index.md (2507B)
1 --- 2 title: "Weeknote for 2025-W12" 3 description: "R on Codeberg, types of AI skeptics, and fed news" 4 date: 2025-03-17T08:59:00-07:00 5 draft: false 6 categories: 7 - Weeknotes 8 tags: 9 - R 10 - Git 11 - LLMs 12 --- 13 14 ## How to move R projects to Codeberg 15 16 [Last week]({{< ref 17 "/posts/weeknotes/2025-w11/index.md#workflows-for-collaborating-with-git" >}}) 18 I shared a link collaborating with [Git]({{< ref "/tags/git" >}}) and no code 19 forge, but now I want to share a new (to me) resource for doing [R]({{< ref 20 "/tags/r" >}}) on Codeberg, "a democratic community-driven, non-profit software 21 development platform." I have yet to use Codeberg, but if I ever develop an R 22 package outside of work, that's where I'd host the project. 23 24 [Resources and tools for developing R packages on codeberg](https://codeberg.org/r-codeberg) 25 26 ## An ontology of AI skeptics 27 28 I posted a quick update to [an older entry about LLM-base "coding 29 assistants"]({{< ref "/posts/coding-assistants/" >}}), which reminded me of 30 this (non-definitive) guide to AI skepticism. I certainly don't follow this 31 world as closely as Riley, but this seems like a fair-handed account of the 32 terrain. 33 34 I just wish this had addressed the environmentalist critique of LLMs (and large 35 "foundation models" generally); it strikes me as the most urgent and 36 consequential issue facing the development of this technology. 37 38 [Who and What comprise AI 39 Skepticism?](https://buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/who-and-what-comprises-ai-skepticism) 40 41 ## What's new in the federal government 42 43 Last week, workers at my agency received an urgent directive to remove any 44 pronouns from our email signatures. As a human being with a conscience, I'm 45 distressed and saddened by this expression of a dangerous (and frankly evil) 46 ideology. But also? As a person with relatively uncommon name, I'm annoyed that 47 it's become more difficult to indicate to strangers that I use masculine 48 pronouns[^pronouns]. I've complied with the order by removing my email 49 signature, and will just refer to people using gender neutral pronouns in my 50 correspondences except when I know to do otherwise. 51 52 Friday was also the deadline to accept a voluntary severance offer that was 53 sent to employees in my (still unnamed) agency. Many of my colleagues and I 54 were later told we were ineligible, which is supposed to be a good sign? 55 56 [^pronouns]: I'm not offended when people use gender-neutral pronouns to refer 57 to me, but my preference is for _he/him_. Everybody should be free to 58 communicate such preferences.