Back when I worked on iD (the default OpenStreetMap editor) I designed over 270 bespoke map icons to illustrate various feature types. These are free and open source.
A guided gallery of my icon work is now available on my portfolio: waysidemapping.org/projects/id-...
new DRASS out today - listen now, and listen often
(the best song about Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle you’ll hear today)
They can't have any integrity, period. Because you can't derive an ought from an is and LLMs are very much all is. You need be an actor to act with integrity and there's no there there.
new essay:
The Slow AI Manifesto
www.shardcore.org/spx/2026/01/...
When you get a best in class LLM to summarize your lecture notes! We're a few 'and then a miracle occurs' steps from Skynet...
Yeah, that's starting to sound a lot like the kind of Heath-Robinson contraptions evolution churns out. Artificially, give them a fitness function and watch them 'cheat' around it. Karl Simsesque animats growing very tall to fall over and max distance traveled - counter-intuitive surprises abound.
A reminder of my upcoming data viz 'Masterclass' training taking place in London over 5-6 Feb.
Just 3 weeks to go, so get registered and start your year in the right way with two packed days of enlightening and nourishing visual knowledge.
Any Qs? Get in touch!
visualisingdata.com/2025/11/new-...
You have some evidence that this doesn't work? Bans on cigarette advertising seem to have been fairly effective. And this is presumably targeting kids? You're proposing putting them on an injection for life? The long-term consequences of Wegovy are up in the air right now.
Merry Christmas Everyone
(breaks version)
a live DRASS treat from a couple of days ago. enjoy!
youtu.be/jKCnqMtRLO4?...
Loving this. "Antirender" engine converts architects presentation drawings into the likely reality of the designs :)
antirender.com
thanks to all who came out to see DRASS last night - for those that didn't make it, here's a little snippet of what you missed!
Interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist: jgballard.ca/media/2003_c... - midway down page
I wrote a piece about LLMs and personality for aiethix.com - check it out:
aiethix.com/blog/your-pl...
Organic Maps organicmaps.app is fast Android application for using OpenStreetMap data locally. After you have downloaded map data for the areas of world you are interested of, it works offline. Useful if you happen to travel, because that can save you literal money from a mobile data roaming costs.
New post: Animated Aberrations - i've compiled a collection of these into a digital video book:
www.shardcore.org/spx/2025/08/...
with #Grok being in the news for switching to a nazi personality, it’s time to revisit this project from the beginning of the year, where i “interviewed” a range of LLMs to glean their inner “personalities”
A good option is organicmaps.app which uses OpenStreetMap for data so has good footpath and bridleway data, and works fully offline once you download local maps
youtu.be/WQBlIvmuB4E?...
my recent talk about AI, Art & Culture at #BRLSI in #bath is now online.
‘twas a good one (with some excellent questions after), check it out
youtu.be/YA5hKzF5M7M
new DRASS track just dropped.
it'll be on spotify in a bit... but for now, enjoy the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaDa...
"AI & The Artist"
my talk & slides from last night - an attempt to contextualise AI (and AI hate) into a broader cultural context.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=w52h...
That increase in accuracy seems to be tailing off seven years ago. Do you not have the figures up to 2024? A lot has happened with the weather in the mean time.
Simon Willison was impressed by o3-mini's attempts here: simonwillison.net/2025/Feb/5/o...
it has surreal entertainment value right now...
The Andromeda Strain is impressively scientific and technical...
