The above image was made with stable diffusion using the prompt 'Mysterious dream sunset.'
Today was a mixed bag. My usual work was fine and nothing unfortunate happened on my daily walk. @kommienezuspadt even made me aware over afternoon coffee of a new AI cert that I may seek. When I sat down to work on my current project, however, things went south fast.
I'm using Pyscript to make a web interface for exploring the WantToKnow.info news summaries archive. The idea is to demonstrate news recommendations based on TF-IDF vector cosine similarity, but the interface should also support arbitrary user queries using python. The archive itself is 30mb, in a single csv file that I loaded onto server space I rent. It turns out that the company I rent from has configured the server to deny remote access to files like mine, so that didn't work.
In theory, I solved this problem by uploading the csv to IPFS and linking to it there. I say in theory because it raised no errors, yet the next issue I ran into stopped further development. After following examples from Pyscript blog posts and videos, I set my config to use the appropriate packages. Instead of loading the packages, Pyscript raises an error that says it can't find the packages.
(PY1001): Unable to install package(s) 'pandas, ast, re'. Reason: Can't find a pure Python 3 Wheel for package(s) 'pandas, ast, re'.See: https://pyodide.org/en/stable/usage/faq.html#micropip-can-t-find-a-pure-python-wheel for more information.
Stackoverflow is no help. The Pyodide faq from the error message is equally disappointing. It's a totally basic thing that I can't find a clear answer about. The next step is messaging a bunch of people hoping one of them takes pity on me and explains why my packages aren't loading. In the mean time I guess I'll keep messing with it. If you think you can help, my broken Pyscript site is here.
Mysterious Dreams
My dreams last night were mysterious. For complicated reasons I won't go into, they got me thinking about the audience I write for. Specifically, they got me thinking about how my audience may change as it grows. And how I'd like to use my writing more in service to integration than to division.
The topics I write about can be highly polarizing. I'm okay at presenting things in a grounded way, but I could get better at it. I could also get better at keeping my tone light even when the subject matter is heavy. And if not light, then neutral.
This is what I've been overthinking as I plan my upcoming Substack collection. I'm also thinking about how to begin talking about the covid debacle. I have readers who still believe they were wearing masks to fight the virus and I don't necessarily want to alienate them. Nor do I want to do a whole explanation about why they're mistaken. My current thinking is to simply call it like I see it without disparaging those who see it differently. We'll see how that goes.
Read my novels:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is available as a web book on IPFS and as a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt.
- The Paradise Anomaly is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Psychic Avalanche is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
See my NFTs:
- Small Gods of Time Travel is a 41 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt that goes with my book by the same name.
- History and the Machine is a 20 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on my series of oil paintings of interesting people from history.
- Artifacts of Mind Control is a 15 piece Tezos NFT collection on Objkt based on declassified CIA documents from the MKULTRA program.