Matt Hodges

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npub1l93rswuh9fewt2ks4p9pu93llzadglx0znp5uwwvhj6ywuetalwqa7mzuz

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MattHodges_at_mastodon.social@mostr.pub

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nprofile1qqs0jc3c8wtj5uh94tg2sjs7zcll3wk50n83fs6w88xtedz8wv47lhq3tj5kt

Author Public Key

npub1l93rswuh9fewt2ks4p9pu93llzadglx0znp5uwwvhj6ywuetalwqa7mzuz

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Last Notes

2024-08-09 17:14:46

👋 I haven't posted on Mastodon in quite some time. Kinda-sorta sorry for just ghosting like that, but I had a lot of reasons for walking away. Not really interested in litigating any of it. A lot of you are super cool and I learned a lot while getting to know you. I'll continue avoiding infinite-scroll social networks, but wanted to share that I'm trying to blog more. No trackers or notifications, so I won't know if anyone reads it. But maybe that's a good thing.
https://matthodges.com/posts.html

2024-01-07 20:37:04

Seems good!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/01/07/congress-budget-deal/

2024-01-07 19:01:31

FSAs are dumb. Just let everyone deduct those eligible expenditures without involving employers or costly infrastructure or annual spend omniscience.

2024-01-05 15:51:06

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@npub1yn5…h50w lots of ways to slice "creeping fascism" but "democracy" ranks quite low on the "most important issue" question.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1675/most-important-problem.aspx

2024-01-04 17:34:03

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well well well what do we have hear
https://github.blog/changelog/2020-07-06-github-actions-manual-triggers-with-workflow_dispatch/

2023-12-26 20:53:13

Every single hotel in America:
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/weve-remodeled-our-bathroom-so-now-you-have-to-take-a-dump-behind-a-sliding-barn-door

2023-12-22 13:25:09

"I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., do hereby grant a full, complete, and unconditional pardon to all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents who, on or before the date of this proclamation, committed or were convicted of the offense of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana, regardless of whether they have been charged with or prosecuted for these offenses on or before the date of this proclamation"
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/12/22/a-proclamation-on-granting-pardon-for-the-offense-of-simple-possession-of-marijuana-attempted-simple-possession-of-marijuana-or-use-of-marijuana/

2023-12-20 16:59:53

do genz teens go through a Pink Floyd phase or nah

2023-12-19 23:45:40

#LawFedi is it even possible for SCOTUS to uphold Colorado without disqualifying absolutely?

2023-12-19 23:19:29

Seems significant.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/politics/trump-colorado-ballot-14th-amendment.html

2023-12-18 14:09:54

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oh look they donated to a crypto superpac
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/crypto-and-blockchain-leaders-amass-78-million-for-fairshake-super-pac-and-its-affiliates-to-support-pro-innovation-and-pro-crypto-leadership-going-into-2024-congressional-elections-302017443.html

2023-12-18 01:17:47

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@npub107p…fkuv @npub1y4n…25mf @npub1f6a…pnql I have a lot of opinions on this but I'd be interested in hearing about what you're referring to.

2023-12-15 04:25:01

everyone's clamoring for prices to come down meanwhile hosted language model prices have dropped 35% in two days
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/582/524/586/846/122/original/4d4f123f6bbb2da1.png

2023-12-15 01:50:20

"We are non-partisan, one issue voters: If a candidate supports an optimistic technology-enabled future, we are for them. If they want to choke off important technologies, we are against them."
Nothing could be further from "one issue".
https://a16z.com/politics-and-the-future/

2023-12-14 21:40:50

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@npub1yn5…h50w gotchu
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/580/939/329/888/039/original/8d503f2b30b96718.png

2023-12-14 14:54:59

The economic vibes discourse elsewhere on the internet has now entered "prominent right-wing analysts is upset that it costs $125 to have steak and lobster cooked and delivered to his home" and honestly I don't know what there is to say at this point.

2023-12-12 22:19:30

I remain quite bullish on the roles Generative AI and other Machine Learning tools can play in political campaigns. We already see strong, positive, use cases for things like internal operations and asynchronous voter communication. The tools are incredibly useful at tasks like helping us draft and edit content, or acting as a co-pilot in data analysis. But...
#PoliticalTech #aiEthics #MachineLearning

2023-12-11 20:50:36

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@npub1yn5…h50w Pandoc has informed me that it can't work with .doc

2023-12-11 20:35:16

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@npub1yn5…h50w literally googling how to make a .doc and it looks like the answer is Export Google Docs to .docx and then open in LibreOffice and then export to .doc from that

2023-12-11 20:32:24

it's basically 2024 and the academic journal says no .docx allowed only .doc

2023-12-11 16:28:38

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@npub17ux…sag6 Like below-freezing precipitation IS dangerous but also these are clearly not rare phenomena and I would like my city and state to invest in some salt trucks and snow plows because these weather events absolutely don't have to wreck our communities as much as they are.

2023-12-11 16:26:00

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@npub17ux…sag6 I'll admit that I did find it comically puzzling last year (not the snopocalypse) that Austin hit ~30 degrees for one day and there was some ice and tree limbs fell and the city pretty much imploded ... AND I acknowledge that this is a solvable policy issue and not some sort of assessment of people here who just need the better infrastructure to happen.

2023-12-11 14:36:01

I think one of my least-favorite recurrent post genres is, “you’re bad or stupid if you live in a place I hate”.

2023-12-10 19:03:04

it’s funny that Yamaha makes pianos and motorcycles

2023-12-10 16:23:45

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@npub1w7a…tpn3 @npub1xzm…eykm I think it's historically incorrect to say that, "technically calling it AI is buying into the marketing". Yes, marketing is capitalizing on it! But the nomenclature matches my CS education from the late 2000s and it matches 70 years of how "AI" is used in research and literature. The recent obsession with asserting "theory of mind" or "intentions" or "originality" or "real intelligence" seems, well, recent.

2023-12-10 16:13:16

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@npub1w7a…tpn3 @npub1xzm…eykm Not too long ago — in fact, roughly a year or two ago — "Artificial Intelligence" was a term used to describe computer systems which could perform tasks that historically required human cognition. Few people were offended that Chess or Go-playing systems were considered "AI" and "real intelligence" was never a requirement. But, as we see time and time again, "AI is whatever hasn't been done yet."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect

2023-10-05 23:11:12

I get that everyone mourns at their own pace when an online community is lost, but the fact that we're now hitting the one-year mark and people are still writing articles titled The Moral Case for Quitting Twitter really does showcase the traumatic dependency these platforms create

2023-10-02 23:33:32

lol of course
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/111/168/034/492/488/270/original/da2d8e1d9ab08a0e.png

2023-09-21 15:37:11

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@npub1l3t…cal9 I mean I wouldn't say I'm equipped to do anything close to "research" when it comes to vaccines, but I would like to know if this is a thing the research-doers say I should get or if it's more for other people

2023-09-21 15:32:45

I went to schedule a booster and CVS was like "can we also interest you in the updated Hepatitis B vaccine?" and now I need to go read about stuff

2023-09-14 13:34:27

It's kinda funny how spending almost a year away from Twitter makes you see how newsletter bigbrains, university economists, campaign rapid response teams, and MAGA influencers all dunkquoting each other for 14 hours yields absolutely zero impact on electoral outcomes ... and everyone involved should spend their waking hours doing literally anything else.

2023-08-30 22:41:24

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@npub1efv…4jx2 I mean,
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/cybersecurity-adviser-rudy-giuliani-locks-himself-out-of-iphone-72545861847

2023-08-18 19:19:51

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@npub1efv…4jx2 it’s dozens of records that are referenced less than once per day.

2023-08-18 19:16:55

Two years ago I inherited a legacy app that used Google Firestore. I promptly replaced that with a TOML file. Today I replaced that TOML file with a Google Sheet.

2023-08-17 00:19:04

Today I enabled a sweeping, indefinite, filter on a broad set of covid keywords. I've found that the information flow, even here on Mastodon, is counter-productive and often constructed to maximize engagement and spoke argument. And I just don't want to keep feeling the urge to argue with strangers on the internet about it. Minimizing and maximizing. I'll continue a varied information diet — both in-person & online — but I can't consume the social media version of this conversation for a while.

2023-08-11 14:20:10

I know it doesn’t really count as “real #Firefox” but Firefox Focus¹ has been my primary #iOS browser for many years now and it’s great! Some fantastic content blocking is baked in, but the real kicker is that it has no tabs, and history auto-clears. Switching my mindset to see mobile browsing as temporary and ephemeral has really helped to de-clutter my device experience.
¹ https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-focus-privacy-browser/id1055677337

2023-08-09 16:16:46

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@npub1ddp…2tax @npub10uh…p7v5 In 2020 I had a 50-something voter from Dayton, Ohio — who votes in every election — sincerely ask me whether Joe Biden was the Democrat or the Republican. And she votes every election! Voters are so weird!

2023-08-09 16:13:31

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@npub1ddp…2tax @npub10uh…p7v5 If you're trying to rationalize the minds of the electorate — in any state — you're in for a bad time. Voters are weird! A not-insignificant number of the voting-eligible population things Democrats ended Roe. These needles are very hard to thread. Sometimes name recognition wins out, despite the logic of ideology.

2023-08-09 15:26:27

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@npub1ddp…2tax Mike DeWine achieved some fairly astounding persuasion wins with left-of-center Ohio voters during the peak of Covid. Many suburban Democrats spoke openly about "Wine with DeWine" over the past couple of years ... a ritual of drinking wine and watching DeWine hold press conferences about managing Covid protocols. It was weird! Voters are weird!

2023-08-09 14:19:48

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I can't stop looking at the #OhioIssue1 map. This is the kind of map Democrats haven't seen in #Ohio since 2012. Just look at the 2022 #OHGov race by comparison! Republicans have really gone all-in on a losing issue.
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/110/860/084/294/112/596/original/c102729460156d44.png

2023-08-09 13:29:41

Last night was such an immense gift to Sherrod Brown. #Ohio Dems will now have precinct-level data on winnable voters on a winnable issue. Just a staggering self-own by OHGOP. Frank LaRose devastated. #OhioIssue1

2023-08-09 13:19:36

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@npub1nxt…055a That was Issue 1 in 2018, and it passed handily. Not as robust as many would like, but robust enough to force Ohio re-draw its maps dozens of times last year after repeated rejections.
https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_Issue_1,_Congressional_Redistricting_Procedures_Amendment_(May_2018)

2023-07-06 12:17:11

Tell me something cool you made or read or saw or photographed or watched or learned or did in the past month. The only rule is it can’t have anything to do with a social media platform.

2023-04-25 13:50:58

I’m truly so excited to re-elect Joe Biden. Working for him in 2019 and 2020 was the proudest moment of my career. He’s been the right president for the right moment, and he’s surrounded himself with the best and the brightest. I could share anecdotes about how he’s a genuine and kind person, or riff about how he could be living it up in a comfy retirement. But he’s waking up every morning and doing the hardest job in the world with an energy far beyond people 50 years younger. I’m on #[0]