Tootfinder

I have contributed a public statement in the currently open consultation on EU data retention plans: https://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/post/on-mass-data-retention/
You might want to do so as well.

On data retention laws: Why this is (still) not a good balance between mass surveillance and law enforcement | René Mayrhofer
The latest effort to legalize mass data retention of communication traffic metadata is still problematic. I try to make my most pressing argument why the balance between preventing harm and causing potential harm is not met.

Two-Phase Treatment with Noncompliance: Identifying the Cumulative Average Treatment Effect via Multisite Instrumental Variables
Guanglei Hong, Xu Qin, Zhengyan Xu, Fan Yang
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03104

Two-Phase Treatment with Noncompliance: Identifying the Cumulative Average Treatment Effect via Multisite Instrumental Variables
In evaluating a multi-phase intervention, the cumulative average treatment effect (ATE) is often the causal estimand of key interest. Yet some individuals who do not respond well to the Phase-I treatment may subsequently display noncompliant behaviors. However, noncompliance tends to be constrained by the stochastic availability of slots under the alternative treatment condition in Phase II, which makes the notion of the "complier average treatment effect" problematic. Moreover, the Phase-I tre…

Tournament of Prompts: Evolving LLM Instructions Through Structured Debates and Elo Ratings
Anirudh Nair, Adi Banerjee, Laurent Mombaerts, Matthew Hagen, Tarik Borogovac
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.00178

Tournament of Prompts: Evolving LLM Instructions Through Structured Debates and Elo Ratings
Prompt engineering represents a critical bottleneck to harness the full potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) for solving complex tasks, as it requires specialized expertise, significant trial-and-error, and manual intervention. This challenge is particularly pronounced for tasks involving subjective quality assessment, where defining explicit optimization objectives becomes fundamentally problematic. Existing automated prompt optimization methods falter in these scenarios, as they typicall…

Catching Stray Balls: Football, fandom, and the impact on digital discourse
Mark J. Hill
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.01642 https://arx…

Catching Stray Balls: Football, fandom, and the impact on digital discourse
This paper examines how emotional responses to football matches influence online discourse across digital spaces on Reddit. By analysing millions of posts from dozens of subreddits, it demonstrates that real-world events trigger sentiment shifts that move across communities. It shows that negative sentiment correlates with problematic language; match outcomes directly influence sentiment and posting habits; sentiment can transfer to unrelated communities; and offers insights into the content of…

Focused axisymmetric spatially chirped beams
Eric C. Nelson, Kyle J. Charbonnet, Haytham H. Effarah, Trevor Reutershan, Kyle D. Chesnut, Christopher P. J. Barty
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.24817

Focused axisymmetric spatially chirped beams
A characterization of the focused space-time structures of radially chirped beams is provided, detailing different tunable properties such as: variable on-axis centroid velocity, symmetric pulse front tilt, transverse intensity modulations, and polarization states. While the practical generation of ideal radially chirped beams and polarizations can be problematic, it is shown that the primary characteristics of these beams can be mimicked with simple arrays of axisymmetric, 1D spatially chirped…

problematic but genuine request:
I am looking for any account of how it is that Israel can have used unlimited US weaponry targeted by so-called AI for 18months, but also of course deployed with genocidal indiscriminate-ness, on a tiny strip of land and still have an enemy to fight? What does this say about the exaggerated capabilities of modern warfare (in ways different to Russia's similar 'incompetence' [sorry for the poor phraseology])?

problematic but genuine request:
I am looking for any account of how it is that Israel can have used unlimited US weaponry targeted by so-called AI for 18months, but also of course deployed with genocidal indiscriminate-ness, on a tiny strip of land and still have an enemy to fight? What does this say about the exaggerated capabilities of modern warfare (in ways different to Russia's similar 'incompetence' [sorry for the poor phraseology])?

This https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.00093 has been replaced.
initial toot: https://mastoxiv.page/@ar…

Software-defined lock-in demodulator for low-frequency resistance noise measurements
The resolution of low-frequency resistance noise measurements can be increased by amplitude modulation, shifting the spectrum of the resistance fluctuations away from the 1/f noise contributed by measurement instruments. However, commercial lock-in amplifiers used for de-modulating the fluctuations exhibit a problematic 1/f noise contribution, which imposes a hard lower limit on the relative resistance noise that can be detected. We replace the lock-in amplifier hardware by equivalent digital s…

I... got scammed.
By https://firstpressgames.com .
I wanted to buy a birthday present, and I didn't expect this company to be so problematic.
One month later without getting anything from them, nor responses to my messages... and it crosses my mind that I should have checked online reviews for that e-commerce business before buying anything... and there you go: 1.4 stars out of 5 (no one gave more than 2 stars).
The few reviews that gave 2 stars are something like this, YEARS of delay: https://gamepad.club/@vny/110691909210001220
All of the public reviews use the word scam in one or another language, no exceptions.
Then I checked their social accounts, and... of course, they blocked comments everywhere, to avoid the possibility of angry people popping up and pointing to their shady behavior.