in an enterprise environment, as opposed to the indie game that you’re trying to push out.

We’ve seen the pattern: open-access allowing for an ecosystem to arise (see Kubernetes as the latest example), proprietary extensions capturing value. But with GenAI models, the issue is greater: The biases aren’t just in code; they’re in how the model serves truth, morality, and reality. Leading you to accept the producer’s perception one token at a time.

adventures with meshcore-cli

I have a good friend who is into meshcore. Seeking to expand the network he participates in, he asked me if I could host a repeater on the rooftop, to which I agreed.

He also gave me a little companion to connect so that I could also test and participate if I liked. The companion (a Heltec v3) was configured to use Bluetooth, but weirdly enough it was not searchable by my Apple devices and my Kubuntu device could pair with it, but could not actually use it. So I flashed it as a USB companion instead. Which now bore the question: How do I use the thing?

With a little help from Perplexity, since I knew nothing about Meshcore until this time, and it was not in my interests horizon, here’s how you can use a meshcore USB companion from the command line:

  • You install the Python meshcore and meshcore-cli packages, preferrably in their own dedicated Python environment. You now have a meshcore command at your disposal
  • You plug in the companion. Locate where it is available (dmesg maybe?). Mine was recognized as /dev/ttyUSB0. You can now connect to it with meshcore /dev/ttyUSB0
  • You are greeted with a prompt and you can now start searching for repeaters to connect to. Before you do that, you need to set the time on the companion (it does not read your computer’s clock). So take the output from date +%s and at the companion prompt type time 1780814625 (actually the epoch you get).
  • Now you can set the name (set name my_companion) of your companion and send a flood advertisment (floodadv) to be discovered.

My friend also proivided me with a meshcore:// URL and a password to be able to connect and manage the repeater. So I used import_contact meshcore://... and then used list to check whether the contact was imported. Sure enough it was there. Using login contact_name password I was able to send commands to the repeater. The most important one in our case was to set the flood interval: cmd contact_name "set flood.advert.interval 6".

If all goes well, you can wave hello to the other in the public channel with public Hello, World and watch the screen of your terminal as the rest wave back at you.

I don’t know whether I’ll stay involved in this thing, but it was a fun excursion.

Ο κυρ-Βαγγέλης

Ιστορία στην οποία συμμετέχουν εγώ, ο Theodore Dalamagas και ο Stelios Tzivakis. Την θυμήθηκα τώρα που είδα το post για το Minitel από τον Yann LeCun:

Δουλέψαμε με τον Θοδωρή για 2 μήνες στο Kapa-TEL τα παλιά τα χρόνια και μας δώσανε στον Στέλιο να μας κάνει κάτι. Το κάτι ήταν κάτι script σε AWK που έγραψα εγώ και μια σχεδίαση μιας βάσης που έκανε ο Θοδωρής. Είχε πλάκα που στην αρχή νομίζαμε πως θα την βγάζαμε με δύο πίνακες.

Υπήρχε μια σουίτα εφαρμογών που έγραφε ο κόσμος εκεί με μια βιβλιοθήκη που την έλεγαν Ippolis και ήταν για Minitel services. Όταν υπήρχε κάποιο πρόβλημα, ο Στέλιος έλεγε κάτι σαν “ΟΚ, θα μιλήσω με τον κυρ-Βαγγέλη”. Ως είναι φυσικό, είχαμε την τεράστια περιέργεια να μάθουμε ποιος είναι αυτός ο μυθικός κύριος που τα ξέρει όλα:

– Μα καλά, ποιος και που είναι ο κύριος Βαγγέλης;

– Δεν είναι ο κυρ-Βαγγέλης, είναι ο Κυρβαγγέλης.

#facepalm

Ήταν κρίμα να χαθεί στον ωκεανό του facebook.

Το κακό εργοτάξιο

Τον παλιό καιρό που η Τράπεζα Πληροφοριών του ΤΕΕ στεγαζόταν ακόμα στην Σόλωνος 53, είχαμε ένα χώρο στον τέταρτο όροφο αρκετά μεγάλο πριν από τα γραφεία, γενικής χρήσης. Είχε και ένα μεγάλο τραπέζι που είχε γίνει de facto πάγκος εργασίας. Όποιο μηχάνημα λύναμε και δέναμε το κάναμε εκεί πάνω και ό,τι περίσσευε έμενε εκεί. Στο τέλος δημιουργήθηκε εκεί ένας σωρός με κουφάρια από παλιά PC, χαλασμένες κάρτες και τροφοδοτικά.

Κόσμος ερχόταν να εξυπηρετηθεί, να ρωτήσει κάτι κ.λπ. Δεν έλεγε κανείς τίποτε. Μέχρι που μια μέρα, ένας άνθρωπος, αφού έγινε η δουλειά του, αρκετά θυμωμένος (πράγμα παράξενο γιατί συνήθως έρχονταν θυμωμένοι, δεν έφευγαν έτσι) μας λέει:

Ρε παιδιά να σας ρωτήσω κάτι; Πως είστε έτσι εδώ; Σας αρέσει που είστε έτσι σαν εργοτάξιο; Ούτε καν σαν εργοτάξιο. Σαν κακό εργοτάξιο είστε! Αν είναι δυνατόν να μην σας ενοχλεί

Την άλλη μέρα τα είχαμε μαζέψει όλα (την πολλή δουλειά την έκαναν δυο άλλοι, όχι εγώ). Δυστυχώς δεν συγκρατήσαμε το όνομα του για να τον ευχαριστήσουμε που μας άνοιξε τα μάτια. Η συνήθεια μας τα είχε κλείσει.

Την εικόνα την έφτιαξε το Gemini και είναι πιο ευγενική από την πραγματική. Δεν θυμάμαι αν είχαμε βγάλει φωτογραφία πριν. Αν βρω κάποια θα την βάλω.

Όσο για την επόμενη χρήση του τραπεζιού; Αυτή είναι άλλη ιστορία.

Programming Languages: An Interpreter-Based Approach / Build, Prove, and Compare

There was a book (An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming) by Tim Budd I read due to an assignment about SmallTalk. Budd had his own SmallTalk implemetation and book (A Little SmallTalk). Going through his work, I read The Kamin Interpreters in C++ (newer pdf version). But who is Kamin?

Sam Kamin has written Programming Languages: An Interpreter-Based Approach and I located it at the University library in the early 90s. For reasons, I was locked out of the laboratory with the PASCAL compiler and could not do homework, so I had this crazy idea, since the concepts between C and PASCAL seemed transferrable, I’d write a translator from PASCAL to C to complete my homework (I never did). Years later, I asked the child of a friend at the same University to borrow the book for me to have a peek, because it was out of print and hard to find. The author writes:

I occasionally am asked whether I intend to update this book. In fact, Norman Ramsey has expanded the book into a new edition, which should be published fairly soon. In the meantime, he has provided the pdf to some people; you can write to him at …@….

And I did. I asked for a copy of the draft if possible. I never got no for an answer, but checking my email, I see that I had been in contact with Norman Ramsey about this from 10/2009 to 10/2016. Well, Programming Languages: Build, Prove, and Compare got published in 10/2022 (what’s with October, me and this book?)

Today, a (second hand) hardback reached my desk. Closure.

The case of the faulty antivirus update

Μια και πιάσαμε τις ιστορίες από τα παλιά, ακόμα ένα support horror story:

Μια μέρα έρχονται τα κορίτσια από το support και μου λένε κάτι σαν “έχουμε μια σειρά από συνδρομητές με το anti-virus [name withheld] και παραπονιούνται πως μετά το πιο πρόσφατο update, αφότου κάνουν κλήση dialup (ναι, τόσο παλιά ιστορία), δεν μπορούν να δουν τίποτε στο browser”.

Κατά τα συνήθη, “ΟΚ βρε παιδιά, αλλά αυτό δεν είναι δικό μας πρόβλημα”. Και ναι οι συνδρομητές αναγνώριζαν πως δεν είναι δικό μας πρόβλημα, αλλά επειδή ήμασταν μάλλον το μόνο support department που δεν τους είχε με χρονόμετρο, αλλά δείχνανε τα παιδιά ειλικρινή προσπάθεια να λύσουν οποιοδήποτε πρόβλημα, τους ρώταγαν και για αυτό, γιατί δεν έβρισκαν πουθενά αλλού να πουν τον πόνο τους.

Αρχίσαμε να σκεφτόμαστε πράγματα και να τους λέμε να κάνουν τα διάφορα προφανή (βγες και ξαναμπές, κάνε reboot, σβήσε το μηχάνημα, βγάλε και την πρίζα, κ.λπ.) χωρίς καμία λύση. Μέχρι που κάποια στιγμή μου κόβει και τους λέω “Ρωτήστε με κάποιον εύσχημο τρόπο αν έχουν πληρώσει για το πρόγραμμα, κάποιους που έχετε περισσότερο θάρρος”. Μαντέψτε. Μετά είπαν σε κάποιο που είχαν ακόμα περισσότερη άνεση αν μπορεί να αγοράσει μια άδεια. Και ως διά μαγείας το πρόβλημα λύθηκε.

Όχι δεν θα πω ποια εταιρία. Μπορεί να το έκανε επίτηδες, μπορεί και όχι. Μπορεί να ήταν ιδέα κάποιου βασιλικότερου του βασιλέως υπαλλήλου, μπορεί απλά να ήταν και ένα λαθασμένο if statement. Απλά συνέβη και έτσι λύθηκε.