Recently updated blogs

The 2024 election is fast approaching and once again, there's a lot to vote on. Most of your choices will have a (D) or an (R) next to…

I’ve written a lot of JavaScript. I like JavaScript. And more importantly, I’ve built up a set of skills in understanding, optimizing, and debugging JavaScript that I’m reluctant to give up on. So maybe it’s natural that I get a worried pit in my stomach over the current mania to rewrite every Node.js tool in a “faster” language like Rust, Zig, Go, etc. Don’t get me wrong – these languages …

LifeSpan Under Desk Treadmill TR12000-DT3 GlowUp Walking Pad As a software developer, I spend the majority of my time sitting at a desk. In the past, I worked in an office but still managed to get some physical activity through my daily commute. I had occasional back pain, but it was infrequent. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. We shifted to remote work, and my physical activity decreased significantly. My daily …

Moshe Vardi wrote a short interesting essay “What is theoretical computer science?” (It followed by interesting posts on Facebook.) Moshe argues that Thinking of theoretical computer science (TCS) as a branch of mathematics is harmful to the discipline. I personally do not regard TCS as part of mathematics and I also don’t think that thinking of TCS as part of mathematics is harmful. Certainly there are parts of TCS that …

After I posted the last two parts of this series (which I thought wrapped it up…) I received an email asking about whether there’s a similar thing happening if you remove the reconstruction (low-pass) filter in the digital-to-analogue part of the signal path. The answer to this question turned out to be more interesting than I expected… So I wound up turning it into a “Part 3” in the series. …

The readers of this blog know know that I stay away from non-math related discussions. It’s not that I don’t have any political opinions, I just don’t think they are especially valuable or original. I do however get triggered by a clear anti-Semitism, discrimination of Jews by the universities, and by personal disrespect. The story below is a strange mixture of these. As I was visiting the IAS in Princeton, …

I've always posted irregularly and I don't think that's going to change, that's just how I roll (no, I'm not bipolar). On the other hand, I need to recharge the batteries, so my absence will be longer than usual. See you on the other side, space cowboys.

We’re excited to introduce Mosaic, a new initiative from the Bonfire team that empowers organisations by creating fully customised, federated digital spaces—built just for them. What is Mosaic? # Mosaic is a unique service where the Bonfire team collaborates with you to co-design and build a bespoke online presence that serves as a hybrid between a traditional website and a social networking platform—going well beyond merely sharing pictures or short …

Quantum computer in an office foyer What did I do to avoid disempowering people? I listened. Specifically, I listened in on a user research session with a woman who recently had a baby (burbling in the background of the Teams call :) One of our teams is looking at improving digital self-referral to maternity services, and the research was to learn about this experience first hand from people who recently …

403: You are not authorized to access this material Or using lots of little tools to aggressively reject the bots · October 18th, 2024 U G H. For some reason my quaint little piece of the internet has suddenly been inundated with unwanted guests. Now normally speaking I would be over joyed with having more guests to this tiny part of the internet. Come inside the cozy little server room, …

I’ve been on quite a browser journey lately. I gave Firefox a try, but it encountered problems and felt so clunky that I was forced to do fresh installs in the end just to keep it running smoothly. Eventually, I threw in the towel and narrowed it down to Arc and Safari. During this time I noticed Zen gaining popularity on Reddit and YouTube. So I had to try it …

In a recent Virtual Coffee chat, I asked, "What is the favorite software tool/site/thing you've ever created?" A key point to some responses was that sometimes little, quick apps are the most rewarding and impactful. I shared that 2 of my best "apps" ever essentially only required the user to copy messy data/text from one source, paste it into the application, and then the data on their clipboard was automagically …

After David’s memorial service in May (a video recording of which is permanently on Vimeo with no password necessary), some people on my Facebook page asked if a collection of photographs of David could be made available. There was a slide show created to run on a loop in the lobby of the funeral home on the day of the service. I just posted it on Vimeo, also on the …

No, I’ve never been to the World Series, and yes, I’m still annoyed about it. Back in 1996, in the days where people would have to buy tickets in person, I waited on line at Yankee Stadium and got postseason tickets. I saw the Yanks in the Division Series, for sure; I don’t think I got ALCS tickets. Then I waited on line again and got myself a World Series …

I love Tom Forth's response to the Aria call [X thread] "Request for Opportunities - as a spark of inspiration for new PD candidates, we pulled together a list of "why aren't more people working on this?!" topics that've been floating around the @ARIA_research slack." - he looked at what companies in Britain are already working on these problem statements: and it turns out it works, he finds a bunch …