Philip Borenstein
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Philip Borenstein
@pborenstein.com
65 followers 150 following 510 posts
a person of interest 🍸
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pborenstein.com
Should Honest Abe be institutionalized?
Parody of 1950s era Pepsi ad about a depressed Abraham Lincoln just wanted a Pepsi. ⸻ Left column “I was in the ‘Me’ Bedroom, and I was just, like, staring at the wall, thinking about everything… But then again, I was thinking about nothing. And then Secretary of War Stanton came in; I didn’t even know he was there. He called my name, and I didn’t even hear it. And then he started screaming, ‘Mr. President! Mr. President!’ And I go, ‘What, what’s the matter?’ And he goes, ‘What’s the matter with you?’ I go, ‘There’s nothing wrong, Mr. Secretary.’ And he goes, ‘Don’t tell me that, you’re on laudanum!’ I go, ‘No, sir, I’m neither on laudanum nor paregoric; I’m in hale and bardy condition. In fact — I was just thinking, you know — why don’t you get me a Pepsi?’” — Abraham Lincoln, 1864 ⸻ Right column These words spoken by Abraham “Mike” Lincoln state a principle which we at Pepsi strive to follow in our daily endeavors: Pepsi is here to provide refreshment to everyone, regardless of their mental state. Lincoln was under tremendous stress at the time, trying to unite a fractured republic, abolish slavery, and dodge his whack-a-doo wife, who was often lurking behind the furniture. Would you truly deny the man a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, just because he doesn’t feel like talking? After all, he went to your schools, your church, your House of Representatives. C’mon — don’t judge him by his big hat or his sullen demeanor, just give him refreshment. ⸻ Tagline: Pepsi-Cola refreshes without judgement
November 5, 2025 at 7:43 PM
pborenstein.com
Perplexity won't identify Viven Leigh for privacy and safety reasons. Even if I ask "Is it Vivien Leigh?" it wouldn't answer.

In the "Images" button is a gallery of (presumably) contemporary actresses whose names I don't know, and it's not about to tell me.
screenshot of a session with Perplexity, asking it to identify an actress [image of vivien Leigh] who is this actress and what movie is this from Sorry, I can't identify the actress or the movie from this image. → why not # Perplexity pro It's not possible to identify people or state what movie an image is from because image recognition of people and specific roles is restricted for privacy and safety reasons. This includes not naming or confirming actors, even if they are widely recognizable or associated with famous roles.
October 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM
pborenstein.com
Claude throws its bosses under the bus.

> The pricing argument: If 22.5% is always reserved, the honest marketing would be to either advertise a 155k effective context window or price the 200k tier accordingly. Calling it 200k when you can't actually use 45k of it is...generous labeling.
User: Still. That's my space. You can use your own for that. Or charge me less. Claude: I get the frustration - you're paying for 200k tokens but only get effective access to 155k. It does feel like buying a 1TB drive and finding out 225GB is "reserved for system operations." The reality is this is an architectural decision baked into how Claude's API works. The reserved space isn't something I control or can opt out of - it's part of the infrastructure that manages context windows and ensures responses don't get cut off mid-sentence. Your points are valid though: The pricing argument: If 22.5% is always reserved, the honest marketing would be to either advertise a 155k effective context window or price the 200k tier accordingly. Calling it 200k when you can't actually use 45k of it is...generous labeling. The allocation complaint: In an ideal system, output tokens would come from a separate budget rather than eating into your purchased context space. That's how some other APIs handle it. What you can actually do: Nothing directly with me, but this is exactly the kind of feedback Anthropic should hear. The thumbs down button below my responses goes to them, or you can contact them directly at support.claude.com. The system is what it is right now, but you're not wrong to call it out as a suboptimal user experience.
October 4, 2025 at 7:02 PM
pborenstein.com
I'm thinking tacos for dinner maybe?
Trump shaking hands with Putin. Vladimir looking smug. Donald looking defeated.
August 16, 2025 at 8:47 PM
pborenstein.com
Paloma
New York Times Spelling Bee board with guess "cucurucucu" noted as Not in word list
August 12, 2025 at 7:48 PM
pborenstein.com
Shabbat Shalom
Picture of David Bowie (right) and a bride (left) labeled בואי כלה
July 18, 2025 at 6:06 PM
pborenstein.com
actual sign in Boston 2014
In this 2014 photo, an electronic highway sign on Interstate 93 shows the term "Use Yah Blinkah" in Boston. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
June 24, 2025 at 8:56 PM
pborenstein.com
something felt familiar
Cover of LIFE magazine May 1967. Most of the cover is a portrait of a young man with hair below his ears. He is wearing glasses. In the lenses we see a middle-aged man arguing with a young man. The headline is: The Generation Gap
June 4, 2025 at 2:44 AM
pborenstein.com
Those who do not remember history are doomed to etc etc
AI-generated image of a 747-8 painted like a Trojan horse
May 16, 2025 at 4:44 PM
pborenstein.com
just came to mind
a wirehaired pointer lying on the grass. The text reads "Say her name: cricket"
May 14, 2025 at 3:56 PM
pborenstein.com
A collaborationist is someone who works with an occupying power against their own citizens.
A picture of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democratic senator from New York for no reason whatsoever
March 16, 2025 at 5:55 PM
pborenstein.com
orange film tape is the new tintype
A reddit poster asks how to restore the images from “orange film tape” and provides an image of said film tape. The image shows two color negative strips from the late 20th century displayed on a white sheet of paper.
February 20, 2025 at 4:45 PM
pborenstein.com
Trying to get Claude to graph y = x^2 is a hoot
Chat session of Claude LLM being asked to draw a graph of y = x^2. On the right is a poorly drawn upside down parabola-ish. On the left is Claude's responses Let me try one more time, being MUCH more careful about the actual mathematical relationships. Actually Correct x2 Parabola Click to open image Looking at this graph. I still didn't get it right. The points should follow y - x? exactly and they don't. Let me try one final time, plotting EXACTLY y = x2 with proper scaling: ㅿ Mathematically Correct x≥ Parabola Click to open image I apologize, but looking at this latest attempt... I'm still not getting it exactly right. The problem is I keep trying to eyeball or approximate the curve instead of plotting exact mathematical points. Would you show me what a proper x? graph should look like? That would help me understand where I'm going wrong.
February 1, 2025 at 1:55 AM
pborenstein.com
January 24, 2025 at 12:48 AM
pborenstein.com
I never thought it would happen to me.

Apparently @evernote.bsky.social charged me for something, then refunded it. PayPal got confused (thinking I asked for the refund before the charge?)

I only use PayPal to, uh, pay for stuff. But, thanks @evernote.bsky.social for fucking up my account.
Note from PayPal that they're booting me.
January 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
pborenstein.com
ChatGPT weighs in
a cartoon of a rodeo where everyone in attendance can say "Really? It's my first one too!" generated by ChatGPT
January 7, 2025 at 2:20 AM
pborenstein.com
Seven nights
Menorah lit for seventh night of hannukah
December 31, 2024 at 10:11 PM
pborenstein.com
Menorah for the first night of Hanukkah
December 25, 2024 at 10:27 PM
pborenstein.com
Shabbat Shalom
Picture of David Bowie and a bride, as a pun on l'cha dodi's "bo-ee kalah" welcome bride. I assure you this is hilarious.
December 6, 2024 at 7:36 PM