#just wanted to give some examples of good maths programming

[meowsynthh]

You might not be into programming, but things like sympy:

Do algebra. Computers are so good at this stuff.

But calculators are restricted in computational power, they must be easy to use, and I guess the main thing is they're just designed to give you a number answer. If you need accuracy, you'd use high precision floats on a computer. If you need weird logic, you use a computer (or pen and paper). Calculators are like a swiss army knife, they come in handy, some of the tools are great, but it doesn't do anything quite as well as a proper tool kit.

Calculators are flawed and aside from computing large numbers have not much purpose in pure mathematics.

This is not a statement about generative ai (although it would be completely useless in all facets of mathematics).

I will not pretend that I am an expert, I am no mathematician, but I absolutely adore the subject. It is what I want to spend my life doing. I will not pretend that I am the most knowledgeable so I would be delighted to hear some other opinions.

In my experience I have found the standard scientific calculator to be flawed. It has failed to give a distinct answer when the answer logically is different. As in, the difference between the numbers is so small it counts it as the same number. However, this is not 0.999... = 1. This has a finite number of decimals.

Aside from the actual calculation calculators can only aid in checking arithmetic really. The basis of mathematics is proof, which requires the human mind. I believe that in no way can the human mind can ever be replaced in terms of proofs and concepts.

Thank you for coming to my uninformed shittalk.

[max1461]

I'm terminally humanities brained, but I am kind of interested in pure mathematics and POM and generally just more mathematics oriented philosophy stuff/mathematics in general, I haven't studied any kind of maths since Highschool, how should I get into it? Should I read Quine?

Oh, this is a great question and I am very happy you have decided to send it to me! My answer reflects my particular views on mathematics and what it is all about, of course, so keep that in mind.

The number one thing I would like to convey about mathematics to someone coming from the humanities is that mathematics, far more than most fields, is something you do in addition to something you learn. Mathematical thinking has to be practiced, it is a skill that you train. If your primary interest is in philosophy of math, I'm afraid I haven't read very deeply on the subject and probably can't recommend a good starting place. Maybe... Russell? Look into Hilbert's program, and why it failed? But if you want to understand math "from the inside" instead of "from the outside", then you have to do math, and to that end I think "who to read" is the wrong question.

This might sound a bit scary, but I don't think it needs to be. Math is not so hard to do, although it is a very foreign type of thinking to those who are not practiced at it. In fact, this is why I think doing math is important even if your interests are primarily in POM; math is ultimately a human activity, regardless of e.g. what you believe about the ontology of mathematical abstractions, and I believe that in order to understand it fully (to have a picture of it beyond just its ontology) it must be understood as a human activity. Thus, one must do it, at least a little bit. It is, if nothing else, a whole realm of human experience all its own, and I think just about anyone would profit intellectually from spinning their mental gears in a mathematical way here and there.

Thankfully, there are many great places to start if this is your aim. I assume that what we're talking about here is "proof based" math rather than just calculation. To that end, a great introductory book is Velleman's How to Prove It, which will give you some guiding principles and many examples of how to approach a mathematical proof. Beyond that, I think you'll want to pick up an "entry level" introductory text (that is, an introductory text aimed at undergrads, etc.) on any math topic that strikes your fancy, and work through it—making sure that you understand the structure of the arguments (proofs), and attempting as many of the exercises as you can. The exercises are really the most important part. You cannot learn math without the exercises. You cannot learn math by reading it. The only way to learn is to try your hand at it yourself.

Expect your reading speed to be slow, and new concepts to be confusing. Expect to read things over and over, and fiddle with them in your head, before they make sense. Well, I mean, if you're anything like me or like most people. I think one of the biggest reasons people get turned off to math is that most of it just doesn't make any sense the first time you encounter it; it won't make sense until you've thought about it a lot.

One way or another, if you have a background in philosophy and are used to parsing and evaluating careful arguments, you will have a leg up on many people getting their introduction to proofs.

As for what topic to start with... you could always start with Euclid's elements, which is still a perfectly solid introduction to Euclidean geometry even after 2500 years. It does not quite meet modern standards of mathematical rigor (in other words, its proofs have gaps by modern standards), but realistically this is not a big deal: the basic thinking style is the same, and the gaps are somewhat subtle and technical IIRC, so I don't think it will really affect the beginner experience. On the other hand I believe at least a couple of Euclid's proofs are genuinely flawed (that is to say, they aren't just uncareful in their presentation, but are actually invalid in their structure), so maybe it's better to start with a modern work first.

Some books that I think are good for a beginner:

Graham, Knuth, & Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics — The focus of this book is on mathematical tools for computer science, but even if that is not your interest it's still a great book. It deals mostly with familiar concepts such as whole numbers and sequences (you might have encountered, e.g., the Fibonacci sequence), but is great for learning to problem solve and think mathematically.

Rudin, Principals of Mathematical Analysis, ("Baby Rudin") — If you want trial-by-fire. A lot of math undergrads have this as the textbook for their first proof-based math class, and it's notoriously challenging. Its topic is the field of real analysis, the rigorous foundations of calculus. I... wouldn't start here if I were you, honestly, but it's definitely a classic.

Some graph theory text. Some people seem to be recommending Wilson's, which has the convenient feature of being available online here. I haven't read it, but looking over it, it seems fairly gentle. There are a lot of pictures, and proofs don't enter the picture until a couple of sections in. Graph theory has the advantage of being very visual and having basically no prerequisites, so this might be a nice place to start.

Some abstract algebra book. If you're looking for a really clear presentation of the way mathematics is done today, starting with axioms and proving theorems deductively from them, etc., there is probably no place where it is more straightforwardly visible than in abstract algebra. The first math book I ever attempted was Herstein's Topics in Algebra; not the most beginner oriented, but certainly not inaccessible, and hey, it worked out for me! If this one is not to your liking there are a million books on e.g. introductory group theory you could look into, or the very canonical Dummit & Foote, or so on.

Uh yeah I think that's all I got. Anyone else feel free to put any more thoughts or recommendations in the reblogs!

[kremlin]

could you explain for the "it makes the game go faster" idiots like myself what a GPU actually is? what's up with those multi thousand dollar "workstation" ones?

ya, ya. i will try and keep this one as approachable as possible

starting from raw reality. so, you have probably dealt with a graphics card before, right, stick in it, connects to motherboard, ass end sticks out of case & has display connectors, your vga/hdmi/displayport/whatever. clearly, it is providing pixel information to your monitor. before trying to figure out what's going on there, let's see what that entails. these are not really simple devices, the best way i can think to explain them would start with "why can't this be handled by a normal cpu"

a bog standard 1080p monitor has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, each comprised of 3 bytes (for red, blue, & green), which are updated 60 times a second:

~3 gigs a second is sort of a lot. on the higher end, with a 4k monitor updating 144 times a second:

17 gigs a second is definitely a lot. so this would be a good "first clue" there is some specialized hardware handling that throughput unrelated the cpu. the gpu. this would make sense, since your cpu is wholly unfit for dealing with this. if you've ever tried to play some computer game, with fancy 3D graphics, without any kind of video acceleration (e.g. without any kind of gpu [1]) you'd quickly see this, it'd run pretty slowly and bog down the rest of your system, the same way having a constantly-running program that is copying around 3-17GB/s in ram

it's worth remembering that displays operate isochronously -- they need to be fed pixel data at specific, very tight time timings. your monitor does not buffer pixel information, whatever goes down the wire is displayed immediately. not only do you have to transmit pixel data in realtime, you have to also send accompanying control data (e.g. data that bookends the pixel data, that says "oh this is the end of the frame", "this is the begining of the frame, etc", "i'm changing resolutions", etc) within very narrow timing tolerances otherwise the display won't work at all

3-17GB/s may not be a lot in the context of something like a bulk transfer, but it is a lot in an isochronous context, from the perspective of the cpu -- these transfers can't occur opportunistically when a core is idle, they have to occur now, and any core that is assigned to transmit pixel data has stop and drop whatever its doing immediately, switch contexts, and do the transfer. this sort of constant pre-empting would really hamstring the performance of everything else running, like your userspace programs, the kernel, etc.

so for a long list of reasons, there has to be some kind of special hardware doing this job. gpu.

instead of calculating every pixel value manually, the cpu just needs to give a high-level geometric overview of what it wants rendered, and does this with vertices. a vertex is very simple, it's just a point in 3D space, for example (5,2,3). just like a coordinate grid on paper with an extra dimension. with just a few vertices, you can have models like this:

where each dot at the intersection of lines in the above image, would be a vertex. gpus essentially handle huge number of vertices.

in the context of, like, a 3D video game, you have to render these vertex-based models conditionally. you're viewing it at some distance, at some angle, and the model is lit from some light source, and has perhaps some shadows cast across it, etc -- all of this requires a huge amount of vertex math that has to be calculated within the same timeframes as i described before -- and that is what a gpu is doing, taking a vertex-defined 3D environment, and running this large amount of computation in parallel. unlike your cpu which may only have, idk, 4-32 execution cores, your gpu has thousands -- they're nowhere near as featureful as your cpu cores, they can only do very specific simple math with vertices, but there's a ton of them, and they run alongside each other.

so that is what a gpu "does", in as few words as i can write

the things in the post you're referring to (V100/A100/H100 tensor "gpus") are called gpus because they are also periperal hardware that does a specific kind of math, massively, in parallel, they are just designed and fabricated by the same companies that make gpus so they're called gpus (annoyingly). they don't have any video output, and would probably be pretty bad at doing that kind of work. regular gpus excel at calculating vertices, tensor gpus operate on tensors, which are like matrixes, but with arbitrary numbers of dimensions. try not to think about it visually. they also use a weirder float. they're used for things like "artificial intelligence", training LLMs and whatever, but also for real things, like scientific weather/economy/particle models or simulations

they're very expensive because they cost the same, if not more, than what it cost to design & fabricate regular video gpus, but with a trillionth of the customer base. for every ten million rat gamers that will buy a gpu there is going to be one business buying one A100 or whatever.

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[concerningwolves]

Hello Art,

I am currently writing a story from the perspective of a man who is fostering a child who has recently become hard of hearing. While the child himself is not the focus of the story (rather a romance between the father and a different adult is), the boy plays a large role.

I have read your tips on writing dialogue for sign instead of speaking and found it quite helpful. I do have one quick question though. Because the boy lost his hearing relatively recently, he is still learning sign. I had planned for him to be involved in an after school program of sorts that focuses on connecting deaf and hard of hearing children and teaching them sign and other forms of communication. The boy is young, about four.

I don't plan to go very in depth with my description of this program other than mentioning it offhand to explain why he's not present or having him discuss his day with his foster father. Is this a good thing to include or do you think I should age up the character a bit more so that he has time to learn sign on his own prior to the start of the story and just place him in a different club? I just don't know if this sort of thing could be controversial or not because of the negative history associated with schools for the deaf, which is why I plan to send him to public school and make this an after school program that allows, encourages, and actively teaches sign language.

I ask because most of the information I have found when researching comes from hearing parents of deaf or hard of hearing children. I want to make sure the perspective on this idea is not skewed by those unaffected.

Thank you.

I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be in that club! Clubs and programmes that aim to teach and uplift sign language and d/Deaf culture are rare enough ime, and a positive representation of one in fiction would be very nice to see :)

I do want to make a little point re: controversy around Deaf schools though. As far as I'm aware, the controversy/arguments against them are very hearing-centric – e.g., "Deaf schools will stunt verbal communication" or "Deaf schools isolate students from the mainstream/hearing world". (It's not something I've read a lot about recently though, and what I know is UK-centric, so I welcome anyone with more knowledge or insight! I'd also be interested if you have any specific examples, Anon). In my opinion, these arguments do less to criticise Deaf schools as institutions and more to point out the extreme hearing-centric structure of society. Unpack that first argument a little, and you get: "If a child learns through sign language in a Deaf school, they won't be able to use verbal communication and nobody will want to accommodate them in later life". Which really highlights how many people see Hearing + oralism as the norm that everyone should aspire to, and see schools for the Deaf as like. places where Deaf children can be tucked away out of sight for a bit until they're "forced" out into the "real" world.

In reality, Deaf schools (should!) give children an opportunity to learn in a way that works for them, be that in verbal or signed language, letting them get an education that will stand them in good stead for the rest of their life. Meanwhile, Deaf children in mainstream schools are at a disadvantage that's reflected in some pretty grim statistics. Here are some that really stood out to me:

78% of school-aged deaf children in the UK attend mainstream schools where they may be the only deaf child. [4]

6% of deaf children attend mainstream schools with resource provisions – a resource provision provides specialist support to deaf children as part of a mainstream school. [4]

In England, results from the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile show from 2024 that 42% of deaf children achieved a “good level of development”, compared to 68% of all children. [8]

GCSE results in England from 2024 show that 34% of deaf children in England achieved at least a grade 5 in both English and Maths in 2024, compared to 46% of all children. [8]

In an ideal world, every d/Deaf child would have access to either a well-funded Deaf school with a solid outreach program to help children have relations with their hearing and peers or resource provision tailored to their needs within a mainstream school. They would also get access to the wider Deaf community with the option to learn and use sign language as their primary language. But we don't have that. What we have is an imperfect system rife with anti-Deaf and anti-sign language ableism, which I think makes a lot of arguments about how d/Deaf children should be educated disingenuous at best and outright harmful at worst.

I think that steering clear of these topics in fiction for fear of controversy does a disservice, in that it's a missed opportunity to show the positive aspects of existing systems and/or explore what an ideal system might look like. (Although to be clear, I'm not saying you personally have to do this right now, especially not if it wouldn't work for your story! I just think many writers would benefit from shifting their perspective away from "X thing is controversial so I won't write it" to "there is nuance here, including positive aspects, that I could focus on instead.") It's also always worth asking who is perpetuating the conversy and why, and learning to seperate genuine criticisms (e.g., students forbidden from using sign language) from those based on ableist assumptions or ideals (e.g., all children should learn verbal speech because nobody uses sign language in ""normal"" life).

I hope this is helpful! (And if you have any more questions, the askbox shouldn't be shut for too much longer so you should be able to ask them soon lol)

[quietmarie]

Anyone can program (yes, even you)

"Programming is easy"

I saw some variations of this statement shared around the site recently, always in good intentions of course, but it got me thinking.

Is that really true?

Well it certainly isn't hard in the way some developers would want to make you believe. A great skill bestowed only upon the greatest of minds, they're the ones making the world work. You better be thankful.

That is just elitist gibberish. If anyone ever tells you that programmers are "special people" in that way, or tries to sell you on the idea of "real" programmers that are somehow better than the rest, you can safely walk in the other direction. They have nothing of value to tell you.

But I think the answer is more complicated than a simple "Yes, programming is easy" too. In all honesty, I don't think it's an easy thing to "just pick up" at all. It can be very unintuitive at first to wrap your head around just how to tell a computer to solve certain problems.

One person in the codeblr Discord server likened it to cooking. That's a skill that can be very hard, but it's also something that everyone can learn. Anyone can cook. And anyone can program.

I really mean that. No need to be good at maths, to know what a bit is or whatever it is people told you you need. You're not too old to learn it either, or too young for that matter. If you want to start programming (and you can read this post), you already have everything you need. You can write your first little programs today!

One of the cool things about programming is that you can just fuck around and try lots of stuff, and it's fine. Realistically, the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't work the way you imagined. But you'll never accidentally trigger the fire alarm or burn your house down, so feel free to just try a bunch of stuff.

"Okay I want to learn programming now, what do I do?"

That's awesome, I love the enthusiasm! As much as I'd love to just give you a resource and tell you to build a thing, you still have to make a choice what you want to learn first. The options I'd recommend are:

Scratch: A visual education tool. The main advantage is that you don't have to worry about the exact words you need to write down, you can just think about the structure of your program. The way it works is that you drag and drop program elements to be executed when they should be. You can relatively quickly learn to make cute little games in it. The downside is that this isn't really a "professional" programming language, so, while learning from Scratch will give you the basics that apply to most languages and will make switching to another language easier, you're still gonna have to switch sooner or later. Start here: https://scratch.mit.edu/

Python: The classic choice. Python is a very widely used, flexible programming language that is suited for beginners. It is what I would recommend if you want to skip right to or move on from Scratch to a more flexible language. https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ is your starting point, but there's also a longer list of resources here if you want to check that out at some point.

HTML/CSS/JavaScript: The web path. HTML and CSS are for creating the look of websites, and JavaScript is for the interactive elements. For example, if you ever played a game in your browser, that was probably written in JS. Since HTML and CSS are just for defining how the website should look, they're different from traditional programming languages, and you won't be able to write programs in them, that's what JS is for. You have to know HTML before you learn CSS, but otherwise the order in which you learn these is up to you. Your JavaScript resource is https://javascript.info/, and for HTML and CSS you can check out https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web.

I put some starting out resources here, but they're really just that - they're for starting out. You don't have to stick to them. If you find another path that suits you better, or if you want to get sidetracked with another resource or project, go for it! Your path doesn't have to be linear at all, and there's no "correct" way to learn things.

One of the most important things you'll want to do is talk to developers when you struggle. The journey is going to be frustrating at times, so search out beginner-friendly coding communities on Discord or wherever you're comfortable. The codeblr community certainly tends to be beginner-friendly and kind. My DMs and asks are also open on here.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

How far away would planets catch things in orbit? I'm talking about things like if I had spaceships in space. But what if they're like not running any engines in deep space. If they're too close to a planet they'll be sort of moved around in orbit too right? What is say, I had a spaceship and they need to travel from Pluto to Neptune, can they like just sit near a point where the orbits match up and like sit there for years and just wait for Neptune to get there. As an example of course.

Tex: It would depend on the mass and velocity of all involved bodies, at minimum, in order to properly calculate gravitational pull and whether one body’s pull would be enough to capture another into orbit or at least some form of deceleration. Ultimately it depends on your plot and whether you want the spaceship to be placed there, but most likely there would be some degree of drift - give it enough time, and the spaceship will eventually be free of the standstill of competing gravitational pulls. Wootzel: You’re right that other objects in proximity--be they planets, stars, or bigger--will pull on a ship and change its trajectory. Larger objects will pull from further away. 

In order to conceptualize how things move around each other in outer space, you honestly have to change the entire way you think about motion. There is no single definition of “stationary” in space, because it’s all relative. Everything is expanding all the time, and most things orbit other things in some kind of way. The inertia of orbiting keeps an object from just getting pulled straight into the nearest object with enough mass. Due to the good ol force of inertia and a lack of enough friction to slow things down, a spaceship that’s not running any engines will not be stationary (relative to whatever system it’s in) unless it’s been intentionally slowed to a stop. It’ll just keep happily moving along whatever path it’s on until a force acts on it. In your example of getting from Pluto to Neptune, it’s possible that the strategy there is to have your in-story Space Math Scientists calculate a whole bunch of factors like the speed of travel and Neptune’s orbit, and then just aim the ship so that, moving at whatever speed is reasonable for it, can intersect Neptune’s orbit.

This may seem like a silly suggestion, but it might be useful to how you conceptualize travel in space to spend some time in a space travel simulator that has mechanics approximating real physics. The one that occurs to me to suggest is Kerbal Space Program because it’s the only one I personally know of that has the mechanics I’m talking about. I’m sure there are other games/sims out that that will let you play around with the way orbits influence space travel, and how they can be useful for getting where you’re going. NASA has done some missions where the craft they’re sending out slingshots around one object before heading out to whatever its end-goal is.

I don’t think any of us can give you estimates of how far away a planet or star could be and still move your spaceship around, especially without a lot more details, but looking into simulators (Universe Sandbox might be an option) or online calculators could probably help with that as well.

[cyberstudious]

hi, im an high school sophomore interested in computer science and im also new to your blog. i was wondering if you would recommend conputer science and what have been your strengths and pitfalls with the field? thank u so much for your time.

Hi! Welcome to my blog, haha thanks for stopping by and sending an ask!

My path was self-taught game dev/web dev -> CS degree -> cybersecurity, so that's the perspective I'm writing from. My current job is basically just writing code for cybersecurity-related things (which I really like!). I do enjoy computer science and I think it's a great field to get into because you can do so many different things! I listed out my personal pros/cons under the cut but the tl;dr is that CS is a good field if you like constantly learning things, building things, and knowing how stuff works under the hood.

things I like about computer science:

so many options and things you can learn/specialize in

having programming skills and knowing how computers work gives you the foundational knowledge to succeed in a lot of things, both practical and theoretical/research-based. if you don't really like programming, there is plenty of theoretical math stuff you can do that's related to CS (this is what my partner is going back to grad school for haha)

lots of info available online for self-guided learning

do you want to learn how to make X? someone has almost certainly already written a tutorial for that and put it online for free. there are lots of open-source projects out there where you can read their documentation and even look at the code to figure out how things work!

there is always more to learn

tech evolves and you have to keep your skills up to date - that means there's always something new and interesting happening!

being able to build things

do you want to make an app? a website? a video game? a quick script to automate some annoying task that you do all the time? you can do that. all you need is a computer and some time! once you have some skills, it's amazing when you realize you can just Make Stuff literally whenever

understanding how things actually work

in a world of apps & operating systems that actively try to hide the technical layer of how they work in favor of "user friendliness", there is power to understanding what's actually happening inside your computer

problem-solving mindset

this kind of goes hand-in-hand with being able to build things, but eventually you get the hang of looking at a problem, breaking it down, and figuring out how to build a solution. this is something that I knew was an important soft skill, but I didn't really have any concrete examples until I started working with some technical but non-programmer coworkers. knowing programming & how to build things really does just help you solve problems in a concrete way and I think that's pretty cool.

things that can make computer science difficult:

programming is a cycle of failing until you succeed

programming is not something you get right on your first try - there's a reason that patches and updates and bug fixes exist. this might take some getting used to at first, but after that it's not an issue. failing constantly is just part of the process, but that means that solving those problems and feeling great when you figure it out is also part of the process!

there's so much to learn, you will have to go out and learn some of it on your own

a CS degree will not fully prepare you to be a professional developer, you will likely have to learn other languages & frameworks on your own (this is kind of a good thing btw - the average college probably isn't updating their curriculum often enough to teach you relevant frameworks/some professional coding things).

there is always more to learn

this is the other side of tech always evolving - sometimes it can feel like you're constantly behind, and that's okay - you can't learn literally everything! just do your best, explore a bit, and figure out the subset of things that you're actually interested in

lots of screen time

there are tech jobs where you can be active and move around and stuff, but I work from home and write code most of the day so I spend a ton of time in front of my computer. this isn't a huge problem, I just make an effort to spend time on my non-computer hobbies outside of work. something to note when you're looking for jobs, I suppose!

occasional toxic culture?

I'm thinking of "leetcode grindset bros" here because that was a common character at the college I went to - just ignore them and do things at a pace that feels comfortable to you, you'll be fine

on a related note, in my experience there will always be some dude who has been programming since like the age of 5 and seems to know everything and is kind of an ass about it, ignore these people too and you'll be fine

things are getting better, but CS is still very much a male-dominated field. however, there are plenty of organizations focused on supporting minority groups in tech! you can find a support group and there will always be people rooting for you.

that got kinda long lol, but feel free to reach out if you have any more questions!

[studyinginthecold]

Edit Wikipedia! Even if you're not good at writing, there's a lot of little things you can do such as fixing formatting issues, reversing vandalism, using webarchive to preserve or fix dead links, or helping a wiki project to categorize and assess articles. If you're bilingual, you can also help translate articles between languages.

Read Wikipedia outloud! If you have a decent quality microphone on your phone/computer and a clear voice, you can volunteer for the Spoken Wikipedia Wikiproject. Screen readers are far from perfect, and often mispronounce scientific terms, place names, or people names. This Wikiproject relies on volunteers to record themselves reading wikipedia articles so people who can't read (or can't read English) can still access the information.

Hunt for exoplanets! I'm not kidding, this is actually something you can do. It's called Zooniverse Planet Hunters, and it's a citizen science project where you can look at data from the Kepler Space telescope and help find exoplanets. Zooniverse has a lot of other space related projects as well, and it's a really fun thing that pretty much anybody can do. Also, they have projects related to art, history, and the natural world.

Fix furniture. Okay, so I haven't done this one myself, but when my dad was a kid this was basically how he spent all his summers in the 60s and 70s. He'd get furniture his neighbors had thrown out, fix it with second hand tools, maybe buy paint or stainer from the sale aisle or borrow it from neighbors(paint being one of the things many people save but rarely use) and then give or sell it back to them. This one can be expensive, but there's a lot you can do without any form of power tools. Just be careful with older furniture, because some of that might have lead in the paint.

Upcycling/ hand tailoring clothes. One of my current projects that I've been working on for a few years is embroidering on a pair of thrift store jeans-but you could hot glue rhinestones to bags, draw on caps with fabric markers, or add ribbons and sew darts or add gussets to a cute top. Go to your thrift store or raid your own closet and let your creativity run wild!

Beading! Thrift store beads, sale thread and some beading needles. Beading is an art form found in basically every culture, so you're almost guaranteed to find a style that suits your fancy.

Patchwork! My sister thinks you have to be rich to quilt. You do not. Quilting the way we think of it is a very American art form which was basically born from people trying to save every last scrap of fabric, while also being artistic. You can hand quilt old pieces of tshirts together to make a bag, for example, or doll/teddy clothes for the children you know.

Learn a Kpop dance! I know, I know, but it's fun and there's so many free tutorials for easy dances on Youtube.

Playing with plasticine or polymer clay is another really fun idea. You can get the supplies on sale or even find youtube tutorials to make your own clay, but this stuff is so fun. You dont even need any fancy tools-just clay, or many an oven if you want to make your polymer clay creation permanent.

Learn math! Its fun and society tries to tell us, specially us women, that's it's too difficult to ever be fun. However, that is a devious lie. Math is just puzzle solving and you can do it at whatever pace you need. There's so many free resources out there on youtube and the internet for learning all branches of math.

Geneology. It doesnt even have to be your own family history. This one is a bit variable from what country you're from, unfortunately. However, many old records and newspapers are free, so you can literally spend years on this one.

Learn to program! You find find tutorials on YouTube (FreeCodeAcadamy is my favourite) and learn how to build something on your own computer or tablet. Python is a great one to start off with.

Listen to audiobooks or audio dramas! This one goes hand in band with the very first suggestion to read books, but sometimes physically reading something isn't happening for you. Instead, you can get free audiobooks from your library, or check r/audiodrama for recommendations for free audio dramas or podcasts to listen to.

Every fun post on here that encourages people to have hobbies/be creative always gets an avalanche of "Some people are poor Karen" type reactions and respectfully, you're all super annoying. I've never lived above the poverty line and this is a list of hobbies I have that were cheap or entirely free:

Read books: Go to the library, lend a book from a friend

knitting, crochet, embroidery: Get some needles from the bargan store and ask around, people have leftovers from projects they'll happily give you. Thrift stores also often carry leftover fabric and other supplies. And talk about your hobby loud enough and an old lady will show up and gift you their whole collection, because there are way more old ladies with a closet full of wool than there are grandchildren who want to take up the hobby.

Origami/paper crafts: get some scrap paper and scissors, watch a youtube tutorial

walking: put on shoes open door

pilates/yoga/etc: get a mat or just use your carpet, watch a youtube tutorial

Houseplants: look online for people that swap plant cuttings. There are always people giving out stuff for free to get you started. If you're nice enough you'll probably get extra

gardening: You're gonna need some space for this one of course but you can just play around with seeds and cuttings from your grocery vegetables.

aquarium keeping is a bit of an obscure one but I got most of my stuff second hand for cheap or free and now I have a few thousand euro worth of material and plants.

drawing/art: You get very far just playing with bargan store materials. I did my entire art degree with mostly those.

writing: Rotate a cow in your head for free

cooking: again one you can make very expensive, but there are many budget recipes online for free. Look for African or Asian shops to get good rice and cheap spices.

Join a non-profit: Cities will have creative organisations who let you use woodworking machines or screen presses or laser cutters or 3D printers etc etc etc for a small fee. Some libraries also lend out materials.

candle making: You need some molds (cheap), wick, two old cooking pots for au bain marie melting and a ton of scrap candles, ask people to keep them aside for you.

a herbarium, flower pressing: Leaves are free, wildflowers too, ask if you can take from peoples gardens.

puzzles: thrift stores, your grandma probably

Citizen science: look for projects in your area or get the iNaturalist app

And lastly and most importantly: Share! Share your supllies, share your knowledge. Surround yourself with other creative people and before you know it someone will give you a pot of homemade jam and when you want to paint your kabinet someone will have leftover paint in just the right color and you can give them a homemade candle in return and everyone is having fun and building skills and friendships and not a cent is exchanged. We have always lived like this, it's what humans are build to do.

And all of it sure beats sitting behind a computer going "No stranger, I refuse to let myself have a good time."

Anyway I'm logging off bc I'm making some badges for a friend who cooked for me and then I'm going to fix some holes in everyones clothes.

[craftingtableus]

How to Choose the Right STEM Toys for Your Child

STEM toys are becoming more and more popular with parents who want to help their kids learn important skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. These toys help kids be creative, solve problems, and enjoy learning. But with so many choices out there, picking the right STEM toy can feel overwhelming. This guide will give you simple tips to choose the best STEM toys for your child’s age, interests, and learning stage.

Know What Your Child Likes

Before buying a STEM toy, think about what your child enjoys and what they are good at. Every child is different. Some like building things, while others might enjoy computers or robots. Watching how your child plays can give you a clue about what they like best.

If your child loves building towers with blocks, they might enjoy toys like construction sets. If they like gadgets or computers, coding games or robot kits could be a better fit. Picking a toy that matches your child’s interests will make learning more fun.

Pick the Right Toy for Their Age

Choosing a toy that fits your child’s age is important. Toys that are too hard might frustrate them, while toys that are too easy can get boring quickly.

Check the age recommendation on the toy’s box. Here’s a quick guide:

Toddlers (Ages 1-3): Choose simple, colorful toys that teach basic ideas like shapes and numbers.

Preschoolers (Ages 4-6): Look for hands-on toys like simple building sets or science kits.

Kids (Ages 7-10): Try more advanced toys like robot kits or electronic circuit sets.

Preteens and Teens (Ages 11+): Choose more detailed projects like coding kits or STEM electronics kits.

Choose Toys That Teach Something

STEM toys should be fun, but they should also teach your child something new. Look for toys that build useful skills like:

Solving problems

Thinking creatively

Understanding logic

Learning basic coding

Trying out experiments

Reading product reviews can help you find toys that are both fun and educational.

Toys That Let Kids Be Creative

The best STEM toys let kids use their imagination. These toys don’t have just one way to play—they let kids build, create, and try new things.

Building sets, coding platforms, or modular kits that allow kids to create different projects are great choices. Toys like these keep kids interested and help them learn to think in new ways.

Make Sure the Toy Is Safe

Safety is always important. Check that the toy is made from non-toxic materials and doesn’t have small parts that could be a choking hazard, especially for younger kids.

Look for safety labels like ASTM, CE, or CPSC. Durable toys made from good-quality materials last longer and can handle rough play.

Easy to Use (and Some Parent Help)

Some STEM toys, like electronic or coding kits, might need adult help. Think about whether you have time to join your child during playtime.

Look for toys with clear instructions and online guides. These can make it easier for both you and your child to enjoy the toy together.

Set a Budget

STEM toys come in different price ranges. You don’t need to buy the most expensive one. Many affordable toys work just as well.

Read customer reviews and compare toys to find the best one for your budget. Sometimes, it’s better to buy a toy that can be used in different ways instead of several single-purpose toys.

Make Learning Fun

The best STEM toys are both fun and educational. Kids learn better when they enjoy what they’re doing.

Toys with lights, sounds, or games can make learning more exciting. Learning platforms with rewards and challenges can also keep kids motivated.

Types of STEM Toys to Explore

To pick the right toy, it helps to know about the different types of STEM toys:

Building Sets: These help kids design and build things. Examples are LEGO sets and magnetic blocks.

Coding Toys: These teach kids about programming through games and robots.

Robotics Kits: Kids can build and program their own robots, learning about mechanics and coding.

Science Kits: These let kids do simple experiments to learn about chemistry, physics, or biology.

Electronic Kits: Kids can build circuits and gadgets to learn how electronics work.

Math and Logic Games: These improve thinking and problem-solving skills through puzzles and strategy games.

Encourage Ongoing Interest

Kids’ interests can change over time, so look for toys that can grow with your child. Toys that can be expanded or upgraded keep kids engaged as they get older.

Joining STEM clubs, workshops, or online groups can also keep your child excited about learning. These groups let kids share ideas and learn together.

Conclusion

Picking the right STEM toy means thinking about what your child likes, making sure it’s the right level for their age, and checking that it’s safe and educational. The goal is to make learning fun and exciting for your child.

A great option is the STEM electronics kit from Crafting Table. Their Python Starter Kit is perfect for older kids and teens who want to learn about coding and electronics. This kit teaches Python programming and electronic circuits, helping kids build important skills while having fun.

Choosing quality STEM toys can give your child a head start in science and technology, preparing them for future success.

[magic-bad]

Not All Numbers Are Integers

For example, the velocity of a space craft (m/s could be used), the price of some steel (USD), the amount of ingredients in a recipe (kg). Computers routinely handle these kinds of numbers. These numbers are not exotic at all. Yet integers are not a natural fit for these applications 🤔

Yes, if you pick sufficiently small units (e.g. millimeters per second, USD cents, micrograms), you will have enough precision that you can use integers in your application. Nevertheless, using integers in this way is ultimately shoehorning. When we do that, what we are really doing is reinventing fixed point. E.g. if you choose mm/s as the units associated with your integer, you are really using m/s, but with three decimal places.

One reason we keep on picking fixed width integers (particularly unsigned) is that's what is most straightforward to implement in hardware, and therefore, that's what lower level programming languages give us. It's what's most readily available. When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Failing to touch screws, or worse, trying to hammer them is a (hilarious) mistake.

Remember when as a child, you first learned about fractions, or negative numbers, and it blew your mind? Remember how after getting used to them, your mind was expanded, and a short later, they became natural to you? Do not regress to your primitive less numerate childhood self.

Although 2^64 sounds like a large number, it is dwarfed by almost all integers. Of course, we can't deal with arbitrary integers, but we can be scalable. In order to be scalable, you can't pick something with baked-in limits from the outset. Scalable doesn't mean infinite capacity. It means that as Moore's Law does its thing, you get to keep riding that wave for free.

Believing that L resources "ought to be enough for anybody" is a mistake we see repeated throughout history. The reason people keep making this mistake is that they assume people in the future will be trying to solve the same problems that we are facing today. What actually happens when a resource becomes more plentiful is that people generally find exciting new ways to exploit that resource even harder. Humans are gold fish.

This is especially true of computational resources. People are not content to merely solve the same problems faster when beefier computers come along. Rather, bigger problems suddenly become feasible. (BTW, this is a very good thing if you have chosen a career in software!) E.g. the prodigious amount of energy required to train AI is just the most recent well-known example of "when resources are more plentiful, people find new things to do with it". This is why we should be scared for when Moore's Law finally runs out of steam. When that happens, innovation will suddenly stop advancing as fast as we've grown used to.

A closely related idea: if you are not using units, you are leaving half of your brain on the table. Unsurprisingly, when you are only using half your brain, you a liable to cause the loss of a $200e6 spacecraft. This is maybe something you don't want on your resume.

The moral of the story: do not be satisfied with unsigned 64-bit integers. If you have to use them for some reason, be defensive, because they are not a proper solution for most applications. In math, there is no such thing as overflow. That only happens in computers.

[gre-blog-pune]

Right time to take the GRE: A Comprehensive Guide to Timing and Preparation

As you prepare to show off your reading, math, and writing skills on the GRE, it is important to know that this decision depends on a few things, like your school background, what you want to do in your career, and how ready you feel for the test. This blog will guide you through everything you need about the GRE preparation timeline.

Understanding the GRE:

The GRE General Test checks your skills in three main areas: verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and analytical writing. These skills indicate your ability to do well in college and at work. Let’s break down what each of these skills means:

Verbal Reasoning:

This part of the GRE looks at how well you know high-level English vocabulary, analyze written information and understand relationships among ideas. For example, you might be asked to read a passage and answer questions about its main idea or the author’s point of view.

Quantitative Reasoning:

This part of the test checks how good you are at math. It looks at elementary concepts of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and data analysis. It also looks at your ability to interpret quantitative information and solve complex problems using mathematical models. For instance, you might have to solve equations or analyze graphs to answer questions in the GRE Quantitative Reasoning Section.

Why GRE Preparation is Important:

The GRE test can still be tough even if you are good at English, math, and writing because there is limited time to solve each question, and the level of language and vocabulary is high. That’s why studying and preparing for the test is important.

How long should you study for the GRE?

When it comes to the GRE, preparation is key to achieving success on the exam. So, it is best to give yourself about four months to prepare for the GRE. Let’s break this down further:

Practice Makes Perfect:

While individual study habits and schedules may vary from person to person, you will become more familiar with the test format and improve your performance by dedicating time to study and practice.

Identify Weaknesses:

Practice tests can help you identify areas where you need improvement, allowing you to focus your studying where it is needed most.

Boost Confidence:

The more prepared you are, the more confident you will feel on test day, which can positively impact your performance.

Avoid Cramming:

Don’t try to cram all your studying into just two weeks, as that can lead to burnout, and you might not remember everything well. Instead, spread your study sessions over a longer time to help you remember things better.

Also read our blog on Financing your master’s program in the USA.

When should you take the GRE?

Choosing your GRE preparation timeline depends on your goals and deadlines. If you plan to go to grad school right after graduation in India, taking the GRE in the pre-final year of your graduation is a good idea. This gives you time to prepare without worrying about your final-year projects or internships. Plus, your GRE score is good for five years, so you can use it even if you wait a bit before applying to school.

However, that may not always be possible. So, let’s break down some scenarios:

Pre-Final Year Student:

If you are currently a pre-final year student thinking about studying in the USA in August (Fall) 2025, it is best to take your GRE test before the end of September 2024. This gives you about 8–10 weeks to write a Statement of Purpose, get recommendation letters, and take the TOEFL or IELTS exam. This will also give you time to retake the GRE if you want to improve your GRE score. Please note that you can take the GRE only once every 21 days and up to five times a year. Your official GRE score will come about 8 to 10 days after the test.

Final-Year Student:

For final-year students graduating around June 2024 and planning to start their master’s program in the USA in August (Fall) 2025, you should start preparing for the GRE in May/June 2024. Depending on when you feel ready, you can take the test anytime between September and November 2024. This will help you to still meet the deadlines by December 31, 2024.

Working Professionals:

If you are a working professional or want to work for a few years after graduation before studying abroad, it is best to start preparing 8 to 10 months before the deadline. This gives you enough time to balance work and study commitments. Joining a weekend class at Dilip Oak’s Academy one of the best GRE preparation classes in Pune and practicing during the week would be a good way to get GRE-ready.

Ultimately, deciding when to take the GRE depends on your circumstances and goals. By breaking down the preparation process and using examples, this guide aims to make it easier for you to plan and prepare effectively for the exam. Good luck!

As India’s leading Study Abroad Consultant, Dilip Oak’s Academy offers a comprehensive suite of admission counseling services that can guide you through the entire process from Shortlisting Universities to Visa Counseling. With our expertise, we have successfully sent 32,000 students to various prestigious American universities like MIT, Stanford, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon. We also offer classroom and online coaching for GRE, TOEFL, and IELTS, as well as GRE Self Prep. To explore our services, book a free consultation or call us at 91–20–67444222.

[spidertrapper-blog]

But why school?

Public schools are an important and necessary function of a modern society. They give us a place to put our kids while we go out and try to earn enough to stay in our homes, they ensure that even the worst of us can't have 100% influence on the outcome of another human, and that most people will have a basic understanding of how to exist around other people. That said, it also teaches kids how to turn off intuition, ignore passions, only engage in structured play, and destroy creativity.

So what can we do about it? We just went through a period where a bunch of kids were stuck at home 24/7. Some had a hard time with it, but others thrived. The difference? Besides expensive tutors, stay at home parents, and... well... money, a lot of kids learned and kept up with friends through free online games. Some are actually decent educational games too!

Kids learn through play. Not just kids, ALL young creatures. How does a cat learn to hunt, bird learn to fly, or child learn that egg whites can give you that cool slicked back hair look? Some of it, they're born with, but it's not until they do it for fun that they'll get any good.

So just park the kids in front of a computer all day, right? Problem solved! Or not. We don't want them sitting all day or going blind in front of a screen, plus, why would we even need teachers? Kids will happily play educational computer games for 30-45 minutes at a time, and then, teachers can do something truly amazing. Teachers can give the kids practical, real world, hands on experiences using what kids learned on the computer to help them understand why it's important to know. Field trips, experiments, discussions, crafting/building, challenges, trivia, games, you name it!

Not only will the kids get more out of this type of structure, but they'll also have the ability to learn at their own pace. Teachers can get reports indicating which kids need more help in which subjects and then provide practical lessons to kids, not based on age, but based on skill level. Everyone has their strengths, so why are we forcing everyone to go at the pace of the weakest in the subject?

Programs can even be developed to provide games and information more closely associated with a child's interests. For example, a word problem in math can go from "Xavier got four mosquito bites on his arms and twice as many on his legs. How many mosquito bites did Xavier get?" to "Claire ate 4 ice cream cones before lunch and twice as many after. How long before she gets diabetes?", or something like that. Keeping the information more closely connected to a child's interests based on data collected through their game play, and maybe even asking them, suddenly we have an environment where kids can get excited about learning!

Or not, it's just a thought.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN KIND

We had to spend thousands on a server somewhere, maintained by the kind of people who weren't car experts wanted to have them as well. Now there's a new generation of sites, but they invest other people's money, and much larger amounts of it. Maybe we'll just have to give some of the best ones were made as a way to choose a good language. There was no protection against breakage except the fear of looking like an idiot to one's peers, and that women will all be trained in the martial arts. The most dangerous way to lose time is not to write a cool piece of software. Falling victim to this trick could really hurt you. Maybe it will have wireless Internet access. Perhaps they need to spend a lot of money.1 Now that you know has no outlet.

You think you can always write that book, or climb that mountain, or whatever, and then thinking of the answer in the shower in the morning.2 Have you ever noticed that when you sit down to write something, half the ideas that end up going public didn't seem likely to at first.3 The things that matter, and savor the time you have. Now it's a couple of hackers to figure out what's actually wrong with him, but it was wonderful for us, like a proof, is a nice, durable medium for finished ideas, but a DH2 or lower response is always unconvincing. Twenty years ago, writers wrote and readers read. By the time the acquirer gets them, they're finishing one another's sentences. And starting with a crude version 1, then f iterating rapidly. Why the pattern? They distributed your work, and they were absolutely honest.

Complaining that VCs were jerks used to seem as naive to me as if the founders have any money. You're most likely to get better terms from them. But that, if not beyond the bounds of possibility, is beyond the scope of this article. I've heard the founders didn't just give in and take whoever the VCs wanted. Anyone who's been here any amount of math would probably represent numbers in binary, but this is not very good either; some languages Perl, for example. But they are much hungrier for deals. The most dramatic change, I predict, is that my m. When you approach the problem from the other end. The one universal rule is that the founders of the next Google stay in grad school instead of starting a company, but they never interrupt it.4 In fact, the more of your software by a certain date?5

Even VCs do it. It's not just a synonym for annoying. Find an open slot in your schedule, why not your calendar? The same single-mindedness that has brought them this far will now be working against them. So the rate of evolution in programming languages is likely to be filled by freeware. What the company should have done is address the fundamental problem: that the product is only moderately appealing, growth is ok but not great. There are more shocking prospects even than that. Many founders do. If you're a hacker who has thought of one day starting a startup also to cut the average return.

If applications run on remote servers, no one ever called us on it. Which leaves two options, firing good people and making more money. Or rather, IPO then bust, or just bust. His style is deceptively casual, but there is more in his books than in a library of art monographs. The fund managers, who are called general partners, get about 2% of the fund annually as a management fee, plus about 20% of the fund's gains. They'll happen within server farms. When you're hosting software, someone has to be some point down the slope of consulting at which you can survive.

For example, lower-tier firms are much more likely to make it here is that great things happen to them too. If you get a call from a VC firm, go to their web site and send them an email. That was a good time to start companies after you graduate, to learn how to program. Someone with ordinary tastes would find it hard to blow through more than a way to answer this question, I stopped wondering about it.6 Saying that an author lacks the authority to write about a topic is a variant of ad hominem than actual refutation. He said VCs told him this almost never happened. There are borderline cases is-5 two elements or one? Over in the arts. A board consisted of two founders, two VCs, and one that other big technology companies will no doubt try to duplicate.

You see paintings and drawings in museums and imagine they were made for you to look at. It was like watching a car you're chasing turn down a street that you know about the value of being flexible with data structures. Once you start a site for college students and you decide to move to the Valley for the summer to work on juicy kinds of work, and they view things with a colder eye. Some VCs now require that in any language anyone would design, they would get all kinds of publicity. Is there's a lot more discerning than any employer. A rounds is that they feel they don't have sufficient flexibility to adapt to them. Knowing that founders will keep control of the board through a series A is unheard-of.

In software, my rule is: always have working code. Another easy test is the number of axioms in the core language, prior to any additional notations about implementation, be defined this way. A lot of the people there are rich, or you've failed. If we're all going to be disagreeing more, we can see clearly what a bottleneck Sarbanes-Oxley has become.7 You'll pay more for Internet services than you do for the next release, I would be very interested to see them. It explains why VCs tend to interfere in the companies they invest in. Counterintuitive as it feels, it's better most of the time, just like they do to startups everywhere. Being able to release software: the last thing you changed. It's just unbearably inefficient. For example, Web-based startup is food and rent. But most startups that succeed do it by getting bought.

Notes

The Valley use the phrase frequently, you better be sure you do it mostly on your board, consisting of two things: what bad taste you had small children pointed out an interesting sort of mastery to which the top schools are the most successful startups. Only a fraction of VCs even have positive returns.

But people like Jessica is not a coincidence you haven't heard of investors are also several you can't mess with the same superior education but had instead evolved from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time and became the Internet. Some who read this to realize that in the chaos anyway. This is the most general truths. If you're not even be symbiotic, because such users are not just the local builders built everything in it, by doing another round that values the company is presumably worth more, the first 40 employees, or pigs, to take care of one's markets is ultimately just another way in which multiple independent buildings are traditionally seen as temporary; there is money.

And if you sort investors by benevolence you've also sorted them by the Corporate Library, the more important. Another advantage of startups small this first summer, we're going to have suffered from having been corporate software for so long to launch.

Even though we made comparatively little from it, because unions will exert political pressure against Airbnb than hotel companies. In reality, wealth is measured by what you've built is not work too hard to spread them.

Economic History Review, 2:9 1956,185-199, reprinted in Finley, M. It tipped from being contaminated by how you spent your summers. That's because the broader your holdings, the main reason is that we're not professional negotiators, and in b.

The Wouldbegoods.

More precisely, the angel round from good angels over a series A from a past era, than anybody else, you have no connections, you'll be well on your product, and that the money. In practice formal logic is not a problem so far done a pretty mediocre job of suppressing the natural human inclination to say now. If the response doesn't come back with my co-founder before making any commitments.

Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Sam Altman, and Jessica Livingston for reading a previous draft.

[the-firebird69]

There are several things that are wrong with you people first time if you were giving us in a ton of s*** and he's annoyed and you're wrong to do so second of your constantly messing with him and we told you not to and we've actually had it with you you don't like you people we don't like your style we don't want to hear from you at all and you're extremely vulgar and rude stupid so going after you taking apart your entire organization globally you don't seem to care if all these Petty wants and needs that you don't try for much show up in your a******as if it's a job so he looked at it a lot of you think you're doing the right thing for what people want and you're trying to fit in and you can't seem to figure it out leave delineated what's happening and our reasons for doing so should be obvious a lot of you still can't figure it out at all we have a parallel in it it's hard for us to do anything if you're not a big secret and the big secret is about the max having the call of Abraham which means they're sacrificing you their demented son and daughter and they're calling there so they avoid getting hit and that's what it is and you should know by now what they're doing but it seems like a lot of you are absolutely clueless and we're trying to explain it and it just is not coming across so we are going into a different mode now and we are going to use our own forces to make up for your complete inadequacy in almost every area. So far we have found that you do not want to do any work on any of these projects come across all of our desks and we cannot stand you and it's horrible you're lazy as hell everything that you're doing is disgustingly awful and we don't need it and it's not going to work for us what you're doing is despicable so the reason why I'm saying it as you refuse to help us in any way this meaningful and you're just being very mean and we can see you being mean on camera almost all of you are tyrants when he goes by or sits there or looks at you or says things and you're ridiculous you don't want to have a program other people from other countries want to have a program they're trying and they're trying to get here and they want to make it work they have an idea what to do no they are mobilizing while you're sitting here on your decrepit asses thinking you're going to inherit everything because of what the max road in the Bible about you in a sarcastic sardonic way you should be extremely upset with them and instead we find you bothering our son and it's horrible

-the perfect example is one with your displaying in front of him right now which is horribly stupid and two that you are complete jerks to him about everything you also don't have any sense of reality we found you pestering people about really dumb things I'm getting yourself hurt real bad we don't want to deal with you anymore we want you out and we noticed that you don't care about it but there are projects you know sitting on and we don't want you to do that

-one of them is it's a project that is a huge deal for us we need some giant giant deal for us and it's going to come to fruition very very soon it is this motorcycle stuff and mung us deal humongous it is much bigger and then you could imagine and it's going on now position for a snack and people don't want to get one it's kind of expensive $3 a pound so we'll probably skip it the motorcycles are a huge issue they are gigantic time consuming items they take up a lot of time to make and it's been found out that you are avoiding it because of that it just understandable it's a huge huge business and it's Giant stuff and we understand it and we are going through it ourselves and growing and using it for that while you're shrinking happily it's really no real good reason you're doing that except you do not understand oops the math and the math is such that you are not involved in the project on the level that you should be it is abysmal performance absolutely abysmal you're going round and round all day and clapping that stupid things and stop gathering stuff out there and our son suggested together at all and you didn't do that bother you that much so you're going to lose out because the big groups are taking them and it looks like your motif because we know it is

Thor Freya

Olympus

[ailtrahq]

In this interview, we have the opportunity to hear from Oleg Lola, the founder of MobiDev, a software engineering company that specializes in helping small and medium businesses integrate AI into their products. Oleg shares his background and journey, highlighting his passion for technology and his vision of serving visionaries by adding value through technical solutions. He also addresses the misconception that AI is only accessible to big companies, emphasizing MobiDev's focus on making AI technology light and straightforward for small and medium businesses in the U.S. to use in their own products. Let's dive in!U.Today: Oleg, please tell us about your background. When and why did you start MobiDev?Oleg Lola: I was born in Mariupol, Ukraine. It was a large factory city. Bad ecology, tough and smart people. Both of my parents were teachers - with low incomes, they worked second jobs to make ends meet. They stressed good education and on making an effort to achieve good in life. They never forced me, only helped me, with their example and with their actions. At a young age I helped my parents grow vegetables and sell them in a local farmers market.Like them, I was hardworking, and I "swallowed" books - fiction first, but then technical ones. Early in my life I got access to computers, which in the early 90s was unusual. I used to read books on Assembler, C++ and 3D programming and had so much fun with it. I won several high school national-level contests in math, science and programming, and created several desktop apps to help students visualize stereometry concepts. I felt like a trailblazer.When I was a high school junior, I knew exactly where I wanted to study. Obviously it was a technical college, one of the best in the country. In college I won a national student contest on system programming. It was a huge achievement, as my major in computer engineering had a specialization in system programming. I graduated with honors from high school (Mariupol Gymnasium, Ukraine) and earned a B.Eng. and M.Eng from Kharkiv University of Radioelectronics in Ukraine.Before starting my company, I considered myself a classic nerd/introvert and was proud of it. Coming from a math and tech background I never thought I would be talking to people that much (laughing).  Actually the best perk that has helped me is seeing an opportunity. I’ve enjoyed change, challenge and trying new things. Such creativity, combined with nerdy persistence, ended up giving me some nice results.This helped me create my software engineering company in the recession year of 2009, driven by my vision of mobile devices, which had just started to shine. This helped me establish my company's brand, an ultimate promise of delivery and service to grow to 400 people by the beginning of 2023. This helped me to pivot to my love of machine learning and AI in 2018 before it became mainstream.Before starting MobiDev, I did scientific research at my college and worked at other tech companies. While I really adored research, which is all about experimenting, finding new options, trying things out and, as a result, bringing new value, I really hated my experience with other tech companies as an engineer. At that time outstaffing was really popular, which meant the tech company would just find "brains," connecting clients and engineers, with the hope that clients and engineers would sort things out. It meant that clients had to take on a lot of the management burden by themselves, and the initially exciting development process became too cumbersome. I thought that I could do better. And thus, I kicked off my software engineering company MobiDev with the idea of serving visionaries and adding extra value. From day one, MobiDev started with understanding the business problem, researching and offering new ways of finding technical solutions, taking accountability for delivering results and, of course, handling thousands of small but important things within the course of a software development project, both technical and human-related.

 This way, a visionary could focus on what matters most: their business.Since 2018 MobiDev's focus has been helping build AI apps for visionaries, in making AI technology light and straightforward to integrate into their products. U.Today: AI has come a long way from being a mysterious rocket sciencelike technology to overhyped public applications like ChatGPT and FaceApp. AI looks like a game for big companies. Is it possible for small and medium businesses in the U.S. to utilize AI?Oleg Lola: I absolutely agree: AI is heavily overhyped. The launch of ChatGPT made things even worse. There is a misconception that AI can do anything, and robots will soon replace humans. As a professional who has worked with machine learning years before ChatGPT, and as an AI enthusiast, I would say: take it easy. I see AI as another set of technologies for automation and allegedly making our lives better. Businesses can benefit from AI in two ways:Use products that already contain AI technology. Hint: Search the web for AI products in your domain area, and test drive them on your own according to your specific needs.Generate extra value for your high tech product with AI. Hint: Have AI/ML professionals analyze how AI can be beneficial for your product and your users. In the vast majority of cases, you will not need to create yet another GPT. It is better to explore the options of fine-tuning existing models with your data, using pre-trains or even connecting to third-party APIs. The power of AI lies really close; it is about using your creativity and some professional help to make the magic happen.What is really important is that both options are valid for businesses of any size. U.Today: How can AI assist companies in resolving their challenges, and what specific problems can be addressed through AI?Oleg Lola: There are two ways of solving problems in computer science. Algorithmic: Where a human defines how a specific problem must be solved, based on expert opinion, science or business rules. The outcome is exact, strictly defined by the heuristics.Machine learning: Where a model learns how to respond to a certain input, based on data. The result here is an approximation. In most cases, it is a very complex nonlinear approximation. So, one might say machine learning models make predictions about new data based on the data it already digested.Those problems that might be solved with prediction can be targeted with AI, mostly connected with perception and patterns extraction. Taking into account that the cost of prediction (hardware) is becoming lower, there is an amazing opportunity to disrupt, tackle new problems and find new business models.I can name some problems off the top of my head that we have solved for our client-visionaries, while enriching their products with AI:Organizational chart recognition for attorney, both printed and hand drawn.Truck size and weight estimation based on stationary AR point cloud (Lidar) data. Inventory tracking and ordering based on sales forecasts for nightclubs and bars.Bespoke clothes ordering based on visual inspection and human pose estimation.Biometric identification for insurtech and healthtech.Smart contract analysis and classification. Invoice recognition for healthtech.Training athletes by recognizing their movements and comparing them to golden examples for the sports industry.Garbage sorting for recycling. And, of course, customized chatbots based on GPT technology.I would like to turn to those organizations that have launched high tech products or are planning to. Whether:it is your internal enterprise product for automation, and you have or have not been collecting data.it is software as a service that you service your customers with and you want to be ahead of the competition.it is a custom hardware solution where optimization is critical.In my experience, in 95% of cases, AI brings extra value to the product right away based on implementing the frontier machine learning models. It could be increasing

customer satisfaction or improving customer experience, and even providing new features, solving those problems that you always wanted to target but never could."Right away" here means there is no need to conduct 1-2 year long scientific research to create a machine learning model (it has already been done by a team of scientists). At the same time, please allow a meaningful time frame of 1-2 months for building the first POC (proof of concept) of your specific AI solution. This would include an AI consulting stage when the vision of your product is defined, a development stage and an implementation stage. While the development and implementation stages are something you would encounter in any software development project, the AI consulting stage is different and is probably the most valuable for any enterprise exploring opportunities to embed AI in their product.U.Today: Can you tell us more about this AI Product Consulting stage?Oleg Lola: We see that tech visionaries always think big, wish to change the world around them, to change thinking and perception, to find the drive in customer value and get emotional uplift while generating new value for customers. Tech visionaries already work on the edge between the problem and the solution. AI Product Consulting helps to broaden the edge. Practically, it helps an organization see the field of opportunity that lies at the intersection of the current organization's business and product, market demands and competition as well as the ML/AI technologies available out there.For completely new Al Product Development, we will make sure the idea is feasible from a tech point of view and meets real market needs. Our Al consultants prepare businesses for the successful launch of their project by defining the final scope of the solution for the MVP and the go-to-market strategy. Next, our engineers will turn this strategy into a functional Al product, taking into account all technical and business requirements.For embedding Al integration into existing businesses, we offer ways to outpace competitors by implementing innovations that drive real business value. Our experts will conduct a detailed analysis of business goals, datasets and IT infrastructure to offer the best solutions that fit the existing ecosystem. With 13+ years of experience in software development, MobiDev's tech experts ensure that AI functionality is fully compatible with existing software.MobiDev consultants, who come from the areas of market research, business analysis and AI engineering, will go through several steps that will deepen the product's vision: idea brainstorming, product and market Analysis, and AI model research and estimation. As a result, the product development roadmap and the budgeted options of how building and marketing AI proof-of-concept will be created.U.Today: Do both MobiDev as a company and yourself, Oleg Lola, utilize AI to tackle everyday issues?Oleg Lola: We use a broad range of AI-powered products that help speed up the development and deployment process, including Github Copilot, TestGrid and Cast.AI. We want every dollar clients put in development to be as efficient as possible.  U.Today: What are your future plans and goals?Oleg Lola: At MobiDev we will continue laser-sharp focusing on serving visionaries, making their journey of software engineering light and enjoyable. We see that within a few years more and more organizations will turn to AI technology, and the capabilities of AI only grow. So, we see a combination of AI and the very best service standards of MobiDev professionals. We will add extra value to visionaries and their high-tech products.We work the best with established small and midsize software companies that want to bring more value to their existing product, launch new versions of their existing product or launch new products. Certainly, we recommend embedding AI a lot and offer options to our clients. The visionaries, in turn, see the options and make decisions that suit their vision best.

 We are constantly working toward this future, so we clearly envision it. We will keep building game-changing products. We will continue to adhere to MobiDev's philosophy and take care of technology and project management down to the smallest detail, allowing our customers to focus on strategy and product vision. Our pipeline of generating and implementing breakthrough ideas will continue to run smoothly. To do this, we are currently investing 30% of MobiDev's R&D efforts into new technology research.U.Today: What aspect of MobiDev are you most proud of?Oleg Lola: First of all, I am really proud of our clients. Working with visionaries for over a decade, I see that true vision and hard work bring awesome results. I see our clients going to the next levels of their businesses, growing nationally and internationally, making strategic alliances with major industry players and enjoying the results. I am grateful to all of our clients for years of trusting MobiDev to handle their tech needs.I am also proud of my team at MobiDev, the majority working for years and bringing their passion and hard work so valuable to visionaries. I am proud of our mutual support and look forward to their professional and career growth in the years to come.Within the course of these years, we have also done a lot of good for society. We have launched tech educational courses for single moms, youth and veterans; have organized international conferences for professionals in software engineering; have launched several free apps with millions of downloads (the latest being an AI app to help sort the garbage for recycling), have actively helped the software community to develop with a few open source projects (the brightest of which being one of the first frameworks for cross-platform mobile apps) and have constantly participated in ongoing humanitarian initiatives in Ukraine.I am fascinated by how our hard work for clients and our active position changes the world for the better. U.Today: What is your perspective on the future of AI? Do you believe it has the potential to become a frightening dystopia?Oleg Lola: Well, I see much more of a threat from climate change, terrorists and nuclear weapons. AI is just a tool. It is powerful, but there are much more powerful tools out there in the world. I definitely support AI regulation. AI must be regulated in terms of how AI products may influence humans and humanity. AI products must conform to privacy protection, copyright, human rights and other laws.As for the future of AI, we have seen the exponential growth of AI capabilities, and we are going to witness more to come. Probably the biggest question one should ask themselves is if they want to be creators of useful AI products and be part of the success, or rather be a user of someone else's products.U.Today: Do you have a cryptocurrency portfolio? If so, could you mention at least three holdings?Oleg Lola: I am rather a homebrew ETF investor. Also, I put some funds into early stage AI start-ups through diversified funds.Blockchain as a technology is more interesting to me than any specific crypto asset. I have a feeling that the decentralization of operations and data-based trust characteristic of blockchain are in line with today's social trends. Products that combine AI and blockchain, for example, are a very promising area that we are keeping in our sights.U.Today: What advice would you offer to individuals interested in establishing their own business in the AI field?Oleg Lola: Explore the market, find out your strengths, see what you can do with AI technology. Go lean, launch early, gather feedback and reiterate frequently. Find the balance between your idea and market needs. Seek mentoring and consultancy, both in the business and tech fields (and especially AI). Source

[pb-loves-owls]

speaking of school au’s though. hb school au below cut

blitz would totally be more of a kinetic learner. Needs to move and touch things and see them all splayed out kind of deal. Needs to be able to say his thoughts out loud in order fully immerse himself into the assignment. Maybe also use special interests to keep him hooked? he’d do great in biology and physics if he focused on how horses move and work, also picking up other bits of knowledge about other stuff. bc sometimes when someone is super into something and hyperfixates on it, the things around it also get soaked in.

It is 100% how I managed to pass my math classes. Just focused on numbers divisible by three and five.

He’d also love history class but struggle in his grades with them.

Stolas would benefit from standard academia in controlled classroom environments. Of course this never happened in the show But. If he had grown in a space surrounded by peers, some would Eventually Hopefully become his friends, and he would’ve strived and had more confidence. He’d also learn about boundaries, which could potentially protect him from Stella. or at least some of her abuse. He’d do great in all his classes except maybe history.

Moxxie would probably be the same as Stol with a bit of Blitz. I think he’d be best working with visuals and sounds. Like audiobooks! Either in place or alongside paperback. For Lit classes. He’d probably strive in language arts and stuff. He’d be too nervous to join a sports team but would actually be great in it. It would improve his ability to work in teams. I don’t think he works well with others. Not because he wouldn’t want to, but because of his general attitude. Snobbish but self conscious, gets pushed to his limits easily, argumentative in a not helpful way.

Example: saying to Loona “Can’t you do anything right” is freakin harsh my dude. I mean. I get having a coworker who’s difficult to work with. But back up a second and see her as a person first. Bc okay, you see someone who is acting out from stress. You know you can’t make that better, and you can’t change them. The only solution that will be good for both of you is to back off. Antagonizing them is just asking for them to push back.

Millie, without Mox, would be an awesome student. And competitive. Which can be friendly competition (probs against Stolas) or with the purpose of annihilation (Striker). I think she’s more emotionally intelligent, which would be great in team sports where you gotta understand one another enough to work together. which doesn’t involve liking each other one bit. Just makes you respect your teammate enough to help them when they get hurt on the field. Her morals are way stronger than her anger. I don’t think she’d actively hurt someone just to hurt them. She’d probably be great in group projects. Maaaybe decent in math? So-so in history and language arts, fucking baller in science class.

They’d all meet in an after-school program for environmentally challenged kids.

Stolas, despite having straight A’s, would still struggle making friends and speaking up.

Blitz would struggle with grades even though his hand is always the first one up and he gets all the questions right. It’s the homework that’s a problem. “So why give homework if he’s already good???” Because sometimes schools just make you. It’s not always up to the teacher. We don’t have as much power over what we give and teach as people think we do.

Moxxie would be much of the same but be resistant in participating. He acts out a lot after the loss of his mother, same with Blitz.

Millie is there for the free food, mostly. But she’s really supposed to be there for anger management. She gets grouped into shit she has nothing to do with easy. Fighting bullies who are on another kid and getting in trouble instead kind of a deal. “No Sir see, he was beating up little Timmy so I defended Tim by beating Chad with his own skateboard. Because if he gets his board broken then he can get a whoopin from his ma”. She’s a well meaning menace and we love her. Her family loves her too but they worry about her getting in serious trouble with the wrong people.

Loona is baby still we don’t see her yet.

The program is like group therapy. They talk, do homework, hang out, get to know each other. They build connections that they wouldn’t otherwise. It’s not a part of their respective schools, but the program itself is advertised widely in every school district in the Pride Ring.

Might think of an HH version later.